“So much, and more, my darling Dalton,” Emer breathed, as a smile of pure joy curved her rosy lips, and she moved her hand lower to caress him boldly. “You’re everything I’ve ever wanted and needed, and I’ve been a fool to have stayed away so long.”
“Emer, I can’t stop myself....” Dalton choked.
“Let it go, Dalton, give me all of you,” Emer pleaded, as he brought them both shuddering over the brink into a vortex of sensual fulfilment they were unable to resurface from for several minutes after their climax.
“God, how I’ve missed you, Emer,” Dalton groaned when he could finally trust himself to speak. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No, not all, but you certainly sounded like I had mortally wounded you a second ago,” Emer chuckled throatily.
“You did wound me, Emer," he admitted, looking up, his expression suddenly serious. "You nearly broke my heart every time we were separated. I never thought I would be able to bear it when you asked me to leave you in Clonmel. But now that you’re back, I’m whole again.”
By way of proof, he moved between her thighs and reclaimed her body as his own. “We’re one flesh, Emer, we always have been. Marry me, please, my love, as soon as we get off this ship.”
“Whenever you like, Dalton, as long as it’s soon. I never want to spend another day or night separated from you again,” Emer sighed.
"And forever won't be long enough to show you how much I love and need you, darling."
"Well, my love, just start with right now, and we'll take it from there."
"Gladly," he said with a grin, as he began to kiss his way down her body once more.
Emer sighed happily, and gave herself up to his lovemaking with complete abandon at last. She truly was home. And nothing would ever stand between them again.
Emer kissed his chest and throat, and Dalton moved his head down to kiss her deeply. As their tongues sensually intertwined, Dalton hardened with the most urgent need. Emer arched under him, taking him deep into her warm, welcoming body.
Dalton began to move with increasingly sure strokes as he watched her rapturous expression. He drove them both ever higher, then stilled, poising them on the brink of the ultimate fulfillment.
"Now, love, please," she begged. "Let it go."
"Just wait," he urged, "wait, my love."
"Dalton, oh, ooooh," she panted. "It's getting even stronger, if that's possible."
"Relax, breathe into it, that's right, just a bit more, a bit more—" He pressed deeper and felt her whole body clench and undulate around him.
"Oh, Lord!" she gasped. "Dalton, my love!"
He felt her nipples peak against his broad chest as her whole body rose up to greet his. Then he too was gasping out his passion into her mouth, until finally he was able to calm the driving need that compelled him to make love to Emer to the point of near exhaustion for them both.
Collapsing onto her lithe body like a spent swimmer finally ashore, he buried his face between her breasts, and they slept.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
After a sybaritic three days on the Pegasus getting to know each other all over again in bed and out, Dalton sat gazing out of the porthole, and remarked quietly, “I’m afraid we have to go back to civilisation, today, don’t we, Emer? And I suppose I ought to reproach myself for having taken the honeymoon before the wedding, instead of after.”
Emer grinned. “I have no complaints.”
She stooped to kiss him warmly, then finished dressing in preparation for the arrival of the launch she had instructed to return for them at midday.
“No regrets then, my darling? No fears or reservations? If these past three days haven’t left you pregnant, that would truly be a miracle,” Dalton said, eyeing her cautiously.
She shook her head and gave him a bright, beaming smile, for once unclouded by worry.
Dalton drank in the sight of her lovely smile. Never had she looked more beautiful. Never had he felt more loved.
“No reservations, Dalton, I promise. I love you, and any and all children we may have in the future. My life is by your side now and forever. And while you are more than enough for me, Dalton, another little miniature version of my gorgeous husband wouldn’t come amiss, God willing, so long as I tell you now, I get to name him Terence,” Emer declared as she stroked his cheek lovingly.
He gathered her to him tightly. “Terence it is, then, minx. Terence Randall. I think it would have a nice ring to it, though I’d be rather partial to a daughter with flaming red hair, and eyes the colour of a storm-tossed sea,” Dalton asserted, before kissing Emer on the lips, and stroking her stomach gently.
His hands traveled lower, and her skirts began to lift. Emer caught her rosy lower lip between her bottom teeth to stop herself from crying out as Dalton began to pleasure her with his hands, and now began to kneel before her…
Dalton and Emer had to pull away from each other hastily when they heard a call of, “Ship ahoy,” from the harbour.
Dalton went up to greet Patrick Bradley while Emer remained below to hastily re-don her underclothing, a fierce blush heating her cheeks at the incredible passion she and her lover shared.
Lover, soon to be husband, she reminded herself, and hugged the thought to her like a warm, sensual silken shawl.
It had taken almost two years, but she was determined that though their past had been full of sorrow, their future would be one of joy. Nothing would ever stand in the way of their hopes and dreams again.
After a short ride up the river in the steam boat, which left them on the south shore of the river for their convenience, Dalton and Emer elected to walk home in order to enjoy the bright June sunshine and a few last minutes alone together before they returned to the orphanage to see all their family and friends.
Marion ran out to greet them quickly when she saw them approaching the front door of the square-built house which had been built on the site of the old Clemenceau mansion, and practically shoved them into the parlour.
“We were looking out for your carriage, and yet all of a sudden here you are, Emer!” she exclaimed loudly.
Emer thought Marion was behaving most oddly, and wondered why she seemed so reluctant to take her around the new house and around the farm to inspect the place.
After they had greeted her effusively, Sissy, Adrian and Patrick also all seemed to be looking at her expectantly, and she noticed a great number of appraising stares from her other friends.
Even Cathan couldn’t keep still or look her straight in the eye when she asked him for news, and did nothing but chat about the children, and how much they had missed her, in a rather forced way.
She thought it odd that they were all in the house at the same time, but then concluded that they had all been waiting for her once they heard the news of her arrival back in Quebec.
As wonderful as it was to see them all, Emer also noticed some gaps in her extended family.
Emer asked, “Have there been any letters from Joe and Myrtle?”
“No, no letters,” Marion said quickly, though everyone in the room seemed to exchange glances.
“Now, Emer, when did you say you and Dalton were going to get married? We all want to arrange a special present for you,” Adrian asked suddenly.
She looked at him in surprise, then shook her head. “Don’t worry about presents, please. I have everything I need right here.” Emer smiled gently, taking Dalton’s hand.
Dalton echoed her sentiments heartily as he kissed her on the cheek.
Emer saw one of the children pop her head around the door and wave.
Emer was covered in confusion as the Bishop suddenly exclaimed, “I say there’s no time like the present.”
Before Emer or Dalton could put up much of an argument, they were led to the large dining room at the back of the house, where the children had all helped set out the tables with food and drink into two aisles.
The whole centre aisle was covered with an awning made of interwoven flowers, and
at the top of the aisle was another table with a makeshift altar on it.
“We would have had the wedding out in the garden, only the weather seemed so unpredictable, we thought we would just leave all the windows and French doors open, and do the whole thing in here,” Marion explained when she saw Emer’s shocked expression.
“It’s all lovely, really, Marion, but my dress, my hair....” Emer argued.
Adrian grinned. “You two have waited far too long, and who gives a fig about such nonsense, anyway. You love each other, and you don’t need any fancy trappings to prove it.”
Dalton looked at Emer’s confused face, and reassured her, “I would marry you in your sailor’s slops, my girl, you know that. You look lovely, truly, and after all, it was the gown I picked for you for Christmas, wasn’t it? You’ve never looked lovelier than in black, and never so beautiful as you do now, my precious darling. But the choice is yours. If you want to wait, I’ll understand.”
She looked up into his golden eyes, so full of love and longing, and made up her mind in an instant.
“In that case, Bishop, the only thing to say is, where do you want me to stand?”
She beamed up at Dalton’s relieved expression. “I love you, Dalton. Adrian is right, we’ve waited long enough.”
While the Bishop hurriedly issued orders to two last-minute altar boys, and asked Dalton if they had rings, Emer tugged on Dalton’s watch chain, and reminded him of the present she had given him. “It isn’t a wedding ring, I know, but I promise as soon as I can buy one for you, I shall.”
“Here, take my ring, and may you have more luck with it than I did,” a tall grey-haired matron with a dignified bearing suddenly offered.
Emer hugged Dalton’s mother and said, “Thank you, Mrs. Randall, I hope I shall too.”
“Call me Amanda, my dear, please. I haven’t been Mrs. Randall for years. And in any case, friends should call each other by their given names, don’t you think? With the way Dalton always talks about you, I feel I know you already, my dearest Emer. I’m sure we shall become great friends now that you’re home to stay.”
Dalton’s mother smiled, her whole face lighting up to show what a lovely sunny young woman Frederick had once married many years ago and then savagely tried to destroy.
Emer saw a kindred spirit standing by her side, joining her hand with Dalton’s, and she nodded.
“Thank you, Amanda, from the bottom of my heart. I can see now who Dalton takes after.”
"Thank you, Mother," Dalton said, his voice choking with emotion.
"All good fortune and blessings to you both, my dearest son." She kissed him on the cheek, then stepped back to join the throng of well-wishers flanking the altar.
“I’m ready,” the Bishop announced from the far end of the room.
“Wait, wait, before we let the Bishop perform the ceremony, we have a few more guests just off the boat from the West Indies, and from the Rockies,” Cathan declared suddenly.
Cara and Reamann came out of the kitchen where they had been hiding, as did Brona and Michael, with a beautiful bouncing baby girl in their arms.
“What are you all doing here?” Emer gasped, before kissing the five of them in turn.
Brona smiled. “We came in the hope that you would be home soon, and we wanted to see this fabulous place you’ve told us so much about. This is baby Breda.”
Emer sniffed back a tear as she looked at the little girl who had been named after her own dearly departed mother, but she didn't want to spoil the day with sad tears.
“She's lovely, congratulations, all of you. Cara, Reamann, so good to see you. I’m so glad you’re all here for my wedding. Now, if only Joe and Myrtle could be here as well, the day would be perfect, wouldn’t it?” Emer laughed as Reamann spun her around in his arms.
“Ask and you shall receive.” Cara grinned broadly.
Suddenly there before their eyes stood Joe, and a bloomingly pregnant Myrtle.
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re back, and I’m so pleased for you! A baby!” Emer exclaimed as she hugged and kissed them both.
“As we are for you and Dalton, my dear," Myrtle said with a beaming smile.
"Beannacht libh, a thaisce ," Joe said, kissing her. "Blessings to you both, Treasure."
Emer smiled across at her husband to be. "Now our day really is complete, Dalton."
He nodded, his heart too full to speak. His heart had hungered for love and friendship, and he now stood surrounded by both precious gifts thanks to the incredible woman who was about to become his in every way.
He recalled with a pang that there was only one thing missing that would make their lives complete…
"I know you couldn’t be with us on our special day, but nothing could have kept us from missing yours. However, at the risk of stealing your thunder, I have to berate you for your carelessness over your property, Emer,” Joe suddenly said in a serious tone. “How many times have I seen you leaving your mother’s rosary beads all over the place?”
Emer frowned for a moment in utter confusion. “My mother’s rosary beads?”
“You need them if you’re going to get married,” Michael said, trying to sound scolding, though he couldn’t represses a broad smile.
“Why, the last time I had mother’s beads was when....” Emer paused as she recalled her son playing with them.
“Well, here they are back again, along with the little scamp who was always taking them,” Joe announced.
Before Emer could grasp what he was telling her, Myrtle, who had gone back into the kitchen for a moment, placed William in her arms.
He was a year old now, but with the same unmistakable resemblance to Dalton that he had had even as an infant.
“But where, how?” Emer wept as she held the child close and he put his chubby arms around the pretty lady instinctively.
Dalton moved over to embrace them both, and then took Joe firmly by the hand before also hugging the young man tightly to his broad chest.
“Thank you. You have no idea how happy you’ve made us both,” Dalton whispered when he could finally manage to speak again.
“Much as Myrtle and I would love to take the credit for finding him, it was Brona and Michael, actually. We were all in Medicine Hat when she spotted the child. He looks so much like Dalton, that there was no doubt in our minds that he was William.
"A woman with him said his mother had just died. She revealed that the poor woman, Mary, had lost her first child of the fever on the way over from Ireland, and had never really admitted to herself that William wasn’t her son,” Joe revealed.
“There were reward posters everywhere, but Mary didn’t want money for William," Myrtle explained. "She loved him like her own child, and as it turns out, she couldn’t read English or Irish anyway. She still had his baby clothes, sewn by your own hands, Emer, with his name on his bibs, and your mother’s rosary beads. We would have written to tell you, but in the time it took to post the letter we would have already been here ourselves anyway.
“I wrote to Cara and Reamann to see if they could come, and Patrick apparently wrote to Marion via the packet boat to say you were on you way home and to get everything ready for when you did,” Joe said.
“Thank you all so much.” Emer smiled at her family and friends, and was terribly reluctant to let her son go again, until Adrian asked with mock impatience, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s have a wedding.”
“Plus a baptism!” Dalton pointed out. “We never did get around to it, only the wedding must be first so that this time he really can be William Randall.”
Brona and Michael were selected as Baby William’s godparents, and got ready to help in the ceremony once Dalton was safely wed to Emer.
Then Dalton went to stand by the top of the room with Adrian by his side as best man, while Joe took Emer’s hand to lead her down the aisle, and Myrtle, Cara and Brona carried flowers as her three matrons of honour.
The words ‘love, honour and cherish’ never me
ant so much to Emer as they did when she recited her vows to Dalton. After all they had been through in the past two years, she could only marvel at all the gifts God had seen fit to bestow upon her.
When the Bishop told them they could kiss, it seemed as though it was the first time they had ever done so. Dalton and Emer gazed into each other’s eyes as if in a trance, unable to believe their luck at having found each other, and their lost son again at last, just when Emer had been about to give up hope.
Then Joe handed the baby to Dalton, and the Bishop performed the baptismal ceremony. Emer watched as her child was blessed, the baby's rare golden eyes never leaving her face even when everyone hugged and kissed him to welcome him back into the family.
The Hungry Heart Fulfilled (The Hunger of the Heart Series Book 3) Page 28
