“Anna, my love. I love you. Will you marry me?”
“Lennox, I know you know. I can’t marry you just because of that.”
“I decided to ask you to marry me long before I found out. I had this ring made last month.” He drew out a box and opened it. The ring had “Lennox” and “Anna” engraved on the shoulders of the ring. Between their names, two beautiful emeralds nestled at the crown of the ring, and inside the words “Always and forever” and the date had been engraved. Inside the box there was a small receipt. Lennox opened it and displayed the date in November. Anna looked at Lennox and nodded.
“I’m sorry that I doubted you. I will marry you. I wanted you to marry me because you loved me, and I thought it was only because I am pregnant that you were asking.”
Emma gasped and ran out of the room, followed by Eric.
Chapter Six
Eric caught Emma up as she ran upstairs. She was weeping, and he drew her into his arms, holding her close as she sobbed and petting her.
“There, there, love. Don’t take on so. It will happen, I know it will. Don’t worry about it. There’s no rush.”
“Oh there is, I am getting older, and I want a baby now. I don’t want to wait any longer. Everyone is getting pregnant. Why can’t I?” Emma said though her sobs.
By this time they had reached their room and no sooner had they closed the door behind them than there was a knock. Eric went to open it, and Jane came in.
“Emma love, what it is? Come to Grandma.” She held out her arms, and Emma ran to wrap herself around her grandma. She sobbed as Jane held her. Jane led her to the sofa by the fire, and they sat down. Jane looked at Eric in inquiry. Clearly Emma was in no state to say anything. So Eric told Jane everything.
“We have been trying for a baby for two years now. We have had test after test, and they can find nothing at all wrong with either of us. But Emma still doesn’t get pregnant. She’s in a state, and cannot bear to hear of anyone getting pregnant. I knew it would be bad with Fiona and the twins. She was prepared for that, but this with Anna was such a shock and seemingly they are not even trying. Jane, I don’t know what to do. I love her, and she is so unhappy. This is making her ill. She can think of nothing else. She doesn’t eat properly, and she can’t sleep.” Eric sat with drooped shoulders and his head in his hands. He heard Jane take a deep breath, and then she let it out.
“I will tell you something that not many people know. When I first got married, we wanted to have children, but I didn’t get pregnant. Not many tests were available, so we were told to keep on trying. It still didn’t work, and I got myself into the very state that my poor Emma is in now. My husband decided he’d had enough and he paid to send me to a specialist. This man was superb. He listened to all I had to say and reviewed the tests. He said that stress and anxiety were the enemies of my getting pregnant. We should book a holiday and go and enjoy ourselves. We went to a Spanish town on the coast and did all the tourist things including the afternoon siesta.” Eric noticed that Jane went pink as she said that, and he could well imagine she was remembering the long afternoons spent making love.
“Did that work, Grandma?” Emma’s voice was eager.
“Yes, love, it did. You can also get one of those new-fangled gadgets that forecast ovulation and test it for a couple of months. Then you can book your holiday around the appropriate dates. What you can’t do is get up-tight, or if you do you will work against it.”
“Can we try that, Eric?” Emma’s voice was full of hope as she turned her tear-drowned eyes on him. Eric so wanted her to have her baby. He wanted to start a family, but he didn’t want her getting her hopes up if there was a risk they’d be dashed.
“Yes, love, of course we can go on holiday, and we can get one of those things. I just don’t want you to decide it will happen in case it doesn’t. Then you will have to face a big disappointment.”
Emma got up and went over to him.
“I know, love. I will try and get it into perspective, but it means so much to me. I want us to be a family. I want your children. I know you feel the same, too, though you don’t show it as much.”
“Well, love, I can hardly burst into tears and run out of the room, now can I? I do want it, but I don’t think that if I go on and on about it that will be of any consolation to you.”
“I know.” Emma kissed him. “I’d better go and make my apologies and congratulate Anna and Lennox.” She stood up.
“I think you will find they will all be sympathetic, Emma love,” Jane said as Emma left the room.
“Eric, listen carefully. Sea and sun are not enough. A nice meal, a bottle of wine, a stroll then…well you know. She will want to be almost mechanical. You must stop that and woo her as if she weren’t yet yours. I’m sure you can manage that.”
Eric stood up and kissed Jane’s cheek.
“Yes I can manage that, and thank you for all your help, Jane.”
“Oh I just want to be a great-grandma, and very soon,” Jane said, smiling. “Now let’s go downstairs, and we can all have our Christmas presents.”
* * * *
Anna thought she’d burst with happiness. She felt so sorry for Emma and admired the way that Emma had managed to come back and say how happy she was for them. She’d taken Emma in her arms and cuddled her, assuring her that it would happen for her, too, and very soon. Emma had cried a little and Anna had comforted her. She just couldn’t feel sad today. At first she’d been sure that Lennox had only asked her to marry him because of the baby. She’d been so upset when he said “Oh no!” when Ron had told him. When he explained she understood why he’d said that. When she saw the ring and the receipt, that proved beyond doubt that he had planned to ask her to marry him on Christmas Day of all days, the clouds rolled away and she was completely and utterly overjoyed.
Absently she stroked her belly and smiled to herself. Nothing showed yet but soon it would. They were going to be a family. She was already a member of a very supportive, extended family in Prometheus in Chains. Ron and Elsie would make superb grandparents as would Jane and Angus. Her baby would have three sets of doting grandparents, and she smiled as she pictured her mother’s reaction. In a little while she would call her and tell her, but for now she wanted a quiet moment or two to savour her happiness. Her mother knew she was living with Lennox and that she loved him. Her parents hadn’t met him yet, but she was sure they’d love him.
Her reverie was broken by Lennox who came up behind her as she sat musing by the bright log fire. He came round the sofa and had one hand behind his back.
“Are you okay, love?” he asked anxiously, handing her a warm shawl.
“Now don’t you dare try and wrap me in cotton wool,” she said, smiling up at him. He pulled her to her feet, revealing the sprig of mistletoe he’d been concealing behind his back.
“Perish the thought,” he replied, grinning as he pulled her into one arm, holding the mistletoe over her head and proceeding to kiss her witless.
* * * *
Up in their bedroom Lennox collected the warm shawl for Anna. He intended to take great care of her especially now and it was cold up here in the Highlands, in spite of the log fires blazing in every room. He gazed out of the window at the lock and the view of snow covered hills and woods.
How do I feel? How will this change my life? Our baby will be born in the summer so we have to arrange a wedding soon. What will Anna’s parents think? Will they like me? Will they think I am good enough for their daughter? I am going to be a father soon! Lennox did a happy little jig making his kilt swing. A sudden rush of intense feeling swept over him. He’d do anything for Anna and their baby. He’d protect them at all costs and do his best to make sure they had a good life. Then it hit him. That’s why my mother gave me away. It wasn’t that she didn’t care. If anything she cared too much and was ready to sacrifice her own happiness to ensure mine. She wanted him to be with a stable family firstly because she was too ill to care for him properly then late
r on in case her life fell apart and the cancer returned. Now he understood. It had taken some time but he was closer to understanding her motives. Yet he still wished she’d explained it to him, seen him later in life before she died and set his mind at rest. Maybe she thought she was doing it for the best though. Who knows how I’d react in similar circumstances. He couldn’t agree with what she’d done but he was hale and hearty and maybe that was the big difference. He went downstairs to his future wife thinking that this was the happiest Christmas ever.
* * * *
“Well, it’s been a memorable Christmas Day, Mrs Scott.”
They were sitting sipping a glass of his favourite whisky by the fire in their room before turning in. Llewellyn’s children had opened their gifts and looked a little crestfallen until a Santa had arrived with the very items they had requested in their letters to him. Angus smiled as he thought about Christmases spent with Alex and Ruari before their parents died and then after. Jane’s Vicuna coat had been a great success. It was a glorious caramel colour and suited her. She’d been delighted at the feel of it, and her kiss to thank him had been all he needed. She’d been lavish in her gifts to him. The beautiful sgian dubh with the sapphire in the hilt would sit well in his sock, and the matching sapphire stick pin, “to match your eyes,” would complement his lace jabot.
“What are you thinking about, Master?” Jane asked.
“Well, I was thinking about what a lucky man I am. My Christmas gifts are beautiful. My wife is an angel. I was also noticing how the bloom has come back to your cheeks. You have managed to solve everyone’s problems so far. But more than any of that I was considering how much I long to return to Granada.”
“Oh,” Jane said.
“Oh indeed. I have never forgotten that balcony overlooking the Alhambra and your reward for learning those Gaelic phrases so very well.”
“Neither have I, Master.”
“Come here, mo run, and let’s make some new memories until we can go back and relive those.”
She went over to sit on his lap, and he began to plant tender kisses along her jaw-line and along her throat. He loved the way she melted into his arms and gave herself up to his attentions. Not that she was usually passive, but tonight there was no urgency. He wanted to arouse her again, so he took his time over the preliminaries. She loved the feel of his lips on her skin, and he loved the feel of her. His finger-tips trailed gently over her cheeks, down her throat to her shoulders. He pushed the dark-blue robe off one shoulder and licked and nibbled his way down her arm to the inner fold of her elbow. His tongue tickled her there, and she writhed in his grasp. He held her firmly.
“I have all the time in the world tonight, and I intend to make you beg.” Jane’s gasp was all he’d hoped for. I’ve been in error perhaps to have treated her like cut-glass for so long, but I know she’d never complain and I didn’t want her to experience discomfort. Rather than have that happen, he’d reined in his passion and been nothing but tender and considerate. Has that been a mistake? Has she been thinking that I was cooling off? She’s still prone to undervalue her charms. Have I inadvertently contributed to her depressed state? Well, we can discuss that later, but if I have and she’s not told me, she’s going to get a spanking. A sardonic smile curved his lips. That would be no punishment as she loved to have her bottom made red and tingly, but not half so much as he loved having her over his lap at his mercy to spank and finger fuck. His tongue and lips nibbled and licked a trail back up her arm. He raised her to her feet and pushed the blue silk robe off her other shoulder.
“I love the way that silk clings to you and whispers as it falls to the floor. I can’t make up my mind if I prefer to have you naked and waiting for me, or clothed so that I can unwrap my delectable parcel slowly.”
“Well, Master, I could wrap myself in lots of layers, and then you’d have a good time unwrapping them all.” She giggled provocatively, and he swatted her bottom.
“Now there’s an idea for our next party. Pass the sub instead of pass the parcel. I must work out the details of that game.”
“Surely not now, Master,” Jane said, dismayed and pretending to pout.
“Oh, no, mo run. I have other ideas for now,” he said suggestively. Noting the colour creeping into her cheeks and the bantering tone, he was very happy with the way things were turning out. He redoubled his efforts with lips tongue and hands. Soon she was panting and heated. Cream ran down her thighs, and her swollen breasts and hard pointed nipples betrayed her state.
“Master, please.”
“Yes, my little darling, what is it that you want?”
“I want, I need. Oh, Master, please fuck me now.”
“I thought you’d never ask, mo run, on your knees in front of the fire.”
Jane hurried to obey, he was pleased to see. He dropped to his knees behind her, parted her legs, and his cock bobbed as he bent over her. He seized her by the hair. Short as it was, she enjoyed his hands tangling in her hair and holding her. Then he thrust his cock slowly home. She squirmed and pushed her bottom at him.
“Master, harder and deeper, please,” she begged. He was enjoying this. This was the way she always had been, and he’d missed it. He guessed that she had, too. From now on they were back to their old ways. He would just be extra vigilant to make sure she was comfortable. He thrust his dick deep into her and smiled as he began to fuck her deeply and slowly. That wasn’t what she wanted. It wasn’t what he wanted either, but she would have to make clear how she wanted to be taken.
“Master, please.”
“I’m doing what you asked, my little darling. What is it?”
“Faster, harder, and deeper, Master, please.”
That was what he’d wanted to hear. He held her by the hair with one hand and her hip, the one she’d not had replaced, with the other, and then he began to fuck her with long, deep strokes. Speeding up, he rocked them both with his thrusts. She moaned as he stroked over her G-spot again and again. He let go of her hip and reached round to press the heel of his hand against her engorged clit, applying firm pressure as he fucked her. She grasped his cock with her internal muscles then screamed his name as she came. Her climax triggered his, and his hips pumped ever faster of their own volition. He felt the tingles in his groin and at the base of his spine, and then he came with a shout. Ropes of hot, sticky semen pumped into her as if he had an endless supply. Then it was over, and they collapsed together on the rug. He gathered her in his arms and kissed her tenderly.
“Mmm. Have I said lately just how much I love you, my little darling?”
“Yes, Master, you tell me every day.”
“Oh, am I getting boring?”
“Not in the least. It’s one of the things I love best about you.” Jane took his face in her hands and kissed him.
“I love you, too, Master.”
“Always and all ways?”
“Yes, please.”
Chapter Seven
The next morning Jane was up early. She glowed with the memory of the previous night’s loving. She’d slept long and well in Angus’s arms, and although he’d not made love to her again in the early morning, as was his wont, she knew that from now on he’d be treating her less like cut-glass and their loving would be as wild and tempestuous as she liked. Going down to the dining room she found the men had gone out early for a walk around the loch. She sat at the table next to Fiona and Elsie. Now’s the time. I must get to the bottom of her problem. I wish I’d had the time to talk to Alex and Ruari. However, this is an opportunity. No time like the present.
“Fiona, I need to talk to you, love.”
“Yes, Jane, what is it?”
“You are looking so pale, love. Is there anything wrong?”
“No. Why should there be? I’m fine.” Fiona’s tone was abrupt and dismissive, but Jane persisted.
“No, love, you’re not. You’re pale, and you’ve lost weight. Those twins take a lot out of you.”
“No, they are my babies a
nd I can cope.” Fiona leapt to her feet and knocked over the chair. “You have no right to interfere. They are my babies. I will feed them myself, and no one can stop me. Not you, not Alex, not Ruari, no one. Don’t interfere in what doesn’t concern you.”
Jane realised there was more going on here than she knew, and she began to wish that she’d gone ahead with her plan to consult Alexander and Ruari before she spoke to Fiona.
Fiona picked up the chair she’d knocked over, and then she clutched the back of it and slipped down to the floor in a faint. Jane jumped up and tried to help her, but Elsie was there first. She arranged Fiona in the recovery position and said, “Get ‘em to send for a doctor. She’ll be fine, but ‘e’ll be able to tell her what she needs to do in no uncertain terms. Where are those men of ‘er’s?”
Jane hurried out of the room. She returned with Flora, and between the three of them they got Fiona onto a sofa in the sitting room. She began to come round as Jane held her in her arms and offered a glass of water.
“Where am I? I need to get up and see to my babies.” She struggled against Jane’s hold but was unable to prevail.
“No, you must stay still. Dr Finlay is on his way and asked that you remain lying down until he arrives. Gloria will look in on the twins.”
Plainly Fiona didn’t want to lie still, but when she succeeded in partially sitting up, she put her hand to her head and soon lay down again. Fiona asked Jane to stay with her.
“Please stay. I’m so sorry I was rude to you, I don’t want to lose my babies.”
“Why would you lose them? Who is going to take them from you?”
“Alexander wants me to have a nanny for them. He says I can’t cope. I want to bring them up myself. I don’t want a nanny.” Fiona’s voice had been rising steadily as she spoke, and Jane soothed her.
A Highland Christmas [Prometheus in Chains 12] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 4
