The Faithful Heart
Page 34
But Morgana, travelling all the way to Dublin in a cart despite her invalid condition, was able to get an audience with the Lord Lieutenant, and pledged her word to him concerning peace in the region.
“I ask for their lives, sir, in exchange for which I will enforce the king’s peace, along with my husband Ruairc MacMahon.I shall also pay taxes and apply for an English title and full status as an Earl of the realm,” Morgana bargained astutely.
In the end, the sizeable treasure and cache of captured armaments persuaded Skeffington to accede to Morgana’s requests. After seeing the Spanish officers away home safely on a ship from Howth, Morgana and Ruairc returned with Magnus O’Reilly back to the north.
Though Magnus and his two sons had officially been stripped of their lands and titles, which had been awarded to Morgana, she kept her word to the old man and allowed them all to remain in their homes, with nothing altered except Magnus’s enmity.
The three families now agreed upon joint trading ventures, and Morgana invited the O’Reilly and his family to their harvest festival at the end of August.
Morgana even kept her pledge to the English mercenaries, who for the most part elected to remain in Ireland, and filled in the gaps in all three clans left by the deaths of so many.
Morgana bargained with the O’Donnells and O’Connors for new ships to be built to increase her trade, and they too joined her at the harvest festival.
The day was scorchingly sunny, as had been the entire summer, and the bounty heaped up around them in the field outside Lisleavan glowed in the orange light in a rainbow of colours
Patrick stood to toast Morgana with ale, and then Ruairc scooped Morgana up into his arms and carried her to the front of the table.
He placed her gently down on the grass, and the happy couple knelt by the altar to repeat their marriage vows for all who had not been able to share in their first wedding in June when Morgana’s life had hung precariously in the balance.
Morgana, still in mourning for the deaths of so many, wore the black and cream gown, one of Ruairc’s first presents to her, and the lovely cross she had found in Aofa’s room so long ago. Everyone commented on her radiance as she sat on her invalid’s pallet in the bright sunshine.
“If I'm glowing, it’s because I’m surrounded by such sunny company,” Morgana declared as she lifted her goblet to salute the rows and rows of men and villagers surrounding her.
Ruairc stood and cleared his throat. “I just want to say, at the risk of being accused of boasting about my wife, that when I came here only a few short months ago, the fields and pens were empty, the household penniless, and the trade at a standstill. Morgana has changed all that for everyone here, perhaps not as completely as she has turned my life upside down, but near enough.
“I thank God every day for having spared her, and giving me the blessing of her love. I also daily thank him for the good friends who supported us all when we needed it most, and the new friends Morgana has found along the way.
“I also wish to pay tribute to my wife’s courage and wisdom, for the Spanish invasion would have been a disaster for all had it succeeded. Yet in spite of the damage done by the invasion force, and the O’Reilly clan, she forgave them, allowed them their freedom, helped them on their way back to Spain in the one case, and has given back the O’Reillys lost estate and helped Magnus to prosper. She has seen to it all her promises have been honoured, and all this despite her being confined to bed, unable to walk.
“So I give you, Morgana Maguire MacMahon, the faithful heart.”
“The Faithful Heart,” the assembled guests toasted enthusiastically.
“And I give you Ruairc MacMahon, the only love of my life, and the father of my unborn child!”
Morgana smiled then, and to the amazement of all, she stood up and walked a few steps up and down the row of tables.
Ruairc stared at Morgana for what seemed an eternity across the trestle before running to her and picking her up into his arms. A huge cheer went up as he kissed her and spun her around until she was dizzy.
“Morgana, you can walk!”
“Mary’s been helping me practice. I wanted to surprise you,” she laughed.
“You definitely have. What about the baby? Are you sure?”
“Certain. Are you happy?”
“Delighted!” Ruairc beamed, and kissed her again until the men at the table cleared their throats in embarrassment, and then all began to laugh.
“They’re all staring,” Morgana whispered.
“I don’t care! If you’ll excuse us, we have some private matters to discuss!” Ruairc called to the good-natured and astonished guests, before carrying Morgana back to the castle and up to her room.
“But Ruairc, I don’t need to lie down. My back is better now, and the baby is just fine,” Morgana protested.
“I’m not! If I don’t love you right now, my loins are going to explode,” Ruairc growled as he tugged at the fastenings of her dress impatiently.
He silenced her protests with a heady kiss, and Morgana melted into his arms. She lay drugged by his kisses as he stripped the last of her clothes from her, before yanking off his doublet and hose.
"I'm sorry to be in so much of a hurry," he said, reaching for her to start massaging the v betweeh her thighs.
"Hurry faster, darling!" she urged, panting.
He laughed, and did as she instructed. Moving between Morgana’s legs, he thrust into her so powerfully that their passions both exploded in an instant.
Morgana heard a great cry of joy which she eventually recognised as coming from her own lips.
Still panting, Ruairc apologized. “What that lacked in romance it made up for in love. God, I’ve missed you so. I’ve ached for you every night since we were separated, and hated myself for going off with Anna to look for the weapons and for breaking my promise to you that I would never leave you again.”
“Oh, Ruairc, it’s been the same for me, too. I’ve missed you so. I’ve lain awake night after night longing for us to be one again.”
Suddenly Ruairc froze.He had tugged at the chain around her neck, and brought the rare onyx and gold cross to the front.
“Where did you get this?” he demanded, grapsing her shoulders.
She frowned at his urgent tone. “I found it in Aofa’s jewel box. It was so lovely, I’m afraid I couldn’t help myself, and kept it.”
“My God, if only I had known! It would have saved so much trouble for us all.”
“Why? I don’t understand.”
“Conor showed this to me before he died. It was to have been his wedding present to you. He even gave me my one in advance. You’ve seen it. It matches this one perfectly. He was wearing them both around his neck for safe-keeping until that point.
"Don’t you see, whoever had this cross knew something of the murder. I asked about it before the funeral, wanting to take it for you and give him mine to be buried with in its place, but it was nowhere to be found.”
“So Fergus knew all along that Aofa was involved with the murder! That is why he fainted when he saw the cross. I know I released him into his family’s care, but he must be brought to justice!”
He slapped his hand against his own face as if to wake himself up. "Damnation. And to think if only I had seen this before, we might have saved your father.”
She took his hand and kissed it. “Please, don’t think that way. Everything has happened the way it has for a purpose, I'm sure. Come here now, and let me kiss you?” Morgana murmured shyly.
Ruairc turned Morgana on her side, and began to make love to her more gently, savoring her response as the sun shone through her chamber window, bathing her lovely face and body in a golden glow.
“Ruairc, really, maybe we should go back to the harvest festival, and there are so many things to do,” Morgana murmured as she felt herself being sucked downwards in to the swirling vortex of her own rampaging desires.
“I can’t think of anything more important than you at th
e moment, Morgana, a thaisce,” Ruairc murmured as he kissed the slender column of her throat, and began to move rhythmically deep within all over again.
“Ruairc!” Morgana cried as her whole world burst into fragments of colored light.
"It's all right, love, just hold on to me. I've got you. You're safe, and this is where we belong."
"Yes, oh, yes, my love."
She surrendered to the sensation, and sobbed out his name as he took her still higher.
At last they quietened, and she felt as though she were floating on a great white puffy cloud. Wrapped securely in her beloved's embrace, she drifted into a sated slumber.
At last, towards evening, Morgana managed to escape from Ruairc’s questing hands, and washed herself in a basin of cold water before pulling on her dressing gown and sitting next to Ruairc on the bed.
“You're insatiable my love, and I have to admit, it's perfect, because I am as well. But we should probably go down to say goodbye to our guests,” she said softly.
“Aye, I suppose we must,” Ruairc sighed, as he turned on his back lazily in the bed.
Morgana was able to admire his handsome maleness from top to toe. Desire glowed nakedly in her violet eyes, and Ruairc pulled her down on top of him.
"You're acting like a starved man," she giggled.
"Can you blame me. I've found the most delectable dish ever."
"Oh my, mmmmm…"
He parted the front of her robe and entered her with a hoarse groan of exquisite pleasure, matched by one of her own.
"What a feast of the senses," she panted, feeling every ridge and vein pulsating deep within her.
"And best of all, you'll never have to worry about getting old, fat and gouty from overindulging."
She laughed heartily at that, throwing her head back, which caused her back to arch ever further, driving his still deeper.
The color flew to her face. "Oh, goodness, Ruairc, I feel—"
"Let it come, my sweet, come with me to paradise…."
Much later, Morgana sighed contentedly in Ruairc’s arms, and shifted at last to pull the robe over them both as the evening began to cool. “Do you suppose it will always be like this between us?”
“I certainly hope not! I won’t live until thirty at this rate!” Ruairc teased, stroking her tumbled auburn hair back from her face lovingly.
She tapped him on the cheek with one finger, then planted a kiss on his sensual lips. “But seriously, Ruairc, things are bound to change with a baby on the way.”
He settled her more comfortably against his side. “Everything's changed so completely in the past few months, darling, I don’t think the child could affect our love for each other in any way, except to make it grow even stronger. It’s just another tie that binds me to you, one flesh, one heart, one soul,” Ruairc declared, clasping her hand firmly in his own and kissing it.
“But I warn you, I will not tolerate being neglected. The clans are fine, the region is prosperous. You’ve had to delegate all sorts of responsibilities while you’ve been crippled, so why not carry on in that way? It’s your brains that run this place, not just your sword arm. I want you to leave everything to the men and servants and focus only upon me and our child,” Ruairc requested softly.
“I will try, Ruairc, but you know there will always be people who need me, responsibilities I have to meet,” Morgana cautioned.
“I know, just as you are my responsibility, and the light of my life. I wouldn’t want you to turn anyone away. That’s one of the things I love about you, your generosity, your faith to your ideals and your clan,” Ruairc praised, as he kissed her tenderly on the lips.
“The Faithful Heart?”
"Indeed. No one could ever doubt it."
Morgana smiled, and snuggled against Ruairc’s warm strong body, before kissing her husband passionately.
He lifted his lips long enough to vow, “As is mine, faithful to you forever, Morgana, my dearest love.”
The setting sun's rays now illuminated their chamber, bathing the vision of their future in a rosy glow.
"You see, we truly are blessed," she said with a smile, taking both her hands in his own to share with him the crimson rays.
"From the moment I met you, my treasure, I've never doubted it for a second."
She pressed one of her hands to her peaked breast. "Nor ever will if I can help it, my dearest Ruairc."
AUTHOR'S NOTE
All of the details on the Earl of Kildare, Silken Thomas' rebellion, the dissolution of the monasteries, and Spanish plotting against the English are accurate. The rest is a product of my fevered imagination.
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