The Wolf's Pregnant Bride

by Jane B. Night

  Your Dutiful Sophronia

  Perhaps it would be easier to let her father tell her mother the tale of her fall. After all, she likely would never see her mother again and if she was angry enough perhaps she would not bother with letters. Sophronia could be completely cut off from her family and free to-

  Free to what? She was less free now as a wife and soon to be mother than she had ever been at home.

  She sighed and folded the letter. Perhaps she would give it to the servant who delivered her trunks or perhaps not. She would decide later.

  She turned her head to the sudden knocking on her door.

  "It is Claire and Mercy," a female voice said that could have been either woman. The door muffled the sound and Sophronia had not yet met Claire.

  "I am still in my dressing gown," Sophronia called.

  "We do not have anyone else with us," the voice said. Sophronia had meant to deter them but it seemed that her state of undress did not bother them.

  "Come in," Sophronia said.

  The door opened and both women came in. The girl with Mercy was taller by a head but her countenance made her look smaller. She was dark haired and dark eyed against porcelain skin. Her body disappeared in her dress and she looked as if there was next to nothing to her figure.

  Mercy on the other hand had hair that was the color of straw and her skin was beige. She had hard features while Claire had soft. Still, she wasn't plain or unpleasant to look at though Claire was the handsomer of the two by far.

  "We have been sent to help you prepare for the wedding. We brought a dress for you to wear. We were told your trunks had not arrived yet," Claire said.

  "Father came home with the special license and wishes for the wedding to proceed before luncheon."

  "It is all very rushed," Sophronia sighed.

  "I believe he wants to be sure that the baby is not born before the wedding."

  "I have months left to go," Sophronia said.

  "It seems to me that anything regarding babies makes men nervous," Claire said.

  "Except the actual making of them," Sophronia added.

  "Except that," Claire said with a giggle.

  "No maid could be spared to help me dress?"

  "I am sure that one could be and I can call Ruth if you wish but it is our family’s custom for the bridesmaids to prepare the bride," Mercy said.

  "It is too bad you had no sisters here to help you," Claire said.

  "I suppose it is for the best. My mother would not want me seen by them in such a condition." Sophronia let her soon to be sisters-in-law pull off her dressing gown and nightdress until she was before them in nothing but a shift, stockings, and her drawers.

  Claire pulled a petticoat over her head while Mercy laced up her corset and then she helped Sophronia into the corset cover leaving her to tie it while Claire hooked the corset to the petticoat. Once she was finished Claire pulled a fancy petticoat over her head. It had barely blue lace and a bow.

  The skirt and bodice were next. Both were also blue though a light shade of it that looked rather like the sky behind a fluffy white cloud.

  Mercy helped her put on long white gloves.

  Sophronia looked in the mirror and that was enough to break the damn of emotions that had built up inside of her and tears began to flow unbidden down her cheeks.

  "I am sorry that the marriage had to be rushed," Claire whispered putting her arm around Sophronia which only made her cry harder.

  "It just isn't what I had planned," Sophronia said. She hadn't planned to be married now let alone heavy with child.

  "Marriage is not so bad though I daresay Eldon and I knew we were to be wed since we were barely twelve years old," Claire said.

  "Was the marriage arranged?" Sophronia asked. An arranged marriage would certainly explain why Eldon had been so willing to bed a stranger.

  "Of course not. My father would never force me to marry anyone I did not love. You might say we chose each other very young. I suppose I could tell you the story while Mercy fixes your hair," Claire said.

  "I would enjoy that," Sophronia said. It was only half true. She would be glad of the distraction but at the same time a story of fairies or elves would certainly have been preferable to the tale of how the father of her bastard child came to marry his wife. She may not have had feelings for Eldon but she thought she could grow to like Claire. Hearing of their epic romance and knowing it was his babe she carried would certainly ruin much of the magic of their love story.

  "We were small children when we first met. Eldon's mother and my mother were cousins. When my mother died I went to live with Eldon's grandparents for a time while my father courted my stepmother.

  Nathaniel and Mercy were babes in arms and his mother worried for them traveling to Manchester where his grandparents had just relocated. It was a growing city and they wanted to take advantage of the opportunities there."

  "I visited Manchester briefly," Sophronia said. It was one of the places her father had gone to make business acquaintances. In fact, it had been in Manchester where she had met Eldon at the party where she had become pregnant with his child.

  "Eldon and his mother were unfortunate enough to visit just when an outbreak of scarlet fever presented."

  "Oh my," Sophronia said. She had heard of epidemics of measles, scarlet fever, and influenza but she had never suffered through one. She could not imagine the horror of it.

  "I had already had scarlet fever as a child so there was no concern for my welfare but Eldon had not. He was not terribly sick but too much to leave when they had planned and their visit was delayed. On the night before they were scheduled to leave Eldon's mother went to see a performance at the opera house. It was a sad twist of fate that on the night she should choose to see a play the opera house caught on fire. It was the gas lighting I was told later but I knew nothing of all that at the time. His mother perished," Claire said.

  "Does it upset you to hear the story?" Sophronia asked Mercy who had just put the last pin in her hair.

  "I suppose that it should but in truth I do not remember her at all. There is a portrait of her in the library but if not for that I would not even know what she looked like."

  "Eldon of course was the oldest and terribly fond of his mother. I had just lost mine so it gave us a certain kinship for the time it took for his father retrieve him from Manchester. Shortly after that my father married and I returned home as well. My father had been married only a year when Vivian was born. My stepmother and I never were close and once Vivian came my step-mother had no affection at all for me which was just as well. I missed my real mother and wanted her back. My father had a bout of influenza right before I turned eleven. He recovered but it left my stepmother nervous about what should happen to me if he was to die. He assured her that I would be removed to family but she wanted a marriage arrangement made. I told my father how fond I was of Eldon and he wrote Marquess Wolstenholme and that was that," Claire said.

  "I am glad you have a husband you are so fond of," Sophronia said though she wondered if Eldon had the same deep affection for his wife that she obviously had for him. Having a marriage where the love was one sided would be torment. It was much better for both partners to be without affection as her union would be.

  "Are you ready?" Mercy asked. Sophronia took one last look in the mirror. She looked beautiful. If her stomach did not stretch the fabric nearly to tearing she could almost imagine she was any bride on her wedding day.

  "As ready as I expect I can be," Sophronia whispered.

  Nathaniel stood beside the priest waiting for Sophronia to appear. His father and brother stood by his side. The rest of the chapel was vacant which was a small blessing. He was glad that his farcical marriage did not have to be witnessed by anyone else.

  His feet were starting to get a pins and needles feeling and he shuffled them as the chapel door opened.

  Claire and Mercy entered the chapel first. They were both dressed in their best which for Mercy was a p
ale green velvet dress with puffed sleeves and dark green ribbons spaced from the waist to the feet. Around her middle was a bow.

  Claire's dress was plum purple and made of silk. Her sleeves were also puffed though to a lesser degree than Mercy's. The neckline was cut low however white lace kept her modestly covered. Similar lace also adorned the cuffs and trim of the dress.

  Once his sister and sister-in-law were nearly upon him he was able to view his bride. She looked beautiful and had he been her lover his heart might have leapt at the sight of her. She looked feminine and innocent or she would have if her belly hadn't protruded outward clearly signaling the life within her. Once his eyes were drawn to her middle it was hard to bring them back up to appreciate any other feature she had.

  She stopped next to him before the priest. She looked as serious as he was. There was no hint of a blushing bride on her face.

  "Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God..."

  Nathaniel's eyes passed over the chapel as the priest droned on about how the union of man and wife was like the union of Christ and the church.

  He had never considered himself particularly pious. The chapel had been on the land for generations and likely as not more for show than actual worship. He wondered how many werewolves were also piously religious. Some must be as their priest was a werewolf and not the only one either. In fact, there was a special monastery that the priest retreated to during the three days of the moon where turning was inevitable. It was secluded and confined or so the priest had told him when he had asked. It was nothing like the country home where Nathaniel and the werewolves on their land went. The land was actually in Scotland and they shared it with several English and Scottish packs. They had been doing so for generations and continued as long as their nations were not at war.

  The priest talked about poor marriages and wrong reasons to marry. Nathaniel certainly was not marrying lightly or to satisfy his own lusts. The child in this woman might be a werewolf and the pack could not afford to lose one of their own. It was nothing beyond that. Sophronia was pretty enough but not a woman he thought he could feel lustful towards. Even if she had not been heavy with a child, she was not the type of woman he favored. She was not Vivian.

  "...the causes for which matrimony is ordained. First it was ordained for the procreation of children..."

  He supposed that after this babe was born he would be expected to fill her with another and then another. Each child would be born with only a dice rolls chance of being a werewolf. If he had married Vivian, or any other she-wolf, then their children almost certainly would have been born were-kind. If he wanted white dogs he didn't breed a white sire with a black bitch. Yet, his father had said the marriage to Sophronia was, at least partially, to keep the pack from losing a were-child. Had his father forced them to risk losing the were-gift on the rest of the children he and the chit might have?

  "...secondly, it was ordained for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication..."

  Nathaniel glanced at his brother whose head was bowed beside him and whose eyes were closed. Was his brother in an inebriated stupor or was he feeling sorry for the sin of fornication he had committed that had gotten them in this mess to begin with?

  Eldon had a wife. He needed only to wait another few months to quench his lust with her but instead he had chosen to bed Sophronia instead of waiting for Claire. Had Claire really held out her innocence until the wedding or had she given herself to his brother before but Eldon had still needed to lust after other chits?

  "...thirdly, it was ordained for the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have the other..."

  How could he and Sophronia expect to help and comfort each other for the rest of their lives when they were mere strangers? One night of his brother's poor judgment had led his father to choose a woman to be his comfort until death.

  "Wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony..."

  It was the moment. His last moment on earth as a single man if he said yes. One sentence and his fate would be sealed.

  "I will," Nathaniel said though he felt as if the blood in his body had turned to ice and the breath wouldn't leave his chest as he forced the words out.

  There was one last moment where he could be saved. One last instance where God or whatever fate ruled the world might keep him from the marriage. Sophronia could still say no.

  "I will," she said. He felt his knees grow weak beneath him and he worried he might tumble forward.

  "Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder."

  It was over. Sophronia was his legal wife and if there was a God he was the husband of her in His sight as well. Now, there was only death that could release him from his duty.

  Chapter 5

  Sophronia sighed and lowered herself onto the bed. After the wedding her now sisters-in-law had returned her to her room and helped her out of her wedding dress and into a casual dress that fitted much more loosely around her belly which was a relief. The babe inside of her had not appreciated the squishing of his home and had flailed about within her during the whole of the ceremony. The baby had never before been so active and she felt exhausted. Now that she was lying in her bed the flailing had ceased and she wondered if she should try to nap before the dinner hour. She had just closed her eyes when there was a knock at the door. Sophronia sighed and then pulled herself up to walk across the room and open the door.

  "Your trunks have arrived. Shall I send my daughter up to help you unpack?" Ruth asked.

  "Thank you," Sophronia said with a nod.

  Two footmen appeared a moment later laden with her trunks. They left and returned several times before they had finally brought her all that she had come to England with and acquired during her visit. Then, a girl who was almost but not quite a woman appeared. Wordlessly, she opened the first trunk and began pulling out the dresses and neatly putting them away in the adjacent dressing room. It was a small dressing room and her things immediately began to cramp it.

  "I suppose I should ask my husband if he plans for us to stay here or if he wishes us a household of his own. I am sure his father would allow us always to call this place home but I had thought most men preferred space of their own."

  The girl grunted in response but said nothing.

  "I suppose it does not matter to me one way or another. I have not had time to ask my husband of his plans though they are likely as ruined as my own."

  The girl grunted again. Sophronia sat down on the bed and let the room remain in silence for a moment except for the sounds of unpacking but then the silence became overwhelming and she decided that even if the girl did not care a bit about what she was saying at least talking would keep her entertained until the girl left and she could take the nap she had planned on.

  "I had planned to go to one of the female academies. My mother has never approved of more than necessary education for women but I have always enjoyed reading books and learning history. Not just the history that can be used for small talk at parties but everything. I had the pleasure of speaking to an archeologist once at a party. He was the student of William Cunnington and as excited about history as a man could be. All the other girls were quickly bored by him but not me. I could have listened to him for hours if mother had not dragged me away.

  I think I would have done well at the academy. I wanted to end up a teacher. I believe that someday women will have more schooling options and I would love to be one of the first women to teach budding girls who will grow to be teachers and nurses. Then, if slavery is ever abolished, there will be even more women in need of proper education. I do not know if education is something that female negro aspire to as of yet but I am sure if they are freed from slavery they can be convinced that education will allow them better prospects in life even if it is only better positions in household servitude. Were you given any education?"

  "Course I was. Went to a Nation
al school," the girl said. It was the first she had yet spoken.

  "Then you know how important learning is."

  "I suppose it would be for folks moving to the cities and planning to work with machines and such. We have better skills to learn around here."

  "Do you want to stay on the Marquess' land all your life?"

  "Course I do. Who would not? He treats us good and the wages is fair. He understands his people in ways most don't. Rarely ever heard a renter complain of him."

  "That says a lot for him," Sophronia agreed.

  "Shame you did not get the life you were hoping for," the girl said though Sophronia was not sure if she meant it or was merely humoring her. She supposed it was her own fault and she did not deserve any pity from this girl or anyone else. If she and Eldon had not had their night of poor judgment she might have lived the life she dreamed of.

  "Do you need anything else?" the girl asked. She had finished unpacking her clothes.

  "Not at this time," Sophronia said.

  "There is a cord on the wall if you do," she said indicating a rope that likely sounded a bell downstairs.

  When Sophronia was finally alone she sunk into the bed and closed her eyes. Life was too complicated. She did not want to deal with any of it. Not now. She had gone from a woman on her way to academics to a woman bound as a wife until death. Life was strange.

  Nathaniel opened the door. Since his wedding had ended he had spent several hours training his dogs but the evening was closing in and both he and the dogs were drained.

  He intended to retire to his chamber but as he walked past the study his father called to him and he was obliged to enter the study and take a seat.

  "I am ordering a small house built for you and your wife. It will be on the east corner of our holdings. It will not be fancy but it should suffice for your domestic needs."

  "That will mean quite a walk to get to my dogs," Nathaniel protested. He leaned forward in his chair and met his father's eyes.