Authors: Sorcha MacMurrough

The Faithful Heart (46 page)

BOOK: The Faithful Heart

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“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 the 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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