That night, the King was hosting a feast in the Great Hall in honour of Stefan and his bravery. Stefan had said if Ædwen wasn’t up to going, he would stay behind with her and look after her, but she didn’t want him to miss his honorary meal and she wanted to see the praise he deserved bestowed upon him.
He helped her walk down the corridors, towards the grand doors, and she realised she was nervous, just like the first time she’d approached the King’s hall. It was the first time she’d seen anyone since the battle and she hoped they didn’t hold it against her. But at least this time, she knew Stefan was wholeheartedly on her side.
As the doors swung open and they stepped inside, a huge cheer erupted, men and women banging their tankards on the table and stamping their feet on the floor in support of Stefan and herself. They were chanting both their names. She couldn’t believe it. She was astounded. She could feel the love in the room.
She looked around and saw her mother and Ethelred sat at one table and Maccus and Kendra at another. Sister Margaret and Ellan were up in one corner and King Canute and Queen Emma were rising out of their seats, coming to welcome them.
‘Your Majesties. You honour us with this feast,’ Stefan said.
‘And you honour us with your presence, Lord Stefan and Lady Ædwen,’ King Canute said.
Queen Emma leaned in. ‘We hope you are not in too much pain from your injuries, Lady Ædwen.’
‘I am making a quick recovery, thank you. And I wish to apologise once more for the behaviour of my father. I am deeply saddened about the loss of the monastery and all those many lives.’
‘We are stronger now because of it. Do not trouble yourself about it. We have united our lands, once and for all.’
They took their seats at the table with Maccus and Kendra and the woman instantly came over and gave her a hug. Then King Canute was out of his seat once more, ready to make a toast.
‘I would like to remind you all of the obstacles we have overcome these past few days. But we have done it standing together, side by side, Saxon and Dane. We have already started rebuilding and we will rise from the ashes, greater than ever before.
‘And I should like to thank my chief commander, my friend and right-hand man, Lord Stefan. He single-handedly put a stop to the fighting and united our peoples. But he said he owes this glory to his wife, Lady Ædwen. For his love for you is so great, it healed a rift and ended a war.’
Ours is a love that has always gone beyond our countries, language and faith, she thought.
‘And now a toast to my Queen, who I am delighted to say is with child. An heir for the throne of England. May we wish her a healthy and happy pregnancy. Skol.’
And the whole room stood and cheered in unison.
‘Skol,’ all the people in the hall repeated.
It was a wonderful feast of wild boar and vegetables. And Ædwen loved being surrounded by friends and family. She knew this was where she and Stefan, and Ellan, and any future children they might have together, belonged. She felt happy. Content. At last.
Her mother came over to speak to her and introduced her to Ethelred, and Ædwen introduced her family to Stefan.
‘I shall look forward to getting to know you better,’ she said to her brother, before turning to her mother. ‘And you.’
Her mother swiped a tear from her eye. ‘Thank you.’ Then Ædwen wrapped her arms around her mother, for she knew the torment the woman must have gone through all these many winters, as she had gone through it when Ellan had been taken. And she could not deny this woman her child. Herself.
The celebrations were raucous and the men were getting carried away, just as they had in the alehouse that night, but Stefan slipped his arm around her waist and leaned in, whispering that he was ready to leave when she was. She nodded.
Once back in their rooms, he laid her down in bed and got in next to her, and she felt warm and safe, nestled into his gently rising and falling chest. She turned to look at his face, taking him in. He was so handsome. She had always thought so, from the first moment she saw him, but he’d grown into a man to be admired. She studied his ruffled hair, his wide jaw, covered in a thick beard.
She loved him. She was completely in love with him. She always had been. And she would be for all time.
Her hand came up to hold his jaw and he rolled towards her.
She curled her hand around his head and drew him to her, kissing his lips, passionately. But as her tongue tangled with his, he pulled back.
‘What are you doing? You’re supposed to be recovering.’
‘You’re the perfect cure,’ she said, pressing her body against him.
‘Ædwen, you need your strength to focus on getting better,’ he said, removing her hand from around his neck.
She frowned, frustrated. ‘This will make me feel better.’
She didn’t understand it. Did he not want her, like she wanted him? It was all she could think about. But he was being very careful with her, too careful, treating her like some precious trinket, and it was maddening. She wanted him to put his hands on her. All over her. Like he had the other day.
‘And have you forgotten about Ellan?’
‘No...’
‘We don’t want to wake her.’
And she lay back and sighed. ‘You’re right, she’ll wake and then she’ll want milk and then she’ll never get back to sleep.’
Stefan grinned. ‘You’re a good mother, Ædwen.’
A warm glow infused her body.
She realised in just the short space of the week she was beginning to anticipate her daughter’s needs...like Stefan usually anticipated hers. She delighted in the mundane, everyday tasks of being a mother. She had discovered her wifely duties weren’t a hardship either, yet Stefan seemed to be thwarting her attempts to seduce him at every step. He seemed to be refraining from touching her and it was infuriating.
She turned to look at him, frustrated.
‘I won’t take you again until you’re better, Ædwen. I don’t want to hurt you.’
‘And if I’m not better by our wedding...?’
He grinned. ‘Then we’ll just have to delay it by a few days.’
Ædwen couldn’t believe Stefan had agreed to be baptised at a great ceremony. And she couldn’t believe that ceremony, and their wedding, was finally happening today.
She was standing in the palace courtyard, with all of the King’s subjects, waiting for Stefan to come out of the remains of the monastery in the procession with the priests. A huge barrel had been erected outside, not dissimilar to the one she used to bathe in in Eastbury, and she was still in shock that he was doing this. For the King. For Ellan. For her...
Would he come to regret it?
The drums started to roll and she gripped Ellan tighter in her arms, hoping she wouldn’t cry. She glanced up and saw the priests and nuns leading the line and Stefan in the middle of them all, dressed in a dark robe.
He looked up and met her gaze, then he smiled at her. She felt a rush in her blood. Would it always be this way? she wondered. Would he always have this impact on her? It hadn’t lessened over the months they’d been apart.
Her stomach fluttered with nerves. She had bathed with the Queen in the palace baths this morning and dressed in the beautiful blue silk tunic Stefan had bought her. The Queen had organised for her attendants to fix her hair and crown her with a wedding wreath. She looked every inch the bride. And she knew there was no other man she would ever want to wed. She knew she wanted to be with Stefan.
The baptism service began and she listened, attentively, as the priest read his words and Stefan swore his allegiance to the King and God.
But she felt a lump grow in her throat.
She rushed forward, unable to help herself. ‘Stefan,’ she said.
He turned and looked at her, then retreated down the steps to pull her to one side.
‘What is it?’ he whispered, glancing around at the people looking on.
‘I don’t want you to change who you are to be with me. I just want you to know that. That I love you the way you are. After all, our daughter is half of you.’
He smiled down at her.
‘Thank you, Ædwen. But don’t you see that’s one of the reasons I am willing to be baptised? I want our beliefs to be aligned, in this life and the next. If I remain a pagan, I would go to Valhalla when I die, whereas you and Ellan would go to heaven. And I so desperately want to see you there. Because I want you for ever, Ædwen, in this life and the next. I never want to be parted from you.’
‘Or I you,’ she said, bringing her hand up to rest on his cheek, her tears falling. ‘I love you, Stefan. Everything you’ve just said, I want that, too.’
Stefan then climbed back up the steps and was welcomed into the pool. He shrugged off his robe and he was naked, apart from a pair of dark breeches. He looked magnificent and her throat dried.
He dropped down into the water and the priest gently pushed his head beneath the surface, immersing his entire body, saying he was being cleansed of his sins and being reborn.
Afterwards, they all made their way back into the church for their wedding.
Sister Margaret took Ellan off Ædwen’s hands and she met Stefan at the altar. She couldn’t believe this was her second wedding in as many weeks. Only this time, it didn’t fill her with dread. Instead, flutters of excitement filled her stomach as Stefan stared down into her eyes. She couldn’t wait to spend her future with him.
‘You look beautiful,’ he said.
‘So do you.’
He had changed into his uniform, his dark hair neat, his Royal mail coat immaculate, with dark breeches and boots. He was her dream man. He always had been.
The priest asked Stefan to hand over his ancestral sword and he did so, his brow a dark line, his lips pressed together. She wondered what he was thinking, but she couldn’t read his face. The moment felt huge. That he was giving her his father’s blade, as if he had truly forgiven her for all that had happened in the past.
But this time, it was Stefan’s turn to halt the proceedings. He took her hand and pulled her close, whispering in her ear. ‘Ædwen, there’s something I need to tell you before you go through with this.’
She looked up at him. ‘There’s nothing you can tell me that will make me love you any less,’ she said and he smiled, repeating the words he had once told her.
‘Nevertheless... I think I must.’
The priest paused the service and Stefan took her to one side, as the congregation whispered in excitement among themselves.
‘I haven’t been entirely truthful with you. And I want there to be no secrets between us.’
‘All right.’ Her heart was in her throat.
He took a deep breath and began. ‘Ædwen, when you told me about the atrocities carried out by Danes on your lands, I never thought my own people could be capable of that... But Canute, before the battle...he told me he knew my father. I was shocked. He told me my father had come here, not in peace, as I’d always believed, but to attack these lands. To help Canute in his conquest of England.’
He combed his fingers through his hair with his other hand. ‘I’m so ashamed... I’d always believed he was innocent. That your father had attacked our people, whereas, in fact, he was just defending his lands, what was his. You.’ He shook his head. ‘I’ve been afraid to tell you. I don’t want you to think I’m the monster that you and your father always thought Danes were.’
She shook her head, placing a hand on his arm. ‘I don’t, Stefan.’ She gripped his hands with hers. ‘I never did. You weren’t to know what he was planning... And would you go back and change it? Would you wish for him to be successful, if you had known, and if we could relive it?’
‘No, of course not,’ he said. ‘Because if my father had been successful with his raid, what might have happened to you?’ He shuddered. ‘I was out there, fighting the men from Eastbury, and I came up against your father. I realised he had just been defending his home. His family. And how could I be cross with him for protecting you?’
She took his hands in hers. ‘We have both made mistakes and so have our parents. We have suffered for their shortcomings. I just hope we don’t make such bad mistakes with Ellan. But whatever errors we make, we shall make them and fix them together. Side by side.’
‘May we proceed now?’ the priest asked, coughing, interrupting them.
‘Yes,’ they agreed in unison.
Taking each other’s hands, they repeated the vows the priest asked them to make, this time in front of a huge audience.
‘I take you, as my husband,’ Ædwen said.
‘I take you, as my wife,’ Stefan declared. ‘Again,’ he whispered, so only she could hear.
And she couldn’t help but smile.
It was what she had always wanted.
The King and Queen had put on a huge feast for them back in the Great Hall and Ædwen was in awe. It was more spectacular than she could ever have imagined. A wedding anyone would dream of. She had to pinch herself it was happening. And so why was she willing for it to be over, wishing to be alone with Stefan again?
As if he could sense that, too, he leaned in and whispered into her ear, ‘How soon do you think we can slip away?’
‘I thought you were a patient man?’ she jested. She leaned back in her own seat, enjoying the fact he now needed her, wanted her, as much as she did him, knowing the torture he was going through.
‘We all have our limits. And seeing you in that dress, knowing you’re mine, it’s pushing me to the brink.’
She liked the fact she was driving him crazy. Because she felt the same. He had been making her feel like this for days and she couldn’t wait any longer.
‘Do you want your wedding gift?’ Ædwen asked him.
‘What, something other than you in my bed?’ he said. ‘What is it? I hope you didn’t go to the market again on your own.’
‘I wouldn’t dare.’
‘Good.’
‘Come and see,’ she said, taking his hand and leading him out of the hall.
They walked down the corridors of the palace, her leading the way, her legs almost totally recovered. ‘You know, we could just head back to my room now we’ve escaped from the crowd, while we have the chance...’
‘You have to have your present first,’ she said.
He growled in frustration. ‘Where are you taking me?’ he asked, and he realised they were heading outside through the cloisters, into the courtyard, to the storage barns at the back of the square.
‘All right, close your eyes,’ she said, stopping outside some large wooden doors.
He gave her a look, but did as he was told.
She opened the wooden door, and he rolled on the balls of his feet, waiting to be told he could see the surprise she had planned for him.
‘Ædwen, I really didn’t need anything other than you.’
She came behind him and wrapped her hands over his eyes. ‘Ready?’ she asked, ignoring his comment.
‘Yes.’
And then she released her hands. ‘Surprise!’
It seemed to take a moment for his eyes to adjust to the light and he peered inside the shed. And then his eyes went wide when he saw it. ‘A boat? No, not a boat, a longship?’ he gasped.
‘I know how much you miss the sea,’ she said. ‘I asked the King if he had a boat I could buy...and he said he would give you some days off other than the usual one day a year, so we can go on a little trip. See the seals...go swimming...sleep on the beach under the moon like we used to...’
He looked at her without moving for a few seconds.
‘Do you like it?’ she asked, holding her breath.
He took her in his arms, eradicating the distance between them, his hands coming up through her hair to hold her head, and he kissed her so fiercely it took her breath away.
He pulled away to look down at her.
‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ she whispered.
He grinned against her mouth. ‘I love it,’ he said and kissed her again. A deep, open-mouthed kiss. He pulled her closer, conveying his desire and need. ‘Thank you, Ædwen. You know me well... But now I want to know you again. All of you. I just can’t wait any longer.’
‘I want to show you how much I’ve missed you,’ she said, as they fell through the door to their room and, within moments, she had dispensed of his coat, his tunic, her hand reaching down to unfasten the tie at his waistband. She slid her hand beneath the material and took hold of him. ‘You’ve had your reward from the King. But I have a reward for you also.’
She pushed him against the door and sank to her knees, tugging his breeches down. She trailed her fingers over his taut, muscular stomach and down.
Staring up at him, she took his length in her palm and he gazed down at her, his eyes wide, as if he didn’t want to miss a moment of what he now knew she was about to do to him. ‘I’m determined you will finish inside me, one way or another...’ She smiled.
Then she drew him into her mouth, wrapping her lips around him.
He sucked in a ragged breath and gripped the wall with his one hand, the other coming up to hold the back of her head.
‘Ædwen,’ he whispered.
His hands twisted into her hair, and he pulled her closer, bringing her mouth down on to him, and she flicked her tongue over the tip, kissing him, licking him, gently sucking him. He bucked and she took him further into her mouth. He groaned, wildly, grappling with the wall, her hair, his strong thighs trembling.
Ædwen had no idea what she was doing, whether she was doing it right, she just knew she wanted to give him something incredible, as he had given to her the other day, when he’d kissed her so intimately. She dragged her teeth along the length of him, wanting to see if he trusted her, before taking him deeply again.
‘Ædwen,’ he choked. ‘Oh, Ædwen.’
She knew when he bit out her name, the muscles in his arms straining, his fingers tightening around her head, that he was about to lose all control. She heard him roar out his climax and felt the powerful rush of his orgasm on her tongue, tasted water, salt and spice...he tasted of Stefan.
And when he had finished, she sat back, looking up at him, glad she’d given him the satisfaction he deserved.
‘That was...something else,’ he said. ‘Incredible. You’re incredible,’ he said, pulling her up to her feet. ‘But I want to come inside your body next time. I want to give you my legacy.’
Her breath hitched.
‘I thought you weren’t ready.’
‘I was just being greedy, wanting to keep you all to myself,’ he said. ‘But I also want us to be the family we should have been all along, Ædwen. A big family, so I’m thinking we’d better get started right away. And obviously, a big family means doing this a lot.’
He stripped off her pinafore and tunic, before removing his own, and kissed her long and slow on the lips, making it last. Just standing there together, naked, there was an honest truth to their feelings. She had washed him clean of all his sins, just like in his baptism, and he had been born a new man. And he was ready to start the rest of his new life with her, right here, right now.
He picked her up by her bottom and she wrapped her legs around him, and he carried her upstairs to their bed. He laid her back on the furs and she reached for him, opening herself up to him, showing him she wanted him, just as he did her. His need for this wonderful woman was insatiable. It always had been. And as the tip of him pushed all too easily into her entrance, their bodies knowing each other intimately, she whimpered, telling him that she couldn’t wait to be joined with him any longer either.
As he stared into her beautiful eyes, he asked her if she was ready. Ready for the onslaught of pleasure he was about to inflict on her. Because he planned to take her deeper and harder than he ever had before.
She kissed him, saying yes. ‘Please, Stefan, now.’
And with one hard, slick thrust, he plunged inside her body, all the way in, and she cried out into his shoulder, biting down on his skin. She wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging on.
And he wickedly did it again, wanting to be buried inside her, as if he was a part of her, and shudders of ecstasy racked her body.
‘Will it always be like this?’ she whispered, as he gave her a moment to ready herself before the next surge.
‘This good, you mean?’ he asked, his voice unsteady, stroking his hands over her bottom, tugging her closer still, as his lips found her neck. ‘Yes. Because every time I make love to you, I’m showing you how much I love you, Ædwen. Promising to love you was something I decided when I first met you, and when I said those vows in Eastbury. And I’m never going to stop. And as my love for you is still growing deeper all the time, I’m going to show you how much I care, how much you move me, every night, every morning and all the times I can in between, for the rest of our lives.’
And as he soared intimately inside her again, he knew he was where he wanted to be, for the rest of his days.
And this time, he gave her everything. He began to move harder, faster, sliding all the way in and out, pounding them both into an insane spiral of pleasure that had them both crying out in unison and euphoria, him burying his seed deep inside her, the place where he called home.