He sat down beside her. Moonlight poured through the gaping holes of windows and pooled all around them. It turned her red hair black and her eyes shiny. Just like the diamond goddess of his dreams.
He brushed a lock of her hair, which had come loose from her braid, out of her face. The moment of danger was over and he felt a rush of relieved anger. “What were you doing stalking around in the dark?”
“I wasn’t stalking. It’s fairy moon. I’d come out to record what would happen in the fairy ring.”
“You and your fairies! What’s this about a fairy moon?”
“Mrs. Brice told me that when the moon has a ring around it, portentous things are about to happen. She’
s heard people can see fairies on a night like this. Since we have a fairy ring here, the children wanted me to watch and see if the fairies came out to meet this night.”
“The fairy ring?” His wife babbled about things he’d never heard of.
“Yes,” Tess said with conviction. “We’re sitting in the middle of it.”
“The middle of what?” He could see nothing prophetic about where they sat.
She leaned across him. “Look. See that dandelion and the one next to it? And the one after that? There’s enough of them to form a ring, or, well, an oval.”
Brenn studied the stones around them. They had shifted and moved so that a rather lopsided ring had been formed. The cursed dandelions had stuck their impudent stems and leaves up through those cracks.
Some even had yellow flowers that would turn to seed.
“Is this why you wanted to delay the repairs on this floor?”
“For the children. They want to know if fairies can do magic. Of course, you and I have probably frightened them off.”
“Tess, you don’t honestly believe in this nonsense?” He raised a hand in exasperation. “When I saw the scaffolding start to fall, I thought I was going to lose you. Why, I’d rather have my heart torn out of my chest than go through that again!”
She blinked. “What did you say?”
He frowned. “I said I don’t want you traipsing around in the dark anymore.”
Her hand grabbed his arm. “No, not that. About the other.”
“What other?”
“Oh, Brenn!” Now it was her turn to sound frustrated. “About your heart in your chest,” she said, enunciating each word.
“I said I’d rather have my heart torn out of my chest than see anything happen to you.”
She searched his face. “And why is that?”
“What do you mean ‘Why is that’? Because I love you!”
If he’d punched her in the nose, she could not have looked more startled. She came up on her knees.
“Say it again.”
“Say what?”
She rolled her eyes heavenward. “Why are you so exasperating? You know what you said. Repeat it!”
“Repeat what? That I love you?”
She rocked back on her heels. “You do?”
“Of course I do.”
“But you never said it.”
“Tess, you had to know. I mean…” His voice trailed off. “Is that why you’ve been so angry with me?
Why you haven’t told me you loved me anymore?”
“I didn’t think you’d even noticed! And you were so angry over the money—”
“Disappointed, Tess,” he corrected, knowing in his heart that she was right and he was wrong. He hadn’t loved her then—not in the way he felt about her now.
“But you never said anything,” she finished softly.
“I sent all those children to the door with flowers. I spent hours picking those posies.”
“I thought you had the children do it.”
He frowned. “Is that why you put the flowers into my bed?”
“No, I did it because I thought you were trying to warm me up to get me into your bed.”
“I was,” he admitted freely. He ran the flat of his hand up and down her arm. “I’ve missed you, Tess.”
“I’ve missed you, too.”
“Then when I came home, why weren’t you more welcoming?” he demanded. “There was the horse, the sidesaddle. Of course, I’d thought having the vicar talk to you would tickle your funny bone…and I knew you would be pleased with his presence.”
“Brenn.”
“Yes.”
“Kiss me.”
He reached for her. She let him put his arms around him but before his lips came down, she held up her hand. “Say the words again. Say them for me, please.”
He smiled slowly. “I love you.”
Tears filled her eyes. She opened her arms wide and embraced him. The force of her hug pushed them back onto the stones but Brenn didn’t mind. She lay on top of his body and it was she who did the kissing. She showered kisses all over his face.
Laughing, he rolled her over, settling himself between her legs, the skirt of her riding habit spread out on the stones around them. They stopped laughing.
“I love you, Tess Owen,” he said.
“I love you, Brenn Owen.”
And in that moment, something magic did happen.
Brenn hadn’t realized it was needed. He hadn’t even known…
Deep inside of him, he realized he’d changed. “The house, Erwynn Keep—none of it means anything without you,” he said.
“I’ll always be here.”
“Try and escape,” he whispered before bringing his head down to kiss her. “Dear God, Tess, I love you.”
They made love then, right there in the center of the fairy ring, bathed in the light of a full moon. He took his time undressing her. She was the one who was anxious and eager.
He laughed at her impatience, using each fastening, each fold, each article of clothing as an opportunity to say he loved her. He unbraided her hair and combed his fingers through it until it hung down around her like a shining curtain around her breasts.
This was his mate, his beloved, his wife.
She’d accepted him scarred and worn from the battles of life and gave him hope. More importantly, she gave him herself.
This night, the union that had such a tenuous start a month earlier was now forged in a mettle stronger than iron—love. The words Brenn had taken so long in saying, he repeated over and over.
And she answered him. Kiss for kiss, touch for touch, passion for passion.
His wife was fierce this night. She pleased him in ways he hadn’t thought possible. He sat her on top of him so that he could see the expression of love on her beautiful face in the moonlight. His hands covered her breasts.
Together, they strove for that moment when lovers become one.
As Brenn released himself inside her, he knew he’d been changed forever.
She came down to rest her head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her. “Tess?”
“That was magic,” she whispered.
He grinned. “No, that was love.”
“Did you see fairies?” Enid asked the next morning. She and Vala stood on the front step of the cottage.
Vala’s brown eyes were full of hope. She held Tess’s copybook in her hand.
“We found this on the floor of the house,” Enid said, taking the copybook from Vala. “There were ink stains on the stones, right inside the fairy ring. Did they scare you off?”
Tess glanced over her head at Brenn who had walked up behind the children. He’d gone to the house to inspect the damage to the scaffolding before the workmen came.
“You two are up early, aren’t you?” he asked, kneeling down to their level.
“We want to know about fairies,” Vala told him.
He tilted his head up to Tess. “Yes, Lady Merton,” he said. “Did you find fairies?”
There was something infectious about his grin, especially since the two of them had spent the night making love.
“Oh, I found a lot more than just fairies,” she teased Brenn back, but she immediately regretted her words. The two girls started jumping up and down with excitement.
“We want to know about it!”
“Tell us about it!”
Tess found herself trapped. She had no choice but to weave a quick tale of fairies who came out when the ring was around the moon. It was a story based upon others she’d heard and the depth of her love for Brenn.
It must have been a good story because a short time later after Enid and Vala left, they were back with more children who wanted to hear the story.
Tess sat in a chair before the hearth. The village children sat all around her. They were insatiable in their quest for information about the fairies. Even the doubting Madoc listened closely to her words.
At last, she sent them all home. But after they left, the stories she had told whirled in her head.
Banon was baking bread. The heat in the house was too much for Tess. She slipped outdoors with her copybook and a fresh bottle of ink. Finding a shady spot under a tree, she sat on the grass and began writing.
Brenn came by for some cheese and bread for his midday meal.
“How is the house going?” she asked.
“I have them working on the floor in the front hall.”
“Have they destroyed the fairy ring?” Tess didn’t know how she felt about it.
He smiled as if he had a secret. “You’ll see when we are done.” He went into the house and returned holding his portfolio of drawings. “Mind if I borrow pen and paper, Tess? I have a new idea for the front hall.”
“No, I should get back anyway.”
She watched him walk to the house, his shoulders back, his head uncovered. He was supposed to supervise but he couldn’t stop himself from actually doing the work.
This house was more than just a labor of love—this was his legacy.
She pressed her hands against her stomach. Someday, probably very soon, they would have children.
She would not be like Stella and hide her condition. She would be proud of it. Like Sarah, she would share the work by his side. A wonderful contentment seeped through her all the way to the bone at the thought of carrying his baby. Their baby.
The child would grow up in the shelter of these mighty mountains and would know his place in the world.
The house would be his someday as would the title.
She wanted to leave a legacy too.
Flipping through the pages of her copybook, she realized this was her legacy. Something she would leave her child, just as Minnie had left one to her. She went in search of more writing supplies.
Several hours later, Banon had left and Brenn came in for a light dinner to find Tess bent over her copybook. She was so intent on her work she didn’t register his presence.
“You are still writing?” he asked.
For a second, she was tempted to cover the book, to pretend her writing was of no importance. But she caught herself. “I’ve been working on some of the stories I told the children this morning.”
“The fairy stories?”
“I know you think I’m silly.”
His arms came around her. He nuzzled her neck. “After last night, I’m a believer in stories and legends.”
Before she realized what he was about, he lifted her up in his arms and carried her into the bedroom.
And that night was legendary…!
Every day over the next weeks, Tess fell more in love. She couldn’t believe that life was so full, so precious.
Brenn divided his time between tending the land and building the house. The crops and sheep claimed his attention first, but his real love was the house.
The carpenter arrived from Swansea. He was a young man with soulful brown eyes and steady hands.
Tess could watch him work for hours as he laid the pieces of wood together that would become the huge windows leading out onto the now-non-existent terrace. Both Brenn and Tess were anxious to see how they looked. They were perfect.
But they disagreed on the design of the terrace. Tess wanted a more conservative design whereas Brenn, having seen the wonders of Greece and Italy and the glories of Egypt, wanted a huge terrace built out over the water.
“But there is no land there,” she protested. “What will hold it up?”
“We’ll build columns. They’ll rest on the lake floor. I’ll even design a little dock for boating.”
“It’s so impractical.”
“It will be spectacular.”
Brenn seemed to have changed. He was more relaxed. The demons that had plagued him the day he’d shot the highwaymen were finally put to rest. He told her it was because of her love.
“No, it’s Erwynn Keep,” she said confidently.
Brenn shook his head. “If I lost Erwynn Keep tomorrow, I would still consider myself blessed to have you.”
The sentiment touched her so deeply, she cried.
The only dark spot in Tess’s life was the resistance she met to her idea of a school, especially one that would teach the Saxon language.
But Vicar Rackham proved to be a useful ally. As a young, eligible bachelor, no mother of a daughter of marriageable age wanted to gainsay him. After a bit of reluctance, it was decided that a school would open come the winter. It would be held in the village church. Vicar Rackham would tutor the boys; Banon would teach the girls.
Tess would have been surprised if there wasn’t a marriage between the vicar and Banon before the next spring.
Yes, life was good. And every day, she sat down and worked an hour or two on her book. Miles, who really was starting to grow fat, sat on the table as she worked. She fancied him a guardian of her thoughts and wrote him into the stories as a cat who loved to chase fairies.
This book was like nothing she had ever read herself. A sense of freedom and excitement came to her from molding the words to fit the imaginary world inside her head.
The village children came by once a week for a reading. It was her test to see if she’d gotten the words just right. Brenn, too, was a critic although he still didn’t quite understand her fascination with the imaginary world.
“Why not write about real people?” he asked one night after she had read him the latest installment.
They lay in bed. Summer was coming to an end. The plasterers from Cardiff had finished with the walls and ceilings in the manor. Soon workmen would lay the wood floor. Brenn hoped they would be moved in before All Saints’ Day, but Tess wondered if she wouldn’t miss the closeness of the cottage.
“These are real people,” she told him.
“Tess, they are fairies. They are little. They run around making mischief. They aren’t real…” Suddenly, his eyes widened. “These are people we know.”
He’d caught her. “Some traits,” Tess admitted.
“Like those of the fairy that brews nectar? He must be Carne, the brewer. Good choice. There is no finer ale in all England than Carne’s.”