Touch of Gold: (Rumpelstiltskin) (Tangled Tales Series Book 4) (16 page)

“Is anyone here in need of aid?” The sheik walked into the room with a few of his men, followed by Olivia’s father.

“Who are you?” asked Kin, his hand reaching for his sword.

“It’s all right,” said Olivia. “Kin, this is Sheik Yusuf al-Hallaj – my other father.”

“Your father?” asked Kin in surprise. “So you really are royal after all, Olivia. Will you be going back overseas to live with him then?”

“That depends,” she said.

“On what?”

“On whether you want to marry me or not.”

Kin put his arm around her shoulder. “I wanted to marry you when I thought you were only the daughter of a miller. I still want to marry you if it’s all right with your father.”

“Yes, of course,” said the miller quickly. Then he lowered his head and looked to the ground.

“Thank you,” said Kin. “And now I’d also like to ask the permission of your other father, Olivia.”

“Me?” the sheik asked in surprise. “Yes, of course. I agree if it’s what my daughter wants.”

“It is, Father. Both of you.” Olivia smiled, feeling lucky to have not one, but two fathers.

“I want you to know, Sheik Yusuf, I bring a good dowry to give you for marrying your daughter.” Kin gave Olivia a squeeze and a smile.

“Dowry? Is that the way it works in your land?” asked the sheik looking very confused.

“Nay,” Kin told him. “The girl’s father usually gives the man a dowry to marry his daughter.  But in this case, I think it is fitting for me to give you something in exchange instead.”

“Like what?” asked the sheik.

“How does three and a half dozen barrels of wool spun into gold sound to you?”

A loud thunk was heard as the miller’s body hit the floor.

Chapter 21

Nearly a fortnight later, Olivia lay in the bedchamber of her new husband, waiting for him to consummate the marriage. Ruth, her handmaiden, had come with her from Shaftesbury, and now resided in Gillingham Castle as well.

“My lady, will there be anything else before I leave?” asked the girl.

“Nay, Ruth. Thank you. I believe I’m ready for my husband now.”

The door opened, and Kin stood there looking so handsome Olivia couldn’t believe she was married to this wonderful man. His long golden hair fell past his shoulders, and his eyes looked bright and blue instead of dazed and confused like when he was under the curse.

“Good night, my lord and lady,” said Ruth, hurrying from the room.

“Kin,” said Olivia, scooting up in bed, holding the sheet to her chest since she was naked underneath. This was the day she’d been waiting for, and tonight she would consummate the marriage and truly be Kin de Bar’s wife.

“Bring it right in here,” said Kin with a wave of his hand. His squire came in carrying a trunk, and right behind him were two servants struggling with a heavy golden spinning wheel. “Put that down in the corner and leave us,” he instructed the servants.

“Yes, my lord,” said the servants and did as told and left the room. Quaid lingered behind.

“Lady Olivia, do you like your wedding present from Lord Kin?” asked Quaid.

“Kin? What is all this?” Olivia asked, horrified to have everyone entering when she was naked under the sheet.

“I gave most of the gold to your father – the sheik, but I decided it wouldn’t hurt to keep a little for ourselves,” Kin explained.

“Oh, you really shouldn’t have,” she told him.

“I didn’t see any harm in it. After all the work I went through spinning all that wool into gold on your behalf, I figured I should have something to show for it.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she said with a giggle.

“Now you have a golden spinning wheel to use whenever you decide you want to spin wool. It’s my wedding present to you, Olivia.”

Her smile faded. “Thank you.” It wasn’t her idea of a thoughtful wedding present at all, but she wasn’t going to object. After all, she had Kin as her husband and that was better than any present.

“And he is also giving you this trunk full of golden goblets, plates, and assorted other items,” said Quaid proudly, lifting the lid on the chest to show her the objects inside.

“How thoughtful,” she answered.

“And don’t forget, Lord Kin, you still have your golden horse buried by the river if you ever run out of gold,” said Quaid.

“Lightning will never be used for such a purpose,” growled Kin, and Olivia could see that it still bothered him deeply. “Matter of fact, Squire, I want you to take a few men and go dig her up and bring her to my bedchamber.”

“A horse in the bedchamber?” asked Olivia, horrified. “I don’t think that is appropriate.”

“You’re right,” he said with a nod of his head. “Bring the mare to the stable instead and put her in her regular stall. I think that is where she’d like to be.”

“In the stable? A golden horse?” asked Quaid. “My lord, next you’ll be telling me to dig up the baron and the other men who were turned to gold and stand them around the room as well.”

“Oh, please don’t,” begged Olivia.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do nothing of the sort,” Kin assured her. “The sheik will be dumping them into the sea on his way back home, so no grave robbers decide to dig them up and use them for any other purpose.”

“Thank you for letting me keep my golden sword,” said Quaid, tapping the hilt of his sword at his side.

“You delay me one more minute from bedding my wife, and that sword will be mine,” warned Kin.

“Aye, my lord. Happy bedding.” The squire nodded his head and left the room and closed the door.

Olivia watched as her husband undressed. He had a toned and lean body, and the muscles of his arms bulged as he removed his weaponbelt, tunic, and boots.

“I’m sorry for the way I acted while I was under the curse,” he told her, removing his braies and hose next. She gasped when she saw his manly beauty, trembling at the thought that he’d be making love to her next.

“It’s all right,” she said, clutching the sheet in her hands.

“Oh, I forgot to show you what else I managed to salvage from the baron’s castle.”

“What would that be?” she asked curiously.

He reached down into the trunk and picked up her mother’s pearls.

“My pearls,” she said, dropping the sheet she clutched as she reached for them.

“I hope you don’t mind that they’re gold.”

“I love it,” she said, taking the strand in her hand and rubbing her fingers over it.

“I knew how much it meant to you, and that no present could compare to your mother’s pearl necklace.”

“No present except you,” she said, reaching up and kissing him as he settled himself on the edge of the bed.

“Olivia, you are the daughter of a sheik. Why did you decide not to go back across the sea with your father?”

“My father – the sheik – has many wives and many children. I would have been royal and rich, but I would have blended in and not been special to him the way I am to my other father – the miller.”

“Ah, yes. And that’s why I invited him to stay at Gillingham Castle with us. He can be in charge of my mill.”

“Thank you, Kin,” she said, grabbing his shoulders and pulling him to her.

“Careful there, darling,” he told her. “We wouldn’t want to break anything important.”

“Kin, are you sure you wanted to marry me?”

“Of course, I am. I’ve never been surer of anything in my life. Why do you ask?”

“Why did you wait for nearly two weeks then, instead of marrying me right away?”

“Because I wanted to make damned sure there were no side effects from the curse. I couldn’t take the chance of anything crazy happening and didn’t want to risk losing the woman I love.”

“Do you mean such as turning me to gold when we consummated our marriage?”

“Yes. After all, I found out from my brother, Stefan, that his wife’s mother turned to gold years ago when the book of alchemy was first discovered. I’m sorry to have made you wait, Olivia, but I couldn’t take the risk. I love you too much even to think of anything happening to you.”

“I love you, too,” she said, running her hands down his chest, feeling the corded muscle and sinew beneath her fingers.

“It’s time, Olivia,” he said, moving the sheet away from her slowly. “I still want to make that baby with you.”

He leaned his body over hers, readying her with his hands as well as his mouth. She arched up off the bed as his fingers trailed down her body and he slipped his hand between her thighs.

“Open for me,” he told her, climbing atop her and slipping his hardened length into place. She felt heat course through her, and excitement rose to the surface. She kissed him passionately and lifted her legs and wrapped them around his back. Then in a motion that satisfied both of them, he spilled his seed within her, and she knew they’d made a baby because she could feel the life vibrating to her very core.

“Did I hurt you?” he asked, caring for her own comfort at the same time he was sated.

“Nay,” she said, and smiled and kissed him again. “You made me feel a way I’ve never felt before.”

“That’s a good thing, right?” he asked, his hair hanging down around them as he kissed her on the nose.

“It’s an excellent thing, Kin de Bar; I assure you. And although you have rid yourself of the curse, you have kept your gift.”

“Gift? What gift?” he asked, flashing her his intoxicating smile.

“The gift of something good happening to everything you touch,” she explained. “I love being your wife, and you have made me feel complete and satisfied with your wondrous
Touch of Gold.”

From the Author:

I hope you enjoyed Touch of Gold, and if so, I’d love if you left a review on amazon for me.

This book was a lot of fun to write, and it makes you realize that too much of a good thing can actually end up being bad.

Watch for the rest of the books in the series coming soon!

Tangled Tales Series now available:

Lady and the Wolf
– Book 1, (Red Riding Hood)

Just a Kiss
– Book 2, (Frog Prince)

Beast Lord
– Book 3, (Beauty and the Beast)

Touch of Gold
– Book 4, (Rumpelstiltskin)

Lady in the Tower – Book 5, (Rapunzel) Coming soon

Please stop by my website at
http://elizabethrosenovels.com
to learn more about my books, read excerpts, or watch my booktrailers. Be sure to sign up for my mailing list as well. If you’d like to follow me on twitter, my handle is
ElizRoseNovels
, and my Facebook address is
Elizabeth Rose – Author
(don’t forget the dash.)

And be aware that there are other authors by the same name, but my books can be identified by the rose on every cover.

Elizabeth Rose

Excerpt from Beast Lord – Book 3

(Beauty and the Beast) Tangled Tales Series

Stefan stood in front of the large looking glass in the east tower chamber, surveying his reflection. He’d had Trumble remove his stitches. While the boy was clumsy and all thumbs, sticking him more than once with the tip of his knife, the sutures Bonnibel had used were dainty and small and his wounds were healing better than he’d hoped.

He’d called for her to apply ointments to his wounds, but really he wanted to test her and see if she acted less repulsed by him now that his stitches had been removed. He ran his hands over his chest, having found a few tunics in the bottom of a trunk pushed away in the corner. He’d donned the larger of the two, and though it was tight, it wasn’t ripped and shredded like his other clothes.

He didn’t like what was happening to him, and if he wanted to beat the witch’s curse, he was going to have to beat her at her own game. Hadn’t she said in order to break the curse, all he needed to do was love a woman and she had to love him in return? He’d never been in love before, but he’d seen most of his brothers fawn over a girl or two in the past, and was sure it wasn’t that hard to woo a lady.

He’d also been reading Bonnibel’s book, The Romance of the Rose. He figured he’d try some poetry on her, or perhaps do something they talked about in the book. Of course, the book wasn’t easy to understand, as it was full of symbolism and more or less open to interpretation. Honestly, he had no idea what the author had been trying to say, and quickly dismissed the idea of quoting anything at all. He felt like the character in the book, trying to get to the rosebud that was locked away behind walls in a secret garden. Bonnibel was his rosebud and he could use advice from the characters in the book named Reason and Fair Welcome right now in order to know what to do.

He gave up trying to decipher the coded messages in the book and figured he’d just make Bonnibel fall in love with him. Simple as that. And when she did, the curse would be lifted, and he wouldn’t be consumed and turn into a beast forever – or die.

The door to the room opened and in walked Bonnibel followed by his squire. She stopped in her tracks when she saw him, and the air deadened between them. He usually hated when Trumble’s mouth ran like a river, but right now he would settle for just a trickle of a creek.

“My lord, here is the girl as you requested,” said Trumble with a slight bow.

“Thank you, Squire. You may leave now.”

“Leave?” he asked. “What for?”

“Yes, what for?” asked the girl, seeming suddenly nervous. “I’d like Trumble to stay.”

“I said leave!” His voice must have come out louder and more forceful than he’d intended, because the girl jumped, and Trumble scooted out the door. Then the sickening silence between them was back and he instantly regretted dismissing his squire.

“Why did you call for me?” she finally asked. “Did you want to perhaps tell me that from now on I’d be locked away in the dungeon instead?”

“Nay,” he said, feeling very tongue-tied. He looked back to his reflection in the standing mirror. “I – I thought – I mean . . . do you see anything different about me?”

She raised her chin in the air, crossed her arms over her chest, and walked a full circle around him as she perused him. He’d never felt like a prized cow being inspected for slaughter until now.

“Aye, I do see something different, and I don’t like it.”

“You don’t?” His hand went to his scar and he glanced back to the looking glass. Mayhap it was a mistake to bring her here.

“You are wearing my father’s tunic,” she stated. “It’ doesn’t even fit you properly and you’re going to rip it like the rest of your clothes.”