Chapter 14
Night lent an intimacy to the cottage and his body warmed with the remembrance of long, slow lovemaking, and then falling asleep with her in his arms. His love burned for Alexandra, not just for this moment but stretched out before him in a million lifetimes.
Now with the birth of morning, Nicholas nuzzled his chin in her silky hair. How marvelously beautiful those few hours of storms that swept down from the heights, rain sluicing over the sides of the cottage, and unfolding a mantle of benevolence, cleansing the land and adding a dazzling sparkle to all things green.
Without a doubt, it was the very way she loved him. Turning his darkness into light. Playfully dismissing his pessimism. Mocking his doubt with her enthusiasm. Bucking her passion against his stubborn nature. Making him feel strong and confident. And all the while, her steadfast heart remained there for him.
Except for his family and close-knit friends, he’d been a loner and he could think of no one else he wanted at his side. Never would Alexandra doubt his abilities like Lady Susannah Tomkins. He grimaced. How could he have ever thought of marrying that shrew?
He brushed the glossy strands of Alexandra’s unplaited hair from her face. Under Alexandra’s guidance, he’d softened, found her laughter infectious. She was dependable, encouraging his dreams and aspirations. She had endured the most horrid of conditions, yet never gave up, looking at every hurdle as an adventure and opportunity.
While everyone in England yielded to his title, she had never been impressed. Oh yes, she had sarcastic wit, enough to skewer the best of naysayers, which exasperatingly enough, could rile his normally cool state of mind and snap his temper. He needed a woman who would challenge him.
Alexandra listened. She was non-judgmental when he had confessed to her he had killed a man, even aware of the tragedy beforehand. Her integrity, her spontaneity made him look forward to the magic of every day. She trusted him.
He crawled out of bed while she slept, shrugged on his breeches and retrieved the black pearl from his pocket. With twine, he weaved hitch-knots to fashion a band, perplexed by her humility. How she downplayed her beauty, dismissed her intelligence, and selflessness to the point of exhaustion. She avoided self-pity like the plague, her generous, intuitive, and unassuming nature making her dear to him.
Nicholas dropped the homemade pearl ring between her breasts. She lifted her eyelids and sat up.
“Oh, Nicholas. It is beautiful. Wherever did you find it?”
He sat on the bed. “I found it among oysters, lining the rocks along the shore. I believe it to be of considerable value.”
She placed the ring on her finger, admiring the iridescence. “I shall treasure this ring always.”
“Which leads me to a demand.”
She fell back onto the pillow. “Any more demands, and I’ll be laid to waste.”
He chuckled, taking delight with the color forming in her cheeks. With a mischievous smile, she traced a finger across his chest. He hauled her from the bed, before other things that came to mind were set into motion and placed her shift over her head. “We’re getting married. I want to do this right.”
Alexandra put her arms around his neck, and tilted her head up for a kiss.
“I’m serious, Alexandra. I demand that we marry.”
“There is a shortage of preachers on this island in case you haven’t noticed.” The vixen moved her hands seductively down his chest around to his hips. He grabbed her hands
“We are getting married and that’s it. You are going to be by my side for the rest of our lives.”
She kissed his chest and neck.
“Control yourself.” Before she could do anything more to distract him, he strode to the shelf, jerked orchids out of the vase, handed them to her, and then grabbed the Bible. “This won’t be the fairytale wedding you dreamed about, but it is the closest to a real ceremony I can think of.”
Alexandra sobered. Nicholas’s moods were like the tides, ever shifting from amusement to irritation. Did he view her as another duty to oversee, an unaccountable desire to be responsible for her? “You don’t have to do this.”
“I command it. Put your hand on the Bible. We will swear before God.”
Of course he’d command the nuptials, yet it wasn’t the authoritative side of his nature, she struggled with, but the import and relative consequences of what they were about to share. She was a nobody. She could not give him an heir. His father wanted a tried and true aristocrat with perfect breeding. He was betrothed.
What if they were never rescued? Weeks had turned into months and only two ships had passed. The probability grew every day that their lives were eternally bound on these shores. Alexandra made a silent vow. However long they lived on this island, she would pledge herself to Nicholas.
His smile drew her gaze. Unable to resist, her eyes met his, and the world faded. The palms ceased to move. The swish of the surf vanished, and despite the lack of church or vicar, her heart fluttered with the sincerity in his eyes, the vow he was about to speak. The look of resolute and unwavering resolve manifested on his face assured a rare kind of promise, coupled with an indomitable will to succeed.
Shaking, she placed her hand on the Bible.
“I, Nicholas Richard Rutland, heir to the fourth Duke of Rutland, take you, Alexandra Sutherland, to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”
“I, Alexandra Sutherland, take you, Nicholas Richard Rutland, to be my husband. I promise to be faithful to you in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and to honor you.”
Nicholas took her hand and placed the ring upon her finger. “What we have just done is forever, Alexandra. I will love you in word and deed. To do the hard work of making now into always. To laugh with you, to cry with you, to grow with you.”
“Oh, Nicholas. I love you unconditionally and without hesitation. All that I am, all that I shall ever be will be yours.”
“And all I want in this world is only you.”
His powerful arms swept around her, and she drowned in languid warmth, a contentment and peace drained all her thoughts and fears of the future.
She was shaken at her own fervent reaction and slipped her arms around his neck. Nicholas pulled off her shift, laying her on the bed and she opened herself to his lovemaking. Her heart flooded with aching tenderness, holding fast, the time for things meant to be, the last instance where after everything else, this would remain as what really mattered.
Sated, they lay entwined, Alexandra secure in his arms. Under extraordinary circumstances they had been brought together and promised an oath to each other as strong and binding as any sacred vow uttered in a church. She committed to memory every line and plane of his face. Marriage was to be long and enduring, yet the unspoken reality between them expressed volumes.
Alexandra took a deep breath. Yesterday was gone. Tomorrow had not yet come. She had only the present moment and she would cherish these days with no misgivings, only sad regrets that if rescued, it was to end.