Barely a Bride (Free Fellows League 1)

“I think you are wonderful,” Alyssa answered honestly. “I think I’m very fortunate that you chose me.” She nipped at his earlobe with her teeth. “I think you’ve more lessons to teach. I think I’d like us to do this again—only in a bed instead of a chair.”

Griffin laughed. “I think I’ve created a monster. An insatiable Lady Cyprian.”

Alyssa took his face between her palms and met his gaze. “I may only have two days. When they are over, I may never see you again. I want you to leave me with beautiful memories of our wedding night. I want you to carry beautiful memories of our wedding night away with you. I don’t want you to look back and regret what we did or what we didn’t do. For these two days, I am not just your bride but your wife and your Cyprian…I am whatever you want me to be. And you shall be my lo—” She almost said her love, but at the last moment she amended her words. “Lover and my hero.”

His stomach rumbled, and a knock sounded at the door almost simultaneously.

“One moment.”

Griff carefully disengaged himself, rose from the chair, and placed Alyssa on it. “Stay here,” he whispered, kissing her tenderly. “I’ll be right back.”

Ignoring the droplets of blood on him, Griff buttoned his trousers. He scooped up Alyssa’s clothing as he made his way across the sitting room to the mistress’s bedchamber. He deposited her traveling suit, bonnet, and gloves on the foot of the bed, then rummaged through Alyssa’s garments until he found a dressing gown he liked.

Griffin carried it back to her and waited until she’d pulled it on before he opened the door and allowed the footman to hand over the supper tray.

They ate their fill of the supper Mrs. Jernigan had prepared, and then Griffin filled the washbasin with warm water and tenderly bathed his bride and carried her to bed. His bed. Where she slept the sleep of the exhausted.

He lay beside her. Watching over her as she slept, he wondered, suddenly, how the devil he was ever going to manage to leave her? How was he ever going to force himself to ride away?

* * *

Sometime later, Griffin awoke to find Alyssa exploring certain parts of his anatomy.

She pulled her hand away as soon as she realized he’d opened his eyes and was watching her. Griffin reached over and put it back, right where he wanted it.

“I woke up,” she said. “You were still asleep, but the covers were—well…” She paused, searching for the right word. “Tented. And I wondered if you were…” She blushed. “If you had a condition I might take in hand…”

“Be my guest,” he invited. “But beware, my lady, turnabout is fair play.”

It was. Griffin proved it twice by waking her in a similar manner after Alyssa fell asleep following their bouts of energetic lovemaking.

They didn’t leave the master chamber for three nights and two days, and in that time, nothing was prohibited. They slept. They ate. They bathed each other. They made love. And in between, Alyssa and Griffin talked.

There was no request he wouldn’t fulfill. No question he wouldn’t answer. But still, Alyssa failed to put him to the test. Failed to ask about the Free Fellows League or the dangerous mission he was about to undertake.

And for the three nights and two days of their honeymoon, Alyssa pretended he loved her.

She pretended he had changed his mind about leaving to join his regiment and decided to stay, pretended he had discovered he loved her. Because anything else was unthinkable.

She had married Griffin Abernathy because she’d wanted her independence and a home of her own. He had willingly granted those things in exchange for the opportunity to make an heir.

Theirs was a business arrangement based on mutual like and respect.

Love had nothing to do with either bargain.

Unfortunately, sometime between his outrageous proposal and her second morning as Lady Abernathy, Alyssa had fallen madly in love with the lord of the manor.

Since she could not bring herself to burden him with the knowledge of her love by saying the words, Alyssa did the only thing she could do. She showed him how much she loved him with her all her heart and soul. And each time she awoke to find him still sleeping, Alyssa prayed that Griffin would understand her silent message and somehow find a way to return to her from war whole and unhurt.

And she promised herself that when he returned, he would have the most wonderful house in England to come home to.

Chapter Twenty-one

“There is no turning back from the course of action I have set for myself. I have done my duty to my family and fulfilled my obligation. Now, my regiment awaits… But leaving my bride is the hardest thing I have ever done.”

—Griffin, Lord Abernathy, journal entry, 07 May 1810

He awoke her well before dawn on Monday morning.