Enchantress Mine (66 page)

“Nay, my love, I wouldn’t,” she admitted.

Then suddenly from the cradle in the corner, the baby began to cry.

“Damnation,” grumbled Josselin.

“What, my lord?” she said. “Would you deny William his turn?” Arising from their very tumbled bed, she hurried across the floor to gather up their son. Returning to the bed, Mairin settled herself cross-legged, and pushing her hair aside, put the baby to her breast. With almost smug contentment, William suckled noisily, his round baby-blue eyes gravely viewing his father who enviously watched. His chubby baby hands kneaded busily on his mother’s flesh as he went about the serious business of eating.

“Is he not the most beautiful boy in the whole world?” Mairin cooed at her son.

William took a moment to belch noisily, and then continued nursing.

“Enjoy it while you may, you little glutton,” Josselin warned his heir. “Those glorious tits will soon belong to me again, and me alone. I have no intention of sharing them with you any longer.”

William ceased his nursing momentarily at the sound of his father’s voice, and his little head swung about in Josselin’s direction.

“He understands you!” Mairin was amazed. “I truly believe he understands you,” she said, carefully putting her nipple back into the baby’s mouth.

William nursed more thoughtfully now, his previously loud smacking noises somewhat subdued.

Josselin chuckled. “He had better understand me,” he said. “This is but the first of our confrontations as father and son. One day he will be big enough to beat me, but not now! Do you hear that, you little piglet? I am master here!”

“Bully,” Mairin said.

“Kiss me, wife!” he commanded her, and leaned forward.

With a little smile, Mairin pressed her lips to his in a kiss she meant to be brief, but somehow she could not seem to draw away from him. The kiss deepened. Her lips softened and parted. Their tongues eagerly entwined in passionate embrace. It was heaven, Mairin thought fuzzily, and then without warning Josselin pulled away from her.

“Tomorrow,”
he said through gritted teeth, and with an emphasis she could not mistake.

Looking down at her sucking son, and then back at her husband, with his smoldering gaze, Mairin was forced to laugh in rueful understanding. “Tomorrow,” she agreed.

They sat together watching as William greedily finished his meal, one suspicious eye upon his sire all the while. Gradually his small fuzzy round head drooped against his mother’s warm breast in sleep. Their eyes met and they smiled at one another.

“I am so happy,” Mairin said quietly as she arose and tucked baby William into his cradle.

“It is what I have wanted,” he replied. “It is all that I have ever wanted for you—that you be happy with me.” He stood and took her into his arms, his lips brushing tenderly against hers. “Ahhh, enchantress mine,” he said. “I am surely the richest of all men, for I have you, I have our children, and I have our home. What more could any man or woman want?”

“There is nothing more, Josselin, my love,” she answered him softly. “This is everything! Together we possess the world, you and I!”

Through the narrow bedchamber window the evening star shone in all its blue-white splendor; but Mairin and Josselin were so caught within the magical web of their own love that they did not notice the clear still night acoming because for them a new and more hopeful era was even now dawning.

Bertrice Small
is a
New York Times
bestselling author and the recipient of numerous writing awards. In keeping with her profession, she lives in the oldest English-speaking town in the state of New York, founded in 1640, and works in a light-filled studio surrounded by the paintings of her favorite cover artist, Elaine Duillo. Because she believes in happy endings, Bertrice Small has been married to the same man, her hero, George, for forty years. They have a son, a daughter-in-law, and three adorable grandchildren. Longtime readers will be happy to know that Nicki the Cockatiel flourishes along with his fellow housemates, Pookie, the long-haired greige and white feline, Honeybun, the petite orange lady cat with the cream-colored paws, and Finnegan, the naughty black kitty.

BOOKS BY BERTRICE SMALL

THE O’MALLEY SAGA

ANTHOLOGIES