The Responsible Witch (The Ward Witches) (9 page)

“
Did you find what you were looking for?”

“
I think so. We'll see for sure later. Let's pay for the rest of these clothes and get out of here.”

On the way back to the car, Dymphna texted Skylar to see if she wanted them to pick up something for dinner. She must have been feeling her pregnancy because she actually said yes. Dymphna called in an order to the Chinese restaurant she and Leo had always liked, and they made a detour to pick up the food. By the time they got home, Dymphna was starving.

Skylar's assessing gaze took in the five shopping bags they brought home. “Did you get enough stuff?” She asked with a smile. “I knew I'd make a shopper out of you somehow.”

“
I sure hope we have enough. Gage even talked me into getting some things for me. I didn't really have clothes appropriate for my sabbatical, and now I do.”

“
Good for you, Gage,” Leo said, looking up from the medical journal he was reading on the couch. “Pleasing Skylar is always a good plan. She's both hormonal and opinionated, but she keeps the rest of us here in check.”

Gage laughed and sat down next to Leo. Dymphna had a moment of surprise when she realized that she liked how comfortable Gage was with her family already. She was still getting used to the fact that she had a husband, but he was doing all the right things to get himself into her life without being too pushy.

Skylar came up to her side, and, perceptive as always, whispered in her ear. “I know you're working on adjusting to married life. It was hard for me too when I realized that I was married without really even dating Leo. But you've got a good man there, and I can tell he cares about you. Leo and I care about you too, albeit in a
n entirely
different way, so if you ever need advice or just need to talk, we're both here for you. You're my family, I trust you, and I take that very seriously.”

“
Thank you.”

That trust meant a lot to Skylar in particular because her aunt and brother had been involved in kidnappings for the Dark Order. They had been born without powers and had been acquiring magic through blood magic. They nearly sacrificed Skylar for their own gain not long ago during the same time Fiona had been kidnapped. It had been hard for her to deal with the fact that her family had betrayed her and that she had been instrumental in putting them in jail.

“
What other video games did you pick up?” Skylar asked louder so that the men could hear as well. The women went over to where Dymphna had piled the games she hadn't tried yet.

“
Skyrim is supposed to be a pretty amazing game,” Gage said, picking one up. “I played the others in the Elder Scrolls series, but I didn't get a chance to try this one.”

“
Then put it in and let's see if we like it,” Dymphna said as she unwrapped the plastic. Skylar looked like she was about to retreat again to give them privacy, but Dymphna stopped her. “We'll all check it out. Skylar's pretty good at Street Fighter, so maybe she can give me some pointers for this one as well.”

Skylar smiled and sat down again. Dymphna realized once again that she had not been taking advantage of the friendship Skylar had been offering for the past year and half. She certainly needed to work on improving her relationship with her sister-in-law. Then, when she saw Leo also smiling at her, it occurred to Dymphna that she hadn't been as close to her brother as she should have been either. When they were kids, they had been nearly inseparable, but she hadn't been letting him in like she used to.

Maybe by creating a relationship with Gage, Dymphna would learn to open herself up to the people who cared most about her. It looked like that was something she should have done long ago.

Finally the game stopped updating, and everyone's attention was drawn to the screen. Since it was Dymphna's game and Dymphna's sabbatical, they unanimously agreed that Dymphna should be the one playing, and everyone else would watch her and give out pointers.

She started out slowly, trying to get her head around the controls, but by putting the game in Easy mode, she got the hang of it quickly enough. Since tomorrow was Monday, Leo and Skylar eventually excused themselves to go to sleep, but she was having too good of a time to give up yet.

Gage gamely stayed up with her until about one. “Dymphna, I've got to call off. There's been a lot going on, magically and otherwise. I need to get to bed.”

She saw the clock for the first time in hours and laughed. “I don't think I've had such a late night doing anything but studying in a long time. But you're right that we need to go to bed. After all, I've got
nearly
another three months of doing nothing but what I want to do all day. Let's go to sleep.”

Even though there was no one else awake, much less near enough to hear, Gage leaned in and whispered in her ear, his breath tickling her cheek. “I believe I said I wanted to go to bed. I don't believe I said anything about sleeping.”

Dymphna blushed and giggled. She had blushed more in the past few days than she had done in years. And as far as giggling went, she didn't know that she could honestly say the last time she'd done that.

He took advantage of her discomfiture to pick her up off the couch,
cradling her in his arms
. Her perfunctory protests made no matter to him as he carried her easily up the stairs. There was something to be said for strong men, that was for sure. Instead, she eased an arm up over his head and leaned in as they went up the stairs and he gently kicked open her door. When he laid her down on the bed, she caught and reveled in the tender look in his eyes. She'd never had a man look at her like that before. She'd never had a man do a lot of the things and give a lot of the looks Gage had for that matter.

While he closed the door, she took advantage of his distraction to slip out of her clothes and under the covers on the bed. She sat while waiting for him, the sheet pulled up around her chest.

“
Are you still uncomfortable around me?” Gage asked, but he luckily didn't sound too hurt.

“
It's a new and weird situation for me. I'm not used to being naked for anything but bathing, and not for long to do that.”

“
I can understand that. But you should know that I think you're beautiful and sexy. I like looking at you, and I want you to be comfortable with that. But I also understand that this is very new for you, and I'm willing to be as patient as I need to be. I'm your husband, and I've got the time to wait for you to get used to me.”

She looked up at him, realizing he was serious.
That brought the kind of tenderness she had seen in his eyes to her own heart. If she had to get married, she had certainly found a great man to be tied to.

He undressed as well, and he wasn't at all shy about his nudity. Dymphna's eyes were inexorably drawn to his erection, waiting proudly for her perusal and enjoyment. As he said, he was her husband in their tradition, and she needed to trust him. She knew that it wouldn't come easy in most things, but she could start here and show him that she meant to make a strong relationship.

Her eyes on his, she dropped the sheet. His quick intake of breath showed that he approved. Emboldened by his reaction, she left the relative safety of the bed and came over to him. Dymphna wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him for all she was worth. Sex was a much more pleasurable thing than she had ever imagined, and she was going to go with her instincts and enjoy it as much as she could.

His arms came around her as well and he hugged her to him tightly, enjoying her mouth as she enjoyed his. She had to stand on her tip toes to get close enough that he didn't have to lean down too far to get to her because he was so much taller than she was. They moved together to the bed, and then his height didn't matter. Thinking wasn't working well for her either, and Dymphna gave herself up to feeling. And feeling some more.

When she finally did get to sleep, she was sore in all the right places and worn out from an exercise she had never gotten to experience before Gage. Both still naked, she used his chest as her pillow for the night, and she looked forward to the morning like she never had before.

The next morning, Dymphna's mind caught up to her feelings while she took her shower. It was like her entire life had been uprooted and changed in the past few days. That was, well, because it had been. She was feeling optimistic, which was downright peculiar. She looked at her relationships with her family differently even, all because Gage had changed her world. It would be up to the coming days to see if it could keep up like that, but she had the feeling it would.

Yet at the same time, she couldn't help but think about her mother. Gladys' taint was in her blood, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to shake it. Her mother's marriage was as disastrous as it could have been, and Dymphna wasn't egotistical enough to think that she was immune from falling prey to the same problems that her mother had gone through. People had tried to compliment her for years by comparing her favorably to her mother. Gladys had been a strong water witch like Dymphna, and she was well-liked by the community until she turned to radical Catholicism. Dymphna was human, too, and she worried about ruining what she was making with Gage.

So far, though, what she had with Gage was a beginning to something that looked good.
But w
hat if he changed his attitude towards her? What if he couldn't be as patient as he had promised while she tried to figure out how to be a wife? What if she never figured out how to be the kind of wife Gage wanted? What if she put everything she had and everything she was into being Gage's wife and he rejected her in the end? Who would she be after that?

No matter how hard she tried to shake it, the dread stayed with her.

When she got back in the bedroom, he was lazily waiting for her on the bed. But after her doubts, her chest felt tighter than a pulled spring. Dymphna could tell the moment he realized she was having problems because his morning-after ease turned to concern, and he pushed off the bed.

“
Are you alright?” He asked, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking into her face.

“
I'm fine,” she lied, ducking his eyes. He kept trying to make eye contact, but at some point, he realized he wasn't making any ground.

“
If you say so.” He sounded disappointed, but he let go and headed into the bathroom for his own shower.

Dymphna stared at the door and wished her stomach would stop churning with worry. She didn't want to mess anything up that she couldn't fix or control. At the same time, she knew that by giving into her doubts and questions, she was even more likely to ruin things before she had fully started them. Either way lay pain, and she didn't know what to do. Not knowing what to do bothered Dymphna, and it wasn't something she experienced often.

She got dressed, putting frilly red lingerie underneath jeans and a comfortable sweater. It seemed odd, but she was going for change. She just had to keep telling herself that change was good and that she wouldn't foul it all up before she had even gotten to experience it fully.

Gage came out of his shower still concerned about Dymphna's obvious distress. Something had bothered his wife, and she wasn't telling him what. In turn, that bothered him. He had gotten married without anything but a name, but he was going to put everything he had into making it work. He had his memories back, and he knew that while he had his dark side, he was a good person overall.
Ithad started in a futile attempt to make up for his father's evil nature, but most of it was because he genuinely liked helping people and being a teacher.
He should be able to please his wife and give her what she wanted and deserved. If he was making mistakes of it already, he needed to rethink his strategy and do it right this time.

To avoid any distractions, he got dressed in the bathroom before he came back out to confront his wife. He was going to make right whatever he had done wrong, goddamn it.

She was sitting on the bed, staring into space when he came out. He sat down beside her and stared at the same wall. He just sat there for a bit, waiting to see if she'd talk. When she didn't, he realized he'd need to start the dialogue.

“
What's going on, Dymphna?”

“
What do you mean?”

“
Please don't play games with me,” he said, trying to keep his anger at himself tamped down. “I did something, or didn't do something, and now there's some kind of problem. Why don't you tell me what's wrong, and I'll try my best to fix it.”

That was all it took, apparently, because she abruptly started crying.

“
God, Dymphna!” He exclaimed, moving off the bed to stand between her legs and pull her into his arms. She kept crying on his shoulder, and he just held her and patted her back while she did. When her tears started to die down, he kept holding her, petting her back in circles until she was done. “Help me understand what's going on so I can help you, honey. I can't help if you don't talk to me.”

She pulled back and used the sleeve of her sweater to dry her eyes. “I'm sorry. I usually don't cry for anything.”

“
Maybe you needed to let it out. But now I think we need to talk. I'm here for you, please tell me what's wrong because clearly something is.”