The Werewolf's Pregnant Bride (3 page)

Nathaniel stood beside the priest waiting for Sophronia to appear. His father and brother stood by his side. The rest of the chapel was vacant which was a small blessing. He was glad that his farcical marriage did not have to be witnessed by anyone else.

His feet were starting to get a pins and needles feeling and he shuffled them as the chapel door opened.

Claire and Mercy entered the chapel first. They were both dressed in their best which for Mercy was a pale green velvet dress with puffed sleeves and dark green ribbons spaced from the waist to the feet. Around her middle was a bow.

Claire's dress was plum purple and made of silk. Her sleeves were also puffed though to a lesser degree than Mercy's. The neckline was cut low however white lace kept her modestly covered. Similar lace also adorned the cuffs and trim of the dress.

Once his sister and sister-in-law were nearly upon him he was able to view his bride. She looked beautiful and had he been her lover his heart might have leapt at the sight of her. She looked feminine and innocent or she would have if her belly hadn't protruded outward clearly signaling the life within her. Once his eyes were drawn to her middle it was hard to bring them back up to appreciate any other feature she had.

She stopped next to him before the priest. She looked as serious as he was. There was no hint of a blushing bride on her face.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God..."

Nathaniel's eyes passed over the chapel as the priest droned on about how the union of man and wife was like the union of Christ and the church.

He had never considered himself particularly pious. The chapel had been on the land for generations and likely as not more for show than actual worship. He wondered how many werewolves were also piously religious. Some must be as their priest was a werewolf and not the only one either. In fact, there was a special monastery that the priest retreated to during the three days of the moon where turning was inevitable. It was secluded and confined or so the priest had told him when he had asked. It was nothing like the country home where Nathaniel and the werewolves on their land went. The land was actually in Scotland and they shared it with several English and Scottish packs. They had been doing so for generations and continued as long as their nations were not at war.

The priest talked about poor marriages and wrong reasons to marry. Nathaniel certainly was not marrying lightly or to satisfy his own lusts. The child in this woman might be a werewolf and the pack could not afford to lose one of their own. It was nothing beyond that. Sophronia was pretty enough but not a woman he thought he could feel lustful towards. Even if she had not been heavy with a child, she was not the type of woman he favored. She was not Vivian.

"...the causes for which matrimony is ordained. First it was ordained for the procreation of children..."

He supposed that after this babe was born he would be expected to fill her with another and then another. Each child would be born with only a dice rolls chance of being a werewolf. If he had married Vivian, or any other she-wolf, then their children almost certainly would have been born were-kind. If he wanted white dogs he didn't breed a white sire with a black bitch. Yet, his father had said the marriage to Sophronia was, at least partially, to keep the pack from losing a were-child. Had his father forced them to risk losing the were-gift on the rest of the children he and the chit might have?

"...secondly, it was ordained for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication..."

Nathaniel glanced at his brother whose head was bowed beside him and whose eyes were closed. Was his brother in an inebriated stupor or was he feeling sorry for the sin of fornication he had committed that had gotten them in this mess to begin with?

Eldon had a wife. He needed only to wait another few months to quench his lust with her but instead he had chosen to bed Sophronia instead of waiting for Claire. Had Claire really held out her innocence until the wedding or had she given herself to his brother before but Eldon had still needed to lust after other chits?

"...thirdly, it was ordained for the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have the other..."

How could he and Sophronia expect to help and comfort each other for the rest of their lives when they were mere strangers? One night of his brother's poor judgment had led his father to choose a woman to be his comfort until death.

"Wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony..."

It was the moment. His last moment on earth as a single man if he said yes. One sentence and his fate would be sealed.

"I will," Nathaniel said though he felt as if the blood in his body had turned to ice and the breath wouldn't leave his chest as he forced the words out.

There was one last moment where he could be saved. One last instance where God or whatever fate ruled the world might keep him from the marriage. Sophronia could still say no.

"I will," she said. He felt his knees grow weak beneath him and he worried he might tumble forward.

"Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder."

It was over. Sophronia was his legal wife and if there was a God he was the husband of her in His sight as well. Now, there was only death that could release him from his duty.

Chapter 5

Sophronia sighed and lowered herself onto the bed. After the wedding her now sisters-in-law had returned her to her room and helped her out of her wedding dress and into a casual dress that fitted much more loosely around her belly which was a relief. The babe inside of her had not appreciated the squishing of his home and had flailed about within her during the whole of the ceremony. The baby had never before been so active and she felt exhausted. Now that she was lying in her bed the flailing had ceased and she wondered if she should try to nap before the dinner hour. She had just closed her eyes when there was a knock at the door. Sophronia sighed and then pulled herself up to walk across the room and open the door.

"Your trunks have arrived. Shall I send my daughter up to help you unpack?" Ruth asked.

"Thank you," Sophronia said with a nod.

Two footmen appeared a moment later laden with her trunks. They left and returned several times before they had finally brought her all that she had come to England with and acquired during her visit. Then, a girl who was almost but not quite a woman appeared. Wordlessly, she opened the first trunk and began pulling out the dresses and neatly putting them away in the adjacent dressing room. It was a small dressing room and her things immediately began to cramp it.

"I suppose I should ask my husband if he plans for us to stay here or if he wishes us a household of his own. I am sure his father would allow us always to call this place home but I had thought most men preferred space of their own."

The girl grunted in response but said nothing.

"I suppose it does not matter to me one way or another. I have not had time to ask my husband of his plans though they are likely as ruined as my own."

The girl grunted again. Sophronia sat down on the bed and let the room remain in silence for a moment except for the sounds of unpacking but then the silence became overwhelming and she decided that even if the girl did not care a bit about what she was saying at least talking would keep her entertained until the girl left and she could take the nap she had planned on.

"I had planned to go to one of the female academies. My mother has never approved of more than necessary education for women but I have always enjoyed reading books and learning history. Not just the history that can be used for small talk at parties but everything. I had the pleasure of speaking to an archeologist once at a party. He was the student of William Cunnington and as excited about history as a man could be. All the other girls were quickly bored by him but not me. I could have listened to him for hours if mother had not dragged me away.

I think I would have done well at the academy. I wanted to end up a teacher. I believe that someday women will have more schooling options and I would love to be one of the first women to teach budding girls who will grow to be teachers and nurses. Then, if slavery is ever abolished, there will be even more women in need of proper education. I do not know if education is something that female negro aspire to as of yet but I am sure if they are freed from slavery they can be convinced that education will allow them better prospects in life even if it is only better positions in household servitude. Were you given any education?"

"Course I was. Went to a National school," the girl said. It was the first she had yet spoken.

"Then you know how important learning is."

"I suppose it would be for folks moving to the cities and planning to work with machines and such. We have better skills to learn around here."

"Do you want to stay on the Marquess' land all your life?"

"Course I do. Who would not? He treats us good and the wages is fair. He understands his people in ways most don't. Rarely ever heard a renter complain of him."

"That says a lot for him," Sophronia agreed.

"Shame you did not get the life you were hoping for," the girl said though Sophronia was not sure if she meant it or was merely humoring her. She supposed it was her own fault and she did not deserve any pity from this girl or anyone else. If she and Eldon had not had their night of poor judgment she might have lived the life she dreamed of.

"Do you need anything else?" the girl asked. She had finished unpacking her clothes.

"Not at this time," Sophronia said.

"There is a cord on the wall if you do," she said indicating a rope that likely sounded a bell downstairs.

When Sophronia was finally alone she sunk into the bed and closed her eyes. Life was too complicated. She did not want to deal with any of it. Not now. She had gone from a woman on her way to academics to a woman bound as a wife until death. Life was strange.

Nathaniel opened the door. Since his wedding had ended he had spent several hours training his dogs but the evening was closing in and both he and the dogs were drained.

He intended to retire to his chamber but as he walked past the study his father called to him and he was obliged to enter the study and take a seat.

"I am ordering a small house built for you and your wife. It will be on the east corner of our holdings. It will not be fancy but it should suffice for your domestic needs."

"That will mean quite a walk to get to my dogs," Nathaniel protested. He leaned forward in his chair and met his father's eyes.

"It will," his father agreed.

"And I will have to stay here during breeding season so that I can be easily reached if a bitch starts whelping."

"I am sure Eldon will have no objection to that."

"It is not natural for one of our kind to be so far from his kin."

"I am sending you across our land. Not across an ocean."

"Uncle Jeremiah lived in this house all his life."

"He chose never to marry."

"Would you have thrown your own brother out of his home if he had taken a wife?" Nathaniel asked. His uncle had always been kind to him but he had been injured during the war and had never fully recovered.

"I am not throwing you out. You and your bride may visit anytime you like."

"Do not call her my bride. She is merely my wife. I will care for her and the pup inside her, assuming there even is one. That does not make her my bride. Bride would indicate some affection for her and I have none."

"Affection will grow in time."

"I do not care if it grows at all. She is no use to me. You certainly do not need my sons for inheritance. I do not even have a use for sons as inheritors of my dog breeding endeavors. I have heard suggestions that steam cars will be the wave of the future." Nathaniel leaned back and crossed his arms.

"That is crazy talk."

"Is it? Trevithick is just one of many werewolves that wish to see an alternative to horses. How much easier would our lives be if machines could get us from place to place? It would certainly keep that daft Society for Prevention of Cruelty Towards Animals off our backs. It also would allow us to travel places our dogs cannot pull carriages to. No one has yet to breed a dog sturdy enough to be ridden and it is more likely that machines rather than beasts will be the future of transportation. What I am doing will be obsolete by the time I am old and gray. Maybe sooner." He had heard such speculations at parties and also at races. The oldest generations of dog breeders and horses were convinced that steam carriages and the like would fade out but Nathaniel and many of his peers were not so sure.

"Factory owners are seeing how undependable machines can be. Give me a good draft dog any day."

"The point I am making is that I have no use for a wife and the sons that one brings."

"We need more werewolves. We have already discussed this issue-"

"We need more werewolves and yet you have given me a human wife. She may birth a pup or two but she might just as easily birth regular babes who will grow up with no profession to inherit, no title, and no lands. If you had given me a were-wife I would have been happy to produce more wolves for our pack but it seems I will be useless even for that," Nathaniel said.

"Son, there are more things a man needs a wife for than children."

"I have gotten along fine without that and should those needs ever arise there are women who make their living providing that," Nathaniel said. He had heard all the talk of mating but it was not something he had ever done. How could he when his heart belonged to Vivian? How could he give another woman what he wanted to save for the woman of his heart?

"Do not act like I raised you to be a fool. You know damnably well I did not mean that." His father slammed a fist down onto the desk toppling a paper pile on the corner.

"I cannot imagine what else you could mean," Nathaniel said.

"A man needs someone to care for. He needs affection and love. He needs someone to appreciate him and admire him. He needs the comfort and companionship of a woman."

"My dogs give me all the companionship I need."

"Dogs are poor conversationalists."

"I enjoy my silence." He felt his blood boiling. He had married the girl out of duty but their marriage would only be for that. He had not married the chit for companionship or conversation. He had married her because she was a whore and his brother a fool.

"The relationship I had with your mother was incomparable to any I had with anyone else. No dog or occupation or even were-brother could equal it."

Nathaniel tried to stir up a single memory of his parents together but no matter how hard he tried there was nothing.

"If marriage is such a valuable estate than why did you not remarry?"

"This is not about my marriage. It is about yours," his father said.

"A marriage I was forced into."

"I am tired of trying to make you see reason. After the house retires for the night you will go into your bride's chamber and consummate the marriage you have just entered into."

"No, I will not," Nathaniel said. Sophronia was not Vivian. She was not the woman he had laid awake nights aching for. Beyond that, her belly was full with a baby that may or may not belong to his brother. He had more than enough reason to keep away from her bed.

"As your father, I command you," he said.

"I will not," Nathaniel growled. Even if he went into the bedchamber he doubted that he could lay with her. Surely his body understood his heart. He would be limp as a noodle if he tried to go to her. At least, he hoped.

"You are leaving me no choice."

"If you do it I swear I will never forgive you." Nathaniel could see the determination in his father's eyes. He gripped the arms of the chair but he could not rise. Not while his father's wolf looked into his.

"You will someday see that it was for your own good."

"Do not-"

"As your Alpha I command you," he said.

Nathaniel clenched his jaw but his wolf had understood the command and a command by an alpha could not be disobeyed. His father had only ever given him one other alpha command and that command had saved his life. This one would ruin it.

"I will hate you for this," Nathaniel said. He pushed his chair back and stood to go.

"Tonight."

"Tonight," Nathaniel repeated.