Page 87 of The Herald's Heart
“I would much rather stay here.”
“So would I, sweeting. But I fear the world approaches.”
Indeed, she could hear footsteps thudding on the stairs. Hastily she donned a robe while Talon pulled on his chausses and a jerkin.
A perfunctory knock sounded, and Timoras burst into the room. “A messenger, sir, with letters from the king and the archbishop.”
“Tell him we’ll be down soon and have food and drink brought for him.” Talon looked at Larkin. “It seems the first of our problems has arrived.”
“Aye.” She made to leave.
Talon’s hand on her shoulder delayed her. “You know, since that night on the beach, I have had proof that if you married my father, that marriage was never consummated.”
“Aye. But without the marriage box, evidence that my marriage was never consummated is of no moment to anyone but us. I do not care. Is it important to you?” The question was not as simple as it might seem. She was asking if he valued her maidenhead more than her self. She was also asking if he still felt guilt that he had lain with his father’s wife. She did not feel guilt. She knew in her heart that her proxy marriage had been no true marriage. She believed God knew that too. If no one told the church, then what did it matter? But she would not force Talon to wrestle with his conscience.
“I give not a fig for that box. I know who and what you are. You are my life and my love, Lady Larkin Rosham. I pray you will soon be my wife as well.”
Certainty bloomed in her heart, and happiness wrapped warmly around her. Talon did love her. Enough to claim her in the face of oaths and hopes and dreams.
They greeted the messenger and took their letters from him.
“Let us read these in the chapel,” she suggested.
Talon wrinkled his brow, then shrugged. “’Tis as good a place as any.”
They sat side by side on the floor before the altar and opened their separate missives.
Larkin took her time reading the archbishop’s response to her petition for annulment of the marriage between Lady Larkin Rosham and Talon’s father. She wanted to be certain she understood the archbishop’s rather convoluted reasoning and rambling explanation of his decision.
When she was finally satisfied and surfaced from her study of the letter, she found her love sorting through the mess in the chapel. “Talon?”
He turned, uncertainty clear in his eyes as he looked at the pages clutched in her hand. “Aye.”
“I thought we agreed to search no further for that box.”
“No, we agreed that we no longer needed to prove who you were. I still wish to find the box, if only to put at ease the minds of any children we have.”
The thought of a plump toddler with Talon’s guinea-gold locks and pansy-dark eyes made her grin. “They won’t need the box either.”
“Why not?” He rejoined her before the altar.
“Read this.” She thrust the archbishop’s letter at him.
He took it. “I will, but only if you read what the king has said to me.”
“As you wish.” She accepted the royal vellum from him.
“I can’t believe this,” she said, astonished at what she’d read. “The king says he trusts his herald implicitly but wonders if you realize that royal recognition of me as Lady Larkin Rosham is in your bests interests. If he gave that recognition, he might be forced to recognize my claim to Hawksedge over yours and suggests it might be better just to marry me and join both holdings in one family.”
Talon grinned. “Which is exactly what we plan to do.”
She rolled her eyes and sighed. “Well, I have not yet agreed to be your wife.”
He turned a sparkling gaze on hers. “No, you have not, and I suspect you hoped to worry me a bit with that reminder.”
She fluttered her lashes and pressed a hand to her chest. “I? Why every would you think that, when I gave you the archbishop’s letter to read. You know as well as I that he managed to annul the marriage between Lady Larkin Rosham and your father without ever acknowledging that I might be that lady.”
Talon kissed her.
