Winter

He was enthusiastic about his idea but I already shook my head. “No that’s not possible. I mean what if he sees you and it changes the future?” I asked him but he shrugged because he really didn’t care about it. “I have nothing to loose love.” He said and he had a point, I mean he lived in this tiny place and without the woman he loved.

“Alright but please don’t do anything stupid and let me speak for you.” I told him and he agreed with me but I could see the mischievous spark in his eyes and that made me think of Niall who was waiting for me back at the castle.

“First we had to get back to the clearing, to get Elaine and Aidan. “Let’s go then.” I urged him and he quickly grabbed his cloak. “I’ll follow you.” He waited for me to walk through his door and he followed me quietly. We walked back to the clearing but stopped when we saw Elaine and Aidan, making out. I smiled at this but soon felt awkward because they weren’t dressed properly.

I cleared my throat indicating that I was coming back. I heard Elaine giving a quiet scream out of pure horror but Aidan just smiled and quickly put on his clothes again., he even helped Elaine with her corset. James and I had turned away but we were looking at each other trying to think about something else before we burst into laughter. I had expected something like this would happen but that they would have sex, wasn’t something I thought about.

“Who this?” and I almost jumped when I saw Aidan’s sword appear at James neck. “Don’t Aidan, I bumped into him on the way back here and he is Niall’s uncle.” I lied to him but there was nothing I could do to change it now. He was still not completely sold but I could see he wasn’t holding his sword as if he could cut James in two at any moment. “I’m serious it’s okay.” I put my hand on his arm and I guess that gesture did it, as he put his sword back in his holster.

“We have to go back milady, it’s almost dinner time and you have to change.” She told me and I just nodded. I looked at her and giggled when I saw that she was still looking like a tomato.

We passed the gate and I was actually impressed by how busy everyone still was. The smell had intensified during the day and it took everything in my not to vomit there. The butcher’s place was the worst, you could see all the entrails from the animals he had slaughtered and it almost made me a vegetarian, the dirt had dried up and the snow was swept to the side of the “road”. We walked through the door and I wasn’t surprised to see John and Niall rushing towards us and the moment Niall’s eyes fell on James he stopped for a second.

He had seen the resemblances and you could see he was alarmed by this. “Winter you have finally returned.” This was John who grabbed my hands and put a kiss on each of them. It still made me uncomfortable that he did that but as he was the lord of this castle, there wasn’t a thing I could do against it.

Niall finally joined us and pulled me against him, in a protecting manner and I actually really liked this because he did make me feel safe. “Welcome home love.” He kissed me on the cheek and I know what he was doing, he was claiming me but this time I didn’t mind it. “Who’s this?” John asked as he gestured towards James.

“Oh god, I’m sorry this is Niall’s uncle James Horan.” I quickly told him and I could feel the atmosphere change, from hostile and cold to a warmer climate. “Ah yes I totally forgot to mention this but I wrote him a letter about our marriage.” Niall quickly explained. I know I had some explaining to do later but for now everyone seemed to buy it. “Welcome James, we will prepare a room for you. Please follow me, oh and Winter, Niall dinner will be served in an hour.” With that John walked away with James.

We quickly walked to our chambers, Elaine did follow us but I really had to talk to Niall and I couldn’t use Elaine for this and Niall could help me out of this dress. “Elaine why don’t you check the kitchen, make sure everything is going as planned.” She wanted to protest but when she saw the looks on our face she decided against it.

She curtsied and left us alone. I opened my door and Niall followed me inside. “Care to explain?” was all he could say before I kissed him. He was surprised by this but didn’t hesitate to kiss me back. He walked me backwards until I was against one of my bed posts, his left hand was in my hair and the other held me by my waist. I had one of my hands in his hair and the other was roaming over his chest. I wasn’t sure why I was doing this but I just felt the sudden urge to kiss him. It was like something was messing with my emotions and there was nothing I could do against it.

After a couple of minutes, he broke away from the kiss and caressed my cheek. “What happened love?” he asked me gently and as I looked him in the eyes I could tell he was restricting himself from throwing me on the bed. “I don’t know but I do know that James is our answer. We are here because of him, I’m certain about his.” I told him as I turned my back to him, motioning for him to help me undress.

I felt his fingers touching my back, while he was undoing the buttons of the dress. He was placing a kiss every time he had unbuttoned one of the buttons. I had goose bumps the entire time. “Alright, so what do we do now?” he asked me in a whisper.

“I’m not sure but maybe we should find out more about him.” I told him in a sigh. The moment he was done, the dress fell onto the floor and I held my breath because there was a lot of skin right now to be seen. The only thing I was wearing now was a corset, a thin dress and underwear, which didn’t leave much to the imagination. He traced a line over my back and pressed a kiss on my shoulders. I was breathing heavy and I could tell I didn’t leave him untouched, as his breathing picked up as well.

He turned me around and stared at me. I wanted him so much right now but that was just not possible right now, as we had to get downstairs in less than thirty minutes. I broke eye contact and quickly walked to the dress that was already waiting for me. It was a scarlet red dress and it was absolutely beautiful but again it had a lot of buttons. This must be the fashion at this moment.

I quickly stepped into the dress and let Niall button me up and this time he didn’t kiss me and I know it was to guard his feelings. The realisation that we were being wed tomorrow dawned upon us as we couldn’t have sex before marriage and I really was hoping that they weren’t going to watch, because that would be so embarrassing. I mean I hadn’t had a lot a sex in my own time because my ex thought I was bad at it, so we didn’t do it a lot. I think we did it three times before he gave up and the nasty part was, that I’d given my virginity to that twat.

I turned back around and Niall was really close to me and he was leaning closer and the moment he lightly touched my lips, there was a soft knock on the door, which saved us both. Niall jumped back and took a deep breath, I didn’t have to look down to see he was turned on and this was actually a pretty funny situation because it was dinner time and he didn’t have time to take of it. He took my arm and before we left the room he pulled me close.

“You will pay for this love.”

Notes