Free The Marriage Cure by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy Page B

then, and I’ll cure ye?”
    â€œAye.”
    â€œI’ll be yer wife but Johnny?”
    â€œWhat?”
    She did not know how to say it so she just blurted it out.
    â€œThere’s no one to wed us proper.”
    He laughed and rose, almost turning the bench over in the process, and swept her into his embrace . “Do ye care? I’ll take ye to a priest when one is to be found , or a minister , but in the meantime, hand fasting is good enough for me.”
    Sabetha remembered how her Da spoke of hand fasting, how he and her Ma married so . It was, he said, a way of wedding that went back far before the Christ and before St. Patrick brought salvation to Ireland . If it worked then, he told her, it was valid enough now.
    â€œ My own parents married that way, ” Sabetha said. “They did, back in County Tyrone.”
    â€œThen won’t we do the same?” h e said. “If ye like, I can kill ye a deer and bring it to you, the Tsa-La-Gi way but I’m never sure I can hunt without falling over in the woods and I don’t want to wait.”
    â€œI don’t want to wait either.”
    They stood, facing each other, hands clasped.
    â€œI take ye, Sabetha, to be my own wife, ” Johnny began, trying to recall some if not all of the words from his hasty marriage to Janey but he could not. “I’ll love ye, provide for ye, and care for ye as long as I live.”
    She was crying, tears of joy as she said her vow to him,
    â€œ Is sibhse fuil m’fhuil, agus cnamh mo chnamh, Tugaim duit mo chrop sa chaoi is go mbiodh an beirt again mar dhuide amhian, tugaim duit mo spiorad go crioch na saol.”
    It was the old vow, ancient, that her Da had spoken to her mother, blood of my blood, bone of my bone, I give ye my body so we may be one, I give ye my spirit until our life is done.
    He repeated the words back to her, his tongue as fluent with the Gaelic as hers . His face, as he recited the vow, was tender.
    â€œNow ye are my wife, before God and man, ” Johnny said . Hands still clasped, they kissed, sweet at first and then warm as her blood rose . Passion blossomed in her veins, carried little shivers of delight to every part of her body . She wanted him, body, and soul, and from the way he kissed her, he wanted it too.
    Reason cast aside in the rising ardor, she did not stop to wonder if he felt well enough or if he might be strong enough . Instead, she released his hands, undid her dress, and stepped out of it . She came to him as naked as the hour of her birth, her long hair falling free and loose over them both.

    ****

    Johnny Devaney

    The pain in his head receded as he spoke his vows to her, committed his life and love to Sabetha . When she spoke the old words, his heart filled almost to bursting and he thought he could bear no more until their lips touched . That kiss sealed their marriage but ignited fires he banked long before, fanned the embers into raging flames that threatened to consume them both in its heat.
    When Sabetha removed her dress and let down her hair, he respond ed. My, but she was comely, her body lovely and well made as he touched her, put his hands over all her secret places . She took his face between her hands, kissed him with such force than he knew they would consummate this marriage even if it killed him . He kicked off the breeches and stripped the shirt away with one fluid motion, giving back what she gave in kind.
    She was no virgin, he remembered, but a seasoned widow . From her movements, he thought it likely that she never reached fulfillment and he promised he would give her what Henry Trahern did not. He explored her, caressed her skin, and claimed her. Johnny gloried in their love until that defining moment ascended into the nearest thing to heaven on earth.
    Afterward, they lay spent, tangled together upon the bed sated and renewed . Such contentment poured over him that he basked in it and let it steal over him until he