Free The Arranged Marriage by Katie Epstein

nodded.
    “Quarters have been allocated for each
of your men. And as for yourself,” He smiled. “It is nearly dawn,
you should be getting back to your wife.”
    Ison felt a sudden twinge at the word
‘wife’. He had momentarily forgot that he been wed only moments
before to a woman he barely knew.
    “It has been an unusual day, I think I
will take my leave. If you could direct me to the
chamber?”
    “I will take you in that direction. I
shall be retiring myself after being up half the eve. I will meet
with you on the morrow to give you the background and detail of
Ecripian.”
    “Thank you.” He advised as they both
made their way to the halls that led to the royal
chambers.
     
    Once dressed her in eve clothes,
Rohesia sat in front of her chamber table brushing through her long
hair. She couldn’t believe she was a married woman, to Sir Ison no
less, and she was finding it more and more difficult to stop
feeling excited about it.
    The knock at her door made her jump as
she placed the brush back down on the table.
    “Enter.” She shouted expecting it to
be Kaya, her ladies maid, who had probably found out about her
return from Nani. However, her heart stood still when she realised
that it was Ison standing in the door way.
    “Good eve Rohesia.” He said. The tone
of his voice flowing across her like velvet. She stood in greeting
and felt extremely exposed with wearing only her sleeping attire.
She shivered as she watched him enter the room.
    “Can I help you my lord?” She asked
him, her voice shaky.
    He looked at her standing in front of
him, not quite knowing what to say. It was as if the spell she had
weaved when they had first met returned to him with a vengeance.
Her hair, long and dark to her waist, still held the waves from
being wet earlier and made her look so innocent as it fell against
her robe.
    He shook his head to shake the images
of her naked in his arms from his mind. He did not need this right
now, not when he just needed sleep.
    “I have come to bed,” He advised her
after closing the large wooden door behind him. “We are wed now
remember?”
    She blinked rapidly as if to
comprehend what he had just said. She had not given one thought to
sharing a bed straight after the wedding and he had not given her
time to think about this. There were still a lot of unresolved
issues between them, and she wanted to get to know him a little
better before they shared a bed, let alone contemplating doing
anything in it.
    Understanding that it was too late to
do anything about their sleeping arrangements, she quickly made her
way over to the large four poster bed that was situated in the
middle of the room.
    If she could just get into it quickly
enough she could close her eyes from him and feign sleep if he came
anywhere near her. There was no way he would try and take her
whilst she was sleeping, would he? She cringed at the thought of
the painful act, as told to her by some of the ladies of the court
when their chaperones were not around.
    Ison watched humorously as Rohesia
dived over towards the bed away from him as if he was a dangerous
animal. Her curvaceous frame jumped under the covers so fast that
he cringed when she bumped her head on the back board, hearing her
muttered curse.
    He found her behaviour quite
refreshing, knowing females usually did only two things around him.
They would either flee in terror or to try and seduce him into
their bed. It was a rarity to find someone he was becoming strongly
attached to, to do neither.
    He took his time to undress as he
sensed her moving about underneath the covers. She was probably
pretending to go to sleep and at this moment in time, that was fine
with him. His eyelids felt very heavy, as the sight of the large
bed in front of him was enough to tempt any man this close to
sleep.
    He noticed the room was cold but
welcoming. He liked how Rohesia had personalised it with the
colours of amber and green. Ecripian colours, but she had also
added her own