The soft light of morning glinted through the half-pulled curtains. The faint tinkling of crockery wafted from the kitchen down below and a feeling of elation trickled through Emma as she opened her eyes and looked upon her sleeping husband. Even in sleep, he still looked serious: his mouth was set in a grave line, his forehead slightly creased, his whole visage sombre yet calm.
Emma smiled and a tiny giggle escaped her lips. For she had just realised that she was now no longer Miss. Emma Woodhouse, she was Mrs. George Knightley! She snuggled up closer to her husband on realisation of her happy situation. Her whole time with George had been blissful since their engagement; George was her equal in everything and in many cases her superior. He was older and wiser, and unafraid to tell Emma her faults. "And how I love you for that", she thought to herself as she bent down and placed a delicate kiss on his nose. He crinkled his forehead in response.
Slowly, his own eyes opened, squinting in the unfamiliar light. "Good morning, Mrs. Knightley" he grinned. "Good morning, Mr. Knightley", Emma replied. Rolling onto his back, George pulled Emma with him so that she was on top of him. Emma giggled at the unexpected playfulness of her husband. "And how are you this morning, love?" he asked. "How are you feeling?" He glanced at Emma almost shyly when he asked this. Emma blushed slightly. Last night, when George had touched her and loved her and made her his wife, was certainly the most profound experience of her short life. "How could no one have told me such joy could be felt between man and woman?" she had questioned herself after the event. At this moment in time, Emma replied "Wonderful, my dear. Perhaps a little sore but the experience was most certainly worth the pain".
She smiled and kissed George full on the lips. He deepened the kiss and pulled her closer, wanting to feel her against his chest. His hands rubbed her back and Emma could feel herself melting at the touch of this man, this person who knew everything about her yet could still love her. They pulled back and gazed at each other, George still stroking her back. "The minute I asked you to be my wife was the moment my life began, do you know that Emma?" George asked, pushing a stray lock of hair away from her temples. Emma placed another kiss on his cheek and laid her head in the crook of his neck. "Yes, I do, and I only hope that I will be all that you wish in a wife. I shall do everything to make you happy and to be a suitable companion to you" Emma said, her voice muffled from her position.
George shifted slightly to look down upon his wife. "You do not need to try to make me happy or proud or anything else, Emma. Just being yourself makes me happy and makes me love you all the more. Don't ever change, my love. You are perfect the way you are, faults and all". Emma gave him a poke in the side for that one! "Faults indeed! If we are to get along at all, Mr. Knightley, we must both agree that I have absolutely no faults whatsoever and any suggestion to the contrary is based on misinterpreted information or evidence!" Emma was prevented from continuing as George placed another kiss on her lips. "And you mustn't think that kissing me will prevent me from stating my mind, either" Emma laughed. "What a suggestion! Surely you must know that I only kiss you out of the utmost pleasure it gives me? And for the smile that it leaves on your beautiful face." With that, Mr. Knightley could be seen receiving a lot of pleasure and Mrs. Knightley could be seen with a magnificent smile on her sweet face.