Chapter 9

Locking up Mary's cottage, Branwen and I changed into more casual attire to go to the reception which was beginning to get warmed up.

The long driveway was full of cars and a small generator was humming away to provide electricity for the lighting inside the big house.

Branwen paused a moment outside the house, she stood there looking up at the massive box like structure and said softly, "I never thought I would live to see any sort of a gathering inside this house. No one has lived in it for some two hundred years and now it cannot even be fitted with indoor plumbing or wired for electricity."

She grinned at me and said cheerfully, "Good thing we have our apartment!"

We joined hands and bravely entered the fray.

There was an outburst of applause when we entered the banquet hall, a voice cried out, "There's the happy couple! Took ya long enough to change...A little sneak preview of tonight perhaps?"

A ripple of knowing laughter wandered across the room and petered out.

Branwen smiled and replied, "Mom wasn't feeling well so we put her to bed. Mom sends her regrets and I'll tell her all about the party when I see her in the morning." We all got in line for the buffet and loaded our plates with the delicious offerings laid out on the long side table.

Each of us took a glass of the customary champagne and took our seats.

We ate and drank to our health, long life, many healthy children and our love for each other.

At one point I caught Janice Llewellyn's eye, she was sitting and smiling like all the rest except she now wore the red gold circlet bestowed upon her by Queen Mab herself.

I couldn't help thinking of the queen's remarks about her desire for the two of us to have children together in spite of my marriage to her granddaughter.

There would be no romance, it was purely to strengthen the bloodline.

I wasn't particularly opposed to the idea, I just wasn't too sure about the morality of it, being told to serve as a 'stud animal' at the queen's command, seemed a little strange to me.

We briefly smiled at each other and wordlessly agreed to have a little 'chat' about it later on.

Then came the obligatory dance and we bravely stepped onto the dance floor. Branwen had never danced in her life and I had avoided it at every opportunity.

Not wanting to embarrass ourselves, we had watched a few instructional videos and tried to keep up.

Thankfully Branwen had a natural sense of rhythm and we enjoyed the after dance lesson romp in bed as a reward for our diligence.

Now was the moment of truth, could we pull it off?

Music started playing and after a few moments, we joined hands and began a slow waltz, a generic waltz admittedly, but a waltz none the less.

Soon, other couples joined us and we tried to blend into the small crowd.

A silly idea actually, Branwen stands well over six feet tall and has that whole lupine aspect about her.

With her great wolflike ears sticking up out of her mane of jet black, wavy hair.

To say nothing of her dark grey furry skin, luxurious black tail, heroic muscular build and great clawed hands and feet.

The final touch was her burning eyes and sharp fangs.

Anyone seeing her for the first time would naturally, fear the worst.

As soon as etiquette allowed, we slipped back to our table and enjoyed watching the others dance.

It was well after midnight when the last of the guests had departed and we locked the house back up.

Ann Jones smiled at both of us and said, "Congratulations to both of you! Don't worry about the clean up, we'll be back tomorrow afternoon after we've slept off tonight and we'll lend a hand."

Soon after, we watched their van exit the driveway.

We were finally alone on our wedding night.

In a break with tradition because of her size and great strength, Branwen carried me across the threshold.

Naturally we made love again, this time in a much more unhurried fashion.

We would never have to sleep separately again.

Our first morning as a married couple was spent enjoying a slow, unhurried bout of almost languid sex.

We bathed afterwards and enjoyed a nice breakfast, while still in the nude.

I opened my cell phone and called Ann Jones.

Moments later she answered with, "Is 'she' gone?"

"Yes, 'she' left shortly after we returned from the mountains. The body is in her bed so everything looks like she had died in her sleep." I replied.

"Good, I'll start calling everybody and Beatrice will come over to get everything set up for the wake this evening."

Closing up my phone again, I looked over at my bride, Branwen lay there on our bed looking as if she was at peace with the world.

Not a stitch of clothing covered her wonderful body and her eyes smouldered with desire as she purred, "They won't be here for a while, come back to bed, we're not finished yet!"

I grinned at her and replied, "Well, we can't have that!"

I returned to her side, my erection leading the way.

She smiled and licked her sensual lips as her mighty arms enveloped me and I sank my bone deep inside her hot, wet womb.

An hour later my phone chimed that it had received a text message, rudely interrupting our third carnal congress in mid thrust.

Without pausing in my thrusting, I opened the phone to see that Beatrice and some friends would be arriving at 11:00 A.M.

Closing the phone again, I resumed focusing all my energies towards enjoying Branwen's incredible body on such a pleasant morning.

Afterwards we showered together and playfully toweled each other off.

I got out the hairdryer and worked her head and tail over real good with it and a good, strong hair brush.

She smiled at me and her eyes smouldered with an amourous gleam while I playfully dried the brownish tuft between her breasts, gleefully taking every opportunity to play with her marvelous boobies.

She purred, "You're lucky we've have company coming. Teasing me like this will cost you dearly!"

I smiled at her and murmured, "I know, and I'm looking forward to paying that bill!"

I helped Branwen into her brassiere, wearing one was new to her and it was easier for her if I fastened the hooks, of course there are bras that fasten in front, but where's the fun in those?

Helping her into a bra gave me the opportunity to help her out of said bra later on. Then there was the copping a feel opportunities.

Branwen would simply smile at that and ravish me later on.

Beatrice and her friends from the gwyddonod circlet arrived precisely at 11:00 A.M. From the looks of their eyes, they had been weeping.

The four of us had decided not to let the rest of the circlet in on the switch.

It would make the show of grief more honest.

Beatrice greeted us with reddened eyes and asked, "Where is she?"

"She is in her bed, we found her there this morning."

"Have you called the authorities?"

"No, we have not." I replied, "We'll call them after you have had the wake I suppose."

Beatrice nodded and remarked, "They'll know soon enough when they hear about the gathering at this house. Half of Brecknockshire will be here paying their respects."

Leaving Branwen to open up Mary's cottage for the ladies from the circlet, I went to open up the big house, figuring it would be suitable for the wake with all the extra room for the mourners.

Choosing the big hall downstairs, I took the liberty of setting up a couple of saw horses and laying two sturdy planks across them for the funeral bier to rest upon.

Beatrice came into the house and smiled at my set up, "You've been reading my mind!"

She said with a smile, "This'll work very nicely, we can cover this with cloth and set up candelabras along the walls to give us light throughout the wake."

At my somewhat blank look she said cheerfully,"Oh, you needn't worry, the circlet will handle everything, we just need the hall!"

I followed Beatrice back to Mary's cottage and we saw that the corpse had already been washed and dressed in Mary's best outfit, ironically it was the one she had worn at our wedding only the day before.

Branwen was seated comfortably while she read aloud from one of Mary's favorite books, the other ladies were kneeling in prayer.

Candles burning brightly illuminated the interior of the cottage.

The was a soft rapping on the door jamb and I saw Tom standing just outside with several other men.

Beatrice smiled at her brother in law and shooed him outside to confer with him.

Not knowing what else to do, I began heating water for tea.

While waiting for the water to heat up, I laid out cups and saucers on the dining table and opened up a tin of her favorite biscuits.

Placing the tin on the table, I set out cream and sugar then began doling out the tea leaves, when the water was hot, I poured the water, stirred the tea gently and kissed Branwen on her forehead as I let myself out.

Tom and the other men were busily transforming the big house into a funeral parlor, for the nonce.

Towering candelabras were brought in and set up, candles were placed in them and lit, their soft glow illuminating the workers hanging white drapes on the walls and covering my rude saw horse and plank set up with more white cloth.

Tall buckets with flowers stood at either end of the funeral bier while more buckets held flowers to be taken by the mourners as they paid their respects.

When everything was ready, we men gently carried 'Mary's' funeral bier out through the cottage's biggest window and bore it into the hall where it was placed upon the altar stand.

Branwen had followed the body while continuously reading aloud and two other ladies had brought her chair with them.

Settling into her chair, Branwen continued reading aloud as the final preparations were made and everyone made ready to receive visitors.

I took advantage of the moment to change into something more appropriate for the occasion, getting back in time to see Ann take Branwen's place in the reading chair, while Branwen herself knelt in prayer.

With the body now lying in state, more people began showing up.

Many of them brought food and tables were hastily set up outside to accommodate the food gifts, a barrel of ale appeared and was for the folks to have a small cup of ale after viewing 'Mary's' corpse.

Then there were the 'wailers', those who had known Mary for many years and were loudly expressing their sorrows.

To my quiet amazement no one seemed to react to Branwen's appearance, even though she was bareheaded and her wolflike ears were quite prominent.

Then again, most of the locals seemed to know about Mary and Branwen and had quickly banded together to intervene when the 'nosy Londoners' had sent a news team to investigate the reported 'werewolf 'sighting only recently.

I kept myself busy by heating water and refreshing the tea cups as they were emptied by those not wanting the ale.

Keeping the nibblies trays well stocked was also on my self appointed list of tasks to do for the day.

I smiled when I saw Janice Llewellyn approaching.

Like so many others her eyes were reddened from crying.

She came up to me and we hugged.

Being so slightly built, she felt like a child in contrast to Branwen's robust form.

We shared a brief kiss before separating again and she asked, "When did she pass, was it last night?"

I nodded a 'yes' and added, "She actually slipped away right after our wedding. We noticed she was quite unsteady on her feet and we helped her to bed, she passed within minutes after that. We decided to put on our brave faces and pretend she was merely tired as we did not want to spoil the evening for everybody."

Janice smiled and said, "You did the right thing. No sense spoiling the party, as they say!"

All through the rest of the day and well into the night, mourners arrived and were greeted by Ann or Beatrice and guided into the big house where they paid their respects to Branwen and spoke briefly to the flower bedecked corpse.

Even Fr. Flanagan and his family paid their respects.

Their young children looked at Branwen with wide eyes, never having seen a Hellhound before.

The little girl asked innocently, "Are those ears for real?"

Branwen smiled at her and replied, "Would you like to touch them?" The child nodded shyly and Branwen leaned over so the kids could touch her velvety soft ears.

After a few moments the children thanked her and they left with their doting parents.

I noted the look on Fr. Flanagan's face, the events over the past two days had given him much to think about and I expected him to contact me after he'd had a few days to think over what he had seen.

It was nearly dawn when the last of mourners had departed and we carried the body back into Mary's cottage and dressed it for bed.

Placing it back in her bed, we carefully covered 'Mary's' corpse with a sheet of white linen to keep flies off of it..

Branwen and I looked at the Jones' and Beatrice, Ann's sister.

The rest of the menfolk had left after we had moved the body to get some sleep.

"Welp, we pulled it off, now we have to notify the authorities and make funeral arrangements, but not right now, we all need to get some sleep first."

We agreed to meet later that afternoon after the body had been picked up.

Looking bleary eyed, they piled into their cars and drove away.

I locked up the big house while Branwen opened up our apartment.

Alone at last, Branwen seduced me rather thoroughly and we fell asleep together, totally exhausted.

It was early afternoon when we awoke and lay quietly in each other's arms, we were married now and Mary had gone back to the realm of the fae, where she would be healed and restored to her true form.

Finally Branwen sighed and said quietly, "I suppose we'd better call the authorities to report mom's 'death'."

"I'll make the call, not sure I want them seeing you just yet." I replied.

Branwen nodded in agreement and I opened my cell phone.

Twenty minutes later, there was a police car and a mortician's van parked outside Mary's cottage and I was showing them the body of the late, lamented Old Mary as I had 'found it'.

The policewoman was quite sympathetic as she took my statement and jotted down her observations.

The mortician said quietly, "She was quite elderly and simply passed away in her sleep, a good death for anyone really. A good, long life she had and she will be missed."

He and his assistant carefully wrapped the corpse and gently lifted it onto their gurney then they trundled it out to their waiting van.

Slipping it inside the van he turned to me and said, "We can keep her in cold storage while funeral arrangements can be made."

He handed me his card and the police woman handed me a copy of her report.

An hour after I had made the call, Mary's cottage now stood empty, she was gone now.

We would look at her last will and testament later in the day.

I found Branwen all curled up on our bed, silently weeping.

Slipping off my shoes, I lay down behind her and wrapped my arms around her. Holding her closely I murmured, "They're all gone now. They'll keep the body in cold storage at the mortuary until we can make arrangements for her funeral."

I felt Branwen heave a sigh and she replied,"I know mom is really still alive and we will see her again after we've gone through the door into summer. I find myself thinking of that poor creature that took her place. It, no she only lived so that she could die in mom's place and I think that's kinda sad really."

I squeezed her and murmured, "It is kinda sad I know, I couldn't help thinking the same thing. Only a few of us know the truth and we'll carry that to our graves."

Branwen murmured, "Actually, you and I will be seeing her again when we go to the faery realm."

I chuckled softly and squeezed her, "Pedantry will get you nowhere with me!"

I murmured as I playfully nibbled on her muscular shoulder.

Branwen snuggled against me and we simply fell asleep.

That afternoon as promised, Tom and Ann Jones arrived and we cleaned up the banquet hall, folded up the tables and chairs, took down the lights and put everything back the way it was before the wedding reception and the following day's wake.

We gathered in our apartment and made a dinner from some of the leftovers.

When Tom looked in our refrigerator, he chuckled and said cheerfully, "You won't be needing to visit the market for at least a few more days."

Ann looked over at us and declared, "Or a couple of days, if you boys don't go eating it all up at once!"

As we ate, the conversation turned to Mary's departure.

"Did the police accept the mortician's assessment?" Tom asked.

"I think so," I replied, "she didn't seem to question his findings, she just filled in all the blanks and wrote a brief summation of the mortician's findings. She just gave me a copy of the report for my records...Seems kinda coldly efficient but she was sympathetic and didn't pry."

"The mortuary is keeping the body in cold storage until we can decide on funeral arrangements. I don't know what is the custom among the Gwyddonod, so I thought we could discuss it tonight."

Ann looked thoughtful and finally remarked, "We used to wrap our dead in a linen shroud and bury it without any coffin to speed its return to earth, but since the crown has forbidden that practice, we don't really have a real customary burial practice except for cremation which we took up to keep our dead from being exhumed by the church and burned anyway. Cremation would be the easiest and we can scatter the ashes at Cerrig Duon. It may have been only a homunculus but it did serve a purpose. We owe it a proper send off."

A small chorus of 'hear, hear's' followed her remarks.

Cremation would occur and we would have a small service for the nameless creature who took Mary's place in death.

The next day after recovering from Branwen's repeated amourous assaults on my person the night before.

I called the mortuary and arranged to pick up the ashes following the cremation of the homunculus.

Tom came by and asked me if I was handy with tools, when I said 'yes', I found myself with a job.

His neighbor need an extension added to his garage and Tom figured I might be interested in the job.

His neighbor it turned out, was a fellow Norton motorcycle owner in that he owned a real rarity, a 596cc International model with plunger suspension and a Manx front brake.

It seems it was once owned by a motorcycle journalist back in the late 1940's and early 1950's, he had ridden it all over Europe covering motorcycle sporting events for the magazine he had worked for.

When I remarked about my own Norton model 19S, he grinned and replied cheerfully, "I knew there was something about you I liked!"

Tom and I started that afternoon, we laid out where the extension would go to determine where the foundation trenches would go and how much to clear for the solid concrete flooring.

I rented a small excavator and used it to clear the excess soil and dig the trenches for the foundations, next we knocked out the back wall to the garage and drilled lengths of rebar into the existing foundations and old garage floor. This would tie everything together once we poured the concrete.

My coming home at night, tired from working all day did not curtail our sexual activities in the least.

Branwen still demanded sex and lots of it.

To my amazement, the little bastard in my pants cheerfully rose to the occasion and kept her happy.

The fact that she was an incredible lover, might have had an influence on his being so eager to get back inside her warm body to where he clearly belonged.

It was as always, breath taking and exhausting and we both slept so soundly afterwards.

Tom rented a cement mixer and we mixed and poured the entire foundation and garage floor in one long, hard day's work.

We were both stiff and sore the next day and the cement had to cure.

With time on my hands I stopped by the mortician's and picked up the small urn with the creature's ashes inside.

We made arrangements for 'Mary's funeral' to be held at Cerrig Duon where we would scatter 'her' ashes.

The day of the funeral dawned clear and bright, Branwen rose early to prepare for the funeral to be taking place at midday.

Around 11 A.M. We arrived at the parking place and met with the others from the Gwiddonod and several other long time friends and acquaintances, who wished to pay their respects.

Branwen wore all black and had covered her head with a veil which was apropos for the occasion.

I wore my own dark gray suit and added a black arm band to my outfit, as did many of the participants.

We walked silently to the stone circle and met Ann Jones who was already there.

As the priestess she would be officiating while standing at the stone called Maen Mawr, she smiled as we approached.

The crowd was nearly the same size as the crowd at Mary's wake, even Fr. Flanagan and his family were there.

Ann nodded at the Flanagan's and said clearly, "We are gathered here to celebrate the life of Mary. Mary had lived among us for many, many years and come to be known as simply 'Old Mary'. She never really had a birth certificate giving her actual birth date, though now, that no longer matters. Mary has left this world and gone on to her reward. Per her final request, we are scattering her ashes here, among these ancient stones she loved so dearly."

Ann smiled at everyone and said, "And now, I will say the benediction, feel free to pray with me."

She placed her hands over her heart, closed her eyes and began," Maeve, queen of the night realm, goddess of the faery realm. We are gathered here at midday, to say our farewells to your child Mary. She had lived with us for a time and now she has joined you in the land beyond the door into summer. We who remain behind, can only say our farewells and scatter her mortal ashes among these stones, where so very recently, her daughter Branwen joined hands in holy matrimony with her husband XXXXX."

With those words, Ann opened the bronze cannister holding 'Mary's' ashes and a powerful gust of wind whirled over the area, rustling clothing, rumpling hair and tugging on hats.

Ann swung the cannister in a wide arc, flinging the ashes into the winds, moments later the wind quieted down and 'Mary's' ashes were gone, scattered to the four winds.

I held Branwen tenderly and felt her warm tears trickling onto my cheeks as she wept silently for the poor homunculus.

For all her fearsome aspect, Branwen really was quite the tender heart.