Chapter 41
It was a triumphant return to England. The streets of London were mobbed with people from all over England who had come to cheer their king's homecoming. Banners and streamers festooned the streets and there were smiling faces everywhere Rhain looked. His face felt as if it would crack from smiling, though he could not have prevented the expression if he had tried. The people tossed flowers in his path as he led Keelin and Edwyn down the streets and to the castle. Once there, all three were greeted with great joy and many tears by the queen.
The day was eventful and the celebrations continued until dawn, though Rhain saw very little of them. He spent most of his time closed in his conference chamber with his advisors who brought him up to date on England. His mother had been most capable in her son's absence and the country was in a good state but there were still a great many things for Rhain to read and sign and he was grateful when he was finally able to fall into bed and sink into an exhausted sleep.
For the next several days, Rhain had very little time to think for he was always running from one place to the next to make a speech, to meet with an advisor, to dine with his knights. He saw Keelin very often but they had little time for private talk together and though this frustrated Rhain, he kept his patience as best he could for their ceremony drew ever closer with each passing day.
At last the day had arrived and the king prepared for it with a great deal of nervousness and anticipation. He was arrayed in splendid robes of white satin and velvet edged with ermine and heavy with gold embroidery. His hair was trimmed and then tied back neatly before his crown was placed upon his head. As his servants turned and left him, he found that his palms were sweating.
"Are you ready?" a quite voice asked, startling him. He turned to see Edwyn at the door, his face split by an enormous smile. He looked very well in his robes of dark blue and his chain of office, more carefree and happy than Rhain had seen him in years.
"Aye," Rhain answered, turning and following Edwyn from his chamber and down to the carriage that would convey him to the cathedral.
It was a beautiful spring day. Not a cloud was in the sky and there was just the merest hint of a breeze, bringing with it a refreshing scent of flowers and newly cut grass. Once again the streets were full of people and decorated with many fluttering banners and pennants, all of them scarlet with the royal seal of the gold lion. The ride to the cathedral seemed very short indeed and a nearly deafening roar went up from the crowd as Rhain and Edwyn exited the carriage and entered the cathedral.
As he stood at the altar of the cathedral, Rhain could scarcely control his nervous impulse to wring his hands. His heart was beating very swiftly and he strained his eyes, staring down the impossibly long aisle and impatiently awaiting the arrival of his bride. A choir began to sing and, at last she appeared.
Rhain felt his breath catch in his longs as he watched her make her way down the aisle. She too was arrayed in white satin and velvet elaborately embroidered in gold. Her face was concealed beneath the shroud of her veil but her hair shone like spun gold as it tumbled over her shoulders and down her back. A very, very long train slid behind her as she walked up the aisle. She was an angel without wings and Rhain could scarcely wait until he could lift her veil and share his first married kiss with her.
He heard very little of the ceremony. His mind was much too occupied by the heavenly being who stood beside him. She seemed very composed but as she placed her hand in his, Rhain felt it tremble slight and he pressed it as warmly as he could. They stood, they knelt, they exchanged vows, but Rhain did not hear a word until they were finally announced as husband and wife and he was told to kiss his bride.
With trembling fingers, he gently lifted the veil and stared down into the beautiful face that greeted him. He had never before seen Keelin look so exquisite and it caused his heart to ache. He vowed to himself that he would have a portrait of her in her wedding gown painted so that he could look upon it every day and witness such loveliness over and over again.
"I love you," he whispered to her as he leaned down toward her.
"I love you too," she whispered back, closing her eyes as he cupped her face in his hands and placed a sweet kiss upon her lips.
They proceeded back down the aisle and smiled and waved at all who had attended. Rhain wanted to close the curtains of the carriage and spend the ride back to the castle kissing Keelin soundly but he knew that they should wave to his people as they rode back. This did not stop him from speaking very passionately of his love for her and she responded in kind.
Their wedding was even more splendid than Stephan's had been. The queen had outdone herself in the planning of it and there were numerous amusements, excellent wine, and more food than anyone in the castle could possibly eat. The revelers were very merry, relieved by the ending of the war with France and with their king's return to his country. The king and his new queen spent most of the night accepting congratulations from various knights and members of the nobility.
Rhain was relieved when it was finally time for them to leave the celebration and retire to their new chamber. He had left instructions with his mother on how it was to be refitted and he was more than pleased with what he saw and, apparently, so was Keelin.
"Oh, Rhain, 'tis so beautiful," she said with tears in her eyes, as she stood and surveyed the exquisitely carved furniture and the blue and green bed hangings and tapestries upon the wall.
"I am glad it pleases you," he told her, drawing her near and kissing her deeply. "I have something else for you."
He stepped over to a low table and presented Keelin with two boxes. She gasped and her tears spilled over as she opened them. Within were an exquisite necklace of gold and diamonds and a pair of earrings to match. He clasped the necklace around her neck and placed the earrings in her ears, lingering to kiss her ears and fair neck as he did so. She melted into his embrace and, for some time, they knew nothing other than the pleasure of each other.
Hours later, she lay quietly in his arms as he stroked her silken hair. He could feel the gentle rise and fall of her body as she breathed.
"I was wrong about it being impossible to feel more happiness than I felt the day of Stephen's wedding," she said, startling him for he had thought she was asleep.
"Are you happy now?" he asked her.
She raised her head from his chest and crawled a little higher in the bed so that she could meet his eyes. "I do not think happy is the proper word for what I feel," she said, her voice husky. "It seems far too commonplace a word for such a sensation as what I feel in my heart at this moment. It is as if all of the pieces of my life have finally come together and I am whole."
Rhain cupped her face in his hands and kissed her gently. "I understand. I have never felt such a sensation of completeness in my life."
"I knew happiness when I was younger, when I was with my parents and my old mistress. I thought then that I could never want for anything more in the world. But now I see what I was missing all that time. You are so much a part of me Rhain, so much a part of my soul that I know I could never bear to be without you."
"You never shall be," he promised her, caressing her face. "This is the beginning of a new life, of our life, and I cherish that more than I am able to say. I never thought I would find love in my life and, indeed, I had begun to doubt of its existence. To explain to you how you have changed me would be impossible. I hope it will suffice to say that I am a better man with you at my side than I had ever hoped I could be."
A tear slipped from her eye and fell onto his cheek and he pulled her to him, kissing her over and over, allowing her tears to wet both his face and hers. He had meant every word he said. Being with her now was the greatest feeling he had ever known. There were songs about love and poems about love and epic tales about love but none of them even came close to expressing what he felt in his heart for his new wife.
It was the sweetest night he had ever known and was even better than he had dreamed of it being. He felt awed as they lay in his bed together, talking and loving and sometimes just laying in silence gently caressing one another's hands and faces and hair. Eventually, Keelin drifted off to sleep and Rhain stared at her, taking in every feature of his face and feeling a swelling in his heart that was painful. Every bit of suffering, every bit of pain, and every bit of fear he had ever felt in his life was rewarded in this, in having this angel sleeping in his arms.
As his own eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep, a smile spread over his face. Once he had feared the future, had tried his best not to think of what was to come or what it meant for him. Now he knew he had a future and he knew it was bright, for he would spend it with the woman he loved more than life itself.
