Chapter 1

 

'Happy birthday my dear Annabel, how are you feeling on this delightful day, did you sleep well?'

I smiled as I looked up as my new husband walked into my room looking surprisingly cheerful even though it was so very early in the morning.

'My Lord I am very well, and I slept like a baby.'

'No need for you to be so formal in addressing me. Now that we are married call me by my name Gregory.'

'Sorry My Lor-Gregory,' I corrected myself. It felt strange to be wed to a man that I knew so very little about.

But what I did know about him like everyone else in the province was that Lord Gregory of Stonebridge was a very rich and powerful man. Which was basically all the information that my family had required to see that a marriage between us was set then seen through. I understood completely how a union between Gregory and my own ruling family was potentially very lucrative, in terms of prospering together as allies at war and also in trade. And on a personal level I was also very much aware that by marrying Gregory I had elevated my position to the highest levels of polite society. So I should have been incredibly happy at the start of my birthday taking all the positives into account of becoming Gregory's wife, but yet I could not help but be slightly deflated when I sat up on my bed to speak with him.

He seemed so friendly and pleasant as he sat down at the foot of my bed, and I knew he was generous having showered me with a number of precious gifts from our wedding just the day before. I was not so naive that I didn't understand that I could have had a far worse fate if I had instead been married off to a cruel, unpleasant Lord as had happened to some of my highborn friends. So I should have been relieved and happy, instead of ungrateful and dissatisfied with my new situation in life.

But was it so wrong of me to be disappointed in the fact that my new husband was old enough to be my granddad with his full silver mane of hair and white beard. If I had been far closer to his age I might have been more impressed with his energy and agility at his mature age, he was still full of life. But I was not anywhere near his age; I was just eighteen and was now starting to regret remaining so virtuous and not playing around with any of the far more youthful men I had been in contact with during my younger years before I married Gregory.

'Gregory how did you sleep?' I turned his question back on to him, 'I noticed that you did not rest in our bed chamber, I tried to stay up waiting for you so we could have our wedding night, but unfortunately sleep overtook me,' I spoke blushing as I showed him my concern.

'Annabel I slept just fine, no need to wait up for me, I was in the adjoining room just next to your own. See there is a door just there, so both of us can pass between both rooms and keep our individual privacy at the same time, away from prying eyes outside who do not need to know what we get up to in our private time together,' he spoke reassuringly, leaving me quite confused, for there was nothing indeed to talk about, nothing for the servants to use as gossip, for nothing had happened between Gregory and me last night, I was still very much untouched to my frustration.

'So you will come to my bed tonight instead?'

'Well no my dear I actually prefer at my age to sleep alone, I cannot get a good night's rest with another body in my bed. Hopefully, this sleeping agreement will not prove too disagreeable for you?'

'No that is fine Gregory, if that is what you prefer, I am happy to sleep in our separate adjoining rooms,' I remained calm even as I started to panic from the inside. It was not that I was eager to give myself to my much older husband, but my mother's last words of warning, before I left my previous home to be married, rang in my ears. She emphasised the importance for me to become with child as soon as possible so that the union of the two families could be cemented as well as my own personal position as the new first lady of Gregory's land. All would be in jeopardy if I could not give birth to an heir, I had already perceived the situation to be problematic because of his age, but now I knew that there was little chance of him ever even touching me, he seemed just content to have polite conversation with me instead.