England 1192:
“How could you?”
“What would we have done if you couldn’t write your name?”
She sighed. “I would have put an X there and it would have been enough.”
“Then this is even better.”
He scattered sand over it to set the ink then rolled it up and locked it away. She sat back on the edge of his desk, reeling. It was done. She was once again defeated by him. And once again she loved him no less for his victory over her.
“That goes with us to Ravenmore, where John will sign it.”
“And then a copy will be filed,” she said. “An official record of my existence.”
He went to her. One hand came to either side of her hips on the desk. “This will be my compromise, and the only one you’re getting from me, wife.”
She eyed him. Great, now he would remind her that he owned her.
“I’m still going to retrieve your boots, you’re still going out with me, and I’m still making love to you in the rushes.”
She swallowed thickly, desire simmering within her. “H-how is that a compromise?”
“Because now,” he said, leaning toward her until his mouth was against her ear, “I’m going to take your body until your heart belongs to me.”
“It already does you fool.”
He straightened far enough to look her in the eyes. “I’m going to take your body until you believe in me.”
“Believe in you?” She blew out a breath. “I do love you, I believe in you. I’d do anything for you, what else it there? There’s no cage around my heart but the one you made so that you can break it.”
He made a face at that.
“Has it occurred to you that this may be about you?”
“Me?” he asked.
“Yes. You’re the one that thinks he needs to die for me.”
He blew out a frustrated breath. “What kind of husband would I be, what kind of father if I didn’t risk myself to free your name, your lineage? Do our children not get to know who they are?”
He had her cornered with that one. With her family dead, all that was left of them was her, and one day her children.
“I suppose,” she said softly…
(This is from a work in progress but it takes place in the same fictional world as Enduringly Yours.)
Darcy Branwyn 
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