"Ohhhh!" she half sobbed as he released her lips. "Oh!" There was a hot tightness building inside her. "What is happening to me?" she moaned desperately as she felt her body beginning to spiral out of control. She was soaring! It was wonderful! She didn't want it to stop! Up. Up. Up. She could go on forever like this. Then the sensation climaxed, bursting like a thousand shooting stars inside both her body and her brain. "Ohhhhh!" she cried, overwhelmed by the pleasure, and disappointed as she felt the deli-ciousness melting away as quickly as it had come upon her.
"No!" Cailin said, and then she opened her eyes and looked into his. "More!" she demanded.
Wulf Ironfist burst out laughing, but there was no mockery in the sound. It was the laughter of a happy and relieved man. He smoothed her hair from her face and rolled off of her, kissing the tip of her nose as he did so. Then propping himself up against the wall of the bed space, he looked down into her face and said, "I hope you gained as much pleasure from our passion as I did, lambkin." Then he drew her into the safety of his strong arms.
Cailin nodded, turning her head to look up at him. Her euphoria was abating slightly, but she was not unhappy. "After the pain it was wonderful," she told him shyly.
"There is only pain the first time," he promised. "We shall make fine children. The gods have been kind to us, Cailin Drusus. We are well-mated and well-matched, I think."
"Your seed is fierce," she said, blushing with the remembrance of how she felt it flooding her with sharp bursts. "Perhaps even now we have begun our first son, Wulf Ironfist," she finished as they slipped beneath the coverlet again.
He lay his great blond head upon her breasts, and was pleased when she cradled him as protectively as he had her. He had come to the Dobunni seeking land. The gods, in their wisdom, had given him Cailin, and a brand new future.
"If we were in your world," he said, "and I had asked your father for you, and he had consented, how would our marriage be celebrated?"
"The ceremony would begin at my father's villa," Cailin told him. "The house would be decorated with flowers, if there were any, and boughs of greenery, finely spun colored wool, and tapestries. The omens would be taken in the hour of the false dawn, and being auspicious, the guests would begin arriving even before the sunrise. They would come from all the neighboring villas, and from the town of Corinium, too.
"The bride and the groom would come to the atrium, and the ceremony would begin. We would be brought together by a happily married matron who would be our pronuba. She would join our hands before ten formal witnesses, although actually all our guests would be present."
"Why ten?" he asked her.
"Ten for the ten original patrician families of Rome," she answered him, and then continued, "I would then say the ancient words of my consent to our marriage. 'When-and where-you are Gaius, I then-and there-am Gaia.' We would then move to the left of the family altar and face it, sitting on stools covered with the skin of sheep sacrificed for the occasion. My father would then offer a cake of spelt to Jupiter. We would eat the cake, while my father prayed aloud to Juno, who is Goddess of Marriage. He would pray to Nodens, and to other gods of the land, both Roman and Celtic. Afterward we would be considered truly wed. There are other forms of the marriage ceremony, but this was the one always used by my family.
"My parents would then host a great feast which would last the entire day. At the end of it pieces of our wedding cake would be distributed to our guests for luck. Then I would be formally escorted to my husband's home. You would seize me from the shelter of my mother's arms, and I would take my place in the procession. We would be led by torch bearers, and musicians, and anyone along the way might join in the parade. Indeed, this procession was considered the final stamp of validity to a marriage in the old days.
"It is customary for a bride to be attended by three young boys whose parents are both living. Two would walk next to me and hold my hands, while the third would go before me carrying a branch of hawthorn. Behind me would be carried a spindle and distaff. I would have three coins of silver; one I would offer to the gods of the Crossroads, the second I would give to you, representing my dowry, and the third I would offer to your household gods."
"And would I do nothing except stride proudly along?" he said.
"Oh, no," Cailin told him. "You would scatter sesame cakes, nuts, and other sweetmeats among the bystanders. When we reached your house, I would decorate the door posts with colored wool, and anoint the door with precious oils. Then you would lift me up and carry me across the threshold. It is considered bad luck if a bride's foot should slip while entering her new home."
"I would not let you slip," he promised, and lifting his head up, he kissed her lips. "Is that all?"
"No," Cailin said with a little laugh. "There is more. As you carried me into the house, I would repeat the same words I had said to you at our marriage ceremony. Then the door would be closed to the crowds outside."
"And we would be alone at last!" Wulf Ironfist said.
"No," Cailin answered, giggling. "We would have certain invited guests with us. You would put me upon my feet and offer me fire and water as a token of the life we would share, and as symbols of my duty in our home. There would be wood and kindling already set in the hearth, which I would light with the marriage torch. Then I would toss the torch among our guests. It is considered very lucky to gain possession of a marriage torch."
"Then our guests would go home, and we would finally be alone," he said. "Am I right, Cailin Drusus?"
She chuckled. "No."
"No?" he said in exaggerated tones of outrage.
"I would have to recite a prayer first," she said.
"A long prayer?" He pretended to look aggrieved.
"Not too long," she replied, "and afterward the pronuba would lead me to our marriage couch, which would be placed in the center of the atrium on the first night of our marriage. It would always remain in its original position as a symbol of our union."
" 'Tis a long day for a bride and groom," he said.
"How do the Saxons celebrate their marriages?" she asked him.
"A man buys his wife," Wulf Ironfist replied. "Of course he usually makes certain first that the maid is of a similar frame of mind. Then he approaches her family-through an intermediary, of course-to see what and how much they will take for the girl. Then the offer is formally made. Perhaps it is accepted, or perhaps a little more dickering goes on. Once the bride price is agreed upon and exchanged, a feast is held, and afterward the happy couple go home-without their guests, I might add," he concluded.
Then he took her chin between his thumb and forefinger. "Say your words to me, Cailin Drusus." His voice was soft, his tone caressing, his manhood beginning to stir once again. "Say your words to me, lambkin. I will be a good husband to you, I swear by all the gods, both yours and mine."
"When-and where-you are Gaius, I then-and there-am Gaia," Cailin told him. How odd, she thought. I waited all my life for the right man to say those words to, but never did I think to say them, stark naked, in a bed space in a Dobunni village to a Saxon. Still, Cailin decided she was fortunate. She sensed that Wulf Ironfist was an honorable and a good man. She needed his protection, for without her family she had no one. Ceara and Maeve did the best they could for her, but they had gone away, and she had found herself at the mercy of Berikos and his vicious Catuvellauni wife. It would not happen again. Then she heard the Saxon's voice, strong and sure, and she looked into his blue eyes.