Read Online Ruby - Book 1 (Daughters of the Dagger Series) by Elizabeth Rose - Free Book Online Page B

reality of being married settling against her brain.
This wasn’t at all how she’d envisioned her wedding day. But then
again, she also thought she’d stay unmarried and with her father
for the rest of her life so she really hadn’t any visions in her
head of how it was supposed to be.
    “Shouldn’t you put it on me?” she asked,
still holding it up in front of her.
    “I can if you want me to,” he said, taking
the ring from her, brushing his fingers against hers in the
process, and that damned tingle against her skin was back again. “I
just didn’t know if you’d want to wear it, considering the
circumstances and all.”
    He picked up her hand in his and was about
to slide the ring onto her finger when an awful thought flitted
through her mind.
    “Wait!” she said, stopping him by pulling
her hand away. “By any chance . . . is that the same ring the rest
of your wives wore?”
    “Aye, ’tis. Now give me your hand.”
    “Nay!” She pulled her hand to her chest. “I
can’t wear a cursed ring.”
    “Cursed?” He inspected the ring, his mouth
pursed in the process. “Why would you think the ring is
cursed?”
    “Has not every woman who has worn it wound
up dead?”
    “Well . . . I suppose so.”
    “Then I cannot put it around my finger and
please don’t ask me to.”
    “Suit yourself, then.” He put the ring into
the pouch at his side, and she felt a surge of disappointment stab
at her heart. Here she was – married and without her family present
- and she didn’t even have a ring to seal the vows.
    “Use this,” she said, slipping the ruby ring
that used to be her mother’s off the finger on her right hand and
holding it out to him.
    He whistled and held it up to the light to
peruse it. “This is quite nice. Much nicer than the ring I had to
offer. But ’tis already yours, so it won’t do.” He went to give it
back to her and the pang of disappointment grew stronger.
    “Nay! Please use it . . . for now,” she
said. “To seal the vows of marriage.”
    “As you wish,” he told her, “but I thought
it would not matter to you.”
    She thought so as well, until she’d seen the
gold ring he’d tried to give her and reality hit her hard. She was
married now, like it or not. She was his wife and this man beside
her was now her husband.
    “Hold out your hand,” he instructed.
    “Have the chaplain bless it first,” she
said. When she saw the scowl on his face and thought he was going
to object, she added, “please.”
    The chaplain looked over, having heard his
name mentioned, and she blurted out the request just in case Nyle
decided not to go along with it.
    “Father Francis, will you please bless this
ring for our marriage?” she asked.
    “Of course,” he said, taking the ring in his
hand and saying a prayer over it, then pulling a small bottle of
holy water from his pouch and sprinkling it atop the ring. “Here
you are,” he said, handing it back to Nyle.
    She held old her left hand, and this time
the look in his eyes was not of aggravation, but more reserved, and
if she didn’t know better – caring. He slipped the ring onto the
proper finger and looked into her eyes. She saw want within them,
as well as need. Both of these things scared her. Then she thought
of their wedding night and this scared her even more. She
remembered the stories she’d heard the men relaying years ago when
she’d disguised herself as a page and went along on their hunting
trip. She felt her heart beating faster and she was sure her face
was reddening as well, as she felt a sudden surge of heat. She
pulled her hand away and grabbed for the goblet, downing the wine
in one swig in order to calm her nerves.
    “You keep that up and you’ll be prone on the
floor before I ever take you to our wedding bed,” he said.
    Her hand shot out to the cupbearer to have
him refill it. Then once again, she quaffed the wine, hoping that
was exactly what would happen. Because if she wasn’t passed out
before