“You better take off those wet clothes,” Daniel said. “Let’s hope some of the things in our valises have remained dry.”
My hands were freezing. I fumbled with the clasp of my valise and found what I hoped was my nightgown. It felt damp, but that might just have been my cold wet hands. I was now shivering uncontrollably and felt near to tears. I swallowed them back. There was no way I wanted to expose a weakness to my new husband. I tried to undo the ribbon that tied my cape at my chin. My fingers refused to obey me and the knot had become sodden and immovable.
“It’s no use. I can’t do it!” I shouted angrily.
“Do what?” Daniel asked gently.
“Take off my cape. I can’t undo the knot.” I must have sounded like a small helpless child because he put his arms around me.
“It’s all right,” he said. “We’re safe now. And you have a husband who is happy to undress you.” I felt his hands at my throat. “Blasted knot,” he muttered after a struggle. “I’ll just have to break the ribbon.”
I started to protest. It was my new traveling outfit, part of my trousseau. But then I didn’t want to wear it all night either. Daniel yanked and pulled and I heard fabric ripping as the sodden garment fell away from me. “That’s taken care of that,” he said, throwing it to one side. “Turn around.” Then his hands moved from my cape to my dress, patiently undoing all the hooks. “Thank God you don’t wear a corset,” he muttered. “I think that would be beyond me.” His hands lingered on my body. “My God, you’re cold,” he said. “Get something dry on you quickly.”
“My nightdress is completely damp,” I said. “I don’t know what else to wear.”
I heard the click of his valise. “Here, take my nightshirt.”
“Then what will you wear?”
“I’ll be all right. I expect my underwear is dry enough.”
I heard him struggling to take off his own clothes, then he said, “Come here,” and enveloped me in his arms.
“You’re as cold as I am,” I said, feeling his half-naked body pressing against me.
“We’ll soon get warm now.” He pulled me down with him into the straw. I lay against him, resting my head against his chest.
“Now this reminds me of another time,” he added. “Do you remember?”
“Of course.” It had been long ago now. A similar storm, a lonely barn, and the first and only time I had let down my guard enough to give in to Daniel’s lovemaking. A lot of water had passed under the bridge since that night. Then I wasn’t sure he would ever marry me. And now I was his wife, lying in his arms quite legally. I snuggled up to him, feeling better already.
“I’m glad this isn’t our actual honeymoon,” Daniel muttered. “It would be one hell of a way to start our marriage, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I whispered. “Rather romantic, if you ask me.”
“If you don’t mind this dratted straw scratching and tickling and the wind whistling through the cracks in the door.”
“I know a way to take your mind off it.” I nuzzled against him. Daniel needed no second invitation.
* * *
I awoke to a shaft of bright sunlight falling on me and to a vast figure standing over me.
“Holy mother of God!” a voice muttered. “What have we here? Gypsies? How in heaven’s name did you get onto the property? Go on, be off with you immediately before I call the police.”
Daniel sat up, eyeing the figure blearily. “Good morning,” he said. “I take it that you’re the housekeeper, and I also take it that you’re either deaf or a sound sleeper.”
“What for the love of Mike are you blathering about?” She spoke with a thick Irish brogue, sounding almost like a vaudeville stage Irishwoman.
I was now awake enough to notice that she was a large elderly woman dressed entirely in black, and she was standing with her hands on her hips.
“Only that we stood hammering at the front door last night and nobody let us in,” Daniel said. “So we had to resort to sleeping in the barn.”
The woman removed her hands from her hips and raised them in a gesture of horror. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Don’t tell me that you’re Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan.”
“We are indeed,” Daniel said. “So you were expecting us. And yet the gate was locked and nobody answered our knocking on the front door. A fine welcome if you don’t mind my saying so.”
“God forgive me,” she said. “I waited for you until past nine o’clock and then I didn’t think you would possibly come so late and in that storm. I’d been told to expect you early afternoon, so I assumed you’d been delayed and would be arriving today. So I locked up as usual. I don’t sleep on the premises while the family is not here, you see. I go back to my own little house in town. And the master is very particular about everything being locked safely for the night.”