It was dark outside. The candles were guttering. The two performed their nightly tithe. A drop of blood spilled into the bowl near their portal. Words murmured. Edmund's family had used a different phrase from hers. Their words collided over each other. She wasn't certain she had said the full benediction, yet the words didn't matter as much as the intent. It was the most they'd spoken in each other's presence since they'd been wed.
They retired to the bedroom. Shyly, she undressed under the covers. She hadn't been nude around anyone other than a doctor since she was old enough to bathe herself without needing help. Edmund joined her.
They had sat next to each other for some time before consummating their marriage, saying nothing. His body had been twisted away from hers. A hand clenched a thigh. When she touched it, he flinched it away, keeping it still at the last moment, like an animal learning the touch of a new person. They held hands.
He was as untried as she. When they kissed, teeth scraped lips. Her mother had told her what to expect, to guide him in, but he was soft and couldn't find a way in. Trying again, rousing him with her hand as she'd been told she might have to do, he entered her. Anne felt some tingles of warmth deep within herself. Edmund had finally calmed and looked at peace as he thrust into her. Soon, though, he was finishing, and his seed was inside her.
Edmund was sticky with sweat. Anne merely felt sticky. He collapsed next to her, rolling around to hold her. “That was perfect. Thank you.” Anne decided she liked his smile, those times it was apparent. She felt his warm bulk curled up to her through the night. He emitted the occasional snore. She was married. She was a wife. She was no longer a maiden. She couldn't calm her racing thoughts. She lay in bed, eyes unable to close all night, listening to the man in bed next to her.