The formal wedding was beautiful, and now their reception, the marriage bed, and their honeymoon awaited them… Kristina longed to be Drake’s wife and experience the joy of knowing that she was fully a woman. Her sister Kari had long been looked upon by her mother as the one who would marry and experience the joy the two of them could share.

Drake Had been impressed when Kristina became Lady Mariam’s servant, and she, Kristina was like Mariam. The more Kristina had found a special place with Mariam the more it endeared Krissy to Drake. He saw Kristina more as a friend with a special place with Lady Mariam than a servant. Mariam had become more joyful, and after Mariam’s, ill-fated trip to Carlton, with the Duke her father; Kristina's position with them was more precious. Kristina had denied any role in saving the Duke and his daughter, but Drake believed she had.

During their first dance, Drake said, “Now you can share with me your role in protecting the Royal Family?”

Kristina said, “You can only know, as you cannot spill the confidence the Duke places in you; so it was for me with the Duke and Mariam. The story has always been told without mention of me.”

The strong Knight kissed her, lifted her up, and spun around with her in his arms. The hot passion of the kiss lasted long after Kristina was back on her feet. She knew she was loved and held in the highest esteem by him. Her face had turned red and for a moment she was embarrassed to be kissed in public with such a passionate kiss. As they danced around the dance floor, other knights and noblemen lifted their glasses and saluted Drake. “Drake, I am embarrassed that our love feels like a well-read book.”

Drake responded, “Every man should wish he had the Bride I do. It is known why the Grand Duke of Manchester honored you. You were a hero where men had failed. Your beauty runs with the blood of a hero. Do you not know why I am esteemed by the other knights? They think I have the best of all worlds in you. You seem to understand me.”

Our conversation was entwined with our visiting with others. Lady Mariam curtsied to Kristina and asked permission to dance with Sir Drake. Krissy felt delighted that Mariam wanted in with Krissy’s story.

The party was still going on when Drake took Kristina to a house she knew nothing about and found a note from her mother-in-law that she left a nightgown for Krissy in her new bedroom. Drake shared that he had purchased it only two weeks ago.

Krissy brushed her as Drake came and whisked her off to their wedding bed. He became every bride’s wish for a man who was gentle yet full of passion. He took time to please Krissy, and she him. They heard people talking and celebrating on their way home, and Drake was again making love to her.

Kristina giggled, and Drake asked why. “Because I am having you, and I cannot believe the joy I am having. What will people say if I have a baby early?”

Drake: “That’s not funny, you would have to stop the birth until after nine months!”

Kristina giggled again, “You have no understanding then do you, about babies and moms?”

She was now Lady Kristina, learning to make their house a home. She had three dishes that she had learned from Marie her mother-in-law, and many soups, breads, and dinners she had and was still learning from her mother.

Drake liked the big meals that were part of hosting one family or the other. Kristina wasn’t thrilled to have another woman looking over her shoulder as she cooked or set a table. But it was usually better than having a group of knights and squires in their home.

Getting away to Mayfield was grand until she got sick one morning and then the next. Lady Marie was the first to suspect that Kristina was pregnant. Her Father-in-law had been thinking ahead. He would have made the little cradle himself, but he was not a great craftsman. Drake’s Uncle George had done it and confessed to staining, buffing, and polishing it three times. Even the side railings sparkled as it rocked back and forth.

Kristina was relieved after two months when the morning sickness subsided.

Lady Mariam’s wedding was now at hand, but it was improper for Mariam to have Kristina in her wedding. Now as Mariam had been at her cousin’s wedding, Lady Catherine of Manchester and Essex was now with her at her wedding. Catherine and Kristina were delighted to have fun with Mariam. Both women spoke to Martin of Carlton. He couldn’t believe they were telling him what he needed to do to make love to his Bride Mariam.

Mariam was not betrothed to the most sensitive of men, nor was he volunteering to learn. Martin however made the mistake of belittling Kristina to the point Drake had taken offense. Fortunately, it was not Drake but two of Martin’s knights who placed a sack over his head and got the message across without a word.

Mariam’s Father, the Duke of Yoreshire had turned a deaf ear, save the promise it would not happen again in his domain. “My daughter will be treated as royalty in your realm as she will in mine. The Days of Yore are to be known long into the future for the joy of our festivities.”

The wedding was beautiful; Martin was a gentleman proud to marry Lady Mariam. The two realms were united through the covenant of marriage. The sad part for Kristina was that Mariam’s permanent home was in Carlton.

(Though the Days of Yore, cannot be formally linked to the song, Have Yourself a Merry Christmas, nor can it be ruled out. The Shire of Yore had long ago been renamed; it was however a real place.)

Kristina was over seven months along, and feeling the strain of being pregnant, yet she considered herself blessed and delighted in carrying her first child. She and her mother walked the village of Yore. Kristina would enjoy before or after showing how she improved her home. Gone was any discussion of when she was Christopher. Nor did she talk of her intimate times with Drake. She was thrilled rather with how her experiences as a wife and would-be mother coincided with her mother. They were two women sharing common experiences.

It was late in the eighth month of Kristina’s pregnancy when Mariam arrived and stayed in her room. The bed was bigger in case Carlton would come to be with her. Mariam went to see Kristina as one lady to another. Mariam was able to share the news that she was in her second month of having missed her menstrual cycle and suspected she was with child.

Mariam felt Kristina’s abdomen when the child in Krissy was moving. The women giggled together; it would be another joy that they both shared. Lady Mariam said, “I will be pampered more than you for having more servants and Beth to care for her child.

Kristina said, “My mother says I will have different joys, not having the courts to respond to. It is true having a wet nurse will have its advantages for you.”

“Our next joy after Sheila’s birth; would be to purchase a riding carriage so we can visit his parents in Mayfield and Lady Mariam in Carlton.”

It was the third night of Krissy’s mother Karen staying with them and Kristina was now ready to give birth. Her sisters Kari, Kate, and Kelly were at the house helping their mother and comforting Krissy. Her womb didn’t want to open as wide as most mothers. She tore in giving birth and it was indeed a girl, but she was named Mary Ann because her mother said the baby looked more like Drake and his sister Mary.

Drake was a proud father, but within a week, it was known she needed yet to give birth to a boy and another girl to be Sheila. Her mother had sewn the tare, but birthing more children would come with the added pain of a cut or a tare.

There was the joy of young Mary Ann finding Krissy’s breasts and nursing. Mariam had the joy of sharing two weeks of afternoons watching her friend nurse her baby. It was then time for her to return to Carlton with the confirmed news that she was with child. The Duke and Duchess of Yore had paid for Beth to be trained as a nurse and to care for Mariam’s child. One bruise that Mariam had when she came had healed and Beth would be free to communicate any ill-treatment Mariam would receive in the future.

It was at six months that Krissy traveled with little Mary Ann to Carlton to be with Mariam at the birth of her first child. It was a journey that came with some trepidation, traveling across the country. Being a mother caused her to fear for her baby’s safety and the possibility of road bandits.

The birthing of a son came as great news to the house of Carlton. What wasn’t joyful to the sight of Kristina days later, was bruising on the back of Mariam’s legs. Her rage was dealt to Martin and contempt to the Duchess of Carlton who knew but was silent. The day before Kristina returned to Yore, Martin had an accident. He would recover but a scar would remain.

It was at ten months that Mary Ann could stand and soon walk. Kristina and Drake had decided that passion reached new heights in their relationship, and a child was conceived. And it was over twenty months that Kristina gave birth to Thomas Warren. Thomas was born bigger than Mary Ann and thus was born with much pain to Kristina. It would be over three years and a miscarriage that Sheila Mariam was born. Sheila had been Christopher’s imaginary friend since he was old enough to remember.

Kristina and Drake were married for over forty years, during which Drake acquired more scars and a limp, and he became the trainer of young knights. Those knights would lose no travelers under their care.
Thus were the days of Yore,
The End