Between Wolves & Doves

Chapter 23 Discovery

When Iris woke up the next morning, it was to the sight of her new home, entirely blanketed in white. Blotted all over the tree tops.

The bustling of a quiet chamber maid woke her. She padded in the room silently and lit the fire. The churning orange flame and the crackle of it eating through the wood was what woke Iris.

Through sleep blurred eyes and obscured by the scarlet and gold silk hangings of the bed.

She raises her head off the crumpling feather pillow and squints very un-prettily over in the general vicinity of the maid. Watches her put the moss and flint away in her pail bucket. "Good morning my lady." She nods sweetly before smiling and ducking out the room.

Iris blinks peering over at her husband who slumbered deeply on the pillow opposite. Sitting up she drags a hand through her hair. Her cotton dress skims off one shoulder, whispering against her skin as she moved. She'd tugged it in after their amour last night.

Her arms get cold in her sleep. Kylo always seemed to sense it. Wraps her up snug in his chest and keeps her captive and plied with kisses.

She turns and admires her husband. He truly was a big wedge of a warrior body turned towards her. Bare chested. She watches his ribs rise and fall softly. His solid arm clutching over the covers at his thick set waist. Inky hair swirled around his head sunken into his own pillow.

His huge body pasted under the covers. Red blood and icy snow sheets covering him. She kisses the side of his cut glass sharp jaw. He grumbles something and his arm flails for her, but she's already slid out of bed.

She's grateful for the amber warmth of the fire seeping it's leeching heat into her skin. Warming up the exposed stone room. It had been muggy last night - the air had been spiced with sweat, moans and muggy heat from gasping mouths. Now that lust and bliss of scorching bodies, had dissipated. And coldness hardened the bedchamber over night as frost crawled up the walls.

Iris warms by the fire, idling for a moment. Before she crosses to the window to take a peek of the view that astounds her still. Thick acres of pine forest stab up from the earth like giants. When she gets to the window, she smears the condensation of cold away with her hand. Pins of shrieking cold on her skin as she looks at the completely snowed over landscape.

White snow blotted and muffled and sifted damp and heavy on everything in sight. Weighting down the giants that were the trees. Lashed onto every bark and heaped on the forest floor. Frost sneaking into every nook and cranny of that forest. Hiding under every leaf. Snuck under the ground and curled at the roots.

It was snowing still. And it must have been slowly shifting down its white petals all night. The forest floor is thick with it. She's keen to explore every part of this castle. And now she's hankering to find the stables and take Erland for a ride through the quaint forest in all its snow and glory. See just how far the castle boundary's stretched for.

Another grumble comes across from the bed. Slithering out from the silk drapes that obscured the occupants.

"Dove?" Grumbles her sleepy husband. She hears the rasp of his hands searching across the covers. Seeking for her in the big big bed. She could roll over twice and not touch her husband. They slept on bolster cushions and feather down and it was like being lulled to sleep in a warm soft lake.

"It's snowed." She remarks quietly. Transfixed by the view out of the window. Pulling the heavy rust velvet curtain aside to marvel some more. Frost swirled up the huge windows. Crusted onto the stone balcony outside the window. Stuck on the ledges and clinging on with its icy fingers.

"It snows an awful lot here, my love. You'll be sick of it after a week." He promises with a kind smile. Lounging on his back. Hands crossed over his belly, one leg bent and tenting the red covers.