Mrs. Brandon: The Story of Christopher and Marianne

Chapter 6 - A Gift for the Colonel

Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Sense and Sensibility! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates on the second and fourth Saturday of each month!
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As the weeks wore on, the days gradually became greyer and colder.

The chill of winter seemed to have a fresh sting that year as Marianne and Christopher spent their evenings covered by heavy blankets as they sat side by side on the parlor's sofa.

After more than a half year as a married couple and no indication that their many passionate trysts had brought them any closer to starting a family, Colonel Brandon and his wife frowned as they stared into the fireplace.

"I'm sorry, Christopher." Marianne whispered as she stared into the crackling flames.

"What could you possibly have to apologize for, my love?" Christopher asked as he glanced over at his darling.

"All these months I've slept beside you and I've failed to complete a wife's most essential duty." She explained with a bitter laugh.

Christopher's face fell into a deep frown as Marianne pouted while he took her hand in his.

The flames in the hearth crackled as heavy snow beat against the windows.

Christopher looked his beloved in the eye and reminded her, "My darling Marianne........I married you for love.......Not for money, not for an exchange of services, and certainly not for the production of infants."

Marianne's pout deepened as she looked at Christopher and huffed, "Your words are deeply moving, my love!.........Yet I still yearn to see a proud smile on your face."

"That smile exists every time I look at you." Christopher replied as he gazed at Marianne while a smile of pure, genuine pride crossed his face.

"That's not the smile I speak of, Christopher....." Marianne replied with a bittersweet laugh, "It's a different sort of smile I'm seeking, a simpler smile, a father's smile......."

Christopher's smile faded as he pressed his other hand over their intertwined fingers and looked at Marianne as he nodded, "And do we not love each other and have one another?.......Regardless of when or if any children are born, are we not enough to keep each other company, Marianne?"

"Of course we are!" She hastily exclaimed with a frown, "I meant no offense, Christopher, merely that I'd like to make you proud and see to my own happiness as well."

".....Your own happiness?" Christopher asked as his eyes scanned her face questioningly, "Are you not happy, my love, as we are now?"

While he waited in anxious suspense to hear what his wife would say, his gaze flickered over her as nervously as if he expected her to strike him.

"Well, of course I am, Christopher....though, I....I'd love to be a mother." Marianne chuckled.

She looked into Christopher's eyes as a dreamy sadness settled into her blue stare, "I desire the same privilege my mother and her mother before her knew....to hold my children in my arms."

Christopher's mouth fell open as he listened to his beloved bride discuss her desire to bear his sons and daughters.

He tried to convince himself the throb of arousal the thought elicited, which ran through his belly and into his groin, was just an instinctive impulse, nothing more.

Civilized gentlemen weren't supposed to derive pleasure at the thought of their wives giving them little ones, but as Christopher imagined Marianne lying in bed as she cradled her rounded womb, he felt his trousers become uncomfortably tight.