My first JE fic! Just the prologue for now, but far more to come if you like it!

I stared into the mirror. I stared at my deep green dress, at the soft curls in my hair, at my eyes. Eyes that were no longer brimming with the girlish excitement that they had a year ago. There was something far deeper there now. I was a woman. It had been five days since I returned to my master, and but three since he had asked me to be his wife. For the second time. Now I was his, and only his. Unlike during our previous engagement, I had been unable to keep my Edward at arms length. He needed me now. Not just in the romantic and sentimental way he had before, but for his very strength of mind and body. Despite that change, despite the changes in me, and despite the changes in him, we were as we ever were. The same twin souls, the same vigorous minds, the same single heart.

I continued down the hall, past the small parlour where I had taken breakfast with him, past the cosy drawing room where we had spent the past four evenings since my return, and out the door to the courtyard where I had beheld him five days since. Where I now beheld him again. My husband, my Edward.

"Jane?" he called, holding out his hand. I took it gladly, kissing its palm softly. "You gave John and Mary the five pounds?"

I replied that I had, and tucking my hand around his injured arm, led him out the gate. Together we walked, contented, through the woods surrounding Ferndean, meandering through its dark, twisted, tenacious blackness. We walked in silence for a time, neither of us knowing what to say, while understanding that nothing needed to be said. Edward stumbled a little occasionally, on a protruding branch or twig, but he never fell. I was always there to keep him steady, and he never begrudged his reliance on my aid.

After a while we stopped and rested on a fallen tree, my head against his chest, his arm around my small body.

"Are you happy Jane?" He asked me gently, running his fingers across my back. "Are you truly happy?"

I was.

All comments are VERY welcome