1863 Saratoga Summer Page 28

  “Sit down in the chair, Connor.” A mysterious, womanly half-smile crossed her face. “I’m wanting a wee talk with you before you set off again.”

  Slowly, she wound her arms around his neck. Being this close to him awakened new sensations in Sinead’s body. Not knowing what to do next, she brushed at the hair near his collar with gentle fingertips.

  He shoved a hand through his hair. He fidgeted, moving about in a rather aimless fashion, as if looking for some place to put his wife. Something was wrong, he decided, but there was little time to understand it all. His mind struggled with various foreboding thoughts.

  He crossed the room with her still in his arms and tried to put her into an overlarge wing-hair near the windows, but she tightened her arms around his neck. Her heart thudded against his chest, a deep, heavy beat, matching his own.

  Her lips curved into a cajoling smile. “I’ll sit on your lap, if you don’t mind?”

  What was left of his mind was twirling in all directions, just from the feel of her fragrant body close to him. He took a deep breath and plunged down into the chair. He took her arms from around his neck and placed her hands in her lap. “What is the matter with you, Sinead?”

  Not one to cower before a challenge, she pursed her lips, squeezed them into a round ball and turned them in his direction. “Nothing,” she said lightly. “I want you to kiss me Connor.”

  He stared at her, at her mouth. The way she was posed assured him of her naivety. Her lips were drawn so tightly together he wanted to make them go soft and yielding.

  “Sinead, have you ever been with a man?” he asked in a level voice.

  Her eyes opened wide and she glared at him. “Of course not! What do you think I am?”

  “Have you ever been kissed by a man?”

  She laughed, as if he just made the silliest joke. “Of course I have. Robbie kisses me all the time. My da always kissed me good night when I was small, and, each night before I went to my room next to Robbie’s, Robert Cavanaugh would kiss my forehead.”

  “Nae, I mean have you ever been kissed by a man who had more serious intentions regarding your person?”

  “I don’t know what you…” A dull red rose over her ears. “Och, you’re talking about in a carnal way?”

  “Aye, lass.” His eyes flashed a warning. There was steel in his tone that insisted upon the truth.

  Sinead bit back a gasp of outrage. “What do you think I am? One of those ladies from the boarding house?” The words flew out of her mouth before she considered the wisdom of saying them aloud.

  She moved to stand, but as soon as her feet touched the floor, she winced and fell back onto his lap. “I have never allowed any one to take liberties with me. A few tried, but I smacked them down to their true size.”

  He stared at her, his face hot. “I thought as much.”

  “Well, you are so smart. Now, I have some other things to tell you.” Her anger at full force now, she spit more words at him. “I am not going back to that boarding house and I want my son taken out of there as quickly as possible. My da can stay there all he likes.”

  “What is this all about?”

  She jabbed a finger at him. “Don’t pretend innocence with me, sir. You recognized immediately what kind of women they were.”

  His eyes narrowed. He arched an eyebrow and glared. “And what kind of women did you think they are?”

  “They’re whores, ladies of the evening that sell their bodies for some man’s pleasures.” Her lips thinned with righteousness.

  “Don’t you think that’s a bit harsh?” He arched a brow and stared at her. His voice was chilling. “Do you have any idea of why they might feel they have to sell their bodies?”

  “They do it for their own pleasure, I’m sure,” she countered, raising her chin a notch.

  “If you believe that then you have a lot to learn, lassie. I’ve seen women who have sold their bodies so their children will have food. Irish women. During the great famine. Learn this bit of philosophy before you learn about kissing. There are many reasons for doing all sorts of things. I think you’d better consider the possibilities. Have such things happened to you? If not, you’d better make sure they don’t.”

  “Are you threatening me, Connor O’Malley? If you are, I’m not afraid of you. And I don’t want to talk right now, anyway. Kiss me,” she ordered.

  Again, she pursed her lips and kept them squeezed shut in a totally unappealing way. This time Connor decided he’d take the plunge into the icy waters indicated by her attitudes. He touched her mouth with his own. He did it softly with a feathery touch and could feel her heart pounding. He pulled away. “There. Are you satisfied?”

  “You didn’t kiss me hard enough. I hardly knew you were there.” She frowned, confused.

  He barely kept his mouth from curving into a smile. “All right, Sinead. We’ll try again. I guess right now is as good a time for a lesson than any other.” His lips curved with reluctant amusement.

  He put his thumb on her mouth and rubbed her lower lip gently. Slowly, her mouth softened. He drew her to him within an arc of his arm and let her rest against his chest, her head beneath his chin. He kissed a side of her face and the bottom of her ear. She tried to turn toward him. Her eyes were closed. He reached for her cheekbone with his mouth and let his tongue touch the sharpest angle. His lips traveled up the side of her face, inching from one section to another.

  Her gasp of surprise delighted him. He turned her face toward him with the gentle touch of one hand and laid his lips against hers, moving them ever so slightly over her mouth and taking small nips along the way. He continued pressing her against him, astonished to feel her back arch against his arm, to feel her strain against him.

  He made every effort to control the hardening between his thighs. He crossed his legs, shrugged free of her mouth to break the kiss and sat still. He stared at her flushed face, her half opened eyes.

  She looked relaxed, almost stupefied, like a sorceress who would fulfill his dreams. He needed to put some distance between them.

  “I’m going to take you into the kitchen.” He hazarded a glance at her face. “I want to take a look at your poor feet. Let’s get your boots off.”

  “My feet?” Her mind couldn’t follow his. She was confused, disoriented and numbed by the warm force of her feelings.

  “Aye, your feet. You said they stung, didn’t you?”

  “I can barely feel them now.”

  “Well let’s take a serious look at them, before you run around the house, cleaning, in your bare feet.”

  “Cleaning? Bare feet?”

  Connor stopped himself from grinning. “Aye, won’t you want to be doing some cleaning of this place. That is, if you remember what you said that you intend to stay here and not go back to the boarding house.

  “Right,” she mused. I remember saying that.”

  “And lass, do you remember where you might have left the little laddie?” His solicitous questions startled her. “Won’t you be wanting him here with you?”

  “My da will bring him before long.”

  “Does your da know where you are? That you’ve gone away? I’m sure he’s going to be worried.”

  She straightened. “Och, Jaysus. My da doesn’t know! I didn’t tell him when I ran off. Connor, I have to go back to get Robbie.” She sat so still, in shock, twisting her fingers in her lap. “What have I done? This is the result of my own foolishness, not my da’s. I’ve been such a fool.” Glimmers of unshed tears flashed in her eyes.

  “Don’t worry, lass. I’ll send someone to fetch them both.”

  “Och, that’s so kind of you,” she said, snuggling back into the comfort of his arms. You don’t really have to do that for me.”

  He nodded. “I know, but I want to. I’ve been much taken with your father and the lad. They’re fine folks, Sinead.”

  “Connor?”

  “What is it now, lass?” He breathed in her sweet fragrance and tried to quell the desire r
ebuilding in his loins. “What?”

  “Will you be kissing me again?” It was half a statement of her wanting, half a question for his.

  “You can count on it, wife.” His mind burned feverishly with images.

  Sighing deeply, Connor stood abruptly and carried Sinead to the kitchen. He sat her in a high-backed wooden chair and examined her feet, massaging them a bit, despite her flinching at each touch. They were definitely blistered and raw.

  Wishing he had the medicine he used on his horses, he filled a bucket with water and set it down in front of her. Slowly, he put her one foot in the bucket then the other and she let them sink to the bottom.

  His heart nearly stopped at the dreamy expression on her face when he left her soaking her feet in the bucket. He smiled down at her. The wondrous look she gave back to him threatened to make him cease taking the deep, regular breaths necessary to life. He grinned. Perhaps, his life was getting better.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The day Sinead arrived on the property, Connor sent two workmen to find her father and son. It was an easy job. Believing his daughter to be having one of her infrequent temper tantrums, Bowes stayed at the boarding house with Robbie. They chatted and drank lemonade with the ladies when they weren’t busy with customers.

  The two moved into the stone farmhouse late that afternoon. Bowes was suspicious about his unusually quiet, normally happy, sweet-talking daughter. She showed little discontent with the home forced upon her, in a place she claimed to detest. He wondered if his words at the boarding house affected her to the point where she acted in a daze.

  She kept Robbie close to the house, afraid he might be hurt by one of the three horses now occupying the paddock and barn. She dealt pleasantly with every worker who stopped at the house. However, she seemed nervous, as if constantly on the lookout for something, staring out the front windows for long stretches of time, doing little more than thinking.

  Did my words make a cleft in the rock wall she placed in front of herself? Bowes wondered. Did it make her think of her present situation? Perhaps, he thought, when he noticed the difference in her demeanor. He noticed a change in Connor’s as well.

  Bowes grinned.

  ~*~

  Within two days after the family was established in the house, Sinead sent her father down to the new barn to get him out from under foot. He was gone less than an hour when Connor appeared on the porch.

  He lifted Robbie into his arms, let him wrap his legs around his hips and marched the both of them indoors. He pretended to drop him. Robbie giggled and clung to the man’s neck in mock fear.

  Connor pointedly addressed Sinead. “The lad’s grown in the last few weeks of traveling through this vast state. He’s gotten taller, lost some of his fat.” Connor said, poking the boy in the ribs, “and gained muscle tone.”

  Robbie flexed his arm and felt a small bump of a muscle. Sinead wanted to laugh at the sight of his “John Morrissey” pose but didn’t for fear of offending her son.

  “Why he no longer looks like such a little round ball of a baby, nor does he act like one anymore. He’s gotten quite manly,” Connor said. “I’m going to start calling him Rob to fit his new size.”

  Connor put a hand under Sinead’s elbow and snaked it around her back to untie her apron, which he let fall to the floor. He gave her a quick kiss on the neck then, taking her hand in his, made her step over it. He led her onto the front porch. “Come lass. It’s time to look over your new surroundings. You’ve spent far too much time in the house. It’s time to show my new wife and son around the farm that is to be their new home.”

  When she gave him a surprised look, he added, “Although I’ve been busy, I’ve noticed what you’ve done to make the house look like a home. You’ve worked hard. You’ve turned this house into a lovely place, fit for a king.”

  “Don’t be patronizing, Connor. Under our present circumstances, I only did what was best for Robbie.”

  “Rob, Mama, Rob. I want to be called Rob from now on. I’m gonna’ tell my grandda, too.”

  “Alright, darling.” Sinead smiled at her son. “Rob needs a home that’s worthy of his new size.”

  The last thing Connor wanted to do was to start an argument with his bride, so he nodded in agreement. He understood she would need a bit of wooing, but hoped it was not in vain. What he desired was to interest her enough to consummate the marriage and go back to Ireland with him.

  Of late, the hours they spent in each others company passed far too quickly and it was difficult for him to look at her without feeling a stirring in his loins. He had to admit, he was getting quite fond of her, in a lustful way. Perhaps, the marriage could be a viable one if they just pulled together on some things. He shook his head to force himself out of this introspection. He was a man of action.

  His thoughts strayed back again to the subject on his mind. Several things stood in their way. First, her overzealous concern, almost a stifling concern, was not good for the boy. Secondly, Connor couldn’t envision a court, which would deny her claim of motherhood. But then, he knew nothing of the laws of this country.

  He wondered how she’d fare in Ireland, at O’Malley House, where most of his brothers lived and all their horses were kept. He understood the need to interest her in the animals, somehow. Today would be the very first step.

  “I’d like you to visit the barn and paddock the men and I constructed,” he said, leading the way. “We’ve built everything so your da would have a permanent home to look forward to when we go back to Ireland.”

  As soon as he said the words, he knew he’d taken a wrong turn. In one instant she froze, became a stranger, making him aware how pleasant and open her expression was only moments ago.

  “What makes you think, for one moment, we are going to Ireland? she asked in a decidedly cool tone. “You must understand by now, the Dewitts will never give up custody and I…”

  “Somewhere, somehow, a compromise will be reached. I promise you,” he vowed. “There is something those Dewitts want, something other than this fine laddie, here.” Connor squeezed his legs until Robbie laughed at the action.

  “I need to discover what it is they require. Egan and I discussed it.” Connor looked into the sheer glory of her face but with a twist of lust in his belly. “Egan will learn their secrets. If anyone can do it, Egan can.”

  He shifted the boy onto his back and folded the skinny young legs over his arms. “Also, lass, I have no intention of living the rest of my life without those things, which keep me sane. I don’t think I could.”

  “And what keeps you sane may I ask?” Sinead asked, beginning to draw back.

  “My life with the horses. I have lived on a farm my entire life. The farm did nothing for generations on end but raise racing stock. It’s a tradition in my family.” A smile dotted his face. “I love the feel of a horse, singing with speed, beneath my body, and me, with the wind whistling my ears…”

  “There are horses in America as well,” she snapped.” Och, this discussion is useless.” Her face reflected her every passing emotion. “Let’s see what you and my da rendered on this isolated piece of greenery and sand.”

  Connor led her to the steps he’d installed to reach the barn. He hitched Robbie up higher onto his back. “All right, laddie, are you ready to be seeing what wonderful sights await you?”

  “Aye, Da. Take me. Mama won’t let me go down to the horses by myself.”

  “Well, she’ll need to be letting you go there with your grandda and me, now won’t she?”

  “I wouldn’t bet any dinners on it,” Sinead said, smiling to soften the harsh words and her tone of voice.

  To Connor’s disgust, the closer they got to the barn, the more nervous Sinead became. She trembled and shivered.

  Standing on the level part of a knoll, the barn and the horses must seem gigantic, despite the difference in size. Going from the light into the darkness of the barn bothered her. The air was still and humid.

  The smells
of hay and horses were rank to her sensitive nostrils. Several horses were moving around in their stalls, chomping on hay and slopping water from their buckets. The noises seemed foreign and frightened her.

  A horse kicked out at the boards of its stall. It sounded like an explosion. Sinead shrieked, a female screech of terror. Her heart pounded within her chest as if it wanted to break out of her body. She leaped back and tilted drunkenly toward the ground, waving away Connor’s hand when he held it out to catch her. She staggered up against a wall and refused to go any further.

  Connor shrugged, let Robbie slide down his back and took his hand. He moved back to Sinead and put his arm around her shoulders. “Come, lass, the horses can’t hurt you. They’re in their stalls and eating. Sometime they get annoyed at each other and kick the sides of their stalls. ‘Tis naught to be afraid of.”

  Although Robbie continued to hold Connor’s hand, he jumped and pulled in his excitement. “Mama, look. See the horse. That’s the one I like. The red one.”

  Connor smiled. “The red one is it? We call it a chestnut. Would you like to get closer and pet him?” Connor asked while drawing Sinead closer to the stall.

  “Aye. Right up to him…” Robbie let go of Connor’s hand and ran to the stall door.

  “Don’t be running at them, son. It frightens them.”

  As if Connor told him a foolish joke, Robbie giggled uproariously. “They’re so big, nothing could frighten them.”

  “They’re big alright, great big babies, especially the racing ones. If they get really frightened, their first instinct at the sign of trouble is to be running away from the fearsome object, as fast and as far as they have to. Wouldn’t you do the same if you were scared?”

  Robbie no longer paid any attention. He hung over the edge of the stall door and reached out to pet the horse. “Come here, laddie. I won’t hurt you. I’m only a little boy,” he bubbled. “You’re much bigger than I am, so you don’t need to be afraid. I want to be your friend.”