by Merry Farmer
“They must have,” Natalia agreed. The two of them stood there for a moment, glancing around the island, at the closed door, then at each other before Natalia said, “We can’t just walk away because the owner isn’t home.”
“You’re right,” Linus agreed. He stroked his short beard for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess there’s nothing else for it.”
He knocked one more time, just in case their assessment of the situation was wrong, then tried the door handle. The door was unlocked. He opened it and stepped into the small but neat cottage.
“Ooh, this is lovely,” Natalia said, entering the one-room home behind him.
Whoever stayed there to maintain the lighthouse, Linus doubted they spent all of their time there. The furnishings were sparse—a bed in one corner, a pair of chairs closer to a squat stove, and a simple table that held a washbasin on one side and a stack of books on the other. A few shelves built into the wall beside the stove held a few provisions—tea, bread, sausages, eggs, and a few other tins of food. Linus strode to the stove, holding out his hand to it and finding it slightly warm. Whoever lived there had been home fairly recently.
“What a gorgeous view,” Natalia sighed, walking to the far end of the room and peering out through the curtains on a window next to the bed. “You must be able to see every ship that passes by from this cozy room.”
Linus left the stove to join her at the window, gazing out at a view that would make a painter salivate. “It is nice.” He smiled, shifting to study Natalia as she took in the vista with wide, happy eyes. “Although I like this one better.”
She pulled back from the window and turned to him, her expression utterly charming. Her clothes were wrinkled and mussed, her hair was out of place, and her hat had been knocked askew. There were dark circles under her eyes, and she was a bit drawn, but Linus still believed she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever known.
She laughed softly, lowering her eyes coquettishly. “Dr. Townsend, you are a charmer,” she said.
He couldn’t help himself. Something about the moment was perfect. He stepped toward her, sweeping her into his arms and kissing her with everything he had. It was the first time the two of them had been completely alone together without any risk of someone else walking in on them or overhearing him. Everything else in the world but the two of them melted away. As he kissed her, Natalia looped her arms around his shoulders and leaned into him as though he were a rock that would keep her from faltering.
“I love you, my darling,” he said, cradling her close. “No matter how inappropriate that love is.”
“It could never be inappropriate,” she insisted on a sigh, gazing up into his eyes. “Regardless of what anyone tries to tell us, the two of us were born to be together.”
“We were,” he said, then kissed her again.
He was mad for throwing caution to the wind the way he was. The circumspection he’d had on the journey from London to Liverpool, the thought that perhaps it was a good idea for the two of them to wait before committing to each other, flew out the window and got lost on the rolling sea. Natalia was the most beautiful gift God had ever given him.
“Would you run away with me?” he asked, breathless in anticipation of how she might answer. “If it came down to it, would you leave your family, your home, your class, and your comfortable life to be my wife and my partner?”
“Of course, I would,” she answered, smiling from ear to ear. “I thought you would never ask me.”
He slanted his mouth over hers, kissing her from the bottom of his heart. The warmth of her body against his and the excitement that coursed through him was intoxicating. For the first time in his strange life, he could envision what his future would be like. He could settle into a normal life with a beautiful wife, one who would help him find a sense of peace and home.
“Our life together would look different from what you are used to,” he cautioned her, leaning back and studying her face for even the slightest bit of hesitation. “I’m dependent on Fergus for my livelihood at the moment, and if he disapproved and sacked me because of our union, it might mean we’d have to struggle.”
“I don’t care,” Natalia sighed. “Kiss me again.”
He did as he was told, pressing her against him and pressing his lips to hers. Natalia was a natural when it came to the art of love. He had a feeling she’d been waiting her whole life to love a man the way he knew she loved him. Everything within him urged him to give her everything and to take what he wanted as well.
It was madness, but their morning had been so strange already, the cottage was deserted, and the peace of the sea around them and the confidence within him made him bold. He worked open the buttons of her traveling coat and pushed it off her shoulders before bringing his hands around to unbutton her blouse.
“Oh my,” she gasped, glancing up into his eyes with fire and encouragement. “This is the last thing I expected to do with my morning.”
“We can stop,” he said, pausing in the middle of unfastening her bodice.
“Don’t you dare stop,” she warned him in a saucy voice. “I would never forgive you.”
He laughed at that and continued to free the long row of buttons down the front of her bodice. Her traveling clothes were much easier to remove than her ball gown from the other night, but every fastening and every inch of fabric still made him impatient. He could feel that same sort of impatience rippling off Natalia as well. She unbuttoned his coat and burrowed her hands underneath to unbutton his suit jacket as well.
It was utter foolishness for the two of them to leap into making love so quickly after being stranded on a tiny island in the middle of the sea, but Linus had the feeling that that sort of intimacy was long past due for both of them. He’d never understood why society placed such harsh strictures on people who were in love anyhow. He loved Natalia, he planned to spend the rest of his life with her, so what did it matter whether they expressed their love physically or not?
They made quick work of their clothes, letting each piece fall wherever it did. The sounds Natalia made as he brushed his hands over her body, caressing her curves and stroking her to arousal were intoxicating. He would never be able to get enough of her, her sweetness, her enthusiasm. She explored his body freely, her eyes alight as she revealed more and more of his skin.
Once they were both fully naked, they tumbled onto the bed, bodies entwining.
“You must think me a perfect heathen for making love to you this way,” he panted as he settled between her legs, stroking his hand down one of her thighs to her knee, then hiking that knee up to his hip.
“You are a heathen,” she said in a sultry voice. “But I like it. You make me want to be wicked as well.”
“I think you’ve always been wicked,” he teased her, kissing the top of her neck just under her ear, then working his way lower. “But you’ve been told not to be.”
She hummed in agreement, arching into him. “I will be the woman I want to be from here on out,” she declared.
Linus approved heartily and proved it by kissing a trail across her shoulder and chest to capture her breast in his mouth. She sighed and wriggled against him, her head thrown back, enjoying all the ways he aroused her. Never had Linus known a woman who was so open to exploring her sexuality. He was more than ready to help her discover as much as she could about herself that way.
Inspired by her openness, he inched back slightly, just enough to flip her to her stomach. She made a sound of surprise that turned into a squeal of anticipation as he lifted her hips and nudged her legs apart with his knees. A rush of carnal excitement hit him at the submissive position. There were so many ways to make love, and he wanted to teach Natalia all of them.
He slipped his hands up her thighs as she bent forward, gasping in anticipation. Her sex was slick and wet as he brushed his fingers over it, then delved deeper. She moaned in appreciation as he slipped two fingers inside of her, stroking and teasing her. The fact that she would put herself
in his hands that way, trust her so implicitly in what must have felt new and strange to her, aroused him beyond reason.
He teased and stroked her as long as he could bear it, bringing her close to orgasm, if the restless sounds she was making were any indication. His cock throbbed with need for her, so much so that when he gripped her hips and thrust into her, he was more forceful than he’d intended to be. Her answering cry was one of complete pleasure, though, so he continued to thrust wildly, taking her with the full force of his need.
In no time at all, he was rocketing toward the edge. Every corner of his awareness was consumed by pleasure as the sensation took hold at the base of his spine, then shot through him, like lava erupting from a volcano. He was vaguely aware of Natalia’s body contracting around him, making his orgasm even better. It was a magical moment of connection that filled him with a sense of love so potent that, as his pleasure began to subside, he collapsed beside her, feeling as though everything in the world was just as it should be.
“That was amazing.” Natalia gasped for breath, snuggling into his arms. “I had no idea things could be done that way.”
Linus laughed softly. “Lovemaking can be done in all sorts of ways.”
“Then we must try them all out,” she said, sounding as happy as a lark as she threw her arm and a leg over him. “We have so much to look forward to.”
“Indeed, we do,” he sighed as the exhaustion of the morning, the travel before that, and the cares that he’d been carrying on his shoulders for too long washed over him. “But first, we nap.”
She hummed in approval, snuggling against him. Linus drifted off to sleep with the certainty that everything would work out perfectly from that moment forward.
Chapter 11
Natalia gave in to her exhaustion and napped away the better part of the afternoon. After all the strain and worry she’d carried with her from London, sleeping in Linus’s arms felt as though everything were right with the world. She had everything she wanted right there, where she was, on a tiny, forgotten island in the middle of the Irish Sea.
She awoke hours later, perfectly happy, if not fully rested. The lighthouse cottage was abandoned, but her initial burst of worry was quickly alleviated when she spotted Linus’s shoes drying near the stove. The cottage was warmer, hinting Linus had built up the fire in the stove, which gave everything a homey, comfortable sort of feel.
Natalia got up, stretched and smiled at how lovely her slightly sore body felt, then set about gathering her clothes and getting dressed. The peace that settled over her was deeper than anything she’d ever felt in the hustle and bustle of her normal life. All she could hear through the cottage’s open windows was the sound of the sea and the wind, and the call of sea birds. There was no traffic or arguing servants, no haranguing from her mother, and no incessant prattle from society visitors she didn’t really want to talk to. It was heavenly.
“There you are.” She found Linus outside, pulling weeds in a small vegetable plot beside the cottage. The sight of him on his hands and knees, trousers dirty, sweat dripping from his brow in the late-afternoon sunlight, was utterly charming. “What in heavens name are you doing?”
Linus glanced up as if surprised to see her. His fond smile touched Natalia’s heart. “We’re going to have to eat some of whoever owns this cottage’s food,” he explained, straightening and wiping his brow with the back of his hand. The gesture left a smudge. Natalia instantly wanted to find a handkerchief and wipe it off.
“What does eating someone else’s food have to do with gardening?” she asked, frowning slightly as she studied what he was doing. The vegetable patch was quaint, but it didn’t seem to contain anything that was immediately ripe.
“I figured that a little bit of work would be payment in kind for the supplies we use,” Linus said, pushing himself to his feet and walking toward her.
“That’s a noble sentiment,” she said with a smile. “Although, couldn’t we just reimburse whomever lives here once they return?”
Linus shrugged. “I don’t have any money with me.”
He reached for her hands. She almost took them, until she saw how dirty they were. That and the unsettling feeling that struck her when he mentioned he didn’t have any money with him left her with an odd sort of restlessness.
“Perhaps you should take a bath,” she suggested, still smiling, though her smile felt brittle.
“An excellent idea,” he said, leaning in and stealing a kiss from her lips. “Would you draw one for me?”
Natalia blinked at the suggestion. “I’ve never drawn a bath in my life.”
Linus’s brow shot up. “Never? You’ve always seemed clean enough to me.”
Natalia laughed. “What I mean is, we’ve always had servants to do things like draw baths and weed vegetable gardens for us.” She gestured to the freshly-weeded ground behind him.
“You’ve been lucky,” he said, stepping back toward the garden. “I’ve always had to do all those things myself. They aren’t hard, really, just time consuming.”
“Time,” Natalia sighed, mostly to herself. “Everything always comes down to time with you.” She caught herself frowning slightly.
“Time is one of those things we can’t fight against,” he said with a shrug, kneeling to weed again. “I think I saw a copper bathtub tucked into a corner in the cottage. It shouldn’t take you too long to draw my bath. I don’t need it to be piping hot. You should be able to draw enough water from the well I noticed on the other side of the lighthouse to fill it. Just a few kettles of hot water should bring it to a fine temperature.”
Natalia flinched just a bit, her brow furrowing. He went back to weeding as though that were that. She was utterly nonplussed at the thought that he expected her to rush to do his bidding. Then again, there weren’t any servants around to do the job for her, and she would rather have had him clean than covered in dirt and sweat as he was.
She turned and made her way back into the house, mind racing over the challenge of doing something she’d never done before. The bathing tub wasn’t hard to find, but it was heavier than she anticipated. She managed to shove it into the center of the cottage, breaking a sweat of her own as she did. It was far more of a challenge to fill the blasted thing than she could have dreamed it would be. Even though she found a bucket and had a relatively easy time filling it from the well, she was horrified at how little water one bucket carried. By her fifth trip out to the well, her arms and back were aching, but the tub barely seemed filled.
“You should have set the kettle to boil right away,” Linus told her when he finally came in from weeding to check on her progress. “That way, it would be hot by the time you’ve filled the tub.”
Natalia clenched her jaw in frustration. She could see that he was right, but the way he simply blurted out her mistake didn’t sit well with her. “I’ve never done this before,” she reminded him.
“But you’re doing a lovely job,” he said with a smile, crossing the cottage to kiss her cheek. “While you finish that, I’ll see about getting supper started.”
Some of Natalia’s crossness vanished. He was noble to attempt to cook supper for the two of them, all things considered. She could bear the burden of drawing a bath, since he was working just as hard as she was.
But with all the work she put into making it possible for him to clean up, the supper he produced was disappointing.
“I can’t remember the last time I had potatoes and sausage for supper,” she said with a smile, putting a brave face on as she ate.
“It’s one of my favorite meals,” he told her, savoring a bite of sausage. “I haven’t tasted anything this delicious since I was a poor medical student. I had to scrimp and save just to buy potatoes and beans back then. Sausage was a luxury.”
Natalia hummed in answer, staring down distastefully at her plate. “I’m rather fond of pheasant and mushrooms myself. Or oyster pie,” she said, using the example of a common pie to prove that she wasn’t as high a
nd mighty as all that.
Linus laughed. “Meat pies of any kind have always been decadent, as far as I’m concerned.” He winked at her across the table. “Once we’re properly married, I’ll teach you the very best ways to cook sausages. And potatoes, for that matter. I know of an excellent recipe for a bean mash that I just know you’ll love.”
“Bean mash?” Natalia’s heart sank.
“It’s delicious.”
She tried to match his enthusiasm, but a weight seemed to fill her heart. He planned to teach her to cook those things? Wouldn’t they hire a cook for their married life? And a maid to do things like draw baths?
Natalia pushed those concerns aside as she and Linus cleaned up from their supper together. Everything seemed right with the world again afterwards, as they took a romantic, sunset stroll around the island together.
“I wonder if anyone has noticed we’re missing,” she said, smiling out over the choppy waves, delighting in the reds and oranges spreading across the sky.
“I’m certain they’ve noticed,” Linus laughed. “I’m more interested in what they’ll do about it.”
“Those boys we saw on the ferry. They must have untied the lifeboat on purpose. I bet they will confess all,” Natalia speculated. “And when they do, everyone else will know where to look for us.”
“They may already have people searching the seas,” Linus said as they wound their way back through the island’s sparse groundcover toward the cottage. He grinned at her with fire in his eyes.
Her heart sped up at the suggestions she saw there. “If they’re coming for us at any time, we’d better make the most of things.”
“It would be the logical thing to do,” he agreed.
They hurried back to the cottage, shedding their clothes the moment they were through the door, and flopped into bed together. Natalia didn’t think she’d ever get enough of the way Linus’s body felt against and inside of hers. The things he made her feel were magical. She was certain she would give up just about anything from her comfortable, sheltered life to feel the passion he aroused in her. All of the little frustrations of her day were banished as they made love. She fell asleep that night certain that she couldn’t possibly be happier.
