"Roe has sense about everything," Meggie said. "Any woman would be real lucky to have him."
"I'd say that you was especially lucky," Beulah Winsloe said as she tacked a curved piece in place. "Everybody knows what a poor cook you are. If that don't bother him, then he must be a real tolerating and forgiving man."
The women all giggled. But Lessy Phillips scolded Beulah for her unkindness. "Don't you worry none about it, Meggie," she said. "You know you've got you a fine man that'll stay with you, even when you're at your worst. And you always have the comfort of knowing he didn't marry you just to get free victuals and housekeeping."
There were nods of agreement all around on that.
"You'll just get one word of advice from me," Wyla Pease said as she stopped to thread her needle. "It's real tempting once yer wed to let yerself go." The middle-aged woman gave a meaningful glance to her young daughter-in-law, Ruth, who since Sidney's birth four years ago had simply continued to get broader and broader in the backside. "Just because the man knows what you look like at your worst, don't mean he wants to look at you that way all the time."
Young Ruth snapped the thread she was sewing and gave her mother-in-law a stricken look.
"Ruth's built jest like her mama," Granny Piggott defended. “That boy of yourn saw the mother afore he seen the daughter. If he was going to be complaining, he shouldna' ever said the 'I do.'"
"My son would never utter a word of complaint!" Wyla protested.
"Good," Granny answered. "So if it don't bother him none, it shouldn't bother you."
Firmly put in her place, Wyla turned her concentration to the tiny line of stitches she was putting in the quilt. Meggie caught Ruth giving the old woman a grateful look.
Deftly changing the subject, Granny turned to Meggie and asked if she knew how to tell when she was taken to nesting.
Choking slightly on her words, Meggie answered with some embarrassment. "It's when your bleeding don't come."
The women all nodded.
Granny still saw fit to enlighten her. "As soon as you start waking in the morning all dauncy and like to puke, you tell yer husband to start taking swims in the cold creek. When you're carrying a babe, don't you be shaking the ticks out of the mattress more than oncest a week."
Around the quilt from the old woman, young and old giggled with immodest delight.
"Now that's an old rusty," Dorey McNees, a young cousin of Beulah's, said emphatically. "As long as your man can remember to be gentle and caring when you're in the family way," she told Meggie with a reassuring pat on the hand, "you can do all the sweetems and pleasuring you want, right up until yer lying in."
Granny snorted. "Remember to be gentle and caring?" She shook her head in disagreement. "I don't know about these young fellers today. But I never heared of a man what could remember so much as his own name when he's stiff as a poker and into the short rows."
The women laughed heartily.
Flushing a bright pink, still Meggie came quickly to Roe's defense. "Mr. Farley is always gentle and caring," she stated unequivocally.
Granny raised an eyebrow. "Now that surprises me, girl." The old woman scooted back away from the quilt frame and pulled her pipe out of her pocket and made to light it. Although Meggie never allowed smoking inside the house, she wouldn't have even attempted to try to stop Granny Piggott. “That Farley reminds me of my man, Lord rest his soul," she continued. "Both ere quiet and deep thinkin'. Slow to decide, but sure when they've resolved. My Piggott was a gentle feller, like yourn, in the daytime. But, lands-a-mighty, when I blew out the light of an evening, he'd batter the bedclothes 'til they was nothing but rags and lint."
The women around the quilt frame squealed with delight and worthy applause. Meggie, who could remember Granny's husband as a quiet, old gray beard, was shocked.
"Granny Piggott, you oughter be shamed," Beulah told her, laughing. "Look at this little gal. Lord, Meggie, I never dreamed that yer cheeks could get so red. You look like you've been plowing in summer without a hat."
"Well, she's only been married for little more than a week." Wyla chuckled naughtily. "That city feller's probably still telling her that he's got the only pepper pole that does that."
The wild married-women talk nearly embarrassed Meggie past living. Even now, days later with none to see but the blue pot, she still found herself blushing at the memory.
After the men had returned to the cabin. Granny had checked the foundation of the new room to the cabin. With a fine good humor, Meggie thought, Roe had taken up the project of the walls and roof. With Jesse helping and her father giving the direction, the little eight-by-eight room being raised on the back of the cabin would nearly double the space that they already had.
They had barely got the log base down against the ground before Jesse and Roe had already set up the new bed in the empty space that was to be the room.
"Might as well set it up to make sure that it fits in the room," Roe said. "I believe I'll sleep out there from now on. It's better sleeping outside than in the loft."
Meggie nodded in understanding.
"Jesse can teach me all the names of the stars while I'm snoring in the moonlight," he added, slapping his friend companionably on the back.
"I don't mind sleeping in the loft," Jesse answered. "That new bed is for you and Meggie."
Meggie blushed. Roe choked. And Onery nervously cleared his throat.
Other than that, Jesse's comment was ignored. As was every comment made around the cabin about marriage, weddings, and beds since the day that she and Roe had commenced their foolish deception.
Meggie stirred the blue pot once more. The cloth inside seemed sufficiently colored, so she moved the kettle away from the flames and banked the fire for the evening.
Reluctantly, she went to spread her pallet on the floor. Somehow all the thinking and talking that had been done in the last weeks about men and women had sparked something inside Meggie.
She hated to lie down on her pallet at night and close her eyes, but she couldn't put it off any longer. Daylight would be upon her soon enough and keeping her wits about her was important if she was to keep her thoughts to herself.
Tiredly she lay down and closed her weary blue-gray eyes. And as soon as she did, just as she expected, she started having those feelings about him again. The loving feelings, she'd begun to call them. They were sweet and warm and she both craved and dreaded them. She longed for the strength of Roe's arms around her. And continually she remembered his look when he'd seen her naked in the bath.
Squeezing her eyes shut, Meggie tried to blot out the memory.
She drew a deep breath and rolled over upon her stomach, burying her face in her arms. Willing herself to sleep.
Quietly, she caught herself listening, just listening. Roe and Jesse hadn't come back from gigging, unless they'd avoided the cabin and were lying out in the new bed. Meggie strained her ears trying to make out the sound of Jesse's snore, but heard nothing.
Pa's snore, however, was deafeningly loud and inexplicably, after living with it for more years than Meggie could recall, the sound kept her awake.
Disgusted, she stood up and in the darkness made her way to the door. On the porch the air was cool and still and the bright stars twinkled over the tops of the mountain.
She closed the door behind her and sat down on the step, tucking the skirt of her josie tightly around her legs for warmth.
Actually trying not to, Meggie listened for the sounds of men in the half-raised add-on. There were none. The gigging must be mighty poor for two men to stay out half the night trying to gather up a mess of frog legs.
Chapter Eighteen
It was so late, even the crickets were asleep as two men lay sprawled in the soft grass of a small clearing near the banks of the river. Jesse was still sucking on the remains of the earthen jug of donk. Roe's eyes were closed.
"What are ye doin'?" Jesse asked finally, half sitting to observe the man beside him.
; Roe didn't open his eyes. "I'm just holding on to the grass and leaning against the ground."
Jesse chuckled. "That's donk."
"Why do you drink this?" Roe asked with a moan.
"I don't," Jesse answered. "Pa never let me, not even oncest. But I heard fellers talk about it lots and always wanted to find out for myself."
"Well, now we know." Roe did raise up a little then and with one eye glanced over at Jesse. "How come you aren't as drunk as I am?"
Jesse shrugged. "Guess 'cause I done threw up a couple of times."
Roe nodded and then wished that he hadn't. "That must be it."
A long, comfortable silence settled between the two men. Jesse took another long swig on the gallon jug. 'They's lots of things in this world that I ain't done, but I'm a-wanting to do," he said.
"We all feel that way," Roe answered.
"But most fellers just ain't got around to doing all the things that they want. Some things, I just ain't never going to get to."
Roe was silent for a long moment. "I guess that's so, Jesse."
"I ain't fussing about it," the young man assured him quickly. "If I cain't never learn no book reading or figure my numbers above three, well, that's jest the way, ain't it?"
"I guess it is, Jesse."
"It does make me mad that I cain't have my own gun, nor earn money to buy me a dog." Jesse tipped the jug up high in the air, allowing the last drops of donk to cross his lips. "But someday," he said with the sincerity of a vow, "I'm gonna have a gun and a dog."
Roe nodded. “That's not a bad ambition, Jesse. I'm sure that as you act responsibly, your father will be more ready to let you have your own gun. And once you have a gun to hunt, well a dog will just make sense."
"Pa ain't gonna get it for me though," Jesse declared. "It's gonna be my gun and my dog and I'm gettin' 'em myself."
"I'm sure we'll all be very proud of you, Jesse."
The young man grinned and then, to Roe's surprise, threw back his head and howled at the moon.
"Lordy, this donk is something," Jesse said as he rose to his feet, took two steps, and then tripped over some hidden something in the high grass and fell head over heels and landed backward with a loud thump.
Both men laughed uproariously at what happened, until Jesse's laughter turned strained. "I've hurt myself," he told Roe, through hiccups. "Think I may have busted my leg."
Roe tried to stand up to go to him, but quickly decided it was much smarter to scoot across the grass. When he reached Jesse's side, the young man was still laughing at his antics, but there were genuine tears of pain in his eyes.
"Where does it hurt?" Roe asked.
Jesse showed Roe his ankle, which was already beginning to swell. Roe sat on the ground and took the other man's foot in his lap. Carefully he began to turn it.
"I don't think that it's broken," Roe told him. "But it's wrenched pretty bad."
Jesse nodded without speaking.
Roe looked around him with dismay. "I don't know how I'll manage to help you back to the house."
"Maybe I'll just stay here," Jesse answered. "It don't hurt much if I just stay still."
A wave of unwelcome nausea swelled in Roe's throat. He wished he could just stay still, too.
"I don't think you can just stay out here in the middle of the woods," he said as he looked around the clearing. His thinking almost as unclear as his eyesight, he tried to decide what was the best course of action. He was not steady enough on his own feet to carry Jesse to the cabin. But he worried that dragging him would surely cause a worse injury.
"You know, frien'," Jesse said, changing the subject. "You tole me that frien's always tell each other the truth."
"That's right, Jesse, they do," Roe answered only half listening.
"Well, I told you some of the truth, but I ain't tole you all."
"All the truth about what?"
"About the things I want, the things I ain't suppose to have but that I'm aiming to get anyway."
"Oh?" Roe asked, thinking that talking might be just the thing to keep Jesse's mind off his injury.
"It ain't just a gun and a dog that I'm a-wanting, Roe," he said quietly. "They's a bigger thing, a better thing, and Pa'd whoop me fer sure if he knowed I was thinking about it."
"What's that?"
"Someday, Roe," Jesse said in a cautious whisper, "I want to get me a woman."
"A woman!"
"Shhhhhh," Jesse quieted him. "Ain't no call for yelling it out."
"Sorry," Roe said. "I guess I was just surprised." Thinking for a moment, Roe shook his head. "No, I guess I'm not surprised. I don't think you'd be a man if you didn't want one," he said.
Nodding eagerly, Jesse blushed a little. "For the most they don't pay me no mind," he said. "But I can look and smell 'em just the same."
"Did you ever kiss one?"
His eyes widening in shock, Jesse shook his head negatively. "Pa says I cain't, never."
"Never?"
There was a faint sadness in his bright blue eyes. "Pa says that if'n I be kissing and squeezing on the gals, then they be thinkin' to marry. But there ain't no daddy on the mountain gonna want me for his son-in-law."
The simple truth of his words cut through Roe like a knife and was just as painful.
"A man would be lucky to get you in his family," Roe told him. "You're a hard worker and an honest fellow. A woman could do a lot worse."
Jesse grinned. "You're beginning to sound like Meggie, all right and ready to pitch a fit on my behalf." He shrugged and gave a light chuckle. "Pa says it's fate. Just like me being born simple. It's the way it is and it cain't be changed."
"Is that what you think, Jesse?"
The young man shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know what to think. Pa is most always right. But still, I want a woman." He sighed wistfully. "Did you ever want a woman, Roe?" Jesse asked. 'Truth now, remember we are frien's."
"Yes, of course I've wanted women."
Jesse nodded. "I thought so," he said. "In fact, I think you spend a bit of time wanting my sister Meggie."
"Well, I . . . well, yes I suppose I've had feelings like that about Meggie."
"Yep, I could tell you both got it bad."
Roe's brow furrowed, but he didn't have time to respond before Jesse's next question.
"Have you ever covered a gal?"
"You mean—"
Jesse nodded. "Yep, I mean—"
Roe cleared his throat and gazed momentarily at the heavens before answering honestly. "I have."
"What's it like?"
Roe shrugged self-consciously. "It's nice."
"Nice?"
Laughing, Roe shook his head drunkenly. "Maybe nice isn't exactly the right word. It... it feels real good."
Jesse nodded. "Better than doing it with your hand."
Roe hiccuped with surprise and then chuckled. He shook his head slightly in disbelief. "Yes, Jesse. I'd say it's better."
"Did the woman you done it with smell good?"
He was thoughtful for a long moment. "Honestly, Jesse, I don't believe that I remember how any of the women I've been with smelled."
"You've been with more than one?"
"A few, just a few."
Jesse pondered that for a moment. "Pa says that most fellers say they been with a lot of women, even if it ain't so."
Roe nodded. "I suspect some do."
Jesse grinned at Roe with pride. "But you didn't notice how they smelled?" he asked.
"Mostly I guess they smelled sort of sweaty," he answered. "Sometimes they smelled like perfume."
"Perfume." Jesse said the word in an awed whisper.
"I don't particularly care for perfume," Roe admitted. “Too much of it makes me sort of sick."
Jesse nodded solemnly as he sat up straighten "So what does it feel like when you're inside a woman?"
"Jesse, I don't think we ought to be talking about this."
"You're my frien', Roe. If you ain't gonna tell me, then who is?
"
Thoughtful for a long moment, Roe finally nodded in agreement. "Well, it's warm," he said. "It's real warm."
"Yeah," Jesse said, urging him on.
"And it's tight," he continued. "At first you think it's too tight, and then it's as if she opens up like a flower and almost pulls you inside her."
Jesse's eyes widened. "She pulls you inside?"
Roe nodded. "Yes, sort of. Then as you move back and forth, you can feel the draw and give of her muscles against you." Shaking his head, Roe drew a deep breath, looking out into nothing as he remembered and imagined. "The pressure is so good that it almost hurts," he said. "You want to push on to the end, 'cause that will make it feel better. But you don't want to stop either, so you try to hold it off as long as you can. When you can't wait a minute longer, it's like everything inside you, all you think and all you are, just comes pouring out inside her and you're not in you anymore, you're in her."
Jesse was gazing at him in wide-eyed wonder. He appeared so impressed with Roe's carnal knowledge that it was somewhat embarrassing.
Roe laughed drunkenly. "Of course, that only lasts a couple of seconds," he assured Jesse hurriedly. "Just a couple of seconds and you're back to being just a tired, but sated fellow who feels rather guilty and rather grateful to the woman with smeared face paint who let you spend yourself inside her."
Jesse shook his head in disbelief. "You done that lots of times, Roe?"
"Several times, Jesse. Not lots of times."
"Weren't you ever scared?"
"Yes, I was pretty scared the first time," Roe admitted. "And a little scared every time."
"Every time?"
"A man can always make a fool of himself, or hurt the woman, or, worse yet, not please her." Roe's expression slowly broadened to a grin. "But I guess," he admitted, "I always want to do it more than I'm scared to do it. So I go ahead and do it."
Jesse laughed with him at the little joke and they punched each other in the shoulder with camaraderie.
The young man's smile slowly faded and he nodded gravely. "I'm scared, Roe. But I want to do it, too."
Nodding, Roe didn't have any idea what to say.
With This Kiss: A First-In Series Romance Collection Page 255
