When he lifted her face to kiss her, he did so slowly, waiting patiently until he felt her acceptance of his kiss.
For long minutes, he kissed her. His passions never went out of control, although she felt his body grow warmer with each heartbeat. He did not rush her, and his hands were tender and strong as they caressed and stroked her body through the thin covering of the nightgown.
At last, he carefully removed her nightgown. When it was gone and her beautiful body bared to his eyes, he kissed her mouth. Then he trailed his lips along the side of her neck and lingered at the base of her throat for several seconds. When he felt the increased beat of her heart, he caressed and kissed her breasts in a slow yet hungry way.
Alana’s mind became fogged. Desire mixed with fear to hold her prisoner. She could not move her arms to return his caresses, but at the same time, she did not want him to stop.
And as Edward continued in his slow pace, Alana realized that he was a sensitive lover who must have known her innermost thoughts. His hands were never still; yet never did they roam her body greedily. When he stroked her inner thighs, her muscles quivered in response to his feathery touch.
Soon his lips replaced his fingers, and the warmth of his mouth against the sensitive skin of her inner thighs was a wonderfully gentle sensation.
A short time later, Edward raised his head and looked into her eyes, seeking to reassure her with his words. “You will never have to be afraid of me, Alana.”
Alana sighed. The warmth of his touch spread within her. And strangely, a new form of desire built. There was no loss of control, no frantic and merciless need driving her–just the tingling sensations of his hands and lips.
“I am not,” she told him.
His mouth returned to her skin, lavishing her silken thighs with his lips and tongue. Then he began his upward journey, pausing at the juncture of her thighs to dip his tongue within her and taste her very essence.
Alana felt the spear of his tongue and let the pleasure he bestowed on her add to this new feeling of leisurely desire. The fear that had been holding her back vanished as Edward’s mouth and body traveled upward. He kissed the tip of each breast as his experienced fingers began to work magically within her, moistening her for him, preparing the way.
As her breathing turned deeper, she raised her arms to him, and he came into them. He kissed her passionately, but he did not crush his mouth to hers. For the first time, Alana willingly opened her body to another man.
Edward rose above her. For a brief instant, Rafe’s image wavered in her vision. As it did, Alana willed it away. Then she looked at Edward, and as he positioned himself between her thighs, she reached between their bodies and captured him with her hands. When she felt his heated length in her palms, she caressed it, exploring it delicately before guiding him within her. Because it was she who brought him into her, Alana was able to banish the memory of Rafe’s hands and mouth and give herself completely to Edward.
Edward proved himself a consummate lover: a gentle and thoughtful man who did not rush toward his own pleasure but guided Alana with him.
When they reached their climax, it was not one of pounding hearts, roaring blood, and uncontrolled moans, but a lingering feeling of the gentle love that Edward had shown her she too possessed but had never before experienced.
Afterward, Alana fell dreamlessly asleep in Edward’s arms. When she awoke in the morning, she was still in his arms and he was gazing down at her.
“Thank you, Alana, for making my life complete again.”
Alana didn’t speak. Instead, she lifted her mouth to his and kissed him. With the fresh memory of the way Edward had tenderly, thoughtfully, and unselfishly made love to her, Alana began to kiss him more passionately.
As she kissed him, her hands explored and learned his body as she had not done the previous night. She caressed his chest; her fingernails drew circles around his nipples. She traced the outline of his stomach and let her fingers play with the tight hair at the base of his manhood. When he grew hard, she followed her questing fingers with her lips and mouth, lavishing his torso with warm kisses until she reached his hardened length.
She caressed and kissed Edward’s proud, straight shaft, returning to him all the pleasure and good he had given to her. When his member throbbed beneath her ministrations and his hands pressed into her skin in need, she turned. With her body covering his, she brought her mouth to his and accepted him within her.
She rode him gently, kissing him until she felt him become tense within her. A few moments after he released his heated flow, she again felt another of the same gentle climaxes he had given her last night.
Afterward, Alana again went into the security of Edward’s arms, where she stayed for another hour before Edward kissed her and left the bed to dress. A few moments later, Alana did the same.
When she was dressed, she looked into the mirror and studied her face. Then, as it had the night before, Rafe’s face floated within the glass. His emerald eyes gazed softly at her, but she saw no condemnation within their glow.
Although she knew the image was only in her mind, she realized that she was experiencing a lifting of the guilt she had felt in loving another man.
Turning from the mirror, she adjusted the bodice of her dress, took a deep breath, and started out from the dressing room. Determination to make Edward a good wife rose in her mind. And as it did, Alana put her past behind her, vowing that the rest of their life together would be happy and fulfilling.
25
March 1869
Crystal folded Alana’s letter and put it into the left-hand drawer of her writing desk. “I’m glad you’ve found happiness,” she whispered to Alana’s image.
Her words came from her heart. Crystal had felt the same way after receiving Alana’s letter in November, telling her of her marriage to Edward Parkins. The letter had also informed Crystal that Alana had been unable to learn anything new about Allison’s people in South Africa. But Alana had insisted that her marriage to Edward would never stop her efforts, and Edward had been continuing to help her in the search. Only when she learned who had helped to kill Rafe would Alana put the past to rest.
At first the news of Alana’s marriage had shocked Crystal, but after spending a lot of time in deep and introspective thought, she’d come to terms with it. Crystal had then sent Alana a letter expressing happiness at her good fortune, adding that Alana should feel no guilt or remorse because of her marriage. Crystal made it clear that she understood and approved of Alana’s marriage to Edward Parkins, whom she knew, was the new and guiding force behind Landow Shipping. She had also learned a great deal about Parkins through James Allison, who hated Edward Parkins for siding with Alana.
In the same letter that offered Alana best wishes for her marriage, Crystal had warned Alana that Allison wanted to destroy Edward. The voiding of the Marquette contract had set Allison’s plans for expansion into South Africa back at least a year, and he was furious. Crystal knew Alana would take her warning to heart; Alana was all too aware of what Allison was capable of doing.
In subsequent letters to her friend, Crystal had expressed her belief that a marriage built on a foundation of kindness, such as Alana had described hers to be, must in fact become a very good one.
Alana’s letters never stopped coming, and even as Alana told of her new life, she always included whatever information she had been able to garner about Allison’s activities in South Africa. Even so, each letter had always ended the same way: “I have not yet discovered Allison’s hidden people.”
Like Alana, Crystal had written monthly to her friend, giving Alana the detailed information she obtained as Allison’s mistress. She was sending Alana this information in case Allison found her out, for if he did, she knew she would not live long enough to escape him.
For her part, Crystal still had not learned whom Allison controlled in South Africa, either. Although she forced to accept Rafe’s death, she had controlled her rage, and had prevented
herself from killing Allison with the knife she kept hidden in the bed table.
Crystal wanted her revenge. She wanted Allison to suffer. Until he did, she would not rest.
As Crystal was thinking of how sweet her revenge would one day be, James Allison burst into the bedroom. His face mottled with rage; his eyes were hard and cruel.
“What is wrong, my darling?” Crystal asked as she went to him. A trace of the ever-present fear of discovery rumbled in her stomach.
“Those bastards!” he shouted. Crystal smelled whiskey on his breath. Allison, ignoring the way Crystal tried to embrace and calm him, pulled away and paced in the room.
“That Landow woman is trying to block me!”
“Block you, James? How? You’re too powerful,” Crystal stated, knowing just a few properly said words were usually enough to get him speaking.
“They’ve added three more ships to Landow Shipping. They have eight now. Eight! She’s undercutting the rates I offered the Tulbaugh Import Company for American shipments.”
“Can you not underbid them as well?” Crystal asked innocently, seemingly unaware of how heavily Landow had cut their prices. Crystal knew every move that Landow Shipping made, and she knew exactly what Allison was talking about.
“The other members of the consortium are giving me trouble over this. They’ve voted not to cut the prices further.”
“But you control the consortium.”
“I know,” he said, somewhat mollified. “But it’s also their money at stake. They will not stand for the high losses needed to break Landow. Damn Ledoque for a lusting bastard!” Crystal said nothing as he paced angrily about the room. Stopping suddenly, he stared at her. “I should never have trusted him to take care of her. He let that stupid woman stab him in the back and escape in time to warn her ship. I should have destroyed her the way I did her lover.”
“Can’t you do that now?” Crystal asked, her heart beating much too fast at Allison’s mention of her brother.
Allison laughed bitterly. “It’s too late. She’s wound that damned fool Parkins around her finger and married him. She’s protected now. Besides,” he added in a lower voice, “I can’t have a woman sent to a mine.”
“I don’t understand,” Crystal said, coming closer to him. Subtly, she pressed herself against him, moistly kissing his neck and running her hand along his thigh. “You can do anything, my darling. What did you do to her lover?”
Allison looked into her idolizing eyes. His passion was stirring, and he knew that soon he would be unable to control himself. Even her lightest touch stoked his desires–never had he thought a woman could excite him so.
“I ended his life.”
“You had him killed?” she whispered, pressing tighter against the growing bulge in his pants.
“No, he’s paying the price for going against me!”
Crystal continued to stroke him, and she saw his face go tense with desire, but she said nothing. Then Allison reached around her to cup a breast and squeeze it tightly.
“He thought he could destroy me. But he couldn’t. He came back from the dead, and I banished him to hell again.”
Crystal gave a throaty moan, and pressed her hand tighter over the hardness beneath his clothing. “You’re so exciting, James,” she breathed in a low, husky voice. “So powerful, so manly.”
Her words and actions were all part of the act she’d perfected for him. Allison reveled in power, and Crystal always made him feel that his power was so much a part of him that it drove her wild. When she seemed to become so uncontrolled, James Allison became proud and boastful.
Allison smiled down at her, his hand never still on her breast. His heavy breathing accented his words. “It was really quite simple,” he boasted. “You see, a man in Cape Town, Johann Devreeling, had lost everything to the English. His hatred for them made him a perfect tool for me. I had Montgomery shipped to South Africa, where Devreeling arranged for him to work out the rest of his life in a diamond mine.”
“Oh–” Then Crystal’s hand paused tentatively in its movements as she widened her eyes. “But how can that be?”
“Criminals are hired out to mines instead of going to prison. It’s cheaper and not wasteful. Montgomery is in one of those mines.”
Crystal was afraid she might faint, but she reached deep down within her and steadied herself. “But surely someone will realize that he is not a criminal–or did you have him sentenced in South Africa?”
Allison laughed then. “No. I did something even better. He’s serving his sentence under the name of a convicted criminal, who I had sent to another mine. No one will ever believe that Montgomery is who he says he is. And,” he added proudly, “I receive regular reports on him so that I know he is alive and aware of why he’s there.”
“Oh, James,” she whispered, “you’re so clever.” Then she rose on tiptoe and kissed him deeply. She put everything of herself into the kiss, for it was both a kiss of thanks and a kiss of death.
When Allison had spoken, every detail of Alana’s letter concerning Rafe’s death flashed through her mind. The man who had died escaping from his prison, was unlisted on the mine roster. And Allison was still tracking Rafe. Like a brilliant explosion within her mind, one thought rang out clearly: Rafe was still alive!
Crystal made love to Allison in a frenzy of movement that made him believe that talking of his power of life and death over others had made Crystal more passionate than usual.
He had not understood the look in her wide-open eyes as she had devoured him. She had ridden him mercilessly, wringing every ounce of strength within his body, and never once had her eyes closed. Never once had she made herself blank out her mind. She wanted to remember this night for as long as she lived.
When he left the next morning, he never knew how close to death he’d been. For it had taken every bit of her willpower not to plunge her hidden knife into his heart. During the long night, however, Crystal had realized that with Rafe alive, they would be able to destroy Allison–she would let him live to feel it.
After he was gone, Crystal wrote a note to Captain Sanders. The Harmony was due to leave for Cape Town on the evening tide, and she would be on board. Then Crystal packed. She filled four trunks, and after sending them to the dock, she wrote what she had learned and brought the letter to Nathan Bennet, instructing him to do nothing except observe Allison until she returned.
Next, Crystal laboriously wrote a letter to herself. She made sure that the handwriting did not look like her own, and when she was finished, she rubbed her eyes until they were bleary.
When she was ready, Crystal went to the Wellington Club and had Allison brought to her in the vestibule. When he saw her there, he did not see the desirable, sensual woman he had grown to know; rather, he saw a tearstained, distraught Crystal.
Taking her into a private room, he tried to find out what had happened since he’d left that morning, and slowly, in broken words, she’d told him.
“M-my brother,” she cried. “I–I just received a letter. He was injured. I must go to him–he needs me.”
“Go? Where? I will take you,” he offered, strangely out of character for him.
Crystal shook her head. “England. He–he–oh, James,” she cried. “Please, I can’t even talk about it. “I–please, my love, hold me a moment.”
Handing Allison the letter, she buried her face in his chest and stayed there while he read it, not trusting herself to look him in the eye and tell the false tale.
When he had finished, she convinced Allison that she needed to see her brother, who had married into a titled, wealthy English family. He was, she explained between sobs, her only living relative. And in this, his time of torment, she must go to him.
She had drawn on her memory of Alana and explained how a hunting accident left him paralyzed.
“I will arrange passage immediately,” Allison stated, acting the master and lover. “I will have one of my own ships readied for you.”
Crys
tal drew back from him. “It will take too long, James. I’ve already seen to my passage. I leave on the late tide aboard the Royal Dover. ”
“I shall take you there,” he said.
Again, Crystal shook her head. “Thank you, my dearest, but you are in a meeting. Just kiss me, my love, so that I may carry your touch with me until I return.”
When they parted, Crystal’s anger still fueled her. The tears that fell from her eyes were tears of rage, although Allison could not know that.
“I will return to you soon, my love, and then I shall repay you for everything.”
“There is nothing to repay. Just come back to me soon.” For the first time in his life, James Allison meant what he said to a woman.
“As soon as I can,” she promised.
Twenty minutes after leaving the Wellington Club, Crystal was on the bridge of the Harmony.
“Are you sure?” Captain Miles Sanders asked.
“I’m sure, Captain. My brother is still alive, and I’m going to get him out of that mine.”
“This will be hard on Alana,” Sanders commented.
Only then, did she realize what the news might mean to Alana.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered.
As the months passed, Alana and Edward’s life together cemented the bond that they had already formed. Alana became a familiar and welcome sight in the Maklin-Parkins offices as well as at her husband’s properties in and out of Cape Town. Several times Edward took Alana on tour of his properties in the interior so that she became familiar with everything that he had built.
During her trips, Alana had begun to fall in love with the magnificent contrasts of South Africa: the Little and Great Karroos–part of the wide, high plateau that was the interior–were sparsely populated, parched land. The lush valleys of the Orange Free State, where the Boers had fled after the English gained dominance, was a bountiful land; and the Transvaal, with the purple pale that seemed to grow from the very earth itself, was hard and primitive.
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