by Claudy Conn
“On land and sea? You intrigue me, beauty,” he answered, and pulled her in close.
Ardor flooded through her, and she swallowed before she asked, “You said you have your own vessel?”
“Aye, I most certainly do and she is a fine vessel, most capable of taking on the mysterious sea, sweetheart,” he said, and his hand moved to her breast, cupping the silk covered fullness and teasing her nipple already pert and hard beneath the material. “And a Captain’s quarters that can accommodate us should you like to…have additional privacy.”
She kissed him and he dove into that kiss. She took his tongue and felt a glorious wave of fever fill her sex as her thighs clenched.
As she pulled away, he attempted to have another kiss. She put up a finger. “First…you must hear what I require of you.”
Sara began slowly, and painstakingly telling him what she needed him and his crew to do for her and why. When she had finished, Colin Falwell stood and frowned as he studied her.
“Not our line of work, my lady,” Colin said.
That worried her and she frowned as she asked, “Have I come to the wrong man?”
“Here is the thing, my lady. My men are a good sort. Aye, we cross the sea into France and buy very fine brandy and smuggle it back to England for sale. ‘Tis, in a sense, honest work, clean and simple. A bit of rum running is our trade and proud of the fact that we do it well. No one has ever gotten hurt. But this…well, this…?” he said, and rubbed his chin.
“She deserves it. She purposely took my husband from me and then that wasn’t enough. She talked him into divorcing me.”
“Aye, I don’t hold with that. The tart should keep her place, but what you are asking?”
“Colin, if I don’t divorce him, he will have the marriage annulled and make his own blood son a bastard. What kind of man does that?”
Colin frowned. “No, I don’t hold with that either. If I agree…it will cost you.”
She smiled. “How much?”
“How much have you got to give?” he answered quietly.
“One hundred pounds and no quibbling,” she said sharply. “It is all I can get…without his lordship noticing.”
“No. I won’t take a sou below two hundred,” he replied, and reached for a lock of her golden hair. “I told you, I’m good at what I do, and that includes bargaining. If you want my men to go against the grain, there has to be enough in it for them.”
She moved in close to him. “You will take one hundred…‘tis all I have. Remember, you’ll be making a pretty guinea on the other side.” She looked up at his face and watched him as he considered this. “‘Tis all I have to give,” she said in the most seductive voice she could muster.
His hand was moved to her bodice, tearing it as he went for her breast and pulled it out of her gown. He bent and suckled and when he came up, he found her eyes closed and her face drawn in pleasure.
He said, “Is it now? Well, I know better. I’ll take two hundred, and you…right here, right now…”
She laughed, but truth was, he excited her. “You are good at what you do,” she said, and pulled out the two hundred and put it in his hands.
She watched him stow it away and asked, “Now, do you think you can handle me?”
“Hell and fire, woman, you are a diamond all right, but I can see you don’t want to be taken easy-like. So aye, I mean to handle you as you have never been handled before.” His voice was husky as he pulled up her skirts and sat on the stone bench.
She undid the button of his sailor pants and released his large hard cock before she pulled off her underclothes. Colin had his cock in his hand and asked her, “The question is, my beauty, can you handle that?”
For an answer, she went down on her knees and took his dick into her mouth. Oh, but she loved a big cock on her tongue. She sucked hard, and saw pleasure on his face.
“Easy now…” he said. “Better come on up and let me slide inside,” he said hungrily.
She climbed on board and took him roughly inside of herself, rocking him hard, slamming down on him, filling herself with his large cock.
He kissed her mouth and slid his tongue along hers. She put her head back from that kiss and said, “Did you taste yourself on my tongue, Colin?”
“Ah, you fine wench, fuck that cock harder now. Fuck!”
She did what he asked and moved in a way that touched just the right spot, and as she climaxed, she released a small scream.
He slapped his hand over her mouth and cautioned, “You’ll have them all coming out to have a share of you, and right now, I’m not sharing you with anyone.”
She said hungrily, “More…I want more…”
“And you damn well are going to get it, but if you keep moving like that, I am going to go off…and you don’t want that yet, do you?”
“Oh, but it feels so good,” she said, moving in a circular motion.
He suddenly picked her up and put her on the bench, leaned her onto her back and once again lifted her skirts. “I’m going to ram you now, beauty…and take control.”
“Yes, yes…do that!”
She gasped with pleasure as he pounded into her and experienced another shattering climax. She marveled at his stamina as he continued to slam into her for a bit until he stiffened and went off.
When he was done, he said as she started to rise, “Where are you going?”
“I…er…”
He grinned. “I’m not done yet,” he told her, and took her hand and led her to the back wall of the tavern. He set her palms on the building and pulled her by the waist into position before he lifted her skirts and rammed inside of her again.
His thrusts were unrestrained and swift as she begged for more and he growled, “More…I’ll give you more.” He pulled out and dove into her again and again as she squealed with pleasure.
All at once he heard someone approaching. They were a bit out of sight and he stilled her as he listened.
“Colin…?” a lad no more than eighteen called as he rounded the corner of the tavern and stopped in his tracks to watch.
Colin saw that it was only one of his shipmates, and a good friend as well. He grinned at him. “Say hallo to one of my men, he has a great liking for the ladies, don’t you, Jimmy?”
“Don’t stop!” Sara cried, not at all concerned about the newcomer.
“Jimmy, come over here. Look at this very fine ass. Yeah, that’s right. Now take out your dick and let our lady have a taste,” Colin said, still grinning broadly.
Jimmy was presently hot and ready. He immediately did what he was told and Sara had her first threesome.
She was in ecstasy.
Pleasuring the handsome virile young man while being pleasured was a new experience, and they brought her to her climax over and over before first the lad and then Colin were brought to theirs.
When Colin was done, he slapped her rump soundly and told her to straighten up, as they had a job to do.
Sara put herself together, put on her underclothes, all the while allowing Jimmy to suckle at her nipples. Oh, but she liked it and held his head in place. “Yes…like that,” she said as she got heated up again.
Colin laughed and pulled him off. “Later, we’ll have more, but now…we have work to get to and cash to be had.”
~ Seven ~
IT HAD BEEN A LONG walk from the vicarage to the little cottage near hidden in the woods near Godwin’s estate lands. She found herself breaking down as tears overtook her. Life had come out of the light and dragged her into the dark. Would Godwin be upset with her? No, he was never upset with her. Would he think she should have lied to her uncle and denied the truth?
She had thought she would one day live there with her child and that Godwin would have easy access to her. She didn’t know that she would be banished so soon from her uncle’s home.
She supposed her uncle was not wrong. She had behaved like a fallen woman in his eyes, and she knew that was what she actually had become.
&nbs
p; She climbed over the rolling hills, taking a shortcut through a farmer’s field, cutting the four mile walk along the road to just over three miles.
It was usually an easy walk, but carrying a portmanteau made it less so.
Her anger and her pride had made her defiant and carried her the first leg of the trip without feeling sorry for herself. Now, however, the enormity of what had occurred hit her straight on, breaking her braver resolve, and she cried right out loud.
Emotions ran high and then subsided as she tried to consider the reality of her future. She would be, once again, dependent on a man.
When her parents were gone, she had been dependent on her uncle. She could have stayed alone in the small home they had left her, but at her uncle’s insistence she had come to Cornwall and taken residence with him and her aunt.
She had made a complete mess of her life. It was her own fault, she thought now. It was punishment for allowing herself to love a married man.
Heather had never before been confrontational. She had never had reason to be. Why had she fought with her uncle? Why had she not thrown herself at his mercy and begged forgiveness? He would have made life hard for her. He would have monitored her movements…but then he would have discovered she was with child. Ah, then he would have sent her away. The outcome would have been the same.
Her uncle had made a very good point. She was the reason Godwin had turned on his wife and son. The fact that he and his wife were not in love, did not even like one another, didn’t matter. She was the reason he was suing her for divorce. She could not excuse her part in that.
She put down her portmanteau and rested her arm. Her belongings were not great, but the weight was beginning to strain her right arm. She switched the handle to her left hand.
She sighed as she thought of her untenable situation. She should have been more circumspect. But it was done, no sense going over it again and again.
It was her fault yes, but she knew in her heart that even if she had apologized and promised never to see Godwin again, it would only have put off the inevitable. She was with child.
She supposed that was what had triggered her defiance—the fact that she had none to offer.
Godwin would be so distressed when he returned. This was exactly what he wanted to avoid. She should have listened to him. He wanted to take her and sail to Italy and handle Sara from afar, through his attorney. She should have agreed. She would have had their baby while away and when they returned, everything would have been settled. Why had she not accepted to do that? Because, she answered herself, you were still trying to dissuade him from divorcing Sara, that’s why!
All this while, she thought she was living a fairy tale with Godwin. That was how he had made her feel. Perhaps her uncle was correct and she was wicked and selfish? Perhaps she should have left Godwin and gone home to the home her parents had left her long before she became so attached to him?
It was so hard to separate what was right and wrong when emotion and desire drives you to the brink.
All she wanted was to be with the man she loved. All he wanted was to be with her and raise their child.
Why had life done this to them—to them all…?
Reality now struck swift and hard.
She looked up from her cogitations and saw the cottage. It was lovely. A cream colored stone building that Godwin had purchased some weeks ago.
It housed a few bedrooms and a lovely sitting area, and she had actually thought she would live there, decorate, garden…could she still?
Her heart was heavy and her mind a mess. The awesome questions reared themselves for inspection. She was selfish, had been selfish to fall in love and then act on it. She was wicked. There was no other way to look at her situation. Her child might grow up to hate her? Oh no, no.
She put her portmanteau down in the small foyer and walked through the sitting room to the small hearth. There was enough kindling and firewood, so she started a small fire to chase away the chill from her body and the room. She shivered and hugged her cloak tightly as she waited for the fire to take.
She had no way of knowing that the smoke from the fire would be a signal.
* * * * *
Sara Ravensbury’s timing and planning were enmeshed that day. The widow Abernathy had carried her part in Sara’s scheme out perfectly. The vicar had reacted exactly as she knew the mean-spirited man would react.
Sara knew Heather would leave and go to the cottage Godwin had purchased for their clandestine meetings.
How stupid of Godwin. Did he not realize that she knew all about his little hideaway?
Sara knew Heather would never take the stagecoach for Devon. She would not, could not leave without first seeing her lover. No, Sara thought, Heather Martin would go to the cottage and await Godwin’s arrival.
He would see the smoke on his way back from his business dealings, at least, Sara believed that Heather would think that.
Thus, Heather Martin had fallen right into her hands.
She watched the smoke curl upward from the chimney and motioned her horse forward out of the dusky woods. Colin smiled at her and followed. He hadn’t brought Jimmy on this job. No, he brought a younger man, one that needed a bit more training in discipline. He had brought Bunky, a young lad that had balked at the plan they were about to embark upon. Colin couldn’t have any of his crew criticize his actions.
The young lad at his back frowned darkly, apparently unhappy with the job they were about to do, but remained silent.
Farmer Burns closed his field gate at that moment, stretched his well-worked limbs and sighed wearily. It had been a long day. All he wanted was his meal and his little wife in his lap. He hoped she had made his chicken pot pie, his favorite, and that was all he was thinking about as he looked up at the sound of a horse’s snort.
Curiously, he watched horses, their riders unknown to him, crossing the field at a trot. Three riders, he counted. As they neared, he began to frown. Two men and a woman…damn, if the woman wasn’t Lady Ravensbury. He was shocked. Whatever was her ladyship doing with the likes of them?
They were seamen by their garb, so what were they doing here? He removed his peaked wool hat and scratched his head of light brown curls.
He heard her ladyship laugh. Well then, no need for him to worry about her, yet, to his way of thinking, the three looked as though they had a purpose. He had a ‘feel’ for such things and he wondered, in spite of the fact that she had laughed, if her ladyship was in need of help.
However, as the three paused and her ladyship turned to push one of the men’s shoulders, bend towards him and kiss him soundly, Farmer Burns revised his opinion. ‘T’wasn’t she that was in trouble!
Well then, as bad as he might feel for his lordship, it wasn’t none of his affair, and besides that, he knew the stories. Stories about Lady Ravensbury’s amusements were wide-spread and as he was a tenant of his lordship’s, he couldn’t help but note that there was no love lost between Godwin and Sara Ravensbury. No, no love at all.
At any rate, there was naught for him to do. What he needed was the feel of his wife in his arms, and her chicken pot pie.
* * * * *
Heather plopped down on the hearthrug by the fire and stared at the growing flames. They were so beautiful, so vivid.
A gusty sigh escaped her lips as she thought of Godwin and what he would say and do when he discovered what had happened.
She still could not believe that her uncle had thrown her out of the house with instructions for her to walk to town and take the stagecoach at 5:00 PM to Devon. Town was a good eight miles. He could easily have had their stablehand give her a lift. No matter, she wouldn’t have gone, as from the moment she knew she had no home with him any longer, she had determined she would go to the cottage.
By now, he would think her now well on her way and probably be saying good riddance. He didn’t care for her safety or comfort and was more wicked than she, for she had not set out to hurt anyone, while he had.
> She ran her hand down her flat belly. Godwin’s child. How she already loved the baby was something she couldn’t even put into words. She felt herself drift off when all at once a strong draft made her look up to find the doorway filled with an imposing figure of a woman. Lady Ravensbury.
Heather cringed beneath the woman’s scrutiny and didn’t make a move. She was some years Sara’s junior and until she became Godwin’s lover, she had led a sheltered life. Heather said nothing to her ladyship as she waited for Sara to state her purpose.
“Are you going to just sit there and stare at me, or are you going to invite me in?” Sara said haughtily.
Heather rose to her feet, brushed off her dress to straighten the wrinkles, and crossed her arms over her middle as she readied for the confrontation. “It doesn’t appear as though I need to invite you in,” she said, and inclined her head, indicating that Sara had already entered and closed the door at her back.
Sara smirked. “No, you don’t have to, do you, because if this cottage is Godwin’s, then it is also mine.”
“Ah, you make assumptions without knowing facts,” Heather said as she asked herself where she was getting her bravado. Was it now that she was face to face with the woman who had ruined Godwin’s life that anger on his behalf drove her?
Sara’s eyes narrowed. “Well, it appears you have a sharp tongue.”
“Only when I must,” Heather returned.
Sara looked her over. “I have never seen you up close. My, but I quite see why Godwin is so taken with you. Stunning creature…such violet eyes and beautiful red hair. You should do very well where you are going,” Sara said slowly. “There on the hearthrug you made quite a picture. If you hadn’t caused me such trouble, I might have wanted to…pleasure myself with you.”
Heather gasped, absolutely shocked at this.
Sara laughed. “However, I can see you have the heart of an innocent though you play the slut with my husband,” her ladyship sneered at her.
