When Daniel returned from washing at the creek, they sat on the tailgate of the wagon, ate bread and ham, and washed it down with creek water. Mercy smeared the gooseberry jam on bread and held it to Daniel’s mouth. He took a bite and almost nipped her fingers.
“Ouch!” Her eyes smiled into his, and she lifted a finger and wiped jam from the corner of his mouth. “Ungrateful is what you are,” she said, teasing. “From now on you can put jam on your own bread.”
“You’ve got some on your upper lip. I think I’ll take that.”
He leaned toward her, and his tongue swiped the jam from her mouth. She didn’t move. She looked into his quiet, smiling face and the soft brown eyes that now anxiously waited to see if she would throw back a sassy retort. Love and tenderness welled up within her. She lifted her free hand and held it to his cheek. Still holding her eyes with his, he turned his lips into her palm. She felt them move, felt the warmth of his breath, and her heart tried to leap from her breast.
“It’ll be dark soon.” He said the first words that came to his mind and slid off the end of the wagon. “There’ll not be moonlight tonight if that cloud bank coming up out of the south keeps coming.”
Mercy was only half aware of what he was saying. His hands at her waist lifted her off the end of the wagon.
“Do you think it will rain?”
“It could.” Daniel climbed up into the wagon bed and threw out the bedrolls, then arranged his saddle and Mercy’s carpetbag, the grain sack and the food box, and covered them with a canvas. “If we should have visitors in the night, I want them to think we’re sleeping in the wagon.”
“Where will we sleep?”
“I’ve got it figured out. I’ve staked Buck here close to the wagon. He’ll let us know if anyone comes nosing around. Bring the blankets, I’ll carry the rest.”
Mercy followed him toward the willows that lined the creek bank. When he reached them, he stopped and looked back toward the wagon. Its shape was clearly visible. At the base of a large oak he stopped again and looked back.
“This will do. If it rains, we’ll get under the willows.”
Mercy looked at him blankly when he took the blanket from her hand and spread it on the soft grass beneath the tree. She remembered Hod’s warning, and for a moment she was alarmed.
“You think someone will try to sneak up on us?”
“I’m not planning on it, but if they do, I want to be ready. Come on. Sit down.” She sat down with her back to the tree, and Daniel sat down beside her, his rifle, pistol, powder, and shot within reach. “Are you cold?” He flung out another blanket, pulled it up around her, and felt her tremble. “Don’t be afraid. Between me and old Buck out there, there’s not a chance of anyone sneaking up on you.”
“Do you think I’m afraid just for myself?” she said, flaring. “Oh, Daniel—sometimes you make me so mad!” She clutched his arm and shook it.
“Now, don’t get all riled up.” His arm went around her and pulled her close to him. “Tomorrow night we’ll stay in Evansville. I know of an inn where you can get a good warm bath, and we’ll eat in style in a private dining room. Will that make up for having to sleep in your clothes on this hard ground?”
“I don’t mind the hard ground or sleeping in my clothes. I just want you . . . safe.” She wiggled out of the confining blanket, and throwing it over the both of them, she turned and snuggled against his side. He was solid flesh and bone, and his heart beat steadily against her breast. She could smell the masculine smell of his body and . . . gooseberry jam too. “Danny . . .” Her hand moved up his chest to his throat. “If anything happened to you, I’d just . . . die.”
Daniel’s chest was so tight, he could scarcely breathe. He was aware of every soft curve of the body pressed to his. Every time he touched her, it was harder to keep from crushing her to him and blurting out his love for her. Slowly he sucked in a fortifying breath. This was the time to get things settled between them. He couldn’t put it off any longer, nor could he bear for another hour to go by, not knowing if she was going to be truly his. While he thought of what he was going to say, his hand stroked the arm that lay across his chest.
“We need to have a talk, Mercy.”
Mercy, he’d said. Not honey! A cold chill traveled down Mercy’s spine. He wanted the marriage put aside! Her arm slid around him and tightened unknowingly. She closed her eyes. Please, God, don’t let him say that! She strived for calmness by telling herself that she would accept it, if it was what he wanted. She would not hang on him, cry, or make him feel guilty. She loved him enough to turn him loose, didn’t she?
“Did you hear me?”
“I heard you, Danny. What . . . is it you want to talk about?”
“Don’t make it difficult for me. You know we have to decide how we’re going to deal with this . . . this situation we’re in.”
“Have you thought about what we should do?”
“I didn’t have to think about it. I want to know how you feel.”
“You know how I feel about you.” Oh, Danny, her heart cried. Don’t make me say it.
“I know that you’re fond of me. We’ve known each other for almost as long as I can remember. We’re comfortable together, and we share many memories. The fact that we were both orphans drew us together when we were children.”
“I had a wonderful childhood—”
“We’re no longer children.” He took a deep, trembly breath. “We’re a man and a woman. Being fond of a man is not the same as . . . loving the man who is your husband, or the woman who is your wife.”
Mercy was still for a long while, trying to analyze what he had said. Then it dawned on her. He wanted to be free, and he was trying to make it easy for her. Swallowing the lump that rose to her throat, she tried to make her voice natural when she spoke but failed miserably. The words came out gravelly, as if she had rocks in her throat.
“What you’re trying to say is that you’re fond of me as a Sister, but you do not . . . love me as a man loves his wife.” She heard Daniel’s indrawn breath and felt him stiffen.
“Goddammit! I didn’t say that at all!”
“Well . . . I thought you did—”
“I’ve got to know how you feel about me!” he demanded in a voice as angry as any he had ever used with her. “Are you merely fond of me? I want to know, right now!” He threw the blanket aside and gripped her arms. His face was close, and his lips were curled in a snarl. “Can’t you understand? I don’t want to be your brother!” He spaced the words for emphasis.
“You’re not—”
“I want you in my bed as my wife . . . my lover! I want to hold you in my arms every night for the rest of my life! Are you horrified, embarrassed, to know your brother wants to love you?”
“Love me?” she echoed. New life surged through her. It shut off her ability to think. She gazed at him in stunned silence.
“Dammit! Say something!”
“Give me time. You . . . love me? Really love me?”
“Don’t you know?” he answered gruffly. “How could you not know? I can hardly keep my hands off you.”
“You don’t want the marriage put aside!” Tears filled her eyes. With a sob she launched herself at him and threw her arms tightly about his neck. With her mouth pressed against the indentation in his chin, she whispered, “Oh, Danny. I was so afraid you’d not want me . . . for your wife. I love you. I want to be your wife, your lover. I want us to make babies together!”
“You do?” he croaked, and crushed her to him, rocking back and forth. “Ah, sweet woman!” His lips found her eyes and tasted her tears. “I love you. I don’t have the words to tell how much.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was afraid to.”
“Afraid? Oh, darling, I can’t imagine you being afraid of anything.”
“I was. You purely scared the hell out of me!”
“I thought I’d lost you. You were so angry . . . the night we were wed.”
&
nbsp; “I didn’t want to be forced on you. I wanted you to choose me over all other men.” He moved her onto his lap and wrapped his arms more tightly about her. “Darlin’, darlin’,” he crooned. “Didn’t my kisses tell you how much I wanted you?”
“I just knew that I liked them and didn’t want you to stop. I waited for you to come to bed last night. I wanted you to hold me again.”
“I didn’t dare lie down beside you again. I . . . wanted you so much.” His hungry lips sought hers, but his kiss was gentle, reverent, loving.
“I wanted to sleep in your arms again,” she whispered against his mouth.
He moved from her mouth and worshiped each feature of her face with his lips, pressing soft kisses and murmuring words of love. “Sweetheart . . . you’re so sweet, smell so good. Ah, my love, my love, you’re as soft as a cotton ball. Don’t you have bones in this sweet body?” His lips moved back to hers, and fitting her head in the crook of his arm, he deepened his kiss, sending her blood thundering through her ears.
Caught in a spinning whirlwind of desire, Mercy was aware that his heart was racing as fast as hers. She met his passion with intimate sensuousness and parted her lips to run the tip of her tongue across his mouth. She moved her lips against his in an instinctive invitation as old as time. When she felt his mouth leaving hers, she held the back of his head with one hand more tightly.
The weight on his lap felt so good. He moved one hand down to cup her buttocks and press her to his swelling desire. Stirred by his incredible arousal, he jerked his lips from hers and pressed them to the side of her face.
“Sweetheart! We’ve got to stop this while we can.”
“I don’t want . . . to stop.” Her arms strained him to her.
He moaned and buried his face against the side of her neck. “We’ll not spend our wedding night here on a blanket. Tomorrow night, in a soft bed, I’m going to love you all night long.”
“And I’ll love you,” she whispered. Her hands framed his face, and she looked deeply, lovingly, into his eyes.
“Mercy, honey . . .” He drew her hands down from his face and held them to his lips. “You know what . . . happens, when I . . . when we come together in our marriage bed?”
She laughed, placed a tender kiss on his lips, and nestled down in his arms.
“Oh, Daniel! You still think of me as a child. I’ve known that since I was ten years old—even if you wouldn’t let me in the barn when the bull was in with the cow.”
“I suppose you asked someone. You were always full of questions,” he said with a happy chuckle.
“I asked Mamma and Amy.”
“When was this?”
“It was while you were gone to Louisville with Rain. I told Mamma I knew she didn’t get Mary Elizabeth by sitting on Papa’s lap, because her dress wasn’t up.” Mercy giggled happily. “Then I said that if they didn’t tell me how they got babies, I would ask Mike. That got them riled up.”
“I bet. What did Mamma say?”
“She said, ‘Young lady, it’s time you and I had a walk down by the creek’. She told me everything I wanted to know. At the time I was pretty shocked by some of it. Later, when I was older, we had another talk, and she told me that for a woman to be intimately entwined with the man she loved was one of God’s greatest gifts.”
“Farr said something like that to me one time,” Daniel said slowly. “He said it was a lucky man whose wife enjoyed the marriage bed. He also said it was the man’s duty to see that she did. I’ll be gentle, sweetheart. . . .” His breath almost left him.
She sat up and looked into his face. His eyes were so close to hers that she could see the glints in them, and his breath was warm on her wet lips. She placed her nose alongside his and spoke against his lips. “I’ll not be one of those women who cringe from the marriage bed, love. I want to be yours, you to be mine, have you go inside my body and give me your child.” The last words were whispered with trembling desire.
Daniel’s throat was so tight, he couldn’t speak. He swallowed with difficulty, closed his eyes, and leaned his open mouth against her cheek.
“Mercy, little Mercy,” he murmured, “you fill my life completely.” He kissed her, his lips demanding yet tender. His tongue deeply invaded the mouth that parted so eagerly, and grazed over pearl-white teeth. Her lips clung moistly to his. The kiss was long and deep and full of promised passion. She took his kiss thirstily. She wanted to stay there in his arms forever. His lips pulled away, but he drew her closer to him and chuckled softly.
“What are you laughing about?” she asked.
“I feel like I’m floating above the ground.”
“I feel like I’m hanging from a cloud.”
“I love you,” he said quietly.
“I love you too.”
A great wave of love and pride swept him; his heart beat with pure joy as his hands moved over her breasts lovingly, stroking, caressing. It was like a dream having her here in his arms, knowing she was his, from the top of her shining head to the soles of her feet—his to love and to care for. He adjusted her on his lap, pressed her head to his shoulder, and wrapped the blanket snuggly around her.
They sat quietly, listening to the music of the night and talking softly of the past, the future, the discovery of their love. After a while Mercy’s quiet, even breathing told him she was drifting off to sleep. Content to hold her, Daniel closed his eyes, and his mind filled with an indelible picture of golden hair and sky-blue eyes.
The voice of a wolf shattered the stillness and startled Mercy from sleep.
Daniel smiled against her forehead and whispered, “Go back to sleep. It’s just that old wolf calling his mate.”
“If she has any brains at all, she’ll go looking for him,” she said sleepily, and curled her arm about his neck. “Crazy old she-wolf doesn’t know what she’s missing.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Are you going to sleep all day?”
The husky velvet tone reached into Mercy’s sleep-drugged mind. She moved against the warm body holding her and slowly opened her eyes.
“Is it morning?”
“Almost.”
“I don’t want to move.” There was a seductive huskiness in her voice. She moved her hand across his chest and into the neck of his shirt. Her fingers stroked the skin over his collarbone. “Have you been holding me all night?”
“No. I left you lying here all by yourself,” he said, teasing.
“You didn’t.” She sat up so she could see his face. “Did you sleep at all?”
“A little.” He didn’t tell her that it was damned little, and that a few times he had laid her down, covered her, and circled their campsite. Neither did he tell her that once in the night he had heard hoofbeats, and at another time the peeper frogs along the creek bank had stopped their cadence, disturbed by something they didn’t understand, and he had knelt over her, his rifle ready, until the frogs started up again.
“Did I dream that you said you loved me and wanted us to stay married?” she whispered drowsily.
“No, love. You didn’t dream it.” His hands moved up to frame her face, and he pulled it to his and placed a tender kiss on her lips. His fingers then moved into the hair next to her scalp. “I like to see you with your hair all messed up.”
Her hands moved up to his. “Did I lose my hairpins?”
“If you did, I’ll buy you some more when we get to Evansville. As soon as it’s daylight, I’ll build a fire. You can have that cup of tea this morning.”
“Let’s stay here a few more minutes.” She burrowed her face in the warm flesh of his neck. “I love this place, I love this tree, I love you. Oh, Daniel, I’m as happy as a dog with two tails!”
“And too lazy to wag either of them,” he said with a chuckle, and blew the strands of her hair from his lips.
She licked his neck with her tongue, then fastened her lips to the spot and began to suck vigorously. His fingers found her ribs, and their laughter mingled. They were like e
xcited children. Everything was new and wonderful.
“Don’t! Don’t! I’m too full. I’ve got to—Oh, Daniel, don’t. You know I can’t stand to be tickled.” Her eyes sparkled at him through thick lashes.
“Kiss me and I’ll stop.”
It was fully daylight before they picked up the blankets and went back to the wagon. Daniel put the pistol on the wagon seat, within reach of her hand.
“Stay here and let me look around, and then you can go down to the creek and wash up.”
Mercy’s eyes followed his tall, lean-limbed figure as he walked away from her. When he walked, his feet hit the ground lightly. He didn’t lumber along as her brothers did. He carried the rifle with the stock under his armpit, his hand on the trigger, as he had been taught by Uncle Juicy a long time ago. The old mountain man who had raised Farrway Quill would be proud of Daniel, she thought suddenly, and smiled.
It was so wonderful to be with him, to know that he was hers. No other woman would ever know the feel of his arms or the gentle touch of his lips. Mercy was adrift in a sea of happiness.
When Daniel returned, he told her that there was no great hurry for them to leave. They would be at the river in the middle of the afternoon, and in Evansville a short time later. They sat by the small fire, drank tea, and ate bread and ham again.
“I’ll not want ham for supper tonight,” Mercy said firmly. Her eyes traveled lovingly over Daniel’s face, and her smile was one of girlish sweetness.
“I’ll not want it for a week, if ever.” Daniel was hardly aware of what he was saying. He found such joy and exquisite pleasure in being with her, watching her radiant face, he could have been eating a leather boot.
“I’d like a nice crusty meat pie, fresh bread and butter, peach cobbler with cream—”
“Is that all, Mrs. Phelps?” The very realness of her happiness was a miracle of ever-expanding proportions.
“No, husband, I want a bath!” The laughing words gushed out of her mouth.
Dorothy Garlock - [Wabash River] Page 27
