Faithfully Yours

by Jo Ann Ferguson

  With a laugh, she asked, “Are you so sure of that?”

  “I am sure of that with every bit of my being.” With a moan of yearning, he covered her mouth with his.

  The sensations she had longed for rose again as she was drawn into the realms of rapture. She had tried to think first of her family, knowing that having Sebastian here while she was involved in taking supplies to the rebels put her family in jeopardy. But she could no longer deny that she loved him.

  She loved his rakish smile and his bold caresses and his dedication to his duty and his delicious kisses. When he was gone, she found herself thinking endlessly of the next time they might meet. When she was with him, she wanted to be in his arms just like this.

  She closed her eyes and sighed in sweet surrender as his mouth traced her neck with sun-hot kisses. With a laugh, he bent to place his arms beneath her knees. When he gathered her up in his arms, she leaned against the unyielding wall of his chest. His heart thudded with the same speed as hers. Carefully he placed her on his bed and leaned over her.

  “Teach me,” he breathed against her face.

  Startled, she drew back so that she could see his smile. “Me teach you?”

  “Teach me how to give you pleasure, sweet one.”

  “Hold me.”

  “Yes.”

  “And kiss me.”

  “Yes.”

  “And touch me.”

  “Yes, but where?” He stretched out beside her on the bed, which seemed the perfect size for the two of them.

  Her fingers quivered as she guided his hand to her breast. “Here,” she whispered.

  “Only there?”

  “To start. Touch me everywhere.”

  “Everywhere, sweet one.” His eyes darkened with desire as she gasped at the fever which burst forth from deep within her when his fingers edged beneath her gown to caress her skin.

  He brushed her hair back from her eyes. He did not hurry as he kissed her. When she pressed closer, unable to restrain her yearning for him, he laughed before deepening his kiss until her mouth strained against his, wanting and reckless. This was madness, but she wanted to revel in his caresses, to explore every sensual pleasure, to lose herself in learning his responsive body. She discovered that her dreams had been tepid in comparison with the sensations that stormed through her with a power that challenged the wind clawing against the window.

  When he began to undo the hooks along her work dress, she tilted his head so she could tease his ear with the tip of her tongue. He shuddered against her, and she was thrilled that she could delight him as he was delighting her.

  “I am not giving you a chance to tell me no this time,” he whispered as he peeled back the bodice of her gown to reveal the thin chemise beneath it.

  “I do not want to say no this time.” Her laugh had a throaty sound she did not recognize. “I did not tell you no before.”

  “That is true. Just as it is true that I want to do this.” He pressed his mouth to the skin above her chemise. While his tongue quested in the shadows between her breasts, he hooked one finger in the ribbon holding her chemise closed. A quick tug, and her breasts spilled out into his hands.

  She could not silence the moan that erupted from her as he nuzzled along the bared skin. When he suckled at its tip, she writhed beneath him, no longer in possession of her body, which was being torn from her mind by this incredible rapture.

  She groped for his shirt, needing to touch him. One button popped off and careened across the bed. She ignored it as she undid the others. Her fingers splayed across his broad chest, relishing his strong muscles. She slipped her hands up his back as she pulled him down over her. He quivered as she raked him lightly with her fingertips.

  His mouth on hers, he rid himself of his shirt. She whispered a protest when he raised his mouth, but then sighed with eager delight when it swept down along her as he removed the rest of her clothes. The caress of his lips and the soft flame of his breath against the inside of her leg riveted her with a craving she could not control.

  Unbuttoning his breeches, she tugged them away. She touched the silken length of him and heard him choke out her name.

  He pushed her deep into the soft bed and placed fiery kisses along the curves of her body. As she writhed, his mouth explored her anew. His mouth on her stripped her of all thought. When he moved down along her once more to find where the fires burned most fiercely, she arched to meet his eager lips. A single touch sent bliss ricocheting through her. More rapidly than any bird, her body took flight, bringing her soaring with it.

  When she brought his mouth back to hers, he drew her beneath him and brought them together. His kisses were creating a desire so intense that she could barely endure its splendor. She put her hands on his hips, driving him even more deeply within her. She wanted every bit of the wonder they could share. Together, they grasped the joy. Together, they sought satiation. Together, they gave themselves to each other and the consuming ecstasy. As she vanished into its sweetness, every bit of her was aware of him, a part of her for now and for as long as they could share this stolen joy.

  The tender touch of Sebastian’s mouth snuggling up against her neck teased Faith to open her eyes. She did not want to leave the half-dream where ripples of pleasure still poured over her. She reached up to push a lock of recalcitrant hair away from his forehead. Her fingers shook with the emotions that had swept through her like a raging flood tide.

  His hazy, ebony eyes gazed down at her. “How did you learn to be so wonderful in my arms, Faith?” he whispered.

  “You told me to teach you,” she replied with a saucy grin.

  “So I did, and you taught me well.” He ran his tongue along her lips, which were swollen from his frenzied kisses. “And what did you learn, sweet one?”

  Twisting her finger through his hair, which had fallen from his queue, she murmured, “I learned that I cannot explain to you all that I felt. Why isn’t there a word to describe the luscious sensation of you being a part of me? There are dozens of words to describe the color red, so why is there not one to tell you how I felt?”

  “One word could never express the magnitude, sweet one. Not even a million words would come close.”

  “I—” She sat up as she heard a sound like the crash of a cannon.

  “’Tis nothing but the wind at the window,” Sebastian murmured, drawing her back into his arms and beneath the covers on his bed. “No one will be returning until the storm passes and the dawn arrives.”

  “You sound as assured of that as if you planned this storm yourself.”

  “But I did.” He gave her that mischievous smile that she adored. “I ordered this storm and all the circumstances that led to your family being scattered about like leaves before a wind.” His smile faded as he glanced toward the window. “I did not order that fire, however.”

  Faith put her fingers against his cheek and brought his gaze back to her. “Do not think of that now, Sebastian. Do not let the war be here with us now.”

  “It is a part of what I am.”

  “It is a part of what you want to be—the dashing hero who is lauded by everyone for his bravery.”

  “That is not what I want now.” His voice dropped to a raw whisper. “I want you, sweet one.”

  When he leaned over her, she saw the gleam of desire in his eyes. “You want to love me again?”

  “I waited so long for you that I shall need to hold you all night.”

  The window rattled again. When she glanced toward it, he tilted her face back to his and whispered, “Think only of being here with me. Make love with me now.”

  She drew him closer. “Now, and whenever you want me.”

  “Now, and whenever you want me, sweet one.”

  His fevered kiss sealed the promise onto her welcoming lips. A promise she hoped he would not have to break soon.

  Thirteen

  “If Faith says it will snow, it will snow.” Molly paused in the middle of the road and put her hands on he
r waist. Tapping her foot, she copied the expression her father wore when he refused to be swayed by any arguments.

  Nancy faced her with an identical frown. “I know that. You do not need to be so bossy.”

  “But you said—”

  “I said you were too bossy.”

  “I am not.”

  “You are.”

  “I—”

  With a laugh, Faith stepped between them. “You both are wrong. I said it might snow, but I think it will rain instead.”

  “It is cold enough for snow,” argued Molly, clearly not ready to relinquish an inch.

  Slipping her basket over her arm, Faith took Molly’s hand, then Nancy’s. She hurried them along the road. “Whatever it is going to be, it will be falling soon. We need to get home.”

  The girls began to prattle anew about what they would do after they finished their chores tomorrow, and Faith paid them little mind. She swung their hands as she hummed a favorite tune and smiled. Smiling had been so easy since she had spent that magnificent night in Sebastian’s bed. Although almost a week had passed since then and she ached to be with him again, she knew his thoughts never drifted far from her. He found ways to get her alone to share a kiss and an eager embrace. In his eyes, she saw that his hunger for her remained strong, and she wished she could believe his promise that they would find a way to be together again.

  Together … She swallowed a moan of frustration. Adrat! She wanted to be with him, not just thinking of being with him.

  “What was that?” asked Nancy, fear spiking her voice.

  “What was what?” Molly returned. “Stop trying to scare us, Nancy. That is not funny. It—”

  The bushes rattled on the left side of the road. Tugging on her sisters, Faith pulled them toward the other side. She wanted to run when she heard a noise that sounded like a whole company of men. Once, she would have waited here and greeted whoever was coming through the woods. That was before the barn had been burned, and the warning left for her father. Sir Richard had promised to contact the authorities in Philadelphia to request more soldiers to protect the Chester County loyalists, but none had arrived yet. The message might not even have reached Philadelphia.

  Faith knelt on the far side of some briars and drew her sisters closer. Pulling her dark cloak over them, she hoped the late afternoon shadows would conceal them.

  “Faith, will they shoot us?” asked Molly.

  “No. Hush.”

  “Then why are we hiding?”

  “Hush.”

  “Why don’t we run?” Nancy asked, her eyes wide. “I can run fast.”

  “I know you can, but we are safer here.” Faith put her finger to her own lips. “Hush.” She groaned under her breath when the unmistakable patter of sleet struck the branches in front of them. Lingering to talk with the minister’s wife had been a mistake. Faith had known a storm was approaching. She had not been able to resist finding out if anyone had heard what was happening to Tom Rooke.

  The crash of the bushes on the other side of the road grew louder. Faith drew the two girls even closer. Their rigid bodies and abrupt silence told her how frightened they were. All her anger focused on the leaders of both sides of this war. Her sisters should be enjoying a carefree time, not fearing for their lives.

  A hand touched her shoulder. She almost shrieked, but swallowed the fearful sound when she looked back to see Sebastian squatting behind her.

  “What are you doing here?” she whispered.

  “I was coming along the road, and I saw you three dash off. Then I heard the sounds from the trees.” He rested his pistol on his knees. “My men are not in this area. So …”

  She longed to lean back against him and let his strength protect her. She must not. He needed to be ready to jump up and fire his pistol if necessary. At that thought, she shuddered. He would be firing at one of the other colonists, perhaps even one of her friends.

  He put his fingers to her cheek. In his eyes, she could see his regret, but also his unfailing determination to protect her and her sisters. She touched his hand, wishing she could tell him of the pain in her heart, yet knowing that he understood.

  Suddenly the crashing halted, and Faith heard a familiar sound. No, it could not be possible! Raising her head, she looked with caution over the bushes.

  Pigs! A quartet of pigs were in the middle of the road, looking for something to eat. These must be the last of the ones that had escaped when the rebels burned the barn.

  Coming to her feet, she laughed. Her sisters squealed like piglets themselves as they ran to the animals, sending them crashing through the underbrush again. She called for her sisters not to follow.

  “Pigs?” Sebastian asked in disgust. “We were hiding from pigs? If my colonel hears of this—”

  “He will think you showed great restraint in not shooting them where they stood.” She laughed, then winced as more icy sleet struck her. “Let’s hurry home.”

  With his arm around her waist, he whispered, “I would rather find some remote place to be alone with you, sweet one. Our desire could turn even this ice to steam.”

  When he kissed her she quivered with the yearning that had plagued her during the nights. She knew that he, too, was probably thrashing, sleepless, such a short distance away. His arms crushed her against him, but even that was not close enough. She wanted his skin on hers.

  Wind tore them apart as the storm intensified. She gazed up at him. The same wild winds that had brought them together and now swirled through them, urging her to forget caution and her sisters and the war—and everything else—in his arms.

  “’Tis not snow,” Nancy said in her most superior tone from the other side of the road, where the little girls were peering through the bushes. “You said Faith said it was going to snow.”

  “She said it was going to storm.”

  “You said—”

  With a wistful chuckle, Sebastian called, “You two can argue more comfortably in front of your father’s hearth. Let’s go.”

  When her sisters skipped back to them, Molly took Sebastian’s hand. Nancy pouted as she accepted Faith’s reluctantly, reminded that Sebastian needed to be able to reach for his gun in case they met something more dangerous than runaway pigs.

  Faith bent her head into a wind that wanted to pull off her bonnet and threatened to trip her with her own cloak. The sleet seemed to be flying parallel to the ground, and the little girls faltered as the wind buffeted them nearly off their feet.

  Sebastian bent and picked up Molly. “Can you carry Nancy?”

  “Yes,” she replied, then repeated it as a shout. She had not guessed the storm wind would strip away the word as soon as it left her lips.

  Gathering up her little sister, Faith took one step. The wind shoved her back, as if she had run into something solid. She tried again. The results were the same. Sebastian was able to push forward, but she could not. When he came back and put his other arm around her waist, she tried a third time.

  She ignored the clatter of branches overhead until a violent crack sounded like winter thunder. A branch that was as thick as her sister’s waist struck the road, not far from them. She cowered as bark and broken twigs struck them like cannon shot. When Sebastian jerked on her arm, she followed him beneath the trees.

  “Won’t it be more dangerous here?” she called over the wind.

  “Not when we are inside.”

  “Inside what?”

  He hooked a thumb to the right. “In that.”

  Faith stared the familiar sight of the tumbledown byre. This had to be some sort of absurd jest. She could not go in there with Sebastian. If her contact was huddling inside, out of the storm, everything would be revealed.

  “No,” she gasped, turning back to the road.

  “No?” He turned to look at her, then grimaced as pellets of sleet sliced into his face.

  “This is not our property. We don’t want to disturb any animals that might be within.” She knew she was babbling and making no
sense, but could not halt herself. Lying to Sebastian was unbearable when she wanted to be holding him close. “We are not that far from home. We can get there.”

  “Nonsense.” Taking her arm again, he pulled her through the low door and into the shadowed byre. He set Molly onto the dry ground and lifted Nancy from Faith’s arms. As the two little girls scurried about, poking their noses into every corner, he asked, “Why are you arguing about something as senseless as not trespassing on a farmer’s animals when the ice is quickly coating the branches and making them dangerous?”

  “I did not want us to be ambushed.”

  “By more pigs?” He sat on a log in the shadows on the other side of door from where she usually left her supplies. Again, he set his pistol on his knees.

  “That was silly, I admit.”

  “No, you had no idea who might be in the underbrush. Hiding like that was one of the wisest things I have ever seen you do.” He tugged her down to sit beside him. In a husky whisper, he added, “Except when you followed a string of yarn to my bed.”

  His teasing kiss became demanding as she swept her arms up his back. When he drew back the high collar of her cloak to delight her neck, she held tightly to him. She did not dare to let her fingers explore, because she was not sure she could halt herself from pleading with him to make love with her again. Here. Now.

  A sharp cry from one of her sisters compelled her to drag herself out of his embrace. Coming to her feet, she swayed, for her knees were unsteady due to the powerful passions he had aroused with his touch.

  “Molly! Nancy! There is no need for this arguing.”

  Nancy cried, “She won’t let me look at it.”

  “’Tis mine. I found it, and I need a new one.”

  Sebastian stood. “What did you find?” He held out his hand.

  “Don’t get caught up in their childish games,” Faith said, putting her hand in his. She did not want to think what her sisters might have uncovered here. Others might use this as a cache.

  “Faith, what is wrong?”

  She wanted to tell him the truth, to be able to open her heart completely to him. She must not. But what could she say that would not sound completely stupid?