by Gordon, Rose
Michaela grinned. “My reluctance is my choice. Her difficulty might be because of you.”
“How so?”
“How many men do you think wish to have you as a father-in-law?”
Pa frowned and Michaela would have felt bad for her words, but they were the truth. “I didn’t realize I was such an unlikeable man.”
“You’re not,” she said, frowning. “It’s just that you’re very intimidating.” She sighed and racked her brain for how to word what she wanted to say. “When Virginia and Mary were looking for husbands, Ma was still alive. She softened you—”
“She most certainly did not.”
“Let me finish, if you please.” She ignored the way he pursed his lips and continued. “Ma had a way about her that made potential suitors not seem so put off by you.”
“Well, thank you, Michaela. I’m glad I now know your true opinion of me,” he said in a dry tone.
“That didn’t come out right.” She sighed. “Pa, we’re not all military men. Those under your command chose to be commanded about when they enlisted. Ella’s suitors didn’t.”
“So you think I was too hard on them?”
Michaela arched a brow. “Pa, you used to invite them over to discuss—in detail—their plans for their future after they married your daughter.”
“I might not have been very encouraging to any of them, but I never told a single one that they couldn’t ask her,” he said, scowling.
“No. But do you think any of them wanted to ask her to marry them after such an uncomfortable afternoon with you?”
“Then it’s for the best they didn’t ask. If they were put off by such a meeting, then they weren’t very serious about her.”
Michaela couldn’t argue with him about that. She’d often suspected Ella’s early suitors were interested in her merely because Pa had no male issue to leave the plantation to when he died and were hoping to acquire it. This plan probably changed when they realized that they’d have to endure Pa and his probing questions and penetrating eyes until that time came, and even then, it wasn’t a guarantee. The later ones might have had the same intent, or more heartbreaking, their actions had been out of spite for Pa; but either way, they had known that treating his youngest daughter that way would hurt and embarrass him. She refused to believe that none of the young men had any sort of attraction to Ella. Sure, she wasn’t as striking as their older sisters, but without doubt she was beautiful and had a certain charm about her personality.
“What of you?”
Michaela started. “Pa, I have no wish to discuss my marriage prospects right now.”
“Good, because I wasn’t asking,” he smiled. “Do you think I’ve been too hard on you and your sisters? Too demanding? Intimidating?”
“At times.”
He nodded once and lowered his lashes as if he were in deep contemplation.
Time passed; how quickly or slowly, Michaela didn’t know. All she knew was the silence in the carriage wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable now as it had been since the moment they pulled out of their drive in Savannah.
“Now that we’ve discussed my shortcomings, shall we discuss your reluctance to court?”
~Chapter Twenty-Seven~
Ella strove to keep the blush off of her cheeks, but every time her eyes strayed to her purse, she couldn’t help it!
“Ella, do you feel all right? You look flushed,” Mrs. Lewis remarked, frowning.
Ella cleared her throat to squash the nervous giggle that was building. “I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?” Allison asked from beside her. Her face was so scrunched up in confusion that Ella truly wanted to laugh. But she couldn’t. For if she did, she’d have to tell them all why, and she didn’t want to do that.
“I need to talk to you later,” Ella whispered to Allison.
“All right. Is something wrong?” She glanced at the other two ladies across the room. “Do you need some help with something personal?”
“No,” Ella rushed to say. She’d been regaining her strength the past few days and could handle some tasks—such as seeing to her needs and unpacking some of her bags—without help. “It’s more of a question than anything.”
“Oh. Well, in that case, you can ask whenever you’d like.”
“I will. In private.”
“Just don’t forget. I’m intrigued now.”
“And so are we,” Sarah murmured.
Ella snapped her head up, horror washing over her at the little smile on Sarah’s face. “I—I—I—”
“Didn’t think we could hear?” Sarah’s smile became a full grin. “I might be a few years older than you, but as the Philadelphia Miss I was trained to be, I can still hear whispers.”
“I wasn’t talking about you, I promise,” Ella rushed to say. There were only four women at this fort. It would not be in anyone’s best interest—especially Ella’s—to alienate one of them, and the fastest, most effective way to do that was with gossip.
“I know that, dear. But nonetheless, I’m curious.” She shrugged. “But you don’t have to share, if you don’t wish to.”
Ella licked her lips. Sarah and Mrs. Lewis were officers’ wives, too. They’d know the answer to her question just as easily as Allison. She’d been reluctant to ask them though because they’d been married to their officers longer than Ella, and she didn’t want them to think it was a silly question. Pushing past her unease, Ella reached for her purse. “This morning while Jack was out at the well getting us some water, I was unpacking some of my stockings and such, putting them into the drawers, and I found this in Jack’s drawer. I’m not sure exactly what it is or where he wears it.” She pulled out the little packet of brown paper that was wrapped around the most bizarre, flattened tubular object she’d ever seen and held it up.
Mrs. Lewis furrowed her brows. “Paper?”
Sarah coughed. “I think she’s talking about what’s in the paper, Lucille.”
“What’s in the paper,” Mrs. Lewis asked, setting her sewing down and holding her hand out toward Ella.
Ella was about to give it to the other woman so she could see it, because she didn’t think she could describe it accurately, nor did she wish to try. However, just as she was about to give it to the older woman, Allison’s hand came over Ella’s wrist and lowered her hand. “Put that back in your purse, Ella,” she said quietly.
Ella’s face flushed with embarrassment. She hadn’t expected Allison to be so...so...dismissive about it. Stung, she put it away, then turned her eyes back to her work, too humiliated to look back up at any of the other ladies.
“That’s not part of his official uniform,” Allison said a moment later. “But it seems to be a standard issue for around here.”
Sarah sputtered with laughter and hot tears pricked the back of Ella’s eyes. Perhaps she’d made a mistake thinking she’d become their friend.
“Ella?”
She ignored whoever spoke and continued sewing, which was hard to do without pricking herself as the tears blurred her vision.
“Ella,” Allison repeated, touching her shoulder.
Ella’s first instinct was to shrug in a way that would push Allison’s hand off, but she didn’t wish to make the situation worse.
“Ella, we’re not laughing at you,” Allison said again. “It’s just... Well, it might be better if Jack explains what that is and its use to you.”
Despite the embarrassment she still felt, Ella lifted her eyes and saw the cautious expression on Allison’s face and the compassionate one on Sarah’s. Just as she turned her gaze to Mrs. Lewis, her blank expression suddenly turned to surprise. “Oh, I know what that is! It’s a sheath, isn’t it?”
“A wh-what?” Ella asked.
“A sheath,” Mrs. Lewis said airily. “He puts it over his...er...gun when he wants to practice firing it without doing any harm, so to speak.”
“Well, there you have it,” Sarah chirped.
Ella nodded and resumed her sewing. But only
for a minute before the door opened behind her and a parade of officers made up of a general, a colonel, a captain and a lieutenant came in to greet their wives.
“How do you feel?” Jack said, sinking to his haunches in front of her.
“Good.” She briefly considered giving him a quick kiss like the other husbands and wives were exchanging but didn’t know how he’d feel about such a display. He’d held her hand and wrapped her in his arms on a few occasions but had never hugged her just to hug her, nor kissed her. She cleared her throat and her thoughts simultaneously. “I would have stood to greet you, if you’d given me but a moment.”
“Does that mean you feel up to going for a little walk and spending some time outside?”
“I think so.”
He grinned. “Good. After our conversation last night, I thought I’d teach you how to fire my gun.”
“Truly?”
***
Her excitement nearly knocked Jack over. He wasn’t sure if she’d really like to learn to shoot his pistol or not, but when he’d been out shooting with his men today, he’d realized that she might actually need to learn how. “Absolutely.” He extended his hand and helped her to her feet. “Do you need to run to our room for anything first?”
“No and neither do you,” she said with a broad grin.
He had no idea how she’d know if he did or didn’t need to go back there, but didn’t want to question it too much. Perhaps she had a surprise waiting for him there for when they returned tonight.
Jack led her away from the commanding officers’ cabins and around the eastern side of the barracks until they came to where he’d left a target from this afternoon and had ordered one of his men to set up a stool for her.
“Thank you,” Ella said, resting on the stool.
He smiled at her and took his unloaded gun from his gun belt. “We’ll start with my pistol, and if you like it and want to learn to shoot a musket, we can come back another day.” At her nod, he laid his pistol in his broad palm and used his free hand to point. “This is the simplest pistol I have. Grip. Barrel. Cock. Chamber. Trigger.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a musket ball. “This is what we shoot. I’m sure you already knew that, though.” He flashed her a quick grin and slipped the ball back into his pocket. “To make the balls fire and fly across the field, they need gunpowder and to be greased. Fortunately, for you, I won’t show you how to measure all of that today.” He reached into his other pocket and pulled out one of the little cylinders of gunpowder and a musket ball all rolled up tightly into paper. “I made about a dozen of these paper cartridges for you this afternoon. The ball has been greased and the right amount of powder is in there. So all you’ll have to worry about is putting it in the chamber facing the right way.”
“I think I can manage that.”
“I thought you might.” He extended the gun toward her. “Here, I want you to hold it.”
“But don’t we need to get it ready?”
“Yes, but I want you to do that.”
“All right.” She flushed, set the gun in her lap and then reached into her purse.
“Is that so important right now?” He didn’t mean to be impolite, but they were about to shoot a gun, couldn’t whatever was in her purse—a mint or a nail file or a comb or whatever—wait?
“I’d say it’s important if we don’t wish to cause any harm,” she murmured as she brought her hand from inside her purse, a piece of brown paper between her fingers.
“What are you doing with that?” he choked out when she unfurled her fingers to reveal that blasted sheath that Gray had somehow managed to leave in his room following their trip to Dark Moon.
“Covering your gun so nobody gets hurt.”
He stared at her, flabbergasted. “What?”
She unfolded the paper, exposing the loosely tied sheath to the world. Before she could do anything further with it, such as slip it on the end of his pistol, he took it from her.
She looked up at him, startled. “I thought you wanted me to get the gun ready.”
“I meant I wanted you to load the bullet, not—” he lifted the hand that now held the sheath, then quickly stuffed the thing into his pocket that didn’t contain any gunpowder. What a painful disaster that would be. He inwardly shuddered.
“But I thought it had to go on the end so no harm would be done.”
An uneasy feeling came over him as the events of the last minute started to sink in. “Why are you carrying this around?”
She blushed. “I was putting my underthings into the dresser this morning while you were out, and I opened a drawer that you had already claimed as yours. It looked a little out of sorts, so I thought to straighten it for you. I—I didn’t mean to go through your personal things, but I found it and I didn’t know what it was for.”
“So you decided it must be for my gun?”
“That’s what Mrs. Lewis told me when I asked the other wives.”
His jaw dropped. “You asked them what it was for?”
“Y-yes, and Mrs. Lewis said you put it over your gun, so when you practice, it doesn’t cause any harm.”
Every drop of blood shot straight to his head. He didn’t know how, or if, he’d be able to face Wes and the general and most definitely Colonel Lewis again. “She didn’t mean that literally,” he forced himself to say.
Ella’s brow furrowed and the temperature must have heated to one thousand degrees. “Then what did she mean?” Her innocence made him want to groan.
“She was talking about something else. Can we leave it at that for now?”
“No.” She shook her head, a sad expression in her eyes. “I want to know why they were all laughing at me.”
His heart nearly cracked. “I’m sorry they laughed at you, and I will explain it, but this might not be the best time.”
She swallowed visibly, finding something of the utmost interest on his left shoulder. “I understand.”
This time he did groan. “Ella, do you remember when you called my name while I was in the bath?”
She nodded.
“Did you happen to look at anything other than my not-so-hairy chest?”
“Let’s shoot the gun,” she said, picking up his pistol, a blush on her cheeks.
“No. You wanted to know and now you shall have your answer.” He took a deep breath. Weren’t mothers supposed to explain this to their daughters? He shook his head and said a silent prayer he wouldn’t explain it in a way that would make her want to avoid his bed forever. “Men and women are made differently. I’m taller than you, and though you might not believe it based on my chest, men grow hair in some places ladies do not. Men’s bodies are supposed to be firmer than their counterparts. For example, my chest is flat, and yours—” he coughed— “isn’t. While we all have arms and legs, men have a part that you ladies do not. That’s what she was talking about.”
Ella still looked confused and he wanted to curse himself for not having a better explanation for her.
“See, it’s like this,” he tried again. “In order for us to have children, our bodies have to share certain...things. For this to happen, part of me has to...uh...” He raked a hand through his hair, then quit talking and bent forward, pressing his lips to hers. Their kiss was hard and fast, over way too soon for his liking, so he relaxed his lips a bit and leaned in for another. This time, he cupped her face with one hand, stroking her soft cheek with his fingers while his lips pressed hers.
He parted his lips a fraction, just enough to draw her lower lip between his, which she allowed him to do without protest. He ran his tongue along the plump length of her lip, then slipped insider her mouth to taste her better.
She opened her mouth a little more, allowing him further entry. She tasted sweet, just like the apple pastries she’d made them yesterday. Her tongue brushed his and his heart raced. He liked kissing her like this and never wanted to stop. But he had to, before he pushed too far.
He pulled back, his breathing heavy.
So was hers, serving only to make him more excited.
Wordlessly, he reached for her hand and pressed it against the length of his erection, which was threatening to burst the seams of his trousers. “This is what it covers.” He took a deep, ragged breath. “It’s dangerous for women out here to become pregnant. They have to leave if that happens. To prevent her from conceiving, her husband must wear the sheath so they can still enjoy marital intimacies without the risk of pregnancy.”
“Oh,” she said not moving.
He steadied his breathing, then removed her hand from his groin. “Are you ready to shoot my gun now?” As soon as he said it, he wanted to take it back. “My pistol,” he immediately corrected, making her laugh.
~Chapter Twenty-Eight~
Ella tried to control her nervous giggles as she gripped his pistol. She’d be glad when she could turn around to face the target and not have to continue to face him.
Unfortunately, his presence didn’t seem any less potent when he was out of her view.
She fumbled with the heavy gun as she tried to get a stronger hold.
“Like this,” he murmured in her ear. He wrapped his strong arms around her and covered her hands with his. Her skin heated under his large, callused hands. “There you go. Now, in a minute, you’ll load the gun and set the cock.” He dug into his pocket and retrieved one of those odd shaped packages he’d shown her earlier with the ball and powder. “I’ll put it in for you this time, but you can do it next time.” He lowered the gun, put the packet into the chamber, and pulled back on the little stem at the back of the gun. “Now, hold it up again.”
She lifted her hands and his came over them again, steadying her.
“You’re all right,” he whispered against her ear. His breath so close, she could feel its warmth against her skin.
A tingle shot through her and she tightened her grip on the gun until she was certain her white-knuckled fingers would go numb soon.
“Relax a bit. That’s it. Now, close your left eye and look through the top of your gun with your right.”
