In the Forest of the Night & The Barmaid and the Blacksmith

by Lizbeth Dusseau

  Her first real look at Joshua’s cottage in daylight revealed a neat but small home, with just several rooms upstairs, a kitchen, dining room and sitting room downstairs. There was little ornamentation to decorate the house, though she expected little from the unpretentious bachelor. Looking about, she discovered that Joshua was no were to be found inside the house. She expected as much. And peering outside, she spied him just inside his barn, working at his forge.

  Quickly exiting the cottage, she made her way to the doorway of the barn, to see the blacksmith’s sweating body plying his trade before the hot fire. His shoulder length hair, the full beard, and definite well-muscled chest made him look more fierce than the other times she’d seen him. And yet, despite his robust earthy aspect, when he looked up at her, his eyes were quite tender.

  Backing away from his work, he approached her, motioning her into the fresh morning air, where they could view the valley that went on for miles beyond them. They stood for some moments eyeing the breathtaking sight as white fluffy clouds marched along the sky creating patches of gray along a valley floor that was otherwise bathed in the bright sun.

  “I see your clothes have dried,” Joshua said, turning to her.

  “Yes, thank you. I really have slept far too long today. Mr. Travis will be wondering where I am.”

  “Mr. Travis knows where you are. I sent him word early this morning.”

  “Then I should be getting back to the Tavern.”

  “No, you won’t,” the blacksmith answered firmly.

  “But sir?” she objected.

  “You’ll stay here. It’s safer.”

  “Oh no, Mr. Kane, Leedy Mallick won’t bother me again.”

  “No, he will not, because you’re not safe in the east side of the valley. You’ll stay here until we can find a suitable position for you elsewhere. I’ve already made some inquiries.”

  “Inquiries?”

  “Friends of mine. Something will come up shortly.”

  “But sir, my staying here. This is hardly appropriate,” she countered him, though only half-heartedly. She liked the comfort of this blacksmith’s home, and his kind manner. She would be happy to remain here, even though an unmarried woman, living with an unmarried man could become a scandalous situation with just a few brief remarks to the wrong sort of people.

  “There will be nothing to fear from me, and until I know you’re safe, you’ll remain in my house. Now, I have work to do. If you want to be useful, you may bring me dinner in an hour.”

  Fiona gave him a swift smile. It was all she could, since he turned abruptly and went back to the barn. Fiona returned to the house, and Joshua Kane’s generous larder, to find something suitable for a dinner meal.

  Chapter Five

  It was two weeks under Joshua Kane’s roof before Fiona broached the subject of leaving again. She would hope his inquiries about a position for her might prove successful. In the meantime, the blacksmith was perfectly content to have her stay. She cooked and cleaned for him, even though as a bachelor, he seemed perfectly capable of running his business as well as a ship shape house. She wondered why he didn’t have a wife, why he’d even come to this county two years before and settled down in this place. It seemed that few people ever moved into this valley. Newcomers landed mostly by accident, not by any well intentioned plan. Joshua Kane’s arrival looked quite deliberate. Where did he come from? Where was his family? Though they talked of many things in their evenings together, these were questions Fiona was too afraid to ask.

  During the fortnight, Joshua had left her once, on the second day of her stay, to get her things at the Tavern. While he was gone, he instructed her to remain inside the house as if there was no one home. Just off a well traveled road, Joshua didn’t want someone wandering in to discover Fiona alone.

  “Sir, have you had any response to your queries about a position for me?” she asked him one night as he was settling in to read a book by the fire, and she was settling down to a piece of embroidery she was working. They looked a little like an old married couple sitting before the fire. Fiona was impressed to see that Joshua read so well, another indication to her that perhaps he’d been born into a higher station than his life’s work suggested. And yet, for all his avid reading, he did not fail to engage Fiona in many lively conversations that drew her out of what could have been a very lonely existence in his house.

  “I have not had a response as yet,” he answered her question. “Though I feel certain that a position with a vicar in the neighboring shire will work out within two months, if nothing happens sooner. However, I would hope you’d find something in a larger town, that would give you more opportunity than you’ve had here.”

  She nodded in agreement, thinking she had little desire to live in the confines of a small community, even though it was all she’d ever known.

  Several nights later, when they passed each other at the bottom of the stairs, their bodies brushed quite close. The two had made certain in the weeks following her attack, that they kept a judicious distance.

  “Excuse me, sir,” Fiona apologized when she realized that she was in the man’s way.

  “That’s quite all right,” he said, starting to step aside.

  He was so close to her, Fiona thought she could feel his beating heart, though that would be impossible. His imposing stance above her made her feel so very small. He seemed to surround her by his very mien, a sensation not all that uncomfortable, though it played upon her body in the same way Jerud’s closeness would play on her.

  She expected him to back away further, but he did not; instead his mouth came down to cover hers with an affectionate warm kiss.

  The smell of smoke about him was a strange aphrodisiac, and her body moved in curious leaps and bounds, as she expected his arms to follow the lead of his desire.

  “I apologize, I should not,” Joshua said, abruptly backing away.

  “But I want you too,” Fiona immediately responded. It had been weeks since any arms had comforted her, since that all too brief and bizarre moment in the shed with Jerud. But for all her desire, Fiona could see the mixed feelings in Joshua’s expression as the possibilities loomed before him.

  “I will not do to you what I’ve vowed to protect you from. You’d be best to guard yourself,” he finally said.

  “I’m not a pure woman for you to protect, Mr. Kane. I’m used to passion in my life.”

  “But you have no idea who I am.” His last words were curt, and he moved briskly away.

  Fiona had no idea why this sudden rampant desire had surged through her. Though she suspected that her feelings for Joshua Kane had been brewing from that first meeting in the Half Moon Tavern. Now revealed to her, she wondered what to do with them.

  There was a strain in their once amiable relationship from that moment. And it would seem that her stay with Mr. Kane would soon be at an end; for there would be little way for her to remain in his house with the sordid thoughts that reigned in her mind. What the blacksmith was thinking she wasn’t sure, though she suspected whatever past he harbored had arisen to enforce the gentlemanly air he now assumed with her.

  “I’ve made arrangements for you with the Vicar at St. Timothy’s church,” he announced one morning soon after their tiny confrontation. “It is premature. They weren’t quite ready for you, but the Vicar agreed. I think given the circumstances it’s for the best.”

  Fiona looked at the man in shock, realizing that she was not ready to leave his home. And she could hardly bear the thought of residing with a Vicar. “I’ve offended you, haven’t I?” Fiona said, slumping down in a chair opposite him.

  “Offended me? Never,” he replied earnestly.

  “But you expected that I was more of lady than I am,” she said.

  “I’ve known what kind of lady you are since I met you at the Tavern, or do you forget the circumstances of our first meeting?” He said it without a single bit of scorn. “I do not profess to be a virgin at my age, the thought is laughable;
but even so, I could never take a woman such as you, as if you were a convenient whore to service me.”

  “And I would never think myself a convenient whore,” she agreed. “But Mr. Kane, I do have a desire to find love again. And I certainly make no excuses for my past attempts to have it.”

  “I’d never ask you to explain your past, any more than you would ask me to explain mine. About that we can agree. But you are quite right. You need to be on with the task of finding a husband, and there’s little way you can find one living here. Perhaps at the vicarage the possibilities would be more available.”

  The vicarage sounded like a death sentence, but Fiona could hardly protest this arrangement, since Joshua Kane had been so very good to her these many weeks.

  ***

  A week later, on the eve of her departure, Fiona went up to her room right after dinner to pack the few things she would take with her. There was an ever present sadness in her heart that weighed on her heavily. Watching Joshua light his pipe and sit in his chair by the fire, she knew she would be missing their evenings together; yet the longing in her went far beyond a simple longing of the heart. Deeper in her loins, there was a craving for this man that pressed on her more dearly than anything she’d ever experienced with Jerud.

  There seemed something about them together that suggested their pairing would befit them both; but she was certainly at a loss to explain her feelings to him. If there was any man to wed her, he would always pale in comparison to Joshua Kane. She could not imagine giving herself to another without a constant regret. The blacksmith’s visage, his every aspect would be in her mind, even as she made love.

  How had they gone this long without having made some move beyond their pleasant conversations and clear good will? It was mystery to her.

  Joshua Kane sat back in his chair staring into the fire, his book remaining open on his lap, but unread.

  It was strange to him that he could carouse with the best scoundrels in the county, bed the finest fleshy whores; and yet find himself suddenly acting like a virtuous gentlemen in the presence of this common girl, when he knew she would have him under her skirt without much effort at all.

  For weeks she’d seduced him with a vibrant charm, her lush red hair, and the fine full bosom. The delicate line of her neck and her flashing green eyes enticed him daily. She was not conniving like most woman in her position might be, ones that could easily see him as a worthy husband. He would take her the twenty miles journey in the morning, and wish her well; though he knew in his heart that he would miss seeing her bright face, miss hearing her pleasant conversation, and listening for the swish of her skirt. Most of all, he’d miss the allure of her arousing body.

  Mr. Kane,” he heard his name and looked up to see Fiona at his side.

  “I’d have liked to have stripped my bed and laundered my bedclothes for you, but I won’t have time in the morning.”

  “That’s not your worry, Fiona, I’ve received most generously from you these weeks, you needn’t do anything more for me.”

  Their eyes were set on the other’s with a stare that would not stop. And then, something made him reach out and take her hand in his, the soft warmth from it reaching him deeply.

  He rose from his chair, standing over her small frame as she gazed up at him in wonder, her bright green eyes looked excited and puzzled. In the same instant that he brought her into his arms, he brought his lips to hers, experiencing the softness that he’d only known only once before. She pressed her anxious body to his, thinking she would melt into his large chest, the way this sudden burst of passion was consuming them both.

  “I shouldn’t do this, but I can’t let you go,” he said, as if something else was taking over in him. Something carnal, extraordinarily physical, and for some reason, necessary. For a brief moment, he waited for her protest, but there was none. It was the last opportunity she would have to back away from the advance. With her silent consent, he lifted her slight body in his arms as if she weighed nothing at all, and he took her up the stairs and into his room.

  Unlike her small room, Joshua’s was enormous, enormous to hold such an enormous bed, with four pillars at the four corners, all carved in heavy oak. Down the hall from her room, she had not in all here weeks in his house ventured here. Not officially his housekeeper, she hadn’t felt familiar enough to make the journey, though she could have many times. And since Joshua closed his door every morning when he left to go downstairs, she hadn’t felt right about breaching this private place of his.

  Now, she felt like a princess when he brought her to his amazing bed, the bed of a gentleman, not a blacksmith; though her curiosity with the bed and the room would have to wait, since she was much more emotionally consumed by what was about to happen to her on the downy comforter where he laid her down.

  Locked together, the two roamed about the glorious soft covers in a rough and animated romp. For a long time he seemed content to have his arms about her graceful body, pressing his chest to her breasts, and the cushion they provided for him. With their lips fixed together, they made an ardent journey about each other’s opened mouths. And she groaned lustily when his lips made a quick excursion down her neck.

  Unbuttoning her high necked dress, he pulled the garment back to gaze for the first time at the tender breasts she’d taunted him with for so many many days. Their fragrant smell made diving into them with his kisses all the more pleasant. Taking nibbles of her soft sweet skin, he would leave tiny red marks where he feasted on her flesh.

  Like a city whore, her bawdy response was a welcome joy, though he would never think of her as a common whore, just a commoner who already seemed to know a good deal about the rudiments of making love. She pressed her leg between his thighs, and moved on him, so that his manhood still imprisoned in his pants, could feel her wanton come on. The main feast would soon begin, he thought to himself, but he would make this excited taking last, for it might be the only one he’d ever have with her.

  Pulling off of her, he stood over her beside the bed, while he unbuttoned his shirt. Looking down at Fiona’s alluring smile, he watched it turn into a lusty smirk, as her own hands began to finish what his had begun. Unbuttoning the bodice of her dress, she continued on until it was opened wide. There was just a soft cotton chemise between him and a gaze at all her female treasures.

  Fiona watched Mr. Kane from her submissive repose, as he dispensed with his shirt, his brawny shoulders and hard chest sent a shiver of excitement through her. Jerud was a man, but not a man like this. This blacksmith would devour her with his authoritarian power, with a surge of masculine energy that swelled within him, and indeed swelled him between his legs. Removing his trousers, he quickly pushed down his undergarment too, so that his full naked form was there in all its imposing glory for her to see.

  “You’re a breath taking sight, Miss Fiona,” he said, seeing her own chest exposed, her naked breasts bobbing so luridly against her body, and her female triangle below waving as if it were beckoning him on.

  “And indeed you are too, Mr. Kane,” she answered him back, as she saw the rock hard cock between his legs, and waited as the man moved down to take her.

  Parting her thighs, he caressed her with spirited enthusiasm. With both hands, he pushed away her clothes, so she was as naked as he was on the bed. When he plunged himself into the succulent pink of her womanhood, she gasped at a well-remembered sensation, one she’d missed much too long.

  “Ah, ah, yes,” she murmured.

  This wasn’t Jerud, this was something altogether more fierce. Even as fierce as Jerud could be, his body, his fervor and his passion could not match this man. Joshua held her hands in his, one on either side of her head, as if he was binding her. As his hips continued their attentive thrusts, she roared back at him lustily, not like a lady, but like a well taken woman. She moved her own hips against his, and squeezed his cock hard with every move it made inside her sloshy wet home.

  It was only a few brief moments and Fiona could
feel the crashing sensation of her satisfaction beginning to take importance above all else. Joshua watched her lively, lovely form thrash under him, as he listened to the little pants and squeals of climax. He’d never known a woman so quickly aroused and satisfied, indeed many women didn’t even know the satisfaction to be gained from this most masculine act. Fiona McTavish was a treasure.

  Her cumming sex made his cock all the more pleased. As her inner muscles milked at him, he could sense his own pleasure about to burst. He held back as long as he could, but perhaps this was not the moment for long endings, for his body insisted on the completion. His raging cock rammed her opening body hard and fast, until all the fine flood of sperm and energy was passed from him to her.

  “I should’ve had you long ago, lass,” he told her when their bodies were still pressed tightly together, the flesh mingling so closely neither knew where one ended and the other began.

  She purred her delicate sounds in his ear, nothing specific, just the emergence of a pleasurable moan of accord.

  “I shall love you all night long, Fiona McTavish,” he said to her, as he rolled over, and pulled her lithe naked form on top of his. She lay on him as if he was a pillow, a downy soft wet breathing pillow.

  “And then send me away in the morning?” she said. As the words came, she was about to cry.

  “No, no never, lass. You cannot leave here,” he said. “Never!”

  She smiled to herself, it was all she really needed to know. She would have left him at this juncture, glad for just this one time; but she was assured that he wanted more from her. That just pleased her all the more.

  “Then I’ll stay in this bed with you, Mr. Kane,” she said giggling, as she looked at the luxury she had discovered in this room.

  “Only if you call me Joshua, my love. This formality is unnecessary.”