To A Far Country

by Oliver, Marina

  After he'd gone, with Brendan sitting up beside him, driving his horse, Flora began to tidy the cabin.

  'Will Atonsa be able to manage all the horses by himself?' she asked.

  'Yes, don't worry about him. Leave that,' Jamie said. 'We must talk.'

  'But we have no beds until I can put some of this straw back.'

  'Later. I cannot go on with this.'

  He kicked some straw into a corner and spread an old plaid over it, then led her to it and made her sit down.

  'Poor Eliza,' she whispered, burying her head in his shoulder. 'She'll be so heartbroken. Do you think, if we'd given him old Stewart's croft, he'd have been less bitter?'

  'We can't be held to blame for how he's turned out. He'd still have lost it, and though it might have made some difference, he's always been inclined to violence. But I'm more concerned about us. I was so proud of you when I came back, afraid of what I might find, for the other fellow told us his intentions. Atonsa urged me to come straight back, but you had it all under control.'

  Flora chuckled slightly. 'It was the only way I could think of, to hinder him. He looked so foolish. But I don't think he'll be too scarred. The porridge wasn't boiling.'

  'Where he'll be, scars won't matter,' Jamie said soberly. 'I was so jealous that first moment I saw you with him, until I saw he was bound.'

  'Jealous? But why?' Flora raised her head and looked at him, frowning slightly. 'You can't be jealous of someone you don't love.'

  'Don't love?' he exclaimed. 'Oh, my sweet, if only you knew! I love you so much it hurts! I've worked so hard these past two years because it was the only way I could prevent myself from thinking of how much I loved you, and missed you.'

  'But you never said! And you were so cold, you even stopped kissing me!' Flora said, puzzled. 'You can't know how unhappy I've been these past two years, longing for you, not knowing why you were so cold.'

  'But don't you see, a kiss leads to more, and if I'd allowed myself just one kiss, I knew it wouldn't stop there!'

  'Why should it stop?' she asked quietly.

  He groaned, and took both hands in his, stroking the backs of them with his thumbs. 'You had such a difficult time giving birth to Matthew! How could I put you through that again? Next time, I might lose you. It was unbearable, I couldn't face that. So I had to create a distance between us. I thought it would make little difference, if I could stay calm.'

  'You've tried not to touch me, all this time, just because of that?' Flora said, aghast. 'Matthew's birth was unusual! Most babies come head first!'

  'But you were so sickly carrying him, too.'

  The sensations his touch was creating through her entire body made it difficult to think coherently. Flora did her best. 'Sometimes, I believe, women carry differently when they are bearing male children. It was a difficult time, losing my home, those dreadful conditions on the ship, and then – then losing Rosie. Here, if I knew you loved me, I'd be happy, and well.'

  'Eliza warned me that another child might kill you.'

  Flora stared at him in amazement, then wrenched her hands away and scrambled to her feet.

  'Eliza told you that? Told you to stop treating me as a wife?' she almost shouted as she strode up and down, kicking the scattered clothes out of the way. 'How dare she interfere! And how dare you obey her without even asking me what I wanted?'

  'I knew you would ignore your own health, the risk of having another child, for me. It had to be my decision. I couldn't bear risking losing you,' he said, rising to intercept her. She tried to push him away but he captured her hands again and pulled her close to his body. 'Flora, my heart, will you forgive me?'

  Still fuming, but unable to free herself from his arms, which clamped her tightly to him, a thought struck her and she became still.

  'Eliza. She knew Andrew wanted me. He's always been her favourite. She might have thought all his other girls were just distractions. But even she couldn't be so wicked, surely, as to try and ruin our marriage?'

  'I don't care about the past,' he said quietly. 'I'm interested in the future. A future with you, loving you. Will you forgive me?' he repeated.

  'How can I forgive a love so great you'd deny yourself for my sake?' she whispered, clinging to him. 'Oh Jamie, I've been so unhappy, imagining all sorts of things, especially when Arabella was near.'

  'Arabella?' he asked. 'That was over the moment I saw you.'

  'I can believe that now,' she said, knowing at last it was true. She reached up and kissed him full on the lips, and he shuddered, pulling her even closer to him.

  'It's perhaps as well the children are still with Jane,' he said unsteadily. 'We must build that new bigger house as soon as possible. Oh, Flora, my love! I'll spend the rest of my days working to prove I love you.'

  'What about the nights?' she asked, grinning up at him. 'I insist you leave enough energy to start proving your love then, too.'

  Laughing, he pulled her back onto the pile of straw. 'Then you don't want me to waste time with a proper bed?'

  She shook her head. 'No, my love. I've missed you so much. Please, don't let's have any misunderstandings in future. I love you, Jamie, with all my heart.'

  She went gladly to the makeshift bed. Long into the night they rediscovered one another, talking occasionally, but glorying in their new happiness. At last, falling asleep in his arms, Flora knew she had come to her rightful home.

  ###

  THE END

  Marina Oliver has written over 60 novels, and has converted most of them to ebooks. Others have been or are being published as ebooks by other publishers.

  For the latest information please see Marina's web site:

  http://www.marina-oliver.net

  Now read an extract from another ebook about making a home in a new country:

  VIRGINIAN LOVER

  By Marina Oliver

  Originally published as Forbidden Love by Donna Hunt, Minstrel.

  They were in the church, a small, ill-lit place where the tombs of the dead overawed the living, before Bella awoke from the daze that had held her unresisting for the past two days. She shook her head slightly to clear her mind as they left the chill sunlight of the early April day and entered the dank cold of the stone building. Her companion, interpreting the gesture as a refusal, tightened his grip on her arm and hustled her onwards.

  'Oh, no, you don't! It's too late now to draw back. You made your choice and must abide by it. Edward is waiting for you, and an anxious bridegroom he is.'

  'Choice?' Bella queried scornfully, her spirits quickly reviving. 'You call it a choice that you gave me?'

  'It's more than most would have done, to have provided you with a dowry and a husband, when you have no claim on me,' the man replied with a short laugh. 'You and the brat were lucky not to have been turned out into the streets to beg for a living.'

  'Where is he? Where is Toby?' she demanded.

  'Awaiting you, as I promised, with old Alice to take care of him. You can spend the night at the inn before boarding the ship tomorrow. A comfortable bed in an inn is preferable to a ship's bunk for a wedding night.'

  'You are a fiend, Henry Martin!' she replied, and relapsed into silence as she glanced round the church.

  There were two candles on the altar, and some indistinct shapes of men nearby. Bella clutched her cloak round her as she was pushed forward, and scanned their faces anxiously as soon as she was able to distinguish their features. There were three men, but she ignored the parson, a pale, thin figure who coughed apologetically and began speaking in a low voice to Henry Martin. The second of the waiting men was small and elderly, with a straggling grey beard and creased face. He stooped forward, his shoulders were rounded, and he plucked nervously at an elaborate lace collar with gnarled and twisted fingers. Surely even Henry would not have agreed to a marriage with such as he, Bella thought, and turned to the third man who must be the one she was here to wed.

  What she saw in his hot, hungry glance made her wish fervently t
hat it was greybeard after all who was to be her bridegroom. The man was tall and broad, with a jutting chin and square face. A long scar crossed his dark-skinned cheek, leaving a thin white line that dragged the left corner of his mouth up slightly. Deep clefts between the nose and the corners of his mouth gave him a cruel, perpetually sneering expression. His bold dark eyes raked her from head to foot in a manner which caused her to flush angrily. She felt as though she were stripped naked before him, and suddenly angry, she threw up her head and gave him back stare for stare. He laughed delightedly and turned to Henry Martin.

  'You spoke the truth, my friend. A beauty, as far as I can see. If her form matches her face I shall be well-pleased. Well, Master Parson, be about your business. I can scarce wait for your permission to bed my wife.'

  Bella gasped in fury, the parson twittered in dismay, and Henry Martin laughed, pushing Bella forwards so that she stumbled and fell against her bridegroom. He made no move to assist her, and it was only by clutching at his doublet that she saved herself from sprawling ignominiously on the ground at his feet.

  'Patience, my love,' he scoffed. 'There are some formalities with Master Parson before you can show me your aptitude on your back. You did not inform me how hot she was,' he added, turning to Henry, who smiled grimly but did not answer.

  Suddenly Bella realized what she was doing. Her world had suddenly collapsed, she was on the verge of a new life, and yet she had had so little choice in it!

  She had always accepted that she would marry where her parents chose, but she had trusted them to select a man she could love. When her mother had died and then her father, her thoughts had been far from marriage. And then the other disaster had overtaken her. It had been on the day of her father's burial.

  'Henry Martin wants to speak to you. I've told him it's not fitting, but he won't go away,' Alice, one of the maids who had lost her own baby and become her young brother's wet nurse two years earlier, announced disapprovingly.

  Before Bella could answer Henry Martin had forced his way into the parlour where she sat. Thrusting Alice aside he came to stand menacingly before Bella.

  'What do you want?' she asked, puzzled at his behaviour, for he normally avoided her company.

  His position was a strange one. Bella's father openly recognized him as a bastard son, and he had never attempted to presume on the relationship. Now, however, he appeared aggressive and determined.

  'What is mine by rights!' Henry replied. 'Look at these.'

  He thrust some papers into her hands, and Bella, puzzled, glanced at them.

  'All these years I've had to bear the stigma of bastardy. Men have laughed at me behind my back - they dared not to my face. All to protect you and your damned brother. Well, it's over now. These papers show that my mother was wed to my father, but she left him, and she's still alive. It's you and the squalling brat who are the bastards. And I am the rightful heir!'

  Bella had tried not to believe this incredible revelation. How could her gentle, courteous father have married her own beautiful, loving mother if he had a previous wife still living? But Henry Martin had brought lawyers from London who had told her that the papers he possessed undoubtedly proved him legitimate, and as such her father's heir instead of her brother Toby.

  Shattered by this calamity so soon after the death of her father Bella had been threatened with destitution. For herself she did not care knowing that she, young and strong, could soon begin to earn her bread. It was another matter for her brother Toby. Henry threatened to place him in a foundlings' home where if he survived the rigours of such a life he would become a labourer or be sent to sea. There was no way that Bella could earn for them both, keeping Toby with her.

  It was when Bella had finally admitted the reality of this desperate plight that Henry had offered her an alternative.

  'I've a friend bound for Virginia. He wants a wife. He'll take the brat too. But you'd best decide now, he leaves England in a few days.'

  *