Hawkins said cheerfully. 'It'll fill you up right enough.'
The meal over, the bondmen departed for their quarters in the barn. Kevin picked up Brendan, who was already half asleep, and putting an arm about Rois headed for their cottage.
'I'll put the wee mistress to bed, m'lady,' Dolly said. 'She's asleep already, bless her.'
'Thank you,' Fortune said.
Kieran reached out, and took her hand in his. 'Come,' he said. 'I want to show you about before the sun sets.'
They walked out, and Fortune saw that the house was set on a small bluff above the bay. She could see the meadows with the horses, and at least two fields planted with some kind of crop. The air was soft with early summer, and it was so different than England. And far warmer too, she noted.
'I have so many questions,' she said. 'What are we growing in those fields?'
'Tobacco,' he told her. 'It's an excellent cash crop for us, and we need it for Mary's Land is not quite the civilized society it will be one day. The horses we raise are not the sort to pull wagons, but rather the kind a gentleman or a gentlewoman would ride, or race. Perhaps we shall sell some of our animals into Virginia, but not yet.'
'Are we growing food?' she asked him.
'Aye, for by Mary's Land law we must. There are three crops the Indians have introduced us to besides corn. There are beans, squash, and pumpkins. And we have found our seed grows in this soil. Peas, carrots, beets, marrows. And native yams, of course. 'Tis a bounteous land.'
'When we rebuild the house with brick,' Fortune said, 'it must face the bay. The view is so beautiful. I have never before seen anything like it.' She turned, and looked up at him. 'Thank you, for our home, Kieran.'
'I have missed you so very much,' he said softly, his fingers touching her face gently. 'How many nights I lay awake longing for you, Fortune, wondering if this place we have come to would suit you as it suits me. Can you be happy here in Mary's Land, so far from your people?'
'You are my people,' she told him. 'You, and Aine, and the other children we shall have. Aye, I will miss my family, but as long as we are together I can bear it. As for this place, it is where I belong. Where you belong. I felt it as we sailed up the bay from the sea to St. Mary's Town. I knew it deep within me. This land called us, Kieran.'
The sun was setting behind them, and the stars beginning to come out above them as they walked back to the house hand in hand.
'I am going to have a bath,' Fortune announced. 'Somewhere among all my possessions is a large oak tub. Have the men find it and fill it for me. It can be set up in our bedchamber. I shall go and find Mistress Hawkins so she will set the water boiling. I haven't had a bath in six weeks, Kieran, and my skin is sticky with the sea wind, and the salt. I must have a bath. And then'-she smiled at him seductively, and knowingly-'we will have to become reacquainted, sir.'
He grinned happily at her. 'I'll see the tub is found, madame. I may even join you, or play the maid, whichever will please you.'
Fortune laughed happily. It was beginning to feel as if they had never been apart, and she could see from the eager look in his eyes that he felt the same way too.
The tub was found, and set up in the bedchamber. Buckets of water were brought to fill it. Finally they were alone. A small fire burned in the corner fireplace for the evening air had turned chill. The curtains were drawn. The candles flickered softly. Kieran knelt before his wife who sat on the edge of their bed. He pulled her boots off, and then rolled her stockings down her legs, remembering first to slide the rosetted garters off. Fortune stood, and turned her back to him. He unlaced her bodice as she undid the tabs holding her skirts up. The skirts and bodice were carefully laid aside upon a chair.
Fortune now stood facing him in her chemise and petticoats. The petticoats were swiftly discarded. Raising her arms she gathered up her flaming red hair, and pinned it atop her head. He could see the outline of her breasts as she performed this simple task, and felt his desire rising. Reaching out he deliberately began to undo the narrow pink ribbons holding the halves of the chemise together. When the fragile cambric garment was undone at last, he pushed it over her shoulders so that it fell to the floor. Then he stepped back, and breathed a sigh of pure pleasure.
'God's blood, lass, you are surely the most beautiful woman I have ever known.' His two hands clasping themselves about her waist he lifted her up slowly, lowering her just enough so he might kiss her moss rose nipples.
'I must bathe,' she protested softly.
His tongue began to lick at her flesh. 'You're salty,' he said with a small chuckle. Then he ceased his teasing, and set her down in her tub. Kneeling by her side he took up the washing cloth, and soaping it began to smooth it over her back and shoulders, using his big hand as a cup to rinse her. Then one arm. The cloth slid down the silken skin from neck to hand. He rinsed her, and kissed each fingertip. The second arm was identically served, but this time he sucked on her fingers slowly, and with deliberate meaning.
'You are a poor maid,' she said low. 'You have washed neither my neck, or my ears, Kieran Devers.'
In reply he bent and placed a kiss on the nape of her neck before running the soapy cloth over it. 'You have always had the most graceful neck, and tempting nape, madame,' he murmured. The hand holding the cloth dipped below the water, surfaced, was wrung out, and then gently scoured each small ear, the lobe of which he kissed as he finished.
The cloth was moistened, and squeezed out again. He soaped it lavishly, and wiped it across her chest, sliding beneath the water to cleanse her ripe breasts, teasing the nipples with the flannel cloth until they puckered and thrust forward in the warm water. 'Stand up,' he said in a thick voice.
'I can do the rest,' she assured him. Her heart was beating wildly. The look in his eyes was so passionate.
Fortune stood.
From his kneeling position he almost looked like a supplicant at the foot of a goddess, and he felt like one. He had promised her he would be faithful, and he had been. He had not lain with any woman since he had last lain with his wife.
When their eyes met Fortune felt the prudently banked fires in her loins spring up and threaten to suffocate her in the conflagration. She could actually feel her nipples thrusting and tingling with anticipation. Her legs felt weak, and yet she stood straight as the cloth laved gently over her belly, and down each shapely limb. Her blue-green eyes never left his dark green ones. She could not have, even if her very life depended upon it, looked away. The look overwhelmed her with its hungry craving, its intense need, its blazing desire.
His finger spread her nether lips open to his view. For a long, hot moment he stared at the sweet flesh filling his gaze. Then the cloth swept over it, washing, teasing, making her long for him even as he longed for her. She whimpered as he leaned forward and began to tongue her. She felt heat licking at her center of being.
