“I don’t take orders from anyone,” she countered.
“You damn well better!” Gunn shouted. “I’m your husband, woman, remember me?”
“Just barely.”
Gunn went to Alice and caught her shoulders, marching her toward the stairway.
“Now, see here!” Hargrave protested.
Gunn decked him with one blow. Alice screamed when Hargrave fell. Her husband ignored her hysterics and determinedly propelled her toward the stairs. “Do what I say, now!”
The fracas below woke Mary and Will. They came hurrying out into the hall.
“Gunn, can that be you?” Will cried excitedly, taking the stairs two at a time with the tail of his nightshirt flapping.
“Damn right it’s me! I thought you were my friend? What do you mean letting this worm move in on my wife?”
“Hargrave?” Will said, staring at the crumpled shape in blue and braid on the floor. “You can’t be serious, Chris. Alice is your wife—she loves you.”
“He seems to have forgotten that point. Maybe she has, too.”
“Don’t you dare touch me!” Alice cried when her husband gave her backside a good shove to get her moving up the stairs.
“Christopher, really,” Mary protested. “Where are your manners?”
“Perhaps the same place my loving wife left hers. Help her get packed, Mary. We have to ride out right now.”
“What’s the hurry?” Will asked as Mary helped Alice to her room.
When the two men were alone except for Hargrave’s unconscious form, Chris confided, “All hell’s about to break loose up north. Looks like we’re in for another long, hot summer. I shouldn’t have left, but I rode out at the first sign of thaw on the trails. Damned if I could live without Alice another day, another minute. She’ll be safe at the fort now that reinforcements have arrived from England. We’ve got to get back fast, though. The Abenaki are already on the move, and I’ve set up another meeting with the Frenchman. If we ride out tonight, I’ll just make it.”
While the men were discussing Indian matters below, Alice and Mary were having a heart-to-heart in the bedroom.
“What in the world happened down there?” Mary wanted to know.
“Jon wants me to get an annulment, Mary. He says we’ll be married and I’ll never have to be alone again.”
Mary could hardly believe her ears. What a horrible turn of events, Mary thought. All Alice had talked about all winter was the coming of spring and Christopher’s return. “But that’s not what you want, is it, Alice?”
“Of course not, but I’m so upset, Mary,” Alice complained. “That man down there who claims to be my husband seems like a total stranger to me right now. He didn’t come back here to love me. He acts like he came to take possession of
his property
.”
“Don’t talk that way, Alice. He’s angry at Hargrave—he must have been shocked, you know. And you do love Chris, Alice. That’s the important thing.”
“I’m not sure I even know what love is.” She went to Mary and embraced her. “What am I going to do? Tell me what you’d do, Mary.”
“I’d sit down and have myself a good cry first off,” Mary stalled.
“I don’t cry,” Alice said, dry-eyed.
“More’s the pity,” Mary replied.
Just then Gunn burst into the room. “You’re not ready yet?” he boomed. “Damn, woman, you’re impossible!”
“Then go without me!” Alice shrieked at him.
“Not a chance,” he purred. “You and me, we’ve got overdue business to tend to, wife.”
Ignoring Mary, Gunn moved toward Alice, his arms ready to enfold her.
She backed away. “Don’t touch me! Mary, tell him to leave me alone.”
Mary eased out of the room, leaving husband and wife to settle their differences.
“I’m going to do more than touch you, darling. I’ve been waiting for you a long time.”
Alice found herself trapped in his strong arms like a frightened bird caught in a snare. There was no way she could fight him off. Before she knew what was happening, he was kissing her, his wild beard scratching her face, his tongue ravaging her mouth. All the passion she’d been denied for so long came boiling up inside her. His hands groped her breasts and his big, hard body leaned into hers. Just as she was sure he was about to pull her down to the waiting bed, he drew away.
“Now tell me you want that puny Englishman instead of me,” he demanded. “Tell me it isn’t Chris Gunn you’ve been aching for all these months. When I kiss you, you know you’ve been kissed, don’t you? You’d like to rip your clothes off and mine, too, right this minute, wouldn’t you?”
“You!” she screamed, blushing from head to toe to think that he had guessed her indecent thoughts so easily. “You savage! How dare you say such things to me? I’m not going anywhere with you. The wilderness has changed you into a beast. If you want me, you’ll stay right here and act like a civilized human being.”
A slow smile curved Gunn’s lips. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
“Well, you’d better hear it!” Alice shrieked.
Gunn moved so quickly that Alice never saw him coming until he had her. With one swift move he grasped her about the knees and slung her over his shoulder. She yelled at the top of her lungs and beat at his back, but she was no match for him.
“We’re going home now, wife,” he said calmly.
“You put me down!”
When they reached the foot of the stairs, Mary, Will, and Jonathan stood waiting. Alice saw them all from an odd angle.
“See here, Gunn, you can’t treat Alice that way,” the captain objected.
“Says who?” Gunn shot back. “She’s my wife. I’ll treat her any damn way I feel like it.”
“Somebody help me,” Alice pleaded.
The captain, pale except for the blue bruise forming around his right eye, backed away, out of range of Gunn’s hard fists.
“Mary? Will?” Alice begged.
Will Phips caught his wife’s arm to stop her when she started toward Alice. He shrugged and smiled sheepishly. “A husband does have his rights, my girl.”
“Damn right!” Gunn agreed.
“I won’t go with him!” Alice screamed. “Not if he’s going to treat me this way.”
“My dear, I’m afraid it doesn’t look like you have much choice,” Mary said with sympathy in her voice. “But you did say you love him, remember?”
“I don’t anymore!” Alice wailed.
“Too bad,” Gunn answered. “You’re stuck with me now, for better or worse.”
Once they were outside, Chris heaved Alice down from his shoulder. She pelted his face and chest with a rain of angry fists. He only laughed softly as he caught her wrists and pulled her close.
“Ah, Alice,” he whispered, “I do love fire in my women.”
The next moment he was kissing her, draining the fight from her spirit and the strength from her body. All that he left behind was a fiery ache in her blood.
As Chris settled her on the spare horse he’d brought along, Alice felt the heat of desire for him suffuse her whole body. She glanced at her husband—her big, brawny savage with his wild beard and shining green eyes.
A desperate Jonathan Hargrave called from the door, “Alice, I love you! Don’t leave me!”
With calm deliberation Gunn strode back up the stairs, blackened the captain’s other eye, then mounted and rode off, leading Alice’s horse behind.
“You’re a brute!” Alice seethed.
“Ah, yes, sweet wife, especially in bed, so I’ve been told.”
Alice sagged on her horse, then sat up straight and squared her shoulders. She would show Christopher Gunn, she would! How dare he treat her as if he owned her, body and soul? Her mind made up, she looked forward to the days ahead. She would make his life a living hell, she vowed.
B
y the time Chris reined in his horse to make camp that night, Alice felt like she had saddle sores on her brain from puzzling over her problems with her husband, and she was definitely raw down below. She’d seldom ridden while she was in Boston. Jonathan Hargrave, she reminded herself, always thought of her comfort above all else and hired a carriage for her.
She sat waiting for Chris to help her down. Finally, when it became obvious that she might have to sleep on horseback if she depended upon her husband’s aid, she slid to the ground by herself with a sigh and a slight moan of pain.
Hearing the sound, Chris flashed her a broad smile. “Don’t worry, love, you’ll toughen up after a few days on the trail. By the time we reach Maine, you’ll be all broke in.”
The leer that accompanied his words made Alice bristle. “I wouldn’t count on it,” she snapped.
Chris felt the grin fade from his face. He’d hoped that his bride would welcome him back with open arms, that she would be as eager to see him as he’d been to set eyes on her again. The hurt when he’d come in to find her in Hargrave’s embrace had proved deep and scarring. He’d gone all these months without a woman, even though Ishani had shown up again at the fort, remaining nearby for almost a month while Wannoak, her new husband, was off on a scouting mission. Being married didn’t keep the girl from following Gunn about, but he’d held fast to his wedding vows, sure that Alice was waiting as well. Apparently, she had been less than lonely without him, however.
All day he’d been mad as hell at his wife, but as the hours wore on, his anger had eased off. The only thing he wanted now was to hold her and love her and have that love returned. What right had she to act like the injured party?
“Hungry?” he asked, trying to make his voice as gentle as possible.
When Alice made no reply, but only continued to stare at him coldly, Chris turned away. He reached up to his saddle and untied a canvas bag.
“The cookpots and supplies are in here,” he told her. “You rummage through and see what you can find for supper. I’ll go scare us up some firewood.”
“Cook your own supper!” she cried. “I’m not your servant.”
Gunn bit his tongue hard to keep from snarling back at her. His patience did have its limits, and she was testing them sorely. He turned back to her slowly, willing his voice and countenance to remain calm.
“No, Alice, you’re not my servant—I never said you were. You’re my wife and I love you and I thought we might share the duties on our trip.”
“Not our trip,” Alice said. “This is all your idea. I was given no choice in the matter.”
He moved toward her, looking crestfallen. “What would you have had me do, leave you in Boston with Hargrave and return alone?”
“Had I been asked, which I wasn’t, my choice would have been for both of us to remain in Boston. I see no reason why you have to rush back up to Maine. We might have had that honeymoon you stole from me last year.”
He reached out and caught a stray tendril of Alice’s hair between his fingers, tucking it gently back in place. “I told you the reason, Alice. The baron’s demanding another meeting with me. It’s important that we work out these differences and stop the wars that have gone on for years. Don’t you want our children to grow up in a peaceful land?”
“Children?” she cried. “I’d like to know how I’m supposed to have a child. It would seem a bit more than I could possibly accomplish all alone, and my husband always has more pressing business elsewhere.”
Gunn’s calm reserve began to slip, then crashed and crumbled outright. Seeing the fire in his eyes, Alice tried to move away, but he was too quick for her. Catching her by the shoulders, he pulled her to his chest.
“If it’s a child you want, say no more, sweet woman.”
Alice struggled mightily, but the more she twisted and writhed in his arms, the tighter he gripped her. When he kissed her hard, forcing her mouth open to accommodate his needs, she bit down on his tongue. But the very act she meant as defiance enflamed her. When he nipped her back, she melted in his arms.
They were in a thicket of tall, sweet-scented pines with the setting sun turning last year’s needles into a flaming blanket spread over the soft earth. Not until Chris placed his wife down on that waiting blanket did she take up her struggle again.
She wanted him, but not this way. All the time Chris was in Maine, Alice had dreamed of how it would be between them the first time—a soft, clean bed that smelled of lavender, the two of them bathed and fresh and naked against each other. But as Chris pressed her to the ground and the earthy, primal scent of him filled her senses, some primitive urge exploded to life inside her.
His rough beard scored her face even as the pine needles pricked her arms, jerking her back to her prim and proper disapproval of being taken like some Indian squaw. She wanted Chris as her husband, but she wanted a sane, civilized man, not the savage he had become over the past months. She fought him, crying, “No! No, I won’t… you can’t do this to me…”
Her words fed the fire in Gunn’s groin. The picture of her kissing Hargrave flashed through his mind, renewing his fury. He meant to exercise his husband’s right whether she liked it or not. She was his wife, and it was damn high time she started acting like it.
With speed and skill, Gunn maneuvered her skirts out of his way.
“Please, not this way,” she begged, but there was no stopping him now. She could feel his demanding heat between her thighs.
But abruptly, he stopped his near attack. He still held Alice pinned to the ground, her skirts hiked above her waist, but he leaned down close to her face and stared into her wild eyes. Slowly his lips came down to meet hers. He kissed her ever so gently, letting the tip of his tongue play at the corners of her mouth.
Alice drew in her breath. The quick change in him, from fierce to tender, fired her blood. As he continued his teasing caresses, one hand crept to her breasts.
She had stopped struggling and was now sighing with need. Chris whispered into her ear, “I love you too much to take you against your will, darling. If you want me to stop, I will.”
His lips and his hands had gone too far toward softening and arousing her for Alice to stop him. Catching his rugged face between her soft palms, she brought his mouth back to hers, which was open and begging to be kissed.
As she lay back, feeling his weight atop her, the jabbing pine needles became a sheet of satin and their perfume was sweeter than any lavender could have been.
“Oh, Chris, I love you, too,” she murmured against his mouth. “I want you to make me yours.”
At her words he raised his heavy body from hers and lay beside her, propped on his elbow. A look of wonder and tenderness stole into his dark green eyes. For a moment Alice ached with disappointment, thinking that she had won a battle she’d really hoped to lose, that he might not make love to her after all. But she soon realized she had both lost and won in the same instant.
Chris let his hand slide up her naked thigh. Her flesh trembled under his gentle touch. With his other hand he undid her bodice, freeing her breasts to his hungry eyes and the last warm rays of the dying sun. Before many minutes passed, she lay naked in his arms as he covered her body with kisses. When next she begged, it was not for him to stop. Her whole body and soul cried out for him to take her.
He came to her at last. She welcomed him without doubt or regret. She felt him, huge and hot and eager, there at her tender opening. She moaned softly. The next instant, as Chris thrust into her with a fierce hunger, Alice’s sounds of pleasure turned to a sharp cry of pain.
Chris stared down at her, then tried to pull away, but Alice gripped his shoulders and thrust her hips toward him, driving him deeper, causing herself more pain, but exquisite pleasure, too.
“No, Alice,” he murmured gruffly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Yes, Chris!” Her cry was ragged with urgency.
With every thrust, Alice forgot that instant of pain as she was swallowed up in warmth and love and passion. Finally a moment came when it seemed she was no longer earthbound, but soaring somewhere high above, between twilight and starshine. The whole universe seemed to enfold her lovingly and a sense of joy and release filled her soul.
“Oh, my darling,” she said with a sigh.
Chris sagged against her with a satisfied moan. He pressed his mouth to the throbbing pulse in her neck. “Alice, why didn’t you tell me? I hurt you.”
“You loved me, Chris. You’ve made me a woman. At last,” she added in a pleased whisper.
“But you and Lord Geoffrey?”
Alice shook her head. “Never, darling. He was old and infirm.”
“Damn,” Chris cursed softly. “I never truly believed I was dealing with a virgin. I’d have been more gentle.”
Alice held out her arms to him and smiled. “Well, you aren’t dealing with a virgin any longer, my darling. Come here to me.”
They skipped supper that night and spent the long, moonlit hours till dawn becoming even closer as man and wife.
Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Gunn’s return to Maine was an occasion for celebration once they reached the fort. As the couple approached the ramparts, a cry went up from the guards and cannon boomed in salute.
Alice had thought she’d never welcome the sight of this place again, but it was a relief to have their three-week trek behind them. Pegeen’s plump figure hurrying across the courtyard further gladdened her heart. The girl seemed to be carrying a wad of rags in her arms, but as she drew closer, Alice saw that her former servant held a baby.
“My word, what have you there, Peg?” Alice demanded, laughing.
“Me own wee bairn, Toby, milady, and I’ve another one in the oven already,” she crowed with pride, patting her slightly rounded belly.
Alice smiled at the girl. “Then you and your blacksmith did wed. I’m glad.”
Pegeen’s freckled face colored slightly. “Not yet, mum. The parson was scared to come this way last year on account of all the fighting, but he’s due here within the week to marry me and my man and baptize our dear little bastard. I’m so glad you’ll be with us for the festivities.”
Once again Alice was reminded of the wildness of this place. It seemed ages since she’d left, but not a parson had ridden through in all that time to speak the vows for Peg and her man. Would she ever get used to the strangeness of this new land?
“Well, I’m married already,” she announced to Pegeen.
The girl’s eyes went immediately to Alice’s slender waistline. She frowned and shook her head slightly.
Alice laughed at Pegeen’s reaction and pinched her plump, rosy cheek. “We can’t all be quick as rabbits, girl. Give me time, will you?”
Chris, standing nearby, overheard the conversation and strode up, smiling broadly. He draped one strong arm around his wife’s shoulders and said to Peg, “I’m working on it, lassie, every chance she gives me. I’ll have your mistress wearing a barrel under her frock before you know it.”
Alice turned a shocked look on her husband as Pegeen giggled. “How crude, Chris,” she scolded.
“Well, you want bairns don’t you, love?”
“Yes, but the way you talk!”
“Don’t fret, mum,” Pegeen said. “I’m used to it here, the only woman among all these men. It’s so good you’ll be here now to keep me company. Why, I even enjoyed having that Indian woman around for a while. I’m that starved for female companionship.”
“What Indian woman?” Alice asked suspiciously.
She turned to Chris in time to see him put a silencing finger to his lips, but he was too late.
“Ishani,” Pegeen blurted out.
“She was here?” Alice cried.
“I’m sorry,” Peg said with a shrug toward Gunn. “I thought you’d have told her all about it.”
Just then Sheamus O’Dare called her. Relieved to be out of the midst of the trouble she’d stirred up, Peg scurried away.
Alice turned on Chris immediately. “Why was Ishani here?” she demanded.
“You needn’t worry about her any longer. She’s married now,” Chris said, trying to avoid a direct answer and a sure confrontation.
“To whom, one of the men at the fort?”
“No. A brave named Wannoak.”
“Then what was she doing here?”
“Her husband was off with the men of the tribe, and she came for a visit, that’s all.”
“That’s all?” Alice cried. “I suppose you’re going to tell me next that she came to visit Pegeen. Christopher, how could you? You know how I feel about her.”
As she stormed away from him, Chris called after her, “That’s not how it was at all. Alice, listen to me. Come back here!” When she turned a deaf ear, he muttered, “All right, dammit, be that way!”
That night, for the first time since leaving Boston, the Gunns did not sleep in each other’s arms. When Chris went to find Alice, ready to leave for their cabin outside the fort walls, she refused to go with him.
“I want some time here at the fort to visit with Pegeen,” she lied. “You go on to the cabin. I’m sure you’ll find some way to amuse yourself without me.”
“I’m not leaving you here,” he replied angrily. “If you’re set on staying, I’ll stay, too.”
“No,” Alice said firmly, barring the door to her old room so that he couldn’t enter. “I want to be alone to think tonight.”
“Alice, this is crazy. Let me come in and talk to you,” he pleaded. “I’ll be gone soon enough. Then you’ll have all the time in the world to yourself.”
“You’re going away?” Alice’s anger turned to an empty ache around her heart. He couldn’t leave until they got things settled. “Going where, Chris?”
He stared at her, unbelieving. “You know where I have to go, Alice. How many times have I told you that I have to meet with the baron right away?”
“But I thought I’d be going with you.”
“To a war conference? You can’t be serious.”
“Where will you meet him?”
“At the Indian village up the river. It’s a hard day’s trip over rugged, dangerous territory. I wouldn’t think of subjecting you to such a journey, even if I could take you.”
“What do you mean, even if you could take me?”