Bright Morning Star (25 page)

As soon as the children were in bed, the campfire dead and all the visitors long gone, Calum had Henry help him roll his wagon. Now the two wagons were parked side-by-side. In the dark they had trouble arranging things. The benches were placed between the two wagons at different ends, but sheltered from the eyes of those in the tents or in the distant wagons. Claire knew her parents were awake inside, listening.

The men stood beside them. Claire knew once they were seated between the wagons there would be no turning back. Henry had better propose. Carefully Henry helped Claire climb over the bench and waited while she arranged her skirts before sitting down beside her facing out. Claire giggled nervously and stared into the dark. She could sense the other couple settling into the same arrangement. Both girls were on the inside of the benches completely hidden from anyone, even if there had been more than a sliver of moon in a dark sky.

Claire tried to relax. It was too dark for anyone to see what they were doing. In Bonnie’s brown dress, she could not make her out at all. For a minute, Claire wished she had worn the purple wool, not the mint green. Bonnie would probably be able to watch her all evening.

Calum walked around and whispered something to Henry before passing him a full cup of wine. Humming, he walked back around and took his place beside Bonnie. Claire heard Bonnie’s startled breath and knew her friend would probably be too busy to watch anything. Calum spoke loud enough for the other couple to hear. “We will share a toast to the old country and to the women we love. Drink.”

Claire smelled the sweet wine as Henry raised it to take a timid sip. He held it and repeated, “Drink.” Claire leaned back a little and extended her hand to find the cup. Instead she touched his leg, then the soft wool of his coat. Bolder, hidden by the dark and with the excuse of finding the cup, she raised her hand until she touched his chin. She heard the sharp intake of breath and knew it was Henry. He was just as frightened as she was.

When her fingers found his lip and brushed the soft edge of that little mustache, she wanted to pound her feet quickly on the dirt. Only knowing her parents were listening and could come pouring out of the wagon at any instant kept her still.

Henry captured her hand and brought it to the tin cup. Claire trembled as she let her cool fingers touch his on the handle and let him raise it to her lips. She took a slow sip, savoring it as if she had never tasted wine before.

She moved the cup just a little and he bent to drink again. His face was close to her and Claire leaned toward him like a cat that needed petting, letting her cheek glide against his as he swallowed.

They exchanged lips on the rim and when it was empty, Henry carefully set it on the ground beside the bench. This time when he turned toward her, his mouth found hers. Claire sighed into the kiss. The past week he had kissed her, soft, sweet kisses of hello and goodbye. They were nothing like this. As he opened his mouth on hers, her tongue touched his and the rich taste of the wine and the sweet wild kiss flooded her senses.

Suddenly, she felt light headed. Tightly corseted, she found it more than a little hard to breathe. As she leaned back to gather more air into her lungs, Henry’s strong arms supported her curved back. He turned her across his own body and one of her legs rose to balance her. “No,” she gasped, “I have to keep my feet down.”

“Shh,” he whispered, raising her up just enough to accomplish both feet on the ground. “Let me loosen that demon corset for you. Sit upright.”

“But how…” but he was already undoing buttons down the back of her dress.

Henry sighed, trying to go slow enough not to frighten her. How often the last few weeks had he stared at that long line of tiny buttons and imagined doing just this? Only fantasy he warned himself, but it had not kept him from imagining it. Now, thanks to the bold Lieutenant on the other bench, he was daring to do it. When he was halfway down, Claire managed to reach behind her to still his fingers. In the dark, all he could see were the whites of her eyes as she nodded toward her wagon.

Henry paused and leaned close enough so his lips brushed the tiny shell of her ear. “Three more, please.”

Her hand still held him in its upside down embrace. Swallowing and closing her eyes, she nodded and released him.

As soon as they were undone, he used his open hand to carefully move the fabric apart. Her eyes were wild again, glistening in terror as her heart pounded beneath his hand. Henry stopped the motion, pressed his lips even closer and traced kisses along from her ear to the base of her throat. He felt her chest heave, her breath escape as in a dying sigh.

Moving her so her chest was pressed against his, he managed to use both his hands to pull the dress down to her waist. He was tempted to just settle for touching her breasts through the thin cotton, but her ragged breaths spurred him on. When he finally found the ribbon lacing the front of her corset, he carefully pulled one end and felt the bow escape as trailing ribbons in his hand.

Before she could protest, he resumed their passionate kiss. With each nibble, or a flick of his tongue over hers, he tugged at the corset until it gaped open about her rib cage. He released her mouth, let her take a couple of deep gasping breaths. Pressing her face beneath his chin, he whispered again. “I’m going to remove it.”

Once when he was a boy, he ran to pick up a hummingbird that had flown into the front glass of their store. The rapid beat of Claire’s heart reminded him of holding that tiny living thing in his palm. He had held it there, waiting, until the tiny creature fluttered, struggled, and broke free.

She moved her face, straightened to use both of her hands to tug the last ribbon free and removed it. While he waited, she folded the whale bone reinforced linen and satin garment and held it on her lap, her chin down, her breath growing even.

Henry reached out and took it from her and laid it on the bench beside him. This time when she returned to his embrace, she lifted her face up to his for more of the mind-numbing kisses. He waited until she pressed her lips to his. Gently he stroked her back, more than aware of the silky skin beneath the thin cotton. With each stroke, he grew bolder, hungrier for the need to caress her. He let his fingers trail wider until they flew up and down the bare skin of her arms.

Intoxicated, unwilling to stop, he pulled his mouth away from her lips to trail kisses down one silky arm to her wrist. He kissed the pulse there and felt her hand rest against his cheek. She lifted the other arm so that the inside flesh pressed his other cheek as she held her arm in the air. He repeated the trail of kisses as she lowered her arm to bring the wrist point to his mouth. When he kissed it and moaned, she cupped his lips moved to lift his head so they were face to face, foreheads touching, nose tips crushed and her lips temptingly out of reach.

Softly she whispered the words to him alone. “More, I need more kisses.”

Henry smiled, drunk with happiness at the foolish words. “Where?” he asked, not surprised to hear the quaver in his own voice. Claire lifted his hand to her neck, to touch the pulse below her ear. Henry obliged, only to have her bend her head and capture him there as she giggled.

“It’s not the right spot,” he growled in her ear.

“Your mustache tickles.”

Henry caught her mouth beneath his own, kissed her fiercely, and then whispered. “Quiet, you don’t want to be caught like this, do you?”

Her silence was answer enough, then her hand pointed to the same spot below the other ear. Next was the little hollow at the base of her throat, which brought a reward of a gasp of pleasure. Collar bones, shoulders, and then Henry shocked them both by slipping his hand inside her chemise to cup her breast.

The quiver was back. This time she pressed tight against him, as though she would bury herself in him. He waited, the bold hand trapped with its warm treasure.

“I’m small, I know, nothing like Bonnie,” she spoke, clearly embarrassed.

He kissed her, excited by the idea of where to kiss her next. She leaned back, granting him space.

“You’re perfect,” he breathed into her ear as he slipped the other hand to join the first. “All I can hold.” Gently, so as not to terrify her, he followed Calum’s advice and teased both until her nipples were screaming for more attention. “Claire, darling, please don’t stop me.”

She leaned back, her body twisted so that her face was turned up to him. If she bent anymore, he knew she would break Calum’s rules.

Softly, as gently as he could, he raised her back upright, bending so his face pressed against her, then his mouth found and claimed one nipple. Claire sighed, then when he raised up, she brought his head back to kiss the other. He drew the nipple into his mouth and suckled.

She seemed to collapse like a rag-doll. From the other side, Henry heard voices. He pulled the cotton over the damp breasts, waited to be caught.

“Now that we are betrothed, let us take one last stroll together, my beloved Bonnie,” Calum said.

Henry waited, straining to listen as he heard an exultant Calum pull the other woman to her feet and help her step over the bench. As they moved away, he sighed in relief. Other than being more aroused than at any other time in his life, with a half nude girl in his lap, he knew it was going to be all right.

A tiny voice whispered. “Is it all over then?”

Henry put a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud at the sound of disappointment in her voice. Firmly he helped her sit upright, threaded one limp arm into its sleeve, then worked on the other. As soon as he finished, she twisted on the bench so he could secure all the buttons. Without warning, she collapsed against him, just as Henry realized he had buttoned crookedly.

“No,” he muttered. “Sit still so I can undo and redo these buttons right.

“Good,” she whispered, complying. When he reached the last button she shocked him when she pulled the dress and undergarment down just low enough to expose the small left breast. “This side wants it to.”

Unable to deny her, he quickly bent to suckle it, felt her fingers tug at the ends of his mustache mischievously. He released her, covered the other treasure and this time buttoned her right. Like Calum, he helped to swing her up and over the bench. Henry reached down to lift the folded corset and press it into her hands. He could tell from the way she moved that she was blushing. He hated not being able to see her skin change from porcelain white to rosy pink. She stowed it in the back of her wagon hastily.

As they passed his empty wagon, Claire brushed against him and suddenly she was in his arms, her body pressed against him. Henry kissed her as though he would devour her, used his hands to press her against his arousal. Claire’s knees buckled and she dug her hands into his shoulders to stay upright. Henry had all he could do, not to lift her into the back of the wagon. Instead, he raised his head, and whispered against her mouth.

“We will marry in Ogden, as soon as possible.” Claire pushed back against him and he released her. For a minute, they both stood breathing heavily into the calm night.

“Isn’t that what you want?” Henry asked.

“I expected words of love and...”

He extended his hands, but she shrugged free. When they heard the voices of the other couple, both swallowed. Henry held his arm and Claire took his elbow so they could fall in step behind the others as they passed in the night. He watched the shadowy, long-legged couple leaning together, heard Bonnie’s happy voice and Calum’s grunt in answer.

For several minutes, they walked in silence before Henry stopped and faced her. Slowly he lifted her hands to kiss one, and then the other. “Lovely Claire, will you be my wife?”

As she stood, not answering, Henry wished the moon would appear. He could tell nothing in the dark about what she was thinking. Was she afraid, or was she going to refuse him. He recalled the teasing words earlier to Mary Anne about having no use for anything second-hand. Then it had annoyed him, but he realized when she giggled that she had been teasing. Henry waited, afraid that she had been serious.

“Although, I had no right to, I think I loved you from the first time I saw you,” she finally said.

“Oh Claire,” he let out his breath in a single swoosh and pulled her into his arms for another blazing kiss. “I love you. So you’re saying yes.”

“Yes.”

He stopped again to kiss her and heard her laugh and break free to jump around. Henry wanted to shout as well. He settled for capturing her to lift into the air and swing around.

In minutes they were on their own excited stroll around the silent camp.

<><><>

The men were almost back to where they had left their sweethearts to go to bed. They began to talk in hushed voices. Henry asked, “How did your campaign go?”

“She now wants to wait until her Da builds a boat and sails from Boston to here. Although a minute ago, she told me not to go. That we could wed in Ogden next week.”

“Well, there you go,” Henry whispered excitedly. “We can have a double wedding.”

“She really wants to wait, until she is sure Tarn Michaels is dead or they are divorced, until she buys her land and builds a cabin, and maybe for the rest of the clan to arrive.”

“But you proposed, what did she say?”