The air was definitely taking on a cooler measure, especially in the early morning. And still the sun beat down through the cool, damp air, striking Ian’s bare back as he worked splitting the slender pines he’d hauled from the mainland to the islet, preparing to leave the place in the care of his family.
Teddy had been buried four days. Jerome and Julian had yet to return from the base at Key West; Ian hoped they’d return soon, because he had only two weeks left before reporting back to duty. And if he was bringing Alaina with him, he’d need time to make proper travel arrangements.
The time he had spent here now seemed like a very strange waiting period. For Alaina, it was a time of deep mourning. He had offered what comfort he could, and she seemed to be coming to an acceptance of her father’s death. Sometimes she was very quiet, staring into space. Occasionally she gave way to a single dry ragged sob. Then sometimes she just wanted to be left alone, and so he had decided to give her what distance he could.
The last two nights, he had found himself staying very late with his uncle and Lawrence on the porch. It was easier to come in later, when she slept already. They didn’t argue, and neither did he suffer quite so keenly with the desire to remind her that he was alive, very much alive, that he had been gone a very long time, and very much wanted his wife.
He raised his arms, bringing his ax down so hard that the pine shattered rather than splitting. Swearing, he moved the wood chips to begin again.
Ian wasn’t quite sure why they should be trying to hang on to Teddy’s islet—except that it was Teddy’s islet and Alaina’s inheritance. The real estate was not worth a great deal; had they decided to sell, it was quite unlikely that they’d find a long list of buyers. The far south remained mostly a haven for wreckers, salvagers, downright pirates, Seminoles, runaways of all makes, colors, and creeds—and eccentrics like Teddy. Perhaps his McKenzie kin could be classified as eccentrics, too, despite the fact that his uncle James assured him constantly that the time would come when the south Florida beaches would be worth the gold they resembled. Perhaps, but not in his lifetime. Still, his own father had held onto his property here, clearing a few acres, leaving a great deal of heavily wooded swamp and foliage as well. Ian knew that he would never sell McKenzie property himself, and he wondered if, at heart, he wouldn’t rather be a runaway himself. He’d spent so much time growing up prowling through the hammocks, mangroves, pine isles, and pure swampland. He loved the sunsets, maybe that was it. And the sunrises as well; mornings like this, when the air was cool and still, such a radiant warmth could work its way into his bare back….
He paused, his foot upon a log, leaning on his ax as he saw Alaina come to the porch. She looked very pale, thinner than when he had arrived, a childlike waif. She was in a simple off-white cotton dress, wearing no petticoats, no corset—not even shoes. He reflected that in parts north they’d both be quite indecent—he was barefoot, wearing breeches, nothing more. A bead of sweat trickled over his chest. Yes, in such a remote square of primordial Eden, it would seem quite indecent to be fully dressed. And Alaina appeared entirely arresting in her natural beauty, her hair free, rippling down over her shoulders, falling past her waist, as delicate and angelic as a lost sea sprite.
She waved to him; to his surprise, she started walking toward him. Not that she’d actually been distant, but she’d never, not once, sought him out in the time that he’d been with her.
He waited, feeling the morning air cool his shoulders, as she approached him. She came down to him, perching atop his pile of pine logs, wrapping her arms around her chest, shrugging, and smiling ruefully. “The house seemed so very strange when I awoke! It’s been so full… and this morning, there’s no one in it. No one at all.”
“My aunt and uncle left early; they didn’t want to wake you,” Ian told her.
“And Jen and the baby?”
“Packing to come stay here.”
“Where is Lawrence?”
“Back to working the sea.” He still leaned against his ax, watching her.
“Oh,” she murmured. “Well, what about Bella, Lilly, and my father’s workers?”
“Bella and Lilly are giving Jen a hand; your father’s men are learning to become salvage divers.”
“Oh!” Alaina said, startled. Her long lashes swept her cheeks. She looked off toward the sea then. “It’s so strange, isn’t it? Last week, at this time, it was still Teddy’s islet, and now, Teddy is… gone. He loved his lime trees, and they’ll just become overgrown.”
“Jen has promised to take special care of the limes,” Ian assured her.
Alaina watched him, and nodded after a moment. She shivered slightly. “It seems so strange, so silent,” she mused, then flashed him a quick smile. “I suppose it’s part of what I do love so much about Belamar. If you look in one direction, the sand and sea seem to stretch forever, into eternity. But when you turn a corner, you’re into a mangrove cove, and it’s as if you have a spit of the world all to yourself with just wind and warmth.” She hesitated. “Ian, perhaps I should stay awhile—” she began, then broke off, frowning, as he suddenly approached her, hands on his hips. “Ian, what—”
“What is this, Alaina? Pleasant conversation, sweet smiles—because you want me to change my mind?”
“Well, I was just thinking—”
“And I was just waiting to find out how damned far you are willing to go for your own ends!” he said. He was ready to reach for her, grab her, shake her. His frustration was at an agonizing level. He tried very, very hard to remind himself that she had just lost her father.
He let out a furious oath and turned away. He walked a few steps, then began running.
The stretch of sand she had spoken about was just before him, and a sea view that seemed to stretch forever. He ran along the sand until it curved out of sight before striding out through the waves and then diving into the ocean.
The water was as crisp and cool as the morning air. It was good against his flesh, and he swam hard for a long time, then turned onto his back and stared up at the sun above him, narrowing his eyes. With his peripheral vision, he realized that she had followed him around the islet to the cove and stood staring into the water after him, perplexed.
He swam toward the shallows and stood. “What?”
“Nothing. I was just worried,” she murmured. “About?”
“Your… behavior.”
“It’s a hot day, I came swimming. You should try it.”
“Ian, I’m in mourning. I couldn’t possibly—”
“Do you suppose Teddy might want you out in the water?”
She flushed. “You don’t understand.” “No, Alaina, you don’t understand,” he said quietly. “But it doesn’t matter. Not now. Go back to the house. I’ll be along shortly.”
But she didn’t move. She stood on the shore, tall, slim, gold eyes caught by the sun, the roundness of her abdomen barely visible, blond hair waving sensuously with each soft brush of the breeze, and he wondered again if she hadn’t come here to seduce him into promises to leave her here.
He wasn’t quite sure what he was doing when he began to move; her grief was real, and he had no desire to hurt her. But he reflected, too, that it was easy to dwell on loss, and the only way to find life again was to live.
He walked through the water to the sand with purpose. She stared at him as if he had lost his mind. When he was nearly upon her, eyes still locked determinedly on hers, she cried out, “Damn you, Ian, what…”
She backed away, then turned as if she would run. He caught hold of her wrist, drawing her back, swinging her into his arms and carrying her into deeper water. She struggled fiercely, staring into his face, apparently finding no answers in its hardened contours. “Ian, what is the matter with you? I said that I could not… You’re supposed to be a gentleman, my father has just died—”
“But you haven’t, I haven’t, and you can’t spend the rest of your life trying to make a shrine of his home and burying yourself in it.”
“Ian, damn you—”
“We’re going swimming!”
He dropped her into chest-high water. She sputtered to the surface, glaring at him. “I didn’t want to come swimming.”
“No?” he demanded. “Then we’ll do something else.”
She stared into his eyes incredulously, then cried out furiously, “You’re an oaf! Can’t you see, don’t you know, don’t you feel—”
She broke off, backing into the water with a cry, then turning around to swim, and swim hard. Despite the encumbrance of her skirt, she moved quickly, slicing through the waves with the speed and agility of a damned shark. He saw a length of long wicked limb slicing through the water, and he knew that she wore nothing more than the day dress, and she wouldn’t be too heavily dragged down by its weight.
Indeed, it was all he could do to keep up with her, keep her moving, keep her in the surf. When she tried to rise or elude him, he drew her back. She surfaced, gasping, sputtering time and again. When they reached the depths and she escaped beneath him in a cloud of seaweed, he nearly lost her. She had almost reached the shore again when she turned back, triumphant…
Laughing.
He found his feet, and with a burst of speed, he raced for her. Alaina touched her eyes and she turned to run again. But she had taken flight too late, and he tackled her, bringing her crashing down into the surf. She shrieked, swearing wildly at him, half laughing, half angry, hands pushing against the wall of his chest.
He ignored her protests. Pressing her back into the wet sand, he kissed her. Cupped her cheek, kissed her, kissed her hard and deep until something of a little whimper echoed in her throat.
And then he felt her arms curling around him.
Felt her fingers, teasing through the hair at his nape, working into his shoulders, drawing him closer, holding him. Her mouth parting sweetly; accepting then meeting the fevered urgency of his hunger. Cool salt waves washed over their limbs. The sun beat down in a burst of searing rays. He continued to kiss her, hand stroking down over the length of her. The water molded her dress to the contours of her body, and he felt supple curve and hollow and mound beneath it. He found the wet hem of her dress, drew it up her thighs, stroking her bare legs, her buttocks, cupping her firmly and close to the muscles in his thighs, straining against the fabric of his breeches, the hardness of his sex. She still clung to him, meeting the urgency of his mouth, seeking, finding. He broke from her lips at last. Her eyes were closed beneath the rays of the sun, lashes wet with water droplets, dancing like prisms against her cheeks. Her mouth was slightly parted, lips damp, sensually swollen. At her throat, her pulse leaped and raced….
He lowered his head with a hoarse and desperate groan, pressing his lips against the fragile blue vein. His hand lay upon the bodice of her dress, rounding the fullness of her breast beneath. He thumbed her nipple through the fabric, closed his mouth upon it. Her thighs parted under the gentle pressure of his weight, and his fingers stroked between them. A soft moan escaped her, creating a soft whisper at his ear; she was supple and pliant to his will, with a sinuous undulation beginning to stir within her at his touch. She was warm, wet….
He tugged at the buttons to his breeches, freeing himself. Yet as he shifted with the sudden urgency of an all-but-depraved madman, he felt the very subtle rise of her abdomen.
His desire was not diminished, yet it was tempered. He shifted to his side, capturing her waist, drawing her with him so that he would not burden her with his weight. He meant to take the gravest care, yet when he would have moved with slow precision, she cried out, shifting against him, and the startlingly tight and sweet enclosure of her body upon him seemed to awaken every primal urge within him. He struggled mentally for control… yet surrendered the physical battle within minutes, for his wife had seldom clung to him with such a desperate passion and yearning of her own.
She moved with a wickedly graceful rhythm that sheathed and aroused him again and again, and he fell back upon her with greater ardor, rising to a precipice, falling back, only to immediately rise again. Finally they reached a peak where he could bear no more, and a climax burst upon him with all the fiercely burning heat of the sun. And then, only then, as the convulsions ripped through his body, did he remember the tender state of his wife and draw away, alarmed at the volatility with which they had made love. He stretched by her side, eyes raking over her now with concern as he readjusted his clothing.
But she lay on the sand, seemingly quite well, the water washing over the beautiful length of her bare legs. Her eyes opened at last. She was trembling slightly, her heart pounding furiously, her breath still causing a hectic rise and fall of the lushness of her breasts. Her nipples remained hard, peaked against the fabric of her gown; yet somehow she appeared as pure and untouched as an angel.
“Oh, Ian…” Her eyes looked stricken.
“What?” he asked quickly. “Sweet Jesu, what? The babe, we’ve hurt it, have I hurt it?”
“No! No!” she protested quickly, eyes wide and golden.
He leaned over her, brushing her cheek with one hand, sheltering her body from the hot sun and chill breeze with his own. “Alaina, unless you want my heart to abruptly cease beating, please don’t frighten me so.”
She smiled, but it was a tremulous, fragile smile. “Ian, it can’t be right to feel so vigorously alive! To—to take such pleasure … in life! I mean now, under these circumstances.”
He was somewhat startled to realize that she felt guilty. She’d allowed herself to enjoy making love— when Teddy lay under the ground.
He sighed and spoke to her gently, his thumb brushing lightly over her cheek and lips. “Alaina, the only sin in life is not living it when we are blessed to have it, and I swear to you, Teddy would tell you the same.”
“Would he?” she asked softly.
Assured of her health, he leaned back upon an elbow. “Indeed, he would. By God, though, you very nearly scared the life out of me.”
She actually smiled, a swift, fleeting flash of real amusement.
And happiness.
“I’m sorry. The babe is fine, and Jennifer said that it’s fine to—”
She broke off, her cheeks suddenly a flaming red.
“Ah. You’ve discussed the intimate details of your marriage with Jennifer?” he queried with a feigned note of indignation.
“No!” She protested, still flushing furiously.
“Yes, you have!”
“You’re mistaken.”
He lay against the sand, trying not to laugh, studying her face. “I see. You asked Jennifer if physical intimacy would harm the child when I was hundreds of miles away. Interesting.”
“Well, I did assume you’d come back eventually—to visit your kin, if not your wife. And you, sir, were footloose and fancy free, while for me … I am…” she said, and her voice trailed away.
“Burdened with child?” he heard himself query with more than a note of anger.
She shook her head. “Would you have come back sooner, had you known?” She asked him softly.
He hesitated just slightly. Could he have come back any sooner?
His hesitation was a mistake, an answer unwittingly given her.
“Is it me—or your child—you’re so determined to have with you in Washington?” she queried then.
“Alaina—”
She started to rise, ignoring him.
He would not allow her to do so. He straddled her carefully, pinning her arms to the sand, meeting her eyes.
“I will have you, and my child. You’re my wife, and if you haven’t noticed that I want you very much, you’re quite blind. Are you seeking compliments? Reassurances? How strange, for I’m damned certain that you are well aware of your own abilities and beauty. I promised you the day of our wedding that this would be a real marriage, and nothing less. Teddy wanted you with him; at the time, I had no logical argument to keep you from him, as I assumed I’d be traveling here with great frequency. As events would have it, my assignment remained in the North! Now, let’s see…, you wanted to remain here. You wanted to remain here so badly that you were willing to use all your charms and feminine persuasion to… hmm… what’s the right word? Bribe! Right, bribe me into letting you stay here with Teddy. And if I’m not mistaken, you came out this morning with the intent—perhaps consciously, perhaps not—to, er, bribe me into allowing you to stay again. It’s not going to happen.”
She stared up at him, her eyes flashing amusement, anger, then amusement and anger once again. “Ian McKenzie—” she began, her voice deep, husky, and filled with the warning that she was about to start out on a tirade of her own.
But she did not, because Ian didn’t give her a chance. The breeze brought the distant sound of voices to his ears and he leaped up with a swiftness that brought a startled cry to her lips. He reached down to help her to her feet, explaining quickly, “Someone’s here.”
Alaina looked at him questioningly; it was clear she hadn’t heard the voices as yet.
Inwardly he was calling himself every manner of fool. He hadn’t forgotten what had happened here with Teddy; he’d even brought one of the Colt six-shooters with him to the woodpile.
But he’d left his gun there when he’d run for the water, and left he and Alaina unprotected.
“Alaina, stay here until you hear me call out that it’s all right,” he told her.
Her eyes were very wide, but before she could reply, Julian’s voice could be heard, loud and clear, calling out toward the house. “Ian? Alaina? Is anyone here?”
Ian exhaled with relief. “It’s all right. It’s my brother and Jerome.”
“It’s not exactly all right. My God, we’re soaked, we’re indecent, we’re—”
“We’re married this time, and it’s not the enemy who has come upon us,” he told her dryly. “Besides, you’ve managed to remain rather decently clad. It’s only going to look like we were swimming. But we should let them know where we are.”
He reached a hand out to her. She met his eyes, smiled after a moment, and took it. He led the way back around the mangroves and toward the beachhead. Jerome was in front of the house, hands on his hips, calling out their names again, while Julian was just heading off toward the lime grove to see if they were among the trees.
“Hello—we’re here!” Ian called.
Julian stopped, turned, and started back. The four met just in front of the house. lan’s brother and cousin had their formal frock coats over their arms and had opened their shirts, but they both smiled with obvious amusement at the state of dishabille in which they found Ian and Alaina. Julian’s brow arched as he stepped forward, shaking lan’s hand, then loosely embracing a sodden Alaina. “Nice morning for a swim….”
“Never mind,” Ian told him, shrugging to Jerome and asking, “What happened?”
“Should we go in?” Julian suggested.
“Alaina is shivering,” Jerome advised.
“Am I?” she murmured. “It’s not really cold at all anymore.”
It wasn’t cold; the sun was now high in the sky, its rays growing hotter. “Yes, let’s go in the house,” said Ian. “There’s coffee on the stove, I believe. Alaina, you need to get into something dry.” He set his hand upon the small of her back, propelling her up the porch steps, into the house, and toward her bedroom.
He lifted a hand, indicating the back porch to Julian and Jerome, and then followed the two of them out. Jerome perched upon the railing, Julian in one of the rockers. Ian angled himself upon the railing, waiting to hear what had happened.
“There will be a disciplinary action,” Jerome said.
“What will the action be?”
Jerome shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Julian cleared his throat. “We tried to wait around and see, and naturally, under the circumstances, I threw Father’s name at them, your name, and every other name that occurred to me—including that of General Winfield Scott. I inferred a great friendship, so I hope you do know the man, Ian. But it didn’t matter. We were still informed—politely and properly—that whatever was done would take time because it was such a delicate situation. The whole trip was hell, Ian—but you know damned well Jerome went in with the temperament to take a few scalps if that would help, so believe me, aggressive pressure was applied. So there’s a possibility that the men may face a court-martial. A possibility. When decisions are made, they’ll let us know. Oh—and of course they send their deepest sympathy on the death of Teddy McMann to you and his daughter. I have a letter from a Colonel Talbot for the two of you.”
Ian rubbed his chin, watching his brother and Jerome. He’d never known anyone capable of being as fierce, determined, and stoic in his resolve as his cousin Jerome. No one walked over any of the McKenzies, but still Ian should have gone himself. He was a military man, and it was a military situation.
“So—there are infinite possibilities!” he heard Alaina say sarcastically, and he looked down the length of the porch, startled to see that she had chosen not to change after all, but had gone through the house to her bedroom just to slip silently out to the porch to hear their conversation. He should have expected as much from her.
Her gold eyes were on Jerome. “They’re not going to do anything, are they? They just put you off with a lot of excuses.”
Jerome sighed, lifting his hands in the air somewhat helplessly, and looking to Ian for a lead.
“Alaina, I warned you that there was clearly no intent to harm your father—”
“And I didn’t expect them to be hanged, and I don’t think I wanted anything so drastic,” she said angrily. “But I did expect more than a sympathy letter!”
“Alaina, there will be disciplinary action. Were you really listening? Julian said that there will be disciplinary action.”
“Right. They may face a court-martial. Oh, Ian! That was a lot of talk just to get the McKenzies off their backs! Nothing will be done; we’ll be put off and put off until the worms have eaten my father to the bone, and that will be that!”
“Alaina, this is going to be a difficult time for the military, and yes, I imagine, under the circumstances, matters that aren’t entirely critical will be put off. With all the fury going on around the country—”
“What fury?” Ian interrupted, frowning.
Jerome and Julian looked at one another, then back at Ian and Alaina.
“You haven’t heard?”
“Heard what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Jerome exhaled on a long breath. “Well, then, you can’t realize what an uproar is taking place.” Jerome stared at his cousin. “Lincoln was elected to the presidency.”
Alaina gasped. Her fingers wound tensely into the palms of her hands as she walked across the porch to Ian.
“Lincoln—president! Ian! You can resign from that detestable army right now!”
“What?” Ian demanded.
“You can resign—”
“Are you trying to punish me—or the army?” he inquired, feeling his temper begin to burn. He’d known it was coming. Somehow, he’d known it was coming. He’d made a point of getting leave now, so that he’d be in his home state for the elections.
Saner heads would still prevail! he told himself.
But they would not. The South was outraged, and he could imagine that even as they spoke, most of the cotton states were calling for special legislative sessions.
To discuss secession.
“Ian, I don’t understand why you’re being so stubborn and angry,” Alaina insisted. Her cheeks were flushed, but her flesh remained very pale. Her eyes looked like true gold fire. She had twisted her hair into a knot at her nape, cleanly displaying the elegance of her classical features. Her damp gown hugged her figure, and it reoc-curred to him that—despite the slight bulge of her abdomen, or perhaps more visible because of it—she had grown thinner in the last few days.
“Ian,” she persisted, “what I’m saying makes perfect sense. Florida will form her own armed forces—”
“Oh, really?” he interrupted sharply. “Since when are you running the state government? Excuse me, Jerome, have I missed something? Has Florida seceded from the Union as yet?”
Jerome shrugged. They both knew that Florida was most likely to secede and that the state would begin making preliminary preparations for a split from the Union.
But it hadn’t happened yet. And it might take time. Ian might be one of the few people in the South not surprised that Lincoln had been elected, but just the same, he had dreaded this happening.
And it was bad enough without Alaina harping at him.
“Have we seceded?” he demanded again.
“No, not that I know about,” Jerome said. “The election results are really just out. This has all just happened, of course.”
“But Lincoln has been elected!” Alaina cried. “And Ian—”
“If and when Florida actually secedes, Alaina, I will make my own decisions regarding my military commission.”
“Ian! You must resign!” she informed him, as if there was no question regarding the matter.
His head was pounding. He had expected it; he had feared it. And it had come.
He stood, suddenly furious. He walked directly to where she stood, lifting her chin so that she was forced to look into his eyes. “Do you know, my dear, that I have really tried in every way to be as courteous to your feelings as I was able? Pay heed to me now, Alaina. I will be damned if I will ever allow you to tell me what I must or must not do!”
She stared at him, her face growing even more pale, except for the crimson flush that flowered at her cheeks.
“Indeed!” she whispered. “Then you pay heed to my words. You must—understand me—you must go straight to hell!” she cried out, and with a wild fury, she tried to push past him.
“Oh, no, Alaina!” He informed her.
He gripped her shoulders and dragged her back around in front of him.
“Alaina, dammit—” He broke off suddenly, feeling the amount of heat that emanated from her. Her shoul-ders were on fire. Naturally, she was flushed with anger, but…
She opened her mouth as if she would argue with him again. Her eyes were dazzling, seeming far too dilated, too dark. “Ian, Ian .. damn you!” she cried. But then the tone of her voice changed, touched with confusion and alarm. “Ian, Ian, please…”
But she didn’t finish. Her lashes suddenly closed over her eyes.
And she collapsed into his arms, dead weight.