Page 27 of The Forbidden Love of an Officer
Both her hands embraced his nape as she held his gaze. He was so steady and strong. Her fingers slid down his back, exploring.
When his end came this time he growled, his eyes shutting again as he ground against her for a moment, then stilled.
He sighed when he rolled off her.
‘We will stay here today,’ he said. ‘I will order breakfast. I am hungry, and then I will ask for a bath and we can bathe together.’
That sounded naughty. She was certain no married couples she knew bathed together. Certainly not her parents. She laughed at that thought.
She missed her sisters and her mother, but she was with Paul and she was his wife.
They spent the rest of the day doing as he said; relaxing. They ate breakfast in their room; she back in her habit for propriety’s sake as he sat in his pantaloons and shirt. Then the inn’s attendants brought up a copper bath, and pails and pails of steaming water along with some lavender water to scent it. It was a tight squeeze for them both to fit in it. But Paul sat behind her with his legs bent and parted, and she draped her shins over the edge of the tub. They lay in the water for an age as he ran the soap across her skin and brushed the water over her breasts.
They made love again when they got out and stayed in bed until he was hungry once more and wanted supper. Then they returned to bed and languished there without sleeping for hours.
She was happy.
6
‘It is a shame you have to endure another long journey so soon, Ellen.’
Tiredness shadowed her eyes. He had kept her awake half the night. He smiled. She did too. She did not look unhappy about it.
The inn’s grooms were readying their carriage behind her.
‘It does not matter. I knew it would be so,’ she answered.
He nodded and tapped her under the chin. Stalwart, that was his wife.
The snow had melted yesterday, the tracks would now be slush and mud, and it would be a much slower journey to Portsmouth. Travelling was a game of endurance she was going to have to become used to.
It took five days. Five days of dull inactivity within a carriage. Five days in which he was unable to fully appreciate the beauty of his wife. Although, on two occasions, as they had travelled through the night, he had persuaded her to sit astride him and lift her petticoats. She had blushed both times he had asked, so he had tamped the lamp to save her embarrassment. Yet he knew such moments would often be hurried and stolen when they joined the regiment – she would have to adjust and become used to others being in earshot.
The carriage pulled into the courtyard of an inn near the docks in Portsmouth. The time for carefree living was at an end.
Once the wheels had come to a halt, he opened the door, climbed down and handed her out. ‘I’ll settle you into a room, then leave you here and find the lieutenant colonel. I need to tell him I’m here and find my men. I’ll come back afterwards.’ Lifting his fob watch from his pocket, he flicked it open to check the time. It was two after midday. ‘I should return for dinner. But if I have not, order a meal and eat in our room.’
She nodded, but he could see she was nervous. She caught her lower lip between her teeth, as if holding back the words,don’t go. He did not want to leave. Yet this was his life, many times she would be left alone.
She smiled; it trembled a little. ‘I know you must go, it is your duty.’ Her answer implied she had read his mind, and he thanked God she was brave enough to override the words her heart wished to say.
At least she understood. ‘Come then.’
He settled her into a room, which looked out onto the busy street, although to the far right you could glimpse the sea, then said, ‘Goodbye,’ after kissing her lips.
He wanted to stay, but her words were true – he had a duty. That came first, and pleasure afterwards.
It took a half hour to walk through the docks and up the hill to the barracks. The other officers were there, with the lieutenant colonel. Paul was told who had arrived and who was still to come, the date they would sail and the name of the ship he and his men were to use. Then he went to visit his men who shared a room in the barracks.
They greeted him, after saluting, with smiles and laughter, and he was smacked on the shoulder a dozen times when he told them he had married a few days before. The 52nd was different. They had a rule that officers drilled with their men, and it developed a camaraderie and friendship which did not exist in other troops. As Ellen had said, he could have ridden in the cavalry, but the closeness of these men had carried him through the last years. They had endured horrors together, lost comrades and survived to fight again.
He could not walk out and leave them when he had told them of the plans for their sailing, so he sat down and shared a drink with them, then played a hand of cards, but all the time his blood itched to be back at the inn with Ellen.
When he finally found an excuse to leave, it was dark. He looked at his watch. Seven. She would be bored and lonely. He quickened his pace.
In fact, she was asleep. She lay on top of the large bed in their room, fully clothed.
She’d taken the pins out of her ebony hair and it spread across the quilt, her pale skin in stark contrast. He had not seen her hair loose since Christmas Day. She was such a precious sight. He let her beauty ease his soul; the memories of war, the sounds of cannon fire and rifles that had invaded his thoughts when he had sat among his men slipped away.
