Moonlight Rebel (38 page)

Aaron looked at the general as if the man had suddenly turned into a two-headed beast. The plantation meant a great deal to him. It represented who he was. His indignation took on large proportions. "I keep the books for this plantation, sir, and there are no such debts on record. We pay for everything we need as we need it."

Simpleton, the general thought. "Things can be arranged, Mr. McKinley. Debts are only things written down on paper, and papers are not that hard to come by. We still have jurisdiction over you, you will remember," he said calmly.

Aaron felt the bitter taste of suppressed anger fill his mouth and his soul. The general had said the one thing that could turn Aaron against the British, and in that instant, Aaron fell in with the Americans.

Lucinda watched her husband's face and saw the change come over him. The words he uttered next were soft, but she knew that the general had lost.

"I shall certainly remember that, General."

"Fine." The general resumed drinking. "As long as we all understand each other."

"Perfectly," Aaron answered, his jaw set firmly. Lucinda reached for his hand.

"Damn stupid of you, Aaron, mortgaging the plantation," Winthrop mumbled, his mouth full of potatoes.

"Oh, do shut up, Winthrop!" Savannah snapped, rising from the table. Sin-Jin rose in his seat as she took her leave. Angry though she was, she didn't miss her opportunity to smile at him before she left the room.

After lunch, Winthrop seemed to dog her every step. Savannah flounced down angrily on the parlor sofa, staring at the closed door that separated the parlor from the study. Sin-Jin was there, locked away with his general. She wished herself on the other side of the door and the general out with Winthrop.

"Oh, all right," she threw up her hands irritably. "If I go for a ride with you, will you leave me in peace once we return?"

"Yes, yes, of course," he promised. His eyes scanned her intimately. "I understand, if you're not feeling well."

Savannah thought she understood what he meant, and her skin crawled that he should be so forward with her. Intimacy had no place between them. She only offered him her cheek and her hand to kiss. Only once had his beefy lips brushed hers. Why am I going through with this madness? she asked herself.

She looked at Winthrop and made up her mind. She couldn't. She had to break off the engagement. Title or no title, she couldn't tie herself for all eternity to this pompous ass. No court in the world could he worth lying under that man even once a year. She wasn't like Charity. The thought of having lovers on the side was odious to her. At the very least, it was too risky. And she wanted romance. Was that so terribly wrong?

"I shall be ready in half an hour," she told him. I will tell him while we're riding, she thought, eager to have done with it.

"Fine, fine, I'll be waiting here."

But not for long, Savannah thought as she hurried away. There was a lightness to her step.

Chapter Thirty

For the most part, they rode in silence. The country was a beautiful shade of green, nature at its finest. But Savannah's mind was elsewhere. Sin-Jin had left the house to go riding by the time she had finished changing. If only she could have gone with him instead of with this lump of a creature at her side. The sooner she was rid of him, the better.

With her thoughts preoccupied, Savannah didn't realize that Winthrop was leading her toward the tobacco storage silos. He had discovered them one day during a rainstorm. Having taken shelter in one of the cavernous structures, and rather than wonder at its empty state when the McKinley plantation was so prosperous, Winthrop had seen his find only as fortuitous. He had made up his mind there and then to bring Savannah to the silo. He was tired of supplicating, tired of the way she treated him. It was time he collected his due.

When he stopped the horses near the large structure, Savannah took the opportunity to say, "We really must talk, you and I."

"That's fine with me, dear." Soon, he promised himself. Soon. Lust grew, spreading swiftly through his loins. "An engaged couple should do many things together. And you have been so terribly distant with me," he chided, looking at her with what she called "puppy-dog eyes." Savannah detested puppy-dog eyes.

Winthrop leaned over and took her reins from her. "Why don't we dismount for a bit?"

She looked at him in surprise, then shrugged. This was as good a place as any, she supposed. Although breaking an engagement should be done in a more dramatic setting, she was anxious to have it over with.

He dismounted, panting as his weight hit the ground. With pudgy hands, he grasped her waist and helped her from her horse. His warm breath, coming in puffs, assaulted her face.

Savannah's stomach turned. "You can let me go now," she told him impatiently when his hands remained where they were.

"Oh, only a moment longer," he coaxed. "It's so seldom I get
a chance to touch you."

Disgust welled up within her, but she tried to keep it from her voice. "I haven't given you permission," she pointed out
disdainfully. Annoyed at the liberties he was taking, she pulled away and walked toward the silo. She didn't see the suppressed
rage on Winthrop's face as he followed.

Savannah turned and looked at him. It had to be done, before he gave himself any other ideas. "Winthrop, much as it
grieves me," and relieves me, she added silently, "I am afraid I
must end our relationship."

He looked at her, aghast. He hadn't expected her to say anything of the sort. His vanity assured him that she would be his for the taking if only he was persuasive enough. "What?"

He sounds like a bleating sheep, she thought. "I'm afraid I
no longer wish to be engaged to you," she informed him loftily.

"I thought you understood about the incident with those soldiers—"

The lacy gloved hand sliced the air as she waved it impatiently. "It isn't the soldiers, Winthrop." Her desire for the proper effect gave way to irritation again. "Goodness, but you are tiresome."

His fleshy cheeks reddened. "Tiresome, am I?" He took a step toward her. "And I suppose that young lieutenant isn't?"

"I don't know what you are talking about." Haughtily, Savannah turned her back on him.

Grasping
 
her
 
shoulder
 
roughly,
 
Winthrop
 
spun
 
her around. Months of acting the lackey finally caused him to explode. "Don't play the grand duchess with me, you slut! I've seen the way you look at him, like some cheap, hungry little whore."

Enraged, Savannah slapped Winthrop's face. "How dare you!" she shrieked.

The tide of lust overpowered him. Pinning her arms to her sides, Winthrop covered her neck and face with open-mouth kisses that made her cringe in revulsion.

"Let me go, you animal!" Jerking back, Savannah managed to pull free. Then her anger gave way to fear, and she ran into the silo.

The interior of the structure was wide and open. Less than half the usual amount of tobacco was stored in it. Savannah hid behind one of the tall, secured bales, trembling. She could hear Winthrop panting behind her. Fear smothered her like a heavy, wet blanket. No one knew where she was, and Winthrop looked like a man possessed. What was to become of her?

"No one's going to help you now, you little blue-nosed whore. You think I haven't known that you were leading me on? Do you think I'm so stupid I didn't know it was my family ties and not me you were marrying?" He shoved aside one mound of tied tobacco leaves and searched behind the next, his lust and his anger growing. "But I didn't care. I wanted you anyway. Savannah McKinley, the most beautiful woman in the county. And 111 have you, because when I get through with you, no one is going to want to marry you but me." His voice echoed ominously in the huge structure. His patience was at an end. "Damn it, where are you?"

Suddenly, as he pushed aside the last bale, he found her. Sa
vannah shrieked and turned to run, but he stepped on the hem of her skirt, trapping her.

"Let me go!" she cried, fighting to keep fear out of her voice.
"My father will make you pay for this!"

"Not before I've claimed what is my due" he declared, grabbing her wrist.

Savannah looked around frantically, trying desperately to pull herself free. But the more she tugged, the tighter his ham like hand held onto her.

"No, not this time. This time that pretty little flesh of yours
will be mine." Roughly, he began to stroke her. Because she re
sisted, he caught her bodice and yanked it down ripping it apart. Her chemise was exposed, the tight stays of her corset pushing her breasts up invitingly.

She saw the naked lust in his eyes. "No, no, please," she begged. "Don't do this, Winthrop. Please, please." She was crying and shaking.

He didn't hear her. Driven by his own lust, Winthrop could neither see nor think of anything except getting his satisfaction. His revenge. She had taunted him, rejected him, until finally he couldn't take it anymore. He was tired of being the
butt of jokes, tired of being looked down on by the members of
her family. And tired of lusting after her to no avail.

Savannah struggled and pushed, but she couldn't break free of his hold as his wet mouth covered her flesh and his hands groped her body with a familiarity that brought tears to her eyes. She fell backward against a bale. He pinned her down with his weight, then straddled her. A fat thigh on either side of her trembling body kept her in place.

"Now, let me see the rest of you, Savannah." His eyes glowed
at the prospect. "You'd be willing to show all to the fine young
lieutenant, were he here."

Before she could say anything, he tore away the remainder of her chemise, and Savannah began screaming hysterically, her large, bare breasts heaving. It only served to arouse him more.

"Ah, but he is here."

A voice penetrating the haze about his brain, Winthrop swung around to search for its owner. The butt of a musket met his jaw, sending him sprawling off Savannah's trembling body.

Winthrop rose groggily to his feet, a trickle of blood coming
from his mouth. Sin-Jin looked at him with the same contempt he reserved for murderers and thieves.

Winthrop was three inches shorter than Sin-Jin, but he out weighed him by at least fifty pounds. That didn't blot out the fear that traveled through Winthrop. He backed away quickly, moaning, and his jaw began to swell immediately.

"Get out of here before I kill you." Sin-Jin took aim with the
proper side of the musket. Winthrop ran. Within moments, his horse could be heard galloping away.

Savannah sat on the ground, sobbing. Her long blond hair had come undone and hung about her like a thick, golden curtain, shrouding her body.

Sin-Jin squatted down. Delicately, he kept his eyes on her face, though the sight of her sorely tempted him. "Are you hurt?"

She raised her head, her cheeks tear-stained, her eyes wide
and full of fear. "No," she whispered hoarsely.

"Come, let me help you," he said gently.

He gave her his hand, and as she gripped it, rising, her body shook with sobs. "Oh, God, it was so terrible. He . . .
I—Oh, I look like such a fright." Even now, she took shelter in
her vanity. It was all she had.

Sin-Jin stripped off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders. Gently, he held the front closed. "You could never look like a fright." He smiled at her.

She pushed her hair away from her face, aware of how close
he was to her, but her bravado failed her. She was no longer the prideful young daughter of a plantation owner, but a badly frightened eighteen-year-old-girl who had almost been ravaged.

"I owe you more than I can ever repay." A sob caught in her throat.

"We'll see about that," he promised softly. Inclining his head, he bowed. "Lieutenant St. John Lawrence at your service, milady. I do great deeds for small favors."

His manner made her laugh, the shadow of fear fading in the presence of the warmth he created. "What favors?"

"A small kiss is all I claim." He hoped, with the teasing cha
rade, to make her forget the gravity of what had almost just transpired.

"It's little enough," she murmured. She raised her mouth to
his, and he kissed her lightly, his lips scarcely brushing against
hers.

It was more than enough, and yet not nearly so. A heated shiver went through Savannah, and her smile faded into a bewildered look of wonder.

Sin-Jin read her feelings in her eyes, and something within him responded to her vulnerability, her need. Very, very cautiously, as if he were gentling a wild, beautiful mare, he lowered his mouth to hers again. This time, he did so with feeling, deepening the kiss by degrees as he held her to him.

Blood surging, pounding, Savannah kissed him back with a passion she hadn't realized she possessed.

"Ah, milady," Sin-Jin whispered against her temple, his own pulse quickening, "your favors are far more than this humble servant had perceived." If he continued, then he
wasn't certain he could keep his own desire in check. He could
understand that pathetic excuse of a man being driven to distraction for wanting of her.

His breath upon her face warmed Savannah. Here was not the hot, panting passion that Winthrop displayed when he pawed her. This was something sweet, something dear and tender even as it stirred her to dizzying heights. It drew a re
sponse from her, and she willingly let it come forth. She didn't
fully understand what was happening, she only knew that she wanted to please him. And in so doing, to please herself.

She felt his lips upon her throat. Moaning, she arched against him, her hands gripping his arms for support. The jacket slipped from her shoulders, whether by design of happenstance, she didn't know. All she knew was that she loved this feeling that was building in her, loved it and craved more.