Twin Willows: A Novel (27 page)

“
Amo te
, ” he whispered against her cheek. “I love you.”

“Then show me,” she whispered back.

He needed no further urging. Gently he guided Anna to lie down on her side, and stretched out beside her. Holding her close, he kissed her forehead and her cheeks, her eyelids and the tip of her nose. She shivered when he nibbled her earlobe, and her head fell back almost reflexively as his tongue probed the hollow of her neck and traced her collarbone. His hands moved lower, pressing in slow circles against her breasts, teasing her nipples to become pebble-hard. She strained against him, longing to feel his hands against her bare flesh.

Knowing her need, he plucked at the drawstring on her shift until it fell open, freeing her full breasts. Even in the dim light he could make out the puffy duskiness that surrounded each nipple. With her breasts cupped in his hands, he pressed his thumbs against their taut center. His mouth covered one erect nipple, and his tongue first circled, then sucked the sweetness there before repeating his movements on the other breast.

He eased her shift the rest of the way off, then quickly removed his own clothing. She didn’t have enough time to take in all the wonder of his naked body before he lowered it to cover hers. She felt as if every bit of her flesh strained toward every fiber of his body, seeking union.

Closing her eyes, she sighed softly and concentrated all her senses on the pleasures of his touch. While his head remained at her breasts, his fingers brushed the small of her back, then his hands moved to the curve of her buttocks. When he pulled them toward him, she shuddered at the sensation when his unexpected hardness pressed against her tender womanhood. He continued to kiss her face and her breasts while his hands caressed her thighs and his fingers lightly probed her most private part.

Sensations she had never known could exist flooded over her as her body urged her to seek the center of the most intense feelings she had ever experienced. She writhed under his touch, and her body arched toward his, wanting something more, something stronger, but not knowing what.

Her legs, already half-parted, opened wider at the gentle urging of his hands against her knees. She felt his probing hand being replaced by something more, something much heavier, that reached deep inside her, where nothing had ever before invaded. Eagerly she rose to meet him, crying out in pain and wonder when he broke through her maiden body’s last barrier.

He heard her, but continued moving inside her, unable to stop and aware that her temporary hurt was the necessary prelude to their future pleasure. His shaft was hard and hot and felt tight inside her. He cupped her buttocks and urged her to meet each thrust. She wrapped her legs around his back and continued to cling to him. After a moment she found the silent rhythm to which his body moved and answered it with her own. The beat was similar to the insistent sound of the nearby drums. It moved like a sea tide, ebbing and flowing toward an inevitable destination.

With one final stroke, he groaned and pitched forward. With his head resting on her breasts, she still trembled from the experience. With the evidence of his fulfillment warm inside her body, she lay in quiet contentment.

For a long while, she thought, she had feared she might never see him again. But now, coming together in this most unlikely place that neither would have chosen, their bodies had sealed their love.

After a moment, Stuart rolled over on his side and drew her close again, lying as they had in Miss Martin’s parlor. Only this time, they would not be interrupted. They snuggled close together, their bodies touching at the hips and knees. She pressed the palm of her hand on his still rapidly beating heart and exulted that their blood at last could course together. Before their pulses had time to calm, they kissed again, quietly at first, then with rekindled ardor.

This time, she needed no urging to open her body to him again, as she had long since opened her heart. Without the haste of their first coming together, the sensations she felt were even more powerful. This time, the strange cry from her throat told him that she shared his ecstacy, and when he kissed her, he was surprised to taste the salty tears on her cheeks.

Stuart pulled back, suddenly concerned. “Are you all right?”

She nodded and wiped her eyes with the back of one hand. “Until now, I never thought anybody could cry about being happy.”

“In that case, I ought to be sobbing out loud.”

She heard the smile in his voice, but she spoke seriously. “I will never forget this night as long as I live. Surely nothing can ever be as wonderful.”

“Except for the next million nights we’ll be together.”

They embraced again, then reluctantly she pulled away. “I wish we could go to sleep now and wake in each other’s arms, but we mustn’t stay here any longer. Soon the dancing will end and the chief and his family will return.”

Stuart looked around the lodge. “Not much place to hide around here, is there?”

“I’m afraid not. Put on your clothes and follow me.”

“Anywhere, my love,” he murmured, and would have gone on kissing her for a long time, had she let him.

No one saw Anna take Stuart to the creek, where they stripped again in the darkness. Shivering in the cold water, they washed away the evidence of their lovemaking and came dangerously close to repeating the performance before Anna thrust a blanket at him.

“Dry off with this and put on your clothes. Hurry! The drums have stopped.”

They dressed themselves and walked together to the council lodge, where Stuart and Ian would spread their blankets for the night. “It will be hard to sleep beside your father tonight,” he said glumly.

“Yes, I know that he sometimes snores.”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” Stuart said.

“This separation won’t last long. Tomorrow I want to spend some time with Willow, but the day after that, Father and you and I will be on our way back to Kentucky.”

“And the day after that, we’ll be officially married.”

Anna smiled faintly. “Us married—I can scarcely believe how this has all worked out.”

Stuart looked over at the firestone, where Willow and White Eagle stood conversing with Ian.

“That Shawnee warrior and I are the most fortunate of men,” he declared.

“Oh? Why do you say that?”

“Because he has Willow and I have Anna Willow.”

Anna lifted her chin proudly. “And we twin Willows have you.”

Silverwillow would be pleased
, she thought.

The early history of Kentucky and the Northwest Territory contains many actual events that rival any fiction writer’s powers of invention.
Twin Willows
draws on several such true stories, unusual circum-stances, and real people.

One such occurrence is the siege of Bryan’s Station (often incorrectly called Bryant’s Station) in August of 1782. Many of the residents mentioned in
Twin Willows
actually lived there at the time. Also surviving the siege were my great-great-great-great-grand-parents, who had come there from the Yadkin River area of North Carolina with Daniel Boone and other neighbors.

Among the several dozen books, periodicals, videotapes and microfilm resources used in recreating this period, the most valuable were Allan W. Eckert’s
The Frontiersmen
and
A Sorrow in My Heart
, and James Alexander Thom’s
Follow the River
and
Panther in the Sky
.

History has always been made by ordinary people, and each of us now living has been preceded by thousands of history-making ancestors. We should never forget that in meeting the challenges of their own times, these men and women made it possible for us to have the same opportunity today.