Chapter Eleven #4
After that, it was merely a matter of enduring the breakfast, and everyone’s congratulations, until at last, Mrs. Harraway tapped her on the arm and said, “Flynn, I wish to borrow Mrs. Flynn for a moment. Excuse us everyone.”
She grabbed Kat by the arm and led her out of the room.
“What do you need, Mrs. Harraway?” Kat asked.
“The point is what do you need, Kat,” said the lady.
“You have been looking for this age as if you want to escape. Phil is going to extract your husband from the room, so that the pair of you can slip out the side door. I shall give you fifteen minutes, and then I shall tell everyone that you’ve gone, and are not to be disturbed for at least forty-eight hours. ”
Then she hugged Kat, and Kat was so surprised that she hugged Mrs. Harraway back, though it was probably some sort of crime for a servant like Kat to hug the Lady of Carr Abbas.
“Thank you for everything, darling Kat,” said Mrs. Harraway.
“You have been my one true friend since I was a child, and you brought me safely out of my sister’s grasp and found me a husband in a million.
If I live to be one hundred, I shall never forget what I owe you.
I wish you and Flynn as much happiness as you have found for me. ”
“Kat.” Jacob’s voice. Kat looked over Mrs. Harraway’s shoulder through eyes that swam with tears. There was her husband, with Captain Harraway at his shoulder.
Jacob held out a hand to Kat, and Mrs. Harraway released her and went into the captain’s waiting arms. “We can go,” he said.
Kat took his hand, but she had something to say, first. “Miss Ellen… Mrs. Harraway, you have been my one true friend, too. You have saved me as much as I saved you, and you owe me nothing, for I did what I did for love, and not for a reward. Thank you. Thank you, a million times.”
Mrs. Harraway nodded, her own eyes watering.
“Go along with you,” said the captain gruffly, waving them off with his hand, and Jake turned for the side door, bringing Kat along with him.
The fine bonnet and pelisse that Kat had worn for her wedding were waiting by the side door, and so were her gloves and Jacob’s overcoat. Mr. and Mrs. Harraway had planned well.
They were outside and about to cross the lawn to the path that led through a small wood to the carriage when Kat realized a problem. “I should have left my boots out of my packing,” she said. “Jacob, I shall have to go back and find something to fit on my feet. I don’t want to ruin these slippers.”
“We can’t have you ruining your slippers,” Jacob said, and he scooped her up in his arms and set out across the lawn.
“Jacob! You cannot possibly carry me the whole way.”
“I certainly can,” said Jacob. “Did you say you packed your boots?”
“I did, though I am not sure why.” Kat wondered why he was talking about boots at a time like this. “I do not suppose I’ll have the opportunity to wear them.”
“You might have,” Jacob said, in a tone she could not quite interpret. A considering tone, perhaps, with an undertone of excitement.
“What do you mean?”
“I have this fantasy, you see. You know I have been wanting to see you naked for the longest time, my love.”
Kat did know that. She had a similar longing, and from the rough note in Jacob’s voice, she was not going to have to wait much longer. They were now under the trees and in less than five minutes would be at their wedding cottage.
“Me too,” she said. “Walk faster, Jacob.”
Instead, he stopped, lifted her head toward his, and kissed her thoroughly. How long for, Kat could not have said. Indeed, she was not certain she could have answered with her name if someone had asked for it.
“Soon, my love,” he promised.
“But what does this have to do with my boots, Jacob?”
“I want to see you wearing the boots, Kat. In fact, I have a few things I’d like to do with you, when you are in the boots.”
Kat was now completely confused, and he must have seen it in her face, for he added, “Only the boots, my darling woman. Nothing else.”
“Oh,” said Kat. How odd. But if it would please Jacob, she would be happy to oblige.
As it turned out, he didn’t want to wait for her to find the boots.
He barely wanted to wait for them to remove their clothing, each helping the other, slowed by many interludes of kisses and caresses.
Only Kat’s reminder that she wanted to keep the gown for best saved the buttons and tapes from destruction.
He didn’t bother removing the stockings and garters .
Since they hadn’t made it upstairs to the bedroom, their first time as a married couple was on the sofa in the living room. After that, they moved up to the bedroom and finished undressing the rest of the way. Jake stopped to press a kiss on the inside of the knee as he untied each garter.
The second time was on the bed. They took a break after that. Kat rustled up a snack and a glass of ale each from the hamper waiting in the kitchen while Jacob fetched their bags from the front hall, where he’d left them that morning.
The sun was finally setting when Jacob finally had the opportunity to live out his fantasy.
Kat’s consciousness of aching muscles new to the exercise of marital congress was soon drowned in the bliss of what her husband was doing to her.
If the first time had been quick but lovely and the second longer and wonderful, this third occasion seemed to go on forever, with her reaching peak after higher peak.
Until at last Jacob joined her in completion, his face a rictus of pleasure so great it was almost indistinguishable from pain. He collapsed, rolling slightly so that they lay side by side, still joined. “And now we sleep,” he said.
“I shall have to take my boots off,” Kat pointed out.
“Give me a minute,” Jacob pleaded, and so they lay together and dozed for a while, until eventually he roused enough to be able to sit up and help her unlace and pull them off.
“Wash and back to bed?” Jacob suggested.
Kat yawned and agreed, and soon they were back under the sheets, cuddled in one another’s arms. Kat could feel herself drifting into sleep, but just before she went under, she heard a sleepy murmur from Jacob. “That, dear heart, is a fine pair of boots.”
The End