Arriving home just before dusk, Joshua forced a smile when his mother and sister greeted him at the door. After a heartfelt welcome home complete with hugs, kisses, and tears of joy, he quietly climbed the winding stairs to enter the room that reminded him of death. He immediately noticed the absence of the sickly sweet smell of infection that had assaulted him upon his first visit. During his stay at Christmas he had ordered the servants to remove every floral arrangement, hoping to rid the house of the pervasive odor.
Joshua both feared and anticipated this reunion with his father. He was sorely afraid that he would be unable to control his emotions and allow pity to slip into his voice, an emotion he knew his father would hate. Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and was left standing with his mouth gaping open.
Was that really his father propped up against the headboard of the bed going through a neat stack of papers?
From the waist up he resembled the man that Joshua remembered.
“You are looking exceptionally well, father.” He couldn’t keep his amazement at his father’s rapid recovery hidden. What could have brought about such a drastic change, when on his last visit he had appeared within an inch of slamming death’s door behind him?
Jeremiah, engrossed in his work, hadn’t heard him enter. He looked up with a broad smile playing across his still handsome features at the sight of his son. “Good to have you home, son. Good to have you home.” His deep voice echoed through the house. “Your mother said you were home at Christmas, but I can’t say that I remember seeing you.”
“Yes, I was home.” Astonished by his father’s cheerful mood, Joshua took a seat beside his bed, peering at him closely. “And I must confess that I am left speechless by your recovery from then until now.”
“It goes without saying that I feel much better, son. I guess anyone can see that. The truth is that I moped and pouted and just plain felt sorry for myself for months on end, and where did it get me? Nowhere. Then one day I suddenly realized that my life was far from over.” Jeremiah glanced out the window at the fluffy white fields of cotton stretching as far as the eye could see. “I’ve had ample time to think about how I intend to live the remainder of my life, son.”
“And what was your conclusion?”
Laying his papers on the bed, Jeremiah looked directly into his son’s eyes. “The Good Lord saw fit to take away my legs. I don’t question his logic, nor do I ask why, for in exchange he gave me a double dose of willpower to continue living. He gave Jake the knowledge to build that fine chair with wheels and a wooden ramp so even your mother or sister have no difficulty pushing me outside to feel the warmth of the morning sun.” He smiled a completely serene smile. “God has His master plan already laid out, it is our choice whether to accept it or waste precious time fighting it. I chose to accept it.”
“So all my worry was for naught?” Joshua moved to examine the sturdy wooden chair with wheels. “I should have known. Nothing can keep a Jordan down for long.”
Jeremiah laughed heartily, motioning Joshua to a chair. “Sit a spell, son. You look tired. By the way Jake Almond, the man you hired, is a fine overseer, just fine.” He handed Joshua a handful of papers. “I have been over his record keeping with a fine tooth comb, and, having talked with the man at length, I have no complaints, although I would confess a desire to see the fields. Not that I don’t trust him completely mind you, I do. But seeing is believing and I’d like to see the fields and talk to the hands myself.”
“First thing tomorrow morning I’ll hitch up the buckboard and we will tour the fields.” Joshua was eager to speed his father along the road to recovery. “Are you up for that?”
“Fine, son. That will be fine.” Jeremiah tried to keep his heavy eyelids open, but found the task entirely too difficult. “I look forward to it.”
Quietly rising from his seat as the sun was sinking low over the horizon, Joshua left the room in a much better humor. Hearing his father’s soft snores as he closed the door, he chuckled to himself. He knew from years of living under his father’s roof, that in a short while the man’s snores would rattle the windows.
Shortly after midnight Joshua silently crept from the house, heedful not to wake his mother. He would hate to lie to her about his destination. Some things were better left unsaid.
The night was bright under the full moon, causing a wicked smile to play across his handsome features. Good. He liked to see what he was getting. If, she showed up.
He laughed out loud into the peaceful night, startling the nocturnal inhabitants of the still woods and causing a rabbit to scamper across the road in front of him. After undressing some of the females in his past, he had damn well wished it had been dark. He wiped his hand across his forehead as if he could wipe such unpleasant memories from his mind.
Much to his surprise, Suzanne was in attendance as promised, floating near the water’s edge with a smile of dreamy anticipation on her face. He could just make out her slim, naked figure under the rippling waves created by her kicking feet. She could not be called voluptuous, lacking the curving slopes that he found so irresistible. But she had one advantage over every other woman in Charleston tonight. She was here.
“Come join me. The water is heavenly,” she purred, after watching him watch her for several minutes.
“I wasn’t sure you would come.” Removing his clothes, Joshua waded in to join her.
She darted just out of his grasp and swam to the other side of the pond.
Please. Spare me your coquettish games. He was tired from a long day and had no patience for her pretenses of being the coy, innocent virgin when they both knew the complete opposite to be true.
Joshua calmly treaded water, beckoning her with sensuous green eyes that the majority of women, including the one in the water, were powerless to resist.
Suzanne swam back to him, stopping an arm’s length away. Their eyes locked, with his having the power to melt her like candle wax beneath a flame. Slithering into his embrace she moved her arms around his slippery neck, searching for his mouth with eager lips.
With their nude bodies molded together Suzanne trembled from the sheer force of the contact as his hands on her buttocks pulled her closer against him. His tongue explored every crevice of her mouth before leaving a searing trail down her neck to her small breasts. Her head fell back and she moaned as his teeth nibbled and gently tugged at the rigid peaks until she thought she might expire if he didn’t release her from the sensuous torture. “Take me now, Joshua!” she cried. “Please!”
Happy to oblige, Joshua pressed her yearning body against his hard flesh, entering her slowly. He had not expected a virgin, and he didn’t find one. Instead, he found a woman well versed in the art of lovemaking. Caught up in the moment, they both slipped underwater and came up gasping for air.
Lifting her easily he carried her to the pond’s edge, laying her down on a soft green carpet of moss. “A person could drown out there if they were not careful,” he whispered lazily against her hair.
“But what a way to go.” Suzanne smiled seductively before climbing atop him. “Oh, Joshua, what a heavenly way to go.”
As the sun was beginning its daily ascent into the sky the following morning, Joshua was heading home. After a rather adventurous night, for Suzanne Fletcher was definitely an adventure, they had slipped contentedly into a satisfied sleep under a brilliant moon with a chorus of bullfrogs playing their nightly concerto in the background.
Realizing that he was more tired now than he had been the previous night, Joshua knew that he would get no respite today. He was eager to take his father on an inspection of the fields, and this wasn’t the first night that he had forfeited sleep for the sake of a lady, or rather in Suzanne’s case, a willing female. “One must keep the opposite gender satisfied,” he mused aloud, urging his steed toward home. And, unless he missed his guess, the one he had just left was definitely that, for the time being at least.
Joshua strode up the steps of the verandah to find his
sister Malinda sitting in a rocking chair, sipping coffee. She glanced up, a frown wrinkling her pretty brow as Suzanne’s perfume assaulted her from several feet away.
Releasing an irritated breath, she blew on her coffee to cool it. “You are making a colossal mistake, big brother.”
“A mistake?” Joshua smiled. “Care to elaborate, Sis?”
“Suzanne.”
“Suzanne?”
“Do not feign ignorance with me, Joshua Jordan.” Her porcelain skin flushed crimson. “I know where you were last night and… what you were doing. I can only hope that you will have the common sense not to fall for her feminine wiles.”
“I have the common sense not to fall for any female’s feminine wiles, and of a certainty not Suzanne Fletcher’s.” He grinned broadly, taking her coffee and draining the cup. “You should have more faith in your big brother than that.”
“Oh, I have faith in you. It’s Suzanne that troubles me. She has made her purpose crystal clear to me and anyone else who will listen when she chatters, which by the way is constantly. She plans to marry you, Joshua. The shameless hussy has even confessed to having no intention of waiting for the sanctity of the marriage bed to….um… to…well…you know.”
“Enough about me.” Joshua could not tolerate having a conversation about sex, of all things, with his baby sister. “Am I going to be allowed to run this plantation in peace or will I be too busy banishing eager young suitors from our door?”
“Joshua,” Malinda cried and blushed prettily. “How you do run on. However, I, unlike my errant sibling, am particular about who I spend my time with.”
“Touché, dear sister.” Joshua hoped to set the record straight once and for all. “But please, do not worry overmuch about me, Malinda. I am a grown man, no cataracts blurring my vision, and am therefore fully capable of seeing the lovely Suzanne for who, and what, she truly is.”
“I’m relieved to hear you say that, Joshua, because the girl is trouble waiting to happen. Unfortunately, she has had her sights set on you since the first time she laid her greedy little eyes on you.”
Joshua pulled his sister to her feet for a heartfelt hug. “I have missed you, Malinda. And don’t be such a worrywart. How many times has mother warned you that frowning causes wrinkles?” With a sly wink he added, “Have a little faith in your big brother, would you?”
“I’ll try. You just be careful.” Malinda reached for the silver coffee pot and refilled her cup. “That girl is poison.”
Chapter 12
Savannah, Georgia
Three months later