The men guided the next log over their heads and Devon spoke again. "As I was saying, wife dear. It's impossible. I can't get you to Paddie."
"Nothing's impossible. A little to the left, Mordecai. '' A gust of wind came up and Cassie swayed, almost losing her balance.
"You're going to fall and break your neck here and now, and then we won't have to worry about it, will we?" Devon stuffed his hands beneath his cloak. Even wearing gloves, after a while a soldier's hands grew too cold to function.
"Oh, pox on you!" She spun around to face Mordecai. "It can be done, can't it? I just want to talk to him, just for a minute."
Mordecai held up his hands in helplessness. "Don't ask me, angel. I'm not getting caught betwixt you and Devon. Like getting caught between a she-cat and a brown bear. Mordecai Steele's no fool."
"No?" Devon lifted an eyebrow and Mordecai slung a chunk of wood at him, knocking him in the shoulder. "Ouch!" Devon rubbed his injured limb gingerly. "Tell her there's no way, Mordecai, will you?"
Mordecai eyed Cassie. "Actually . . ."
"What? What?" She caught Devon's shoulders and he lowered her to the ground. "Tell me. I'll do anything."
Mordecai pulled his pipe from beneath his cloak and began to tamp it. "Of course the wheels would have to be very well greased." He rubbed his fingers together.
"Anything! You can have anything I've got." Cassie tugged on Mordecai's arm, ignoring Devon's groan of dissatisfaction.
"It's not for me." Mordecai laughed. "But I understand there are King's men who'll do anything for a little something. I can look into it, ask around." He swung around to face Devon. "That is, of course, as long as that good husband of yours is willing."
Cassie rested her hand on Devon's arm, lowering her voice until Mordecai was unable to make out her words. "I'd not keep you from your papa."
Devon groaned, looking up at Mordecai. "I thought you'd not come between us."
"Come on, Dev. He's her father for Christ's sake! All she wants to do is speak with him. You know I'd not put her in any danger."
Devon glanced from Cassie to Mordecai and then back to Cassie again. "All right. We'll look into it, but I'll not do anything to jeopardize the Continental Army's safety. Not even for you, Cassie."
"Am I asking you to?" She squeezed his arm. "Just try, will you?" She stood on tiptoe to brush her lips against his wind-burned cheek.
Cassie and Devon moved through the forest in silence, their arms linked. The snow that covered the ground in a pristine white blanket muffled the sounds of their footsteps. The only thing that could be heard as they crept through the grove of ancient trees was the crunch of snow beneath their feet and the sound of branches groaning beneath the weight of the morning's snowfall.
It had been just as Mordecai had said—just a few greased British palms and a meeting had been set up between her and Paddie. No questions asked. She had had to give up the last of the gold coins she'd brought from Marshview and her whiskey, but it was well worth it. The transaction had been made easily because Howe was pulling most of his posts from New Jersey, leaving the colony almost entirely free of the King's troops. In the confusion of moving soldiers, it had apparently not been difficult to get Paddie free from his unit for a few hours.
Cassie held tightly to Devon's hand. She could feel her heart pounding as they neared their destination. Devon had offered to wait in the woods for her but she had refused to let him. She wanted her father to meet him. She wanted Paddie to know she'd found happiness with this colonial. And she wanted Devon to see the man that had been her greatest influence growing up. It seemed a pity that they had to meet like this, slinking through the woods like wolves. But she couldn't be greedy; she had to be content with this one brief moment they would be reunited and then she must leave her father, with no regrets.
The moment Cassie and Devon stepped into the clearing, she spotted Paddie. Releasing Devon's hand, she ran through the snow, calling her father's name, her arms spread out to him. Devon stood near the edge of the woods, watching. His chest tightened and he felt foolish. How could he be jealous? He was her father. She had no intentions of going with him; she only wanted to see him. Maybe I'm jealous of all the years he had her when I didn't, he mused. Or maybe I'm jealous of the relationship that she had with him, that I never had with my father.
"Paddie! Paddie!" Cassie called, flinging herself into the red-haired man's arms. "Damn you to hell, you don't look a bit different than you did the day I left you, you ugly dog."
The stout Irishman held his daughter in his arms, squeezing the breath from her. "Cassie Laura! I never thought I'd lay these weary eyes on my own sweet colleen again." He held her by the shoulders, studying the brilliant green eyes that reflected his own. "I'd thought I'd died and gone to the Almighty when I saw ye back there a few days ago! I'm afraid ta ask what ye might have been doin' back there."
Cassie laughed, grinning. Paddie's temples were graying and his stomach was a little rounder, but he looked the same. He had always looked the same to her since she'd been a small child. He seemed to be one of those lucky few who were ageless. "Before I explain, I want you to meet my husband." Her face shined with pride.
"Your husband, be it?" He glanced up at the tall man that stood near the clearing. "Big fellow, is he?"
"His father has a plantation in Dover, the Delaware Colony. That's where I served my indenture." Her cheeks grew rosy. "Until he married me and bought my last year from the tavern owner."
Paddie studied the man his daughter was leading him toward. It was difficult for him to think of his little Cassie Laura as being married, and to a colonial no less! Still, this husband of hers did seem to have an air of integrity about him.
"Devon Marsh, Paddie O'Flynn." Cassie held up a hand in introduction.
Devon swept off his befeathered hat and bowed. "Sir, it is an honor to meet you."
Paddie pulled off his own hat, one bearing the insignia of a mercenary regiment. "Well bite me buttons, an educated gentleman!"
"Devon is an officer in the army, Paddie."
"I can see that." He gave a nod. "The question is, be he a good'un?" Paddie studied Devon's face.
"That he is." She gave Devon a wink. "The best. I'd have it no other way."
The two men stood staring at each other for a moment. The air tingled with a strange air of competition as each man sized up the other.
Finally, Cassie cleared her throat to break the silence. "I haven't long, Paddie. We had to sneak out of camp between outpost watches. You are the enemy, you know." She gave a grin that matched his own save for the feminine twitch at the corners of her mouth. "We'll sit on the log and talk." She motioned in the direction of a fallen tree, grasping Devon's hand.
Devon shook his head. "No, you two go. I'll stand watch." His eyes met Cassie's. "We haven't long." he added tenderly.
Arm in arm, Paddie and Cassie walked through the snow and sat down on the log. The horse Paddie had ridden in on stood nearby, searching the snow at its feet for a blade of dry grass. The sun peaked from behind the clouds to shine down on them, warming Cassie's frozen cheeks.
"I've not seen other women fighting with these colonials, Cassie Laura. How is it ye came to carry a musket?"
Cassie's loving eyes rested on her father's face. His, hair was the same hue as hers, maybe even brighter, with more streaks of orange in it. He wore it cropped close to his head, just as he always had. Memories of her mother cutting Paddie's hair by the light of a field campfire flooded her memory as she stuffed her hands beneath her cloak to warm them. "The truth is, I may be going back to Dover soon. I joined them on Long Island in August, but you know who's not too pleased with me being here." She nodded in Devon's direction. "He thinks I belong home in his fancy house drinking tea made from weeds."
Paddie gave a snort of laughter. "As long as ye be happy, daughter, that's all I care about."
"I must admit, we have our moments, but I'm happy. He makes me happy." She toyed with the wedding band sh
e wore on her finger.
Paddie reached out to catch a lock of shiny red hair that fell from his daughter's hood. "What a foine woman you've turned out to be, Cassie Laura. As beautiful as your mama and a sight brighter, I might add."
Cassie caught her father's hand and brushed it against her cheek. "Only you ever called me that. Cassie Laura. Peg said it wasn't befitting, a girl my size." Her eyes rested on her father's face. "How is she?"
"Your mother?" Paddie got to his feet, moving a little slower than Cassie had remembered. "It's not a pretty thing, Cassie Laura. I was hoping I'd never have to tell ye."
Cassie caught her lower lip with her teeth, biting hard, welcoming the pain. "Dead, is she?"
He shook his head. "Worse, my little colleen." He turned from her, his shoulders hunched over. He couldn't bear to face his only living child. "She's left me, these two years past."
"Left you?" Cassie sprang to her feet. "Whatever do you mean?" Her brows furrowed in disbelief. "Peg Donovan would never leave you. You've been together some twenty-five years."
"Nonetheless, Cassie Laura, she left me in London. Married a baker on Newt Street. They say she has nice rooms o'er the bakery, plenty of food, coin in her pocket." His voice was suddenly that of an old man's Paddie O'Flynn seemed to be aging before Cassie's eyes.
Cassie shook her head in disbelief. "How could she do it to you, Paddie? She loved you. You loved her."
"You're such a wee babe, me girl." He turned slowly to meet his daughter's gaze. "Love is not all it takes." He fiddled with a stray thread that hung from one of his gloves. "She just got tired of followin' this wild goose from one war to the next. She said she was gettin' old and that she needed a stay-put man she could depend on to care for her in her late years. She said she wanted to own somethin' before she died."
Tears welled in Cassie's Irish-green eyes. "I thought she liked livin' the way we did. I thought she liked movin' when the wind blew you. Why didn't she tell you she was unhappy?" Cassie drew her arms around her waist, suddenly shivering with cold.
"She did tell me, Cassie Laura. Over and over again. But I didn't listen, didn't care. When you left for the Colonies, you were still seein' your mother and me through a babe's eyes. I'd never say we didn't love each other. But it just weren't enough, 0 he croaked bitterly. "Just weren't enough."
Cassie sniffed. "So that's why you came here?'
Paddie shrugged. "Nothin' to lose."
"Oh, Papa." Cassie groaned, throwing her arms around him. "I'm sorry, so sorry." The tears ran unchecked down her cheeks as her father held her, patting her on the back as if she were still a babe. Cassie cried, for her father's loss and for her own shattered dreams.
"Cassie." Devon called from the distance. "We have to go. It's not safe."
Cassie clung to Paddie O'Flynn. "I'll try to see you again. I'll, I'll—"
"He." he interrupted. "Ye mustn't do that. Not ever. It's time we said our good-byes. You've got a new life, a foine life. Ye have all that your mother wanted that I never gave her. Hold on to the man, Cassie Laura. He loves ye like I could never love your beautiful mother. I see it in the lad's eyes."
"I don't want to leave you." She gripped his shoulders, staring up at his aged face. "You could come and live at Marshview with us, you—"
Paddie shook his head. "This is where I belong . . . on the battlefield. I was born with a musket in my hand and I'll die with her. Now kiss your old papa and go with your officer and don't look back, Cassie Laura."
Cassie pressed her lips to her father's cheek. Though it appeared smooth, it was leathery beneath her touch. Her tears dampened his cheek as she pulled away. She wanted to speak, to say something, but she couldn't.
"No more words. Just a smile for your old papa." He ran a hand through his own orange-red hair. "You're the one good thing I did in my life and you've made me proud." He dug in the folds of his cloak and pulled something out. Taking Cassie's hand, he pressed a man's heavy gold ring into her palm. "Something for yer first man-child." He closed her fingers over the ring. "This be no battlefield bauble, girl. 'Twas me own grandsir's and his afore him. See, me papa said they had a great house back when the O'Flynns followed the Popish ways. I don't know about that, but I do know 'tis the O'Flynn crest carved into it. Like as not, you've got great kin someplace."
Cassie stared in disbelief at the ring she held clutched in her hand. "How come you never said anything about it before? You never show"d it to me, never told me anything about the O'Flynn family, except to say that they left Ireland in the bad times."
"'Twas your mother's doin'. Peg Donovan said there was no sense in putting any airs in your head. Those great O'Flynns, if such they were, are long dust. And like as not, their castles with 'em." He reached out to brush a lock of hair off her cheek. "But it always gave me a proud feelin' to know I was as good or better than them given' me orders. It might be that this ring would ease your way with your husband's foine folk."
Cassie slipped the ring over her thumb. "Thank you, Papa, for telling me." she murmured hoarsely. "I'll keep it always and give it to your first grandchild, boy or girl." She grinned.
He kissed her cheek and gave her a nudge in Devon's direction. "Good-bye, Cassie Laura, and remember, no regrets . . . Never look back."
Cassie curled up beneath the heavy wool blankets, waiting for Devon to come to bed. Though the wind raged outside, the tiny wooden cabin he and Mordecai had built seemed to keep out the brunt of the icy wind and sleeting rain.
At Mordecai's insistence, they had dug into the side of Thimble Mountain, using the earth as the back wall. Though Cassie felt like a mole living partially beneath the ground, she had to admit that their cabin was a sight warmer than most. With Devon's engineering abilities, they had designed a proper chimney for the fire, exhausting the smoke outside rather than filling the cabin with it. Mordecai had used the knowledge he had learned from his Leni-Lenape Indian friends, and. was willing to lend it to anyone who would listen. Still, most of the cabins the soldiers built were drafty and filled with smoke. While Cassie and Devon slept off the ground on a crude frame bed of pine boughs, most soldiers slept on a pile of straw meant for the horses' bedding.
Cassie twisted the massive O'Flynn signet ring she wore on her thumb. The meeting with Paddie had left her numb with disbelief. How could her mother have left him? How could he have let her go? All she had believed in as a child had been destroyed. She realized now that those childhood memories had been a child's fantasy. Certainly there had been good times, but often life had been dreary and dismal—especially for Peg. It was in her own mind that Cassie had created the image of glorious battles and undying devotion.
The crude door of the cabin swung open and Devon ducked through, bringing a gush of icy wind with him. Cassie huddled deeper beneath the covers, shivering with cold. "Thought you'd never come." she told him as he slammed the door shut and secured it with a chock of wood.
"You know Mordecai, he goes on and on with his stories." Devon moved to the fire built against the earthen wall and added a log.
Cassie watched him in the semidarkness, mesmerized as he stripped off his cloak and hat and sat on a log stool to tug at his boots. "Any word on food coming in?" Her pulse fluttered as he pulled his linen shirt over his head. The light from the fire danced across the muscles of his back, making her want to reach out and stroke his hard, lean flesh.
"Not a word, and the hunting is poor. We're not getting more than a few rabbits a day and they're skinny pitiful things."
His hands moved to the tie at his buckskin breeches and Cassie's tongue darted out to moisten her lips. "Someone will send us food."
"Not in this weather they won't."
Cassie scooted over, lifting the blankets to make room for him. "Get in here before you freeze to death."
Devon slipped off his stockings and breeches and slid in beside her. "You're warm." he murmured, burying his face in her heavy tresses.
"And you're cold!" She giggled, pushing him away.
"Get your feet off me, they're freezing!"
Devon wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her struggling form against his chest. "You dare resist the affections of a Marsh?"
"You dare lay your hands on an O'Flynn of the great O'Flynns?" She sunk her teeth playfully into his hand and with one swift motion he rolled her onto her back and began to tickle her.
"You know what the penalty is, madam?" He lowered his voice in mock severity.
Cassie squealed with laughter, scrambling to escape his torturous hands. "Stop! You know I hate that!" Her chest heaved up and down with laughter as she struggled against him.
Devon pinned her arms down, climbing astride her. "All right, wench, while I've got the best of you." He caught one pert nipple with his mouth and her struggles began anew. "The cabin's built, you've seen your father, it's time I go home."
Cassie arched her back as he lowered his mouth to catch her other nipple, teasing it to a peak. "I give! I give! To Marshview we go!"
Devon grinned, flattening his body over hers. "You promise?" His tongue darted out to brush her earlobe and she wrapped her arms around him, savoring his warmth.
"I promise!" She kissed his mouth, tugging at his bottom lip with her teeth. "Just another day or two, when food's come in, we'll go." She scratched his back with her fingernails and he groaned contentedly.
"I meant tomorrow." he said, devouring her heart-shaped face with his dark gaze.
"What's another day or two? Especially when you can spend the time here beneath the blanket with me." A silly grin played on her lips.
"Bribery, is it now?" He raised one eyebrow, staring devilishly down on her. "Your sentence mounts, madam."
"Being a good soldier, I accept my punishment." She threaded her fingers through his silky dark hair as he lowered his mouth to hers with exquisite deliberation.
Chapter Twenty-six
The Officer's Desire Page 27