Slowly, she untied the ribbons at the bodice of her undergarments, before slipping one shoulder strap down, and then the other.
‘I’ve missed you, Pru.’
She smiled. ‘I’ve been right here.’
He nodded and held out his hand. ‘I know you have. And I am more grateful than I can say for what you have done for me.’
She took his hand and let him pull her onto the bed. He kissed her bare shoulder, traced his tongue across her exposed cleavage.
‘I know I have been hard to deal with, and you have put up with more than any woman ever should.’
He sat up and dragged her chemise down, exposing her breasts fully to him. Sitting back he looked, a small frown marring his features. Her breasts were larger than he would remember, and his expression said he’d noticed. Was now the time to tell him about the baby? But when he leaned in and took a nipple into his mouth, she sighed as pleasure shot through her system like a fever, and she decided that telling him about the baby could wait until tomorrow. Let them have this night, let them reconnect before she hit him with the news that would again send their lives on another course.
He moved his attentions to the other breast, while his hands got busy removing the rest of her undergarments. She ran her fingers across his clean-shaven face, so smooth and handsome. He’d lost some weight during his recuperation, lost some muscle definition, but he was still her beautiful Jack, and she wanted him, desperately. The desire that burned through her body was unlike anything she’d ever known. Everything felt so tender, so sensitive. Everywhere he touched or kissed took her ever closer to release, and when his hand found the soft warmth between her thighs, she cried out and white light exploded behind her eyes as the unexpectedly quick orgasm ripped through her.
He sat up and grinned at her. ‘You have missed me.’
She sighed and fought to catch her breath, even as the desire began to build again. What was making her this aroused? Had she missed his touch that much? She had, but perhaps she had been too tired to notice, or to think about their fantastic lovemaking.
Rolling him over, she pressed her mouth to his. Kissing him, devouring him, while his hands streaked lightning sparks across her skin. She straddled him, and positioning herself she took him over. She needed him like she needed water. She needed to feel that connection with him and he let her take control. She rode him like a woman possessed, it still didn’t feel like enough. His hands gripped her hips and met her thrust for thrust until she screamed out at the climax and rode the wave to the end, before falling against his chest, depleted, breathless and very, very satisfied.
‘My darling, what has come over you?’ Jack panted heavily. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. Although, you test my strength. I’m not yet fully recovered.’
She sat up again so she could look at him. ‘Did I hurt you?’
In her out of control need to have him, she’d all but forgotten he had been injured and tried to shift from sitting on his damaged leg, but he held her to him.
‘No, you didn’t hurt me,’ he said, once again taking his eyes on a journey across her naked body. ‘Something is different. Your body is different. You’ve always been beautiful, but … I don’t know what it is. You’re radiant, voluptuous. These breasts …’ He stopped talking and took her breasts in his hands, smiling broadly. ‘Amazing.’
‘While you have lost weight, I seem to have gained some,’ she told him, a little self-conscious.
‘I like it,’ he said. ‘And I like how wild you were for me just then. I’m sorry I have not been able to fulfil my husbandly duties.’
‘Oh, Jack,’ she said, and promptly burst into tears.
‘Hey,’ he said, pulling her to him again and rolling her so that she lay beside him.
His fingers brushed her hair and it felt so sweet, so calming, she closed her eyes.
‘It’s okay,’ he said. ‘I’m here. I’m safe. And I love you more than ever for taking care of me.’
They cuddled in close, his arms around her, her hand against his damaged thigh. Was now the time? Should she tell him he was going to be a father?
‘Jack?’
‘Mmm?’ His reply was more a sigh than a word.
‘I have something I need to tell you.’
‘Mm hm.’
‘Jack.’ She opened her eyes. His eyes were closed, his face relaxed, his breathing light and even.
Already asleep, she thought. Typical after sex, even before the injury.
‘Tomorrow,’ she whispered and kissed him lightly, before dropping into a heavy and dreamless sleep.
***
The next day Bobby and Katie joined them for lunch at the house. The sun was finally shining and after a fabulous night of sex and solid sleep, Pru and Jack were back to their cheerful and frisky selves. The ladies did the lunch dishes while Jack and Bobby took their tea out onto the porch to enjoy the sunshine. Looking out the window as she washed dishes and Katie dried, Pru couldn’t help but smile at the bright blue sky and the shiny green grass. A trio of kangaroos bounced along the far boundary of the yard and Millie the goat bleated her displeasure at the nearby intruders.
‘Alright, what’s got that smile back on your face?’ Katie asked, breaking into her daydreams. ‘I haven’t seen it in so long, I thought it was permanently gone.’
Pru felt herself blush a little as she thought back to her overactive desires the night before.
‘You haven’t told Jack about the baby, so that can’t be it.’
‘I was going to tell him last night but …’
‘But?’ Katie asked and then smiled herself when Pru grinned and blushed again. ‘Ah, so the two of you put the Devil back into Jack last night, hey?’
‘The two of us? You mean me and Jack?’
‘I mean you and the baby,’ Katie replied. ‘It’s a little known fact that pregnancy makes women … itchy, let’s say.’
‘Itchy?’ Pru chuckled. ‘I don’t know the word for it, but itchy? Insane, delirious, out of control perhaps.’
She shivered with delight at the memories and it was Katie’s turn to chuckle. ‘Gave the Devil a run for his money, hey? Good for you. But you have to tell him, Pru. Do it while he’s in you, if that’s what it takes.’
‘Katie!’
‘What? You can tell a man damn near anything when you’re riding him to glory.’
‘I’m not sure he’s ready for this,’ Pru said, sighing.
‘Ready or not, Pru, you’ve got a bairn on board. He, or she, will not wait for either of you to be ready.’
Pru nodded and wiped her hands on a towel. ‘I’ll tell him tonight, when you and Bobby have gone.’
Her mind whirled with exactly how she was going to broach the subject with Jack as she headed out to the front porch to collect dirty teacups from the men. But as she neared the open door, their voices carried in on the breeze and she stopped in her tracks.
‘Alfred said the gentleman paid double to ensure the carriage made it to Castlemaine safely,’ Bobby spoke, barely louder than a whisper.
‘He said the cargo was very precious and was to be delivered directly to the Castlemaine Bank.’
‘Straight to a stronghold.’ Jack’s voice was full of excitement and it set Pru’s nerves on edge. She knew that tone. ‘But what if it’s in an iron safe like the last one. I’d rather not throw effort after something we can’t carry or open. When does it travel?’
‘That’s the thing,’ Bobby said. ‘It goes tomorrow, before dawn. I figured we’d take them when we cross their path in Daylesford. But we’d have to leave tonight if we were to reach the choke point before them.’
‘We can camp out at Sailors Falls. There’s fresh water there and we can cut them off in the morning and be back again by lunchtime.’
‘Right.’
Pru had heard enough. She stormed out onto the porch, tore the teacups from Jack’s and Bobby’s hands and stormed back into the house. She dumped the crockery into the sink with such
force a handle broke, before heading to the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
***
Bobby and Jack exchanged glances before Bobby wiped the drops of tea from his trousers where Pru had spilled it.
Exhaling a breath and a frustrated groan, Jack stood from his chair.
‘Dammit.’
Katie met him at the door, her face red with fury. ‘She told you? What the hell did you say to her?’
‘Nothing, she didn’t say a word,’ Jack argued, heading for the bedroom. He turned back to give Katie a puzzled frown. ‘Told me what?’
‘Nothing,’ Katie spat. ‘Bobby, we’re leaving.’
‘Uh, okay. I guess I’ll see you later, Jack.’ Just as confused, Bobby followed Katie out the door.
Not quite sure what to do, Jack knocked on the bedroom door. ‘Pru?’
‘Go away!’
It was obvious she’d overheard him and Bobby talking about the robbery they were planning for the next day. He didn’t think she’d be thrilled about him going out again so soon, but refusing to be banished from his own bedroom, he pushed the door open and ducked just in time for the bronze candlestick to miss the side of his head.
He stepped in, rushing to restrain her before she could find another projectile.
‘How could you, Jack?’
She was mad, but there was also hurt behind the anger.
‘You’re going out there again?’ she asked. ‘You’re barely recovered.’
‘I’m fine,’ he insisted. ‘Fit as a bull.’
‘And just as stupid,’ she shot back, sitting on the bed with her arms crossed over her chest.
Moving slowly, as though approaching a wild animal, he sat beside her.
‘I am completely recovered, as you yourself discovered last night,’ he said, trying to sweeten her up.
‘Don’t use our lovemaking against me,’ she demanded, pushing up from the bed.
‘It’s one easy heist,’ he said with a shrug.
‘Please don’t go, Jack.’
‘You used to love it when I went out on the hunt,’ he said with a smirk, pulling her between his legs and squeezing her bottom. ‘It used to get you excited.’
‘Things are different now,’ she said, tearing herself from his grasp.
‘How are they different?’
‘They just are.’
She wasn’t making any sense and he was getting annoyed with it.
‘Why, Prudence? Why now? It never bothered you before.’
‘You’ve never been shot before!’
She moved back to him, taking his face between her palms. ‘You nearly died, Jack. In my arms. I had to sit by your bedside and watch you go through the pain of having a bullet removed from your thigh. I had to watch you sweat and writhe with delirium as the wound became infected. I thought I was going to lose you. Don’t make me go through that again, Jack. Other men live perfectly happy lives working perfectly normal jobs and come home to their wives and families at the end of the day.’
‘So, what you’re saying is that what I am, what I do, isn’t good enough anymore,’ Jack said, his face now a stony mask.
She dropped her hands. ‘No, I’m not saying that at all. Why do you think your worth is relative to being a bushranger?’
‘I don’t, but you obviously do. When you came here to live with me, I told you I would not give up being a bushranger. It’s all I know, Prudence.’
‘It’s not all you know, Jack,’ she insisted. ‘You have the transport business. There are profits to be made as the colony grows. We can expand. Make it bigger and better.’
‘Oh, can we?’
‘Yes,’ she said, taking his hands in hers. ‘You already make plenty of money from the legitimate side of the business, and I wouldn’t have to worry about you coming home bleeding and unconscious at the end of the day.’
‘I’m a bushranger,’ he said, his voice quiet but stern. ‘I am Jack the Devil and have been one of the best, most respected highwaymen on these roads for almost a decade. And if that’s not good enough for Lady Stanforth’s granddaughter then maybe Lady Stanforth’s granddaughter should go back to the manor.’
Pru’s mouth dropped open. He could see his words had not only shocked her, they’d hurt. He had never been deliberately cruel to her before, and it didn’t sit well with him. But he was the man and she was his wife and he deserved more respect. Didn’t he?
‘Now, I’m going to meet Bobby at Black Swamp,’ he explained, grabbing his jacket out of the cupboard and taking his bag of bushranging gear he kept stored in a secret compartment in the back of the wardrobe. ‘I won’t be back until tomorrow. If you want to yell at me some more, you can do it then.’
At the door, he turned to look at her but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. He hated to see her looking so forlorn, but he was too angry and disillusioned to bring himself to comfort her.
‘I’m disappointed, Pru,’ he said, truly flummoxed. ‘I thought we understood each other.’
***
The sun was already high in the sky as Jack rode up to the house. The heist had been successful, but the night, sleeping rough at Sailors Falls, had left his leg aching and stiff. He was so tired, he didn’t even bother to unsaddle Persephone. He simply tethered her to the railing nearest the water trough where she drank thirstily. He wanted to see Pru. He needed to. He’d said some awful things to her, things he regretted. Not that she hadn’t baited him into it. What had gotten into her head suddenly about him becoming a full-time business man? A law-abiding, nine-to-five, office jockey? Not him. Not Jack the Devil.
‘You did good, girl,’ he said, giving Persephone’s flanks a light slap.
The horse looked up, gave a snort of thanks, and buried her mouth in the water trough again.
Inside the house, Jack tossed his hat on the coat rack by the door.
‘Pru!’ he called out.
He wandered through the house and into their bedroom first. She wasn’t there and the bed was made. Perhaps she was out in the back garden working in her vegetable patch. She was so proud of it. He’d certainly never eaten so well since they’d planted the garden.
Pushing open the back door he gazed around the empty yard. The goat bleated, standing at the gate of its pen waiting expectantly to be milked. Jack frowned. Millie hadn’t been milked. It was the first job Pru did in the morning. What was going on?
Okay, she was angry with him for refusing to give up bushranging and settle down, but he figured she’d cool off overnight. He thought back over their argument. It was fear rather than anger he’d seen in her eyes.
She’d always been so excited by it all. The tales of his bushranging, going through the loot together when he returned home. Then there was their extraordinarily wild lovemaking after a bail up. She couldn’t deny it was arousing to her.
His getting shot must have been frightening for her. It had been no picnic for him either. But he’d recovered well, and with no remaining ailments, save a small limp. He’d been bushranging for almost eight years. Why wouldn’t he return to what he knew best?
Back in the house, he went to their room and sat on the bed trying to remember his last words to her.
‘And if that’s not good enough for Lady Stanforth’s granddaughter then maybe Lady Stanforth’s granddaughter should go back to the manor.’
Dread moved slowly through his body and he closed his eyes, dropping his head in his hands. It had been said in anger, in the heat of the moment, but he hadn’t meant it. Had she thought he’d meant it?
He frowned. It wasn’t possible. There was no way she would go back to her grandmother. Especially after all this time had passed. Especially since she was now married to him.
Looking around he realised something was amiss. A few of her items were gone from her dressing table. Slowly, he stood from the bed and walked to the wardrobe. With a shaking hand, he opened the door. A groan escaped his lips. Half her dresses were gone.
He whirled around and moved back out to the
living room. The photograph, the one that had been taken of them at the beach in Geelong where they had spent a few days, was gone. Pru was gone.
She’d left him. He sank into the upholstered chair and stared about the room. The house suddenly seemed so large, so empty. At this moment he didn’t understand why he’d gotten so defensive. Had he seriously chosen his life on the highway over her?
Before he’d met Pru he’d been happy with his life, content. He’d been free. He’d had women when he wanted them, all the money he needed to buy what he needed, and often things he didn’t. Thinking about going back to life on the road without her to come home to left him feeling hollowed out. He loved her. He needed her with him.
Anger began to replace his melancholy and he stood. She was his wife, dammit. How could she leave him like that? Just like that? No word, no note. She belonged by his side, no matter what he did for a living. Was she going to run every time they had an argument? And how dare she run back to that old woman who had treated her so abominably?
‘I’m not having it,’ he said out loud.
Grabbing his hat from the coat rack again, he stormed out the house, glad he had left Persephone saddled because he was in a rage and he needed to get moving as quickly as possible. He was going to get his wife back—whether she liked it or not.
***
Rolling over in soft, expensive sheets, Pru stared at the bright light coming through the window. She had barely slept a wink, tossing and turning and reliving the fight with Jack over and over again.
Jack didn’t want a wife. He was a man who liked his freedom, the freedom to roam the highways stealing from honest hardworking people. He didn’t want a woman who told him what to do and what not to do.
If he couldn’t deal with a wife, how would he feel about a baby? A child was an even bigger burden. She admitted she was a coward for not having told him about the baby. But he was already so angry with her, so—‘disappointed’ was the word he’d used—that she had expected him to give up his dangerous life on the road.
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