by C. P. Odom
“Nor do William and I. In your case, it will work out well since you can see the major’s bedroom is much more of a working office than a bedroom. On their first night together, the new husband would remain downstairs for a time while his wife’s maid helped her undress, brush out her hair, and help her don some kind of sleep attire. However, I am not sure any of the sleep attire we can offer you would qualify as enticing.”
“A new bride in my time would have access to a considerable selection of alluring night wear, made of very sheer fabrics which almost made a woman feel like she was not wearing anything at all.”
“Oh, my. That is very different.”
“But I don’t have any experience with such clothing. I’m not a fashion plate. I’ve been a marine since I was fifteen, but right now, taking off my clothes and getting in bed looks like my only real option”
Both women laughed; then Elizabeth said, “Even on your wedding night, you will require something with more warmth. I suggest we talk to Georgiana. She is closer in height to you. I have a few nightgowns my aunt sent me that you might use. Light, simple, and comfortable to wear, as well as being a little bit enticing.”
“I’ll have to get my new husband busy figuring out how to do some upgrades to my Regency attire, which should include brassieres, or as we called them, bras. For up here.” She motioned to her bosom. “Sarah said there’s nothing like bras here. And we might think about some of those enticing fashions I mentioned. How about you and I form a partnership like our husbands, except we’ll focus on lady’s clothing instead?”
“You will have to let me examine one of these bras you speak of,” Elizabeth said, “but I think I would enjoy working with you. I think you may have a very good idea, Mrs. McDunn.”
“Sandra,” she said with a firm shake of her head. “And I might as well warn you I’m not going to call you Mrs. Darcy much longer. Edward is the only one with the patience to learn all the proper terms and niceties. In the States, you call good friends by their first name, and you and Georgiana are my first friends here in England. I’m afraid you are just going to have to put up with my shortcomings.”
“Of course,” Elizabeth agreed with a smile. “I think you are going to be very good for the Major, Sandra. He tries to act more like a proper English gentleman every day. You will keep him from becoming too reserved and aloof.”
As my husband once was, though he certainly is not at all reserved with me!
Chapter 28
Oh, the marriage of your spirits here has caused Him to remain,
For whenever two or more of you are gathered in His name,
There is love, oh there is love.
— Noel Paul Stookey,
songwriter and singer,
from Wedding Song
(There Is Love)
Saturday, October 10, 1812
Pemberley, Derbyshire
When McDunn entered his new wife’s bedroom, it was illuminated by only a few candles, but he had no difficulty seeing Sandra. She stood in front of the window with the drapes thrown back and the light of a full moon streaming into the room.
He stopped suddenly and sucked in his breath. He thought she was nude at first since he could see the outline of her body with absolute clarity. Then she turned around, and he heard a swish and saw the thin fabric cling to her lithe body.
It took his breath away. Her simple nightgown may have been nothing like the ultra-sheer negligées he had seen advertised in his own world, but it enhanced the beauty of a woman’s body more than he would have expected in this world of Regency England.
She must have borrowed it from Elizabeth Darcy, he thought as Sandra began to walk toward him, swaying gently in the graceful, feline prowl that was hers and hers alone. That was the reason she asked her to stay behind. But wearing a borrowed nightgown is dangerous. I haven’t touched a woman for so long, my fingers itch with the urge to rip it off her! My God! I never imagined she could be so beautiful! And so damned sexy!
As she came close, he gazed on the young beauty who had so precipitously become his wife.
“I’ve never seen a woman as beautiful as you, Dancer,” he said softly. “Never in my life. You’re so unbelievably lovely.”
“Thank you, Gun—Edward,” she said, giving him a brief, amateurish curtsey.
McDunn stepped forward and pulled her to him, their lips meeting in a lingering kiss. Then McDunn trailed light kisses over her cheek to her ear. Sandra leaned her head back so his kisses could move down her throat.
He easily picked her up in his arms and placed her on the bed, shedding his dressing gown and climbing in beside her. They kissed again while Sandra shrugged out of the borrowed gown. His hands explored her bare skin while she ran her hands over the broadness of his back. Both of them had the hard bodies of warriors, but it only increased their desire for each other, for warriors they were, what they had been, and what they would always be.
In time, Sandra whispered endearments into her husband’s ear as he plunged into her in the eternal manner of a man with a maiden. They were two vibrant, strong young people cementing the bond that would bind them both until the end of their lives.
McDunn still found it astounding that Sandra had managed to follow him to this fanciful place seemingly taken from the writing of Jane Austen, and they were the only refugees from the world they once believed was the only one there was or would ever be. Without saying the words, they knew, to the innermost core of their beings, that they were joined forever.
***
Later, as they lay naked in each other’s arms, McDunn said, “Now we can talk. You did really well when I introduced everyone to you, but you probably didn’t realize who they—”
“Of course, I knew who they were, Edward! Darcy and Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice. I did read the book you know.”
“What! But you never said a word about it! And you always gave me a hard time about reading it!”
“But that’s just because I loved teasing you. By the way, I have to tell you I really don’t like calling you Edward.”
He glared at her for a moment until he realized she was only smiling in the dark as she teased him. Finally, he settled back down. “You could call me Ed, I suppose. That’s what the men in my family and most of my high-school friends called me. Or you could call me Eddie. That’s what the girls in the family called me.”
“I like Eddie. I’ve heard enough about your mom and grandmom to know I’d be happy to be in their company.”
“And I’ll probably call you Dancer until the day I die.”
“I know,” she said softly. “It’s another reason I knew of your badly hidden attraction for me. You were the only one to call me that.”
“But everyone called you Dancer!”
“Nope. Only you.”
“Really? I can’t even remember how it started. I guess I’m not as good at keeping things hidden as I thought I was.”
“Oh, with everything military or serious, no one could ever tell what you were thinking. But when you called me Dancer and when I caught you looking at me, I knew why.”
“Hmm. Well, then that’s all right, I guess,” he said with feigned indifference, but his fingers were moving lightly over her ribs. He was pleased to find a ticklish spot, and he soon had her doubled up in helpless laughter.
“That’ll teach you to tease me,” he told her.
“Stop it! Play fair,” she said between giggles. “I thought you were a real marine, Eddie, but you fight like a girl. You’ve gone soft, big boy.”
“Truce! We’ll call this one a draw. You’ve worn me out, woman.” He lay back and relaxed, pulling her close to him, and she responded by snuggling even closer.
“But go on with knowing about Darcy and Elizabeth,” he said.
“Well, as soon as I heard their names, I knew the Sieg
e was playing some sort of game, sending us to a world full of fictional characters. But I had a little time to think about what Kaswallon said about how the Siege Perilous worked and all those alternate worlds and stuff. So, how close are things here to the book?”
McDunn shook his head sardonically. “The characters are a lot like Austen described, but nothing seems to have happened as it did in the book. For example, the very first time Darcy and Elizabeth met…”
It took more than an hour for him to relate most of what he had observed, bringing Sandra to laughter at times and tears of compassion and sadness at others.
“A shotgun wedding!” she exclaimed as he ended his tale. “You’re kidding me!”
“Nope. And now we’re hitched as common-law man and wife. Nobody, but nobody, back home would have believed how things turned out.”
“That’s the truth!”
“Now, back to Kaswallon. You say you found him looking for ammo?”
“Yup. Sneaked up on him real good, put my knife to his throat, and asked all nice and polite what in the world he was doing.”
“Nice and polite. Yeah. I can see it all now—yow!”
Sandra had jabbed him between the ribs with a knuckle. “Be quiet, Eddie, or I’ll never finish this. As I was about to say, he couldn’t wait to start talking once he realized I was American. He jabbered some stuff about trying to save your life with this Siege thing, and he was trying to find a rifle for you, but he had to finish before your gate opened.
“Anyway, I didn’t really know what to think, but I was thrilled you were still alive, so I helped him go through packs for ammo and stuff, including the medicines I had left and what I could scrounge from Commander August’s tent. She went down fighting, by the way. Got what looked like a half-dozen or so of the barbs before they got her. All the wounded were dead already, probably dosed with all the morphine she had left. I could only scrounge a couple of styrettes from her tent.”
“Like you said, a good egg,” McDunn said in mournful remembrance. “They all were. God damn all those barbarian butchers!”
“I hope they burn in Hell. Anyway, when I’d scrounged everything I could find, including the gold, Kaswallon and me headed to the cave. Kaswallon was really strong! He carried three bags of gold, your pack, and your rifle all by himself. I’d brought Murchison’s sniper rifle down the hill, so I carried it and my own rifle plus my pack. And the AK. Probably not even half the load Kaswallon carried!”
“I knew he was strong. He dragged me into the cave all by himself.”
“I couldn’t even see the outline of the cave, but Kaswallon pressed something, and part of the stone wall slid aside. When we got to the back part, there you were, sitting on that big rock like it was some kind of saddle. He checked and said you were still alive and seemed to be doing okay, so we went back to pick up what we couldn’t carry on our first trip. Kaswallon carried the remaining bag of gold and another bag we filled with ammo. And I looked all over the place for anything else that might be useful. I was being all pack-ratty by then since I could only guess at what we’d need. Or what I’d need if the idea I had about going to the same place you went didn’t work out.
“When we got back to the cave, Kaswallon was going on about alternate worlds and how the Siege would send you where you belonged, where you were meant to be. He said it was almost time, and we got your pack and stuff on you real quick. Then he waved me back and started chanting some stuff real loud in a language I never heard before. Then, so help me God, he raised this wood staff high and struck the ground real hard. And you were gone—just gone. No fanfare, no big flash of light—nothing. Not at all like the movies.”
“I came partially awake when he started chanting, and I thought I heard a big sound like lightning.”
“Maybe on your end, but all I heard was the sound of his staff hitting the floor.”
“I was out cold before then. I vaguely remember being jostled about and even hearing voices, which I knew had to be my imagination. Then I was gone, and I hit the ground. Hard.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
“The next thing I knew, something nudged my boot.”
“Colonel Fitzwilliam described it to me. The way you reacted really impressed him, but looking down the bore of your cannon impressed him even more.”
“I wasn’t pointing it at anyone,” McDunn said mildly. “I just had it at the ready. One of Darcy’s footmen had his pistol out but hadn’t raised it. Luckily, Darcy settled everything down without any more excitement.”
“I’ve had all the excitement I want for an entire lifetime, Eddie. I’m looking for some old-fashioned boredom!”
“Yeah, me too, Dancer!” he said feelingly. “So I was gone. What happened then?”
“I told Kaswallon I wanted to go where you’d gone, and he got all stubborn and said the Siege thing didn’t work that way. I was sitting astride the stone, and I just took the safety off my little pistol, which was in my thigh pocket. He didn’t like it at all, but he did dig out this huge, old book. The pages looked pretty fragile, and he was careful about turning them. He read for a while, going from place to place, and leaned down real close to read. Then he gave some kind of exclamation I couldn’t decipher. Maybe it was another language. Anyway, he looked at me and said the Siege wouldn’t send me to the same world you went to since it wouldn’t be the world meant for me. But he said, kind of reluctantly, that there seemed to be a way around the way the Siege usually worked.
“He could make the rock send me on the same path you followed so I could join you. It seemed kind of a ticky-tack distinction to me, but it seemed to mean something really big for him. He started to mumble about there being something strange in his book, but I told him it was good enough for me and to send me on my way. He said there was no need to wait for my time since I wouldn’t be going the usual way. He helped me load up with all my stuff and started chanting again, but it went on for a lot longer than it had with you. He also had to go back to his book a couple of times before he finished. I heard the sound of his staff striking the ground; then I was falling. No lightning strike sound, though. Then I hit the ground like a ton of lead, and I couldn’t breathe for a while.”
McDunn got up and poured them each a glass of wine. Then he climbed back into bed and snuggled down next to his wife.
“Okay,” McDunn said, “I can understand you wanting the Siege to get you out of our dying world—and I’m not complaining one single bit, not at all—but I’m still stunned you would want to follow me. I thought you were so beautiful, it made my gut ache, but I never noticed any particular interest on your part.”
She looked at him solemnly for a few moments. “I guess I’ve become so skilled at camouflaging my emotions that I didn’t let anything show, though I sure knew you were interested in me! But if there’d ever been an opportunity, I might have surprised you. I wouldn’t have needed this gown Elizabeth and I borrowed from Darcy’s sister. I think you’d have gotten the idea if you’d found me naked.”
Her face lost its mischievous look and took on the solemn tones they both knew so well, those inspired by the devastating heartaches they’d endured. “But there was never the time or the place.”
“You were so damned sexy tonight, I almost ripped your nightgown off and took you right there on the floor!”
Sandra leaned forward to kiss him long and deep. Then she returned to the point she wanted to make.
“As for why you, Eddie—what better man than you to follow?” she said, her mood suddenly serious. “You know I’m an orphan, right?”
He nodded, and she continued. “I was in orphanages and one foster home after another. There was no stability to my life, and the way the foster home people kept moving me around made me feel like a piece of merchandise. Anyway, I decided to get out somehow. I’d gotten pretty streetwise by the time I was four
teen even if I hadn’t been able to get much regular schooling. And I’d also managed to accumulate a little cash, which I kept well hidden—”
She saw the look on McDunn’s face and pinched his cheek playfully. “No, Eddie, I didn’t do anything immoral though it was definitely illegal.”
He looked at her and cocked an eyebrow, and she chuckled. “Maybe someday I’ll tell you. It wasn’t all that bad, but it’ll be my secret for now. So, I used my money to get a fake birth certificate made up for me. It made me a year older than I was; there were some really skilled forgers in New Orleans, by the way! And they also falsified the form a parent signed to let their kid enlist at sixteen—”
“My God, Dancer!” McDunn said suddenly. “You joined the Corps at fifteen!”
“I can’t fool you, can I, Eddie?” she said, again giving her flashing, urchin grin he loved so much. “I knew those foster people would stop me if they found out, but I caught ’em by surprise when I disappeared so early. The Corps had me on the way to Parris Island before they even knew I was gone. And those foster officials didn’t even have my right name! I’d told them I was Sharon Demming when they first plucked me out of the Catholic orphanage—thanks to Father Ramirez who told them I’d never had a birth certificate. He knew all about the scam those guys were running, moving the orphans around like peas in a shell game so they could grow their little empire, and he told me how to smear my fingerprints if they ever tried to take them, but it never came to that. I think they figured they’d keep me in their system until I was eighteen. I was lucky Davis had the law about voluntary enlistments changed as soon as he became president—”
“Davis joined the Marines early, too. At seventeen, I think, though his parents gave their permission. Just like mine did when I was sixteen, but I also had my high school degree by then.”
“I did too, though mine was forged.”
“Naturally,” McDunn said dryly.