He pressed his hand over hers, serious again. “Whatever happens in this country, Ceci. Let’s you and I rise above it. We mustn’t let anything come between us.”
“It won’t,” Ceci responded fiercely. “I’d die first.”
He lifted her hand from his cheek and kissed her palm, then picked up the reins. “I recall I promised you ice cream.”
They sat outside with their ice cream, selecting one of a small group of tables, each with a large sunshade over it, that had been set out on the sidewalk.
“This is delicious,” Ceci began to say, then she stopped short, as a wagon load of slaves passed by, wretched creatures, all shackled together. “Why ‘d they have to treat them so badly,” she sighed. “Nothing like that ever happens on the plantation.”
“The rest of the world isn’t like the plantation,” Trent told her. “That’s why we’re facing a war. A lot of men are prepared to fight to free these people.”
Ceci’s eyes began to mist over. She put her hand over her mouth, letting her spoon fall back into the glass.
“I’m sorry, Ceci,” Trent tried desperately to console her. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“It ain’t that,” she wiped her eyes, struggling with a decision to break her sacred oath. “Oh, Trent. Hecubah’s a slave,” she blurted out.
“That’s kind of hard to believe,” he grimaced.
“I got it from her own lips,” she assured him. “Made me swear not to tell anyone. Said it would cause all kinds of trouble.”
“She’s a shrewd woman,” he acknowledged. “Knows her own mind. She must have her reasons.”
Ceci clutched at his hands. “I want to do something.”
“Do you love her?” Trent asked.
“As much as I love you.”
“Then, if you want to do something,” he advised. “Do as she asked.”
Ceci looked away, her hopes for Hecubah’s freedom apparently thwarted. As she thought about it, she began to realise that Trent was right. Hecubah had begged her not to take any action, and no matter how hard that was to do, she should honour her wishes.
“Let’s get out of this town,” Trent suggested. “We’ll buy ourselves a picnic and drive into the country. Put all the woes of the world behind us and just enjoy each other’s company.”
Ceci brightened at once. “That, sir,” she smiled, “is an invitation I could not possibly refuse.”
They drove a mile or two from the town, found a pleasant spot on the bank of a bayou and while Trent unhitched the horse and let it graze, Ceci laid out the picnic. They took off their shoes and stockings, dipping their bare toes into the cool water as they ate the food. Then they lay down on the soft grass, letting the hot Louisiana sun lull them into a drowsy frame of mind.
Ceci lay, supporting herself on her elbow, idly picking the seeds off a grass stalk. “Did you always want to be a soldier?” she asked.
“Not at first,” he admitted, as he lay on his back, staring up at the sky. “I was only fifteen. I ‘d just found the love of my life and lost her. All I really wanted to do was get back to Louisiana.”
Ceci glanced up, smiling. “That’s sweet.”
“After what happened, that year,” he continued, “my father told me I should find myself a useful occupation. He said soldiering was an honourable career. I had my doubts then, but now I wouldn’t do anything else.” He turned his face towards her. “You never said what happened to you that year.”
Ceci rolled her eyes. “Oh, Lord,” she recalled, with a shudder. “My daddy pitched a fit. I’ve never seen him so angry. Scared the life out of me.” She threw the bare stalk away. “Then he brought Hecubah in,” she went on. “I didn’t know what to make of her at first, but after a while, she was the only one I felt safe with.” She plucked another grass stalk and began to pick at the seeds. “My daddy told her to make me a lady. She sure had her work cut out. She made me wear dresses and ribbons and frilly drawers, when all I wanted to do was climb trees and swim in the bayou. I hated it. I hated it for a long time. Then, one morning I woke up, and just like that, I was glad I was a girl.”
“I’m glad you are to,” Trent winked, making her blush.
“Trent,” Ceci asked, still preoccupied with her grass stalk. “What’ d you think of Hecubah? As a woman, I mean.”
“She’s very attractive,” he had no difficulty in saying.
His comment made her lose her train of thought for a moment. “Prettier than me, you mean?”
“I didn’t say that,” he salvaged the situation in a second. “I was merely answering your question.”
“Well, all right then,” she continued, apparently satisfied with his explanation. “She told me she’s had lots of lovers, but there’s this one man, a mystery man. He saved her years ago, from a fate worse than death. I think he lives on the plantation. I think she still sees him.”
“Why’d you think that?” he asked.
“Sometimes she comes in and I can smell a man’s cologne on her clothes. The kind they use when they’ve finished shaving.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Trent responded, with a casual wave of his hand. “She’s still young and available.”
“I know,” Ceci was just getting into her stride. “But I think she’s seeing another man at the same time.”
Trent rose to his knees. “What makes you say that?”
“Now and then, it’s a different cologne,” she raised her eyebrows at him.
“Maybe it’s just one man, who changes his cologne,” he suggested.
“Have you ever changed your cologne?” she asked pointedly.
He thought about it for a moment. “No,” he shrugged, “I guess I’ve always used the same one.”
“Exactly,” she cried, feeling her suspicions were justified. “I’ve asked her who it is, but she won’t tell me, and I’m just dying to know.”
Trent shook his head, amused by all this feminine intrigue. “Ceci, you’re incorrigible.”
She sat up, putting her hands on her hips. “Oh, really?” she retorted. “Then why is it when I recall all the big trouble in my life, you’re always there, stealing kisses?”
He smiled that very particular smile, the one that always made her wilt. “Would you have it any other way?” he asked.
She lowered her eyes, mildly irritated by the way he always managed to get the better of her. “No,” she admitted eventually.
“That’s what I thought.” He pounced on her, making her shriek, pushing her onto her back, grabbing her wrists and pinning her arms to the ground. “I’ve been thinking about that surrender you mentioned,” he told her. “Is that unconditional?”
She looked up at him, her eyes full of devilment. “I guess you’ll just have to find out for yourself.”
Ceci had hoped to sneak back into the house and change before Hecubah noticed she’d returned. However, she’d reckoned without the sixth sense the woman had developed concerning her movements and found herself cornered in the morning room.
“How’d you manage to get grass stains on the back of your dress, eating ice cream at the drug store?” she demanded.
“We went on a picnic afterwards,” Ceci saw no reason to lie.
“Ah huh, another picnic,” Hecubah nodded. “Looks as though it ended like the last one.”
“We just kissed, is all. I swear,” Ceci insisted.
Hecubah shook her head, sighing. “Child, I bin where you is now,” she told her patiently. “You meet a man, fall in love with him. Pretty soon, the time comes when there ain’t nothing you won’t do in the name of that love.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Ceci blustered defensively.
“Oh, I thinks we understands each other,” Hecubah countered intuitively. “I seen the way you two have been
looking at each other lately. Got that itch you’re dying to scratch.”
Ceci turned her face away, cheeks burning, unable to respond.
“Kissing and touching is passable,” Hecubah continued soberly. “But if you goes beyond that, there’s no coming back. So, you’d best be mighty careful about which direction you take.”
“Trent will be leaving soon,” Ceci struggled to keep the desperation she felt out of her voice. “I love him so much. What am I going to do?”
“I got a feeling you’ll think of something,” Hecubah muttered to herself. “And that’s what bothers me.”
Chapter Eight
The day began, like any other, full of laughter and kisses, but as time passed, an uneasy restlessness began to steal into Ceci’s mind. A mounting tension, straining for release, a brooding stillness, like the calm before the storm.
The desperation she had endured over Trent’s imminent departure changed, transmuted, until it became something else. A fever, that began to consume her. Something she could only feel, without understanding what it was.
She could see by the way he behaved that Trent was afflicted by the same malady. Neither of them spoke of it. It went beyond words. It was the language of the heart. As the day wore on, the laughter and kisses fell away. They sat in silence for hours, just looking at each other, a palpable energy, a potent concoction of love and lust, surging between them. As twilight approached, the tension had become unbearable.
“It’s just a walk in the garden,” Ceci insisted, anxious to be gone.
“Whose idea is this?” Hecubah enquired, noting her agitation.
Ceci looked away. “Mine, and don’t say ‘Ah huh’, like you always do.”
“Ah huh.”
“There, you said it again,” Ceci’s shoulders arched in frustration.
“I ain’t your jailor,” Hecubah informed her calmly. “You is all grown up now. Knows your own mind. All I’m saying is, just be careful.”
“In the garden,” Ceci frowned. “Of what?”
“Ol’ Magic,” Hecubah remarked ominously.
“Ol’ Magic,” Ceci laughed drily. “Who’s that?”
“Oh,” Hecubah shook her head solemnly. “He clever, mighty powerful. He bin prowling around all day.”
“Hecubah, you ain’t making any sense,” Ceci complained irritably.
“That’s because you ain’t listening,” Hecubah warned her. “He comes when you least expect him. Creeps right up on you. Wears all kinds of disguises. Sometimes it’s a big ol’ moon, hot night, full of stars, crickets humming. Oh, you’ll trys to remember what I’m telling you now, but you won’t, he’ll see to that. Pretty soon you’ll begin to glance at the boy, he glances back, atmosphere gets charged.” Suddenly, she snapped her fingers, making Ceci jump. “Honey, you is lost, he got you in his power. Trapped a lot of girls that way.”
“I think you’ve been out in the sun too long,” Ceci made light of it. “It’s a beautiful night, be a shame to waste it.” She made to leave, lingering by the open door. “It’s just a walk in the garden,” she repeated unnecessarily, taking her deceit one step further. “That’s all.” Now she wasn’t only lying to Hecubah, she was lying to herself.
It was a relief to escape the stifling confines of the house and get out into the open. Ceci instantly felt a sense of freedom and a hint of adventure that began to excite her. It was obvious that Trent felt it to.
“Hecubah has some odd notions sometimes,” she told him, as they began to stroll arm in arm across the lawn.
He looked at her. “What notions?”
Ceci caught her breath, as the familiar burst of energy surged between them, but this time, it was so intense, it took her completely by surprise.
“You were saying?” Trent prompted. “Notions.”
Another charge dissipated through her. She frowned, struggling to recall what she’d intended to say. “I really can’t remember,” she admitted at last. “Probably nothing. Just one of Hecubah’s tales.”
They walked on, Ceci preoccupied with what had just happened. She began to feel more restless than ever, barely able to contain herself. She glanced at Trent, clearly, he was experiencing the same emotions.
The further they walked, the stronger the sensations became. She tried to block the confusing thoughts from her mind, but they just kept coming back, stronger than ever. Iniquitous little devils she had conjured up, that plagued and coerced her relentlessly, gradually wearing her down. She found herself defenceless against the onslaught, until finally, she yielded and abandoned herself to them.
There was something about this night. Something strange, yet vaguely familiar, that began to seep into Ceci’s soul. The air was sultry, almost oppressive, drenched in the heady perfume of night flowering blossoms. She inhaled it, drank it in. It was overwhelming, intoxicating. It flowed over her, caressing her skin, beguiling and seducing her, enflaming her senses. She licked her dry lips, breathing harder, beginning to perspire. She gripped Trent’s arm more tightly, pressing herself closer to him.
Cicadas serenaded the thin sliver of a crescent moon, as it rose slowly behind the dark shapes of the cypress trees in the bayou. They began to exchange glances, brief, furtive, often, that flared more incandescently each time they looked at each other. The tension was excruciating. A dreadful, urgent, bittersweet yearning, that plucked at the centre of Ceci’s soul, throbbing inside her, sapping her will, tearing away the last shreds of her resistance.
She looked at Trent again. Suddenly, he seemed taller, stronger, more handsome. Her heart thudded in her chest, as the dregs of her will drained away, succumbing to the primal urges rising within her, leaving her thrall to her senses, until she no longer questioned, but only obeyed.
She gripped his arm and stopped, forcing him to halt. He turned. She could feel his hot breath on her face, the warmth of his body radiating over her. She looked up, her eyes soft and submissive, unconsciously signalling her readiness to him.
He moved closer, then paused, glancing cautiously around.
“I know a secret place,” she whispered. “Where I used to hide as a girl. Hecubah won’t find us there.”
She shrank back as he bore down on her. Then, sweeping her into his arms, he carried her into the shadows.
When they reached the place, he laid her gently on the cool grass, then lay down beside her, leaning over her. There was only the sound of the breeze rustling the leaves of the cypress trees, the trickle of the bayou, the song of the cicadas and their laboured breathing, as two hearts beat as one.
She raised her hand, stroking his cheek, guiding his head down, until their lips met for that first exquisite, tender kiss and then a second and a third. She draped her arms about his neck, her kisses growing ever more fervent, ever more demanding.
His hand wandered, exploring the curves of her body, slipping beneath her skirt, until his fingers brushed her bare thigh, her moans stifled by his questing tongue. Suddenly, he pulled away, looking down at her, as she lay there breathless with anticipation.
Ceci gazed up at him, speaking with her eyes. She had chosen him, above all other men, to initiate her into the world. He would be the one to share the most intensely intimate moment of her life. She was his willing accomplice, giving herself to him completely. She was his, to do with as he pleased.
Trent proved to be a gentle and considerate lover, putting her needs before his own, his caresses arousing her to heights of ecstasy she’d never known before. Nothing she’d read, nothing she’d ever imagined, could possibly have prepared her for this. He began to undress her, his fingers working with feverish dexterity, kissing every part of her body he exposed, his hands kneading her soft, yielding flesh, until she lay there naked beneath him,
She tore at his clothes, her curiosity bubbling over, pulling off his shirt, as he hurriedly unfastened his
belt. As she stripped the last garment from him, she caught her breath, staring in awe at the strength of his masculinity. She had never seen a naked man before. The spectacle both excited and alarmed her. He had touched her, she felt compelled to touch him. He moaned, she gasped, feeling his power pulse through her fingers, wondering how she would ever accommodate him.
He bent his head, pressing his mouth against her breast. She cried out, the blood racing in her veins, her heart beating so fast she thought she would die. Her body thrilled to his every touch, as he transported her, again and again, to the brink of release, only to leave her begging for more.
He had imbued her with the fire of his own heart. Kindled the flame. Now he poised himself above her, ready to consummate their love. In that last moment of innocence, she could feel the heat of his body, the contours of his muscles, smell his musk, her sweat mingling with his, as he lowered himself onto her. She surrendered to him, a long sobbing moan exploding from her lips, every nerve screaming, feeling truly alive for the first time in her life.
She gripped his shoulders, her body arching beneath him, her nails gouging his moist skin. She groaned and shuddered as waves of ecstasy surged through her, teetering on the brink of oblivion. Digging her heels into the bare earth, she forced herself up against him, at one with him, in rhythm with him, in a single frenzied convulsing spasm, until they both collapsed to the ground, spent and exhausted.
It was an act of beautiful violence, suffused with pain and delight. An explosive union of their bodies and souls, the final poignant kiss, before they parted, sealing the bond between them.
Ceci hardly knew where she was. She lay there, panting wildly, her mind reeling, her body tingling, tiny bolts of lightning darting up and down her spine. It was some time before she could bring herself to speak.
The crescent moon was high in the sky. They lay side by side, hand in hand, gazing up at it.
“I never imagined anything could be like that,” she confided breathlessly.
“Neither did I,” he admitted, his chest heaving.
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