In a Stranger's Arms

by Hale Deborah

  Manning swallowed hard. A fellow would need to be made of marble for the sight of a woman in such a provocative pose not to stir him the least little bit. He didn’t want Lydene Marsh, though. Not the way he wanted Caddie—with his whole heart and most of his soul as well as his body.

  Just then he heard voices coming up the stairs—the loudest of them Lon’s. Suddenly Manning understood what had brought Lydene to his bed, and it wasn’t any kind of fancy for him.

  He knew he needed to beat a retreat. If the Marshes had conspired to spring this trap on him, he should put as much distance as possible between himself and Lydene.

  He had no intention of leaving her alone in the same room as his box of papers, though. As for trying to manhandle her off his bed... “I’ll leave that chore to your husband, Mrs. Marsh. I believe I hear him coming.”

  Swearing that he’d burn Del’s letter before another day dawned, and cursing himself for not doing it sooner, Manning stepped toward the bureau to grab the box and be off. He nearly choked when he felt a small but forceful hand snag the waistband of his trousers from behind.

  “I’m... not... used to being turned down by men, Mr. Carpetbagger.” The woman had considerable strength for her size.

  Caught off balance, Manning staggered back toward the bed. His arms flailed out, grasping for something to break his fall. Only when he heard the high-pitched shriek of ripping cloth did he realize that he’d latched on to some part of Lydene’s gown.

  She cried out in a very believable pretense of distress—or perhaps she was genuinely upset about the dress.

  The rest unfolded as neatly as a stage play. The aggrieved husband rushed in on cue, conveniently accompanied by two witnesses in the persons of Mrs. Pratt and Mrs. Gordon. They all made proper noises of horror.

  Manning didn’t bother trying to explain. What was the use?

  At last Mrs. Pratt withdrew, huffing, “I’ll see to it that Caddie knows what kind of shenanigans are going on under her roof.”

  Manning caught Lon in a smirk of triumph that told him he’d better start packing up his belongings.

  Chapter Nineteen

  CADDIE KNEW.

  “Of all the no-account behavior!”

  “I good as told her something like this would happen!”

  “What did she expect, marrying one of them?”

  Deep in the pit of her stomach, she knew. If the look Lydene had shot her while dancing with Manning hadn’t been enough, the vindictive glee in Mrs. Pratt’s and Mrs. Gordon’s voices, masquerading as neighborly concern, slapped Caddie in the face.

  She didn’t need to hear the women recount every disgusting, humiliating detail. But she let them run on, holding her peace with a show of cool dignity when all she wanted to do was scratch Lydene’s eyes out, shriek at her husband like an ill-bred scold, then fall on her bed and cry till her eyes ran out of tears.

  Lon and Lydene appeared behind Mrs. Gordon and Mrs. Pratt, Lon’s coat covering the ruin of his wife’s dress in a pointed pose of gallantry. If she’d been carrying on with another man, why didn’t he seem the least bit angry at her? Caddie knew very well why.

  The crowd of guests parted and fell silent as Manning made his way toward her. His hang-dog look drove Caddie nearer to losing control than the women’s nattering or the gloating gleam in Lon’s eyes. For it told her he was dead guilty on all counts, yet at the same time coaxing her to feel sorry for him when that was the last thing she wanted to do.

  Perhaps not the last. The very last thing she wanted was to give Lon and Lydene the satisfaction of mortifying her in public.

  Stonewalled by Caddie’s implacable silence, Mrs. Pratt and Mrs. Gordon finally sputtered out. In the hollow hush that followed, the sound of Manning clearing his throat thundered like a full battery of artillery.

  “Caddie... I can explain, if you’ll let me.”

  “There’s nothing to explain, my dear.” She glared at Lon and Lydene, not daring to glance at her husband’s stricken face, for it might smash her brittle composure. “I knew from the moment my brother-in-law accepted your generous invitation, he’d only be coming to make trouble. I’m disappointed such a sly fellow couldn’t dream up something more original than this tiresome farce.”

  The shock on Lon’s face was almost worth what it cost Caddie to hide her anguish. At least when she’d discovered Del’s unfaithfulness, the whole neighborhood hadn’t been witness to it.

  He puffed up like a rooster at a cockfight “How dare you accuse me...?”

  A swell of muttering in support of Caddie and Manning drowned him out.

  “I know what I saw!” insisted Mrs. Pratt.

  “Mother!” Jeff pulled her away from Caddie, none too gently. “You have shamed our family, making these kinds of vile accusations against Mr. Forbes. We are going home. Mr. and Mrs. Forbes, I apologize for my mother’s disgraceful behavior.”

  Awestruck by her son’s outburst, Mrs. Pratt let herself be led away, as meek as a lamb.

  As Dora bore down on her, Mrs. Gordon recanted. “It might not have been as bad as it seemed. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be.”

  Lon tried to protest, but outraged scowls from the other guests drove him and Lydene into ignoble retreat.

  There could be no salvaging the party after such a spectacle. Caddie didn’t even try. Leaving Manning to bid their guests goodbye, she went looking for the children, to satisfy herself they hadn’t overheard anything that might upset them. She found them out back feeding bones to the dog.

  “How come Rafe had to go home so soon?” Varina demanded. “Just when I’d almost coaxed him to dance.”

  “He’s a nice little fellow,” Templeton agreed. “His pa got killed in the war, too. In the navy. He said he might get a new one if his ma marries Mr. Stevens. Varina and me wished him luck on it. Why’d everybody leave all of a sudden, Mama?”

  “Maybe on account of it’s as far past their bedtime as it is past yours.” Caddie shooed them into the house and put them to bed as the last of the wagons trundled off up the lane.

  When Manning finally ventured back into the house, she was carrying a stack of dirty dishes out to the kitchen.

  He began to clear some glassware from the dining table. “Why don’t you go on to bed—I’ll see to this.”

  Everything in Caddie’s upbringing urged her to go on upstairs without another word, nurse her tattered self-respect in private and sweep this whole unpleasant matter under the rug. But she deserved better from Manning Forbes, and she was going to demand her due, even if it let him see how much he’d hurt her.

  “How do you expect to manage that with your hands still not healed? Besides, you could wash dishes till the day you die and it still wouldn’t come close to making amends for what you put me through tonight.”

  Manning almost dropped the glasses he’d gathered up. His mind and heart were still reeling from the way Caddie had taken his part against Lon’s accusations. After all the secrets he’d kept from her, the half-truths he’d told her, he didn’t deserve the faith she’d shown in him. Not to mention the way he’d thrown the precious gift of her lovemaking right back in her face.

  He had wandered out to take leave of their guests in a daze. If Caddie could stand by him after what had just happened, was it possible he could tell her the truth about his past, daring to hope she might understand? Perhaps even forgive him?

  Her words hit him like jagged bits of shrapnel. He should have known she’d only defended him as a means of defying her brother-in-law.

  “It happened like you said, Caddie. Lon and Lydene set the whole thing up. I didn’t—”

  “Who invited them here in the first place?” Caddie slammed the dishes down on the table. “And how did Lydene get you up in the bedroom with her? Toss you over her shoulder and carry you? Or maybe she put a pistol to your head?”

  Not a pistol—but a threat. A threat he himself had furnished with his lunatic refusal to destroy Del’s letter or hide it where no one would ev
er find it.

  “Did you hear something?” Manning set down the glasses and started for the entry hall. He didn’t want Tem to overhear them fighting again. Who knew what danger the boy might court trying to distract them?

  Caddie was not about to be distracted by anything. “Don’t think you’re getting away that easy, Manning Forbes. I know you had your reasons for marrying me, and love didn’t likely come in the top ten, but we took vows and I mean to hold you to them.”

  Didn’t his vow to a living woman count at least as much as his vow to a dead man? Was it too late for him to mend what he’d marred again and again?

  Before he could say anything, Caddie issued her terms. “If you wish to remain under my roof, I’ll need your solemn undertaking that you’ll never have anything more to do with that creature.”

  Was that all? Maybe he could promise not to eat live slugs while he was at it.

  “Oh, Caddie...” The noise he thought he’d heard completely forgotten, Manning crossed the room in two long strides and took her in his arms.

  “Don’t you ‘Oh, Caddie’ me, you Yankee hypocrite!” She made a token swat at his chest then turned away from him. But she didn’t struggle to free herself from his embrace. “Preaching about it being wrong for legally married folks to sleep together if they don’t love each other, then carrying on with another man’s wife!”

  She wouldn’t care about this so much if she didn’t care about him. The hope of it might have brought Manning to his knees, if he hadn’t been holding on to Caddie. It made him wrap her even tighter in his arms.

  Pressing his cheek against her hair, he whispered, “You don’t think for a minute I could prefer her to you?”

  The fight seemed to leach out of her. “What else am I supposed to think? I know Lon set a trap for you, but that doesn’t excuse how fast you went for the bait.”

  “There’s a whole lot more to it than that, Caddie. And I promise I’ll tell you all about it in good time.”

  He would, too. Once he sensed there was a possibility she could forgive him, he’d tell her everything. For now, he must convince her to give him one last chance to make her happy. Or die trying.

  “I promise you, I’ll never willingly go within a mile of Lon’s wife ever again. I swear it wasn’t any hankering for her that took me up those stairs a while ago. You’re the only woman I want, and I’ve been a damned fool to pretend any different.”

  He bent his head, brushing his cheek down her ear and the slender line of her neck, along the elegant contour of her bare shoulder. There it came to rest.

  “Can you blame a man who’s never known love for not recognizing it when it coldcocks him right between the eyes?”

  Beneath his bandages, his palms grew clammy. Though he tried to still them, his knees trembled. He’d been plenty scared on the eve of several battles, but never like this. Caddie’s answer mattered more to him than anything in this world or the next.

  If Del Marsh had suddenly risen from the grave and come between them, Manning feared he might kill the man all over again. Damn the consequences. And doubly damn his soul.

  Did she dare give her heart to a man who could make the iron ramrod of her pride melt into a pitiful puddle? The notion frightened Caddie worse than the fiery fall of Richmond.

  Looking back, she realized her marriage to Del had been a lot like the war. They’d waged their battles of will with no outward show of violence, not even angry words. There had been victories and defeats just the same, occasional truces, renewed hostilities and escalating bitterness. In the end, they’d both lost.

  There had to be a better way. Could she and Manning both find victory in mutual surrender?

  She couldn’t find the words to ask him—wasn’t sure she had the courage to speak them, anyhow. Instead, she settled for nuzzling his crisp dense crop of hair with her neck. When he turned his face and pressed his lips to the base of her throat, she could not hold back a keening, quivering sigh that betrayed her longing for him. Her mouth hungered for his kisses with the kind of hollow ache that had lodged in her stomach during the bleak days after the Confederacy fell.

  But she would not kiss him or beg him to kiss her. That one stubborn nub of pride restrained Caddie. If Manning cared for her the way he made it sound, was it too much to hope he’d finally scale or smash whatever barrier held him back from her?

  The waiting became sweet torment as Manning hovered behind her, laying siege to her exposed neck and shoulders with his lips and the tips of his fingers. Caddie shut her eyes, the better to concentrate on the wonder of his touch. Fiber by fiber, he eased the tight knots that anger and hurt had tied in her flesh, telling her in a language deeper and truer than words how precious she had become to him.

  He left her with no choice but to believe.

  With every runaway lurch of her heart and every stormy gust of her breath, her craving to touch him grew. Memories of their first time together broke free of the wards she’d placed on them—riding roughshod over judgment and propriety.

  Why a man of such fierce restraint should provoke such wildness in her puzzled and frightened Caddie. But confusion and fear only whetted a sharper edge on her recklessness.

  Just when she was sure she could stand it no longer―certain she must scream or swoon, or turn and plant a scorching kiss on Manning—he spun her toward him. Their lips collided and Caddie could almost picture a shower of sparks exploding around them.

  No woman who’d been kissed the way Manning kissed her now could entertain any serious doubts about his desire or her desirability. The mellow taste of hickory and the sweet tang of lemonade mingled on his breath without the faintest taint of moonshine. If he cut loose now, there could be only one excuse.

  Passion.

  At last Manning gathered his shattered composure and pulled away from her.

  Caddie clung to the lapels of his coat.

  “If... you’re about to lecture on morals...” She gasped for air. “Or warn me that we shouldn’t go any further... so help me, I’ll pick up those dishes and throw them at you!”

  A smile lit Manning’s face, even brighter and warmer than the special ones he reserved for the children. He laughed like Caddie had never heard him laugh before—as if he wasn’t holding anything back.

  “Oh, Caddie-girl.” He took her face in his bandaged hands with a gentleness that bordered on reverence, but the fire in his eyes said he wanted her in a way that was anything but sacred.

  Or maybe it was sacred, after all.

  His voice hushed to the soft murmur of distant waves breaking against some lonely stretch of Low Country shore. “I know I already asked you to marry me, but we both meant something different back then. Now I need to know, are you willing to let me be a husband to you?”

  Caddie drew a deep breath to fuel her reply, then found her throat too constricted to speak.

  Perhaps Manning misread her hesitation. “I know I can’t take Del’s place, and I don’t want to.”

  She pressed her finger against his lips to hush such talk. The last thing she wanted him to do was take Del’s place, but now wasn’t the time to go into all that. Sometime, though, when she felt a little more secure in his love for her and hers for him. Right now they were a pair of wobbly foals, just finding their feet after a difficult and dangerous birth.

  In her desire to reassure him, she found her voice again. “You don’t need to take anybody’s place. You’ve made your own place in my heart and my children’s.”

  His gaze wavered before hers. Had she misspoken?

  The significance of what he’d called himself dawned on Caddie—a man who’s never known love. Remembering what he’d told her about his childhood, so much about the baffling man became clearer. Why he worked so hard to win her affection, then shrank from accepting it. Like some mistreated animal who snarled when you went to pet it, because it had learned to expect blows from an approaching hand instead of caresses.

  She hadn’t made it any easier for him. Once bitt
en, twice shy, she’d been too quick to pull back.

  Well, not tonight.

  Her finger still lingered on Manning’s lips. Now Caddie ran it over them.

  “In so many ways you’ve been a fine husband to me. Maybe it’s greedy to want more, but I do. And I want it tonight—right now.” Her lips twisted up in a fleeting half smile. “Before you think better of the idea.”

  Kissing the pad of her finger, Manning glanced at the table. “The dishes?”

  Tempted as she was to say they’d keep until morning, Caddie didn’t want them drawing flies, either. “We can scrape them off and set them to soak—that shouldn’t take long.”

  It didn’t, either.

  Caddie chuckled to herself at the zest with which they tackled the chore. The speed of their movements betrayed their eagerness for one another. When she caught Manning watching her with wistful hunger in his eyes, her knees would go weak. Meeting in a doorway, they would brush against each other in passing, making Caddie’s bosom tingle.

  By the time they had all the dishes soaking, the pair of them practically tripped over one another racing up the stairs.

  “My room tonight,” Caddie whispered as she tugged Manning over the threshold.

  She didn’t want any unpleasant memories of the morning after their last encounter to taint her enjoyment of this one. Nor could she stand the thought that a ghost of Lydene’s strong perfume might still haunt Manning’s bed.

  He couldn’t blame it on moonshine this time.

  Manning’s heart hammered hard and fast against his ribs—almost as much from the dread of what he was about to do as from his potent desire for Caddie.

  Everything in his conscience screamed that this was wrong. He remembered an old Bible story from the Book of Samuel, how God had cursed King David after the king sent Uriah to die in battle, so he could have the man’s wife. For the first time, Manning pitied David.

  Caddie seemed to sense the struggle within him. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. I won’t kick you out of the house or anything.”