Virginian Lover

by Oliver, Marina

  'The Governor will not interfere,' he said reassuringly. 'As for Sutton, he was not badly hurt. You wounded him in the leg, and he is apparently confined to bed. He will soon discover you have my protection now, and you will be safe. He is a bully but I think that, like most bullies, he is afraid of a stronger man. However, I advise you not to stray out of sight of the house, and to take one of the men with you whenever you wish to go further. Apart from that, let us forget him.'

  He would say no more, and Bella was content to trust him, certain that now she was safe.

  *

  Alice had, with Meg's assistance, moved herself and Toby into another room so that Bella found herself alone in Adam's room when she went upstairs. At supper she had been introduced to Thomas and John, but they had clearly been told something of her story, for they carefully avoided all reference to it or her sudden arrival the night before. Bella had wished them goodnight and left the three men talking, but she had barely time to realize Alice and Toby were gone before Adam entered the room behind her.

  'It has seemed a long time,' he said gently, holding out his arms. Bella, with a gasp that was almost a sob, ran to him and was enfolded in them.

  'Bella, my beautiful Bella!' he whispered, holding her gently. 'Are you rested now?'

  She nodded, and heaved a sigh, and he bent to kiss her lips. Then as he pressed her to him she winced with pain.

  'What is it?' he asked, instantly aware of her.

  'My back,' she answered. 'Some of the cuts still hurt me. I'm sorry, you couldn't know.'

  'Fool that I am! I should have realized, but I forgot in the delight of having you close to me again. Come, let me take off your clothes.'

  Gently he unlaced her bodice, and Bella felt again a frisson of delight run through her. Yet she flinched when he took her breasts in his hands and bent to kiss them gently.

  Adam gave no sign that he had noticed the involuntary movement, but continued to rid Bella of her confining clothes. When she stood naked before him he tenderly traced the marks Edward's whipping had left on her back.

  'This is what that vicious brute did to you?' he asked, controlling his fury with great difficulty.

  'Yes, but they are almost healed now. Alice says they will leave scarcely a mark.'

  'I'll see to it he suffers tenfold for every hurt he gave you!' Adam said tersely.

  'They don't hurt much except when they are touched roughly,' Bella exclaimed, and shuddered at the memory of the pain she had suffered when Edward, uncaring, had forced himself upon her. 'I can't – it doesn't – oh please, I can't!' she ended incoherently, and buried her face in Adam's shoulder.

  He soothed her calmly, gently caressing her breasts and hips and thighs as she clung to him, avoiding the wounds on her back.

  'I won't hurt you, my lovely one. Trust me,' he urged, and slipped off the robe which was all he wore.

  He drew her towards the bed but she resisted.

  'No, Adam, please! I know you won't mean to hurt me, but it will, I can't do it!'

  'Is it just your back?' he asked suddenly, and Bella nodded, her eyes frightened with the anticipation of renewed pain.

  'He – forced himself on me – before this healed – the first time!' she gasped.

  'I won't do aught to distress you,' he promised, as he sat on the bed and pulled her gently to stand between his thighs.

  He took her face between his hands and pulled her closer towards him. Her arms slid over his shoulders as he kissed her lips, and then the hollows of her throat. Letting his hands slide down to her breasts he nuzzled them, rousing in her a remembered passion she had not known with Edward. Then his hands slid lower, his fingers moving lingeringly along her flanks, and when he lay back slowly she did not immediately realize he had pulled her to lie on top of him.

  He fondled and kissed her with growing urgency as she lay above him, his blue eyes smiling tenderly into hers. Gradually she discovered there was no pain from her back and she forgot past horrors, abandoning herself to the exquisite delights only Adam could evoke in her.

  Only once, when he penetrated her, did a flickering memory of Edward's insensitivity cause her to draw back, but soon Adam had coaxed away all such recollections, and as he led her on to a pulsating consummation she felt as though she was drowning in the ecstasy of it.

  When their passion was spent, Adam gently cradled her in his arms.

  'You'll stay with me, not run away to England?'

  'Is it safe? Do we not break the law? Can Edward harm us?'

  'He'll not dare try. Do you want to return to Clifford Manor?'

  'I have no home there any more, and nothing to go to in England,' Bella said slowly. Her thoughts were in turmoil again. Once the abandonment of love was over she wondered anew at her abject subjection to his man and the cravings of her flesh. She admitted her pleasure in their lovemaking, but afterwards despised herself, wondering why she yielded so readily to him and yet hated Edward's caresses.

  He had not once said any words of love. He paid her compliments, and frankly admired her body, and as frankly demonstrated his desire to possess it. But he said nothing about any other need, and Bella firmly told herself he was interested in her only as a companion and plaything in his bed, but had a far more subtle manner of achieving his aims than her husband.

  However, she had spoken the truth when she said there was nothing for her in England. Even if she could persuade Adam to send her back, what could she do once she arrived? Would it not be better to enjoy Adam's need of her while she could? No matter how she despised her own weakness afterwards, she knew in her heart that she would never be able to resist the exquisite joy of their lovemaking. So she smiled at him and said she was content.

  Chapter 8

  Winter in Virginia was milder than in England. Bella went with Adam all over his plantation, marvelling at all he had achieved in his few years in the colony. He proudly showed her his newly planted vineyard, and already flourishing orchard.

  'We grow corn and vegetables as well as tobacco,' he explained, 'and I have brought animals from England.'

  'I haven't seen any other cattle,' she said.

  'Not many people can afford to ship them from England. There are more hogs and goats.'

  One day Adam took her with Thomas and John, who had readily accepted her equivocal position in the household, to visit his saw mill further up river.

  'I'm also experimenting with the extraction of walnut oil,' he told them as they toured the busy site where several men were employed.

  'Is it worth it?' Thomas once asked. 'The other things bring in far less than tobacco. Why, it fetches over five shillings a pound in England!'

  'At the moment. We are producing so much here the price must eventually drop, and then we shall not be able to afford to have a large part of our food brought from England. We must encourage the planters to provide more for themselves. Many of the craftsmen brought over by the Company have turned to tobacco planting instead in an attempt to make a quick fortune, and we are still short of skilled men.'

  'It's difficult to blame them,' John put in thoughtfully. 'Most of them have never before imagined having any spare money, let alone a fortune. It's probably the only chance they'll ever have.'

  'But it is short-sighted. If they work to establish good varied crops now they will benefit when the price of tobacco falls, as it surely must. Those who have made a fortune now will have to spend it again buying necessities at high prices.'

  John shrugged. 'You are right, of course, but they will not see it that way. It is easy enough for us, who have always had enough and have families to help us in need, to be far-sighted. The poor devils the Company ship out here have never had any practice in looking further ahead than their next meal.'

  'One day they will learn. I pay my craftsmen high wages and promise them security, and they can see the advantage in retaining their skills. I want to persuade others to do the same.'

  'I'm with you,' John said. 'Better to do it by example t
han through the Assembly. What do you think of the land I saw yesterday near Charles City?'

  'A good position, and plenty of room for expansion. Do you mean to buy it? Mistress Rawlings asks a fair price, and she cannot run it without a man.'

  'Did her husband die?' Thomas asked.

  'Her son and daughter-in-law owned it. They both died of a flux. She wanted to keep the plantation for her grandson, but he is barely two and she has decided it is best to return to England where they still have some property.'

  'I have a fancy for some new land near Henrico,' Thomas said slowly. 'It would be a good place to set up mills.'

  'At the Falls? But I thought you wanted a quick fortune from tobacco?' Adam said teasingly.

  'I do indeed, but perhaps I'll have both. You have inspired me with your talk of far-sightedness,' Thomas rejoined, laughing. 'Seriously, if one intends to stay, there is need of more than tobacco plants.'

  'And we have the money to wait, to resist the temptation of a fast return. Our profits then will be to the benefit of the colony as well,' Adam suggested.

  *

  Listening to such talk in the evenings Bella learned a great deal about the land she had come to. Occasionally she was persuaded to accompany the men on trips up the river, but usually she preferred to remain in the calm security of Adam's settlement, where she quickly became a favourite with his workpeople and their families.

  There was always plenty to do. Meg was a competent housekeeper, but with so many people to cook for she had little time for anything else. Bella learned that the hangings in the parlour where she had been taken on that first night were some Adam had brought from England.

  She found bolts of material stored away which were intended to provide more, and soon she was occupied with making and embroidering hangings, cushions, and bedcovers to add to the already considerable comfort of the house. She was quick with figures, and able to help Adam in keeping the increasingly complicated accounts, releasing him as the harvest season approached for work outside.

  The tobacco harvest was the most critical because of its value in England. Bella had seen where the previous year's crop was hung to dry in the huge barns which Adam had built a year or so earlier. They would remain there for months until the leaves could be stripped off and sorted for quality, then packed in large hogsheads.

  'Why does not everyone pack it the way you do?' Bella asked one day, after she had accompanied Adam to Jamestown to shop for stores and seen huge rolls of tobacco leaves lying on the wharfs waiting for shipment to England.

  'Mine is the newer method. It bruises the leaves less, for they are not handled so much. Also, some planters, in their greed to make a swift profit, have stuffed the rolls with inferior tobacco. They care little that they damage the reputation of the whole colony. I and some others have begun to send our own marked hogsheads to factors in London, and soon we shall find our buyers relying on us for quality.'

  They were so busy Bella was able to forget Edward for much of the time. Thomas and John left for their own newly acquired plantations, and Adam promised to visit them once the tobacco seedlings were planted in the sheltered beds in the forest. Several times he took Bella with him to visit his friends, and she was hostess when they came to Fairmile. They accepted her presence with him unquestioningly, although many of the men privately congratulated Adam on his good fortune in finding such a delectable mistress.

  They were content apart from their shared reserve. Bella would not admit to herself that she felt any more for Adam than physical delight in his lovemaking, and he sensed that, despite her eager responses, she withheld the core of her being from him. That being so he could not bring himself to express in words his growing adoration of her, a feeling quite separate from his appreciation of her body. Adam had been independent for too long, and suspicious of the many who had merely tried to use him, to trust any women unreservedly.

  Yet he wanted her to confess her love for him, and when she did not he began consciously trying to make her jealous by paying attention to other women.

  Bella, hurt but unwilling to confess it, assumed he was bored with her and told herself that this confirmed her opinion of men in general. She retaliated by flirting with the men, who were all too ready to encourage her.

  At several houses they met Mary Bolton and her husband, now the owners of a small plantation near Charles City. Mary's jealous eyes soon discovered that while they appeared to be on perfectly amicable terms, Adam and Bella spent less time together than might have been expected. To her chagrin her attempts to attract Adam still met with polite rebuffs, and she concentrated on discovering which of Bella's many admirers received most encouragement. It was not long before she decided John Porlock was the most favoured suitor, and began a determined campaign to discredit Bella in Adam's eyes.

  *

  Bella's friendship with John had increased when she discovered he knew Kent, and she frequently talked to him about it, finding their reminiscences assuaged her loneliness and homesickness. John, while succumbing to the general admiration for Bella, was a perceptive young man and realized that although her relationship with Adam was far from perfect, she was unlikely ever to look seriously at another man. In unguarded moments the puzzlement and hurt could be seen in her eyes, as she watched him talking or dancing with other women. But then she would disguise her sadness with smiles and laughter and deliberately turn away to pay attention to someone else.

  'I wonder what she sees in John?' Mary asked Adam one day. 'They spent most of yesterday together and she has danced with almost no one else tonight.'

  'They both lived in Kent,' Adam replied shortly.

  'So did her husband,' Mary retorted. 'She does not seek his company though!'

  'Have you heard Edward Sutton has been seriously ill?' she asked on another occasion. 'A wound in a fight, I understand, but no one appears to know how it happened, or who injured him.'

  'I'm not interested in Sutton.'

  'It seems surprising that Bella, who seems to be able to twist every other man round her finger, could not do as she wished with her own husband. Did she run away from him in a fit of temper when she could not get her own way?'

  'You saw how she left,' was all Adam replied to this and walked away.

  The winter continued, cold, with a few flurries of snow and much rain. Several times Indians came to the house to trade, and Adam bought Bella a warm beaverskin jacket and soft moccasins. She found that the Indians, at peace with the settlers for the last five years, had acquired a few words of English. They were proud people, though gentle and friendly in their dealings with the strangers who had descended onto their tribal lands. They appeared strange indeed in their short fringed aprons, and the curious leggings that they wore when it was cold, with feathered cloaks slung over their shoulders, and more feathers in the knot of hair which they made from what remained on the unshaven left sides of their heads. They prized white beads, which contrasted with their weather-browned skins, but cast longing eyes on the guns Adam and his men possessed, for the settlers were forbidden to trade guns with the Indians.

  Their only weapons appeared to be knives, and the arrows which they always carried on their backs. They appeared to use these mainly for hunting, for they always had fresh meat, rabbits, venison, or wild turkeys when they arrived at the house.

  Adam was often away for a night or so, but Bella refused to admit how desperately she missed him in the big bed on those nights. She would not tell him, nor would her pride permit her to let him see how his continued flirting with other women hurt her, but she lay for hours during those lonely nights and miserably thought of him in other beds. Firmly she tried to convince herself it was less his lovemaking that she missed than the fear of her own loss of security and a home for Toby and Alice, should he tire of her.

  In fact his absences were entirely to discuss common problems with other planters and leading men in the colony. He was trying to persuade them to develop more varied agriculture, and to relax some of
the more puritanical laws passed at the first Assembly two and a half years before, when twenty-two burgesses representing eleven settlements along the James River had met for the first time.

  'If men are permitted to drink and gamble in moderation, they need not do it in secret. Once something is done in secret it becomes a vice,' he maintained.

  'We must deter men from idleness and vanity,' had been the reply from Governor Yeardley, whose period of office had just ended. 'Bright apparel, wine and immodest behaviour lead to other sins.'

  Adam received the same reply from the new Governor, Sir Francis Wyatt after he took office in November, but still he hoped that his opinions would one day prevail.

  Bella realized that while she remained quietly in Adam's house they would not be brought before the Council for their liaison. The Company needed Adam's support in new crops and industries. He was therefore too valuable to offend. But they could not flaunt their relationship, and so on visits to the colony leaders Bella had to remain at Fairmile. For Bella there were far too many lonely nights and when John appeared after Adam had left to visit the embryo ironworks at Henrico, the furthest settlement up river, she welcomed him eagerly.

  'I was hoping I could stay the night,' he explained as he followed her into the parlour, 'but if Adam is not here I had better not. I will go on to Jamestown.'

  'It is late and I do not see why you must,' Bella replied. 'Adam is not jealous,' she added, a trifle wistfully.

  They stayed up late talking, and in the morning Bella took John to the barns to show him the progress of the tobacco leaves which were being dried there, the windows opened and closed according to the weather. It was almost midday when Bella walked down to the landing stage with John to see him off. There were several small boats and canoes on the river, but by now Bella had ceased scanning each one fearfully in case Edward was there. He had made no move to reclaim or harm her, and she was beginning to feel safe.