by Fiona Wilde
"This is the end benefit," he said, taking Lucy's hand and leading her to where her son stood.
The rest of the day was a delight to Lucy and Keegan. Lucy got to see her son fish for the first time, and pull a one pound bass from Warren's pond - with help. She led him around on the ancient Shetland pony that had come with the farm when Warren bought it. They hiked down to the field where Warren kept beehives, but despite assurances that the insects would not sting she refused to let him go any closer.
An active day in the sun turned into a cookout. When Keegan fell asleep on the couch and Lucy went to rouse him, Warren stopped her.
"Let him sleep."
"If he goes to sleep now he'll be a grump when I wake him up to take him home."
"So stay over," Warren said.
Lucy looked at him, wondering if she'd heard correctly. "What?"
"Please stay over," he said. "You and your son have given me something today. I don't entertain much. Once in awhile a professor or a fellow historian or a member of my poultry club..."
He laughed here and so did she.
"...they'll come over. But it's nothing compared to this, Lucy. Nothing. This was...real. You and Keegan are real."
Lucy looked down shyly. "Are you sure that this isn't just the loneliness talking?"
He shook his head. "I should spank you for saying that," he said. "I have had opportunities to date. I've dated women with and without children. But I've never met anyone like you and Keegan. You are very sweet, very... uncomplicated."
She smiled. It was true. Lucy had never known how to be high-maintenance. Warren's lifestyle was like heaven to her.
"I thought you found me disobedient," she said.
Warren looked over to see if Keegan was sleeping. He was. So he took Lucy in his arms.
"You have your moments," he said. "I was going to give you a serious spanking for the pushback I got from you at work today. But I've decided to give you a reprieve. You speak your mind, and you're loyal. You've loyal to people who don't even deserve your loyalty and bottom line I think that is because you are a good person."
He smoothed a strand of hair away from her face.
"I would like to have a relationship with you, Lucy Primm."
She stared at him, pondering this.
"Say something. Please," he said.
"I don't know what to say," Lucy replied honestly. "Keegan and I have been on our own for so long. I'm afraid to rely on someone else. What happened to me before..."
"I'm a good man," he said.
"Keegan's father said he was a good man," Lucy said.
Warren sighed. "So you're going to punish every potential mate for the actions of one despicable cad?"
She flushed. He was right.
"Yeah, I guess that's pretty harsh isn't it?"
"It's very harsh, Lucy. I know you're going to find this very old fashioned, but Keegan needs a father figure. And his mother needs someone to look after her."
"No I don't."
"Well maybe 'need' is the wrong word. The question is, does she want it?"
Lucy shook her head and laughed ironically. "Sometimes it's really hard, Warren. But I don't want to enter a relationship for the convenience. I want it to be for love. I want Keegan to see me love the next man I'm with."
"Could you see yourself loving me?"
She thought for a moment. "Yes," she said. "My only fear is that I'd disappoint you."
"Disappoint me? How?"
"Your standards are high," she said.
"No. My standards are simple, Lucy. Keep things simple. Follow the rules. Accept me as the head of the house. Respect me."
He reached out and cupped her side of her face in his hand. "Love me."
He laughed them. "Women don't understand how simple men are. Give us what we want and even if we think we are in charge we're the ones who end up eating out of your hands."
"Does that mean you'll never spank me again?" she asked.
"Emphatically, no," he said. "Even if you enchant me, young lady, and I have a feeling you most certainly will, I will always keep a level head enough to protect you from yourself should you need it. And as we both realize, the best way to get through to that head of yours is through your pretty bottom."
Lucy flushed red.
"I'll need to think about it," she said.
"Will you stay the night?"
"It's too early to sleep together," she said bluntly.
He pulled her to him and kissed her first on one cheek and then the other.
"I wasn't intending to," he said. "This house has seven bedrooms. I can promise that your virtue will remain safe, as I will take the one at the far end of the hall."
"I didn't bring clothes."
"I have a t-shirt."
"You. Have a t-shirt." She sounded purposefully doubtful.
"From the poultry association. They gave it to me when I joined."
Lucy began to giggle.
"All right," she said. "I'll stay. I'd love to."
He kissed her then and she returned it, reveling as their embrace deep end.
Later, as she lay with Keegan in the canopied bed of the guest room she tried to imagine what life with Warren Ellis would be like. Would she be able to adjust to the rules and structure he offered after being alone for so long? The idea both comforted and terrified her. She simply did not know.
But she did know she'd have time to find out. Warren was a gentleman. He'd allow her to take it slow. Time, she knew, would tell.
Chapter Seven
"Wake up, mommy! Wake up!"
Lucy forced her eyes open as her son shook her and looked up to see him staring down at her, his face exuberant under a mop of tousled hair.
She raised herself up on her elbows and blinked as she looked out the window. The rays of dawn were just streaming in; she guessed the time to be before seven. Way before seven.
Lucy plopped her head back down on the pillow and groaned.
"Keegan, honey, it's really early. Let Mommy sleep."
But few things are more persistent, or energetic, than an excited four-year-old and her son would not be denied.
"Mommy! It's our first day ever on a real farm and Mr. Ellis said he had a lot to show us!" He was pulling on her arm now, and Lucy reluctantly let him haul her up to sitting.
"OK, fine," she said. "But if we go downstairs you must promise to be quiet. It's the weekend and adults sometimes like to sleep late. Even adults like Mr. Ellis."
It was a good thing that Lucy hadn't bet real money. She would have lost. Their host as already up building a fire. Lucy still couldn't get used to seeing him in jeans and a sweater but she had to admit it didn't detract from his courtly manner which he wore like the historical garb he was so fond of.
"Mr. Ellis!" Keegan ran to him, enthusiastic, and jumped on the man's back as he knelt to put logs on the fire. Lucy cringed, sure he'd be upset with her son but instead Warren grabbed the little boy and hung him upside down.
"Look, Lucy," he teased. "I found the perfect boy-shaped log for our fire!"
"I'm not a log!" Keegan was seized by fits of giggles as he hung there in Warren's strong arms and Lucy could not help but laugh herself.
"Please, sir," she said. "Spare my son!"
Warren pretended to consider. "Very well," he said, plopping the boy back down onto is feet. "It's easy to show mercy to an early riser."
Lucy smiled. "I was afraid you wouldn't be up," she said.
"I don't yet have a good reason to stay in bed," he said and she looked down, blushing as she silently wondered if he realized that his comment could be taken in more ways than one.
"Would you mind if I cooked breakfast?" she asked.
"That would be nice," he said. "Just keep in mind that the pantry is historically correct."
"Oh my," she said.
"When you've got it on the table, just ring the bell. I'll keep Keegan busy outside. There's chickens to feed and apples to harvest if he's up for it."
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"I'm up for it! I'm up for it!" Keegan jumped up and down in excitement.
"Any preferences for what you want me to fix?" she asked.
"Surprise us," he said, and then swooped Keegan up, turning to wave the boy's hand at his mother.
"Bye, fair lady!" he pantomimed in Keegan's voice.
Lucy watched them go and shook her head as she turned back to the kitchen. Warren Ellis was an entirely different person here. More relaxed, more easygoing. She thought about what he said, about how he would still spank her if they were in a relationship but she couldn't see the man who played so warmly with her son reverting back to the stoic disciplinarian she'd encountered back at Hartford House.
The kitchen was, as he promised, well stocked with all manner of food. Nothing was prepackaged. It was like walking into a pantry gone back in time. The walk-in room off the kitchen held barrels filled with potatoes and yams. Sacks of rice, flour and oats were stacked neatly against the wall. Lucy picked up a bag of buckwheat flour and put it on the counter along with several eggs and some milk that - judging by the bottles - came from the co-op farm store down the road. She ran some water into a bowl and filled it with dried apples so they could reconstitute while she mixed the batter.
She'd never made buckwheat apple pancakes but being a single mother had made her and inventive cook. Lucy had learned to do a lot with a little and soon the kitchen was filled with the aroma of pancakes and fresh bacon she had carved from a slab hanging in the pantry.
The bell was by the backdoor. Lucy's ears resonated with its loud gong and soon she saw the two of them - Keegan and Warren - jogging up the hill. Warren ran slowly, on purpose so that Keegan could keep up. Every now and then the boy slowed down to check the basket he was carrying. They were coming from the henhouse and again Lucy found herself shaking her head in disbelief; was the thrifty Warren Ellis the same man now letting a four-year-old jog uphill carrying a basket of eggs.
She was further astounded when Keegan breathlessly reached her without a single one broken.
"You're brave," she told Warren. "That was quite a risk you let him take. I'm sure the hens don't appreciate it."
He shrugged. "They're eventually going to get cracked anyway. Which reminds me. The men folk are hungry. How's breakfast coming along?"
"See for yourself!" Lucy walked into the kitchen and beamed with pride as Warren looked over the table, where a platter of fluffy buckwheat pancakes now served as a centerpiece. A cake of cream butter sat to the side along with thick-sliced bacon and eggs, sunny side up. The coffee percolated on the stove nearby.
"I'm hungry! And I love pancakes!" Keegan was beaming, too.
"Well let's get your hands washed and you can eat," she said.
Lucy took Keegan down the hall to the small guest bath where she cleaned his hands as he chattered excitedly about his egg-gathering adventure. When she came back she found Warren had already doled out pancakes and was pouring coffee. A jug of fresh maple syrup had appeared on the table.
"Where was that?" she asked, motioning to the bottle. "I looked for some but didn't see it."
"On a high shelf in the pantry," he said. "Above your head."
She laughed and settled in and for the next hour they just sat and ate and talked. It was a nice feeling, she thought, sitting together like a ....Lucy felt herself grow warm with embarrassment. That was silly. She didn't really know this guy and yet she was already getting cozy family feelings being here at his table in his house on his farm.
Keegan kept smiling at their host and Warren smiled back. It looked like her son was falling in love with Warren Ellis faster than she was, if that was what was happening. If things went badly... The idea of her little boy growing attached to Warren and getting disappointed upset her deeply.
She must have looked troubled because the next minute, Warren was looking at her curiously. "What's wrong, Lucy?"
She sighed and leaned over to her son. "Keegan, why don't you as Mr. Ellis if you can play with those little carved animals you were playing with last night."
"Sure he can," Warren said. "They're right they're in the basket on the table beside the couch."
Keegan grinned. "Thanks!" he said, running from the room.
They watched him run out and then he turned back to her. "So what's wrong?"
She sighed. "Nothing, really. I just really enjoy your company. So does Keegan."
"So since when does enjoying someone's company make a woman look so pensive?"
She shook her head. "I just don't want him to get hurt."
Warren smiled sadly. "Not all men are without honor, Lucy."
"Warren." She stood to pick up the plates. "This isn't about honor. Even honorable people find they're incompatible. I just don't want to move too fast. It all seems so perfect. Usually when that happens it's just an illusion."
"You think I'm an illusion?" he asked.
"No," she said. "But I'm afraid you might end up thinking we are. A woman with a child, that's territory a lot of men don't want to tread."
"I'm not like most men," he said.
"I know." She smiled. "And I appreciate that."
"Lucy, I would never hurt you or Keegan."
She felt as if she were going to cry and didn't really know why. "How can you say that, Warren? You may know the past, but you don't know the future. None of us do."
"That's true," he said. "But as I've already suggested, it's just as ridiculous to think you can tell the future by what's happened in the past."
"This isn't about Keegan's father?" she said defensively.
"Isn't it?"
"No!" she said, her voice edged with anger now.
"Temper, Miss Primm." His voice was laced with warning, the same warning he used not as her friend but as the stoic director of Hartford House. Warren Ellis was warning her to calm down, to listen. And the tone triggered a wariness in her. Perhaps she was wrong; perhaps he'd been telling the truth when he'd said a relationship with her would not stop her from getting a spanking if she stepped over the line.
"Please don't think I'm insulting you," she said. "I just want to be careful."
He leaned forward, taking her face gently in his hand.
"Pretty Lucy," he said. "You love your son. You're a good mother. That's just one of the things that makes me unable to stop falling for you."
She was blushing when his lips fell upon hers in a warm kiss. His mouth teased hers open and she sighed as his tongue slipped between her teeth to caress hers. Her hands moved to his shoulders, then her arms were around his neck as his kiss deepened. Lucy felt a flush of heated pleasure course through her body, and pressed herself against him in spite of herself.
"Here I was worrying about moving too fast," she said, and they both laughed before beginning to kiss again.
"What are you doing?" Lucy jumped and turned to see Keegan standing there, looking at them.
She turned, wiping her mouth. "Nothing."
"Sybil Anderson said that's called making out." His voice was accusatory. "She said kissing is where babies come from. Are you going to have another baby now?"
"Good lord, what are kids telling each other these days?" Warren sounded somewhere between amused and incredulous.
Lucy got up and walked over to her son, kneeling down to take his hands in her own. "Sybil Anderson doesn't know anything. People don't make babies by kissing, so don't worry. And for heaven's sakes don't go back to school and repeat what you just said, OK?"
"Why?"
Lucy sighed with exasperation.
"Because it's not honorable," Warren said. "And as a little man you need to be honorable and only say honorable things."
Lucy glanced over her shoulder. "Honor is a pretty heavy concept for a little boy, Warren. Keegan doesn't even know what that is."
"Yes I do!" Keegan grew serious. "Mr. Ellis said honor is being fair and kind and paying attention to how you act. He said it makes the people you love proud, and makes you proud of yourself. So don't worr
y. I won't say anything."
"Wow." Lucy shook her head, impressed. "That's pretty amazing."
"He's a pretty amazing kid." Warren walked over and ruffled the boy's hair.
The rest of the day only got better. Warren took them for a spin around his lake in a canoe, after which they drifted to the middle so he could teach Keegan to fish. Lucy watch with amusement from under the brim of her hat as her son pulled out a small bream and then proudly snapped a picture before Warren threw it back so it could "grow up."
Next came a trip to the orchard to pick more apples and pears which Warren showed Keegan could be turned into cider on a press. Keegan wanted to try everything their host did and by the time evening fell Lucy felt like she'd spent much of the day feeling happily like a fifth wheel.
Keegan fell asleep ten minutes after his bath, happily exhausted as he planned for the next day's activities. Lucy showered after he was asleep and went down to find that Warren was patiently waiting with a tray of wine and cheese. They'd had a nice dinner; she wasn't hungry. But she took the glass of wine with gratitude.
"Thanks for today," she said. "It really was lovely."
"It was lovely for me, too," he said. Then he paused.
"I'm not looking forward to tomorrow afternoon," he said.
She shot him a quizzical look. "Why not?"
"Because the two of you will be going back."
Lucy blushed. "That's really very nice of you to say. I was wondering earlier if you'd invite me back after warning me about my temper."
He stood up and took her by the hand. Leading her back to his chair he sat down and pulled her into his lap.
"Well, I would hate to have to spank you again. For punishment, that is. However, I must say the idea of warming your body for pleasure does appeal to me."
"For pleasure?"
He laughed and then kissed her. "For a woman who has a child you have a certain innocence about you, Lucy Primm. Do you mean to tell me that no one has ever introduced you to the subtle line between pleasure and pain?"
She blushed. Her sexual experiences had been brief and less than impressive. She blushed even deeper as she admitted this to him.
"Stupid men," he said. "What a chance many pass up to explore the finer things in life with a truly beautiful pupil." He put his arms around her. "May I?"