She put the last of the fish in the warming pan on the back of the stove and took the biscuits out and stacked them nicely on a clean plate. She went to the bedroom to give her hair a quick combing, only to realize she had flour on her skirt and face.
Knowing Jesse would arrive any minute, she quickly washed and changed to a new dress of red and white stripe, banded at the sleeves and cinched waist with red. As much as she had tried not to take advantage of having an unlimited bank account, she couldn’t resist the dress when she saw it in Murphy’s window. She figured she deserved at least that for giving up cigarettes.
She coughed several times, momentarily unable to catch her breath. “It’s a good thing I did quit,” she muttered, trying to clear her throat. It appeared the dunk in the stream had settled a cold in her throat. Shrugging, she decided it wasn’t going to interfere with her surprise dinner for Jesse.
Speaking of, she wondered where he could be. She lit the lamps in the living room, then glanced out the door. The last of the daylight faded, which meant it had to be at least eight o’clock.
By nine o’clock, Ellie’s throat bothered her enough she figured a glass of wine would help soothe the rough edges. Besides, waiting for a date to show up had never been her strong suit. She just hoped dinner would still taste good.
By eleven o’clock, Ellie didn’t give a damn about dinner, or much of anything else. She had been stood up. Numbly, she set her wine glass down next to the near empty bottle, curled up on the couch and fell into a deep sleep.
* * *
Jesse knocked on Ellie’s door bright and early. For too many days, he had been working long hours at the mine. They had to keep after it. Jesse felt in his bones they were within inches of the motherlode and he desperately wanted to clear his debt with Scott. He was just as weary as the rest of the men, but they were all hanging in there with him.
That must have been why, when Lucky told him Ellie wanted to see him and that he’d better be ready for a surprise, and that he’d better like the surprise, Jesse let the message run in one ear and out the other. Lucky was always muttering about something and Jesse had been too tired to listen.
He knocked again. It wasn’t all that early, and Jesse thought to take Ellie out for breakfast. The door opened a crack as he raised his hand a third time.
“Whatcha want?” The voice, deep and scratchy, wasn’t one Jesse recognized, and the gloom inside prevented him from seeing past the door.
“Ellie?” It had to be her, even though it didn’t sound like it.
From what he could see through the widening crack, she was dressed in a pretty candy-cane-striped dress which accented her small waist, and for a moment Jesse was tempted to forego breakfast for a taste of her. When he glanced up, however, he noticed her hair was tangled about her face; her eyes were red and puffy. She looked worse than when she’d had the fever, but he knew better than to tell her that.
“Well, look whoz ‘ere.” She swung the door the rest of the way open as she spoke, but Jesse still wouldn’t have recognized her voice.
“What happened to you?”
In response, she coughed. Jesse stepped forward to help, but she held up her hand.
“Stay right there, you...you varmint!”
Did she say varmint? “Ellie--”
“Don’t you Ellie, me. I am so mad at you, I could--” coughing interrupted her outrage.
Jesse could tell from her stance he’d better not try getting any closer, so he used his voice to soothe her. “Calm down, darling.”
Her hands went to her hips; a sure sign she was upset. Jesse just didn’t have a clue why.
“I caught a cold ‘cuz I fell in the creek. I fell in the creek fishin’ for you. I cooked the damned fish, along with beans and biscuits and a cherry pie, and you weren’t here to eat it.” She drew in a deep breath. Jesse thought sure she’d start coughing again, but she was just stubborn enough to hold her breath and refuse to let even a little cough escape.
“I’m sorry, honey, I got busy.” He offered the apology with a shrug. “I’ll take you to breakfast instead.”
“You...got...busy.” She enunciated each word with an angry toss of her head. “So I’m suppose to just forget all the hard work I did; just suppose to toss it all to the dogs?”
Her attitude set Jesse’s teeth on edge. He had worked all night in the mine, stopping near dawn to catch an hour’s sleep before washing and coming to town. Didn’t she know how close he was; didn’t she care? Anger got the best of him.
“Be reasonable, Elizabeth. It never bothered you before if I worked late. Sometimes it never seemed to bother you if I came by at all.”
“I’m tired of being reasonable.” She shrieked at him. “Everyone tells me what to do. I can’t say what I want, or do what I want.” She stopped in the middle of her tirade to cough, her hand going to her throat. Jesse would have helped, but her posture prohibited him from getting close. Besides, at the moment he was just as mad.
Once she caught her breath, she poked a finger in his chest, sending him backwards across the porch. “I’m tired of this.” She waved a hand that vaguely included him and the entire town. “I want hot running water, jazz on CD’s, a cold beer and a hot pizza!” With a cry sounding close to despair, she whirled away from him and rushed back into the house.
The door slammed in his face.
* * *
It took a long walk up the mountain, a cold soak in the creek, and a few hours’ sleep before Jesse’s temper became manageable enough for him to think clearly. He went back to work but his mind remained on his troubles.
Lucky had told him to be in for a surprise, but Jesse could hardly warrant Ellie’s fit of temper in that category. Well, come to think on it, the degree to which she had lambasted him was a surprise.
He grinned, then sighed in resignation. What was he to do with her? He loved her like crazy. He even recalled thinking how glorious she looked shrieking at him like some fishwife.
Obsessed -- that’s what he was. He’d been around gold, silver and Elizabeth half his life and hadn’t gotten “the fever” as the old-timers called it. But like reaching manhood, it must hit some later than others. At twenty-four years of age, he had an unquenchable thirst for one feisty, extraordinary woman who plagued his dreams and tormented his physical wellbeing.
With a manly sigh, Jesse knew what he had to do.
Later that day, he nervously stood on her doorstep, this time prepared, or so he hoped. She didn’t immediately answer his knock, and he began to wonder if she would. He had turned to leave when he heard a tentative query.
“Now what?” At least she sounded better.
Before he lost his nerve, he thrust out his gifts. “I don’t know what pizza is, but will daisies do?”
She looked from the handful of wildflowers and crock of beer up to his brooding gaze and with a cry, she flew into his outstretched arms. Hugging him close, she covered his face with kisses, regardless of the fact they stood on the porch in broad daylight.
That was Ellie for you.
“I’m sorry, Jesse, so sorry,” she crooned as she tugged him inside and closed the door behind him. Before he could answer, she was in his arms again, hugging him tight enough to get inside his skin. He felt the same way.
“I don’t care about the cold dinner; or the beer or pizza, or any of it. Really, I don’t.” Her cold lent her voice a deep, throaty quality Jesse found instantly appealing.
He kissed her deeply, breathing the scent that was her, all fresh air and sunshine. Finally lifting his head, he couldn’t help but tease her. “Then you don’t want my offerings; not even the cold beer?”
“Later,” she breathed the single word close to his ear as she kissed his neck.
Jesse was fast forgetting everything except the feel of her, and regretted having his hands full so that he couldn’t touch her. “Later the beer won’t be cold.” He threw back his head as her lips traveled along his shirt collar then down where he had the first coup
le of buttons undone.
“So?” Her question was a warm, fuzzy puff of air on his neck.
Reaching around her, he managed to set the crock of beer on a table without spilling, but the flowers dropped in a pile when her hands slid beneath his belt to massage his back. With a heartfelt sigh, he gave up the fight. “So, I can’t remember.” Laughing, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom.
With each piece of clothing he removed, Jesse’s passion rose until he wondered how he could contain it long enough to make sure Ellie found her own pleasure.
“Jesse, now!” Her command brought a smile to his lips, and while her outstretched arms beckoned him, he lingered at her feet where he had tugged her stockings off and flung them across the room. Giving her a lecherous grin, he ignored her edict and began kissing the soles of her feet, her dainty ankles, her silken calves. With deliberate slowness, he worked his way up her legs, transferring his attend from one to the other.
“Do you know how desperately I love you?” He questioned huskily as he continued raining kisses on her hot skin. “I can’t get enough of you; I want under your skin like you’ve gotten under mine.”
Exotic kisses swept across Ellie and she thought she’d melt from the heat. “Oh,” she moaned, rolling her head from side to side, panicking because of the intensity of feelings she experienced. This time was different; this time there was an aura of other worldliness about their lovemaking that scared her to death. Afraid that if she crested without him she would leave this world for another, she clutched his shoulders, tugging.
“Jesse, please,” she begged, “I need you now; I can’t wait.” She breathed the words into the air, having lost her sense of direction and feeling as though he was everywhere around her at once.
Jesse relented, partially, and kissed the hollow of her belly, tongue swirling into her navel. She couldn’t understand how he could be in such control; she sure wasn’t. As he worked his way upwards, kissing the underside of her breast, she could finally reach him. The instant her hand circled his manhood, she knew he wasn’t in control at all.
With a groan, he pulled her hand away, pinning both wrists above her head and with a yell of victory, took her with one swift stroke. Ellie’s legs immediately circled his lean waist to hold him tight against her.
“More,” her feverish whisper rasped and he obliged, sinking deep into her being and taking over her mind.
Just as she reached the brink of ecstasy, her body clutching around him, he stopped all movement. Ellie strained for fulfillment, pleading for what only Jesse could give her. She arched her hips; he didn’t move. She lifted her head to nibble on his neck; still he didn’t twitch. With a groan, she dropped her head back to the bed and lifted her eyes to his.
“Did you think it would be this easy? That I would let it end so quickly?” She hardly recognized his voice, so deep and husky and full of unspent passion. But even as he voiced his desire to extend their euphoria, she could tell the toll it took. His forehead creased in concentration, his sensuous mouth shut in a tight line.
Ellie couldn’t stand it. She jerked her hips beneath his. “Please. We can always make love again later. I need you now.”
An erotic smile touched his lips, spread to his eyes. With infinite slowness, he lowered to kiss her lips, his barely brushing hers; stopping to savor the corner of her mouth, sliding upward to lavish kisses on her eyes, her nose.
“Now; later. There is no time except infinity in which I will love you.” He breathed the words against her skin. “No stopping for breath, no sunrises or sunsets to mark the days; no questions. Just forever.”
And then Ellie clung to him as he took them both to the pinnacle of passion, where lovers can see to the ends of the earth and beyond, and know they will be together always.
* * *
Ellie watched Jesse sleep and tried to keep the desperation at bay a little longer. She gently brushed the hair back from his brow, memorizing the silky feel of it as she had already tucked away memories of his smile, his laughter, and his tender loving.
“How can I bare to leave you, sweet Jesse?” She whispered in the dark. “If I don’t go to the mine in just a few days, I will not be sent back to my own time, but you will die.” She bit her lips together to keep from crying out loud. There was no choice, and she knew it. She just couldn’t stand the agony of it.
“I will love you forever,” she murmured, bending forward to kiss his bare chest.
The arm which had been around her shoulders tightened. “Mmmm,” he mumbled, but didn’t wake up. Ellie guessed that would have to do for now.
* * *
Ellie wiggled closer to the warmth at her side, scooting a leg over the lean hips then sliding her foot up and down a hairy leg.
“Now that’s a very nice way to wake up.” Jesse murmured close to her ear, then kissed the corner of her mouth.
Ellie would have remained as is, but the clanking noise next to her ear roused her curiosity. She slowly raised her head. “What are you doing?” She licked the side of her mouth where he had kissed. “And why do I taste like cherry pie?”
“Because,” Jesse smacked his lips, “I am having breakfast.” He scooped the last forkful of pie into his mouth. “Delicious.” He wiggled his eyebrows, and Ellie wasn’t sure if he meant the pie at all.
Bemused, she brushed her hair out of her eyes as Jesse plunked the plate and fork on the side table then hung over the bed, mumbling as he dug through the clothes they had left piled on the floor.
Even though there was an enticing view of male buttocks as the sheet tugged lower with his movements, Ellie’s attention was diverted. She smelled--
“Ah, here it is.” Jesse straightened up just as Ellie scooted off the other side. “Hey, where are you going?”
“Coffee.” Ellie thought by now he would remember she didn’t do mornings well.
He grabbed her arm to stop her. “At your service, ma’am.” A steaming mug was carefully waved under her nose.
She settled back against the headboard, content. “Ah, you’re a good man, Jesse Cole.” She smiled sideways at him.
“I like to think so.”
For several minutes, they sat in silence, sipping their morning coffee, close but not touching, and yet Ellie felt him as though they were. She reached down to his free hand, entwining her fingers with his. He brought their hands up to his lips, kissing her knuckles one at a time.
As she watched, he set his coffee aside, then slid a ring onto the third finger of her right hand. It was a beautifully crafted solid gold band--like a wedding band. Ellie jerked her hand back, but he refused to release it.
“I want you to have this. It was my mother’s, made from the first ounce of gold pa ever took from the Nightingale.” The ring felt like a burning brand against Ellie’s skin.
“I can’t,” she whispered, not wanting to break the spell which held them, but fearing she had to say something; had to tell him the truth. Jesse didn’t appear to notice her anguish.
“I know we’re not married, yet. That’s why I put it on your right hand.”
“Oh, how can you want me when I shrieked at you and said such awful things?” The tears came, regardless of how hard Ellie fought against them.
“I won’t run for cover, Ellie. I’m built to endure.” He took her hand and placed it over his heart. “I won’t desert you when things get tough...or when you wake up grumpy.”
“It’s not that--” her voice trailed off. She couldn’t tell him; too much depended on everybody playing their roles, and if Jesse knew the original outcome, he’d try to change it around.
“What is it, El? You can tell me anything.”
But she knew she couldn’t. As his finger idly rubbed against the ring he had put on her finger, she cursed the day her editor had sent her to Reno; cursed Lucky and Zeke for finding her at Peavine and bringing her back through time. Then she realized she never would have met Jesse, so regardless of the bad surrounding them, she clung to t
he good; the love that was Jesse.
She laid across his chest, her forehead touching his. Ever so gently she kissed his lips, hungry for the taste of him. “I will wear your mother’s ring, Jesse, with honor and with love, until the day you tell me you want it back.” Or until I return to my own time and it will no longer matter to you, she thought mournfully.
“Never, El. You’re mine for eternity, remember?” He returned her kiss.
“Oh, yes,” she breathed. He just didn’t know how close to the truth he really was.
Chapter 14
Sarah had returned to town and had invited Ellie to coffee. Glad for any excuse to keep her mind busy, Ellie hurried through her bath and dress. With only three days left before the celebration, it might be the last time she saw Sarah. Ellie refused to think of the fourth of July as being anything other than the celebration; she refused to voice any negative words.
“Welcome, Elizabeth.” Sarah opened the door to a quaint little clapboard house not far from Ellie’s own. Well, not far from Elizabeth’s house. Sarah’s use of that name reminded Ellie that she was just an impostor; borrowing someone else’s name and life.
Determined not to allow melancholy to take over, she hugged Sarah then followed her into the sitting room. As the younger woman poured coffee, Ellie searched for a topic of conversation.
“So, how was your honeymoon?”
Sarah blushed. “Really, Elizabeth, how can you speak of such things?”
Ellie shrugged. “Speak of what?”
Sarah continued to stare at her coffee cup. “You know,” she whispered. Then, her eyes widened. “Oh! I forgot you’re not married.”
Ellie had to laugh. It wouldn’t matter in the long run whether Sarah knew how far she and Jesse had gone, but Ellie doubted the newlywed’s sensibilities could handle it. She decided a confused smile was in order.
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