Winterberry Fire

by Merry Farmer

  She moved more urgently against his hand, following the call of ages-old instinct. He groaned in response, shifting so that he not only penetrated her, but rubbed against the part of her she’d shamefully teased to give herself pleasure on many of the nights when she’d dreamed of him. The combination was explosive, and within seconds, the familiar, delicious throb of orgasm swept over her.

  “Tim,” she cried as her body thundered into completion. It felt so good to have her inner muscles squeeze around his fingers, but at the same time, she sensed there could be so much more.

  “My darling Ada,” Tim panted.

  The pleasure lasted far longer than she’d ever been able to create on her own, but as the heat of satisfaction spread through her, loosening her muscles and making her drowsy, she sensed that he was still wound as tight as a top. With her own needs sated, she became aware of the tension in his muscles, not to mention the stiff bulge in his trousers.

  A second wave of desire swept through her, and she shifted back, standing on shaky legs and pushing the bunched fabric of her dress down over her hips. As she shed the rest of her clothing, Tim pushed his suspenders from his shoulders and tugged his shirt out of his trousers. By the time she kicked her clothes aside and stretched across Tim’s bed, he was pushing his trousers down his legs, revealing his masculine body in all its glory.

  He was lean and muscular, surprisingly so for a schoolteacher. His arms were solid and his chest broad and dusted with just the right amount of hair. His stomach was flat, and his slim waist drew her attention to the thick, heavy spear of his manhood, standing stiff at attention. Excitement fluttered through her belly at the sight of it, knowing where it would be in just a short amount of time.

  The prick of fear that shivered through her at the knowledge only added to the aching anticipation of joining with him. He discarded his clothes, then stretched himself over top of her, kissing her with a long, hungry sigh.

  “We shouldn’t do this,” he hummed, even as he nudged her legs apart and cupped her breast. “It’s shocking.”

  “It’s scandalous,” Ada agreed, gasping as he closed his mouth over her nipple and sucked. “Oh!”

  His tongue teased her nipple to a tight point, and the ache between her legs grew all over again. “We could both lose our positions,” he whispered, blowing on her wet nipple.

  Ada shivered. “I could end up with child.”

  He glanced up at her, the fire in his eyes hot enough to melt the bed. “Wouldn’t that be something.”

  He thrust into her. The move was so sudden that Ada didn’t have time to worry about whether it would hurt. There was a slight sting, but the pure pleasure of having him inside of her outweighed any pain. She cried out with the joy of it, circling her arms and legs around him and digging her fingertips into the muscles of his back.

  “Marry me, Ada,” he said, his voice strained with passion as he set a slow, deep rhythm of thrusts. “Marry me. Teach with me. Have my babies.” His thrusts increased in pace and intensity until his words became mere sounds of pleasure.

  “Yes,” she sighed in time to his thrusts, faster and faster. “Yes, yes, yes, YES!”

  A second orgasm encompassed her as he pounded into her with an abandon she never would have expected from such an upright and gentle man. Every thrust was glorious, though, and she could barely think, let alone form more words, as the bed creaked under them, the headboard banging against the wall in a desperate rhythm as pleasure overtook her.

  At last, with a strangled cry, Tim’s thrusts reached a climax and his body tensed. He slowed gradually and collapsed on top of her. Panting, Ada embraced him with everything she had, loving how undone he’d come, even if the seed he’d spilled in her was as dangerous as it was magnificent. If their wild lapse of judgment caused her to be with child, then so be it. She would marry Tim as soon as the banns were read, and no one would be the wiser.

  Gradually, enough strength returned to both of them that they were able to snuggle under the blankets for a nap. Sleeping in Tim’s arms was the most glorious thing Ada could imagine. His body was hot and damp, but the feel of it, the scent of him, was magical. She thrilled to the thought that this would be every night for her in no time at all.

  But sense caught up with her after Tim fell asleep. She needed to get back to Winterberry Park before too many people noticed her absence and asked questions.

  Careful not to wake Tim, she slipped out of bed and began gathering her clothes. The slip of something viscous down her leg sent her looking for a washbasin to clean up before dressing, a broad grin on her face.

  That grin vanished when she moved to his bureau. There, sitting on top, was a lacy, feminine garter. She picked it up, turning it over. It was embroidered with an “A”. For half a heartbeat, Ada wondered if he’d bought the frivolous thing as a gift for her. But no, the garter was clearly used. It belonged to someone else.

  A thousand painful thoughts leapt to her mind at once. Why did her sweetheart have another woman’s garter?

  Then, more disturbing thoughts hit her. “A” could be for Alice. Alice had been at the cottage the other day too, but why? Tim said the girl had tender feelings for him, but he hadn’t said anything about what he’d done about it. It couldn’t be…Tim wouldn’t possibly…with a girl so young? But Alice was nearly seventeen. She’d be out of the schoolroom by spring, and it wasn’t beyond the shadow of possibility that a girl that age would be married soon.

  Every fiber of Ada’s being wanted to deny the wild thoughts that flittered through her head. She glanced to the bed and Tim’s sleeping form. No. Tim absolutely would not diddle with one of his students. The idea was repellant. And yet, the nasty voice in her head, the one with Mary’s voice, whispered that he had been alarmingly quick to respond to her advances. He’d known exactly what to do to bring her pleasure, like an experienced man. And even though he’d proposed to her, he’d done it while in the midst of making love. Could a man truly be held accountable for the things he said while buried deep inside a woman? Or had he said that so she would be pliant?

  She dressed as fast as possible, even though the more reasonable voice in her head told her to wake Tim and ask him outright where the garter had come from and whether he’d behaved inappropriately with Alice Jones. But older, more ingrained habits of work—and the knowledge that if she was found outside of Winterberry Park in the state she was, she’d be sacked without a reference for sure—spurred her on, out the door and along the road to Winterberry Park.

  She didn’t believe Tim would be unfaithful to her, in spite of circumstantial evidence. But she would have to wait, once more, to get to the bottom of things.

  Chapter 9

  It was a bad sign that Ada was gone when Tim woke up in the wee hours of the night. He berated himself for falling asleep after making love, especially considering he’d proposed to her in the middle of passion. The sensible thing to do was to reiterate that proposal with clothes on, in an upright position.

  When morning finally came, he washed, shaved, and dressed with exactly that course of action in mind. But before he’d taken three steps outside of the schoolyard, he had second thoughts. The likelihood of Mr. Noakes kicking him out of Winterberry Park yet again was high. So was the chance that he would run into Mary Mull or someone else who would tangle things up even more. He could send a note, but as he tromped back into the schoolhouse and down the aisle in the deserted classroom to his desk, it seemed that the chances of that letter going awry were too high.

  No, the best course of action, he told himself as he plopped into his desk chair and surveyed the grading he needed to do, was to wait until the dance that night. That way, he could get Ada alone, outside of the confines of Winterberry Park and away from everyone’s meddling.

  So, of course, the day dragged by. He finished his grading, straightened the bookshelves in the schoolroom, and even got out a broom and cleaned up the entire room and hallway, even though a girl from town came several times a week to
do the job. He tidied up his apartment as well, sweeping and dusting and scrubbing until it shone like it hadn’t in years.

  Which was how he noticed that Alice’s garter was at the opposite end of his bureau from where he’d left it the night before.

  “Oh, no,” he sighed, picking it up then tossing it down again. Garters didn’t move on their own, and the only person who had been in his apartment since he took the dratted thing from the cottage was Ada. She had to have seen it, and who knew what she had thought about it?

  There was nothing to do but move forward. As soon as he could, he dressed in his finest suit and combed his hair, taking as much care with his appearance as he could, before leaving early for the dance. In the confusion of the last few days, he’d forgotten once again to ask Ada to go with him to the dance, but he had every reason to believe she was still going. If he could catch her right at the beginning, he could explain everything.

  The Valentine’s Day dance was being held at Lanhill’s town hall. Even though he was early, there were still quite a few townspeople loitering in front of the building, or outside the train station across the street, in the waning February sunlight. Ada wasn’t among them, though. No one from Winterberry Park was.

  Tim frowned, heading into the hall to see if Ada was there. The large community room that made up the bulk of the town hall was decked with pink roses and red hearts. A bower of hothouse flowers had been set up on the small dais where his students performed their concerts. One side of the room was lined with tables that held everything from heart-shaped cakes to a huge bowl of plum-colored punch. The door to the storage area in the far corner was open, and a few young men from town were busy bringing out chairs to set against the walls, but no one from Winterberry Park was in sight.

  Tim let out a breath, lowering his shoulders. There was nothing to be done but to wait. His whole day, his whole life, was waiting. At least he could make the wait better with cake and punch.

  He had just finished pouring a ladle of punch into a cup when a feminine shout of, “There you are!” set his teeth on edge. Alice.

  Reluctantly, Tim turned. Sure enough, Alice had just flounced through the door, her gaggle of friends flanking her sides. Tim glanced around the hall. The band was just setting up, and half a dozen couples stood waiting for things to start in earnest, which meant there were far too many witnesses for what was bound to be one of the more unpleasant conversations of his life.

  He gathered his courage all the same and strode to meet Alice and her friends. “Alice,” he began, his face contorting through several expressions. He couldn’t make up his mind whether stern or compassionate would be best in a situation like this.

  “I thought you would come to my house to fetch me,” Alice said, racing up to meet him and resting her small, gloved hands on his forearm. She wore a dress of garish pink with so many flounces that it looked as though a constant breeze surrounded her every time she moved. “But, of course, I understand why you couldn’t,” she went on, then leaned in to whisper. “My father has been suspicious. We will have much to overcome to gain his approval, but gain it we shall.”

  Tim winced, backing away enough so that she was forced to let go of his arm. She tried to come after him to grab it again, but he held up his free hand and said, “Look, Alice, we need to talk.”

  “Talk?” She batted her eyelashes, her cheeks pink.

  “There’s been a horrible misunderstanding,” Tim went on, cringing.

  Alice’s dreamy smile faltered. She blinked, then put on a more forced smile. “Oh, no, there hasn’t been a misunderstanding,” she said. “We’re in love, remember? And we’re going to be together forever.”

  Tim made a sound and dodged as she tried to throw her arms around him. “No, Alice. You are mistaken. I’m afraid we are not in love.”

  “Yes, we are,” she insisted, a harder edge coming to her smile.

  “No.” He spoke the single syllable with a grimace, wary that the whole thing was about to fall apart in a far worse fashion than he’d anticipated. “I’m sorry, Alice, but I don’t love you.”

  “Yes, you do,” she said, jaw clenched.

  He let out a breath and shook his head. “I’m afraid the sentiments that you’re interpreting as my regard for you have, from the start, been directed toward someone else.”

  “Someone else?” She balled her hands into fists.

  “Yes. I’m sorry.” As desperately as Tim tried to remind himself that he was the adult and the one with the upper hand, the sudden fury in Alice’s young eyes was far too akin to the rage he’d seen from her father. Visions of meat cleavers and bloody butcher’s aprons filled his imagination. “Please forgive me if I have said anything that led you to believe the feelings I have for…another—” There was no need to embroil Ada in the mess, if possible. “—were intended for you.”

  “But they were intended for me,” Alice insisted. “You love me. I love you. We’re going to be married and live happily for all our lives.”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  “I refuse to hear this.” Alice stomped, anger turning her cheeks a bright red.

  “I’m sorry if….” Tim’s words trailed off. The hall was filling quickly, and most of the people who had been there as his confrontation with Alice had begun were watching intently. But what sent a chill through him was the sight of the tall, Winterberry Park footman he’d given his letter for Ada to. Tad, he believed Ada had called him. And if one member of the Winterberry Park staff had arrived, the rest couldn’t be far behind, including Ada.

  “How dare you snare my heart in your sensual trap only to crush it?” Alice demanded, far louder than Tim would have wanted. “You cannot simply make me fall in love with you and then cast me aside.”

  “I’m sorry.” Tim did his best to focus on the confrontation in front of him, even though all he wanted to do was rush to find Ada. “It was never my intention to turn your head at all.”

  “But all the things you said to me,” Alice went on in a more plaintive tone. “All the significant looks and all the coded signs.”

  “Coded signs?” Tim blinked at her. “What coded signs?”

  “Why, the way you would set your chalk just so on the edge of your desk to let me know your feelings, the way you would write my name on the chalkboard with a certain flair, and the way you made those special marks on my test papers.”

  Tim gaped at her. “Um, I’m afraid I did no such thing.”

  Two more Winterberry Park footmen and the kitchen maid walked through the door just as Alice shouted, “You did!”

  Tim took a deep breath. His hand was clenched so tightly around his glass punch cup that he was afraid it would shatter. “Miss Jones. At no time have I harbored any tender feelings for you. You are a pupil of mine and nothing more. I’m sorry if this hurts you, but I love another. Any romantic fantasies you have had of me are completely of your own creation.”

  “But you gave me a rose,” Alice insisted, her eyes turning glassy with tears. “And you told me to meet you at the cottage.”

  “The rose was intended for another,” Tim said, his patience at an end. “And I never asked you to meet me anywhere. You misunderstood something that you overheard is all.”

  “You cruel, cruel man!” she shouted, drawing every eye that wasn’t already turned to them. “How could you?”

  “Miss Jones, please lower your voice,” Tim sighed.

  “I will not lower my voice.” Alice stomped, fists balled. “I want everyone here to know what kind of a heartbreaker and villain you are.”

  “Miss—”

  “You toyed with my affections, sir, and you will not get away with it.”

  Before Tim could blink, Alice grabbed the punch cup in his hand and tossed the whole thing at him. Cold, plum punch instantly soaked him from face to trousers. The shock of it left Tim frozen as Alice spun and marched away.

  She hadn’t gone more than three steps when she plowed headlong into Tad. The impact produced a crunc
h and a grunt from both parties, but as soon as Alice recovered, she glanced up at Tad, who blinked and smiled at her in return.

  “Oh. Hello,” Tad said, a grin spreading across his face.

  Alice’s jaw dropped as she gazed up at him. “Hello,” she echoed breathlessly.

  Tim could hardly believe the tableaux in front of him as the two young people stood there, clasping onto each other, presumably to keep themselves from falling over. He pushed a lock of punch-soaked hair out of his face, hardly believing that life could be so topsy-turvy as to throw those two together at such a moment.

  He wasn’t given long to contemplate, though.

  “Oh, dear. Look at you.”

  A chill shot down his back and he turned just as Mary swept up to him, looping her arm through his.

  “You look a right mess, love. Let me take you off somewhere so we can get you cleaned up.” Her eyes glittered with mischief, and she bit her lip as she raked him with a glance.

  “I’m quite all right,” Tim insisted as Mary dragged him toward the door. “You don’t need to fuss over me.”

  “Oh, but I do,” Mary insisted.

  Tim let out an impatient breath but let her lead him through the arriving party guests and out to the hall. He didn’t protest when she tugged him outside into the dimming twilight either. Anything he could do to flee the scrutiny of half the town and get away from Alice was good enough for him. Even though he also wished to be as far from Mary as humanly possible.

  “Here now. Let me just take care of this for you,” Mary said once they were in the relative shelter of the garden in front of the train station. She reached for the buttons of his jacket. “She made quite a mess of you, didn’t she?”

  “Please,” Tim said, utterly out of sorts. “Please unhand me. I won’t fall for your petty attempts at seduction.”