Above the Harvest Moon
Page 37
‘It won’t put me back. It will be the making of me. And as for the reason I had to be dressed and myself again . . .’ He stood up and walked round the desk. Dropping onto one knee, he said, ‘If you think I was going to do this lying flat on my back then you’re wrong. Hannah, I love you with all my heart. I don’t know how you can love me but I believe that you do.You will never know what you mean to me. If I tell you every day for the rest of our lives, it won’t be enough.’
And then he flung aside what was obviously a well-rehearsed speech, stood up and drew her into his arms. ‘Tell me, tell me you love me,’ he murmured. ‘Say it.’
‘I love you.’ Her voice was dazed, she felt dazed.
‘And you’re sure? You’re sure you want a fellow like me?’
Her reply was smothered as he took her lips, holding her so tightly against him she could feel the thud-thud of his heartbeat as they swayed together in what was no gentle embrace but a desperate desire to merge. When his lips left hers, they travelled the whole surface of her face in wonder before returning to her mouth, his husky mutterings unintelligible but filled with a desire that needed no translation.
When eventually he raised his head, she would have fallen but for his arms holding her. They were both breathing hard and it was a moment before he whispered, ‘I am a brute, forgive me. I had a speech all ready, I was going to woo you so gently.’
For answer she stood on tiptoe and slipped her arms round his neck, her eyes shining as she pulled his head down to hers and took his mouth with a touchingly inexpert hunger which said more than any words could have done.
When they next parted, he lifted a hand to her face, tracing a path to her mouth as he murmured, ‘I love you.’
‘And I you.’
‘You’ll marry me?’
‘Yes, oh yes.’
‘I promise you I’ll make you happy. Anything that is in my power to give you will be yours.’
‘I only want you. I’ve only ever wanted you.’ She cradled his handsome marred face in her hands. ‘Just keep loving me. That’s all I ask.’
Epilogue
Hannah and Jake were married six months later at the little parish church in Castletown. It was a quiet affair in view of the events which had occurred earlier in the year, but everyone agreed Hannah was a beautiful bride in her gown of ivory antique lace. Her aunt and uncle were abroad at the time of the wedding and Miriam had never been in touch since the day Jake had put her on the train for London. Hannah wasn’t sorry about any of this. Jake’s family were her family now, along with the folk at the farm. She didn’t need anyone else.
They held a feast in one of the barns at Clover Farm after the ceremony. Rose and Naomi and the other women had decorated it from top to bottom with garlands of wild flowers and ivy, and Daniel and John were in fine form as they struck up tune after tune on their fiddles so the assembled guests could dance the night away. Even Rose joined in when Stephen asked his mother to partner him in a barn dance, the sadness that sat on her like a cloak these days lifting briefly.
Jake had had a new wing built to the farmhouse in the last months and this now housed his mother and half-siblings. This arrangement suited all parties well. It meant Rose felt she was mistress of her own home again, the wing having a separate front door along with a small kitchen, sitting room and three bedrooms. For Jake it meant he and Hannah could start their married life together with a greater degree of privacy.
Now, as the company formed in lines to begin the Gay Gordons, Jake drew Hannah to one side. ‘Come and walk with me in the moonlight a while,’ he murmured, his arm round her waist.
Hannah nodded, smiling as they left the noise and merriment and whirling throng of dancers. Nature had conspired to present them with a magical evening. The harvest moon was riding high in the sky and the air was surprisingly mellow for late September, a hundred scents from sun-warmed fields and hedgerows heavy in the still air. Not a breath of wind stirred the grasses and wild flowers at their feet as they walked along the bridle path wrapped in each other’s arms.
The harvest had been completed the week before and as they turned off the path into one of the fields, haystacks rose like watching sentinels against a background of star-speckled slate-blue sky. Jake drew her down onto a seat of baled hay. Lifting her left hand to his lips, he kissed her wedding ring before murmuring, ‘You’re mine,’ a note of wonder in his voice.
‘And you are mine.’ He looked magnificent in the moonlight. The white full-sleeved shirt he was wearing was open at the neck, his formal jacket having been discarded during the dancing, and his black trousers fitted tight against his thighs. Hannah thought he had never looked so handsome.
‘I’m the most envied man in the county, do you know that? What does she see in him? That’s what they’re all saying.’
There was love in his embrace and love in his words, but underneath she sensed the silent need for reassurance. It didn’t happen so often now. Over the last months since they had been betrothed she had made him talk to her, patiently persuading him to open his heart and mind. He was a complicated, enigmatic man but the more she understood him, the more she appreciated what a fortunate woman she was. ‘Only the men would say that,’ she said softly.‘The women would know exactly what I see in you because they see it too.’
He smiled. Lifting his hand, he traced the outline of her mouth with one finger.
For a moment the memory of that other night so long ago when she had loved under the harvest moon intruded. The promises made then had melted away in the light of day.They had been unsubstantial and without weight, fragile and fanciful dreams. But this, this was real.
‘I love you,’ she said softly, reaching for him.
Above the Harvest Moon
RITA BRADSHAW
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
PART ONE - 1898 - Suffer the Little Children
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
PART TWO - 1925 - Entanglements
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
PART THREE - 1926 - Piecrust Promises
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
PART FOUR - 1927 - The New Life
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
PART FIVE - 1929 - The Resurrection
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue