For a while they talked about the making of jewelry, how those of mixed races survived where they had each lived. By the time the women left with their husbands, Belle felt there was a lot more holding those marriages together than the need for a home and some kind of acceptance. It was an impression strengthened when the brothers came to gather up their wives and take their families home.
Seeing how the house was clearing out, Geordie started to move Belle out of the room and up to their bedroom. She watched as the crowd started to thin out, people pausing and offering them congratulations and good wishes. They were all very nice, even though she had seen that many of them had noticed she, as well as the Powell women, shared Native heritage. She was tired out though, not used to hours spent with a boisterous crowd of people she had only just met. By the time Geordie stepped close enough to grasp her hand, pull her to her feet and lead her up the stairs, she really gave no thought to why the men all clapped him on the back as if he was some conquering hero.
As they entered the bedroom and he led her to their bed, she began to understand what all the back slapping, and laughter, and whispered jokes were about. When he pushed her down onto the bed and sprawled on top of her, she punched him in the arm.
“Ow! What did I do?”
“Laughed at those dumb man-jokes.”
“What dumb man-jokes?” he asked as he undid the front of her gown.
“The ones they told you as you brought me upstairs.”
“That is just the silly way men celebrate such occasions,” he answered as he slowly removed her stockings, then her petticoats. “And do ye mean to tell me that women dinnae make any jokes about it? I dinnae believe that.”
“Well, try. Unwed women have little to no knowledge or understanding about it all, so how could they make jokes? She would also be considered a fallen woman or something like that if she did reveal the knowledge with a joke. My father told me all about it, so I could have told a few, but I am not sure it is something to joke about.”
“Your father told ye everything about it? Really? Why would he do that?”
“Because he thought it was a silly rule to keep women ignorant about such an important part of life. He also thought it silly for a man to send his daughter out into the world ignorant of what men are capable of doing, or of how she might keep the man she chooses happy enough not to be tempted by some buxom dance-hall girl.”
He tugged her gown off and tossed it to the floor. “Well, why dinnae ye show me what he taught ye and I can verify it or nay.”
“Sneaky man.”
He kissed her and stood up to shed his clothes. Belle told herself not to look at him too much or he would preen, thinking she was ogling him. Then she saw the slow smile grow on his face and knew shewasogling him. Annoyed with herself as much as she was with him, she reached out and grabbed his erection, then tugged him down on the bed. While he lay there clutching himself and acting like she had done him serious injury, she stood up and slowly pulled off her chemise. She laughed when he lunged at her and wrestled her under him.
Playfulness quickly disappeared as he stroked her body. Belle fought to keep her need tamped down so they could go slowly and savor each other, but soon knew she would not be successful. This man belonged to her now, had taken vows with her, and that knowledge added a ferocity to her need for him that both thrilled and frightened her.
Belle found herself pinned beneath him as he kissed his way down her body. She burrowed her fingers into his hair as he kissed her breasts, licking and nipping gently until she was squirming beneath him. He reached her belly. There was barely enough time to catch her breath when he nipped the inside of her thighs so that he could push them apart and nestle himself in between them and leisurely feast upon her. She could barely smother her cry as her release tore through her, and then he was there, driving into her and finding his own.
They lay side by side, panting. After a few moments, Geordie patted her backside. “I think married life could kill us.”
She laughed and slapped his thigh. “If you finish that with some comment on how we will at least pass with smiles on our faces, I will do you a serious injury.”
Geordie laughed and pulled her into his arms.
* * *
Iain was walking quietly past Geordie’s door with Robbie and Lachlan and he smiled faintly as he heard the laughter behind the closed doors. “He will be leaving with her.”
“Och, aye. He will,” said Robbie. “He did love being near the ocean. The quiet rhythm of it in the night is hard to resist. And it is beautiful. So is Belle, and that house she inherited is in her blood. The whole area is. And, aside from her family, I think she is close to the land in a way we might not fully understand. Rather like us and Scotland.”
“Or like us and being part of a clan.”
“I suspect so. Ye said ye kenned we might nay all stay around.”
“I did, but I had hoped.”
“To make your own clan?” drawled Lachlan and earned himself a swat on the arm. “But there can be visits whenever we wish. And, truth is, I will be one of the first to trot out there and see what there is. Sounds like she has a fine place and works hard to keep it up and flourishing. I’d also like to take a gander at the ocean when it isnae tossing around the ship I am on. I got to thinking I might even like to try digging clams, although not sure I would want to eat any,” he added as they went down the stairs.
“I would like to ken who ate the first one and was he just joking when he told everyone they were all right to eat. Was it just a joke on all his neighbors?”
“And I just hope her great-grandfather achieved what he wanted to with that complicated will.”
“Two things worked in his favor even then, I think. The heir was a female and he was a white man with a long history in the area. The Powell sisters had a nice long chat with, um, Mehitabel? And what the devil is that name?”
“Bible. One of the wives got a little book that lists names and what they mean, to help mamas choose something magnificent to name their children. Hope there was something learned that the Powells can use as I ken the brothers are worried about what could happen to their wives and kids if they die and havenae tied the title to their land without every chain possible.”
