Page 10 of A Season Beyond A Kiss (Birmingham #2)

A moment earlier, Jeff had paused in the doorway to admire his wife in the gardenlike atmosphere of the room.

The sight made him reconsider his long-held disdain of its décor, which had been left much as it had been before his purchase of the plantation.

He had once deemed the murals a bit flamboyant for his more subdued tastes in spite of the wont of many Charlestonians to embellish foyers and other rooms with similar motifs, but the serene beauty of his wife seemed right in keeping with the tranquil garden scene.

He felt immeasurably blessed when her shining eyes came upon him, for her welcoming smile glowed back at him with all the brightness of his own private daystar.

Raelynn basked in a moment of pride as she swept her gaze over her husband.

Unquestionably his tall, manly physique and handsome features were deserving of all the attention women were wont to bestow upon him.

Not only had she seen proper young ladies eyeing him with surreptitious reserve along some of Charleston’s fashionable streets the day before, but later in the afternoon, when he had stepped briefly from the carriage to talk with several of his teamsters near the docks, several harlots had stopped their hawking long enough to scrutinize him in unabashed boldness.

Even during a short stroll in a more influential area of the city, Raelynn had glanced casually around and found a winsome miss trying to disguise her sudden confusion after being caught gaping.

Mere moments later, a parasol was hurriedly lowered to hide the blushing cheeks of its bearer, a dignified woman of an age perhaps as much as a score and ten.

Although more slender than his brother, Jeff was just as athletic and handsomely proportioned.

Recently Raelynn had taken time to study the portraits of his parents and had determined that although Jeff, like Brandon, favored his physically stalwart father in both face and coloring, her husband had apparently inherited his own finer boned frame from his mother, who, Jeff had said, had been as slender as a reed to the day she died.

Presently Jeff was casually dressed in a white, full-sleeved shirt, taupe riding breeches, and black boots, all of which were complemented by his trim form.

As he approached, a lazy, hypnotic smile curved his lips, warming her as surely as any caress.

When Jeff halted beside his wife’s chair, he clasped her thin fingers within his and, leaning down, placed a doting peck upon her brow.

A more thorough kiss had been his desire from the first moment he had seen her in the dining room, but he had no doubt that a demonstration of that nature would have shocked their butler.

“You’re looking no less than radiant this morning, my sweet,”

he averred.

“I trust you’ve met your new lady’s maid, and are pleased with her?”

“Very.”

The green eyes glowed warmly in approval as they slowly swept the length of her, from her charmingly coifed auburn hair to her slender blue slippers.

“From what I can now ascertain by looking at you, Tizzy has been able to make perfection the epitome of empyreal loveliness.

Quite simply, madam, you look like an angel.”

Raelynn dipped her head in laughing acknowledgment of his flattery.

“Thank you, kind sir, not only for your praise, but also for your thoughtfulness in bringing Tizzy here to serve as my lady’s maid.

I’m sure I shall never again have to worry about my hair, my clothes, or anything else while I’m in her care.”

“In view of the fact that Cora has so much to do as housekeeper, I was forced to consider other alternatives for your lady’s maid.

Then, too, I had to think of my pride.”

His lips twitched briefly with a threatening grin as he struck a lofty pose to emulate a pompous lord.

“To stroll down a boulevard with a beautiful, exquisitely groomed lady and to watch everyone turn and stare in admiration nurtures my conceit no small degree.”

With a gay laugh Raelynn flung up a hand and shooed away such foolish logic.

“You have no need to feed your pride on my appearance, sir.

All you have to do is cast a glance about you the next time you visit Charleston.

If you didn’t notice all those pretty young maids who twittered and chirped when they espied you sauntering down the street yesterday, Mr.

Birmingham, then I certainly did.

Truthfully, they did little for my self-esteem.”

“What of the men who drool after you, Mrs.

Birmingham?”

She scoffed and feigned amusement over a subject that at times troubled her unmercifully.

If women adored him so, then a wife had to expect that he was forever receiving invitations into their beds.

“I saw far more of the former than the latter, sir.

Indeed, it makes me wonder how many maids you’ve led about on a string.”

“Reassure yourself, madam,”

he murmured, bending toward her again with a captivating smile and glowing green orbs.

“My eyes are only for you.”

He settled the matter with a soft kiss upon her lips, and when he straightened, they found themselves alone, which seemed convenient for a more thorough, warmly titillating kiss.

Raelynn laughed shakily as he finally drew away and, with some surprise, realized that she had threaded her fingers through the short, curling hair at his nape.

Leaning back in her chair, she gazed up at him with eyes that had grown dark and luminous.

“Your kisses make me swoon,”

she breathed.

“Even from the first, they were like a strong wine sapping my will and the strength from my limbs.”

Jeff lifted her slender fingers to his lips.

“Your smile does that to me, madam.”

He stepped away from her with that same magical wink and hypnotic grin that made her heart flutter and settled into his chair at the head of the table.

His preference for having her close at hand while dining had been established on the night of their wedding.

From where he now sat, he had only to stretch a hand out to touch her.

“Did you manage to get any sleep last night, my dear?”

he asked as he spread a linen napkin over his lap.

Reminded of the recent hours in which they had made love, Raelynn blushed with warm pleasure as she lifted a teacup to her smiling lips.

“Enough, thank you. And you?”

His green eyes gleamed as they caressed her.

“Actually, I can’t remember sleeping ...

or, for that matter, letting you sleep.

Still, I must have, for I feel marvelously relaxed and invigorated.

But then, perhaps I’m giving credit where it isn’t due.”

Jeff took note of her vibrantly hued cheeks and guessed that he had caught her thinking back on the intimate moments they had shared.

Beneath his quizzically elevated brow and smilingly perceptive gaze, Raelynn could do naught but smile and shrug in helpless admission.

He reached across and, taking her hand once more, raised it to his mouth as their eyes merged in warm accord.

His softly caressing kisses were as light as thistle down on her fingers, effective in evoking warm shivers along her spine.

“Heavenly day, sir,”

she managed breathlessly, amazed by the potency of his knee-weakening persuasion, “ you’re extremely dangerous to a lady’s peace of mind.

Just a few moments ago, I was thinking of merely enjoying a cup of tea and the morning banquet.

Now you have me all aflutter wondering if I’ll shock the servants if I lead you back to our bedroom.”

The emerald eyes grazed her in a way that left no doubt that breaking the morning fast was far from his mind.

“I suppose we should eat first.”

A soft chuckle escaped his lips.

“You’ll need your strength to endure my attentions.”

“I’m really famished,”

she admitted, leaning forward with a tantalizing little grin.

“In fact, I can’t remember ever being so ravenous ...

except, of course, on the voyage over here.

‘Twould seem, Mr.

Birmingham, that our recent activities do strange things to me.”

“Eat hearty, madam,”

he encouraged.

“There is much more to come.

As for this morning, I thought you might enjoy riding out and looking over the plantation.

Would you consider accompanying me on such a tour?”

“Oh, yes, Jeffrey.

In fact, I was going to ask if you would grant me such a favor.

You must have read my mind.”

Reveling in their new-found contentment, they lingered longer than usual over breakfast.

Though Kingston hovered near and encouraged them to eat heartily of the tempting dishes the cook had prepared for them, it was as if they were entirely alone in the huge house.

Their eyes, never straying far from the other, communicated things that were lovingly intimate and best left unsaid in a houseful of servants.

Their hands touched often in private little ways that might have brought a blush to the cheeks of a beholder had that one perceived exactly what those secret strokes imparted.

But then, when such gestures were conveyed in the private language of love, that strange mystical prose which softened eyes, moistened lips, and left hearts soaring with joy, how could another have discerned their meaning?

A RIDING HABIT HAD NOT BEEN AMONG THE CLOTHES that Mrs.

Brewster had brought back from Ives’s Couture for Raelynn before the wedding.

Thus, when Jeff escorted his young wife outside, she was still wearing the same blue and white gown she had donned earlier that morning.

To shade her face from the sun she had donned a large-brimmed straw bonnet, the blue ribbons of which she had tied in a charming bow aside the delicate lines of her jaw.

“I suppose we’ll have to find you a nice, gentle mount,”

Jeff teased as he cast a glance toward her.

“Now be sure and tell me when you’ve had enough of riding and want to return home.

I wouldn’t want to tire you overmuch when I have every intention of involving you in some further activity tonight.”

Raelynn caressed the arm through which she had looped her own and released a worried sigh.

“I haven’t been riding in so long a time, Jeffrey, I fear my tiring will come sooner than later.

You just may have to call for the carriage to fetch me home.”

“Never fear, madam.

I shall attend you perfectly well without a carriage.”

Raelynn glanced up at him with a brow arched inquisitively, but Jeff was quite willing to let her remain in the dark.

Offering no explanations, he swept her along the path toward the stables.

The white, clapboard structure was reminiscent of an enormous dog-trot cabin replete with a high-pitched roof and a wide passageway that ran down the middle of it and opened to the outside when the doors at both ends were folded back.

Behind and to the sides of the barn lay more than a hundred acres of gently rolling meadow upon which the horses were pastured behind white board fencing.

Individual paddocks had been set aside for the stallions.

Even from a distance, these fine steeds gave every appearance of being extraordinary animals of remarkable energy and flashy strides.

Raelynn soon learned that her husband had culled most of them within the last three years from the best breeding farms in Ireland and England.

“When I began to restore Oakley,”

Jeff murmured thoughtfully, idly slapping a crop against the top of his boot as they wandered past the paddocks, “most of my attention was devoted to laying out the areas best suited for the different crops, yet even then, I nurtured an unquenchable desire to have the plantation known one day as much for its fine horses as its productive fields.”

“You’ll succeed,”

Raelynn assured him with unrestrained confidence.

She was certain her husband could achieve any goal to which he set his heart and mind, for she sensed within him a strength and determination that she had rarely glimpsed.

Her father had been of similar resolve.

Even after his imprisonment, he had been confident that right would prevail.

Perhaps it would one day, for she had no doubt that he had been innocent of all the treasonous deeds of which he had been accused, but exoneration would do him little good now that he was moldering in the grave.

It would only be his offspring who would revel in his name being restored to the honor it once held when he had been known unquestionably as a faithful servant of the king.

Glancing about, she realized that Jeff’s vision of an outstanding collection of horses could already be glimpsed in the fine, arched necks and prancing gait of the foals trotting alongside their mothers.

It was also evident that his ambition was contagious, for the grooms and handlers labored at their tasks as if they owned a sizable stake in the breeding farm.

They clearly took pride in their accomplishments.

Upon entering the stables, Raelynn became immediately impressed with its neatness.

Except for the equipment presently in use, everything was in its place and had either been oiled, cleaned or brushed.

The huge outer doors had been folded back at each end earlier that morning, allowing breezes to sweep through the entire length of the stable.

Even on a warm day, the circulation of air and the large, fenced trees shading the barn would keep the interior reasonably cool, not only for the animals in their stalls, but for the men at their work.

The floors throughout were of hard-packed clay covered with a thick layer of shavings from the Birminghams’ lumber mill.

A clean, fresh scent pervaded the place, due in part to the mulch and the breezes, but also to the small amounts of lime that had been mixed in with the bedding to control the odors.

Here again, trainers and grooms were hard at work, either readying two- and three-year-olds for their morning workout or cleaning stalls and bathing horses.

Some of the men tipped their hats politely to her while others grinned either broadly or sheepishly, whatever the particular disposition of the man.

Again Raelynn’s mind spun beneath the avalanche of names that descended upon her.

Still, she recalled the anxious employee who had met her husband upon his return to the stable after the latter had raced his black stallion, Brutus, across the countryside at a breakneck pace in an effort to ease his frustration with her.

That incident had happened almost a fortnight ago, shortly after she had announced that she needed some time to consider Nell’s accusations before she could willingly yield to his husbandly right to consummate their marriage vows.

“Sparky, here, is one of my trainers,”

Jeff announced, identifying the one she had heard that particular night.

The young man had snatched off a scruffy hat in polite deference to her gender and proceeded to crush it between large, calloused hands as he cast shy glances toward her.

“Sparky keeps the horses in line for me, including Brutus who is without question the orneriest beast I’ve yet ridden.

I’ve sworn at times that Sparky’s mother must have whelped him on the back of a steed.

He has a natural way of handling horses that makes it look a lot easier than it really is.”

The trainer waggled his bright red head as a ruddy hue infused his freckled cheeks, but his wide grin clearly evidenced his pleasure over his employer’s praise.

“There you go again, Mr.

Jeffrey, raisin’ everybody’s expectations o’ me.

You’re gonna get me into an awful heap o’ trouble one o’ these days, talkin’ the way you do.

Soon folks’ll be expectin’ me ta do miracles or somethin’.”

“Never fear, Sparky,”

Raelynn consoled him cheerily.

“I shall expect nothing more from you than what I see you do with my own eyes.

Is that fair enough?”

“Yas’m, Miz Raelynn, that’s real fair,”

he agreed with an eager nod.

“It’s nice to make your acquaintance, Sparky,”

she assured him warmly.

“Now tell me, if a lady were to ask you to find her a very noble horse among the steeds my husband owns, which one would you choose?”

A small, wiry individual with bowed legs and a broad grin scurried in from outside before Sparky could answer.

Inclining his head in greeting first to Raelynn and then to Jeff, the older man spoke with the lilt of his native Ireland.

“Ah, sir, I see ye’ve brought yer pretty missus ta have a look at yer fine collection of steeds, eh? An’ there’s yerself, sir, lookin’ for all the world like the mouse what chewed a hole ta the grain.”

He cackled gleefully as the others laughed, and then, squinting an eye toward Jeff, queried, “Would ye be a-thinkin’ o’ takin’ yer missus out for a ride on Kelton this fine day, sir? Ta be sure, the mare would give yer lady a nice, smooth ride, that she would.”

“Gerald O’Malley is in charge of the breeding program,”

Jeff explained.

“Several years ago he came over with the studs and brood mares I had purchased in Ireland.

Under his care, the horses endured the voyage without suffering any harm.

He has been proving his worth ever since.

I couldn’t do without him.”

The elder’s face compressed into a multitude of wrinkles as he grinned at her.

“O’Malley be what folks call me, missus.

If’n ye’re o’ a mind, I’d be honored if ye’d be doing the same.”

“Of course, O’Malley.”

Smiling, Raelynn tipped her head to indicate her compliance, and then cast a glance down the long row of stalls.

“But tell me, O’Malley, where is this mare, Kelton, you mentioned? Is she here in the stable?”

Jeff gestured behind her.

“Kelton is a nice, gentle mount.

Very level-headed and sure-footed.

If you think you need a horse to take care of you, then she’ll certainly do that for you.”

“ ‘At will be Kelton, all right,”

the Irishman agreed with a chortle.

“Takes her time, she does, but she’ll be gettin’ there in the end wit’ no undue fuss along the way.

Aye, that she will.”

Raelynn wasn’t overly thrilled with all the reassurances she was receiving.

There was such a thing as being too well-broke, which usually meant boring .

A quick glance into the stall where the mare stood lazily scratching her neck against one of the supporting timbers left visions of the two of them plodding lazily along far behind Jeff and his steed.

Peering askance at her grinning husband, who she was beginning to suspect was finding some humor in her apparent aversion, Raelynn smiled gingerly.

“A small measure of excitement wouldn’t go unappreciated, Jeffrey.

I’ve ridden before and don’t need to be babied.”

Curbing his grin, Jeff faced his young trainer.

“The lady asked your opinion, Sparky.

Which steed would you choose for her?”

Jeff’s amusement had already proven contagious, and Sparky was eager to contribute some of his own wit.

“Well, suh, there’s always Ariadne.

Your lady would see some real spunk with that orn ...”

“Where is she?”

Raelynn asked without waiting for him to finish.

Sparky gulped at her readiness to chance such a ride and, now more than a bit apprehensive, glanced toward Jeff, whose change of countenance lent visual evidence of his sudden concern.

Warily the trainer pointed toward the third stall down the aisle, and before Jeff could object, Raelynn hurried toward it.

As she stepped near, a fine, high-headed, liver-chestnut mare of perhaps three years snorted and shied away from the bars of her domain.