Ana Seymour (21 page)

Napa Valley

June 1858

“A
re you sure this will be all right?” Jeb asked with a worried frown. “I’d feel better if we had a doctor to say you were well enough.”

“I’m a pioneer woman now, darling.” Kerry pushed herself back into the pillows and put her arms out to Jeb, who stood next to the bed, still totally dressed. “If I could birth our baby by myself, I guess I can decide to invite my husband back into my bed.”

Tentative, Jeb put one knee up on the bed. “You weren’t totally birthing him by yourself. You did have Patrick and me to help.”

Kerry rolled her eyes. “Big help you were—Patrick running out back to get sick to his stomach at the first sight of blood and you pacing and moaning and wringing your hands as if I were the first woman who’d ever had a baby. Dorothy and I did all the work.” Much to Kerry’s delight, the Burnetts had decided
to homestead the adjoining land in the fertile valley just north of San Francisco.

Jeb leaned over and kissed her with a smile. “Well, you were the first woman who ever had
my
baby.”

She met his eyes with the fond new expression that they’d each developed for discussing their son. “He’s beautiful, isn’t he?” she said for perhaps the dozenth time that day.

Jeb gave up his reticence and eased himself down on the bed beside her. “Sean Hunter. The most beautiful baby in California.”

“Or the world maybe,” Kerry agreed happily. “Is he all right, do you think?”

Jeb glanced over at the crib where his son lay sleeping soundly. “He’s fine. You worry too much, Mrs. Hunter.”

Kerry giggled. “Now that’s an interesting charge coming from you, Mr. Wagon Master.”

He inched himself toward her on the bed. “I’m not a master of wagon trains anymore. I’m only the master of my household.”

Kerry drew herself up to spit out an indignant protest, but he leaned over and captured her lips before she had a chance. “And of my lovely, enticing wife,” he murmured between kisses, “who has these new, alluring curves that have been driving me crazy for the past few weeks.” He began to explore her fuller breasts and hips through the thin cloth of her muslin nightgown as he spoke. Then he stopped and raised his head. “Are you sure this is all right?” he asked again.

“Now who’s the worrier?” she asked, pulling his head back toward her.

He let her bring it to rest on her chest and gave a sigh of contentment. “My worrying days are over. I’m completely happy with you, sweetheart, and with Sean. This land is as rich as anything your father could ever have dreamed, and we’re going to have a good life here.”

“I wish Patrick was happier about it,” she said with a small frown.

Jeb lifted his head. “I’ve told you before, your brother’s fourteen now—the age of adventure. It’ll do him a world of good to spend the summer in the gold fields with Haskell.”

Kerry still found it ironic that following her rough frontier wedding last year at Fort Laramie, Jeb and Scott had proceeded to become great friends. It appeared that once the question of rivalry for her affections was settled, the two men were able to look deeper and discover kindred spirits.

“It was good of Scott to agree to take him,” she agreed.

“My prediction is that he’ll find that the glamorous life of a prospector is mostly sweat and hard work. He’ll be happy to come back to us in the fall.”

“And in the meantime, we get to have a little of the privacy you once told me you wanted. A soft bed and hours of privacy, I believe was the way you phrased it.”

“We’ve managed to do well enough without it,” Jeb noted with a grin and a wave at little Sean’s cradle.

“But I was promised four of those critters, Captain. I believe it was in my contract.”

Jeb laughed and, giving up any pretense at resisting
her efforts to seduce him back into her bed, sat on the edge of the bed, pulled off his boots and then dived for her, carefully rolling her over on top of him in his arms, making a tangle of the blankets. “New items keep creeping into that contract I thought it was finished when I delivered you to California soil.”

“No, that was the first contract. I’m talking about the one when you made me your bride.” She looked down at him. Her milk-heavy breasts had hardened against his chest. But Sean had just been fed. The tingling she was feeling now was due to a different stimulation.

“Ah, that one. That’s the one that says I get to have you to myself every night for the rest of our lives.” One of his hands gently sculpted a breast through her nightgown. He was being so careful, so slow. It had been so long. Kerry thought she would go crazy with the waiting.

“Yes, the rest of our lives,” she agreed, growing breathless as he eased her to one side and finally reached for the buttons of his shirt.

“Kerry, Jeb?”

Jeb sat up abruptly, banging his head on the backboard of the bed. Around the corner of the open bedroom door two identical blond heads were peering.

Kerry pulled the neck of her nightgown together and sat up beside Jeb. “Polly, Molly,” she acknowledged, a little self-consciously.

The girls moved around the door and into the room, unaware of what they had interrupted. “Are you busy?” Molly asked innocently.

Kerry looked at Jeb, who was trying to keep the annoyance off his face. She gave him a sympathetic
smile, then turned back to the girls. “No, sweeties, we’re not busy. Did you want something?”

“Molly was missing Patrick,” Polly explained.

“Polly is, too,” her sister added.

“Well, I miss him, too,” Kerry agreed. “But I expect he’s having a good time with Scott.”

“Do you think he’s going to find a fortune?” Polly asked with wide eyes.

Kerry shook her head, aware of Jeb’s hand inching up her thigh under cover of the blanket. “I…ah…don’t really know.”

Polly scuffled her feet, then said. “We thought you might be missing him, too, so we came to give you some company. Mama said you might be feeling lonely.”

Kerry gave a helpless glance at Jeb, who winked at her and took over. He smiled over at the girls. “Now, that was very nice of you girls. But right now, little Sean is sleeping and Kerry was just about to take a nap herself. New mothers need lots of rest, you know.”

Both girls nodded. “Maybe we should come back later,” Molly suggested.

Jeb smiled his approval. “Tomorrow would be good,” he told them. His hand had reached the very top of Kerry’s thigh and she lay back against the pillows, closing her eyes and biting her lip to keep from moaning. “See, girls,” he said, lowering his voice. “She’s already going to sleep.”

“We’ll come back tomorrow morning,” Polly said, grabbing her sister’s hand and turning to tiptoe out of the room.

“Not too early,” Jeb called softly after them.

“Scoundrel,” Kerry said, opening her eyes. But her smile was deep. Under the blanket his fingers continued their exploration.

“Will you tell me if anything’s uncomfortable?” The frown furrowed his forehead again.

“Darling husband, the only thing that’s uncomfortable is waiting to feel you inside me again.”

The remark had him instantly aroused. He rolled to his feet, carefully closing and latching the door this time, then stripped off his clothes and joined her in bed, where she’d already pulled off her gown. “Ah,” he breathed with satisfaction as their naked bodies met.

“It’s nice to have you back, husband,” she murmured between kisses.

His eyes took on a look of deep contentment. He held her gaze as he ever so gently eased himself into her. “Remember how your father used to have you freeze your favorite moment?” he asked. Kerry nodded, her heart too full for words. “My love,” Jeb said. “This one is mine.”

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