Swept Away (47 page)

Raven broke into a wide grin as Eden sat down on the edge of his bed. He could not imagine what she was up to, but she looked so pleased with herself, he knew he would surely enjoy it too. When she leaned over to kiss him, he slipped his arm around her waist and hugged her tight. He had always loved the way she kissed, and enjoying it to the fullest, he did not at first recognize the source of her delicious taste. When he finally did, he was so badly jarred he shoved her away.

Eden had expected Raven to be shocked, and hastened to reassure him. “Yes, I know. I’m the very last woman that you would ever expect to bring this delicious oil to your bed.” She set the lavender bottle on his nightstand to give him a few seconds to absorb the fact that she had. “That each of us has used it with another doesn’t matter. I want us to create some beautiful memories of our own tonight. Will you help me?”

Had she asked him to set himself on fire in so tempting a fashion, Raven would have readily agreed. “What did Yadira say when you asked her for more?”

Eden removed the bottle’s elegant stopper and shook out a few drops to rub on Raven’s lips. “I didn’t. This is the same bottle you threw out the window.”

That the lovely Lady Clairbourne must have had to crawl through the bushes on her hands and knees to find it amused Raven no end. “Come here,” he ordered with a wicked grin. “If it’s memories you want, I’ll give you a night you’ll never forget.”

“Is that a promise?” Eden whispered just before her lips met his. Raven had no time to respond in words, but she felt his answer all the same. His lips were soft, his caress gentle, and his imaginative use of the sweet-tasting oil endlessly exciting but she did not allow him to distract her from her goal. Alex had provided her first lessons in loving, but she had also learned a great deal from Raven. With each touch of her hands and lips, she sought to give her dashing young husband the most exquisite of pleasures and she could tell by his satisfied moans that she was succeeding.

By midnight, their bodies glistened with a light film of oil and neither could have spoken a coherent sentence. Their thoughts were a blur of loving dreams, and their senses awash with the passion that flowed so easily between them. It was too soon for Eden to speak of love, but the affection she had long felt for Raven deepened immeasurably that night.

As for Raven, the evening was too perfect to risk spoiling it with declarations of love he feared Eden would only be embarrassed to hear. There would be time enough later, he told himself. If not in the spring, then in the summer, or again next fall when they celebrated his birthday. When Eden had given him such a marvelous night, he hoped the next year would pass quickly so he could ask her for the same present when he turned twenty-eight and every year thereafter.

Chapter Twenty-Three

December 1863

Eden had to cover her mouth with both hands to stifle her giggles until their three visitors had left the house. Equally amused, Raven drew her into his arms and muffled his own deep chuckles in her tawny curls. Despite his assumption that his neighbors would continue to be standoffish, the news of Alex’s death coupled with that of his marriage had inspired so much curiosity they had had frequent callers.

“I don’t mean to laugh at them,” Eden began, “but when the Sidneys learned I was from Virginia rather than England they did not even try to hide their disappointment. They made it almost painfully obvious that they thought you should have wed their daughter instead of me. The poor girl was so embarrassed she flinched every time her mother spoke.”

“And with good reason,” Raven added. “I had almost forgotten what the London season was like, but a wealthy bachelor is even more highly prized here than there. Thank God I’m no longer in that category.”

Because he had left the bachelor ranks for reasons she did not care to discuss, Eden chose not to pursue that comment. “I think we’re simply far more sophisticated than any of your neighbors and that’s what makes carrying on a conversation so difficult. I am sorry we’ve not found anyone who shares our interests, though, as I’d like for us to have some good friends.”

“I’m certain we’ll have plenty of friends in time,” Raven assured her, but he was relieved beyond measure that, for the present, he would continue to have Eden all to himself.

It was not until the middle of December that details of the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Chattanooga reached them. Raven debated the wisdom of revealing the devastating loss to his bride, then realized he would be foolish not to and allow her to harbor false hopes for the Confederacy.

Eden read the report of the War’s progress in the Kingston paper and then looked up at Raven with tear-filled eyes. She knew the railroad center at Chattanooga had been vital to the Confederacy. With its loss, Tennessee was now firmly under Union control and the South no longer had any strength west of the Alleghenies. The Union needed only to subdue the four seaboard states: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to win the War.

“I don’t want to hear that this loss was inevitable. Please spare me one of your lectures,” the distraught blonde pleaded sadly.

There had been a time when Raven had striven to make Eden see the futility of the War, but now that she did, he found absolutely no pleasure in seeing her distress. He sat down beside her, pulled her into his arms, and cradled her head on his shoulder.

“Now that I’ve met your father and his men, it’s difficult to analyze the War as though it were only a military exercise. You must have thought me insufferably rude.”

That a man with Raven’s pride would make such a statement astonished Eden, and she moved back slightly so she could study his expression. “You were entitled to your opinions, and you were never rude in the way you expressed them.”

Raven could see Eden was struggling to be diplomatic. “What about
arrogant
then? Is that a better term?”

“Well, if you want me to be completely honest, yes, there have been times when you’ve been arrogant.”

“Wouldn’t you like to include
overbearing
and
tyrannical
too?”

Eden licked her lips thoughtfully. “You can be overbearing, but you’re never tyrannical, Raven. That’s an exaggeration.”

While she had scarcely paid him a string of compliments, Raven began to laugh. The newspaper slid from her lap as she slipped her arms around his waist, and as their lips met, he was glad that he had at least temporarily distracted her from the sorrow of the War.

As Yadira passed the drawing room, she glanced in and wondered how long it would take before the newlyweds’ enchantment with each other wavered. She was certainly sick of them always holding hands, or hugging and kissing the moment they thought they were alone. Disgusted with them both, she decided to make the choices for dinner without consulting Eden and left to give Arabella her selections.

For Eden’s Christmas present, Raven wrapped the diamond earrings and necklace that had been in Alex’s family for several generations. He was pleased that he could give her the exquisite jewelry until he awoke in the middle of the night two days before Christmas and could not recall whether or not Eleanora was wearing the elegant jewels in the portrait that hung in the drawing room. Unable to wait until morning to look, he took care not to disturb Eden as he left his bed. He donned his robe, and hurried downstairs to make certain he was not about to give Eden the same gift Alex had once given Eleanora.

To his immense relief, he found that, rather than the diamonds, Alex’s first wife was wearing a dainty emerald pendant and matching earrings in her painting. He did not recall ever seeing Eleanora wearing the jewels he wished to give Eden, but the possibility she might have worn them for her portrait had given him a bad start. What disturbed him now was not Eleanora’s selection of jewelry, but the candle that had been left burning beneath Alex’s portrait.

As always, he and Eden had gone upstairs together that evening, so he knew she had not been the one to light it. No, it had to have been Yadira. Alex had been a fine man, but Raven did not think it proper to place lighted candles beneath his portrait as though he had achieved sainthood. He not only blew out the candle, but carried the brass holder to Yadira’s room and left it on the small table beside her door. He knew her to be a clever woman, and trusted that she would discontinue its use without him having to give her a direct order to cease the practice.

Raven had just turned toward the back stairs when he heard Julian’s voice coming from the housekeeper’s room. The physician stopped by at least once a week to see Eden, but Raven had not suspected the frequency of Julian’s visits was due to anything more than solicitous concern for his wife. He had not been serious when he had mentioned Julian to Yadira, but at that hour of the night he did not need to overhear the details of their conversation to know the man was not providing medical attention.

Thinking how the unusual couple wished to spend their time was their own business, Raven started on up the back stairs. Eden and Yadira still treated each other with a stilted reserve, but his wife had abided by his decision not to discuss replacing Yadira until after the baby was born. If Yadira and Julian had fallen in love, though, perhaps the housekeeper would soon be leaving of her own accord. That prospect would certainly please Eden, but Raven did not want to raise her hopes and therefore chose not to tell her he had discovered Yadira and Julian were lovers.

The next morning when the haughty housekeeper found the candle had been extinguished and moved during the night, she was not merely disappointed to find the owners of the house did not share her devotion to Alex, she was incensed by their callousness. They were young, of course, but true gentlemen like Alexander Sutton were rare, and she was certain he deserved to be remembered with far more devotion than Raven and his bride ever showed. She carried the white taper into her room, where she vowed to continue to light it each evening. She loved Alex still even if Raven and Eden had forgotten him.

Having heard of his talents with wood, Eden asked Azariah to make a jewelry box for Raven, and when he unwrapped it on Christmas morning, the young man was both surprised and touched by her thoughtfulness. Made of highly polished mahogany, the elegant box was slightly more than a foot square. When unlocked with a brass key, the two panels at the front folded back to reveal four drawers, each divided into velvet-lined compartments. Perfect in every detail, it was as splendid a piece as any Raven had ever seen.

“I don’t think I’ve ever received anything made especially for me,” Raven explained with obvious pleasure as he ran his hand over the reddish brown wood. “That you had Azariah make it means it’s all the more precious.”

“It’s difficult to find something you don’t already own. I’m glad that you like it.” Eden was thrilled she had been able to arrange for a unique and beautifully made gift and responded to Raven with a delighted smile. She had insisted he open his present first, and now began to open hers. When the diamond necklace and earrings spilled out into her lap, she was so stunned it took her a long moment to find her voice to thank him.

“Oh Raven, these must be worth a fortune.”

“Every countess ought to have diamonds, and those are rightfully yours. They’ll look especially nice with that light blue gown I like so much. I hope you’ll wear them when we have our portraits painted.”

Christmas had quite naturally brought longings for home and that she had received such expensive jewelry when she doubted her mother and the rest of the residents of the South would be celebrating the holiday filled Eden with a sudden sense of shame. “I’ll be happy to wear them for the portrait, and any other time you choose.”

His bride looked so far from pleased, however, Raven reached over to lift her chin. “Would you rather have emeralds, or rubies? I can get whatever you want.”

Eden had never seen any jewels more beautiful than the ones she now held in a reverent clasp. The round, marquee and emerald cut stones were set in graceful golden swirls to create a design resembling entwined flowers and ribbons. The matching earrings duplicated the same exquisite pattern.

“These are far too lovely to exchange, Raven. I was just thinking about my mother and what a miserable Christmas she must be having. No one in the South has enough to eat, and with me and my father gone, she’ll be all alone.”

Raven reached out to give Eden’s hand a loving squeeze. “There’s nothing I can do today, but we’ll make it up to her next year, or whenever we can. Now there’s another present for you. It’s from your parents.”

“But how could they have sent me something?”

“You’ll see. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go and get it.” Raven left her for a few minutes, then returned with a cumbersome object wrapped in a sheet and tied with a lopsided bow. He set it on the floor beside her, then leaned down to give her a kiss. “Azariah must have really been busy. Your father asked him to make this for you when he was here. I think you’ll like it.”

Eden had been on the verge of tears, but she was so excited by the surprise gift she began to laugh as she untied the bow and pulled the sheet out of the way. “Oh Raven, this is the prettiest cradle I’ve ever seen!”

“I didn’t know about it until Azariah brought it to the house yesterday or I would have had some little sheets and quilts made for you. Babies need lots of those, don’t they?”