Pemberley Ranch - Jack Caldwell [44]
Beth’s knees parted and Darcy settled between them. He paused in his attentions to her breasts to guide himself into her. She arched her back in desire, and he slipped inside, her legs coming up and around the back of his. There was a resistance, and Darcy tried to hold back, but he was undone by the exquisite sensations. Beth cried out.
“I’m sorry, love, I’m sorry,” Darcy said over and over again into her shoulder.
“No… It’s all right… I’m fine… Don’t stop.”
Never one to turn down a lady, Darcy did as he was bid, moving slowly, then faster and faster until they both reached their release. Beth gasped as Darcy cried out her name. Spent, he collapsed upon his lover, and she, for her part, slowly ran her hands up and down his flanks.
“I… I never dreamed,” she said in wonder.
“Beth, oh, Beth, I love you so—”
“What the hell is this?”
Beth screamed as Darcy tried to roll off her. There, standing in the opening of the small clearing by the river, was a furious Tom Bennet, shotgun in hand.
Beth, in tears, tried to cover herself with her hands, scrambling towards the bushes. Darcy knew he was in enormous trouble and raised his hands over his head, desperately trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t make the situation worse.
“Mr. Bennet, I know this looks bad, but—”
“Shut up, you cur!” Without another word, the angry farmer raised his shotgun to his shoulder. All Darcy could see were two enormous black holes.
“Father! Nooo!”
There was an explosion, and Darcy’s world went black.
WILL DARCY AWOKE FROM the nightmare with sweat running down his face. His dream was so real and disturbing that he was both aroused and frightened. He rose to sit on the edge of his bed, his feet on the floor and his face in his hands as he tried to calm his wildly beating heart.
Darcy needed no soothsayer to tell him what his dream meant. His desire for Beth Bennet had become overwhelming. He needed to do something about it—either forget about her, put her aside, or…
Or what?
The lessons drilled into him by his mother and the priests would not let him even consider taking Elizabeth Bennet as a mistress. His conscience would allow only two alternatives.
He would make Beth his wife or he would give her up.
July 2
A wagon from the B&R picked up Beth at her sister’s house. As the flatbed wagon was filled with supplies, Beth sat on the seat next to the ranch hand driving the wagon, a man named Wilkerson. The cowpoke drove through the center of the little town, turned north at the main crossroads, and headed out of town.
It was a warm day, and the wagon creaked as it rolled over the uneven road alongside Rosings Creek, the original namesake of the ranch. The ride forced Beth to bump into the cowboy, eliciting an apology from the girl.
“No harm done, little lady,” the man leered. “You can bump inta me anytime you like.”
Beth could think of nothing to say in response that wouldn’t insult the man, so she slid as far away from him on the bench as possible. Her actions caused the driver to laugh.
“Afraid o’ gettin’ your pretty dress dirty? That’s no cause to be unfriendly, missy.”
“I’ll thank you to remember I’m a guest of your employer, Mrs. Burroughs,” Beth said coldly.
The man scowled and turned his attention back to the team pulling the wagon. Beth’s thoughts turned to her luggage. She packed every dress she owned, thinking that Anne’s mother would never approve of Beth’s normal working clothes. Yet she felt that none of her frocks was good enough for the party a few days hence. She was afraid she was going to look like a country bumpkin.
That feeling only increased after her first view of the B&R main house. It was two stories and built in the Greek Revival style favored by many of the plantation houses in the South.