Jackson made a derisive sound, and Sophie rubbed his chest in a soothing manner.
“
My mother acquiesced to his every wish, and I resented him more and more every day
.
Everyone knew that I was a bastard. I had no friends, and neither did my mother.”
He sighed, and brought up a hand to cover his eyes.
Sophie rubbed her face in the hair on his chest.
“What happened then?” she prompted. “That’s not the end of the story, Jackson. You were a boy then. What is it like now?”
“My father’s
w
ife died when I was ten, and Mother
always believed
that
he was going to marry her one day. If she was
nice
enough, and she always did what he wanted…maybe then he’d love her.
Maybe
then
he’d marry her.
He
had only to say something once
, and it
was done
. I hated that.
I hated that she was so subservient. She treated him
as if
he was a king, and she was just a lowly peasant. If she’d curtsied every time he ordered her to do something, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
”
Jackson kicked the covers off
angrily
.
He sat up on the edge of the bed with his back to her, and Sophie curled herself around his
naked, strong
back, stroking his thigh.
“
I could have told her that he was never going to marry her. He thought of her as a servant, nothing else. She
died
of the ague
when I was 20, and
my father
didn’t
even come to the funeral. I was her only mourner at graveside. My uncles
didn’t
come, either.
I
thought I was going to have to move, but I
found out that the house
we lived in was in my mother’s
name .
M
y father had deeded it to her years ago
, and she had left it to me. I
was mine to do with as I wished. My father never
came
back to the house to see me after her death
, not even once
. H
e died six
year
s
later.”
“I’m so sorry, Jackson,” Sophie murmured.
“My father was horrid to me, but at least he spoke to me on occasion.”
“About a week after his death
,
I had a visit from my father’s lawyer.
He
had
left his daughters a most generous amount of cash, enough so that
they’d
never have to worry about anything
for the rest of their lives
, but the bulk of the estate went to me. I received a proposition from my half-sisters at the same time I was receiving the news –
they’d
buy the farm from me
if I promised to leave the area
. It was a generous offer, and I started to take it.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Jackson
lay back down and Sophie scooted to give him room. He rolled to face her
, his face troubled. “I don’t know. I suppose it was because they made me angry. They knew who I was – everyone knew who I was. They wanted to pretend that I
didn’t
exist, the way
that
they’d always done. If
I’d
gone away, it would be just like none of it ever happened.
It felt wrong.
My mother deserved better than that.
I
deserved better.”
He smiled wryly at her. “That’s when the trouble began, of course. My sisters
wouldn’
t
live in the house with me
even though
there was plenty of room
for all of us
.
I invited them through their lawyer, because they
wouldn’t
speak to me
when I went to visit. The oldest one went into hysterics when I rode out to the house and tried to talk to her
. I was beneath them.
T
hey
refused to leave the house, and they refused to live with me
.
I
thought
they’d
get over it. I thought that I’d move in, and eventually I would have a family.”
Jackson sighed, and
it was a sound that nearly broke Sophie’s heart
.
“I should have known better, I suppose. I
gave them plenty of notice and arranged to move in. The night before
I was to show up
, two men broke into my home in the middle of the night. One
held me at gunpoint while
the other gouged out my eye with his knife. Just before they left me bleeding on the floor, they
told me they’d be back to take the other eye unless I
changed my mind about the farm
.”
Sophie put a trembling hand to her mouth. “Oh, Jackson,” she whispered. “What did you do?”
“I
got myself patched up,
went to my new home
,
and threw my sisters out on their fat, languid behinds.
They
had
never married and they had no families, so there were no children involved
for me to feel
guilty about
. T
hey had plenty of money
,
so they had choices.
I brought the sheriff with me and had them evicted.
I
didn’t
bother trying to have them arrested; it wouldn’t have done any good. I didn’t have any proof.”
“
They hadn’t even packed their things, they were so sure I was going to give up and go away. I gave them five hours to get out, and I let them take two carriages. Generous of me, I thought, considering they had just paid someone to maim me.
” He gave her a crooked smile. “It didn’t exactly make me popular around Geddes
, a
nd when I
freed
the
few
slaves
my sisters hadn’t sold off after my father’s death
and paid them wages to work
for me
, it got worse.
My sisters bought a h
ouse together in town, and they spend their spare time reviling me to everyone who will listen.
I’m
nearly a pariah there, and only a few people speak to me. I don’t leave the farm very often.”
Sophie flung her arms around his neck. His arms encircled her, and hugged her tightly. “It’s all right,” he said awkwardly. “I only lost an eye, and I got a farm out of it.
By a coincidence, the doctor who took care of me had lost an eye as a child, and he helped me come to terms with it, and he helped me figure out ways to get around my sight limitations.
”
He laughed in her ear. “I ran into a lot of furniture until I got it all figured out.”
“I’m so sorry you had to go through that,” she said. Tears leaked out on his shoulder, and he cupped the back of her head with his big hand.
“I’m all right, Sophie. Truly I am. I try hard not to hate my father for the way he treated me and I neve
r hated my sisters
.
I
don’t
even hate them now
, after all that’s happened
.
I
don’t
know why he left me the farm, but I’m grateful that he did. ”
Sophie blinked at him through tear-filled eyes, and he leaned forward and kissed her softly, his lips clinging to hers.
“You’ve never been happy, have you?
Not even when you were a child.
At least I had
Delia when I was a child, and
David and
I had
a few good years
together
. You’ve never had any.”
He rolled her over suddenly and Sophie squea
led, making him laugh down at her
. “I know something that would make me happy
.”
“
Really?” she asked, her eyes locked to his.
“Yes,” he said against her neck,
his tongue tracing a path down the tendon there, and Sophie shivered
.
“I suppose if I could somehow make you feel better...” She arched up against him and
reveled in the way her body felt against his.
“I would do anything,” she said throatily.
Sophie
couldn’t
look away from him, and she trembled with the force of the feelings coursing through her. She knew that he noticed, for he gave her a slow smile.
Jackson
saw her pupils dilate with sudden passionate
excitement
, and he watched
the pulse leap in her throat.
It set
his body on
fire to know that she wanted
him as much as he wanted her.
“You
do
make me feel better
. You make me feel good
all the time, Sophie.
I’m
happy when I’m with you.
Not just when
we’re
in bed.
All the time.
”
Then his mouth touched hers,
softly and sweetly
. He learned the taste and texture of her with his lips
so thoroughly that
Sophie
couldn’t
think anymore
.
It was always that way; w
hen he held her in his arms, everything ceased to exist save the sensation of his body against hers.
He had not shaved since early
morning
, and his whiskers
rasped against her tender skin when
he pressed his cheek to hers.
She rubbed her face against his and dug her nails
hard
into his shoulders. She wanted more. More kisses.
More touching.
More.
She moaned the word to him, and he took her mouth hungrily.
“I burn for you
,” he whispered
.
“
Feel how I burn for you.”
He bit her lip
and then soothed it with his tongue, and
Sophie went wild.
She wrapped her legs around him and urged him on,
her na
ils scoring furrows in his back. They
moved faster and faster
together
, until she cried out his
name, he felt her spasm around him,
and his own release began
.
It
seemed to come all the way from his spine
and last forever. H
e rolled to his side,
his arms tightly around her, pressing little kisses all over her face. He wanted
to stay
like
this forever, with Sophie wrapped his arms
. It
hadn’t
been just pillow talk before; when he held Sophie in his arms, the whole world seemed like a better place.
Chapter Six
The
trip
to Jackson’s
home seemed like heaven to Sophie.
She
didn’t
even mind the long hours they spent in the wagon, because each night Jackson rented them a room at an inn or a boarding house, and she spent the night in his arms.
On their last leg of the journey, Sophie lay in bed beside Jackson, thinking how wonderful it had all been.
During each day, s
he rode beside Jackson
on the wagon seat
, her leg touching his, and they talked and talked and talked. She told him
about
all the troubling things that Delia had told her, and how, in hindsight, that it was easy to tell how sick Delia and her father’s relationship had been. There had been so many signs, but she had been
too
young to recognize them.
He told
her of his mother, and how loving she had been
. Really, she had been exemplary, except when it came to his father. She had allowed her wishes to override her good sense. In all other ways, she had b
een a wonderful mother, and he missed her so much some days.
Sophie
told him about
David,
how good he had been to her, and how much
they had
loved each other
. She told him how devastated she had been when he got sick and died so suddenly, and how despairing she had been when she
was forced
to live with her father once again.
They talked and talked and talked, until it seemed they would run out of things to say.
But somehow
, they never did.