Page 124 of Feathers in the Wind
She shrugged and leaned back on her elbows looking up at the sky. “On a day like today, it's almost possible to believe this is all a dream.”
“Except that four hundred men on the other side of the wall are hardly quiet,” Luke observed.
Deliverance listened to the sound of men shouting, spades in dirt and the general hum of humanity both within and beyond the castle walls. Someone in the royalist camp was singing. He had a fine baritone and the words carried up to the top of the tower.
When cannons are roaring,
And bullets are flying,
He that would honour win, Must not fear dying…
Deliverance shivered.
“That’s an old song,” Luke said. “I heard it sung in Germany.” He started to sing, in a good tenor.
Sentinels on the walls,
Arm, arm a-crying. Petards against the ports, Wild fire a-flying…
He trailed off and took a bite from one of the apples.
“You have a good voice,” Deliverance said. She cocked her head and looked at him. “Luke, if your family supports the King, what is your reason for fighting for Parliament’s cause?”
“I probably did it just to annoy my father,” he said.
Deliverance studied him, seeing the fleeting expression of regret that flashed into his eyes. “No,” she said. “You did it because you believed in a cause.”
He didn't answer for a moment, munching thoughtfully on the apple. “Not much escapes your eagle eye does it, Mistress Felton? I returned to England in early ’42 to a country ruled over by a King who would not listen to the voice of the people. A silly, stubborn little man. I could not in all conscience give him my sword.”
“Why did you leave England in the first place?”
He leaned over and tapped her on the nose. “Too many questions, Deliverance. My personal business is none of yours.” When she continued to fix him with her gaze, he sighed. “If you must know, my father banished me.”
“Why?”
His mouth twitched. “It began as a stupid argument with my brother over a woman, nothing more.”
Deliverance’s stomach lurched. A woman, of course. It had to be a woman. She looked up at him and her heart started to race again.
“Is there still…a woman?” she asked in a small tight voice.
He shook his head and smiled. “No.”
Her heart beat a little faster.Please kiss me.
As if he had heard her silent plea, he set his apple down and stroked her cheek, his touch searing her skin like a brand.
“I don’t think any woman I have ever met is your equal,” he said, his tone soft and uncertain and unlike the Luke Collyer she thought she knew.
She brushed his face, feeling the rough stubble of his cheek, his skin warm to her touch. Her fingers moved to his lips and in a swift movement he caught her wrist. For a moment she thought he would cast it down, but he gently pressed her fingers to his mouth, kissing the tip of each in turn.
He released her hand and Deliverance slid her hand behind his neck, meshing her fingers in his thick, dark hair as she drew his face down towards hers. Their lips met with a sudden bruising intensity, caused by her eagerness and inexperience. He pulled back a little, his eyes widening before he took her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers, gentle but firm, and infinitely more experienced.
Despite her genteel upbringing, she was not entirely ignorant of what could follow. There had been a particularly embarrassing incident when she had walked in to the stable and tripped over one of the stable boys and a girl from the dairy. She had thought it quite amusing—her father had other ideas.
Her lips parted beneath his. His long, hard, body pressed against her and the realisation that he desired to possess her both terrified and exhilarated her. A burning longing ignited deep in her being for this man to hold her like this forever. Was this what that girl had felt for the stable boy? Was this what it felt like to want a man so badly that all caution and sense blew to the wind?
Here they were on the top of a tall tower with hundreds of people within yards of them, and yet it was as if they were the only two people in the whole world. They could be discovered any minute and that heady thought made this unplanned tryst even more exciting.
