Page 63 of A Fierce Wind

They went next to the dining room where a long oval table circled by eight chairs sat beneath a beautiful crystal chandelier.

“Large enough for a growing family, no?” Freddie asked.

Zoé felt her cheeks heat. They had yet to discuss children. “Well, and my uncle and your sister might visit, even your brother, Richard, and Annie.”

Beside her, Freddie chuckled. “I was thinking of children, as you likely suspected. What would you say to raising Pax as our own? He’s an orphan like both of us but more alone in the world than we were at his age.” Pax had filled out since Freddie had brought him to Guernsey and no longer had that haunted look in his eyes.

“I would welcome Pax into our home, but what would Isabeau and Jack say? Would Pax want to leave them?”

“Isabeau will stay with my sister for the time being, until her brother comes for her, and if he does not, she can choose where to live. But you are right to ask about Jack. The boys might want to remain together. What say you to our asking Pax where he’d like to live?”

“A good idea,” she said. “When both of us are away at sea, he would have to stay in St Peter Port with your sister anyway.”

“Well, until he has siblings, yes?”

“I suppose.” Freddie wanted children and so did she, but the thought of how one actually brought them into existence was still a bit vague in her mind. She had been raised mostly around men. Except for servants and other men’s wives, Tante Joanna was the only woman in her life.

Freddie led her up the stairs. “There are four bedchambers.”

The master bedchamber was well appointed with a huge oak half-tester bed, its cover in rich red velvet. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bed so large,” she remarked.

“Big enough for you and me and any children who might want to crawl into our bed on a cold morning. What do you think?”

“’Tis huge.” Zoé was nervous staring at the bed knowing it would be here they would most likely consummate their marriage. But then she considered the man who’d be doing the consummating. Her Freddie. Facing him, she lifted her hands to lock her fingers behind his neck. “How is it I never realized I loved you until that kiss in the woods near Rennes?”

“People see what they expect, Pigeon. You expected to see only the friend you had known for years and I was your friend. Now, about that kiss—”

“Don’t apologize for that kiss, Frederick West. Besides,” she said, smiling up at him, “I love your kisses.”

“Then you shall have many more.” He took her waist in his hands and drew her close. When their gazes locked, he leaned down to plant tiny kisses all over her face.

She closed her eyes and smiled. He would be a gentle lover, her Freddie. Perhaps they need not wait to become one. If they had the option to accept the furnishings, then this was their bed. And they were alone with the warm ocean breeze blowing in through the open window.

When Freddie moved his kisses to her lips, she responded with all the love in her heart, opening her mouth to welcome his tongue and relishing the feel of it moving against hers as he slowly seduced her mouth. Her heart sped in her chest and her breasts became sensitive pressing against the buttons on his frock coat.

Deep in her woman’s center she felt an ache, a need only he could satisfy.

He slid one hand from her waist to her breast, touching a part of her that had never been touched by a man before. With Freddie, it felt good. More, it felt right. “Freddie,” she whispered, as he trailed kisses down her throat to the pulse beating wildly at the base of her neck, “we don’t have to wait. We are betrothed and alone. And if this is to be our bed, you could make love to me now, oui?”

He lifted his lips from her throat and let out a sigh. “You have no idea how I want to, Pigeon. With your kiss-swollen lips and sleepy gray eyes, you are a temptress and I want you.” He sighed again. “But I have not waited years, all the while wanting you more than you could know, to take you prematurely. ’Tis my fault we have come this close to the doing of it. Having waited so long, I can certainly wait a few weeks more.”

“But Freddie—”

“No, mon amour, allow me this one thing, to do you the honor of holding back my desire until you are my bride. It won’t be long.”

She smiled at his determination to do the honorable thing, admiring him for denying his own wants, his own manly needs. “Do you mean you never went to a tavern or sought out a lady who would offer you her favors?”

“Not since you turned sixteen and I twenty-three.”

Pleased his fevered dreams she’d listened to after he’d been wounded in Granville were not about tavern wenches, she smiled up at him. “It shall be as you say, Freddie.” Taking his hand, she pulled him toward the door. “Perhaps we should see the kitchens?”

He laughed. “Aye, a stove and a sink would do much to cool my ardor.”

They spent little time in the kitchens before moving on to the potager, the well-kept vegetable garden, and the small orchard of orange trees behind the house. When they’d seen that, they returned to the front lawn.

As they walked to the buggy, he said, “So, you are pleased with the house and its location?”

“Oui, I am. But Freddie, will you not regret acquiring a ship of your own instead?”

“Oh, do not worry, Pigeon. I shall have a ship.”

She drew her brows together, puzzled. “But how?”

“From the years I worked with your uncle, I have my share of profits saved almost in their entirety. ’Tis enough for the schooner I want. And tomorrow, if you like, once I have acquired the house, I can show you the one I’m looking at in St Peter Port.”

“You amaze me, Frederick West.”

“I have only begun, Pigeon.”