Napoleon's Gift (22 page)

Bartholomew took the decanter
from him frowning.

“This isn’t makin
g the situation any better! I have never seen ye like this, but ye must take hold of yerself!”

“And how shall I do that, since ye seem to
discern so much Bart? Do ye not think I have attempted just that since arriving? Do ye somehow think that I am carved from stone?” Benjamin cried, snatched the decanter back, then poured himself a full glass of whiskey.

“I daresay that isn’t going to
assist any old chum.” Bartholomew muttered, Benjamin sighed, then went to the settee and sat down placing his head in his hands.

“Ye act as if ye have no notions of wooing a woman.” Bartholomew commented, and Benjamin looked up at him frowning.

“Are ye daft? Of course I do, however, she is dissimilar to any other woman I have distinguished. I recognized that from the initial time she kissed me when I was fourteen years old. Ye tell me how to resolve this given that ye have such an immeasurable acquaintance with women.” Benjamin cried, and Bartholomew grinned.

“Finally, we shall
dawn on a grand scale.” Bartholomew grinned, and Benjamin rolled his eyes.                                                       

***

When I woke the next morning, I was taken aback the day was so glorious, especially after having been overcast the day before. It was almost as if the day, sensed that I was in a finer mood, because as I stretched, then yawned, I could see the sun in all its glory.

It looked to be a fine day.

I washed, dressed, then went into the kitchen to make myself something for the morning meal. I sighed, heart heavy blinking back the tears, because I did not hear my Granny welcoming me into her already hot kitchen.

As I
stirred about the kitchen crossing towards the back windows, something coppery caught my eye. I opened the back door, then gasped as I saw the mounds of cooper irises, in several baskets, a note atop each basket addressed to me. I picked up the first one, then tried to frown, but my facial feature would not obey my command.

“
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. Ours…”
It said, signed
B.
The next one read;
the hunger for love is much more difficult to eradicate than the hunger for bread.
There were four more baskets, and I could not seem to stop myself from smiling as I read them. 
“Love is of all passions the most resilient, for it has assaulted concurrently, my head, my heart, and my senses.”
  I placed my hand on my chest, because I felt as if my heart would rupture as I picked up the final card.
“What is love? In arithmetic, it is an equation, in history it is a war, in alchemy it is a reaction, in art it is a heart, in spite of this, in me, it is YOU.

As
exquisite as his expressions were, my heart even now could not rely on any of this. I gathered the notes, then walked back into the house.

***

“God Blind me, it did not succeed.” Benjamin hissed as he and Bartholomew removed themselves from the shrubbery.

Bartholomew frowned.

“Then we shall have to keep endeavoring. I daresay that was a smile on her face, and a look of wonderment as she drew closer to the veranda. We must carry on chap. Did ye imagine this would not be drudgery? Ye have disfigured her heart, and that my dear chum necessitates groveling, limericks, verses and sonnets. If ye have ascertained naught else from Byron, Keats or Shelley, it should be this.” Bartholomew encouraged as he cuffed Benjamin on the back, then led him off.

* **

I sighed as I gazed at the basket of flowers hours later.

Should I
absolve him?

Was my heart even capable of
pardoning him?

My mind went to that night, and feeling
s of despair, shame, and broken love rushed onward, virtually choking my breath off. If ever I had loved anyone in my life besides my Granny, it had been Benjamin.

Yet, should not I be over the
throb of it by now?

I was thirteen years
old; surly my heart had recovered since then?

Nonetheless, I had never loved anyone
as such but Benjamin.

After the Dubios’ ball, I never saw him again, and now here he was almost fourteen years later.

What was I to feel?

Where was I to place that love I had given so
profoundly, so unreservedly, so unquestioning?

It was as if he
required me to overlook all that transpired, and begin anew.

Even so
, I was not reasonably certain I could do that. Decidedly, I loved him, even more now that I was an adult then I had as a girl, still, my heart extended to my throat each time I recalled how I felt that night.

I sighed again, moving the baskets of flowers back to the veranda.

As I looked up, I saw Isaiah.

He frowned, then walked slowly to the veranda.

He handed me the letter, then the red box. I frowned now myself, as I accepted both.

When I opened the box, I looked at Isaiah
astonished.

There nestled between
the folds of red velvet was a diamond and ruby necklace. I ran my finger over the large ruby encrusted in the center of the diamonds, took a resonant breath, then presented it back to Isaiah shaking my head.

“Please return this to
Mr. Waverly, and inform him that I am not at all capable of consenting to this.” I stated, Isaiah frowned, opened his mouth to speak, when I shook my head.

“But Ginny…”
He wailed, I shook my head again, then sauntered back into the house.

Isaiah grinned as he hurried towards the
shrubbery where Benjamin and Bartholomew were lingering.

“Damn! What shall I do?” Benjamin moaned as Isaiah
furnished the box, and Bartholomew laughed.

“Mate, did ye
observe, she did not present the letter back?”

“Bloody right!” Benjamin cried, then looked towards Geneviève’s house as Bartholomew shushed him cuffing him on the shoulder.

“Come chums, I think a drink is in order.” Bartholomew laughed, and both men followed him towards the big house smiling.

***

I assembled myself on the settee, drew my legs up and under me, sighed again, then commenced to open the letter.

I noticed my hands were trembling.

I cannot subsist devoid of you. I am absentminded of everything but catching sight of you again. My life appears to stop there…I perceive no further. You have absorb’d me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I were dissolving. I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion…I have shudder’d at it.

I shudder no more…I could be martyr’d for my religion - love is my religion - I could die for that - I could die for you.

My creed is love and you are its only tenet - you have ravish’d me away by a authority I cannot oppose.

For eternity
, everlastingly,

Benjamin…

I blinked back the tears, set the letter aside, and could not help the sobs.

I
desire to be absent from this
dwelling
; I thought as I snatched up my shawl and ran from the room.

***

Benjamin frowned as he saw Geneviève run across the north side of the back garden from the parlor window headed towards the Bayou. He bolted from the room, and Bartholomew and Isaiah rushed to the window to observe what he had witnessed.

They saw the two of them
wrestle for several minutes, Geneviève sobbing, when Benjamin abruptly swept her up in his arms, walking towards the trees on the other side of the plantation.

“And that mate, is how it
ought to be. I have by no means in the fifteen years that I

have known him,
glimpsed him to be this besotted by love.” Bartholomew sighed smiling.

“Ginny has always loved Mr. Waverly, even when we were children. So much so, that she never once paid any notion to my or any other man’s affections.”
Isaiah commented grinning.

***

“Release me Benny!” I yelled at him, and he paused placing me on my feet. I made a dash for my home, when he gave chase

“Geneviève please.” He yelled as he tried to pull me into his arms, and couldn’t control my struggling form. His foot
snared mine, and we both tumbled to the grass, him settling on top of me.

“Are ye
injured?” He cried looking down at me. I shook my head, but closed my eyes, refusing to look him in the eyes.

“Ginnybean, look at me please.” He whispered hoarsely, and I shook my head.

“No.” I whispered, then turned my head the other way.  I jostle his chest, but his entire weight was restraining me.

“I love ye, and that will
by no means cease!” He wailed, I did look at him then, and the kiss he gave me resonated throughout my entire body. He placed his hand at the nape of my neck, cradling my head, as he deepened the kiss.

“No you
are…” He kissed me again with such fervor, that I was motionless.

I felt that kiss to the tips of my toes.

It was similar to no kiss he had ever given me thus far. He drew the skin in the curve of my neck into his mouth, and I cried out.

     “I
vow to God I need ye Ginnybean, ye shall do away with me if ye repudiate me!” He swore softly.

Before I could say anything, he pulled me onto his lap.

His words reverberated through me; I flung caution to the wind, and kissed him back with the same pent up fervor.

     “God yes!” He moaned, then jerked me backwards so he could look at my face.  He grinned, and before I could respond, he already had the bodice to my dress unlaced, his lips scorching my skin. He stood me, snatched down my knickers, then pulled me into his lap completely, and as he rocked my hips, I screamed.

*

      Benjamin pushed her backwards, caressing her breast as he laid her on the grass.  As he slid his hand between her thighs, he found she was
ready for him. He massaged her with his forefinger and thumb, and she moaned his name as he began to roll his fingers. He drew her nipple into his mouth, then cupped her breast sucking on her nipple until it was stiff. She moaned his name again.

      He pulled her to him, positioned himself above her, his head dipping as he sucked the skin in the curve of her neck into his mouth,
his hips driving forward, and she screamed.

*

         I moaned as he took my nipple into his warm mouth, and his hand found its way to my thighs.

        
“No Benny, what if someone should see!” I cried, as he drew his mouth to mine.

“I care naught who
observes the love between us.” He moaned, kissed my face, my eyelids, my cheeks, my brow, then came back to my lips. He drew back, smiled, then left my lips to kiss his way down my body. My breath caught as his tongue reached out and drew me into his mouth, and I moaned deeper at the feel of it.

      
Although vexed about decorum, and what people would deliberate if they should happened upon us; as he began to swirl his tongue, my mind ceased to labor, and I gave in to the sensations he crafted within my body.

His other hand came
up; he took my nipple between his forefinger and thumb, gently brushing against it. He was suddenly above me, pushed at my knees gently with his, and as I looked up he pushed forward filling every inch of me. He brought my hips up, pulled himself out, so only the tip was inside me, then bent to take my nipple into his mouth again and I cried out, as he slammed his hips forward.

“I love ye, I shall expire if ye depart from me! Do ye truly love me Ginnybean, for once the truth?

“Yes, you
recognize that I do!” I cried, as the sensations continued to build, and I could feel myself teetering on the edge of the orgasm.

“Then
declare it! This necessitates that I should hear it.” He hissed as he began to move sideways and I screamed.

“Yes...yes...
I love you!” I screamed, and he brought me up to a sitting position again.  I smoothed the hair from his face, then kissed him deeply.

      He pulled me forward, I gasped
as it drew an almost animalistic moan from me. He rocked my hips forward again, faster and faster. I could feel the orgasm building, higher and higher.

   As he jerked my hips faster,
I felt myself spiral into it, and I rode him and the orgasm. When the orgasm hit, we both screamed, then fell back gasping for breath.