Love Is Ch. 02

"Ah so you spend your summers there ogling them. And I have been accused by you of having a filthy mind. You are what they refer to as "Pot calling the kettle black", my love."

"Hmm."

"Hmm indeed."

"Now are you going to tell me who those women are?' she asked again.

"Why is it all the women around me seem to be suspicious today? They're my little sister and her maid." He pulled Laura closer.

"Aren't they going to come looking for you?"

"I told them I had to take care of something. Kasey isn't the type to poke her little nose about," he kissed the exposed part of her shoulder and sighed. "Yummy."

"Apposed to me poking my nose about?" Laura pulled away from him.

"I didn't say that. What are you doing out here anyway?"

"I was getting some vegetables from the farm not far from here. Are you listening to me?"

"Of course I'm listening. It's just that I want to kiss you again." He looked at her lips intently.

"Can't you be serious for once?" she scolded.

"I am serious." He combed his fingers through his hair and placed his hands in his pockets. If he didn't he would have been compelled to reach for Laura again.

"Do you want to meet Kasey? You two have a lot in common. You're both obsessed with traveling to places you've only read abut of in books"

"I don't think I'm ready to meet you're family. I better start heading back to the village" she took the reins of her horse again.

"They don't bit like me you know," he grinned.

"I'm heading back now," she said ignoring him.

"Be careful."

"I'm always careful," was the reply.

"I'll visit you tonight," Jeff suggested.

"You can't. The inn is short staffed so I shall be helping out till about ten. I'll be pretty tired by then."

"That's okay. I shall give your weary soles a rub and we shall chat a bit," Jeff suggested taking her hands in his. Whenever she was near he always found himself wanting to reach out to touch her.

"I'll be too tired to talk. I shall only wish to sleep."

"You're even more beautiful when you sleep."

Laura sighed. "Jeffery if my father finds out about you, he won't like it. Chances are, he'll hate it. He shall be away on business all of next week. You can see me then. Till then, stay away, for your sake. Remember what happen the last time you were almost caught? Promise me you will."

He had fallen asleep in Laura's room some time ago and had to hide under her bed for an entire day and sneak out at night since he could not have escaped through the window. Her room was on the third storey over the inn.

"I promise I shall stay away until next week." Jeff looked at her intently.

"Thank you. Until then, let this be your last memory of me." Standing on tiptoes, she planted a kiss on him. As he moved his hands to encircle her slender waist, she deepened the kiss by placing her hands around his neck. Her breast crushed deliciously into his chest and his desire became apparent when their lower bodies touched. Moaning softly, Laura offered her tongue which Jeff accepted greedily.

The pair remained like that for a while, tongues mating, arms entwined, bodies pressed intimately, until Laura pulled away from him without warning.

She laughed playfully as Jeff made a grab for her and she jumped out of his way.

"You are quite awful," he muttered darkly.

"Am I?" she looked at him and feigned innocence. Her lips were red and swollen from the kiss. She looked down at his aroused state and tilted her head curiously.

"One day, it won't just end with a kiss," his brown eyes almost black with emotion. Taking her horse's reigns again, she looked at him seriously and said so softly "I await that day with bated breath Jeffery." With that she and the horse disappeared behind the bushes.

It was the very thought of embarrassing himself that had kept his feet planted where they were or he would have run after Laura like a lovesick school boy. Gwen's words rang in head as fresh as had been yesterday. "You're a fun roll in the hay Jeff luv, but marrying and settling down? I don't see that in your distant future."

Did his Laura see him as that? Some practicing tool until some better man came along? Shoving his hands in his pockets, deep in his thoughts, he turned and headed back to where he had left his sister.

"Look its Jeff, in one piece. See Emma there was nothing to get the vapors over." Kasey smiled as her brother emerged from the woods.

They had spent the past twenty minutes listening to maid's synopsis of a novel she read about a young man who was attacked in the woods while relieving his self. While Kasey did her best to calm her maid by telling her bears did not exist in these woods, Lord Garwood's footman, a skinny fellow by the name of Bradley did little to assist as proceeded to tell them about an article he had read in the paper two days before about a packed of wolves which had rampaged through a neighboring village injuring one person.

Lord Garwood did even less to aid the situation as he had decided the entire state of affairs hilarious and had doubled over laughing. Kasey glowered at him now. She was seeing him in a whole new light. He had indeed enchanted her with his tales of other islands and his handsome looks last night but now, she was not so taken in. True she still wanted to run her fingers through his luxurious hair and she felt light headed whenever he looked at her with those beautiful green eyes, but it was now becoming more apparent to Kasey that Jordan Garwood hand similar attributes to that of her brother. It was as thought he were Jeff's long lost twin.

"We were so worried my lord. Though my lady doesn't believe there may be bears lurking about." Emma told him.

"Or wolves." Bradley added.

"Don't be ridiculous. There aren't any bears or wolves or any man eating creatures about here," Kasey told them. She folded her arms together and nodded furiously.

"If you say so my lady," Emma said slowly still looking unsure.

"Now that all that is settled are there any more sandwiches left?" Jeff asked changing the subject. He took a seat next to his sister, before rummaging through the picnic basket their cook hand packed for the trip.

"All you ever think about is food. Serves you right if everything was eaten, you took so long to come back." Kasey looked at Jeff suspiciously. He shrugged and began eating a sandwich.

"Don't keep me guessing, what did happen to the lady when she discovered the purse filled with gold?" Kasey asked Emma. It had been almost two hours since they had stopped for the picnic lunch in the woods. They were now traveling along a road which was cut through a wheat field. The road led to a small village, the first of two situated before Greenwich. Emma was now telling Kasey about the latest book she had completed, As the World Turns. Purses filled with gold, beautiful maidens, rakes, pirates, gypsies, Kasey just did not get it. She indulged her maid all the same.

Miss Emma Whitley had been her maid and closet friend since she had been the tender age of nine. Six years Kasey's senior, Emma had preferred a simple life reading romances and other grown-up Fairy Tales as Kasey had called them. Her beauty and kind character would have made her a catch had she been brought up in London. Her father had decided against this and brought up his only child on his small farm. Her mother had died in childbirth. When Emma's father had died when she was just fifteen, Mrs. Morgan had taken her in. Her husband and Emma's father had been good friends. She saw to it that she was brought up right. At eighteen, she became Kasey's maid. Now at twenty five, she and Kasey were complete opposites but best of friends. While Kasey's hair was dark, Emma's was brown and her eyes were green. Her skin was almost flawless from spending most of her days inside reading or sewing aside from the times she reluctantly ventured into the sun to escort Kasey on her adventures. A few freckles littered her nose and arms, Kasey was covered with them. Finally while Kasey was tall and slender Emma was short and petite.

"Well Gwyneth decided that she could now see the world like she had always dreamt! Imagine how grand that would be!" her maid exclaimed.

"Yes I could." Kasey thought about the ocean.

"Unfortunately, the pirate Jack came back, the one with the eye patch, remember him? "

"Kasey nodded and repeated what Emma had told her earlier. Captain Jack who didn't really need a patch, he simply wore it to look more gruesome and daunting."

"Yes, yes." Emma smiled excitedly.

Kasey knew how this story was going to end; the roguish sea man was going to fall for the lady, and vice versa, of course.

Just then their carriage gave a lurch, sending both girls sprawling onto the floor. Wearing confused expressions, they untangled themselves and peered out the window.

"Don't you worry Miss Morgan, Miss Whitley, just a small animal ran into our path," the coachman told them.

They resettled themselves again, and Kasey silently thanked the creature which had run into their path. Emma began guessing what animal had run into o the horses' paths. She had completely forgotten about the pirate, the lady and the gold.