Tempest(34)

Hermione Parrish drew a ragged breath. “Everything is wrong.” Her proud face turned to her daughter, crumpling as she confessed, “Your father has left me for another woman. He wants a divorce!”





PART FOUR





Chapter 20




“This is hell.” Adam climbed into the narrow bed that dominated the small north bedroom and stretched out, frowning. “Hell!”

“I heard you the first time.”

“Even Alice is protesting her new quarters. She’s sleeping outside my true bedroom door.”

“I don’t blame her. It’s rather stuffy in here.”

“My feet hang over the end of this bed.”

“I’m sorry to hear it.” Cathy was busy trying to puff up her pillow and find a sleeping position that would keep her bottom from coming in contact with a broken spring. “Couldn’t your grandparents afford to buy a decent bed?”

“This is an antique.” His mouth twitched. “Extremely valuable.”

“Extremely impractical, you mean.” Propping herself up on an elbow, Cathy looked at the fireplace that had been built into one corner. Its tile interior gleamed in the lamplight. It had never been used in its two-hundred-sixty years of existence. “Only the fireplaces in Tempest Hall are more impractical than this bed!”

“I think your ire is misplaced. Stop blaming my grandparents and this poor house and start blaming your mother.” Turning toward her, Adam traced the line of her nightgown-clad waist and hip. He longed to curve his hand over her bottom. “Has she told you yet what in God’s name she is doing here? For someone so obsessed with proper etiquette, this impromptu visit is staggeringly rude. I didn’t expect to see Hermione here until she’d received an engraved invitation from you, me, and the Queen of England.”

“Has she asked you to call her Hermione?”

“You must be joking.” He drew her closer. “But why shouldn’t I? I’m her son-in-law, after all.” A wicked smile played over his mouth. “And, I love the sound of that name, don’t you? Her-mi-o-ne. Reminds me of an incantation.”

“You’re very bad.” She was euphoric in his embrace.

“You don’t know the half of it.” Adam slid his hand into her hair and covered her mouth with his, kissing her with slow, hot deliberation.

Cathy knew she ought to tell him about her parents’ separation, but didn’t want to break the spell. Instead, she let herself melt in his arms. Slowly, slowly, he was opening the tiny buttons on her nightgown with his long fingers. As each one slipped free, he bent to press his warm mouth against the newly exposed skin. She longed to believe that he really wanted her in this way, that he wasn’t just pretending. Each touch of his mouth caused her breathing grow more shallow. Her breasts felt swollen, and the place between her legs had begun to ache with yearning.

Adam wanted to lift the gown over her head, toss it aside, and cover every inch of her starlit body with the most intimate of kisses. He wanted to hold her down and part her legs and teach her just how high she could soar... but he remembered how she had stopped him before, how shocked and embarrassed she’d been. So, instead he opened the last button on her bodice and gently pushed it aside to find her eager breast. The nipple was taut, and when he circled it with his tongue, he heard her whimper. He was so hard; the thought of being inside Cathy made him crazy. But he held back; he waited until she arched closer, urging her breast into his mouth, before he began to suckle. Slowly, lingeringly, he worked at her nipple until she was making soft panting sounds. When his free hand drew her nightgown up and found its way between her legs, she opened to his questing fingers. She was slick and so ready, but Adam took his time and deftly touched her, exploring, stroking. In time, he sensed that she was still too anxious to surrender, and so he let his hand drift away and moved over her, kissing her, letting his erection press between her open legs.

Cathy was coming to love the feeling of his powerful body covering hers, of his hands cupping her bottom, his hardness nudging the place she felt most vulnerable. She responded to the slightly salty, musky, male scent of him, and the play of muscles over his wide back as she clung to him.

When he came into her and she arched up to meet him, Cathy had a moment of gratitude for her mother’s visit and their exile to the small, uncomfortable north bedroom.



“I saw an enormous creature scurry across my floor last night,” Hermione announced as she sipped her breakfast coffee. The dining room had been made as presentable as possible, given the workmen’s clutter in the adjoining sitting room, and the Raveneaus and their guests had just taken their seats at the beautiful Sheraton table.

“Was it a lizard?” asked Cathy.

“No. It was shiny and dark.”

Adam arched a brow. “A cockroach.”

“No, no. It was much too big for that. Not that we have cockroaches at Beechcliff, but I was raised in the South and I do recall seeing one during my childhood.”

“We have huge cockroaches here,” he persisted. “My grandfather used to call them ‘mahogany birds.’”

Hermione shuddered and dropped her pince-nez. “How hideous! What sort of primitive place is this?”

“Mother,” Cathy exclaimed, “Barbados is a tropical island!”

“I still cannot get over the fact that Tempest Hall does not have indoor plumbing. It’s simply shocking! Catherine, can there ever be a day that you do not pine for your marble bathroom at Beechcliff, with the separate taps for seawater and freshwater?”

Flushing, she lied, “Nothing could be farther from my mind. Such matters are of no consequence to me here.”

“If we were closer to Bridgetown we would have indoor plumbing,” said Adam. “The more distant locations on the island wait longer for advancements like running water, electricity, and telephone service. However, I must add in our defense that we don’t need separate taps for seawater. The ocean is minutes away and astonishingly warm compared to Newport.”

Auggie spoke up at last. “I am more shocked that there are no motor cars, even in Bridgetown. We may as well be in Africa. Come to think of it, looking around, sometimes I think we are!”

“Cousin, that is a very poor jest.” Cathy broke off at the sight of a servant carrying in a tray of papaya halves, and in the next moment, she recognized the girl. “June, what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at school in Speightstown!”

“We have days off because of Christmas, Mistress,” she explained softly while serving the fruit. “I missed my grandfather and Retta... and you.”

“I’m delighted to see you, too. June, this is my mother, Mrs. Parrish, and my cousin, Mr. Chase. They are visiting from America.”

June bobbed her head, mumbled a greeting, and slipped out of the room.

Hermione wore an expression of utter horror. “Catherine Beasley Parrish! One never, ever converses with one’s servants at the table, particularly in a manner that invites them to socialize with the guests! Have you forgotten every lesson I taught you?”

Staring at her papaya, she murmured, “Not yet, but I’m trying.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“I said that I’m trying not to forget, but this isn’t Beechcliff, you know. Our household is much smaller and friendlier.”

Raveneau decided to intervene. “What plans do you have for the day, Cathy?”

“I thought we might take Mother and Auggie down to see that impressive mansion on the southeastern coast that you’ve told me about. Crowe’s Nest, isn’t that it?” She turned to her guests. “Barbados has all sorts of legends about this house and its owner, Xavier Crowe. He used to hang lanterns on the palm trees to trick ships into thinking they’d reached Bridgetown’s harbor. Then, when they came closer, they’d be caught in the treacherous Atlantic waves and crash on Cobbler’s Reef. Crowe’s men took whatever valuables they could find...”

“My grandfather, Nathan Raveneau, and Xavier Crowe were bitter enemies,” Adam explained. “In the end, it was Grandfather who set the trap that Crowe stepped into. He was captured, tried, and hanged for his crimes.”

“What happened to his mansion? Does he have descendants?”

“Crowe’s wife and nephew went to England after his arrest. The house resembles a castle, and many claim it’s cursed,” Adam replied, squeezing more lime over his papaya. “It developed some time ago that the nephew had an heir on the island, Basil Lightfoot, but as I understand it, he couldn’t afford to keep the place and it was sold last year to pay his debts. As far as I know, it has been uninhabited since Crowe’s death.”

“Perhaps we can go inside!” exclaimed Cathy.

“Our family owns fifty acres of land just north of Crowe’s Nest and it’s one of the most beautiful spots on the island, complete with the ruins of an old plantation house called Victoria Villa. I’ll come along to show you; it would be safer for you to explore there.”

June and Liza, the new serving maid, appeared with the breakfast trays then. There were dishes of poached haddie, toasted and buttered yams and plantains, coddled eggs, and boiled eggs imported from England. Even Cathy was surprised to see such an extensive array of food and wondered if Adam had sent Simon back to market at dawn. When Liza offered the guests a choice of chocolate, tea, or coffee, Hermione began to look satisfied with her surroundings for the first time.