Felicity: An American Girl ROMANCE, Pt.2, CH. 17:
Near to the end of September-the twenty-eigth, to be exact-General George Washington led the massive manpower of combined armies out of Williamsburg early in the morning and on toward Yorktown, where Cornwallis was holed up, leaving behind anxious citizens with the knowledge that a great battle was coming. Surely it would end the war at last...at long, long last.
Nan Merriman stole out of the house early that morning, with Felicity by her side, to the road in hopes of seeing Lucien on his way out of town with his regiment. The drums beat a grave march, but every soldier that passed looked confident and ready. Lucien knew just where to look for Nan, and they nodded to each other briefly.
Nan continued to stare in his direction even after the eerie early morning darkness had swallowed him up. Absently, she mumbled, "He asked me to marry him, you know."
"He what?" Felicity gaped, gob-smacked. "Nanette Merriman! What did you reply? What did Father say? Lord Almighty! You've just turned fourteen! When-how-where?"
"Lissie," Nan soothed calmly(and trying hard not to laugh), taking her awe-stricken sister's arm and drawing the both of them away from the road, closer to their own house, "please do not pop a stay. There is no cause for alarm, really. Father has not said boo about anything, because Father does not know. And as for the proposal itself, I told Lucien no."
Felicity's mouth dropped open. As Nan waited for her to collect her wits, Felicity managed to form a sensible sentence and asked, "B-But I thought you were in love with him-did you not just spend every available moment with him?"
Nan's smile was cryptic. "I am in love with him, Lissie. But I do not want him to believe that I can be so easily won. I flirt with his friends, with some of the American soldiers, too, but I save my kisses just for him. I've made it explicitly clear that I will not marry until the war is over, nor will I be removed from my family even if France is so tempting."
"Oh, Nan!" Felicity breathed in wonderment. "All of us adore Lucien. He is brave and kind and loyal. But I know Mother and Father worry about him wanting to take you back to France with him, but if you do not want to leave Virginia..." She gulped. "What has Lucien to say?"
"Well, he understands that I will not marry before the war is over-many couples have decided upon that, as you know. He wishes for me to meet his family, but in order for me to do that..." She gave Felicity a head-cocked look. "Lucien also likes it here on the continent. He likes how there is plenty of land and opportuniies here. But if he chooses to live here, he will be apart from his family, and if I go with him to France..."
"You will be apart from yours," Felicity finished the obvious for her as Nan nodded. "Could his family not come here?"
Nan's smile turned thin. "Perhaps no more than ours could go there. Sea voyages are such hardships! I just cannot comprehend why our William wishes to go to sea! Lucien wrote his family aboout me, but he has not heard back from them yet. And on top of all of that, there is the matter of my being only fourteen, as you've said. Father will not consent to my marrying anyone before I am sixteen. He has been most gracious in allowing Lucien and I to court simply because Lucien has proven himself trustworthy and upright."
"And is Lucien decent with you when you are alone with him?" Felicity asked.
Nan chuckled. "Aye. Oh, there have been a few times where he has attempted a kiss where he was not invited, but I remedy that with a swift swat of my fan!"
"Dear Nan, you never cease to amaze me," Felicity told her, giving the girl a tight hug. "I hope everything turns out for the best for you and Lucien, truly I do! He would be a wonderful addition to our family, but I could never do without you if you were to go away to France!"
"Never fear, sister," Nan assured her, with a kiss to Felicity's cheek as they clasped hands. "I shan't put anyone but God before my family."
Felicity felt comforted by that, but also a little concerned. "There does come a time, Nan, when daughters must become wives and have homes of their own...unfortunately," she added ruefully.
"True, but there is plenty of time for that, for both of us. Has...Ben proposed to you yet?"
"Nay, he has not! He has been very mysterious lately." Felicity looked thoughtful. "But I will not excite myself about it until there is a reason to."
"A very wise idea, that," approved Nan with a raised eyebrow. "He always behaves quite eagerly around you."
"Hee hee! I do not think he can help it!"
Nan said nothing in response to that. She kept her concerns to herself for the present, as the two sisters returned to the house. She was not oblivious to the fact that Felicity had been getting up in the night to sneak into bed with Ben to finish sleeping the night away. Once upon a time Nan Merriman would have gone to her mother and father and informed on this outlandish behavior, but she had since learned that being a tattle-tale was an unapproved of behavior as well, and that whatever no-no's a person committed usually came back to bite them in the bum.
She feared this behavior would do so to her sister.
But Nan would not say anything to anyone, not just because she valued Felicity's trust and confidence, but she felt that someone had to keep an eye out for her sister's best interests. Ben was a grown man now, with a grown man's interests. So intense, so...taken with Felicity that it was almost alarming.
She hoped her worries about Ben Davidson's reliability would not amount to anything...for Felicity's sake.
Though Nan and Felicity did get their bedchamber back and Ben was given the guest room, felicity still desired to sneak off to him in the night. Sometimes Nan heard her sister softly giggle, most of the time she heard nothing at all. There was some comfort in knowing that if any violations of innocence were going on, there would be other sounds made likely to wake the entire household.
At least Ben Davidson hadn't crossed that line yet.
Annabelle and Mr. Cole returned to Williamsburg at the end of September, but without Annabelle's fiance, the Major Basil Crumb, who'd been detained in New York on 'stand-by' orders. But being still a Major, he dispatched four of his best men to accompany the future Mrs. Crumb and her father back to their family. So Elizabeth was preoccupied with their return for a few days, in which Annabelle was surprisingly civil to Arthur and could speak of nothing but her dashing Major.
"He is the son of an earl, you know," Annabelle chirped excitedly at dinner one evening, "the son of the Earl of Dunlevy and heir to the title!"
"Yes, Annabelle, we know that," reminded Elizabeth tiredly. "Everyone knows that by now."
Annabelle Cole was pleased.
But with all of the gossip-swapping at the Cole dinner-table, Elizabeth herself had the most interesting news, for the very evening that she, Arthur, Felicity and Ben had visited in the Cole parlor Elizabeth had learned something interesting...
...Ben had wrote his father, who he had learned was in Richmond for the duration of Cornwallis's occupation of Yorktown, then later that evening, came to Mr. Merriman's study door, and knocked softly.
"Yes? Ben? Don't just stand there, lad, come in," Mr. Merriman said to him, as the nervous former-apprentice stepped in, seeing that his former master was seated behind his desk writing in a ledger with his quill.
Ben gulped anxiously. His hands were clasped behind his back and the frame of his body was military-stiff. He'd never been this nervous when standing before colonels and generals! Despite a bone-dry throat, he said, "If you are the least bit busy, sir, I can come back another time-"
"Nonsense!" Mr. Merriman told him good naturedly. "I've been expecting you. Actually, I'm very surprised its taken you this long!"
"Sir?" Ben felt his face grow hot.
Mr. Merriman removed his reading spectacles, grinned, and laid aside his quill so that he could lean back in his mahogany high-backed chair. He favored the antsy young cavlary captain with a fatherly eye. "Correct me if I'm wrong, and I think we both know that I am not, but you have come to talk to me about Felicity."
Ben inhaled and nodded, unable to speak lest his voice jump out of his throat in a squeak. Mr. Merriman nodded at the chair in front of his desk and said, "So sit down there, Ben, and talk to me about our Felicity. I must warn you, however, I shall only pretend to be surprised by what you have to say. Or ask, rather."
Ben quickly sat down, then lifted his rump off the seat so that he could scoot the chair closer to the desk, then sat again and gripped the chair arms with white knuckles...
One morning a few days later (which was how long it took for Ben to gather his nerves for what he wanted to do), Ben found Felicity out in the barn, brushing Penny and humming to herself as she worked. She was alone, thank the Lord, for it seemed to Ben that someone was always in need of her, but in his own self-reasoning no one was in greater need of her than himself. Though his musket-ball wound was healing at an improving rate, he still limped, but at least he was not grimacing or wincing.
Ben Davidson had fought in several major balttles, countless skirmishes, faced death more times than he could count, shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with the likes of Generals George Washington, Nathaniel Greene, 'Mad Anthony' Wayne, and Daniel Morgan, but every bit of that paled in comparison to his approaching the most beautiful girl in the world, one sixteen year old faerie queen named Felicity Merriman. Limping out to the barn, his head swam with 'what-if's, maybe's and might's', his heart beat as though it were going to burst, and he actually trembled a bit.
After all, 'twas only his life changing forever in this hour.
When he stepped into the barn and found her with Penny, he thought his heart was going to burst. She was a heavenly sight, in her hunter-green riding habit, her red hair wafting about loose fron its ribbon around a pixie-face befitting a magical character out of the tales of old about sorcerers, elves and unicorns. She must have sensed someone watching her, for she suddenly turned and, seeing that it was him, flashed him an instant grin-her special grin, the one meant only for him that spoke of affection, warmth and cheerfulness without her having uttered a single word.
But she did say, "Hello, Ben! Care for a ride? Or does Father want you in the store today?"
"N-No, he, ah, knows that I have important business to tend to this morning," replied he, with his heart banging in his ears like the call to arms.
"Oh." She sounded disappointed, but her smile for him did not falter. "I myself would be bound for Elizabeth's house before noon, but seeing how that Annabelle is there..." She shrugged, looking somewhat amused more than annoyed. "She and I never did get on well. So...will your 'business' detain you for long?"
Ben stepped forward, licking his dry lips. "As a matter of fact, I am hoping that this 'business' will detain me for always." He smiled hintingly.
Felicity, as he suspected, looked confused. "Say what? Ben, you are not possibly wanting to go back into the army, are you?"
"Oh no, nothing like that," he chuckled. He took another step closer to her, hands clasped behind his back as he regarded her with an impish smile. Inside, his nerves were jingle-jangling. "My 'business', Miss Felicity, is with you."
She stopped brushing Penny's mane and stared at him. "Are you trying to mystify me, Captain Davidson? Because if you are, you have succeeded!"
"Forgive me, let me rectify that." He cleared his throat, putting on an air of mock professionalism that debated with his playful smile. "Felicity, I have had a serious talk with your father in which I appealed to him in a matter of tremendous importance to me. The matter of which is none other than yourself and our future together."
"Oh, Ben..." She made a sudden move towards him, dropping her curry brush, then stopped and searched his passionate brown eyes in wonder. "Did you...did you ask him about us? Did you ask him if we could begin to officially...court?"
Right away, he shook his head as he limped closer to her. "Nay, Lissie. Courting you is the last thing I want. I do not wish to court you."
"Oh." Her gaze fell sharply as the air left her lungs and she began to consider herself a born idiot. "That was really silly of me to think-"
"You see," interrupted he, closing some more inches between them, "I do not want to court you. I want to marry you."
Her green eyes went wide, then even wider as she watched Ben slowly lower himself before her upon one knee, taking into his hands both of hers, bringing them to his lips for a kiss to each. She had begun to shake. Ben, too, was trembling, as he was feeling an entire range of powerful emotions storming through him. Feeling as though every struggle and every battle he'd ever faught was meant to bring him right to this moment. The war had made a man out of him, so that he could return to the girl he loved and take her for his very own. Yes, he was ready.
Was she?
"Felicity Merriman," he began in what he hoped was his very best earnest and soul-bareing voice (which actually had a quiver in it), "from the day I first met you, I felt that we were bonded. I loved you right from the very beginning- it just took me a little while to understand what it was I was feeling! Somehow, I just knew that we were meant for each other!"
Felicity's chin trembled.
He was on a roll now, and could not stop. His very future, his very life, was being placed into her sweet hands. "Whenever I think of, or have thought of, my future, you have been in every image, at my side or me at yours. I don't want you to change, Lissie, not ever! I don't expect you too, nor would I ever seek to change you. All of those things that I love about you are the very things I hope you always possess! Would you want me to change?"
"No." It came out as an almost-whisper. Her eyes were filling with tears. "But-But Ben, I have no dowry- Father had to spend a great deal of money on repairing the store..."
"I don't care about that, nary a whit!" Ben said promptly, pressing the backs of her hands to his lips again. "I want you, Lissie, not your father's money. I want to marry you. I just want you and nothing else." He gulped, readying himself. "Will you marry me, Felicity Merriman? Marry me and be mine forever and ever?"
She had felt herself go weak in the knees , her breathing suspend and her skin tingle with shock-excitement. Ben was proposing marriage to her! He was ready to become a husband, and he was asking her to be his wife! A WIFE! He wanted her to become Felicity Davidson. They would share a home together, work in a store together, share a bed intimately together. And marriage was forever, or was supposed to be. She was not one to take vows lightly.
Forever!
This did mean change, and he had said that he did not want her to change. The spiraling of her emotions was making her dizzy. Am I ready? Is it now or never? The hope and pleading in his handsome brown eyes pierced her to the soul, and she was so overcome with her love and longing for this young man that all hesitation and worry was swept clear out of her mind. She took his face into her hands.
"If you need some time to think about it, Lissie, I under-"
"No, Ben."
He blinked rapidly, caught off guard by her reply. "Huh? Wh-what?"
"I said no." Then she broke into a wide grin. "I meant 'No, I do not need any time to think about it.'"
His breath caught, his eyes grew big. "Then...does this mean..."
"YES!" Felicity blurted. "Yes, I will marry you, Benjamin Davidson!"
"You will? You really will?"
"YES! Yes, yes, yes, and more yesses!"
"WOO-HOO!" As he started to rise, Felicity threw herself at him, flinging her arms around his neck, sending them both into the hay bales behind them. Ben landed with an "Ooof!" and Felicity with wild giggles on top of him, hugging him as hard as she could. He, too, laughed, hugging her tightly, and did not complain in the least when she raised up on her hands on either side of his head and began a crazy assault of kisses upon his forehead, cheeks and nose.
Panting breathlessly, she rested her forehead upon his and breathlessly whispered, "Am I dreaming, Ben Davidson?"
"Nay, my beauty, you are not," he whispered back, just as breathless as she. Her gentle weight upon him drove him wild with desire. "You and I were meant to be."
"Oh, it just seems too good to be true!" she cried blissfully, dropping her red head upon his left shoulder. "You and I forever..."
"Aye, Lissie," he murmured softly, rubbing her back up and down. "Forever."
She raised her head and looked at him with such love in her emerald eyes that he was instantly compelled to hold her body firmly against his as he rolled the both of them onto their sides facing each other. But feeling a little guilty, he said, "I'm sorry that I don't have anything to give you just yet, like a piece of jewlery, or even something bigger, like-"
"Ssssh," she commanded softly, placing gentle fingers upon his lips. "We have no need of trinkets when we have this..." She took the hand of his that was busy caressing her cheek and drew it down the side of her neck, over her sensitive collar-bone and down to the roundness of her breasts, upon which lay again the signal whistle. He inhaled deeply, his fingers brushing over the polished wood.
"This is all of the symbolism we need," she told him with firm assurance.
His impassioned brown eyes came back up to lock with her fiery green ones, and he could not resist the urge to kiss her. So that he did, kissed her hard and profoundly as if his life depended on it (which in his mind it did), and as he did, she boldly took that hand of his that was holding the whistle and moved it's palm upon one of her breasts, holding it there firmly. In response to her uninhibited gesture, he groaned and she whimpered. He kissed her again harder and she pressed closer.
His eager, hungry mouth moved to her neck, kissing and tasting it's soft, sensitive flesh. Without them having given thought to their bodies' movements, she had rolled completely onto her back and he over her, with her still keeping his hand clamped to her breast. She sighed deliriously, longingly, arching her upper half up beneath his hand, giving him more of her exposed neck and demanding more of his attentions in return.
His parted lips drew along her chin and stopped temptingly at her mouth. "I want to give you everything," he panted, as if desperate. "Everything I have, everything I am, everything you desire. Tell me, Felicity Merriman, did you really mean it when you said 'yes'?"
She gazed up at him seriously through long dark lashes and murmured, "Yes, Ben, I meant it. I do not take vows lightly, and I do not take it back. 'Tis my choice, and I chose you for my husband. I am more happy than words can describe because of you."
With tremedous reluctance, he moved his hand from her corset-bound breast to stroke her cheek. "If you are happy, I am happy. I promise you, Lissie, I will make you the best of husbands."
"I know you will, Ben." She beamed, held his face; that utterly handsome face that used to have the look of an innocent, eager young boy, but had now become the sharpened, chisled face of a young man who had a far greater awareness of the world via war. This boy, this man, had always had her heart. It was in that very moment that Felicity realized, with a measure of amusement, she was now ruined for any other man.
"What's that wicked little smile for, girl?" Ben asked, his fingers now caressing her collarbone.
"You claim to know me so well, Captain Davidson," teased she, "you tell me!" As happy as she was now, she also felt empowered. Emboldened, as if she had not already been. She brought his face down to hers and thrust her tongue into his mouth, pressing against his, and arched her body up so that he could feel that she, too, knew what desire was. He groaned helplessly, unable to stop his own eager hand from stealing down to her breast again, let his fingers feel its firm, roundish shape.
Sweet Christ. And they were supposed to wait until their wedding night?
"Lissie, I can't...can't stop..."
By way of reply, she used her own warn lips to further open his. I, too, can be fierce, she thought playfully, squirming with delight as Ben's hand moved firmly down the side of her body. A tingling, wild and hot, spread all over her and through her, exciting her skin in a way that she was quickly learning was capable of driving her right out of her mind.
"You-I-we-" Ben swallowed with difficulty, inhaled, grimaced against the raging erection demanding attention from the both of them. "You just have no idea what you are capable of doing to a man."
Felicity propped up on her elbows. "So tell me, then."
"Oh, believe me, Lissie, you will find out soon enough." In saying that, something else came to mind. "Sit up here."
She sat up, looking curious as well as enthralled.
"I wrote to my father about you," Ben told her, slightly rocking back and forth as he attempted to get ahold of his crazed desires. "I want to go to Richmond and get my merchant's certificate, get a store set up here, and get us a home of our own. Now what do you think about that?"
"Oh, Ben, all of that sounds so fine!" And she meant it, even though she was still dazed silly by having just become engaged to be married to him this morning. She grinned and began picking hay out of his long brown hair. "It's all so new and wonderful!"
Ben thought of something else, too. "You-you're not afraid that I'm wanting to marry you just so I can bed you?"
She leaned against him, put her chin on his shoulder. "Are you?"
"My heart says 'of course not!' I do love you, Lissie, I always have. It's just that sometimes- ah, hell, I just want you so much all of the time it scares me to death!"
That made Felicity smile. His body was so tense with arousal, 'twas plain to see as well as feel, and amused by the constant battle between his conscience and man-part, she took sweet pity upon him by saying kindly, "Arthur Pratt says 'tis perfectly natural to desire with one's body the one you love with your heart."
"Aye," Ben agreed, recalling the quote. "Smart lad, that Arthur."
"Oh indeed," said Felicity absently. "Did you know that he babbles in Latin when he is tipsy?"
Ben cocked an eyebrow, grinning. "Our Arthur? Arthur Pratt? When does he get drunk?"
"There were a couple of times I can think of right off, like at his and Elizabeth's engagement party and his mother's Yuletide party last year. Both times he had too much wine and syllabub, and started spouting things like 'Carpe cerevise!' which is 'Seize the beer!' and 'Ergo bibamus!' which is 'Therefore, let us drink' and everyone did just that. Oh he never gets piss-drunk, just tipsy, but he's still just as hilarious."
Ben laughed, a little of his sexual tension relieved for the moment. He put an arm around her shoulders, drawing her to his chest and kissed the top of her red-head. "You promise that you'll marry me, pretty Lissie?"
"Aye, Ben Davidson," she murmured dreamily, hugging him hard. "I promise."
"God be praised."
She pressed her forehead to his cheek. "I love you, Ben."
"And I love you...more than you know."
They held each other tight, the both of them in their excitement and bliss marvelling at this moment. Childhood friends, soon to be husband and wife. Felicity broke the emotional silence with her soft murmurs; "Felicity Davidson. Mrs.Davidson. Mrs.Felicity Davidson. Mr. and Mrs.Davidson. The Davidsons. Captain Benjamin Davidson and his wife..."
Ben chuckled and gave her a squeeze. "They all sound so perfect, don't you agree?"
"Oh yes. I shall be proud to have your name."
And damned if he wasn't aroused again! 'Twas a wild wonder how she could affect him not only with her glorious, grown body, but with words just as much. "As proud as I have been to become a member of the Merriman family."
She released a little squeal of joy. "Ben, Mother and Father will be so happy for us! You know that Father has always thought of you as his own son!"
Happiness, indeed, was flowing like liquid gold inside of him at that fact. "Aye. He has been more of a father to me than my own father!" He stroked the stray silky wisps of red hair from Felicity's face as she looked at him worriedly.
"Ben, will your father approve of me? Will he even like me?" She tensed, having not thought of this before now. She knew so little about Ben's family! "Your family is wealthy; your father would want you to marry well, within your league, someone-"
He silenced her with a hard kiss, then looked her steadily in the eyes. "I love you, my child-bride. I choose you. It does not matter what anyone thinks. Only you and I."
"That is true," Felicity admitted, "but I want everyone to be as happy as I am! I want your father to like me and approve. I know nearly nothing about him except that he is a good friend of Father's! I did meet him once, but I was so young I can't recall anything more than his tall form and stern look."
Ben smiled a little. "That's the impression he likes to give- that he's always serious and strict. But he's not, at least he wasn't before Mother died. Now he's more like...empty. Reserved." He poked at some hay at his toe. Penny had ambled over to munch on a clump. "He remarried just before I came to Williamsburg. Married a well-off widow named Opal Sisk. He loves her, it seems, but he's not in love with her. They married for companionship, Lissie. My father will never be in love with any other woman but my mother, and Mrs. Sisk will only ever be in love with her deceased husband. But she and my father keep each other company. They get on well. And as far as you are concerned, my beautiful bride, he will like you, I am sure of it. He loves horses, so that there is already one thing the two of you have in common! He will like you when he sees how happy you make me. When he sees you now, all grown up and looking like a faerie-tale come to life, he will agree with me that you are the most beautiful girl he's ever seen since he met Mother!"
Felicity was mesmirized and astonished. "Oh Ben, those are such dear things to say! I want so much for everyone to be happy with our wedding!"
"No one will be happier than I," Ben murmured as he brought her face to his with a hand upon the back of her head. "Mark me, my ravishing bride, there will be no happier man alive."
"Nor any happier woman," Felicity added as his warm lips brushed her cheek.
"I am going to marry you, Felicity," he said huskily in her ear. "I am going to make you my wife, as you were meant to be, and we are going to be together forever."
Felicity sighed softly against his cheek. "Then kiss me quick, Ben Davidson, before I die of happiness..." And he did just that, hard and deep. Always with intensity, always leaving her dizzy, shaken and wanting more.
Before he got carried away, he brought the both of them to their feet, picked the hay out of her beautiful red hair and inhaled fully. 'Twas time to tell their news to the rest of the family. There was bound to be shrieks of joy, jumping up and down and lots of hugging. Encouragingly, he took her hand in his and asked, "Are you ready, my bride?"
Whoosh! Her reply was a quivering, thrilled and breathless "Yes, my groom, I am ready. Let's go spread our joy to the masses!" Hand in hand they left the barn, their first steps toward their future...
"...and so Ben and Felicity are now happily engaged to be married at last!" Elizabeth beamed proudly to the still agog Annabelle Cole, who was neglecting her much slaved-over ham as she was too shocked to eat. Elizabeth's manners kept her from cackling like a crazy chicken, but inside she was rolling in mirth at her older sister's reaction. "Everyone suspected 'twas only a matter of time once Ben got home from the war. They make such an adorable couple!"
"Oh indeed they do, Beth," agreed Mrs. Cole. "Felicity's such a lovely little thing, so spirited! She has been a tremendous help in working with Elizabeth's gown-she and that charming younger sister of hers, Nan! If anyone can get a handle on that wayward Benjamin Davidson, 'tis Felicity Merriman. Their energies are well-matched."
Annabelle gaped at her mother.
"Actually, Mama, 'tis Ben who has tamed Felicity! They are the talk of the town! Them and General Washington." She looked at Annabelle to see what reaction this would get, but the eldest Cole daughter quickly shut her mouth and looked down at the peas in her plate. Elizabeth couldn't help it-she had to know about something...
"Annabelle, you will want to send Ben and Felicity your best wishes, won't you? After all, they are happy for you and Basil, you know."
"Yes, dear, you certainly should do that," advised Mrs. Cole pleasantly. "Do you remember how you were so ridiculously infatuated with that boy? Seems like a lifetime ago!" She reached over and patted Annabelle's limp hand heartily. "But now you are a grown woman and you have made a splendid conquest with the Major!"
Annabelle smiled, though it was entirely forced. She finished her meal in complete silence, knowing that Elizabeth's eyes were upon her. Was it so obvious that she still harbored a soft-spot for the former apprentice? Of course she was in love with the dashing Basil Crumb, but, never having been one to let anything go willingly, she could never forget (what she considered to be) her first love.
Nor how she lost him to that little witch, Felicity Merriman.
Oh, she'd never forgotten that she was planning and scheming her revenge upon Felicity with intentions of seeing it through. Then Father had taken her to New York with him. Then she became the darling of many a Loyalist officer, which proved to be a distraction, which also led to Basil Crumb. Basil spoiled her rotten. Basil believed that whenever a wrong was done to you, you must be revenged. Annabelle believed that, too.
No one took what Annabelle Cole wanted without paying a price for it. This could be her last chance to get back at the little bitch before she married Basil. 'Twas now or never.
Now what, exactly, would be the fitting punishment for the likes of Felicity Merriman and yet do-able at the same time?
CHAPTER FINISHED!