After a convivial dinner with Cornwallis and a small group of officers and wives, the Tavingtons excused themselves early, eager to return to the pleasures of their bed. Knowing that Tavington had to get up early the next morning to take the dragoons into Pembroke, they didn't want to waste a moment of this opportunity to deepen their intimacy. After making their excuses to the Lord General, they left, amidst barely concealed snickers from some of the other officers, who knew what the newlywed couple would be engaging in shortly.
Several hours later, the amorous couple reclined lazily in bed, fully sated, before going to sleep. Tavington was rather tipsy, as the couple had also enjoyed a bottle of wine he'd brought out from the plantation. Out of the blue, he turned to his wife and said, "I'm famished. I think I could eat an entire side of beef."
Charlotte laughed merrily, then replied, "It's no wonder after all your…err…exertions…this evening."
Giving her a lopsided grin, he bragged, "I was rather energetic, wasn't I?"
Leaning over to give him a peck on the cheek, she said, "'Energetic' hardly begins to describe it. You certainly gave me enough to keep me satisfied while you're gone."
Sitting up and swinging his legs to the side of the bed, he told her, "I think I'll go down to the kitchen and see what's available. I'll sleep better if I'm not hungry."
"Do you think any of the servants are still up?" she asked. "It is rather late."
"There should be someone still up making preparations for breakfast tomorrow," Tavington replied, as he hastily buttoned his breeches. "If not, I'll get one up. Or likely, there will be something lying around I can grab, such as bread and cheese."
"Oh, don't get anyone up," Charlotte said. "Servants work such long hours; they need their rest."
"I'll be back as soon I can," he said, leaning over to give her a quick kiss. He added a shirt over his breeches, and stuffed his feet into bedroom slippers, but left his hair loose and his shirt open.
After lighting a candle and putting it into a holder, Tavington headed down to the kitchen. The halls were quiet, but he could hear the indistinct buzzing conversation of a group of officers playing cards as he passed a conference room on the first floor. Not wishing to get entangled in conversation, he slipped by noiselessly, intent on his mission to get a snack.
As he reached the kitchen, which was in a small detached building in the back of the main house, he was glad to see that the fireplace was still lit. To his surprise, however, he found an equally half-dressed Banastre Tarleton there, sprawled in a chair waiting as one of the kitchen slaves was preparing a pan of biscuits for the smaller man. His auburn hair was down, loose about his shoulders.
Tarleton looked up at Tavington with a knowing smirk as the dark haired dragoon entered the room. "Did Charlotte wear you out, hmm?" Ban asked, raising his eyebrows suggestively. "I find that a good romp in the hay always increases my appetite." Laughing heartily, he continued, "You should have seen me tonight -- I managed to satisfy three women after slipping away from Cornwallis' frightfully boring dinner."
Tavington snickered, then remarked, "I imagine the three women in question must be walking crooked now, thanks to you!"
"Naturally," the younger man said, grinning fiercely. Extending a bottle of brandy to his fellow dragoon, he said generously, "Have a swig. It's good brandy."
Tavington took the proffered bottle and took a long swallow from it, then sat beside his fellow officer to wait, as the slave readied a second pan of biscuits to cook.
"I'll be heading to Pembroke in the morning to see what I can find out about Benjamin Martin's new partisan group," Tavington told the other dragoon. "What does the old man have you doing tomorrow?"
"Oh, mainly a pillage and plunder mission, but I've had some leads about Francis Marion's movements that I intend to follow up, which should take me roughly in the direction of Camden," Ban replied offhandedly. "His men tend to come and go and my plan to pick off men away from the main group; essentially to fight a war of attrition."
"That's a good idea," Tavington allowed. Before he could say more, the door opened and in walked Charlotte's former maid, Molly, whom Tavington had not seen since just before she'd left Charlotte's home in Charles Town.
Looking from Tavington to Tarleton, she smiled broadly. "Well, isn't this a surprise; seeing my two favourite dragoons together again, just like back in Charles Town!"
"I thought Georgie was your favourite dragoon now," Ban reminded her. "I thought you and he were getting along famously.
"We're getting along fine," she assured him. "In fact, he sent me down here to get something to eat."
Ignoring the slave, who sighed loudly at yet another request for food, she walked over to Tavington and leaned over in front of him, giving him a good view of her unstayed breasts. "I've missed you," she purred seductively. She turned slightly to make sure Ban got an eyeful as well, then turned around and lifted her petticoat in back so they could get a quick peek of her bare bum.
"I don't suppose you've heard that Will recently married Mistress Selton, have you?" Ban informed the young woman in a conversational tone, curious to see how she'd react to the news.
"I'd heard," she smirked. Undeterred by the reminder, she murmured, "But that's no reason not to give me one last tumble for old times' sake, is it, now?"
"As much as I would like to, I really must decline," Tavington said automatically, but without much conviction. He could feel his cock stiffening even as he spoke.
"Your mouth says no, but other parts of you say differently," Molly insisted, as she boldly reached out to stroke Tavington's newly hard shaft through his breeches. It pulsed in her hand as she spoke, as if to give its own opinion on the matter. "It won't take but a couple of minutes. You can have a bit of me, then go back upstairs without Miss Charlotte being any the wiser."
"Go ahead, Will," Tarleton coaxed. "You go ahead and have her, then I'll have a go. I certainly won't tell anyone about it."
"Come on, Colonel," she wheedled, her hand still boldly fondling him. "It'll be fun!"
His painfully hard member throbbed impatiently yet again. In an instant, he'd made his decision, deciding to obey what his instincts urged him to do.
With a feral gleam in his eye, his hand clamped around her wrist, causing her to release his erection. Rising quickly from the chair, he jerked her arm as he led her roughly out of the kitchen, with Ban Tarleton on his heels.
Once outside, he led her to a section of the back wall of the main house, which was shielded from view by a tall hedge. Pushing her roughly toward the wall, he hissed, "Turn around, lean forward, and spread your legs a bit. And keep your mouth shut, if you know what's good for you."
Molly complied readily, placing her hands on the wall to brace herself as she turned to face it, presenting her backside to the aroused dragoon. She liked sex a little rough and gritty and shivered in anticipation as she waited for Tavington to enter her.
His animal instinct having taken over, Tavington hastily unbuttoned his breeches. He was eager to get into the waiting trollop, who was even now twitching her rump in invitation. After freeing his impatiently hard member, he yanked her petticoat up, so that the hem rested on the small of her back.
Slipping one hand between her legs, he noted that she was more than ready for him, as she'd no doubt come directly from Hanger's bed before appearing in the kitchen. With no further ado, he positioned himself behind her, then buried himself to the hilt in one smooth movement.
Once he was comfortably situated, he began driving into Molly at a brutal pace, as he had no desire to be gentle with her, nor did he want to take so long that he might risk Charlotte coming looking for him.
Though Ban Tarleton leaned on another section of the wall nearby, avidly watching the rutting pair with increasing arousal, Tavington was entirely oblivious to him. Like a stallion covering a mare in heat, his attention was entirely focused on the task at hand.
Neither Tavington nor Molly spoke, so intense was the pleasure coursing through them. Within moments, he could sense the first tendrils of his rapidly approaching climax. Straining toward completion, he grunted with effort as he moved in and out of her with an ever-increasing tempo. And although Molly tried her best to obey Tavington's command to remain silent, she could not help but emit several stifled mewls as the pleasure washed over her.
Seconds later, as his climax overtook him like hurricane waves crashing onto a beach, he quickly pulled out to spend his seed onto the ground. After a moment to regain his bearings, he stepped away from her without a word.
"Your turn, Tarleton," he said casually to the other man, still breathing heavily as he gestured to Molly, who remained in position, her quim glistening in the moonlight.
"Don't mind if I do," Ban said eagerly, as he stepped into position, his hard cock already out of his breeches.
As Tarleton entered the young woman with alacrity, Tavington spied a bucket filled with clean water standing by the kitchen door. Pulling out a handkerchief, he wetted it from the bucket, then carefully cleaned himself off before buttoning his breeches back up, as it wouldn't do to return to Charlotte's bed reeking of sex with another woman. He threw the handkerchief away when he was done, then went back into the kitchen to get his plate of biscuits.
Ban and Molly were still occupied as he came back out a moment later. He left them to their pleasure without a word, now ready for bed.
When he entered his bedchamber a couple of minutes later, he was relieved to find that Charlotte had given up waiting for him and had already fallen asleep. Still hungry, he sat at his desk by the window to eat a couple of biscuits.
He fell asleep very shortly after climbing into bed beside his slumbering wife a few moments later, feeling relaxed and contented.
Early the next morning, Tavington was awakened by Charlotte gently jostling his shoulder. "Wake up, love. It's past six and I remember you told me you wanted to get an early start this morning!"
"Hmm….mmf?" Tavington mumbled incoherently as he slowly came to consciousness as a particularly erotic dream was abruptly terminated.
"William!" Charlotte shook him more forcefully this time. "It's time to get up!"
"I'm awake, I'm awake!" he said, as he shook off the remaining cobwebs of slumber. "What time is it?"
"It's after six," Charlotte repeated, suppressing the urge to sigh. It wasn't like William to oversleep.
"Oh, I'm going to be late if I don't hurry," he said, wincing from a slight hangover as he got out of bed.
Vigorous sexual activity had always made him sleep soundly afterward, and he'd have felt fine if he'd been able to sleep until his body naturally wanted to awaken. But as it was, he'd be paying for the excess of wine he'd imbibed the night before.
After washing and shaving hurriedly, by pouring water from a pitcher into a large porcelain bowl, he began to dress.
Charlotte did not hurry, but waited for him to finish before getting ready for the day.
"What took you so long last night?" she asked as he was braiding his hair. "I tried to remain awake until you returned, but I just couldn't."
"Oh, I ran into Tarleton downstairs," he said smoothly. "You know how much Ban loves to talk. I'm afraid I got so caught up with his anecdotes, that I completely forgot about the time." Turning to face her as he finished braiding and began wrapping the braid in black ribbon to complete the queue, he added, "I do hope that you'll forgive me."
"You're forgiven," she said, leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek.
He responded by pulling her close to deepen the kiss, grinding against her.
The two enjoyed a long, searching kiss, but Charlotte pulled away when she felt her husband begin to harden.
"As much as I'd like to return to bed, I don't wish to be the one responsible for making your men wait for you."
"You're probably right, my sweet," he said, heaving a theatrical sigh. "As much as I desire to take you again this very minute, duty awaits."
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AUTHOR'S NOTE: The concept of marital fidelity for men was viewed rather differently in the 18th century than it is now, in that all extramarital sex was not viewed in the same way. A man who had a love affair with a woman of his own social status would be frowned upon in the same way as most people would today. But random, casual encounters with women of the lower ranks where love was not involved, were viewed much more indulgently, seen as perfectly normal and permissible, as long as they were engaged in discreetly. Such couplings were common enough at the time as to be unremarkable. Most wives of the time, if they happened to learn of such occurrences, ignored them, as they considered them to be the nature of the male beast, and did not consider them threats to their marriage, which isn't to say that it wasn't upsetting to many women, nonetheless.
In Tavington's mind, what he did with Molly had absolutely nothing to do with his feelings and his marriage to Charlotte. It was just a bit of diversion and variety for him, forgotten almost as soon as he'd left her and Ban to their pleasure.
I'd not intended to write this chapter as I did, but I thought that Tavington had become a bit too domesticated in recent chapters, so I decided to let the bad boy that first attracted all of us to him out to play for awhile. Don't worry about his marriage to Charlotte, though, as she'll never find out about it.
One more historical note: Women in the 18th century did not wear any sort of bloomers or underpants under their clothing, so Molly's bare bum was not because she was a trollop who'd just got out of bed. But the fact she wore no stays was indeed related to those two facts. A woman's underwear at the time consisted of a shift, a nightgown-like garment that fell to just below the knees, along with stays or jumps. Women did not start wearing bloomers until around the second decade of the 19th century or so.
Next Chapter: A Visit to Pembroke