Chapter 48 Veiled Longings

James Wilkins was glad to be back at Fort Carolina after weeks on campaign in South and North Carolina. He had only been back for a couple of days when he was granted furlough to return home to get his business, the winery and brewery, running at full speed again. Today was the day he was leaving and as he waited for his luggage to be loaded onto the stage coach, he took a moment to read another letter he'd recently received.

23 March 1781

Dear Jim,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am sending it to the Fort not knowing if you are in residence there or out on campaign. I heard a recent rumor of a large battle in North Carolina.

Let me first tell you congratulations on your promotion to Major. Your charming new wife informed me. Take heart that though it may be a brevet, you can be proud to have respect and more responsibility.

I have a business matter to discuss with you, or rather hear your opinion about. I have reservations about continuing business with the Prescott farm. It is not a matter of their product for they grow the finest fruits and vegetables in this region. And it is not their business practices for they are as fair and honest as they come.

At the risk of being imprudent in speech and subject, let me just be frank and honest. I respected and deeply miss Hayden Prescott. He was such an honorable man. I must say that his daughter is not. I have doubts about doing business with a woman who was the mistress of a British officer. The man was married and she cavorted openly with him—the whole countryside has heard of this. Those illicit and immoral activities have labeled her a loose and fallen woman.

As Miss Prescott is now in charge of and running the business, what will be thought of me for doing commerce with an immoral woman? I may lose my partners' trust. What if rumors develop about me being in her company? This would greatly distress my wife and family.

I cannot take this risk. I have begun looking for another farm to do commerce with. I only hope I can find one half as good with good products and practices.

It greatly saddens me that I won't be able to continue commerce with them for I considered Hayden Prescott a great business man and know that he worked so hard to build his farm. I only wish his daughter was as honorable as he. I never would have thought her to turn out as a strumpet.

With regards,

Eugene Carlyle.

Jim Wilkins folded the piece of paper and put it into a satchel which contained his personal correspondence. The officer was dismayed over the letter. It was the third such letter he had received in the last six weeks from mutual business associates to he and the Prescotts. The other two letters said basically the same thing: expressing reservations about doing business with a trollop who'd also been the mistress of a redcoat officer.

Major Wilkins sighed. He would have time to think about how to respond to the correspondence on the journey home.

It was nearly the end of April 1781 now and the days in middle South Carolina had grown warm. The new General Tavington and Colonel Tarleton had been rehabbing themselves and their combat abilities for almost a month now. William, though still sore from his abdomen, arm, and neck injuries, was gaining more strength every day, and Banastre was becoming better daily with learning how to fight left handedly. The two often sparred and challenged each other daily, and Melanie noticed how both seemed to have a new excitement for the future and life. They didn't seem to take their major defeat at the Cowpens as hard as they had.

Miss Prescott had kept herself occupied with caring for the wounded, which came in steadily, and learning the business both in the hands on of working the land and harvest, and dealing with the books. She was also doing better with grieving for Alex. The girl wasn't crying as much at night over him and had actually had a few restful nights of sleep. Though she still missed him, it didn't seem quite as overwhelming. Melanie had also been pleased that General Tavington had made good on his word: he had left her alone and had made no advances to her. He had treated her respectfully and as a friend.

This particular morning a request for all available hands had gone out from the Colonel Wilton, head of the hospital. Melanie answered the call of the besieged doctors and spent all morning working in the surgery tents. When activity slowed down a bit, Miss Prescott picked up two nearby buckets to be refilled with fresh water.

As the young woman carried the pails toward the well, she passed by the doxies' tents. As she looked about, she noticed General Tavington talking and laughing with one of the whores. Melanie continued to look as she walked on and was dismayed to see the general enter the tent of the trollop. She shook her head and moved on.

Once she reached the well, she had to wait in line behind one other nurse and her own housemaid, Diedre. Miss Prescott sat down on an ornamental stone wall surrounding the watering area and waited her turn patiently. As she did, her mind kept wandering back to General Tavington. The girl recalled that just the other day as she returned from the cemetery to visit her late family, she had spied the officer emerging from one of the strumpet's tents. She remember seeing him pay the harlot.

Melanie could not understand her feeling and why it upset her so to see Tavington in the company of whores. After all, she had asked him to stop making advances to her and he had, and was now purchasing the wares of the camp doxies.

Her mind was wrapped up in thought. He can have any woman he wants; he is beholden to no one. And why should that make me upset? Why should I be attracted to him? He is 'the butcher'. I have witnessed his atrocities on more than one occasion. He ordered the deaths of all those townspeople in Pembroke! I seduced him months ago. But a gentleman would have resisted me and pushed me away with an understanding word.

Melanie continued to think. Why does he go with those women for other than the obvious? He has had flocks of wealthy Tory women throw themselves at him. I am better than those camp women! Remember at Fort Carolina at the tents. The harlots jeered at me and called me Bordon's whore. One of them commented that the only difference between me and them was that they dwell in tents and I had a room in the mansion, that we were both strumpets.

This last recollection stung Miss Prescott hard. It hurt her deeply at the time she heard it, and made her shudder again now to recall it. The young woman shrugged off all her thoughts and misgivings as best as she could when she began to draw fresh water from the well.

THUMP!

Melanie opened her eyes and sleepily looked about her room. "What was that?" she whispered to herself. After a few seconds of quiet, she assumed the noise must have come from outside so she closed her eyes and lay back down again. She had been having a good night of slumber this evening, a rare thing, and hoped she could fall back into that same fitful sleep.

THUD!

Miss Prescott heard another noise that sounded like it might have been in the hallway near her doorway. She sat up cautiously and stayed still, listening for more.

CREAK!

The girl heard a door creak slowly open then close. She determined it to be the door to the bedroom on either side of her. The young woman then heard subdued voices of a male and female.

"Shhhhhh," the male whispered. "We will have to be quiet. I don't want to wake up the rest of the house."

"Very well, then," said the woman, "But I know you will make me want to scream with passion."

The couple laughed, then seemed to quiet except for the boards in the room occasionally creaking with a shift in weight or movement.

"Why don't we shed these cumbersome layers of clothes," the unknown woman coaxed seductively.

Miss Prescott's mouth dropped open as her eyes rounded. Unbelievable! General Tavington has brought a woman, probably one of the camp whores, into his room, she thought.

The young plantation mistress was at a loss of what to do for the moment. Should I leave them be? Should I knock on the door and let them know I can hear everything? Do I ask him to remove the whore? Before she could decide, she overheard more noise.

Even though the General and his whore were trying to be silent, Melanie could hear even their most quiet exchanges through the wall. The young girl now heard the couple kissing passionately. Then, the floor boards creaked again, then were followed by an almost discernible thud on the wood. The next moment she heard a quiet gurgling and swishing sound coupled with the officer's hushed grunts of pleasure.

"Oh yes, that's it, love," said the General, "Swallow all of it."

Then there were more pleasured grunts. "Oh you're so good at that!"

Melanie covered her mouth with her hand and closed her eyes. She surmised that the whore was obviously pleasuring the officer orally.

The couple became quiet after a moment and Miss Prescott was thankful that she could hear no more of the intimate exchange. But then the forgiving silence was broken again with the floorboards creaking, then the wooden frame of the bed cracking as two bodies climbed into it. The young girl rolled her eyes and shook her head in disgust with the dragoon leader for having brought a woman into his bed.

The young woman then heard feathery kissing coupled with airy moans of passion. "Oh, my! Oh!" the woman in Tavington's bed cooed. The sound of lapping and kissing was faint, but plain.

"Ah…oh…I love your hands on them," the prostitute whispered, "and your mouth feels like warm velvet on my nipples."

Melanie gasped in her room as she heard this. She stood up at the side of her bed, thinking that she would go in and stop them now before they got any further. After a moment, she sat back down on the edge of the bed, having lost her nerve.

In another moment, Miss Prescott heard enthusiastic moans, a step louder then the murmuring she'd heard prior to that. "Oh General…your fingers feel so good inside of me!....Oh…mmmmm…move them slowly…..ah…make it last….darling…put another one inside me".

The strumpet let out an audible gasp of joy. Melanie surmised that the General had complied with her request and inserted another digit into the woman.

The plantation mistress closed her eyes and sighed. She felt insulted that this officer had invited a common harridan into her house. And worse, the man proceeded to fuck her in Melanie's bedroom,which she had graciously given up to Tavington for his recovery. And in her own bed. The young woman knew she had to say something; she had to draw a line somewhere.

Miss Prescott stood up, then began to pace about her room, thinking about how to approach the room and stop the couple's amorous intentions. She would just knock on the door and tell them she could hear them, and to return to the tents.

Then Tavington's words to the trollop stopped her dead in her tracks. "Spread your legs wide, my dear," he ordered in a hushed voice.

With that, the girl sat down on the edge of her bed again, strangely disappointed. Her mind ran away with itself. How he could be finding pleasure with this strumpet, under her roof, in her bedroom, in her bed! The girl was irritated with his lack of propriety, but stranger, she began to feel jealous. Melanie wanted to be the woman in Tavington's bed, receiving his attention.

The young girl could barely hear apparent lapping and sucking as the officer went down on the strumpet in his bed. Melanie buried her head in her hands, wishing it was her instead of the whore, and feeling shameful about it.

Then, the woman began to moan joyously. "Oh General! Your tongue there between my legs…..oh…..mmmmm…I shall die of pleasure!"

The doxy wasn't trying to conceal her pleasure, and didn't care if the rest of the house heard it. As she began to moan an instant later with her orgasm, Melanie remembered many nights of ecstasy in the arms of Alex Bordon. This made her miss the dead officer all the more, and she fought back tears.

As the plantation mistress sniffled and wiped the tears from her cheek, she heard the bed creak again, then heard bodies shifting upon it. She recalled in her mind, Alexander's body atop hers and how it felt. The poor girl could see his face before hers and she wished he was there with her.

The bedroom next door went quiet again, save for the slight sound of shifting on the mattress again. Melanie didn't know how much more of their lovemaking she could stand, yet she was frozen to the edge of her bed.

She once again heard the prostitute gasp aloud with satisfaction, Tavington grunting loudly as well. "Oh General, I wanted to be on top."

"You'll have your chance later," the officer whispered. "But for now, I'm going to wear you out!" With that, Miss Prescott heard the mattress moving with the General's body as he began to thrust away inside the trollop.

"Oh, General……harder…….HARDER!" ,the whore cried, not trying to conceal her pleasure. Soon, the headboard began to smack the wall. KABAAM! WHACK! CRACK! BOOM! THUMP! And then the couple within began to groan together, their completion imminent.

Miss Prescott bolted from the edge of the bed, pulling the quilt off with her, and tore from her room. She could not bear to hear them together any longer. She wrapped the quilt hastily about her night gown clad body as she did, leaving part of it trailing behind her. Soon the young woman retreated into her office. The girl shut the door behind her, thankful that she could no longer be subjected to someone else's happiness and pleasure.

She dropped down onto the couch where she dissolved into tears. "Oh Alex, I miss you so much. I miss feeling your arms around me and your body in my bed!"

As she laid backwards, Melanie continued to cry, throwing her arm up over her eyes. As she wept, her mind ran amok. I don't want to be another officer's whore, but yet I wanted to be that woman tonight. I wanted to feel her pleasure.

The girl, awash in confusion, couldn't stop sobbing as her mind tumbled about. Is it that I want a man—any man—in my bed? Or is it that I want William in my bed?

Miss Prescott, upset, insulted, and longing for something she couldn't seem to define or explain, cried herself to sleep.

"Miss Prescott? Miss?"

Melanie awoke to the gentle shaking by Mrs. Sloane.

"Did you work late in here last night?" , asked the housekeeper. "Mr. Andrews needs the office this morning for business. He saw you asleep in here and asked me to wake you. He sends his regrets for waking you."

"Oh….it's fine," the plantation mistress answered as she rose from the couch, gathering the quilt modestly around her.

"Would you like breakfast now, Miss?"

"Um…..I'd like breakfast in my room this morning," Melanie answered in a sleepy voice. "I didn't sleep well last night and I'd just like to rest this morning and be alone."

"Very well, miss", replied Mrs. Sloane. "I'll have it sent up."

Miss Prescott nodded her thanks and left the study. The girl sighed as she climbed the stairs to her room. She hoped that General Tavington's whore had left his room already. The young woman didn't care to hear the couple cavorting again.

Once in her room again, she climbed back into bed. Melanie made a quick decision to confront the officer, and she'd have to do it soon for she couldn't take one more night of witnessing Tavington's sexual frolics.

Later that day, Melanie was directed to the horse barn where William Tavington was. She found him in a stall, admiring the new steed he'd purchased a few days ago.

She took a breath, sucking up some courage, and looked up at the cavalry commander. "General Tavington, may I have a word with you, please?"

"Now, or can it wait," he asked smugly.

"Now please."

"Very well," Will relented. "Can we talk while I untack my horse? There seems to be a shortage of grooms and stable boys around here this morning."

"Yes," she answered, then continued. "Even though my farm has been turned into a military hospital, it is still my home. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't bring women to your room. If you want to engage in that activity, take it down to the tents. You seem to frequent them anyway."

The General stopped what he was doing and looked down at the young woman. "If I 'frequent' the bawdy tents, as you so efficiently put it, it is because I am a man and have needs. As far as last night goes, I'm sorry that my lady friend's amorous yearnings kept you awake."

She thought he was taunting her. Melanie put her hands on her hips, ready to stand off against the dragoon leader. "Lady? You mean strumpet! I don't want common trollops in my home; it insults me as mistress of the house."

"Insults you," Tavington jeered.

"Yes! That is my bedroom and my bed!"

"Which you willingly gave up to me," Will pointed out.

"Keep the trollops elsewhere," Melanie warned, trying to keep her voice down.

"Well isn't that the pot calling the kettle black," Tavington shot back sarcastically, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Bordon's whore!" he sneered. Before she could get a word of defense in, he continued on. "My, you are bold to tell me where to confine my activity after you romped freely in and out of bedrooms at the fort with my second in command!"

"This is not the fort," Melanie shouted back. "This is my home, and I don't want those harridans in my house!"

"And how was your conduct with Bordon at the fort any different than theirs?"

Miss Prescott didn't dignify that cruel comment. Not backing down, she stood up to the officer.

"I refuse to argue any further with you, General," she said. The girl pointed at the commander in warning and concluded, "DON'T bring any women into my house, my bedroom, or my bed!"

"You would rather it be you in your bed with me!" William smirked back.

"We're through here," Melanie said. She spun on her heel and stomped away.

Tavington marched after her. He caught her upper arm and roughly half pulled, half dragged her into a nearby stall with high walls and a high wooden gate which was used as a storage area. Will put the girl roughly up against the wall, then pinned her arms above her head.

He leaned in and stole a kiss from her.

"How dare you!," she accused.

The officer leaned into her, his face close to hers and said, "I want you to stop denying me." The man then kissed her again hard.

"Don't," Melanie cried.

Tavington transferred both her slender wrists into his strong right hand, keeping them pinned to the wall above her head, then ran his left hand down her body. His hand stretched to her knee, where he quickly pulled her skirt up. The officer hooked his hand under her right knee and pulled it up to rest on his left hip. He then switched hands again, and ran his right hand down her body. He gatherer the skirt at the knee, then slid his hand up her thigh, making her breathing ragged.

"Please don't do this," she begged. "I'll scream. I'll accuse you of rape."

"You were a married officer's mistress," said William, "no one will believe you."

The young woman tried to wriggle out of his grasp. He spoke as she continued to fight him.

General Tavington put his lips down close to her ear. "A ghost can't satisfy you as a man can." With that, he drove two fingers up into her and was pleased to find her moistened already for him. The sudden invasion made her gasp.

"I'm not ready for this with another man," she cried.

"Yes you are," William whispered. "You feel extremely ready to me."

Though she begged him not to do it, his fingers felt so good inside her, the gentle plunges they made inside made her want him all the more.

Melanie found just a bit of strength left inside her to protest again, though it was a feeble attempt. "Please don't make me do this," she said looking into his eyes.

His mouth covered hers in a deep kiss to stop her protesting. Then Will's lips moved down her jawline and to her ear.

"Oh…..mmmm….ah," Melanie said feeling the pleasure between her legs. "Don't make me into your whore."

"Shhhhhh……..Melanie…," he murmured in her ear, then moved to kiss her neck.

When he eased the grip on her hands still pinned to the wall, she brought them down and slid them about the officer's neck. The two kissed again as his fingers continued to plow furroughs of pleasure into the woman.

"You like this, don't you," he asked in a whisper.

"Yes," she replied airily.

"Do you want more," he asked, his lips against her ear, tickling it.

The girl felt like she could no longer speak, trying to get her breath. Instead, she nodded her head 'yes.'

With that, the William withdrew his two fingers from her. Then he plunged three fingers hard up inside her, taking her breath away and making her clutch his shoulders tightly with her hands.

"Oh…..God…..mmmm", she whispered when her could finally gulp down some air.

Tavington pushed and pulled his three digits so deeply inside her that she could feel the tips of them tickling her cervix. The girl did not want him to stop.

The general kept on with the steady rhythm of his fingers and hand, obviously filling the woman with pleasure. Melanie rewarded his actions with impassioned coos and sighs, mingled with deep, passionate kisses.

The young woman felt a warmth develop in the center of her pelvis. Her lips found their way to his ear where she murmured in a guilty voice, "I'm going to come."

"Yes," he whispered back. "I want you to."

The girl's knees started to become weak. She was glad and relieved to feel that completion was near.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the stall door. "General Tavington? Are you in there."

Will stopped his ministrations and tried to compose himself to answer. "Yes."

"Colonel Wilton needs to speak with you," the unknown messenger's voice rang out.

"I'm busy now, can it wait?"

"No sir. It's an emergency."

Tavington sighed and pulled his hand gently out from under Melanie's skirt. "Very well. I'll be there momentarily," William answered trying to veil his frustration.

William pushed her skirts down and straightened himself up. Miss Prescott stayed leaning against the wall, aghast at what just went on and her own reaction to it. She felt that her body controlled her during those fleeting moments. She began to weep.

General Tavington looked down at her. His hand went under her chin to cup it. He then raised her head to look at him. "What's wrong?"

"I'm so ashamed," she sobbed. "I forgot myself and acted like a horrible wanton."

"Shhhh…..no," he comforted her. "You knew pleasure with a man you loved once. It's been awhile since you were in his bed. It's natural to want to feel that again."

He kissed her forehead and started to walk away. Before the gate, he turned back and returned to her where she was still leaning against the wall. Will took her hand, then put his forehead against hers, where they stared into each other's eyes.

"Don't make me into your whore," she requested in a small, lost voice.

"You will have love again," William said, "and you will have pleasure with it. If you will let yourself."

Will brushed a kiss against her temple, then turned to walk away. Melanie watched him as he left the stall with longing in her eyes and confusion in her soul.