Author's note. this chapter also has a THREE STEAM ALERT. If that is not your thing, stop reading after they have breakfast and Carol moves the tray.

Also there will be some epilogues that will be published as I write them. They will cover both Jack and Elizabeth as well Nathan and Carol.

... ... ...

Chapter 6 – The Next Morning

While Nathan was gone, Carol had slipped her knickers and camisole back on. She opened a suitcase and then a drawer and found it empty, so she started to unpack her things. She took her time and hung up Nathan's dress serge and the borrowed wedding dress. She found space and hung her other items. She was able to unpack almost everything. She realized that they were going to need a much bigger wardrobe if she was going to bring her other clothes out to Hope Valley. When she sat down to run a brush through her hair, it was the first time that she noticed that the vanity had vines and roses carved into it. She looked at the wardrobe door and realized it also had a carving on it of what looked like a wolf. She turned and saw the same vines and roses on the headboard with maybe a lake scene. She wondered where Nathan had found such exquisite furniture. She wondered if they would be able to find something to match it. She also was thinking about the pieces that she wanted for the new house.

Carol was so intrigued with the carving, that she went over to run her fingers across it. She had never felt anything so life-like. It must have taken weeks to do the headboard. She also noticed that it must have been a custom bed, because it was bigger than anything that she had ever seen. She figured that Nathan would need it with his tall frame.

She was so lost in her daydreaming, that she didn't hear Nathan come back. He actually stood in the doorway and watched her for a moment. She looked so cute there in just her knickers and camisole. He saw her run her fingers over the carving one last time.

"You like that?" Nathan asked.

Carol jumped at the sound of Nathan's voice.

"You scared me." Carol said, turning around.

"Sorry." Nathan said, with a lopsided grin. "I didn't mean to."

"To answer your question." Carol said. "Yes, I love the furniture. I have never seen such detailed, intricate carving. I was thinking if you were able to contact the craftsman we could order some more pieces."

"That might be able to be arranged." Nathan said. "What were you thinking?"

Nathan walked over with the tray of food and set it on the floor. He then helped Carol into bed and set the tray over her lap, then went to crawl in beside her.

"Tell me over breakfast." Nathan said. "But first a quick prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this wonderful woman you have given me as a bride. Be with us as we start our first day together. Thank you for our wonderful friends who gave us an amazing wedding yesterday with no notice. Bless those that helped to prepare this food and bless it to our bodies. Amen."

"Amen." Carol said. "I am going to have to get used to that. It hasn't been something I have been used to since my mother died."

"But you do believe?" Nathan asked.

Nathan fixed Carol a scone while he waited a moment. He also took a bite of his eggs that he made.

"Yes." Carol said. "I think I always did, but I just let my father's voice of negative things overshadow everything. My mother raised me in the church, despite my father calling it, feel good stories and superstitions. I don't know what happened to him, but I know that his parents are Irish Catholic and struggled because of it. Even in New York, it was hard to be Irish. They came to America with little more than their faith and the clothes on their backs. My father was born in New York, two years later. I don't know if their struggle contributed to his disbelief or not. He refuses to talk about it."

Carol took small bites as she had explained. They shared the large plate of eggs that Nathan had scrambled, along with several scones with the strawberry jam.

"So if your father was from New York." Nathan said. "And your mother was raised in rural Ontario, how did they meet?"

"They met in New York City." Carol said. "My mother was a dancer on broadway. My father's parents took him to a show when he was sixteen. My mother was an eighteen year old dancer and he fell for her. He somehow got a message to her and they met up the next day. My grandparents didn't know that he had skipped school and went to see her. By the time that they found out, my parents were in love. They tried to break them up, but they found out that my mother was in the family way, with my brother. She was fired as a dancer and they got married.

My mother stayed with my father's parents while my father finished school. He then was accepted into the Pinkertons two years after he finished the upper grades. He was taking some university classes when he saw the ad and applied. By the time that my father finished with the training for the Pinkertons, they not only had my oldest brother, but two more. My paternal grandparents couldn't support them all in the small apartment that they had in New York, so my mother took the boys and went home to her farm.

My parents spent more time apart then together for the next several years as my father worked to build his career. He would come to visit occasionally. Some of those visits resulted in my two sisters and I. I am ten years younger than my oldest brother."

"So where is your family?" Nathan asked.

"My eldest brother is in Virginia." Carol said. "He is married and has three kids. He works in a shipyard there. The other two joined in the fighting in Europe and never came home. My oldest sister died when I was just an infant. I don't know what happened. Like I told you, my sister was forced to marry a man and last I heard she was in California somewhere. When she left, we lost contact. My father arranged the marriage to some older wealthy man and he cut off contact with us. Not that my father seemed to mind."

"And your mother died when you were a teenager?" Nathan asked.

"I was about Allie's age." Carol said. "Maybe that is why we have connected so well. She lost her mother young, I lost mine at the age she is now. So it was just you and your sister?"

"Yes." Nathan said. "We were eleven months apart – Irish twins. That is what my mother called us. My father was a gambler and in and out of jail and prison when I was growing up. Because of the way he was, is part of the reason that I became a Mountie. I wanted to be as different from him as I possibly could get. Unfortunately, my sister got involved with a man like our father. He liked to drink and gamble more than he liked to work. He wasn't even there when Allie was born. In a drunken rage one night, he beat Colleen and then left. The neighbor lady heard Allie crying and went to check on them. She found an unconscious Colleen and a hungry Allie. She called the Mounties and the doctor.

I was summoned the same day. Colleen never woke up and I got there just hours before she died. My mother and I had sat by her side as the neighbor kept Allie. After the funeral, I was asked by my mother to take Allie, because she couldn't with her failing health. She was not well enough to care for an active small child. I spoke to my command and they said it was my decision, but it would mean I would have to withdraw from the officers tract. I had only been a full Mountie for just over a year when Colleen died.

I couldn't leave Allie alone in the world, so I changed my entire life plan and took her. Since Dylan was nowhere to be found and a suspect in Colleen's death, I was awarded full custody of Allie. I went from going where I was needed to be assigned to a Fort, so that I had more security for Allie. We moved twelve times from the time I got Allie at four to when we moved here when she was ten. She started to make friends and really grow into herself here, so I promised her that we wouldn't leave this place, even if it meant I left the Mounties. I spoke with my command and they understood why I was requesting to stay."

"That was so wonderful of you to do." Carol said. "So what would you do if you left the Mounties?"

"Well." Nathan said. "About that. It brings us back to the conversation that started when I came up here. I was the one that made and carved all the furniture in here. I also did Allie's bedroom set and desk downstairs."

"You?" Carol said, surprised.

"Yes." Nathan said. "Ironically, woodworking was one of the few positive things my father taught me. I have always used it as a way to calm and center myself. I don't have a good place to work here, but when we build the new place, I would like to build a workshop. Right now, most of my tools are in the shed out back. The rest are packed or on loan to Lee Coulter."

"If you want a workshop." Carol said. "You can have the biggest one that you want. This work is amazing. I bet you could sell it. What else have you done?"

"I have mostly done smaller projects since I have been here in Hope Valley." Nathan said. "And most of those were given away as gifts. There is a plaque in the library that I did that has an Emerson quote. I did a sign for Lee and Rosemary. Others were small things I did as gifts. Allie has several small pieces in her room.

Carol smiled.

"So another wardrobe and bedside table would be possible?" Carol asked. "And maybe a cradle when the time comes."

"Your wish is my command." Nathan said. "The wardrobe might be tricky, but I will ask Lee if there is room for me to maybe do some work out at one of his warehouses. I can order the wood for the table and do that soon. Same with the cradle."

"Well." Carol said. "We will just have to make do for now, but those are definitely on my list of things I want."

"We will have to see Bill and get the details on the land." Nathan said. "Maybe we can get the land cleared, leveled and a foundation set before winter. That would make the house so much easier next spring. So you need to be thinking about what you want in a house."

"I can do that." Carol said.

She took the empty tray and set it on the floor.

"But right now." Carol said. "I am thinking about something else."

She pushed Nathan back on the bed and started kissing him, slipping her hand under his henley. In between kisses, Carol pulled the henley off and moved to straddle Nathan's hips. He laid back and looked at his wife as she pulled her camisole off. He grinned at her as she looked down at him. She ran her hands lightly from where she was sitting up his torso, leaning over him kissing a trail up his chest. She ended with her hands on his shoulders and kissing him passionately on the lips. Nathan let out a little sigh as she pulled back for air. She smiled at him and captured his lips again. She was happy that he was letting her take control. As she kissed him, she played with his hair behind his ears. She felt him wriggle as she tickled him. She knew that if he wanted, he could easily move her, but he was allowing her to have her fun. She could also feel his growing excitement from straddling his hips.

Feeling the fire build within herself, she moved off of Nathan and slipped her knickers off. She then tugged at underwear. He lifted his hips and allowed her to slip them off as well. His manhood sprang to attention once free of the confines of clothing. Before Nathan knew it, she was once again straddling him, just a bit lower, to keep his manhood in front of her. Nathan looked at her and reached out for her, but she swatted his hand away.

"Do you trust me?" She rasped.

Nathan only nodded. Carol smiled and slid her hand up and down his stomach, finally taking her left and firmly gripping his manhood, causing Nathan to gasp loudly. She squeezed a few times before moving her hand up and down a few times. She felt Nathan respond to her touch. He involuntarily arched his hips as she stroked his manhood. With his eyes closed and head tilted back, Carol carefully moved over Nathan and lowered herself onto him, once again causing him to gasp. He loved the feelings that his wife stirred him, but he needed more. Carol had only rocked her hips back and forth a couple of times, before Nathan grabbed her around the waist with his long arms and flipped them over, never breaking their intimate connection. He then started thrusting hard, driving them both over the edge once more.

But Nathan wasn't done, Carol was still in the bliss that he had driven her to, when he started to massage her stomach and hips moving lower and lower, finally slipping his long fingers between her legs and gently teasing her most intimate spot. Seeing her arch her hips and hearing her moan, he carefully slipped his fingertips past her parted lips and inside of her. He had barely touched her when she bucked her hips and moaned in pleasure. He continued to tease her as his own passion grew once again.

"Take me." Carol gasped, when she couldn't take his teasing anymore.

Nathan entered his wife and after only a few thrusts, once again filled her womb with his seed. Now completely spent, he slowly rolled off her to lay next to her. She snuggled down into his chest and they both fell back asleep happy. Still naked, but this time with a sheet pulled over them.

The next time that Nathan woke, the sun was high in the sky. He realized that they had missed church and he hadn't checked into the office, but he figured if anyone needed him, they knew where he was. Looking down at his wife, he saw that she was still sleeping, so he carefully untangled his arms from her and slipped from the bed. He made sure she was covered, then he quickly pulled on some underclothes and wrapped his robe around him. On his way out, he grabbed the tray that he had made earlier. He headed downstairs to make some coffee and write in his journal. He wanted to always remember the feelings and experiences he had had the last twenty-four hours.

Once the coffee was on, Nathan found his journal and sat at the table. He started to pour everything out onto the pages, only pausing to get himself some coffee. Fifteen pages later, Nathan looked up and saw Carol sitting on the couch in only her robe. He smiled.

"When did you come down?" Nathan asked.

"About twenty minutes ago." Carol said. "You looked busy, so I just grabbed a book."

"Thank you." Nathan said. "I had so much to share in my journal."

"That is good." Carol said. "So what do you want to do for supper? There looks to be enough for breakfast for supper, but then there will be nothing for tomorrow morning. There are also a few muffins and two scones left."

"What about calling Bill and seeing if he has the cafe open." Nathan said. "I know with the extra Mounties in town, they will at least be feeding them. I think that Jack and Elizabeth were hosting her father and the Commissioner for supper tonight at her house."

"The cafe sounds good." Carol said. "Maybe we can talk to Bill some more about the land. I was hoping to ride out there tomorrow and actually see it. I was thinking about what I want in the house, like you asked."

"Sounds wonderful." Nathan said.

Nathan got up and came over to kiss Carol.

"If we are going to be heading to the cafe, we should both get dressed. We also need to talk about what you want to do about getting your stuff moved out here."

"All in good time." Carol said. "I have already ordered several new dresses that would work better for out here. But yes, I have to clear my apartment in Toronto. It is paid through the end of summer so no rush."

"Good to know." Nathan said.

Nathan sat next to Carol and they started to make plans about what they wanted. It was a nice afternoon before getting dressed and heading to the cafe for supper.