A Man of Dreams, a Woman of Passion Read online

  "I am sure that everyone will know the truth of the matter then for sure," Caroline said softly.

  Jacob looked at the redhead, tempted to give into temptation and set her bottom on fire! He took a threatening step in her direction, fully intending to give in to the urge to take the redhead over his knee, but he heard his Mother calling his name. He answered her, and then left the kitchen; his Mother needed some help to set up more makeshift tables outside... and Jacob needed time to cool off.

  Caroline did her best to avoid being alone with Jacob, but Mrs. Willis sent her outside to the smokehouse to get another ham. Caroline was surprised when the door to the smokehouse shut behind her. She whirled around, half expecting to find Fred Ferguson standing there, but instead, it was Jacob. "What do you want?" she asked, watching him slap a sturdy stick against the palm of his left hand.

  "What I want is to teach you what happens to little girls who tell lies," Jacob told her with a grin. "After all, if we have been courting, Caroline, no one would find it at all remiss if I found it necessary to correct your behavior upon occasion."

  "I would find it remiss!" she retorted angrily, backing up. There was only so far she could go, however, and Jacob quickly caught her arm and turned her around to tuck her under his arm. He gave her skirted backside a whack with the stick, and then three more.

  "That is what happens to little girls who tell fibs, Carolyn. If you needed help with Fred, all you had to do was ask, not make up stories." He gave her one more sturdy whack, and then released her and went to help with the last minute preparations for the party.

  The party went well. Most of the men in attendance were a bit jealous of Jacob, and the women sympathized with his Mother and sisters. Still, the day went well, and Jacob did his best to say goodbye to one and all. He went to sleep with a smile on his face. Tomorrow would begin the adventure of his life.

  It was midmorning before Jacob was on his way. His parents each wanted a private word with him, and both of his brothers and all of his sisters were there to eat breakfast and see him off. Jacob didn't feel very manly as he set out with tears streaming down his face. He hated to see his Mother and his sisters cry, and even though he was following his heart by leaving, it was hard to leave his family behind and know that he might not ever see them again, especially if his Mother was right and Indians scalped him. That made him smile, and he promised he would somehow write and do his best to keep her from worrying about him.

  Jacob made good progress and traveled until dark. He took care of his oxen, started a fire, and heated up the food his Mother insisted on sending along. He brewed tea and hoped it would help to ward off the chill still in the air, and once it was gone, he banked the fire and took his blanket roll out of the back of the wagon. He was going to sleep while he could. Not that he did not need to be aware of what was happening around him, but the farther he got from home and into less civilized lands, he would need to be ever vigilant. Jacob made sure his new musket was close, wrapped up in his blanket under the wagon bed and went to sleep.

  * * *

  Caroline had to relieve herself and she prayed that Jacob would remain asleep while she crawled out of her hiding place inside the wagon and found a spot in the wooded area close by to empty her bladder. It was much too soon for Jacob to discover her, and she was in for at least another two days of riding in the back of the wagon before she dared reveal herself to the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. If he caught her now, he would merely turn around and take her back, and she would be the laughingstock of their community. No, it was entirely too soon to be discovered. She needed as much time as possible to convince Jacob he needed her.

  Once she was finished tending to her needs, she crawled into the wagon and hid herself, smiling as she settled down to sleep. Toward morning she would sneak out again and relieve herself before Jacob headed out for the day. She would have to make do with her small hoard of food and water and try not to inhale when he cooked for himself. Caroline was very comfortable when she felt the wagon move. She could hear Jacob's snoring and knew it was not him climbing inside!

  Chapter Two

  Caroline felt the wagon move again! Jacob was snoring away underneath the wagon, and was not aware that she was in terrible danger! In fact, he did not know that Caroline was hidden in the wagon! She did not know who was moving about, but she feared whoever it was meant to harm her!

  Before Caroline realized it was going to happen, the extra canvas that she was hiding under was jerked away. Caroline let out a scream, and the man looking at her in shock and surprise pulled out a long knife and raised it above her, his intention to kill her in his gleaming eyes. Caroline screamed again and grabbed the first thing she could get her hands on, which was a heavy iron skillet. The knife blade was successfully deflected and Caroline jumped to her feet and swung her weapon as hard as she could. The man roared in rage when she hit him and she heard him swearing in French.

  Jacob was inside the wagon before he was fully awake. It was dark, but he could see a man with a knife, and the other person was female. She swung a skillet and hit the man so hard on his shoulder that he dropped his knife. When he cursed fluently in French and leaned down to make a grab for his knife, the female hit him hard over the head. The man groaned and passed out cold.

  "Oh, Jacob!" Caroline exclaimed, throwing herself across the wagon and into his arms. "That awful man climbed in the wagon and he tried to kill me!"

  "Caroline...! What are you doing here?" Jacob demanded, startled to find her in the back of his wagon.

  "I am coming to Ohio Country with you," she answered. There was no need to hide the truth now that she had been discovered. "I intend to be your wife, Jacob, and I cannot do that if I remain in New York and you are clear out in Ohio!"

  "Are you out of your mind?" he roared, his temper soaring.

  Caroline was offended. She had known she was taking a risk by hiding herself in the back of Jacob's wagon once everyone had left the party for the night, but the fact that Jacob had taken the time to follow her to the smokehouse for the purpose of taking a stick to her fanny convinced her the man cared more for her than he realized. She simply could not be wrong about Jacob. "I am not out of my mind, Jacob. I love you, and I am doing what I must to be at your side where I belong!" She stepped back quickly when Jacob growled in frustration and reached for her. "Jacob! He is waking up!" she pointed at the Frenchman when he moaned.

  The Frenchman moaned again, and Jacob turned his attention to the man, trying to decide what to do with him. "Outside," he said as he hauled the man to his feet and threw him out of the wagon. The small man hit the ground with a thud, but he was on his feet instantly, watching Jacob warily.

  "Mon ami, thees ees a mistake. I meant no harm."

  "No harm! You tried to kill me!" Caroline shrieked, not about to believe his lies.

  "I deed not know you were here." He looked at Jacob. "Pleeese! I was hungry, that ees all."

  Jacob was torn between teaching the man a lesson and getting rid of him so that he could deal with Miss Caroline Hershey! After staring at the man for a full minute, he made up his mind. "Get out of here, and don't come back," Jacob ordered. He was furious and it showed, and he was twice as big as the Frenchman. The man took off running, thankful to be alive.

  "You are going to let him go?" Caroline demanded as she jumped to the ground from the back of the wagon.

  "What would you have me do; kill him?" Jacob asked angrily. "If the damn fool was hungry he should have made some noise and asked me for food."

  "He tried to kill me!" she said again, shivering and pulling her shawl tightly around her shoulders against the chill in the air.

  "He did not expect to find you in the wagon, Caroline, and you startled him. I doubt he even realized you were a woman until you screamed loud enough to be heard ten miles away!" She woke him with that terrible scream, and Jacob was angry with himself for sleeping so soundly that he was unaware a stranger had climbed into the back of
his wagon. If the Frenchman had meant them harm, Jacob would have been an easy target. He was going to have to learn to sleep much lighter or he would not survive the distance to Ohio. "What are you doing here, Caroline?" Jacob repeated himself, determined to deal with the redhead.

  "I am meant to be your wife, Jacob," Caroline said softly, pleadingly. "I had no choice but to follow where you lead."

  "This is utterly ridiculous, little girl. What do you know of love and marriage? You are a child in need of schooling."

  "I am six months older than Jenny, and she has been wed for six months now and expects her first child in four months time! I am no child, but a woman who feels deeply. I love you, Jacob, and I am not ashamed of admitting it to you. I dream of you at night, and my body aches for your touch."

  "Very well," Jacob said in a low, dangerous tone of voice. "Your body shall have my touch right now!"

  Caroline smiled happily. He was accepting her love and devotion much easier than she had expected, and she would not tell him 'no' if he wanted to lie with her before they spoke their vows. Jacob was a man of honor. If he took her innocence, he would do the right thing by her and give her his name. It was too late to run when she got a better look at his expression just before he reached for her! She realized in that one split second that he did not intend to kiss her, but had something else in mind! "No, Jacob!" she cried out indignantly when he pulled her closer to the fire and added wood to make a brighter flame. She had suffered the indignity of a spanking yesterday, but not again! She was not a child and Jacob had no right to treat her as one. She jerked on her arm and tried to free herself from his touch. "You let me go, Jacob Willis!"

  "I intend to see what I am doing, Caroline Hershey!" He knelt on one knee and jerked her down over his bent leg.

  "Do not dare such a thing!" she cried out, kicking her feet and trying to throw herself off his knee.

  "I dare. You have had no encouragement whatsoever from me, and yet, you dared to hide yourself in my wagon? You want my touch? You shall have it," he promised, tossing up her skirts until the only thing covering her was her shift. He pulled it up, too, revealing her pale skin, and then he brought the palm of his right hand down on her rounded bottom, leaving a handprint on her flawless right cheek.

  "Owwwww! That hurt, Jacob!" Caroline cried out in pain and wounded pride. She was far too old to be spanked! And this was the second time in two days! It was humiliating!

  "Good; I am doing it right, then," was his answer. Jacob gave her another hearty spank on the other cheek, and smiled grimly when Caroline cried out once again. "How dare you pull a devious trick of this sort, Caroline Hershey? Your mother must be worried out of her mind by now!" He spanked her again and again.

  "I left a note!" she declared, putting her hands back to cover her stinging bottom.

  "A note? What did you tell them, little girl?" he asked, gathering her hands into his and pinning them to her waist while he spanked her seat again and again.

  "That I wanted to go with you instead of waiting for you to come for me!" she confessed, wiggling to try and evade the spanking. His hand was making her backside burn! "Please, Jacob! Enough! I am no child to be used thusly! I am a woman grown! Why, I have not been treated like this by anyone but you since I was five years old!" She was indignant.

  "Therein lies the problem with you, young lady. Your father coddled and spoiled you and did not do his duty by you when you were a child and he has left it to others to school your wild behavior!" He spanked her cheeks again and then again, causing her to cry out and kick her legs even harder.

  Caroline was hurt by his unjust criticism. "I am not wild! I have deep feelings for you, Jacob! It is you who made this deception necessary by deciding to go off to Ohio before courting me properly."

  "Has it occurred to you that I do not have feelings for you, Caroline?" he demanded harshly, and felt bad when she immediately stopped moving and burst into tears. "It is not my fault I have not seen you as a woman," he informed her, his tone a bit more gentle as he stilled his hand. "To me you are simply my little sister's friend. I have never looked upon you as a woman, Caroline, and these feelings of yours are unfounded." Surely she could see the truth in his words!

  "My feelings are true! I am meant to be yours, Jacob!" she informed him. "How could you treat me like this?" She hurled the accusation at him. "I am not your little sister! I would be treated as a grown woman!" She was pained to realize he still considered her a child! She wasn't! She was a woman and she had a woman's yearnings, although at the moment she wished she yearned for any other man but Jacob!

  "Very well, Caroline. I will treat you like the grown woman you insist you are." He spanked even harder and started scolding. "As a grown woman you should realize that it is not safe to undertake a journey such as this one, even if we were betrothed, which we are not!" He emphasized his words by spanking the lowest part of her bottom, where her cheeks met her thighs, and where the skin was most tender. He was assured he was making his point when she cried even harder and tried again to escape his punishing hand. "A grown woman does not sneak about, caring little for the worry she causes others." He continued to spank her until she stopped fighting him. "A grown woman waits for a man to announce his feelings." He gave her another dozen hard spanks, and then he ended the punishment, standing up and dumping her on the ground.

  "I hate you, Jacob Willis!" Caroline screamed angrily as she pounded her fists on the ground beside her.

  "Good. Now you may return to the wagon and get some sleep. In the morning I am taking you home to your father with the suggestion he take a leather strap to your backside."

  "You cannot take me back, Jacob! Everyone will laugh at me and call me a fool!"

  "You brought this on yourself, Caroline. I did not ask you to come along. You chose to hide in my wagon. Now you will have to face the consequences."

  "But, why can you not understand, Jacob? We are meant to be together! If you leave now, it will be years before you return! I want to be with you now!" She pleaded with him to listen to her.

  "Get your fanny in the wagon, Caroline, before I find a stick to take to your bottom." Jacob was as serious as he'd ever been. "I am not happy that I will lose two days of travel because of this, and arguing with me at this point is only going to earn you another good thrashing." Jacob's hand still itched, but he had spanked her soundly. He did not want to be so harsh with her that her father would find fault with him and accuse him of taking liberties with her person. "Go now, Caroline, before I forget myself completely!"

  Caroline opened her mouth to argue, but wisely thought better of it. Even as inexperienced with men as she was, she could see that pushing Jacob while he was so upset with her would only earn her an even sorer bottom. There was a time to be quiet, and this was definitely one of those times. She would give Jacob time to calm down and get over his anger, and in the morning she would beg him to take her along. He would be more reasonable by then. She simply couldn't go back... Not unless Jacob reconsidered about going to Ohio Country. She was meant to be his wife, and a wife's place was at her husband's side.

  Jacob watched the redhead climb into the wagon and shook his head in disgust. Caroline Hershey was even more of a brat than his father said. What kind of woman told a man that her body ached for his touch? A very passionate woman, he admitted to himself. She was pretty enough, but she was like a pesky little sister! He could only imagine how his father would react if one of Jacob's sisters hid away in the back of a man's wagon to follow him into the wilderness! The unfortunate misguided young woman would not sit comfortably for a month! Caroline's parents should lock the redhead in her room and take a switch to her daily for the next year!

  Jacob tried to cool his temper so he could get a couple more hours of sleep, but all he could think about was the aggravating female in the back of his wagon! A man with less honor would take what she was offering and send her home much wiser, but Jacob was not raised that way. Damn, but the girl knew how to get under a
man's skin! For two cents he would go up there and spank her hind all over again! There was not one man in all of New York who would blame him, either!

  And why had he been so careless he did not hear the Frenchman? Jacob berated himself. Little Caroline could have been murdered! That is when Jacob heard her crying, and he cursed himself. The little redhead had fought off a man who tried to kill her, and then, instead of comforting her, he had turned her over his knee and spanked her in anger! She had certainly deserved a spanking, but not while she was so frightened. Jacob tossed aside his blanket and crawled out from beneath the wagon. In another moment he was inside the wagon. He heard her sharp intake of breath and realized she was afraid again.

  "Caroline, where are you?" he asked. "I do not wish to step on you." He saw some movement and realized she was under the extra canvas he brought along in case the one currently on the wagon was damaged in some way. He made his way to her, and then knelt beside her, patting a rounded part of the canvas with his hand. "Come here, Caroline. There is no need to cry now; you are safe. That man won't be back."

  "How can you be so sure?" she asked, trying her best to stop crying. Her backside hurt so much that she could not sit, but her heart ached even more, but she pushed the canvas aside to rise to her knees and look at him.

  "He was alone, Caroline. Looking for food, or money. He won't risk trying to come back." She was still sniffling. "Are you still afraid?" he wanted to know.

  "No. I know you won't let anyone harm me."

  "Then why are you crying? Not because of that little spanking?" he asked, pulling her close and hugging her trembling body.

  "It was not a little spanking!" she protested. "You really hurt me and I am in pain, Jacob!"

  "A spanking is supposed to hurt, and that was a light spanking, young lady. I went easy on you because if your Father has a lick of sense, he will take a leather strap or a switch to you."