“I’m glad you stopped by.” Henry stood and picked up the sack sitting on the corner of the desk. “I didn’t feel well because being a member of the brotherhood makes me sick.”
When Jon seized and opened the package, revealing the white folds of Henry’s robe and the torn halves of his membership certificate, even more hatred flared in his eyes. “You can’t quit.”
“I thought we lived in a free country, Mr. Carter.”
“You’ll regret this, Henry Rockfield.” Jon pointed a lean finger at him. “But I think your brother, his colored whore, and their little half-breed will be the sorriest of all.”
The bastard even had the nerve to whistle as he walked down the hall. Henry gripped the desk again and closed his eyes. They were sunk. All of them.
Chapter Seventeen
That evening, Sadie arrived at Henry’s cottage with her pulse pounding in her throat. He’d said very little at work, but Jonathan Carter had visited his office this morning. The Klan must have noticed he hadn’t shown up to terrorize her neighbors.
He still had on the white shirt and black trousers he’d worn to the office. They looked even more rumpled than they had earlier. When she stepped closer to hug him, he caught her hands. His solemn gaze bored into her.
“What is it, Henry? You’re scaring me.”
“I turned in my robe today.”
Her arms convulsed around him. “Oh, thank God.”
She wished he’d done it a long time ago. Finally, he was truly her man. Caressing his face, she rewarded him with a long, steamy kiss. The scrape of his beard stubble against her cheek aroused old fires recent events had quenched.
He pulled away. “You may not want to celebrate when you hear the rest.”
“Tell me.” She sat on the edge of his bed, and he joined her.
“The mayor’s son was very upset with me.”
She patted his arm. “Of course he was. He likes to pretend he controls the whole town.”
“It’s not an act. He does run the town. Sadie, he made a threat about Caleb’s family, including the baby.”
“Oh, no.” Her grip on his arm tightened. “What do you suppose he’ll do?”
“I don’t know. I’ve already called Caleb to warn him.” He shook his head. “I’d rather they burn the plant down again. Family is much more important than money.”
“Do we still have jobs?” she asked.
“For now.” He stroked her belly. “Try to hide this as long as you can.”
She glanced down, where their child grew. “I will.”
“If anything happens to you…to them,” he whispered.
“It won’t,” she promised. “Someday, Jonathan Carter will get what he deserves. I hope that day comes soon.”
When she kissed him again, his lips clung to hers and then pushed hard. In moments, their mouths and tongues were as frenzied and out of control as their lives. If they stopped, everything might shatter. But it they stayed joined, nothing could hurt them.
But desperate kisses weren’t enough. Sadie needed him inside her. She wept between her thighs, crying for his touch. As long as they had each other, she could get through anything.
“I need you, Henry.”
They sank onto the bed, blindly pulling off clothes and pushing covers aside on the way down. They ended up facing each other. Her hands were as frantic as her mouth as she ran them down his chest.
He grabbed one and wrapped it around his cock. His member was so hot it nearly burned her. She rubbed his shaft, sliding on the juices oozing from the tip. He clearly needed her as badly as she needed him.
They had no use for a condom now. The thought of his bare flesh inside her swollen core made her entire pelvis throb with anticipation. His mouth, more urgent than ever, claimed her ear. She writhed in his arms as his lips nipped the lobe and covered the opening.
“Yes, Henry,” she moaned. With his tender mouth there, she could never hear words of hate. “Kiss my eyes next.”
His lips kissed a path across her cheek to her closed eyelids. With the gentleness of a butterfly, he covered them with tiny kisses. If he did that forever, maybe she’d never see another burning cross.
She smiled as her fingers slid to the base of his shaft and curled around his heavy balls…warm, yet cool…soft, but firm. Their contrasts were like Henry himself. She kneaded the flesh, claiming her man.
“Don’t stop.” He groaned. “Stop, Sadie. Stop.”
“Which is it?” she asked, sliding her fingertip back up his shaft to the gooey tip.
His fingers tangled over her erect nipples. Each touch set off a trembling ache in her belly.
“I want to be inside you when I climax,” he said. “Nothing will come between us tonight.”
When he slid a hand under her knee and lifted her top leg, her aroused scent joined with his. His gaze, hot and urgent, bathed her glistening folds. Her muscles contracted, needing him. All of him.
Wrapping both hands around his erection, she guided him to her center. Instead of letting him penetrate, she rubbed the head over her aching clitoris and across her swollen labia. His powerful hips writhed, rocking the bed.
With a grunt, he pulled her fingers off his shaft and plunged home. She gasped from the force of it. Gripping the inside of her knee with a hot, strong hand, he pinned her in place while he fucked her, hard and deep.
The brass bed frame creaked and rocked more than his boat during the nor’easter in Crisfield. The old Sadie would be seasick by now. The new Sadie rolled hard, craving more, more, more.
Henry Rockfield definitely had balls. They slapped against her opening, electrifying every nerve circling her cunt. Best of all, he was in charge tonight. Gripping his muscular shoulders shattered her worries, one by one. He would keep the entire family safe, especially their part of it. Knowing their child had taken root made her feel incredibly beautiful and undeniably his.
His massive cock battered her with unbelievable force, but her body was built to take it.
“You’re a sturdy boat, Sadie,” he said as if reading her mind. “Surely, I must be hurting you.”
Her womb lifted high, into the clouds, creating a vortex of need.
“No,” she panted. “I want more.”
After lifting her knee higher, he plunged deeper until it felt as if he filled her entire body.
A sweet ache, urgent and smoldering, circled inside her pelvis. Her muscles contracted, squeezing his erection so hard she was afraid she’d break him.
“H…Henry!” she screamed.
Her spasms shook the bed harder than massive ocean waves. Out of control, she dug her nails into his shoulder to keep from drowning.
He breathed fast, grunting on each exhale. His hips slammed against hers until his balls squeezed against her entrance. She latched onto his silky locks of hair and pulled while wave after wave of his hot seed drenched her core.
They held each other while their hearts thundered against each other’s chests. Sadie blinked, realizing her lashes were drenched with tears. She must have cried with pleasure. The sheltering walls of the small room came into focus.
If only they could stay here forever.
But she had more than herself to think about now. She was going to be a mother. Their desperate lovemaking finally made it real.
Please keep the children safe, she prayed. The adults of Oyster Harbor had been through tyranny before, but the little ones were unprepared and innocent. She gripped her belly. The children were the biggest victims of all.
When the phone rang, Sadie stiffened in Henry’s arms.
“Do you get many calls this time of night?” she asked.
“No.” Still naked, he rolled out of bed and crossed the floor to the phone.
“Hello?”
She pulled the sheet over her and forgot to breathe as she listened.
“You what?” Henry’s face paled. “Blazing barnacles. On what charges?”
Fear gripped her insides when his hands shook.
“Calm down.” He paced in a circle. “Yes, I can get the bail-bond money but not until morning when the bank opens. How much?”
Bail-bond money?
“Where’s the baby? With Rose and Leroy? Good.”
Mention of the baby sent a stabbing pain into Sadie’s chest. Not the child. Please, not the child.
By the time Henry hung up, his face was as white as a piece of paper.
“Caleb and Pearl have been arrested. They’re in jail.”
“What!” Sadie jumped off the bed, tripping on the sheet tangled around her legs. “Why?”
“They violated the anti-miscegenation law. The one saying marriage between races isn’t allowed in the state of Maryland.”
She clutched the sheet draped across her middle, too distracted to bother covering her breasts.
“Then how did they get away with it this long?”
“Jonathan Carter must have notified the state authorities when I turned in my robe.”
Now she realized why he’d been so adamant about staying a member. The distance between them lengthened, despite the small room.
“Do you regret it, Henry?” she asked.
Slowly, his head wheeled from side to side. “I couldn’t live with myself if I’d beat up Abe Lawler or terrorized his family.”
The sheet dropped as she dashed, naked and shivering, into his arms. “What’s going to happen to Pearl and Caleb?”
“I’m going to bail them out of jail tomorrow, but there may be a trial. If they’re lucky, they’ll have to live apart.”
“If they’re lucky?” Horror shot through her. “That’s awful. What about the Pearl Point plant? And little Opal?”
“I don’t know.” He gripped her shoulders. “Let’s face one day at a time.”
Any jealousy she’d harbored for her cousin’s marriage and fairy-tale life washed away for good.
None of them were safe.
* * *
The next morning, Henry got the bail money from the bank. Even though he hated to let her out of his sight, he’d escorted Sadie home so she could tell her mother the awful news about Caleb and Pearl.
He parked close to the harbor, wishing he could escape this nightmare by sailing away. Away from hatred and problems. He’d been running off in a boat since childhood, but he was an adult now. His older brother needed him. How the tables had turned.
The only thing giving him the strength to get through today was the love he and Sadie had shared in his bed last night.
When Sadie and her mother arrived in their rowboat, his chest ached at the sight of their tear-stained faces. They looked as if they hadn’t slept all night. He certainly hadn’t.
He hurried them into his car and sped to Pearl Point. The last person he wanted to see was the mayor’s son. He’d made arrangements to close the plant for the day and pay the workers their usual wages. Sadie could figure out the amounts, based on their shucking history, later.
When he took them to Pearl and Caleb’s cabin, the mood inside was even more somber than it had been during the risky childbirth. Leroy was there and, judging by the lack of activity toward the pier, the Pearl Point plant was closed today, too.
Sadie covered her mouth at the sight of Opal in Rose’s arms. He had to look away when she lifted the baby into her arms. She squeezed so hard, Opal cried.
“I’m going to the jail to bail Caleb and Pearl out now.” He looked at Rose. “Be prepared to pack their things.”
She blinked bloodshot, sleep-deprived eyes. “Why?”
“Because one of them is going to have to move out.”
“Lord help us all,” Sadie’s mother muttered.
Relieved to escape the sad faces for a while, he drove to Leonardtown. The jail was a dismal, gray place echoing with the clang of metal. Dust motes hung in the air, as if he’d entered a tomb.
Handing over the large sum of money made him wince. Rockfield’s was having a hard enough time financially already. Even Sadie’s simple ring was an extravagance he couldn’t really afford.
A guard escorted Pearl out first. They must have been locked up separately, by gender. A night in this wretched place, without each other or their child, must have been hell for her and Caleb. Dark shadows rimmed her eyes. Still weakened from her difficult childbirth, she looked like a child herself.
“How’s Opal?” Her voice squeaked as he enfolded her wisp of a body in a bear hug.
“She’s just fine,” he said, releasing her. “Rose is taking really good care of her.”
Caleb arrived next. Of all the faces he’d seen today, his was the most ravaged. At first, the man had eyes only for his wife. When he squeezed her, picking her up off her feet, Henry recognized the love he felt for Sadie.
“Caleb,” she whimpered. “I thought we were safe. I thought we were safe.”
“I’m here,” he crooned into her rumpled hair. “Everything will be all right.”
Then Caleb faced him, his pale-blue eyes filled with gratitude and something Henry had never seen in them before—helplessness. His brother gripped him in what must be the tightest hug they’d ever shared.
“Thank you, little brother,” he said. “For everything.”
“After all those times you bailed me out of trouble, it was the least I could do,” Henry said. “Let’s go to the car.”
They’d figure out what to do at Pearl Point where no one could overhear their plans. While he drove, Caleb and Pearl held each other in the back seat. When Henry parked near their cabin, the unfairness of everything slammed him in the chest.
Didn’t everyone deserve a peaceful home? To be with the person he or she loved, regardless of skin color?
After Caleb helped Pearl out of the car, he stood, blinking in the sun. His shoulders sagged and he looked as if he didn’t know which direction to walk in. Henry planted a hand in the middle of his back and steered him toward the house.
“Let’s get Pearl inside so she can take a hot bath and rest,” he told him. “Meanwhile, you and I can figure out what will happen next.”
Caleb nodded and took Pearl’s hand, leading her to the front door. When they entered the cabin, a sea of tear-stained faces in every hue greeted them. While everyone hugged, smiles and tears blended together so thoroughly, Henry couldn’t tell anyone apart.
Pearl snatched Opal from Rose’s arms. Her hoarse sobs split the air while she kissed the baby’s head and rocked her in her arms. Henry couldn’t look or he’d cry himself. Instead, he slid his arm around Sadie and pulled her against him. What if they’d spent the night in jail with their beloved child out of sight? He couldn’t even imagine it.