

A

### Gypsy's Love

1

"Jeffery & Halifa"

Written

By:

Sophia S. Sterling

2019

©

A

Gypsy's Love

1

"Jeffery & Halifa"

This novel is entirely fictional.

No part of the innards is related to any real person or persons,

living or dead and for mature readers only.

Table of Contents

Outline

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

A Gypsy's Love 11 – Alex & Mary (Synopsis)

Chapter 1 Edinburg

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Other Books

A

Gypsy's Love

1

"Jeffery & Halifa"

Outline

The twelfth Earl of Scarborough, Lord Jeffery Lumley craves a girl he glimpsed in his youth and is plagued for years with a strange yearning to have her, this Gypsy maiden. How do you catch the wind and question it? That is how he saw her and their clan, as they appear always to vanish before he could gather his courage and wits to speak to her.

A curse or spell, whatever it was, he must learn how to free his heart and body to end this undeniable desire to have her. Time is drawing near, in which a wife and heir is needed to continue the official line of Earls and to stop his devious uncle from claiming his birthright as the head of their family. With Jeffery's mind staggering, he marvels how this mysterious gypsy girl could hold him in perdition for so long. Frustrated and lusting after her wicked person, leaving him to ponder how to capture the wind.

Living through the loss of loved ones and seeing her life governed by others was something Halifa refused to settle for. So, devised to have her heart's desire, but when it was within her reach, a foolish Earl wanted to capture her one prized, Freedom to place her in a new prison.

His.
Chapter One

1815 Castle Lumley

His palms pressed to his flawless window, he saw . . . There, there it was again, a glimmer, a slight deflection off the brilliant sun, now rising from its night rest, shimmering on some lauded object. It must be, they, they were there. They have returned. Following alongside his windows . . . there, he saw it again. They were there. Lord Jeffery Lumley, the tenth Earl of Scarborough, wasted not a second as he dashed from his bedroom racing downstairs with a pray mumbling on his lips for ten, miserable years.

With his heart rapidly beating against his chest, Jeffery knew he could not take another year of torture dreaming of an apparition, which touched his body so fleetingly in his youth. It felt like an eternity his soul and corpse was this ill with itself. Yet with his rational intellect, it was but a moment of clarity, in what he wanted in life.

Running past his best friend, Lord Vincent Cardwell the eight Duke of Kent, who was more like a loafing brother that practically lived at his house ever since they were boys, swinging from mischief to pleasures. Save for a time when Vincent vanished one night, for a while, without a word to anyone, to show up with a notable change that stayed with him, even after all these years.

As Lord Vincent ascended the winding staircase with a tray loaded with an early morning breakfast of toast bread, soft boiled eggs, blue cheese, cherry jam, and haggis. Conveying his own meal to his bedroom, as one of his idiosyncrasies. Recalling one of Lord Cardwell tirades to Jeffery of helping oneself without a servant, berating him, "As a lazy prick for waking his tired staff to fetch him a glass of water" one night when they were relaxing in his study and yelled at him to get his own blasted water, that was sitting right behind him.

It grated on Jeffery's nerve to fetch his own water, but he saw his friends point and took it to heart ever since that outburst. Yet running pass Vincent, Jeffery got a whiff of the boiled egg that made him want to gag, but he had a more important task before him than heaving at his friend disgusting combination of a "breakfast."

"Bloody hell Jeffery," Vincent yelled as his best friend raced passed him, almost relieving him of the breakfast picnic he had planned since he stayed overnight from being sloshed. Vincent took one last look at his childhood friend and neighbor, Lord Jeffery, and knew what the urgency was about.

Staring at his long-awaited morning feast and wanting to rush off after his friend, Vincent was torn. But refused to be careless as to waste his meal and time that he took to prepare. Vincent carefully placed it on the hall table before he dashed off behind his friend.

Jeffery had little time to reach before they moved on as the spirit he deemed they were. Racing breathless into the dense woods he played in all his life, made him a tad mad as hell that he was still fixated on finding the solution to his aching problem.

Standing in a clearing, Jeffery looked around frantically for a sign, any motif to show that he was not crazy. That he indeed saw something and waited to hear . . . a sound, or was it a tune or a humming? It was a minute echo, but Lord Jeffery would chase it until he found that one breathless specter he wanted more than to see another day.

Waiting as a hush fell around him; Jeffery closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. There . . . a snap, a faint breaking of a twig made Jeffery crouch down further with his eyes securely closed listening, anticipating and hoping he was not dreaming he saw . . .

"What in heaven's name boy?"

Lord Lumley's eyes sprang open to see Vincent breathless coming at him making more clamor than a hunting hound. With his finger to his lips, Jeffery yanked Vincent to crouch beside him covering his mouth while struggling to free himself from his friend moist, death grip.

Jeffery was beyond annoyed with his so-called mate right then. So much so, if Jeffery could make Vincent vanish with a thought, he would be gone. Yet alas, Jeffery could not. For if he could make one disappear, he would have rendered someone to appear at his will years ago.

That is why the Earl of Castle Lumley was in his nightclothes with his bedroom slippers damp, in the woods looking for a phantom.

With his eyes closed again, Jeffery felt he could sense what he was looking for. In his bones, he knew that it was close by. He also recognized he should stop dubbing, "Her as it or a specter or phantom" he looked for and wanted more than his tomorrow, but he could not stop himself. How do you label something that always seemed in your reach, but vanish when you thought you could capture it?

It was an "apparition," but a beautiful "spirit" as one could ever be that had his dreams in a state of unrest as well as his body and soul. Jeffery was never a church-going person, but after he glimpsed her and when his phantom gazed into his eyes, he started attending church frequently just to save his soul. How can such simple happenstances, hold his attention for so long, never speaking but by a mere touch in the flesh for a second? Yet that second stayed with him for so many years?

Jeffery knew sin can taint a soul, so can love. Yet "his specter" made him question his heart, to ask if it was love he felt, but his mind thought it could not be love, could it? Ten years walking his lands, never going too far for too long and always near a window looking out for "her."

Ten years of putting off his father's wish and will for him to set up his own house and family. A decade of waiting and wanting. And the wanting never wane but grew. God, Jeffery thought this was hell on land in his home.

Feeling spit on his hand, Jeffery opened his eyes to look at his friend smiling at him. With his brow creased, he wiped his hand on his pajama bottom to close his eyes again to hear . . . and he was off running after "his phantom" once more. Not waiting for his lax friend to follow, for Lord Cardwell knew his way home, thus left him behind.

Half closing his eyes praying for this to end, Jeffery wanted it to end. God knew how much so, so he can move on with whatever life the Lord had for him.

Running through his woods Jeffery knew he heard humming in the air, she was around, and he was approaching the buzz. Coming upon a clearing again, Jeffery stopped to listen as a horse pranced about and stopped to heed where. With his ears armed like a wolf on its mark, Jeffery spun around to stand before "his vision."

"Father," Jeffery whispered an arm away. He could have pulled her into his bosom and bond her into his remote chest.

Taking a step to "his phantom," Jeffery did just that. He pulled her into a crushing embrace, and her form felt like heaven to his touch. She smelled like the earth washed after a downpour with the fragrance of nature's perfume at its breast. Stepping back, Jeffery got a quick glimpse of her eyes and fell categorically in love with her literally. Before him, was his wife as she turned and walked off on him.

Staring at her, Jeffery was speechless his dream allowed him to touch, far less hold her and wanted to do it again. This time never to let her go.

"He found you Halifa." An amused female voice sounded somewhere in the woods as Jeffery smiled at the woman of his dreams. Her name was Halifa. Whispering, "Haliy," Jeffery echoed languorously as he watched her walk away from him. "Please . . ." he wanted to say something more to keep her from leaving.

"And he speaks too." Another feminine laughter declared.

Jeffery stood and looked on as she continued to walk away without a backward glance of him. His mind was saying to go back where he came from, but his heart was telling him to press on for his life was walking away.

Thus, he followed his heart.

Watching her form, Jeffery was not sure if she was a spirit that possessed his soul or a real living person that breathe, shit and ate like him, to have him solely warped around her finger and not know or care. With all that thought twirling around in his head, Jeffery pressed on trailing after her.

Closely, Jeffery followed as he observed the back of his enigma. His beauty was virtually as tall as he was, with a woman's body that was formed for him. With curves and an ass that swayed in her bohemian skirt with her every step. Her hair was a mix of black and brown, thick, long and wavy to her back, almost reaching her swaying backside. Jeffery loved looking at her back and wanted her so painfully. But the woman's visage, "God" he whispered, was like looking at an angel, the small glimpse he got.

Jeffery needed to govern his thinking if he planned to have her and by his naughty grin on his face, if his apparition saw what was rising behind her, she would make a hasty retreat from him. But his manly pride was pierced a bit that she seemed unaffected by the sight of him or the knowledge he was a peer and a man of means before her.

Watching her persistent forward motion, Jeffery wondered why he put such feelings on this woman. For years, he questioned that very idea. Was it his loneliness or the empty heart that was fed up with all the different skirts that lifted for him? Jeffery was tired of all the questions and lack of resolutions that were not forthcoming. So ready his heart to face said replies.

"Haliy maybe we can take a tour of his home?" Jeffery watched to see if she would stop and take the bait by whoever made such a brilliant suggestion, but she continued to walk on. Making Jeffery think she did not care for his wealth or home that was one of many, large estate that was within a mile radius.

Lord Lumley was not vain nor puffed up to think his home could contend with some, but he was most proud that it is his and was in his family for generations. Even though it was sequestered from his family, but was returned to their rightful owner. It housed enough rooms to accommodate her lot of wandering nomads and more, but one of his most cherished niches was his late mother's music room. However, with the loss of his mother, it became yet another room. Thus, Jeffery placed all his attention on his stables and the beasts that were family to him.

"Maybe he can invite us to see his private lake, Haliy?" Jeffery's gaze stalked his prey as her steps never faltered. The young Earl thought his dream woman was a stubborn one with her back unbending, walking without pause.

"I would love to show you my stables," and she stopped. Jeffery could not hide the smile that was spreading across his face, with her lack of movement and walked around her to prevent another step away from him.

This was his chance to see her, to genuinely study his strange craving. Her back held nothing to her front. Jeffery needed to take a deep breath as he watched his obsession for years, up close and personal. She was almost the color of his father most exotic fixation, chocolate or of a lighter shade like pure honey. Making him wondered if she would taste of the color?

With her thick eyebrow, light grey eyes that were piercing his soul, thick long lashes, button nose, and her lips. Groaning inwardly, Lord Lumley stared at her full lips that were meant to be kissed, sucked and wrapped around his . . . begging for his attention. Sighing Jeffery wanted to take a step to her, but he knew he was on perilous grounds with his thoughts.

His dream woman was as flighty as a hummingbird, and he did not want to see her take flight from him, not now nor ever.

Taking a deep breath, closing his eyes, Jeffery waited to see if his gentle suggestion to come to his home would be met with the reply he wanted. With his fingers crossed behind his back, Jeffery gazed at her.

"And what is in your stables that should make us want to visit?" holding his breath again, the Earl of Castle Lumley knew that sweet, sensual voice and it was to the point and in reply to her question.

"The best horses flesh this side of Northern England." Jeffery declared with unwavering pride in his simple statement. For he knew this group was forever eyeing his horses whenever they were around from their peripatetic.

It was the only reason he ever knew they were near his home. As his estate was substantial and wide open, Jeffery, nor his father Andrew would prevent any from traveling through their lands. Nor did they thwart any hungry soul looking for a meal, as some in his magnanimous convene did.

With that known fact, Jeffery and his father never needed to hunt, for both father and son thought it cruel and a waste of time. Together with, all those who passed through their lands looking for game, hunt enough and left for their household that the staff never need to search for game. And never in all his years, did Jeffery see game nor the stock of their lake run even an ounce low.

Returning from his musing of travelers through his lands, Jeffery's ponies seemed to detect Halifa's clique presences. His blessed horse was the reason he had this fixation on Halifa. When he was seventeen dallying about under a shaded, old Oak tree at midday, enjoying the tranquil river. Jeffery heard his horse Winter, stomping his feet and whinnying as if he was speaking.

Upon opening his eyes, Jeffery saw someone touching his formidable black stallion that never allowed anyone, absolutely no one near him, save his master. With his stomach rolling with the gall of the jackanapes, stroking Winter's neck, Jeffery knew it was a horse theft. And the blasted fool would dare steal his prized horse in broad daylight.

Wanting to bash this horse theft head in, Jeffery found a rock and was almost upon him, when the horse theft walked away, swaying their hips to him that had him hypnotized. Jeffery just stared. This could not be a man.

No.

A man could never get a rise from him. And so rushed off to grab the enchanted horse theft when he was hit behind his head and dropped to the ground like a pound cake his mother tried to make, that cracked the kitchen floor.

With his face smacked on the dirt, Jeffery was roughly turned with the midday sun blinding him. Hallucinating, Lord Lumley thought he saw an angel kneeled over him, but it was indeed a "woman" by the outline of her breast in her man's shirt was a dead giveaway.

Jeffery must have said something, for she bent close to his mouth and he whispered something to make her smile then passed out. That was his beginning of ten years of looking for her, of self-inflict celibacy.

Jeffery had no recognition of who it was nor did he actually see her face, but he heard her hushed voice if it was possible and her quiet smile. The smile that had Jeffery wrapped up for years in a dream to what the whole body would be like to have in his hold or to have her be his absolute.

Never a forlorn person, nor lost in love kind of youth. He was familiar with the opposite sex from early on. As Earl of Castle Lumley, Jeffery knew what his body wanted and how to go about getting it. There was indeed not a doubt in his mind that as a peer, he could not have anything he wanted. Jeffery knew he was wealthy, titled and blessedly handsome.

At fifteen, mama's, grandmamas, aunties and so on were lined up to have him as husband to whatever single girl that was easy to pass off on him. Save for his horse theft. She had him tied up in knots, not knowing how to lose his manhood freely to frolic as he once did.

Thus, Jeffery was trapped to wait for her to show up to free him from her cruel prison. His first meeting of her was his initial lockdown and thought he needed to be free for the wife he must wed and the children he will have to procreate to carry on his title.
**Chapter Two**

Jeffery stood waiting to see what she would do, his obsession. As he looked at her, he saw movement at the corner of his eyes. From the woods, they came out like spirits surrounding him. Before him, he was flanked by two pixies, one with thick black curls with a pale complexion while the other had her hair cut short by her ear, the color of his Halifa.

Behind Haliy was a tall man with broad shoulders that expanded with his every breath and deadly eyes that could have sent shivers through his spine, if he was fearful. And yet another man popped out of nowhere and looked at Jeffery with a warning of murder plastered in his eyes and ricocheted off his body.

Since his encounter with her years ago, Jeffery found his instinct was honed to the point of when he felt someone's gaze was feasting on him or warning him to stay the fuck away. He also learned not to give away his emotions by masking his feelings. Jeffery was English after all, and as a boy at Eton, he received the nickname "Stone" for no one knew how to decipher his actions by gazing at his visage.

"We mean no harm or offense. We're just passing through your lands." Jeffery looked at the mammoth of a man that spoke so calmly and looked at the other who said nothing, but the words were spoken in silence, which meant, "To stay the fuck away from her!"

One of the pixies with short hair ran up and held Halifa's hand swinging it. "He looks so harmless. Can't we see his horses?"

Turning his attention back to Halifa, Jeffery's eyes were glued on her, as she was the only one that can change the course of his existence by a mere answer of . . .

"Tomorrow," and his Halifa walked off holding the Pixie's hand while the other one ran up and took her hand practically skipping. However, the men watched him with guarded eyes as they fell into step around her as another girl Halifa's age walked and took one of the pixies hand in hers.

Jeffery just stared at his enthrallment as she floated away. All his focus was on that one person who has been for most of his adult life a landmark for whom he was now.

"So that's her?" Jeffery turned almost jumping from not hearing his friend walk up behind him. That was how captivated he was in watching her leave him. Jeffery preferred not to show his shock at being snuck up on by his inquisitive best friend as he took a deep soothing breath.

Turning with a smile on his face Jeffery walked towards his home to make plans for her arrival. If he knew anything, they would a make an early run and must have everything in perfect order to dazzle her, but his chatterbox of a friend was rattling on about something.

Jeffery realized she was not like the rest of bohemians that passed near his home or what he had encountered. His beauty had an ember in her eyes that held her apart from all her kind.

With a frown on his face, Jeffery felt ashamed to put her in a box because of how she lived. He never thought of himself as prejudice to any one race, but his way of thinking made him a little ashamed, and he would have to amend it before she came to visit his home.

As the Earl and heir to his family holdings, Jeffery had every intention to woo her for whatever time there was to make her his wife. Just seeing her, Lord Lumley knew he had to have her, come what may.

She belonged to him.

No one save Vincent knew his genuine feelings towards Halifa. Vincent saw how he was mooning over her for a decade, and as his friend, Lord Cardwell knew his entire intention lay with her becoming his bride once he had her alone. With a smile back on his face, Jeffery knew to capture her was essential for the life he dreamt of.

She would no longer have to wander around like her people the Gypsies, but he would give her a home with children that she would take care of. And most importantly, she would have him. For the Earl of Castle Lumley was, after all, a handsome and affluent gentleman.

Slapping Vincent on his back, Jeffery had a lot to do and jogged off to make his arrangements to woo his future wife.

***

Halifa walked with Finny and Nicest between her and Jessica, swinging their hands as they hummed utterly oblivious to the undercurrent that they just passed through. If only she could be so innocent again. With Benny and Ean at her back looking ahead and not at her, she knew when they passed the camp entrance, everyone will feel that "buzz" around her. Her family knew all about him and will hurl all sorts of inquiries at her, like if she sought out the English Earl herself.

Hum!

Halifa just wanted to pass next to his lands and not think of him. She hoped she could have done it this time as she did year after year with him looking for her as a brigand that was never found, until now.

Whenever she learned they were making a trip back to Scarborough, near his lands, Halifa would sometimes pray she could remain where they left or go somewhere else until they were ready to move on. Yet every time they travel to this spot, they stayed the longest and wondered why? They, her family knew how she felt about him, and all she got was, "It's the richest spot to stay until whenever."

In all her travels throughout Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa, this was not the wealthiest location in her book. It was safe, and yes she had to admit the money they generated while there, made them live in comfort for months together with the effortless hunting. However, Tamiya, her aunt knew how she felt going near him, near the Earl's lands. And it made no sense to argue, for they would still pass through and stay as he would continue his search for her.

Try as she may, Halifa could not suppress the smile at seeing him again. Glimpses of the young Earl, and what she recalled for the time she saw him was nothing equated to what stood before a second ago.

He was now a man indeed. Tall, with bone-straight black hair falling over his temple, thick eyebrow over black piercing eyes, that was shaded over from his lashes. Semi-full lips, with a mole under his left eye, like a teardrop.

Halifa could have been hoodwinked to think he was a gypsy if it were not for his pale complexion. In all, the young Lumley Earl was surpass handsome, which did not sit well for him, for Halifa did not trust a comely man.

Taking a deep breath, Halifa whispered to herself, "He found me," the Earl actually found what he was stalking for over a decade.

**Chapter Three**

As Jeffery gazed at his "forsaken gardens" Vincent would call it, for it was free from flowers and shrubs. Virtually anything that could obscure his view of the woods as he looked out for her return.

Observing his simple green garden, Jeffery felt his heart throbbed wilder with his palms perspiring. The waiting was hell to see her breakthrough those trees but tarried he did for ten long years, and knowing she would come to him was the sweetest sensation to touch his soul.

Waiting was never one of his strongholds as a child nor as a man. Coupled with the devil and his angel at his side speaking to him, playing a game of tennis for so long was hard to ignore. When the dark one would whisper to him, "To move on, to dip his prick into someone's core and be done with it." Frowning, Jeffery had to admit, he was tempted many times when his father threw all sorts of fluffy, pretty, and sexy maiden his way.

He saw the desperation in his father's action in the last five years. So much so, that his sire tossed even married, widowed, and sullied women at his feet. It was an omen, his time as a bachelor was coming to a swift end. Jeffery knew why his father did it, and he felt bad he could not conform to his father's desires.

To have a daughter-in-law and grandchildren when his father was young enough to enjoy them, half chasing his grandchildren around. Jeffery wished he could go back and never glimpse this woman who spoiled him for any other.

Sitting by his favorite instrument, he now owned. One he bought with his first allowance as a teenager because his father refused to have music in their house after his mother's death. Tossing all instruments she played and owned into a fire or selling them. Jeffery sat strumming the keys lazily growing impatient with the wait. The words wait, pause, delay, had his . . .

"Your wife is coming," Vincent said standing by the pristine windows, freed from curtains for years because of the woman who was strolling across the garden. Jeffery shot up from his seat and looked at her as she walked across this non-existence garden in such a regal fashion, so graceful. "Well," Vincent said clapping his hands loudly. "My friend, you have her." Jeffery felt a hard slap on his back, "And her family too."

Scanning behind her, Jeffery saw the same two hulky men walking behind her, together with one other girl he saw with his Halifa before and another girl looking a bit like his Halifa's. Jeffery knew he should greet her, but his feet were fused to the floor just staring at her.

Staring at her with one thought in his mind, that if it were not, illegal to take a woman and keep her under lock and key, he would have done it six years ago when he saw her alone in his woods but was too slow to snag her.

"Are you going to meet her?" Jeffery turned and gazed at Vincent, forgetting for a second, that his friend was standing beside him.

"Yes . . . yes." Jeffery answered breathlessly with a smile on his face as he took off to reach Halifa halfway to his house.

Watching him stroll towards her was a near-fatal experience for her again, Halifa thought. She needed to guard her feelings against this boy. No, he was no longer a boy, but what stood before her was a MAN. Halifa prayed her blank mask on her façade was convincing as he halted mere inches away from her. Taking a step back, Halifa knew he had no regard for boundaries. He sucked up all her personal atmosphere advancing on her again.

"I'm glad you came," Jeffery said breathlessly, making a move as he placed his hand to her back, guiding her away from her group.

"Haliy," Halifa stopped and looked back at Benny holding her hand from taking another step.

Jeffery turned to see one of the ungainly men holding her hand and took a step to yank his hand away from his woman. Without a doubt, he saw this girl, no, she was no longer a girl, but a WOMAN and she was his. Facing the offender, Jeffery glared, and took a step to the oaf.

"And what is your name?" someone asked Jeffery. It was one of the girls, his Halifa's age marched beside her, severing the brute and his hold on her hand. As Jeffery looked on, he saw that the girls convened together making him take a few steps back. Grinding his jaw, Jeffery was never one to enjoy crowds, and he was feeling very crowded when all he wanted was Halifa alone.

Taking a calming breath to free his frustrated heart at having to deal with more people he had not planned on meeting. "Lord Jeffery," he answered aware they knew who he was, as he watched the big brute grab Halifa's hand again, holding it comfortably making the Earl grate his teeth. Jeffery had no plans to share his first meeting with her and . . .

"Welcome to Castle Lumley." Groaning loudly, Jeffery turned to glare at Lord Vincent with a smile on his unshaven face, too welcome, some of his unwanted guests. Grating his teeth, Jeffery thought they conspired against him having his private moment with Halifa.

Was everyone here to spoil his tryst where he would woo Halifa to stay with him and become his wife? Jeffery knew it was an immense shot to get her to say yes to his wish, seeing this was their second time speaking to each other. The mere thought of having other guests made an enormous glitch in his carefully planned capture.

With a scowl marring Jeffery's taunt face, he turned to Vincent thinking he would get the gist of his glare and leave. However, the damn fool grinned at Jeffery, knowing or disregarding his heated glower to turn and gape at one of the girls with a strange smile on his face making the brute to take a step to him also. Groaning, Jeffery could not believe his flipping luck.

Vincent knew he was altered remarkably after his time in her company and hoped his exterior was vastly improved from then. And it must have, for she did not recognize him. Maybe if he stayed next to her, she would acknowledge who he was. Smiling, Vincent could not wait to see the woman that was his tormentor for a short while and thereafter, would react towards him.

With a sigh, Jeffery realized nothing was going as he devised, for all he wanted was a few minutes alone with Halifa and seeing that the brute held his girl's hand and was not letting go. The blond beast also took a step to Vincent, trying to push him out the way from being too close to one of their girls.

Jeffery wondered if the fop understood what was about to transpire which is why he was showing his muscle to keep the girls safe. Whatever reason there was, it would seem he would have to share his Halifa in his first official meeting.

Backing away, Jeffery plastered what he hoped was a friendly smile on his face, and with his hands showing them the way, he said, "Welcome to my home." Walking off, but stopped and looked back to see everyone stood still staring at each other. Grinding his jaw, Jeffery went back and pulled Vincent away from ogling one of their gypsy girls.

Falling into step with Jeffery, Vincent once wondered why his best friend was so hung up on a mere gypsy girl. He had money, looks, and power, yet he was in a comatose state waiting for her to appear every year. However, seeing her for the first time, Vincent honestly recognizes why Jeffery wanted her. "Father, look at God's perfect creation," Vincent thought loudly in his mind.

She was tall with curves and bumps to entice any man with an average libido, and that was just her body. Her face was another matter. She looked too perfect for Vincent. Her eyes had Vincent sighing just thinking how it would gleam in the heat of a passionate embrace, and lips that were ripe for sucking. She was a model from the ancient Greek gods, of how a mortal woman can make men die for any cause she had.

Vincent knew his friend so well and knew things were not going as he wanted it to. His day was designed with care for them to be alone and when he saw her family coming from the woods behind her. Vincent was sure Jeffery would say or do something damn foolish to spoil his only chance to speak with . . . Halifa. That was her name, and if Jeffery failed, it would leave the Earl of Castle Lumley to pine for yet another chance and year to have her on his own.

Therefore, Vincent needed to be a buffer between her family and his friend so Jeffery and this gypsy girl could converse. Taking a deep breath as he walked before the group, Vincent did not think he could take another year of Jeffery's pinning away. He wanted his friend back, to become the typical man who had his pick of chits to prick.

Jessica and Mary could only look at each other with a smile on their faces. As they shared a look, that spoke what they were thinking. She said yes and came to meet the Earl of Scarborough.

Mary, Halifa's cousin, teased how Halifa had a husband for ten years and refused to stay with him in his house or castle as the case may be. For a short time in meeting the young Earl, he showed his genuine feelings in his eyes.

With a semi-smile on her lips, Mary only met one person in all her life that looked at her that way, and he's been dead to her for seven years. Seven years of trying not to cry herself to sleep some nights with the lost and knowing never again, would she have someone to look at her with such love and devotion. Even if it was feigned on his part, for the short time they were together, his intense gaze showed such extraordinary love.

Sighing from her experience that was all false on his part, Mary felt a fool. A grand fool, who was besotted by mere words and a few romantic emotions. All the teachings and gen's that was given by her mother, godmother, and Nef. All the women that touched Mary's life, she had failed to heed their warnings only to see her chimera of love was all but a . . . LIE.

It was not jealousy Mary was feeling towards Haliy. It was definitely not. Mary was happy for her cousin. Halifa had been alone most of her life and was more devoted to their family than she was. Mary never saw Halifa held hands or had a conversation with any man in the fifteen years her cousin lived with her.

It was peculiar, knowing they were a band of passionate people with a long lifespan, which can be lonely without a loved one, a helpmate to endure the change of time. Mary wanted this for Halifa, she wanted her to have this romance that would last until death, and if she could aid the Earl of Castle Lumley on his quest to capture her cousin's heart, she would try.

Jeffery showed them into his stables that housed the best horseflesh this part of Northern England in his eyes. With a little too much pride with his chest puffed up, Jeffery was beyond thrilled to see Halifa's face when she took a step into his stable. It was indeed impressive, to say the least.

With the vaulted ceiling and electric lights on each stall that housed over twenty-four horses, and each booth had a beauty in it with its blood hinted as royalty in the racing world. Jeffery's stable was prized to breed and retained the best. Racing was his vice. Thus, he saw nothing wrong in making a capital as well as having fun.

Taking a step to her, Jeffery was given a chance, as the young blond brute himself was impressed with his stables and wandered off "awestruck." Jeffery was not a boy for years, but this woman made him feel like he was indeed one. Palms sweaty and tongue-tied he slipped beside her with his hands itching to hold hers.

"Their names are all . . ." he was going to say gypsies but held his tongue fearing to offended and chase her away.

Halifa waited for him to complete what he was going to say, but when she saw Winter, she took a step to him and declared, "He is still handsome." the reason she was even talking to the young Earl. With her hand out for the beast to smell her, it nodded its head as if answering her question. "Yes, he had not forgotten her also."

Smiling, Halifa loved the creature from the moment she laid eyes on it. While watching Winter, Halifa's memory returned to her home with a mix of emotions.

As she stroked a hand under the admirable beast's neck to hug the horse that reminded her of her father, a titanic of a man that oozed strength from his very breath. Halifa was lost in her musing as she felt a penetrating heat from the giant horse. Closing her eyes, Halifa enjoyed embracing the inquisitive beast on four legs but felt another heat on her side with his piercing black eyes on her.

Needing a reprieve from man and beast, Halifa pushed away to free herself from the closeness of the Earl and stepped on his toes to stumble back with him seizing her around the waist to steady her. Halifa looked up and saw his eyes desired to say something more as his grip intensified on her, brushing his fingers under her breast.

"Haliy, are you okay?" Jessica asked making what little secret they shared to slip away.

"I'm, I'm all . . . I'm fine. Yes."

"It's time to go." Everyone turned to see the one person who refused to enter his stables, standing guard by the door looking out at the stable courtyard.

"Yes, we should be leaving." Mary and Jessica said holding Halifa's hands leading her to the stable doors with Benny behind them. Halifa wanted to take her time to visit the beasts and their quarters, for she knew this would never happen again. Yet she was amazed her family allowed her the jaunt, thus wanted to enjoy it. However, when Halifa heard a carriage approaching, she knew why Ean said it was time to depart.

The Earl's once smoldering gaze a few seconds ago was replaced by a frown marring his elation as he stared at Vincent, to hear a carriage approaching. Jeffery knew his father was not due home for a month. So whoever it was, he was going to send them off his lands as fast as he could so he can resume his assignation with Halifa.

With everyone blocking the exit as he stepped out in the courtyard, Jeffery's frowned turned into an intense scowl. For he knew his glower would not go away until he found out why his uncle Dennis was there without an invitation.

Storming out his stables to stay their carriage door from opening, the young Lord hissed at the occupants that were seated looking exhausted but did not care.

"What the hell you're doing here?" was all that could have escaped from his clenched teeth watching his cousins, Simon, Devon, and Grand, lounging staring at him as if he were the unsolicited one to step into their presence.

"Nice to see you to cousin," Devon stated as he pushed Jeffery out the way taking a step-down and stretching like the slothful fat pig he was. Jeffery looked back at his guests retreating backs and wondered if they heard what he said. "Could his family have any more fucking awful timing," Jeffery thought.

"Come now cousin," Simon said as he stretched beside Grand still sitting in the carriage, "Is that how you were taught to greet long lost family?" he injected striding down from the coach staring at Jeffery's visitors as they returned to the woods. Jeffery glanced at his cousin's Simon eyes, and they were undoubtedly on his Halifa.

Taking a step in front of his cousin's view to hide his gem, Jeffery turned back and saw Halifa last glance at him. His one chance to convince her she could have more than a nomadic life if she stayed with him was now lost. And God knew when he would get another chance as he did at present.

"What the hell do you want?" Jeffery asked again with his anger rising at his passing opportunity. Grabbing Simon by his overstarched lapel shoving him towards the carriage when a growl escaping from his lips, Jeffery heard yet another Landau, making an appearance. Holding onto Simon as he struggled to be free, dragging him along to see his father's carriage stopped behind his worthless cousin's gig.

Shoving his cousin away Jeffery jumped and yanked his father's carriage door open before it entirely came to a stop, to see his spiteful uncle sitting opposite his father. Jeffery examined his father and saw how haggard and frustrated he appeared, no doubt by his own older brother.

The trip his father took was meant to be a peaceful one. One he arranged months in advance because he knew she would be making her journey near their lands. But his uncle always had someone understaff in their household to share the slightest piece of information with him. Therefore, Dennis went to his father when he was not around to cozen his mind about the same shit that plagued him for ten years.

Stepping down and pacing away from the carriage, Jeffery knew all eyes were on him. With his jaw grinding and a headache forming, Jeffery stopped to view the woods and got one last glimpse of Halifa's retreating form, to hear another unannounced arrival. Although this time it was a horse and a lone rider that made Jeffery look around the carriages to see whom the unwanted nuisance was.

It was Lord Alex. The only cousin Jeffery would call and claim as family, looked a mess staggering off his horse as if he was out all night and was commanded to show up to this importune family reunion.

Jeffery was pleased to see his cousin and father, but he was not at all thrilled how his morning had turned out thus far. Now Jeffery would have to listen to his father, uncle and bilious cousin's nag him about when his, up and coming marriage they believe he should have by now. It was a yearly provocation, from his uncle, because time was wasting away without an heir in line of the Lumley title, so believe his kind uncle.

The young Earl of Castle Lumley felt like one of his prized stallions waiting to be dispatched to breed a mare with his fastidious penis and sperms for the next generation. He was human but felt he was nothing more than what the future was waiting for him to produce, down the road.

Jeffery knew what was waiting for him in the woods and wanted her. Some would have thought it queer as he was considered the Earl while his father was still alive, but his father merely said one morning, "He was stepping down." Jeffery did not care to be anything other than a good son to his father Andrew, while he raced and rear his horses in peace.

That was until he saw Halifa.

"Jeffery old boy," Alex said slapping Jeffery hard on his back sending him a foot away by his forceful whack, which stung and would most likely leave an impression of a handprint.

"What have you been doing?" Jeffery was never a drinker, but when his cousin Alex was anywhere about, he would always partake and forget half his cousin's visit. Taking a deep breath, Jeffery got a whiff of Alex intoxicated odor, as he seized him in a bear hug, making Jeffery feel like a child and not a man of twenty-seven to return the same embrace, to sense Alex's hand lull at his sides.

Looking at Alex, Jeffery was amazed to see him fall asleep standing while in his hold, staring at his closed eyes with his strange multi-colored lashes. Letting go of a frustrated sigh, the right term to signify his dear cousin predicament was well-oiled as he was passed out in his arms again.

Alex was not that much taller than him, but his body dimension was a hell lot heavier to heave up that Jeffery needed to yell for help and his aid was Vincent. Jeffery was not shocked by the lack of support that was forthcoming from the rest of Alex's brothers. To frown as he surveyed the men in his family, his cousins as he half carried Alex with Vincent's help to the house.

Stealing a glance back, Jeffery saw his uncle and father staring at the woods. Groaning, Jeffery would have to face more than he had planned as his morning campaign changed for the worst.

Grinding his jaws, Jeffery was left with regret for not having his time with her. Nevertheless, the Earl of Castle Lumley made up his mind when he saw her walk away he was not letting her leave him to wait another year to be his.
**Chapter Four**

Jeffery could not take it anymore as he let loose a loud yawn he was trying to hide. It was two days hence, and it all went in circles. The constant bickering like frigging women over what was none of their business in the first place.

The Earl of Castle Lumley looked around at everyone giving him their undivided attention now. Jeffery watched his father silently sit behind his modest desk in his study observing everyone. While Jeffery leaned on the front of his father's bureau with his arms folded and saw all his cousins save Alex with a glass of a fifty-nine-year-old Brandy in their hands and their feet up on the ottoman, that was over a hundred years old.

For the duration that his so-called family came, all they did were assess what the house was worth. They walked about touching, looking closely at everything with keen eyes of an evaluator waiting for an auction. Jeffery did not know why they came so quickly, after he chased them away, just one year ago.

The beating of words, the insults, and some bodily ejection from his home should have given them a hint they were not wanted. But alas, his uncle and cousins were denser than a stone at the bottom of a lake. He was behind in his plans to capture Halifa and knew his family needed to be gone to put his campaigns into the next phase.

"Why do you people insist on squabbling like hungry hens, around my father and me?" Jeffery did not know why he wasted his time as he looked at their bemused faces. It would have made no difference what he said, they would continue until they had their way. And that would be over his dead body, not his father's. Jeffery, the Earl of Scarborough's dead body.

Pushing away from his father's desk, Jeffery gave his uncle and cousins the best "Fuck Off" look he could muster as he said . . . "My father and I have no need for you to worry over an heir or who the title will fall too." Jeffery stopped to take a deep breath. "I am healthy and capable of breeding a woman for that purpose," he said smiling as he watched the bastards, that made up the rest of his cousins. "So never fear. The title would go to someone issued from my loins without a doubt of any legitimacy." With his hand on the doorknob, Jeffery waited to hear any riposte, but none was given when he was half out the door.

"A half breed will not gain the title." With his eyes closed, Jeffery was so close to being free from them for another year or at least a few hours. Yet for his uncle's words stilled his retreat, for him to put an end to their "talks."

With a charming smile that he could muster, Jeffery stepped back into his father's study and shut the door to gaze at his uncle with a knowing smile plaster on his deceitful face, that was once handsome.

"Don't dare cast any disparaging judgments on "MY" motive for "MY" title and future successor," Jeffery said taking a step to his uncle getting a semi-flush look from him as he tried to sit up a pinch taller with Jeffery towering over him. With his hands to his hip, Jeffery clarified, "Whatever woman I take to be the future Countess of Lumley, will be of my choosing. Wealth or not. Rest. Assured. Of. That."

Standing his full height, Jeffery took a step back and looked down at the man that was supposed to be his family. He was done playing to the fucking tune of his uncle, cousins, and even his father. He needed an heir, but more importantly, Jeffery desired her.

The frustrated Earl of Castle Lumley was fuming and was in no mood to deal with anyone again. Be it friend or foe as he sprinted into the living room slamming its doors making the whole household know they were at it once more.

Uncle and nephew.

Jeffery scuttled to pour a tall glass of Scotch, with his hand shaking with fury spilling half its contents on his pristine white shirtsleeve. Groaning his annoyance out loud, Jeffery wished he could on unleash some of his contained passion on someone. But alas, she was nowhere about. Which left the only recourse to drown it, he drank what little Scotch that remained in his glass as his ever-watchful eyes viewed the woods.

Two days and Jeffery had yet been given a reprieve to retrace his steps to her. To see if their caravan had moved on. Knowing all the talks, he was subject to by his uncle and father was valid. As the rightful heir, Jeffery was of age to have a dozen unwanted bastards and a few legitimate children to call him papa waiting to stake a claim for their inheritance. Nonetheless, he could not get it up with any woman after seeing her, Halifa those years ago.

For ten years it would seem she placed a curse or spell on him and his precious cock. Which was impressive when he was just sixteen humping away at his teacher's daughter. With a shake of his head, Jeffery wondered what accomplished scholar would bring an over starved adolescent girl, in the presence of another over a rapacious, frisky juvenile boy. Who knew secret passages with a soft bed that was easy to have.

But since that day Jeffery got a glimpse of Halifa, she stole something from him that he wanted back. His God blessed ability to sweet-talk and snake his sizable prick into another woman.

Jeffery poured himself another glass of Scotch calmly and drank it all in one mouthful with a whisper of a sigh. Recognizing that a gypsy girl spoiled him for any other and if he ever wanted a healthy life with a woman of his peer, Jeffery would have to fight off this curse that consumed him. It could be nothing other than an enchantment the young Earl was under.

Yes, it must be.

Yet how could he explain the sincere desire to have only her as his wife, mate, and mother of all his children? When she did nothing but looked at him with a smile. It was a glamor or hex, it would have to be? To think otherwise, would be . . .

"And what's so high on your mind, dear cousin?" Jeffery gasp spinning around to see an incredibly sober Alex. Lounging with a book on his lap looking clear-headed than he ever saw him in the past nine years. Taking a few steps and lifting his cousin's tome to see what he was reading, made Jeffery sniggered as he sat on the coffee table. Giving it a twice over, to give it back to Alex and sat beside him with his feet stretched out and head reclined on settee's back.

"Who had the last word?" Alex asked.

Not wanting to get into it with his cousin, he just shook his head for nothing. Jeffery's only concern at that moment was to rest his mind for a while without any reflections of her. But if only he knew how to shut off his flipping brain, he would do it. And his desires and his lethargic fucking cock. Not even sleep could help his mind or his heart to push or forget her. Yet what did the blasted woman do? Nothing to him, save to look into his eyes and touched his heart when he was young.

Alex watched his only cousin and wished he could help him with his dilemma, for he knew a man who looked like that was a doomed gentleman because he was one himself. For years, Alex sat back and watched his cousin turn down women after women that were well, crappy.

Nonetheless, some were beyond exceptional vying for his attention to only be shut down saying he was not ready to set up house. As an Earl, with looks and money, no one can fight him his god-given right, to philander about. However, his heart could not continue along the road it was heading, and as Alex's only loving cousin, he needed to help the man.

Clearing his throat, Jeffery looked at Alex forgetting he was sitting beside him for a second. Grunting as he tried to sit up from his quick intake of some impeccable old Scotch, Jeffery laid back his head waiting for Alex to say something.

"State whatever is on your mind and be done with it." Jeffery groaned waiting with his eyes closed again. This time, Alex made his presence known by shaking him with his foot, getting Jeffery's aggravated attention.

Annoyed, Jeffery saw his cousin staring at him, as both young bucks glared at each other waiting for the other to say something.

"I was not always sullen and drunk as you know that." Alex had to take a deep breath if he must say his part and get it over with. Smiling he said, "My actions, is of a man who had true love and lost it. The very type of love that stains your flesh, mind, heart, and even touches your soul until death would be so amiable as to claim you."

Alex knew no one in his family realized he was in love with anyone. His father and brothers seem to have forgotten about his Nile, seeing that he never mention her nor did they see her again. Andrew and Jeffery heard whispers from his drunken grumbles when he did visit, but mostly they saw what he worshiped persistently. Any bottle that held whatever brown liquid that smelled high and in spirit.

Jeffery's cousin saw that he had his attention, but still, he had no heart to go into full details as to what his fatal tale of love was. Alex just wanted Jeffery to know he was caught in its grip.

"Well?"

Smiling, "Well nothing cousin. You just need to know I comprehended what you're going through and wanted you to know . . ."

"Know what Alex?" Jeffery asked incensed.

"That, the land will be here, the house may crumble and the title forgotten . . . But your heart will live on till your last breath with her in mind. And then regret will eat at your soul in the afterlife." Jeffery could not help but smile, as his big and brave cousin, Alex spoke so wow-be gone on love.

Sighing sadly by his speech, Alex got up and looked down at Jeffery with a frown on his face. "She was like the wind in the Nile. She was My Nile that I thirst for, and I could never drink that water ever again. So don't let father or yours, stop you from seeing what could be your Nile."

Jeffery sat up and looked at Alex walking away with his shoulders slumped lower than his average height and wondered what he said if it had any truth to it. Lord Lumley never saw his cousin with a woman or spoke of love for a woman, that he can recall. Yet why speak up now and to him about it? Love and loss? Jeffery could not leave Alex alone. There were too many unanswered questions.

Walking out into the empty hallway with all his callous, discriminating family portrait staring at him. Jeffery passed by his father's study to see the light was under its door and was about to knock when he heard his uncle, Dennis.

"Rest assured Andrew, if I don't see him tied down to a woman of our peer within a year and has her properly fatten with a child, I shall take what lies wasting and give it to Alex. He is the only one who can father a child that would be legitimately titled. He is after all my only heir." Taking a step back by that revelation, Jeffery wasted no time as he mounted steps two at a time and burst into his bastard of a cousin room.

Stomping into Alex's room while he sat on his bed with the same book on his lap, Jeffery walked up and gave his cousin an open-handed slap. Waiting to see if Alex would retaliate, but he just sat there massaging his cheek with a grimace on his face.

"Did my tale of love made you . . ."

"You're a fucking sick mongrel." Jeffery grounded through clench teeth. "And I thought you were better than they were." The young Earl yelled as he began to pace feeling betrayed while Alex stared at him baffled.

Sighing loudly, Alex asked, "What did you hear?"

Jeffery stopped his pacing to study his cousin, sitting so calmly after getting his face bitched slapped. It aggravated his confused and angry mind even more. "Your nauseating father expressing, to my . . ."

Taking a deep breath, Alex held his hand up hindering Jeffery's rant before it continued. "Dennis came with a plan to take your title and lands to place it on my shoulders," Alex said pushing the sheet off to swing his feet into his slippers but felt the cold floor. Scanning under his bed, Alex found it under the middle of the bed while talking to Jeffery.

"I want love, not your title. If your lands could give me back my Nile, I would have taken it from you to have her." Putting on his slippers to close his bedroom door, Alex looked back at Jeffery sitting on his bed, now composed.

"Father will try to do what he said. So if you have any intentions to be with her and live free for a while, do it now. For your one year started the day they left Castle Lumley." (Jeffery's Gypsies) Sitting beside Jeffery, Alex felt more like a big brother towards his cousin than with his three younger brothers at times.
**Chapter Five**

Sitting in his living room that was always free from curtains since his obsession strode into his life. Jeffery sat staring at the woods in the early morning of pre-dawn where he last saw Halifa, and her clan departed. He sat wondering if he should take Alex's advice and try to be with her, try to see if it was love that drew him to her or some spell her people cast on him. Just looking at the woods had a genesis effect on him.

With his eyes closed and jaw flexing to what was the best decision to make for himself and his father, Jeffery came to one conclusion, he needed to see what would make him happy.

Walking towards his stable with only one thought in mind, of finding her and bringing her back. Jeffery felt invigorated as he saddled his horse, swung onto Winter's back, and rode out into the courtyard with nothing save the clothes on his back. With his last look back at his home, Jeffery knew he would not see it for a while, but it would be there when he returned. As Jeffery pressed forward with excessive speed behind his haste, the young Earl galloped into the woods not knowing where they were or if they left already.

Altogether the Earl of Castle Lumley knew he wanted to see if his heart was indeed gone and what enthralling hold she had on him and if it was meant to be.

With his mind focus somewhat on what he was about, yet straying into the possibility of the consequence, Jeffery did not hear another horse making its way towards him in the same haste cutting him off, forcing Jeffery to pull on his reins to stop from crashing into the fool that blocked his path.

With Winter and him safe, Jeffery was off his horse with his fist ready to pummel the ass for standing in his way. The young Earl was so angry he almost did not recognize who it was until his hand was on their collar yanking them from their steed.

"You?" Jeffery grounded as he shoved Vincent away from him. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Jeffery asked walking away as he flung his hands about filled with tension trying to calm his quicken heartbeat. While Vincent sat on the ground with an amused smile on his handsome face. "What do you want?" Jeffery barked with his hands on his kimbo.

Vincent stood dusting his behind off as he looked at his friend about to make the biggest mistake of his life. "If you leave to be with her, you'll regret it." Vincent knew he was treading on thin ice as he looked at his best friend enraged facade.

"And you know this?"

"If Dennis does what he came to do, you would be a pauper, and when she sees you can't give her all that she wants because you lost your title. What next should she do, but move on to another sad English Lord, or Duke with deeper pockets." Breathless, Vincent needed to take a breath to finish the speech he had planned.

But it looked like a waste of time as Jeffery swung on his horse to glare at him. Lord Cardwell knew what that look meant. He saw it many times in his twenty-some years of knowing Jeffery. Conceding his defeat at his one attempt at being a grown-up friend, Vincent walked up to Jeffery and held his reins.

"Be safe and come back home in one piece. And if your gypsy is all that you think, return with the woman as your wife and one of "her" friends for me." Vincent declared with a grin on his face as he took a step back while Jeffery just looked at him with a frown marring his face now.

Nodding his reply, as he looked down, at his only genuine friend, besides his cousin Alex. Jeffery set off again to find the answers that lie in a gypsy girl that had him in a trance for a decade. Jeffery had no clue to where they camped; he never found them but knew to his gut, he would have some answers to why he was so utterly besotted with this gypsy girl.

***

Lost, was the one word Jeffery refused to acknowledge. No. He was not hungry. No. He was tired, frustrated, and wanted a soft bed to rest his weary soul. Lord Lumley gave up his haste a week ago, riding like a mad fool in search of his elusive Halifa.

Why did he not plan his trip better, he wondered? It was all his cousin Alex's fault that he did not give any thought of a real plan. Nonetheless, Jeffery would have her and know why he wanted her so. If it was by fate or false doing, he must know.

The young Earl traveled to a few gypsy camps that were known around his lands and district, yet he never got a glimpse of her or any of her people that journeyed with her. Jeffery knew he was not far from home, and he could turn back anytime he wanted, but he was not ready to call it quits, not when it came to Halifa.

As he stopped at a crossroad ten miles from his estate, Lord Lumley knew he would have to make a . . .

"Hello, sir." Jeffery swung around by the sound of a sweet voice and saw one of the little pixies that he met with Halifa the first time. Looking around like a manic, Jeffery thought if she was here, so would be the grownups. Jumping from off his horse, Jeffery went to the little pixie that looked like a doll with her hair cut short under her ears and grey eyes that seemed to change as rain clouds.

Staring at her smiling face, Jeffery saw her thick lashes were like the same shade as Alex's odd framework. It was a mix of black, brown with a touch of yellow. Squinting at her attentively, Jeffery detected something that he never thought he would see on another soul save for his cousin Alex. A birthmark on her left side of her neck under her jaw, of a perfectly formed butterfly.

The only reason Jeffery thought it was extraordinary, was the fact that Alex hated his and wanted it removed from his body. And the only way to remove it was to cut it out. Alex wanted to do, but Jeffery talked him out of doing such an idiotic deed.

Poor Alex was teased in school by his fellow ton cronies declaring, "He was a pansy to have a butterfly on him and should be mortified to show it to the world."

For Alex, it was a mark of disgrace he considered early on, because of the little taunts his father riddled on him when his mother was not around. Thus, Alex tried to hide it on his person from young and now much older, his so-called flaw that resided on his six feet four inches of body mass. Even as women flung themselves at him, they did not care about his birthmark, but he did.

"Are you lost sir?" the pixie asked, shaking him from his reverted memory.

Stooping down to look at her, Jeffery was curious as to where in heaven's name, she came from and asked the very question. "Where the hell did you come from?"

Smiling her answer, the little pixie pointed to the east where some lining of trees were off his lands and onto another party of estate Jeffery avoided like the plague. With a frown on his brow, that made the little girl take a step back from him. The pixie looked wary of the tall, aggravated gentleman all of a sudden.

However, with sheer determination, Jeffery plastered a smile on his face to get any information from her, but all it did was made her run off to the same said estate he avoided.

Not wanting to lose sight of the little pixie, Jeffery swung on his horse and trotted behind her, almost losing sight a few times until he heard her singing an enchanting song that had his beast of a horse following of his own accord.

When Jeffery came to a dense gathering of trees that his horse could not get through, he secured Winter and followed the little pixie as she disappeared into the tree line. Squeezing his way through, Jeffery felt like he was Alice in Wonderland, a story that his mother read to him as he tried to navigate the dense tree course.

Finally making his way through the trees tugging at his clothes, he saw he was right to follow the sweet little pixie as he saw the reason for this impromptu vacation standing with her back to him. Jeffery should have felt nervous by all the faces that were staring at him, but he could care less as he saw her, that his eyes could not peel itself from her supple back.

Walking towards her, Jeffery must have thought they were the only two people in the clearing with his hands, mere inches away from touching her. To feel his right cheek stung, his vision blurred as he stumbled against a tree. Looking up, Jeffery saw the reason he was on the ground, and it came at him again with his hand suspended over his face barreling down with deep hatred written on his face.

"Stop," someone shouted as Jeffery righted himself for a fight with the scoundrel that got a smooth, shoddy shot at him. It was the boy that held her hand, preventing Halifa from following him into his stables, when they visited him. Jeffery looked to see if she saw what she made him go through. The shameful extent he went to find her, but alas she was nowhere in sight. It seemed they planned on concealing her, Jeffery contemplated.

Smiling at that notion, it was laughable. Jeffery had no intention of leaving "their" camp until he sat down to negotiate her release into his hands. The thought of a hex, spell, or enchantment was forgotten when he saw her for that split second. This was not any mumble-jumble of words, but his heart giving way to its genuine feelings. Love and Jeffery knew he would have her.

Yes, even if it meant he would have to tie her up and swing her onto Winter's back to take her to his home.

Looking around, Jeffery finally saw the camp was different compared to the other gypsy encampments he saw along the way while he searched for her. Even the people appeared . . . clean and healthy. They weren't smelling of smoke and a sickening smell that stuck on them. Jeffery realized something was wrong with them as he got his equilibrium together.

"What can we do for you?" a voice that was like a gentle whisper to his ears said behind him. Jeffery did not jump but ground his jaws as they had a way of making him feel like they were coming out from all directions at him.

Jeffery observed the mellow voice, an older, beautiful woman that looked young enough to make more of her kind. With her thick full hair sprinkled with gray, russet complexion, black eyes like one of the Pixies and a sharp pair of rims that seemed accustomed to taking command of any situation and almost as tall as him. Jeffery somehow knew this woman could let him have his time with Halifa and liberate his wife into his care as they both stared at each other waiting for the other to speak.

The Earl of Castle Lumley wanted nothing more than to have his talk with Halifa and took a step to the woman when another hand stopped his movement, not a fist this time. Looking at who stayed his actions, it was one of the girls Vincent was flirting with as she shook her head halting his movements.

Looking around, Jeffery saw why she shook her head and notice four men were encasing the tender voice as if she was the Queen herself that stood before him. Wearing a shockingly high skirt, that was exposing her ankle that flared around her legs in an elegant red lace which looked costly.

With a white shirt tucked in the skirts small confined waist, with long sleeves tied off by her wrist and a cord around her neck, in a neat bow. Taking his eyes off her, Jeffery knew two of the gentlemen that came with the girls to view his stables and two more stout chaps.

Not wanting to make a fiasco of his plan, Jeffery squeezed out the best smile he could muster, and his finest genuflect to a gypsy, to pacify the undercurrent of the mistrust that was in the air.

"Please," he said posed in his graceful sweep with eyes on their feet that were all clad in the latest style of society in the woods of all places. Thief they all were. Rising with a smile, he vowed to rescue his Halifa from this life.

"I mean no harm but to speak to one of your girls, and to negotiate for her release into my hands."

Jeffery thought they would be pleased he was interested in one of their girls, but looking at their stern faces, he guessed they were not.

"I am Tamiya, and you are the Earl of Scarborough." She stated amused, taking a seat on a sturdy log. Tamiya was not fooled by why he was in their presence. She knew about the whole Jeffery and Halifa story for years, and it would appear it has come to an . . .

"I don't want to seem to be impertinent," Jeffery was saying as he followed suit and sat on the far end of the log beside Tamiya. "But I honestly came to speak to Halifa. If not to her, to whom do I need to declare my intentions of having her?"

"Of having her?" Tamiya asked. "And why do you want her? And how far will you go to retain this, this gypsy girl?"

Jeffery watched as the woman asked him a few personal questions. Taking a deep breath to subside his annoyance, he said, "It is of a personal nature."

"Well then," Tamiya said standing as she dusted off her skirt with a sincere smile on her face. "If it's personal for you, it cannot be so for her." Jeffery stood and looked at her as she said, "Goodbye Jeffery."

He was taken aback as she called him by his given name, never giving her permission to use in the first place. In his short time of meeting her, their leader aggravated his already tired and now hungry soul.

Thinking this would be a straightforward case of having what he wanted. But stood and watched as the woman dismissed him without a backward glance. Who did she think she was, the young Earl, wondered as he blurted out.

"As the Earl of Scarborough and keeper of Castle Lumley and the lands that bordered where you stand; people vie for my attention and, and . . ." Was all Jeffery could think to say, while the blasted woman continued to walk away from him.

Squinting, his eyes at her retreating back, fear began to race through Jeffery's pulse, knowing he needed to change how the situation took a sharp nosedive for the worse. With his eyes wide open, Jeffery blurted out the first memory of the gypsy's rule, which he learned a while back.

"I beg asylum from your camp." And with that said, he heard an audible gasp from behind him. He was not going to let her go this easy, he would have his talk with her and bring her back home as his wife if things worked out his way.

Tamiya could not believe what she was hearing. "Did he truly asked to gain sanctuary within her camp?" halting in her steps, Tamiya was shocked and thought this boy was earnest about Halifa. With her back stiff, she turned to see he looked dead serious about wanting to stay in her bivouac.

Did he not know what could happen to him if he stayed? Did he not just say people vie for his attention and here he was petitioning for a poor gypsy girl's consideration? Why? Tamiya genuinely looked at the young Earl, that stalked her niece for ten long years, and now he seemed to reach his zenith that would break or make him her family.
**Chapter Six**

Halifa could not believe her eyes. Two days and the man was still around, lugging around doing manual labor, something he tried to do. It amazed her to no end to see him do work that he must have considered beneath him, but she liked that he made no bones in doing any and everything that was thrown at him.

On his third day in her family camp, the sight that greeted her by the sporadically calm flowing river, they camped nearby to wash and get ready for the day's activity mesmerized Haliy. Gazing at him, she was surprised to see who was bathing not far from where she stood, being the second person to reach the stream.

Jeffery could not know how precious a rag, soap, and tub with warm water could have been until it was taken from him or rather what he had given up. He was tired and felt every bone and muscle in his body met and said, "He took advantage of them so atrociously."

Yet Jeffery experienced some semblance of joy to be this close to her. In the days he had been in their camp, he saw small glimpses of her now and again. Although he never got a minute alone to chat with her, which was imperative for his intentions was clear. Lord Jeffery would be claiming her.

Two days went by, and he knew he smelt a state if no one said anything, Jeffery knew from his nose and could not stand it anymore as he shook off his clothes that were beyond repair. Nevertheless, he could remedy his malodorous aroma.

Knee deep in the water with nothing on, Jeffery felt the cold water shock his senses to life. It made his brain drain from any thought of what the day would hold for him while he struggled to steer his way to her.

Just a minute alone Jeffery thought would make Halifa come to him willingly. Deep in his thoughts, the young Earl did not know the very person that occupied his mind almost three-quarters of the day was staring at him.

Halifa had a perfect seat, as she considered the Earl fumbling into the somewhat rocky river with not a stick of clothes on. With her mouth gaping open, she was shocked he looked the way he did. His body could not be transformed in two days of all that mystifying muscle.

No, he had that from before, as all his stuffy clothing hid it well, for Halifa never glimpse it once on him. Wanting to tidy herself, before she started the day, Halifa sat behind a stone with her skirt hitched high on her thigh, sleeve rolled up watching Jeffery clean his pale white body in the cold river.

She was not blind nor was he the first man she saw naked. No, Halifa thought he was just the first man she wanted to play with while he was naked. In the years where she learned about the opposite sex, Halifa knew she was desired. Her "body" her aunt said, "Was made to be loved by a good man, but her brain came with the physique, and if a man must have the frame, so he must have and want her intellect also."

Naturally, she was told never to allow a man to take her body to use and not want the whole package that was her. Recalling her talk, Halifa did not need anyone to tell her that. It was a given, and she dare not give her essence away to any man.

Twenty-nine years and Halifa was still waiting for the maybe man to want the whole package. There were times, she felt she could just meet some fool and give her body "a test run" to see if it would work well or just to learn what sex was. Halifa was past the age of self-indulgent ideas of love but still had to bend to the unremitting lectures of giving herself to a man who would love her.

Laughing to herself, Halifa could just see someone walking into her life that can withstand her family's approval. No man would, and that was due to her father's command or will pass as a decree from his distant location. She knew why his edict was left as a mandate. Halifa welcomed it years ago, but now . . .

Now, watching one said man tidy his very healthy body in the river, he could have been an excellent tutor of fornication. He was someone who was passing through her camp and life. And would depart if he just had his fun with her. Yet looking at him, Halifa knew this English Earl was different compared to all other high-born males, whether English, German or Swedish.

He wanted something more from her than her body. The way his gaze would feast on her. Halifa always knew when his eyes were on her frame that made all the tiny hairs on her stand on end. And in those few instances, when she looked straight into his eyes, she saw what he wanted, and that made her wet between her legs and a bit apprehensive like now.

It was a joke in her family that he was looking for her for years. Whenever they passed next to any camp, they were told that "An English gentleman was looking for one of their girls." They were all concerned, what man and which girl. However, as the year's progress, they found out who the English gent was and whom he wanted. Halifa just did not know why anyone would look for her until she saw him six years ago and she knew why.

Halifa thought of him and his beast of a horse and wondered about him often. Sitting where she hid, observing the Earl made her content to study his movements in the river as his every stroke sliced through the water showed off his chiseled muscle.

Enjoying the view, Halifa wondered how all that power and pinned up lust would feel unleashed on her. Smiling, she would love to see and feel what it would be like.

Jeffery loved that he was alone and in the water as his body felt relaxed and cleaned all in one. Two birds with one stone. The young Earl was never one to turn away from hard work so what he did in the camp made no difference to him. Save, Lord Lumley did not care to do any of it.

With a leisure smile on his face, thinking of her within his grasp made his heart leap like a flighty young miss. Yet if only they would just let him speak with her, his and Halifa's problems could be over and resolved.

Thinking it was getting late, Jeffery stayed a while longer under the water testing his breathing ability. It was a game he played as a child to assess his will and stamina. The longest Jeffery ever stayed underwater was five minutes, and wanted to pass his five-minute mark.

He counted and knew he was almost to his goal when he felt soft hands grab him from under his armpit pulling him to the surface while pebbled nipples were pressed against his back.

Jeffery was mad as hell to think someone was touching and hindering him from his trial of willpower and as he broke the surface of the river, Jeffery heard, "Are you okay?" With a deep frown on his brow gulping for air, he instantaneously knew who was behind him.

Feeling her hands, on his bare skin with her full breast a few inches from his physique. Heavens, Jeffery was hard. Bone hard as he watched her hair plastered on her face, swimming in front of him with her thin, sodden clothes outlining her very mouthwatering breast, his eyes were glued to.

"Are -- you -- okay?" Halifa asked slowly for him to gather his response to his delayed reaction, to see his eyes were glued on her breast. Slapping him across the cheek was the next best way of snapping him out of his miasma. She saw that it worked as he rubbed his cheek watching her face with a frown creasing his temple again. Now he was just staring at her.

"Hum!"

Halifa could not believe the fool. He had her complete utter attention now, and all he did was gape at her, seeming adrift. Shaking her head, Halifa made her way to shore and back to her caravan to change and begin the day that started somewhat sweet by watching his exposed form. But now, it was just going to be a dull, uneventful day.

Jeffery was stunned, to say the least, as she reached the shore watching her saunter away from him shaking her head, letting go a loud sigh to say he was stupefied, would be an understatement of impressive magnitude. And his current delayed reaction was due to his cock hitting his stomach in the chilled water.

Would you believe it was just his luck, to have her all to himself as the day he was born, naked and speechless? Jeffery closed his eyes as he made it to the opposite shore where his clothes laid in a mess and smelled the same.

Rubbing his eyes, Jeffery felt like a bumbling fool. Gad what was wrong with him. She was there, speaking to him, touching him. Halifa was there before him, and he did nothing. Jeffery wished he could turn back that gory minute and get back his seconds to say . . .

"I have looked and waited for you. And here you are." He would have held her hands to make sure she remained where he wanted her while he said his piece. "I ardor you and want to make you my wife," and she would leap into his arms saying "yes" crying from joy to have an English Earl as a husband, and that would be it.

However, it did not play out how he wanted it, so he needed to devise a sound method to have his one minute with his brain working also.
**Chapter Seven**

Benny sat on Halifa's caravan step waiting for her return from her river bath. He knew her routine like the lines on his palm. He yearned for her and recognized to his heart soul, she was also meant to be his bride. As the year's progress, Benny saw signs that would show she cared for him more than just a friend or protector. Halifa wanted something, and he knew he was the only one that could give her that.

LOVE!

At twenty, Benny knew she had a passionate soul and wanted someone to take care of her. She traveled with the camp, for they were her family, her home. Nonetheless, Halifa always had this far off look that no one appeared to have seen, save for him. His girl wanted a home and a family to rest her wandering body and spirit. She was indeed passionate, and Benny could see when his Halifa would argue with him for being too close in her space, her face, or just being too familiar.

Benny knew men wanted her body and if he were not around, they would try to take it by force and he would not allow such a thing to happen to his future wife, she belonged to him.

There were times Benny, physically demonstrate to some men as they attempted to purloin Halifa's virtue by ending their existences, thinking she was an easy target because she was a gypsy. With a smile on his face, Benny pride himself for his valor of keeping her safe from all white men that saw her as nothing but some quick tumble in the woods. Whether those gents were rich or poor, Benny took it upon himself to keep his future wife protected.

"Father, men are . . ." Halifa was muttering as she bent the corner to her caravan and saw Benny sitting by her steps waiting for her. It was not a surprise, for years he did it, but this morning she had no desire to deal with his fawning over her every step, she just wanted to be left alone.

"Haliy," he said smiling his sweet innocent smile that used to melt her semi-soft heart, but after the river, she needed some time alone away from men and their wants. Or lack of momentum.

"Benny not now. Later." She said as she walked past him to enter her caravan leaving Benny gaping her. Leaning against her door with her eyes closed, Halifa felt a semblance of regret for treating Benny so brusquely, but she did not care right now.

"So, how was your bath?" Jessica asked sitting up on her bed with a lazy smile spreading across her face. She knew what went on by the river and wanted to see if Halifa would come clean. However watching Haliy's face, she knew it did not end well for the English Earl.

Moreover, watching her friend's reaction too, Halifa was not pleased, how it concluded. Jessica assumed how they were alone, the English fool would have his chance to "woo" her as he always wanted. Though, the young Earl seemed slow or exceedingly dense that it did not happen.

"Is Benny outside?" Jessica asked watching through a window as she spied the English blood marching towards their caravan soaking wet and looking disgruntle talking to himself, in his dirty, smelly clothes. Jessica was never one for confrontations. Well, she did not back away from them. Nonetheless, since the Earl came to their camp, there seemed to be an underlining current between Benny and the English boy that was waiting to explode somehow. Jessica had not a clue to when it would happen, but it looked like it was drawing to its end, this faithful morning.

Groaning again, Jeffery could not believe his idiotic luck, by his lack of speech. She was right there, and he said nothing. The nothing that was burning to be declared, for ten years to her face. Taking a deep breath as he approached her caravan, Jeffery was ready to unveil the speech that he had in his head when he heard . . .

"What do you want?" halting in his steps and annoyed by the beastly boy that stood in his way to Halifa's caravan. With his chin up and his best disapproving glare and disdain, he could foster for the blond brute, did not seem to faze the damn fool.

"It's none of your business. Now step aside." Jeffery said walking around the bully when his arm was grabbed in a vise grip, sure to leave a mark on him.

"Are you mad? Unhand me." Jeffery said trying to yank his arm away from the boy.

"There's nothing for you here, go back to where you belong." The little blond brute had the gall to tell him, the Earl of Scarborough what to do. This could have been so laughable; if Jeffery were not so pissing mad, something so crude would dare touch him, preventing him from his mission.

Pulling his arm away, Jeffery took one-step to him and got not a hint of fear from the boy. Jeffery did not have to look up, for they were on equal footing, height, and weight, that could have made them brothers, save for their looks.

While Jeffery was tall with straight midnight hair, thick black eyebrows with dark eyes that some ladies would say were "haunting" with a straight nose and hard set jaws. Jeffery could have been considered a gypsy by the sights and hair, but not for his complexion. While the brute could pass as a nobleman with his almost perfect blond hair, cold blue eyes, and straight nose and strong jaw, his appearance of clothing could not fool him for who or what he was, a gypsy.

"Listen here dog," Jeffery, whispered as he made himself clear for the first and last time to the gypsy brute. "Stay out my way when it concerns Halifa. She . . . Is . . . Mines." There Jeffery said it loud enough for the fool to hear and understand. Taking a step to Halifa's caravan, Jeffery was stopped again.

The situation was somewhat funny Mary found. Two handsome grown men fighting over her lonely cousin, like a prize waiting to be claimed at the end. Halifa was in Mary's eyes. As her only cousin, Halifa deserved so much, but no man could honestly get a chance to be with her. Either from Halifa or her father.

Stepping away from the tree where she was sitting by, just thinking how life was so strange for some. Here her cousin turned twenty-nine three months ago feeling dejected she never fell in love or had someone to love her.

Until now.

Halifa now suffered from two passionate, handsome men, ready to beat each other's head in, to have her.

"Boys," Mary said walking towards the scene of a possible fight. "You need to go away," Mary said as she pushed past them in an eye lock match.

"But I've come to talk with her," Jeffery said as he took a step towards Halifa's caravan.

"And I said go back where . . ." Benny growled as he took a step to Jeffery again.

"Morning young people." Everyone stopped and turned to see a short mid-built woman, dressed in a bright pink wrap skirt and a man's dull white shirt on, with riding boots. Gazing at her, Jeffery saw another odd amalgam that he might have to tend to, for his Halifa's attention with her hair comb neatly in one with wrinkles all over her face and a smile on her mouth with crystal blue eyes gazing at them.

Jeffery watched as everyone, but himself bow to the old wrinkle woman as she came towards the caravan.

"Bow you fool." Mary hissed at Jeffery.

Looking at the girl, the brute, and the wrinkled old woman, Jeffery gave a small nod of his head as the old lady stepped in front of him. Grinding his jaw at the newcomer, that was preventing him from his time with Halifa. Jeffery envisioned her as a great, great, great grandmother he wished he could have by the sweet smile that was on her face for him.

For the time in their camp, Jeffery found it strange how persons seem to vanish and appear at will. When he thought they were four sour face blokes to tend to, it turned out two disappeared and what was left were the young brute and maybe a mute. And now this old lady showed up.

With her hands on her kimbo looking at him, Jeffery could not help and smile at the small woman. And when she took a step to him and touched his cheek, Jeffery leaned into her hand. They were soft and smelled of the earth, but when she slapped his face hard, he looked at her confused. His second slap for the morning.

"So you're here." She said to sit on Halifa caravan steps. "You're truly here. I was wondering when you'd get the balls to meet my Haliy." Jeffery felt a bit mortified that these people knew how he felt towards Halifa, yet they never gave him a chance to be with her for a minute. Since his arrival two days ago, she was always around someone, or someone was placed at her side to save him.

Lord Lumley watched as the old woman patted a spot next to her and nodded for everyone else to go away. Amazed by the power the small old thing had, as they did what she directed them to do.

So he sat by her side and waited for the granny to speak. Taking a deep soothing breath, Jeffery felt he was so close to Halifa, wanting to have his moment, but the seconds and minutes trickled by, feeling like hours sailed away.

Grinding his jaws, Jeffery wanted so badly to just stand and push her door open and have his way with her. But borne his time waiting for this antique woman to do or say something.

"You asked for asylum, and we've given it. But for a time," Nef informed Jeffery looking straight ahead. "You have three months with us to achieve whatever you came here for, and then you'll move on."

Frowning, Jeffery was confused why he was given three months when he thought he could have stayed forever as with all other camps, so asked the question.

"Why in three months must I leave?"

With a loud sigh resting her hand on his shoulder for help to stand, she looked at him with the same friendly smile and replied, "That's what I'm giving you, three months to make your sincere intentions known." And with that, the little wrinkled old woman walked away leaving Jeffery a bit flustered and frightened that he had three months to get Halifa away from them. Nevertheless, with a smile on his face, Jeffery knew his limited time frame would push him to make his intention known, to his Halifa.
**Chapter Eight**

As time sped by, Jeffery was increasingly confounded by the words spoken to him of his new inadequate schedule. Although whenever he tried to converse with his Halifa, Jeffery's plans would be derailed every time he had a moment alone with her. Her people watched him and made sure he never got a fleeting second with her and they in earnest hampered all his efforts every day and was told of his fucking duration.

Praying for fortitude the young Earl, could not see how to court a woman who was never free from her ever-watchful family. It was a nightmare, knowing his cock was begging for her and his heart desperately waiting to just hear her speak to him. But by God, that was going to change.

A few days later, the Earl of Castle Lumley knocked on her caravan door, knowing his clothes smelled horrendous and looked far beyond tattered, excluding his body, which was cleaner. Yet with his brilliant expectancy and unwavering pride, Jeffery would have her by the week's end.

The Earl thought as the door swung open to reveal a young woman dressed in her shift, half exposing her breast to him. Jeffery should have felt aroused for seeing all that flesh, but all it did was repulsed him as he took a step back with his head down to hide what should have been her shame and not his.

"Yes?" the girl asked annoyed.

"I came to speak to Halifa," Jeffery declared staring at his once costly boot.

"She's busy, come back later." She said closing the door on him as he braced the door from closing on him to look the girl in her eyes and pronounce, "I will wait."

And wait he did until Jeffery realized she was not coming out. The half-exposed girl came out dressed decently a while later and yet he sat on Halifa's steps waiting until he could not take it anymore and boldly enter her caravan to see it was empty.

Standing in her doorway, Jeffery was in awe at the sight of her inner sanctum. It looked nothing like what he thought her home would be and as other gypsy homes, he knew of.

Jeffery sat on an unmade bed and knew it was not hers, it smelled nothing like her. It reeked of the rude, half-naked girl. Nevertheless, as he looked around, he knew her bed and her space was neat and ready for a tired body to rest on.

With his hands aching to touch Halifa, Jeffery was content that he could stroke her bed. Yet with the father he had, Jeffery should be mortified for his prying. His behavior alone was somewhat shameful to even him, but he wanted to get a little closer to her and if touching Halifa's bed was sort of disturbing, so be it.

"Is there a reason you're in here?" Jeffery heard and spun around with his heart in his throat to see Tamiya staring at him with an angry scowl on her brow.

Not wanting to cause any more trouble for himself, Jeffery walked past her and straight to where everyone generally gathered for breakfast. Looking around, he saw for his "boldface lurking," he missed breakfast and now must go through the day on a hungry stomach until lunch. Sighing, Jeffery wondered how much worse could the day go from there?

***

"Help the boy out," Mary said gazing at her cousin, tending to the horses after their breakfast. Mary was not soft-hearted towards English men, but this one had her feeling sorry for him. He made more of an effort to show how much he wanted Halifa and still, his show of affection fell unnoticed by her cousin.

Mary observed him staring at their repast milieu and saw that the young Earl was late for breakfast and was sent off to do work with the men. Mary knew the labor he would have to endure may break him, if not today but very soon.

Tamiya, Mary's mother, was the leader and head of their small band of family and her mother suffered no love for the English or anything English, because of what happened to their family so many years ago. Together with Mary's misadventure made her mother hateful even more towards the English.

Mary closed her eyes to the memory of when Tamiya was once filled with compassion for most anyone, whether Irish, French, or German.

However, Mary could not forget what she nor her mother went through when her father, Horace was killed. Yet it still, amazed Mary to see her mother allow the English Earl to stay when he called for solace from within their camp.

Requesting succor made her mother hate him even more, and the young Earl seemed to read her feelings towards him and avoided her mother at all costs. There were times she wondered how far Jeffery would go to have Halifa.

***

Never one to feel unwanted, but Jeffery felt like he was in the enemy's camp. Two months passed since the river scene where he had Halifa for a split-second alone, two months, and nothing since. Their leader, Madam Tamiya knew how to work him and her apart every day. When Jeffery thought he could finish all his work in time to have his supper with his Halifa, it would be stripped from him. As Tamiya would ask Jeffery and only him, for a service when he held a bowl of mouth-watering anything seated a mere arms breath away from Halifa.

The Earl of Scarborough would stare at Tamiya in that instant, look around at every other man, and see they were free from eating or having anything to. Yet she would ask him to do her a "service." What was he to think? What was he to do?

One night while Jeffery rested his weary body on the hard earth for his bed and his ratty thin cover, he heard the men's laughter or rather Benny's cackle that started to grate on his nerve. While Jeffery solicited for a spot in their camp, he tried to stay close to where they were (the men). Even as an Earl, Jeffery knew his presence was not welcome nor was he ever allowed within their gentlemen circle.

Taking a deep breath while on his back looking up at the midnight sky with its countless stars, Jeffery wondered what he was doing among these perplexing individuals. They were not like him; they did not understand the working of the titled nor affluent English. They should be thanking him for allowing him to travel with them. Not have him, the Earl of Castle Lumley as an outcast doing manual labor like a mediocre impoverished man.

Groaning as he turned to his side to stare at Halifa's caravan, wishing he could just have his one minute with her. God, how many times would he speculate when he will have his moment to know if he had a chance to have her in his life and not for a tumble like how some take the gypsy damsels for a ride? Any contemplation Jeffery had of having Halifa for a tumble, was far removed from his mind. For Jeffery knew he would have her for his wife.

With his eyes closed, Jeffery took a mollifying breath and went for the answer to that question. He knew no one would be looking at him since he was on the fringe of their perception, so walked around and knocked on her window softly and waited, praying, as if he were a child with his mother in church, waiting for God to open her window. Jeffery did not have to wait too long to see God did answer prays.

"What do you want?" groaning his disappointment, to see it was the vulgar gypsy girl watching him as she looked annoyed, ready to smack him.

"You're deaf? I asked -- what -- do -- you -- want?" Jessica asked, leaning half out of Halifa's window waiting.

Knowing that her friends were around, Jeffery knew Halifa was not going to come out, nor answer any of his questions and made a decision to share how he felt. Better an audience than to keep all his feelings fused within anymore. She needed to know how he genuinely felt.

Holding onto Halifa's window, Jeffery tried to see past the foul-mouthed girl, Jessica. He learned of her name in hearing the men talk about her, and she was also the mother to one of the precious pixies. For the time Jeffery was in their camp and saw that everyone took great care of those pixie girls.

They were cherished and valued more than the crown of England, and in residing two months in the camp, he could see why they were so treasured. The two sprites were sweet, kind, and very exhausting to a fault when it came to playing their little heart's content. But most of all, they were utterly refined. And Jeffery knew this uncouth woman could not have taught manners as she did not know or have it herself. Comportment. If only this pixie's mother could possess half of what the baby sprite had like kindness, he would consider her pleasant.

Jessica was tired and wanted to sleep when she heard the knock on Halifa's window to see the English Earl standing by their caravan looking so lost and expecting to see her friend, "Yes?"

With not a clue to what to say, Jeffery plunged into his oration, "I know you must be curious as to why I am always watching you. You must feel my eyes on you and find it anomalous. I mean strange, but I need to share what I feel . . ."

"What do you feel boy?" Jessica probed. "I can tell you." She said massaging her stiff neck. "It's something called horny, randy and the other lame term you may call it by. . ." Jessica declared, stroking her index finger by his cheek sensually, making Halifa's young Earl, to pull back from her touch. "You must recognize it as, lust." And slammed the window on him with a smile on her face and dived into bed with yet another story to share with Halifa when she came back.

Jeffery could not believe the nasty woman slammed the window on him, cutting off his speech to his Halifa, "The gall of the bitch." Jeffery cogitated. With all the muddled emotions playing around him, Jeffery could not stay in the camp. God help him, he would say or do something that would force him to be kicked out before his three months was up. He needed to cool down and stormed off to the only place that would allay his frustrated ass.

Halifa could not take it anymore; the heat in the caravan was too much. She would have either strip-like Jesse or take a swim, and here she was in the nude floating watching the countless stars gazing at her virtuous and untouched body.

Whenever Halifa came close to her monthly, she became like an animal in heat, wanting to release her carnal urges on someone.

For controlling herself, some twenty-odd years to remain a virgin, groaning, Halifa deemed it was a great feat all onto itself as a jolt of longing shot through her. To dive below just when a splash was heard not too far from her. Thinking nothing of it, Halifa continued to swim enjoying her peace.

For years as they passed this route, Halifa found the once free and peaceful river became clogged by clutter of all sorts of unlikely debris. However, they camped further away from all the tangles of the river that was safe. Diving a little deeper, Halifa closed eyes for a second contemplating that stupid boy, when she felt her leg snag on something.

Eyes wide open, Halifa saw she was in a perilous situation as she tried with all her might to unravel the vines holding on her feet. Swearing, Halifa felt she was the foolish one, for not paying attention at her surroundings as she tried in vain again to yank herself free from the resilient weed. In her panicked state to free herself, Halifa began to lose what little air she had saved for her dive to the surface.

Taking a deep breath after tossing a few rocks in the river, Jeffery began to feel somewhat calm again, but when he got a glimpse of someone diving into the water, he waited to see when the person would come up for air. However, when seconds and minutes slipped by, Jeffery began to panic for whoever was below in the liana riddled river was desperate for air by now.

Wasting not a second more, Jeffery cast off his forever-ruined costume with only his draws on and plunged to see someone was indeed in distress. She was the cause of his midnight stroll as her still form, swayed by the river's current with her hands above her.

With fear gripping his heart, Jeffery wrenched her free from the creepers that held her in its clutch. And as he swam to wrap his arm around her waist something snagged his draws, tearing his tattered undergarment away.

Caring less for his discarded undies, Jeffery dragged Halifa's motionless form to shore with his heart racing and roaring in his ears, while tears slid down his damp cheek. Laying her body on the river's verdant / mud-covered bed, Jeffery tilted her to her side and tapped her back to get some of the water from her lungs. Sitting back on his heels, he waited and was blessed with a cough and her gasping for air to have her fall on her back in a fit of a cough.

Smiling down at her pale face from the little moon that hung above them, Jeffery whispered his gratitude to God she was okay. However, as he continued to examine her, the Earl realized he was not just staring at her face anymore, but his eyes traveled the length of her frame, to see she was naked as he was and she was not shy about her nudity.

Halifa saw what he was looking at, she felt her nipples stood proud and tall by the wind, and shivered sitting up with her knees to her breast shielding her, yet exposing other parts to his eyes. Halifa discerned she should feel mortified at how calmly she sat with him staring at her like a hungry panther.

Nonetheless, she could not take her eyes off his expressive face as well. His gazes seem to lure her to him, beckoning her to his will. She felt half in a trance, kneeling in front of him not touching as they continued to gaze at each other with both on their knees.

Jeffery's mind was astonished at having the woman of his nightmare and dreams before him unhindered. His utmost wish of procuring his minute was before him, and he intended to use it wisely. Yet one melody teased his mind as he continued to stare at her. "He did not want their first time to be out of wedlock and by a riverbed, but in his bed at home in Castle Lumley." Nevertheless, grinding his jaw, Jeffery knew he was going to get something from her now.

Digesting the little space that was between them, Jeffery touched her cheek making her eyes closed with a groan escaping from her mouth. Sighing, by the sound that flowed from her honeyed lips, he could not help as he brushed hers making the sweets sound to emerge from Halifa's delicate rims to feeling her wine breath on his tongue. Her responses were his last thread of control as Jeffery kiss deepen making her hold onto his waist for support as he made short order of her mouth.

Halifa knew a kiss from the English Earl would take her breath away, but never thought his mouth would make her lose all sense of control. His lips were gentle then took command of her mouth begging entrance from his tongue. With her eyes closed and trusting him, Halifa gave into anything he wanted, and Jeffery desired to taste her tongue.

Groaning his pleasure out-loud, Jeffery knew Halifa's mouth was made for his taking and tongue to plunder. She recognized what he wanted from her kisses as if her mind were connected to his every thought in that split second. Halifa heard Jeffery whisper her name as if he was in pain, which made her hands bold as he gave permission for her fingers to roam his body.

Not wasting a second, Halifa held his cock that was hard amongst them. Gad, she was squeezing it in a grip then began to move her hands up and down his harden length that was making him moan as if he was genuinely in agony. Halifa opened her eyes to see Jeffery frowning and eased off her hold on him.

Jeffery rested Halifa gently on the ground covering her with his body with all thoughts of waiting for marriage and a soft bed to evaporate from his mind as his hands massaging its way to her breast squeezing and pulling at her nipples. Jeffery did all that, never taking his mouth off her lips. He just could not get enough of her orifices or tongue playing havoc on his mind and control.

Halifa now knew why she waited for this moment; it was because of him, this man that plagued her every move since he got solace from within their camp. Jeffery not only wanted her body, but her soul as his body made the impression that it craved accesses in her.

Feeling his penis nestled between her thighs as he nudged her legs apart with his knee. A plea escaped her mouth as he slid down to her neck with his tongue and teeth licking and nipping its way to her breast.

Jeffery made his way to one of his favorite portion of a woman's anatomy, her breast. In the months of observing Halifa, he would imagine how it would feel in his hands and mouth, and it was more than his expectations could carry. Halifa's breast was just the right size for his hands to hold and massage and his eager mouth.

Smiling, Jeffery latched onto it and sucked as if he was a starving infant greedy for his mother's milk. Biting at her nipple as a voracious babe to feel her wiggle under him and knew they both could not wait any longer as he braced his hand beside her head.

The Earl of Scarborough held his penis, mere inches from her precious opening. Breathless he could free his frustrated cock in her and empty his seed forcing her to marry him and come back with him to Castle Lumley.

However, just being around her and her clan made him see a child would not force her to marry him and make her his. Jeffery would have to make her fall in love with him as she cast her spell and made him lost to any other woman save her. Therefore, he must direct his glamor on her and make her lost to any other man.

Halifa closed her eyes knowing what was going to happen next as he positioned himself between her legs. With a smile spreading across her passionate face, she was going to enjoy coupling for the first time with him, the one man that made her wet whenever she dreamt of him at night. Halifa could feel his penis head touching her damp opening, but upon opening her eyes, he had a frown on his face.

Sitting up on her elbow, Halifa watched as he released his penis yet grabbed her hips with a fierce grip to see his mouth descending on her "kitty." Her aunt taught her every girl should have a name for her private bits. Subsequently, Halifa dubbed her's "kitty" when she was young. But when his mouth stopped an inch from her wet opening, Halifa felt his hand on her kitty, she leaned back with her eyes closed as he began to stroke her then felt a sting as a foreign object enter her. She looked at him as he burrowed into her kitty with a finger, then another of his long digits inserted into her.

Halifa assumed this was how it was done so there would be less pain when he penetrated her. Smiling with her eyes closed again, she knew for an English Earl, he was extraordinarily sizeable, and she needed much lubrication, or she would feel much pain. And everyone would know, especially Jessica when Halifa walked about.

Jeffery looked at her as he tweaked her clit rotating and thrust his two, then a third finger in her sweet opening while she held his hand, emitting a sound that was making his cock twitch in pain. "Fucking hell," Jeffery muttered under his breath feeling the strain of his hard and painful cock could not do and go YET.

Nonetheless, Jeffery had all intentions of branding her with his mouth and fingers. But before he did that, Jeffery wanted to relish making her moan as he treasured this heartfelt play until he could claim her genuinely and a hundred percent as his. To just think, if his fingers did that to her, his hungry cock could do so much more. Jeffery could not end his torture without tasting her and so raised her hip to his mouth, and what his hand and fingers did, his tongue was now making Halifa gasp.

It had been a long while since Jeffery made a woman moan in ecstasy, but he remembered how it was done. Smiling as he looked down at her, Jeffery wanted to retain how this woman, his woman resonance when she came for him. And the young Earl had no delay as Halifa spent her release in his mouth.

Jeffery smiled while lapping all her cum like a starved cat for his precious milk, feeling her tremble. Lord, he knew his body would have to pay for this night. His pain would last him for days, but gazing at Halifa's face, Jeffery saw her relaxed pleasure within his company and enjoying his ministrations. As a gratified sigh escape from the Earl of Scarborough's lips, he knew the pain he would endure but was happy at the moment as he continued to stare at her.

Halifa sat up on her elbows when she felt some semblance of control over her body and looked at him. She knew she had an asinine smile on her face that could not be removed. What just happened was a cold beverage on a scorching day, and she wanted more.

Jeffery saw her fall back down with a sexy wanting smile on her face. He knew she wanted the whole experience, but he could not concede. His very soul wanted the entire woman and not some part to take and walk away. He could not walk away, not now or ever. His mind, body, and soul could not saunter away after what he tasted of her, what he knew of her. She was his, and he would make it so.

Closing his eyes, Jeffery stood with his hands out for her to take; he waited a while and opened his eyes to see a frown marring her beautiful honey face with a question on it. Jeffery knew if he did not love or care for her so, he would take her opening gift with her legs warmly welcoming and waiting.

Nonetheless, the love he had for her was copious and a lifetime. So much so, the mere thought of having any more of her without claiming her as his entirely was erroneous. Jeffery must have her pledge that she would be his.

"What's wrong?" Halifa asked as she stared up at him standing as Adonis in all his virile glory. Licking her lips, she could not believe such a young English boy, no, man would be so blessedly hung. Halifa should feel mortified to lay back on the verdant shore of the riverbank so wantonly waiting for Jeffery's salivating cock.

As Jeffery stared at her, taking a step away from her giving his back to her, which made Halifa sit up. Confused, Halifa stood naked with the little bit of warmth she had from Jeffery's ministration, fading. "What's wrong?" she asked again, thinking he did not hear her. Halifa watched Jeffery's back became rigid while touching his hand.

"You should go," Jeffery said a little too harshly at Halifa for his liking while he looked down at his penis in pain with a vein bulging and it's head wet. If he touched his cock, all consideration would vanish to make Halifa fall in love with him first. Jeffery would take her, hard and fast with a decade of lust pinioned within him and set it loose on her.

"Jeffery," he heard her say his name in that husky, sexy voice and felt it caressed his semi-unused body. Jeffery knew she wanted more and was waiting for more of him, but all the poor Earl could do, was take a step away from her again, turn and shout for her to leave him.

Jeffery regretted his reaction as his Halifa flinched and took a step back from him with a confused, hurt look on her face. Taking a step to her made his Haliy backed away from him with her eyes telling him, he made a significant mistake speaking to her thus and would regret his action this night.

"Halifa . . ." Jeffery could not let the night or the moment end how it did. He wanted to embrace her and tried to grasp her hand, but she slapped his hand away, backing away from him shaking her head and said, "Fucking ass. Never touch me again." And walked off angry and humiliated with his eyes glued to her back.

"Halifa," Jeffery whispered as he tried to go after her, but stopped as he knew it was better this way for now. He needed to have a strategy to make her fall in love with him fast. Together with, he needed to ease his cock from standing as a Druid Pillar. Jeffery knew it would take more than his hands to sleek off his hardstand, so he dashed off into the river for a few laps or more.
**Chapter Nine**

Mary and Jessica both looked at each other, then at Halifa, and knew something was up that she did not share with either of them. Halifa shared almost everything that was going on with her. Except after her night dip a week ago, she became tight-lipped and angry all the time. And the same could have been said for the English Earl, save he was too preoccupied with all the work that was tossed his way, to stay disgruntled about anything save his arduous labor.

Halifa knew she was a bitch with everyone since her almost deflowering by Jeffery. She was on edge and fed up trying to hide the fact she wanted him, and he refused her, his . . . she could not say it. She was beyond humiliated that she craved a man's body and consideration. Her dilemma could have been unfettered with Benny, but he was not the person she dreamed of for so long, and she hid it well, that no one knew her actual earnest feelings towards the Earl of Scarborough.

With her mind lost in her frustrations, Halifa felt eyes on her. Turned and saw Mary and Jessica staring at her again with a smirk and frown on their faces.

"What?" she asked walking around the horses, they were tending. "What in hell's name, are you two gawking at?" Halifa enquired standing next to Winter with her hands on her hips to see the beast stamping his hoof, shaking his head with its thick black mane hitting her as if he too was waiting for her to respond.

"You're agitating him, Haliy," Mary declared as she began to brush the beast hair from his eyes, to stare at Halifa with her hands on her hips again glaring at her. "By the way," Mary said looking at the Earl's horse and Halifa, "I am fine. But the question is not what the hell is wrong with us, but you?"

Shaking her head, Jessica knew everyone would have to be blind, not to see something was wrong with Halifa and the horses. She was hypnotic to all horseflesh. The woman enticed them, like a dumb moth to a flame, but without the burning.

It also could be said, men who were lovers of horses would fawn over Halifa. Everyone knew Halifa had a gift with anything on four legs that you can ride on and for a week, the sometimes gentle beasts appeared disconcerted around her since her night dip a few days ago.

Jessica lounged by a tree looking at Mary and Halifa to discuss what was going on with her. Yet not a soul was blind to see something was exceedingly amiss with Halifa, and it was all due to the English Earl. And at that moment, Jessica wondered how he was faring with Benny and Ean hunting for their supper.

Sadly enough, the poor English boy would have to sally off from the camp and Halifa in a few days. Jessica could not help and smile to think all that he tried since he came "to just speak with his, Halifa." As he would declare to everyone. Although no one from the camp helped him in his quest to win Halifa's hand, not a soul.

But both Jessica and Mary felt sorry for him at times when he looked at Haliy like a lovesick schoolboy with a hard-on, he tried to hide whenever she passed by. Nevertheless, he could not hide his feelings, but Halifa was the great performer in the group. She was the talent that drew the crowd whenever they enter cities and towns, not so much the villages. Halifa was their thespian.

Jessica should feel some sort of jealousy towards Halifa and her talent, but she could not. For she saw the oeuvre, Halifa put out to draw and keep the hordes into her tales of romance. The woman's performances were as if her soul was speaking to the crowd. That is why when they were not on stage, she would take care of the horses to be away from people to relax from her act.

Nevertheless, since she went for her night dip, she came back over bitchy same as Lord Jeffery. This could mean one thing, something happened or did not by their frustrated behavior of Haliy and Jeffery. However knowing Halifa, she would spill whatever it was before she exploded.

Jeffery felt the pain in his groin whenever he thought of her. Just thinking of her made him mad and hard and she was a wicked creature to avoid him every time he came close to talk to her. He knew now she could hold rancor as good as Vincent, but on a higher level seeing that she caused him physical pain that was seizing his balls and heart in a tight fist.

"Fucking hell boy, watch what you're doing," Benny yelled at the English fool. For months he watched as he moved around the camp and his Halifa making moon eyes at her. It made Benny sick and angry as hell. However, the time came for Benny to teach the dumb Earl how things were surely executed.

Ean was useless, seeing that the man barely spoke a word to anyone. The semi-mute/mammoth of a man was all but a body to obey whatever Tamiya gave him to execute, and he did it all the time without fail.

Grinding his enamel, Benny could not stand the English fool, as he made his stint within the camp, a miserable ordeal.

Benny knew half the work was his, but he gave the damn fool, three-quarter of the labor and the bottom-hole of an Earl did it as it was a test of how Halifa would see him. It was laughable, to think Halifa wanted anything from the soppy English boob.

"No, no, no," Benny shouted as he snatched the bow and arrow from him and aimed at the pheasant. Benny thought all English high-born knew how to use a bow and arrow, or supposed to, but watching him target their meal was proof of it was not so. Snatching the simple weapon from the mug, Benny leveled and set the dart free as it struck its mark.

Feeling over proud of his expertise that he could do something the English cod could not produce the most luminous smile on Benny's face since the dumb Earl appeared.

With the same sneer on his face, Benny turned to see the English buffoon staring beyond the pheasant and saw her passing muttering to herself. For days, Benny tried to sweet talk Halifa into a smile, but all he got were snares and curse to stay away from her, saying, "all men were damn fools." He knew he did nothing to upset her, so it was left to the English clown who was staring at her, that was the cause of her sour mood.

Jeffery's eyes were fixed on her, as his cock twitched whenever he saw his Haliy. He was supposed to help hunt for their supper, but when Jeffery saw her; she was the feast he wanted to eat and followed her.

Recognizing her foul disposition was due to him, by ending their first physical encounter to a quick end. Nonetheless, as a gentleman, Jeffery could not help it. He wanted her on his bed, in his chamber, and not on the ground where they could be found in a fevered embrace.

"Where do you think you're going, boy?" Jeffery stopped in his tracks as he realized he had an audience behind him with a bow and arrow. Turning around grinding his jaw, Jeffery looked at Benny, the blond brute that was supposed to teach and help him with the daily camp chores, as they would call it. However, Jeffery was no fool as he saw Halifa's smitten dog, bestow almost if not all of the work that was presumed to be shared.

Calmly, Jeffery gave him his best _"piss off_ look," but said, "I'm going for the birds," and walked off to fetch their supper. He knew the brute eyes were glued on him while retrieving the pheasants. However, the young Earl could careless while sauntering behind his woman, string along six birds dripping blood as he trailed after Halifa.

Smiling, Jeffery knew he would have to face the boner's anger at his return with the birds at whatever time. But somehow, he did not care as he saw Halifa was alone and he wanted to charm his way out his mess.

Benny aimed the English fool to feel a fatal grip on his right shoulder and saw Ean staring at English pup going after his Halifa with their supper. Ean's hold was so fierce he had no choice but to drop the bow and arrow and watched the English Earl make a move on his girl.

Jeffery strode leisurely behind Halifa hearing her mumble some obscene words that she directed at him not knowing the man of her dreams was her shadow. Jeffery knew all Gypsy's mouth was foul as a slosh seadog, but never would he have thought his Halifa could utter such words. While shadowing, hearing her rant, Jeffery declared, "Your tongue is filthy," making her spin around and stumble on a log losing her footing to fall like a heap of livid beauty.

Once again she was on the ground with her legs open to him looking down at her, but this time, she had clothes on. Looking at him as he leaned over touching her ankle made her want to yell at him to "fuck off," but the pain that was coming from her ankle made it wise to take what little help she could get from him.

"You're dripping blood on me," Halifa said, looking at the pheasant on his shoulder.

"Sorry about that," Jeffery replied looking remorseful as he tossed the birds aside with his hands going to her knees. Squinting at him, Halifa slapped Jeffery's hands away while brushing her skirt down to save what little pride she had left. It was her ankle that was throbbing, not her knees.

"Why are you following me? We have nothing . . ."

Jeffery could not take any more of Halifa's abuse or neglect and so made his answer known to her by a kiss as he yanked her up from under her arms and held her tightly with her feet dangling a few inches off the ground.

The somewhat young Earl wanted to do this for the longest while. As she refused to speak to him or even when she did grace him with her words, it would be in a language he did not recognize. And as a privileged peer of the realm, he knew a few idiolects. However, Jeffery was sure it was nothing virtuous that came from her sweet mouth, as he was enjoying at present.

With her eyes closed, Halifa savored his lips on hers and more so when his tongue entered her mouth. He tasted of the honey wine the men drank when they were hunting or doing anything away from the women and the camp. His tongue was intoxicating, with a passion, that swept over her.

Fearing Jeffery would stop, Halifa opened her eyes to see his were closed appearing as if he was in heaven, but when she recalled what the fool did to her, Halifa shoved him away.

Stunned, Jeffery stagger back as Halifa dusted her clothes, brushing her hair back with an impassion glared at him. Enjoying her antics, the Earl of Scarborough watched as she paced with a limp in front of him, ready for her assault on his ears to hear, "Leave me alone."

That was it? Jeffery did not think that could be all the fight she had in her as she walked away from him.

"Why do you push me away?" Jeffery asked as he walked after her, holding her hand from limping away from him.

Halifa looked at his hand on hers, and it made her skin tingled to her female core. Was he here to tempt her and make her feel ignominy of her lack of experience with men? She needed to know and asked, "What do you want with me?"

Jeffery could not help it as he just stared at her with this dazed expression on his face. The young Earl was mutely stunned. She spoke to him directly and did not swear his "black soul to hell" as she yelled at him yesterday.

"Why are you here?" Halifa whispered to her tormentor.

Unassuming queries that were asked, but he could never form the right words to explain what in Hades she did to him. But with steady resolve, Jeffery knew to show her what she did to him was much easy, than to say it. And took a step to her when she backed away from him to be pinned by a large oak tree. At that moment, Jeffery adored that selfsame tree.

Smiling by his elated state in how he had her, Jeffery took his time placing both his hands beside her head and came in for a kiss when he heard someone clearing their throat. Groaning with his eyes closed, Jeffery rested his forehead on her shoulder, to glance back and see the owner of the lands they were camping on and cringed.

"Hello, Jeffy."

***

Lady Elizabeth Mary Louisa Morgan was the last person he hoped to see while he was there with Halifa. Jeffery knew it was her lands they were squatting on, near Lord Bartley Morgan's estate, and wished they would have moved on before she returned from her annual trip from Africa.

Jeffery knew the only reason Halifa's band stayed for a while, was due to they were waiting for three others to join them from somewhere. Moaning for the little twit's timing, Jeffery was holding the one woman he wanted more than a soft bed and warm bath, while another nauseating female he wanted nothing to do with was behind him.

Lord Lumley looked at Beth as she dismounted from one of his beauty. A bay stallion she could barely control, yet the girl wanted it because she said: "it reminded her, of him." It could have been flattering to be compared to the beautiful beast Beth trotted on, but not when her eyes roam over his person so wantonly.

Taking a deep breath, together with a groan, Jeffery realized she ogled him as his gazed feasted on Halifa, from the moment she was in his eyesight. Yet what man would shudder at being esteemed by an attractive woman.

"What are you doing here Jeffy, with that girl?" Beth asked her future husband as he tried to block her view from the dirty gypsy girl. Hearing his whispered voice, while on a little ride, Lady Beth Morgan knew her Jeffy's croon anyway and followed it to see him hovering over a filthy gypsy girl.

No, trying to get a better view of the roving girl, Beth saw that the gypsy was much older than her. "Is she bothering you?" Beth said as she tried to pull Jeffy away from the rover. "Don't touch him."

Halifa stood dumbfounded, as she looked at yet another English high-born who thought she was nothing more than the dirt that was on their heel to be dusted off. Gazing at the blond, blue eye, trifling girl that was looking down her nose at her could have made her laugh. With Benny and Beth as Jeffery called her, the two would have made a perfect couple, seeing how compatible they were in looks.

Taking a deep breath, she did the only thing to appease their new company, bowed with a broad smile as she walked away from them.

"Halifa wait," Jeffery said as he tried to go after her while Beth held his hand with a surprisingly firm grasp, even for her small hands.

"Let it go Jeffy," Beth whined as she called him by her stupid pet name. Jeffery lost yet another chance with Halifa and turned to Beth with his eyes blazing. If the silly chit could have read his mind right then, she would have known he was not in any mood to have her salivating all over him.

"Why are you here Beth?"

"I should ask you that. You are after all, on my lands Jeffy." Beth replied touching him about his body while circling his frame, to stop in front him on tiptoes with a pout on her bland, thin lips. Jeffery needed to be kind to the little girl seeing that he had to stay a while longer on her lands, and he did not want to cause any trouble for the gypsies.

"What are you doing with that riff-raff?" Lady Morgan asked while nodding at Halifa's strolling back. "I will have them thrown off my lands if they try to make a pass at . . ." Beth said touching Jeffery's cheek with a smile on her face.

Gad, Jeffery knew no other woman could satisfy him now that he had a taste of Halifa. Squinting, his eyes, Jeffery held Beth's pawing hands away from his face and stepped back from her to retrieve the birds and plaster the best fake smile on his face so he could be rid of Beth Morgan as fast as he can.

"It was, it was wonderful seeing you, Beth." Jeffery declared as he found his feet astonishingly with such speed as if a cheetah was chasing him.

"But Jeffy . . ." was the last words he heard from her and prayed it would be the last he came across Beth until he left the camp for good, with Halifa in hand.

Lost in his thoughts, Jeffery walked right into the camp, dropped the pheasant next to Jessica, who was cutting up some carrots, and walked off to clean up. When he returned and sat waiting for his meal, he saw everyone staring at him save Halifa. Wondering for an explanation as to why all eyes were on him, Jeffery looked at the oldest woman of the group for an answer.

"Your time has come to an end. You need to leave . . . now."

Jeffery just sat there gazing at everyone and thought it was a joke that his time was up when he knew he had a few weeks left to make it right with Halifa.

"But you said I had three months. My three months is not over." Jeffery glared at Nef waiting for her to elaborate why his time was being cut short. Then it dawned on him, Beth. Jeffery turned and looked at Halifa avoiding his beseeching eyes. "That girl means nothing to me. She is . . ."

"She may mean nothing to you, but this is her estate, and we cannot leave until they've returned," Tamiya spoke up as she tossed wood into the fire, sending golden-red specks floating into the chilled evening sky. What did they think would happen with Beth as she saw Jeffery with Halifa? Grinding his jaw from his question, Jeffery needed to know.

"What could she do? I would talk to her." Jeffery said as he got up to dish out his meal for the first time, only to be clout over the head with a stick. Looking around, Jeffery saw it was Nef with yet another stick waiting to hurl at him. "What the . . ."

"You are last to eat. Remember that." Nef said walking towards him to dish out the stew for everyone, and by her words, he was the last to be fed. Jeffery watched everyone eat in peace, never hearing such silence in there camp before. As their routine, everyone would have a tale to share about the day's event, however not a soul whispered a single word, not even the adorable pixies which sat with their mothers, refusing not to look at him.

Had he done something so wrong in knowing Lady Morgan? God knows Jeffery did not care one wit for the shitty chit, but they could not blame him for having a mere acquaintance with her. He could not swallow a single spoon until he knew what crime he committed.

"What is it? What have I done? It could not be . . ." it was so ridiculous, the measly thought Beth Morgan could cause this chill to settle on the camp and with his Halifa. "Did I do something wrong, by . . ."

"Shut your mouth boy and eat," Tamiya said staring at him. And with that, Jeffery felt like a complete interloper, far more unwanted than before. They planned to take his time, and he was nowhere close to getting Halifa to talk with him, and watching her now, made all his appetite for food to vanish. Closing his eyes, Jeffery sat his bowl by his log seat and went for a walk to clear his mind as to what his next step should be.
**Chapter Ten**

Even though they, Nef and Tamiya said his time was cut short, he remained in their camp thankfully. And for his last week in their faction, Jeffery was given a chore to visit the village with the girls and Ean to gather supplies for their trip on the road. He was told they would be leaving soon, and he would be going back to his Castle Lumley. Jeffery smiled whenever Benny or Jessica would say such foolish things like, "he would be missed."

Jeffery did not intend to leave the camp without Halifa in tow as his wife or with her belly fat with his child. He would have her by any means now.

Halifa knew his eyes were on her, and she wanted it absent from around her with great haste. Closing her eyes to release a soft sigh, if Halifa were truthful with herself, she would have asked Nef to keep Jeffery a little while longer too . . . to what she pondered. Everyone knew he wanted her, but she wondered if they knew it was her body he hankered for. And the idiotic factor was she offered it to him, and he refused it. So what else did he want from her?

It made no sense why he scrutinized her so intently within the group. The fool was never getting another chance with her. Taking a deep breath needing to prepare her mind to face the village and its villagers, Halifa shook her head to focus on her task at hand. While holding Finny and Nicest's hands, as their mothers flanked them. Together with Ean to their back, there was no need to have anyone else tag along.

One would think, just watching Ean with them, no one would dare harass them in the village. Yet despite that, sometimes a few foolish brave individuals would try to create discord, but when Ean stepped forward, most potential conflicts would be quelled. However, some of that same hostility would follow them due to Benny's company. For the village women would, "ooh" and "ahh" after his handsome, rugged exterior. It was laughable how Halifa would tease and make Benny blush that his handsome countenance, would cause the village men to want to harm him.

That is why Benny never cared to visit the villages they ventured in. He always sighted it was the least of his pleasures and was given refuge for what happened to him years ago. Thus, Benny was never forced or told to go where he did not want to.

Halifa also agreed with Benny in never desiring to go into the villages. The smaller hamlets had pigeon minded buffoons, which was the least of her adventure. Nonetheless, she had to replenish her supply for her act, and the camp needed a few items.

The village was just beyond a few trees when they heard horses approaching them from behind, sending them into the bushes almost being trampled down when out of nowhere a rock was tossed at the riders. Halifa, the girls, and Ean would never retaliate on anyone for they knew the consequences of what the outcome could be. However, the English Earl did not, as he picked up yet another rock to hurl it at the riders.

"No," Jessica shouted to the fool running as she tried to snatch the rock from his hand, but was too late as it sailed from Jeffery's hand hitting a gentleman's horse rear, startling the beast as it vaulted into the air sending the man, in the bushes landing in a heap.

Everyone turned to see the smug look on his face as if he did a brilliant thing.

"You fool," Jessica growled at Jeffery as she pulled him into the shrubs to lecture him about his actions, leaving Mary and Halifa to attend to his flying rock that pitched a nobleman from his horse.

Halifa was in no mood to deal with anymore English highborn, but whenever something came up with any noble blood in their travels, Halifa would be the one they would sometimes call to smooth out the wrinkles that they faced. The villages they passed through, seldom had blue blood that lived there. But on a few occasions, they would show up to exhibit how their class tolerated and viewed them, "gypsies." And it was in those occurrences, Tamiya would tell Ean to stand down.

Jeffery looked past Jessica and her haranguing to see the men approach Ean and saw they pushed him aside as if the mammoth of a man was nothing, walking towards Halifa and Mary with the pixies hiding behind them.

Lord Lumley wondered why Ean would allow those, inane individuals to just shove him aside as if he was naught. The mammoth of a man could have taken care of the four men alone, with his eyebrows raised, more so with his hands. Yet Ean tolerated their rude treatment towards him as if he was less of a person.

Observing, Jeffery saw one of the men grab Halifa by her upper hand making Mary and the Pixies to cower. Nevertheless, his Halifa stood her ground with her chin high speaking to them. The one, who was thrown from his horse, stomped his way to Halifa with his hand raised above her, and Jeffery lost all control as he rushed the man.

The young Earl did not know what got into him, but when he was finished, he looked down at the man who had his hand raised to hit his Halifa. The fool was on the ground bloody and passed out cold with his men staring at him with their swords half drawn. Taking a sharp breath, the Earl of Castle Lumley stood in front of Halifa and the girls without any weapon as he looked at the coward that would hit a defenseless woman with children around.

"I am Jeffery, the Earl of Scarborough, are you mad to raise your hand to a woman in my presence?" Jeffery turned and looked at Halifa, the girls and Ean, and saw everyone staring at him with wide eyes. Turning back to the callous men, Jeffery saw the men put away their swords with a smirk on their faces. "How dare you . . ."

"We humbly apologize Earl of Scarborough." One of the men said dripping with sarcasm as the others check on their man. Smiling that his name meant something to these uncouth ruffians, as it prevented any mishap to ensure to his group, to his Halifa.

Jeffery turned with yet another smug smile on his face and looked at Halifa with a frown on her face, wondering if he did something wrong again, to hear someone clearing their throat behind him. Frowning as he turned, Lord Lumley felt a force smashed into his nose, landing in a heap with his nose bleeding to look up at a man shaking out his hand as he walked away to mount his horse.

Stunned, the Earl of Scarborough laid there in the dirt road as the men rode off leaving in a cloud of dust. Pinching his nose, Jeffery thought his Halifa would assist him to stand, but they all walked off leaving him behind, save Mary, who must have felt sorry for him. Jeffery looked up at Mary's hand, grabbed it to stand and dust off his ass and pride at being made a fool in front of the woman he loved.

Yes, without a doubt, Jeffery the Earl of Scarborough was in love with his gypsy woman utterly. Whether it was by some dark force that made his heartache to have her, he was hers as she was his and there would be no going back.

Mary could not help it, her heart went out to the English fool as she looked down at him with his bloodstained nose. If her heart was not tied in a cold knot, she could have fallen in love with the notion of him, Lord Jeffery being in love with her and his effort to protect them. Nevertheless, her heart was not hers to untie itself, and no one could do the job for he was dead to Mary in her mind and soul.

***

Jeffery knew that their trip to the village would be a trail from the time they encountered those men on the road. However, the parish was much worse than the road trip. So much so, he asked to take the pixies Finny and Nicest for a walk back to the camp. It did not take much to persuade their mothers, for the girls beg with their big bewitching eyes batting their lashes to their mother's and it always seemed to work in the time Jeffery stayed within the clan.

"So what shall we do?" Jeffery asked the girls as they swung his hand back and forth. He already knew the games they loved to play and looking down at their beaming up at him, Jeffery sealed his sight and with his hands, in the middle of the road and started to count. "One, two, three, four, five . . ." he knew they could not get far with their tiny legs and looked around for any sign or sound of them.

Smiling, the girls were the sweetest little people in the camp that the young Earl got to know. The Pixies made him wish he could have a few just like them, but with Halifa's eyes and smile, some of her mien that made him love her. Granted, he did not know much about his Halifa, but what he saw and felt was just the tip of his fledgling feelings for the woman. Jeffery knew there would be a lifetime to be acquainted with the woman of his dreams inside out.

"Ready or not, here I come," Jeffery yelled as he walked directly where he saw they were hiding and giggling with their bright yellow aprons and redhead tie in the very green woods for everyone to see. "Girls don't make this hard for me," Jeffery shouted a foot away from them. "When I find you, I'm going to bite those lovely cheeks and eat it. I'm ravenous and need something to fill my tummy."

Standing for a second with a frown on his brow as he digested what he just said, "Too fill his tummy?" thank God Vincent nor Alex was nowhere around to hear him say such fluffy words. With a smile on his face, Jeffery took one jump and snatched Finny around the waist kicking and screaming holding her under his arm, as Nicest made a mad dash away from him screaming when all of a sudden she was silent.

Jeffery set Finny on her feet to hold her hand and look at her, to see his little pixie found the silence strange also. "Nicest come. . ." Finny was saying, but stood frozen, staring off at the bushes behind Jeffery.

Finding it odd, Lord Lumley turned just as the wind was knocked out of him landing on the ground with a loud thud. In the background, Jeffery heard Finny and Nicest scream to feel afoot to his head then darkness shrouded around him.

***

Groaning with a sharp pain in his head while he tried to open his eyes, Jeffery saw the same angelic face that haunted him, wiping his forehead. He could not help but smile holding her hands above his head rubbing his thumb in her palm. Whatever the cause for Halifa to be tending to him, he was most thankful.

"He's awake," Halifa shouted, making Jeffery squeeze his eyes close again with a groan escaping from his parched lips, to look around and see that night was upon them with three new faces. A tall man built like Ean crouching before him with rugged, sharp eyes that looked suspicious and cunning all at once. Staring at the man, Jeffery was not one to say if a man was handsome, but this old version of Ean was indeed striking.

"You're alive then?" he said as he tapped Jeffery on his shoulder to then walk away and sit between two younger versions of himself. Jeffery sat up and looked at them to wonder if they were the three they were waiting for before they depart? Together with, if they were also the reason he was told to leave before his time was up?

"These are my sons," the man said smiling as he tapped the shoulders of the young men beside him. Turning to his left then his right, he said, "Tan and Jakob. They are sorry for the blow they gave you, but we are very protective of our people." Jeffery gazed at the man with a frown on his face turning a dangerous glare at Jeffery and said, "And I am Kabul." The man pronounced as he stood giving Jeffery another look of his height and width, wondering if every man in this camp came big and compact.

As Kabul walked, pass Jeffery lying on his makeshift bed, by the fire to sit beside Tamiya with his hand on her knee looking at her affectionately. "You made it here at last to our Halifa." He declared, not taking his eyes off Tamiya. "But you were given three months to do something about it."

Looking around at everyone, Jeffery saw they all knew about his feelings towards Halifa and how had he failed miserably to show his intent for her. Watching Kabul, Jeffery wondered if he could plead his case to have more time in the camp to stay with Halifa.

Kabul observed the English Earl and knew his brain was working overtime to find a way to stay with Halifa longer. Smiling, he could not blame Jeffery for wanting Halifa, she was a gem with a heart and spirit to fight for, and innocent to a flaw, even with Jessica as a companion.

All the girls were innocent at some point in time, but sweet words and promises made them lose their naïveté. Yet Halifa would make any man an excellent wife and hearing talk of how much he put up with thus far, Lord Lumley could have Halifa with some more time on his side. But Kabul knew who Halifa's father was, the boy should give up now before he fell even more into Halifa's web.

"We break camp in the morning." Jeffery heard as he saw everyone move off to their caravan and wondered if he would be leaving with them? He knew they could not abandon him, seeing that he owned his horse and he would follow them and they never traveled in any haste.

However, knowing how tricky they can be, Jeffery knew not to fall asleep, for he would wake up and see them disappear like fog in the moors without a trace for another year, and Jeffery refused to wait any longer to have her. Halifa must be his before he returned to Castle Lumley.
**Chapter Eleven**

Ten years of celibacy made Jeffery a wretched beast most mornings. He was always hard and aching from his dreams of her, and before he opened his eyes every morning, the young Earl would grope and groan with an intense pain that would not go away. The need to know if Halifa cast a spell on him withered away into what he knew now.

His quiet, lonely heart fell in love with her. Jeffery's fantasy grew in the years of who and what his enigma was. She was love and a family embodiment. Yet they were times when his suspicions mind would linger with a speck of doubt.

At the beginning of his joining Halifa's clan, Jeffery feared the answer he would receive but was no longer concerned. In the ten long remote years, he was waiting for his chance to meet and win her, the young Lord never thought to visit someone to confirm if it was indeed an enchantment.

However being in her presence, he knew it was not, as it was just his luck to fall in love, with the wind that could arouse his passion with a bone clenching hold.

The Earl of Lumley knew they left without him by the sound of how serene the camp was before he opened his eyes. Nevertheless, with a smile on his face, Jeffery also knew how to track them down now. For his short time in their camp taught him their ways of finding the lost and hidden.

Sitting up, he saw no proof there was ever a gypsy bivouac in the area. Not even ashes were left of their cooking or the Pixies constant thrashing of the bushes next to Halifa's caravan.

Rubbing his eyes as a loud growl escaped his stomach, Jeffery knew his hunger would have to wait if he wanted to catch up with them as he tucked his blanket in Winter's saddle. Taking one last look around, Jeffery swung on his horse to find his Halifa, his woman.

***

Benny felt he was back in his spot again. The English fool was gone, and he was beside his Halifa. He knew it was less than a day they left him behind, but it was sweet to have Halifa's attention all to himself if you could call her lack of response all his.

Whenever he tried to talk with her or make her smile, she would nod and look at him blankly, and she did that to everyone, which made him feel good, of sorts. Despite that, Benny prayed the change in her mood was not due to any fault of his.

Yet as he watched Halifa ever so often, her gaze would amble about with hope in her eyes that the English boy would follow, made bile rose to his throat. Closing his eyes, Benny could not allow the English fop to weasel his way into his Halifa's heart.

"He's here, he's here, he's here," Finny shouted as she ran past Halifa sitting beside Benny waiting as Ean and Kabul removed a fallen tree out the road. It galled Halifa to no end that Tamiya made her ride along with Benny in her caravan when she shared it with the girls ever so often.

Benny was such an awful travel companion with his sad jokes and crappy hints of affection. For years, Halifa knew he wanted more than friendship, but she just could not see herself lying next to him nor kissing his lips.

Granted, Benny was undeniably handsome. Not just gorgeous, but an Adonis and she knew he stayed away from the villages and towns due to his concerns that he might attract rich and poor of both sex as he was like a magnetic. Nonetheless, Halifa's traveling companion ignored the well to do fairer sex that made no sense to her, for he was a young and virile.

Halifa snapped out of her muse of Benny to recall hearing Finny shouting something about someone's here and looked around to see who it was and saw him. Her breath caught in her chest to view him riding behind at a leisurely pace looking like what she wanted to ride beside her.

Trying to school her expression before Benny saw her heart in her face; Halifa stole a glance at Jeffery, but Benny saw her eyes sparkle for who strode into their sight. Benny gave her one of his famed glare and jumped off her caravan heading towards Jeffery.

"Lord Father," Halifa mumbled to herself as she followed behind Benny, heading for a fight.

Dusting off his hands, Kabul leaned back on their steps in their caravan with Tamiya, looking at some sport between young love and lust. He recognized the passion and desire, but he wanted to see who would prevail as he watched.

Jeffery was tried even though he rode a horse for the morning, and he was hungry also because he did not want to waste any time on breakfast and lose the gypsy's tracks. Although by watching the artless trail someone was leaving behind, he could find the camp in a week by their haphazard scripts.

"How the fuck did he find us so fast?" Benny considered as he grabbed the English fool's bridles stopping him as he looked down at him.

"Benny," Jeffery saw him coming at him like a charging bull, yet all he had eyes for were Halifa hips swaying and breast bouncing free from corsets that can restrain her beauty from his gazes. God forgive him, he would tie this woman up and take her away if need be, to have her.

Looking at Halifa standing next to him breathing heavily from her run, Jeffery dismounted in front of her with nothing to say to Benny. With his mind clear of what he was going to do, Jeffery held her upper arm when he saw Benny take a step to stop him as someone shouted, "Benny," and the beastly boy paused giving the Earl of Scarborough his chance.

Her hand was trembling in his, which made him smile to think she was nervous or frightened of him, but he knew why he felt that tremor from her for he was feeling it also. Jeffery walked some distance away to get the privacy he wanted and stopped under an oak tree.

After letting her go, Jeffery thought Halifa would have walked away from him with his back to her. Yet when he turned, she was standing there with her arms folded under her breast staring at him, waiting.

The woman made him nervous. No woman in his life ever made him feel so tense like his Halifa. In the months he stayed in the camp he grew more in love with her, her free spirit, laugh lines around her eyes and mouth and her body was a plus.

Who could not love a physique that had all the right curves made to adore? His starved heart seemed to cry out to her, and she heard him that day and came to him in his youth.

As the Earl of Scarborough stared at Halifa, he wanted to share his heart with her, but words always seemed to fail him whenever he had her undivided attention. Thus, Jeffery did the next best thing any man could do, he showed her. Taking one step to her, Jeffery saw it, her heart in her beautiful light grey eyes staring at him as he brushed her hair away from her face looking up at him. The woman could not hide her passion that shone from her keen gaze.

Halifa wanted to desperately conceal what she was feeling at that moment while Jeffery gazed at her with his heart in his eyes. She wished she could be like Mary and Jessica to switch their feelings on and off at their will. Yet Halifa could not. For at the very present, it would be a brilliant time to shield her heart.

Closing her eyes, Jeffery felt rather than heard Halifa's release of breath she was keeping. Glaring at her, Lord Lumley tilted her chin up and kissed her forehead, cheeks, eyes, and nose saving her sweet lips for the last.

Jeffery gently pressed his lips to hers praying to marshal his passion and show her his heart in this kiss. That would demonstrate he was not lusting for her body, but also her heart. Groaning his hungered need, Jeffery could never stop his desire to have her now.

What started as a sweet, gentle kiss metamorphosed as Halifa grab Jeffery's tattered shirt pulling him closer to her as he held onto her face devouring her mouth in short order. Brushing his tongue on her lower lip urging her to open for him, and she did. Smiling at her entrance, Jeffery swept into her precious orifice, growling with a smile on his face. For at that precise moment, he knew this was one way to show Halifa his heart, as he placed all his resolve into it.

Halifa's first kiss from Jeffery by the riverbank was nothing like this. Her toes coiled as her fingers dug into his chest drawing him closer to her. She wanted more from this man like no other. Her heart and body could not get enough from him, yet she tried to stay away from him, but something always drew her back to him. Halifa wanted Jeffery, it was that natural.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Halifa put her imagination and want into her kiss as she took over as Jeffery gave her free reign. Smiling as she claimed his mouth nibbling at his side, Halifa wanted to touch more of him as her hands roamed the inside of his shirt stroking warm muscular, smooth flesh as she went further down.

Halifa felt his breath caught as her hand traveled lower to his trousers and penis, oh she remembered "it" very well, as a wicked smile crept on her face. If the girls saw her now, they would be shocked to see her behave beneath a gentle-born woman, but she could not stop herself.

Feeling a gentle touch of wind to her cheek, made Halifa recall they were in the open and on the brink of being caught, yet she did not care. God knows she never did anything wrong with the opposite sex. Even at her late age. She was not a child, but a woman of twenty-nine who could and should have babies like Mary and Jessica, but she knew deep down why she was still without a family.

Wanting to forget all about the lessons that were hammered in her head and the reasons for being the way she was. Halifa discarded that tight grasp called caution she had, to the wind, for she wanted more of Jeffery and took a step away from him breaking away from their kiss, but he was not letting her go as he grabbed her waist preventing her from moving away.

Yet with his gaze fasten on Haliy, he saw his desire reflected on her and gave into her steps. Wanting to stay in contact with her body, Jeffery continued to kiss Halifa's cheek going down to her neck and stopped dead in his track. Jeffery could not breathe as his soon to be wife held him again, yet this time it was a very different feel and grasp altogether.

Halifa knew Jeffery did her a service. Giving himself over to her without question. Never would she have allowed anyone near her personal space in the context they were traveling on. But being curious when Jeffery feasted on her kitty made her wondered what his long rod would taste like and did the only thing to ascertain the answer.

Dropping to her knees, she got a closer look at his precious manhood. It was not the first time she saw a man's penis. Nonetheless, it was by far the most imposing specimen as it was aimed at her, hard, thick, and long.

Smiling up at him with a devious smirk on her face, Halifa licked her lips and took him into her mouth, feeling him jump and gasp all in one movement. She saw that he was wet from his tip and wonder why.

She would have to save that question to ask the girls next time she talked to them.

With her tongue on his cock tasting him, Jeffery had a semi-briny taste as if he took a bath in the river they passed then came back on his trail.

Jeffery moaned as his Halifa drove him barmy with her tongue. He never experienced this level of sexual intimacy with anyone. God knows he was not a virgin. Jeffery lost his virtue at twelve with some unknown girl for ten seconds. The event was more embarrassing than painful on his behalf, and he made a plan to remedy it for any future encounter.

However, no lesson prepared him for Halifa's naughty tongue.

Jeffery knew it was quite some time since he had sex, ten years in fact, as he tried to hold himself in check but could not. Feeling his balls growing tight and cumbersome, Jeffery knew what was going to happen and prayed she would let go before he spurred his seed in her mouth. He wanted his Essence in her but at the other end making her a mother.

Halifa got a drop of something warm on her tongue, then felt a gush of it flow into her mouth and went down her throat. It felt semi-thick and tasted sharp going down, but could not take it all in as some trickled from her lips.

She knew what just happen and grinned like the cat that ate most of the cream. For the diversity of her female traveling companions, Halifa was educated on a few things.

Staring at Jeffery with his eyes closed leaning on the tree for support with a smile on his face of a contented man. Halifa caressed his lips with her fingers while she licked her lips clean, and knew at that moment, there was a change between them now.

Pinning his gaze on his Halifa, Jeffery felt weak from what she did to him, but wanted her close to him and held her waist drawing her into a firm embrace. It was not such a grand gesture, seeing that his woman almost brought him to his knees. Nevertheless, Jeffery desperately needed to hold her, feeling her heartbeat as fast as his, with his penis standing hard already for more of his Halifa.

"Many apologies, but we need to go before it gets dark." Someone said behind them. Jeffery should have felt abashed to be found, with his pants around his ankle and his penis standing hard already. But hidden by Halifa's pressed body with whoever was behind them.

Grinning like a fool, Jeffery was too pleased for he got his one minute with Haliy. If what they just did was considered conversing.

Taking a deep breath, Jeffery's heart feeling ecstatic as he now knew without a doubt, that his woman had feelings for him. His Halifa would never do what she did to anyone unless she . . .

Jeffery pushed Halifa away and looked at her. It was in her eyes, they were beautiful, and she could not hide her emotions from him and said as much. "Your beautiful eyes cannot hide from me again," he touched her knitted brows, to see a smile and blush came to her face. "You know how I feel. You must know how I love you," Jeffery declared, passing his thumb on her engorged bottom lip. "Don't deny me."

Closing her eyes, Halifa leaned her forehead on his shoulder, holding onto his shirt. His clothes smelt sort of like his horse and sweat, but Jeffery smelt pleasurable, as her nose knew his arousal now.

Halifa was not going to hide from him anymore. She was not going to play cat and mouse game to keep him at bay. Her life was passing before her, and she wanted a family and someone to love her, and no man was persistent to find and have her like the Earl of Scarborough.

But if word got back to her father that she was with a man that her father knew nothing of, he would show up in a week and drag her back home ending her little vacation that spanned a decade and some.

Staring at Jeffery pulling his pants over his erection, Halifa wondered if he knew what he was getting himself into with her as they strolled side by side back to their carriages. Her clan was not the average gypsy band that traveled and ply for shelter, food, and everything else most people think they did. Her blood went back all the way too . . .

Jeffery stopped Halifa before the caravan came into view and grabbed her around the waist pulling her behind a tree, wiping her chin from a smidgen of his cum, and gave her a kiss that left them both breathless while holding onto each other for support.

Lord Lumley did not want to go back to her family as all eyes would be on him and not her as they would know their undercurrent of feelings was resolved by their holding hands. Nevertheless, Jeffery did not care who approved of their relationship, all he knew he had her, and he was not giving her up for anything.
**Chapter Twelve**

Three weeks of being with her were heaven, and torture Jeffery considered. There were times they would steal away for a second to be with each other, talking about anything that came to mind, for there was a free rapport they grew into with each passing day. It was never a question if they were a couple or courting. Who had eyes to see would see they were not far from each other in thought, touch, or heart.

Jeffery prayed and thank God, as he tried to hold himself in check from lifting Halifa's skirt and thrusting his hungry penis in her every day. He knew it would never honestly happen as they rarely found time alone or was given space to themselves.

It would appear at times, part of the camp was against their feelings for each other, which Jeffery sincerely did not care, but he was frustrated as it was a struggle to be with her frequently.

He was allowed back into the camp but was given more work than he had before that took him from the site and Halifa. Jeffery was told he would have to help hunt for their meals and every morning he would be whisked away before he could see Halifa and returned to late some nights from their hunting stints.

Yet most of the time they brought nothing back from their ferreting trips, as they organize to depart for France, a tiresome, long trek.

However, the Earl of Scarborough was somewhat happy they were going to the country of romance and love for he had a plan that when he left the city of love, he would be a married man.

Jeffery knew that gypsies were viewed as less than nothing by some of his peers and some males find diversion with the women and Jeffery met a few lose gypsy women as he searched for Halifa, amongst the gypsy camps for years.

To some crass nomads, they offered their young girls and old women for his taking, which made him sick. Yet Halifa's clan never allowed any man or outsider to touch their females. He saw they kept their female cast, well hidden and safe as they were treasured.

He also learned it was Mary and Jessica who taught his Halifa about men and sex. Which Jeffery preferred to believe than to think his Halifa was educated by his wicked and deprive gender.

For the time Jeffery stayed in the camp he scrutinized Mary and Jessica, he could not say he dislike them, as they were good mothers to the pixies. Even though the two young mothers said and did things, which infuriated his very soul.

But on that rare occasion where Jeffery and his girl might have a moment alone, where he could free his mind of the day's event. It was always, rarely granted late at night as Halifa had his meal warmed and waiting by "their spot" with a smile for him and a positively stupid grin on his façade in return.

Jeffery would wash and try to look and smell wholesome.

Walking towards his woman with a cheerful swagger, Jeffery stopped dead in his progress, to gaze at her waiting by their small alcove. But tonight, there was a certain aura to his Halifa as she stared at the fire with a brand of rapture on her face and wondered what instigated such a beam?

Halifa wanted to christen their relationship tonight. Every secluded juncture she pushed for something more than just a kiss and petting each other, Jeffery would pull away shaking his head and say, "Not now," when she could see he was ready for her every time. Annoyed, Halifa would always ask why he kept hindering their passion, and his foolish reply would be, "When they were married." Amused, Halifa was not thinking of marriage, only to sate her curious mind and body.

Sighing loudly, Jeffery sat and looked at the fire wishing he was back home with Halifa lying down by his large fireplace in his bedroom holding her. Instead, here he was exhausted with zero energy to do anything save to eat and embrace Halifa for a while.

With his belly contented by his small meal, Halifa took his bowl and placed it beside her to begin her seduction of Jeffery. She knew that he was weary as she took his hand and walked to the blanket she laid out for them.

While he was stretch out on his belly, Halifa sat beside him and began to massage his tense shoulders feeling the tension slowly fade away as he relaxed more into her touch, to turn onto his back. Beaming, Halifa could not believe how easy it would be to have all of Jeffery finally.

Jeffery knew what his Halifa was up to, he was most pleased that he no longer had to hunt nor beg and ask how she felt for him. She showed him every day they were together, and her mind was alike his in most ways, save he wanted to essentially wait to have her in his bed away from her family, as his wife.

Smiling at that, Jeffery often caught his Halifa's gaze on his groin with her eyes fixated there, after he came in her mouth. Finding her stare fastened on him, Jeffery would see a blush rise from her neck, going all the way to her cheek.

Halifa could not hide her wanting eyes from him as she told him so many times and showed him how much she wanted to be with him and tonight she would not take no for an answer.

Straddling him, Halifa leaned forward and took possession of his mouth penetrating and sucking his tongue as a graceful swordswoman, stroking and dueling with his.

While Halifa worked her mouth on him, which was always a great distraction, she undid his pants and held his beautiful, rigid cock as he took a deep breath to calm his racing heart.

Jeffery could hardly breathe as he felt her hand on his firm prick again. It always amazed him how easily she could get him to rise by just a simple kiss or touch and he would be hard dripping and begging to enter her.

However, someone needed to retain some control. If Jeffery did not take his Haifa by a riverbed nor was he going to take her in the woods where anyone could perchance catch them.

Breathless, Jeffery's mind was in a battle as her kiss intensified sidetracking him as he felt the tip of his penis enter her hairy warm walls. Gad, he needed to end her torture on him as he grabbed her hand to stop her, but Halifa deepened her kiss wreaking havoc on his sex-starved brain and body.

Groaning, the Earl of Castle Lumley felt like the weaker sex as he moved his hands from hers and held her face pulling her more into their kiss, forgetting she had his penis in her hand still.

Halifa grinned as she sank her weight, all one hundred and forty-four pounds swallowing his penis, sending a shockwave through him.

In all his twenty-odd years of living, Jeffery sort of deflowered one girl when he was very young. She was his first virgin and last until now. Jeffery loathed the crying and screaming that he begged off any innocent flower with a steadfast resolve.

Yet just knowing his Halifa was a virgin made him swell a bit more within her warm walls. Feeling consumed whole and in shock, Jeffery could not move, as he was aware that she was in a bit of pain, speared on him.

Smiling, Jeffery knew he was not small. For share idiocy, at fourteen Jeffery stole a servant measuring tape to see if he was an abnormal boy. Remembering the measurements, the young Earl was five-inch in length, and two inches in width when he was asleep and wilted.

Jeffery thought it was anomalous to be so big as his cock would be hard and much more significant than what he had measured. With its veins displayed around his manhood and a transparent substance oozing from its mushroom head.

Recalling, Jeffery thank God for his adopted brother and loafing friend Lord Vincent Cardwell, who taught him that girls would love what he had and took him to his first brothel when they were at Eton.

Jeffery was a fledgling the first time he tried anything with a girl. Before he measured his size, he never considered how massive his prick was and that it could hurt a girl.

However, a bit older, Jeffery recognized he was much too enormous, which made it impossible to enter her. Trying a third time, she cried and pushed him off. He remembered it clearly, his first attempt and it failed miserably.

Yet at sixteen, the brothel taught him to be proud of what he had. Young Jeffery was dubbed with the nickname "Stakes," by most of the women he visited and was given the privilege to have anyone without fitting to pay for their services.

Nevertheless, watching Halifa's face, he saw the pain she was in. Thinking she would never forget her first as he planned to make her feel, every inch of him for not waiting as he wanted too.

Jeffery bucked his hip high making Halifa shriek a little to cover her mouth, as they were not too far from the camp. Halifa knew if she screamed she would be heard and Everyone would follow her cries and discover them.

If Jeffery were not a hundred percent over the deep end, he would have pulled out of her to ease the pain, but he wanted her just where she was for the trick she played on him. For that reason, Jeffery bucked his hip higher again, holding her hips down into place making tears trail down her cheek.

Halifa had no voice, as her kitty was inflamed, stretched and bleeding, she knew something was beyond repair as she felt Jeffery hitting . . . It could not be. She knew he was big, but having him in her made her realized she should not have pushed him into making love with her like this.

With her breath catching, he was in her, and she was not going anywhere until they shared their passion.

Jeffery looked at Halifa and knew she was not backing down with the little punches of his hips thrusting pain in her. He discerned he should be a bit more temperate, for his love would be raw in the morning and for the rest of the week as he had no plans to give her any peace to ease her aches away.

He wanted and needed her more than she could or would ever comprehend. Jeffery still questioned sometimes if it was a natural state of lonely hearts meeting and falling in love.

Whatever occurred ten years ago, brought him to her.

Now.

Halifa felt the stinging pain fade away but was replaced by something new. She felt him twitch in her as if he came further robust within her warm walls.

"Love, I cannot stay this way much longer," Jeffery declared staring into her watery eyes. He knew what he was about to do, would be more painful for her than him, but he needed to move.

Thus, as Jeffery was buried deeper inside his Halifa, he flipped her onto her back with her legs wide open to his width and began to move slowly, hearing her groan and whimper almost sounding like a cry.

Jeffery genuinely felt sorry for her discomfort and impatience, but it was more pleasurable for him than for her as he tried to measure his strokes slowly and with consideration.

With his heart beating precipitously, Jeffery could not keep to the sad pace to soothe his Halifa, thus picked up his thrust and tempo. With every slam, he drove into his Halifa, Jeffery prayed she would swell in a few months and have no choice but to be his wife.

Grinding his jaw as he knew it was a few years since he was last in any woman and wanted any other woman like the one under him, buried deep in her.

Jeffery was exhausted as hell from the day's toil, and with the years of his celibacy weighing on him, his hunger could not wane for his woman's pain. With his nose flaring, Jeffery hated to sound crude even in his thoughts, but his sweet Halifa pussy made him rock, fucking hard. It would not take long before he burst and he was not pulling out until he came in all his glory in her heated hedge.

Halifa could not take it any longer, the pain was too excruciating, and the saints forgive her, it was a sinful pleasure. Nevertheless, she could not take all of him anymore as she tried to pull away from him. Halifa sought to back away getting a few inches of him out of her pained kitty to be slammed back fiercer, making her cry as her tears spilled down her cheeks.

What was a slow sensual pace Jeffery started, turned into rapid thrust as he fastened his arms under and around her shoulders trapping her. Halifa knew Jeffery was tired from the day's work he had, yet he seemed not in any haste to end her first painful, but pleasurable encounter.

With his balls growing hefty and tauten as he was prime, Jeffery released a deep groan and fired ten years of cum inside of his woman that made him shiver and hum. In all his years of looking and waiting for her, he tried to ease the discomfort to his cock with his hands, but nothing gave him comfort.

And waiting, Jeffery knew this would take a while, for he was hard pinning her beneath his weight. He knew she wanted him out of her, but he was not letting her go as he grunted his final spur in her. Jeffery was balls deep and hard buried in her like a dog in heat, and he supposed he was.

Halifa was beyond shattered, feeling her whole body quake with her legs like jelly. As she brushed Jeffery's hair from his face and touching his exposed backside. From her waist, she could not move with him deep in her still.

With her eyes closed, she prayed Nef would have her potion to clean her out from his seed. She could not take the chance of having a child now, even though she wanted one, like Mary and Jessica.

Being who she was and the father that she had, Halifa knew the consequences if word got back to her father she was with child and not a husband in tow. Her sire had plans for her, so she remained unspoiled for years to stay with her aunt, cousins, and friends. Even though Jeffery was of noble blood to his people, he was just another foreigner to her father and not a nobleman from her people.

Making her heart heavy as to what will never happen for her and Jeffery. Halifa tried not to make a sound, but could not help her self as she whimpered.

Hearing his Haliy sniffle made Jeffery gaze at her as tears spilled down her cheeks, thinking he was a sick bastard for taking her virtue. Although he had not intended to steal her maidenhead until Halifa carried his name.

But alas his plans were not his Haliy's.

Sighing, his contentment, Jeffery knew it was a done deal now. She would be his when they reached France, and he would declare it to everyone in the camp that, "She Was Now His."

Yawning with a smile on his face at what his Halifa did for him, Jeffery saw sleep took her away, with her arms resting on his back. Jeffery knew they could stay this way and wake up with everyone in the morning seeing them.

More than pleased with how events worked out for him. Jeffery slipped out of her as he pulled her on top of his chest, throwing their blanket over their expose bottom half of their bodies and fell asleep with his hand securely wrapped around Halifa.

Oblivious, there were eyes on them.
**Chapter Thirteen**

Feeling a few pounds lighter, the Earl of Scarborough smiled as he opened his eyes to see . . . She was gone. Sitting up fast, Jeffery looked around and saw not a single sign of Halifa or any evidence what they did last night. His clothes were neatly replaced on him, his pants secured to his waist and . . . looking at his crotch, Jeffery knew he would have her smell and blood on him, but not even that was on his person as he pushed his hand in his pants and smelt nothing.

Standing to look at the blanket they laid on, it must have some remnant of the blood of her giving herself over to him. It was not all a dream, it could not be. He had Halifa, he was in her, she started it, and Jeffery took over, even though she wanted him to stop, but he could not stop.

His mind ran a thousand times over to what happened last night to the break of dawn to have Halifa gone from his side. She could not be ashamed to give herself over to him. His Haliy did it freely. It made no sense, and he was not going to rattle his brain to figure out why she was not by his side this morning.

The young Earl was going to get some answers and have her admit she was his. Since meeting Halifa, Jeffery wanted to claim her as if she was a lost treasure, more valuable than air, or the clothes on his back.

He felt the need to have the world and all that was around, know she was his and his alone not to be touched or shared. Jeffery now knew why Benny would kill for her.

Halifa lounged in her bed with a frown on her brow and a smile on her lips with her hand over her belly and kitty. She was no longer innocent, and she could be a mother also, hence the frown and smile. She knew they were waiting to hear all the details of her time with Jeffery, but she could not, dare not share all with her girls.

Thus, she turned to look at Mary and Jessica staring at her, sat up, and said, "It was naughty and decadent which I would die to have again."

With broad smiles gummed on their faces, they flew embracing Halifa. She became as they were now. Even with the loss of her maidenhead much, much later than Mary and Jessica, Halifa was most pleased with the gentleman in whom she chose to deflower her.

Yet despite all the glee that was around her, Halifa knew Jeffery to a degree, which terrified her. For Mary and Jessica did not recognize that Jeffery was not just someone who would pluck a flower, enjoy the fragrance and forget about it with a heartless intent.

Halifa knew Jeffery meant what he said and from the instant, he came into their camp she knew he was not the type to gamble and walk away. And while her thoughts strayed, someone banged on their door.

Pulling away from Halifa and Jessica, Mary opened the door to see the man of the hour, standing livid and disturbed, leaning by the door. Mary stepped back as Jessica pulled away from Halifa as Jeffery came in and slammed the door closed behind him making their spacious caravan look ten times smaller.

Mary looked at Halifa and Jeffery's face and knew something occurred more than ordinary intercourse. For months, Halifa wanted to know if the "rapture" that Mary and Jessica's experience being with a gentleman. Therefore, Halifa made a plan to have the English Earl take her innocence away.

Halifa played the part well as the great actor that she was, even had Benny fooled to think she cared about the young Earl. There were times Halifa, had Mary fooled that she did care for Jeffery and was not just using him for his cock.

At the end of all her cousin's plotting, her primary goal was to attain FREEDOM. Moreover, it might be granted to her when her father came around to have her locked down in a marriage of his will.

Halifa could beg off her lack of Maidenhead.

Looking at the young Earl made Halifa wretched to think of all the artful games she played, to be free. Halifa looked on as Mary and Jessica exit their caravan leaving her alone to deal with Jeffery and his dark, brooding eyes. The sun was far from warming the dew drench earth or peak through the trees as she left his side not too long after he fell asleep.

Before she walked away from Jeffery, she wiped away all evidence of their time together, wishing things could have been different for them.

If her life were as simple as Mary or Jessica, she would not have to play a game of chess for the life she wanted. Nonetheless, from a young age, Halifa made a plan to be free from her father and his command. And poignant as it was, the Earl of Scarborough fell into her plans.

Jeffery sat beside Halifa without saying a word. He was not angry, just disappointed to wake up alone without her beside him. Closing his eyes, Jeffery held her hand and squeezed it. The prelude would be the first and last time he would wake up without her beside him after taking her. When Jeffery walked out of her caravan, he was going to announce his engagement to the heads of their clan, to stake his claim.

"You should not have deserted me as you did," Jeffery said, squeezing Halifa's hand tighter than he should.

"I will tell Tamiya and Nef that . . ." Jeffery was saying as he looked at the windowsill and saw the pretty pink bottle. It was Nef's top seller from her old baggage of potions for women who wished to be free from unwanted babies.

Jeffery snatched it and knew it was empty. Turning as he looked at Halifa standing behind him, he grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

"What the hell did you do?" Jeffery growled knowing it was her first time and his first in over ten years, was a long shot he could have made her pregnant. It was almost impossible to think it could even happen, but it was a hope of his, that by the time he returned home, Halifa would be a few months with his child.

Halifa looked at Jeffery's face and saw real anguish in it as he slumped on the bed opposite her. Did he truly think she wanted a child now when all her plans would fall into place?

Yes, she cared for him, and no, he did not know her schemes nor the life she had before he shoved his way into her life.

Wishing her life was simple, where she did not have to be concern about traditions, bloodline, and her father. With her eyes closed to keep Jeffery's pained expression barred. Halifa knew she would have protected the baby that was surely forming within her. Nonetheless, no matter how alone she was and longing for her own family. Halifa wanted her freedom more.

Jeffery felt sick to his gut, just looking at her while squeezing the pretty-pink bottle in his hands, he saw the love she had for him. Halifa's feelings for him could not be hidden from his or her eyes. He knew Halifa was an incredible entertainer wowing the crowds, by the sway of her hips and graceful hands she can capture the audience, but she could not hide the fact she wanted a family as much as he did.

For the months he was around his Halifa, he saw her eyes tear up whenever the Pixies played and hugged their mothers. In those glistening grey orbs, Jeffery swore that it would not take long for him to make her a mother of many.

Recalling the numerous gypsy camps he went through to find Halifa, Jeffery thought theirs were rather small compared to some he visited, that had over twenty to forty relations.

"Jeffery, Jeffery," Halifa whispered, touching his cheek bring him back to her. Halifa turned his face to look at her and said, "What happened last night could never happen again." Frowning Jeffery held her hand in a crushing hold.

"What happened last night will happen every night until I'm dead." Halifa stared at Jeffery proclaiming his words so fatally calm as he held her hand. "You mine, and you will have my children. Remember what I say now and take it to heart." Jeffery said as he got up and walked away from her, stopping by her door. "No other man shall have you, nor will you be free from me." And he left with those words.

Halifa felt a thrill and fear by his terms. He spoke in such earnest veracity that he had not wavered in his words. Jeffery spoke as if it were the law he set down before her.

Smiling, Halifa could not believe such a handsome Earl could speak so forcefully with such conviction. "Too bad she thought," as it was just a wish for his will that could not be.

With a few more, careful steps, Halifa would be free from her father. Lying back on her bed exhausted from last night, Halifa again placed her hand over her belly and kitty with a frown and smile, to fall asleep.

In his ten years of dreaming of having her, Jeffery never thought his chance of having Halifa would be so muddled. Massaging his eyes, Jeffery contemplated within her womb could have been his child forming.

In the years of wanting a spirit that was Halifa, he wanted a family, and as an only child, Jeffery planned to have more children than his worthless Uncle did.

Castle Lumley must have his and Halifa's children bursting in each room.

Jeffery was mad as hell what she did, he could not abide to look or be around her now that the day's work would start. He intended to exercise the demons that were pounding at his head and in his heart for the possible loss of his first child.
**Chapter Fourteen**

The road to France was tiresome and hard for everyone except for the Pixies. They played while everyone labored to make the trip before winter. The nip in the air felt like it would be upon them soon and Jeffery wondered where they would stay. On the outskirts of France or brave inside the city of love?

In the perpetration for their trip, they were very far from their planned destination, but was coming upon another property he wished to bypass for all he wanted was to head home with Halifa in tow.

Since his last talk with Halifa in her caravan, everyone thought "they" were over. Jeffery smiled to consider, even Benny seemed to treat him tolerably as the foolish lovesick tot felt sorry for him. There was no way in hades the heir of Castle Lumley would let his words be ignored. He meant every word spoken to Halifa and made it come to pass every night.

Now Jeffery believed he was the one who cast a spell on her. Throughout the day, his Halifa would not say a word to him. His girl would avoid eye contact with him at all costs, which made him smile. Yet at night, when he was in her and with every thrust of his hungry cock, their eyes would be locked until his seed was set in her womb.

Jeffery felt he was making up for his ten years of celibacy waiting for her.

Also, every morning he made it a point to be around to see if any pink bottles were in her caravan. And there were none as they passed next to Gates Head Château. With a contented smile on his face, Jeffery felt and knew all his hard work at night, made the root of his seed take hold in Halifa's womb.

Halifa felt sick, she could not eat, as she was tired of heaving all her meals. Her stomach hurt, she felt forlorn for no reason and her time passed for her monthly, it was not something that came late, it always showed up on point.

With all those facts, Halifa knew she could be pregnant, for one pink bottle was all it took to prevent any pregnancy for six months. And she consumed it right after their first time, and as true to his words he had her every night as he said.

There was no reason why she went to him. She would be asleep in her bed dreaming of him for the years he searched for her and wondered how it would feel to be found by the young Earl and have her freedom.

In her reveries, Halifa would feel a stinging pain and jolt to her kitty, hearing a loud slapping sound to open her eyes with him naked over her cussing and growling words of love for her to remember.

As their trip progress, they were to pass next to Gates Head Château, and Halifa needed to talk to Nef to find out if something was wrong with her. She knew he loved her. Jeffery said it every night as he cleaned her kitty and dressed her before she left him.

There was no doubt she had strong feelings for him, but wondered how intense did it go was always on her mind.

Halifa also felt her emotion would jeopardize her chance of freedom and wanted to know if she could be pregnant after taking the pink bottle.

Knocking on Nef's door was a waste of time. She was old, and her foresight was sharp as in her youth, which confused Halifa at times. Old and semi-deaf occasionally, when Nef did not want to hear nor answer someone, yet sharp as a knife.

"Come in Hali." Entering Nef's caravan was a blatant reminder she was ancient sometimes too. By the smells of ointments that stung, your eyes, and the scent of mint that hung in her rafters. Mint may not remind others of aging, but it was a poignant aroma to Halifa.

Nef's caravan was made just for her, which gave her more room and space for all her creations. Seated on her bed was like sitting on a flowerbed though, even with all the balm and mints, for it was the only place to rest. Thus, Halifa sat and looked at Nef create something in silence waiting.

"This would be your first of many." Nef declared to Halifa with a puzzled expression on the child's face. It never ceased to amaze Nef, how time never slowed nor halt for a soul, while gazing at the little girl that became a woman before her eyes.

Nef was not Halifa's grandmother yet made everyone feel like she was. Their adopted nana and more in their little band. In knowing the sweet old woman sometimes, Halifa felt Nef was something more of this world ever since she came to live with her aunt and cousin.

And there were times when Halifa would see some of the woman supernatural feats. Together with hearing whispered many times also, that Nef was A Jinni from her father and a few others. And as such, Nef was revered, in their camp and their people.

With a smile on her wrinkled brow, Nef wiggled to sit beside Halifa, patting her flat stomach. With her hand over Nef's, Halifa knew what she was talking about now and asked, "How . . ."

Sighing loudly was one of their adopted granny signatures before she commenced her tale of whatever was seen in someone's life.

"As I told you when you came to live with your aunt, all your schemes will not make you happy. You will have your freedom, but with him, as you will bear many for him."

Halifa could not believe what she heard again. Yes, she heard it years before Jeffery became a thought, and now into a reality, she knew Nef's reading of the future was nothing to jest with.

Nonetheless, Nef also said, "Death might sneak up on her in which, she'll be free from her father." Moreover, to Halifa's point of view, she was somewhat free, but not entirely as she wanted.

Thus, it came to pass now, all of Halifa's machinates were going to fall short because of Jeffery. Closing her eyes and grinding her jaw to prevent what she wanted to say, Halifa felt a touch on her cheek.

Opening her eyes made her smile, as Nef stood before her with a small black vial, and knew what it was. Taking it and tucking it in her breast, she kissed Nef and left her to her own devices.

Walking away with a semi woeful smile on her face, Halifa was going to be a mother in her late twenties and perhaps again by Nef's words. Exhausted all of a sudden, Halifa felt someone's eyes on her and was surprised to see the father of her child walking towards her with all his dark beauty raging about him.

Jeffery saw her go in and waited for her, he would not tolerate any more pink bottles or any bottles for that matter. And, when he looked at Halifa, he knew she received something from Nef and had it on her person.

In the months of staying with them, not once did the men invite him into their caravan, but Jeffery knew the signs of winter, was fast approaching and would have to bunk with someone. Yet, Jeffery still slept under the sky away in the woods to give him space from everyone when he was with Halifa.

Recognizing the route they were taking, there were a few small cabins, weary travelers could reside, and it was precisely where Jeffery was taking her.

Halifa saw where the enrage Earl was taking her.

One of the cabins that she dear not passed by, far less entered due to her cousin. Subsequently, when he kicked the door open and was pulled in while Jeffery slammed it closed standing by the door blocking her exit. Halifa folded her arms under her breast and looked around for any other way to leave.

However, her vision only saw a closed window, a dusty fireplace with cobwebs, and a sad bed in the corner, that looked newly made. Watching Jeffery, Halifa thought she had some power over him, but he seemed to have it all now.

Feeling extremely exhausted, Halifa strove to garner all the strength to say what needed to be said and move on.

Jeffery glared at Halifa as she took deep breaths by the rise and fall of her breast over her folded arms and with her jaw set waiting to do battle with him. He was frustrated with fighting with her sometimes. She needed to know this was no game, this was his life, and she was his wife in body, but not in name as of yet.

In time, she would appreciate that all his children will come from her and be titled like him. Trying to find some equanimity before he searched her body, Jeffery closed his eyes passing his hand in his face, took a deep breath and a step to her.

Halifa knew what he was going to do and took a step back and another to hit against the dirty cabin wall with her hands out to him.

"Jeffery . . ." was all she could have said as his hand snaked under her skirts, reaching her undergarments with his hand in the folds of kitty making her close her eyes on a moan. Yet when his hand departed from her wet kitty, Halifa's eyes sprang open confused, wanting his hands back where it was.

Closing her eyes, Halifa felt he watched her like a hawk, her every expression as his hand went under her blouse searching and fondling her breast. Moaning again from Jeffery's caress, her eyes sprang open, too late as he found her gift from Nef.

"Give it to me." Halifa tried to snatch it from his hold as he pinned her against the wall. Frustrated, Halifa saw his dark eyes glaring at her. She knew he would think the worst and he did as he flung open the cabin door and threw her vial far.

"No," Halifa screamed as she tried to run passed Jeffery to find her little black bottle, only to be tugged back as the door slammed again behind him. She saw he looked worse than the first time he saw the pink bottle in her caravan.

Halifa prepared herself for a fight, even though she knew he would never become physical, save to make love to her.

Nonetheless, with her anger rising, Halifa could not dispose of the years spent devising and waiting for the taste of genuine freedom, for it to be snatched from her now. Because of some lovesick Earl and his . . . With her eyes wide open, Halifa stared at Jeffery with tears streaming down his face. She was prepared for his ranting, but not his tears.

Jeffery could not hold it in anymore. How could he look after her and prevent her from throwing away his child or children? Why would Haliy doubt him so much that she would jeopardize her life to be free from him? Jeffery could not hold it in anymore as he fell on his knees and hugged his Halifa about the waist in a death grip crying.

"I love you. Why, why would you . . . why . . ." Jeffery moaned as he clutched her, making the mother of his child fall on the only dust-free part of the cottage. Halifa scuttled back on her elbows to have Jeffery pull her down under him.

In the weeks, she lost her virginity she was insatiable to this man. She kept away from him by day to do what she needed to do and to be by herself for a moment, but by night he consumed her body.

Jeffery made her disregard what she wanted, for no one in all her years of plotting could alter her plan, but he came and did it in a few months.

Just thinking she wanted to get rid of his child made Jeffery want to pump more of his seed into her as his hands shoved her skirt over her legs pulling down her under frock while she kicked it off.

Halifa knew what he wanted and opened for him as his hand sank in her wet kitty.

The young Earl never wasted a second when his Halifa was ready for him. He pulled out his penis and slammed his way in.

Jeffery was never forceful with a woman, but Halifa made him want to do and say things, no other woman could have pushed him too. Even in his haste to have her every time he would conclude being tender, petting, and soothing whatever hurt he created in his aftermath.

Yet how could he make her see, whatever foolish game his Halifa try to marshal, would not banish him and compel him to leave her? He could not renounce the passion she made him feel.

Submerged deep in her warm walls, Jeffery could not move; he just stayed there staring at her biting her precious bottom lips. Touching her eyes and her cheeks, Jeffery uttered, "You belong to me," and began to move slowly making her cry softly.

Jeffery could only hope she would believe him when he said she was his. There was not a thing in the world that could make him walk away from her like the other men who gave Mary and Jessica their pixies.

He was Halifa's, and Halifa's was his.

With his eyes fastened to hers, Jeffery thought if his words meant nothing to her, his actions would be his words.

Desperate to push his point harder into Halifa's body, while taking possession of her mouth sucking on her sweet lips and tongue making her moan beneath him. He could never have enough of her, and her moans made it hard for him to take his gentle time.

As a young boy, Jeffery was considered avaricious at times, but now, no other woman in his life could make him satisfied as his Haliy.

It felt crazy to want another being as he wanted this woman. Jeffery prayed Halifa would recognize she was his aggregate package of what life was for him. Her body was his to keep while she housed his children. He did not know when the thought of her bearing his children became so gravely potent.

Halifa could not take this anymore. Her body was on fire with need as it betrayed her every time Jeffery conquered her. She could never utter the blasted word NO to him when his handsome rod was affixed in her warm house.

Nor cared too.

She coveted what he did to her repeatedly, but her soul felt frayed every time he took her, and to her heart, Halifa knew when he left it would be hard on her.

How was Halifa to endure when Jeffery had his fill of her, and she was no longer in his system? She wanted to believe Nef and her tale of everlasting love, but the facts lived with her, as her cousin and best friend. Jessica said he would get over her "like a phase."

Together, there was her father to deal with. Poor Jeffery would not survive to be a rival to her dear papa.

For years, Halifa saw how Mary and Jessica became, with their so-called lost love that walked away, without a backward glance and she did not want that for herself. With all his beautiful words declaring, "She was his, and he loved her," Halifa knew nothing could come of it.

Not even Nef's words could persuade her he would stay as he said. In any event, her freedom and independence were all, that matter to her. Although her one major factor to gain such freedom was at her father's word.

With her eyes sealed, Halifa felt he was reaching his junction as he slowed waiting for her to cum together with him.

Not once did Jeffery come without her. With her legs and arms wrapped securely around him, crying her release feeling his seed jetted into her seeping onto her thighs. Weak, but still holding onto to Jeffery, Halifa never knew a man could be filled with so much semen as her Jeffery

Exhausted and happy wrapping her in his arm with his eyes closing, Jeffery lay next to Halifa to hear . . .

"Why do you love . . . me?"

Opening his eyes, he saw Halifa staring at the door with tears sliding down her cheek. Sitting up on his elbow, Jeffery wiped her tears and kissed her cheek, as he pulled out of her arranging her skirt, blouse, and hair to look somewhat decent.

"You don't believe me when I say it?" Jeffery asked, waiting for an answer to his question.

Halifa smoothly replied, "No," after their carnal stint feeling his heartbeat in harmony with hers. With a patter of regret, Halifa said her first lie to him as Jeffery smiled by her artless response and was not surprised.

"Why don't you believe me?"

"You do not know me. How could you love me?" Halifa said wiping her eyes from her never-ending sniffles. "You should not have thrown it away." Jeffery looked at Halifa confused, then remembered her small black bottle.

Drawing away from her, Jeffery leaned against the wall arranging his pants and praying his penis would know this is what he needed to do, to talk. He needed to communicate with his Halifa.

"I meant what I said, you will not . . ."

"It was to make sure the pink bottle, did not harm the baby." Jeffery looked at Halifa puzzled again, when it dawned on him as he dashed out into the late evening, with the forest trees hiding the sun.

Halifa looked at Jeffery as if he was mad, sitting up to wipe her legs and kitty clean from his seed.

She waited a few minutes to see him return with Nef's little black bottle intact giving it to her with a smile on his face. Watching him, Halifa knew she would never truly understand him, but took it and placed it in her bosom with him staring at her expectantly.

"I must eat something first," Halifa said as Jeffery sat back next to her silently.

"I thought once, you cast an enchantment on me. One in which I could not and would not want another woman." Halifa looked at him waiting for him to continue. "We've never talked, barely seen each other and all I could think about was you." Jeffery knew this was something he needed to share with her, to transition into the next phase of their relationship. "Did you do it? Did you cast a . . ." Jeffery turned and looked at Halifa's expression and knew the answer, while she folded her arms under her sweet breast.

"I was seventeen when I glimpsed you. It was evanescent, but it stayed with me for more years than I wanted. I craved you like no other in those ten years." Sighing as he continued.

"Your glimpse gave me blue balls every fucking morning." Halifa looked at Jeffery confused, by his "blue balls" remark. Smiling nervously of how to explain, he craved her body, "Let's just say . . . It pained not to have you physically."

"Was there no other woman around you could have? You have money, name, and looks to have any woman at a drop of a coin or word." Halifa knew the answer to the question but wanted to hear it still.

"I tried. God knows I tried to . . . But I could not stand. I was completely dead below the waist for another woman." Exhaling, "That is why I looked for you. I needed to know if . . . If you did something to me."

"And did I?"

Without looking at Jeffery, Halifa felt his bright eyes on her. "No."

"Why do you want me?" another pointed query Halifa gave Lord Lumley.

Jeffery was never a fool to words, he was not shy, but how could he elucidate to

Halifa that she made him feel more in those few seconds of seeing her than in all his years after his mother died. How might he convince her of his love, if her trust in him was so lacking?

Sighing with his eyes closed, he recalled it was due to Mary and Jessica's failed romance which would cause his Halifa to have reservations when he spoke from his heart. But Jeffery would be damned if he allowed some past hoary, tongue rake, to ruin his chance to have the passionate relationship that he was meant to have his Halifa.

The woman needed to trust his words. What more could he say now that would make her believe in his declarations?

"Halifa," grabbing her hands, Jeffery slid closer to her. "I'm a man of action. I believe action speaks louder than words." It was a testament to how his father ran their household and title.

"And your action shows me you want my body. And I want you to, but . . ." how could Halifa ask about the baby she carried for him and what he honestly expected from her? Should she tell him her plans, should she tell him . . . Groaning with her eyes sealed and taking a deep breath, Halifa felt exhausted.

Her intentions were now, forever changed for good because of him. She did not know which way to go or what to do next. Whatever step she took next, she was going to have Lord Lumley to deal with.

Gazing at his Halifa, Jeffery saw the anxiety in her eyes and felt the tension in her body as he pulled her into his embrace. Feeling her take a deep breath, to then release it, leaning into him. Jeffery hugged Halifa as he pulled her onto his lap and felt her relax in his arms.

He was always watching her, and as he looked at his dear wife to be, a tear fell from her closed eyes once more. Jeffery wanted nothing more than to wipe all the tears that would fall from her but somehow suspected these were just the beginning.
**Chapter Fifteen**

Benny was worried for Halifa, no one would say where she was, but he had a feeling he knew who she was with, that dull English Earl. Why would she go off with him, Benny pondered. Did he beg her for another chance? Laughing to himself, Benny could not blame the fool.

He would never plead for a woman's love or affection but demand it. However, if there were a woman he would degrade himself for, it would be for his Halifa.

Waiting by her caravan for her return, Benny heard Mary and Jessica muttered the word baby. He knew without a doubt, Mary and Jessica were not expecting. Also, the other two women were past the age of childbearing.

Wanting to know more, Benny crept closer to the caravan to hear . . . "It must be crucial gen you listen too." To look back and see Nef standing behind him with her hands behind her back and her grey eye scowling at him.

Nef liked the boy he was hard working and gave up a lot to be with them, or gave up a lot to follow Halifa. Watching him, Nef patted his cheek before he walked away to say, "Go to bed young man." Nef heard Benny's leaden stride shuffle off to his caravan he shared with Ean feeling sorry for him.

She genuinely liked the boy and wished everyone in her little family could have what they most wanted "A Happy Ending." However, she knew some weren't fortunate enough to have a cheery conclusion.

Standing in the circle of their camp, Nef felt nostalgic as all was going to come to pass and change fast for some. Her small clan was going to be more and less within a few months as she gazed at different sizes and shapes of caravans, with every individual touch on the out and inside of their traveling home. Wiping away the miserable moisture in her eyes, Nef knew this would be her last trip with her family.

***

Benny was never one to venture into the cities or villages, not with his temper and . . . and he wanted to stay pure for her. To his gut, this trip into France would lead to him and Halifa making a connection for life. And he was excited to see the morning as he swung open his door from a semi-restful night.

Just thinking of Halifa and him, made him rise with a bounce in his step and heart. Benny was first to emerge from his sort of restful slumber to see the day turned into a stormy one.

Benny could not believe his eyes. The English fuck was kissing her forehead, to then stoop and kiss her stomach and walked away. Benny stumbled and fell back on his caravan steps that must have stirred Ean awake. But looking back, Benny saw the man pulling his blanket over his head to continue and sleep.

Turning around, Benny saw Jeffery walk away from Halifa with a smile on her face. They were not speaking to each other. His Halifa never talked to the blasted man in days. Halifa avoided him at every cost, which made Benny ecstatic.

Yet it all seemed a lie now, a feint that his Halifa was hiding from him. Whatever the reason was, Benny wanted answers and marched over to have them.

Halifa felt so light-hearted as she looked at Jeffery strolling away from her. After their tryst last evening and walking back to the camp this morning, Halifa knew her plans was. . .

"What in heaven's name was that?" Benny shouted as he pointed at a smiling Jeffery making Halifa jump. Benny did not care that she jumped, he just wanted an explanation, but Halifa just stared at him with an angry frown, making him mad by her reaction than what he saw a few moments ago.

Grabbing her arm, Benny pulled her away to have it out. He refused to be toyed with.

Halifa was tired emotionally and physically, and she had no heart to deal with Benny and his demands although he seemed hurt, for some reason. Wanting some rest, yet seeing Benny's distressed, Halifa allowed him to pull her away from her caravan.

To stop out of sight from her home as Benny began to pace staring at her. "It was you they spoke of? " Benny saw her confused expression.

"You're having . . ." Just saying those words were like bile rising onto his tongue.

"You're having, you're having his baby?" he knew what he heard was spot-on, by her wide beautiful eyes gaping at him. How could she allow that English fool to breed her so effortlessly?

The high-born shit was below her in every way possible. How could she? Staring at his Halifa, Benny knew why. Her eyes were telling him the reason Haliy permitted Jeffery to make her a mother and not him.

She loved the English.

Sick and angry, Benny could not stand to look at her and walked away cursing, pounding his heart leaving her behind. There was no way Benny could venture to talk with her rationally as he felt her eyes on him making him hate the English fucking toad more, wanting to dispatch his very life.

As Benny stormed away from the camp and the only woman he ever loved, he stopped by the biggest oak tree and hammered his bare fist against it until it was raw. Grinding his jaw, Benny needed to vent what was bottled up in him, forgetting time was of the essence for their departure to France.

Pacing back and forth looking at where they were camped, Benny could not believe how his sacrifice was not seen of how much he cared for his Halifa.

Was Halifa so blind, she did not see how Benny kept his body pure for her on this last trip? Even though he never actually journey to the village, they were a few women that saw him somehow, wanting a tumble with him. But he knew to his heart, it was near at hand where he would claim his Halifa as his.

"Fucking hell," Benny thundered. How he refused all those light skirts fearing it would be cheating on her, on his Halifa. Yet she was the one that deceived him, and now had a bastard growing in her.

Benny could not hide the agony of that knowledge and ran off with a heart-wrenching roar that escaped from the broken heart, that was caused by his sweet Halifa.

***

Jeffery was more than happy. The word happy could not fully illuminate how he felt. Taking a deep fortifying breath knowing God answered prays. Dressing quickly tying his tattered makeshift cravat, shirt, and trousers in the cabin they shared a few hours ago. Jeffery did not want to waste any time, as he hastened to meet Halifa by her caravan only to see it was gone. Looking around, the young Earl saw all the other trailers were missing also.

But Jeffery was not absent for so long that they would leave without him. They were tracks that could be followed, yet gazing around, not even Winter was left behind that Jeffery could go after her.

Staring at the empty campsite, Jeffery's mind began to spin while something acidic rose from his stomach to heave almost on his clothes as he leaned against a tree. This was not happening to him.

She did not leave him, not after the night they shared.

She would not leave him.

Yes, he hardly knew the mother of his child and his soon to be wife, but he, they had all their lives to get to know each other. So why then, did his Halifa walk away from all that they could build together?

Jeffery mused but was jerked out of his dispirited emotions as he heard a carriage approaching with notable speed. Giving it a second glance Jeffery quickly forgot about the transport that was heading his way and sank on the ground with his legs giving way to the deep grief, he never thought to feel after losing his mother. But what he was suffering, was much more potent and excruciating.

With his eyes closed and head limp falling to his chest with tears dampening his tattered shirt, Jeffery looked up to see the opulent carriage stop not too far from him. As he continued to stare at it, he saw the carriage turned around and stopped in front of him, permitting him to see the crest that was on its blood-red door.

Jeffery would know that emblem anywhere. It belonged to one of his mother's best friend who lived in France but also owned Gates Head Château, another estate he avoided at all cost.

Lord Lumley recognized her symbol because once he visited their home or rather their Chateau when he was young with his mother. Jeffery remembered the crest for the simple fact he was naughty and was reprimanded by his father.

For in his young impish days, Jeffery took a bottle of jam and smeared it all over the carriage door, while they were out for a drive through the village. Never giving a thought of what could ensue. But one of nature's annoying pest, appeared to adore his impish idea, as all the files that were around followed them directly home.

Closing his eyes to the memory of his sore ass, he got from his father and now his broken heart from Halifa leaving him. What started, as an exceptional morning, turned and made his heart sank even further.

"It is getting late my Lord." Jeffery looked up and saw a footman standing by the door holding it open for him. The trodden heart of the young Earl looked at the older gentleman and wondered if he remembered him coming to their Chateau as a child that is why he stopped.

Thinking nothing of it, Jeffery climbed in, dropped on the soft cushioned seat, and fell asleep.
**Chapter Sixteen**

Benny did not care where he was or that he had missed them. He knew where they were and could go to them anytime he wanted too. Yet Benny could not make his feet or heart go near her. He needed some time away from his Halifa until he could figure what to do.

"Cum on lve, don't just stan big an not juke yur cocky in meh. Yur killin meh. Work it."

Benny looked up at the broad woman that was probably handsome in her days, but a hard life changed her into his distraction from Halifa. Desperate for something to soothe his mind, Benny flipped her over onto her back making her laugh scandalous with her massive breast sinking under her arms and neck.

Looking down at her, Benny could not believe he did not feel suffocated when she was over him.

However, as he was over her now and he knew his cock was ready for the challenge of fucking her senseless and drove deep and hard getting a real groan and not some fake ass sound for a customer, but a real moan. Benny piled his hard cock in her and wondered if his Halifa was missing him right this minute.

***

Halifa was naked in his arms again, with her legs wrapped around his waist with him buried deep in her sweet, warm walls. She looked beautiful and sexy being heavy with his child. Smiling at her, Jeffery wanted Halifa just that way every year until every room was filled with their children in their home. Sighing as he turned on his back, Jeffery opened his eyes and looked around.

A fucking dream, torturing his heart.

The embittered young Earl remembered the carriage ride, the bumps of the journey, yet could not recollect how he came into a warm, soft bed. Together with, while looking down at himself under this blanket, Jeffery was cleaned and changed into something that was a silk nightgown.

Turning to his side, Jeffery looked out the window and wished he could go back and sleep to dream again. Nevertheless, he knew he had to rise and greet his kind patron for putting him up.

As the young Earl swung his feet on the ground, he observed a fresh change of clothes that was left on a chair by the warm fireplace taking a step to it. It was quite a while since he was surrounded by such refined elegance and knew he should enjoy the soft four-poster bed that could hold three of him.

The tall ceiling to floor windows with its thick, blood-red curtain pulled away sending a flood of moonlight into his room. However, the second he thought of her, what little enjoyment Jeffery had of his new comfort, vanished.

"Why did she walk away from . . ." Jeffery could not understand why his Halifa would turn away from him when they settle what was in their way in the cabin. Or at least some of her concerns. He knew not everything would be trouble-free for her to transition from an itinerant gypsy.

Yet with his wealth and privileged, Jeffery could not see why she would not want it all.

The woman was mad.

How many fresh face silly girls, he turned down for the simple reason he was waiting for her.

"Fucking hell," Jeffery mumbled as he turned and grabbed his empty stomach. How could she still not believe he loved and cared for her with his life?

She was his everything.

Feeling wretched, Jeffery knew he should be on her trail to catch her, but needed time to wallow in his pity of losing the mother of his child. Staggering out of bed, Jeffery took a step to his newly acquired clothes, to conceded he would have to shake out of his funk to capture his woman, as she became flesh of his flesh.

Yet reeling in his anger and hurt, Jeffery kicked away the chair with his only decent set of clean clothing he had since he left his home, strewing it about the floor. Lord Lumley knew he was behaving like a spoiled child and if his father were there, he would be castigated again in the same house.

Looking at his new attire on the floor, Jeffery felt by donning said apparel would mean the end of . . . Something felt wrong, his chest was constricted, and he could not see. Squeezing his breast, Jeffery took a step to his new attire and passed out.

***

Jeffery turned on his back again and saw that he was in bed again wearing the clothes he kicked to the floor. Watching through the split draperies, he knew it was night still and needed to make an appearance to his host and thank her for her kindness. It had been years since Jeffery last came to this place, but he remembered every nook and cranny as it was yesterday, because of his fast inquisitive days, visiting as a child.

Garb in black fitted trouser, white a wrinkle shirt, remiss of a jacket, waistcoat, and cravat he never really cared to tie. The Earl of Castle Lumley walked out of his room, to venture forward to express his gratitude to his host.

Jeffery knew he was on the second floor at the beginning of the hallway. He also knew this floor held all the special guests and that each room had its private balcony. The corridor itself could have a carriage ride through it with ease and yet have people stroll alongside its moving conveyance. The walls were the only flaw in this section of the Chateau.

There were too many deceased visages watching his movements.

Descending the staircase, he saw they kept the silver handrail polished as always, where you can see your reflection. Yet Jeffery's tormented façade was not, what he cared to see nor show anyone, but he needed to make an appearance. With his stomach growling, Jeffery knew the one place he desired to go to first.

And as the young Earl pushed open the double doors of the dining room, Jeffery realized the house seemed rather silent, almost dead. Was he the only person in residence?

Tired again, Jeffery dragged a chair and sat in the middle of the dining table to see a silver dome covered something at the end of the table. He presumed it was his meal, but looking straight ahead at the side table, Jeffery saw something he much preferred and went for it.

As a young man, Jeffery was never a drinker like his cousin Alex, but with Halifa leaving him it was a very commendable incentive to pick up the occupation. Therefore, Jeffery took a swig of the Brandy, which scorched going down his empty stomach.

It was such poor taste he was behaving, but he did not care one whit as he drank straight from the decanter.

Grinding his jaw, Jeffery hated the fact he was alone again. Not even his father or cousin knew what was happening to him. Feeling smothered from his wretched emotions, Jeffery desperately needed some air and opened the French doors to stand and look at one of the beautiful gardens his mother once gushed on about when he was a child.

But all he saw was shrubs that were colorful as he stumbled out into the dull night with the moon peeking through some clouds.

With the bottle three-quarters empty, Jeffery staggered to a bench and dropped his heavyweight on the seat. Grinding his jaw as he watched the empty carafe, Jeffery threw the decanter away hearing it shattered on the bizarre style walkway. Bending forward, Jeffery covered his face as tears welled in his eyes.

Gad, he was behaving like a lovesick schoolgirl and not a grown man with duties awaiting him home at Castle Lumley. Nonetheless, he felt like a baby as he tried to stand, but swayed looking out at the garden where Halifa was coming towards him, dressed in the latest height of fashion.

Jeffery took one-step to the Mirage with his hand out and touched her cheek feeling the warmth and seeing a smile plastered on the phantasm as it faded into the depth of his dark misery.

Groaning as he turned again on his back and felt the world spin before his eyes, Jeffery was yet in a bed in a nightgown. "What the fuck. Who the hell . . ."

"You need a valet." A sweet voice declared making his head spun, and his heart skipped a beat. Jeffery wanted to know if it was a dream he was in or . . .

"Stop gaping at me. Get dress and meet me in the study. Rene wants to see you." Jeffery sat up and looked at his dream walking out on him.

"Haliy?" Jeffery barely whispered as she vanished again. Mind wrenching, but not wasting any time, Jeffery yanked on his clothes looking half-drunk as he ran after his apparition.

Thank God, he did not need direction and went straight to the study. Entering the room, he looked around fast making his stale drunk and hungry sense spin, but his mind was focused on whom he was looking for, and found her.

Jeffery stared at his Halifa seated beside his archenemy. Disregarding him, Jeffery's sight was fastened on the smile on her face, looking like royalty in her low cut green gown that was hugging her glorious breast, capped sleeve with bows on said sleeve and under her chest. Jeffery's eyes were latched onto her perfectly semi-exposed, sweet décolletage and did not like one bit that Rene was in said décolletage company.

They saw him enter, yet Rene refused to acknowledge him, but he did not come to the study for Rene, but Halifa. Cutting across their distance, Jeffery stood in front of her as she stared up at him with a frown on her face and yanked her up by arms, shook, and pulled her into a tight embrace.

Jeffery knew he was standing in front of his most hated nemesis as tears welled in his eyes and overflowed onto his cheek dampening Halifa's bared shoulder. He did not care. She was in his arms, she was . . .

"It appears you still have an abundance of tears, young Jeffery." He knew his words were meant to cut him, but nothing could hamper his joy at having Halifa again in his arms. He also knew Rene's eyes were drilling into his cranium and yet he did not care.

However, Jeffery understood with Rene watching his reaction, a hateful corollary would inevitably ensue and pulled away to look at Halifa watching him with those painfully, gorgeous eyes that can bring him to his knees.

Jeffery had much to ask her, yet it would have to wait until they were alone and would not tolerate Rene's presence any longer.

"If you're thinking of a way to be free of my company," Rene said as if he read Jeffery's thoughts, he stood and made his way to the door.

"Let me save you the trifle words. I'll give you your privacy." Jeffery glared at Rene as he left and found it strange, but he did not care to think of Rene right now as he pulled Halifa into another constricted hug.

"Jeffery, Jeffery," Halifa said as she tried to push him away from his death hug, her heart could not stop racing. This man did this to her. How was it possible to feel so much passion at what was supposed to be a passing phase?

"You're a wicked woman, wicked," Jeffery growled shaking and making her fall back on the settee to gaze at him as if he had to gone mad to pace before her, holding his forehead.

"Do you know what you did to me? Have you any thought of how you broke me?" he asked as he walked about trying to calm his racing heart. Jeffery turned and looked at Halifa staring at him. He was mad as hell she left him, but could not retain those feelings, as his woman was back with him.

Taking a deep, steady breath, Jeffery was still feeling the effects of an empty stomach, and too much of rich spirits as his hangover was pulling him down. To escape a giddy mind, Jeffery sat and pulled Halifa on his lap and hugged her resting his head on her soft full breast.

Halifa could not help but stroke Jeffery's hair, trying to make it look somewhat of what it was a few days ago. With her eyes closed, Halifa saw Jeffery's reaction when he thought she left him and it warmed her heart to think he cared and missed her so.

When Jeffery was incapacitated as she came to check on him, he would be in a deep sleep, tossing and turning cursing her as he whimpered. Halifa marveled to think two days without her, made him so tormented.

To wonder what would he do when she was no longer with him.

It was inevitable, for when her father arrived at his expected time and found out about her situation. He would take her back without a doubt, and she would never see Jeffery again. Just the thought made her want to cry out as she held onto Jeffery in his embrace.

"How do you know Rene?"

With his question, Halifa tried to smother a deep annoying groan, and conceded inquiries would be made, yet was praying he would just be happy to see her and forget any interrogation for now.

Securing her eyes and taking a deep breath for a second, Halifa pushed Jeffery away while fixing her costume of a gown to glare at her hated attire.

It never ceases to amaze her the trappings of high fashion in society. For Halifa, the mere thought of being distress of your wardrobe was a weight she could live without. However, whenever they came back to her old life, she would always have to wear constricting apparel. She much preferred her costumes as a gypsy were a corset would not suck the air out of her.

With a smile on her face as she placed her hands on her stomach, Halifa was thankful she would be free from the stiff garment for a while at least. It was a frightful notion before, the idea of being a mother. Yet now, it was a blissful desire to know she was going to be a mother.

She was not married but would have a child all of her own. Whenever Halifa considered Mary and Jessica and saw how they did such a marvelous job with Finny and Nicest. Halifa knew she would and could do the same.

"How do you know Rene?"

Halifa came back to the question her mind traveled away from answering. She sat opposite Jeffery on the plush green patterned settee, touching its soft covering avoiding Jeffery and his queries.

"Staying silent will not prevent me from finding out how you know Rene." Jeffery declared as he sat beside her holding her hand in his lap. Halifa looked at Jeffery and felt a tad nervous to answer his simple question, and thought just to say it.

"Rene is to be my husband." Halifa believed she would have seen anger flare in Jeffery's eyes, but he just stared at her blankly.

"Why would you marry Rene? How do you know him? What is going on?" without missing a breath, Jeffery squeezed Halifa's hand knowing she would want to scuttle away by all his queries that flowed. Except Jeffery was not having it. He wanted to know how her gypsy clan new the third most affluent family in France and England.

Jeffery stared at Halifa waiting for an answer from at least one of his questions as Halifa sat gazing at the flickering fireplace. Wanting to see her eyes as he asked again, Jeffery sat on the ottoman pulling her to sit on his lap waiting for his answers.

Staring at Jeffery, she knew he was more than persistent when he wanted something. Moreover, he would not leave one of his inquiries unanswered, but how could she tell him all her plans in one evening. There were crucial points she needed to impart to Jeffery, her history that consists of almost fifteen years of trying defying men.

Of one gentleman exclusively who wanted to control and keep her in a box. That is why Halifa made her plans so many years ago and knew now was the time to see it come to fruition. Yet the man she was sitting on came and complicated all her schemes rather nicely.

With her heart racing, Halifa viewed the study with its tall French windows shedding light at every turn. With its wall-to-wall bounded books in leather that was much older than her, with some racy novels that were considered as sinful literature.

Many days when she was young, Halifa would hide to read those wicked manuscripts that were concealed in said leather-bound books in a corner.

The study had couches and love seats in a circle with one large desk that overlooked the windows and beautiful gardens. Halifa knew the family adored the written word and as such, their study and library were of similar taste.

"Halifa," Jeffery shouted. It was the first time he remembered raising his voice at her, and undoubtedly it would not be the last. By doing it, he got her attention and held onto her hands as she tried to yank it away from him.

"Stop delaying and answer me."

"Why can't you just be happy to be here, with me for now?" she could not stand to be so close to him as she pulled and pushed him away to stand behind the couch.

"Why are you so . . ." Halifa did not have a word to describe how Jeffery made her feel. "Why are you so fucked up?"

With his eyes wide and in awe with a smile on his face. Some might think it rather strange he would find it amusing, that his woman would swear like a guttersnipe, but it was apart of her tongue.

Jeffery adored every part of the blasted woman as she spewed such filthy words from those sweet lips. It was just one tidbit he found and loved about her. Staring at his Halifa, Jeffery did not want any space between them as he took her and sit with her on his lap again, wrapping his arms around her waist to wait for her answers.

Halifa exhaled her defeat and knew she needed to share her connection with Rene, but just by Jeffery's and Rene's little interaction, she knew they were not friends, so she needed to thread her words cautiously.

"Rene bid for my hand and was successful. My father . . ." Halifa looked at Jeffery's confused expression and stopped. "What?"

"Your father sold you to him like a mare?" Halifa could see and knew it appeared like that to him. It was customary in the realm of a peer, to be placed in marriage to the highest bidder, whether love was in play.

Nothing was wrong with Rene and the match, but she could not play the games the men around her did. Therefore, she concocted her plan that "was" going according to her wishes.

"You will not marry him. I cannot believe your father sold you to him of all people. He's . . ."

"He's not so bad." Watching Jeffery's expression, she knew it was an unwise declaration as he sat her aside and paced before her again. Halifa loved to look at him agitated. It was not planned, but he looked sexy when he was angry and pouting. For the men in her life never pout in such a sensual mode.

"Do you love him? I don't want to know. He cannot have you. Your mines."

Jeffery stopped and looked at Halifa staring at him as if he spoke like a crazed gentleman. It was evident he had her. She was carrying his child, and before they left for his home, Jeffery would have her as his wife. Retaking his seat, he placed her on his lap again.

"How did Rene find you?" Jeffery knew the lower class, were treated as objects to be sold and gypsies were no different from the rich who saw one of their girls and took them. And Rene saw the gem in his Halifa and went straight to the source to have her as his. Smiling Jeffery was proud he put his stamp in her, by making her pregnant.

"When can I meet your father?" Halifa looked at Jeffery as if he genuinely lost his mind. To think she would willingly ever introduce the father of her child to her father. If given a choice, Halifa would leave with Jeffery as fast as possible to his home and hide there until . . . "Whatever price Rene paid, I can triple it." Halifa needed to exculpate this misunderstanding,

"Jeffery, Rene did not buy me like what you're . . ."

"There you are, my boy." Both Jeffery and Halifa turned to look at a short woman dressed in black standing by the study door staring at them. With their host, there was no surprise to see an unmarried woman sitting on a single man's lap in her house.

She was the only female he would ever consider as the second mother to him. The petite wrinkle woman was also the wealthiest woman in France, after the death of her last husband.

Which some thought her somewhat eccentric.

"Come, come, Haliy, off with you, I need to speak to my boy," Countess Leslie was most pleased and impressed by the scene she walked into. It had been a while since she saw love, that looked like that. Where there was no question about who loved who and if they wanted each other.

"I need to speak to Jeffery, and you can have him after I'm through with my boy. Now go find something to do my dear."

Jeffery was annoyed with his godmother Countess Leslie, pulling Halifa off his lap and pushing her out of the study. He knew he could not stand due to Haliy was sitting on him, so he tugged the nearest object to cover his lap from the sharp eyes of his godmother.

Staring at Leslie closing the door softly to lean on it with her eyes piercing him. Watching her was like gazing at his mother, even though they looked nothing alike. She just had a maternal charisma about her that drew him to her, even at times like this.

Leslie sat opposite Jeffrey staring at him with a book on his lap and smiled. She knew what was under there and what was going on. With a sly smile on her face, she clapped her hands together to get her godson attention.

"So you are in love and at my house all in one season. Good." Leslie watched Jeffery narrow his eyes on her.

"Don't you dare look at me so, little boy," She said waving her hands at him dismissing him all at once. "You've been absent from me for far too long, and now I have you and what you want and I know you're not going anywhere without her."

Jeffery was familiar with how his godmother's mind worked. It was astute as if she were in her youth. The woman had a long-standing memory that no one could hide nor tolerate for too long. And for the short time he visited her as a boy, he learned her ways as fast as he learned to walk.

When Leslie made plans for you while staying at her house, she would hold you to it and every last pursuit she conceived. You would have to follow it all through. Nevertheless, Jeffery had no intention of hanging around Gates Head Château and Rene long enough to enjoy a tiresome visit.

Without a doubt, Jeffery knew it was crucial to find a minister to get married within a week and head home. With that to accomplish, it would be a matter of meeting Halifa's father and dealing with him for selling her to the likes of Rene as if she were some mare in a stockade, he would deal with him. But for now . . .

"Don't you think for one minute, I would free her to leave my little home. She is bond to Rene and has duties to this family, and if you want her, you have to go through me." That got his attention and stopped his mind from working on fleeing Leslie's house for now.

The unseen smile on Leslie's face was felt, deep within her soul's heart as she gazed at Jeffery narrowing his eyes on her for the second time since she saw him. It made her heart soar to see that her dear sweet Jeffery, had more than a bit of "fight" in him as from a child.

He would conquer whatever battle to ensure he walked away with Halifa.

"What do you mean bond to Rene and your family? And why must I go through you? She's just a gypsy."

Scowling was never Leslie's thing to do as a young girl, for her nanny would forever scold her about wrinkles at a youthful age. However, Jeffery's words left her brows creased and raised high. Haliy had yet to share her story with him, even as she carried his child.

With a hidden smirk from within her spirit amplified, Leslie knew this season would be a joyous one with all the drama her fete was famous for. And it was all due to the Earl of Scarborough and the Princess of Egypt.
**Chapter Seventeen=**

His first night after his interview with his godmother left Jeffery with so many questions that no one seemed to have time to answer. Nothing of Halifa's interaction with Countess Leslie made any sense. How did his godmother know her and how did Leslie know Haliy's father?

Why was she pledge to the family and that degenerate of a man? Jeffrey laid in his bed content that he was within reach of his Halifa. Even with all those queries suspended in his mind, Jeffery positioned a hand under his head, and one hand resting not far from his crotch and saw it missed the mother of his child.

Wanting to see Halifa, Jeffery had not a clue in which chamber she was given. Along with all the hustle and pleasure of finding and holding her, Jeffery never bothered to ask which room they gave her and so went off to meet her before supper.

He knew she should be on the same level as him, for the floor housed Queens and Kings and his Halifa was indeed a Princess in his eyes.

Standing by his door, looking at the long span of the hallway, Jeffery thought maybe he should ask a servant.

If he found one.

It always amazed him to know how large the chateau was and that it ran like a well-oiled clock. You rarely saw servants, only when they were serving your needs.

Deciding to take a walk, Jeffery allowed his mind to amble off as he passed a few doors to stop as he heard giggles. Leslie had no grandchildren unless Rene felt it wise to fetch his unclaimed growing nursery to his mother's home.

Being a tad impudent, Jeffery pressed his ears to the door and knew instantly that those twitters were from none other than his pixies. And as he entered silently, he found the gem he was looking for.

Gazing at the pixies and Halifa, he was treated to see her body covered in the flimsiest piece of cloth that scarcely hid anything from his imagination. As his Haliy was without a robe. Jeffery could not walk for the sight of her before him and leaned back on the door to stare at her playing so freely with the pint-size sprites.

Halifa felt liberated whenever she played with the girls. They took away absolutely all the stress that was transpiring around her, and everything was occurring all at once. Soon the little peace she had with Jeffery would be gone, with her returning home far too abruptly. And with a dip of her heart, God knew what would become of her child and Jeffery.

"Girls, girls," Halifa said tumbling tired and blindfolded near the girls, on their three feet high bed they shared.

"You need to get ready for bed." Pulling off the blindfold, that half-covered her eyes.

"But we're not sleepy," Nicest said pouting with her hands on her tiny hips.

"And we haven't . . . Jeffery." Both girls squealed running off to their, dear sweet uncle, Jeffery.

Halifa spun around nearly falling off the bed to see Jeffery leaning on the door with his arms crossed over his chest, gazing at her with those intense eyes.

"Did you come to play with us?" Finny asked pulling him to sit beside Halifa on their grand bed.

"You're a ghastly young man," Nicest said getting Jeffery's full attention by her remark.

With a smile and frown on his face, Jeffery asked, "And how am I ghastly my dear pixie?" Lord Lumley asked as he lifted Nicest and placed her on his lap for her to illuminate.

"Yes, you are," Finny stated climbing on Jeffery's next leg and pulling his arm around her petite body.

"You disappeared and never told a soul you were going away. Is that a nice thing to do to those you love, hum?" Jeffery gaped at both girls waiting for his explanation to his desertion, to look across at Halifa for help of his disappearance, but with Halifa's thick eyebrows raised, he saw no support of clarification would come from her.

Clearing his throat, "Well my dear I went away for a while only to learn that I cannot live without the woman I love."

"I'm not a woman yet silly," Finny said poking Jeffery's chest giggling.

"Neither am I," Nicest said, mimicking Finny by jabbing Jeffery's chest.

Smiling, "No, you're not women as yet, but someday soon. What I meant to say . . ."

"You could not live without aunty Haliy?" Finny declared, cutting Jeffery's speech as both girls said in unison, "AH!" with broad smiles plastered on their faces.

Staring into Halifa's eyes as he spoke to the girls, Jeffery made it clear, "I will never be apart from her again. I can promise you that."

The man had powers he did not know of, Halifa was sure of. As she heeded Lord Lumley words to the girls, she felt every atom of her being, he spoke for her ears, heart, mind, and soul to digest he declared a law of reality. And at that moment, Halifa needed to be free from him.

"Girls I need . . . I need to . . ." Halifa tried to make some excuse to leave but lost all train of thought and just got up and kissed the girls and rushed out the room feeling Jeffery's damn gaze as an arrow on her back.

Jeffery smiled as he stared at his Halifa making a speedy retreat from him with the girls on his lap, bright-eyed and sleepless. She knew they were filled with energy, and sleep would not claim the pixies instantly. The woman was smart to realize it would take a while before he could come after her.

"So be it." He whispered more to himself. He could play the game she wanted him to perform. Nevertheless, it will all end how he intended. No one, absolutely no fucking one was going to keep him away from Halifa.

He waited ten long years, he had his minute with her, and now Jeffery wanted life. The Earl of Castle Lumley planned to have what he prayed and dreamed of with his passionate gypsy.

***

Jeffery was told a few times, he was boorish by his peers when he was tired and fed up, of hearing or being in any situation for any extended time that was not to his pleasure. It was also the reason he could never sit in the House of Lords he would go barmy. Nonetheless, he strived to suppress a loud groan from escaping his mouth to his godmother ears, but Jeffery could not hide his displeasure.

"Lord woman, you're driving me mad," Jeffery grumbled to the top of his lungs.

In the few days of being sober, since he stayed at his godmother's home, his frustration of not seeing his Halifa when he desired, was driving him to the deep end that he wanted to tear apart Leslie's domicile to find her.

Countess Leslie's perfectionist ways were one of the reasons he seldom visited his godmother after his own mother's death as a grown man. The woman would dominate his daily goings-on, demanding his attention for anything her heart required.

Jeffery saw more of everyone else than his Halifa. When Leslie wanted him for something or the other, she would not accept any delay from him, but Jeffery must do all her bidding at her every vagary.

And as such, it was depleting what little patience he had.

The whole clan was in residence for the duration of their stay it seemed. Tamiya, Nef, the men, Mary, Jessica, and the sweet Pixies that were forever his shadow. Jeffery did not mind the Pixies.

They relaxed him and taught him what it would be like to be a father in the not too far future. However, his lack of being with the mother of his child was grating on his nerve.

"Are you listing Jeffery?" Leslie knew she was pushing him as her gaze fasten, on him pacing like a caged tiger in a kept zoo. But he needed to toughen up due to the events that were going to unfold within a month or week or even days if the young couple had that much time.

She loved both of them dearly and did not want to see the outcome of their new romance plummet for lack of awareness on Jeffery's part.

She knew she should be assisting her son to keep Halifa for himself. However, he was still in his drunken, whoring ways that would lead to a horrible marriage between Rene and Halifa. Leslie knew Rene had some kind of love for Halifa. Maybe as a little sister that grew on him, but it was not an intense passion as Jeffery.

Looking at Jeffery, Leslie wished life could be so easy as to fall in love with whomever they wanted. Yet his world and Halifa's realm were not the same.

"Why are you keeping me from her? This is madness." Jeffery barked as he walked off to grab the parlor door, but was stopped by Leslie standing before his exit in an instant.

Taking a deep breath, Jeffery massaged his brow, to look at his godmother standing before him with a concerned expression. "I knew she was not your traditional gypsy, the moment we met. Nevertheless, all this headache of you and everyone trying to keep me away from her, it makes no sense. She belongs to me and not to Rene or her father to hawk for money. SHE . . . IS . . . MINES," Lord Lumley declared pointing his chest for the umpteen time to anyone who tried to keep him from being with his Halifa.

"It's over," he growled, "It ends right now, all impediments of me having her. It ends now." Jeffery said as he lifted his godmother under her arms to remove her from blocking his exit.

"What are you doing?" Leslie asked as she held Jeffery's hand in a fierce grip from leaving her. She wanted him to know everything but felt she was the wrong person to share what Halifa and her clan were. Halifa needed to reveal who her family was to Lord Lumley.

"Jeffery, have you any idea or given any thought why I would leave a long-term engagement to stand between Halifa and Rene?" Leslie saw that kept him from storming through her house looking for Halifa.

"Have you not speculated why I would allow gypsies into my home in the first place?" with a sigh of relief, Leslie saw behind his temper, Jeffery's mind was questioning the unasked inquiries.

"Jeffery my boy," Leslie said pulling him to sit beside her on a love seat. "I know you love her," smiling by his waiting to hear her out, "You are consumed by her, I know the feeling, but you cannot permit yourself to be blinded by your comely cock."

Jeffery stopped rubbing his eyes and stared at his godmother with her brazen words.

"Yes, you heard me. I have known about your ten-year itch and the journey to find and have my Halifa," taping Jeffery's knee, Leslie needed a stiff drink to share some of what she knew to her only godson that meant anything to her.

Jeffery continued to stare at Leslie as she poured two full tumblers of brandy and handed one to him. As he took a sip and looked up at the lissome, but the forceful woman sitting opposite him with her glass empty.

In all his life, Jeffery knew his godmother could partake in strong drink and hold her own against any gentleman. Nonetheless, as he watched her handshake placing her glass next to his, Jeffery recognized there was something additional bothering her. Therefore, he waited for her to spill whatever it was and it did not take long.

"My boy. . . Halifa and her people are not . . ."

"I think . . ." Jeffery interrupted.

"Damn it, just, just shut the hell up and let me say my piece . . . please." Leslie saw that her brisk words worked as he kept his lip in a tight line and stared at her. Sighing as she began again.

"I have known Halifa since she was a child. I know her father, and he did not sell her to us. She is not . . . She is not someone to trifle or a plaything to frolic with." Taking a deep breath assisted Leslie to stay on her course to aid her only noteworthy godson.

"Halifa's father has more funds to buy both you and I and half of England together. And with money, you know there is . . . power. So do not be cuckolded by the modest way they live. Halifa . . ."

"There you are. . ." Leslie groaned hearing her son's voice, to turn and see Rene leaning by her parlor door, wide open with his hands folded over his chest. A place he never cared to seek her out, yet there he stood.

"What is it?" Leslie asked annoyed at being interrupted.

"Mother I think you should come to see, to our visitor."

"Can't you deal with the individual Rene, I'm . . ."

"It's the Ammon's man."

With those words, Leslie's gaze fastened to her son for a second, fearing what was about to happen. "Jeffery my boy if you love her, really love Haliy. Fight for what is yours, you love." And with that, Leslie tapped Jeffery's knee leaving him with Rene.

Jeffery was weary. He was blasted exhausted by the intrigue that came with Halifa and her clan. He did not want her family, just her, just Halifa. Groaning his frustration, why did everyone make it so hard to be with just her?

They knew he was not giving her up, so why did they all try to break what was sealed covenant between them. She was having his child, and he was going to marry her within a week. He already sent word for a priest and made his borrowed valet procure a "special license" so he could wed Halifa in his godmother's home.

"So, did mother enlighten you, to whom you're playing with?" Rene could not help but feel noble by the look of vexation on Jeffery's flawless façade. Rene could not remember a time when he did not hate the boy who stole all the affection and attention of his mother because of Jeffery's mom's demise.

As Leslie's only living child, he knew it was not Jeffery's fault, that his mother died when he was so infantile, but his woeful young presence took his mother away from him also.

On a sigh, Rene sat precisely where his mother vacated and looked at Jeffery and felt a tinge of pity for him. If he only knew what he did to Halifa could mean . . .

"What the hell do you want?"

And with that, hearing the young prick speak to him so, wiped away what little sympathy Rene had for him.

"I don't want anything from you, ole boy. Not one single thing." Rene replied staring at Jeffery chewing on his inside lip.

"Then fuck off and leave us alone," Jeffery said as he walked out leaving Rene in his mother's parlor gazing around. His mother's salon was one of many rooms he never hazarded to enter that belonged to her. It smelt like old people who were forever ill or in pain and looked too bright whenever he happened to walk by and glimpsed within.

The walls were a nauseating yellow, bright as the morning sun with flowers on the walls that appeared like, you can smell it. The couch was an infuriating yellow with pink throw pillows, a large yellow ottoman a man could sleep on, and a white desk by the bay window that overlooked one of his mothers' many gardens.

Grinding his jaw with his eyes closed, trying to shake the very sight of the vile yellow room, there was one redeeming element to his mother's apartment that he could endure. It was the spirits of the chamber. Countess Leslie stash of divine "liquor or rum." Sighing loudly, Rene thought he might as well make use of his mother's good taste in strong spirits and try some of her drink while the drama unfolded with Halifa and Jeffery.
**Chapter Eighteen**

Halifa laid in bed with an overwhelming feeling of tragedy that was coming her way. She saw clearly and was trying to steel herself for the upcoming battle, but nothing could honestly prepare her for what was indeed approaching.

Turning to her side, she stared out the window to see how perfect outside looked, with the crisp sun and brilliant cerulean sky that meant for one to spend the day outdoors, but she had no desire to take part in the day.

It amazed her, to think just a few days ago, the chill of winter was forthcoming and now . . . Now the sky was a calm blue with warmth in its air. It felt like something was impeding the cold consternation.

Closing her eyes to the beautiful day, Halifa placed her hands on her stomach thanking God for what was growing in her. Nevertheless, even in her thankful state, she knew her short time with Jeffery was drawing to an end making tears slid down her cheek. Even with the unwanted tears and dread, came a smile on her face for the father of her child.

She wondered if Jeffery could survive her father's will, with all his talk of love and passion that he averred to have. Closing her eyes, Halifa knew he showed his desire as much as he spoke it and if she was truthful to herself, she felt it to her core, Jeffery's steadfast love.

And with that comprehension, tears began again in earnest to tumble down her cheeks in a rivulet as she sat up hugging her knees crying like a child. So enthralled in her grief, Halifa did not hear when someone enter her room.

"Haliy?" Jeffery knew something felt wrong as he knocked on her door and heard whimpering, it could only be his Haliy, as Leslie finally shared where they roomed her. Opening the door, Jeffery looked at her hugging her knees with tears streaming down her glowing creamy cheeks and wondered what made her cry.

Was it him or the baby? Sitting beside her, he felt nervous with his hand's inches away from her.

"Jeffery?" Halifa thought of him, and there he was sitting beside her looking nervous. She wanted so much to protect her nascent family. However, all she could have done at that moment when she saw Jeffery looking lost at her, was throw herself into his arms. Smiling, Halifa knew that in his arms she felt safe, happy, and free which made her cry even more in his embrace.

Her relentless tears were for what could have been between her and Jeffery, a full life together that will never be. As her plans were lost forever now as well as what Nef pronounce would fail to occur and will never be because the time for her review was near at hand.

Jeffery never cared to hear a woman cry, any woman for that fact. Nonetheless, hearing and seeing Halifa cry in his arms, felt like someone was cutting half his heart out with a rusty knife. If she did not stop, he too would start to spring like a fountain, and heaven knows he did not want her to see him bawling once again.

"Haliy, Haliy you need to stop it. I cannot endure it when you cry. Please cease and tell me what's going on. What is wrong?" He knew he sounded insensitive, but how else could he get a word from her tearful sobs. Only to see it worked as she pulled away and gazed at him wiping her eyes that were red and puffy now.

Halifa looked at him and saw the concern in his arresting dark gaze. She needed to tell him who she was and soon. Leaning back on her bed, Halifa made a note of how free she felt at that moment with him in her room.

It felt normal to have Jeffery on her bed, a real bed. Feeling a bit calm and with a smile forming on her lips, Halifa realized it was the second time they were in a bedroom and on a bed together with both wide-awake and clothed.

"What's the smile for?" Jeffery asked as he sat beside her pulling her into his embrace. He knew this woman so well now, he could read her thoughts and what she felt at times and Jeffery grasped what she was thinking. It was the same preoccupation on his mind.

Jeffery was awake in a bedroom, on a bed with her, their first time-sharing a bed. He wanted her naked and beneath him, but knew she wanted to say something meaningful and needed his arms instead of his hard cock that was making a tent in his pants now.

"Stay with me tonight." It was not what he thought she wanted to say, but he was not going to sleep alone this evening. No one was parting him from his woman tonight or any other night.

Brushing her long black curly hair that had fallen on her face, Jeffery wanted to spend the day with her alone.

"Winter must think I've forsaken him. Why don't we fritter the day together, just the two of us?" Jeffery asked waiting as a set of pearly white teeth smiled at him, adding a blinding glow he could never tire of seeing.

"The day is young, fresh, and I would love to show you . . ."

"Stay close to me today, I don't need to see anything, just don't leave my side." Halifa could not help but feel like everything was drawing to an ultimate end for both of them. She needed, no, Halifa desperately wanted to have just one day where she could look back and remember she was free, and her love was still with her.

***

If half a day made his heart feel like it was going to explode with joy for being with Halifa. Then what would become of him as they walked through life hand in hand? Letting go of a silent sigh, Jeffery wanted to show his girl, one of his favorite playgrounds he had as a child when he visited his godmother.

Not wasting a moment when his Halifa proclaim she wanted to spend the day with him, Jeffery was pulling her out of the house before she could change her mind, feeling excited as a lost boy from Neverland. Lord Lumley headed straight to the stables and saddled Winter, as well as Halifa horse that was hers when visiting the Chateau.

There were things Jeffery wanted to ask her, but their day was spent talking about his search and wait for her and of how she learned about him as he stalked her. In between their natter, he held and kissed her showing how much he cared for her, not just physically.

As the sun was heading west for a rest, Jeffery heard his Haliy's stomach growl and knew their small impromptu lunch that was packed in haste, could not be sufficient for her and his child, so decided to visit one of his secrets havens.

"I need to rest, my feet hur . . ." Halifa was saying, but half screamed and laugh at the same time as Jeffery scooped her up and walked off. She never wandered this part of Leslie's estate.

Sincere to form, most of the time when Halifa came, it was to give account for the year's travel and to make sure she was healthy and safe. Her father never asked if his daughter was happy, for all he wanted or cared to know was that his baby girl was hale and safeguarded.

As Jeffery placed her down and led her through a narrow path, Halifa saw the determination in every step he took and right there and then, she knew he would fight for her. Sighing with her eyes closed, Halifa wished they could be as they were now and forever.

Jeffery knew when he felt her eyes roaming his body as he held her hand pulling her along. It was beyond perfect to know that her eyes were on him, and he could sense she wanted him more, even if it was physical, but it would have to wait until tonight.

As they broke the clearing of the fruit garden he was taking her, Jeffery saw Haliy's eyes lit up in awe. They were encased by grapevines, which spanned a few rows of green and red grapes with a small quaint pergola that had a few vines running along the crooks of the gazebo. Halifa walked by each grapevine picking and sampling on the sugary nectar with a whisper of a moan escaping from her mouth.

"This is so sweet, I can . . ." she was saying when she looked up and saw Jeffery staring at her lips.

Feeling a bit devious, Halifa plucked a grape from the vine and held it out to Jeffery, but looking at his eyes, she knew sucking a grape was not the item he wished to nibble.

Jeffery refused to believe his Halifa could tease him, for she must know how hungry he was for her at all the times. His prick would stand at attention just thinking about this sensual woman, and his balls would grow heavy with pain.

Taking a deep breath, he needed to calm his thoughts, for surely he would have blue balls.

Jeffery was fortunate enough to have his Halifa at his godmother Chateau, and he was thankful he did not have to traipse about the countryside in search of her again. For he knew to his heart, he could not endure another portion of his time pursuing her. Furthermore, now that he had his Halifa where he desired her, Jeffery promised himself to take her on a soft bed and not in the woods or on the ground like a rutting animal again.

She deserved much more than that.

Nevertheless, as he watched her lick her lips from the fruit, sweet juice, he needed to taste those luscious lips and pulled her hand as he took her offer. Jeffery held onto her fingers and sucked it, making her moan. Watching her, he knew he had the same effect she had on him.

They were addicted to each other in every which way possible.

Jeffery knew he made a promise to himself but not audibly for anyone to hear, mere seconds ago of not taking his Halifa on the ground. Yet when his gaze locked on her bosom, seeing sweat trickle down the valley of her breast, he lost it. Moaning, "Haliy," Jeffery pulled her into his chest and slammed his mouth on hers drinking her divine tongue.

She tasted better than the grapes. Jeffery could not help himself as he walked her back, pressing her back onto an apple tree with his hand making a mess of her hair and lifting her skirt while sucking her pleasurable patois. His hand roamed under her dress as he found the sweetest nectar known to him and man.

Pressing his hands on her wet mound and squeezing it made her whimper, pulling his hand closer to her precious kitty. Jeffery slid a finger into her, and she bit his lip making him smile as she nipped his rim. Adding another digit into her wet opening, made Halifa moan, putting her hand down his pants, he could not think when she touched him and grab her hand in vise grip to stop her.

Jeffery knew his Halifa never cared for any hindrance when she wanted him, and the young Earl could not blame her. For when he yearned for her, and something tried to halt him in any way, his thresh hold of anger would increase more than he thought possible. All Jeffery knew when he craved her, his Halifa, and must have her without any interruption and so was his Haliy.

Opening his eyes slowly, Jeffery tried to focus as her body became stiff and withdrew his fingers from in her. "Haliy . . ." was all that he could have said before she pushed him away pulling down her clothes as she walked away from him. God, Jeffery thought the woman was like the weather sometimes.

Forever changing on him, yet he knew why she turned on him now. She was hot-blooded like him, and the demand for each other was more than one can endure. Coupled with the notion of stopping would leave them in pain and angry as hell.

Before he could pursue her, Jeffery needed to right himself as his balls began to ache. The not so young Earl knew he would have blue balls before they got back to the house. With his penis at half mass, Jeffery ran after Halifa shouting her name to see her glimpse behind and took off in a run with an innocent but sensual grin on her face.

So, she wanted to play. Fine, Jeffery thought as he took off after her shouting, "Halifa when I catch you . . . You're," he was yelling breathless when he heard a loud blast from in front of her.

"NO!" Halifa shouted as she saw him coming towards her with his gun drawn and aimed at Jeffery. No! Was all she could have screamed when Jeffery stopped a few feet away from her with a speechless mien on his face while his white shirt stained red.

"No, no, no," Halifa bawled running back to Jeffery as he fell facedown. Sinking to her knees, she turned him around placing his head on her lap. To see Jeffery's gaze fastened on her petrified, sodden visage while a smile played on his lips as his eyes glazed over and that was it. Halifa was more shocked than frighten to see Jeffery's eyes closed on her so quickly.

"Jeffery, Jeffery, Jeffery." crying from deep within her soul, Halifa shook with fear and rage cupping his chin kissing him with her tears dripping on his still face and whispered, "Don't leave me."

Jeffery knew he was shot, but by who and why, he was not unaware. With his body feeling heavy and his consciousness slipping away, he heard Halifa's panicked sweet voice say, "Don't leave her." If only he could tell her, he had no plans on leaving this earth until he had her under his roof as his wife, with a few children, grand, and great grand, God willing. He, Jeffery, Earl of Scarborough had all intention of making whoever shot him pay for hampering his time with Halifa.
**Chapter Nineteen**

Ammon paced the living room with leaden steps making everyone, but Nef nervous. He marched in front of them with his hands behind his back with a deep scowl on his face staring at the ladies he entrusted to watch his only gem.

How could they fail him so miserably? They knew why he sent and gave his Halifa the freedom she thought she schemed to have. And now, to find all his exhausted laid out plans he made for her as he came to claim his daughter was for naught.

Ammon could not withhold the loud groan that escaped from his heart and throat as he stared at the three women he trusted and esteemed more than his late birth mother.

"Why is she in his room alone? Why did you allow her to be alone with him?" he asked such simple questions which seemed to have everyone with a confused look on their faces. Stopping with his hands on his hips and his eyes squinting at the women, Ammon could not keep his anger and frustration so yelled, "Why the hell did you not kill his fucking ass before he sniffed around my baby?"

That made Leslie and Tamiya jump, but yet again Nef sat unmoved. Ammon thought the woman was like a rock and so concentrated on her to explain what went on in the one year since he last spoke and saw his daughter. Pulling a chair, he sat glaring at Nef that did nothing to get a wrinkle moved out of place. Trying to hold his peace, Ammon asked again, "What went wrong?"

Nef looked at Leslie and Tamiya and knew they were probably shaking in their precious petticoat and saw she would have to fill in the blank space for Ammon. Taking a deep breath, she told him about the whole ten years of the English Earl looking for her and of his daughter playing hide and seek with the man. With all that said, she began the entire six months he became a part of the clan and that his daughter was going to make him a grandfather.

Nef gazed at the proud man that sat before her. She knew the bold, strong boy before he could hold his penis and piss, and now what was before her, was a man to be reckoned with. Nef watched all the emotions of a man as noble and audacious as Halifa's father played out on his serious face.

Ammon sat to give his undivided attention to Nef, but when her account of the dead Earl was given, he needed to be active, or he would do some damage. Consequently, he began to pace again, shaking his head as all sorts of evil designs prevailed upon him, that should befall on those who were to care and protect his only child.

"How could they allow a fucking stranger to come near, his only baby girl, and get her with child?"

With the rage, of all that was told to him, Ammon could not stay around the man who did this to his Halifa. If he remained in the house any longer before he talked to his daughter, he would kill the boy and take his daughter back home and never let her leave his side ever again.

Watching Leslie and his sister Tamiya staring at him, Ammon felt a tinge of remorse for he knew he was intimidating, with his six-five height, broad shoulders that needed no padding like most soft men in Europe. Together with his hard-set jaw and midnight black eyes that can make a season solder shit in his trousers.

Yet the only sign of any weakness that could be seen was on him was found on his head, the few grey hairs that marked the season of his life. The same age was the reason he came to visit and claim his only child for the last time. Ammon wanted his daughter with him for good, in her land with their people.

Ammon stopped pacing and looked past the three women sitting as schoolgirls waiting to see what he would do next. They comprehended the working of his mind well enough to know that shooting the fucking man was not sufficient and he would find other ways too. . . "Which room, did you place him in?"

Leslie could not sit by and idly wait for Ammon to come to terms his daughter had a child on the way and the man who gave her the child, wanted to take Halifa away from him and that he was still alive. She had expected what played out thus far, but it was just the beginning and hoped the two young lovers were ready for Ammon and his malicious mind.

***

Jeffery knew he was out for a few days or maybe it was weeks, he was not sure as he heard voices pronounce, "Only time will tell if he would recover." Who the hell would inform his Halifa he might not make it? If only his blasted eyes could open, and watch the fool in theirs. He was waking up from this, this gunshot-induced slumber a hundred percent to reclaim his bride.

Moreover, by the time he woke, the priest would have arrived, and whether Jeffery was hale or not he would be standing in front of the minister with his Halifa, pronouncing them as man and wife.

"Jeffery you have to wake up, I cannot . . . I don't want to face him alone. Wake up." Halifa moaned resting her hand on his chest feeling his heart was beating loud, to slide down and lay next to his stomach.

Jeffery did not know-how, he wrapped his stiff arms around Halifa, drawing her closer to him as he rubbed his chin over her head. By his actions, Halifa looked up and saw his disquiet eyes staring at her weary gaze. Halifa could not believe how quickly her Jeffery pulled through from being shot, much to her heart's elation. Forgetting his injury for a second, she threw herself at him knocking the air out of him.

Sighing loudly, "You need to gather your strength, he's coming back tonight." Halifa said as she withdrew from his embrace gathering clothes for him to dress. Jeffery tried to sit up and fell back feeling weak as he looked at Halifa happy and nervous all at once and wondered what made her so worried when he was awake.

"Did . . . did they . . . find . . . him?" Jeffery tried to ask feeling his tongue heavy while trying to sit up again but fell back on the bed to stare at the ceiling.

"Find who?" Halifa asked as she draped his clothes over a chair staring at him confused.

"The ass . . . that shot me?"

"I think that ass would be me." A gruff voice declared from the open doorway, making Lord Lumley see a tall man that practically crowded his entryway with his massive frame. Jeffery recalled the man's eyes. It was him indeed.

Those were the eyes that drilled a cavity into him as he saw the pistol aimed at his body. Touching the spot that was still sore, Jeffery knew the man was aiming for his heart and wondered if he missed or was just an inferior shot.

With what little strength he had, Jeffery sat up shouting, "What the hell is he . . ." and fell back down again, hating his weak pose. Jeffery turned to look at Halifa for some explanation to what was going on, to see her petrified expression wandered back and forth from his shooter and him.

"Halifa explain why . . ."

"She need not explain anything to you boy." The man said as he strolled into his bedroom as if he owned it to stand next to his Halifa with his hands resting on her shoulders. Jeffery knew he was weak and just by trying to move, he could rip the stitches above his heart. Nevertheless, he did not like how the man asserted himself at his Halifa side and her fearful look.

"Take your fucking hand off my . . ." Jeffery was trying to say, but could not finish his words, as he was shoved back on his bed with a fist around his neck cutting off his air. With his eyes wide, he heard Haliy tearful pleas, while trying to pull the madman away from him.

With pride swelling his heart, to see his woman fight for him, but the crazed man had force and strength over a crippled man and woman.

Halifa watched, her father moved like a spirit across to Jeffery with his hand around his throat. She was shocked and lapsed in a haze for a second, to hear his asphyxiated gasp to snap out of her funk and screech, "Father stop it, please, please."

Ammon looked down at the English Earl that made his baby pregnant out of wedlock. If Halifa were not there, he would have ended his miserable life and walked away with his daughter and grandchild.

While his hold on the fool throat lessens, Ammon could not let go, even with Halifa's baby hands trying to pry his fingers away. However, as Ammon closed his eyes from viewing the fop, he took a deep breath to let go of the boy's scrawny neck, and step back to stand by the lingering fire with his back to Halifa trying to help the soon to be dead Earl.

Ammon was happy with the thought of being a grandfather someday. Yet not now and not by some fool who was fortunate to sneak into his baby's life as an undeserving jackal.

Jeffery took a while to recover from his loss of air as he watched the madman standing by his fireplace. With his voice hoarse, Jeffery tried to say, "Ge th fuc ou. . ." that made the madman chortle at his attempt to drive him from his room.

Halifa's father could not help but laugh, at the mite who was a hair's breadth away, from being dispatched from this life, for what he did to his baby.

"Watch your self-boy, you are on perilous ground," Ammon said as he pulled a chair and sat next to the bed where his daughter hovered next to the English as a servant, waiting for his orders.

"Leave us, Haliy."

Sitting next to Jeffery blocking her father, Halifa turned and looked at her father and knew now was not the time to test or defy him. His eyes said it all, and if she wanted Jeffery to live, she would have to comply with her father's wishes for now. Squeezing his hand, Halifa knew this could be the last she might ever see him again.

With her mind and heart constantly alert, Halifa stayed by Jeffery's side at all times knowing her father would not try to harm the man, who as making him a grandfather. She hoped. But for now, whatever her father requested, she would have to obey for the simple fact of the baby she was carrying. As she stood to leave, Jeffery held onto her hand as he spoke to her father.

"She will stay." With her eyes wide, Halifa could not help but turn and look at Jeffery to think if he was insane to speak to her father in such a command full way. She knew he did not know who her father was and prayed when the meeting was over he would still be breathing.

Jeffery refused to let Halifa's hand go. Who did the bastard think he was speaking to? As if his girl was a dismissed servant, to recall when the madman tried to garrote him, Halifa called him "Father." Staring at the man now with Halifa between them, he could see a few features that would make him her sire.

They both shared light grey eyes, complexion, and black thick wavy hair, save a few grey streaks that were in the man's mane. The man was indeed her father, but he was not going to allow any man to dismiss his wife as if she was a spoilt child. Pulling her hand with a force for her to sit back down, Jeffery watched as Halifa sat down reluctantly avoiding her father's stare.

Ammon gave the Earl some points. He did not dismiss his daughter as if she was a defiant woman, but his equal. As Halifa's father, Ammon would give him that, and only that, for the boy had balls large enough to stand up against him. However, the foolish Earl did not know with whom he was provoking.

Rubbing his eyes, Ammon began.

"You are alive . . . still, due to Halifa and will remain thus for her, at present." Ammon stated, as he lifted his stern gaze on the boy and saw no reaction that would give way to his thoughts as he glared back at him. "He has balls." Ammon could give the boy that indeed.

"She was to marry Rene within a month from now, but since she is carrying your child, she will return home with me, for good."

With a burst of joy in her chest and her eyes closed thanking God, her father was going to allow Jeffery to live. Halifa squeezed Jeffery's hand, inhaling deeply to letting go of a sigh of reprieve that the father of her child would live and his blood would not be on her hands.

Halifa gazed at Jeffery's bemused and livid expression, wishing she made the time to disclose her past. For what was occurring and going to transpire, Jeffery was utterly in the dark.

"What do you mean she's going home with you? For good?"

Ammon watched the dense Earl and wondered what he did to catch his daughter's consideration? He seemed slow and inane of his English language.

"Just what I said, boy. You will not see her or the baby after we leave and if I see you again, I will not miss."

Lord Lumley had enough of this old dog telling him what he was going to do with his Halifa. Jeffery was never a physical person to cause an altercation, nor would he scuttle from one if it came to his door. And, as he continued to listen to Halifa's father speak so matter-of-factly, brought his blood searing close to his skin.

He needed to be high or taller to say what he wanted to disclose, to get his point across.

"Sir I respect your position," Jeffery began trying to sit up as he placed himself entirely in his father-in-law's situation, as the man that will take his daughter away and make her a wife. But then again, he cared more for his position as a husband and father to be.

"She is your daughter, and I have spoiled her for your intended, not hers. With that said, she will not be marrying anyone but me, nor will she be going anywhere, without me."

Halifa wanted to cover Jeffery's mouth from uttering such bold assertions, but he held onto wrist in a grip that felt it would break her hand and tried to pull free.

"Let . . . Her . . . Go," Ammon saw his daughter's expression and knew she was in pain somehow and looked at the boy holding her hand.

"Father it's alright." Halifa wished Nef or her aunt was here to help give her support with her father when she saw his eyes cut in thin lines staring at her hand in Jeffery's tight hold.

Halifa was genuinely in pain by Jeffery's hold and turned to look at the man that was clutching her hand so tightly while trying to convey that he should let go. Yet Jeffery's eyes were glue on Ammon who saw her discomfort making it hard for Jeffery's plight.

"Father it's . . ." Halifa was saying to glimpse her father's movements at the corner of her eyes, as it all played out rather abruptly. Halifa turned to Jeffery as her father pulled her from his hold and flung her aside, grabbing Jeffery's neck again with a knife poised inches from his heart.

Eyes wide with fear, Halifa did the only thing she could have done, to stop what would have been Jeffery's last moment of living. Halifa screamed so loud that it hurt her ears and made her stomach rumble. She did not know where that pitch came from, but she needed to do something to save him. For Halifa knew Jeffery held onto her hand so fiercely as it was his sweet, assertive way of not letting her go. However, it meant more to her father and herself something Jeffery had yet to learn.

Ammon was shocked as he paused with his knife tip almost piercing the pale boy's chest. Still holding the Earl's throat, Ammon looked back at Halifa and saw something different in her. Something he never saw before.

Letting go of the boy's neck, Ammon took two steps to reach his daughter, grabbing her shoulder, and shook the fearful stare from her gaze. Ammon was a fearsome man. He had to be. He needed that fear to rule his land, but he never wanted that fearful gaze aimed at him from his only child

Halifa's eyes were on her father's face as he came to her, but closed it when he stood before her shaking her. As a child, Halifa considered herself a peculiar girl, at times. While tears for some girls were easy to come by on a whim, it was hard for her to shed an ounce for any reason.

Growing up, Halifa saw loved ones died, but tears would never flow to release the pain of grief, save for one occasion when it gushed for her other half that perished too early. However, with her eyes closed, a floodgate opened before her father as it all seemed entwined to the baby she carried.

"Haliy? Haliy?" Was all she heard when she felt chilly air brushed against her wet cheek. Opening her eyes slowly, Halifa saw she was out on Jeffery's balcony on her father's lap with him rocking her as he did when she was a child.

Ammon's troubled heart began to slow somewhat as he felt her cold, quivering body relax in his hold. His daughter was never one to cry, for she said, "She looked too ugly in tears," but he knew the truth. At her age of twenty-nine, one could not have lived and not see loved ones put to rest, as a few of their close kin met their end too soon. And in all those instances, his Haliy wept once and never again before him in all her years.

Yet, as his daughter cried for the second time in her life, he knew why he was thankful for that pardon of her lack of tears. God knew he could never take it when his wife cried. It would make him mad as hell and break his heart all at once. Likewise, it was the same for his little girl.

"Haliy baby, Haliy . . ." Ammon was angry while holding onto his daughter's precious body with his eyes glued to her face with one thought in mind, "How to get rid of that boy."

Jeffery knew his stitches would re-open, but he needed to see if Halifa was okay. For a brief time, he was with her, he never saw that look on her face. The mien was a look, no man desired to see, on the visage of his lover. "Haliy," Jeffery whispered as he leaned on the wall to see her father cuddled her like a tiny child.

He was alive. Halifa turned in her father's arms to see Jeffery standing there pale and became alarmed when she saw a thin red line in his blue shirt. Gazing and admiring the sight of Jeffery, Halifa saw, that with another step or breath he would fall over.

"Jeffery," Halifa whispered leaving her father to enfold Jeffery. It was a tender hug, which she felt their hearts beat in harmony. Pulling away from him Halifa stared at his face seeing he was close to faint and helped him back in his bed.

Tucking him in, Halifa looked back to see her father standing by Jeffery's balcony door with a scowl that marked, what Ammon had tried to do was not the last, and she would have to thread nimbly for Jeffery's sake.

***

A week later and Jeffery was fortunate to have Halifa with him every day and spent most of her nights beside his bed, but with a chaperone. Jeffery did not mind the warden that was loaned to them. She was old and slept soundly or pretended to slumber for most of the night they were together.

And Jeffery knew he was feeling significantly improved when he saw his erection nightly, while Halifa sat and read to him or held his hand before he fell asleep. He also knew his father-in-law stopped the priest from performing the duties that he requested him to do upon his arrival. Even though he was laid up in bed for a while, Jeffery's kind old duenna was his eyes and ears imparting that his father-in-law sent the now fearful priest away.

While the Earl of Scarborough was up laid in his bed healing, as the week's progress, from his gunshot, he was given some background history of Ammon's ruthless behavior from his now amiable source. As their chaperon, Nef was the only person who did not fight nor wished to delay what he and his Halifa desired.

He tried to talk to Halifa but argued more when he explained that he was going to marry her before they left his godmother's home. Their where times Jeffery would merely state, he was going to take her back to his estate for good, and his Halifa would cry saying, "Her father would never allow it." Jeffery could not understand what was so hard to comprehend.

Lord Lumley knew he had a fight on his hand with his father-in-law, but the woman of his dream was worth fighting for. As a peer, Jeffery wanted Halifa, and he would have. The young Earl also knew Ammon and his entourage were ever-present as the wind. He could feel the old man's eyes on him and knew when someone was around, other than Nef when Halifa was in his room.

As time went by, Jeffery gained strength with Halifa assistance, dragging him to his balcony, where it was guarded with armed men no less.

One evening as Jeffery sat out on his terrace tucked away as Halifa hunted for a new tome to read to him when his kind father-in-law visited him. With the man's appearances, fear was never something Jeffery ever genuinely experience from another person, save the thought of losing Halifa. But to fear someone harming him physically was a new sentiment.

As Jeffery sat securely awaiting Halifa and her book, Ammon pulled a chair and sat beside him as if they were friends spending time together. The silence gnawed on Jeffery's nerve waiting to see what the man wanted.

Ammon knew the English Earl was nervous about him. He could see it in his eyes when he was alone with him, like now. And Ammon knew he had insufficient time to leave his parting words with the boy, so made it fast before his guard (Halifa) returned.

Halifa knew Jeffery would love the book she found in the library. It was steamy as he had a passion no other English man she knew. With a seductive grin on her lips, Halifa would love to try some of the anecdotes expressed by the author. Turning the corner to Jeffery's room, she saw the guards no longer stood by his bedroom door and knew the only reason for that.

With terror gripping Halifa's heart, the book slipped out of her hand, with her feet dragging to reach Jeffery's door to find it locked. While he was on the mend, she did not doubt that her father would try to end his life again, even though she told him she loved and wanted Jeffery as her husband.

Whenever Halifa mention she loved and wanted Jeffery, her father would walk away and stay out of sight for hours. Yet felt Ammon close by plotting something in his mind to get rid of Jeffery, in which he would not be liable for.

That is why Halifa was Jeffery's constant sentry, always by his side, reading or feeding him. She needed a way to make her father see things were different now. She was stronger and wiser as her age grew and what happened to her older sister would never befall her.

In the years after her sister's sham of a marriage, Halifa prayed never to fall into the snared institution as her sister, Venus. Yet Halifa feared that her father would do the same to her.

Thus, she plotted her course to be free from his rule. Things would be different for her. Halifa would choose the person she wanted to be with for love. Although a few circumstances made it hard to be with Jeffrey and watching her father's reaction made her fearful for the start of her family.

"Jeffery, Jeffery," Halifa shouted as she rattled the door handle, hoping to stop her father from . . .

"Yes, daughter," Ammon said as he opened the boy's bedroom door and looked at his daughter's terror-stricken face as she ran past him to go to the English Earl. From the hallway door, Ammon could see the affection his baby had for the boy. It was real, her feelings were genuine, and there was no doubt about it, even the English Earl's feelings.

Smiling to himself, Ammon believed the boy must have soiled his pants again as he sat and listen to him speak. There were no questions in his mind, what he disclosed to the boy was the last he would have to say to the young Earl. Ammon was going home with his Halifa.

Shaking his head as he took one last look at the would-be couple before making provisions for their departure for good. His grandchild would be born in his home where they belong, under his roof with his daughter, her family, and her people. The English Lord had his fun with his baby girl, he would live to breed and wed another girl of his kind.

Halifa could not stop the tears from falling as she looked over Jeffery to make sure he was not hurt. All the huff and puff she thought and said she could live without him was all wind that came out of her. She needed Jeffery more now that her father was in the picture. With Jeffery around, she felt safe, even though he was injured.

And Halifa knew Jeffery would fight with all his might before he allowed anyone to take her away from him. He said it enough and showed it furthermore. He wanted to make a home with her, so did she.

"Haliy, Haliy," Jeffery said light-headed as his woman pawed all over him as a lost

child found. He loved the touch of her hands all over him, but he needed some questions answered. His father-in-law gave him a lecture that was ripe for an errand boy on his first day of work and was surprised he did not threaten to have him quartered or maimed.

Ammon just sat beside him, looking out at the garden silently before launching into his oration. This was a scare tactic he saw played out by his uncle, and it never worked on him, and it certainly did not by Halifa's father.

"Jeffery are you, are you . . ."

"We talked," Jeffery declared as Halifa sat in her father's vacant chair, staring out at one of Leslie's many gardens. Staring at his woman, Jeffery knew the complex expression that was on her façade, whenever she wanted to avoid any queries. Nevertheless, he needed to understand why her father was so vehement in keeping them apart. Jeffery was not destitute, nor unpleasant to look upon, to be thrown aside. He was an Earl, young handsome and he loved and wanted Halifa for far too long to give her up at the whim of her sire wishes.

"Haliy, why is he so hell-bent on keeping us apart?"

Halifa was exhausted with the mere thought of what could have transpired seconds ago with her father alone with Jeffery. If only Jeffery knew how lucky he was to be . . .

"Halifa I'm not going anywhere, but I need to know," Jeffery pronounced as Halifa stood and walked to the banister gazing down at the garden and one of the groundskeepers doing his job. Jeffery saw what his Halifa required to say was hard for her as he stared at her stiff back.

Halifa stood with her back ramrod, knowing his eyes were penetrating her body and Jeffery was not going to give up with his questions until she answered them. With her eyes closed for a second, Halifa took a deep breath and began.

"I know your story. . . I know your history, everything about you and your family. After our first meeting, I arrange . . . I sought you out." Halifa turned and looked at Jeffery to see if he was angry at what she said and saw no indication of it, but only patience for her to go on.

"Our mother died when I was very young, and father had hoped to have some sons. They wanted a lot of children. He could have had by another wife, but he never took another after our mother. He said, "He was thankful to have my sister and me."

Smiling, Halifa could remember how loved she felt and cherish even though she knew her father wanted sons to carry on his name and rule like him, but never once Halifa felt less because of her gender. Not until her father found Venus's husband.

Ezbet Sallam - Egypt

"There were no surprises when Venus found out she was to wed within a year. There were rumors for two years, so when the day came for her husband to arrive, Halifa's older sister stood by the doors of her balcony calmly looking down at the man.

Halifa was two years younger than her sister, and regarded Venus, exceedingly higher than her aunt and grandmother, for her sister was like the mother she never knew. Halifa knew Venus as a stunning sagacious beauty, virtuous, and gentle. In Halifa's young eyes, Venus was what a woman should aspire to be.

As Halifa stood beside Venus gazing at the procession of her soon to be brother-in-law, the damp curls on the back of her neck stood on end. Something was not right, he should not be here, the man should not have Venus. Halifa felt he brought death to her sister and her family.

Watching closely at Venus, Halifa knew something was not right by the firm set jaw, of her beloved sister. There was a smile on her visage, but it did not reach Venus's brilliant, striking eyes. Halifa recognized her sister's fake expression for they were also her reflections at times. Venus did not want to marry this man. She wanted her freedom like their mother who chose to marry their father.

It was well known by their people that her father stole their mother from her home at eighteen and wed her without the approval of her sire. Ammon risked his life by his actions, but he wanted their mama, and death did not deter him from having her. Consequently, years later before the same fate enacted with his first daughter scampering off with another man, which was sniffing around his oldest baby girl. Ammon pinned Venus to wed Ra.

No one knew what was in Venus's heart or what she was thinking. So much so, their father would say she was sneaky for not sharing herself with her family. But he got glimpses of her heart when a particular Lord Rene, paid Ammon too many social visits. And those stopovers were the catalyst that made Ra appear post-haste to receive his bride. What little feelings Venus had hoped to share with someone of her choosing was never to occur.

Watching Ra on his white stallion, he looked like a man any woman would fall on their knees, begging for his love. With his broad shoulders, muscled thigh that embodied long legs making him tall even in his saddle. Ra was also blessed with thick, wavy midnight hair, light brown eyes that held your gaze, straight nose, and lips that hid deceit in a sweet smile. Halifa knew what Ra was, she heard talk same as her sister, but still, Venus did not fight Ammon to be free of the cage he placed her.

As Ra came closer, he saw his bride and knew that the little patience he had was the reason he rode into the sheik's palace as a King to claim one of his innocent daughters. He waited long enough and now would have her. Beaming with his most honest smile, Ra looked at Venus, "the tease" he labeled her and saw passion hidden in those eyes and looked forward in dragging it out of her, for how long he had. He knew he was not a monk to stay away from the sweet flesh of a woman, but he knew what his aim was.

Ra bowed as he crossed into his new home. With Ammon's age and no sons, the man's grand estate and title would fall into his hands, and with fortitude again, all he need do was to wait.

Halifa could not take her eyes off Ra. He was indeed handsome, but he was also a walking pit of malevolence beneath his beaming smile. Halifa met him a few times he came to visit her sister and liked him less on all occasion. His smile, voice, and touch made her stomach churn.

Knowing that Halifa was two years younger than her sister, did not detached how close they felt towards each other. Halifa felt like they were the second half of each one. Venus would think Halifa was too young to understand, but she knew every fathom of her sister's feelings as if they were born as twins.

Halifa knew she would not tolerate being married off to the likes of any man she did not care for. Handsome or not, if love were not there between the man and herself, Halifa would die, and she saw that their father was killing her sister.

"Haliy," Venus felt she could not bear to see herself married to the man, but knew she could with her sister's small hand for support. Venus discerned she made a promise to obey her father to the letter for this union, but if only Halifa were spared the life, she would have to endure.

Ammon would have a son, and Halifa would be free, but Ra was not a person to wed, any living woman. His life testimony thus far was reason enough, one should stay away from him. Venus looked at her baby sister and knew her sacrifice would not be in vain.

"Halifa, know I love you and whatever happens here on . . . remember that." Venus smiled as she looked down at her sweet innocent sister. Somewhere deep in her heart, Venus felt she would not see Haliy in her own family, and that made her bitterly sad.

"Come," Venus, said pulling Halifa to meet Ra. "Let's greet my new husband RA."

As Halifa walked hand in hand with Venus to their hallway, they heard all the chaotic ruckus that arrived with Ra. Standing on the top of their staircase looking down at the group that came with Ra, made Halifa take a step back. Ra's men all looked like wicked quadruped with horns. Massive hunks of muscles and unvarying hair that was cropped the same way, all six of them, but Ra effectively stood out from amongst them.

Standing beside them was Ammon, he was much larger than Ra in every way possible, but Halifa knew her father inside out as he sensed his girls were behind him.

"Come, Venus. Come greet your husband," Ammon said as he walked up halfway to meet his daughters. Ammon held his smile for his girls, but it wavered when he saw their eyes. The seat of your soul was in your eyes they said, and his girl's eyes held sorrow with a pinch of hatred.

Never in all their lives had he seen that look from his girls, as it was directed at him. He ruled with an iron-clad fist and saw enough fear he created among his men and people, yet to see any look save love and adoration from his girl's eyes made his heart pause.

"Father," Both Venus and Halifa said in accord as Ammon halted and held out his hands to them with a wavering smile.

"My babies."

"Alas, no father," Venus said placing her hand in Ammon's large paw. "We are women, ready to wed and produce progenies. Babies we are no more."

Shocked by Venus sharp retort, Ammon held on fiercely to both their hands and declared, "You will always be my babies." As Venus and Halifa gazed at each other, they saw their father's eyes glistened before kowtowing to their hands. Standing to his full height, Ammon saw his girl's eyes filled with unshed tears as he hugged them surprising the audience that was silently watching their interaction.

The scene that played between father and his girls should melt his heart and make him happy to be a part of a happy family, but all it did was aggravate Ra. What he wanted was separation from his bride and father-in-law after they wed. Ra's plans were cut and dry. Marry the oldest girl, wait for the father to die, swoop in and claim his rightful place as ruler of a vast empire he did not create.

If not plan A, then plan B would accomplish his heart's desire. But more importantly, Ra needed to find himself a fucking woman who would satisfy him in all he wanted in bed, as he knew his wife could not.

Letting go of a heavy sigh, as he stared at Ammon and Venus touching scene, it would not be easy to have his plans to materialize he realize. His bride was not bad looking. She was rather handsome with a body, to fit his licentious desires. A chest that would fill his massive paws, a mouth that would suckle his cock every night and a guaranteed tight puss to squeeze him.

However, her feathery disposition made her pampered and well-kept from certain ways that he loved his bedmate to have, and he had no desire to teach a feathery whelp what he wanted. Observing Ammon, Ra knew his life would be over if he made his precious, Venus shed a tear. Thus, he would have to be on his best behavior, for a while.

Taking a deep breath, Ra thought it was now or never.

"Venus, my love," Ra said as he mounted the steps to meet his delicate bride. Bowing ever so regally, Ra knew whatever happened from this moment on he was a married man. "You are lovely as I first saw you and your beauty takes my breath away and blinds my soul." Bowing again, "I am your humble groom."

Venus knew he waited for her reply and would not stand unless she replied in kind. Closing her eyes for a moment, Venus took a deep bolstering breath, to muster what she needed to say . . .

"Welcome husband, to my home. Stand and greet me." As Ra stood, Venus breath caught as she looked at his scheming eyes and knew he wanted her flesh and her father's power for nothing more, save to fuel his corrupt ways. With his hand out, Venus placed her hand in Ra's and knew there was no going back and stepped away with her husband. Leaving Ammon and Halifa viewing her departure with her husband into his rowdy entourage as they envelop her.
**Chapter Twenty**

With her eyes closed and her stomach churning, she knew something was wrong, very wrong by the slight pain she felt. Flying from her bed, as the shades were drawn open, signaling it was a new day, Halifa ran to her sister's bedroom. In the two months of her sister's marriage to Ra, Halifa woke with her body in pain and stomach-churning most days.

"Venus, Venus." Halifa scratched at her sister's door waiting to be let in, but it took longer than usual for Venus to grant Halifa entrance.

"Venus," Halifa shouted as she pounded on the door. She knew any more noise and Ra would be there in a minute, but she did not care, she needed to see her sister. With her hands banging the door shouting, someone cracked open the door, giving Halifa a slight vision of her sister.

Not caring one whit, Halifa pushed passed who was behind the door to see Ra standing beside her sister pale façade with the window open and the morning sun blazing in the dreary room.

"What happened?" Halifa groaned as she looked at Venus looking pallid than the day before. Honestly, in the two months, since Ra came to their home and took her sister as his wife, Venus became a mummy. Every visit to her sister's bedroom would make Halifa passionate about the prospect of killing her brother-in-law. For he was the reason Venus became a shadow to whom she was.

Turning her attention to the dog, "What did you do to her?" Halifa hissed at Ra with his repellant smirk that was always on his face. Striding away mockingly with his hands up in the air pretending to surrender in fear from his sister-in-law. Oh! How Halifa wished she could introduce terror into him that would lead to a painful death at her hands.

"Get out." Halifa could only shout and sank, embracing her sister lying on her back among the heap of pillows.

"One-day little girl," Ra whispered to close to Halifa's ear. "Your daddy and sister would be gone, and I would have you," he said touching Halifa's cheek, "on your back . . ."

"Get out," Venus whispered with all the strength she had, staring at her hateful husband stepping back from Halifa.

Ra looked at his wife, glaring straight into his eyes. When she did those simple tricks, he would think someone was moving her about in spirit, but she sank back in the restful stoop that he made for her.

The two months of waiting for her to pass was tedious, for Ra knew his time was drawing near when her father would return. From the deferment, his mother created to keep Ammon away it would not last long, for Ra saw how devoted Ammon was to his girls.

Watching the tender, sisterly love could have thawed a frozen mountaintop, but alas, Ra was beyond taciturn towards the loveable sibling's schmaltz. His goal to have wealth and power was his end. And as he walked away, Ra knew his mountain was too fucking high to deice.

Every morning Halifa woke, she would visit and stay with Venus almost throughout the whole day. In the weeks since their father left them in the hands of Ra's rule, there was a shadow of her sister. Before closing her eyes, Halifa looked at her sister, at what was her sister.

Venus became a wraith to whom she was, the man sucked the life from her, and Halifa did not know how to bring her sister back. Venus' hair was thinning and falling out, leaving her partially bald. Her caramel complexion was now ashen to a gloomy English afternoon. Her eyes were gaunt with dark rims under her once bright green eyes like their mother's, and her body showed only skin and bones. In all, Halifa did not see her sister anymore, but an enigma.

With their father gone, Ra was in charge, and no one questioned his mandates. When Halifa demanded a doctor to be sent for Venus, it was denied. In that instant, she knew something was extremely amiss.

Refusing to allow her sister to fade away, Halifa together with Venus's maid, sent for a doctor and the physician was driven away by force as was the maid after she was flogged almost to death.

Their father left after the ceremony with their Aunt Tamiya and Nef on a trip to see what his new son-in-law and his family honestly came with. Ammon knew his son-in-law as the son of a rich and noble friend, making the union of his friend eldest son and Ammon's eldest daughter, before each first birthday.

Nevertheless, losing touch on the family after his friend passed away when the boy was yet young. Ammon tried to keep an account on the young man but was given the wrong intel.

However, what should have taken a week to visit Ra's family, turned into two months of torment. Halifa and Venus were under the thumb of the man while not one post came or went, so they were on their own. Even after surviving that ordeal, Halifa was surprised that Nef did not see any of what was transpiring before it came to pass.

Yet Halifa prayed that Venus would last long enough for their father's return and fix the shit he made them go through. Finding sleep as the elusive some night, Halifa sat many evenings anticipating how her father would end, the wretched life of Ra.

As the youngest daughter, everyone believed she was either blind or deaf, which she was not. Halifa saw the dominance Ammon exert, and was most thankful that he was her father and not an enemy.

"Haliy, Haliy," Sitting up Halifa looked at Venus rasp out her name.

With tears streaming down her eyes, Halifa answered, "Yes?"

"I . . . I, love you." Venus whispered, conscious of the fact that she was not too long for the world and knew Haliy would not survive if she stayed waiting for Ammon's return.

"You . . . you must . . . you must leave." With her baby sister shaking her head as tears washed her honey cheeks. Venus needed to know Halifa would be safe after her last breath. She heard Ra say enough her last breath would be Haliy's.

That was why she held on for so long for their father to return, but her strength was waning. Venus touched her sisters' wet cheek as Halifa moved closer to Venus's mouth to hear her whispered in her ear . . .

"Run."

Halifa sat back and stared at Venus's glazed eyes.

"V . . . Venus? V?" Halifa stood and shook Venus a little, trying not to wake her if she was asleep with her eyes open.

"V, V, V . . . don't . . . leave . . ." Halifa whispered as she knew her sister was gone, falling with all her weight on Venus withered, dead body. "Don't leave . . ." crying mournfully, "Me."

With the grief of losing her sister, Halifa did not hear when the bedroom door opened behind her so stealthily as heavy footsteps approached her.

"She's dead." It was not a query but a declaration with a sigh of relief on his voice. Halifa stood slowly, to turn and see Ra behind her smiling. "Don't think to run Haliy, baby. It would waste yours and my time."

As Halifa looked at her wicked brother-in-law, she never felt fear grip her body as it did, gazing into the devil's eyes. But by the grace of God, he would not have her life or body. Trying to figure out a move that would give her an inch away from Ra, Halifa heard her name whispered by her sister. Halifa knew Venus was dead, but Ra pushed her aside to see for himself, giving her that split second of a chance to escape.

Dashing out the room as he shook Venus's lifeless body, Halifa ran knowing she had a few seconds on her dazed in-law. Yet the seconds was up as she heard loud, powerful, footfalls behind her.

Not wanting to look back, Halifa ran by his lazy entourage that was eating in the hallway with their makeshift dining room keeping unwanted guests out of her home.

Shouting his profanities, Halifa tried to run past his men when they dropped whatever they were eating as they saw and heard Ra's roar, "Stop the fucking chit." Halifa was thankful his men were sluggish buffoons as she ran past them and into the courtyard having no clue where to run, save Venus's last words were to run, so she ran.

In the two months since Ra wed Venus and her father left for Ra's home, Halifa was trapped inside the house. Her home became a cage she now needed to flee from, with its courtyard deserted and secured with high walls that were overgrown with weed and neglect from their father absences.

Inspecting her best route to escape, Halifa was happily surprised to see the dumb ass Ra had forgotten to lock her gilded coop, and so found her escape.

Halifa did not wait but took off again as the devil himself was chasing her when all her thoughts were only to getaway. Thus, Halifa ignored all that was behind her and ran. She knew she was not, the fastest runner and she could not outrun Ra with his large steps that were gaining on her.

However, she refused to die without a damn fight to the beast. As his steps came upon her faster with her eyes burning and ears ringing, Halifa did not hear nor see the cloud of dust that was in front of her as she felt a hand shoved her down.

Breathless with a nauseating fear, that gripped her heart and stopped her feet. Halifa went gliding forward landing on her belly as her mouth filled with sand. Amid a merciless pain that gripped her hair yanking it back, Halifa turned and gaze at Ra standing over her with sweat glistening over his repulsive face.

Growling, "You fucking bitch." Ra wanted to savor taking his sister-in-law, but she made him run and sweat. No one made him sweat especially a woman. As a rule, women were to make him perspire while they were on their backs and him inside them, not on his feet in a chase.

Smiling as he looked down at Haliy, she was a tease since he reached to claim his bride. He wanted her, the little sister but he wanted to give her a lesson in what it was to make Ra labor fruitlessly. Ra turned her over and pinned her hands above her head with her screaming and wiggling make him hot and angry, and he loved his women screaming.

"I'm going to give you something to scream," Ra said as he ripped Halifa's chemise she had on when she went in search of her sister in one clean swoop, exposing her breast to his cruel eyes. Smiling broadly by the sight of her chest, Ra could not wait to sample it. Groaning his pleasure as he sank, sucking his sister-in-law sweet semi full breast.

Halifa could not scream any longer, her voice was gone, and her eyes were swollen from the sand that flew in her eyes when she fell. Also, her ears were playing tricks on her. She heard horse's hoofs, thousands of them beating down her way and felt the earth tremble.

Moaning, Halifa thought she heard her father shout her name. Smiling at her last contemplation, it would be of hearing her father's powerful voice, and not of this dog ravishing her. Halifa would have preferred Ra killed her then took her body anyhow he pleased, for she would not be in it. Trying to make peace at her end, Halifa felt something wet splatter across her face as Ra fell beside her.

"Haliy, Haliy." Halifa thought she was close to death now, yet she heard her father call out to her closer. Lord Jesus, was he dead also?

A father should never see what he saw was happening to his baby. Ammon rode his horse with such speed but felt everything move in lethargic motion until he reached his daughter's side. With his sword drawn, shouting the dog's name, the swine of a son-in-law looked up in time as he cleaved his head clean from his body. Ammon fell from his horse and kicked Ra's body away from his baby.

"Haliy, Haliy," Ammon ripped off his turban and wiped Ra's blood from her face, to yank his coat off, to cover her exposed body. With his heart wrenching, Ammon could not understand, why his Great one, "Yahweh" would allow this to have happened to his girls.

To his babies.

"Haliy?"

"Father?" Halifa thought honestly she heard things. Was it her father? Was it his voice?

"Haliy open your eyes, open them," Ammon commanded, wanting to see his baby beautiful eyes. He needed to see she was okay, he saw that she was breathing, but her eyes. . .

"Daddy?" Halifa muttered opening her eyes as Ammon grabbed his Haliy in a bone-crushing hug weeping like a woman in labor pain. He did not care who saw him as he held Halifa, for deep in his bones, Ammon knew he was the father of one.

Now.

***

As Halifa recount the reason why her father would want Jeffery dead, she felt empathy towards her sire and his reasoning. Ammon gave into all of Halifa's wishes when they buried Venus. So much so, her will was followed to the letter for years. However, her years of freedom seem to come to an end.

Halifa did not know how to genuinely, place Jeffery, and the baby into her life. She desired them both more than anything she ever wanted, more than her freedom. For she assumed her budding little family was something that would never have been her's.

Ever.

However, here they were.

Jeffery sat and listened to the reason why his father-in-law wanted him dead. It was an impressive story. It was a sad tale of loss, deception, but it had no bearing on what he and Halifa shared. He wanted nothing from her father, save his daughter in his home in Castle Lumley where she belonged with him.

Looking at Halifa as she revisited her past lost, Jeffery saw that her mind had wandered off, needing space and time alone, but he could not sit by and not hold her. He was hale, but his stitches seem to pain him every time he held Halifa in his arms, and he knew the reason for that.

A touch, a look would have him desperate to be inside her, but all she required from him was his arms of comfort. So pulled her between his legs and wrapped his limbs around her as she shed tears for her deceased sister. He would figure a way around Ammon and his protection, for Jeffery was not going home without Halifa and his baby in tow.

Only in death, the Earl of Scarborough would sincerely leave his Halifa, and he did not intend to expire anytime soon.
**Chapter Twenty-One**

Ammon woke with a cheerful spirit, one he missed for over a decade and more. He woke knowing he was going home with his baby/babies, they were returning to their homeland soon. Halifa may not want to, but she would be leaving with him before lunch. And as Ammon gave orders for their things to be packed hours ago, he threw his sheet aside, for he was never one to linger in bed when there were things to be done.

His only displeasure was that he would be leaving sooner than he had planned. Yes, he wanted to stay a month with his friend Countess Leslie, but his arrangement change when they betrayed him.

As Sheik of his people, all responsibilities were placed on his shoulders like a boy. Being the only child of his father, Ammon was compelled to adhere all that was left to him from generations past to fill in the future. Some would have hated the large feet and roll they would have to endure, but he loved it.

Even as a young man, he saw how the women in their family were revered by some, while a few men in his far-flung family treated their horses better than their wives and daughters. Ammon adored his wife and girls more so that he capitulated to their every whim.

From the beginning, Ammon spoilt the women in his life but also failed to protect them. His precious Halifa was his last love, his remaining nexus to his beloved wife and Venus. That is why he gave the impression he knew nothing of Halifa's plans as he feigned ignorance in her eyes, but she was kept safe. Even her fabricated engagement was an effective hold on his daughter.

Ammon made it a point for her to believe she was to marry Rene at some time for as long she was away from her him. Rene was after all Leslie's son and even though his reputation was not a stellar example to be around his daughter. Ammon knew how the boy pined, even now for his Venus. Yet he cared for Halifa as an older brother and nothing else.

As a man of power and wealth, Ammon knew regret and sorrow, but more so as he did not allow the boy to have his Venus hand when he asked for it. They were too young, and Rene was not of their people.

Looking back, Venus would have been good for the boy, she would have turned him into a man, and he would not have slipped into the title of a rake.

It did not take Ammon long to organized himself, or to visit Halifa to break the news of their early departure. The house was dissonantly silent, not even the servants were about as he trekked to his daughter's bedroom.

Rapping on her door, Ammon knew she would still be asleep and went in to see her bed was untouched. With his eyes closed grinding his jaw, Ammon walked to her built-in bathroom and was not surprised to see it was empty.

With a heavy heart for what he must do, Ammon marched out his daughter's bedroom and went straight for the soon to be dead Earl.

"He was so handsome and thoughtful," Halifa mused after she shared why her father almost killed him twice. Jeffery held her the whole night. She was fully clothed on top of his bed with Jeffery's arm wrapped securely around her growing stomach. Being in Jeffery's room alone without any chaperone with his arms enfolding her, made her feel protected.

At that very moment, she was at peace that she did not want dawns light to appear. Halifa knew when the morning came, her father threats would begin again, and she would have to play guard against her father yet another day. And as Jeffery slept so peacefully holding onto her so tightly, she prayed the sun would not rise for some hours and fell back to sleep.

Ammon steps were leaden as his heart for what he was about to do. He knew the boy loved his daughter, he saw it in his eyes when the young Earl looked at her, he also saw lust there. Ammon knew his daughter was no longer innocent because she was with child, the Earl's child, but that would not hinder him from making her leave the English boy.

While Ammon made his way to the boy's bedroom, a whole wing away from his chamber. The Sheik smiled to himself, knowing it was a wise choice to keep him hence far from the boy, for he would have killed the fucker as he lay in his bed healing from his wound.

Nearing the boy's door, Ammon was startled as his steps falter when he saw the guards, which were posted at the young English Earl's door.

"What is this?" Ammon asked with a grin playing on his lips. Sitting up with slits for eyes and yawning as they looked up at him.

"Un . . . uncle Ammon." Shaking her head as she realized her lapsed in their watch. His great-niece Nicest dashed off like a ghost in her white nightie, while Finny stood with all sleep gone with her arms outstretched trying to block the door from his entrance.

Ammon could not help the momentous smile even now on his lips. They were protecting his Halifa, from him. It was so sweet but misplaced he considered.

Smiling as he bent down and looked at Finny, Ammon said, "If I were to hire such young guards, my kingdom would fall in a yawn." Smiling broadly, as he lifted Finny out the way with his hands on the doorknob, Ammon heard a growl behind him.

"Don't you dare turn that knob."

With a groan of his own, his eyes squinting into slashes and all smile erase from his lips. Ammon turned to see two of the women he entrusted his Halifa to, standing before him with their two young guards hiding behind the ladies' backs.

Not wanting to make a scene before his departure in a few hours, Ammon relented in what the ladies wanted from him. With his jaw set, Ammon let go of the doorknob and gave them his full attention as his eyes darken looking at each one of them.

With this morning ambush, Ammon knew they were trying to delay his departure, but they also knew not to toy with him. Therefore, Ammon bowed hitting his heel together and turned to find some breakfast before his voice woke the entire damn household. He wanted to leave in peace, even though he did not come so.

***

While Ammon sat in Leslie's copious kitchen eating his breakfast he was accosted by the Lady of the house. Garbed in a regal black robe, which could have passed as a gown that was freed from lace and her many antique pieces of jewelry that she wore. Ammon sat with his back to the door, where all the servants were awaiting his departure so they can begin their morning tasks.

With a smile teasing to show on his lips, Ammon was not going to move, he was enjoying himself too much to succumb to Leslie's whim that she would hold his daughter hostage from leaving with him. Therefore, he lazed where the household awaited his extraction from their realm.

Leslie knew Ammon was a tricky bugger, but she forgot how sly he could be. What better way to get her away from safeguarding Jeffery's bedroom door, than to make the household upset by his invading their workspace. The one place that was de rigueur to everyone having there repast filled.

Countess Leslie sat before him with a knowing smile on his face.

"So . . . you wish to take her away from me?" Ammon sipped his very pungent tea looking over his cup rim at the old woman who can guilt him into virtually anything.

Pouring herself a cup, Leslie tasted her friend's stout tea that he brewed and closed her eyes shaking her stunned mind. She forgot his drink can make hairs grow instantly on her chest and sat her cup down.

Staring at Ammon, she knew the reason for all this, but could not discuss it in front of her staff.

Bracing her hands on the table as she stood, Leslie took his cup from his hand, placed it in his saucer, and walked away leaving her staff gaping at the large man still dominating their kitchen. Her fourteen kitchen staff turned as she disappeared from their sight, to look back and see the large man departed from his seat, washed his cup and saucer, dried his hand, and followed her.

Leslie sat in her cozy yellow room waiting for Ammon, giving Nef and Halifa time. While she sat arranging her skirt, the door opened and shut quietly to look up at Ammon sitting across from her with a fierce scowl directed at her.

"So you mean to sneak away in the early morning with my girl." Not a question asked, but an accurate assertion Leslie made that need no reply.

"Well," clasping her hands together on her lap. "I shall not put up with it." Staring at the man, Leslie saw not a hint of emotion behind his meticulous guarded eyes. She needed to be active and not stay station. It was one of Ammon's most aggravating qualities as a man of power. His devoid mien.

Leslie perched to stand behind the couch with her hands holding onto it with her mind resolved and set.

"I shall not give her to you. Haven't you always said, when she was in my care here at my Château, Halifa would be mine to govern? And I have governance over this household and her, and you shall not take her away from me, while she is here." Feeling lightheaded and hearted, Leslie needed to finish the play she was participating in.

"As such, you are free to return home, and when my girl feels inclined to vacate my domicile at such time, she will revert into your care. Now . . ."

He was smiling. A smile on Ammon's face was never something to be trusted when he was posed in a combatted mode, and he was grinning at her. Leslie took a step back from the couch watching Ammon with her eyes gawping and a tad nervous, contemplating what his next move would be.

Gasping, Leslie saw that he was playing with his lapels. God this man was mischievous. "Am . . ."

With his hand raised, Ammon could not add nor take out much to what was stated. It was all true what Leslie said. He had no right to take Halifa out of her home, her godmother's residence. She was after all, under the protection of a dear friend, granting her the privilege to watch his daughter for years.

Ammon relinquished the power of his guardianship to Leslie year after year, never giving a time frame, in which he would rescind the need to have Halifa's godmother, cast an eye over his daughter.

Now he knew his blunder and would fix it immediately.

"You have made your case, and it is all true. I have no right to take Halifa from here as I wish, but now I will reclaim the duty as her father and guardian. You are free from your onus as well as your son."

Ammon needed to make a clean sweep when he sallied off and must make it known that no man shall have his baby girl . . . EVER. With the discussion finish, he stood and walked towards the door with his hand inches away from it, to hear, "She is with Jeffery, Ammon, and she is carrying his child."

Taking a deep breath to calm his frustration, Ammon turned to see Leslie was brave enough to stand an arm's breadth away from him. As a grown man, Ammon knew he would never hurt a woman, far less a genteel woman whom he loved as a mother and friend.

Leslie touched Ammon's heart feeling it beat rapidly as she spoke her words, "I love your girls as if they were mines . . . and I miss her as I . . . as I miss my girl."

Hearing her speak those words, made him expel a bit of his anger of the situation his daughter was in. In all the years, of knowing the woman that stood before him, Ammon could not help, but embraced the strength she conveyed and by the indissoluble bond they shared.

The murder of a daughter by a man.

Leslie's daughter's, death was not by a husband, but by someone who violated and used her baby girl's body and left her for dead.

Seeing Ammon emotion close to his features, Leslie pondered if she pushed him too far, would he indeed take Halifa from her. But she could not allow Halifa to walk away from her man Jeffery, without aiding her goddaughter to the best of her ability.

"Ammon, you cannot stop Halifa from what she has chosen and what will happen to her." Holding his hands, Leslie gave it a tight squeeze.

"He is not Ra, and she is not Venus. Give them some time, give him some time, and see what I see in his eyes for our girl." There . . . Leslie said it, all that he was hiding from.

Ammon was not ignorant; he knew all the facts but dreaded the reality that was now his daughter's life.

Leslie looked at Ammon not fearing his reaction or his words. No, she feared the man's passion for those he loved. His desire to care for those he treasured was what drew her to him when he was a young pup. Even at a tender age, his dedication and passion were also his flaws. For Ammon wanted his will of what was best in his mind for those that he loved to conform to his command. Which made him annoyingly, pig-headed for they who respected and saw him sometimes as a tyrant, which he was not all the time.

Halifa's godmother knew she gave him something to think about, for the simple fact when he stood to leave; his eyes were ablaze for anyone who stood in his way to keep him from departing with his daughter. Now his light grey eyes glow a subdued ember with deep thoughts behind them.

Opening the door to leave, Ammon asked, "She loves him?" Leslie turned and nodded the answer he knew to be true.

"Yes."
**Chapter Twenty-Two**

Halifa sat lounging on Jeffery's balcony as he prepared for their little jaunt in one of their godmother's garden. With a semi-smile on her face, Halifa knew trouble was brewing in the corners of her little respite.

Her father was too silent.

He was there and always present whenever she turned thinking there were no eyes save Jeffery's on her, there would be Ammon. Her father gave her space in a week and made no move to leave nor sought her and Jeffery out.

He was too silent.

Why?

"Let's go love." Halifa turned as Jeffery came towards her and her breath was seized from her. Jeffery was roguishly handsome in a simple white shirt that was wrinkled and slightly open showing off his clean-shaven chest, with his black trousers, tucked in his shiny black riding boots. With his jet-black hair rumpled, from her fingers and his piercing gaze fastened on her.

"What is it?" Jeffery asked as he observed Halifa's penetrating assessment from his head to his toe. He felt he might be lacking something by her expression and began to fret, marring his happy countenance. Shaking her head with a shy smile plastered on her face for blatantly ogling Jeffery. Halifa held her hand out for him to take.

"Nothing," Halifa declared loving the feel of Jeffery's hand in hers. It made her feel loved and far from alone. As she sometimes felt, before Lord Lumley bartered his way into their clan.

"So where is your father?" Jeffery asked as they strolled off to one of his godmother's garden. Jeffery's balcony overlooked one of Leslie's many gardens around her estate, but it was the only balcony, which had stairs leading to the precincts. It was the reason his father-in-law paid him regular visits when Halifa was not around.

Moreover, with every visit, Ammon would sit inaudibly looking out into the garden, and before his departure, his father-in-law mere words of warning were, "Watch yourself, boy." Jeffery smiled and laughed at that simple line of "Watch yourself, boy." The only way one must "gaze at one's self" was in a looking glass, but Jeffery preferably gazes directly into a set of lovely grey eyes.

"Jeffery, Jeffery," Halifa whispered shaking him out of his father-in-law's caveat trying to wrench her hand out from his hold.

"What?"

"You're squeezing my hands again." Looking down at their joined members, he saw what his recurring response was, whenever he considered his father-in-law.

"Sorry love, sorry." The young Earl said shaking his head to clear all thoughts of Ammon away. Jeffery wanted to give Halifa his undivided attention, seeing it has been a while since he was genuinely alone with her and kissed her hand.

Making their first outing away from all those watchful eyes, Jeffery stopped under a crab apple tree canopy and gave Halifa his most undivided attention towards her lips. He sucked her bottom lip giving it a nip, then plunging his tongue into her sweet mouth. Toying along her patois tasting sweet jam from breakfast or was it his Halifa. With a mind of his own, Jeffery's right hand that held their picnic basket released it as he held Halifa's face taking a step back bracing her against the crab apple tree.

Halifa knew she should halt Jeffery, for a mere kiss with him never ends with a kiss, nor would it for her. The man would do things to her and make her scream, claw, and bite, all with him in care.

Yet she wanted him to rest. It was, but a few weeks since he was healed from a gunshot. Halifa knew Jeffery played down the palaver of what happened to him, for her sake, but she could not take the chance to see even his stitches split open again.

In their heated embrace, Jeffery forgot his injury while kissing her as his hand trailed her stomach to her sweet, warm "kitty" his Halifa termed. He was so lost in wanting his bride to be that he did not detect his shirt had a small red line over his wound, nor saw her chest red while he leaned into her.

Nevertheless, Halifa felt it and tried to push him away gently to find some semblance of control to check on his injury. Yes, she wanted him as bad as he did, even so, she could wait until he . . . "Jeffery, Jeffery."

"Hum," Jeffery heard his name and knew Halifa tried to push him away for some reason, but his thoughts were already far gone into what he wanted from his woman. With his heart racing and mind on one goal, Jeffery commenced lifting Halifa's gown over her knees. Father, Jeffery loved the heat of her kitty on his fingers. It always made his heart gambol that he was with her and not in his mind fantasizing. A few more inches and his fingers would be . . .

"Jeffery,"

Blasted, his hand, "Jeffery, Jeffery" Halifa whispered breathlessly, needing to stop him. They were in the open, and his injury. . . Sighing loudly biting down on her lips, Halifa could careless one whit as his fingertips caress her wet cleft, standing where anyone could see them.

Beyond ravenous for more of his contact, Halifa did not want to stop. Yet she knew she should interrupt the man.

"Ouch." That did the trick. It always worked when he was not listing.

"Why did you . . ." Jeffery asked taking a step back rubbing his upper left thigh. "Halifa you know how much that pains. Why did you . . ."

Fixing her clothes, Halifa picked up their basket and walked away saying, "We are not alone." And with that, Jeffery looked about, and indeed, she was right. They were observed from his very own balcony. His father-in-law with a deep scowl on his face grinding _,_ what Jeffery believed to be the man's perfect white teeth.

If Halifa were not perpetually aroused from her pregnancy, she would be mortified that her father caught her doing what she just did. Ammon was not dragging her away nor trying to kill Jeffery, but he remained attentive in all her every jaunt.

Although for her father to see her carnal reaction, as for how Jeffery stirred her was a tad disgraceful and painful as yanking out a rotten tooth. Groaning her humiliation, Halifa wished a void could have consumed her at that precise moment.

Jeffery ambled behind, admiring his woman posture. Halifa was his entirety. Never could there be another woman that would enthuse his very being as the woman that was walking away from him.

Taking a deep breath, Jeffery smiled from his heart to his soul. She was his, not by law or on paper yet, but she was his to have, hold and keep and he was to be a father in a few months. Feeling a gust of wind in his sail, Jeffery saw it was vital to get the ball rolling again in making Halifa his wife.

***

Their little picnic was blissful by all means, Halifa considered as she laid her sleepy head on Jeffery's lap. It was the best reprieved since her father came for her and she loved their quiet time as Jeffery played in her hair making her sleepy and hot all in one touch.

"Jeffery,"

"Hum!" He replied lazily.

"Would you mind making love to me now?" Halifa felt Jeffery's hand stilled in her hair to look up at him fully awake, with desire and passion etched on his face. Wanting to make sure he heard right, Jeffery sat up on his elbow to look at his Halifa.

"And why would you ask me now?"

"Because I want you too . . . Now."

Watching Halifa in her eyes, he could see that she was ready for him. Since he was injured, they fooled around, but never went all the way as they almost did before. Jeffery was willing the same night he was shot, even though he was hot with fever and believed his prick was hard as Halifa sat beside him holding his hand, she had that effect on him every time. Even with a gunshot.

"But we're in the open," Jeffery asked wanting to make sure it was what she truly wanted for he could deny her nothing.

Halifa knew she was avaricious for months, since having Jeffery in her company and more so that she was pregnant. However, there were times Halifa thought, Jeffery had a jinni that made her a wanton woman, or maybe she just loved sex with the only man she will ever want and adore.

"What if we're . . ." Halifa did not care for any more words at that moment. No, she knew what was required as she fondled his crotch to discern he was ready for her, for quite a while, feeling his prick touch her neck the whole time while lying on his lap.

Jeffery need not hear his Halifa ask to make love to her a second time, but he was cautious as Ammon might be about. Throwing caution to the wind, Jeffery unbuckled his trousers and drew his pants down his mid-thigh as his hard cock sprang free for her.

Halifa loved watching Jeffery's penis exposed, it always made her blush. Pulling up her skirt, Halifa pushed aside her under vestment as she snuggled on his generous cock. With a heavy sigh, Halifa felt she was in heaven with her hands resting lightly on his chest, knowing she should move, but just wanted him in her.

"Haliy are you . . ."

"Hum . . ." Annoyed and in pain, staring at Halifa sitting on his rigid penis unmoving, making him stiffer and mad. She was driving him crazy and started to buck for her to do something.

"Haliy you're . . ."

Halifa loved having the upper hand on Jeffery as times like this. Before knowing him, she knew the whole package of sex was pleasurable. She heard enough from Mary and Jessica and with Jeffery in her life, she felt and saw it every time he was in her. Halifa decided to rest her head on his chest hearing his heart galloped like a runaway racehorse, attacking the earth.

Closing her eyes, Halifa heard someone calling her name from afar. "Haliy, Haliy," as sleep began to take her away, while Jeffery tried to lift her from off him.

"Hum!"

"Haliy wake up, wake up the girls . . ."

Jeffery was firm inside her sweet, warm kitty while Halifa lay on top of him and he knew he heard the Pixies running about in the grounds looking for them. Gad, this was not a sight for . . .

"There you are, Aunty." Jeffery closed his eyes and prayed they would not know . . .

"Why is aunt Haliy resting on you so?" Jeffery opened his eyes and looked down at a sleeping Halifa to see the innocent pixies staring at him oddly.

"Is she all right?" Finny asked standing over them with her eyes gleaming with curiosity and concern.

Clearing the boulder in his throat, "She, she fell asleep and wanted to rest on me." Sighing heavily and hoping the girls believed him.

"What is it?" he inquired as the girls ignored him while Finny and Nicest sat and began to pluck fruits and pastry that were left from their picnic basket making their plate.

"Girls?"

Finny slapped Nicest's hand as she took too much from the basket and looked apologetic at Jeffery's sweltering visage.

"We came to tell you there would be a ball this weekend to celebrate . . ."

"Fin, taste the pink puff." Nicest said with her mouth filled with the pink stuff, "It tastes divine."

"Girls," Jeffery could not take the fact that Halifa fell asleep with him hard in her, nor the fact that the pixie twins were in their presence in his current state. Smiling his reply, "Very good, now runoff."

"No, not yet," Finny said with her mouth filled. "We've not seen nor played with you for so long since uncle Ammon shot you." With a brow raised, Jeffery did not know the girls knew everything about his bed rest.

"No, I think you should runoff. I'll come to find you, and we'll have some quality time together, okay." Jeffery held his breath praying the girls would heed to his request.

"But we haven't told you all that we came to say."

"What is it?" Jeffery said through gritted teeth as Halifa moved and squeezed her warm walls around his cock a little, making him ready to cum as a groan escaped from her.

"Aunty Haliy are you all right?" Nicest asked towering over Halifa's, sleeping body with her hand poised to move Halifa's hair from her sleeping face. Jeffery thanked God, her skirt was full enough to hide everything from below the waist.

"What is it girls you have to say?" Jeffery asked exasperated and in pain.

Standing with their plates filled, Finny began to nudge Nicest away from them making Jeffery release the breath he was holding.

"We're having a ball." The girls screamed and ran off never telling him what else they had to impart, nor having any of their pilfered pastry tumble from their hurried flight.

"Haliy wake up, wake up love," Jeffery tried to lift Halifa to see a smile plaster on her wide-awake face making her mouth look inviting.

"What pink stuff did we have?" Halifa asked as she propped her hands on Jeffery's chest looking at him with a sneaky, sly smile on her face.

Grinding his jaw while shaking his head as he squirmed under the pixies ever-innocent watchful eyes, because of his Haliy playful jest. Jeffery was frustrated, yet could not be angry with her for long, but they needed to know what the girls were rattling on about.

While Jeffery and Halifa made their way back to the front of the house, they saw a fluster of activity as servants ran to and from emptying four carriages parked with a familiar pink crest on the wagons. They looked at each other and pondered which visitor made the household in a tizzy? As they stepped in the hallway, Jeffery did not have to wait long to unearth the reason.

"Jeffy," Lady Elizabeth Morgan came out of the study running towards him to stop short as she looked at Jeffery holding Halifa's hand tightly in his grasp.

"Jeffy?" With a frown mutilating Beth's pretty face. "Are you not happy to see me?" Lady Morgan pouted as she stood in front of Jeffery with her right cheek awaiting a kiss from him.

Halifa saw Jeffery's jaw tighten and a vein in his left temple made an appearance as he stared at the pretty, blond chit. Smiling, she did the only redeemable thing, and she excused herself, as she pulled away from Jeffery leaving him with the blond doll. She knew his eyes were on her back and it felt like an invisible rope was trying to pull her back to him. However, Halifa refused to stay a second longer near the little girl that flirted with her man, before she clawed her comely, blue eyes out.

Ascending the stairs gracefully, Halifa felt twin gaze bore into her back, but smiled when she saw her cousin and Jessica watching the scene play out in the hallway. Refusing to chance a glance back from where she left. Halifa kept her eyes on her girl's faces, she knew what they were thinking and did not want to indulge in any conversation about the blond doll.

"Who's Jeffery's new friend?" Jessica asked as she came in step with Halifa walking away. "Do we have to . . ." Halifa stopped with Mary and Jessica standing in front of her. She knew what they were thinking and needed to nip it in the bud before they did anything that would get them in any calamity.

The years of traveling made the three of them very protective over anything that belonged to "them." Whether a corset, slippers, a brush, or a man. They would help safeguard what sincerely belonged to each person to a fault, which got them in a fair amount of scrapes throughout the years. Halifa turned back to see the pretty-blond doll wrap her genteel hand through Jeffery's arm.

If only the pretty puppet knew what sort of harmful machinates, paraded in Halifa's mind to execute on her. She would run screaming from the house seeking refuge from them. Nevertheless, as Halifa looked at Jeffery strolling with the little girl, she felt her first tinge of something she never had in all her life, jealousy.

Jeffery could not believe Halifa did that to him. She left him with Beth, of all people in the world to have their paws on him. Lady Elizabeth Morgan, the only daughter of a very rich Duke that indulged his daughter every caprice.

Grinding his jaw while he bore every step she took plastered to his side, Jeffery mused he much rather Halifa's father hand on him than Beth Morgan.

"So," she stopped and stared at Jeffery. Dear God, she loved this man. Beth could not conjure a waking moment when she did not want to have Jeffery all to herself. That is why she made her father compel Countess Leslie to be her godmother when she was twelve. It was never done, to become a god anything to a grown child. Yet her father knew how to get anything she wanted, and she wanted Jeffery's godmother as hers so she can be around her handsome Earl.

"Why is that thing still around you Jeffy?" Beth asked with her very sexy pout that use to make him slightly hard as a young man but did nothing for him now. Having Beth around, puckering her lips, and taking his time away from Halifa only made him more anxious to return home quickly.

Jeffery knew if he were back at Castle Lumley, he would have had Vincent to keep her away from him. And his dear friend adored the job, which was strange, for Lord Cardwell could not stand the best bone in the girl, but did it for his reasons.

"Jeffy, it's very maddening to ask a question and have no reply forthcoming."

Beth gazed at Jeffery and saw his eyes glazed over as it always did when he was tired of her, but how could he be weary of her company so soon? It usually took a week to see him look at her thus.

That is why she gave him breaks in between when she came looking for him, and she found out from a very reliable source that he was visiting his godmother. However, Beth found it rather strange, since Jeffy rarely left his estate in years for any social call.

"Jeffy? Why is that . . ."

He had enough of Beth and needed to put her in her place. Jeffery had an ample amount to deal with Ammon and his ever-watchful eyes on him. Also, to have a nuisance like Beth rubbing herself on him and asking intimate questions like those, would make it hard to . . .

"Jeffery?" Beth cried stomping her foot whenever she was infuriated waiting for something. Jeffery grabbed her shoulders, looked her steady in the eyes and said . . .

"She is my wife."

Beth could not breathe as she stumbled back shocked by his four mundane words and whispered, "Wife?" shaking her head to clear the misunderstanding she thought she heard.

"I received no word of your wedding. It's a lie, you're lying." Beth smiled as she felt relief to know Jeffery was teasing her. She was a bit angry he . . .

"I jest you not. Halifa is her name, and she is my wife and expecting my child." Shaking her head and backing away from Jeffery, Beth really could not breathe this time. She felt her heart convulse, and the very air from her lungs sucked from . . . from. No, it could . . .

"No. You're . . . you're lying. Jeffery you're . . ."

Never in all the years of knowing Beth, had the child ever run from him. Watching her flight, left a satisfied smirk plastered on Lord Lumley's face and all it took, was for him to have Halifa in his life.

***

The Earl of Scarborough was garbed in a first-rate ensemble that his godmother had delivered two days ago, pacing tensely at the bottom of the staircase feeling like prince charming awaiting his Cinderella. With his stomach doing flips, Jeffery caught a glimpse of himself in the hallway antique wall mirror.

Attired in one of his favorite colors of royal blue, double-breasted waistcoat snugly over his pristine white shirt and neatly tied cravat that he did himself. With a black coat and trousers to finish it off with his gleaming black boot.

Nervous as hell, Jeffery new his hair must look a state, for the umpteen time his hands passed through his hair as sweat trailed under his armpits. The young Earl took a deep breath with his eyes closed to hear footsteps above him to see that a goddess stood before his person.

Smiling as a dandy fool, Jeffery wondered how was it possible to fall in love with the woman again, by an amendment of her wardrobe as he stared at her.

Halifa came down the steps with her stomach in knots, and with her back hurting, she wished she could be in bed and remained there for a week. It was less than a few months and some weeks since she found out she was carrying Jeffery's child in which she got sick, with constant back pains.

Moreover, being in the company of all the females in her life, they were very verbal in stating it would be hence for a while with more to come. Yet Halifa thought it would happen much, much, much later approaching the end when she was big as a hippo.

Deep in thought with all the vicissitudes, she went through since Jeffery entered her life. Her gaze focused on him at the bottom of the stairs standing before her with his hand out to her as if she was his Queen waiting for her King. Watching the man took her breath away as Halifa placed her hand on heart.

Jeffery took the mother of his child in hand and felt her hand tremble, or was it his? Staring at her, he had a hard time discerning if it was typical that his heart should stop so often when he gazed upon his wife to be. Halifa was beyond words, in her simple yet elegant lace gown of sapphire with a low neckline outlining her sweet caramel breast.

With a white bow beneath said breast highlighting the growth of two such saccharine nectars. Together, Halifa's long black hair curled in a heaping mass atop her perfect head. Free from handcrafted curls, but of natural coils as some fell loose, that bounced, flaunting her supple décolletage.

Father, her breast . . .

Jeffery was never one to care how a dress fit a woman's frame, but more how fast it would take to remove it from off her body. However, his Halifa attire made him examine her every curve and rise to want her intensely naked under and over him at the moment.

Taking a ragged breath, Jeffery saw her gaze reflected how he felt in a smile. Guiding Halifa to the library before the guest arrived, he wanted her to know she was undeniably his and he was hers tonight and forever.

That no one, their tongue, and eyes can sway him away from her. However, in his fervent need to voice his heart's desire, Jeffery did not notice someone's eyes were upon him that very moment plotting a way to his heart.

"They do make a brilliant couple, don't you think?"

Rene could not help but ask, as he snuck up behind his mother's last godchild, by coerce. With her eyes as slits, Beth turned and glared at him, making him smile even more. Taking a step to Beth sending her into the library, after Jeffery and Halifa walked away hand in hand. A tad annoyed he came upon the fast chit spying on his mother's latest couple.

Rene closed the door behind him and could not hide the pleasure at seeing Beth's tear streaking across her perfect, pale face. Maybe he should feel some remorse at her wretchedness. But alas, he could not for the child was worse than a leech on a solders sodden feet.

She sucked the marrow of your pleasant atmosphere and became enraged when you showed her your displeasure in having her in your company. And for some peculiar reason, the child could not hide her dejection from him as Lady Morgan, was a prized actor.

With her tense hands on her hips glaring at her godmother's son tapping her foot, Beth wanted to dig that nasty gypsy eyes out and cut off her hands for touching her Jeffy. She could not abide Jeffery allowed a filthy gypsy to lay with him and gave her his child. It was simple logic that Beth knew she was preordained to be the mother of his children and not some tan heathen, and it was purely rubbish he would ever wed that _thing_. A rover.

Jeffery was not that awful girl's husband. Her Jeffy told her lies, and his performance thus far was all an act for his spectators. That witch hexed him, he did not know what was happening to him, and as his dutiful future Lady, Beth would have to save him from that ghastly hobo claws.

"God," Beth screamed to turn and kick a lonely chair away with her back to Rene. Grinding her jaw, she knew better than to show any emotion other than the sweet young girl she always displayed, but she was beyond . . .

"Such vigor? My, my, my where was all this passion hiding?" Rene asked as he righted the abused chair and sat on it staring at her, waiting for a reply. He expected another outburst from her, but she regained her equanimity and plop her tiny bum opposite him fixing her skirt.

Rene knew she was still off-balance due to her jaw was set to a grim profile, but when she looked at him, he was amazed yet again, by her eyes. They appeared ready for battle.

The silence was strained or comical when viewed through Rene's eyes. He knew what her feats left behind when she wanted something and did not procure it.

Almost everyone knew he disliked Jeffery, but he cared for Halifa more than his aversion for the young Earl. Moreover, Rene saw Beth was a pebble of sorts in front of Halifa and Lord Lumley's way, notwithstanding Halifa's father, Ammon. Rene would rather have seen, Jeffery the way he was when he thought Halifa had left him as a broken man.

Nevertheless, he wanted Halifa to be happy, and if Jeffery made her so, he would help them stay as one.

"So . . ." he said standing with a hand out to Beth. "Should we join the festivity?"

Beth glared at him standing as a high tower over her. Oh! How she hated Rene in his finery, but she must continue as the sweet Beth to have what she wanted, and if Rene aided her in anywhere, she would use him. He was, after all, a simple male lead by his cock.

"Yes. Let's enjoy the evening." Beth said taking Rene's large mitt and felt, a trimmer went down her spine with the sweetest of smile she could muster up for him.
**Chapter Twenty-Three**

Mary, Jessica, Halifa, and Tamiya were accosted by most of the men in attendance, which nettled on some of the men's resolve. Within a few days, Leslie premeditated a grand ball that had a huge turn out on such short notice, for the simple fact no one ever refuses to appear, at one of her events.

When one was in attendance of a "Countess Leslie Gala," whether in France or England, you knew you were in the cream of society were Kings, Princes, Lords, Dukes, and the whole regal consortium of the rich and powerful came to rub, snub and enjoy oneself.

However, the ball was not orchestrated for the high and mighty in mind to eat and drink her out. No, Leslie wanted Ammon to see Halifa and Jeffery in an altered light. One that showed their love could withstand any thrashing that came their way and what ameliorate ambiance can one see such utterly stunning deceit, than in a revelry.

Ammon stood in the shadows and watched Jeffery surrounded by four women of his class. They were not as stunning as his Halifa, but he watched his daughter's eyes return to the Earl ever so often to see what he was doing. And every time Halifa looked his way, the boy would send her a smile, and Ammon remembered what that smile implied.

He shared it with his wife before he took her away from her parent's home in the middle of the night. Ammon could not believe that his heart could feel so taut in his chest. He suspected someone was squeezing his soul as he watched his baby look at another with, with such devotion . . . Such love that he marched directly to wrench her away, from the three young swains to close to her person whispering their pleasure at being in her company.

"What the . . ." Jeffery muttered to himself as he saw Ammon dragging Halifa through the open balcony doors into one of Leslie's endless gardens. The Earl of Scarborough did not take kindly in having any gent, maltreat the mother of his children. Even if it was Halifa, sire tugging her anywhere.

Jeffery stalked after them when Beth practically threw the pinkest punch on his white shirt. Glaring at Beth for a second, Jeffery glanced where he last saw Ammon hauling his Halifa away, to find no sight of them.

Frighten, angry and frustrated, Jeffery tried to get by Beth, to feel her tiny hands hold onto him with her claws piercing his skin. That made Jeffery stop and look at her.

"Jeffery we need to talk."

Beth said as she tugged Jeffery towards the study with easy, closing the door behind her feeling nervous to see Jeffery staring at his shirt.

Watching the very Earl that would make her his wife, Jeffery, always made her heart flutter as a girl. Nevertheless, now at twenty-four, her heart did not beat nor quiver as a ripe chit, but as a woman who cried out passionately that she was madly in love with the Earl of Scarborough and she needed him to know her feelings.

"Darling Jeffery, sit with me," Beth spoke and hoped she made it as a request and not a command that she gave to her servants while arranging her skirts to look up and see Jeffery remained where he stood staring at her. Taking a deep breath to stay and say her piece, Beth went into her speech with her hands claps on her lap.

"You know it is not normal in society for the fairer sex, to ask for a man's hand in marriage. Alas, I see no choice, but to ask." Beth gazed directly into her dearest's eyes to share her greatest wish.

"Jeffery, I have loved you almost all my life and I can . . . cannot tolerate to see you with another." It was not going how she had planned it, but she needed to say what was in her heart.

"I am yours, and you mine," Beth stood and took a step on quaking limbs and held Jeffery's hand receiving his full attention. "I wish for you to be my husband." There, she said it, her words were not eloquent, nor was her composure set in refined gold as she laid her heart out to Jeffery. Nonetheless, Beth knew she had his complete attention now, and it would take a few more words, to show him how that heathen gypsy bewitched him.

Jeffery listened to the little girl. He heard every word she spoke and saw her reaction was not a game, but something real that she felt. Her eyes made no jest that she was indeed in love with him and felt flattered such a beautiful young woman saw and loved him while his very being shunned and loathed the same society she so stepped over to ask her question. He could do nothing but hold her shoulders and kissed her forehead gently feeling her hands touching his chest as a lover would her sweetheart.

"If I were a younger man and not in love with another, I would have taken you up on your. . . your heartfelt offer of marriage." Jeffery said as he pulled away from her touch. "But I am neither young or in love with you."

Gasping, with her heart plummeting, Beth felt her feet gave way as Jeffery picked her up so effortlessly and placed her on a love seat. With her eyes closed and heart beating slowing, she heard glass clicking and hurried footsteps to open her eyes and see Jeffery kneeling before her with a crystal glass filled with some strong spirits. Beth required no prompting to drink what was offered to her and drank it all in one go, staring at Jeffy's concern for her.

Jeffery took the glass and stepped away from Beth, feeling this would be the last he would have to say such hurtful words to any woman, ever again. While staring at Beth gazing at her petite feet hanging from the love seat, pondering what else he could have said to lessen his blunt words of rejection as he placed her glass on a side table, ready to leave.

Feeling somewhat heavy with remorse, yet could not think of anything at the moment to shave off on his words. For there was an urgent issue that craved his undivided attention as he walked away from Lady Beth Morgan.

Fearing the worse as Jeffery harried steps, took him in search to find where Ammon hauled his Halifa?

***

As a child, Halifa was never a lover of flowers, gardens, and balls, or anything to do with society on the hold. Thus, when her father pulled her away from those fawning fluff for men, she did not argue nor stopped his haste as he carried her to a favorite hideaway at her godmother's estate, the stables. When Ammon closed the doors behind them, Halifa wondered what disparaging words he was going to say against Jeffery again.

Nonetheless, to be away from Leslie's ball for a while, Halifa felt a spurt of freedom and joy when she was amid the speedy beast. And since her visit to Leslie this time, she scarcely made it to the stables and was thankful to be there at present.

Leslie and her father housed some of the best horseflesh in the world. Her father was first, of course, Leslie second and Jeffery . . . her Jeffery had Winter, and he was a prize and a credit to his stables. When Halifa saw Winter nodding his head at her, she knew he welcomed her visit and gravitated to him.

Ammon knew his daughter was just waiting for him to start his harangue on her Earl, but he wanted to find the right words to temper his feelings. His daughter was exactly like him, sharp and calculating at times and as he watched her pet a beautiful black mammoth of a horse that belonged to Jeffery, Ammon felt his shoulders slumped for what he was about to do.

"When you leave me, it will . . ." Ammon needed to take a deep breath to finish as he stood behind his baby playing with the black beast of a horse.

"It will break my heart."

Halifa stopped her movements to turn and look at her father with a frown on her brow, to be engulfed by him.

"Daddy?"

Ammon was no fool, nor was he sightless anymore. Instead, of refusing to stay obscure in his protective grief as he pulled her in for his first real hug in a year, as a father missing his only living child. His heart still grieved for his late wife, his Venus, and the life with his girls. Pulling away as he looked at her with her eyes closed, Ammon continued what he needed to express.

"You have grown into a woman and would make a brilliant wife and a perfect mother," Ammon said wiping his eyes as he hugged Halifa again when the stables doors began to shake loudly. Halifa shook out of her haze of what her father just imparted to her.

"Haliy, Haliy, Halifa," Halifa knew that panic voice. As she pulled away to open the doors, Ammon held her hand stopping her as he brought her back and kissed her forehead as he often did when she was a child. Smiling up at him, Halifa kissed him on his cheek and quickly rushed off to open the doors before Jeffery woke up all the horses.

When Jeffery asked everyone that was outside if they saw Halifa or her father, every soul gave the same response, "NO." With his heart plummeting, Jeffery began to panic in earnest. Did Ammon honestly snatch her away while the ball was going on in her honor?

He should have been more vigil in guarding his Halifa against Ammon pulling this ruse. Jeffery believed Ammon had come to terms that his daughter was no longer under his care, but under the charge of her husband to be, Lord Lumley.

With his heart beating faster than a stampeding herd, Jeffery feared his limbs freeze, giving his father-in-law ample chance to his escape with his Halifa. He needed to calm his mind and heart. As he took a deep breath and waited to see who was behind the sealed stable doors. Sealing his eyes for a moment as the doors opened, Jeffery seized another breath and inhaled her aroma.

Exhaling his joy, Jeffery tugged Halifa in a bone-crushing embrace that she could feel his heartbeat rapidly to her chest. Jeffery thought it was not wise to hold her so tightly because of the baby, but could not stomach any space between them.

Jeffery heard someone clearing their throat and look up to see his father-in-law standing behind them grinding his incisors. For the young Earl, it was an automatic move shielding his wife behind him from her father. He knew the man would rather die than to hurt her, but Jeffery kept his Halifa securely behind him nonetheless.

Ammon took a step to Jeffery and saw the boy's eyes glowed, warning him off. Smiling, was Ammon's only solution to give and ease the beleaguered young man as he walked past his daughter and impending son-in-law.

"What is he doing?"

Jeffery asked Halifa as he watched Ammon walk away from them. Staring at his father-in-law, Jeffery saw guest strolling about with a few gazes gliding their way to pull Halifa back into the stables, to find out what was going on. After he secured the doors, he looked back to see Winter speaking to Halifa and watched in astonishment.

Why in heaven's name, his horse never spoke to Vincent or him so freely? Jeffery's heart grew ten times more as he watched the woman he loved increase with his child and knew his life was almost perfect at that moment.

Halifa felt such a weight was lifted off her shoulders with her father's blessing on Jeffery's and her relationship. She also felt serenity when Jeffery was behind her and loved when his arms embrace her body. With her eyes closed, she leaned her head back, then turned to look at Jeffery and saw what she felt, LOVED.
**Chapter Twenty-Four**

"What the heavens, hell they are doing in there?" Beth stamped her feet waiting in her godmother's maze of a garden. She hated flowers and the smell of them. It reminded her of her mother's funeral and at her loss as a young girl, but Lady Morgan wanted to talk with that bitch that cast a glamour on her Jeffy. Thus, she waited to ambush the dark chit to have at it.

Her Jeffy could not be in love with her of his inclination. It was unnatural for him to stay away from women for that lengthy time, as she knew he was a passionate, virile young man.

Oh! Beth had lived that one moment in time when she felt his heated embrace and his gentle, but deep kiss when she was a young girl spying on him and Vincent. It might have been fleeting as a wink, but it stayed with her always. As Jeffery caught her and said, he was going to teach her a lesson on spying on men and kissed her passionately.

Father, it was her first kiss but was engraved in her heart, that no other male, conceivably noble or common came close to heat her blood and soul as the Earl of Scarborough.

Though throughout the years of seeing hungry mothers and every warden of a fresh spring girl tries to foster those silly chits onto her Jeffy. Beth remained calm, for no one ever came close to his passionate heart. Save for this dirty gypsy girl. It was not possible that he loved her on his own. Therefore, Beth made it a point to stop that nasty, vile thing from taking her Jeffy away by any means necessary.

While waiting for them to exit the filthy barn, Beth fell asleep twice to awake with her leg torpid and pain as a hoary woman. Nevertheless, her sleep gave her time to consider what she could do, to rid this foul gypsy girl from Jeffy's life for good and it was all due to her pleasant dream.

Leslie and Nef stood as sentinels watching Ammon make his way from the stables leaving Jeffery and Halifa alone. Leslie felt proud of what her little "get together" did. It was a chance she took, but it was worth the risk as they saw Jeffery and Haliy exit the byre hand in hand not long after her Ammon.

Nef smiled at her and walked back to enjoy the ball, leaving Leslie to bask in her brilliance. However, her basking was short-lived as she glimpsed a fluffy pink dress walking away from one of her maze gardens in a huff.

"Beth."

Lady Morgan was surpassed livid as tears stream down her eyes, not seeing the slight woman making her way to her but felt a hand clutched her wrist fiercely. Startled by being hampered, Beth tried to yank her hand away to feel a forceful slap on her cheek. Rubbing her face, Beth saw it was her faux godmother massaging her hand.

"You?" was all the accusation that came out of Beth's clipped and shocked mouth. For Leslie's slap and hold on her person were all a surprise as well as being hauled behind the aging woman into her library. Glaring at the ancient lady, Beth was stunned Leslie had such strength in her delicate stature.

Leslie locked the door to turn and scrutinize the conniving young woman that was one of her godchildren. She knew what the girl wanted for years and she knew what Jeffery waited for years but someone was going to lose their heart to someone, and Beth was the only one left to see it would be her. She was dense, blind, and deaf to see who Jeffery was in love with, so it fell on Leslie's weary aged shoulders to impart what was apparent.

Beth waited for what her godmother had to say so she could be on her way to deal with Jeffy's little gypsy problem. Annoyed, to say the least, but Leslie's timing was off the mark as Beth waited to set in motion her own devices.

"Leslie is there . . ." Beth began when she saw the old woman glided towards her with her hand raised and felt a slap across her cheek and saw it enact in such unhurried motion. Far from mere startled by the force of the old woman's slap again, made Beth stumble back touching her cheek with her eyes wide and her anger rising greater than before in all her young life.

"You will desist in your pursuit of Jeffery and find another to hold your attention," Leslie said with her hand behind her back smarting as she strode before a spoiled child staring at her in shock. Lord, her fingers felt like it was broken. The girl must have steel in her jaw to hurt her hand so. Nonetheless, Leslie would not furnish how injured, her hand were from slapping the silly chit, but stared into Beth's cold, calculating eyes.

"That gypsy as you call her is one of my godchildren, like yourself. I made her so, by choice and not by coercion." Taking a deep breath and massaging her hand behind her back, Leslie pressed on. "You will make a much better match with some young swain out there. So . . ." Leslie said as she hooked her arm in Beth's and walked her out the library towards the crowd, but was forcibly stopped to look back at Beth with her jaw set watching her.

Leslie closed her eyes groaning as she looked at Beth, she was not going to give up on Jeffery. "Beth . . ."

With her hand raised to stop her so-called godmother, Beth knew she had no help coming from her, so she made herself relax to show that she was giving up on her Jeffy.

"I agree with everything you've said." Beth declared wrapping up her performance with a loud disheartened sigh, at her discontent of losing. Beth gave her best feint.

"I cannot fight what, Jeff . . . Lord Lumley feels for that . . . for her." Walking to stand in front of Leslie, Beth hugged her tightly hearing the old woman groan, which made her smile.

"I shall take your advice dear god-mama," Beth said as she pulled back and gave Leslie two quick peck on her cheeks to walk away before her eyes betray her intent.

Leslie was not hoodwinked to believe Beth would give up so effortlessly by her capitulation. Nevertheless, her talk was the best she could give for now, but knowing how Ammon gave his approval of Jeffery and Halifa. Leslie knew no one could stand in their way now, and prayed the girl would not be further hurt in her pursuit.

***

Jeffery was tired as well as Halifa when they left the stables, so made their way to his bedroom, while the ball was now in its full revelry. By the chimes of the hall clocks, it was midnight. It was the first time Jeffery honestly felt free that they could be alone without any interruptions or any chaperone since they arrived at his godmother's home. And the Earl of Castle Lumley desired only to fall asleep with Halifa in his arms this night.

Locking his bedroom door and leaning on it, Jeffery looked as Halifa slid her gown off to remain in her shift, unconscious of what she was doing to him. Sending all sleep away, as his penis pointed directly at her ravenously. Jeffery looked at Halifa as she glided into his bed, bone, and body weary now showing the growth of their child.

Ogling Halifa with his hungry eyes and ever so desirable. Jeffery kicked off his boot and practically ripped off his clothes as he went under the covers to snuggle next to her. He knew even though he wanted her badly, she needed rest, real rest for a change.

So, he pulled and hugged her to his chest with a smile on his face. Jeffery knew Halifa felt his passion, as her precious backside was pressed into his solid cock. However, he made no move to take her, save to hold her.

Halifa could not hide the smile on her face as she pulled Jeffery's arm close around her. She could try to remain uncaring that his enormous cock was firmly into her rump, but could not let him suffer as he was most undeniably so. Turning in his arms, Halifa smiled at him and saw his thank you before she shoved him on his back to straddle him. She was not so enormous that she could not be beneath him, but she wanted to please him and herself in the processes.

"God I love you." Jeffery groaned as he slipped into his Halifa's wet closet. He knew he was lucky to have found her and more so that she no longer fought him or he needed to battle her father to claim her as his wife.

As Halifa began to ride him slowly making him hold onto her hips all thoughts of her father and every one save his Halifa flew from his mind as he swelled within her divine walls enveloping around him.

Jeffery felt the confines of her kitty clutched his cock making him cum much faster than he wanted. While coming, he could not control the loud groan that escaped his mouth as he sat up and latched onto her breasts feasting on it. Lord, he knew he was spent within her sweet cage, but his balls became heavy, and his penis came to life within seconds.

Halifa knew he wanted more of her, but she could not. Her body wanted to rest and slipped off him to see Jeffery was still hard jetting cum like a volcano.

Sticky and sated, Halifa pulled the covers and fell asleep instantly leaving Jeffery as he watched her and his penis turning a shade he became well acquainted with. Stunned by his lady love's action, all desire for rest vanish from him completely.

Jeffery knew Halifa needed a lot of rest and so he should leave her, but still craving her and not having her . . . Groaning Lord Lumley could not abandon her. Therefore, he pulled the covers over him with his hands behind his head to look down at his penis standing hard, aching the dickens out of him. Closing his eyes, he prayed the morning would reach promptly, instead of taking hours to arrive.

***

Looking at him as he slept was a beautiful pleasure with a soothing calm resting on her heart and mind. Jeffery dozed peacefully cuddling a feathered pillow to his naked, chiseled form. Halifa sat up on her elbow enjoying the sight before her and would have until death came to her.

While aching to touch his eyes, lips, and nose. Features that made his handsome face stand above anyone that Halifa knew.

His eyes showed his heart, his lips spoke of his soul . . . Halifa could not help it, as she pulled his pillow from his embrace to see him stir, stretching like a cat waking to the possibility of trouble.

Jeffery groaned as he stretched feeling someone's gaze on him and his comfort was snatched away. Yet could not help, but smile as he opened one eye to see Halifa staring at him with his hunger from last night reflected in hers.

"Morning love," Jeffery said as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into his embrace kissing her forehead as he stroked her back getting a contented sigh to flow from her lips. He felt wicked for what she did to him last night, taking her fill of him and leaving him undone on his second turn, which came so quickly.

With his mind formulating a turn around to what his Haliy did to him, Jeffery felt her hands clutch his morning rod, and it swelled yet again by her touch. Moaning, Jeffery could not bear Halifa leaving him hanging once more and tried to remove her hand from his painful appendage shaking his head as he stared at her.

"You no longer can . . . can have this," the young Earl croaked, to then clear his throat and finish with, "until we are wed." With his brows bunched, Jeffery was wondering what the hell was coming out his mouth as he looked at Halifa staring at him as if he was positively barmy.

Lost as to where this line of colloquy was going, Jeffery continued as he stepped out of bed with his stiff penis turning an alarming shade yet again, from his pointed hardships in less than twenty-four hours.

Leaning on her elbow, Halifa squinted at Jeffery tying his robe hiding his morning need for release but walked away from her.

"What are you talking about Jeffery?"

Jeffery closed his eyes to escape what Halifa was parading before him, with the sheet resting on her waist exposing her lovely breast for him to ravish.

"You . . . should, you should . . ." Jeffery was trying to say to his Halifa while praying air into his lungs.

"You should get dress. And I'll, I'll meet you . . ." the young Earl tried to concentrate as he eyed his Halifa rise from out the bed with her glorious body exposed to his lust.

"I . . ."

Annoyed by what she was hearing, Halifa grabbed her shift and threw it over her head mumbling to herself. She wanted to be free from Jeffery and his backside talk about not having her again until they were married. Walking past him, Halifa glimpsed where Jeffery's hands were.

She knew it was all blather and stopped with her hand on the door handle to turn and see Jeffery staring at her with his hand over his very awake penis groping it. Feeling a bit naughty, Halifa strolled to Jeffery making him back into the wall looking nervous and in pain.

"Very well love. Till we are wed," Halifa said smiling as she tiptoed and kissed him on his cheek to walk away with a sweet smile. Jeffery wanted to grab Halifa back and explain himself, but he was in such pain as his penis made him curvature.

Slapping his temple, Jeffery ponder, why the fuck did he say those foolish things to her? Father Lord, the Earl of Scarborough, was beyond in physical agony by his reckless words to his wife to be.

***

Beth could not believe her luck she was going to free her Jeffy from that nasty gypsy girl and her wicked curse. Bless her old godmother. Leslie planned a picnic with only the women to attend while the men lounge about doing whatever they did away from the women.

As she walked behind everyone, Beth had enough time and space to study how she could put her plan into action. After the ball, all of Leslie's guests left, leaving behind the original remaining invitees, who included a few curious looking gypsies and there two runt's for little girls.

It was not hard for Beth to come up with a simple plan to get rid of Jeffy's bit of a problem and saw it stepped forward as the dark girl walked off alone from the others. Beaming, Beth picked up her pace as she marched into her plot.

Halifa was past exhausted as she begged for some time alone to think. She was soon to be a mother in a few months and not yet married to her baby's father. She knew they would, but when and wondered what sort of life she would have with him, the Earl of Scarborough.

It all meant she would be under Jeffery's rheostat solely and her family will no longer be near her. Halifa paused to consider what she was giving up for Jeffery to hear someone strolling briskly behind her to see it was one of Leslie spoiled godchild and Jeffery's young pursuer. The one that wanted, "Jeffy" as Mary and Jessica loved to imitate the little child.

"Haliy darling," Beth said wrapping her arm through the gypsy's folded wings while her fingers brushed against her stomach. Beth hoped it appeared as a casual touch, but there was no mistake. The first time she met the odious gypsy in the woods, at a glance, she seemed to have a shape that made Beth jealous for a second.

Her height and curves were what all men seem to care for these days, breasts, and buttocks. But the gypsy had nothing on Beth's milky flawless complexion. Nevertheless, seeing the caramel-colored girl, appeared somewhat thick, made Beth think the girl was fat, but no, she was growing plump with someone's bastard, passing it off as her Jeffy's.

Despite that, Beth could not help herself and blatantly ogled her, wanting to touch the bulge again in front of the gypsy. She tried to mask her growl of shock that it was indeed real, yet could not believe that her Jeffy would touch, far less sleep with a filthy hobo freely. Even though the dark skin slut looked like a sinful goddess of ancient Geek. Beth meant to end Jeffy's foolish bewitched infatuation.

As she looked up at the gypsy, Beth smiled sweetly holding her arm tightly. "What did you do to my Jeffy?" It was direct and to the point.

Halifa could not believe the little girl. She held her arm so fierce that assuredly, it would leave an impression after their short tête-à-tête. Halting, Halifa gave the little doll her full and utter attention, for she saw her only as a child and not a woman to match her wits.

Pulling her hand away to take a step back, Halifa held her chin high and shoulders unbending, to gaze in the girl's eyes to dispel any doubt that Jeffery was under a spell by her.

"He came to me freely and will stay with me freely. He cannot love a child when he needs a woman." Halifa could not remember the last time she spoke such severe words to anyone, but the child was grating on her already frayed nerves.

Beth was far from shaken by the outpour of the dirty dark skin lyrics. She must hide her duplicity well from her Jeffy. Stepping away from the gypsy whore, who was now rubbing her swollen stomach, Beth walked around her, and cheerfully replied, "Yes I am young and able to best you at any given time to keep Jeffy from the likes of you."

Halifa could not believe her ears or her sight at what stood before her, giving her backtalk. The child was brave as she spoke that she would have Jeffery for herself. Halifa wondered if Jeffery knew how determined this little Miss was with her feelings towards him.

Taking another step back from this Beth Morgan, Halifa gave the girl, her full consideration and viewed her from head to toe and saw that the child was not a child at all. Halifa knew she was older than the girl, by a few years, but the child had passion behind her will. This blond beauty could capture any man, yet she set her caps on her Earl of Scarborough who was taken.

In the time Halifa was in the company of Jeffery, she knew why any chit would want to sink their claws into him. He was Divine _._ And Halifa could appreciate why, for, by his mere appearance, his physique could hold any woman's attention, to begin with.

Nevertheless, age was not a concern between Jeffery or her as Halifa knew she was older than him by a smidgen. Yet considering the fresh young girl, it never once crossed her mind to ask how old the child was. She felt no threat from her but recognized she needed to be cautious by the set of girl's eyes. The striking blond was telling her to tread carefully while she was around.

***

It was getting late, and Jeffery was becoming frustrated . . . "Where the hell is she?" Jeffery growled as he paced watching everyone walking back from there forced picnic by his godmother. Beth tagged along saying, "She adored picnics."

Jeffery knew the chit and saw it was a barefaced lie, for she hated the outdoors passionately like she hated to lose anything she set her eyes on. It was the very reason he did not want to leave Halifa in the company of that juvenile, trifling girl. God alone knew what she would tell his Halifa to upset her.

The Earl of Scarborough looked at all the men that refused to attend, Leslie's event. The group of gentlemen Jeffery was saddled with, were a set he preferably hurled off a cliff than to share an afternoon of tea and tipple. Ammon sat reading god knows what while Rene lounged in a chair with a glass of spirits on his lap looking lost as Alex often did.

And Jeffery was not surprised when all the men from Halifa's camp mysteriously disappeared when asked if they would share in the afternoon delight of dawdling _._ Jeffery needed to keep calm for when Halifa came back, he needed, no he wanted his stay at his godmothers to be over so he could return home with his family.

Observing Ammon and Rene, halted Jeffery's pacing as he stormed off to query that very point.

"Leslie, Leslie . . . Leslie," Jeffery shouted as he stormed about searching for the woman, to find she was not far from where the gentlemen were. It would seem all the older women were lagging about also. Jeffery stood with his hands on his hips staring at Leslie to see Nef and Tamiya watching and waiting to hear what Jeffery was yelling so vehemently when they were but a few feet away.

Taking a deep breath, Jeffery plastered a sweet smile on his face as he pulled Leslie away to have his say. Steering her away from Nef and Tamiya watchful eyes, he took her through the tulip and daisy garden, where he found a peaceful spot, and plop his godmother in her small grotto stone bench.

Gazing at Leslie made him recall his mother for a second. If his mother were alive, the moment he expressed his feeling towards Halifa, she would have made him a husband to his Halifa years ago. And his mother would have been a grandmother a few times over.

Taking a deep breath to shake his mawkish reflection, Jeffery once again gazed at Leslie as she straightened the creases from her black frock and prayed for endurance to say what he wanted to voice.

"I want the vicar here tomorrow," Jeffery stated as Leslie began to dust her shoulder making him see red. Taking a step to her with his hands in his pockets Jeffery groaned as he began to pace in front of her. "I want to leave in a week, I need to return home and tend to my estate, and I want Halifa to cross my threshold at Castle Lumley as my wife."

Jeffery stopped his pacing to look at his godmother watch her fingernails. He wanted to shake her silly as she seemed indifferent for his plight to leave with his wife and child. Stooping before her, holding her hands, his godmother stopped her fidgety movements as her gaze fastened onto his.

Leslie could no longer torture her poor godson, so pulled her hands away from his hold and touched his cheek with a frown marring his beautiful face.

"He was sent for and will be here this afternoon." Leslie saw Jeffery confused and annoyed expression as he tried to pull away from her, but she held him in place before he began his tirade that she knew was coming. Leslie did not have the strength to deal with any more muddled or misunderstood passion with the young generation.

As godmother to perhaps a dozen Peahen and Peacocks, she wanted to end this last bout of a love affair for her deceased best friend and her only child. As Jeffery's only godmother, Leslie wanted his wedding held under her roof and would make it a gay completion.

Content with herself, Leslie saw no way around it, but to help and give Jeffery what he wanted, which was Halifa as his wife.

While Leslie's words sank into Jeffery's cranium, he clasped his superlative godmother tightly. Pulling away, Jeffery looked into her eyes and saw it was all true. He was going to be a husband by tomorrow. The Earl of Scarborough drew Leslie into another firm hug, giving her a loud kiss on her cheek and ran off. He needed to share this bit of news with his bride to be.
**Chapter Twenty-Five**

Jeffery sat on the hallway stairs waiting for Halifa's return from the picnic, gazing at the front door. It was not that late, but he was alarm when Mary and Jessica came back without his bride as Halifa asked, "to be left alone to spend some time by herself." Jeffery did not mind she wanted some space to think, but not when Beth was out there also.

While everyone strolled about the house and grounds after the picnic, Jeffery just wanted to have Halifa close by. He also wanted to find his woman, to share the brilliant news he had since his stay with his godmother.

Fed up waiting as he took a few steps with his hands on the doorknob to go in search of his Halifa, Jeffery heard her voice and stopped, clutching its handle chewing on the inside of his jaw.

"And where are you off to my dear Jeffy?"

Eyes closed and praying for tolerance, Jeffery turned to look Beth in her eyes to see she was giving him her vacuous seductive look.

"Did you see my Haliy on your way in?" Jeffery watched as she swayed her little hips for him before she responded.

Pulling his hand away from the door, Beth wanted this alone time to explain what she did and to make him know it was for the best. Wrapping her arm around Jeffery's waist, she felt him tense but continued to hold onto him nevertheless.

Beth glowed with self-praise for what she did for them. Setting her Jeffy free from that trash, entering into his family and lineage could have only been by Beth's succor. For her Jeffy was a force to be reckoned with, that no mere, vile gypsy could have him without doing some witchcraft to ensnare him.

Whatever spell he was under, it would take some time for it to wear off and if her dear sweet Jeffy were not going to relish in the freedom she help him to regain, she would bask in it for them both.

Letting go of his waist, Beth turned and fixed his lapel brushing his shoulders and enjoying the feel of his phenomenal muscular physique.

"Beth, did you see her?"

"Yes I did, and we had a very stimulating talk," Beth said, as she walked away from Jeffery heading for the library, she knew he would follow just to find out what transpired with that dreadful dark gypsy.

"And where is she?" Jeffery asked annoyed trying to calm his precipitously beating heart that had his bowels in knots. Jeffery grabbed Beth before she could open the library door, pulling her aside and slammed her against the wall seizing her upper arm tightly. Attempting to stay calm, but failing, Jeffery shook the little tart to ask again, "Where . . .

Is . . . She?"

Beth loved to play with her Jeffy, especially when he looked so tempestuous. With her heart beating rapidly by the passion she was feeding off of him, she wanted to caress his powerful body. With her hands touching his muscular stomach, Beth groaned to look up at Jeffery's eyes looking wild with desire.

Biting her lips, Beth tried to push away from the library only to be slammed back, banging her head against the wooden wall rattling some of Leslie's family portrait.

"Where . . . is . . ." Jeffery was about to bellow from the rafters when he heard . . .

"Jeffery?"

"God," Jeffery whispered as all the tension he was feeling vacated when he heard his name from her lips, as he leaned his forehead on Beth's stomach. Jeffery placed his hands on his thighs as he took a much-needed breath to quell what he was going to do the little girl that was teasing him of where his Halifa was.

Jeffery stood and looked back to see Halifa standing by the front door giving a maid her shawl staring at him. Forgetting Beth or any shame to run to a woman, Jeffery reached Halifa and embraced her in one of his bone-crushing clinched, to hold her face kissing every inch of the woman to latch onto her mouth and consume her lips. Everyone was forgotten, maid, Beth, and anyone who saw him.

If Halifa ever considered herself a jealous woman, it would have been when she saw Jeffery leaning so close into Beth. Or perchance even when the child told her that Jeffery was far above any gypsy to have and hold him unless some black art was not at play.

Furthermore, it grated on Halifa's mind when dear sweet Beth mention the Earl was just amusing himself with her as a peer with a common whore. Yet his reaction showed the silly little girl, did not know her Jeffy well.

Jeffery could not help it sometimes when he intimately craved his Halifa. She seldom held back like now, as he pinned her against the front door with his hands roaming about her body of their own accord. After all the thoughts and possibility, what that little-wicked girl, could have done to his Halifa, Jeffery just wanted to make sure . . .

Halifa needed to stop him. She could not do this, not now in front of . . .

"Your bedroom must be occupied, that you find yourself in need to give us all an exhibit of your honeymoon?" With his mouth on her neck and his hand on her thighs, inches away from her warm, sweet opening, Jeffery stopped with a groan as he opened his eyes to see Halifa shoving her gown down while he tucked his penis in its place. Feeling somewhat righted, meaning Jeffery's cock was down and hidden.

He turned to see Rene and Mary standing beside a very beet red Beth. The Earl of Scarborough did not care, he was almost caught, with his cock out of his trousers striving to enter his Halifa's kitty in plain view of anyone. His only thought at that moment was "he wanted to be in her," so carted Halifa away going to his bedroom.

Beth could not hold back the scream that escaped from her, she was livid, to say the least at what she had just witnessed. "How the fuck did that soiled gypsy do that?" she wondered.

Jeffery could not be so blind and desperate to want to stay with . . . with that dark skin whore of a tramp, who only wanted him for his money. Storming past Rene and another gypsy slut, Beth made her way to her room to amend her plans to get rid of her permanently.

Halifa was exhausted from her walk and chat with that young woman. Her list of complaints was extensive, but on the top of the list were her pregnancy and her baby's father. She did not know how long she could go on with all this hill and valley of emotions she was going through. She was happy to be a mother and build a life with Jeffery, but . . .

Jeffery could not help what he did as he kicked his bedroom door open and flung Halifa inside to kick the same said door and locked it to turn to see Halifa looking stunned and angry as she fell back into his bed. Jeffery was furious as hell to think what Beth could have done to Halifa. His whole life and family reside with the woman that stood before him looking drained and angry all in one.

Jeffery was never deceived, by Beth's sweet sunny disposition she showed to everyone. The girl was an appalling bitch at best, a malicious one. He always wondered why his godmother took her as a godchild when Leslie remarked on how evil a chit she was.

From his youth, Leslie forewarned Jeffery to stay clear of Beth. Nevertheless, what young man would willingly refrain from temptation when it wanted to have you? Yet minor infractions on behalf of said chit was proof of caveat, was all it took to stay away from the girl and even more so now that he had Halifa and his baby to think of.

Haliy may not believe Beth was someone to be circumspect about and he sooner not tell Halifa whom she could and could not confer with. For doing such a thing, might send her to investigate with her willful mind.

Halifa was mad as hell by how Jeffery flung her into his bedroom and locked the door making her feel like she was jailed. At that moment, she did not know and cared less, for all she wanted to do at that point was strip all her burdensome garment and crawl under the thick coverlet for some much-needed rest, which she did.

Jeffery paced rubbing his forehead as he tried to calm his threadbare heart wishing he had the power to speed up time so he could wed and be away from his godmother's home, to his. Letting go a loud sigh as some patience settled over him, Jeffery turned to see Halifa's clothes discarded on the floor, all of it and the woman in bed with her back to him asleep.

Frowning, Jeffery walked and gathered all her clothes to rest them on a chair staring at her sleeping so peaceful, not knowing the brilliant news he was waiting to impart. With his eyes closed, Jeffery felt the weight of evening collapsing on his shoulders and stripped like his Halifa to crawl in and pull her close to his warm chest. Groaning, the Earl of Scarborough knew it might take a while before he fell asleep as Halifa tighten his embrace, rubbing her backside into his groin.

Father have mercy, his cock was hard in seconds, and it was not going down, and Jeffery knew it would not, for a while. Exhausted, he wanted his Halifa, but she needed rest, and he desired to be a worthy husband. He would hold her and let her sleep, this time.
**Chapter Twenty-Six**

Dawn yawned and covered dusk as Jeffery turned to see his bride staring at him intently with something to express and as he knew his Halifa inside out, it concerned Beth. However, with his eyes feasting on her glowing beauty, his chest felt filled, yearning to share what he was dying to say, but whispered.

"You are beautiful."

Jeffery had so much to say, to explain, why he was so irate last evening, but all he could have said were those three heartfelt words, to see tears streaming down her honeyed cheek. Wiping Halifa's tears away, Jeffery kissed her eyes while hugging her intimately to share his good news.

"Today, you shall be my wife."

Halifa pulled away with a frown to look at the man who was making her a mother in a few months.

Jeffery sat up and folded his leg like a child, eager to share his news.

"Leslie has sent for a priest, so we can be wed and leave here by tomorrow hopefully," Jeffery spoke without a pause as he conveyed the excellent news with a smile that was hurting his cheek. He could not help it as he looked on to see a striking grin formed on his Halifa's face also. Crushing her to him, Jeffery could not wait to go home.

"So . . ."

The Earl of Scarborough was saying when he pulled away from Halifa's embrace quickly as he felt something was rising in his mid-region. He did not want any delays so dressed post-haste as he walked towards his bedroom door to hear sheets shuffling to stop. With the door partly open, Jeffery became encased in Halifa's arms so tightly, that if their baby had kicked his Haliy, he would have felt it in his back.

With his breath hitching in Jeffery's chest, Halifa kissed his back before she allowed him to go and sort out all the particulars of their wedding. She could not hide the ridiculous smile that was on her face by Jeffery's news as she stared at him striding through the hallway, in such a regal manner in crumpled clothes.

Halifa closed the door to lean on it, wondering what help could she offer to make the day's event to run smoothly. However, knowing Leslie, she would just be in the way so she decided to enjoy the day as a single woman.

***

Beth sat surrounded by them for breakfast. She ate and smiled as everyone talked, around her speaking in tongues. Beth knew they spoke in Swedish, German, and Italian, but how? They were inferior brutes using an asinine, old woman, but she, Lady Elizabeth Morgan, refused to be taken into their hairy treachery as she pushed away to leave their foul company.

Only to pause from her departure when she heard of a wedding that was to take place this afternoon. That word alone made her take her seat back and paid closer attention to one of those plump dark harlots speaking in French, the one language she hated but knew well.

In between conversing, Mary could not help but glance at where the pretty flaxen doll stood, retaking her seat to pretend and eat when she heard the word "wedding" mention.

Mary, Jessica, and Tamiya sat discussing the final details for Halifa's and Jeffery's wedding that would take place in a few hours. Just the thought made Mary happy for her cousin, to have found someone who was obsessed and in love with her. For Mary, she stumbled upon it once, love and it was a dangerous combination to have when you are young. Mary knew such passion was an all-consuming emotion, which could blaze bright or extinguish someone's light.

"Is she up?" Tamiya asked in English.

Jessica smiled feeling a tad eager to see what the lovely little girl would do, with such festive news that was in the air and asked, "Will you be staying for the wedding this afternoon?" Jessica could hardly contain her delight in seeing the girl's face blazed scarlet with her eyes squinting at her. The very expression etched, in the girls bright blue eyes, were Murder.

Beth could not take it anymore, those gypsy bitches were provoking her to do or say something beneath her. And she would not. She would show them her blood was pure with Earls, Dukes, and Viscount, something they could never have as she pushed away from the table.

"And whose wedding shall be taking place this fair afternoon my dear?"

Mary and Jessica looked at each other and said in unison, "Halifa and Jeffery's." They both waited to see if steam would flow from her ears, nostrils, and anywhere that had a cavity. But alas, the little blond, held herself high and smiled as she bowed and walked away. Mary and Jessica could not hold back the raucous laughter that came out their mouths as the beautiful Lady Elizabeth Morgan departed.

The morning started tediously to say the least for Beth. To endure breakfast with those nasty nomads and to hear of Jeffery and that woman were to wed was too much for her to digest. Therefore, Beth needed to unclutter her mind and regroup.

***

A ride would make her feel even more invigorated. Yes, Halifa thought as she saddled her mare that Leslie always gave her, which knew her scent and preference. It was feisty and stubborn, the same shade of Jeffery's stallion Winter, midnight black.

Halifa wondered with her semi-grown stomach if she could ride. However, her question was answered when she swung her legs over her horse and was walking away with some tension fading from her weary shoulders already.

Knowing she was going to be Jeffery's bride by the end of the day, made Halifa's heart soar, but there seems to be a somewhat nefarious cloud over her that she could not shake ever since Jeffery left her side for the morning. And being in her family, some sentiments were best to heed than to be left alone.

Engross in her lost capricious thoughts, Halifa did not notice someone approaching her as she came to a halt to see it was Jeffery's little stalker. Not even slightly concerned by the entity that was approaching her. Halifa plastered a cheery smile on her face as the child came to a stop and stared at her with her cold blue eyes.

Beth could not believe she was so fortunate as to come across her again.

Alone.

God must be smiling down on her as she looked about to see if anyone was close by, to spy that they were indeed alone. Lady Morgan knew the beast the gypsy rode on. It was the very creature that always snapped at her every time she came near it. Now she knew why. It belonged to the spell-casting harlot.

Halifa waited to hear what she would say or wanted, to see the child smile so cloy coming closer to her than she cared for. Thinking nothing, Halifa watched as the little girl's wrist flash something reflective to feel she was sliding off her mare to land on the dew-covered grass.

It happened so swiftly, but in a semi-slow motion as she fell on her side holding her stomach. Halifa knew the importance of what was about to happen and prepared herself for it.

***

Alex was bone-weary as he made his last stop to find his missing cousin. He and Vincent decided to split up at this final stop before they called it quits. It was hard to believe his narrow and straight cousin took his advice so profoundly and left everything behind to chase after a skirt. When they were so many, that would keenly strip their chemise to be with him, but no, he wanted a matchless skirt.

And taking such sage advice, Jeffery's one year was barely up, but his cousin needed to find his ass home before all perdition fell on his shoulders. Alex was still astonished his father would go so far as to create or unearth some loathsome law to force Jeffery or him to wed someone of their father's choosing.

It was so archaic.

Alex knew a bit about their family edict. It was twisted. Together, he would never doubt his father's words. His papa was that conniving and desperate to have the title back in his hands again or under his control. However, with the constraints from Alex grandfather's decree, Dennis knew the specified stipulation years ago to entitle the older brother to retain it for his heir was impossible.

Yet it never stopped Dennis from craving and plotting for his first and only legitimate child that can give him an heir to carry on the line of Earl of Scarborough to have the title. Dennis, Alex's dear sweet papa so wanted what he believed was his birthright, which was taken from him unfairly from his and uncle Andrew's father.

Sealing his eyes while massaging the back of his neck, Alex always wondered how his distant father could know if he could father a spawn? Granted, he lay with an extensive range of the female persuasion before his Nile and not once did some chit foster a baby on him.

Besides, Alex never wanted any of his children to be dubbed as bastards, like some he knew. Thus, came on their stomachs or sheets every blessed time, without a miss.

With a tired grin on his face, Alex never once shared with his father, that his former lover, the love of his miserable life, placed a hex on him. Now almost seven years later, Alex could never liberally spur his seed willy-nilly to his pleasure. For by some unknown power, he was impotent.

Yet there were times when Alex would envision a child that looked like the woman of his dreams. She was the only woman that haunted his very soul and stole his every breath, the blessed, blasted woman that made his life, a fucking mess.

Shaking his mind free, Alex knew he was close to Jeffery godmother's home and in need of some hot food, a warm bed, and a bath. Groaning with the news, he would have to convey to Uncle Andrew. That his son would no longer be the Earl of Scarborough, but his reluctant nephew, Alex. With a heavy heart and head lifting to the sky, Alex took a deep breath and walked on to see a young woman falling off her horse while another woman on horseback advanced on the fallen woman.

***

Knowing the gypsy was fat with child, made Beth pause for a second to think what she was about to do. Did she have it in her soul to harm anyone, or was she so far gone in wanting Jeffery all to herself. Beth would never consider herself a wild iniquitous creature, other than wanting her young, handsome Earl all to herself and all offensive things to be removed from Jeffery and her. Hence, any doubt about what she was primed to do, departed from her mind as her horse trotted closer to the fallen gypsy.

Just another step and . . .

"Halt." Was all Alex could have yelled as he hastened to stop what could likely be an accident or murder to take place, right before his eyes. "Stop," screaming louder than a banshee but the woman on her horse seemed deaf to anyone as he leaped from his horse and toppled and rolled to land on . . . Beth Morgan, Jeffery's petite stalker.

"Beth?"

"Get off me, get off you . . ." Beth screeched viperously as someone obstructed her from freeing Jeffery from the gypsy witch, to be pinned on her back on the wet grass. God, she was mad as hell, by who dared touch her and ruin her plans. While Lady Morgan tried to emancipate herself or at least her arms as they were trapped above her head. All she heard were, "Are you all right miss?" The person on top of her was daft or blind to see she was not "all right." Blinking rapidly to free her eyes from sweat, Beth tried to see who the damn fool was, to behold it was Jeffery's forever drunk cousin, on her.

Alex.

"Get off me, Alex." Looking down on the person who was clawing and squirming under him caught his attention again. This girl was indeed mad to think she could have gotten away with whatever she was about to do.

Hauling her up as he held her hands to her back to approach the fallen woman crouching on the ground, he asked again, "Are you all right miss?" Concerned by the unmoving woman, Alex released Beth to turn the woman over to see she was shielding her stomach and her face was dirty with tears running down her flawless caramel cheek.

"Leave her be," Beth shouted breathless at him as she ran and gathered her horse. Focusing on the fallen woman, Alex never gave Beth a second thought as she dashed off as a dark angel was chasing the crazy, little bitch. It was not his concern now, save the unmoving woman who looked . . . "God!" Alex groaned as he genuinely stared at her. This creature could be his Nile, haunted twin. She looked like, like . . . his . . .

"My baby," The woman whispered and snapped him out his lost memory to look down and see she was indeed covering her semi-swollen stomach. The poor woman was a gypsy who trifled with that crazy little girl, Lady Elizabeth Morgan. Alex had no time to waste as he lifted the poor woman and walked to Leslie's home. God knew she would need help, and maybe her people would come looking for her later.

Groaning, exhausted from the gypsy's weight, and his lack of a meal for the day. Alex never thought he would have to carry a pregnant woman anytime in his life, but that day came. Furthermore, he was thankful when he crossed the biggest hill he ever climbed in his life, to see Leslie's home so generously, warm, and welcoming.

Alex felt his legs were buckling when he heard a roar to his right, from one of Leslie's many gardens to see a large, angry man running towards him with an enormous gleaming knife. Alex had no idea Leslie allowed madmen to roam her estate for the man indeed did look insane barreling towards him but slowed his stride dropping his blade to look at the gypsy he held.

Ammon's stomach turned when he saw his Halifa limp in the arms of a strange white man. All he could think of, "Can his little girl have any peace amongst them?"

"Give her to me." The lunatic growled at Alex with his arms open. Alex did not know what the hell was going on, but preferably bestow the motionless gypsy to the wild man than have his life taken from. Weary, Alex followed behind as the frantic man practically ran with such a heavy load.

Following slowly through the bamboo garden, Alex saw the crazed man walked into the house as if he was a guest. He knew he was one, however, crossing the threshold into Leslie's home, the tired Lord was not aware he was entering another tier of his life. As the insane man yelled something and everyone who was about, stopped and stared at him, to see more gypsies ran out of every nook within the Château to heed him.

Alex felt something was very wrong at Jeffery's godmother home, but wanted rest, food and to find . . . "Fucking hell, Jeffery?" the one person he hoped to see came barreling down the stairs with more . . . "Mother fu . . ." the words died in his throat as he saw HER behind Jeffery coming towards the barmy man holding the gypsy woman.

"What happened?" Jeffery's eyes were fastened to Halifa's still body. Damped and quaking as he tried to take his bride from his father-in-law's death grip.

"What the fuck happened?" Jeffery shouted as he looked at Ammon to see Alex standing shocked behind his father-in-law staring at something behind him.

Jeffery had no time for muted men as he pulled her away from Ammon's fierce hold and rushed Halifa into the library and shouted for someone to get a doctor. As Jeffery laid Halifa gently on the couch he felt her pulse, it was steady as he wiped her face to have Mary cover her with a blanket. Jeffery wanted answers so turned on the newcomer.

"What in heaven's name happen to her?" Jeffery practically chewed the words out.

Alex saw a few times when Jeffery became enraged and knew his young cousin was not someone to have waiting when he wanted answers for any slight to him and any in his care. It was the main reason why Jeffery was the most meritorious Earl of Scarborough that the title would ever have.

Watching his cousin focus on him, he recalled his question as to what happened to the gypsy woman, and since he was a witness to what transpired he spoke up.

Everyone glare was turned on him even HER, and all were waiting for him to speak.

"I came upon two women riding when I saw one fell off her horse."

"That's impossible. Halifa would never fall from a horse." The crazed man turned from hovering over the gypsy, "Halifa" and looked at Alex as he gave his rendition of what he saw.

"Well, sir. . ." Alex said as he took a deep breath and a step back from the crazed man, to glance at HER. He was dying to have her alone but needed to continue if not for Jeffery's sanity.

"One woman fell from her horse, and the other tried to trample her."

"Beth," Jeffery growled her name as he turned to leave.

"And where are you going?" that voice made everyone take a deep breath to turn to see the woman lying on the couch massaging her forehead and her other hand over her protruding stomach. Alex saw Jeffery take one long stride to kneel before her, clutching the girl's hand as if she were . . .

"Oh! Hell, he found her and got her with a child." Alex muttered. To say he was shocked by his cousin's tenacious feat of having the woman he stalked for over a decade. Placed a broad smile on Alex's hardened face as he looked at his lovesick cousin on his knees, seizing the wench's hand.

"Leslie," The demented man roared again making Alex jump as the madman ran out of the room. By the enraged man's reaction, Alex knew why Beth took off with such haste. He hoped the little girl would disappear and leave the country to another planet as Alex could only piece together so much. For no one was going to give him any forthcoming information, least of all Jeffery. However, his bath, food, and rest could wait until he had his moment with HER _._

Without looking at her, Alex snatched her hand and walked out to gain some privacy leaving Jeffery and his gypsy alone. With his heart sprinting, Alex knew where he would take her. As a guest in his cousin godmother's home, Jeffery's cousin would always consider that one room as his Nile's secret ushering into womanhood. Together with, he knew how to prevent her from fleeing from him.

"This was not happening." It was all Mary could think of as she felt his touch after . . . after seven years. This man was back again, as she tried to pull herself away from his hold. She could not stomach to be alone with him. For Mary knew the compelling trouble they, no, not "they" . . . she would find herself in, alone with him.

Trying to gain her release from his grasp, Mary was successful for a second, only to be caught again. Nonetheless, she had an aptitude for being slippery and got away for a trice. Taking deep, frantic breaths while becoming annoyed by her reaction to him, Mary was somewhat enjoying the feel of his hand and wanted desperately to disregard it.

Biting her inner cheek, she honestly needed to escape the man to gather her wits. And for her third try, Mary was a touch away from his hold. Yet Alex was faster than she was, as he flung open a door clutching her by her waist and tossed her inside, slamming the door closed to hear the lock click. Mary knew what was coming. Hence, if she stayed calm, this ordeal would conclude swiftly.
**Chapter Twenty-Seven**

Without a doubt, Jeffery knew if he stepped away from Halifa, he would heave all of his breakfast. Grinding his jaw with his eyes closed for a second, the prospect of going after that little bitch to damage, some part of her was beyond appealing. Yet Jeffery could not pull himself away from Halifa.

However, without a doubt, his father-in-law, Ean, or one of Halifa's gypsy men would vie to have the job.

Jeffery wanted to see Beth pay for what she made his Halifa felt, "fear." Just the mere thought of what Beth could have done to his woman, but thank God, Alex showed up when he did.

Grinding his jaw, Jeffery would never consider himself a vengeful person, but . . . but he knew if Ammon or Ean did capture her, she would die somewhat fast. And in the few minutes, he was away from his bride, he could not bear to leave his Halifa's presence.

Siting with her head resting on his lap, Jeffery saw that his Halifa was brave and would protect what was theirs.

While Halifa recounted what happened, she could not stop the tears that were spilling on her soft cheek, drenching Jeffery's lap. The simple thought she could have lost this child at her age and life when she found the "Jeffery," Halifa whispered to look up and see his eyes were glistening.

Halifa tried to sit up, but with Jeffery's swift aide placed her on his lap, wiping his eyes to hug him and ask the one burning question that was on her mind.

"When is the wedding?"

Jeffery could not help the smile, that question bought. As he gazed at Halifa bruised, honey face, his heart faltered for what could have transpired. His heart's desire could have, been taken from him by the whim of a spoiled child. The beauty that glowed from his Halifa made him more thankful for his cousin's arrival, who appeared to disappear as fast as he came.

"In less than two hours," Jeffery answered as he kissed Halifa on her smudged face feeling his groin ache by her on his lap.

"Jeffery," Halifa felt it and knew what was up. "After the ceremony, but not now," Halifa said kissing him gently on his cheek, to take a step from Lord Lumley, only to be hauled on his lap to look up at his grim face.

"Jeffery, I need to prepare for the . . ." Halifa could not pull away from him as he crushed her into his deadly embrace.

"Don't you ever do that to me again," Halifa closed her eyes and knew what he meant. If only he knew how affixed she was to him, he would never question her desire to always be with him ever again.

Jeffery recognized Halifa would need more time to prepare for their wedding, but he could not stand to let her go. Not yet, not when he felt his body, shudder when she took a step away from him. If someone would have told him that day years ago, when lounging under a tree, that his soul would be entwined, to another human in such an immortal way.

That his every fiber would be paired to her, he would have marked them as cracked.

However, he was the mad one now as he stood, staring at her. To then swing her up in his arms taking her to her bedroom.

Taking two steps at a time, to stop at her bedroom door for her stand. Jeffery wanted to ensure Halifa was safe within these walls as he checked every corner, closet, under her bed and her balcony to make sure that little bitch was nowhere about.

Satisfied, Jeffery wrapped his arm around her waist but halted when he saw a servant to have a few words with him. Halifa sat on her bed next to her wedding gown watching Jeffery speak to the servant as he smiled and nodded to then walk away.

Halifa beamed as he turned to gaze at her intensely, to have a glance at her wedding frock, which he should not have seen.

As Jeffery stood there, giving her his best smoldering look, Halifa thought he would give her a quick kiss to then be off to prepare himself for their nuptials, but locked and leaned on the door devouring her image as she rose to stand before him and asked, "What are you doing?"

With his feet crossed by his ankle and hands folded before him, Jeffery just stared at her.

"Jeffery, seriously, what are you waiting for? You need to change." Halifa was saying when a knock on her door made her jump a little but was calmed when he touched her arm and opened the door. To see a tub ushered in by four men and more servants, with buckets of steaming water behind the bathtub, as well as men's clothing was laid out next to her gown.

As fast as they came, so did they depart and with a soft click to Halifa's bedroom door. Halifa eyed Jeffery's wedding attire that was next to hers and heard shuffling, to see Jeffery stark naked sinking into her tub.

"But, but I thought that was for me?" Halifa queried with her hands on her hips and a bit annoyed.

"It's big enough, for both of us dear." Jeffery declared as he relaxed in the warm scented water, as some of his tensions eased. He was not letting Halifa out of his sight until he heard word, of Beth's capture or her disappearance by some unusual circumstances. No maid, servant, male or female would be with his Halifa unless Jeffery was around and the young Lord had no need for any right now.

Nor did he care for any help to prepare them for their nuptials. But the look on his Halifa's face stole his attention from the warm bath he was now enjoying.

"Jeffery, I don't understand wha . . ." Halifa was saying as Jeffery stood to walk out of the tub, dripping water on her rug in all his naked glory, eradicating what she was about to say. "Jeffery," Halifa whispered as he wrapped his arms around her back to hear buttons popping and flying from her, to feel her gown fall by her feet in one clean sweep.

Since meeting Jeffery, Halifa never felt any shame in her body. Save now as she tried to cover her swollen stomach with her tiny hands while bending her head. Hearing a deep groan, Halifa felt a wet hand pulled her hand away from her abdomen and looked up at the man that made it so. She knew he was very pleased by what he saw as they walked towards the tub.

"Come, we will make our self-ready," Jeffery said as he slid into the tub and lifted her so effortlessly, settling her between his lap. In his mind, Lord Lumley was keeping count of the time and knew it was less than an hour in which they needed to dress to make their way to Leslie's Orchard Garden. Yet with Halifa's sweet self, resting between his leg and his growing cock, it was imperative to concentrate not to penetrate, so soaked, and soaped a cloth to wipe her bruised body.

With his hand moving slowly and gently down her breast and stomach, Jeffery heard her moan and felt her rock back on his hard length. God forgive him if he was a few minutes late. Jeffery helped Halifa to turn while he sank lower in the tub for her to straddle him. With his feelings still raw from what could have happened. Jeffery wanted his Halifa to recline on him, but his Halifa had other things in mind.

***

Mary waited for him to declare what he wanted so she could be free from him again. The years had made her strong. No, if she was honest, Nicest was the reason she was strong. So waited as he just stood there, staring at her with those Machiavellian, gorgeous eyes. There was a wedding taking place in less than an hour, and Halifa would need her help, and he was wasting her time, so walked around him, thinking he would stop her.

With her eyes closed holding onto the doorknob. Mary shook her head giving him a last chance to voice what he so desired to say, but when her eyes gazed into his for a second, all she saw were regret. His regrets and not hers. Sighing, from deep within her heart, Mary closed the door on him again and for the last time.

***

Leslie and Nef had one thing in common, patience for anything laudable. Yet at that very moment, all fortitude flew out their selfsame character as they paced in front of the waiting priest for the bride and groom tardiness to be over. Everyone was seated waiting for Jeffery and Halifa. The service would be short as requested by Jeffery, yet "where the hell, were they?" Leslie thought.

Closing her eyes and holding her nose bridge, Jeffery's godmother knew they would not run out on their wedding, seeing how much they wanted each other, so what was the holdup.

Leslie knew the disturbance that took place with Beth, marked her equally dead in Ammon's, Jeffery, and all that was within Tamiya's band. It might be a dreadful thing to think of, but Leslie was pleased to be free of the girl.

Nonetheless, waiting to hear what happen to Beth was a bit bothersome. But as the music began to stir in the background, Leslie knew the wedding was about to start as the young couple made a hasty appearance, forgetting all of Lady Elizabeth Morgan.

Jeffery held Halifa's hand and led her down the aisle, which was supposed to be Ammon's duty, but he was out searching for Beth. Lord Lumley did not miss his father-in-law for he had the daughter and was walking her down the aisle to the priest and their new beginning.

As he stood before the priest, Jeffery looked around at all that was in attendance. Mary, Jessica, Tamiya, his pixies, Nef, Kabul, and his sons and his godmother. The only person whose presence surprised him was Alex's, and Jeffery was yet to be given an explanation of why his cousin was there. And Rene's no-show was expected. Then again, if Rene were loyal to form, he would be lurking in some corner watching the ceremony.

Halifa hand shook ever so often that Jeffery squeezed her hand with a smile on his face and his eyes plastered on her. She had her eyes cast only on Jeffery, and as the priest said, you may kiss your bride. Jeffery digested the small space, as he held his wife's beautiful face and consumed her lips. Halifa heard loud cheering and felt things tossed at them, but all her attention was on the lips that were making short work of her senses.

"Yes, yes, very well," Leslie spoke as her annoyance receded by the ceremony that started twenty minutes late and now for the wedding meal. Clapping her hands together, as she stood between the bride and groom with her arms around their waist. Leslie was proud to say, "The Earl and his Countess of Scarborough."

Jeffery could not escape the feeling of pride to capture the woman who was now his wife for life and all he had to do was wait ten years for her. As he made his way to the house for their feast, a dirty young man stood at the front door with a pistol resting on his arm.

As expected, Rene rushed out from his hiding place to advance on the visitor, when Jeffery saw who it was.

"Vincent," Jeffery shouted as he pulled his bride along to embrace his best friend with his Countess staring at her husband. Breathless, Jeffery saw his short desertion as he looked at his Halifa waiting for introductions.

Alex saw how his cousin kept his Countess close by, never taking a few steps away from her, like how he was with her, Mary. "Vincent," Jeffery said smiling broadly, "Meet my Countess, Halifa."

Vincent took Halifa's hand and bowed with his lips pressed to her knuckle a little too long, making Jeffery snatch her hand away from his friend keeping her in the crook of his arm. Alex could not help and smile while making his way to the newlywed and their latest filthy visitor.

Slapping Jeffery on his back in congratulations, Alex needed to say why they were there. "Jeffery . . ." Alex saw the apprehension on his cousin's face by saying his name but had to be quick about it so they could be on their way.

"Your year may not be up, but your uncle has some . . . some papers brawn waiting for . . ."

Smiling, but with a frown on his brow, Jeffery asked, "So you've come to drag me home?" turning to his bride with a real smile that can ward off an evil eye. Jeffery held his Countess waist as tight as he could with her growing stomach and said, "We are ready for more drama."

***

While gazing at the enchanting newlywed couple, his eyes travel about the small crowd that was in Jeffery's godmother hallway. Vincent saw more gypsies. The women were dressed in the finest, latest fashion, young and old with a few men of the same age, together with Leslie and her son Rene. Eyeing their host Countess Leslie, Vincent remembered the woman as the most meddlesome old female that could . . .

"Father," Vincent whispered glaring at his chimera again. After all those years and for the short stint of seeing her at Jeffery's, it still did not prepare him to see her again. Staring at her brought back a deluge of memory, which Vincent wished he could do more than suppress. He longed to turn back time and make . . .

"Come, Vincent," Jeffery said, pulling Vincent from his past and into the present.

"Come and share in my wedding feast," Jeffery said, as he walked away with Alex and Vincent trailing behind him as they followed the crowd and HER.

The world was too small, Alex and Vincent thought in silence to themselves. Nevertheless, seeing their apparition walked before them, they felt it was about fucking time their heart began to beat a lively tune once more.

A

Gypsy's Love

1

"Jeffery & Halifa"

Written

By:

Sophia S. Sterling

2019

©

A

Gypsy's Love

11

"Alex & Mary"

Synopsis

Two wandering souls that never believed in love or that they would find what they were missing, found that there was such a thing called **"LOVE**." Through a chance encounter, they forge a strong bond but never knew it could be broken so effortlessly through man and nature. While one craved to have their missing half, the other wanted nothing but to claw their eyes and heart out at the end.

Nevertheless, years later, the aggrieved lovers that loved so fiercely and passionately, would have their chance to reclaim what was lost. But would they stand and fight for each other and what they had as one, or will they walk away, without giving in to their heart's desire?
Chapter 1

Edinburg - Scotland

Why was it when he went off with his friends to partake of a few drinks, it would always lead Lord Alexander Lumley, _Alex to his close and dear friends_ , into so much turmoil after the fact? His father requested he ran an errand for him through a missive, of which he was to return a communiqué with something or the other. But with his memory jogging back to him slowly, he was to wait for a reply that was life-changing for his "dear daddy."

But no, his four foul drinking friends had to hold him in talk and dare him away from his far in-between sonly onuses. "God," Alex groaned. He was getting too old to wake up with a fermented stomach and memory lapse. He needed a change that would make him into a man. However, the blessed angels had prevented such growth in him from becoming an adult male.

For the only phenomenon that could make him into a mature chap was to hasten and become a husband to a semi-handsome wife and father the children she would nag him for or enjoy making with him.

His father was edging him in that direction for years, while Alex stayed away from that forsaken institution. Yet it seemed all his father Dennis did of late, was murmur and plagued his ear of which he should have been married to some fat puss and given her children. Not a child but a horde of them.

Now Alex never understood why his Lord father, would nag him that he should take the correct road to manhood when his father's hoary life testament, was such a wicked one.

Whenever he remembered how life was before his mother died, he recalled seeing a different man that was his _"very best and fond papa_." However, when Alex's eyes opened, he saw what his father became, and it wasn't sight, any child would relish seeing a parent.

Argyll Scotland \- 1787

Alex knew he was never a person to care for a name or title as some did. Nor did he discern what titles meant. As a young boy, his happiness consists of his mother and father doting on him and seeing how they loved each other. But Alex also remembered when his father got wind he was going to be an uncle, Dennis flew off into a rage, scaring the hell out of him when he was five.

Not once did Alex ever encounter his uncle, but he knew he had one, whenever his father would speak of his brother. It would seem like a forbearing, hateful relationship they shared as siblings. Which made Alex even happier, to not have any siblings before or after him.

When his father left to visit his brother at Castle Lumley, Alex never would have thought they were related to someone that lived in a Castle. And by no means did he grow up destitute or wanting anything. Yet if he were truthful, he would have loved to have some children his age to play with that would return to their parents and home after their playdates.

His home was in Argyll Scotland. It was all that he knew and cared for. His father and mother were with him, and he was contented, but when his father returned from his visit to Castle Lumley, he came back an altered man.

His father returned and for a while began to drink and stray leaving him and his mother alone to wander off to god knows where seeing they lived far from anyone in the first place. One night Alex overheard Dennis crying while resting his head on his mother's lap that his uncle lost a baby.

It appeared his father was crying, but on a closer look, Dennis was laughing. It was a curious emotion, for the loss of one niece or nephew's death. But I was five, what did I know or care.

After that one visit, his father changed considerably as did Alex. His mother got sick on and off for years, but her last battle was in childbirth. The screams of his mother, made Alex wanted to box his ears in, to mute the fear and pain that was coming. In one night, he waited nervously like his father for the baby to arrive, but saw that his father's cheerful expression transformed into fear when silence was heard throughout the house.

As the only child for his parents, calm was never lost in their household, but the stillness after his mother's last screamed marked an end to his childhood.

When Alex's mom was laid to rest, he cornered the midwife to ask what he would have had as a sibling and was told, "It was a lass." At the loss of his mother, Alex saw love was a horrid thing to have for another person, particularly between a man and a woman. Thus, he vowed never to hold a woman so intimate, to his heart and that was at the delicate period of nine when he made such a young vow.

Hence, Alex was without a mother and only had his father to teach and tend to him, who was the worst possible person to edify a young boy about life. Alex saw his father's eyes fade into a specter, as Dennis became a new being as well a father over and over and over again.

With his world-changing so severely, one of Alex's childhood best-forgotten aspirations was granted onto him.

Siblings.

That he viewed as beastly creatures, he would have gladly given up to have his mother back.

To have three new shiny brothers, from different mothers, three years in a row that came to live with him was a fete in their Tower. Not the mother's, but his dear, loving, sweet brothers. After his mother's death, Dennis would leave him for weeks and months, to come back rambling about how he was to be a "big brother" making Alex think his father was a demented drunk.

How could he be a big brother when his mother was dead, but a few months later, he saw his father was genuinely insane.

For he indeed brought home a large basket and set it on their kitchen table declaring what was in the basket was his new baby brother Grand. After Grand was brought home, nine months later, Alex would receive another brother. Two years in a row, thus Devon and Simon made his brother's compendium complete.

At his tender age, Alex's home was filled with babes and toddlers as his father was scarcely home. However, when Dennis felt the need to return home, Alex would glare at his father and wondered how the hell they would look after those baby boys?

With such a load thrust unto Alex, he grew up a bit swiftly. Not for the duty of taking care of the Tower, but of seeing about himself was a task he was not ready to have on his hands, far less to watch after newly born infants and toddlers.

Even as Alex was left alone for long stints, Dennis made sure there were food and clean clothes in the Tower with Mrs. Crotchit coming every two days to see he was well and fed. Mrs. Crotchit was the proof his father still cared for and loved him.

Yet as he was fed and clothed, Alex's duty was to still take care of them. Yes, "them" as he was the sole keeper of three young boys wishing to toss them over the Tower and into the raging ocean. But alas he could not do it. Only because his father trusted him with their lives. Nonetheless, Alex could not have done it alone if it was not for Mrs. Crotchit and her blessed niece that came to help young Alex deal with his chubby, annoying baby brothers.

Looking after his brothers truly made Alex mature promptly, as well as Mrs. Crotchit, niece. When Alex turned fifteen, he was introduced to the pleasures of the flesh in a not so gentle way. Dill was Mrs. Crotchit's niece's name, and she had a rough hand he found out.

Exhausted after seeing that his brothers were fed and in bed, Alex went off to find his rest. So tired was he, that he dropped faced down in his bed with all his clothes and shoes on and fell asleep in an instant. To be turned roughly and felt his trousers pulled off his waist and felt a callous hand on his penis pumping it up and down hard and fast. Alex was not a small fifteen-year-old lad. He could pass as a full-grown man with whiskers forever shadowing his jaw and his prick a little too large for his liking.

To say he was shocked at what was happening to him would be a severe exaggeration. Dill worked her hand magic fast getting him to stand and sat on him with her curvy self, making him groan in pain. The girl was hefty, to say the least, but the weight of her around his penis felt snug and heavenly.

If by the look on her face, he was performing a magnificent feat. He should receive a grand prize when she was done with him. The girl moved up and down his hard cock with such light ease, that was a bit of a wonder. With her resting one hand on his chest and the other on her massive breast while biting her bottom lip.

Dill was not ugly, nor was she handsome to make him do something like what they were doing. She was thick and taller than him with soft blues eyes, pink lips that looked ripe and appetizing. Her tresses were a strange shade of brown that was always in one. Alex ever once saw her other than a great help with his brothers, as she puckered her lips to kiss his crappy brothers goodbye or for any reason.

Something he would never do, kiss them.

Sex was never on his mind.

All that he wanted was to be free from the Tower, but Dill showed up and gave him a lesson and reprieve from the dull life he was settled in. However, it did not last long seeing that his father came home after four months of being absent. He came to check on Alex in his bedroom and caught his son behind a bent over Dill, pumping into her fast and hard holding her hair.

Years later lying on his bed thinking about how his father looked stricken and shocked that he could do such a thing was a bit laughable. Alex did not know if it was the fact he was too young or the fact that Dennis did not like that he was fucking his cheap help to look after his sons. But it was a blessing Dill jumped Alex when she did, with his father catching them in the act. It was the catalyst that sent Alex away from the Tower.

 

Scotland - 1801

It was such a strange adventure to be away from his only home, The Tower. Alex knew there was more than his meager desolate existence and was hungry to devour all that was thrown at him. But still, he was not ready to face the Eton hidden agenda of innocent flesh that came looking like him.

Since Dennis sent him away, he received letters more from Dill sharing what was taking place in The Tower. And it was not pretty. It would seem his brothers refuse to play nice for their father, making him stay away from wherever he disappeared to. Making Dennis more rigid.

Alex should have felt sorry for the old man, but he did not. He was free and had his own set of problems to deal with. Like paying his way through schooling.

His father stopped footing his emoluments when he refused to return home and help with his awful brothers after a couple of years from home. As a result, Alex found a job using his hands most times and his face also. Let's just say, Alex learned how to fight for what he wanted.

Being away, never going home to visit was unique for Alex. There were times when he would wallow in his shared apartment with his four drinking buddies. They were of the same stock. Sort of titled, in the bloodline way, but broke all the same. That was why they stayed together and battled any foe that would try and tussle with them.

Alex's four roommates and himself became famous for the fact they took no shit from anyone, nor were they delinquents. They were too handsome by themselves, but collectively worst when allied in a group. As the "Fucking Five," some would dub them.

Pleased with the money, women, friends, and sometimes fame that came with being in their caucus, Alex felt hollow in his chest when a few silent moments came his way. Even though his brothers were rotten most of the time, he did miss them. And when they did visit, his baby brothers would be rewarded by hugs and kisses from him. After all, he was their big brother and loved them.

As time progress, in his band of wayward friends, Alex was proclaimed the leader of the group as he was the oldest in the Fucking Five. It was a given, for he was of a more unassailable mind, of the five gentlemen. And Alex would use the word gentlemen loosely for they were not of sound sentiment.

Any of them.

The variance they would get themselves into was on a daily bases, in which he would have to fight to get them out. Thus, most of their plans would fall on his shoulders, and his friends would follow his lead as all pronouncements were made. And in trying to ferret a solution one day, for their lack of mammon issues, Alex met someone he never cared or thought to encounter.

Alex's uncle, Andrew. Lord Andrew Lumley.

After a few years of leaving home and rarely visiting, to never going back, Alex was christened the stray and forgotten son by his father, but not by his baby brothers that were far from babies anymore. It would seem Dill had a soft spot for his brothers, not like how she broke him into manhood.

No.

Dill's sweet spot was in allowing them almost anything they wanted. Alex always knew she would spoil them rotten as his baby brothers nagged the poor chit to visit him ever so often when he cease visiting home.

He truly loved their brief snits, but it would always cost him an arm and a leg for their comfort to linger a week or so. And Alex knew his father would refuse to pay for their trip to see him and the only way his brothers could trek to his lofty room in Edinburg was from dear sweet Dill purses. The girl was humble, but her heart was rich and giving.

While they stayed with him, Alex's brother's forays could also put him and his comrades to shame at times. And in that same interlude, his uncle Andrew visited him. With his financial quandary, his brother's and Uncle all descending on him, Alex discovered his brothers were honestly cut from an inexplicable cloth than him. It took Alex a day to see his very own brothers as who they were, and it genuinely disgraced him to his core.

Sending his brothers away, hoping not to see them for a while. Alex was left to face his budgetary dilemma and now his uncle. Never seeing the man, his uncle. Alex knew they could not hide the mark of their birthright. The thick black hair that had a few streaks of white in it now, deep dark, brooding eyes, and set jaw were the mark of the brothers. Save Alex knew his eyes were of his mother's grey hue, with a mixture of black, brown, and a touch of yellow for her eyelashes. Another feminine trait, he could live without.

Throughout his younger years, Alex heard his father whispered of his mother ethereal stare. Even so, the combination of his father and uncle's miens was a toss amid a noble gypsy or an imposter which they were neither. The gypsy nor imposter.

Alex sat before the man who was his uncle, in one of his favorite drinking holes with a mask of mixed emotions volleying in his mind.

Wishing he had a tumbler filled with the best scotch in the whole of Edinburgh to aid in his anxiety as to what the man wanted and not some water down wine. Both staring at each other, Alex waited for his uncle Andrew to voice his affair, without offering him a seat.

Andrew knew all about his nephew's debauched ways about town but wanted to understand the boy for who he was.

His nephew.

Pulling a chair, Andrew sat and watched the boy and saw that his very own son could be in this state, in the future and prayed against it. Andrew saw the boy lacked something that he gave Jeffery without impediment.

Love.

"Is there a reason we meet now?" was Alex's way of breaking the beyond tense emotions at meeting the man. Alex sat back with his arms folded waiting to hear him speak and when he did, it was like listening to his father's voice in a younger man's body.

"It is the only way it appeared, you would endure my existences." Andrew declared mimicking his nephew, by sitting back folding his arms across his chest. Andrew did not want to tarry where he was not wanted, but he could not believe his nephew who once wrote to him in secret wishing to meet him would throw away their first and perchance only encounter.

When Andrew first heard he was an uncle by his older brother, he was proud and happy, as he was yet to be a father. He was married some three years waiting for the day to be called father or papa. Andrew was delighted for his brother seeing that he had settled into a life of a grown man with a woman that he claimed to love and he did.

So when Andrew heard of the blessing, he wanted to visit but was denied. It would seem his big brother still bore resentment, of losing all that was meant to be his as the firstborn from their late father. Hence, Dennis kept Alex away from him.

However, when his nephew was six or seven, Andrew received a missive asking him to come and pay him and his papa a visit. Andrew was happy that his nephew was reaching out to him and made arrangements to call, when his wife of four months pregnant lost their first child, preventing his itinerant for another time.

Yet another time never came, as his sweet and gentle wife wanted him to get her with a child fast after she lost their first. In which he did. Andrew loved his wife dearly, but with her insistence on wanting a child hastily. She would have him on his back most days when he was free from running their estate. And as the doctor told him, he needed to be close at hand in case anything should happen to her when he got her with a child for the second time. His trip to see his only nephew was postponed yet again.

That is why Andrew was sitting before his very handsome and angry nephew after twenty-odd years of waiting. As an adult, Andrew saw the defiance in Alex's eyes but refused to have their first meeting be disastrous.

Taking a deep breath, Andrew knew all that his young nephew got into. He received an unvarying report on all Lord Alexander Lumley accomplished. Yet knowing what his older brother Dennis got into as a young chap, Andrew had hoped his only nephew would not be following in his father's footsteps. And he was not.

Not so much the same. Thank God.

Alex was tired of waiting to see what the old man wanted and wished for this late interview to be over and done with.

"I am a busy man, and maybe you are also, my Lord. So lets cut this overdue chat and intro as transiently as possible." Alex said downing his remaining wine in one mouthful, which was ghastly to his palate.

"I am alive, hale in body and mind," Alex pronounced as he stood to leave. "And we do not need to . . ." Alex was expressing as he took a step away from his chair when his uncle held his wrist and moved so briskly that Alex had no time to deflect the embrace he was crushed into.

In his twenties and of his majority, Alex was held more by his mother when she was alive than by anyone in his life. Her hugs made him know what loves embrace was, and now he knew a man's hold could show the same.

However, Alex knew the patrons that came to Scotty's Snout were the reason he had a room, clothes, and food to eat. They were a tough lot that helped arranged some fights for his weekly living. Nonetheless, now that he was seen enfold by a man, he doubted he would find any help forthcoming to aid him with his fistfights. The Fucking Five was going to be altered by that artless reception from his uncle.

### ***

Pacing his room above Scotty's Snout, Alex glared at his uncle for altering the way he lived and viewed life hence. The man did not know how his ingenuous embrace twisted his free life. Alex stopped with his hand on his hips glaring at Andrew sitting on his semi-old wingback chair with his feet crossed and hands resting on his lap.

"Do you know what you just did to my source of revenue?" Alex uttered as he began to pace again.

Andrew knew almost everything there was to know of his nephew. So yes. It meant he would have to move and find other means of income. Even though he should have money from his father's yearly allowance and also from his inheritance from his late mother. Andrew knew his brother was a lout and many more things he wished not to think of, but to have his firstborn fight to make a living was more loathsome than all Dennis's randy raging.

"What the fuck do you want old man? It is years too late for you to walk into my life and want to take part in it." Alex said as he took three steps and stood in front of his uncle.

"I could crack your skull for what you cost me. Now I would have to move and find another way too. . ."

"Or you could come home with me."

Alex stood with his eyes narrowed and jaw grinding at Andrew's unassuming reply to his predicament. Frowning from such an amiable idea, Alex took a step back to see his uncle made no jest, but it was a sincere offer. But why, why now?

Shaking his head while he poured himself a glass of water down wine to clear his parched throat not even offering his uncle a glass. With his back to his uncle, Alex could not turn and allow him to see his confused and hopeful mind tinkering in his head.

"Why? Why now?" Alex could never understand the working mind of the men in his family. Not his father and now his uncle. "Why should I visit your home after all these years of never . . ."

Andrew knew he would have to face all these questions and he had all the answers to them, but to get them through his mouth was another matter. Swallowing his nervous saliva was the next best way to wet his parched throat as Andrew dived into his why he wanted Alex to come home with him.

With his mouth feeling somewhat moisture, Alex sat across from his uncle and listen intently with his arms folded over her chest staring at the old man.

Andrew thought the boy looked just like his older brother Dennis at his age. Which was good and bad all rolled up in one. Good for his cock and pocket, and yet decadent for all decent chits that would fall for his engaging tongue.

At the end of his piece of oration, Andrew sat waiting to gather any reaction from his nephew, if he would indeed return with him. The boy before him, Andrew saw was in desperate need of male guidance in his life, and he was more than happy to be his beacon as he was for his only child.

"That's a nice tale you weave. Is it all or do you have more to spur on me?" Alex could not believe the drivel the man was wasting on his hearing. With his eyes closed shaking his head, Alex was shocked by what came out of his mouth.

"Okay."

"Okay?" his uncle asked with what sounded like a smile on his mouth. "Okay." He said again clapping his hands as he stood. "I will make all the arrangements. I'll be back in the morning for you." Alex heard Andrew revealed joy as he walked to the door and stopped with Alex's eyes still closed leaning his head back on his second most comfortable chair. "It is a wise decision you make." His uncle declared, but Alex did not know if it was.

With his eyes sealed from his uncle's departure, Alex finally turned and looked at his apartment door barred behind Andrew. Taking a deep breath to look at the one place that was his for years. Everything in it was bought by his wit, prick, and fist. Alex knew why he agreed to go with his uncle so easily.

He was tired of it all, all of a sudden. He was twenty-four and had a full life thus far, because of his father's desertion. It all was tied in with his lack of wanting any physical interaction with Dennis that he was ditched into the cold to fend for himself and he wanted someone to take the reign of his short life for a while. Someone that seemed to care for his peripatetic soul.

The entire fashion of how Alex made a living in the beginning use to make him sick. To hear men, women, and sometimes children scream to see blood and pain etched on another person, by his fist made Alex hate the populace for a while. Yet the one fragment of his trade he might grieve for, was when he was hilt deep in a woman who would pay for him to service her.

That was until his friends saw the semi-wealth in how he made a living and began to manage them. He would genuinely miss the Fucking Five, even for a while. They were off to see about their wild needs, while he remained behind for a period to forge out a plan to better himself and his uncle's proposal came in fitting time.

His rent would be up in a month, and he had a list of women waiting for his company to fill them up. In between his wit and fist, Alex sought rest and a way in which to procure food. Hence, his prick would be hard for a price twice a night or for a day and even weeks, while he recouped from laboring with his fists.

When Alex was eighteen, he was tired of fucking, and with a sober grin plastered on his face, Alex wondered what boy or man in his right mind would want a break from finding sweet, supple women to fuck? And every gentle breed woman that sought him out was filled with money at their leisure to spend on him.

At twenty-four, he was tired and felt burnt out from the life he lived. Alex needed, no wanted a new existence, and it just walked out of his room.

Sitting in his chair, Alex fell asleep with the possibility of what could happen in his little vacation with his uncle and wondered if his father and brother missed him? Moreover, would his father rage knowing he visited his uncle Andrew instead of returning home.

### ***

Dennis was a week away from collecting his lost son, returning him home where he should be. As the father of four healthy boys, he was never one to say or show he loved one more than the other. Yet he could not lie as he sat across from his three sons and wished he never had them. At fifteen, fourteen and thirteen, they were obstreperous.

If he could have sent them back from whence they came, he would have and saved his darling boy Alex, from fending for his own so long on. Grand, Devon, and Simon took a lot out of him which made him aged, forgetting his brother and his dislike for him and his happy life.

While Dennis had three beastly bastards of sons to spare for heirs, his brother only had his one son and never tried to procreate more from any other woman as his wife died also. As the eldest brother, Dennis should be close to his baby brother seeing that they were the only family in their great lineage.

With their bloodline and title laid on their shoulders to carry on, Dennis wanted one of his sons to work hard and find a puss to marry with some wealth to add to their coffers. Dennis never liked that he was denied his birthright as it was given to his little brother, but he saw the reason was sound by their father's decree.

If Dennis were to retain that amount of wealth, it would be lost within a year from his fast-paced life when he came into his majority. Therefore, Andrew was the best chap for the title, but never in Dennis's life would he state that fact.

"And why did you have to bring us along?" Simon asked eight times already. He could not understand why his father would drag them along when they visited Alex not a few months back. As the last son, Simon adored Alex more than the rest of his brothers, and he missed him dreadfully.

In the years since Alex left home, not once did Alex honestly venture home for a visit. He might have stayed close by, that their father did not know he was near. That is why Simon and his brothers nagged dear Dill, for her aid to see their lost, long brother. And in all those years, they saw Alex a few times which was hard for Simon.

Simon looked at his father and saw he was grating on his loving papa's very nerve, but he did not care. His father was up to something, and he wanted to know so he could share it with Alex. No child should believe their parent was a sneak, and a snake all trolled into one, which was a shame, seeing that the man was their only parent.

"Be quiet boy." Dennis could not remember why he bought the rest of his sons with him. Virtually a week of being closed in with them was enough for him to toss the lot out and let them walk back home. However, recalling now, Dennis knew with them about, Alex would concede at his request and return home when he saw his brothers forlorn façades.

Acknowledgments:

Thank you, Father and Family.

I hope you enjoyed Jeffery and Halifa's tale, for Alex and Mary's drama, is about to unfold next . . .

About the Author

Sophia S. Sterling hails from the sweet Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago, where the stinging sun and cerulean sky is her daily view, as the breeze whispers endless pleasures. She's a lover of Romance / Drama in historical and modern tomes. Her first taste of reading was from Jane Eyre, at a young age that had her hooked, to the art of writing and reading love stories.

Other Books from Sophia S. Sterling

Fates Touch

Science of Romance

A Gypsy's Love 2 "Alex & Mary"

A Gypsy's Love 3 "Vincent & Jessica"

