Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

Lara was relieved and smiled happily when Caleb retrieved her from the porch. Her relief turned to confusion when he led her up the stairs and to the doorway of his bedroom. “Caleb, we can’t.” She planted her feet and tugged her hand away from his.

“Come in, child.”

Peeking in the doorway, she saw Solomon Miller standing near his son’s bed. It was a strange scene that ought to have put her on alert—she was a single girl alone in a house full of men and a father and son wanted her in a bedroom together—but instinctively she responded to Solomon Miller without fear.

When she entered, she noticed a large fabric sack in Solomon’s hand. Something about it seemed familiar. “Is that a bundling bag?”

Caleb turned to her in surprise. “How did you know what it was?”

“I took a class in historical religious practices. We spent several weeks studying the Amish.”

Solomon laughed and nodded toward his son. “He did not know what it was, so you are better informed.”

Lara blushed. “It is not a competition.”

“Do you know the purpose of the bundling bag?” Solomon asked.

“It was originally used because homes were far away and hard to heat. So young men would spend the night in order to court a young lady and the couple would share a bed to conserve warmth. The bag was to preserve the girl’s virtue.” Lara blushed and stared at the floor. “Pardon me, that was unladylike.”

“Please, do not be embarrassed,” Caleb reassured her. “We are to be married. We must feel free to speak about all things together.”

Lara continued to study the wooden planks of the floor. “Are we to use the bundling bag?”

“I think it would be best,” Solomon said. “Otherwise it would not be proper for a single girl like you to spend the night in a house with so many unmarried men.”

She looked up at Caleb from beneath her lashes, embarrassment flaming her cheeks. “W-would you like it if we used the bag?”

Caleb took a step forward and clasped her hand in his. “Yes,” he said. “Very much.” The smoldering look in his eye made her tummy do flip-flops.

“Okay, I’ll do it.” She turned to Solomon and Caleb. “Would you mind giving me some privacy?”

The two men nodded and left the room, closing the door behind them. She ought to have insisted on sleeping on the sofa or porch. She needed to let the others know she was safe and she knew they needed food. Instead, she was preparing for a night of old-fashioned courtship.

Lara quickly stripped out of the borrowed clothes she wore. She’d been without underclothes all day, having washed them out in a basin and hung them to dry earlier. She wriggled into the sack, though she was unable to tie the drawstring and still keep her hands inside. Instead, she clasped the fabric tight to her chest with her arms on the outside and walked to the door to open it.

Caleb grinned and coughed all at once when he saw her. Lara felt a warm curling in her chest looking at her future husband.

Lara lay on top of the bed while Solomon knotted the drawstrings. “I am using a special knot here, so I will know in the morning if yee have untied it. Do not disappoint me.” He bid them both goodnight and exited the room, closing the door behind him.

Unsure of where to direct her gaze, Lara stared at the ceiling. She heard Caleb move around the room as well as the sounds of him removing his clothing. A flutter of anticipation moved across her tummy. She stole a peek at him in the dim light, her modesty relieved to see him wearing a long nightshirt, though it did not cover the power of his thighs. She gulped in anxious anticipation.

The bed dipped when Caleb joined her. The pit in her stomach did too.

After a long moment of silence, Caleb spoke. “Are yee nervous, Lara?”

“Yes,” she whispered, still staring at the ceiling. “Are you?”

“Mightily,” he said and they both laughed, then turned to look at each other.

“I guess this is how my dirty clothes feel when I stuff them in the bag in my closet.”

“I was thinking you looked more like an ear of corn inside the husk.”

“Caleb!” She attempted to swat him, but with her limited range of movement, it had no effect other than to make him laugh… and wrap his arms around her.

“I am sorry, sweetling.” His words were warm against her neck. “We are to use this time to get to know each other and decide if marriage really is what we both want. I ought not to tease you.”

“That’s okay.” She sighed and relaxed against him. “I bet I do look pretty silly.”

“I think you are beautiful.”

Lara looked up into his dark eyes. “Really?” she whispered. “I-I wonder if you would think so highly of me if there were other young women around.” As she spoke, her mind’s eye went to the girls she’d left in the woods. Would he like one of them better? She ought to have been taking food to them instead of being stitched inside a big fabric bag.

And then she felt horrible for being so selfish. While she was busy being petty and jealous, they were shivering in the cold without decent food or shelter. They were probably worried about her, too. Caleb, unaware of the thoughts tormenting her, held her gaze for a long, tingling moment. “If there were a thousand girls lined up outside to meet me, I would still only want to be with you.”

A tear formed at the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek. She swiped at it with her hand, but like her attempt to swat Caleb, it was futile. Not wanting him to see the effect his words had on her, she rolled so that her back was to him again.

“Do not hide from me, Lara.” Caleb gently turned her to face him. Several tears trailed down her cheek. He brushed them away with his thumb, then caressed her face between both his hands. “Why are you crying, liebchen ?”

“You are too good for me.” She closed her eyes and willed away the tears, but to no avail. They streamed down her face in earnest and she was helpless to do anything about it because of the stupid bundling bag.

Somehow Caleb managed to maneuver his hulking frame so he was seated on the edge of the bed and Lara, wrapped in the cotton bag, nestled in his lap.

“I am not too good for you. Please do not say or think such a thing. A good Amish man is humble.”

“Wh-what else is a ‘good Amish man’?” Lara sniffled and looked up into his earnest face.

“He works hard, obeys the Lord, and cares for his family and community. If he is fortunate, he will have a loving wife and many children.”

Lara was grateful for the covering of the bundling bag since she was sure her entire body had blushed a bright red at his mention of children. She remembered the big bed in the middle of the master bedroom of Caleb’s house—where he had spanked her bare bottom. Tingles spread through her nether region at the recollection of his firm palm against the sensitive flesh of her backside. Responding to the sensations, she wiggled in the bag, suddenly very aware of the minimal barrier between her nudity and Caleb’s strong, masculine body.

She rested her head against his shoulder, staring at the column of his throat. A pulse beat at the base told her Caleb was not immune to the situation. Leaning forward, she placed a kiss below his ear. In response, Caleb inhaled sharply then turned to gaze into her eyes, before claiming her lips in a sweet, gentle kiss. Lara struggled against the bag that prevented her from touching him or wrapping her arms around him. She moaned in frustration.

Caleb, without the hindrance of a bundling bag, explored her body with his hands while he deepened the kiss, his tongue sliding gently into her mouth. His palms were wide and his work-roughened fingers practically burned through the thin fabric as they caressed her shoulder, down her back and finally cupped her bottom. Lara gasped against Caleb’s lips and pressed her rear end into his firm palm.

A swift swat to her backside caused Lara to break the kiss. She glanced up at Caleb quizzically. “I shall set the pace, not you,” he said. “I have seen your wanton ways and though that will be a blessing once we are married, until then you will follow my lead.”

“Y-yes, Caleb.” The husky whisper in her voice sounded foreign.

“After we are married, I will expect you to follow my lead as well. As the man of the family, I will be in charge. I know that is not how you were raised, but it is how I will expect to live. Do you understand?”

“I-I think so. I would like to be in a marriage where the husband takes charge. The reason I chose a Christian college was because I wanted to find a husband who would be a strong man, firm in his faith and leadership of our family.”

“I bet you did not expect to find an Amish farmer.”

Lara looked away for a moment before replying. “Many things have happened which I did not expect.”

“I know.” He spoke softly and brushed a strand of hair away from her face before kissing her on the forehead, then smiling into her eyes. “I had never expected to find such a beautiful, intelligent, and godly wife.”

Before she could reply, his mouth covered hers in a kiss that took her breath away. He buried both hands in her hair and clasped her skull in a possessive grasp. She moaned against his lips and struggled to free herself from her fabric prison, yearning to touch him with more than her lips.

“Hush, girl,” he whispered, moving her toward the center of the bed. His hands lingered on her body, molding the thin cotton bag against her flesh.

Despite her activities in the shower earlier that day, Lara was a virgin. Far from uninformed in the ways of men and women, she had simply chosen to preserve her body and heart for the man who would be her husband. Though educated and capable, her views were old-fashioned to many. Except an Amish man.

She began to ache with the urgency of other needs that required fulfillment.

Caleb braced himself above her, forearms on either side of her head, knees straddling her hips. She stole a glance down the opening of his nightshirt, past the firm muscles of his chest and stomach to the thick organ below. The walls of her womanhood clenched and quivered and she wiggled from side to side, imagining the length of it in her virginal opening.

She moved her gaze to Caleb’s face and met his eyes. “You were peeking, little maus .”

“You watched me shower,” she spoke with surprising boldness, “now we are even.” She giggled and moved her head to make an obvious show of looking again.

“Naughty maus ,” Caleb said. “We can both play that game.” He sat back to rest on his heels and placed both palms over her breasts. “You can look but not touch.” His thumbs rubbed across the hard tips of both nipples. The fabric of the bundling bag providing only the most flimsy barrier. h“I can touch but not look.” With her breasts cupped in his hands, Lara gasped.

He continued to knead the flesh, teasing the peaks to pebbled hardness between his fingers while rolling the globes of her breasts against his palms through the fabric. He lowered his head and sucked one cotton-covered nipple into his mouth. The movement of cloth and tongue against her sensitized flesh sent Lara writhing.

“C-Caleb,” she husked.

He removed his mouth from the sweet torture, but resumed manipulating with his fingers. “What is it, my girl?”

He tugged both her nipples simultaneously and she stared up at him while bucking her hips toward his manhood. “I-I need… It feels… I want…” Unable to complete a coherent sentence, she closed her eyes and tossed her head from side to side, overcome with sensations and urges she could not articulate.

“Is this what you need?” He moved one hand from its delightful torture of her breast and slid it to the area between her thighs. “Oh,” he said, stroking across her womanhood, and Lara realized, to her utter shame, that the moisture between her legs had dampened the bag as well. “Look how wet you are, you naughty girl.”

At being called a naughty girl, Lara’s eyes snapped open and she stared into Caleb’s face. Was he unhappy with her? His hand continued to stroke and stoke the fire between her thighs and when her eyes met his, he smiled at her with a hungry look that sent a thrill of desire through her body. She placed her feet flat on the bed inside the bag and pushed her bottom up to meet his touch, rocking back and forth against the movements of his fingers. Her thighs quivered and her breathing turned to a quick pant. The springs of the bed squeaked loudly and she feared they’d wake the household, but even with that possible humiliation, Lara could not stop herself. Her hips bucked against his touch as she crested the wave of passion. “Oh, Caleb,” she said on a guttural groan before she collapsed on the bed, spent and fulfilled.

Caleb joined her on the bed and pulled a blanket up over the two of them before settling her against his shoulder.

“Sweet dreams, my Lara.”

Hours later she awoke to a dark room. She stretched her arms, until they were halted by the bundling bag. Memories of the night before flooded her mind. How had she become such a wanton? In the twenty-four hours since she’d arrived at the Miller homestead, she’d masturbated in the shower and achieved a shattering orgasm at the hands of a man she’d just met.

She shuddered to imagine what would have happened without the bundling bag. Her mobility might have been restrained but apparently her libido was not.

Glancing around the room, she looked for Caleb. Enough moonlight came in the windows to give some illumination. His clothes were no longer on the chair where he’d left them the night before.

He’d said he wanted a godly woman. Perhaps her shameless desire had been more than he could tolerate. He wanted a pious, obedient wife.

For the first time in several hours, she thought about the girls and Mrs. Potter, waking up in the woods yet again without proper food or shelter.

She was a greedy creature, thinking only of her own naughty pleasures instead of those who were in desperate straits.

No wonder Caleb had left. She was selfish and slutty.

She knew she would feel no peace until amends had been made.

Still encased in the bundling bag, she wondered if anyone was going to come and untie it. Had they all, even Mr. Miller, abandoned her?

A horrible thought sent her stomach plunging—had Caleb told his father about her behavior? Had the rest of the Miller family heard the squeaky springs or, even worse, her whorish moans? Oh, she’d rather shrivel up and die inside the bundling bag than for Mr. Miller to know what a hussy she was.

She’d never behaved that way before, ever. But would anyone believe her?

Despondent, she turned to face the wall and tried to go back to sleep. A hand on her shoulder startled her some time later. Glancing up, she saw Caleb standing next to the bed, basked with sunlight from the windows.

“Good morning,” he said, with a smile that melted her heart. He sat on the edge of the bed and touched her cheek. “Lara, will you marry me?”

Happiness bubbled up inside of her. He still wanted to marry her! He had not been put off by her lascivious ways. She returned his smile and opened her lips to accept, when an image of Mrs. Potter and the girls flashed into her mind.

“C-Caleb,” she said, “there are other girls in the woods. And Mrs. Potter, our house mother. I should have told you.” She stared up at him, trying to read his expression. “We have to go get them.”