her first lover. And her last. At least as long as he lived. She would not be interested in sex with anyone else so long as they both lived. However, he didn’t like the idea that she’d spent her life in fear of relationships. That would certainly affect them, so he asked, “Why?”
Allie was silent so long he began to think she would not answer, but then she sighed and said, “I had a weird childhood. I told you my father was raised a Follower of Christ.”
“Yes,” he acknowledged, though he wasn’t sure what that meant. He’d thought it was a cult, and knew they didn’t believe in medical intervention, but that was about where his knowledge of the subject ended.
“Well, I don’t know if he still followed all their tenets or made up some of his own after he left the US, moved to Canada, and married my mother, but life with him was . . . difficult,” she ended solemnly, and recalling the scars on her back he suspected that was something of an understatement.
“We were raised on a farm that was . . . well, it was practically Little House on the Prairie,” she said dryly, and then raised her head slightly to look at him. “Seriously. We had no electricity, and a hand pump faucet on the kitchen sink was how we got water. We used to drag this big tub into the middle of the kitchen once a week and we had to pump and boil water for a bath.” She dropped down to lie on his chest again with a sigh, and then admitted, “It was all I knew, so it was fine at the time.”
“But?” he prompted when she fell silent again.
Allie didn’t respond at first, but then said, “We were homeschooled, and weren’t supposed to make friends of children on nearby farms lest they—as my father put it—corrupted us.”
Magnus felt her begin to move a finger over his chest, circling his nipple in a wide arc before she admitted, “But I did make a friend.”
“How?” he asked at once.
Allie shrugged. “There was a copse of woods at the back of our property. My father used to send me out there to collect smaller branches and whatnot for starting fires for the cookstove and for heat when the weather turned cold. One day when I was about ten, I was sent out and I heard children laughing. I was curious so I followed the sound to the back of the copse, and there were these kids back there, playing. Their farm backed onto ours. Half the copse belonged to their farm and they were playing hide-and-seek in the woods.”
She flicked his nipple, sending a ping of excitement through him that roused his fading erection, and then continued, “When they saw me they gave up their game and came running. They were nice, and invited me to play. I knew I wasn’t supposed to, but they were laughing and . . .” She shrugged. “I played with them.
“After that, every time I was sent out to get wood, I’d look for them. Sometimes they were there and sometimes they weren’t, but if they were, we played together. There were four of them, all brothers and sisters. The youngest was Bethany. She was my age, and we became good friends. We had a blast in those woods,” she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice.
“And your parents never knew?” Magnus asked.
“No. We didn’t play that long. Not like hours or anything, maybe one hour. And the kids always helped me gather wood afterward so I wouldn’t get in trouble.” She shrugged against his chest. “Anyway, I don’t remember how it happened, but one day I ended up following them back to their house. I remember it was summer and hot, so probably we went in search of drinks. But what I got was an eye-opening,” she said dryly. “Their farmhouse looked a lot like ours on the outside, an old Victorian house. But the inside had been completely renovated. It was like a palace to me, and a marvel too. They had air-conditioning, and running water, and lights that turned on by electricity instead of oil lanterns. And they had television, and radio and computers.” She gave a short laugh. “I thought it was heaven.”
Magnus smiled faintly at the claim, not surprised by it.
“I think you’re shrinking again,” Allie said suddenly.
Magnus frowned as he realized it was true. He’d got so invested