Chapter 18

What AJ did the next day was survey the wagon, which was empty now. He'd never examined one, but found that the bows that held the cover up could be removed, making it into an uncovered freight wagon. It would also lighten the rig, which could still be used to bring supplies from Wichita in good weather. They'd want to get horses to pull it, since that would hasten the trip considerably, but that was something for the future. Maybe they could trade the oxen for a pair of draft horses.

He originally intended to use the wagon cover to provide Bella with her privacy. He kept the original idea, but altered it a bit as he thought of other ways to use the big piece of canvas. What he came up with was rough, but serviceable. He stood on a box and dug through the sod above the beams supporting the roof of the house. Then he tied a long pole to the roof, over which was draped the oil cloth that had covered the tools outside, making a six foot long wall of sorts. It only formed a double barrier for about two feet below the ceiling, but it seemed firmly in place when he was finished.

Bella and Becky were trying to mill wheat. Each had a round rock and was crushing the seeds against the bottom of a cast iron skillet. Frank Jr. had gone for a ride to look for more strays. AJ explained what he was doing as he worked.

"It will be ugly, and it will cut off most of the light from the fire to that part of the house," he said. "But I think it will work."

Bella surprised him by deciding that the side closest to the fire would be hers and AJ's, so that she could work on sewing at night, by the fire. The children would sleep in the dark part.

Becky looked up at that point.

"You know, all you had to do was just have Frank and me sleep in the wagon," she said.

Her mother looked at her sharply. AJ just grinned.

"You might change your mind about that when it gets cold."

"We know what you do over there," said the girl.

"And just how do you know?" asked her perturbed mother.

Becky blushed. She'd spoken without thinking.

"We talked about this before, Mamma," she said.

Bella realized that what was making her so uncomfortable was that she just wasn't used to talking about such things so openly. She wondered if other women talked to their daughters this way. It occurred to her that Becky was the right age to start thinking about men, and would need one herself before long. The thought of losing her daughter wasn't a happy thought, but she knew it had to happen some day ... if they could find a suitable man for her. That wasn't a sure thing at all, in this situation. At least Frank Jr. would be around for a few more years. And if he found a wife, she might come live here. She was thinking about so many things at once that she neglected to realize that she hadn't described the act of sex to her daughter ... only that there was a place to rub between a woman's legs.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Becky. "We don't mind, Mamma," said her daughter. "We know AJ makes you happy. Why do you think we didn't mind sleeping under the wagon in the first place?"

Bella's thoughts about her daughter found voice.

"When we get things arranged here we'll have to see what kind of men there are around these parts," she said.

"Why?" asked Becky.

"You need a husband," said her mother.

"No I don't!" said Becky impulsively.

Bella smiled. That attitude would change when Becky spent some time with a few men ... under carefully controlled conditions, of course.

"All women need a husband," said Bella, wisely.

Becky had visions of some man dragging her away from her mother and brother. She could almost feel his iron grip on her wrist as she struggled to remain here, where she wanted to be. She imagined herself behind closed doors with the man, screaming like her mother had screamed.

"You could have done without yours," she blurted.

Bella wasn't surprised, considering what kind of husband her children knew Frank to have been. But she had found out there were better men out there. She glanced at AJ, who was watching interestedly.

"I could not," she said firmly. "He gave me you and Frank Jr. You two have made everything worth it. Without him you wouldn't be here."

"Oh," said Becky. "Still, I don't want a husband yet. I like it here."

"Maybe we can find a man who wants to farm, and will help out here," suggested her mother.

"We have too much to do to go looking," argued the girl.

"Of course," said Bella. "I just want you to know I'm thinking about your future."

"Let's get there first," said Becky. "Then we can worry about whether I need a husband or not."

Again, Bella wasn't surprised by her daughter's reaction. It would be hard to overcome the memory of her abusive father. Becky would have to meet more men like AJ, to learn that there were good men out there, who she might be able to be happy with.

She wasn't worried. They had time.

That afternoon AJ and Frank Jr. took the crosscut saw and went to the far side of the crescent of woods to cut down some trees for firewood and building materials.

"We'll come back and haul the logs with the wagon," said AJ. "Right now I need some long thin branches. I have an idea."

His idea was to build an addition onto the house, cutting more sod to clear a larger garden patch, and using it to make another wall. Eventually the roof would be sodded too, but initially he was going to use the cover from the wagon to make a roof that would protect the tools and animals during the winter. They cut four trees and stripped a dozen ten foot long limbs, bundling them together. By the time they pulled the bundle back home, travois style, it was getting dark.

That night Bella had her privacy and, for the first time, could sleep with AJ naked. She may be forgiven for not realizing that privacy can work two ways, and that a simple oil cloth isn't much of an obstacle to interested prying eyes. AJ may be forgiven for not thinking that an oil cloth might pass more light than he expected.

What happened was that the light from the fire created shadows cast against the oil cloth. The teens were presented with huge silhouettes of what was going on on the other side of the wall.

What was going on was much more than Bella would ever have thought of, in years past. But the anticipation of the bliss she knew she would find made the last of her shyness drift away as AJ asked her to try something that a saloon girl had done once. The first time he'd licked Bella's pussy she'd been horrified, but only for a few seconds, before the waves of sensation drove that into the background. He'd done it several times since, and it was obvious he loved doing it. By now she loved having him do it as well.

So when he asked her in a nervous whisper if she'd suck him, she decided that she owed it to him, at the least.

His shadow, of a man lying on his back with a huge stiff phallus straining upward, and her shadow as she got on all fours, her hanging breasts magnified by the distance between her and the oil cloth, made the children's mouths drop open. When their mother's mouth obviously dropped to suck that gigantic willy, both teens covered their mouths to stifle the gasps that came from their throats.

What little sound got past those blocking hands was covered by AJ's heartfelt groan of satisfaction.

It took a few minutes for Bella to discover the best way to do this thing, which wasn't at all like she'd thought it might be. The feel of his skin there wasn't unpleasant in the least. Nor was there any objectionable taste. She found it fun, in fact, to play with the loose skin at the tip, using her tongue and hand to force it back. She could tell by the almost comical sounds AJ made when she did something he really liked, so she didn't actually have to ask what to do. While it didn't necessarily come naturally to her, it wasn't that hard to learn either.

She found that saliva collected in her mouth, and needed to be swallowed, occasionally. When she took her mouth off of him to do that, she slid her hand up and down the stiff shaft, to keep his pleasure going.

On the other side of the oil cloth, the teens watched breathlessly as she sucked him, and then did the same thing that Becky did to Frank Jr. with her hand. It made Becky feel peculiarly proud that she'd learned to do that all by herself, and confirmed that it was the right way to handle that task.

Bella was quite sure she was doing it perfectly, in fact, and astonished to feel proud of herself, when his hands pushed her off of him and in a harsh whisper he said, "Stop!" She looked at him questioningly, and saw the look in his eyes that told her it was time to be on her back, with her legs spread.

She did so and the huge shadows performed the dance that no longer seemed strange to Becky and Frank Jr., other than that it was giants who were doing it this time.

They'd seen this part before, and it wasn't as fascinating as what had come just before it. Frank's hands went to his sister's body and, within seconds, they were using the privacy their mother had instigated to kiss while they rubbed each other furiously.

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