David knew there was no point in lying, and so he told the truth. It didn’t matter what the truth was, she was promised to him, and he would have her. “My father has cut me off. Last night he made me sleep at an inn. I have nowhere to go and no money.”
“And so you seek to marry me for my father’s money.”
“He will give us an allowance, and me one of his banks to run, as my own father had promised to do until yesterday.”
“I will not marry you,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head. “Not for that reason.”
“You are my beloved and betrothed,” David said. “You must.”
“I am not your beloved, you have never loved me.”
“I care for you. That hurts me to hear you say.”
“And then you are hurt,” Elizabeth said, “and it bothers me none. Please, leave here.”
“I will speak to your father,” David said simply, and then he did turn and leave.
Elizabeth watched him go, and then slumped down to a nearby chair and began to cry.
*****
The same evening that she had spoken to David, Elizabeth was called in to her father’s study. He sat behind a large desk, signing his name to a stack of documents.
“My dear,” the old man said when he saw his only daughter. In fact, she was his only child, her mother having died giving birth to her, and her father knowing he could never love someone as much as he had her.
“Daddy,” Elizabeth said. She went forward and sat at the desk, opposite her father.
“David Weatherby came to see me today. He wishes to finally marry you,” her father said as he kept singing papers.
“He wants your money,” she said.
“As your husband he would be entitled to it. I thought you cared for him. You’ve known him for so long.”
Elizabeth nodded. “I do care for him,” she said. “But I want my husband to care for me.”
“Like Rupert?” her father asked.
“Yes,” Elizabeth said without thought.
“I would be happy for you to marry either man,” her father said.
“But I’m promised to David.”
“A promise can be broken, his father spoke with me today, and told me as much. He warned me that David may come to make good on the promise. He has been cut off from his father, and will remain so for some time, if not ever.”
“You won’t make me marry him?”
“No. Rupert has asked me for your hand, you know. He cares about you a great deal. If you so choose, I will grant him the request.”
Elizabeth’s head was swimming. She nodded and stood. “I need to think on it,” she said, and she moved around her father’s desk to kiss the man on his cheek before departing.
The next day she sent a few servants out to find David. When he was located he agreed to meet Elizabeth at her home for lunch. They dined on sandwiches in the garden, and drank lemonade brewed by Ms. Hudson.
“I’m glad you asked to see me,” David said.
“I have something to tell you,” she said, looking across the table to him. “My father will not force me to marry you. Your father agrees.”
David tried to keep the anger from his face, but failed to do so. “That isn’t fair,” he said.
“However, stupid as I may be, I care for you greatly, and want you to care for me as well.”
“I do care for you, Elizabeth.”
“Then prove it. You have seven days to change my mind. As it is now, I will not marry you. Within a week, you may change that.”
“I have seven days to make you want to marry me? Is this a game?”
“No, it is not a game,” Elizabeth said, shaking her head. “And I hope you won’t treat it as one. You’ve played enough games, have you not?”
David said nothing.
“Good day, Mr. Weatherby,” Elizabeth said, before his lunch was even done.
He stood up and bowed his head. “Elizabeth,” he said, and he walked away.
Outside, David was furious, but he attempted to remain collected. He would simply have to sweep the young woman off of her feet. He had done it numerous times to others. How hard would it be?
He went to his father’s home to speak with his oldest sister, Gwen, who was five years younger than him. His father was at the bank, and so they sat in the drawing room and spoke. He told her of his plan, and the seven days he had to make her change her mind about marrying him.
“What are you going to do?” Gwen asked her brother.
“That’s why I’m speaking with you,” David said with a roguish grin. “How do I sweep this girl off of her bull headed feet?”
“Don’t refer to her as bull headed, for one,” Gwen said, and they shared a laugh.
“I don’t know what to do,” David said when the laughter faded.
“Girls like pretty things,” Gwen said.
“Pretty things cost money,” David said.
“Didn’t you have anything saved? Tucked away?”
David sighed and shook his head. “No,” he said shortly.
“Well, luckily for you, I have,” Gwen said. “You may have it, if you promise to pay me back.”
“Why do you have money?” David asked. “A man will provide for you.”
“A man like you?” Gwen said dryly, and she stood and disappeared for a moment. When she returned, she had a small purse with her, and she pressed it into her brother’s hand.
“Thank you,” David said, and he meant it. His little sisters had always been shining spots in his life, and now one of them had done this, and he felt a wave of gratitude and love wash over him. He stood and hugged his sister, and then departed in a hurry.
It was growing dark by the time he returned to Elizabeth’s home. He was let into the parlor once more, and she arrived shortly.
“I did not expect you back so soon,” she said.
David stepped to her, took her hand and kissed it, and then held a box out to her.
“This is for you,” he said.
She took the box and opened it. She looked to him and smiled. “It’s beautiful,” she said, lifting the fine golden chain from the box. It was a necklace, with a small azure pendant hanging from it.
“Will you be my wife?” David said, and Elizabeth laughed.
“No,” she said. “But thank whoever gave you the money for this.” She paused. “Buying me gifts is not what I am concerned about,” she added, even as she put the chain around her neck. She turned around, holding her hair up, and David stepped forward to lock the chain into place.
“Thank you,” she said. “If there’s nothing else, I think I’ll retire early for the night.”
David nodded his head and left, feeling more discouraged than he ever had. He needed to marry that girl, or he didn’t know what he was going to do. His father seemed intent on keeping his money from his son.
He returned to the shabby Inn his father had agreed to put him into for a month, while he found his own way in the world, and he fell asleep quickly.
*****
Elizabeth was surprised that two days stretched on without a visit from David Weatherby. She wondered if the man had simply given up. She went to sleep on the third night after giving him the ultimatum with thoughts of him in her head. She woke to a light tapping, and it took her a moment in her drowsy state to realize the tapping was coming from one of the windows in her bedroom. She rubbed at her eyes and looked towards the window, gasping when she saw David’s face there.
She hurried to the window and pulled it open. “What are you doing?” she asked as he climbed inside. “How did you get up here?”
“I’ve always been adept at climbing, as you’ll remember from our time as children in my father’s garden with that large oak tree.
“Why have
you climbed into my room?” she asked.
“I cannot give up on you,” he said, and he bent down and pressed his lips to hers before she could stop him, and once the kiss was happening, she did not want to stop him. He tasted of rum, she was sure he had been drinking before he had come. But it was enjoyable, surprisingly, and when she parted her lips slightly he took advantage, and their tongues were dancing together.
She was wearing a white night gown which covered her to her ankles. But the thin material did little to stop him from feeling her body, first with his hands which he placed on her hips, and then with his body when he pulled her close to him. Her breasts were pushed up against his chest, and she felt her nipples harden as his tongue continued to explore his mouth. One hand left her hip and traveled up her back, stopping for a moment at the small of her back, where he pulled her even closer, and she felt his engorged member push against the bottom of her stomach. And then his hand kept going, and his fingers entwined in her long hair. The kiss broke.
“What are you doing?” she said with a moan.
“Be quiet,” David commanded, and she listened. He pushed her back towards her bed, and she fell upon it. She scooted back and he came onto the bed as well, holding himself over her and kissing her once more. Then he broke the kiss and his lips planted a trail of kisses on her chin, down her throat, and onto the portion of her chest which was exposed. His long, strong fingers hooked into the neckline of her nightgown and he tugged it down, freeing her breasts. He looked at her for a moment, and she watched him looking, her breath caught in her chest, her hands balled into fists and drawn close to her body, almost covering her breasts. Her nipples were dark pink, hard rosebuds atop pale white mounds of ample bosom. She couldn’t take his staring any more, it embarrassed her, but she was excited, a steamy longing in her womanhood. She pressed her palms to her breasts in an effort to cover up.
David grinned and spoke in a hushed whisper. “Move your hands.”
“No,” she said.
“Now,” he said, and she did, despite herself. When her small hands left her breasts he dipped his head and pressed his lips to one of her nipples. He took it into his mouth, his tongue flicking over the sensitive area, and the young woman moaned softly in the darkness.
He explored her breasts with his hands and his mouth, and then he was moving away from her, and Elizabeth felt a wave of regret wash over her, not regret about what she was doing, but regret that he appeared to be leaving, and she wouldn’t be able to kiss him again.
But he wasn’t leaving at all. David stopped when he was crouched at her hips, and he reached to the material of her long nightgown and began pushing it up. Elizabeth felt the regret about not kissing him being replaced with panic. He was pushing the hem of her gown up, and he would expose her womanhood. No man had seen her there, no man had touched her there. Was he going to make love to her? At this point, she didn’t think she would be able to stop him. Nor would she want to. A wave of heat was rolling through her loins, a desire for him meant she made no effort to stop him when he finished pushing the nightgown up, and she even lifted her backside from the bed so he could push it up over her hips. She wore no small clothes to bed, and she felt exposed to him. Her breasts were still out, and now he could see her womanhood, with the mound of hair above her moist female lips.
“What are you going to do?” Elizabeth asked, with an edge of worry in her voice. David grinned up at her, though she could barely see him since the only light was that of the silver moon which hung in the sky and cast its pale shine through her windows. And then his head lowered, and his mouth was on her womanhood, and Elizabeth was thrown into a frenzy of bliss and sensuality.
David had used his mouth on a woman before, she knew that. He was well practiced, and gentle. He ran his tongue along her, trailing it with his finger, and Elizabeth pulled a pillow to her mouth, biting down on it so she wouldn’t scream out and send someone running into her room.
Before she knew it there was an explosion of orgasmic sensations in her loins, and she felt her whole body shaking. David kept his mouth upon her as she reached climax, grinning against her as she rocked back and forth. Her stomach muscles spasmed and clenched, and she reached down to run her fingers through his hair. When he was sure she was done, he leaned back.
“Will you be mine now?” he asked.
“No,” Elizabeth breathed. “I will not.”
David stood up, working to keep his anger from springing forth. He hadn’t thought it would be that easy, but he had been hoping.
“Still,” the young woman said, sitting up and scooting to the edge of the bed. “I couldn’t leave you going home with no release yourself.”
It was obvious that his member was hard, it pushed against the pleat of his trousers. She reached for him, her hands slow and unpracticed. She undid his trousers and he sprang forth, his penis engorged and bobbing in the air as blood raced through it. David said nothing as he looked down and watched the young girl take him into her hand. She didn’t move her hand, she just gripped him near the base. She was looking at his manhood, as though she had never seen one. It occurred to David that she probably hadn’t, a rare trait in the girl he was usually with.
“You don’t have to,” David said in a low voice.
“I know,” Elizabeth said, and then she leaned forward and pressed her plump lips against the head of his penis, kissing it. She looked up to him, and he smiled down to her, and then she opened her mouth, and let him inside.
She was so virginal, so new, that though she didn’t know what to do exactly, he had never felt a woman feel so good, no matter how he entered into her sexually. She took more of him into her mouth, and then she would pull back, leaving a slick sheen to shine in the soft moonlight.
David put a hand on the back of her head, helping guide her as she bobbed back and forth. He couldn’t help himself, and it didn’t take him long until he reached climax. He knew many girls didn’t appreciate the taste of semen, so as he came he pulled his hips back, and he shot three long strands of thick white semen onto her exposed breasts.
“I’m sorry,” he said, looking down at the girl, and becoming keenly aware of just how untouched she had been.
“Do not be,” she said, looking down at her own chest. When she looked up, he had already pushed himself back into his breeches, and was backing towards the window.
“Take me for a walk tomorrow,” she said as he left, and he nodded.
*****
David called on Elizabeth just after lunch, and they walked on her father’s grounds, arm in arm.
“Last night was like nothing I had ever felt,” she said, when they were well away from the house, and any ears which might overhear them.
“I can say the same,” David said.
That made Elizabeth laugh. “I doubt that was the first time a woman has done that to you.”
“Well, I didn’t mean it exactly like that,” David said truthfully. “I mean it was like nothing I’d ever felt.”
They walked in silence for a moment. Near the rear of Elizabeth’s father‘s acres, there was a small pond, and they made their way towards it.
“May I ask you something?” Elizabeth said.
“You may.”
“Why have you never shown interest in me? Beyond interest in my maidenhead?”
David thought for a moment. “It isn’t you. You’re beautiful, and smart, and charming. I think it was the idea of being married. I was used to a certain lifestyle, and I didn’t want to feel as though I had to be different.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Thank you for telling the truth.”
“I may be a lot of things, but I am not a liar,” David said. They walked on in silence until they reached the pond. The water was a dark green, the surface still except for small circular ripples whenever a turtle poked his head up for a breath of air.
What happened next, David couldn’t have foreseen. They sat on the grass, Elizabeth folding the skirt of her gown beneath her as she did, so she wouldn’t be lost in the large ring of fabric, and they simply spoke. David rarely spoke with anyone the way he spoke then. They recalled stories from their childhood, so many hours spent together. They spoke of their hopes for the future, their regrets of the past.
“I want to do better,” David said as the sky turned the soft orange of evening.
“Then do better,” Elizabeth said.
David didn’t know what that meant, and he worked it out slowly in conversation with the beautiful girl.
Hours had passed since the first sat down and they grew hungry. David rose and helped Elizabeth to do the same, and they returned to her home.
“Will you dine with me?” she asked.
“I think not,” David said with a soft smile. “I would very much like to, but I feel the need to speak with my father. You are wise beyond your years,” he added.
“I hope to see you tomorrow,” Elizabeth said, and David took her hand and kissed it.
“I expect you will,” he said, and then he took his leave.
David and his father spoke at length that night, sharing glasses of brandy and a couple of cigars. David expressed his desire to learn the industry from his father, and that he yearned to take over at the bank within a year, as his father had wanted. At first, his father seemed hesitant, and David knew he worried that his son was simply trying to get back home, and get an allowance once more. But when David assured his father that he wanted no allowance, and would instead take pay from working at the bank, his father agreed. The two men hugged that night, something they had not done for some time.
The next morning, David hurried to see Elizabeth. He wanted to share the news with her, and he wanted to thank her. He would be working for the first time in his life later that morning, alongside his father, and if he had not spoken with the young girl, and through her learned what it really took to be happy in life, it would not have been happening.
While David was on his way to visit Elizabeth, Rupert had already called on her. They sat once more in the garden.
Romance: Detective Romance: A Vicious Affair (Victorian Regency Intrigue 19th England Romance) (Historical Mystery Detective Romance) Page 54
