by HELEN HARDT
“Better?” he asked.
“Yes, yes. It doesn’t hurt so much. It just feels…full.”
“Normal.”
“But I craved it so, Evan. Shouldn’t it do more than hurt? Or feel full?”
He chuckled against her smooth neck. “Don’t worry, sweet. It will.” He thrust once more, wincing to keep from losing it. He had to keep going, had to make it good for her.
He kissed her lips lightly and pinched one of her nipples. And another thrust.
She gasped. Yes, there she goes. She’s starting to feel what it’s truly about. He withdrew, thrust, withdrew, thrust.
“Oh, yes!” she gasped.
“Good, sweet?”
“Oh, Evan. It’s so…so… When you push down you hit that lovely spot… Oh!”
Hold on, old man. Keep it going. It’s good for her. Make it last.
But as much as he wanted to keep going, he could bear it no longer. He thrust mightily and spent inside her welcoming pussy with a loud groan.
He collapsed atop her but quickly moved. His weight would be too much for her to bear. She was hardly frail, but he was a big man. Though it pained him, he pulled out and slid to the side, lying beside her.
“I hope I didn’t hurt you too badly.”
“No, no,” she sighed. “It was wonderful.”
“No regrets?”
“Not a one. You?”
He smiled. “No man alive would regret that. You’re absolutely lovely.”
He rose, tore off a small piece from one of the linens, and moistened it in rainwater from the slipper tub.
“Here,” he said when he returned, “let me take care of you.”
“Goodness, it’s cold.”
“Yes, I’m sorry about that.” He wiped the small smudges of blood from her. “There. Are you in any pain?”
“Not really. I just feel deliciously used.”
He discarded the rag and lay back down beside her. She curled into his arms and snuggled against his shoulder. He closed his eyes and smiled. He couldn’t remember ever feeling quite so content.
* * *
“My lady,” Graves said to Sophie. “I’m afraid Lord Evan and Lady Alexandra have not yet arrived in London. I just got word from a wire.”
“Not yet?” Sophie gasped. Now she really was worried. The rain had ended, and who knew what the weather was like in London? Evan surely would have sent a wire ahead to let the caretaker know if they were to be detained any longer.
“Do you wish to send anyone out to look for them?”
“Whom would I send? Lord Brighton and my mother are gone.”
“Some of the servants would be happy to assist.”
Sophie chewed on her lip. “Darkness has fallen.”
“Yes. I suspect they’d wait to start in the morning.”
She nodded, her nerves jumping. “Yes, Graves. Please have them leave at first light.
* * *
Ally walked briskly toward the informal parlor in the Lybrook mansion. Sophie and Rose were napping, and Lily was gone on her wedding trip. It was nearly teatime, and Ally was famished for a scone with lemon curd. She halted when her mother’s soft voice wafted out the door.
“Yes,” Iris, Ally’s mother, said, “but it’s difficult to tell David everything.”
“You should try,” another voice said. Auntie Lucy—Miss Lucinda Landon, her mother’s best childhood friend.
“It’s so horrid, Lucy,” Iris said. “He might think less of me. The things I let Longarry do…”
“None of this is your fault,” Lucy said.
“You wouldn’t think it if you knew.”
“You can tell me if you’d like. Sometimes it helps to talk. I promise you’ll be no different to me one way or the other.”
“I… I know what my daughters must think of me. They think me weak. And I was. But I did it— I let him do whatever he wanted to me… I was…” She exploded into sobs.
A few moments passed as Iris sniffled and wept.
“What, Iris?”
“H-He, he said if I didn’t succumb, he would turn to the girls. He would r-rape them.”
In the foyer, Ally’s heart leaped into her throat. Her father was evil, but even she hadn’t imagined such…corruption.
Lucy gasped. “My God.”
“I… I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Of course you couldn’t.”
“He had all the power by law. There was nothing… I was so helpless…”
“I know, my dear.”
“And even that wasn’t enough. He beat them badly, Lucy. Ally took the brunt of it. She provoked him. Sophie and I tried talking to her about it, but she was determined. She has such strength, Lucy.”
“Yes, she does. Both of your daughters are lovely. It’s a tribute to you, Iris, that they are so well adjusted despite what you all lived through.”
“I should have done more…”
And then more sobs, muffled.
Sobs Ally had heard many times before…
Alexandra awoke with a jolt.
Not a dream, but a memory of a conversation she’d heard between her mother and Auntie Lucy over a month ago. She calmed her rapid breathing as shame overwhelmed her. In the past, she’d often thought her mother weak for submitting to her father. She’d had no idea that he’d threatened…
Her mother had protected her and Sophie, just like Ally had protected her sister. Ally and her mother were more alike than Ally had ever known.
Once her heart rate returned to normal, she looked around. Darkness had descended. Something odd met her ears. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it until… Silence. The rain had finally stopped!
Her stomach gurgled. She’d gone nearly thirty-six hours without sustenance. She rose, wrapping herself in one of the discarded linens, and drank a dipper of water from the tub. What must the hour be? She had no idea. Evan breathed softly on the bed. She hated to wake him up. Where might his pocket watch be? She checked his garments. Nothing.
Well, what did it matter? When the sun rose, they could go for help. Thank goodness.
Evan was probably dying of thirst. She refilled the dipper and brought it to him. “Evan.” She nudged him.
His eyes fluttered open. “Yes, sweet?”
“I brought you some water.”
“You’re an angel.” He sat up and drained the dipper. “How are you feeling?”
“A tad achy, but fine. And I have some wonderful news. The rain has stopped.”
He smiled. “So that’s what sounds strange. Nothing.”
“I had the exact same reaction.” She returned his smile.
“I’ll leave at first light,” he said.
“We’ll leave at first light.” She punched him lightly on his upper arm.
“Very well. We will indeed.”
“I’m so very hungry, Evan. The water was refreshing, but it’s far from enough.”
“I know. We’ll be all right. Now that the rain has stopped, I can go out and look for something to eat.”
“In the dark? All I’d do is worry about you. We don’t have a lantern or torch. How would you see? Plus you said yourself you’ve nothing to kill a rabbit or bird with.”
He sighed. “That is true enough. We’ll have to wait, I guess.”
“It’s been so long since we’ve eaten anything. I feel so weak.”
“You’ll be all right. We have water. That’s the most important thing, and tomorrow we get out of here.”
“Let’s pray the rain doesn’t start up again.”
“Even if it does, we’re leaving. What stopped us was the fog, not the rain.”
She lay down next to him. “Thank you for…”
“No need to thank me. In case you hadn’t noticed, I enjoyed it immensely.” He kissed her upper arm.
“I never even imagined… I mean, I’m hardly innocent. I’ve been reading…literature for ages.”
“Literature?” He smiled.
“Well, perhaps no
t literature in the finest sense…”
“How on earth would such a lovely young lady get her hands on such things?”
She laughed. “Oh, you’d be surprised. My maid, Millicent? She had quite the collection. Mother and Sophie never knew, of course, but she shared it with me. Well, she did after I stumbled upon it and demanded to know where it came from or I would tell Mother. I read about Fanny Hill and Justine. And then there were the papers…”
“You little rascal!”
“I suppose I had my moments. But I had to have something fun to do to exist in that environment.”
His features softened. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“I don’t like to talk about it.” But for some reason, her mouth stayed open, words tumbling out of it to this kind man who had given her such a lovely gift. “When Sophie and I were young, we used to hear Mother crying at night. Father would come home drunk and do God knows what to her.”
“Alexandra…”
“Once, I got up and went to her bedroom. My father was on top of her, and he turned to me and ordered me out or I’d be beaten with a broom handle. I couldn’t have been more than five or six at the time. Sophie was two years older.” The memories crashed into her, the anger, the fear, the hopelessness, the invisible worms crawling over her skin. She brushed them away.
“You don’t have to say any more.”
But she wanted to. She needed to. “Do I have your confidence?”
“Of course. Always.”
“She tried to fight back, I found out. I overheard her talking to Auntie Lucy about it after she and your father announced their engagement. My father beat her and told her if she didn’t succumb to his desires, he would turn to Sophie and me.” Tears clogged Ally’s throat. “I’d always thought she had a weak spirit. I was so wrong. I feel terrible about that.”
“My God, your father never—”
“No, no, thank God. What I thought was her weak spirit was her protecting both Sophie and me. The man was horrible. I’ve no doubt he would have raped us if she’d refused him. The beatings were bad enough.”
“My God…”
The sting as the belt hit her bottom. The cane on her shoulders. The slaps and punches to her cheeks and nose. The blood… She winced. “I took more of it than Sophie. He started on her when she began blossoming into a woman. I was nearly as tall as she at that time. She was such a little thing. And so timid. It killed me to see her get beaten and to hear her sobs. So I began deliberately provoking him. And he turned on me.”
“My God. You did that to protect your sister?”
She sniffed. “Yes.” How good it felt to say the words! The pain she’d endured had been nothing compared to the cries of her older sister. They’d cut at her heart like a jackknife. She’d stopped hearing her mother cry after a while. That had been hard enough to bear. But her shy sweet sister? No. She hadn’t been able to take it.
Who knew Evan would be the one she confided in? Just days ago she’d thought of him as a stuffy aristocrat interested only in convention. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this.”
He lightly stroked her arm. “Keep going, if you’d like. I’ve nothing better to do than listen. Well, I suppose there’s something, but you need to rest.” He smiled.
She couldn’t help a laugh. “I guess I’ve nothing better to do. And I have to admit, it does feel good to finally talk about it.”
“You’ve never told anyone any of this?”
“Sophie and I never talked about it much. She begged me to stop provoking him, but I couldn’t. If I did, he’d turn on her, and I knew I was the stronger of us.”
“You’ve an amazing strength, Alexandra,” Evan said. “We’ve been here without food for longer than a day, and you’ve hardly complained. You’re not the usual lady of the peerage.”
She shook her head. “That is for sure. Though I’m still looking forward to finally eating.”
“As am I.”
“I wonder how much my mother has told your father about all this.”
Evan cleared his throat. “I know she’s told him some because my father said she’d been through a lot during her time with your father. I can’t tell you how much I wish he were still alive, Alexandra, because if he were, I’d go and kill him with my bare hands.”
Her heart leaped. “He’s not worth the effort, Evan. Believe me, I’m glad he’s gone, though I wouldn’t mind seeing him taking a pummeling from you.”
“Yes, of course. You’ve been free of him for two years, and for that I’m thankful. And I’m beginning to see what my father sees in your mother.”
“Oh? You didn’t before?”
“No, I don’t mean it that way. She’s a lovely woman. Very pretty and smart and she clearly cares deeply for him. I’m talking about her strength—the strength she passed onto you.”
“If I’d been stronger, I’d have gotten all three of us out of there.”
“For God’s sake, you were only a child. And your mother was bound to him by law. There truly was nothing you could do.”
“Still…” Her hands itched, the same feeling she used to get when her mind was nearly exploding with all the thinking she did about how to get them out of his house. Again the invisible worms climbed upon her arms and legs. She’d learned long ago that brushing them away was futile.
She’d learned long ago that a lot of things were futile.
Evan held her against his strong body, and she found comfort there.
“Nothing like that will ever happen to you again. I promise you.”
“You’re right about that,” she said. “I made myself that same promise the day the bastard died.” And she had. No one would ever beat her down again. And never again would she worry about not having enough money. She’d see to that. “Goodness, enough about me. Tell me a bit about yourself.”
“I’ve had a very good life,” he said. “Even as a second son. My father wasn’t like Lybrook’s. He included me in the affairs of the estate. But I knew it all would go to Jacob someday, and I’d be left with nothing.”
All the more reason to continue her pursuit of Mr. Landon, Ally thought, despite the fact that Evan had turned out to be quite something after all—not the stuffy peer she’d thought he was. They’d shared a beautiful intimacy, but he didn’t have anything to his name. Once his father died, his lot in life would be up to his older brother, and why would Jacob want to share his fortune with Evan?
“Do you resent your brother?” she asked.
“Not really. Not anymore, at least. It’s not his fault he was born first. Neither of us had any say in the matter. And at least my father educated me. That’s more than Lybrook can say.”
Ally nodded. Lily’s new husband, Daniel Farnsworth, the Duke of Lybrook, had had his title thrust upon him when his father and older brother unexpectedly passed on. His father hadn’t taught him anything about estate affairs. He was learning as he went, and doing a fine job, thank goodness.
“What will you do when your father passes on?” Ally asked.
“I’ve got plans in the works. Business deals.” He cleared his throat. “I’ll be fine, I can assure you.”
She nodded.
He sighed against her. “We need to figure something out.”
“What?” she asked.
“Where we go next.”
Next? There was no “next” for them. They would go home, and she would continue with her plans to marry Mr. Landon. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” he said, “we must marry.”
Confessions of Lady Prudence
by Madame O
Dearest Amelia,
I confess, the reward I’d promised Christophe and Joshua plagued me for days on end, until one evening when my cherished maid, Hattie, came to attend me.
She has blossomed into a beautiful maiden of eighteen years. Lovely blond tresses and firm pink lips—my goodness, my heart patters as I write this.
“Hattie,” I said as she un
laced my corset, “have any young men about the estate asked for your favors yet?”
“Oh, no, my lady. I’m a good girl. Mr. Savage once cornered me in the alcove on the third story, but I screamed until he let me go.”
“Mr. Savage?” One of the stablemen. What had he been doing on the third story? I made a mental note to have him dismissed. “No others? No stolen kisses…?”
“Only a few clumsy kisses with a lad when I was younger.”
Oh, Amelia, she was ripe for the picking! I decided then and there to take her under my wing and teach her all that you taught me. And once I did, she could join Christophe and Joshua and be part of the reward I’d promised.
My cunny pulsated as she helped me out of the restricting garment. I removed my chemise and turned to her, clad only in my drawers, which were already damp from my juices.
She blushed an adorable raspberry shade when I gazed up and down her body. “You are lovely, sweet Hattie,” I said. “I have missed you.”
She cast her blue eyes downward. “I’ve missed you too, my lady.”
I trailed my fingers over her porcelain cheek and brought her gaze back to mine. “Dear Hattie,” I said, and pressed my lips gently to hers.
She backed away, her lovely mouth dropping into an O. “My lady! Goodness!”
“Do you not wish to kiss me, Hattie?” I asked. “Do I not please you?”
Her blush deepened. “You are beautiful, my lady. But I…”
“I learned much in the Americas,” I told her. “And the most important thing was that one should never turn away from pleasure.”
“But we’re both…women.”
“Yes. And no one knows a woman’s body like another woman.” I smiled, my nipples hardening. How I wanted those firm lips around one of them, tugging, pulling.
Such an ache between my legs, Amelia!
“I’d like to kiss you again, Hattie. Your lips are so soft…” I edged closer, my diddeys tingling. Slowly I untied the strings to my drawers and let them drop around my ankles, baring my whole body.
She gasped.
