Fruit of the Golden Vine

by Sophia French

  Rafael smiled. “My older sister has molded me well, thank God.”

  “And my little sister has taught me much,” Irena said, “even though she thinks I don’t listen or understand. I want to be a wife and mother, it’s true, but nobody wishes to be a slave.”

  “Ira, I’m impressed!” Adelina held the pot of honey before Irena. “Now, while you’re thinking for yourself, eat some honey off your fingers.”

  “Oh, go away.” Irena pushed the jar aside. “I don’t need to be chaperoned by you for the moment. Take a walk with Silvana and leave us to talk.”

  “But that’s scandalous. Leaving you alone with him after he’s just admitted to being a rapacious fiend?”

  “Come on.” Silvana stood, and Adelina dropped the jar of honey as she rose with her. “Give these poor lovers some peace in which to eat their lunch and observe the river, lest they’re tempted to drown you in it.”

  “Very well, I concede!” Adelina looped an arm around Silvana’s waist. “We’re off to discuss the secret business of crooked, wayward women. Don’t eat all the food, do you hear?”

  Silvana laughed, and the hairs on Adelina’s forearms prickled. Together, they walked the bank of the river until Irena and Rafael’s chatter faded and was replaced by cooing birdsong and the murmuring of the water.

  “I suppose you think I’ve behaved like an immodest child,” said Adelina, caressing Silvana’s side. If only she were touching the bare skin beneath.

  “You were very entertaining. Still, I was surprised you were so frisky before your sister. She’s going to suspect you’re more than ordinarily enamored with me.”

  “Oh, don’t worry about her. She’s my sister. You trust Rafael, don’t you? Well, I trust Ira the same.”

  “But you and she seem so different. And several times I’ve noticed you at odds.”

  “We’ve endured the same parents and cared for the same little sister. True, she’s susceptible to Mother’s religious thinking, but only because she wants to be good. Mother has kept her from realizing that there are many paths to virtue.”

  “All the same, pious people tend to react aversely to women of our inclination.”

  “She’s pious, but she’s also my sister. And she has a gentle heart.” Adelina nuzzled Silvana’s neck, and the scent of her skin stirred an urgent craving somewhere in Adelina’s more uncharted regions. “So here I am, walking betwixt the glades with a dryad, a foliate maiden who tempts young women from their moral path.”

  “A dangerous situation. There’s no saying what might happen to you in the company of a lecherous nymph like myself.”

  “I tremble at the possibilities.” Adelina giggled. “Damn it all. I should have brought the honey.”

  “A woman has abundant sweetness of her own, Adelina. You need only learn the right way to taste her.”

  Adelina’s cheeks flamed. “Oh, God. You’re everything my mother is afraid of. Let’s go find a tree to sit under and you can speak more ribaldry to me.”

  “Only speak it? How chaste of you.”

  How fast could somebody’s heart beat until it caused them to detonate? “I wonder what’s down that way, between those trees.”

  Silvana put her mouth to Adelina’s ear. “Some privacy, I hope.”

  Adelina bit her lip. Yes, she was going to detonate, and Irena would weep as they gathered up the pieces to carry home in Rafael’s satchel.

  “Let’s—” Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat. “Let’s go see.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Adelina sat against a pale, slender tree trunk and tried to control her breathing. The close presence of this mature, practiced woman, who despite her calm demeanor expressed amorous intentions with every look and gesture, was beginning to take its toll on Adelina’s nerves.

  She clasped her quivering hands together in her lap and forced what she hoped was a smile. “Forests certainly are nice, aren’t they?” God, she could have struck herself over the head. Of all the idiot things to say! If only she could return to the saucy abandon she’d possessed only moments ago, but no—she’d become too tightly wound.

  “Not a controversial opinion, I must say.” Silvana’s dark gaze harbored so much amusement that Adelina looked away. With a firm touch, Silvana turned Adelina’s head back to face her. “Surely there’s nothing more exciting than me over there.”

  “There’s nothing more exciting than you anywhere.” Adelina took a difficult breath. Her throat seemed to have tightened to a pinhole. “So, here we are, under a tree. Isn’t this lovely?” Damn it—that was even more stupid than the first remark. If she was lucky, a branch would fall now and kill her.

  “You’re nervous. I understand. After all, you’ve done nothing yet but chase an imaginary spider from a woman’s bodice.”

  Adelina straightened her shoulders. She refused to be so timid. “Are you planning on ravishing me then?”

  Silvana laughed. “Ravish you? Goddess, what a mind you have.”

  “Goddess? What do you mean, goddess?”

  “Oh, something old I carry with me. I’m usually more careful than to let it slip out.”

  “You follow a different religion, is that it? In secret?”

  “I don’t follow it, but I was raised to it. We had a God, though not like your God, and a Goddess. The God was a crude demiurge mechanic who created the world’s inert matter. The Goddess created life and inhabited each breath, mind and soul. I was intended to be one of her chosen, as was Rafael. We were marked when we came of age to indicate as much.”

  “Your tattoo?”

  “Yes. My nature was prophesied to be that of the earth and forest, and his of the sun and flame.” Silvana’s smile grew melancholy. “The needle caused me a great deal of pain, but I was paralyzed by some concoction they’d given me, so I couldn’t break away. But I felt it.”

  “Do all people from where you come worship this strange religion?”

  “No. My father and mother followed an old way that has long died out. Faiths come and go, Adelina, which is why I put little heed in them.” Silvana touched her chest. “The only true Goddess within me is courage. Defiance. Love. If my parents did one kind thing by me, it was to train me to never doubt my inner nature. They knew that I desired women, and they accepted it as one of my divine qualities.”

  Adelina stared at the design that spread its silver branches across Silvana’s cheek. “It looks so beautiful, and it suits you so well. I didn’t realize it was forced upon you.”

  “It is beautiful, and I don’t regret it. My brother and I were marked to separate us from the world. We are faithless now but separate still, and it consoles me to understand that this world is only as it is because humanity has elevated one belief above others.”

  Adelina sighed, and the tension left her body. “You make me believe that I might yet be free.”

  “Free of gods and free of men.” Silvana kissed Adelina on the lips, briefly and tenderly. “Adelina, I almost feel called to you. Until you looked at me that night over the goblet, I never questioned my aimless existence.” A drop glistened on her cheek, and Adelina lost a breath in astonishment. Had Silvana really shed a tear for her?

  For a moment there was silence, broken once by the hoot of a bird in the tree above. “Ada, do you still mistrust me?” said Silvana.

  “My mind does. My heart believes in you without question.” Adelina twisted the fabric of her shirt. “But I do fear that you’re hiding something from me.”

  “Aren’t we all hiding something?”

  “Not me. I’ve told you everything.”

  Silvana ran her tongue across her teeth. “What manner of deceit did you suppose Rafael and I might be conducting?”

  “I suppose you could be lying about Rafael’s title, carrying clever forgeries to fool Father with.” Adelina frowned. “But the worst I can think of is that you’re only here for Irena’s dowry. It’s very large, and it’s the reason most of her suitors showed, I think. If that were so, then yo
u’d be lying about your wealth, and Rafael either intends not to marry her but rather to abscond with the dowry, or he intends to marry her and to drag her to poverty. The second possibility is the worst of all. Not merely a betrayal, but an abduction.”

  Silvana lowered her lashes. “You have a complex turn of mind.”

  “Isn’t that why you like me?”

  “Yes.” Silvana exhaled a heavy breath. “The last thing I want is for either you or Ira to be hurt. And I fear…” She stared at the ring on her finger, and for a long time she was silent. An ant crawled across Adelina’s bare shin, but though it tickled, she had no compulsion to flick it away. Instead she watched Silvana’s lowered, brooding profile.

  “What do you fear?” said Adelina, when it became clear that Silvana had no intention of speaking again.

  Silvana turned, a swift and unexpected motion, and kissed Adelina hard enough to push her against the tree. Adelina gasped, her chest rising and falling in uncontrolled motion, as a hand pressed her breast. With her other palm, Silvana cupped Adelina’s face and tilted their heads to allow her tongue to enter Adelina’s mouth.

  After an instant of tenderness and fire, Silvana broke the kiss, though her lips still lingered beside Adelina’s. “I love you.” The heat of her whisper mingled with Adelina’s rapid breath. “Goddess save us both.”

  Their lips rejoined, and Adelina ran her hands through Silvana’s auburn locks, her body responding even as her mind abandoned all pretense of control. Their kisses continued with growing passion until finally Silvana drew back. The heat in her eyes had only intensified, and her lips curled into something too hungry to be a smile.

  “I want to teach you something.” She removed her tunic and threw it aside. Her torso was slim, with the pale line of a scar wrapped about her ribcage, and her tanned breasts were small—much smaller than Adelina’s—and pointed. “Take my nipple into your mouth, Ada.”

  Adelina hardly needed the invitation. She held one of Silvana’s warm breasts and pushed its erect nipple between her lips. The coarse feel of that nipple beneath her tongue, the way Silvana shuddered as Adelina moved her mouth, the impossible softness of Silvana’s naked torso beneath Adelina’s hands…a lust consumed her timidity and broke every restraint in her.

  Silvana reached for Adelina’s tunic, and Adelina shifted her body to allow Silvana to tug the garment off. As the forest air touched her bared breasts, Adelina reached to cover them, conscious that they were different, large, round and heavy—perhaps Silvana would think them disgusting, not erotic but obscene.

  “You’re beautiful,” said Silvana, moving Adelina’s hands and watching her breasts fall free. “You don’t have to hide from me.”

  Silvana embraced Adelina as she kissed her again, and the unanticipated sensuality of their touching breasts banished what little sense Adelina had remaining. She grasped at Silvana, gripping her shoulders, cupping her breasts, running her fingernails along her ribs, caressing the swell of her collarbone, stroking the down of her back and tracing the curve of her spine. She wanted to leave no skin untouched, no curve unkissed.

  Silvana touched her fingertips to Adelina’s stomach and slid them downwards. Adelina trembled as Silvana’s hand moved beneath her pants and into her britches. “Have you ever pleasured yourself?” said Silvana between gentle kisses of Adelina’s neck. “Do you understand what you’re about to feel?”

  Adelina gave a tremulous giggle. “I’ve only tried when I’m certain Ira is sleeping.”

  “It feels different when another does it to you, especially if it’s a woman with fingers as deft as mine.” Silvana kissed Adelina on the mouth and bit gently on her lip before withdrawing. “Don’t be afraid to moan, Adelina. You’ll want to.”

  Silvana’s fingers moved, parting and stroking. Adelina’s back arched, and she cried out, startling the birds gathered above. A fervent pressure built within her, and something entered her body, bringing with it a delirious sensation. Adelina dug her fingers into Silvana’s shoulders and screamed for release.

  Finally it came. Soaked in sweat, Adelina sank to the grass. Silvana lay beside her, held her close and kissed Adelina’s nape. Adelina sighed as prickling bumps swept across her skin. She closed her eyes, her body still in shivering tumult, as if that unimaginable climax had visited each part of her and left nothing unturned.

  Chapter Nineteen

  By the time Adelina spotted Orfeo’s manor on the horizon, the daylight had mellowed into the soft tones of afternoon. She and Silvana rode in the lead, Silvana pensive, Adelina still dazed by her experience in the woods. Irena and Rafael rode behind, talkative still, though Irena spoke quietly, as though fatigued.

  Adelina inhaled a lungful of floral-scented air and half-closed her eyes. She had left the manor a virgin and returned unmaidened, and it seemed as if the contours of her world were now subtly altered. She may have lain with a woman, but there was no question that the moment had been her deflowering—a crude word that seemed to imply a loss, whereas her dryad had instead tenderly planted some new hope within her. There was no longer any doubt that this was the kind of love Adelina wanted and that she was right to want it.

  Reaching the stable, the riders dismounted, and Rafael and Silvana returned the animals to their stalls while Irena and Adelina linked arms and gazed back the way they came.

  “What did you two talk about?” said Adelina. “After you drove me away.”

  “We talked about his hopes,” said Irena. “And I talked about mine.” Her eyes were lucent, and the suggestion of a smile played on her lips. “What about you, Adelina? You returned from your walk as if still wrapped in a dream.”

  Adelina closed her eyes and turned her face to the diminishing sun. “I found faith again.”

  “But not in God.”

  “No.” Adelina squeezed Irena’s hand. “I’m sorry.”

  Silvana and Rafael returned from the stables dusting their hands. “We’d best see where your father is,” said Rafael. “I hope we weren’t out riding later than they expected.”

  The group walked around the gardened flank of the manor. Rafael swung the knocker of the door and set the old wood shivering. As they waited, Adelina plucked an apple from a nearby tree and bit into it, and Irena concealed a smile.

  The door opened, and Orfeo’s florid face peeped through the gap. “The travelers return! Come back in and take a rest. How are the horses?”

  “We’ve stabled them,” said Rafael. “They were excellent steeds. Thank you.”

  “If you’ll not take offence, I’ll just go check. Water them down, make sure they’re happy.” Orfeo pointed his thumb over his shoulder. “Your father and the little one are in there. Good news, by the way, I’ve invited you for dinner! I do hope you’ll accept.”

  Silvana grimaced. “It would be a pleasure. But I hope your cooking is better than your manners.”

  “Ha! The one thing I don’t dare do for myself is cooking. It’ll be good fare, don’t worry. I’m an innkeeper, I know how to pick a good cook.” Orfeo nodded at Adelina and Irena. “Ladies.” As his eyes meet Adelina’s, he grinned in a broad, knowing way that turned Adelina’s stomach. Could he tell just by looking at her? No, that was ridiculous. It was just Orfeo being his usual grotesque self.

  Adelina’s tension evaporated as she entered the airy shade of Orfeo’s great hall. Father was seated with his feet propped on a bench, indulging in a luxury he was forbidden at home, while he peered at an unfurled scroll. Across the room, Felise was kneeling by the empty fireplace with the puppy curled, dozing, in her lap. She seemed asleep herself, her head nodding and her eyelids lowered.

  “Here you are,” said Father. “Come tell me about your ride.”

  Irena and Rafael moved to join him, and an enthusiastic discussion began. Adelina, too tired for Father’s levity, knelt beside Felise and touched her shoulder. “Hello, drowsy.”

  “Oh!” Felise looked up and blinked. “Hello.”

  Silvana sat cross-legged beside th
e hearth. “You’ve both played yourselves to exhaustion, I see.”

  “Yes. We had lots of fun.” Felise looked at the puppy snoring on her knees, and her eyes glistened. “Father says I can keep her. I named her Mona.” She scratched the puppy’s ear. “Tomorrow, I’m going to draw her, and then we’re going to run in the gardens.”

  Adelina stroked the puppy’s coarse flank. “Oh, Lise, that’s lovely.” And unexpected. Father had always refused Adelina and Irena the opportunity to keep a pet, despite Irena’s many tearful requests for a kitten. “How did you convince him?”

  “I didn’t. Mona and I were playing with a ball, and Father came up and asked if I would like to take her home with me.” Felise’s lower lip quivered, and she rubbed her knuckles across her lashes. “I burst into tears as if I were still a baby. It was very embarrassing. I’m thirteen, after all.”

  Silvana laughed. “We all cry sometimes, Felise.”

  “Even you?” Felise inspected Silvana’s face. “You don’t seem like the kind of person who would ever cry.”

  “Even me.” Silvana rested her hand atop Felise’s head, and Felise smiled. “You can shed tears and still be strong. Always remember that.”

  “I’ll remember.” Felise squished the puppy against her chest, and its eyes opened for a moment before shutting again. “Are you going to marry Ada?”

  Silvana’s jaw dropped, and Adelina smothered a fit of giggles. “I don’t plan on marrying anybody,” said Silvana. “And I don’t think your parents would let me anyway.”

  “Oh.” Felise pressed her cheek to the puppy’s head. “Is it not allowed?”

  “I’m afraid not.”

  Felise yawned, and the puppy woke and wriggled its paws. “Oh, Mona, go back to sleep. It was just a yawn.”

  Silvana gave another affectionate smile, and warmth crept through Adelina’s chest. It was strange but sweet the way Silvana spoke to Felise, as if she were an adult and not the silly-headed child she was. Perhaps they esteemed children more highly where she came from.