In the Forest of the Night & The Barmaid and the Blacksmith

by Lizbeth Dusseau

  My days were constantly busy. The resort was a thriving place. According to its records, there was activity throughout the winter months, though there were fewer people at the hotel than there would be in the spring and summer.

  Not a day went by that I didn’t think of William. It was odd that he was the first choice in my imagination, both Adrian and Phillipe were cast aside as I remembered William’s gentleness mixed with his strength, the assurance in his manner that always comforted me. Had I behaved myself with him, I might have been with him to this day.

  I longed for his hands on my body, for the tender kisses, the odd demands and the sometimes ruthless way he took my body for his own advantage. As the days went by, and the flurry of excitement that had accompanied my move began to die away, I found that the teaming sexual lust was rising in me again. Though I often thought of having sex with William Sage, I was also finding my eyes wandering to the guests, the dashing young men just passing through, or those that stopped to stay a while. It wasn’t hard to meet men. But in my position, I knew my employer would frown on me if I became too forward with any guest. The hotel manager was very strict with her rules.

  I was resolved, at least for a while, to satisfy myself with my imagination. At night in my fantasies, I’d make passionate heated love to some hard muscled young man that had caught my eye that day. The next day, treasuring the memory, I’d glance at the man with an amused smile as he passed by my desk again.

  “You are a bit of a flirt, miss,” Emerson Gray announced to me one afternoon. We were alone in the hotel lobby, the few guests remaining on this stormy day were playing cards in the card room, or in the lounge sipping tea and brandy.

  “Am I? I’ll have to watch myself, won’t I?”

  Emerson was one of my favorites. He was a very modern fellow, dressed much like Adrian would, in a sporty coat and comfortable slacks. But he was darker, his coal black hair slicked back neatly, his eyes quite piercing, though they danced with an effervescent quality in them. He didn’t smile so much as grin, or smirk. Very understated and sexy, I thought.

  I was enjoying the attention, though I had no idea what to do with it. He’d already been the subject of my imaginings the night before. I’d stripped him of every bit of clothing, finding hard muscles underneath his shirt, fine firm thighs, and of course a stiff and ready penis, that in my mind, I lapped eagerly until it shot in my face. I decided he’d be manly enough to have his body heat rise in mere minutes after the first ejaculation; his cock ready to impale me for a long and potent going over, body against body. He’d have hands that would be demanding, a will that I couldn’t fight against. And I’d be happily succumbing to him with all my womanly attributes pleasuring him until he was finally exhausted.

  “Why bother watching yourself, Isabella. It is Isabella, isn’t it?”

  “That is my name.”

  “And a lovely one. You hear it so rarely, though I should say it describes you well.”

  “You, Mr. Gray, are a hopeless flirt,” I said.

  “Only with women as lovely as you,” he replied. “If you were to have a moment free, I’d love a chance to spend some time with you.”

  “I’m not really allowed to cavort with the guests,” I replied.

  “One small cup of tea?” he asked.

  “We’ll see,” I replied. I did have work to do, and I busied myself with other things, until Mr. Emerson Gray disappeared. Unfortunately, his proposal was making my loins burn wildly, so much so, I was afraid that the passion I was feeling could never stop with one small cup of tea.

  Hours later, Emerson had me captured in the hallway leading to the dining room. “You have to agree to it now, Isabella. I happen to know that you have two hours for dinner. And this one will be on me, tonight.”

  “But …” I began to protest.

  “I’ve already cleared it with your employer, who seems to be a very reasonable lady. She’s not about to deny a charming young woman like yourself the opportunity to be courted by an upstanding young man like me.”

  “Upstanding?” I queried.

  He replied with a devilish gleam in his eye. I was thinking of Phillipe instantly, that same appalling charm, choice of words and undeniable cunning; though I didn’t suspect that there was the darkness in this man that there was in my fiendish Frenchman. Then again, I hadn’t expected it in Phillipe either, at the start.

  Escorting me to the dining room, I was served like a guest for the first time. It seemed the staff went all out to please us both, the waiters taking pleasure in serving one of their own—especially one young woman that was blushing wildly the whole meal, as if it was the first date she’d ever had. He had taken me off guard, his manner making my body claw with heat, so suddenly and so real!

  I knew what was on his mind from the outset. I knew, and yet, I wasn’t discouraging him. I had already imagined us in bed, what real difference would it make if we actually did the deed? And after all, my body had been without a man now many weeks, far too many.

  Even at dinner, Emerson’s hand was discreetly on the thigh, most of the time. It ambled along my leg so I could feel the sensations through my skirt. I shook a little at one point, when he reached dangerously high.

  “Mr. Gray, please remove your hand,” I politely whispered.

  He smiled, that same pleasing secretive smirk.

  “Don’t tell me you don’t like it,” he said.

  “Not here,” I said, being as indignant as I dared. I didn’t want to create a scene.

  It was not the last time that he was that forward during dinner. But he kept his hand at my knee, his gentle massage making it difficult for me to concentrate on my meal.

  After dinner, I was surprised to find my employer granting me the evening off. What luck! But was it good or bad?

  Emerson and I strolled about the village for a while, but it was becoming dreadfully cold. And on our way back to the hotel, his arm around me was welcome, his body pressed against mine, arousing. I thought that we would merely say goodbye in the lobby. That certainly would have been the proper ladylike thing to do; but instead, I found myself in a secluded alcove just off the main room, pressed to the wall, Emerson’s lips pressed tightly to mine.

  His kiss was opening me wide, his hands not tentative at all were all over my hips and thighs and even my rear end.

  “We’ll go to my room,” he gasped, when we parted for a moment.

  “Emerson no,” I said.

  He didn’t like no as an answer, and replied with another deep throated kiss, that made me react everywhere. When his hand began to push its way up under my sweater, I knew I was conquered. I thought I would blend into him right there, just disappear into his good feeling body. He was swallowing me up.

  “It’s just the second floor,” he said.

  “But I can’t be caught there.”

  “Who will catch you?” he asked. He was desperate to make the arrangements.

  “My employer’s room is on that floor. She may have been nice to let me off for the night, but she guards her morals with dozens of strict rules.”

  “Where then? You tell me,” he said, still as determined to consummate this fiery tryst.

  I thought for a moment. “In the storeroom, the end of the main floor.” It was the most deserted place I knew of that time of night. “We shouldn’t go together though,” I said.

  “Of course not,” he answered me with a smile. “Which room you say?”

  We pulled ourselves away from each other and moved to another side of the lobby, where I pointed out our destination at the end of a long hallway. “In ten minutes,” he said, noting that there was a crowd from the dining room, lingering about. “You think they’ll be away then?”

  “That’s my best guess,” I replied. “Ten minutes, just be cautious,” I said. We parted, just to give ourselves a little distance, and make the entire event a little more scandalous. I was burning hot.

  Returning to the lobby, I imagined Emerson went upstairs to w
ait. I was flustered and expectant, one moment thinking I was making a grand mistake, the next so incredibly aroused, I knew I had to find some release for my passions, regardless of the outcome. I knew that he would be gone the next day, without an instant’s affection to linger on, but affection wasn’t what I wanted most. I burned with need. As foolish as this was, I also knew it was foolish to be denying myself, being the good girl in this place of exile. I wondered if I’d just traded by austere life at the estate for another kind of cloistered life with rules as confining as that one.

  I stared out from the front window of the hotel, on to the deserted street. Ten minutes, it seemed to go by so slowly. I waited, as the lobby cleared of guests, on to the card room and places elsewhere, until it appeared I was alone … or at least I thought I was alone.

  Deciding that the ten minutes was finally up, my tryst with Emerson set, it was time to make the innocent trek to the storeroom. If I was fortunate, there would be no one in that area of the hotel to witness my excursion. Turning about, I was about to walk to the back of the lobby, when someone called to me from the far side of the room, near the entrance to the dining room.

  “I’ve been told you’ve been looking for me, miss?”

  The voice was familiar though I wasn’t sure who it was. Thinking it was one of my lodgers, I turned around with a smile on my face, and a little exasperation. This was a most unfortunate moment to be drawn away from my plans. And yet, exasperation, smile and plans quickly vanished when I laid eyes on the man behind me. I never thought that Emerson Gray, the storeroom and my immediate lust could be so quickly forgotten, but it happened in the briefest of seconds, in the time it took me to recognize that once cherished face. The moment after that recognition, every bit of strength seemed to drain away, my heart was pounding, my head was dizzy, and I was feeling faint. Was I seeing a seeing vision, or had I just gone completely mad?

  “William?”

  “Have I changed so much that you don’t recognize me?” he asked. He walked toward me, the same steady gait, the same calm easy manner, the same authoritative character emanating from him. He was dressed more formally than I was used to seeing him, and how handsome, breathtaking indeed! The little bit of polish, and the finely detailed black suit did him justice. He was looking like a well-heeled landed gentleman, not a gardener, not a caretaker, not a common man at all.

  “I’m shocked!”

  “Why should you be? You’ve been making inquiries?”

  “Yes, I did. But I never suspected that any of them would amount to anything. I thought they all lead nowhere.”

  “Apparently not all. I’m here.”

  I was hanging on to the back of a chair for all I was worth, afraid if I let go, I’d simply fall to the floor in a faint. I never considered myself one of those flighty women who would do such things, but I couldn’t help the overwhelming feeling in me.

  “I’m sorry William, if I seem strange. It’s just that this is so shocking.”

  “That’s good, and a perfectly good time to shock you.”

  “Oh?”

  “Before you commit your next indiscretion.”

  “My next indiscretion?” My voice was faint.

  “Perhaps you should make your apologies to the young man in the storeroom, then you can return and we’ll talk.”

  “But?” If I’d said more, I’d just have stumbled over my words, he’d left me completely baffled.

  “Go on,” he ordered me, shooing me off with a wave of his hand.

  Complying readily, I was on my way to the storeroom, not caring who saw, or how quiet and discreet I was being. My clandestine rendezvous had been cancelled.

  It wasn’t particularly easy saying no to Emerson Gray. And, as I would suspect, he was a bit surly listening to my refusal. I finally got away, telling him that an old friend of my uncle’s had arrived without notice, and there was just no explanation that would not be met with a good deal of distrust.

  Emerson did get the last word in. Something about how I’d be regretting it the next day, and too bad he was leaving early in the morning. Those were just things to suggest that Will had rescued me from what could have been an unfortunate fate.

  For the second time that evening, I was led to the dining room on the arm of a handsome man.

  William said he was famished.

  This time, I had no stomach to eat a thing, every atom in my entire body was engaged in nervous wonder. His curious appearance at just this moment made me consider that he was supernatural, not human at all. It certainly fit with some of the other aspects of our acquaintance. Though, recalling our past, I was assured he was very human, and most flesh and blood, when I considered the rollicking sexual ride we’d taken in his forest cabin.

  For at least fifteen minutes, we sat in the dining room while William was served his meal, and I was left to wonder in silence about his untimely appearance, as I watched him eat his pot roast and potatoes. He wasn’t anxious to explain.

  “When did you hear I was looking for you?” I finally asked.

  “About a week ago?” he said.

  “And it took you this long to come to me?”

  “You think I have no other obligations but you, Isabella?”

  “Well no.” I fidgeted with the useless napkin in my lap.

  “Stop that!” he said, annoyed with my nervousness.

  “Are you staying at the hotel?” I asked.

  “I checked in this evening, while you were with your young man.”

  “So you must have heard us planning.”

  He didn’t reply, just snickered. I doubt if I’d ever have an answer to that mystery.

  “And you stopped me, why? That doesn’t sound like you.”

  “On the contrary. I’ve never advocated your being reckless with your sexuality. Isn’t that what got you in trouble before,” he said. “Your greedy lust, your rash abuse of your carnal power?”

  “But …”

  “You need to learn to contain yourself, Isabella.”

  “William, please.”

  “If you’d been listening to me when we were together before, you might have saved yourself a whole lot of grief. As it was, you only perpetuated your problems with other lovers.”

  “You know about my other lovers?”

  “It’s not hard to guess.”

  “But you sound as if you know real facts.”

  “I imagine I know everything about you.”

  “Then you know I’ve been betrayed by a lover, spurned by my fiancé, and now ostracized by my uncle.”

  “My aren’t we dramatic,” he said, chuckling.

  “You’d make light of it?” I appealed to his kinder nature.

  “Aren’t you in a better place now than you were with all the stuffiness you despise so much.”

  “You jest!” I replied sarcastically. “This place is as horrid as all the others, worse yet, because I have a job, my livelihood on the line. If my behaviour were to be suspect, I’d be let go in a second.”

  “And yet tonight, you were willing to give it all up for a quick sexual interlude? In a storeroom? With a man you know nothing about? Considering that, I think you were asking to be found out.”

  “You make it sound so blatant.”

  “Isn’t it?” He was being honest. Also very kind. The wisdom in his eyes reached deep.

  I could feel him again. In reality. No dream, no vision, no remembrance as wild as this. Everything in me surged. I wanted him, had to have him.

  “How can we be together tonight?” I asked. I didn’t want to think of all those other things anymore, of other lovers, clandestine trysts and moments of weakness. I wanted to think of just William and me, and the fact that we’d found each other again.

  “We can’t,” he replied.

  “No, please. You don’t mean that!”

  “Oh, I do. This time, my dear love, you will not be lying stark naked on my bed to have the world walk in and condemn you.”

  “So you’re judging my
lust too?” I said, very indignantly.

  He laughed.

  “Will you stop that!”

  He looked around at the people who suddenly seemed drawn to our animated conversation. I blushed and then quieted, righteously subdued.

  “I’m not about to be scandalized again, Isabella, even for you. Though I choose to ignore scandal, getting run out of town, dismissed from perfectly good employment doesn’t suit me. It didn’t suit me at your uncle’s, and it will not suit me now.”

  “It was a terrible mistake,” I said, thinking back to that horrible day. “The worst was not being able to say goodbye.”

  “The worst, Isabella, was that it happened at all.” In his eyes there were no tears the way a woman might tear thinking of a very sad day. But there was a gleam of regret, and passionate sadness that made my own eyes moisten as I thought of what we’d lost.

  “Sorry does not mean much, does it?” I said.

  “No,” he replied simply.

  We sat in silence, while I watched him eat.

  “I assume then, you don’t want me.” I said it tentatively, afraid of his answer.

  “I never said that, love. But there is one solution that will end all your woes.”

  I smiled, wondering what magician’s trick he had in mind.

  “You marry me tomorrow, Isabella, and I’ll give you back your passion.”

  My mouth must have dropped open a foot.

  “Marry you!” I gasped.

  “You sound surprised.”

  “I’ve dreamed long hours of being with you again. Ever since I left poor Adrian, it’s been you I’ve been thinking of. But marriage? That was never in my imagination. Taking our pure lust and trying to fashion it into anything as conventional as marriage? That would surely corrupt it.”

  “I never said our marriage would be conventional. But marriage it will be. This is not the time or the place to fight society, try to make it bend to your terms. You don’t want to defy the world, that’s why you left Adrian. But you must allow yourself your passion, or you’ll not survive long.”