by Pamela Prim
“Shall your ladyship be wearing the new lilac gown for tea this evening?” The maid asked as she tenderly cleansed her husband’s meager offering off her inner thighs. The sensation of the warm, soft cloth suddenly felt very pleasing to Lenore. She closed her eyes and exhaled loudly to hide the soft moan that escaped her.
“No, Kate.” She told the girl after she steadied herself. “I will wear the yellow daffodil gown this evening.”
“Very good, my lady.” Kate held out a fresh pair of undergarments for her to step into.
The daffodil gown suited her fair completion and was also quite demure. There was nothing really to celebrate taking tea all by oneself, day after day. She was excited when she had first walked into the Duke’s sprawling estate and mansion, but after a week, it all had become very dreary and dull. Her husband had attended many a ball and invitation in the month that she had been there, but she was not allowed to accompany him. The reason she was given was most absurd for lack of a better word. The Duchess of Balmy Town could only be toasted after she would give the Duke an heir. And that, she feared, would never happen, given that the Duke had very little to contribute to it.
“Kate!” She suddenly had a thought. “Forget the daffodil gown. Fetch my riding attire… I wish to go exploring the woodlands around the estate.”
“Would not the Duke have anything to say, my lady?” The slender girl asked with wide eyed wonder.
“The Duke is going away to the seaside.” She told the maid. “He will return the day after tomorrow. Now fetch my riding boots and run to the stables and tell old Charley to saddle my horse for me.”
“Will I ask to have an escort for…”
“No.” Lenore smiled wide. “You will come with me, Kate. Have Charley saddle another horse for you.”
“Me, my lady?”
“Yes. You say you lived in the woods before being hired here. Let us ride to where you once lived.”
“I… yes, my lady.” The girl seemed to lose a bit of color. “As you wish.”
And soon, within the hour, Lenore was seated side saddle on her favorite horse, a sunset colored mare, riding alongside a black stallion.
“This is the master’s horse.” Kate looked positively petrified riding the tall black horse the Duke once favored.
“Yes, it was.” Lenore told the girl. “A wedding gift, from one of my uncles to him. The Duke does not ride much, he prefers the comforts of a curtained carriage.”
The paved stones of the estate walkway soon gave way to the rough trail of the countryside. The two horses cantered along at a leisurely walk. Before them, a small stream bubbled by. Crossing it, they would enter the woodlands.
“How far into the woods did you live, Kate?” She smiled at the girl as the horses waded across the shallow stream.
“Oh, not too far, my lady.” The young woman smiled back. “Another mile from here.”
“How would you live there, out in the wild?”
“We had a little cottage, my lady.” Kate had a distant look in her pale eyes. “My mother and father made a living there.”
“And does anyone still live there?” Lenore wanted to know as such a courageous lifestyle intrigued her.
“Yes, my father does.” The young maid stared ahead with a blank expression.
“So why did you leave there to work in the Duke’s service, Kate?”
“We… we needed better… uh… a better life, my lady.” Kate looked even more frightened than before as she tightened her grip on the reins.
Lenore could sense that the girl was not being truthful. But she decided to not pry. Instead she focused on her surroundings. The woodlands gave off a sense of enchantment in the fading glow of twilight, and for a moment Lenore felt like she wanted to live there. So free and without a care, unlike the stifling spaces within the walls of the Duke’s mansion. Which was no different from her father’s mansion and it seemed that after marriage, she had just traded one form of prison for another.
Out there in the woodlands, the trees were tall and wide. Birds nested high in the branches and little furry animals scampered about the thick trunks and entangled roots. Flowers were in full bloom even in the diminishing evening light, and the natural scent released from them made the atmosphere quite intoxicating for a young woman on her first time in the woodlands.
“Let us go to your father’s cottage.” She told the young maid. “It will be quite dark for us to return to the mansion. Will your father let us stay the night?”
“You are the Duchess, my lady?” Kate said softly. “My father will not turn you away.”
“Splendid. This ride in the woods has given me quite an appetite.” She laughed happily. “I hope he will not take offence if I eat all the food in his larder.”
Kate didn’t reply, and the young girl’s nervousness was quite evident. But Lenore was not going to let a maid’s disquiet deter her from taking a little pleasure away from the confines of her stately title and sequestered life. “Ah, is that the cottage?” She asked, pointing to a little wooden structure surrounded by trees.
“Yes, my lady.” Kate replied with some pride. “My father built it himself.”
“How wonderful.” Lenore dismounted and walked her horse toward the little cottage. “Where is he, your father?”
“Away hunting, my lady.” The girl told her. “There is a full moon this night.”
“So we can enter?” Lenore asked apprehensively as she neared the dark pathway to the cottage.
“Yes, my lady.” Kate nodded. She then tethered the horses to a nearby tree and walked up to the cottage door.
The door was not locked. They stepped inside the little cottage. Lenore marveled at the simple way life could be lived, without all the self indulged needs of her station. She sat on one of the two beds made from the trees of the woodlands. The same wood that made the walls of the cottage, the meager furniture and the rustic fireplace. The interior had a very cozy feel and Lenore suddenly wished she could live there. She looked at Kate and shook her head.
“You lived here before… in this wonderful little place.” Lenore sighed and stretched her arms. “Then how can you live in that confining mansion, serving the whims of people like the Duke and I?”
“The mansion is huge, my lady?” Kate had a look of confusion on her plain face “This cottage is no larger than the water closets there.”
“I don’t mean the space, you silly girl.” Lenore laughed. “I meant the freedom of this life, surrounded by the nature and living off the land.”
“It may look good for the first time, my lady.” The maid replied with her face reddening. “But life is hard and sometimes very demanding out here in the woodlands.”
“I suppose that is so.” Lenore caressed the hand-polished wood on the bed she was seated on. “But I do find this very invigorating. Why, I’d wager even the Duke would feel more alive here.”
“The D-duke? Here?” Kate suddenly began to shake with fear.
“Yes, here.” Lenore raised an eyebrow at the stricken girl. “What is it, you silly child?”
“Nothing, my lady.” Kate nodded and looked at the floor. “I… I’m being silly.”
“Well, I suppose you are right in a way.” She had to admit. “The duke would never dream of living like this, even for a moment.”
The horses suddenly began to whinny outside, making the two women stiffen and rise.
“Someone is out there.” Lenore whispered. “Who can it be?”
The cottage door pushed inward and a large shadow stepped inside. In the pale glow of the fireplace, Lenore found herself staring at something out of a nightmare. It was a man, the largest man she had ever seen. Tall and broad of shoulder, weather-beaten and rugged of face, with long unkempt hair and a fierce beard, a large woodsman’s axe in hand, he wore a cloak made from bearskin. A strong musky odor assailed her senses, and she felt like she would faint as the man crouched low toward them.
“Father!” Kate called out and the man’s intense g
rey eyes narrowed as he let the axe drop from his hand.
“Katie!” He said softly. “Oh, Katie. I missed you so.”
The girl made a whimpering sound and disappeared into his bearlike embrace. He hugged her close and kissed her forehead. Lenore swallowed hard and felt a strange series of tingles and tremors course all though her young body. This bear of a man was the willowy Kate’s father? She had never seen a man like this in her life and she didn’t understand why the fear she felt was mingled with other feelings she had never had before.
“And who is this?” The man was asking his daughter.
“Oh…” Kate looked completely out of sorts. “Oh, forgive me, my lady. This is my father, Hagar. And father, this is her ladyship, the Duchess of Balmy Town.”
“The Duchess?” The bearlike Hagar’s eyes went wide. “The Duchess… in my little hovel?”
“I… I am pleased to meet you, Hagar the woodsman.” Lenore managed to say. “Kate is a fine employee and I wished to see where she lived.”
“We are simple folk, my lady.” Hagar told her as he undid his bearskin cloak. “I live off the land, and sell the wood that I cut down.”
“This is a wonderful place to live.” Lenore replied, her heart now beating faster at the sight of the man’s thick muscular arms and deep chest. “As I was telling Kate before your arrival.”
“It is indeed, and also a hard living.” The man nodded as he rummaged into a sack by the fire. “Had I known I would have company…?”
“No fear on that account, Hagar.” She smiled at him. “I will be well pleased with whatever repast you may serve.”
“Some rabbit meat that will stew nicely, and a few carrots and turnips.” Kate said with a smile as she looked much relaxed than she had been so far.
What was she afraid of, Lenore wondered. Her father, though a most imposing man, didn’t seem like one who would instill the fear that Kate was harboring. “A good honest meal.” She told the girl.
“Aye, my lady.” Hagar smiled through his thick beard. “A meal for honest folk.”
About an hour after their meal, Lenore sat on one of the beds as Kate settled into the other. Hagar offered to sleep outside next to the horses. That was a strange for her. Their host had given up his bed for a guest. He had given up his shelter for them. It made her feel sort of special. Something that was in very short supply back in the mansion and her life as the Duchess.
Kate was soon sound asleep on the bed beside her and Lenore tried hard to follow the maid girl’s example. But sleep had other places to be and Lenore found herself staring into the low embers of the fireplace. She kept thinking of Hagar. That there were men like him, she could not even fathom. All the men she had known in her life were earls, dukes, counts and their bevy of foppish underlings. Yes, there were many strapping young fellows among the peasantry and the help, but it was beneath the station of an Earl’s daughter and now Duke’s wife to even consider looking at any of those men.
But now here she was, free of all that pageantry and pretentiousness. She didn’t need to hide behind the false arrogance of her high birth. Lenore could do as she pleased, at least for this one night. She would think of this most uncouth man and she would shamelessly touch herself as she did it. She let memories of Hagar’s rugged face fill her mind. His intense eyes and bristling beard. Those broad shoulders and muscular arms. And his hands, oh, how she wanted those rough strong hands to roam all over her body, ravaging her delicate tenderness. She sighed loudly, letting her hands ease that yearning between her legs. Something strange was happening down there. Something she had felt for a brief spell on her first night with her husband and never since. Lenore controlled herself and looked over at Kate, hoping she hadn’t roused the girl from her sleep.
“I shall go mad.” She said to herself. “Sleep may never give me respite this night.”
With that she lightly slipped out of the bed and stepped outside the cabin. The moon was low on the western sky, threatening to dip behind the tall trees. She looked around the woodland. The horses were where Kate had tethered them, but of Hagar she saw no sign. Lenore wondered where the man was as she walked toward the horses, her hands hugging her shoulders to keep the chill away. A sense of wicked excitement coursed through her as she stepped over the dying embers of a small fire lit nearby the horses. That had to be Hagar’s, she mused.
She turned to the left and bumped into something hard. She thought she had walked into a tree in the darkness, but a strong arm slipped around her, stopping her from falling to the ground. That musky scent she had got before filled her senses and she looked up at the bearded man holding her in his muscular arm. That warm sensation between her thighs made her knees weak and she leaned against his hard, rugged masculinity.
“My lady?” He said in a gruff whisper. “Are you ill?”
“Huh?” She stared at him blankly.
“Why are you outside in the cold?” He made as if to take her back inside the cabin.
“No. I am fine.” She told him as he released his hold. “I couldn’t sleep and thought to get some fresh air outside.”
“I have fresh wood for the fire.” He said as he knelt over the dying embers and fed in twigs to get the flames rising again.
“May I sit here outside, by your fire?” Lenore asked, shivering a little from the cold and a little from being so close to the man.
“These are your husband’s lands, my lady.” He told her plainly. “You may sit wherever you wish.”
“I… I hadn’t thought of it that way.” She was slightly surprised. Hagar sounded resentful making the Duke’s reference.
“Forgive me, my lady.” Hagar said softly. “But seeing my Katie again brought back some memories that would best remain forgotten.”
“I could sense her fear when coming here.” Lenore said to the man. “Is there something I should know?”
“None that should trouble you, my lady.”
“And yet you must tell me, Hagar.” She peered into his dark eyes. “As the Duchess, I demand to know.”
“You will not like what you will hear.” He said as he looked away.
“Then all the more reason that I must know, woodsman.” Lenore put on her most authoritative voice.
“Tis about the Duke.” The woodsman exhaled deeply.
“The Duke? My husband?” She was surprised.
“Aye, my lady.” He told her as he poked at the rising fire. “Long before you were wed to him.”
“What happened?”
“Katie was just a little girl then, when the Duke came riding by our cottage one day.” The woodsman said sorrowfully. “He desired my wife and I refused. He gave chase and I hurled my axe at his horse, killing the beast, but it fell on my beloved Liana, killing her too. The Duke took my Katie away to punish me… and keeps her in his mansion as a maid.”
“I didn’t know of this.” Lenore could feel her heart beating hard. “So Katie is bound to a life of servitude at the mansion.”
“Aye, for no crime of hers or mine.” Hagar leaned his dark maned head against the tree. “I lost everything that day… the loves of my life, Liana and Katie, were taken from me.”
“I am the Duke’s wife.” She said, suddenly feeling very threatened. “And yet you offered me refuge…”
“You have nothing to fear from me, my lady.” He gave her a small smile and she instantly felt a hot rush all over her body. “I harbor no ill will against you.”
“You are a good man, Hagar.” She said with genuine admiration. “A decent man.”
“You’d best be riding back home, my lady.” The large man stood up and walked toward the horses. “It will be dawn soon.”
She watched the man unfetter the horses and bring them over to her. “I will rouse Katie and then take you to the edge of the woodland.” He said. “You must not tell the Duke of this, my lady.”
Of course she would not. She was out in the woods in secret and even if some of the other maids had seen her leave with Kate, they woul
d not tell the Duke about a little riding lesson she was out for. Hagar left them at the edge of the woodland, just before the little stream, and the two young women made their way back to the mansion from there just as the first streaks of the new dawn began to lighten the starry skies.
