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Chapter 11
Golden Days
Alicia had been kissed before. She had even kissed a fair handful of boys and young men in her time, when she found them relatively comely or she had wanted to exact some petty revenge on Grace.
But not like this. In fact, as she felt Laurence’s strong, masculine hand reach up and brush against her cheek, their lips still locked in a tender embrace, she was dimly aware she had never experienced anything like this in her life. Not even in her most private, sensuous dreams, the ones that woke her with quivering legs and a sweat-dappled brow. It felt queerly as though she had left her mind, had become a creature composed of nothing but pure, electric corporeality.
Alicia was unsure if she was the one who broke away from the kiss or if it was Laurence. She was disappointed either way, and the gnawing heat that was burning inside her grew more insistent as his firm, rugged lips pulled away from hers.
Strange,Alicia mused, tracing a finger along the place on her lips where he had kissed her.I cannot guess what is going through his mind now, but with this confused, unguarded expression he looks more handsome than ever.This too was quite unlike her previous forays into kissing.
Then a pained expression came over Laurence’s face. He licked his lips expectantly, pulling his body away from hers on the grass. As he opened his mouth to speak, though, Alicia cut in first.
“If you are about to apologize, Mister Gillingham—Laurence,” she corrected herself, giving a slight titter at the thrill of impropriety. “Please don’t. Not for anything.”
Laurence closed his mouth again, his mouth breaking open in a broad, relieved smile. “In fact, I…think I should like to do that again, Laurence,” Alicia found herself saying softly, her hand resting atop his.
He looked up at her, and Alicia thought she could see a flicker of the same hunger within his beautiful blue eyes. “I feel the same way.”
Neither of them moved for a long time, though. Alicia felt his heartbeat through the skin of his hand, felt it beat faster as they continued to gaze into one another’s eyes—or was that her own heart she was sensing?
The shadow that fell over their faces broke the spell at long last. Alicia looked about, blinking, and saw that the sun had turned burnished orange and was close to disappearing over the horizon. The dots that speckled the fields below were retreating back to the distant farmhouses, now painted in dark gold streaks as the day was ending.
“We should—”
“It would be best—”
They stopped and laughed as their hands held onto one another even tighter than before. Alicia felt Laurence’s smile grow so wide that it spread onto her own face, and without a word, they scrambled to their feet, picked up the apple basket between them, and started walking briskly back to the Gillingham house.
Though the walk was a wordless one, Alicia heard her own words and Laurence’s answers ring over and over in her mind. The worries that usually filled her head about Grace and everything else had fallen completely silent, drowned out by the giddy repetition of those glorious words:
I should like to do that again. I feel the same way.
* * *
The rest of the day was a blur, as was the following morning. Whenever she noticed the hour Alicia felt as though she had just woken from a faint, so shocked was she that time had continued to pass.
Yet at the same time, her mind was full of memories of such crystal clarity that she found herself on the precipice of weeping at the beauty that now existed within her mind.
Laurence’s shining golden face, smiling as I carried on about something or other over supper. He looked at me with such undisguised admiration that I have never seen from anyone before.
Laurence running ahead of me with boyish energy. One of us proposed a race across the field on the way to water the crops—I think it must have been me, silly girl. I really thought I might beat him, despite his athletic physique and powerful legs. Sometimes I forget just how perfectly well-formed he is until I see those muscles move and flex with such strength. When he tripped in the mud I thought I might never stop laughing.
Laurence, looking down on me as I lay beside him in the grass beside the pasture. The sight of his flaxen hair moving softly in the wind, his warm smile and his strong fingers holding my hand, full of some drive or desire that neither of us dared speak of.
Every chance she got she found herself inventing some reason to accompany him on a chore or found him peeking out at her from around a corner, his voice raised in a continuation of whatever their prior conversation had been. It was as though his company was water and she had been dying of thirst—Alicia felt she could simply not get enough of Laurence’s presence. And from his giddy expression whenever his gaze fell upon her, she suspected he really might feel the same way.
In the late afternoon—twenty-four hours and the blink of an eye after their fateful kiss—Laurence invited her to see a nearby waterfall. Alicia could not agree quickly enough and scarcely waited until they were out the front door before her hand reached out and wrapped itself in his.
The “waterfall,” as he called it, was a relatively modest affair. Not that Alicia had ever seen any more impressive waterfalls firsthand, of course, but compared to what she had seen illustrated in some of her books it seemed a bit…petite. Really it was little more than a slight dip between two hills, through which a creek dropped a few feet down some smooth rocks.
Still, she gave her best imitation of being impressed by the sight, which seemed to satisfy Laurence. Better prepared than the day before, he spread a blanket on the grassy bank of the river and invited her to sit as they shared in the light meal he had packed—more summer apples, she was happy to see. Together they sucked the juices from the delicious yellow fruits and tossed the seeds into the fertile earth.I wonder if more trees will grow here, planted by our little visit?Alicia wondered idly.
Sooner or later, as they both must have known would happen, Alicia found her hands reaching up to caress his bull-like neck. Laurence gave a pleased little grunt, and then once again their lips met in a fervent embrace.
Just as before, Alicia felt some measure of fear at just how hot the fire within her burned. A voice within her cried to pull away from Laurence—not because she did not want to continue, but because she was afraid she would not be able to stop herself. Yet they continued to kiss there beside the cascading waters, and with each inch, she relented to her desires Alicia felt a rush of passion that was utterly intoxicating.
For as cool and collected a man as Laurence usually was, he seemed to be endearingly innocent in the ways of love and approached her body with a curiosity that Alicia found quite sweet. His body was a foreign land to her as well—so unlike her fragile frame, or the bodies of her frail, coughing suitors like Mister Woodruff—and her senses were eager to explore its terrain.
