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Penelope gave a confused laugh, then turned her eyes towards Marta. “Marta, I’m so grateful you joined us today. Ewan says that Baldwin will also be in attendance?”
“This is what I’ve been informed, but I haven’t yet…”
Almost as though he’d waited for this cue, Baldwin emerged from the garden gate: broad-shouldered and dark, his eyes like daggers towards Marta’s. She felt pinned in her current stance, unable to move. Baldwin strode towards her. She felt conscious of her eyes filling with tears, yet knew not what to do about it.
After a strange silence, Baldwin said, “Thank you again for the invitation. I haven’t been on a rowboat in years.”
“Not since we were prone to tipping them over,” Ewan affirmed. “I remember that day fondly. Mother nearly tore my ear off; she was so angry. Apparently, I ruined a pair of pants.”
Out towards the lake, two rowboats had been gathered and lay in wait for the foursome. Marta’s hand fluttered across Baldwin’s as they strode behind Ewan and Penelope. It seemed that Ewan had decided, in his nervousness, to simply squeeze himself dry of conversation, not allowing even Penelope to answer his reckless questions. Marta and Baldwin exchanged glances and smiled. It was a funny thing, watching Ewan fall in love.
Penelope and Marta both sat in separate rowboats whilst the men eased the boats into the water and then leapt in at the final moment. When Baldwin was safely in the seat of the rower, he placed his hands over the oars and swept them through the water with such grace and strength that Marta felt unable to breathe. Within minutes, they’d cast themselves away from Ewan and Penelope. From afar, it seemed that Penelope and Ewan had a bit of trouble getting started.
“Ewan has never been one of the sportier men I’ve known,” Baldwin said with a charming smile.
“I don’t suppose I would have considered him a healthy rower myself,” Marta affirmed. “Although listen. If you listen close, you can hear Penelope laughing.”
“I must tell you. She hardly let out a single laugh throughout our entire history,” Baldwin said. “In case you wondered at all about it.”
Marta nodded and bit her lower lip. “I had a moment of fear about it.” Why had she told him that? “But then decided instead to trust in you. You seem to understand the weight of my emotions for you.”
There was silence between them. Only the slosh of the oars in the water filled their ears. Slowly, he eased them still further from Ewan and Penelope, so that they went beyond a little bank, on which several trees had grown. Marta shivered as they cut behind them. Now, nobody on the planet could see them. They were alone, in the centre of a gorgeous and still body of water. They had their secrets; they could make still more.
“When I left last night, I need you to know I did it so that your own confusion would lessen,” Baldwin said. His voice was low, almost a growl.
“I know,” Marta whispered. “I told myself you just wanted to bide your time. I know we can find a way through this. We have to.” She swallowed and pressed her hands against her cheeks. “All my life, I feel I’ve searched for someone like you. Now, to be told that I have to spend my days with this wretched Duke… it’s akin to a death sentence.”
“Marriage is a bit of a death sentence, isn’t it?” Baldwin returned.
“I hope that I don’t perceive it that way if I am allowed to spend those years with you,” Marta whispered.
They studied one another’s eyes for a long time. Marta felt overwhelmed with the want that seemed to stir in her stomach. Suddenly, she shot forward, so that she splayed either leg on either side of his waist. The rowboat tilted slightly, then steadied itself as she kissed him. His hands remained on the oars, and then dropped them and grabbed her hard. His mouth opened, and his tongue forced her lips open, and a moan escaped from deep within her throat. They kissed just as they had the impossible time against the garden wall, knowing fullwell that their time was limited, that their bodies had to do what they could until they were squashed back into the horrible parameters of their ordinary lives.
Baldwin’s hands traced up her back and around the bodice of her dress to find the swell of her breasts. With a quick tug, he brought the nipples out into the air and squeezed them, first tenderly and then with enormous force. The pain shot through her spine and stirred with the lust that ached between her legs. She groaned and tilted forward, so that she could feel the thick bulge beneath the fabric of his trousers.
He broke the kiss and whispered in her ear, “I want you all to myself forever.”
Marta’s heart raced. How was it possible to want something that was so outside the bounds of what society deemed correct? Her Aunt Margaret felt like a force more powerful than the sun itself. She cuddled closer to him, her forehead against his shoulder. Slowly, he inched beneath her and kissed her breasts gently, his tongue finding the nipple. His eyes closed as his fingers swept up beneath her skirts and flirted over the soft skin of her thighs and waded through the formidable fabric of her underthings. Finally, he found the tender wetness between her thighs, the soft yet powerful button that, once pressed, cast Marta into impossible delights. With his finger against her, she cast her head back and allowed another moan to escape. This one was animal-like and powerful; the sound skated over the lake and swept between the trees. She gyrated as he rubbed his fingers against her, pulling her up into some sort of heavenly feeling, one impossible to describe with words. This was the pure next step of falling in love. This was their ability to step outside reality and into a world of their own creation.
But of course, this world couldn’t exist for long. Seconds later, the oars slipped out from their hooks and dropped with dunk-sounds into the water. Marta broke the kiss and blinked out to watch them float away, leaving their rowboat without any mechanism to return to shore.
“Oh no!” Marta cried. “What shall we do?”
Baldwin belly-laughed. “I’ve never been in such a situation.”
“We’ll surely drown out here. No one will save us,” Marta said. Her voice had shifted, turned far more playful than she remembered it being, even with her previous lover.
Baldwin chuckled. It seemed neither of them could stop their reckless laughing. “It’s almost as though we should have rowed on this lake with another couple. Oh, yes. Wasn’t that precisely what we did?”
Suddenly, there was a shout. Another rowboat appeared on the other side of the embankment. It seemed that ultimately, Penelope and Ewan had switched places, with Penelope in the rowing seat. Marta was surprised to find that this didn’t confuse her at all. Penelope looked strong and regal and beautiful in the top seat, whilst Ewan looked particularly pleased to do nothing at all.
“Penelope! Has he conned you into doing all that work?” Baldwin cried, while Marta eased back into her seat on the other side of their rowboat to balance it. She watched the oars as they drifted further away.
“You know that any sort of hard labour makes me irritable!” Ewan returned.
“I know it all too well. Penelope, you’ve done yourself a unique service, allowing him to sit around doing nothing at all,” Baldwin returned.
“Believe me, I know,” Penelope said. “He started his relentless complaining minutes into the rowing, and I sensed that we had to switch, lest I throw him overboard. Shall you join us as we row yonder? There are usually some baby ducks on the other side of the lake. I also saw a badger the previous week.”
