AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Carrying her gifts as if they were a chest of gold to her chambers, Esther rested them on the table. Margaret closed the door and removed her hat, “I must say, My Lady, I am pleased to see you smiling.”
Removing her gloves, Esther replied, “And it is from that uncommon man. Isn’t Captain Morgan delightful?”
“May I speak freely, My Lady?” Margaret asked while going to help Esther remove her coat.
“Yes, of course,” Esther said while undoing the buttons of her coat.
“I think His Lordship is concerning,” Margaret said, “That game he played in the confectionery, about you being his wife, is troubling to me.”
Laughing, Esther said, “I’m sure that was all it was, Margaret, a game. He told me that his sense of humour is not conventional, and neither is he. I find that I like him that way.”
Taking the coat and hat to hang them to dry, Margaret added, “I only say thus because I care for you, My Lady. I would not like to see you hurt.”
“I don’t think I will,” Esther went to remove her boots. “He is an honourable man, and I am sure nothing will go wrong. I think I will like a warm bath, Margaret. Please arrange for one.”
“Yes, My Lady,” Margaret curtsied and left the room.
When Margaret left, Esther donned her thick dressing robe and went to unwrapThe Countercharmand tried to smile at the book. What stopped her, was that the Captain had spent a fortune on a book. It was undoubtedly the most precious gift she had been given.
She set the book back on the table, then went to take the other wrapped book, but halted. Her hand hung over the book before she drew it away—Margaret was soon to come with her bathwater and then, she was going to have supper.
It can wait…
***
Tugging her thick woollen wrapper around herself, Esther trimmed her bedside lamp and took the wrapped book to her bed. Hours before, only her mother had come home and had gone straight to a bath, a meal, and her bed.
What if this is Marquis de Sade’s book? Would he dare give me such a naughty novel?
With her privacy, Esther slowly unwrapped the book with bated breath and when it was revealed to her, she stared at the title. It was from an author she did not know about, but the title was intriguing,The Lost Love of Lady Madeline.
Opening it, she read,‘A section of her fragile heart splintered off under Lady Madeline Burns breastbone. Sucking in a ragged breath, she fought the searingpain radiating in her heart, but her eyes could not stray from Nathaniel—the love of her life, as he married another. She bit her lower lip hard to still its quivering and reminded herself; no tears, absolutely none.
Enthralled, Esther read until her eyes grew tired, but she flipped a few pages around and her eyes latched on a passage. Instantly—every fatigue fled from her.
With her legs crossed, and her hands resting on her lap, Madeline said, in a trembling voice, “Why are you tormenting me thus? You were the one who went off and married, forcing me to watch my hope shatter before my eyes and my light of my life darken to nothing.”
“Because I was wrong,” Nathaniel said, “I looked abroad for something I had right in front of me. I love you, Maddy. I just didn’t have enough sense to see it.”
Anger and hopelessness ripped Madeline’s soul in two and she made to dart from her seat to rush of the room—except he stopped her. “Unhand me!” She cried.
Instead, he bent his head, grasped her chin, and laid his lips on hers, begging entrance. When the battle in her mind raged against it, her heart availed herself to him and she leaned upward for him to deepen the kiss. Soon his mouth left to chart another course, one that dropped kisses across her jaw, and down her neck and collarbones.
Spinning to another page, she read,lips parted, eyes heavy-lidded, Nathaniel laid her against his desk, his cock swelling as he took in the sensual difference between her snowy skin and the dark wood underneath her.
Slamming the book closed, she pressed a hand to her heart—the Captain had bought her eroticism. Not the horrible, unspeakable sort of Marquis de Sade, but a book still tantalizing to the senses.
Daring to open it again, she read;fretfully, Madeline’s lungs battled for air as Nathaniel licked a wet, slick trail between her heaving breasts and when his warm lips closed around one throbbing nipple, a ragged cry escaped from her throat.
“I love your full breasts, Madeline,” Nathaniel’s voice was a groan as he licked a taut peak, then blew softly on the pebbled flesh, “They’re so sweet…but there is another place I would like to kiss. A source of honey waits for me, just below your belly-button.”
Shutting the book another time, Esther felt her heart race—dear gods, did men kiss…there?
Hurrying, she shoved the book in her night table's drawer, and turned away from it, telling herself it was time to sleep—but rest did not come so easily. Her mind kept going back and forth, from the Captain to the book.
Mayhap, I should call him Arthur now? But, Captain, has so much danger and power to it….
She sighed in the pillow knowing that she had to tell her Mother about Captain Morgan come morning—but it felt so much titillating to keep him, keepArthur, as a secret. Her fingers danced over her lips as she wondered how it would feel to kiss Arthur.
