by Cari Hislop
“Can we relive that kiss in the garden?”
“Yes.”
“Good…” Her heart pressed against her ribs and begged, ‘Tell him he owns me. Tell him…tell him…tell him! Open your mouth and tell him that I need him.’ “Adam?” ‘Tell him to take off his nightshirt and let me feel him breathing. Bring me closer…closer…closer…’
“Yes?”
Blushing at her wild thoughts Eve silently commanded her heart to be silent. She couldn’t seduce her husband; he might think her a complete wanton or that she’d invited that snake into her bed. “Nothing. Are you still upset? You feel rather rigid.”
His arms held her tighter against his stiff body. “The creature in my chest is being rather difficult.”
“What’s my creature saying?”
“Nothing you’d want to hear tonight. Sleep. We’ll start over tomorrow.”
Chapter 18
Morning sunlight stretched into the room across apple green bedclothes into her eyes. Her dreams had been spent kissing the boring Herbert who turned out to be Lord Latham. She didn’t care; his kisses were exquisite. Yawning, she sat up to find herself in her husband’s most private sanctum. It was clearly used by the same man who haunted the library, but with a very personal theme of Adam and Eve. His nightshirt was a white crumpled heap on the black and apple green carpet near a deep chest of drawers. There were several other heaps of clothes behind it as if he’d lifted them out of the drawers and thrown them over his shoulder in disgust. Sitting up she looked around; the demon had escaped. All the masculine furniture looked black, but it wasn’t a dark room. The walls were covered in a light apple green silk, and the ceiling shimmered as if was made of polished silver.
Half read books were balanced on the edge of the mantelpiece packed with Italian Renaissance love tokens, plates painted with the naked figures of Adam and Eve. Magazines on the window seat shared space with crudely embroidered Adams and Eves sewn onto pillows. There were books under the window seat, magazines on the bedside commode, and books apparently forgotten in the middle of the floor in between the odd hat and pair of gloves. The only mirror was on the dressing table. The large space over the mantel was filled with an oil painting of another naked Adam and Eve standing under a leafy tree contemplating a red apple. She blushed as she curiously studied the naked man holding a fig leaf. She eventually pulled her eyes away. Directly across from the bed on the wall was a framed life-size pencil sketch of her profile facing right. She’d never seen it before. Had he paid someone to sketch her? It was odd to imagine anyone longing to see her features that badly. Next to it on the wall was an empty nail; the demon had taken his profile away, the wretch. Her eyes swung back towards the painting over the mantel. What would it be like to stand naked in a dark forest with the demon? Her cheeks burned until her heart distracted her by asking, ‘Did he leave us another note?’
She tore her eyes away again to find his note pinned to his pillow with a small lover’s portrait of a single eye. The words scribbled in pencil made her blush with hope as she glanced again at the painting which had a snake entwined around the tree.
‘I love you…I promise there are no snakes in our garden!’
Was it a painting of his eye? Had it been painted for her? Was her demon-Lord hiding in his library? Feeling safe and strangely excited she jumped out of bed holding his latest offering, but stopped at the open door into the secret passage. There had to be an obvious catch on the inside. Her eyes gleamed with unholy delight as she found it. All she had to do was figure out how to open her own door and then she’d visit the demon in the dead of night with a lit candle. Even if he was hideous she’d at least know what he looked like. The painted green eye seemed to wink at her. It was a beautiful eye. Her heart cooed in delight as Eve tried to imagine it smiling at her from visible flesh. She scowled in irritation as she failed to conjure a fitting face. If her husband had wanted to torment her he’d succeeded.
Her own room was bright, the cheerful pink and white stripes mocking her memories of Mr Robert’s attack. She approached the bed with caution to find another note from her demon-lord pinned to her pillow with a diamond studded silver L.
My Heart
I had the servants change your bed linen and personally inspected the room for snakes. If you need me I’m in the library. Come knock on the door after dark and I’ll show you the gardens, though I warn you I’m in agony and the sun’s barely risen. The clock is sneering that I’ll have to wait endless hours until I can kiss you while my foolish heart torments me with possible endings to the evening. If I wasn’t ugly I’d be holding you in my arms kissing you.
Adam and his heart
Fearing her cheeks would catch fire, Eve heard her heart say, ‘I wish he was holding us! Why does he have to hide away in his stupid library? I don’t care what he looks like I need to see him now…now…now…’ Eve looked down at her chest and shouted, “Oh shut up! You’ll drive me to Bedlam! Stop whining and moaning; you’re not the only one who wants to see him. ‘Take me to Adam…Adam…Adam…’ “You’ll see him as soon as I see him.” ‘I can’t wait till dark…I’ll die…die…die…’ “You’ll give me some peace or he won’t want us; we’ll be mad.” ‘I’ll die…die…die…’ “You won’t die!” ‘I will…I will…I will…’ “You won’t…” ‘Hussy! How could you deprive me of my Adam…Adam…Adam…?’ “This is insane! We haven’t been married for three days! I can’t be in love with a man whose face I couldn’t identify on a pirate ship.” ‘I need him…need him…need him…’ “Yes, I need him too…there has to be a way of getting him out of the library. ‘Chop down the door…the door…the door…’ “I’m not chopping down a door. We have to be a bit more cunning than that. All I have to do is get Adam to partake of the forbidden fruit…and then he’ll kiss me.” ‘Hurry! I need him…need him…need him…’ “I have to get dressed first you stupid heart. I can’t go down to breakfast in my nightdress…”
Chapter 19
Adam sat at his desk with his head in his hands suffering from acute self-denial. There was nothing to stop him from opening the door, finding Eve and… His heart perked up, ‘Oh yes, let’s go find Eve…Eve…Eve…’ “No! We will not go find her.” ‘Take me to her you stupid man…I beg you! Don’t make me suffer! I need her…I’m going to die if I don’t see her. Just let me see Eve…Eve…Eve…’ He was lying to himself. He didn’t want to see Eve, he wanted to hold her and kiss her. He moaned as his heart taunted him with memories of her soft warmth pressed up against him all night. His heart rattled its cage in fury, ‘Take me to her you imbecile! I want to see my Mistress. I want to smell her hair. I want to hear her voice; Eve…Eve…Eve…’
Adam jumped to his feet as someone knocked on the door. Eve? He unconsciously tried to smooth down his short wild hair as he hurried to the door, but he was disappointed before he reached the keyhole. “My Lord…” It was just a servant. His shoulders slumped as he hissed a curse on his ugly face. “…Her Ladyship…” Adam’s shoulders perked up as he jerked open the door.
“Yes?”
“Her Ladyship, who is eating breakfast in the formal dining room …” The servant sounded like he was rehearsing a bad script. “…desires your company. If you don’t wish to join her, she begs you to at least condescend to look upon her and…to look upon her and share…something about the air she’s breathing…or was it that she wanted you to share her air?”
“Well which one did she say? They have two completely different meanings.” Adam was secretly hoping the latter was an invitation to drag her into some dark corner and kiss her immediately.
“Forgive me my Lord I was…uncommonly distracted…”
“There is no excuse for not remembering a simple message. You’re a footman! You’re paid to run errands and deliver messages not prance about as decorative furnishing.”
“No my Lord. It won’t happen again my Lord.”
“See that it doesn’t.” As Adam looked his footman in the eye it suddenly o
ccurred to him that there was a way of walking up to his wife without being seen. “Come in here and take off your clothes.”
“My Lord?” The footman’s eyes filled with tears as he remembered the sight of his master ferociously whipping the naked Mr Roberts the night before. “I swear on my mother’s honour I’ll never forget a message again.”
“Never mind your mother, come in here and undress. I’m going to wear your clothes and wait on my wife. I’ll need your shoes and wig as well, I hope they fit. You may wear my trousers until I return.”
The footman sighed in relief before eyeing his employer with a new expression of wary concern. “Wouldn’t it be easier to walk into the dining room and sit down at your table dressed as yourself my Lord?”
“If you were madly in love with my wife and you looked like me, would you saunter into the dining room and sit down knowing the sight of you might make her choke to death on her breakfast?”
“No, but…”
“Then take off your clothes! Until I return you can sit here and stare out the window…that’s what I do.” Ten minutes later Adam was feeling like a school boy as he raced towards the dining room in his tight clothes. Passing the housekeep, she hissed a horrified command for him to walk like a gentleman or loose his place. He silently complied only to be berated in another hiss for walking like a drunken duck. He was walking how he always walked. Cursing his tight clothes, he slipped through the narrow opening into the secret viewing room and climbed the ladder. Lifting up the painted eyes, his heart sighed in blissful relief at being able to see its Mistress in the flesh.
Adam’s black brows rose in horror as he stared at her dress. His single eye threatened to pop out of his head as he focused on her décolletage. His mouth hung open as she looked up and seemed to meet his glance with an amused smile. He’d barely made a sound. There was no way she could know he was watching her. He slung the painted eyes back into place and slid down the ladder. He had to have a closer look and there wasn’t a chance in hell he’d wait till dark when the rest of his footmen had already had the privilege of viewing his wife’s charms.
His servants were stunned to find their master dressed as a footman. It took several minutes to silence the hysterical laughing maids and make it clear he intended to wait on his wife dressed as a footman. He’d never suspected his servants of being half-wits, but they all stared at him with incomprehension. Several precious minutes of his life were wasted trying to justify his apparent madness. All he wanted was for them to explain to him what he needed to do to take her next dish in; he wasn’t asking them to teach him calculus. But they wouldn’t let him take the next dish in. Adam had to stand inside the dining room next to the door and watch another footman have the pleasure of admiring Eve’s low cut neckline. She didn’t once look at the footman’s face, but he was finding it hard to care if she saw his face or not. He was in the same room with her and sunlight filled every corner. It was almost less painful than sitting in self-isolated shadows wondering where she was and what she was doing, except being able to see her made his heart increase its ridiculous demands as if Adam could pick her up and take her back to bed. If she looked at his face she’d know who he was. His heart loudly defended its mistress with rapturous assurance that she would never hurt him, but his head flatly refuted the claims. If she saw his face in full daylight before she loved him, she’d break his heart.
Eve’s request for chocolate meant it was time to approach the table; Adam’s knees trembled as he carried in the silver chocolate pot behind the other footman carrying in a cup and saucer. All he had to do was fill the cup and put the pot where she could reach for it if she wished. On reaching her side he was so enthralled by the sight of her charms his servant had to cough three times before Adam remembered why he was standing there. He filled her cup with a shaking hand and silently cursed his co-worker who unhelpfully whispered they were training a new footman. “Oh? What’s his name?” She started to look in Adam’s direction as he gave his footman the evil eye and mouthed, ‘do something’.
“My Lady…?” Adam sighed in relief as air filled his lungs. Her eyes were turned back to his accomplice. “Lord Latham has a rule that new footmen are to be called John. When we become proficient His Lordship allows us to be addressed by our Christian names.”
“Why does he do that?”
Adam was eyeing his footman in horror as the man swam into deeper waters dragging his unwitting master with him. “When we know our place, the house runs smoother my Lady.”
“Is he very keen on it? I find that rather confusing. Why would he want to call you John for several months and then switch to your real name?”
“The reasoning of a Lord is beyond me my Lady.”
“You’re not the only one…has his Lordship left his library?”
“I believe so Madam.”
“I thought so.” She raised her voice for no apparent reason. “Would you find Lord Latham and tell him…tell him I hope he’s having a pleasurable morning? Tell him I’d like to know what he thinks of my dress.”
“Consider it done my Lady.” Adam followed the other man’s lead and bowed before following the man from the room.
As soon as they stepped out of sight of the door Adam snarled, “Did you have to make me sound like some sort of petty tyrant? I’ve never heard anything so stupid.”
“Would you have preferred if I’d said your name was Adam or Latham? You pay me to serve you not to play charades…my Lord.”
“You could have said my name was John and left it at that.”
“I did my best and since you wish to play the role of footman I’m going to have to tell you off so please don’t sack me.” The footman’s eyes gleamed with pleasure as he half shouted, “You imbecile! I showed you three times how to pour a cup of chocolate and I expect you to do it perfectly. If you perform such a sloppy service for Lord Latham he’ll give you a tongue lashing and possibly the boot. How many times do I have to tell you not to spill hot liquids onto polished wood? Be careful or you’ll be shown the door without a reference.” The man lowered his voice back to a whisper. “Do you still wish to be a footman my Lord?”
Adam hadn’t felt so incompetent in decades. “Yes. What do I do now?”
“Go write her a note from yourself answering her questions and afterwards I’ll explain how to deliver it.”
Adam flushed deep red. All he could remember was the sight of perfect breasts barely covered by a scrap of silk serving as a bodice. “What were her questions?”
“She wishes to know if you’re having a pleasurable morning and what you think of her dress…what little there is of it. Do you require assistance in writing the note?”
“No.” Adam turned and slowly started for the closest room he could think of that had ink and paper.
“Hurry up man! Her Ladyship wishes to have her questions answered today…”
Chapter 20
Eve sipped her chocolate as she waited for Adam’s reply. She knew he’d left his library; she’d felt him watching her. The episode with the footmen was forgotten as she imagined her husband’s reaction to her dress. If the ogling footmen were anything to go by her husband would be appalled. If he demanded she change her dress she’d counter it with a demand that he go through her wardrobe and find one he thought wearable. He’d discover that the two dresses she’d worn the previous days were the only decent ones her mother had allowed. The rest were mostly thin and clingy silks cut uncomfortably low in the bodice. Her mother had insisted they’d entrance Eve’s new Lord. Eve’s initial fury at being trussed up like a wanton had mellowed into amusement as she imagined her demon-Lord ogling her exposed flesh. She giggled as she heard the double footsteps enter the dining room and cross to her chair. She was about to find out her husband’s reaction.
The senior footman stopped at her right holding a silver tray with a folded piece of paper while the new footman stood facing forward on her left holding something that looked like a folded shawl. “His Lordship�
�s reply my Lady.”
Eve took the letter off the tray and smiled at the footman. “Thank you…what is your name?”
“Davis my Lady.”