“Fuck, you’re perfect,” he grunted. “I want to come inside you so bad.” If he had any sense, he ought to pull out to be on the safe side. He wanted to make her come at least twice more before he joined her, and he didn’t like to think how close he was to failing in that goal. The fact was her tight little body was too perfect, and the instant he was inside her it was all too easy to lose control.
“Why don’t you, then?” she asked in that relaxed and sated voice that always made him edgy with need. “I’m not stopping you.” He gazed at her flushed face, the pale hair tumbling about her face.
“Oh, I will, don’t you worry. But not till I’m ready.” He pulled out of her, earning a disappointed sigh. “How do your arms and legs feel? Any strength left in them?”
“Hmm?” her arms slid around his back, trying to pull him closer.
“Siren,” he growled. “Stop tempting me.”
“Siren?” she repeated.
“That’s what you remind me of,” he said, kissing her neck and then sucking her pink nipples into his mouth one after the other, listening to her ragged breath, “with your pale body and bright hair. I saw a painting once. You were covered in seafoam in the midst of a raging storm and very, very beautiful.”
“Aren’t they treacherous?” Lizzie asked, shifting restlessly against him. “Mermaids, I mean?”
Benedict shrugged. “You tell me, I’m not much for book learning.” He squeezed her backside.
“I think they drown sailors,” Lizzie answered thoughtfully. She wrapped her arms about Benedict’s neck. “They wind their naked limbs about the brawny sailors and drag them down to a watery doom.”
He answered her smile with his own and took her lips in another kiss. “I could drown in you, but I’ll own that doesn’t sound much fun. I never figured out what you were supposed to do with a fish tail, mind you. Get up on your knees, Lizzie.”
“My knees?”
He helped her up and then turned her about.
“Benedict,” she said suddenly, looking back at him over her shoulder. He stilled at once. “The curtains do cover the windows, don’t they?”
His snorted. “You think I’d let anyone else see you like this?”
She relaxed and he positioned himself behind her. “Get on your elbows, I don’t want you to fall on your face.”
“What are you – ? Oh!” His fingers were between her legs again, petting and toying with her.
He rested one foot against the floor and reached down to position himself at her cleft. No way was he going to last through another of Lizzie’s climaxes, he thought, but maybe this position would help him last a little longer. “You okay?” he asked tersely.
“Yes.”
“You trust me?”
“Yes.”
“If you don’t like it, just tell me. We’ll switch back.” She nodded and he started to push into her, grabbing a firm hold of her hips and starting a slow grind. When Lizzie began to pant, he gritted out, “Too much?”
She shook her head, making her silky hair fly about her shoulders. “No.”
Thank God for that. He felt the sweat began to bead at his brow as he watched her undulating back. “You like this Lizzie?”
“I’m not – yes!” she blurted. “Yes. I like it.”
“You just never disappoint me, do you?” he rasped. “You about to come, Lizzie?” he asked, feeling the tell-tale quivers. She answered him with a low wail, and he planted himself deep, bracing his foot against the floor as he braced himself to withstand her shuddering climax. She was still sobbing when he flipped her over and pushed back inside her.
“I want to see your face,” he grunted when she blinked up at him in surprise at the rapid change of position.
“Oh,” she whispered, and he pressed his mouth to hers and finally allowed himself his release.
Afterward, they lay in a tangle of limbs, and he pulled the blankets up and over them, kissing her shoulder and settling against her. He would get up in a minute and see to what needed doing. Lizzie fell into a deep sleep as soon as he wrapped his arms around her. An hour or so later, Benedict dragged himself out of bed, lit the fire, and heated the water.
One of Lizzie’s parcels looked distinctly loaf shaped, and he was tempted to see if he could make some supper out of that. He washed and roused Lizzie to do likewise, though she grumbled and tried to push him away at first. “You need to come wash and eat,” he insisted, and finally, she rolled onto her back and regarded him.
“What time is it?”
“A little after eight.”
“In the morning?”
“At night.”
“Oh.” She dragged herself out of the blankets, and he helped her don her nightgown.
“Is this bread?” he asked lifting the parcel.
“Yes. There’s a small cheese and some apples in another.”
Benedict felt the other parcels until he found the right ones, then he carried them outside to slice. By the time he had prepared a plate of sliced apple and cheese, he figured she would likely be washed. He knocked on the door and passed the plate inside.
“Are you coming in to eat this with me?” she asked. “Or do you want me to come out there?”
“I’ll come back inside once I’ve seen to the horse and made the tea.”
Lizzie nodded and he joined her half an hour later to find her sat up in bed and swathed in a shawl. She had brushed her hair but left it loose.
“Animals are seen to,” he said pulling the door shut and slipping off his braces. He had not troubled to don a shirt. He had his wash, listening to Lizzie crunching on her apple.
Lizzie yawned. “Good,” she murmured.
He soon joined her under the covers where she was dozing back off again. “Lizzie?”
“Hmmm?”
He hesitated. They hadn’t really cleared the air about Winchester Street, but he was strangely reluctant to rock the boat now they were back in tranquil waters. Taking another bite of bread and cheese, he decided he’d better let her sleep. It was only fair after he’d exhausted her like that. Setting the plate down on top of the trunk, he rolled into her and dragged her pliant body against him. She sighed and Benedict smiled against her hair.
It would be alright. He just had to find the right words.
26
Lizzie spent the next morning mixing her toothpowder and mouth rinse solution. She made enough for Benedict also and put the little supply of bottles in the bottom of the second trunk, surrounded by linen. Hopefully, they would be safe that way from breakage during their ride to Andover. They only had two more days left here at Putney, and the next journey would be a substantially longer one and take a day and a half.
She found she wasn’t too worried, for Benedict would be at the reins this time instead of Frank, and she felt the trust between herself and Sebastian had grown stronger with each day. She would not be in a constant state of panic this time that he would attempt to jump down from the moving cart.
Hearing a stifled ‘woof’ from him, Lizzie glanced across to see him bounce up from where he had been lying next to the fire. Someone was approaching in a dark gray coat with a shabby looking fur collar, clutching a battered valise.
“Here, boy!” Lizzie snapped her fingers, and Sebastian came to her side. It was a woman, a very beautiful looking woman with sherry colored eyes and curling chestnut hair. She had an anxious look in her eye and came to an abrupt halt a few feet away.
“Are you Mrs. Benedict Toomes?” she asked in an attractive low voice.
“I am,” Lizzie answered, as a sudden suspicion entered her head. “Are you Maggie?” she asked with suppressed excitement.
The woman bit her lip and nodded. “I am,” she said in a wobbly voice. “I got your letter.”
“You must have set off at once,” Lizzie marveled. “I never expected you to come so soon. I mean I hoped … ”
“Aggie didn’t want me to come,” Maggie admitted. “She said I had a home with her and her sister
Winifred, but well, things have changed.”
“Please, come and sit by the fire, and I’ll toast you some bread and cheese and make a pot of tea.”
“I couldn’t eat anything,” Maggie said, but she approached with a nervous glance at the dog and took Lizzie’s hand.
“Pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Maggie gave a strained smile.
“Please be seated.” The kettle was already over the fire, so Lizzie set about preparing the pot and setting out the cups. “My letter must have surprised you a good deal,” she said, hoping she was striking the right note and not embarrassing her sister-in-law.
“I – yes,” Maggie answered stiltedly. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read it. Enough to learn it by heart.” Her gaze lowered, and she sat in perfect silence as Lizzie poured the kettle.
“You were happy at the boarding house?” Lizzie prompted when Maggie clammed up again.
“Not happy exactly,” Maggie frowned. “Most of the time I was miserable as sin, but Aggie’s a kind soul and her sister was grateful for all the help she could get, getting the place up and running. I was kept busy which didn’t really give me time to brood.”
“You said things had changed. Can I ask what things?” Lizzie asked curiously.
“Well, your letter changed things a good deal,” Maggie answered frankly, her brow wrinkling. “And something else I never expected,” she confessed ruefully. “Aggie met a man, and they started walking out together of an evening.” She lapsed into silence a moment before starting up again in a rush. “We shared an attic room, you see, and being left alone got me to thinking again.”
Maggie fiddled with her glove. “Aggie was going to marry and move on with her life, but I was stuck. Married yet not married.” She shot a glance at Lizzie. “And of course,” she choked, “I kept thinking Frank had moved on. With that woman and that hardened my heart against anything else.” She broke off as Lizzie passed her a cup and saucer of tea. “Then I got your letter.” She stared at Lizzie with mounting curiosity. “I must say you’re not at all what I would have expected for Benedict,” she said slowly.
“Because I’m not pretty?” Lizzie asked without resentment.
Maggie promptly blushed up to the roots of her hair. “No! That wasn’t – ” she broke off in confusion. “It’s just – , forgive me. I don’t know what I meant.”
“That’s alright,” Lizzie assured her. “You’re not what I was expecting either.” Maggie reminded her of a Renaissance painting with her vivid coloring.
Maggie opened her mouth and then closed it again. “It’s not fair for me to ask you for an explanation when I could give you none,” she admitted wryly.
Lizzie smiled. “It’s just everyone described you as such a wrung-out drudge,” she admitted. “But you’re so young and vibrant and beautiful.”
Maggie’s color ebbed and flowed. “That’s kind of you to say. I think I have got back a bit of my color. Winifred was so grateful for everything I could do about the place. She couldn’t praise me highly enough. I got the chance to catch my breath and start taking a bit of care of myself. You know, just small things like putting cream on my hands and face of an evening. Time to wash and brush my hair out nice.”
“Frank took you for granted,” Lizzie said. “That’s what Benedict said.”
“Yes, he did,” Maggie agreed. “But I let them walk all over me. His father and that latest woman of his wore me down, expecting me to fetch and carry for them while Frank turned a blind eye. ‘They’ll be leaving us soon’ he’d say. ‘Just a few more days, Mags. Then they’ll be gone.’” She sighed. “But days became weeks and weeks became months. Frank likes things easy, and he was never any good at standing up to his old man. Jack’s not more than just a lad, but in the past, Benedict had always been there. He gave his father short shrift, I can tell you. Always ran him off in the end, but there,” she sighed. “Ben was in prison, and so they hung on and on and just wouldn’t leave.” Maggie pulled a face. “I got so’s I couldn’t take it anymore. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if Gracie hadn’t had that daughter of hers with her.”
“Gracie is Daphne’s mother?”
“That’s right,” Maggie agreed. “And a nasty pair of vipers they were too, with their sly comments and constant jibes. I reckon Daphne must have told her mum from the outset that she wanted my Frank. Pa would love to sink his hooks into Frank good and proper,” she said bitterly. “He’s a lazy old villain and no mistake. No work in him. If he could leech off Frank for the rest of his days, he would.”
Maggie’s expression became tighter, and she lifted her chin. “I thought she’d succeed too, with me out of the picture. But then I got your letter.” She swallowed and darted a look at Lizzie. “You still stand by everything you say?”
“I do,” Lizzie assured her. “In fact, I confronted Daphne about it.”
“You never did!”
“How do you imagine I got this?” Lizzie asked gesturing to the yellowing bruise about her eye.
Maggie set her cup down with a clatter. “You fought?”
“Well,” Lizzie said dryly. “She punched me in the eye, and I survived to tell the tale. Daphne fled into the night.”
Maggie gasped and beheld her with open awe. “Why, she could make two of you!” Then Lizzie’s words seemed to register. “You mean she’s gone?” she asked excitedly. Clearly, she had not relished the prospect of seeing Daphne again.
“Oh yes,” Lizzie agreed. “Long gone. But if you’ll allow me to advise you, Maggie, I do not think you should not be in any hurry to step back into your previous role.” She regarded her sister-in-law frankly.
Maggie’s face fell. “What would you advise, then?” she asked slowly.
“That you keep Frank on tenterhooks for a while,” Lizzie responded promptly. “Let him court you a bit and tell him you do not mean to be worn to a frayed edge serving his family.”
Maggie flushed. “I couldn’t leave you to shoulder the burden, Lizzie,” she said awkwardly.
“Me?” Lizzie gave a short laugh. “I’ve done no more than brew a cup of tea for my in-laws. Benedict told me from the outset that we were our own separate concern.”
Maggie regarded her with round eyes. “You mean, you do not live all together?” Lizzie shook her head. It seemed to take Maggie a few minutes to absorb this startling news. “Then forgive me, but how can you know that Frank and Daphne – ”
“Frank and Jack shared one wagon and Ma Toomes and Daphne the other. Besides, Benedict told me himself that Frank had never so much as looked at Daphne that way. He could not be deceived.”
Maggie’s shoulders relaxed. She stared down at her cup and saucer a moment and then back at her valise. “But if I have not come back to Frank, then I do not know where I will go,” she said hopelessly.
“Well, as to that, I’m sure some other female performer must have a spare bunk to lend you. You must have had other friends apart from Aggie. If my friend Niamh were here, I could ask her, but they’ve gone on to Banbury.”
“There’s no one stood my particular friend like Aggie,” Maggie said mournfully. Her gaze faltered before Lizzie’s steady one, and she seemed to reconsider. “I was friendly with Sophia and Lily Farini at one time. Of the Farini Family Acrobats. I don’t suppose they are here?”
“Yes, I’m certain they are,” Lizzie answered gladly. “I’ve seen their tent myself. If you like, we could go and find them after we’ve finished our tea. I have money if they ask for board from you.”
Maggie made a quick gesture with her hands. “Oh no, I have money,” she said looking embarrassed. “Winifred insisted on paying me despite the fact I hadn’t finished out the month. You must not think me a charity case.”
Lizzie assured her she did not, and they duly set off for the main field with Sebastian in search of the Farini tent.
It was an hour or so later when Lizzie was stood at a lemonade stall with Maggie and Sophia Farini that she felt so
meone grab her arm and turned around to find her husband glowering at her.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded. “I just walked back to the wagon in search of you.”
Lizzie nodded her head meaningfully toward Maggie and Benedict glanced blankly a moment at her companions. “Hullo, Mags,” he said briefly and turned back to Lizzie. “Well? Are you done here, or can we get something to eat?”
“Excuse me,” Lizzie murmured in embarrassment to the two women, tugging his arm and dragging him aside. “Benedict,” she said in an urgent undertone, “Maggie has traveled all this way to try and resolve matters with Frank – ” she began only to find herself cut off mid-stream.
“So, I supposed,” he answered levelly. “And we should leave them to it.” He looked over Lizzie’s shoulder toward Maggie. “Frank was tidying things away in the boxing tent when I left him. He’s likely not strayed far.” Lizzie opened her mouth, but Benedict wrapped an arm about her shoulders. “Lizzie’s coming with me now,” he said firmly. Sebastian trotted over to his side. Lizzie just about managed to wish a flustered looking Maggie good luck before she found herself towed away.
“You weren’t very friendly,” she pointed out.
“She needs to fight her own battles, Lizzie. You can’t do it for her.”
“I know that, but I think she was hoping for some support.“
“We need to stay well out of it. It’s their affair.” He paused before the beer tent. “Do you want tea?” he asked abruptly.
“No, for I’ve drunk two cups in the last hour already.”
“Thank God for that,” he muttered and plunged inside the tent, pulling her after him.
Lizzie frowned. “I’m only trying to help. Maggie said that in the past you always exercised a beneficial influence and that things only broke down because you were in prison – ”
“That’s bullshit,” Benedict cut her off. “I’ve never done anything to interfere with Frank’s marriage.”
“I think she meant more in regards of you seeing your father off before he outstayed his welcome.”
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