by B L Bierley
“You will be staying here this evening since this pregnancy was such a shock, just to be safe. You will check on Aunt Pen around one after the last guest leaves for the night. Then you will go to your room to rest, and I’ll be waiting for you there. I love you, Eric. And I can’t wait,” Bliss said softly.
She went on tip-toe and kissed his mouth before she hurried away to get into a fresh gown.
Chapter Thirty-one
Bliss, Bristol, April 1811
The news of Aunt Pen’s surprise pregnancy was delivered by Bliss and received a poor reception, just like any other news she ever shared.
She started by telling Victor, who scoffed and told her to stop fooling around. Then she told Maxwell, who still felt so poorly for nearly catching her on fire that he thought she was playing a prank as retribution. She gathered Merryann and Cori to share the news with them, and they both criticized her for being cruel.
Finally, when she could gain no support, she called Marla and the chambermaids to witness for her.
Ozzie had requested that it be left to Victor to tell the news to the guests. But when everyone in the two families remained skeptical, Bliss had no choice but to interrupt the sleeping mother and child to prove it.
Of course, neither Penelope nor Erica was asleep yet. Being handed from her mother to her father, to Uncle Ollie and Aunt Luxie, the baby hadn’t been able to settle down. When Bliss knocked and all but dragged in the others to see their required “proof”, Penelope was thrilled to see everyone.
“Look what we did!” she shouted in triumph. Victor did a double take. Maxwell hurried over to where his father stood holding the swaddled bundle, turned, looked at Bliss and shook his head in bewilderment as he moved to the nearby chair to sit.
Merryann and Cori each apologized to Bliss for doubting her sincerity and then cooed over the baby. Then each expressed their surprise that they’d been left out of the pregnancy news. Penelope explained that the only one who knew for certain was Bliss, but as usual no one believed her! Then she told all of them the baby’s name. The room was full of quiet congratulations.
Ozzie dispatched Bliss along with Victor to announce the wonderful news to the ball guests. They found Eric near the punch bowl, drinking a few cups of the dregs, and entreated him to act as witness to the pregnancy’s strange circumstances. Some people were amazed and many voiced questions about how something like that could be possible in a woman of her years.
Eric quietly explained that it wasn’t unheard of in women as healthy and active as Lady Osterburg to be mistaken about a pregnancy. He graciously accepted a drink for a toast to the good tidings for the new mother and daughter.
Victor made apologies for having to end the ball so soon, but given the unusual circumstances, he saw no other alternative but to declare the ball done. He assured everyone they would all be invited back as soon as his mother was in top form once more. Whispering into Victor’s ear and giggling when his reaction was so comical, Bliss allowed him to extend another invitation.
“Apparently my cousin has just gotten engaged. Lady Bliss Penwood will be marrying Sir Eric Benchley next Thursday at the Penwood Manor Estate in Cardiff. I’ve been told the event is to take place at exactly half-past nine on the morning, followed by a grand celebration brunch until two. You are all invited to join them on their special day!” Victor said in awe. The room erupted in thunderous applause.
It took nearly another hour for all the carriages to be summoned and all the guests to depart. Bliss would normally have been exhausted, but the evening was far from finished in her mind.
There was still much to be done. It was half past midnight when Bliss said good night to her parents and siblings.
She went to her room to get ready for bed. She took a quick sponge bath with extremely cool water. Then she donned fresh stockings and ribbons, a very thin nightgown and took down her hair. She spritzed lavender water over her gown and walked over near the low fire to dry the dampened fabric.
At quarter of one she put on her robe and snuck from her room through the servants’ hall, knowing no one would be in the passage again that evening. She let herself into Eric’s room, removed her robe and waited patiently for him to arrive. Even though she’d given him fair warning, he was surprised to see her there.
“Bliss, what are you doing? Your father is just down the hall,” Eric whispered, though not really in a discouraging tone. He walked in and locked the door behind him.
“Everyone is exhausted from the excitement. The baby will get all the attention if anything makes a noise. We have a lot more freedom than you might realize. No one will disturb you this night. And I know there won’t be any emergencies.
“We’ll be so busy during the week before our wedding that we’ll hardly see one another. So I’m stealing all the time I can until that day!”
“Is time all you plan to steal,” Eric asked as he watched her walk forward and take his shirt front into her hands for the second time that evening. She worked the buttons with efficient ease as she shook her head.
“Perhaps stealing isn’t the right word. A thing is not stolen if it’s freely given. Just like you can’t steal anything from me, I am not stealing anything you’re not willing to give me,” Bliss said softly.
Eric’s shirt was sliding off his shoulders with her efforts. He closed his eyes to the sensation of her fingertips brushing across his warm skin. As the shirt fell away behind him, Eric stepped forward to embrace Bliss. His urgency and need now unbound by propriety, conventions or even his own stubbornness, he wanted to be with her. There was nothing in the world better than Bliss. His Bliss.
Letting his arms wrap around her waist, Eric drew his hands up through her soft curly hair and eased her face forward to accept his kiss. Bliss rose to her toes to be able to reach his mouth, giggling a little at the difference in his height to hers.
Eric took the humor along with her sweet tongue’s dance for a moment before sweeping her up, crushing her body in a long, full torso hug as he moved her to the bed. Her breathing grew shallow as he laid her back into the soft cushion of the downy mattress. The heat of her blush warmed her skin.
Eric wasn’t trying to rush her, having being in a near constant state of arousal for almost an entire month assured him that a few more days wouldn’t hurt. Bliss made no move to stop him, though, as he began kissing her again. In fact, she practically encouraged the efforts he was expending by trying to be as close to him as she could possibly get.
“Bliss, I love you. That’s absolute. We’ll be married next week. So if you wish to wait, I’ll understand. I’m not going anywhere, dear. I’m yours and you are mine,” Eric whispered as he kissed down the side of her neck.
Bliss pressed her hands to his chest and pushed him backwards. Taking that as his cue to stop, he rolled to his back on the bed beside her and tried to master his control. However, Bliss had other plans.
“I’m sure you don’t wait. You wouldn’t want to anyway. Our wedding day is so exhausting, much worse than today even. We have to board the ship late that evening here in Bristol and sail for Dublin.” Eric rolled to face her again. His face is full of amusement.
“Really? We have difficulties on our wedding night? And you still want to marry me?” Eric asked attempting mock seriousness.
“Oh it’s dreadful! Unfortunately I suffer seasickness that first evening and you end up tending to me for the first hour of the journey. We manage to be successful and consummate the marriage, fear not. But it’s over quickly, and it would appear that we don’t sleep a wink.
“I couldn’t see a lot of what happened there. Like I told you, it’s all a bit blurry where sex is concerned,” Bliss frowned. Eric fought back a smile as he toyed with the ties at the neck of her nightgown.
“What about our second night?” Eric asked as he tugged the bow loose and began to explore the contours of her cleavage with delicate strokes of his fingers. Bliss’s throat moved as she swallowed thickly with her concentration begin
ning to evaporate.
“When we arrive in Ireland, my cousin is so excited to see us that he and his wife throw a large party to celebrate the next generation of Patterson relations. We end up drinking a little of the mead that my father gives you as part of my dowry.
“It’s not as much as the rest of the party guests drink of Madoc’s ale, but we end up having to listen to the celebration much longer than we like while trying to have a little time to ourselves. Again, I see us together but I don’t have any way to judge the time spent. It looks rather short to me,” Bliss sighed a little as Eric’s fingers began to edge toward her nipples.
Her breath caught at the first brush of contact, and she stopped talking. Her nipples puckered at the sensation of cool air when he opened the nightgown buttons and began to peel back the loose, thin cotton and toy with the rosy pink tips between his fingers. He leaned down to kiss the nearest one to him while whispering for her to go on.
Her voice became lighter, hollow as the amount of air going into her lungs with each breath seemed to be shorter.
“They’ll knock on the door early the next morning and disturb our next opportunity. That surprised me because I didn’t really realize what that part meant until you agreed to marry me. When I saw that scene I blushed to my ankles because I realized people could really do it any time of day!”
Eric’s mouth slipped away from her nipple as a laugh rolled from his belly and caught him up. Bliss couldn’t help giggling with him. Eric had to catch his breath and kiss her lips again. Then he cleared up the mystery.
“There isn’t a time of day that we can’t do that if we really wanted to, you know. Sex between married people doesn’t happen in the dead of the night. If I want to make love to my beautiful wife I can come home in the middle of the afternoon and spend an hour loving you. But I’m interrupting your reasons why we should make love tonight, and it’s interrupting my attention to your perfect breasts. I love everything about you, but your breasts are perfect,” Eric whispered.
Then to prove it, he cradled her entire chest between his palms and lowered his face to kiss her nipples in succession and dip his tongue into the valley between them. Bliss’s eyes closed and she drifted for a moment on the unique and new sensation of her fiancé kissing her breasts. The tingling of her body in places she didn’t expect made her remember to finish her story.
“Anyway, we apply for a cottage in the glen and declare ourselves in honey month, with our supplies and only a couple of maids for convenience and ease. It looks like the third day is amazing! But I really don’t want to wait that long. I’ve been seeing snippets of our marriage bed for well over three years now, and I’d really like to solve the mystery if you don’t mind. You ought to know I can’t stand it when I can’t see how things end!”
“You don’t know how it ends?” he teased her.
“My gift of knowing only extends so far as how others react, the choices they make and the consequences of their choices. But making love for the first time will be unique I suppose because it’s personal and not the same for any two people in the world. The emotional level of response is never easy to read. That’s why our first sexual experiences are so unclear, out of focus. I have no experience to relate,” Bliss said blushing beautifully. And for that Eric was grateful.
Eric moved his hand down the length of her leg, going so slowly the effect was torture.
“If what you say is true, then I suppose we could go ahead and solve the mystery,” Eric suggested as he took the hem of her nightgown between his fingers.
“Yes,” Bliss said, then swallowed again.
Eric raised his hand once again, pulling the nightgown upward as he did. He used a second hand to free the gown from beneath her bottom. Bliss lifted her shoulders to allow him to pull it the remaining distance upward and over her head until it was completely away from her body.
Bliss was now lying naked in front of him, unashamed. Eric looked at her with open-eyed wonder. Her body was more beautiful than even his dreams hinted. Slowly, with his pulse racing, he lowered his mouth to her again.
With tantalizing care, he used his tongue to paint a picture of his love on her exposed flesh. The circles of his tongue making the canvas pucker and stipple with each pass across her breasts. He teased the tips with gentle bites as he moved his hands over the ridges of her ribs.
Bliss’s breathing was erratic and choppy as her body reacted to his oral pleasures. She lifted a trembling hand and placed it on his chest, feeling heat and his throbbing heart as he grew more aroused with his activities.
After another gentle suckle, his mouth began to move lower, pausing at the dip of her navel to trace the delicate indentation with the skill of experience. Bliss’s own expectation of their seductive dance made her body vibrate with energy. Her hips flexed in automatic response as Eric’s hands reached the pinnacle of her most sensitive skin.
His fingers brushed lightly over the spot in subtle flickers like lightning on a warm summer evening. Her heart matched the pulsing response from each textured exploration.
“There’s something missing,” she said off-handedly as he lowered himself between her legs.
“That comes much later, sweetheart. For now, just let me show you the way this feels. You’ll thank me later, of that I’m fairly certain,” Eric said in a dark whisper that made her blood burn in points where her nerves drew forth sharp pangs of something eager and wild.
Bliss concentrated her attention on his every move. It was as though the scene came to life both mentally and physically before her eyes. It was like waking from a dream and finding it continued into reality.
Eric’s hands gently moved her thighs aside, making a wider space for himself between the boundaries of her body. Bliss watched his face going lower until only his eyes were visible in the semi-darkness of the lone candle’s light.
The exact space in time when his lips touched the too-sensitive skin, she cried out softly. The pleasure she felt was mirrored in the twinkling of his near green eyes. He was beautiful, but what he did to her was beyond the realm of physical beauty.
Bliss felt the recognition of desire as her very core replied to each liquid soft slip and stroke. Her hips angled to make the contact surer, her back arched in a dance with the dizzying tilt of her world. It felt as though everything suddenly drew tightly into the center of her body. The building pressure forced the nerves in her sex to sizzle like flame on a newly-lit wick.
The moment the fire caught it consumed her throughout. She moaned an incoherent sound, and then her breath was suddenly gone as she felt the heat channel through her limbs in a slow, jagged path. Bliss shuddered and whispered a sound of surprise as the feeling escaped and ran across her skin like rain down a pane of glass.
As she watched, she could feel every path as each nerve connected to the nearest one in surges. And at once her mouth was open and the joy of experiencing the true pleasure of completeness escaped her in affirmation. Eric continued to give her fuel to keep the fire moving, changing.
When her nerves could take no more of him, Bliss sat upright, pulling his body upward by the shoulders. Eric eased onto her and kissed her as she fell back against the pillows, devouring him and the taste of her own pleasure as she did.
She felt the movement of his hands as he fumbled with the buttons on the placard of his trousers. Her hands moved of their own accord to help him as they lowered his remaining garment away and at last he was naked against her.
“Bliss, I have to stop now and ask you a question.” Eric said through his heavy breaths.
“What more can I tell you,” Bliss replied.
“No, love, it’s not that kind of question. I need to know what you understand about the physical act of making love. What do you know about the first time?” Eric asked still placing kisses against her cheeks, her chin, her nose.
“Nothing. That’s why I wanted to solve the mystery, dear,” she said with a hint of amusement. But Eric’s eyes sought hers in a painful awa
reness.
“Well there’s a part that you might not like. Only on the first time, though. It’s about your virginity. Your maidenhead. When you make love with a man for the first time, he has to break through the barrier. It can be … it is a little uncomfortable. It can even be painful. And there is usually blood. I can stop now if you’re not ready,” Eric said, still struggling to keep his voice level and his breathing even.
“Oh, I didn’t know,” Bliss said coloring. “Was anyone supposed to tell me? I wonder if Mama thought I’d already know?”
When she spoke the last words, she began to giggle. Eric looked heartily confused. Bliss ran her hands down the hard plane of his spine and patted him on his naked bottom.
“It’ll be alright, Eric. I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt me on purpose. If this is how it has to be, then this is what we’ll have to do.”
“I would never hurt any part of you intentionally except in this singular moment. And if it’s too much just say the word, and I’ll stop.” Eric promised. Bliss nodded.
Her eyes burned into his face with tentative courage. Eric moved to align his body with hers. Kissing her on the lips, he whispered an apology as he pulled his hips upward and entered her in a quick, even thrust. Bliss’s eyes opened in shock for a moment, and then she smiled a little and shrugged her shoulders.
“That wasn’t as bad as you made it sound, you scoundrel!” she scolded as she molded her body against his and wrapped her arms around his waist. Eric groaned.
“Have mercy on me, then. I nearly lost control just feeling you! My god, Bliss you are extraordinary!” Eric declared quietly as he began to move inside her.
Bliss enjoyed the easy way their bodies fit. She widened her thighs to accept his hips as he pressed into her with full, firm strokes. Her skin dampened with the effort of meeting his hips with her own on each downward movement.
Eric gave a throaty groan of pleasure as her curious hands drifted across the cheeks of his buttocks, her hands gripping and pulling him tighter against her. They moved in a rhythm that needed no instruction.