FABIAN LEFT HER for a while and when he came back, he had a soft cloth in his hand that he soaked with the water on the pitcher. He used this to wipe both of them clean. She closed her eyes as his touch, even at this time, could still produce that melting sensation inside her. She trembled inside and out. And she doubted if she would receive the same care from Louis Didier when he...She gulped as her heart thudded at the thought. Now that she knew what involved a husband and a wife on the marriage bed, she could not measure the revulsion that she suddenly felt, and she suddenly recoiled from Fabian’s hands.“What? What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?” he asked.“N-No... no, it’s not you. I...” She looked up at his worried face and she suddenly felt her eyes getting warmer and warmer.“What is it?” he said, neglecting the wet cloth and gathering her in his arms.She went to him, trembling. “How can I do this with Louis without being ra-r*ped?” she asked in a rush.He tensed, and then his arm
The door to the chamber suddenly opened and the Baron walked in, stopping as he saw her where she stood, her tears clearly visible in the light flickering from candles still alight in the room.He was quickly by her side.“What’s wrong, ma bichette?” he asked, his voice urgent and concerned. “Are you hurting?She shook her head. She did not want to speak.He turned her to him, and his mouth descended on hers, devouring her lips. She kissed him as hard as he did, opening her mouth to his and sliding her tongue against his, feeling a surge of triumph as she felt his manhood hardening and rapidly growing against her lower stomach.He wanted her.Her hand eagerly went for it, and he sucked his breath in when she found it and traced its shape with her fingers. He was wearing a loose shirt and soft breeches, and she left his mouth to kneel before him, pulling at the string and the cloth down his thighs.“Adalene!”“I want to taste you,” she whispered, her voice breathy at the beginning of t
The morning sun's rays permeated the bedchamber when Adalene woke again. The Baron had left very early. She remembered him leaving a kiss on her forehead and whispering something, but she couldn’t remember now what it was. Exhausted sleep still clutched her senses. When she gingerly sat up from bed, there was a new nightgown and a new pair of underpants neatly laid down on the footrest at the bottom of the bed. The handmaidens had come in and they must know what happened between her and the Baron the night before.They probably had already changed the white sheets stained with her blood in the bedchamber she used last night.And they would change the sheets here, too, because they were again stained with her blood from the coupling she and Fabian did during the early dawn.A melancholic mood pervaded her recollection as she remembered that today was last night’s tomorrow, and it would be the very opposite of her yesterday with the Baron.Today was to resume her real life.She would be
IT WAS a beautiful huge garden, with the entrance to the grounds littered with a few statues of horses, lions, and wolves. The inside consisted of forest trees that lined outer walls topped with thick, sun-tanned bricks. There were irises, English roses red and white, tulips and lavenders on boxed compartments. She strolled in between boxes and boxes of perennials and annuals, basking in the sweet smell of flowers until she reached the gazebo that was at the farthest end of the pavement her feet followed as she explored.Once there, she sat and faced the pond where water flowed under a short, romantic-looking bridge. Flowering peas, of all things, climbed this bridge and it looked very pretty to the eyes. As she watched the water and basked in the coolness of the breeze on her face, for a moment it seemed like her troubles disappeared.But it all came back when she heard the neighing of horses arriving in the chateau.The Baron had come back.Would he ask for her? The servants knew wh
“BARON,” said the knight as Fabian approached the steps. “I was just singing to the lady. I arrived to find her looking so alone and melancholic I just had to try to make her smile.”She looked towards him and could not know what to say. In all intents and purposes, that was what he tried to do. But she did not know she appeared sad when he came.“I was told you were here to give me a message, Bertrand?” he asked in a formal voice, “and not to sing to my guest.”“Yes. But your guest is so lovely and I can’t help but coax a little smile out of her lips.”“Bertrand,” the Baron almost growled.“You shouldn’t leave her unattended, then. Where were you, Fabian? The lady did need company.”Adalene gasped. “Oh no, I am not a Lady, Sir,” she corrected, alarmed that the Baron might think she let the man think that, or introduced herself to him as that. “I am just Adalene Duvre without a title. Though... I am wed, which means you can also call me Adalene Didier.”The knight took a step back has
“I wish that I be brought to my parent's farm, in their humble cottage, and be left there. I do not wish to be sent to Louis Didier’s estate,” she told him quickly.He stared at her, his eyes puzzled now and he wasn’t scowling anymore. “And will you tell me why? I promised him my men will return you to him when this is over,” he asked in a calm voice.“I... I do not wish to carry on with the marriage.” She swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. She couldn’t cry now. She had to give him a proper and determined explanation of her plans. “I will ask my father to return the bride token. I would rather work as a slave for an aristocrat or like a man on the farm than go through with a marriage that will eventually kill me,” she replied in a trembling but forceful voice, which she also could not help. She felt like she was deluding herself that the Baron would allow her to do this. She felt like everything was hopeless.“And what made you think you can have this choice? You are the da
Instead of giving her an answer, he dropped his head and, with a groan, kissed her hungrily and passionately. She could only kiss him back as heatedly because there was no other way he could be answered. He pushed her back to the seat in the gazebo and they sat side by side, and she leaned back on her hands as his hands started to get through the complicated layers of her clothes so he could intimately probe her body.“Fabian... your men—”“They will not dare disturb us here.”“Do they know what we’re doing?” she asked, while her cheeks felt like they were about to melt in much heat.He raised his face to look at her and there was a grin there so rouge that her heart skipped a bit of its rushed beating. “Whatever we’re doing here, unless there’s a war coming to our doorstep, no one is going to come here.”She had almost completely lost her concern by then. His palms were already somewhere very near where she wanted them to be. “Oh, Fabian...”He understood the reason for the plea in h
“What were you doing outside?” he asked as they started to walk back towards the house. “What exactly were you thinking that made Bertrand want to sing to you?”She smiled. “I was thinking about my options, my Lord,” replied. “I thought I cannot go to Louis Didier, and there must be some other way. I was planning to ask for work when you get back...” She lowered her face. “I didn’t know yet that you’ve paid Louis for me.”He was thinking. “Do you realize that once word gets out that I’ve paid to release you from your marriage, everyone would expect that you're going to be my mistress?”She gulped but managed to nod. “I was thinking the same thing.”He was quiet for a few moments. “I can give you work,” he finally said. “And I can pay you a part of your wage while I took back my investment. But I know I cannot promise not to take you to my bed, ma bichette. The temptation is too much. And besides, I cannot secure your safety from other men if you will not hold the status of my lover.”