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  Now she had spoken the truth, she abandoned herself, coming the instant he began to shudder inside her.

  Chapter Five

  Emily caught only glimpses of William during the next few days, though he came to her each night. On Sunday, he told her he wouldn’t be serving at dinner on Monday because he was taking his half day off, but she was sufficiently diverted by her father’s cheery disposition to not notice his absence much.

  It seemed her father had received payment in land from some large debt outstanding for many months and he had sold it at a premium price to a nobleman who wanted to use it for game hunting.

  Papa had quite petted Mother and her, suggesting they order new wardrobes for spring.

  “We’ll catch you a good husband yet,” he’d told her, nodding at his wife. “You keep calling on the mothers and I’ll beset the fathers now we can hold our heads high again.”

  Mother’s pale cheeks had gone pink for the first time since winter began and Emily knew she was preparing for a final onslaught on local eligibles’ mothers.

  Emily waited in her bed that night for William, certain he would be happy to know his position was secure now her family’s fortunes were reversed. But he didn’t come and she wondered what he had done with his half day.

  From Jonas, she knew both his parents were dead and his only sister had married an Irish merchant and lived in Dublin. She had been careful to ask about each servant in turn so as not to raise further suspicions. She had reason enough to be concerned. What did Jonas think when she heard William creeping out of his room each night?

  She slept fitfully, unused to an evening without the glorious relaxation of lovemaking.

  On Tuesday, William was in the halls as usual, nodding to her when she came in with her mother from calls. Mrs. S— had invited them to a musical entertainment on Friday and her mother was relieved to hear many families were making plans to return to the city from their country retreats.

  “We must settle you by fall,” Mother told her as they swayed in the carriage on the way home. “Perhaps a Christmas wedding?”

  Emily had sighed, then forced a smile and a nod, though the only bridegroom she wanted was William. Her heart had been an empty place without him the night before and she had the dark circles under her eyes to prove it. It was only luck and rice powder that had kept anyone from asking if she were ill.

  That night, she sat up her bed, bent over her knees. Her candle was guttering and William hadn’t come. Had he given her up? Just as she’d begun to despair, she heard his gentle scratch on her door, then it opened with a squeak.

  “Oh dear,” she whispered.

  “I heard it,” he said, stepping lightly toward the bed. “I’ll have the hinge oiled first thing tomorrow.”

  “Thank you, love,” she said.

  “What did you say?” His breath tickled her ear as he leaned over her, then crawled into the bed next to her.

  “I said thanks.”

  He rubbed his cold nose against her cheek. “After that.”

  “Hmmm, after that.” She smiled shyly then turned her face to receive his kiss. “I believe I called you ‘love’, Mr. Coxe.”

  “Am I your love?” he asked, in a low voice, which cracked a little.

  She smiled against him and tucked her face into that soft spot on his shoulder. “Yes.”

  He raised her chin with a fingertip. “That’s lucky, because you are mine as well.”

  She nuzzled him, feeling gloriously happy despite their troubles. “What are we going to do about it?”

  “I have just the thing.”

  “You do?”

  He kissed the top of her head just as the candle flickered out. She heard rustling as she struggled out of his coat.

  “Have you another candle?”

  “Yes.” She jumped lightly out of bed and had another lit in moments.

  “Thank you,” he said after she’d placed it carefully on the table and crawled back under the covers.

  She traced the line of his jaw with the tips of her fingers. “What do we need the light for? Did you want to watch me thrill again?”

  His face didn’t break into a smile like usual. “Always, but that wasn’t what I wanted it for.”

  “Then what?”

  “This.” He came to a sitting position on his knees, then withdrew a small box from where it lay hidden underneath the folds of his coat.

  “What is it?”

  “My heart,” he said simply, opening the box. A small emerald winked on a ring.

  “Where’d you get that?” she whispered, leaning over his hand.

  “I did two things yesterday. I went to a certain house where I had been offered employment in the past, to make sure the position was still available and I visited my grandmother.”

  “She’s still living?”

  “Yes. Long ago, before my family was estranged, she showed my sister some jewelry and said we’d come into it when we wed.”

  “Wed?” she repeated.

  “Yes, love,” he said, smiling as she noted his use of the endearment. “I do love you and you yourself said we couldn’t continue like this.”

  “I said we could continue as long as I was unwed.”

  He caressed her face. “I want to love you after your marriage too. Would you be my wife?”

  She felt hot tears spring into her eyes. Could he accomplish the impossible? “How?”

  “The position I accepted was as property manager for my uncle, on an estate in Sussex.” His tone became ironic. “It’s perhaps more acceptable to your family than my continuing as butler.”

  “Why had you not taken this position before?” He had better options than she’d realized.

  “I begrudged my family their financial success. Until I started thinking of a family of my own, that is. I want to have connections again and I fear our marriage will rend you from your own family.”

  “Oh?” The thought of leaving her unhappy household did not trouble her overmuch, even with their coffers replenished. Her parents were absorbed in their own dramas.

  “Of course, I did not want to leave you. If I’d gone away I’d never have seen you again.”

  She smiled at his admission that he’d loved her for a long time, but quickly sobered as she thought through his offer.

  “I’ll be cut off,” she said.

  “Maybe. If I take my rightful place as a member, albeit minor, of a baronet’s family, perhaps your father will accept me.”

  At her expression of surprise, he smiled. “Jonas told me she’d shared the truth about my family with you.”

  She dimpled. “I knew a little of your family, but didn’t realize you kept in touch with them.”

  “My sister wrote to my grandmother on her own marriage and had told me our family was willing to know me as well, with my wastrel parents no longer alive to cause problems.”

  “Your connections sound very proud. Even with your history, will they be content with your marrying a disinherited Cit’s daughter?” How quickly their positions could shift!

  “My grandfather is somewhat proud, but he is elderly now. My uncles are good sorts, or so I’m told. I’ve only met one of the three.”

  “You have quite a large family.”

  He tucked back an auburn curl. “Yes. You’ll get to know them. We’ll have tenancy on a little farm of our own and hopefully will own it in about five years.”

  “It sounds lovely.”

  “Then do you accept?” His voice cracked again.

  She took his face between her hands and kissed him deeply. “Yes. I do love you, William. So much that I don’t care what the consequences are.”

  “I believe the best thing to do is to give notice, then leave, then talk to your father about our arrangements.”

  “Couldn’t we simply elope? I can’t stand to be without you for so much as a day. It broke my heart to have my bed so cold and empty last night.”

  “My sweet,” he said, kissing her. “It would be best fo
r your relations with everyone if we go about this properly. And money is not in great abundance at the moment, you know.”

  She accepted his kiss with a sigh. “You are right of course. But you bring me such pleasure that I don’t know how to live without it.”

  “We will find a way to be together as much as possible.”

  “You promise?”

  “Yes.”

  She leaned back against her pillow, eagerly undoing the buttons of his shirt. The sooner they were united, the sooner they could enjoy the wonders of the flesh again.

  * * * * *

  Aphrodite smiled in her chair. She had been feeling the damp deep in her bones, but now a delicious warmth flowed into her body again. The innocents had been schooled and were back in her fold again.

  She must reward them for their adherence to her worship. She could tell they had pleasured themselves long and frequently and all discord had been mended by love.

  “Beautiful,” she murmured, closing her eyes until she sensed a dark form looming over her.

  “What is beautiful?” Gawaine asked.

  “Love and pleasure,” she said dreamily, drawing her hand across her skin. Her magic was particularly strong this evening and when she opened her hand, a fistful of gold coins rested in the palm.

  “My lady,” Gawaine said, stepping back.

  Even he could be impressed by a spectacular display of her godhood. “Find me a box,” she commanded, filling her other hand full of coins as well. “I must bring a gift to the lovers.”

  By the time she had filled the small box, decorated with a watercolor drawing of a dove surrounded by pentacles, with the coins, Gawaine was beside himself.

  “You could buy property with that amount of gold,” he stuttered.

  “Perhaps they shall. It is easier to love with a roof over your head,” she told him. “I have learned that much of the ways of you mortals.”

  With a wink, she vanished from his eyes, drawn by threads of love to where the lovers rested.

  In the candlelight, she saw sweat gleaming on William’s back as he rested from his efforts. Aphrodite touched each of them lightly on their foreheads while they slept. Happy innocents indeed, she saw with approval. They were both smiling.

  “Never forget me,” she whispered, as she tucked the box under their clasped hands. “Show your joy in sensual pleasure to all, so my followers are again abundant.”

  Aphrodite looked around Emily’s small, tidy room. My exile might not be so terrible, she thought, if I can influence even these constrained mortals. She left them in a blink of the eye.

  Emily stirred out of slumber, feeling something solid under her hand. She clutched it, thinking it some part of William’s body, but when she opened her eyes, she saw first the wink of her new ring, then a small box.

  She touched William’s shoulder. “Love,” she said, poking at him when he did not immediately stir.

  He blinked, then ran his tongue over his lips. “What? Is it morning?”

  “No, we only slept a little while. The candle still burns.” She pointed to the box as his eyes focused. “Where did this come from?”

  He blinked, then leaned back on his elbow and picked it up with his free hand. “I’ve never seen it before.”

  Emily opened the box. She watched William’s eyes go wide as he took in the contents.

  “We may get our farm sooner than expected,” he breathed.

  “Where did it come from?” She put a finger into the box. When she pulled it out her finger glowed with a pale golden radiance.

  “The lady in red,” William whispered.

  “You think so?”

  “Who else could it have been?”

  “She must be some fairy creature,” Emily said with wonder.

  “A goddess,” William said firmly, “who has answered our prayers.”

  She caught his eye with a smile. “My prayers, certainly. But yours too, William?”

  “Yes.” He took her hand and kissed it. “I have wanted you, you see, since I first saw you as a girl of fifteen. That dreadful black mourning dress you wore could not contain your beauty or spirit.”

  “I do love you.” She squeezed his hand. “We shall be happy.”

  “When Aphrodite commands,” William said. “The universe obeys.”

  About the Author

  Anh Leod is a goddess-in-disguise who hopes readers will enjoy her romantic, erotic stories as much as she enjoys creating them. Her favorite things are love and chocolate. She writes about love because, after all, it’s awfully hard to write about chocolate all the time.

  She also writes as Heather Hiestand for Cerridwen Press.

  Anh welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

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  Also by Anh Leod

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  Also see the author’s stories at Cerridwen Press, written under the pen name Heather Hiestand:

  Cards Never Lie

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