Before the Fire Page 5
Kane slipped her arms around the earl’s neck and held on for dear life. He was kissing away all of her senses, weakening her of her resolve to not demand an exchange of sex on the spot. And then he thrust his tongue inside of her welcoming mouth and she didn’t have another complete thought for long minutes.
George swirled his tongue around Kane’s and groaned with need. Never before had he felt an attraction so primitive, so powerful. They kissed for long minutes, exploring each other’s mouths like curious animals exploring a new den. Their tongues danced and delved, each velvety touch setting off a new tremor of longing.
Need like she’d never experienced at the synthetic hands of Timal coiled tightly in Kane’s belly. It urged her on, demanding release from the exquisite torture.
And then without warning, the earl broke the kiss.
Panting, she blinked, gazing up into his eyes in an aroused daze of carnal confusion and frustration.
George pressed his forehead against Kane’s and took a series of controlled, steadying breaths. He lowered her slowly to the ground, savoring the feel of her soft form gliding down his rigid body.
If he didn’t reign in his appetite, he was liable to ravish the lady here and now on the floor of the cottage. And then what would she think of him? She would no doubt call him for the monster that his size and reputation made others believe he was. “Pray forgive my impertinence, Miss Edmonds. I will not forget my manners again.”
Kane frowned with a depraved sense of disappointment. She had a few choice words to say on the matter of his manners, but decided to hold her tongue. She was moving in with the earl. There was plenty of time to lure him into her bed, to have him take her to the heights of ecstasy over and over again before she returned to the twenty-fifth century. Judging by the bulge of the taut erection that was pressed against her stomach, she figured it wouldn’t take long at all to lure him there. A day? Perhaps two? Kane smiled up at the earl, placated by that realization.
George scrutinized Kane with approval even as he chided himself for his nefarious lust. He would not dishonor this woman for giving herself so freely. He refused to further compromise her in such a loathsome, despicable manner as so many other fops and dandies would have willingly done.
George released his hold on Kane and smiled down at her. He wasn’t altogether certain what to do about their mutual attraction but realized this wasn’t the time to dwell on it. “I shall take my leave, sweet Kane. A carriage will be sent around to collect you and your belongings within the hour.”
She readily nodded her agreement. “I will see you again today?” she asked through hopeful eyes.
George’s smile was bemused. So he hadn’t turned her away from him with his improper kisses. And, just as important, she hadn’t had her fill of his company any more than he had been satiated of his hunger for her own. He inclined his head politely. “Of course. We shall dine together this eve if it pleases you?”
“It does. Please me, that is.”
George raised Kane’s hand to his lips and kissed it reverently. “I shall think of nothing else all day. Be quick, sweet Kane.”
Chapter 6
“Tell me dearest Kane, what do you think of Blackmore?”
Kane looked up from her meal and regarded the woman called the dowager countess. She was seated across from her at the elegant dining table with George stationed at the head of it to her left. “Beautiful, wonderful. It is breathtaking, Lady Julia.”
And truly, it was. Kane had scarcely believed her eyes when the carriage first rolled into direct view of the domicile. Blackmore was a monstrously huge mansion of old that contained hundreds of chambers within its walls. The grounds were lush with green grass, a rarity in Kane’s time, and manicured to precision. The inside of Blackmore was laden with shiny gold and beautiful, translucent crystal glass.
Everywhere she looked, something new and provocative waited to be discovered. Aside from real grass, as if that wasn’t heady enough, there were also live animals! Beautiful, powerful beasts that pulled carriages, singing feathered creatures that glided through the air with wings, and panting, friendly four-legged ground dwellers that barked and licked at one’s face.
Nature in all its untainted glory lived and breathed in eighteenth century earth. A shudder of sadness coursed through Kane, knowing that these proud furry and feathered beings would be obliterated in another few hundred years. Indeed, to see even a blade of grass in the twenty-fifth century, one must travel out of the entire solar system.
But eighteenth century earth was alive and breathing with a vitality and a grandeur that surpassed even Nero of the Falon star system. Until her arrival in the earth’s past, Kane had always believed Nero to be the most beautiful of planets. How wrong she had been.
It was earth, her own beloved home, that had been the grandest. Once upon a time, in a world that had been splendid beyond her fathoming before seeing it with her own eyes, her planet earth had been the mightiest of heaven’s creatures, a proud ruling queen of the galaxies.
And then there was Blackmore itself. Tall, solid, and formidable, just like its master, yet also like George, homey and welcoming at the same time. Domiciles of the future were small, compact, and utilitarian. There was nothing warm or inviting about them. Very little room was needed per person because the chambers possessed computerized metamorphosizers that reverted the standard two-room domiciles into whatever type of chamber was required in the moment at hand.
But the proud, beautiful, eighteenth century Blackmore stood as a giant among domiciles, a relic of a long ago forgotten past. And Kane was here to see it all, to experience earth at the height of its glory. These were moments in time she would cherish always, and, as loathe as she was to admit it, hate to leave behind.
“Did my mother show you around the estate to your satisfaction?” George took a sip from his wine then set it back down on the polished oak tabletop as he gazed at Kane.
“Yes,” she smiled breathlessly, “it was a wonderful tour provided by wonderful company.”
“Oh do stop,” Lady Julia blushed. “You make an old woman’s heart skip a proud beat, dearest Kane.”
“I mean it sincerely, Lady Julia. You are quite amusing company.” Kane wrinkled her nose as she looked over to the dowager countess. “But why do you say you are old?”
Lady Julia laughed. “My, but you do know how to flatter a woman, make her feel the young gel again.” Lady Julia smiled warmly at Kane. “But I am nearly fifty and five, dearest, quite the useless fossil.”
Kane shrugged, not understanding why the dowager countess considered herself as such. “Forgive me my ignorance of your beliefs, milady”—a new word she’d learned today—“but where I come from you would be considered young and vital, just entering into the peak of your beauty, abilities, and wisdom.”
Lady Julia smiled radiantly at Kane and winked. “Mayhap I will move to the American colonies with you upon your departure.”
The threesome laughed long and leisurely, enjoying their conversation thoroughly. Kane had never partaken of such idle banter in the serious world of the twenty-fifth century. It was nice to speak back and forth on nothing of import, to simply be together and relish the exchange for what it was.
“I’m curious,” Kane admitted a few minutes later when the laughter died down.
“Of what?” George asked.
Kane looked around the dining room at the multitude of liveried servants who stood in the background as unmoving as statues until called upon to perform a task. “These men who serve us food and drink. What has happened to their hair to cause it to turn white before their time? Some of them look to be quite young, yet their hair is that of hundred-year-old men.”
George and Lady Julia threw their heads back and laughed.
“What have I said that is amusing?” Kane inquired.
The dumbfounded look on her face caused mother and son to laugh even louder. “Oh you are quite the jester,” Lady Julia announced as she wiped tears of
laughter from her eyes.
Kane threw her a bewildered glance. “What do you mean?”
“Oh come now,” George smiled, “certainly you are aware of the fact that the servants are sporting powdered wigs?”
“Wigs? What are wigs?”
The laughter abruptly subsided. “Wigs, dearest,” Lady Julia stated as if reiterating the word would cause understanding to dawn upon Kane, “are, you know…wigs.”
“Fake hair,” George offered to his mother who was, for once he noted, lacking for descriptive words.
“Fake hair?” Now it was Kane who laughed. “Fake hair!” She grabbed her belly and guffawed. “Now that is funny!”
Perplexed, George and Lady Julia shook their heads. “What is amusing about that?” Lady Julia asked.
“Well,” Kane smiled as she dabbed at her eyes, “if I were going to wear fake hair, which I would never do in a thousand earth years mind you, I certainly wouldn’t pick a color of hair that made me look older than Moses!”
George and Lady Julia sat glued to their chairs, as lacking in motion as the statue-men behind them. And then, slowly but surely, they both broke into grins. It was George who laughed first, but his mother soon followed in step. “’Tis a point,” he chuckled. “I’ve never carried a fondness for the powdered wig even though they are all the rage.”
“True,” Lady Julia conceded through amused eyes. “I’ve never donned one either, though they are quite fashionable in George’s court.”
“George?” Kane asked.
“King George,” the dowager countess clarified. “King George III.”
Kane thought a moment on what her new friend had said. She called upon the various data filed away into her brain and sorted through it. At last, she was able to extract parts of eighteenth century data from nineteenth and twentieth century!
King George III was an English ruler who was reputed to be insane. In fact, if her blood injectable had served her unerringly, George III would later be declared incompetent and his son would rule as his regent for the nine years proceeding his death.
Well, that certainly explained the wig thing, Kane admitted to herself. A man whom the ancients would have said was “crazier than a loon” had brought them into fashion. She shook her head. Something told her it was best to keep her observations on the king’s sordid mental state and his fashions to herself. “I see,” she said simply.
Ten minutes later, George raised his glass and offered a toast to Kane. “To the marvelously entertainingly, not to mention stunningly beautiful guest of Blackmore,” he boomed out. “May she fall in love with—” George cleared his throat and blushed—“the English countryside,” he plowed on, “and never leave us.” The earl smiled toward Kane. “To Miss Edmonds.”
* * * * *
“She’s wonderful, Georgie. Absolutely perfect.”
George could only agree. Not only was Kane charming company and beautiful to boot, he had gleaned from the conversation he’d had with her while walking her to her cottage when they’d first met that she hadn’t been espied by any other individuals. In other words, none but George knew of her bathing escapade. Her reputation was in tact. Not that he particularly cared. None in society would call themselves surprised if he did something to cause scandal for himself. It was merely expected of him. “A riveting countess she would make,” he murmured more to himself than his mother. And then the remainder of what Lady Julia had said dawned on him and his eyebrows snapped together with a grunt. “And please, by the holy love of God, do not refer to me as Georgie in her presence!”
Lady Julia glided over to the chair across from her son’s desk and sat down. She shot a surveying glance toward the study door behind her, assuring herself it was shut soundly so that their private conversation would not be overheard. She leaned closer to George’s desk, whispering in a conspiratorial manner. “What do you plan?”
“I beg your pardon, madam?”
“Do keep your voice down!” she whispered urgently. The dowager countess glanced back toward the door then once more toward her son. “I said what do you plan?” she breathed in a tone yet further hushed.
George couldn’t be certain as to why his mother was whispering, but it caused him to lower his own tones and whisper back. He leaned in closer to his mother and breathed, “I’ve no plans to speak of, madam.”
“How many kinds of fool are you?” Lady Julia bellowed as she surged to her feet.
Apparently she was through with the whispering, George noted wryly. “Fool, mother?”
“Yes fool!” she yelled back. “Forgive me my impertinence, Georgie, but I must speak my mind!”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “When have you ever not?”
Lady Julia ignored her son’s droll wit and continued down the path of her choosing. “The perfect, loving chit with a warm and gentle heart walks into your life from nowhere, a veritable gift from the heavens if you will, and you’ve no plans to keep her here?”
“Of course I shall attempt to keep her here!” George countered with a bellow, finding himself as agitated with his mother as she was with him. The subject of Kane’s leaving was not one he wished to dwell upon o’er much. “But this is hardly the Middle Ages, madam. I cannot lock her into a tower and force her to stay here against her will.”
Lady Julia harrumphed. She sensed that she had pushed her son into a temper, so she backed down. Still, she couldn’t resist adding another thought to the discussion. “It seems to me that our primitive predecessors had a much better way of doing things,” she muttered.
George smiled. He poured himself a glass of port and saluted his mother as he raised it to his lips for a drink. He was pleased she approved of Kane and more than a little surprised she’d done so without knowing anything of her background and connections. Lady Julia had in so many words just given her consent to his wooing of Kane. He was surprised, definitely, but decided not to question his good fortune. They agreed on the same woman. Finally. “On that, madam countess, we can agree.”
* * * * *
Kane had never had to urinate so badly in all her life. She searched the room frantically—peering behind curtains, delving under beds, even looking in corners— anywhere where a waste facility might be hidden. If she didn’t go soon, she was likely to rupture a kidney.
Practically in tears from the pain of holding her needs in, she shook her head forlornly and threw disgusted looks at every wall, nook, and cranny in sight. She felt like a caged animal long denied its freedom.
As unfathomable as it should have been, it was rapidly becoming apparent that there was no waste facility to be found anywhere within her overly grand chamber. She did another quick scan of the room, mortified that she might actually be forced to soil her garment.
She smiled in relief when, a few seconds later, she noticed a potted plant sitting on a table next to the vanity nearest to the connected bathing chamber. It would have to do.
Kane had always been an avid lover of nature and on any other day she would have taken the time to notice and properly revere the spectacular display of roses, violets, and baby’s breath that were arranged so beatifically inside of the gold and crystal vase. Today, however, she didn’t notice, let alone revere. She savagely ripped the flowers out of their nest and placed the intricately gilded urn beneath her squatting thighs.
Her eyes rolled back inside of her head.
By Jupiter’s moons this felt heavenly.
* * * * *
“Greetings Humanoid Bessy. How do you fare this fine day?”
The chambermaid squinted her eyes at Kane, a questioning look on her face. She shifted on her feet, contemplating the mistress’s words. “I can’t say that I know fer certain what yer meanin’ m’um, but I’m right as rain if that’s what ye be askin’.”
Kane nodded, smiling like an idiot. She had no notion what the woman had just said.
Bessy, an attractive girl of about nineteen, straightened her shoulders and smiled proudly up at Kane. “Yer
needin’ a lady’s maid, m’um, and I be just the one yer lookin’ fer. I will see to ye proper, I will.” She looked away, hesitant to press the issue much further. “That’s if ye be wantin’ me.”
Kane continued to nod like a marionette, smiling like a crazy man she’d once encountered on planet Frebula. The man had enjoyed sucking noxious energy from fero-nitrum fueled spacecars then listen to his voice go high-pitched afterwards. She truly wished she knew what this child was ranting and raving about.
Apparently the nodding and smiling worked well enough, for Bessy grinned endearingly up to her, her white teeth in stark contrast to her matronly black attire.
“Good then m’um. Remember, me name is Bessy and if ye be needin’ anything, just pull this rope.”
Kane understood that last sentence well enough. “Pull the rope? I pull it when I need you?”
“Aye, m’um, that ye do.”
Kane nodded. “And would you be able to tell me where the waste facilities are located within this domicile?”
“Wastin’ fercileeatees?”
Kane realized that the girl had no idea what she was referring to. She decided that a demonstration was in order. Thinking quickly, she squatted down toward the floor and let a hissing “ssssss” sound escape from her lips like a leaking glide car’s helium tire.
Bessy blushed profusely, but seemed to understand well enough what she meant. She walked over to the bed, crouched low to fish beneath it, then pulled out what looked to be a big gold bowl. Smiling hesitantly, she offered the golden bowl to her mistress. When Kane made no move to retrieve the chamber pot, Bessy thrust it toward her again. “This is what ye make yer business in, m’um.”
Understanding rippled through Kane like the waters of Nero at high tide. She had seen the bowl last eve, yet hadn’t realized its use. She now understood. She was actually expected to leave her waste inside of the bowl! Red-faced, she motioned toward this golden joke. “What am I to do with it when I finish?”