Nikolas was seated in the small parlor, casual and unsuspecting, on the very chaise that she had scrubbed earlier, when Marilee entered the room. He smiled and stood to greet her. “Is Lady Lydia busy?”
“Yes,” Marilee replied.
“I cannot say I am surprised, or disappointed,” he said softly.
Marilee had rehearsed what she had intended to say, how she would explain the matter to him in a calm and reasonable manner, but when she set eyes upon him her preparations were all for naught because she instead rushed across the room and flung herself into his arms, burying her face at his shoulder. The words came out in a rush. She was not even certain that she was making sense until he patiently drew her to the chaise and coaxed the full retelling with a series of patient questions.
“Peggy thinks that it can be worked in our favor, but…” she grimaced, “it is the principle of the matter.”
Nikolas offered an understanding tut and a soft smile. “Peggy is not wrong, as usual,” he said when she had finally seemed to calm down. “Still, you have no need to have such worry. Kate,” he grasped her hands, “nothing need happen save the appearance. We can simply sit here and enjoy one another’s company, as we have done, and with Lady Lydia’s approval.”
“But Lady Lydia…” she released a slow breath, “she wants us to… she wants me to… seduce you.” Her voice cracked at the end and she cursed herself for being so prim. “Obviously you are supposed to be unaware, but I had to tell you. And you need to be careful! She knows whatever it is that you have done, and it is close to their secrets.”
“I suspected she might be warned,” he replied with a laugh. “The magistrate thought that she might have ears among his men and so we laid a trap by letting slip that I had discovered the merchant house through which she was converting the funds. I never thought that this would be her play, but I suppose it is rather humorous.”
“Humorous?” Marilee gaped. “It’s mortifying.”
Nikolas leaned forward and pressed a tender kiss to Marilee’s cheek and then softly upon her lips. She tipped her face up to him, and her eyes darkened with passion. Nikolas gave into the temptation to see her hair and began pulling pins from it, loosening the cap that covered her curling locks. Marilee’s hand went automatically to the top of her head, holding the cap against her skull.
“Stop!”
“Do you really want me to stop?” he asked.
“I cannot,” she choked wondering exactly what liberties he thought he could take even with Lady Lydia’s not so tacit permission.
“I know,” he said gently. He put his hands in his lap. “I only thought you should look properly mussed,” he said with a grin. “Besides, I have imagined the feel of your hair in my fingers since I first saw you.
She opened her mouth and shut it again.
“Unless, you would rather not,” he said. “We shall have to have some method of communicating your actual wishes against those of Lady Lydia.”
“No. It’s okay,” she said primly. “Proceed.”
He chuckled, tipped up her chin and spoke directly to her. “You know, the fact that Lady Lydia thought up this plan, means that she has no indication that we have been working together,” he explained, “or that we have any feelings for each other at all.”
“Do we?” she questioned. “Have feelings for one another?”
“I cannot speak for the lady,” he said of Marilee. “But for my part, I have not been able to get you out of my mind since I first laid eyes upon you.”
Marilee sighed and curled herself against his side, tucking her feet beneath her. She leaned her head onto his chest, and Nikolas took her actions to heart.
“I cannot tell you how much relief that it brings me,” Nikolas continued. “If Lady Lydia continues to think that you shall do her bidding then I can act with the assurance that you will not be punished for my actions.”
“I do not want you in danger either,” she murmured as he buried his face in her loosened tresses.
How quickly they had grown comfortable with one another, she realized with a stroke of pleasure. It was natural; as if they had already been at each other’s side for months or years.
Nikolas sighed. “There is quite a bit more distance between she and I; than she and you,” he replied as he wrapped his arms about her and pulled her more firmly onto his lap. He could not rebuff the gift that had been given to them, regardless of the duplicity of the giver. He reveled in the moment. “You smell wonderful,” he said, breathing in the scent of her.
“Laundry soup,” she replied and then suppressing a giggle, she wriggled slightly on his lap, causing all manner of delightful distress to his person. She brought out the bottle of perfume from a pocket in her apron. She opened it and let him sniff.
Nikolas commented without thinking. “I know that scent,” he said. “It is mine.”
He realized instantly that he should not have spoken. He had not told her the full story of his involvement with Lady Lydia and her ilk. He was sure that when she found out his very concoction was likely the reason Marilee and so many others had been drugged and taken from their homes, she would want nothing to do with him and with good reason.
“Yours? Whatever do you mean, yours?” Her face was simply curious. There was no guile in her; unlike his duplicitous self. His heart sunk.
“I just…” He stammered a moment searching for words. “You know…I can explain.”
How on earth could he explain? There was no excuse for what he had done, and yet, if he hadn’t, he would have been transported. He never would have met this angel.
He had begun his schooling thinking he would be a solicitor, wanting to move far from his parents’ and brother’s reach, but eventually, he had fallen back on his roots and opened a small apothecary shop: a failed apothecary shop.
Lady Lydia had saved him and damned him in the same action. He should tell her, he thought. He should tell Kate the whole truth. She deserved that, but she was looking at him with such trust in her eyes. How could he destroy that trust? He could not. He would not. He bit his lip, promising in his silence that from this day forward, he would be an upright man. He would become worthy of her trust. She need never know of his true involvement with Lady Lydia. Not if Lady Lydia was in a jail cell or transported. His secret would be safe.
“I made the perfume,” he said at last. “I dabble in such things as you must know. Herbs and whatnot.” That was not admitting to any duplicity, but Marilee frowned.
“I smelled it at the brothel,” she said.
“You have a good nose,” he said touching the appendage with the tip of his finger.
“But why would you…” She looked thoughtful, trying to figure out why he would sell his perfume to such a place. He could almost see her sharp wit puzzling out the truth.
“A man has to eat,” he said dismissing the comment. “I have no control of the goods after they leave my shop,” and with a negligent shrug he changed the topic. “It worries me to no end that you must always be here, within her reach,” he said distracting her. He felt like a cad for avoiding her questions, but he could not tell her his tale of woe. She had more than enough worries on her head for one person. He would not add to that. No matter what ill deed Lady Lydia put in front of him, he would not harm Marilee.
Marilee snuggled a little closer. “Well,” she sighed, finally feeling some sense of relief knowing that he was, in fact, one step ahead of the lady, “I suppose it does bring some comfort to know that she suspects nothing from us maids.”
“Exactly,” he murmured and plucked her chin so that she might turn her face up toward him studying it most seriously. “And I cannot pretend that I am not in favor her choice of distraction,” he said with a grin.
Marilee gasped and pretended to slap at his arm for the comment, but in truth, she had to agree. Who would have thought in such a horrible place, there would be this oasis of bliss?
“I mean, it gives me just cause to check on you whenever I like, rather than waiting for my allotted time,” he grinned, softly kissing her forehead, her cheek, her lips.
Marilee hummed in thought and then there was no thought except his lips on hers; first gentle and then more insistent. The moist pressure sent a thrill of desire through her, and she opened her mouth instinctively responding with a passion of her own, and when he plunged his tongue into her mouth, she felt a stab of desire so strong it took her breath away. Wetness pooled in her nether regions and she drew back, panicked with the sudden onset of such strong feelings. Her hands were on his chest holding him at bay, but at the same time, she wanted to revel in the explosive desire.
“I just…I just…” she stumbled to explain.
“Are an innocent,” he said brushing back her hair from her face, letting the corkscrew strands curl around his fingers.
“I just feel so queer,” she muttered.
“Good queer or bad queer,” he asked.
“Oh good,” she exclaimed. “Just…untethered; like I could fly to the heavens and my feet might never touch ground.”
He smiled a very satisfied smile, and she hit him with a pillow.
His smile broadened as he touched her nose with his finger and then placed a soft kiss there. His professionalism returning, he reached for her cap and rather inexpertly pulled it over her curls, tucking the strands under the fabric and kissing her once again. The kiss was gentle, but still elicited the rampant desire of a few moments ago. She had not realized how very dangerous this assignment of Lady Lydia’s was to her virtue. She could have…continued. She looked at the chaise upon which she sat. No, she told herself, her first time would absolutely not be on this chaise, no matter how sweet his kisses.
After adjusting her clothing, Nikolas adjusted his own. “I am thinking that tomorrow I might pay a visit in the morning. Surely, if you have done your job so well, then it would be deserving of a trinket. Just to make your success clear, of course.”
Marilee giggled and pretended to be offended that the gesture would indicate she had fulfilled her instructions very, very well. But when he kissed her again, she forgot all pretense. She found that the idea of wearing his token held more appeal than she would care to admit.
When Marilee bade him farewell, she made a show in the hall of apologizing that her lady had been unable to keep their appointment. Mrs. Cavendish could be seen spying from the far end of the hall and so Nikolas made a show of pressing a kiss to Marilee’s hand and lingering longer than was appropriate. He reached up to fix a random curl and the cap nearly toppled from her head. She grabbed it, securing its precarious position with one hand while Nikolas refused to give up the other. She giggled when she realized she had left the hair pins behind on the floor. Perhaps that was for the best. She brought her mirth under control and merely smiled at the thought.
And from his bowed position where the housekeeper could not see, Nikolas winked at her before dashing through the door. Marilee schooled her features to annoyance and gave a ridiculous sigh, pulling at her skirt as if it had needed to be set to rights. She hated that she would allow such falsehoods to persist as to her nature, but if it convinced Lady Lydia that she was well in hand then it had to be worth it. She was aware that Mrs. Cavendish still watched her.
When she turned to make her way to the dormitory, Mrs. Cavendish stopped her.
“Don’t go thinking that this has earned you a lie-in on the morrow, Kate,” the housekeeper snapped. “It takes the best of us more than a few hours to set a hook, and milady wants it well set.”
Marilee shrugged as if it were not matter to her, when really, she wanted to scowl and bark back at the older woman that perhaps their methods were simply flawed. Instead, she yawned and left the hall without a further word. Let the housekeeper think what she would. Marilee cared not one whit for the woman’s opinion or advice, and at the moment, nothing could interfere with her gay mood.
When Mr. Crowley arrived midday with a simple ribboned bracelet that held a single small charm, an iron-worked crow, Mrs. Cavendish looked as if she were about to swallow her tongue. It was all that Marilee could do not to cast a victorious glance at the woman. Instead, she thanked the solicitor for the gift and told him that he shouldn’t have but of course, she loved it.
When he asked her how she was, she knew he had meant a covert inquiry into the goings on of the house.
“I’ve been moved back to the laundry,” she said with a sigh. “I suppose that means that I shall have more time for visits,” she offered an exaggerated giggle, “since I am no longer needed by my lady.” In her blustering that night she had forgotten to add that little detail. “The lady’s new maid, Hetty, I am told, has more experience in such things, but I cannot see how. She cannot be more than sixteen, fifteen, more like.” There, now he might look for a missing Hetty with history as a lady’s maid. Perhaps some good could be done before the poor girl found herself sold off.
He nodded and she could almost see him mentally tuck the information away for later. “Do you think her name is Harriet?”
“Perhaps,” Marilee said. “I don’t really know.”
He nodded and kissed her hand most fervently causing Marilee’s heart to race. Then he took his leave, knowing that she would not be allowed to be detained for long when she was still expected to perform her full duties in the washroom.
Peggy smirked at her as she entered the laundry area.
Marilee knew she was sporting her colors. Her skin was flushed with excitement, but she said nothing.
“That high color is due to the heat of the room, no doubt,” Peggy said.
“No doubt,” Marilee agreed readily. “Perhaps we should open the window.”