I feel myself swelling again.
“No,” I beg aloud. “Please.”
But I cannot help it.
And for the first time in my life, I indulge myself again, rutting against the bed, imaginingherall the while.
Finally, after my second climax, my body calms.
I am covered in sweat and pounding shame.
I lie there in my wet smalls and pray to God for forgiveness.
Chapter 3
Annabelle
Iwas never supposed to see Trescott Abbey again.
When my father threw me out at sixteen, disinheriting me, he told me never to return. The man had two sons after all, so what use did he have for one disobedient, ruined daughter?
Now I sit in my dead father’s study drinking his excellent whiskey. I am well on my way to finishing another one of the bottles with which he was so parsimonious in life. I delight in running through it carelessly. Unlike my father, if I run out, I can buy more. It is one of the advantages of being as rich as I am. Even richer now that I am the master of Trescott Abbey, too.
My late father’s steward, Mr. Perry, is across from me. We are going over the accounts.
We do this exercise nearly every day. I do not love Trescott Abbey, but I will be damned if I run it poorly.
“The cottagers are delighted with the improvements, ma’am,” Mr. Perry says after going over what said repairs have cost me. Dearer than I want but it is nothing in theend. A better price than many would get. I drove the local builder hard.
“That’s very well,” I say languidly. “But I didn’t make the improvements to delight them. I made them so this place would turn a better profit.”
My father was a hard master, which is all well and good. Unfortunately, he was also an inefficient one. A workforce housed in shoddy cottages and sick half the time from chill and damp is not good for business. I have no qualms starving the villagers of this infernal place, who belong with the devil as far as I am concerned. They are a cruel, sniveling, whining, ignorant lot. However, if they are too weak, the land cannot be worked.
“I know you didn’t do it for charity, Miss de Lacey. But it did me good to see little Charlie Hurtwell in a cottage with snug walls and a chimney with a decent draw.”
“Your happiness was also not my object.”
“Of course, ma’am.” Perry bows his head. “Did you enjoy your tea with Mr. Saintsbury yesterday?”
It is just like Perry to keep such close watch. I have known the man all my life and he will never quite let me forget it. It is quite irritating.
Did the vicar complain of me?
It was unnecessary, perhaps, to humiliate him in such a fashion, especially when I am already so despised in the village. But the man deigned toinstructme. To give me an order. To attendchurchno less. I could not let his impertinence go unpunished.
And I assumed he would not reveal such a lowering experience to another soul. Most men do not expose when they have been bested by a woman. I did not need to leave Trescott Abbey or build an empire to know that. No, I learned that at myfather’s knee.
May his soul never know a moment of peace.
“It was unremarkable.”
“He is an amiable young man. Mrs. Perry and I have had him to dine. A very suitable choice, Miss de Lacey. For the vicarage, I mean. Of course, Mr. Thompson hoped to get the post for his boy. But your father didn’t think him right for it.”
I sigh. I shouldn’t take Perry’s bait, but I cannot abide the euphemism.
“My father was always resentful of Mr. Howard Thompson’s achievements. My brothers weren’t nearly as steady or accomplished. Neither took a degree at Cambridge, as you’ll recollect, and they spent any money handed to them without thought and were always asking for more.”
“I am sure your father had his reasons when it came to the younger Thompson,” he says evasively.
