Desire bloomed inside Thea, and she pushed herself against Martha, making them both groan in pleasure. She felt Martha’s hand track down her body and caress her thighs, first the outside, then the inside, moving tantalisingly close to where she needed to feel her. ‘Yes,’ she muttered, pulling back from the kiss and imploring Martha with her eyes. A delighted and awed smile tinged Martha’s lips as Thea shifted, allowing her in. ‘Oh god,’ whispered Thea, sensation swelling from her toes to her scalp.
She pushed herself harder against Martha’s hips, taking as much of her as she could, tangling the fingers of one hand into Martha’s hair and encircling her shoulders with the other. It wasn’t long before she felt Martha curl her fingers in the way she knew Thea couldn’t resist, in time with her steady rhythm. Shefelt Martha’s other arm around her back, holding her steady, and the heat and pressure flourished inside her. She groaned loudly into Martha’s hair as pleasure overtook her completely, dimly aware of soft but insistent lips on her neck.
‘Do you have any idea how ardently I have yearned for that?’ The words filtered into Thea’s fogged brain as her breathing steadied. ‘To feel and hear your pleasure once again?’
‘Mmm,’ was all she managed, smiling against Martha’s hair while she was still held firm. Another minute, and she recovered enough to lean down and place another greedy kiss on Martha’s lips. ‘That was definitely on my list, but not all I wished for.’
One of Martha’s brows twitched upwards mischievously. ‘No?’
‘No,’ said Thea, pushing Martha backwards until her legs uncurled from between her, her hand slipped away, and Thea had her pinned on her back on the sheepskin. ‘There has been something else on my mind.’
Martha’s hand came up to Thea’s cheek, and her eyes became serious. ‘Have you thought of it? While I have been away?’
‘Almost every day,’ said Thea honestly. She craved this woman, even if she had tried not to. ‘Not always this. Sometimes just a touch, or a cuddle, or breakfast. But always you.’ Martha’s eyes closed in relief and pleasure, and her head dropped back on the rug as Thea planted soft kisses on the creamy skin of her extended neck. Martha’s hands never stopped exploring her back, and the appreciative noises she made as Thea tracked down her body made her ever more hungry.
Thea kissed the soft skin under her breasts, the swell of her stomach and the tantalising crease at the top of her thigh, remapping it all in her head. While she kissed the tender skin of Martha’s thighs, she hooked one of them over an arm, and Martha looked down at her, ravenously. Thea revelled in the anticipation, in the smell of her and the feel of her skin. She heard Martha’s long groan as she finally dipped her head andlicked long and slow. After a short while she couldn’t wait and trailed a hand up to add to the pleasure, making Martha arch backwards, grasping the pile of the rug and pressing against her. Thea held her hips steady with her other arm and maintained her rhythm whilst Martha’s breathing heightened with every minute. She felt her quiver and then stiffen as she muffled a desperate but satisfied cry with an arm. Thea smiled into her, it was everything she had imagined, and everything she had waited for. She slowed, allowing Martha to settle gently, before crawling back up her body, nestling in the crook of her neck and allowing Martha’s arms to envelop her in front of the fire.
‘I love you. God, I love you, Thea,’ muttered Martha into her hair.
‘And I you,’ murmured Thea, reaching up to claim one last kiss before she settled down and surrendered herself to a lover she thought she had lost.
Chapter 16
Mrs Jenkins bustled around them at breakfast the next morning, humming away to herself whilst she served good coffee, homemade pastries and jam. Thea and Martha were robed and tucked up in the four poster as the sun streamed through the high windows of Foxmore Square. Thea couldn’t take her eyes from Martha, almost unable to believe the sight of her swathed beneath the sheets. Then Martha leaned to retrieve her cup and saucer and the robe slipped from her shoulder, revealing the radiating scar. Thea reached out to touch it.
‘Tell me about this?’ she asked, tracing the raised welt with her finger. ‘It looks like you were lucky it missed a lung?’
‘Mmmhmm,’ Martha agreed as she sipped her tea. ‘Straight into the scapula though. They dug out the ball, but I still have a bother lifting it.’
Despite her time at Doctor Hunter’s lectures, the thought made Thea feel a bit sick. Live flesh was different to dead. Even her brilliant, aloof Martha was still meat with thoughts, and as mortal as anyone. ‘That must have been excruciating,’ she said,tightening her grip on Martha’s arm. ‘I hope you were near a surgeon?’
Martha chuckled. ‘Goodness no, I was on the island of Sumatra, and I would dig it out myself rather than risk the ship’s surgeon. Luckily the local guides have their own doctors of a sort and excellent ways. They carried me down from the mountain jungle and, I am pleased to say, got it out while I was still unconscious. Hurt like hell when I woke up though.’
Thea was aware that her jaw was a little slack and her eyes wide. Somehow, she had imagined Martha riding happily down well-kept paths and picking flowers on her way before heading back to a sensibly-provisioned but necessarily small hut at night. Not trekking through jungles and staring into the barrels of pistols. ‘The local guides?’ asked Thea. ‘You mean the native savages? Was it them that shot you?’ her voice rose with every word.
‘Listen to yourself,’ said Martha, almost chiding. ‘I thought you had no truck with the notion of savages? Although there are apparently cannibals on Sumatra.’ Thea felt her eyes widen again and Martha laughed her away. ‘None of them tried to eat me, or to shoot me. This was a hunting shot by one of our own and I was merely in the way.’ Her face darkened a little. ‘Learned a lot,’ she said thoughtfully.
‘Well, they should…’ Thea wondered what they should do, or who they were. ‘Was it a sailor?’ she asked.
Martha waved a hand as if it was an unimportant question. ‘One of the crew,’ said Martha. ‘An accident, like I said.’ Then she turned to take a pastry from the side table. Thea blinked at her, astonished that this somehow seemed to be incidental to Martha. More than that, she was simply horrified by the thought that Martha had almost been killed.
‘They should be more careful,’ She managed.
Martha smiled and squeezed her hand with the one of hers that was not filled with pastry. ‘Indeed, everyone was after that,’ she said. ‘And I really do mean that I learned a lot. The world is full of incredible people with their own cultures. We are so closed minded in Britain.’
A wave of inadequacy washed over Thea. Martha’s horizons were wider now, she had seen so much. And Thea’s world had become smaller, if anything. She pushed the anxiety to one side.
‘Anyway, enough about me,’ said Martha. ‘I want to know everything. Tell me about your children.’
Thea could never resist talking about them. She told Martha about Samantha, Edward and Abigail, and Martha related more adventures she had had on her travels. Her first had been to Cape Colony at the south of Africa, and then on to India and the spice islands. The second to South America – down the east coast, then rounding Cape Horn and exploring Chile. Thea sat transfixed at everything Martha had seen and done – by comparison she felt almost silly relating her life of motherhood and socialising and so little done with plants or the collections, but Martha hung on every word. Every minute made her wonder how they had survived any time apart.
‘What are your plans now?’ asked Martha as they moved from the dining room to the parlour at the front of the house. ‘Are you staying in London for long?’
Thea’s heart lurched as she realised that if they wished to spend time together – and she most certainly did want that – she would now have to somehow integrate Martha with her current, married life. It was something she had thought of often but hadn’t had a necessity to act on, until now. That said, the fact that she could socialise with whom she wished had been a condition of their marriage, and George’s extended absences meant that a house visitor would be of little inconvenience to him. ‘I was planning to go back to Hawkdean this week, thechildren are already down there,’ she said, and then had an idea. ‘Can you come? I mean, would you like to? With me?’
Martha’s brow furrowed. ‘Is George not going with you?’
Thea’s eyes dropped to her coffee cup. ‘George and I sometimes return to the country independently of one another. He is at parliament and so can’t get away, and yet the air in the country suits me better.’ It was almost an automatic response.
