Sophie took the convict token and examined it for a long while. Clever fingers traced every line of every letter around the edge, but forbore to disturb the small figure mourning in the center of the coin.
The threat of tears made Maddie’s throat ache; she washed them away with another gulp of cider. “My mother is gone—but Jenny Hull came back. Under a new name, with nobody the wiser. She came to find my mother. She found me instead. And she found Mr. Giles more prosperous than ever, his stature and his fortune growing with every cheat and trick he played on those less fortunate than him.” Her cup was empty now; she set it aside. “If you can’t have love, I suppose revenge is the next best thing.”
“How much longer until your plan is finished?”
“A week, at most.” Maddie met Sophie’s gaze staunchly. “You probably couldn’t stop it now short of going direct to the magistrates.”
Sophie took a deep breath. “How can I help?”
Maddie blinked. Surely she hadn’t heard that right. “Help?”
Sophie nodded. “Is there anything still left to do? Any loose ends or—or last details?” She tugged the piecework comforter more tightly around her shoulders. “I am quite good at being overlooked, in case that comes in handy.”
Maddie stared—at Sophie’s brown hair pulled back so demurely, those dark eyes so soft and earnest, everything about her solid and steady and true. She’d been a thorn in the side when she’d thought Maddie needed thwarting; now that she knew Maddie’s cause was just, here she was offering to pitch in.
The words were out of Maddie before she’d realized she was thinking them: “Anyone who overlooks you is a fool.”
Sophie’s eyes went hot, and an answering longing stole Maddie’s breath.
Sophie tilted forward, still holding the convict coin, and clasped the chain back around Maddie’s neck. Her hands tucked the pendant carefully beneath the bodice of Maddie’s gown. The warmth of the metal seared into Maddie’s skin like a brand, even as Sophie’s fingers came to rest against the tender hollow at the base of Maddie’s throat. “You said you’d never lied to me,” Sophie murmured.
“I never will,” Maddie promised recklessly.
“You said you could make me scream.”
Maddie’s throat went dry, and her voice roughened. “Little sparrow—”
Sophie growled.
Maddie felt goose bumps prickle all down her arms. God, but she wanted to hear that sound again. And every other sound Sophie made. “I would love to try,” Maddie said, licking her lips.
Sophie’s eyes flared. Her hands slipped around to the back of Maddie’s neck and pulled Maddie forward into a kiss like drowning.
Maddie had been kissed by so many people she’d lost count, but Sophie’s kiss eclipsed all the others. It felt like more than a single kiss—as though they picked up precisely where they’d left off in the tavern more than a week ago. As if the fire they’d started then had only banked itself, waiting for this moment to burn higher and hotter.
So why go slow? Sophie’s hands were clutching at her, insistent and irresistible—Maddie gave in to their pull and tipped forward, sliding her own hands beneath the coverlet and filling them with Sophie’s plump and perfect breasts.
The noise Sophie made in the back of her throat was half surprise, half plea.
Maddie let herself taste those noises for a moment, licking hungrily into the heat of Sophie’s mouth. Her hands rested above layers—too many layers!—of gown and underthings. Maddie wanted skin beneath her touch, and more sounds to fill her ears. She told Sophie so without words, by curling one finger and scraping the fingernail over the peak of one breast, so that all those fabric layers buzzed with friction down to the nipple hidden beneath.
Sophie tore her mouth away to pant for air.“Oh.”
Maddie kissed her throat, tracing her lips over that most delicious spot where Sophie’s pulse fluttered. “Not screaming yet,” she purred. “How many of your clothes am I allowed to remove?” She added a scrape of teeth to make Sophie squirm. “I could do it without removing any, if you’d like.”
“No,” Sophie said at once, though it was more than half gasp.
Maddie stopped. Slowly she pulled away, her grip loosening even as her breath still came panting in her lungs.
Sophie blinked up at her, dazed and dazzled. “You stopped.”
Maddie nodded. “You said no.”
“Oh.” Sophie cocked her head. “I did. But what I meant was:No, please get me as naked as possible.I see I shall have to be more explicit in future.”She bit her lip, a sight that made Maddie go hot from head to heels. “Please Miss Crewe, help me out of this gown. Tear it off, if you have to.”
Maddie gasped as if scandalized. “Tear it? Why on earth would I do such a thing?” Clothing was costly—and it revealed a person’s secrets. If you were someone who knew how to read it.
Maddie was an expert in that code. She let her hands coast over the brown linen again, from the ribboned neckline and over the swell of Sophie’s breast. “This is good whole cloth, without a mar or mend anywhere. What has it done to deserve harm at my hands?”
