Page 23 of Lady Mariel’s Scandalous Love

“I think so too. And I very much want to see all of it. It is beyond irritating that he is still ‘protecting’ us from it.”

“It is. I would have thought that, by now, he would have realised just how hard to shock we are, and how interested in all of this.”

Mariel’s inner voice laughed at her. Oh yes, he knows how interested I am in all of this, and how much it arouses me – he has felt that arousal in my body, and driven me to a feverish pitch of need.

“Yes. But… perhaps, if we can work out where he has it stored here, we could sneak in to look for ourselves? Or at least one of us could, at a time? Someone would have to stay here to make it look as if all went on as normal.”

Selina smiled, that conspiratorial smile that they had shared so often over the years.

“Oh yes, I think that might work. Let’s attempt it. The first thing we will need to do is work out where, in this house, the collection is stored. Tomorrow, lets see if we can watch, after he greets us, just where he goes. Maybe… maybe we can also ask the staff some careful questions?”

Mariel grinned, feeling far more herself, with a plot to keep her mind occupied.

“I agree – shall we plan out how we can achieve this?”

They settled to that conversation, and, although not a great deal of translation got done that day, they were both rather pleased by the end of it.

~~~~~

The uncrating was going far slower than usual.

Which was hardly surprising, given how often Dash simply stopped, and stared off into nothingness, as his mind replayed the previous night’s kisses. The past weeks of being near Mariel every day, of sitting beside her, hopelessly aroused, as he provided words, and explained the function of objects intended for sexual pleasure, had left him in a near perpetual state of aching desire – a desire firmly focused on Mariel. When she had shown him that marvellous room, and her response had been delight at words, not shock or horror, he had not been able to resist kissing her.

The fact that one kiss had not been enough for either of them had near undone him. He could, so easily, have drawn her down onto that dusty floor and pleasured her, even if stopping before the act of penetration – but he had not. Resisting that urge had been the hardest thing he had ever done in his life. His cock had ached, and he had thought that he might spend, there and then, just from the sensation of her passionate response to his touches, so close to the edge was he.

But he had not, and they had managed to return to some semblance of normal, before leaving that room. But now, things between them felt awkward – for he wanted to kiss her again, and more. Every object her pulled from a crate that morning, he imagined applying to Mariel’s body, imagined her, naked, and writhing in the throes of acute pleasure. It was a thought which left him gasping, and unable to do anything.

It had been madness to kiss her so, madness to touch her breasts – but having done it, it was all he could think of. And he had no right to think of it. No matter her interests, she was a gently reared young woman with an unsullied reputation – a reputation that was not his to besmirch.

He was being a fool – a lust crazed fool. She deserved far better than that.

~~~~~

Two days later, Mariel and Selina sat in the office at Longwood Peak again, talking quietly.

“The collection has to be in the East Wing of the house. I watched, and that is the direction he has gone in, each day.”

“Then one of us needs to sneak in there, to confirm our assumption. And today is the perfect day – did you hear him leave a few minutes ago? He told Chalmers that he would be away for some hours, dealing with some business with the tenant farmers. You should go, Mariel – you will understand what you see, far better than I will. I am still learning about these things – I must say, this book from our secret room is most… educational.”

Mariel laughed at the expression on Selina’s face.

“Everything that I have seen, both here, and in that secret room is very educational! You had best stay here, reading, and hopefully making it look like we are both here, as usual. I will slip out, as soon as there are no servants in the hall, and see what I can discover.”

Mariel set aside her pen, capped the inkwell, and rose. She went to the door and peeked out, carefully. The hall was empty. Quickly, she slipped out, and walked along as if simply going to use the necessary. As she approached the door to the East Wing, she was quietly praying that it would not be locked – if it was, her exploration would be at an end before it started.

The door was closed, and at first, she thought it locked – but it seemed that it had not quite clicked fully into place when it had been pulled shut, and it opened when she pushed it firmly. She went in, and closed it behind her. Silence greeted her, and a drifting of dust caught the sunlight which came through the windows which lined one side of the corridor she found herself in.

Slowly, she walked along, looking into each room that she passed. In the first two, a scatter of empty crates and piled, discarded wood shavings were all that she found. In the third, there were some empty crates, and some which were obviously still full. She continued to the end of the corridor on that floor, but found nothing more – just empty rooms with dust sheets over the furnishings.

At the end, she paused, staring out of the window to the gardens. Where might the already unpacked things be? The only logical possibility was that they were on an upper floor of the Wing. Mariel turned, and walked back along to the midpoint of the corridor, where a narrow set of stairs ascended. Climbing up them, she felt as if she was venturing into the unknown – as if the East Wing of Longwood Peak had become some vast unexplored land, potentially full of dangers.

She shook her head, and laughed softly at her own whimsy.

At the next floor up, she stepped out into the corridor, and chose a direction, looking into each room as she went. The first room was a small parlour, with nothing but some couches and a table. But the second room drew her in, irresistibly, after her first glance through the door. It boasted shelves, and glass topped cases, as well as a scatter of small tables.

And every one of those pieces of furniture had items upon them.

There seemed, once she looked more closely, to be a sense of intentional order to them, but exactly what that order was, she was not sure, for the room contained a mixture of things – dilettos, as she now knew them to be called, books, paintings, sketches, and other objects which she puzzled at the purpose of, like some of those in the secret room at Fortescue Grange. Perhaps all of the things in this room had come from the same part of the world? She could have spent hours in just that room, but she forced herself to leave it, and continue exploring – if this one room held so much treasure, what might the other rooms contain?

She was sure, having seen the piles of empty crates downstairs, that there would be many rooms with pieces on display, if each crate had been fully packed with objects. She was right in that assessment. By the sixth room, her head was positively spinning. She could no longer resist the urge to simply stop, and touch things, to attempt to identify the use of some things, to read the books…

She felt almost lightheaded, and rather flushed – spending ever moment thinking about sexual pleasure, and the myriad ways of achieving it produced a heady arousal – an arousal that made her body ache in every secret place, and her skin long for Dash’s kisses. Selecting a book at random, she dropped into a chair, and began to read.