It was the morning of the first of January 1926. Lady Edith Pelham had been a married woman for many hours by now. She had enjoyed every moment of it.
She was in the bathroom of their honeymoon suite, tapping up a bath. Bertie was still sleeping, but she planned to wake him up soon and ask him to join her in the tub, to have a bath and perhaps also make love.
Bertie - my husband, she thought. My husband Bertie. The love of my life.
And she couldn't stop smiling about it all.
...
While Edith stood there tapping up water she heard some strange sounds from the room next door to theirs. Or strange - it was rather obvious what they were. The sounds of a man and a woman whispering loudly to each other. A man and a woman getting more and more breathless, obviously deep into the early stages of love-making.
"Yes, yes", Edith heard the woman's voice. "Please! Please my darling husband! Yes, yes, that feels so good!"
"Oh!" the man said, in a very husky voice. "My sweet wife."
Edith blushed at the thought that these two people had perhaps overheard herself and Bertie doing the same thing a few hours ago. Edith knew that she hadn't exactly been silent during the act, letting out several very loud sighs and even one or two small screams of satisfaction...
...
Then something else started worrying her. The man's voice sounded vaguely familiar. She didn't hear very much of it, he was much quiter than the woman, and said a lot less. But Edith knew she had heard that voice somewhere. Many, many times.
The couple seemed to be getting on with their activities, and now nothing was heard from the man except his heavy breating at each thrust, while the woman kept shouting. "Yes, yes, darling, don't stop!"
Then two things happened at almost the same time. Bertie came into the bathroom and put his arms around Edith from behind, lifting her up from the floor in a tight embrace, and Edith realised who the man was.
Sir Anthony Strallan.
...
Bertie was as naked as Edith and she could feel his arousal against her back.
"Shall we try to make love louder than those two?" he whispered into her ear.
Edith had never thought that Bertie could be so flippant. But of course, he didn't know who the people in the next room were.
Unlike herself. Well, she didn't know who the woman was, only that Anthony had married her.
Because she had heard him call her my sweet wife. So the woman must be the second Lady Strallan.
A thing that Edith had wished very much to become herself half a lifetime ago.
...
To Edith's surprise she felt a quick pang of jealosy.
So this woman was good enough for him to marry, even though she herself hadn't been!
"I can't do it in here", she whispered to Bertie although she very much wanted to have him inside her now, to know that he really belonged to her.
"Not when they can hear us", she added.
Then she heard Sir Anthony say, very distinctly, to the woman he had just finished making love to.
"You have given me back my life, Judith."
...
"Please carry me back to bed", Edith whispered to Bertie, quite unwilling to hear anything more.
Bertie put her down on her feet again, turned her around and kissed her softly. Without a word he then lifted her up again in a more comfortable way for both of them and carried her into their bedroom. He put her down on her back in the bed, closing the door to the bathroom safely behind them before he said in a low voice: "I love you, Edith! You are simply wonderful! And we can do this as quietly as you like."
Then he lay down on top of her and started kissing her again.
Back in bed, in her husband's arms, Edith forgot all about Sir Anthony. She even forgot to keep her voice down.
It was only later, when they were both exhausted and happy after their lovemaking, and the hot water in the tub was quite cold and forgotten, that Edith remembered that Anthony was staying with his wife in the next room.
And with the generousity that comes with happiness, Edith felt very satisfied with the fact that Sir Anthony had managed to get his life back without her.
AN: Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment!
...
I have always thought that this would be the last story I publish, with both Edith and Anthony happy but not with each other. Perhaps this is my last new story, but I have quite a large number of ongoing stories left that I want to complete.