Written for a tumblr prompt. Really hope you like. 3
"Joseph, what's wrong?"
He turned around in surprise. It was the middle of the day so no one was in the servants' quarters. Still, though, it was a risk her coming into the men's quarters. It was usually him to come to her.
The surprise must have showed in his face. She slipped inside the room, closing the door behind herself.
"You left breakfast very quickly," she told him, quietly, standing almost tentatively, halfway into the room that that she was not used to.
He was pottering around the room a little, as he usually did on his day off, tidying up.
"Things were quite noisy," he replied, "With all the extra people there."
She settled down a little awkwardly at the end of his bed.
"Yes, you're right," she agreed. For a moment she waited, and then, "I thought we were going to have our day off together. I thought we were going to go to Ripon?"
He stilled for a moment, and then continued tidying.
"I didn't know if you still wanted to," he told her in a low voice.
"Why wouldn't I want to?" she wanted to know.
He did not reply for a moment, except to give a poorly suppressed sigh.
"What's the matter?" she asked him again, "Have I done something?"
"No," he replied briefly, but did not expand.
It was her turn to sigh, partly because she found his silence unsettling.
"Well, in that case, I might as well go back downstairs and help out," she told him, after a moment, making as if to stand up, "Because you'd obviously rather I wasn't here, and with the Sinderby's here there's plenty needs doing."
She was at the door before he turned around towards her.
"No, Phyllis, don't go."
She turned back to see him watching her, an almost stricken look on his face that she had not seen in a long while. It immediately melted any irritation that had been brewing in her chest. She exhaled quietly.
"Will you tell me what's upset you?" she asked him.
He nodded, haltingly, but that was enough for her at the moment and with that, she willingly sat back down in her recently vacated place at the foot of his bed. Putting down the shirt he'd been fidgeting with under the pretence of tidying, he sat down beside her, clasping his hands anxiously in front of himself.
"I just-…. I don't know why you'd be interested in me."
She looked at him, very much taken aback.
"Where on earth has this come from?" she asked him.
"Nowhere," he told her, "It's a logical enough proposition when you think-…." he turned towards her, taking in the confused look on her face, "Why would someone like you ever be interested in me?"
She looked at him uncomprehendingly.
"I think that should be the other way around, shouldn't it?" she asked in reply, "Why would someone as wonderful as you are want anything to do with someone who has been-… where I've been?"
"Because you're so good," he told her quietly, "In spite of it. Or rather, you were sent there in spite of being so good-…. And you're so wonderful, and beautiful and I don't know why you'd look at me when you could have anyone-…"
"What do you mean?" she asked sharply, sensing a particular weight in his voice as he said that.
He let out another sigh.
"Is this about Lord Sinderby's valet?"
His non-response spoke more loudly than any denial ever could have done.
"Oh, Joseph, you silly silly man."
Her hand rested gently on his shoulder for a moment, then she cast caution aside, cupped his cheek gently in her palm, ran her thumb along the curve of his face. To her relief, he did not shrink away from her.
"Lord Sinderby's valet is just a daft boy," she told him gently, "He's just after a bit of attention from someone with a pair of breasts," she was glad to see a smile beginning to linger on his face, "Anna's married and Mrs Hughes is probably too much like his mother, so he's trying to impress me. And, I'll have you know, he's not having the slightest success with it."
He looked considerably relieved. Still though, he murmured, watching her closely.
"It's just hard to believe sometimes that it's me you're with, when you could have any man you wanted."
"Well, I still say that's a pile of nonsense anyway, but that hardly matters. You're the only person I want, Joseph," she told him quietly, "You're a thousand times the man he is, or any other man I've met. I love you."
She leant towards him, kissing him gently. His arms encircled her and he kissed her in return. Her hand rested on his chest, gently smoothing back and forth. She could feel his heartbeat, so steady and reassuring.
"Do you still want to go to Ripon?" she asked him when they broke apart, a long while later.
"Not pressingly," was his reply.
She grinned.
"Good," she replied, her hand still on his chest, gently pushing him onto his back.
They lay there in a tangled mess of limbs, and after a few moments her hair as he worked his fingers through it, knocking it out of its bun, kissing gently, caressing each other softly, tenderly.
"We've never made love in your room before," she point out almost conversationally.
He smiled against her lips. The buttons at her neck at been slowly undone, leaving him with a clear view of the silken grey slip he loved so much. He traced her delicate skin over the lace, moving his hands up a little to scoop the dress of her shoulders and down. She wriggled out of it without hesitation, eager to come back to him, to allow him to touch her through the silk. His hands roamed over her body as her fingers unfastened the buttons of his shirt.
"Lie down," he whispered to her.
She was in her brassiere and knickers. He nuzzled against her face, nudging her until she did as he asked her. Gently, he parted her legs with his hands, kneeling between them.
"I'm sorry I doubted you," he told her softly, "I'm sorry that I was jealous."
She looked up at him with those plaintive born eyes.
"You don't need to be sorry," she told him in low voice, "Really, Joseph, I'm sorry that I didn't notice his behaviour upset you."
"No," he replied firmly, gently stroking her sides, "It's me who has to apologise. I was so cold to you. Let me make it up to you. Let me do this for you."
Her protestations were stopped immediately as he slipped his hand inside her undergarment, caressing her, teasing her with his fingers.
"Joseph, I-… oh, JOSEPH!"
Pulling her knickers a little way down, his mouth was on her before she could quite register what was going on. He helped her out of her knickers, encouraging her to spread her legs properly, and settled once more in between them.
She could feel his tongue on her, inside her, moving in firm strokes, touching her so intimately. She loved it when he did this, and he had certainly learned a lot. His fingers joined his mouth as her hips began to roll in time with his mouth, gently at first and then moving frantically over her clitoris. Her head fell back against his pillow as she gave a moan of completion.
As soon as she had regained the power of speech, she was kissing his face, holding him to her.
"Oh, god, oh, Joseph, sweetheart. Please, I want you."
He divested himself of his trousers and shorts and was with her in one stroke. She wrapped her legs tightly around his back, holding him tightly to herself.
"I love you so much," she told him softly as he began to move, "I'll never let you go."
He leant down, kissing her forehead.
End.
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