Georgie's hands wrung together in a silent form of anxiety. The anticipated arrival of her heart's desire hung in the air like a wet fleece all about her. She saw to it that her aunt and uncle were safely and preparedly ready to face their trek to Lexington, the site of their yearly visit made to visit her uncle's side of the family and their British allies that lived there. Their trip would last nearly a week, so Georgie had arranged for Ben to stay with her only three days of that six or seven, if only to avoid the possibility of colliding with her family upon reentry into Boston.

"We shall lay flowers for Elizabeth for you," Aunt Josephine promised with a bittersweet kind of smile as a couple of servants moved their trunks into the carriage waiting on the bustling street outside.

"Here," Georgie said, taking a bouquet of daisies that had been wrapped in a light bolt of lace and handing them to her stunned and rather distressed relative. "The lace is of my own creation and, as you know, daisies are my favorite."

Aunt Josephine pondered the lace with her fingertips, chin quivering at the thoughtfulness of the gift. "The pattern here is not of daisies, dear," she commented, her eyes flickering up to meet her niece's with confusion. "They are of lilies."

Georgie nodded. "Lilies were Elizabeth's favorite."

Aunt Josephine's eyes welled with tears as she cradled the bundle in her arms and leaned in to give her niece a light kiss on her cheek. "We shall not tarry more than a week."

"Six days at the most," Uncle Harris interjected, "as I must return prior to Friday evening."

This was news to Georgie. If there was to be an event happening at their home on Friday next, it meant that she was unaware of the nature of such an event or what this could mean with her presence now looming in the house. "What is occurring on Friday next?"

The carriage-driver from outside finished a soft-spoken conversation with Aunt Josephine. "We will tell you all about it in correspondence, dear. For now, we must go."

"Take care of this beauty - all of you," Uncle Harris said as he embraced his niece and the servants gave him dutiful attendance in a light bow to signify that they had not only heard what his request was, but that they would also abide by this.

Her Uncle and Aunt were soon out the door and stepping out onto the front stoop to wave goodbye was a custom that Georgie surely would not miss. She waved to them with a bright smile before watching their carriage turn the corner onto the next street, and then her fleeting feet carried her swiftly back into the house.

"Is everything prepared for his arrival?" Georgie questioned of Sarah, now speaking in hushed tones.

"Aye, madam," she responded in an equally low-volumed manner. "The cook has been made aware that there will be another guest here for a few days and that his presence is to remain off-record."

"Excellent." Georgie glanced out the window beside her as she rounded the turn of the stairs leading upward, noting that the sky was turning a much more orange shade against the paneled walls. "Night will be here soon, and so will he." She topped the last stair and made her way into her room. "Help me undo these ties."

Sarah was a bit stunned. "You mean to undress before he arrives?"

"No," Georgie said as she began to pull the pins from her hair, "not entirely. Just into something more comfortable - a nightshift and a dressing gown."

"Then you mean to go to sleep before he arrives?"

Georgie shook her head, stopping when she approached her vanity, gazing into the mirror to make certain that all of her hairpins had been removed. "My intention is to be more comfortable so that, when he is near me, I may finally be at rest in knowing that he is safe. Besides, he will probably be winded from his journey and wish to go to bed, at which point, we will."

Sarah chuckled as her fingers made quick but careful work in untying the ribbons at her mistress' back.

"What is that sound for?"

"Do you intend to lie with him tonight?"

Georgie stopped, turning around to give her friend a more serious expression. "Even if I did, is that any reason to laugh?"

Sarah's expression changed into one of more stern reproach. "No, my lady."

Georgie turned back around to her mirror. "I do not know what will happen between us when he is here. Maybe we will lie together, maybe we will not. Either way, intimacy between us should be just that: intimate."

"Of course, madam."

Georgie then broke her look of seriousness and smiled fondly. "I have so longed for him to touch me in that way, to own me with his affection."

Sarah grinned at the sight of her friend's enlightened visage. "Given how the two of you are in the other's presence, I cannot see how you haven't been intimate with each other."

"I love him more than all the world." Georgie's nimble digits pushed a few curls back from her face, loosening them into a more natural appearance. "With my father's previous disapproval of him and the fact that we were all the way across an ocean of distance, I believe my longing may just overflow. Then again, it may not."

Sarah gestured for her mistress to turn around and face her so that her tightly-bound dress could be inched down from her body. "Will you tell him about David?"

Georgie's eyes grew wide as she inhaled deeply to allow her abdomen to contract so that the material could be more easily peeled from her form. "I had forgotten..." Her gaze swam with memory and loss before she blinked it all away. "I will tell Ben of David, of course, but not tonight. Nothing important truly happened with the latter, nothing worth telling him of immediately."

"He saved us."

"In a way, yes, I suppose he did. For now, he is just a memory - fleeting at that." Now in just her pantaloons and tights, she moved to her chestnut wardrobe and extracted her plainest and loveliest nightshift from its internal darkness, quick to pull it on, straighten it out, and then pull a velvet dressing gown of deep blue to wrap around her. "Is this too much, do you find?"

The servant glanced over Georgie, smiling softly. "You look lovely, simple, natural."

Georgie's pearly white teeth sunk into the skin of her bottom lip as she took a look at herself in the mirror. "I hope so. Ben has always said that I am loveliest when stripped down to basest form." With that comment, her cheeks heated into a blush as she burst into laughter, Sarah's own giggles following suit.

:::

The streets of Boston were emptied with the night, the blue hues of the sky casting shadows along the brick streets and dimly-lit houses stringing along either side of Ben. He ducked into an alleyway at the sight of a few patroling Lobster-backs, avoiding any chance of being seen as he was still in uniform, though a cloak covered such knowledge in spite of the darkness engulfing him. Ben strode behind the line of brick houses, noting light fences of white encompassing each garden, the grassy areas behind the estates.

Ahead, he could see it - Georgie's balcony, a marble excellence in its own right that overlooked the row of greenery and flora that she marveled at. He knew that such sights warmed her heart and her expression, and to think of such things swelled within him a need to get to her, especially now that he was so very, very close.

Taking care in being light of foot as he climbed over the fence and into the yard, his eyes cast upwards towards the balcony, the daisy-embellished trellis leading to that vantage point reminding him of their secrecy being akin to the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet. If Ben had his way, however, no fatal ending would be had by either lover in their case.

Making his way up the trellis step by step, foot by foot, he could smell the fragrant air of his love waiting just over the balcony. The night air was chilly and with a breeze strong enough to barely rustle the heavy drapes inside of her room. Ben swung his legs over the marble and made his way to the French doors, opened just enough so that he could see her inside.

Georgie had been sitting in an armchair by the door, her nose delved into a book that he could only assume was Utopia, a favorite of hers since childhood. His heart both delighted and melted at the sight of her, the sheer beauty in her simplicity enough to strike a pain - albeit, a warranted pain - into his very soul. He pushed his hood back from his head, and that motion was enough to catch her vision.

Georgie's eyes swelled at the sudden sight of him, standing in all of his glory just beyond the doors to her room. She rose from the chair, dropping the book to the seat without marking her place. Her hands pushed the doors aside and she ushered him into her room quickly before locking the doors and pulling the drapes shut so that no prying eyes could see them.

"My love, you did not mark your place," he commented, reaching to grab the pages to find the very one she had been at, but her hand quickly took his into her own.

"Forget the book," she stated, coiling her arms around his waist and burying her face into his coat to just breathe him in.

Ben did not hesitate to return the embrace, his eyelids fluttering closed as his hands slipped around her shoulders to pull her in tighter. "My God, how I have missed you."

Georgie pulled back from his embrace to place her hands firmly on either side of his face and draw him down to her in a sweet, passionate kiss. Gripping her dressing gown at the small of her back, Ben eagerly reciprocated the kiss and drew her body in until the only separation between their flesh was the material of their clothes.

Breaking the kiss so that both could inhale the relief they felt, Ben searched her face with his loving eyes. With tender strokes of his fingertips he outlined the shape of her face and nose before combing his fingers into her curly locks and stealing another kiss.

"You look exhausted, love," he stated with a gentle chuckle, his fingertips lightly grazing the shadowy circles beneath her eyes.

"I had to see you in," she affirmed. "If you had still not arrived and I had gone to bed, I would have missed you far too much, and - "

Ben silenced her with his mouth against hers and a nod of his head. "You may rest easy now. I am here."

Georgie sighed pleasurably and Ben's body ached at the sound. "You are. And you, sweet Ben, are also worn." She helped him to lift the cloak from his body and begin undoing his uniform jacket. "Let us then to bed."

Ben would never decline that invitation, so he nodded, helping her in undoing the buttons, his common affiliation with the medium able to make quick work of it. "I have no proper clothes for bed."

"I have a shirt for you, and your pantaloons are suitable." Georgie detached from his bodily connection to move to her chest of drawers, drawing one of them out and removing a folded white shirt from its contents. "I have adjusted the width of the material and shortened the sleeves enough that you may roll them - I know how you enjoy few restrictions on your forearms when sleeping."

Ben chortled at the knowledge she showed, removing his outer jacket and his boots so that he could pull off the top set of trousers. He turned his back to her briefly, draping his uniform over the chair where she had been seated. The final shirt was removed, baring his smooth, lightly freckled skin beneath. Georgie attempted to avert her eyes from the sight of his broad shoulders and narrow, tapered waist. She tried to pretend that she had not seen the way his muscles tensed beneath the skin encasing them. She imagined that the smooth texture of his skin did not dance in the flicker of her candlelight, giving him a kind of luminescence that made her very loins quake with her passion. All of those things she would deny if asked of, but, in truth, Georgie had never found him more beautiful, and that was saying something.

She handed him the shirt and watched as he unfolded it and pulled it over his head. It looked immensely wonderful on him, and her alterations proved to suit him perfectly. Though, in fairness, the perfection of Ben could not be overstated where Georgie was concerned.

He smiled at her, rolling up the sleeves to his elbows as was customary for him. "It's lovely," he said, taking her face into his hands and giving her another kiss. "You, my fair Georgie, are divine."

Georgie's rosy cheeks heated into a darker pink hue. Taking one of his hands into her own, she led him towards the bed, releasing him so that she could tear down her side and slip under the duvet. "Come to bed, Ben."

Ben swallowed the lump in his throat and hoped that she failed to notice the goosebumps trickling across his skin. "I had always imagined that that phrase would be said in a, um, much more different context."

Georgie grinned, blushing wildly now at the sight of the red tint in his own cheeks. "I have as well, but, right now, I just want you to hold me."

Ben nodded, turning down his own side and crawling into the bed beside her, eyes never leaving hers as he shifted closer to her. "Promise me that I will never lose you again - "

"You won't, Ben. I am yours."

"I almost died when I learned that your father had taken you away from me. It was too far and I couldn't get there to save you. For me, my life was over."

"Shhh, my sweet," Georgie said, nestling against him with her nose aside his. "We have plenty of time to discuss all of that. Right now, it is just Benjamin and Georgina, and the warmth and love we share. I have my own confessions to make in time, but let us rest. Tomorrow, the thick of it shall be uncovered."

He nodded, realizing in that moment that she was right. They had time to discuss the darkness of that painful year, but this moment was lovely and was purely them. He smiled and gave her a final kiss to the lips for the night before wrapping an arm around her to allow the other hand to be laced tightly with hers.

Georgie rested her head in the crook of his neck and as her ear caught the echo of the heart beating within his chest, she closed her eyes and allowed the tears to fall.