"This is a very dangerous game you're playing, Bekah."
The threatening tone in Niklaus's voice does not escape my perception as I reach for my shift which lays draped across the end of the bed. I slip it on while clinging to the bedsheet, amused at how only moments ago I stretched nakedly beneath him while now I wish to wrap myself in layers. Even with the shift currently fully encasing my body, I feel nakedly exposed to him.
"I play no games, Nik. Maybe you would care to elaborate on which one you are indulging in so I may be made aware of the rules."
He turns to face me, finger pointing in accusation. I am struck once more by how little he resembles the pampered aristocracy my father wishes for me to marry into. Niklaus is all lean muscle and tightly wound aggression. A temperate person would no more anger him than they would rattle a hornet's nest. As my father would be so quick to point out, temperance and my personality are complete strangers.
"You are well aware of the fact I believed you to be a woman of the world and with that one who had experienced carnal acts on a variety of occasions. You made no attempts to dissuade me from this belief."
I rise from the bed with an air of self-assurance I am in no way actually feeling. "Now isn't that interesting, Mr. Mikaelson? You, yourself, have experienced the scorn of society for the gossip waged against your family and the inability to remove a stain once it was applied to you, and yet here you are judging me for having been victim of the same malicious core beneath the civilized veneer of the ton. How does the saying go? You've been hoist by your own petard?"
He takes a step forward to get right into my face, the smell of the sex we just shared mingling once more from both of our bodies and it takes all the willpower I have to not cut off this ridiculous argument with my mouth most liberally applied once more to his. "Are you in any way implying I forced you into this, Bekah? If so, I will not so gently point out that you never said no. Even one word of hesitation and I would have stopped. I may be a rogue, but I am not a rapist."
"I didn't want to say no."
My words are out on a whisper before I can seal my lips to contain them. We stand there for a moment, each almost daring the other to respond to our unspoken challenge. The spell is broken when he blinks and takes a step back, eyes downcast as if disgusted by the image of me. "We will be back in England in three weeks, but do not expect to return to your home just yet. I still have business with your father." With that he leaves me to my regrets and self-recriminations. Sadly, the only one I can seem to conjure is that I did not lean forward that last inch and kiss him before he left me for good.
The weeks pass by in a blur of shipboard activities and missing him. Niklaus is kind enough to allow Matthew to bring me up deck twice a day to not feel completely confined and Bertie has been given liberal permission to expand my lessons of womanhood. My father would be aghast to find I am learning better needlework and menu planning from this dowager doxy than I ever did in finishing school. I am also learning a great deal about sensual pleasures, but that is another tale. I found great accomplishment in helping to take the meager provisions stored on the ship and turn them into an edible meal. The camaraderie was infectious, even if I knew never to shake the reality that these were criminals I rubbed elbows with.
Every day when I strolled along the weather deck I strained my neck and eyes for even a glimpse of the one who haunted my thoughts. Niklaus stayed mostly to his quarters or the bridge, so my compulsion was rarely rewarded. When it was, the dreams I had on a nightly basis would be more vivid in recollection, as if his fleeting presence was enough to bring that night back into focus. I would awaken drenched in sweat, his name on my lips and my hand thrust between shaking thighs. Over the course of those three weeks my desire for him turned to anger as it was plain to see he could easily avoid me without sparing me a passing thought.
Bastard.
Our arrival at the dock is met with little fanfare as Bertie tells me it is widely believed the ship is merely a merchant vessel. I am kept tucked safely in my chamber until dawn, when I am escorted onto the pier and into an awaiting carriage to head towards…wherever it is we are to go next. I had gathered from the crew that we were currently in Penzance, but that my next stop was a carriage ride away. I am settling myself comfortably into the seat, even going so far as to remove my shoes like a savage and stow them away when I hear one of the ship hands joins me.
"Could you please tell the captain I expect his driver to make at least two stops on this journey so I may stretch my legs and not be pent up like impending veal?"
"Why don't you tell him yourself?"
The growled reply has me jerking my head up to see the captain in question is the one who joined me, forcing me to swallow harshly the lump forming in my throat. I fold my hands politely in my lap in a pretense at calm, which also keeps me from reaching out to touch that which has only been a dream for three weeks. I cannot help noticing he looks tired as the trip gets under way and we sit in silence, both of our questions going unanswered. I take to staring out the window in order to distract myself, sure that the scent of him is not intentionally trying to invade my nostrils. Being he is not the uncaring scoundrel others make him out to be, we do make a stop at an inn to freshen up and get a bite to eat. There is no polite chatter or interactions and as we reenter the carriage, I assume we will make it the entire way to his country home without another word passing. Why do I ever assume to understand him?
"Are you going to pout the entire trip, Rebekah, or will you act more grown-up woman than spoiled child with me?"
With that, I had reached the end of my tether. The restraint I had somehow managed to acquire was now flung out the window.
"Spoiled brat? I suppose that is a step up from wanton wastrel, but not by much. Would you care to explain something to me, Mr. Niklaus Mikaelson, man of the world? When you believed me to have spread my legs for all and to use my sex as a snare for the unwitting cocksmen around me, I was nothing more than rubbish. A person of no value since the only thing I had to give to the world was a bit of blood on my wedding night. However, when you discover that not to be the case, and I was a victim of other's lies and that which is the only thing a woman is allowed to own in this godforsaken world was still available for the giving, you treat me even worse! I had never lost my virtue, Niklaus. I knew exactly where it was the entire time and would like to believe I still have it, regardless of the state of my maidenhead. Good lord, no wonder women go mad and must be housed in such great number in our sanitariums! You men have rigged the system so there is no way for us to win!"
I cross my arms in a huff and return to staring out the window, my cheeks blazing from the fury I unleashed and a bit from embarrassment at the words I'd seen fit to use. I ignore the soft chuckle from the target of my tirade across the way.
"You are a vexation and a conundrum, Bekah. I don't know whether to spank you or kiss you."
I am not sure there is a response in my limited experience in verbal fencing that is up to snuff, so I pretend the various flora passing by is deserving of my full attention. The monotony soon has my eyelids drooping and I try to settle myself more comfortably so I may sleep away part of the journey. Unfortunately I had chosen this time to reacquaint myself with my full corset and there was simply no way to lean in the blasted thing without it poking in various places. After the fourth or fifth time where I attempted to subtly realign my body and adjust the boning I obviously have annoyed my travel companion.
"For god's sake, Rebekah, I've seen you in your all together! Unleash that fabric monstrosity and give yourself some air!"
Before I have a chance to be indignant, Nik is across the small space and nimbly unbuttoning my bodice to reach inside and pull at the lacings of my corset and loosen its hold on me. I know I am supposed to smack him or at the very least scream bloody murder at the liberties he is taking, but this is the first time he has touched me in three weeks. Part way through his frustrated ministrations, the same thought may have struck Niklaus, for he slowed his movements, fingers lingering longer than necessary under the swell of my breasts as he pulls at a lashing. Finally he clears his throat and returns to his seat, staring blindly through his window with what almost appears a mild flush on his own cheeks.
"There. Now you may get some rest."
As soon as I recall how to breathe again, I settle deeper into the bench and allow sleep to steal me away. It seems like I am only under for a moment when a gentle hand shakes me.
"Best wake up and adjust yourself, love. You won't wish to have my staff's first image of you being quite so exposed."
I blink my eyes open to glare briefly at Klaus's smug face before quickly redoing my bodice. I have no idea what the story will be for the servants of this grand house I can spy outside my window, but I do remember my social graces even if I have been removed from them for the past several months. Klaus is gentleman enough to help me alight from the carriage and I follow in his stead into the foyer. We are no sooner in the door when an immaculate gentleman, slightly older than Klaus, with a grand air and impressive presence grabs him in an embrace that to my surprise is reciprocated by my normally taciturn warden. There is back-slapping and general conviviality before greetings are exchanged.
"It is good to see you again finally. Has the sea released its hold on you for the time being?" There is real affection in the way this man speaks to Niklaus and I cannot help but return his charming smile when he turns my way. For some reason this earns me a glower from the pirate.
"It is even better to see you away from the grindstone. Come meet my houseguest who will be with us indefinitely. Rebekah, I would like you to introduce you my brother, Elijah."