Disclaimer: Please see the prologue
A New Beginning
Town
Madison
Madison awoke excited in her new bed and threw the covers from her body. Today they would travel the four hours it took to get to town, which normally would have been an exhausting, daunting thing, but was now exhilarating because Erik would be accompanying her. She was to have a fitting for the gown for their engagement celebration ball.
She made a mental list of the shops that she would need to visit: the seamstress who was finishing the already in progress dress from their correspondence, of course, along with the cobbler and the milliner. She'd need to purchase new gloves as well.
Her hands flew to the hem of her long night shift and pulled the soft material over her head flinging the used garment back onto the bed. She stood naked and slightly shivering in the cool November air, for the night's fire had died away hours ago leaving only faintly glowing ashes.
The hairs on her arms stood up as her nipples pebbled and she crossed to her vanity, pouring warm water from the pitcher that a maid had left for her moments before into her washbasin. Splashing the water on her face and upper torso she used one of the fluffy towels to dry herself.
She opened the wardrobe and donned black wool stockings attaching them to a garter belt, and then she pulled a fresh shift over her head, tucking it into white pantalets that tied over the stockings and ended just below her knees.
The corset was difficult to manage on her own but since the trip would be long and she did not want it tight she slipped it on herself without calling for a maid. Practice had taught her to loosen the stays and hook it around herself, then to hold one crossing of laces while pulling the next until it was tightened down.
She opened a drawer and selected a high-collared white shirtwaist blouse with tiny mother of pearl buttons and Belgian lace cascading down the front, and over her hands. From another drawer she donned a dark blue pleated skirt that hugged her hips before flaring down to the floor.
She smiled at herself in the mirror, smoothing down a wrinkle in the lace, and pulled a bell pull, ringing for a maid to fix her hair.
Erik
Erik pulled out his pocket watch for the third time in as many minutes and scowled. 'What is taking her so long? When I agreed to escort her to the city for her appointment with the dressmaker I had not thought that it would become an all-day affair.' But with the minute hand creeping up to the tenth hour, he surmised that not only would this trek become an all day event, but that it might also carry over into the next.
And that meant that his surprise would be forced to wait another full day, if not two. He scowled as the second hand ticked on, oblivious of his seething ire, and he shut the silver pocket watch tucking it back into his vest pocket.
He turned in the hallway and began to pace while keeping his eyes on the staircase and when he had turned for the seventh time and was about to begin the walk from the front door to the edge of the stairs he heard a door shut and footsteps shuffling down the carpeted upper hallway.
His hands fidgeted with the edge of his silver wool vest and his crisp white shirt.
She was beautiful with her hair upswept into a graceful, golden woven knot. A few small strands framed her face. The skirt hugged her full hips deliciously, displaying the evidence of her lusciously curved frame as his eyes traveled up from her hips to her narrow waist, to the widening rib cage and her full bosom. She paused at the top of the stairs with one hand resting lazily on the banister as a smile curved her mouth teasingly and she descended one painfully slow step at a time.
His breath hitched, as it always did when he saw her, and he pulled his nervous hands from his pockets suddenly aware that he looked foolish with his mouth hanging open.
"We're going to be late," he said more sternly than he had intended to and winced.
She stopped on the last step, smile narrowing just a bit as her hand gripped the rail, "but surely it was worth it?"
He nodded and extended a hand to her, "of course," he recovered, "you are more beautiful than ever. Shall we go, then?"
She nodded, her smile brightening, and left her hand encased in his as they left the house and climbed into her father's carriage. A maid was waiting inside. She would be the chaperone for their excursion into town, and the woman motioned for Madison to sit beside her on the narrow padded bench.
The carriage started with a small lurch once Madison was seated beside the maid with Erik opposite her, and Robert led the horses down the dirt road to town.
Except for the occasional jerk or bump from a dip in the road the carriage swayed gently as minutes passed the hour mark and the maid drifted to sleep beside Madison.
The sun was nearing its zenith as Madison looked up from the small book that she held before her, to discover that Erik was silently watching her.
She closed the book, one hand holding it against her thigh, and quirked a brow in silent question.
"I love to watch you read, every emotion crosses your features with each turn of the page," he said earnestly.
Madison smiled in response, "I am glad then, for you will have many years to watch me read, Erik." Her smile turned impish as he held a hand out towards her and pulled her to sit beside him leaving one arm around her waist.
"I certainly hope so," he replied as he dropped his hand to her silk clad thigh and tilted her head back into a firm kiss.
Her mouth yielded to his as she wrapped her hands, still clutching the small book, around his neck and shifted so that her leg brushed against his and the distance closed between them.
A flash of memory of a cold night in a dark, fire-lit cave and passionate kisses and caresses crept into her consciousness until she was not sure if she was only now remembering a forgotten event or dream.
She moaned softly as his tongue parted her lips and snaked its way inside her mouth, exploring and tasting as one hand pressed against her back and the other gripped her thigh through her skirt.
He tasted like jam and tea from the morning's breakfast, which delighted Madison as she eagerly explored his mouth. She reveled in the feel of his tongue against hers as his hands kneaded her flesh and an ache awoke inside of her.
Erik
When he released her from his grasp he cast a glance towards the still sleeping maid, Madison's chaperone, and smiled wickedly. 'A protector of my betrothed's innocence, indeed,' he thought.
Madison sank back against the padded wall of the carriage and sighed as she straightened her blouse and tried to pull out the heaviest of the wrinkles from their journey.
Erik's musings over the frustrating inconvenience of chaperones were broken when Madison asked him a question that he thought she never would, especially not since several days had already passed.
"What happened in the cave, Erik?"
He was startled, it showed in the abrupt neutrality that slid like another mask over the visible portion of his face, and then his eyes narrowed in bemusement as he replied with a straight face, "you mean that you do not remember seducing me, and professing me to be the center of your world?"
Madison's eyes widened in shock until she saw his barely contained amusement, at her expense, then they narrowed in half-false sternness. "Oh you, I did not," she protested and drew back from him, crossing her arms against her chest.
"You did, you said that you would surely die without me, without my touch, I believe those were your exact words."
Her mouth contorted into a moue of chiding consternation, then softened into a sweet smile as his arm crept around her torso and drew her close.
She was stiff in the embrace but then a moment later she melted against him as his hands rubbed over her back. Looking away embarrassed she explained, "I remember bits and pieces with more coming back to me each day, but my memory of that night is still incomplete. I know that we did not… I mean, that I am still… but short of that I am not certain about what we did or said, and I do not like not knowing."
One of his hands drifted up her back to rub circles on her neck. She shivered at the sensation and closed her eyes as he began to knead the top of her back and shoulder.
"You are trying to distract me, and it will not work, Erik," she told him, even as her eyes were closing and her lips parted slightly in contentment.
And when his ministrations would not stop she pulled away from him and turned from him so that she might regain her composure.
Madison
She looked out the little window on the side of the carriage wall and counted the trees that they passed, trying to stamp out the desire that seemed so easy to conjure but impossible to banish as long as he kept touching her.
His hand snaked around her waist with his palm pressing against her bellybutton as he pulled her back into his chest. Her arm lifted to lie on the one that wrapped around her waist and as Erik shifted on the padded bench he moved to wrap his arm around her more. He placed a faint kiss at the junction of her neck and shoulder as his arm brushed against the side of her breast.
Small shivers wracked her tingling frame at the faintest of his caresses. She felt the pressure of his touch through the layers of fabric and clothing, and she grasped his arm to hold it in place when he would have moved away. The feel of his strong arm against such a delicate part of her body, even through the layers of cloth, wracked her spin with tingling chills. "What happened that night?" she questioned breathily.
He kissed the side of her neck between words, "we kissed," kiss, "and," kiss, "held each other," kiss, "and I," kiss, "kept you warm," kiss, "and we slept." He punctuated the sentence with a gentle bite on the junction of her neck, his hand moving to roam across her rib cage in lazy loops, fingers barely brushing against the underside of her breasts.
Heat throbbed between Madison's legs in a maddening painful-pleasure, nearly making her forget the dozing maid on the bench before them.
"And after, when you and my father talked without me, what did you speak of?"
Erik grew bolder, moving the hand that had rested on her abdomen up, dangerously up to her full bosom as the other reached forward to rest heavily on her thigh. The way that he was sitting prevented him from pulling her firmly on his lap, which was probably a good thing since he might not be able to resist ravishing her, maid or no maid, if their little foreplay went any further.
"After we returned and alerted the neighbors and servants to cease searching, the question of your, how shall I say, honor, was brought into question. I told the truth, that I had arrived in time to save you, and that nothing illicit had destroyed your virtue, but the damage had already been done. It was your housekeeper, surprisingly, who demanded the betrothal, which seemed to appease your father after a moment of deliberation."
Madison turned in the embrace, his arms around her suddenly slack, to look him in the eyes. "I am truly sorry that I forced you into this situation, Erik, I need you to know that I did not plan for it to happen this way…."
He raised a finger to her lips, silencing her, "do not be, after all, they did not need to argue very much to convince me. I already desired to ask you for your hand."
She looked at him, her mouth curving in a pleasant smile that brightened her face, "you did? Just my hand?" she asked teasingly.
Erik tilted her head to the side and kissed her jaw, "and you body," grazed his mouth along her jaw to her chin, "and your mind," and then the corner of her mouth, "and your lips, especially your lips," and captured her sensuous mouth in a passionate kiss that stole her breath away.
They pulled apart just as the maid stirred slightly from a forceful dip of the carriage wheel in a rut in the road.
Madison slid away from him with a playful smile to the proper distance on the small bench. The maid stirred, sitting up and blinking bleary eyes.
Erik took out the silver pocket watch from his vest pocket; it would be another hour until they reached the city.
Madison sighed as she sailed into her bedchamber, the Lane room, at the Oakwood Inn in the heart of fashionable and bustling Raleigh. They had arrived only moments before and were ushered up the grand stairs by the lovely hostess, an older woman with a cheerful disposition. Erik would be staying in the room directly beside hers as the hostess explained, and the servants in the staff quarters downstairs on the main floor.
The maid, Sarah, followed along with Robert who was bringing her valises into the room and began working on putting Madison's clothing and toiletries away as soon as all of the baggage was accounted for.
She gravitated to the window that let out to the balcony, opening the pretty French doors and stepping out onto the railed patio. People and carriages were traveling up and down both sides of the street. She noticed an errand boy run past in a hurry as he nearly knocking over a strolling couple, who shot the smudge-faced boy an incredulous look.
She could smell the smoke from household fires, the manure from the passing horses, and the faint smell of sweat and honest work, followed by sweet floral scents from a neighboring garden.
Even as her nose crinkled from the odd mixture of smells, she smiled. She was in the city, with Erik, and a heavy purse burning a hole in her dress pocket.
"Would you like to change your clothing, miss?" Sarah asked, pulling Madison's attention from the busy city street.
"Yes, I think the violet dress will do nicely. And my corset will need to be re-tied."
Sarah nodded and pulled the violet wool dress from the dresser drawer, smoothing out the creases as best she could.
Madison abandoned the balcony, and its view, and after pulling the pretty curtains closed she began to unfasten the tiny row of mother of pearl buttons at her throat.
After she had changed to less wrinkled clothing Madison patted the reticule that was safely tucked away in a pocket and carefully pinned a gray hat onto her hair, mindful of the complicated up-do. Leaving the bedroom she closed her door behind her and turned down the hall to Erik's room. She knocked.
Seconds passed, then minutes as Madison knocked again and tapped her foot in exasperation. She tried the knob but it was locked. Putting her ear to the door she listened for sounds of movement but heard none.
She refused to let his disappearance delay her appointment with the dressmaker so with Sarah trailing after her she glided gracefully down the stairs and out the front door to hail a hack for the short trip to the dressmaker's shop.
They passed rows of slim houses with windowsill flowerpots and tiny side gardens that added color to the red bricks. She made a note of the location of a new and quaint looking bookshop that had novels carefully displayed in the large front window as they made their way to the dress shop.
When they had arrived Madison and Sarah stepped down from the hack and paid the man his fare, with extra if he agreed to wait the hour or so it would take for the fitting. He agreed and the two women entered the small but luxuriously decorated shop.
She was greeted by rows upon rows of bolts of fine fabric. The store had everything from satins and silks to sheer linen and thick soft wool, and a pretty brunette shop girl ushered them in and showed them to the back.
The fitting room was small with only a small stool and a curtain for privacy, which Madison studied as the assistant left to retrieve her dress.
Once the dress had been pulled from its perfumed tissue paper lined box Madison stepped behind the curtain and raised her arms as Sarah swiftly undid the row of black buttons down her back and helped remove and carefully fold her violet day dress.
Sarah picked up the neatly folded half-finished dress and eyed it, "miss, you had best turn back around, we'll need to tighten your corset a bit more."
Madison craned her head to take in the dress and nodded, grapping a hold of a handle on the wall and bracing against the sharp tugs that cinched her waist smaller than she usually tied it.
She let out a shaky breath and nodded, it was tight but not unbearable, and held up her arms as the maid carefully helped her into the dress.
Once the buttons had been buttoned, the hooks hooked, and the ties tied Madison stepped carefully from behind the curtain. The head dress maker smiled warmly at her.
"You have truly outdone yourself, Madame," Madison told the dressmaker as she studied herself in the full-length mirror.
The gown was gold with a tight bodice and a sweetheart neckline with small, delicate cap sleeves made of sheer silk. It hugged her waist into a tiny point and flowed outwards over her hips into a slightly flared trumpet that trailed on the ground. The sash at the face held a small silk rosette that brought attention to her tiny waist.
The front was decorated with a triangular inset of champagne colored silk. It was heavily beaded with filigree designs that mimicked ropes of light and crystal from a chandelier. The design was made in such a way that it formed an hourglass beginning at her bust, tapering at the waist, and then flaring out into the bottom of the skirt. Antique gold drench lace with a scalloped hem lined the edge of the dress.
She looked exquisite with her burnished gold hair, hazel eyes, and the shining, golden dress that hugged her curves and made her feel delicate and powerful at the same time.
Madison smiled fondly, smoothing one hand over the silk fabric and lace, as the dressmaker and her assistant corrected the small bustle and marked the train for hemming.
The modiste looked up at her customer once the last pin had been stuck into place "lovely, just lovely my dear. All eyes will be on you at the ball. You may take the gown off now."
Madison nodded, "when will it be done? The ball is a sennight from tomorrow."
The woman nodded, "you may have it picked up tomorrow evening, it will be finished then. Now, please change and leave the gown on the stool."
She moved behind the curtain and lifted her arms as Sarah undid the row of cloth covered buttons, undid the laces, and carefully removed the gown from her Madison's frame.
After she had dressed they moved to the front of the shop and Madison surveyed the fabric selection while the shop girl rang up the price of the soon to be finished ball gown.
"That will be twelve dollars and twenty-six cents, miss, would you like to pay now or settle your accounts later?"
Madison fetched her reticule from the pocket of her dress and counted out the correct number of bills and coins. "I will settle now, thank you. And I would like to discuss the selection of a new gown, for my wedding, if Madame has the time today."
The shop girl nodded and placed each bill and coin into its proper slot in the brass cash register, and then she excused herself to duck into the backroom just as two fashionably young women, one of whom Madison vaguely remembered from that wretched finishing school, entered the shop.
The bell announced their presence with a chime. Madison smiled politely as they stared at her curiously from behind the bolts of linen.
Madison took the time to wander the small shop, fingering the silks and satins and the almost sheer charmeuse, only looking up at the sounds of stifled laughter, to catch the two young women look away from her abruptly. The muscles in her back tightened and her jaw clenched as she refused to be embarrassed in front of these twittering nitwits. Apparently news of her debacle had indeed made it all the way into town.
"Congratulations are in order, dear," the modiste said as she pushed through the thick curtain that separated the back from the front of the store and moved to stand beside Madison, "I would love to make your wedding dress. Will there… ah… be a rush?"
Madison clasped her hands in the folds of her dress and counted to five, taking a deep breath, or as much as her cinched corset would allow, with each number. She refused to fuel the gossip about her by acting childish and making a scene. She had, after all, gotten herself into this mess in the first place.
She tried to convince herself that it was only natural for the dress maker to ask such a question for a girl whose reputation had been ruined, especially when said girl had spent the night unchaperoned with an unmarried, non-related man.
So she counted to five and unclenched her finger, pasting a strained smile on her face, "no, Madame, there is no need to rush at all. I wondered if you have the latest magazines from France," Her voice was honeyed and light with only the barest hint of anger as she cast a cool glance at the girls, who were trying very hard not to look up from the fabric that they were fingering.
"Very good, Miss Swift," the modiste replied with a smile in her voice, "let us look at some patterns, then."
She followed the dressmaker to the small table and sat on one of the small wooden chairs. Sarah was standing politely behind her, as Madison and the modiste poured over the fashion plates from Paris.
A considerable amount of time later they had agreed upon the pattern, fabric, and trimmings. Madison cast a glance around the shop but the girls were gone and had been replaced by an older woman who was chatting merrily with the shop girl. Madison thanked the modiste for her time and exited the shop.
The hack was waiting and soon Madison and Sarah were tucked away inside the carriage and heading towards the next shop.