I awoke some hours later, anxious from the nightmares which had tormented me mercilessly. I was too anxious to fall back asleep easily, so I climbed out of bed and went to the window that I might watch the stars in the sky.

Death, I told myself, was not stalking me. Certainly not in the form of a trio of skeletal demons.

They had wrapped each set of horrific remains in bundles of oiled canvas. The footman and the driver hardly batted an eye at the morbid collection, as if resigned to handle unexpected and unwholesome oddities during the course of their employment with Merlin Herne.

I was a bit put off myself to have shared a carriage with such ghoulish company, but the time to have protested had passed the moment I agreed to Hern's request.

And it was not as if the bones, disturbing as they were, kept me from my thoughts.

Pirates did not waylay a ship only to bring it into its home port on time. Mutineers, then; hardly an unheard of action and no doubt precipitated by the onset of the madness that inflicted The White Lady.

But then why pretend to be Capt. Dean? Better to lie and say the poor man fell overboard and who but the mutinous crew could gainsay you? Admission would mean indictment and maritime law held no mercy for rebels.

Surely, even a madman could understand that.

My arrival back at Avalon did not clear my head fully, but my spirit was much restored with relief and gratitude at the thought of climbing into a warm and soft bed such as my host had provided. With fresh coal on the fire and a bed panned warmed mattress, a man could shut away the world and sleep forever.

But a man who had handled the bones of demons can know no such rest. I felt as a man who belatedly realized he had stood in the path of a runaway horse and felt fear only later, when he was safe.

Had this occurred in my home, this nocturnal disquietude, Pamela would have awakened and laid her hands upon and whispered comfort in my ears. Then I would have been drawn to her as any mad would be, but I was not just any man. I was her husband and for me alone did she open the gates of heaven.

Nestled in the bosom of heaven, I would then sleep.

But my wife was not here, so I stood as sentinel to the moonlit landscape. I watched against demons my mind told me could not exist while a chill grew in my stomach. Eventually, sleep would overtake me, for I still needed to rest. It would not do to yawn during the meeting with the man from Lloyd's of London. I must sleep, but these things can not be forced.

Then a movement in the dark caught my eye...

Naomi's tempting body strolled from the house to the barn with her head held as high as any free woman ever did, and higher than most, at that. She was a black jungle cat, more shadow than flesh. Her muscles were liquid waves, rippling up and down her length with every step.

With a start I realized, I realized that moonlight was all she wore.

Then she stepped in the shadow of the barn, disappearing from sight. Now she was dressed in nothing but darkness, my mind told me with evil intent, and I felt, again, her hands on my manhood with her oils and deft touch.

I hastily put on my knickerbockers back into place and snuck quietly from my room, buttoning my blouse as I snuck about the house.

"Mr. Herne likes to have his guests treated to as many Earthly delights," Naomi had told me in a husky whisper, "as he has discovered from his travels across Europe and Asia." Yet I still felt the need to sneak about. Generosity such as this was best not questioned.

***

By moonlight did I traverse the yard betwixt darkened Avalon and the barn I had seen from my sill. With each step, did my stride become heavier and less certain. Despite the full moon, I was entering a realm of darkness, an area of sin, and I knew not where my lustful course would lead me; never had I been so willfully blind.

A lantern was lit within the barn, which seemed to serve as stabling for some of Herne's horses. I stepped inside, my bare feet touching the cool, hard packed earth quietly, and walked slowly to the lit lantern Naomi had hung from a nail on a post.

As I approached, I began to make out an ethereal song. The words were too soft to make out, but the song itself was as comforting as a lullaby and as inviting as the call of a Siren.

I recognized it as the melody Naomi had been humming while running the scrub brush up and down my backside. My mouth went dry even as my most singular organ became thicker and firmer within the confines of my pants.

I heard the plunge of something into water and then a slight splash as that something was drawn up. I tensed for an instant, hoping that I hadn't come across Naomi bathing another member of the household as she had bathed me earlier.

Jared, perhaps, but I rather doubted he was interested in anything Naomi might have to offer. Unless he had been displaying remarkable acting skills during dinner, and I was not quite willing to give the young Herne that much credit. He seemed too willing to ignore his uncle's lust for the slave so publicly, in front of a guest, that it smacked of sexual innocence.

Of course, if she was bathing anyone out here in the barn, it was likely to be another Negro. If that was the case, I could use that to my advantage, perhaps. She certainly wasn't going to bathe her master out in a barn, not when Herne had a special room set aside for such things.

I was loath to admit it to myself, but my trepidation and my hesitation added to my animal excitement. The halls of Avalon were decked with nymphs and satyrs, imparting needful sexual demands upon me. One could not stroll the halls without seeing a set of breasts like ripe melons jutting from the feathered chest of an ebony carved harpy or a monstrous rod of bronze brazenly protruding from between the metallic goat legs of a satyr.

I was only mildly surprised to discover that she was delivering a sponge bath to a colt. The colt's dam was nowhere to be seen, which I thought was odd, but surely no odder than the sight of the undraped African goddess kneeling on the straw floor baptizing the small brown horse.

"Naomi?" I spoke softly, knowing it would startle her and it did, for her eyes met mine quickly and, with a sharp intake of breath, brought her song to a halt. Other than that, however, she reacted as calmly as if I had walked into to the kitchen to discover her popping peas.

Her right hand patted the colt reassuringly even as she stood to reveal her nakedness as brazenly as the godless statues within Avalon. "Master Penrod," she said huskily, with hardly a question in her voice. "Have you trouble sleeping?"

Never had such an unwholesome image seemed so healthy and natural. I needed a moment to find my voice and I felt as a teenaged boy before her. "I saw you..." I stammered and then I tried another tact. "I wanted to make sure you were all right."

She raised an eyebrow in the flickering lamplight and I realized I had not answered her question. Like a schoolboy caught in a lie by his teacher, I cast my eyes to the ground and mumbled the truth to her. "I could not sleep, no. My mind was overcome with images of death and mad destruction. Then I saw you from my window, dressed only in moonlight and shadows..." I looked up at her eyes as bravely as I could. "Like a moth I found myself drawn to your flame. I..." Then words failed me and I looked down upon the colt at her legs.

There was something wrong with it. What, I could not tell, but it shook as if afflicted from some palsy. Its eyes were grey, filmy orbs that only hinted at sight. Blind and lame, the beast was, no doubt, meant for naught but the butcher. I assumed only Naomi's mercy had spared it thus far and I found myself both jealous and hopeful.

Could not Naomi find such mercy and kindness for me? I could scarcely bring myself to order her to bed me, despite my belief she wanted me, that she had somehow commanded me here with the black magic of her jungle home?

"Master Penrod, my nights are not my own," she said softly, huskily, and with great understatement. As a slave, not even her life was truly her own. Her master could whip her to death in the public square of Calders Bay and none could call him criminal.

I stepped forward as awkward as the twitching creature aside her. My heart beat as wildly as the African war drums I had heard tales of. As bad as I was at word games, I was much worse at expressing my own feelings. As I was in such an odd humor, my voice stumbled in my throat. I was frightened, excited, hopeful, despairing, and amazed at the situation unfolding. I had but tasted her dark honey mere hours ago and I could think of naught else but her sweet lips upon my person again.

"The sin has already been committed in my heart," I said surprised at my own words. What witchcraft was this to pull such poetic utterances from my mouth to be laid upon the ears of a large breasted slave woman, I knew not. I lacked the will to fight it. "Shouldn't we at least consummate the crime for which our souls shall burn eternally for?"

Her eyes were large and hungry. She, too, stepped forward, causing the blind colt nearly to fall over. "Our dalliance was interrupted, true. And Master Herne does not like things left unfinished."

"I am sure, he does not." I said, swallowing a lump I hadn't realized had been blocking my throat. "Surely this late at night there are no pressing needs upon you. There are none about Avalon to make demands of you."

Naomi stepped forward again and slipped her dark hands under my blouse. "You do not know Avalon very well, Master Penrod," she said, her eyes close to mine, burning with wanton desires that I had thought only men possessed. I knew I was about to get a lesson in feminine appetites that I would never forget. "But your flesh is warm, hot with life and passion. He is good and kind, but his flesh is as cold as an empty grave. Press your flesh to mine and speak no more. And if I should call out his name, please be so kind as not to correct me."

I nodded, not needing to be told who HE was. I also wanted to say as much, for I feared my wife's name would cross my lips in a mad moment of impassioned fulfillment, but then Naomi's lips and breasts were upon me. My arms grasped her as I put the thoughts of my wife aside.

I simply couldn't remember her name, in any case.

Next Chapter coming soon!