I thought I'd let them- and us- have a chapter of unadulterated happiness as I'm planning to keep this compliant with Series 2.
He was intensely grateful now that he had listened to her. Hers had been the best idea by far. They could by no means afford to meet at his house every night; they didn't even meet at the hospital every night, but that was more to do with the chances of someone discovering them, though she had once or twice hinted that it was a risk she was willing to take. But on those occasions when he heard the sound of the front door clicking quietly open, and hurried out into the hall to find her standing in her evening dress, having come straight down from dinner at the big house, hanging up her coat on the pegs beside his; it was worth every moment of the nights he had to spend alone. The sight of her looking so beautiful in rich green or cream or blue, and so happy to be near him was truly beyond value.
He moved forwards to meet her and kiss her. Her face was cold, as were her bare elbows, and he pressed her into his chest, rubbing her back gently to warm her up.
"I'm alright," she told him softly, knowing he was worrying about her.
"The nights are getting colder," he reminded her.
"Oh, don't I know it!" she replied ruefully, taking him by the hand and leading him further into the hall away from the door, "Cousin Cora can barely bring herself to speak a civil word to me. I'd say that I don't know why she still invites me for dinner at all, only that we were a very small number again. Are we going straight up?" she paused at the foot of the stairs.
"If you like."
She start to climb the stairs, lifting her dress a little so she didn't trip, as he switched off the oil light in the sitting room and the hall, following her a few moments later into his bedroom where she was taking off her jewellery, lying them out beside his cuff links and comb.
"So what was the topic of conversation tonight?" he asked as he unbuttoned his shirt- he had discarded his jacket a long time ago while was waiting for her. He asked that particular question because her tendency to be rather wry meant that she was usually highly amusing on the subject.
"Oh, well, we had a break from my deficiencies, and talked about Shakespeare," she replied.
"Really?" He had to admit that surprised him a little bit.
"Yes," she told him, standing up from the chair at the writing desk she'd been sitting at, "In fact we'd frequently tread that path or something similar before the war. It's such a shame; the girls used to get so worked up and enthused about things like that before- at least Sybil did-, now they all just drift aimlessly through the motions so that they've got something to say. In a way I wish they didn't bother."
She stood before him, her back to him as had become their custom so that he could help her out of her dress.
"You know if you want me as a full time lady's maid we're going to have to discuss my salary," he teased her as he encountered difficulty with some of the more resistant hooks.
"I was under the impression that you felt the benefit of it in other ways," she replied smoothly, looking back over her shoulder at him in some amusement, "Anyway, you'd be a rotten lady's maid as soon as it came to getting me into the clothes!"
He laughed as the catch came free and she was able to ease herself out of the garment altogether.
"Well, that's probably true," he conceded, taking off his trousers and getting into bed as she unfastened her corset, dropped it quickly on the floor and got in beside him, lying close beside him, snuggling gratefully into his side as he wrapped one arm around her shoulders and let the other drape around her waist, resting her forehead against his chin.
"Richard?" she asked thoughtfully after a while, "Which is your favourite play by Shakespeare?"
He chuckled.
"Guess," he told her.
She raised her eyebrow at him for a second in thought. Really, she realised a second later, it was too obvious.
"The Scottish Play," she reasoned.
He laughed again.
"Well, I'd give you full marks for logic, my darling," he told her kissing her forehead, "Which is yours?"
"Well, I'll tell you because you probably won't guess," she told him, "I always rather favoured Othello."
"Why?" he asked curiously.
"Oh, for intellectual reasons," she told him very casually, moving out of his arm to lie on her front, propping up her elbows to rest her chin on her fist and look down on him lying on his side, watching her, affording him a splendid view of her cleavage through the neck of her shift, "Though I suppose it makes me very middle class to say so."
She smiled her beautiful too-wide Isobel-smile and he knew she was joking.
"No, really," she told him, scoffing a little at her own feigned big-headedness, "I always did like Othello and Desdemona. They were so different and yet so right together, I always thought. And so in love. So much so that they both died for it in the end."
"And when I love thee not, chaos is come again," he quoted, taking her by surprise, not least by the way he looked at her, his eyes full of their own love and desire, when he said it. It made her heart skip a beat.
"I thought you said you liked Macbeth?" she asked him.
"I do, but it doesn't mean I can only go and see that one play," he reminded her softly, taking advantage of her momentary distraction to sit up, helping her to do so as well, wrapping his arm around her, and kissing her thoroughly, his other hand reaching into her loose hair as his mouth left hers to move slowly along her jaw.
He knew her so well by know, knew that as she tilted her head back slightly her eyes would flit closed and her mouth would spread into the smallest of blissful smiles. His hand left her hair to touch softly against her breast.
"What will you have tonight, my darling?" he asked her quietly, his mouth close to her ear.
"Just touch me, please, Richard," she begged him, her hand reaching timidly but impatiently to his, partially covering it and pressing it back into her breast.
He massaged her, kneading her breasts until she moaned, tracing the outline of her hardened nipples through her shift.
"Only here?" he asked in her ear.
Her head was thrown back in excitement, and he could not resist placing a single kiss at the base of her neck and feeling her shiver.
"More, Richard," she told him, "More."
"How much more?"
"Richard, please don't tease me," a thin sheen of sweat had broken out across her forehead and she was breathing heavily, "Or do I have to show you?"
Approaching abandon as she seemed, she was obviously less far gone than he's thought. She still had her wits about her at any rate, enough to take him by surprise. Apart from their first time, he'd found her a relatively reticent lover; he'd have never thought she'd be bold enough to suggest... He groaned loudly at the thought.
"Oh, Isobel, please do."
Biting firmly on her lip in an attempt to control herself, she reached down slowly between her parted legs, raising her shift up over her thighs. Her fingers found the curls at her centre, pressing firmly upwards in a particular spot. Seeing the way her eyes widened, Richard reached forwards quickly to take over from her, slipping his fingers onto the same spot and pressing hard with his middle finger, while drawing her nub between his forefinger and thumb to massage her. The desperate whimper she let out as he eased her to lie down on the bed was music to his ears.
"Oh, Richard, Richard, I'm-..."
"Let go," he told her.
Her orgasm hit her with explosive force he could tell by the way that her whole body trembled violently in his arms and the cry she let out.
Lying beside her, stroking her arm, waiting for her to come back to him, he was fascinated by the absolute beauty of her face, still bearing signs of her abandon. He smiled at her softly as her eyes finally opened.
"Thank you, Richard."
"You're very welcome, my love."
"I think you're right you know," she told him slowly, moving closer to his lips, "If I want to keep you on a permanent basis , I think we'd better find some method method for repayment."
"You really are insatiable, aren't you?" he asked her, rather awed, as they finally broke apart from their kiss.
"Only when I'm with you," she told him, surprising him again by pulling him towards her to lie over her.
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