Tess practiced frying eggs and making toast all weekend to impress Mr. Solomons on Monday morning. While she hadn't mastered the art of not breaking a yolk, she was determined to prepare him eggs to show she was putting in effort.
When she arrived at Mr. Solomons' she went straight into the kitchen, her mind focused on her task. She prepared the eggs as best she could and took the plate and jam into the dining room. Upon her arrival she paused and looked around.
On the table lay a cream-colored brassiere. Tess was unsure what to do. Was there a woman in the home? She didn't see one and Edna never mentioned one. Perhaps Mr. Solomons had a female relative staying with him, and she misplaced the garment?
Tess's questions were answered when Mr. Solomons and a topless woman came into the room. The woman grabbed the bra and fastened it around her, pulling a shirt over it. When the woman turned to Alfie, he bent and gave her a kiss. The woman pulled him closer, moaning into his mouth and causing Tess's cheeks to warm in embarrassment. Alfie's arm wrapped around the woman's waist, and he guided her toward the table until he had her pressed against it.
Tess stood frozen, staring at the two of them, unsure of what to do. Thankfully, the two broke apart and Alfie informed the woman he had business and that she needed to go. When the woman left, he looked at Tess and raised his eyebrows.
"If you're needing something to fuel your fantasies, you'll have to serve me breakfast first."
"What?" Tess asked in shock. "I-I wasn't- I was shocked is all. I don't need any fuel! Not that I have fantasies, I-"
Alfie's lip quirked at her fumbled response and the embarrassment that spread to redden her ears.
"I have no interest in intercourse until I'm married." She continued, taking a deep breath to calm herself.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?"
"It shouldn't." She insisted incredulously. "Any proper woman should-"
"No one wants a 'proper' woman." Alfie said, shaking his head and taking a seat at the table. "And the women who say they are proper, aren't. They all fuck around and if they haven't, yet they will because they spend their time alone, playing with their own cunts. They just pretend they don't and stick their noses so far in the fucking air, they drown when it rains."
"Not all of them." Tess said, her brows creasing.
Alfie tilted his head in disbelief and pinched his brows together, convinced she was lying. "So, you are telling me you don't slip your hand between your legs when no one is around?"
"No."
Alfie stood and took a few tentative steps toward her, so close she could smell the soap from his shower that morning.
"No? Not when you wake up at night after an intense, delicious dream and your cunt is dripping wet with need?"
His words ran down her spine, settling in the exact spot he was describing but Tess shook her head.
"No one would know." He said with his gravelly voice in her ear. "You could rub delicate little circles around your clit every night until your toes curled and still come in every morning and lecture me on propriety. No one would be any the wiser." He paused. "Is that what you do Theresa?"
Tess cleared her throat. "My name isn't Theresa. It's Esther, after my mother." She said taking a step around him and placing his food on the table. "And no, It is not what I do. Fried eggs, toast, and jam." She motioned to the table and then proceeded out of the room.
Tess leaned against the wall when she got to the kitchen. She squeezed her thighs together. What he had said to her was incredibly indecent, just like that book! Yet, she didn't feel angry at him for it. She wanted to, but she didn't. Instead, she felt a slickness between her legs that she'd only felt a handful of times before. She knew what dreams he had meant because she'd had them. Not so detailed, mostly just sensations and tingles rather than vivid dreams. She always woke up with an aching need between her legs, but she never did anything about it. Except the one time she woke up on her side, shifting her hips with a pillow between her knees but she stopped when she realized what she was doing. Tess's mind trailed off to that night, remembering the sensation building between her legs.
She came back to herself when she heard the door close, signaling Mr. Solomons exit. Embarrassment flooded her at her own thoughts. She'd always been taught sexual thoughts and actions without a husband were wrong. Her problem now was that Camden Town was full of individuals who felt very differently.
The week went on and Tess was gradually getting better at preparing Mr. Solomon's his breakfast of choice. Dinners consisted of easy recipes that Mrs. Schwartz gave her in the evenings when Tess would call.
On Friday, Tess had just come back in from getting two fresh sets of sheets off the clothesline on the roof when she heard a voice from the sitting room.
Thinking Mr. Solomons had come in early; she placed the laundry down and proceeded to the sitting room to see if he needed her.
The sight she saw in the sitting room forced a gasp to escape before she could conceal it. Rushing quickly from the room, she hid around the corner, her heart beating rapidly.