I took my leave of Mrs. Delaney and Dr. Mink, my heart buoyant. I might have a career after all.
I had almost drifted off to sleep when someone tapped on my door. I shall thrash that puppy boy if he’s come to bother me for another story, I promised. To my surprise, I found Lillie there clad in her chemise and wrapper. I gaped at her like a ninny.
“Will you invite me in?” she asked.
I stood back to allow her to enter, still unable to find words.
She pulled a pin from her hair, and her red curls tumbled about her shoulders. “I thought you might like some company,” she whispered.
I realized that I was standing there in just my shirt. My mouth dried.
She wriggled and shrugged, and her wrapper slid to the floor. My luck was really changing, I thought, as she undid my top buttons and slid her hand beneath my shirt.
“You have a fine build,” she purred, and my knees went weak.
“What’s this?” she asked, and pulled the scarab ring from under my shirt by its chain. “A token from a lover?” She chuckled.
“A good-luck charm from a friend,” I said, gently taking the ring from her. Why did I feel peculiar? I had no one to be faithful to.
Lillie leaned close and her musky perfume enveloped me. She ran her tongue up the side of my neck, and I tossed my foolish reservations aside, pulled her to me, and pressed my mouth to hers.
Her teeth nibbled my lower lip, and my mouth parted in surprise. Before it could close, her little pink tongue slipped within and tangled with mine. I squeaked before I could help it. Her muffled laughter hummed through me, and I grasped her tighter and tried to follow her lead. I was tentative, clumsy, and afraid to prove myself a fool, but she sighed and I took encouragement.
She pushed me and I pulled her, and we stumbled backward to the bed. The heat of her flesh beneath her flimsy nightdress seared me, and the smell of her dizzied my senses. My hands molded the curves of her hips and glided to the mounds of her wondrous breasts. Is this really happening? I wondered as she sank beneath me onto the humble straw mattress.
She took my hand and drew it up her leg to guide it where the fire burned hottest, dragging her chemise along with it. I trembled. “Lillie,” I whispered. “You are the most beautiful creature.”
Her lips tickled up my chest to my throat. “Ouch!” she cried, and her hand flew to her head. Her hair was snagged in the chain about my neck. She lifted the ring to untangle herself. She yelped and dropped it.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I heard my conscience, loud as life, say, ‘Leave him alone,’” she replied, her eyes wide. She began to tear her hair free.
“Shhhhh!” I said, trying to still her fingers. I felt an undertow of disquiet. She had touched the ring before she said those odd words. Was it only coincidence? “Why on earth would your conscience speak to you?”
“Oh, you are such an innocent!” Lillie blurted out.
“Not in five minutes,” I said, squashing flat my apprehension. I pulled her to me.
She wriggled out of my embrace. “No, it’s not fair on you. I can’t do this when you were so good and helped me with that bully.”
“Not fair? Leaving me in this state is unfair,” I protested, to my immediate embarrassment.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “Mrs. Delaney sent me to distract you.”
She was right. I didn’t understand. “You’re succeeding,” I said, too aware of the ache of my desire to question Mrs. Delaney’s interest.
“I don’t want to fool you, you’re too sweet,” Lillie said.
“Fool me?”
Lillie placed a hand on my shoulder. “Dr. Mink is stealing away with your friend. Please don’t hate me.”
The scoundrel! He had no intention of watching me perform in the morning. He was making off with Apollo instead! It crossed my mind that Apollo couldn’t get too far in ten or fifteen minutes, but I dismissed that idea as dishonorable. Mr. Northstar had warned me not to let Apollo fall into evil hands, and I had done it nevertheless. I leaped to my feet, buttoning my shirt. “I don’t hate you, Lillie,” I said. Which was true. I hated fate, which gave me a present with one hand and took it away with the other.
As I pulled on my trousers, Lillie explained. “Dr. Mink is Mrs. Delaney’s half brother. He visited recently. When she saw Apollo, she knew he would pay well for knowledge of him. She sent her boy after Mink on the pony.”
I raced out the door and headed for the field.