Chapter 9
Dreams Come True
Rebecca looked outside her window. It was a starry night, the kind of night that had her reminiscing.
On what kind of night do I not reminisce anyway?
Rebecca felt very disappointed. She had believed in the strength of her heart and her ability to move from issues. That didn’t apply to Arthur, obviously. She hadn’t seen him since that wet day in the cemetery, and he still haunted her thoughts and dreams. In the day, she felt anger at his actions and lack of apology upon seeing her that day mixed with regret for what they could have had. In the night, she found it difficult to sleep, frankly missing her first love and wishing he was there with her to provide her night with a cosy, sensual heat. When she slept, images of them making love under the stars haunted her. Well it was difficult for one to describe a sweet, vivid experience as a haunting one, and Rebecca had never regretted dreaming about Arthur. But those dreams were so lucid and had her waking up, hungry for his body.
Something I can never have.
Rebecca rubbed her hand backwards over her wet hair. She had chosen to give Harriet her nightly shower today, letting Miss Wendy have an early night because of the headache she complained about. Rebecca smiled, remembering how incensed she had been when her daughter started her naughty play.
It was probably because I rarely give her the night-time shower.
A super excited Harriet put her hands into the water and started throwing it up. Rebecca tried to get her to stop, but her daughter amidst laughter and a localised commotion due to water getting into Rebecca’s eyes, had not stopped on time. When she finally did, Rebecca was wet all through the front of her gown. Her hair was wet too.
The wind blew into the room. It was as it had always been for the past few weeks, a cold, dry wind that lapped up the skin and raised hair. Rebecca felt cold now and turned her back to the window. Her room was well lighted, so she walked to the mirror, checking her image. She wondered if she could sleep in the wet clothes. The flimsy sleeping gown clung to her skin where she was wet. It stuck to her belly button, etching out the shape of her flat belly and moving up where it followed the contours of her bust. Her bust, softened by Harriet’s neonatal suckling, was still full but not quite as erect. The breasts had a slight dip, hanging their fullness like from a gourd. Her gown clung to every inch of them, showing two sharp peaks where her nipples were. Rebecca thought about removing the dress but changed her mind.
“I wouldn’t sleep early anyway. What’s the rush?” she said.
The dress would surely dry before she found sleep. She rubbed her hand through her hair, smiling when its strands caught the light and glistened. Harriet hadn’t taken her black hair. She had taken her father’s hair, brown but dark. Her eyes weren’t Rebecca’s either. Rebecca sighed. Life had put her in too many tough spots, and she had taken hard decisions.
There was a bristling noise from the tree close to her windowsill. Rebecca turned sideways, not moving but looking outside her window.
It could be an animal or the wind.
There was a repeat of the noise, followed by a shake in the leaves and branches she could see from where she stood. This wasn’t the wind. Rebecca was alarmed, worried that an animal was climbing the tree and could use it as an anchor to get into her room. She tiptoed close to the window and stealthily looked out. She couldn’t see anything. It was too dark, but the trunk kept moving, shaking. Rebecca moved back, shaking her head.
“I am not going to wait till the animal crawls into my room,” she said quietly.
Rebecca slowly and quietly shut the window, panel by panel. Then she tiptoed back to her bed, not appreciating the stilled ventilation but satisfied in relative safety. The noise continued, and soon she realised from the sort of noise that it had to be a four legged animal.
A big four legged animal.
The sounds were as close as possible, right below her window when they stopped. Rebecca lay on her bed, covered by her soft blanket but feeling like she was right in the sight of the animal. She was scared and thought about running to her door and waking up the house. At least the gardener was downstairs; he would be able to kill the animal. Then she remembered she had only shut her window; she hadn’t locked it. The ruckus from her running could attract the animal and send it bounding in before she even got to her door. Fearing for her delicate life, she remained frozen on the bed.
Then she heard a small nudge on her window. Flummoxed by the sound she heard, Rebecca rolled closer to the edge of the bed. She heard it again. The animal was fumbling with her window. It was trying to get in.
But what animal would climb a tree and attempt to get into a room. This isn’t an animal. This is a man.
Emboldened by her realisation and angered at her childish fear, Rebecca stood up stealthily from the bed and walked to her wardrobe. The wardrobe door was open, and she knew what she was looking for. Her hands fumbled in it for only moments before her fingers touched what she was looking for. Grasping it, she crept to the side of the window, hiding behind the curtains.
The sound became a thud, and soon she felt cool air flow past her skin. Peering through the small open space between the curtain and the wall, she saw that her bedroom window had been open. A hand moved in and pushed the second one open, confirming Rebecca’s thoughts and annoying her. This wasn’t an animal’s senseless intrusion. This was a break-in, a possible heist. Rebecca wondered what she had in her house that was worth breaking in for. She wasn’t to know and kept calm as the person quietly crept in through the window.
The curtains blocked her view and shadowed the rest so she couldn’t make out the look of the intruder properly. She only saw his outline. This was a man, and a man of good height. There was a sparkling lining in his trousers, gold maybe. But she couldn’t make out the colour of the rest of his outfit.
The man looked from side to side, obviously searching for something. She saw him move forward, out of her view. Rebecca took one silent step to the right, towards the window, figuring that she should be just behind the thief. She took another and decided that this was enough. She was sure she was behind him. In a swift movement that she knew the man would only see as a sudden whirl from the curtains behind him, Rebecca burst forward and placed the letter opener she had taken from the wardrobe against the front of his neck. He was taller than her, so she couldn’t see his face. She leaned into him though so her hand could go around his neck and place the sharp end of the opener right under his bobbing Adam’s apple.
“What do you want?” she asked in a voice that surprised her with the amount of steel in it.
The person tried to speak but seemed to have a constricted throat. Rebecca repeated her question, shaking the opener at his throat to make him realise she would use it.
“Rebecca, it’s me,” he replied.
His voice sounded eerily familiar, and he knew her name. Rebecca’s grip on the opener softened, and she didn’t push it into his throat with too much force. He raised his hands up where she could see them.
“I want to turn around now, Rebecca,” he said, turning around slowly.
Rebecca took a step back but still cocked her weapon at his head, wary that he could hit her in a burst of quick limbs. She needn’t have worried because when he turned and she saw his face, the opener fell from her hand.
“Arthur?” she shouted, placing one palm over her mouth to control her loud noise.
It was night already, and she didn’t want to attract attention.
Arthur nodded his head. His eyes were fully open, bulging and glistening. He had obviously been of the feeling that she would use the opener. Rebecca doubted that she could do more than threaten with it. She moved back and fell into the bed, bursting into a fit of laughter. Arthur was still breathing deeply. His chest rose and fell as he tried to control his breath. Rebecca couldn’t stop laughing. The thief that had burst into the living quarters at the church had been Arthur, the Earl of Derby.
The man that tormented her dreams with a hundred kisses.
Laughing into the bed sheet, Rebecca turned around and faced the ceiling. She couldn’t stop laughing and soon felt water creep out of her eyes and fall down her cheeks. Arthur, who had gotten control of his rapid breathing now, also sat beside her, laughing softly.
“Arthur, haven’t you heard of the idiom, as poor as a church mouse? What are you breaking into the church for? There’s nothing to steal here,” she said after a bout of laughter.
Arthur gained composure before she did and stood up. He walked towards the window he had come in through and spoke as if to the wind, but Rebecca heard it as loud as a statement spoken into her ears.
“What I came to have is worth more than all the treasures in the sea. This church definitely isn’t poor,” he whispered.
Rebecca stopped laughing and got off the bed too. Now that she had her wits about her, she couldn’t believe that Arthur was here.
This is him, standing in front of me.
Rebecca walked to him and held him by the elbow. Arthur turned back to face her and held both of her hands with his. He opened his mouth to speak and shook his head. Then he cleared his throat and spoke.
“I am sorry that I burst into your house like a burglar, but I couldn’t find rest at home. I had to find you,” he said.
Rebecca nodded, understanding the malaise of the memories of another, snatching rest from a person. She also suffered it, acutely. She smiled, realising that he had also been thinking about her.
“Rebecca, I am sorry that I left. But I had to, there was no other choice,” Arthur said.
He pulled her closer to him, bringing her into the glare of the lamp. Arthur’s eyes roved down her clothes, slowly appraising the clinging of her damp dress to her skin. His eyes moved downwards and started back up again, halting for a while at the junction between her legs and the evident mounds with peaks that her thinly veiled dress revealed. Rebecca could see that Arthur wanted to continue. He had been here to talk, but the words had gotten stuck in his throat. He licked his lips and ignited the fire in Rebecca as her eyes followed the sensual wave of his pink tongue over his firm, pink lips.
There was a yearning, sourced from between her legs that thrilled her and made her skin tingle. Rebecca remembered the torture of her sweet dreams about Arthur and was hungry for him. He made to speak again, but Rebecca wasn’t ready to listen. She was hungry for the hardness of his male body and the nectar of his mouth. She moved closer to him and took in a whiff of his scent. It was Arthur alright, and she wanted him, every inch of him.
Arthur opened his mouth to speak, but Rebecca placed one finger on his lips.
“Enough,” she said.
She had had enough of his explanation. He could continue when she had enough of his body. She moved her hand down, roving in between his legs until her hand gripped his maleness. She smiled when it responded, swelling and hardening within her fist. Arthur smiled, his eyes picking up a glint. He drew closer, with his mouth cracked open, and Rebecca responded, raising her mouth to meet his. His tongue flickered, licking the top of his lips again before he moved lower. Their lips met just as their hands drew the other’s body closer.
Arthur was hungrier than she was, and his mouth stole her breath. His lips met hers with a driven force, pushing and eager to consume. She felt his tongue flicker in quickly, meeting hers as they tasted of each other. Her lip soon got stuck in her mouth as she tasted the fleshiness of his mouth. He placed his hand on her neck and pulled down at her head, tilting her mouth up and allowing himself greater access into her. Rebecca felt giddy as Arthur ravaged her with his mouth.
His hands roved all around her body, through the diaphanous material of her nightgown. Her body lit with fire, anywhere his hands ministered. His palm soon rested on her soft breast, turning its nipple between his fingers. His other hand went around her and gripped her buttock, sliding in the soft divide between them. Rebecca moaned when he poked his fingers between, grazing her wetness gently.
The moan acted like fuel for Arthur as he broke their kiss gradually and moved down. His mouth sought her chin, down to her neck and resting in the bow between her collarbones. Rebecca had to control herself as she could hear her soft moans escaping her throat. She placed her hands under his shirt, removing the buttons from their holes one by one. His shirt was soon completely open, just to be cast away. Rebecca dropped her hands to the buckle of his belt, pulling at the unyielding lock, eager to get his member loose.
Arthur dropped his mouth from her neck and onto the peak of her right breast. Rebecca dug her mouth into Arthur’s scenting hair as she couldn’t hold the yelp that escaped her mouth. His mouth sucked and licked, its heat piercing through her gown and causing her nipple to ache for more attention. Arthur moved to the other one soon, leaving the first one in an aching state, eager to be sucked again.
Rebecca desperate now to have him, pushed him and caused him to fall on the bed. She attacked his belt and soon rid his body of his black breeches. Arthur easily shed his shirt, leaving cotton underwear that Rebecca immediately eased off him. She wrapped her hands around him and drew closer to him. She straddled him and rubbed the head of his member against her sleek spot, aching now for him to fill her. His head rubbed between its lips, brushing the place where she wanted him to be. Arthur rose up and turned them around, pushing her back against the bed while he sat above her waist. He pushed his hands under her gown and pulled the material up till it was off her neck. Rebecca lay naked and ready under him.
“I have sought this ever since I saw you in that cemetery,” Arthur muttered.
Rebecca remembered her dreams and how many times she had wished this to come to pass. Arthur kissed her again, sucking her tongue before dropping his wet mouth to her naked breasts. He sucked and tickled, hardening her nipple to stiffness while his fingers slid between her legs. They would dip in gently, and move out again, readying her for his entrance.
“Arthur, take me,” Rebecca said, taking Arthur back to that night in the hay.
Arthur moved his head up and kissed her again, preoccupying her mouth with his while his member sought hers and slid in, slowly and fully. They both stilled, freezing for a moment as they attained a filling union. The kiss didn’t break. They exchanged moans as Arthur slowly moved his waist, leaning in and out of their sweet communion. Rebecca felt a gradual filling with pleasure as he drew his member out of her, almost completely before returning it to thrill her insides. The kiss finally broke as she heard herself gasping in ecstasy as Arthur made her dreams come true.
It was like a rock down a hillside, rolling faster and picking up mass. The levels of joy increased, pulsing through her and starting to cause her hips to buck. Rebecca held tight to Arthur’s back, pushing her nails and fingers into his skin. She kissed his breast, tasting the saltiness of his slightly sweaty skin. Her mouth sought his nipple, finding it and latching on as the rock rolling in her had become a boulder and was nearing the edge of the cliff. Rebecca responded better; moving her hips to Arthur’s stroke as she felt it reach the end, break through the fence at the edge and bound into oblivion. The pleasure peak tore through her, causing her to quiver and shake as Arthur burst in her, giving himself to her.
Their bodies shook, and Rebecca laughed again gently as she heard their hearts beat rapidly but in tandem. His breath was hot on her neck, reminding her of the touch of his mouth. Her hips bucked again, as one final cascade rocked her, making her clutch his buttock.
Arthur rolled away from her, lying beside her and looking up to the ceiling too. His hand sought hers and hers his. And they remained there, saying nothing but savouring the sensations of what they had just shared.