Garden of May

He hadn’t expected her to be quite this perplexed.

“I want you to be the most beautiful woman wherever you stand. No matter where that is.”

“Still, this is… it’s too much.”

“You said you would draw the gaze of other men. To protect my honor.”

The woman’s flushed cheeks went slightly pale, then regained their red hue.

“Of course, I… intend to do that, but…”

“Men are a simple breed; they crave what looks expensive to them.”

Especially the fools who didn’t know what a Demuers diamond signified. Theodore’s lips curved alluringly, holding back words he couldn’t speak aloud. This was, so to speak, a brand. A mark that she was a woman associated with Batenberg.

Poor Vanessa would not easily achieve her goal wearing this necklace. Unless the men, terrified out of their wits, simply avoided her entirely… And a secret rendezvous, of all things. On a ship where simply killing a man and tossing him into the sea would be the end of it—how fearless.

Vanessa checked inside the box with an anxious, nervous face and looked at him with pleading eyes.

“I can do well even without this.”

“It will be easier with it.”

He removed Vanessa’s glasses and cupped her pale cheek, lifting her face. Her grey eyes, which had sunk deep with complicated thoughts, met his gaze and trembled faintly. If she had too many thoughts, he simply had to get rid of them. He captured Vanessa’s small lips, swallowing the refusal that was about to follow. He parted her startled, flinching lips and entangled his tongue with hers, soothingly.

Sweet, soft, and languid. Every time their breath mingled, an overwhelming sense of satisfaction and relief washed over him. The sensation that he had finally returned cut deep. Just having this one woman in his arms. Just feeling this warmth again.

As he lifted Vanessa into his arms, her legs wrapped familiarly around his waist. They collapsed onto the bed, the kiss deepening. Pressed together without a gap for even a breath to escape, they felt each other through sensitive skin.

“Nngh…”

A hand slipped beneath the loose hem of her chemise to grasp her b****t, drawing a fragile whimper from her. He could feel her small body shudder violently every time his fingers rubbed hard against the flushed n****e.

It was a body that felt pleasure obscenely well. Sunlight shattered white over her female form, which had been stripped bare before he knew it. The corners of the woman’s eyes were red as she panted, her nakedness exposed in shame.

As if granting her a moment’s respite, Theodore bit down on her lower lip painfully before lifting his head. Holding Vanessa’s smooth thighs and spreading them wide, he crooked one corner of his mouth. His gaze was cool, yet it held a warmth he wasn’t even aware of.

“You really do look prettiest when you’re completely naked.”

***

Since River Ross returned, only good things had happened. She didn’t want to believe her luck depended on someone else, but it was true.

On the afternoon she retrieved her pendant, she received a call from the police station that they had found Blair’s gift. Shortly after, a mail carrier delivered the cufflinks, pristine and without a single scratch. A new sponsor appeared at the hospital where Mary’s brother was admitted, and the entire South was bustling with rare vitality due to expectations of the horse racing business Batenberg was investing in. Some who had left for the capital even returned amidst vague hopes that a railroad might be built.

Her uncle rarely returned to the castle due to new business ventures, and consequently, she was granted more freedom.

“I’m so nervous.”

Vanessa, dressed in blue, stood close to Rosaline, gripping her fan tightly. The launch ceremony of the passenger ship, which had been so magnificent and grand it left one speechless, was over. Now began the ball that would last until late into the night.

Blair escorted them only to the vicinity before disappearing into the crowd with Cissy. Vanessa, watching anxiously in the direction they had vanished, bit her lip out of habit, forgetting she shouldn’t. Could she really find a stranger in this immense crowd where one could lose sight of even a familiar face in the blink of an eye?

She had only seen Viscount B. Dawson’s face in a photograph. And a small, printed one in the corner of a newspaper that was easily over ten years old.

Perhaps sensing her bleak expression, Rosaline laughed and pulled on her arm.

“There’s no need to be so tense. You haven’t properly made your debut anyway, so they’ll understand if you act a little inexperienced. In fact, men sometimes prefer that.”

“What do I do now?”

“Smile and accept it when men approach. Dance with them, talk to them.”

“Accept it…”

“And if a man you like appears, even better. Though, you must check his family background before starting anything.”

Rosaline, who had been whispering softly with her fan covering her mouth, suddenly tilted her chin up slightly. A man was walking straight toward them. The shipboard party was truly beginning.