It was the wee hours of the morning before Lance had his fill of pleasuring me. It was amazing how selfless a lover he was. More than once, I was tempted to go all the way. It wasn’t just because I felt guilty about peaking so many times while his manhood was practically bursting with desire, but because I was beginning to long having him inside of me. To my surprise, when I literally begged him to enter me, he declined. He insisted that enjoying my body in that way was all the satisfaction that he needed and was enough to solidify the bonding between us. He then proceeded to state that we should save his penetration of me for our wedding night. I was so out in left field with desire that his words never registered correctly. I simply responded with a sigh.
With Nora’s dress cradled in my arms, my naked body followed his equal nakedness to my room where he deposited me with the instructions that I take a long bath. After one more long and lingering kiss, I bid him goodnight.
While I waited for the tub to fill, I moved to the sink. Loading up the bristles of my toothbrush with mint flavored toothpaste, I scrubbed at my mouth with a vengeance. I felt bad about scrubbing his kisses away, but the remnants of his release needed to go. It took the entire length of time for the deep tub to fill before I felt satisfied that my mouth was clean again.
I’d just immersed myself into a deliciously hot, lavender scented bubble bath when Nora came rushing into my ensuite bathroom. She was breathless with excitement. “Where have you been? The place is in an uproar. Melanie went missing about three hours ago. Where were you?”
I decided that it was time to come clean. “Fooling around with Lance in the servant’s quarters.”
She looked at me with shocked surprise. “What?”
I gave her a defensive look. “You jumped into the pool half naked with that strange guy. You have no room to judge me.”
“I was tossed into the pool,” she corrected me, “and I’m not judging. I’m just surprised.”
“As am I,” I said.
“By me? Or by you?” she asked.
“Both,” I said as I laid back and rested my head against the cool porcelain of the ancient claw foot tub. “Why is everyone in an uproar over Melanie? She’s probably off with one of the male guests doing the same thing Lance and I were doing. Or, maybe she’s off with a woman. Did you take a head count?”
“You don’t understand,” Nora quickly said. “She was playing around the pool with the rest of us. One minute she was there and the next she was gone.” She splayed her fingers in the air. “Poof!”
“Poof?” I repeated.
“Yeah. Poof!” she said with emphasis.
“Did you see her go poof?” the investigator in me asked as I sank deeper into the soothing bath water. I had no interest in Melanie’s antics or the drama that they caused. My hours of foreplay had left me a bit tender in certain areas. The heat of the water was helping to ease that tenderness.
“It’s difficult to explain,” Nora said with a teary voice. “It’s like she walked off into thin air.”
I sat up and looked at my friend. It wasn’t her statement that grabbed my attention, but the sincerity in which it was said. Nora wasn’t joking. She was clearly upset. I felt bad about it, but I simply couldn’t muster an interest in the drama.
“Has anyone told Lance?” I asked in a lazy manner that told of my disinterest.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. The last I knew, he was nowhere to be found.”
“Because he was with me,” I reminded her.
I pulled at the chain that was attached to the plug of the tub with my toes. The gurgling sound of the water rushing down the drain echoed off the walls as I stepped out of the bath and unabashedly picked up the thick towel that was placed on the wooden chair next to the tub to dry off. Nora’s exposure to my nakedness started long before I bloomed into womanhood; as was mine with hers. It was ages since we’d experienced shyness with each other.
“What was it like?” she asked in a soft tone.
“What was what like?” I asked while I busily dried my arms and legs; even though I knew what she was referring to.
“Was he as good a lover as you’d expect?” she asked with eagerness.
I nodded. “Even better.”
Her voice trembled with anticipation of my answer. “Did you go all the way?”
I shook my head. “I told you that we just fooled around. Foreplay. Nothing more.”
She nodded and said inquisitively, “In the servant’s quarters?”
“Yes,” I said with impatience.
“Why there?” she asked. “I mean. Why not here?”
I wrapped the jumbo bath towel around my torso and rubbed at my flesh to help dry it. “It started out as a tour and just ended up like that.”
She looked wistfully into space. “That’s so cool. He’s openly shown his like for you. Even at the bar.”
I furrowed my brow. “I didn’t notice at the bar.”
My dear friend chuckled. “That doesn’t surprise me. You rarely notice when a man is interested. They have to literally flaunt themselves at you and present you with a designer dress before you get it. Now, me, on the other hand, I’d be calling the preacher to set a date if a man half as hot as Lance looked my way. Hell, I’d take an ogre about now.”
I understood her meaning. While I rarely dated because I was more focused on my career than men -as well as the fact that I wanted to avoid being pressured into pre-marital sex-, Nora simply didn’t get asked out. More than once, she’d expressed her sadness over the lack of love and her loneliness.
“You looked pretty cozy with the guy at the pool,” I said.
She smiled a sassy smile. “We did it in the bushes.”
“What?” I screeched.
She shrugged. “I’d had more vodka than I care to admit and then he gave me something. A pill. I think it was meant to make me horny because I practically raped the guy.”
“That’s so wrong,” I spat. “Who is this man? I didn’t get a good look at him.”
“You will soon enough,” she said with a smug tone. “He’s taking me out to dinner and a movie next weekend.”
“After this weekend?” I asked with surprise. “You mean he made a date with you?”
Her pride and delight poured forth as she rapidly nodded. “I can’t believe it. He’s so cute. It’s like a dream.”
Unlike me, Nora spent the better part of a year seeing a man who was separated from his wife. He worked in the office building next to ours in accounts payable. He met her at her apartment several times a month after work for sex, but never took her out on a real date. She deluded herself into believing that he really cared for her and that things would change once he got his divorce and didn’t have to worry about repercussions from dating prior to it. I hated to do it, but I eventually investigated the man and discovered that he was still happily married and simply looking for the thrill of having a lover on the side. Nora was devastated when I told her the truth about him, but didn’t hold it against me for taking the initiative and checking him out.
That was two years ago and she hadn’t had a date since. This roll in the bushes was a long time coming.
“Did you enjoy the sex with him?” I asked as I remembered my time with Lance.
She nodded, then shook her head, and then nodded again. “I’m not sure. It was kind of a blur.”
I scowled. “I don’t like the sound of that. When did he make the date with you? Was it before or after your tumble in the bushes?”
“Before, but what does that matter? Don’t go spoiling things for me, Esma,” she scolded. “I don’t attract guys like you do. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s not like the last time. He’s not married. I asked around. Please don’t spoil this for me.”
I felt horrible. Esma was a childhood nick name that I’d long outgrown. She only shortened my name to Esma when she was flustered. I definitely didn’t want to spoil her happiness, but I suspected that the offer to get together the following weekend was simply stated as a means to get sex on this date rapist’s part. If I could call it date rape. Since my desperate for love and very naïve friend remembered the event to some degree and claimed to have willingly participated, I just didn’t know what to call it. A drunken, drug induced one night stand, perhaps? Whatever it was, I didn’t appreciate the fact that this guy was using my friend for sex.
Consulting adults or not, promoting the mood with a pill was simply wrong. Promising to take her on a date the following weekend -when he more than likely had no intention of following through with it- to assure his tumble in the bushes was downright cruel. This was a prime example of why I avoided the process of dating. Weeding out the good guys from the creeps was simply too exhausting.
Sure, I’d behaved boldly with Lance, but there was no sex inducing pill involved and no false promises made. We simply enjoyed the process of foreplay between a man and a woman. Nothing more. If I never saw Lance again it would be alright because he made no promises to me; nor I to him. In fact, the man could have had far more of me, but he declined.
A vague memory of him mentioning our wedding night during out interlude flitted through my head. Thinking that it was the little girl inside me foolishly fantasizing over the handsome bachelor, I quickly pushed it out.
“Just promise me that you won’t take any more of those pills again,” I said as I hung my towel to dry and strode into the bedroom. “If the man can’t have sex without them, then that’s a red flag.”
She watched with curiosity as I crawled beneath the covers. “Didn’t you bring a nightgown?”
“I sleep naked,” I explained.
Her surprise at this new bit of information about my habits was evident on her face. “Since when?”
I fluffed my pillow and sank my head down into it. “I started about six months ago after reading an article about its health benefits. It’s supposed to have quite a few.” I sighed with pleasure as I wiggled between the Egyptian cotton sheets that were softened by age and use. “It makes me feel sexy, too.”
“I don’t know if I could do it,” she said with concern. “My nightie is like a security blanket.”
“I had trouble at first, but, now, I’m used to it,” I assured her. “You should try it sometime.”
“Hmmm. Maybe some time,” she mused. “Are you going to sleep now?”
“The sun will be rising soon,” I said with a yawn. “I’m exhausted. You had just as eventful an evening as I did. I’m surprised you’re still up.”
“What about Melanie?” Nora asked with hesitation.
“I’m sure our little attention seeker will show up,” I groaned as I rolled onto my side and snuggled into the bedding. “This is a big estate. She’s probably wandering about. When everyone sobers up, we’ll go looking for her. If she doesn’t come back on her own, that is.”
Her disappointment in my apathy toward Melanie’s disappearance was written on her face, but she said no more as she lightly kissed my forehead, told me to sleep tight, and left the room.
My friend had barely closed my bedroom door behind her before I could feel my body shutting down for sleep. A quick memory of Lance releasing his seed inside my mouth flitted about my head. I shuddered and pushed it as far into the recesses of my mind as I could. I didn’t want anything spoiling the way that I felt just then. The satisfaction that my entire body felt from my sexual tryst with Lance, combined with the relaxing lavender bath and pampering of the thick bedding, proved more potent than a sleeping pill.
Before I knew it, Nora was gently shaking me awake.
“Lance wants everyone to gather down in the sitting room,” she said in a low voice.
I opened one eye. The sun was up, but its lack of potency and position told me that it had only just risen.
“What time is it? I can’t have had more than a few hours’ sleep,” I complained.
“Melanie’s in a coma,” she blurted as she turned to leave the room. “They found her bound behind the guest house. Hurry.”
I lay still as her words sank into my sleepy brain. Melanie was bound and in a coma? Was that what she’d just said?
I leapt from my bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt that was less form fitting than the one I’d worn the day before. Forgoing my shoes, I slipped my feet into the slippers that the room provided and padded my way downstairs. I was the last to arrive.
“It’s so nice of the investigator to grace us with her presence,” came a hostile male voice from the middle of the small crowd that had gathered around Lance in the center of the room.
Realizing that the remark came from the man who I’d guessed had designs on our host, rather than be upset, I inwardly congratulated myself on my ability to assess people.
“That was uncalled for,” Lance snapped. “Esmerelda is not responsible for what happened to Melanie. Nor is she a police officer who is required to investigate what happened. She’s a guest in this house just like the rest of you. I would appreciate your consideration in this matter.”
Ignoring the open glowering and snide remarks that were being whispered about me and my association with the very coveted Lance Northrup, I closed my eyes to see if I could get an impression from the house as to what happened.
All I could get were the words, ‘The other side of the mirror.’ They made absolutely no sense to me, even though they sounded in my head over and over again. Frustrated and irritated, I walked to the far side of the room, away from the crowd. Perhaps if I put some space between them and me, I’d get a better idea of what happened.
I moved to the tapestry upholstered window seat and sat down. Closing my eyes and breathing at a slow and steady pace, I concentrated on the energy of the house and its grounds.
Again, ‘The other side of the mirror’ filled my head.
Lance’s unhappy voice startled me out of my light trance. “What are you doing?”
My hand flew over my heart as if to hold it in place as my body jolted. My voice had an abnormally high pitch as I stammered, “Y- you startled me.”
“I apologize for the way they behaved,” he said with disapproval.
“It’s fine,” I said, “That’s not why I left although I can see why you thought that it might be.” I took a deep breath and spoke while I released it. “I probably should have stayed, but I was trying to pick up some information and it was too chaotic over there.”
He cocked his head in thought. “You are psychic?”
I emitted an uncomfortable chuckle. Whenever I thought of psychics, I thought of fraudulent females wearing gawdy jewelry and long skirts with no shoes. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. Maybe. If I am, I don’t use it. I just get impressions. Information if you like, from my surroundings. It’s as if the place and things speak to me.”
“That is psychic and you are using it. Maybe not like Madam Zelda would with a sign over a table and a turban on her head, but you are putting it to use all the same,” he mused.
“I don’t want people thinking that I’m a psychic that they can come to for a fortune,” I insisted. “That’s not who I am. I’m an investigator who uses whatever skills I have to solve a case.”
“You are a paranormal investigator, my dear,” he said as he lowered himself onto the window seat next to me.
“I don’t chase ghosts,” I protested as I quickly looked to see how many evil stares I was getting as a result of his attention.
To my surprise and relief, they were all too preoccupied with conversation that sounded high pitched and argumentative to pay any attention to me.
“Paranormal does not mean ghost hunter. It denotes events or phenomena that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding,” he offered. “I would say that getting impressions from places or things falls in that category. Wouldn’t you?”
I thought for a moment and then nodded.
“What have you gotten from this place?” he asked.
I slowly shook my head. “Very little. Nothing that makes sense, anyway. With the place being so old, I’m surprised, but, then, I don’t always get things. It depends on the place or the thing. Usually, if the place or thing is as old as this one, I get a lot. For some reason it’s not happening here. If I do get something of value, you’ll be the first to hear about it.”
The sound of the police car and ambulance arriving demanded his attention. He lightly kissed my forehead and then headed off to speak with them.
We were all aghast when the ambulance staff pronounced that Melanie’s coma was severe enough for her to have brain damage and the possibility of her not coming out of it was great. They suspected that whoever had done this to her had left her for dead.The police insisted upon speaking to each guest privately. Suspicion was pointed in my direction when a few of the jealous and catty guests proceeded to announce that I was nowhere to be found when Melanie disappeared. To my relief , as well as my embarrassment, Lance came to my rescue when he confided that we were in a lover’s tryst. Nora followed up with my alibi by confirming that I’d gone to bed after hearing about Melanie’s disappearance. To my surprise and delight, my interview ended up being short and sweet. Not so for the other guests in the house.It felt like an eternity before the ambulance took her body away, and the police ceased t
We stood beneath the grand house’s portico and watched the last guest’s car make its way down the long, tree-lined drive. The place felt eerily quiet after the recent drama and commotion. Nora asked to be excused so that she could lay down for a while. Unlike me, she had yet to go to bed since awakening the day before. On top of that, she was feeling the effects of the excessive partying as the alcohol left her system.We hadn’t had breakfast and it was approaching noon. Lance had given his staff the day off. He’d claimed that it was because they were traumatized by the violence on the premises, but I later discovered that it was because he wanted to be completely alone in the house with me and Nora when he explained just what it was that he needed us to do.“I am actually glad that it is just you and me right now,” he said as he pulled out a platter of meats for sandwiches from the oversized
I stood in the center of the nursery. What he was claiming was total madness, yet, my mind continued to cling to his story. I needed to prove him wrong for my own sanity’s sake. Closing my eyes, I willed the room to speak to me. Common sense told me that there was no truth to Lance’s story, but, just to appease my mind and free it from all doubts, I would investigate. If there was any truth to his wild tale, it would come forth. When nothing happened, I inwardly smiled with smugness. I knew that his tale was that of a madman. Even so, I was still being nagged by his story. Not getting a vision just wasn’t enough to satisfy the nagging in the recesses of my mind. I needed to do more to prove to myself that his story was completely off-the-charts crazy. Opening my eyes, I said in a voice as gentle as I could manage in my flustered state, “If you don’t mind, it would be better if I was in here alone.” He look
Very little was said between Lance and me for the next few hours. We were each deep in thought. Sensing that I needed my space, he made his way to a separate part of the house to allow me alone time to process all that I’d learned and all that he wanted of me.When Nora finally came out of her room, she found me sitting on a lounge chair near the pool. Unlike the partiers from the day before, my body wasn’t filled with alcohol and I was feeling the cold nip in the air. Even though the pool was still ready and waiting for swimmers, I wasn’t about to use it. Instead, I’d grabbed an afghan from the back of a chair inside of the house and bundled myself into it while I breathed in the cool air and tried to think on what to do.“Where’s Lance?” she asked as she lowered her body onto the lounge next to me. “I can’t believe I went swimming yesterday. It’s freezing.&rdqu
I was more than a little nervous as I slipped into the nineteenth century apparel that Lance had produced. It was really happening. I was really going to go back in time. He was taking me back to the early nineteenth century.Since I came from a family of wealth and was marrying into wealth, I was required to dress accordingly. Although the billowing cotton skirt was tolerable, I couldn’t say as much for the tortuous corset or the hoop that swayed to and fro when I walked.Lance explained that most ladies rested their hands on their hips to help keep the swaying to a minimum when they moved about. It was all so taxing to deal with, let alone remember.The underdrawers were a surprise that made me giggle. They were literally made with a huge slit in the crotch. I couldn’t help joking with Nora about the ease in sneaking about with a lover. After which, I had to calm my body down as I considered how it wo
Nora sat on the ugly yellow couch that I found so offensive. Her body was tense with anticipation. “You may not care for this couch, Esmerelda, but it’s super comfy.”Lance looked at me with mock dismay. “You don’t like the couch?”I shook my head. “I hate the color. It doesn’t go with the room.”“Maybe not, but it acts as a mighty fine anchor for the mirror,” he replied.“The mirror needs an anchor?” I gasped as I realized how little I knew about what we were about to do or the procedure in doing it.He nodded before giving his attention to Nora.Handing her the enchanted necklace, he went over what she was to say and the tone in which she was to say it several times to make sure that she had it right. One mistake could lock me in the past forever.I had no idea why he didn’t just bring me back, himself, when it was time,
The dinner table had the capacity to sit twenty, but the diners consisted of only five; myself, Lance, his mother, Vivian, his father, Edward, and his evil uncle, Bart – who, to my surprise was Edward’s twin brother; born eight minutes after him. His brother, Jason, was not in attendance. The investigator in me wanted to know why, but, as I’d done so often since I’d met Lance just days earlier, I’d refrained from asking questions. It was quite out of character for me. Then, everything that I was doing lately was out of character.We were halfway through the meal when Lance finally asked the whereabouts of his younger brother, Jason. Since all family members were expected to attend dinner, it came as a surprise to everyone that he was not amongst them, but no fuss was made.Vivian demanded propriety at all times. She would wait for the appropriate time to find out why her son had not attended
The first thing on my agenda was to correct the oversight that I’d made about how I was to return. I’d paid minimal attention to his instructions to Nora, but I did hear something about the necklace vibrating when it was time to bring me back to the future. I needed to find out what would make that necklace vibrate.I was the first to make my way to the dining room where a breakfast buffet had been set up on the oversized mahogany sideboard. My stomach shouted its need for sustenance as I lifted the covers off the dishes to investigate their contents. It reminded me of an elaborate brunch buffet at a five star restaurant.“Good morning, my love,” Lance said as he strode with regal confidence into the room and stood beside me. He looked surprisingly fresh after such a long night of love making. Kissing me on the temple, he asked, “Did you have a good night?” I was speechless.&nbs