With love Emma

Chapter 6

Emma woke up to find herself lying next to Lord Advent who was fast asleep. True to his words, he held her.

Emma was surprised to find she was holding his shirt, she slowly took her hands. He grunted and pulled her closer, throwing his other arm around her.

Now she was pressed against him, she had never been hugged like this her whole life. It felt strange. Her whole body was reacting to the closeness, she felt hot. She lay there drinking his intoxicating woody smell.

Lord Advent woke up and caught her ogling him.

'Are you hungry?' he asked, sitting up.

'No, I want to bathe first.'

'I will ring for a bath to be prepared,'

'Where are we, Your Grace?'

'The Advents house.'

The door opened and a middle-aged woman walked in.

'Mrs. Dennis, meet Lady Emma. This is Mrs. Dennis, our head housemaid.' 

Mrs. Dennis curtsied.

'Nice to meet you, Mrs. Dennis,' Emma said, trying to sound dignified but she was too aware of her dishevelled hair.

'Please prepare a bath for both of us,' Lord Advent ordered. Within minutes two footmen arrived carrying hot water as though they had been waiting just outside the door.

'I will wait in the sitting room,' said Lord Advent. Instead of walking out through the door from which the footmen came, he left through another door.

This must be a private sitting room, Emma thought, as her handmaid Mary helped her undress. It was extremely uncomfortable for Emma to have someone help undress. Still, the new corset was rather tied in the back, unlike the ones she usually wore.

'I will bathe myself, please wait outside Mary.'

The bath was warm and exceedingly soothing. She climbed out to find a fluffy bathrobe and towels laid out. She wrapped her damp hair in a towel and donned the bathrobe.

Mary held out Emma's dress which Mrs. Dennis looked disapprovingly at.

'The Lady will be introduced at the dinner, go fetch something befitting the Duchess.'

'This is one of my best dresses,' Emma said.

Mrs. Dennis gave her the same disapproving look she gave the dress. 'Come with me, we will find something better' she directed Mary and both left.

If Mrs. Dennis thought this dress was not befitting, she was very unlikely to find anything better. Emma usually got two new dresses per year, one for Christmas and another for her birthday. This dress she got for her last birthday.

Emma looked around surreptitiously. She felt foolish as there was no one around. Muttering to herself, '-this door led outside and the other door...' she stopped. The other one was where Lord Advent was. She suddenly became aware of her semi-naked self.

'Hurry up Mary, what's taking you so long?' she grumbled silently. She felt jumpy and uncomfortable in her own skin.

There were several other doors that she decided to explore. One opened to a dressing room, it was larger than her bedroom. Not wanting to be found inside Lord Advent's closet, she quickly closed it.

She coughed as she opened another door. It was so dusty as though it hadn't been used for a long time. Before she could see more, a large spider jumped on her head.

She screamed and tried to bat it away. It just scuttled to her back, She could feel it, just below her neck where her arms can't reach. Emma screamed and jumped like the fire from hell was lit under her feet and Lord Advent found her thus.

'What happened?'

'A spider... Aw! A spider, it's on my back.' She hurriedly shook the collar of her dressing gown sending the spider deeper in.

'Stand still.'

'I... can't... It's crawling further down. Ow!! It bit me...'

In one fluid motion, he pulled her bathrobes down from the back. While the robe slipped back to reveal her spine, the front of the robe was pushed upwards. The belt was near her neck and the cloth was barely covering her front. Her arms were held awkwardly above her head by the sleeves of the dress.

'Stay still,' he ordered.

'My spine... It's crawling down my spine,' she couldn't stop moving.

He grabbed her with one arm to stop her jumping and with the other he batted the spider away.

Emma let out a moan. With both hands above her head, he grabbed her breast. He looked at her naked form, stunned to find his hand on her breast. He kept looking at her, unable to look away. Neither did he pull his arm away nor ease the pressure of his hold.