Twenty

**Fabian** left her for a while and when he returned, he held a soft cloth soaked with water on the pitcher. He used this to wipe both of them clean. She closed her eyes as his touch, even at this time, could still produce that melting sensation inside her. She trembled inside and out. And she doubted if she would receive the same care from Louis Didier when he...
She gulped as her heart thudded at the thought. Now that she knew what involved a husband and a wife on the marriage bed, she could not measure the revulsion that she suddenly felt, and she suddenly recoiled from Fabian’s hands.
“What? What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?” he asked.
“N-No... no, it’s not you. I...” She looked up at his worried face and she suddenly felt her eyes getting warmer and warmer.
“What is it?” he said, neglecting the wet cloth and gathering her in his arms.
She went to him, trembling. “How can I do this with Louis without being ra-raped?” she asked in a rush.
He tensed, and then his arms tightened around her. He then gathered her in his arms and lifted her from her bed. As she held onto his shoulders, he maneuvered to reach the door's handle to open it, and naked, they traveled down the hallway to his bedchamber where he placed her in the middle of his large bed.
There, they held each other for a long time.
“Sleep,” he ordered. He recovered the blankets and he covered their nakedness with them. Under it, their limbs were entangled. Their skin melted against each other. “Tomorrow’s problem belongs to the morrow. Forget of it and sleep.”
She closed her eyes and she took a deep breath as she buried her face in his chest. She felt him kiss the top of her head and brushed his cheek on her hair before his head settled on the pillow.
“I’ll hold you. You’re safe. Now, go to sleep, *ma bichette*.”
So she buried herself in his embrace and resolutely closed her eyes.
And she slept.

**Adalene** woke up.
It was still dark outside, but she could tell it was dawn. Fabian was not on the bed or in the chamber. Where had he gone?
She did not get up right away and stayed where she was, imagining that she could still feel the warmth left by Fabian on the bed. She tried to feel what was different now that she was not a virgin anymore.
Her body was aching, but it felt like a good ache. Like she had been through a long day of hard work and was satisfied with what she had accomplished. She could still feel a kind of buzz in her body, left by the Baron’s possession. And she loved the feeling of it. She couldn’t help but luxuriate in it.
She closed her eyes and remembered... his lips on her body, their feverish skin touching... sliding on their combined sweat, his hard cock sliding in and out of her so slickly, so deliciously.
That moment when they reached their climax at almost the same time... her second only a moment to his... Adalene couldn’t hold the small moan that escaped her lips because the memory of it was so intense, that her whole body tingled. It truly had been a marvelous moment.
She closed her eyes and felt the heavy thudding of her heart. She couldn’t believe what happened last night, or what it did to her.
She was just a peasant girl who happened to be pretty, but nobody wanted her because weird things could come out of her mouth from those strange books she usually carried around and actually read.
Or simply because she could read and was literate, and it was enough for men of marriageable age to avoid her. They wanted wives who could cook big meals and feed the animals in corals, not someone who would lecture her husband on how to count his coins.
He could not want anything else from her. The time in his bed with her was wonderful, but he could have as many women as he wanted for lovers. Oh yes, it was obvious she pleased him. He wanted to keep her, he said. She could be his woman. He did not have to ask if she would think about it. She only had to remember Louis Didier again, and she knew she would do just about anything to be completely saved from that man.
She got up from bed with a hard and heavy heart.
Yes, she had enough sense to know she did not have a lot of choices. She could not go back to her family because of the bride token. They would have to return it, and it was so important for the farm. Preparedness would save lives and livestock during the coming winter.
She went to his heavily gilded mirror, still naked, and cold. But nothing could be colder than what her heart could feel at the moment. She stared at her image in the mirror, noting the marks the Baron left on her skin the night before. Her long, thick, dirty blonde curls tumbled down past her shoulders, swayed down her back, and fanned her breasts. Those pink nipples, he liked them immensely. He said she was beautiful. Even as she felt despair, she saw that beautiful face staring back at her. Something was different about it. A resolute expression was on her blue eyes and on the firming of her lips.
Whatever she thought of it, whatever was really true about Fabian’s intentions, something real and unavoidable was going to happen today.
And she had to be strong to survive it. He must not see how scared she felt.
She tried to smile.
It was a smile that held no warmth. The Baron, Fabian Deschamps, had made her feel what it was like to be free regardless of her station. He made her feel the power of a woman, beautiful and desirable, though she was not an aristocrat like him. And this power she felt coursing through her veins right now was strong enough that she felt she could face today with it.
But it was not going to be easy. Oh no, it wouldn’t be.
It was Fabian’s fault. He made her feel what it was like to be loved by a man.
She closed her eyes as she felt hot tears course down her cold cheeks.