tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46584696310600451422024-03-17T23:04:02.778-04:00The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterThe romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.comBlogger274125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-31675373713345412142012-06-16T02:20:00.000-04:002012-08-06T04:58:44.388-04:00Westmorland Chapter Six of the Regency Novella<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Read the <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2009/12/official-kissing-day.html" target="_blank">prologue</a>, <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2012/01/westmorland-regency-novella.html" target="_blank">chapter one</a>, <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2012/01/westmorland-chapter-two-of-regency.html" target="_blank">two</a>, <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.ca/2012/02/westmorland-chapter-three-of-regency.html" target="_blank">three</a>, <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.ca/2012/04/westmorland-chapter-four-of-regency.html" target="_blank">four</a> and <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.ca/2012/05/westmorland-chapter-five-of-regency.html" target="_blank">five</a> by following the links provided. Thanks for stopping in to see me.
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<a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/3/25647.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="498" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/3/25647.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Horace and Lydia by John Collier</div>
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<br />
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Chapter
Six</div>
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<br /></div>
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Henry held
Claire until she came down, his own body tight as a coil as he kissed her brow
and said, “Is the day after tomorrow too soon for the wedding, you think?”</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Oh, I hope
not,” she said languidly, “For I shall not survive above a day out of your
arms.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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“In that we
are agreement, chérie,” he said with hot greedy lips and she reached up to
deepen the kiss. Then he dragged his lips from her with ragged breath and his
words urgent, “How far are you willing to go with me, sweetheart?”</div>
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<br /></div>
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“To the ends
of the earth,” Claire said without really understanding what he was asking. He
smiled then took a fortifying breath. He had but two choices now. Leave without
delay, or die in her arms. Then she said, “I’m yours, you know.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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“It’s just as
well,” Henry said his lips on her face, “For you have me tethered… held
captive.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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“That appeals
to me,” Claire said with an expression he had never seen on her before
something ripe, primal and outright carnal. Then she pushed him back into the
mattress and straddled him in one decisive move, “Knowing you can never be free
of me… tied and bound, entirely at the whims of my curiously… well…”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Her breath
caught suddenly as she sat back, her naked flesh pressing against the bulge of
his erection. She looked to Henry but he was long gone, too lost in his own
struggle for control to offer her any guidance or explanation. She had melted
his brain with the delicious weight of her body nestled against his.</div>
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<br /></div>
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When he
finally refocused, it was with anxious hands on her hips trying to still her in
her seat to slow the friction of the relentless waves of pleasure that her
sitting atop of him produced. No sooner did he stop her wriggling against him
did she bend over him with open mouth and lick at his nipple before grazing at
it as he had done for her.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Then he was
nothing but ripples of ecstasy. Reduced to nothing but throaty growls as this
inexperienced woman pulled tortured groans from his flesh. Her eager fingers
glided over his sweat-drenched chest and abdomen before reaching down fondle
him through his breeches.</div>
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<br /></div>
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He was all
sensation as the silken strands of her flaming tresses feathered over his
aroused skin as she kissed along the path her hands blazed. Then she was undoing
the flap of his trousers and he was struggling to hold still. She was
intoxicated by the feel and smell of him.</div>
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<br /></div>
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His body was
conditioned muscles pulled over long lean bones covered with barely visible
blond hair and taut satiny skin. She could smell it on him then, the scent of
her earlier satisfaction and his growing desire. It radiated from his fresh skin
as if he were the source of all things sexual.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Claire slid
her hand into his now open trousers and slid her fingers over his erection. It
jumped against her touch all hot and hard then she rubbed her thumb over the
moist tip, reducing him once more to groans. Then she was kissing along the
shaft with a slow madding pull of her lips until slow kisses turned to languid
licks and he could take no more.</div>
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<br /></div>
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He roared up
and in one elegant commanding move pinned her under him, kissing her until her
breath was as strained as his then he pulled away some and pulled off his
trousers. Claire laid in a sort of languid anticipation her breath coming fast,
her eyes wide open, her nakedness glistening with a faint sheen of sweat.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Henry slid
along her body his hot lips on her wanton flesh as he nestled back between her
legs, only this time moving up over her. His body pulled tight and still he did
not seem to be in much of a hurry. He did not want to frighten her, needed to
be inside her and felt certain he would die a little if she became alarmed and
he’d have to stop.</div>
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<br /></div>
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He mounted
her, trying not to shiver at the feeling of her so soft and sweet against him.
She held his eyes, her own full of wonder. She sighed as he paused, her eyes
searching his, her voice a hush.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Henry...” She
whispered, biting her lips before her words could fall away. Henry grazed her with
his tip and gently rocked his hips, letting it rub up and down very lightly
against her opening. She shivered. Braking eye contact to glancing down her
eyes going wider and he took breath in order to assure her.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“I’ve got you,
chérie,” he whispered with miraculous calm, “I’ll take care. I’ll make certain
it’s more pleasure than pain.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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He eased
forward, the head parting her, his hand and lips coaxing her back to languid as
he pushed down toward her opening. He held himself up with one hand as he used
the other to tilt her face so she held his eyes once more. Then she smiled as
if to comfort him before reaching up and running her hands along his face.</div>
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<br /></div>
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It was all the
encouragement he needed before easing his hips forward, and his head slid inside
her. She gasped loudly, arching up and grabbing his shoulders for support. He
resisted the urge to push deep knowing that it would take time for the pain to
fall away so he could bring her to pleasure.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Once she
caught her breath, he swirled his hips, letting the soft folds of her inner
muscles adjust to his penetration. Allowing her time to stretch to him while he
gently rocked and twisted. She tried to speak several times, her voice coming
in broken little bits of wordless gasps.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Her breathing
accelerating as he rocked back and forth, as she relaxed around him.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“You’re doing
brilliantly,” he whispered, leaning down closer to take her lips in tender kiss
until he felt her move a little beneath him. Then he pulled out some and eased
back into her several until they moved slowly in time. Soon she was clinging to
him, both of them gasping for air.</div>
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<br /></div>
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She bit at her
lips as he pressed further still, his name caught in her throat as he moved deeper
into her body. Caressing her firm round bottom, squeezing just enough to get
her to arch higher, as he glided in and out with fluid thrusts of his hips.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Claire
revelled in his touch and cried out softly as the wave of his strokes climbed
over each other.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Henry I… oh
my God… I can’t stand it…”</div>
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<br /></div>
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It was what he
was waiting for without even realizing it. He reached down, gripped her hips,
and pushed deep inside her, moving slowly and gently, little thrusts matched by
longer outward movements. Every ounce of his self-control going into not
burying himself in her all at once.</div>
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<br /></div>
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He could hear
now the erotic sounds of their coupling. The sweet friction of his hard wanton
shaft surrounded by her soft wet warmth. Then she cried out his name, arching
up higher than ever, raising them both from the bed. Gasping breathlessly, and
then slumped back into the mattress.</div>
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<br /></div>
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She was hot
and pulsing around him, pulling him tight as he pushed deep into her body,
finally he melded his hips with hers, shuddering at the stimulation of her
unrelenting grip as he savoured the feel of her thus. Moving with long, slow,
smooth strokes in and out, rapidly learning as he went what made her moan, gasped,
and what kind of thrusts drew soft, breathy cries from deep in her throat.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Henry, oh God
yes,” she cried as the bed rocked beneath them and he worked atop her.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Sweat trickled
down his back and she dug her nails into shoulders in a mad grip, which caused
his breath to labour as he pumped into Claire beneath him, his eyes drinking in
the sight of her heaving, writhing form beneath him. He could feel her starting
to shake, knowing she was close, and accelerated, groaning with the effort of
not coming himself.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Oh Henry!
Please, please don't stop,” she pled urging him on and he thrust deeper. Her
hips jerked against his with every impact. She strained forward, crying out, still
on the verge as Henry kept pace. Claire squealed, her hips grinding up into him,
causing bolts of pleasure to rock his body.</div>
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<br /></div>
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It made him
frantic, suddenly worried he wouldn’t be able to hold out until she found her
end. His thrusts were now becoming jerky as he twisted his hips, trying to
avoid the sweet friction that was driving him out of his mind. He shook as Claire’s
legs tightened around his hips.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Sweetheart,”
Henry pled his words a breathy grasping which soon fell away, “Claire release
me or...”</div>
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<br /></div>
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She was
dragging her nails down his back robbing him of speech and drowning his pleas
with her own.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“Now Henry
please…now…,” she gasped her body drawn tight her words fading to but a low hum
in her throat. Gripping tight to Henry as her muscles locked, their bodies
bucked together wet slick sounds of their coupling just under their frantic
breaths.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The two moaned
repeatedly in harmony, answering each other's call to ecstasy until her body
went rigid and her breathing stopped and Henry lunged against her to maximize
the contact. Going into spasms that seemed to light every nerve in body,
jerking and thrashing.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Their bodies were
moulded together, her legs still tightly wrapped around his hips, jerked wildly
out of control, her body pulsating and quivering right up the entire length of
him buried inside her. The spasms of her inner muscles were so strong they
stripped him of control.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He buried his
face in her neck inhaling her skin, smelling himself on her, feeling the dam
silkiness of her skin against his face as his heart frantically attempt to
supple his brain with enough oxygen to stop him collapsing. Then her body
shook, a wail coming from her mixed with grunt from him as they gasp for air
and she went limp, allowing him to collapse on top of her both of their breaths
thin and laboured.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
It took them an
eternity to find equilibrium. Every inch of their body weighted down the force of
blissful satisfaction. It had never been like that for him before as he lift
his head to press his lips her it occurred to him that he hadn’t every been
made love to.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
No one had
ever given all she possessed to him.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
It humbled him
and when her hands smooth over the plains of his back he reached up and push
hair stuck to her face then whispered her name. Looked down at her face with
all the love in his heart, watching as lazy smile pulled over her peaceful
slightly dazed face. The she opened those luminous hazel eyes of her and his
breath caught.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
It was as
thought he was seeing her for the first time. Seeing beyond her beautiful face
and alluring figure to the compassionate woman who loved him though he had been
reckless with both their hearts. His face must have shown some his distress for
Claire reached up and cupped his face in both her hand then asked, “What’s the
matter, my love?”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’m full of
regret at having caused you pain.”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“The pain lasted
but a moment,” she assured him, completely missing his meaning. “And it was
soon drowned by the rapture.”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“<i>Rapture</i>?”</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“They is no
other word for it, Henry I swear I died and went to heaven,” she said her voice
full of wonder and he kissed her in a sort of slow cherishing all-consuming
way.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
There was a
decade’s worth of history between them, most of it a strong friendship, a great
deal of it a fervent attraction but more than all that was the love. She knew
him completely and loved him nonetheless and he was going to spend the rest of
his life making certain he was worthy of her.</div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Epilogue
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
They had to
wait a full month before marrying but neither seemed to mind very much, which
no doubt had quite a bit to do with their scandalous pre-marital behaviour.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Both of their
mothers insisted that the ceremony at least have the appearance of decency, though
they needn’t have bothered, for eight months after the wedding Claire delivered
Aphrodite, a fat little red-haired girl with her father’s clear blue eyes that
instantly made their show of <i>decency</i>
a lie.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
His mother
married and returned to <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">France</st1:country>
as planned. She visit near every summer under the guise of seeing her
grandchildren but the truth is she misses England very much but will never
admit it.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
After they had
been married five years Henry entered the salon – a recently updated French
blue – to fine his wife awash by the sun’s golden rays and instantly remembered
their first kiss.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I kissed you
here the very first day we met,” he said with the start of recollection.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Yes, I <i>remember</i>,” she laughed. “And you also
asked me to marry you here at least a dozen times and so much more…”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Why didn’t
you ever say?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You needed
time to get sorted. Besides, if I’d told you we would not be the friends we
were when we married.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“It took me
nearly a decade.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You were well
worth the wait, my love,” she said without falter and he went to her falling to
his knees then kissed her with love anew.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right; text-indent: 36pt;">
My love my care,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right; text-indent: 36pt;">
Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com91tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-45355881824621635612012-05-14T22:08:00.000-04:002012-06-16T02:12:14.519-04:00Westmorland Chapter Five of the Regency Novella<br />
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Read the <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2009/12/official-kissing-day.html" target="_blank">prologue</a>, <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2012/01/westmorland-regency-novella.html" target="_blank">chapter one</a>, <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2012/01/westmorland-chapter-two-of-regency.html" target="_blank">two</a>, <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.ca/2012/02/westmorland-chapter-three-of-regency.html" target="_blank">three</a>, and <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.ca/2012/04/westmorland-chapter-four-of-regency.html" target="_blank">four</a> by following the links provided. Chapter six will be up in a week or so.
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Portrait of Count Victor Kochubey by François Gérard</div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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Chapter
Five</div>
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<br /></div>
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He didn’t say
anything. He simply reached for her, hand outstretched, and she took hold
before going to sit beside him. It hadn’t been as it was before with them.
There was no witty banter or contentious exchanges. There was only a resolved
silence. He loved her and needn’t have bothered to say so, for she could see it
now. But he wanted for there to be no question of it going forth.<br />
<br /></div>
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She was the
woman of his life and when he turned to face her, his eyes awash with all the
love in his heart and said, “It was you from the very first instant I laid eyes
on you. You know? I was lost to you and knowing you only sealed my fate.”<br />
<br /></div>
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“Henry,” was
all Claire could manage without blubbering over her tears and he, with gentle
hands, wiped her eyes.<br />
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“I understand
your trepidation –”<br />
</div>
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“Not <i>trepidation</i>, elation. I’ve waited a
lifetime and –” More happy tears, then a simple, “I love you so very much.”<br />
<br /></div>
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“And I love
you too, chérie.”<br />
<br /></div>
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“Yes, I know,”
she said and pressed her lips to his in soulful kiss before asking with near solemn
expression. “But will you still marry me after all my refusals?”<br />
<br /></div>
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“So long as
you kiss me like that for the rest of our lives,” he said with a blissful smile
and she happily obliged kissing him with love newly declared until he pulled
her into his lap and kissed her so that they both shook with desire. Henry lifted
his head when their lustful kiss threatened to turn into something else
altogether and asked, “How do we proceed?”<br />
<br /></div>
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“Your mother
will be gone the rest of the afternoon and no one knows you’re here,” she said.<br />
<br /></div>
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“So what
you’re saying is that I’m at your mercy?”<br />
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“Entirely,”
she said wolfishly before pushing off his jacket and pressing her hungry little
hands against his chest then said, “I’ve dreamt of you there in that bed
thousands of times and I mean to see you there naked before this day is out.”<br />
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“Then, I
shouldn’t tarry,” Henry said accommodatingly, before rising with her in hand
and depositing her, rump first, on the bed. He stopped briefly to rip off his
boots and crawled in alongside her, his eyes an intense sapphire as he said,
“Right now, you have me in your bed. What will you do with me?”<br />
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Claire blushed,
her head full with memories of the things Henry had done to her the week before
behind the locked door of the blue salon. She could not articulate what she had
felt and was at a loss as to how she could possibly express to him one-half of
it through mere touch.<br />
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She knew of
his reputation and it wasn’t just that he was one of the princes of pleasure,
he was the heir apparent uncontested and always in-demand, whilst she had been
touched by him alone. Still not one to shy away from a challenge she said
simply, “Show me what you would like.”<br />
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Well, there
you have it. It was precisely the right thing to say. Henry held her eyes a
moment before leaning in and kissing her with warm, tender lips. It was a slow,
lingering kiss, the kind that started with purposeful friction of lips and
ended with breath-robbing strokes of tongue.<br />
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Claire’s
entire body tingled at Henry’s patient arousal. His hands in her hair pulling
at the ribbon that held it in place until it tumbled down. Then he, with hot
breath at her ear, his face buried in her flaming locks, whispered,
“Beautiful.”<br />
<br /></div>
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“You like my
outrageous hair?”<br />
<br /></div>
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“I adore your <i>stunning</i> hair and your ever-changing
hazel eyes,” he said while brushing his lips over both her eyelids. “And
flawless expressive skin,” this he said with hot lips on her cheek before
pausing over her lips with a, “But your lips… Sweet God, I could write odes to
the allure of your inviting mouth.”<br />
<br /></div>
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“I’d much
rather you kissed my lips than have you recite an ode in honour of them,”
Claire said.<br />
<br /></div>
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“Without
delay, sweetheart,” Henry said obediently in her ear before sliding his tongue
around it, which made her arch into his torso. Then he dragged his lips down
onto hers as his hands traced little circles over her back, and she was lost.<br />
<br /></div>
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Waves of
pleasure flooded her body as Henry’s kisses became more persistent and she
pressed closer allowing all he offered to adhere to her receptive flesh. She
opened her mouth to the penetrating strokes of his tongue, delighting in the
silken, arousing caress of his sensuous mouth against hers.<br />
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He was at once
urgent and unhurried, his mouth moving with maddening slowness as he deepened
their kiss while his hands franticly worked at freeing her from the confines of
her dress. She was drowning in the rippling tide of her ever-increasing desire
as he stripped away her clothes and replaced it with a lavish stroke of hand.</div>
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He held her in
a sort of trance, keeping her completely relaxed even as excitement engulfed
her body. He was kissing her from lips to her, now thinly veiled, bosom with
lips that produced a sensation similar to the singeing of her flesh. Then he
tugged at her shift until she was exposed to him.<br />
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Henry held for
a moment to memorize the sight of her thus, her clothes pooled at her waist the
lush curves her body naked to his hungry stare. Then he, his voice raspy with
desire his hand hovering above her breast said, “You, my love, are beautifully.”<br />
<br /></div>
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“Thank you,
Henry,” she said with a heady smile. She loved that the mere sight of her body pleased
him. He tugged at her frock, pooled at her waist until it slid over her hip in
order to allow him a better view. Once the garment was cast aside Claire,
filled with infinite longing, said, “Tell me what you see.”<br />
<br /></div>
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Henry
swallowed once. Twice… But he simply could not seem to find his voice with her
lying there in nothing but her stockings encouraging his beating heart to escape
its confines. She smiled triumphantly at him struck dumb and knowing she had
done it by simply laying bare before him.<br />
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He grinned
then as a savage beast roared. His perfect white smile and arched brow looking very
male as he with deft fingers attend his neckcloth and waistcoat until he was
nothing but wide shoulders under fine<span lang="EN-GB"> linen shirt</span>. Then he leaned in for the kill, his grin now one
those slow lazy smiles that turned her knees to jelly, his voice bass warm and
honey smooth as he said, “Now goddess, I shall tell you all I see.”<br />
<br /></div>
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He kissed her
temple, ear, cheek, jaw and lips then said, “Lush firm breasts, voluptuous inviting
curves and…”<br />
<br /></div>
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He was
nibbling a path from lips to collarbone over chin along that little spot on her
neck that caught at her breath and made her spine tingle. He cupped her breast,
teasing the peck with his thumb until it was hard and tender, then he lowered
his mouth to lick at them and said, “Aroused, dark copper nipples desperate for
my touch.”<br />
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Claire could
see he meant to drive her out of her mind and all but purred when he brushed
his open lips over her nipple, flickering with deliberation at her open nerves
until she whimpered. Then he grazed ever so gently with his teeth over the
tender swollen peak before pulling her fully into his mouth and suckling.<br />
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She did not
know how much more she’d be able to bear as he licked a path from one breast to
the next before catching the other taut little nipple between his lips and
grazing it with his teeth. Claire writhed and wriggled under his mouth, one of
her hands fastening into a death grip on his hair as her legs rose to wrap
around his.<br />
<br /></div>
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Henry closed his
eyes and just lost himself in her. In the delicious satiny sweetness of her
responsive skin and the delicious grind of her hips against his as her legs
tightened around his. Then she was tugging at his shirt in a sort of fevered
attempt to get closer still and he pulled away from her in one fluid motion
pulling it up over his head.<br />
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Claire gasped
with naked desire and Henry with wicked grin said, “You like my form darling.”<br />
<br /></div>
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“You’re very
handsome Henry,” her voice a breathy purr her hands on his flat hard abdomen.
“Shall I tell you what I see?”<br />
<br /></div>
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“By all
means,” he growled softly while lowering his head, “Well… that’s if you’re able
to articulate thought while I touch you.”<br />
<br /></div>
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He rolled her back and captured her nipple between
his lips once more. Drawing from her a surprised little squeak and she grabbed his
shoulders as he slid further down, nuzzling her stomach, then he paused. She
sat up immediately, her eyes wide her voice breathless as she asked, “Henry, what’s
the matter? Why did you stop?”<br />
<br /></div>
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He held her
eyes lips curled in a smug little grin then he said, “You’re not telling me
what you see.”<br />
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“Nirvana,” she
said simply and Henry fell into the pools of her lustful eyes and pressed his
lips back to her flesh. Sliding a little lower, keeping his eyes on hers as he nuzzled
his lips into the downy soft, copper hair between her thighs and then fastened
his mouth on her. <br />
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He could feel
a spasm run the length of her body as she gasped, her eyes ripe with passion as
she melted into the mattress, her head rolling from side to side as her back
arched. He touched her everywhere his hands on her breasts, stomach, down over her
legs…<br />
<br /></div>
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She writhed
through one gentle, slow orgasm, and was building to a second when he lightly
stroked a fingertip over where he kissed her, persistently teasing her opening
as his tongue traced lazy circles around her little hooded mound. His eyes still
holding hers as he tested her reaction.<br />
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Her eyes went
wide at that initial touch of his finger and stayed that way as he licked
tenderly at the little peck, his finger dipping into her, and she bit her lip,
whimpering loudly. Her cries low and throaty. He loved that sound, and sunk his
finger deeper still inside her in hopes of coaxing it out of her again.<br />
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She gasped, “Henry.”<br />
<br /></div>
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He revelled in
her involuntary, throaty moan. Her hips rocking greedily, and he slid his finger
out, letting her watch as he slowly sucked on it, delighting in the taste of
her before sliding his finger back inside of her. Exploring her, his finger
gently probed and teased at her inner walls, feeling their soft wetness. He
pressed forward trying to find her most sensitive spots.<br />
<br /></div>
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Then she
groaned softly, wriggling towards him as his finger teased her until she could
no longer hold his gaze. Her eyes drifted closed as she threw her head back and
tightened her body around his finger. Henry sighed in pleasure, delighting in
the ferocious way she gripped the finger inside her body.<br />
<br /></div>
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She squirmed
beneath him shuddering, moaning with each stroke of his finger until her moans
grew louder. He fed her desire with masterful strokes of tongue and fingers
groaning himself at her blissful purrs. Then she could take it no more and
begged him to end her misery.<br />
<br /></div>
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“Henry, my
God, Henry please,” She gasped, gripping him to her with legs and nail. He
answered her plea by running his free hand over her breasts, his tongue focused
entirely on the hooded peak in gentle unrelenting strokes until she cried out. Her
body fluttering and gripping the fingers inside her body until she relaxed with
a deep satisfied sigh around him.</div>
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My love my care,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right; text-indent: 36pt;">
Simone.</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-53066858158981282012-04-11T04:51:00.002-04:002012-05-14T22:16:58.588-04:00Westmorland Chapter Four of the Regency Novella<span style="text-align: left;">Read the </span><a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2009/12/official-kissing-day.html" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">prologue</a><span style="text-align: left;">, </span><a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2012/01/westmorland-regency-novella.html" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">chapter one</a><span style="text-align: left;">, </span><a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2012/01/westmorland-chapter-two-of-regency.html" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">two</a><span style="text-align: left;"> and </span><a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.ca/2012/02/westmorland-chapter-three-of-regency.html" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">three</a><span style="text-align: left;"> by following the links provided. Chapter five will be up in a week or so.</span><br />
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Adam and Eve Tamara de Lempicka</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Chapter
Four</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Claire took a steady
breath then placed her hand in his and said, “Your mother leaves in two months.
Do you suppose that you could have an answer for me by then?”</div>
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“You mean to
be free of me don’t you?” he said after thoughtful pause.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“There is but
a wound where my heart used to be and I long for the peace I knew before I
started to dread losing you,” she could feel the tears anew but refused to shed
even one in front of him. “I don’t want to bleed for you anymore.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“What do I do?
How do I see us well?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I don’t know that
you can.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“But this is madness,”
he protested. “For us to end here after all the laughter and confidences would
be criminal. We are friends though you deny it. You have all my secrets and I
have all your good advice. All we are missing is balance.”</div>
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“There isn’t
time my lo –”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“So help me
Claire if you address me as your <i>Lord</i>
once more I shan’t be responsible for what will follow.”</div>
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“I’ll concede
to <i>Westmorland</i>.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Concession
suits you my dear. Now tell me. How do we marry this contention with our
usually easy rapport?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“If I knew the
answer to that I would have employed it ages ago,” she said with a weary smile.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Consider me
Claire,” Henry said with urgency. “I like you and not only because I’m able to
count on your ear either. You make me smile and have my best interests at heart.
My family adores you, I adore you.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Here let me pour
your tea before it gets cold,” she said quickly pulling her hand from his and
averting her eyes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Won’t you
look at me, chérie?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Westmorland?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Yes, my
angel.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Will you do
something for me?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You need but
ask Claire and I’ll do all in my power to see that it is done.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“At Christmas when
you brought home Miss Winchilsea and her parents,” Claire said uncomfortably,
“We all felt certain that you would have made her an offer… I realize what an
imposition it is what I’m asking.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You want to
know if I loved her?” he supplied.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Yes, I
suppose I do.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Right from
the start she had been easy to know and I kept feeling I<span lang="EN-GB"> aught</span> to love her but somehow I
couldn’t bring myself to,” he said candidly. “I felt like a failure but more
than that was the distance it had caused between you and me. I couldn’t bring
myself to discuss her with you and that had been the most difficult part of it
for me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“She knew you
know? I had been unsure but she knew and told me so.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“How do you
mean she told you, what did she tell you?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“She said she
hadn’t understood what was keeping you from loving her until she saw us at tea
that first afternoon she was in <st1:place w:st="on">Devon</st1:place>,” Claire
explained. “She said our natural ease and clear strain to keep proper distance
struck her as a living thing. It hadn’t occurred to me until then that you were
an active participant in what was between us.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“It isn’t uncommon
for me to find lust in friendship, but love, well that seems to run contrary or
so it seems in my life at any rate…”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You believe I
could hurt you?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You know
everything of me and I know nothing of you. Besides, your claim of loving me,”
he said simply.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“And still I’m
the one laid open and vulnerable. It’s true you tell me all but you never share
with me how you felt, it’s always <i>‘Claire
my fascination with Miss Lady of the Hour as died a grim death,</i>’ but never
once did you tell me if it was sadness, joy or relief that you felt at the
loss.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Despair, I’m
often filled with <i>despair </i>at the
thought of love. Sometimes weak always destructive but ultimately and for the
most part I feel nothing but despair.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Because of
the Countess?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I suppose
some of it could have to do with the vicious nature of my relationship with
Viola,” Henry said candidly. “We were toxic together. Vindictive to the point
cruelty, Christ our friendship was over long before we realized it and it lead
to a lot of pain.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Do you not
miss her?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“The
friendship we had before it went sour maybe but by the end there was but
wilderness between us and her betrayal is now more that I’m able to get pass.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’m sorry for
it,” she said with kind hand on his arm and he covered it with his own.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
They stayed thus,
holding hands and eyes until he said, “I’ve been nothing but proud to be your
friend and it distresses me greatly to know I’ve caused you to suffer because
of my selfishness.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“We’ve gotten
it so very wrong. Haven’t we?” she asked with weary smile.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Yes we have
but it’s not irrevocable.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
***</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
In the spirit
of this new hope, the two in a grand effort spent the weeks that followed
attempting to bridge the gap between love, lust and lack of communication. By
the second afternoon, Claire had decided to give up Lord Addison. She sent him
a note begging him to call on her at his earliest convenience so she could tell
him in person.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
It would take
Lord Addison ten days to call. By then Henry was certain he and Claire were
well on their way to each other so he was quite surprised when he arrived at
his mother’s one bright afternoon to find Claire in company with the sensible,
reliable <st1:place w:st="on">Addison</st1:place>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
She didn’t tell
Henry of her intent to break with Lord Addison because he had asked for time to
come to terms with his feelings for her and she felt certain this added
knowledge would force his hand. She loved him and could no longer pretend
otherwise nor could she marry elsewhere but neither did she want to pressure
him into loving her.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Claire was explaining
this to a most sympathetic Lord Addison when Henry turned up, his blue eyes as calm
as the deadly sea. Lord Addison was just then holding her hand in reassuring understanding
in order to wish her well when Henry entered the little salon and extended his
hand in greeting to <st1:place w:st="on">Addison</st1:place>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“<st1:place w:st="on">Addison</st1:place>.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Here, Westmorland
how’ve you been?” <st1:place w:st="on">Addison</st1:place> said with a kind
smile.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’m without
complaint,” Henry said easily, murder pulled over his genial smile, “And you my
lord. You are well?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’m better
for the company,” <st1:place w:st="on">Addison</st1:place> said with a nod to a
still seated Claire and Henry gave her a curt bow of acknowledgement. “You will
join us for lemonade Westmorland?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Time doesn’t
allow it I’m afraid,” Henry said his eyes holding Claire’s with something like
righteous anger, “I have an audience with my mother and must not tarry. I only
came this way for I felt certain that she was in attendance but now I see she
is not, I beg your leave.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He was gone
the instant <st1:place w:st="on">Addison</st1:place> conceded and without so
much as a backward glance for Claire. It never even occurred to her that he was
jealous until <st1:place w:st="on">Addison</st1:place> said, “Now my dear you
must go now and see that he doesn’t have the wrong impression of what it was that
he arrived to.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“He will not,”
Claire said miserably.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You love him
very much?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I do,” she
said with sad apologetic eyes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“And he loves
you,” Lord Addison said as if it were obvious.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“He could one
day if I’m very patient I think.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Nonsense,” <st1:place w:st="on">Addison</st1:place> said dismissively, “If he loved you anymore he
would have murdered me where I sat holding your hand.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You really
believe it so?” she prompted with open elation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’m certain
of it,” he said with a confident smile, “Now come see me out and go make him
understand your indifference for me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I shan’t forget
this you know.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I do.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
She saw Lord
Addison out then went in search of Henry. He was not with his mother nor had
any of the servants seen him. It was as though he vanished, the instant he left
her in the salon with Lord Addison. She worried that <st1:place w:st="on">Addison</st1:place>
was right about him having the wrong impression.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
By the time,
his mother and Lord Marcel left for Madam Guerin’s for afternoon tea, she had
decided to send him a note. She went to her private sitting room and sat at her
writing desk with quill in front of blank paper for a quarter of an hour before
giving up.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
She simply
could not find any words that properly conveyed her feelings without it having
sound presumptive of his feeling so she kicked off her slipper and grabbed the copy
of Jane Austin’s <i>Persuasion</i> he had
given to her for Christmas from the desk.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Claire fully
intended to spend the afternoon lying across her bed reading but nearly expired
from heart failure when she entered her bedchamber to find Henry sitting on the
bench at the foot of her bed. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He had left
her and Addison in the salon for his mother’s private salon and was struck at
the sight of her door when it came in view, as he entered the corridor of the
family quarters. He was inside her rooms before he fully realized it, there
among her belongings.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He passed the
writing desk with the half dozen Austen novels he had given her for Christmas
and birthdays. Stopping briefly to hold and smell the soft, too large shawl her
mother had knitted for her that she always wrapped herself in on brisk evenings
when they were at home in Devon. Her little this and thats, here and there and
then he was in her bedroom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He could not
think why it should feel like such an intimate thing when she wasn’t there and
after all the women’s bedrooms he had been in without thought. He sat there on
the little bench at foot of her bed a million miles away not even hearing her
when she entered her sitting room just outside the bedchamber.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He only looked
up once she entered the bedroom with a startled little, “Good God!”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right; text-indent: 36pt;">
My love </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right; text-indent: 36pt;">
Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-43992719057228597622012-03-12T00:20:00.000-04:002013-02-10T03:40:38.260-05:00Just... Saying<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
spent an age in fear of jumping and it took your leaving for me to take the
leap<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m
falling now but I’m strangely without worry for you see I’m weightless and the
ground is no more than matter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/1/9729.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/1/9729.jpg" width="352" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
John White Alexander The Green Dress</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">
My love ,</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">
Simone</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-63502436724969768132012-02-18T02:17:00.002-05:002012-04-11T04:48:55.531-04:00Westmorland Chapter Three of the Regency Novella<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Read the <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2009/12/official-kissing-day.html" target="_blank">prologue</a>, <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2012/01/westmorland-regency-novella.html" target="_blank">chapter one</a> and <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2012/01/westmorland-chapter-two-of-regency.html" target="_blank">two</a> by following the links provided. Chapter four will be up in a week or so.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/1/414.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/1/414.jpg" width="337" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Dance at Bougival by Pierre-Auguste Renoir</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Chapter
Three</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Claire could
hear the click of the salon door snapping shut behind her and her silly heart
fluttering in anticipation of what would no doubt follow. She could not hear
Henry but she could not bring herself to turn around. Her skin tingled with
awareness as her breath rushed forth at the encouragement of her fluttering
heart.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">He was
watching her, his eyes fastened to her straight resolute back and he was
instantly taken back to their first meeting in that very salon. They had all
changed since then: her, him and the room. The room was French then – as his
mother and her country – but it had since been transformed into a tasteful blue
and white chinoiserie motif.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">He had still
been reeling from his father’s death and his break from Viola when he happened
on her alone here waiting for his mother. She was Botticelli’s Venus from her flaming
locks to stubborn chin and he was mesmerized, held captive by her and this
strange feeling they had met before.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">It was the
first time in the year since Viola that his heart leapt at the sight of a woman
and it filled him with dread. After all, he had loved Viola his whole life and
she had abandoned him when he needed her most. He was terrified of this smiling
goddess with her too wise eyes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">She had offered
self-deprecation in answer to his open lustful stare and it made them easy
right from the start.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Is it not
outrageous?” she had asked with casual point to her serviceably arranged hair
the colour of liquid copper. “And because of it I’m not permitted to walk the
fields during the fox hunt for fear I’ll be mistakenly taken down by an eager
shot.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You are the
young woman who is to help my mother introduce my sisters to society?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I am and I
assure you that aside from my vulgar hair I am without impropriety.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He had felt that
a pity but had liked her right away nonetheless. She was quick to laugh,
intelligent, alluring and quite simply a joy to be around. His entire family
fell in love with her. His brother and both his best friends had proposed
marriage to her but he had her heart.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He saw that
now in the silence hanging between them and it humbled him. She had chosen him
and had waited patiently for him. But, she would wait no more… that much he
could see from her stance and that bothered him for he did not know if he could
love her the way she deserved.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
She was
growing impatient with the silence that lingered between them, which was fine
for he too had now found his resolve. Then she called for him, her voice an
unsteady hush, “My lord?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Henry,” he
corrected from where she stood unmoved behind her. “If this is to be all I'm given, then it must be Henry.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I cannot. I
don’t want to.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You will. I
promise.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Couldn’t you
simply let me be happy,” she implored her face still facing forwards.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“And it would
make you happy to never know my touch?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Better to
never know your touch than to miss it for the rest of my days.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Then marry
me,” Henry said suddenly at her side.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’d marry you
in an instant if I felt it was truly the best thing but I’ve long since accepted
the impossibility of it. I could be happy with Lord Addison and his children.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You’re wrong
and it would only be time until you realized it. Then where will we be?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’ll be
someplace where I don’t hold my breath waiting for you to enter the door only
to confess your love for some more suitable miss,” she charged accusingly. Henry
placed an apologetic hand on her arm and Claire recoiled then snapped. “Don’t
touch me. You’re always touching me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I only touch
at your encouragement.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You say that
to me here? Now?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“We aught to
at least be truthful,” Henry countered. “You provoke my touch with your
proximity and leering.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I despise
you.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“What if I
told you I was careful to mine your want?” he said, leaning in so that his breath
pulled at her skin. “What if I told you that I liked you looking, and that I
take pleasure in the want I’m able to stir in you?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Then I would
say you are as wicked as I suspected.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“That only makes
us two of a kind, darling for I’m nothing but the assent to your lure and if
you marry this gentleman it will only be time before we are back to afternoons
spent too close. Then you tell me how long after the constraint of your
innocence stops being a hindrance will it take for us to come undone?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“My word has
value, my lord, and unlike those reckless wives who break their vows to
entertain your whims, I will be steadfast and true,” she said turning fully around
to look him in the eyes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You say that here
locked in with me on solitary afternoon?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I say that in
any scandalous setting you are able to conjure. I’m beyond what it is we do. I
no longer wish to dream of your touch and hope for your love. I’ve had my fill
of holding my heart until you reappear only to hold me hostage with your
smiles. I can stand it no more and will bear no longer.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Claire that’s
not fair. You’ve sentenced me without a trial.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“And what testimony
would you present if given the opportunity? Do you love me?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’m yours. I can’t
be without you. Let that be enough for now,” he said his hands on her face as
he lowered his head and brushed his lips over hers. She kissed him back, her
response instant, without falter and a surprise to them both.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
The kiss was a
homecoming full of warm comfort and gentle assurances. Both their hungry
demanding lips taking refuge in the clear want and effortless giving. Each of
them, in that moment, the other’s soft
place to land.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
It was a
deeply intimate kiss full of desire and longing, almost aggressively so.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Their mouths
clinging greedily, as their lips part and their tongues licked a path to sweet
surrender after a decade’s worth of want. Soon they were breathless and
throbbing with naked lust. His hot lips were pulling over her own, swollen from
their ravenous consumption.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He was filling
her senses with raw sensual words as new awareness stirred to life in her womb.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’m all yours.
Let me show you how much,” he said his mouth on her face his hands making her clothes
and resolve untidy. “There is no end to me when I’m held to you. Will you let
me show you, chérie?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
She held
awhile and he kissed her until she relented, murmuring her compliance giving Henry
permission to slide lower by inches, his lips hot on her neck his hands working
at the fasteners of her frock until it gave and allowed him access to her
beautiful breasts, lush and creamy with deep coral nipples.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Henry ran his
hand over her breasts, squeezing them gently and Claire shuddered. Waves of
excitement flooded through her body as his tender touch turned to more arousing
strokes. She bit her lip, moaned in ecstasy and he filled his hands with the
soft flesh of her breast and she arch up into his hand with a gasp.</div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">He delighted in the privilege he was given, grazing his palms over her
nipples already tight from his caresses, making her tremble as he furthered his
exploration. Fondling fully every curve of her breast his thumb teasing and
toying with soft flesh and tender nipples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">He lowered his
head to lick at her aroused nipple causing her to groan blissfully when he
pulled it between his lips and sucked, flickering his tongue with wicked
deliberation. His hand moved with purpose down her body shifting and turning
her until she was pressed lengthwise and he half on top of her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">His hands were
on opposite poles, one at her breast as he suckled and the other on her ankle
gently inching upwards in a manner intended to arouse and not startle. His
hands moved, warm and strong up her calf, over her knee, stroking and pulling
sighs of delightful surrender from a now shivering Claire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">His hands now assertive
in the way of one confident of his skill as love as he moved closer to her
center. Teasing with dexterous fingers between silken thighs and on to her
willing flesh made moist because of his touch. Claire’s body quivered almost to
the point of breaking as Henry’s touches became more intimate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Then he took his
mouth from her breast and grinned down at her, the look in his eyes saying, <i>ah, but the best is yet to come.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">He wanted to
thrill her, show her some of the pleasure that could be had if she accepted his
offer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">With this in
mind, he, in one masterful move, lifted the hem of her frock with the hand that
was at her breast and buried his head where is other hand played between her
thighs. Running his tongue gently over the lips there, feeling her twitch in
response with a whimper and he licked deeper dragging his tongue over the
little hooded mound.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Caressing her until
she jerked with a startled little gasp, her hands and legs clinging as her body
wriggled closer. Her fingers twining through his hair to scrape over his scalp
as she buried her heels of her slippers in his back. Henry winced against the
pain of her demand before reaching up to grip her bottom and plunged deeper
still.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Fluttering his
tongue over the places he knew would pull ragged gasps and shuddering tremors,
he was relentless in his administration delighting in her sweetness licking,
sucking and nibbling until she teetered at the edge then he slid one of his
fingers inside of her hot needy warmth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Feeling her
tighten immediately with want he pushed deeper in order to feed her craving and
she lifted her hips to meet him, his name on her lips a continuous rhapsody of,
“Henry, my god, Henry please I can’t bear it, Henry… Henry...”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">She was close now,
her breath coming in short, high-pitched gasps, her hips moving of their own
volition. Henry pressed forward now with two very masterful fingers as he slid
in and out in time while he sucked without yield at the erect little nub where
all her desire was now focused.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Increasing the
momentum of his touch, he stroked deeply, sucking and licking, fluttering his
tongue until she buckled off the sofa cried out, her hands clenched in his
hair. Then she was all warm ripples and melting bones as she fell back into the
sofa, quivering orgasmically but he would not allow her to relax.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Suddenly he was desperate
to mark her as his own, sucking methodically, keeping her at climax. Her body
riding high as the rippling waves turned to pulsing spasms, that shook her violently
threatening to turning her pleasure into pain. Then and only then did he
release her, holding still until she came down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">When she sighed
in contentment he licked her clean in a sort of grand declaration before
lifting his head to hold her eyes while he deliberately licked at his lips.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Hmm,” she
nearly purred.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="NormalWeb11" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">His own body
aroused to strain his face smug satisfaction as he watched her breath returned
to normal and she tided herself but
instead of the blissful heady elation he had expected she, with a sombre
whisper, her eyes locked to his, said with near heartbreak, “You mean to get
your way despite my reservations don’t you?”<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“That’s not
fair Claire.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Won’t you leave
me be?” she pled. “I have nothing else to give and I find that I no longer have
use for what it is you have to offer.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“And this… <st1:place w:st="on">Addison</st1:place>… he loves you?” Henry demanded angrily.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“No, but I
don’t require love from him nor is he able to break my heart. He offers me
purpose and the possibility of contentment.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You’re a
coward.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“And you are a
heartless, pleasure-seeking, hedonist. So you see, we all have our cross to
bear.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Better weak in
restraint than a pious coward,” Henry said without bending. “Just imagine
believing yourself in love with me then running off without declaration to shackle
yourself to what’s safe because loving me has proven to be difficult.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I all but
declared myself to you earlier this season, turning up at your home in the
middle of the afternoon. I could have been ruined, taking such a chance and you
treated me as errand girl, sending me off to the shops to purchase your mother’s
birthday present so you could go cavort with Sir Crane’s widow.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Christ, I
wondered after you had left… why you had come…”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“And still you
did not ask.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’m sorry
Claire,” he said in earnest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I see that
but it changes nothing. I love you, you do not love me and I will marry
elsewhere.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Outside of my
family there is no one I care for more than you. Not David or Morgan with whom I’ve
shared three decades of friendship and that I think says something. Give me
time to figure it out Claire.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I wish I
could for both our sakes but I simply cannot. I couldn’t bear to wait only to
have you confirm what it’s taken me so long to accept.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I care deeply
for you. You know?” he vowed in earnest. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
She could feel
the tears in the back of her throat and swallowed painfully around them not
wanting to shed tears in front of him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
She was
without end. She loved him and could stand the heartbreak of his indifference
no more but neither did she want to will him into marriage only to have him
resent her once he discovered that he felt no more for her than he did for
those other ladies he had loved temporarily.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Still what
else could she do?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Then suddenly
it was all every clear, her resolve of earlier. To give in to the want of their
flesh until he grew tired of her so she might carry on with her heartbreak into
her planned life of contentment with Lord Addison.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right; text-indent: 36pt;">
My love ,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right; text-indent: 36pt;">
Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-86940945413840210232012-01-23T20:36:00.004-05:002012-02-18T02:20:00.681-05:00Westmorland Chapter Two of the Regency Novella<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Read the <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2009/12/official-kissing-day.html" target="_blank">prologue</a> and chapter<a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2012/01/westmorland-regency-novella.html" target="_blank"> one</a>, chapter three will follow in about a week.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/1/5800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/1/5800.jpg" width="502" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Demure by Johanna Harmon</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Chapter
Two</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Henry took a
moment there on the front steps to contemplate all he felt for Claire. He knew
it was love and that it had been that almost right from the very beginning.
That truth terrified him. She had the power to devastate his life and after the
hell he had been through with Viola, he did not know if he could survive losing
Claire.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
She and the
friendship they shared was the most precious thing in his life and now that his
mother was leaving, he was going to need her more than ever. His siblings and
friends had all long settled into marriage. He would be alone if she went with
his mother to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>
but he did not know how he could possibly persuade her to stay without some
kind of declaration.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Still without
resolve, Henry returned to the blue salon where Claire sat patiently with the
newly arrived tea service and he took the chair across from hers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Shall I pour
you a cup tea or fix you a brandy?” she asked sympathetically.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He held a
moment without bothering to answer with an expression she had never seen on him
before, something serious and uncertain then he said, “Claire have you ever
given marriage any real thought?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Of course I
have,” she said looking at him now in earnest. “What female hasn’t?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Then why
haven’t you married?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You know why.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“No, I can’t
honestly say that I do. You’re beautiful Claire. In fact, I can honestly say I’ve
only know a handful of women whose beauty compares to yours and though modest, your
family is respected.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Not modest,
my lord, but paupers hence my vocation as lady’s companion,” she said with
knitted brows. She could not tell what he was getting at and she didn’t like it
one bit. She was accustomed to knowing precisely what he was thinking and was
extremely bothered by this new interest in her personal life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Has knowing
me stopped you from marrying?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Here now –”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“What am I to
you Claire?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I beg your
pardon?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“It’s been a
full decade since you and I have been acquainted yet you’ve never once used my
given name. Why is that?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You’re my
employer.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“We are
friends.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Hardly that…”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You don’t
count me as a friend Claire?” he asked with open affront.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Is friendship
the only cause for this inquiry?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’ll start
there.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You either
tell me what this is about this instant or you leave.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“It has to do
with you being in love with me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I– What?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You’re here
sacrificing your youth for the hope that I’ll turn up and brighten your day.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Let me stop
you there before you embarrass yourself any further.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You needn’t
deny it anymore for now that it’s been brought to my attention I’ve come to
offer you my hand in earnest.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Good Lord.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Henry will do.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“No, <i>my lord.</i> It most certainly will not,”
said Claire. “Who’s responsible for this? Who would be callous enough to
convince you of such a thing?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Do you deny
it?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“What do you
really want?” she asked.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You ask me
that after a lifetime of friendship?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“The fact that
you are indignant does not help me for even the guilty are able to express
righteousness and I’ve been your confessor long enough to know what you’re
capable of.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Then you also
know that if all I wanted was you in my bed it would not be a hardship for me.
I see the way you look at me-”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“If you have
mistakenly interpreted my pitied glances for an aged Lothario as anything but
that well… it explains quite a lot.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
She lied for
there was no denying that he had mastered the art of male allure or that you
could very well seduce her out of her good sense, clothes or inhibitions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He was the
quintessential romantic English lord. He was tall, fair, lean and brilliantly
proportioned with the sort of ratios that had undoubtedly inspired Michelangelo
to put chisel to marble. He was beautiful and effortless with his clear blue
eyes, wide shoulders and narrow hips.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He was sex,
embodied.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He was built
for it, smelled of it… Christ it radiated from his every pore with his lazy
masculine smile to his easy fluid carriage. He was strong, intelligent and
comfortable in his own skin. Men coveted him, women were drawn to the raw
carnality of the air he exuded, and Claire was no different.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“What the
devil is that to mean?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“That you have
an inflated sense of self.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“From anyone
else that might have been true,” Henry said. “It’s strange how I’m honest in
all things in my life except with you. You with whom I hold my breath, trying
always to be more than I am, younger, faster, smarter. All for you who expect
nothing from me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Are you
telling me that our entire friendship has been nothing but a lie?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“No, what I’m
saying is I always make an attempt to present to you my best self but in the
end I always fall short and through no fault of my own, I end up presenting to
you my honest self. Though, why I should feel the need to defend myself to you
who doesn’t even consider me a friend…”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“We are friends,”
she conceded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“And still you
are an enigma to me, unseen but for your beauty. I know nothing of you, no
vulnerability, no flaw, absolutely nothing beyond your pretty exterior.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You say that
as if you hold me responsible.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Oh, but I do.
You learned early that most are content to look upon a beautiful face, never
seeing beyond its façade and you use it as armour to keep everyone at bay.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Why don’t you
simply tell me what’s caused this sudden interest in me and my personal life.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Mother –”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“This is your
mother’s doing?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“She worries that
your deliberate restraint at my presence is a sign of your deep tendre.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’ll admit to
you having a degree of allure but I would not go so far as to say it has
altered my life.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Now, we both
know that that’s not the truth and I feel it’s worth discussing.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“There was
never anything between us but a fleeting consideration and not even that if the
truth is to be told. I was never more to you than an awed girl with unspoilt
adoration but I’ve long out grown my fascination with the idea of you as
romantic hero.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I was always
so very careful with you, you know,” Henry said sincerely. “Ever mindful not to
cross the lines of decency, never touched you the way I wanted. I let you
provoke want in me time and time and again… but then, it’s never been a
hardship for me for I’ve always delighted in the thrill and the chase.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“None of this
matters anyways. I hadn’t planned to tell you quite like this but I <i>have</i> decided to marry,” Claire said over
her now strained emotions and his open stare.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Is that
right?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Yes. My
Cousin Rachelle’s widow,” she offered steadily as Henry looked on with an easy
smile.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Claire was
bothered by his calm but she refused to let him see how much he was affecting
her. After all, she was sorted now, she had just put him behind her and she
would not allow him to upset her newfound equilibrium.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Tell me,
Claire. How long dead will I be when this wedding takes place?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You are being
unreasonable. Besides I owe you no explanation and since that is the case I
shall take my leave,” she said in preparation to leave.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’ll have my
say, sweetheart.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“What is there
for you to say now that I’ve found an end?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Does that
mean you no longer desire me chérie?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“What does it
matter what I want now that I’m no longer available to you?” she asked angrily.
“I waited a whole lifetime for you to acknowledge what it was that laid between
us and had your mother not insisted, heaven only knows what would become of me.
No more. I’ve found a gentleman who is sensible and reliable.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“And it’s your
intent to build a life with this man based on qualifications that one seeks in
a steward.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Better a
gentleman with the resumé of a steward than one with the credentials of a malcontent,
hell-rake.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Why are you
trying to provoke me when all I seek is your comfort?” he asked with his continued
irritating calm while she burned with barely contained anger. He liked that he
was able to incite her out of her usual composure and took the opportunity to
unsettle her further with a slow easy smile.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Poor Claire,
she had never been able to tolerate the full effect of Henry’s lazy,
self-assured smile and her traitorous body glowed with her want.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’d like you
to leave this instant,” she said with dignity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Say it so I
believe you mean it and I’ll not only leave. I won’t return unless invited to
do so.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Why are you
doing this to me now that I’ve found contentment?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Because what
lies between us does not belong to you alone and I no longer wish to deny the
attraction I feel for you.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You’re
perverse.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I know,” he
said with a wicked grin. “Why don’t you come here and let me show how truly depraved
I can be.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“And so smug.
You’re convinced that you’re more equipped to resist my lure than I am yours.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Am I to take
that as a challenge, darling?” he asked with a mocking brow.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Now what kind
of sense would that make? Why would I initiate a wager in a field where I have
so little knowledge?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Surely you
know that I’d be nothing but eager to teach you all I know on the matter.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Yes, alright
then.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I beg your
pardon?” asked a flabbergasted Henry.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I’m accepting
your offer.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Yes, I see
that, but why now?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“It will serve
as a means to an end.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Yes?” he
asked with a gesture for her to elaborate.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“It will cure
you of me and affirm for me my belief that my choice of husband is the most
sensible.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“What the
devil did you just say?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“This is not
meant to hurt you, you understand. It’s only that I’ve known you for long
enough to know that you have not been able to sustain your interest in any
female once you’ve had full physical knowledge of her,” she said. “In fact, I
think it’s the only thing that’s kept you interested in maintaining our
association.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“You believe
this to be true and still you continue to involve yourself with me?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I never said
I was without fault. I know my judgement where you are concerned is not to be
recommended and it’s for that reason I’ve decided now to go this course.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Oh, I see… Well,
I wish you a good afternoon, Miss Maxwell,” he said before rising to take his
leave.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“And to you my
lord,” she returned with a triumphant smile as Henry rose to offer a curt bow
before leaving.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
Then something
changed in his eyes and she knew, in that instant before he spoke, that she had
given him the advantage by showing her hand too soon. He revelled in her loss,
walking past her for the door as if he was nonetheless willing to concede. Then
he stopped suddenly behind her with a, “Tell me, Claire… Have you already
accepted this widower’s offer?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“I will the
instant his period of mourning is over and he sets forth his formal offer.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
“Brilliant,”
he said suddenly bending to whisper in her ear, “For I wouldn’t want you to
have to break your word once you finally accept that no one but me will do.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
He stopped for
a moment so that she could feel the weight of his words while his breath, hot
on her ear, pulled at her core. When he was sure she was well aware of the
promise of the moment he brushed his lips over the eager flush of her earlobe
with a, “I’ll see to it that we are not disturbed.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right; text-indent: 36pt;">
<a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2012/02/westmorland-chapter-three-of-regency.html" target="_blank">Chapter Three </a><br />
My love ,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right; text-indent: 36pt;">
Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-56348826349220552622012-01-15T05:15:00.001-05:002012-01-16T01:25:59.630-05:00Lets stop running into each other this way<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Misery is not seeing you and still there is no agony
as great as your face at my door and no bliss <span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">compares to</span> looking up to see your smiling face there out of
the blue </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/2/13284.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="516" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/2/13284.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Flowers and Strawberries by Felix Vallotton</div>
<strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">The Crush</span></strong><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">You
make of me a relic </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A
sort of dutiful pillar planted in quicksand but in time I’ll be covered</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Hidden
from sight</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Forgotten
by you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Only
to be excavation and made valuable </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Still
it wouldn't have mattered for you would have been long gone</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">All
but for the bits of you that remains a part of me</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">My love,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Simone</span></div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-10049583689661686982012-01-07T02:59:00.000-05:002012-01-23T20:40:15.362-05:00Westmorland a regency novella<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Read the prologue <a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2009/12/official-kissing-day.html" target="_blank">here</a>, chapter two will follow in about a week.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/4/33956.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/4/33956.jpg" width="532" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Constance Ossolinska Lubienska by François Gérard</div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 36pt;">
Chapter
One</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Marry me Claire,” Viscount Westmorland said to
the stunning redhead seated across from him in his mother’s grand salon. “I
can’t go on like this, another year. One of those ravenous maidens pinched me
this afternoon in <st1:place w:st="on">Harrison</st1:place>’s sitting room.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Shall I pour
you a lemonade, my lord?” she asked.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Marriage
Claire. With children, grand estates and my eternal gratitude… Doesn’t that
sound lovely?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“And it would
have to be you I marry?” she asked, eyes sparking with mischief as she extended
a hand with the aforementioned lemonade.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“What keeps me
suffering your awful company?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Does that
mean you no longer wish to marry me?” she laughed.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Did I tell
you how Lady Riley lured me to tea with that sumptuous body of hers then tried
to marry me off to her daughter.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“She’s a
lovely girl.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“It’s perverse
Claire. I could be that child’s father.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Oh, that’s
right. You did court her mother when she was a débutante. Didn’t you?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Are you
deliberately trying to provoke me?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“No, my lord,
but after a lifetime of knowing you I find I no longer have to make an effort.
It just sort of happens.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“I never liked
you.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“And still you
would marry me?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Taking joy
from my humiliation makes you depraved. You see that, don’t you?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Surely you
don’t begrudge me my one happiness.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“I realized
something in coming here to see my mother.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“And what is
that, my lord?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“I don’t like
the company she keeps.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“But I’m not
company so much as companion and you pay my keep so you could, I suppose,
instruct her to have me behave.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“You only say
that because you know full well she prefers you to me and would have me
banished from the premises.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Nonsense,”
his mother said as she entered, “Now stop bothering Claire and come take my
hand. I have wonderful news.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“I warn you,
my dear. If this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wonderful news </i>of
yours has anything to do with some suitable maiden I won’t be able to bear it,”
Henry said as he greeted his mother with kind hand and a miserable smile.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“I’ve given up
on finding you a bride and have instead found a husband for myself,” Blanche St
John said pertly as she brushed pass her son to sit next to her companion.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“This is new,”
Henry said to Claire as his mother settled.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Have I your
blessing, my angel?” his mother continued in spite of his rude dismissal.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“To whom have
you decided to marry my dear?” he asked indulgently though he did not believe
his mother would, at five and fifty, remarry.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Lord Philippe
Marcel. We are both widowed now and I should like to live out the rest of my
days in the land of my birth away from this constant chill here in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region>.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Et tu Maman?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“This was not
done to you my angel,” his mother said defensively. “You’re three and thirty
and I’ve dedicated a decade and a half to finding you a wife to no avail. No
more. I will return to <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place></st1:country-region>
at season’s end and you will wish me well.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“And what of
Claire?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Claire knows
she will always have a place in my home, no matter where.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“And you,
Claire. You are willing to abandon <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region> for my mother’s whims?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Your mother
has been nothing but kind to me and if it is her wish to return to the land of
her birth I will, if she requires it, attend her there.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Who else
knows of this?” Henry demanded.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“If you’re
asking whether or not your siblings know,” his mother said patiently, “Then yes,
I’ve told them.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“I see.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Don’t sulk,
Henry,” his mother said, “It reduces you to a child.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Lest you
forget, my Lady. I’m your child.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“You, my <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lord,</i> are also peer of this realm, head
of your brood and well past the hour where I’m required to suckle you at my
bosom,” his mother retorted.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“What a thing
to say to me.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“You are a
good man, my son, and you have seen us all well since your dear Papa’s death
but it is time you saw to yourself.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Meaning what
exactly?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“You use our
care as a crutch,” his mother said plainly. “Your father was a lovely man even
if a little rotten with the practical. I see that and understand how difficult
it had been for you to care for us but you are now as wealthy as Midas. You did
your duty and saw your siblings happily settled. For that reason I have not,
until now, pushed, but I must insist.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Have I been a
terrible burden to you maman?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“No child,”
his mother said, “But I worry we’ve hindered your pursuit of happiness with our
unyielding demands and near constant crisis.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“You mustn’t
feel it is so.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“And still I
do.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Take heart my
dear,” Henry said with guilt at having upset his mother. “I’ve been rotten in
spite of your efforts. Marry Marcel and be happy.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“You would
pacify me now that I’m attempting to see you well?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“I’m well when
you are happy Maman,” he assured her, his voice warm but his tone firm and she
knew there was nothing else for it.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Will you come
with me to Evelyn’s?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“I’m not much
for my sister and her constant offer of cheer just now, thank you.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Ah, ‘tis a
pity for Philippe will be there and I so want the two of you to be better
acquainted.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Don’t you
worry, my dear, I shall make it my sole duty in the coming weeks to make myself
known to your intended,” he vowed.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Now, Henry. You
must not terrify Philippe with your <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inquisition
</i>tactics. I want you two to get on.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“And we will.
The instant that I’ve instilled unholy fear in him,” Henry said with a charming
smile.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“See me to my
carriage,” she said with extended hand, “And Claire, my dear, see to it that he
eats something before he leave.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Yes, my
lady.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
The instant
they cleared the salon his mother said, “There is a matter I need for you to
see to?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“You need but
ask.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“What do you
feel for Claire, Henry?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“She and I are
friends, mother. But then, you know that so I suppose that isn’t what you’re
asking.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“You do not
love her?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“You ask as if
you believe I do,” he said.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“I presume
nothing but I see the way she is careful not to look at you and I’m a woman so
I understand what that means,” his mother sighed. “That and I feel responsible
for allowing it to go on so long.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“What do you
want me to do, maman?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Forgive Viola
and embrace the possibility of happiness with Claire.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“I’ve long
made my peace with Viola and her betrayal.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Westmorland
it does not serve you to hold tight to injury when so much awaits you on the
other side.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“My dear,”
Henry said with measure and his mother adjusted her approach. </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Then release Claire.
She is nearly thirty and has made no attempt to marry in spite of my
encouragement and offered assistance.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“And you feel
this is due to her friendship with me?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“You doubt
it?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“I never gave
it much thought.”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
“Don’t you
think it’s time you did?”</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;">
There was
nothing else for it and suddenly his head hurt like the very devil. He watched
his mother pull away in her carriage and lamented having answered her summons.</div>
<br />
<div align="right">
<a href="http://theromanticqueryletter.blogspot.com/2012/01/westmorland-chapter-two-of-regency.html" target="_blank">Chapter two here</a><br />
Happy New Year to you all,</div>
<div align="right">
Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-77691248780156245912011-12-06T02:57:00.001-05:002012-08-06T05:11:31.245-04:00W/EIt would be easy to have married him or so she believes<br />
<br />
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<div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Mijn Hart byErik Suidman </div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;"><strong><span style="color: cyan;">A wasteland of her own making<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">She would only divulge the bit that she was
certain would cause her utter humiliation for at least then there would be a
sort of penance. The entire thing had all but killed her, had left her broken
and desolate, clinging to her isolation as a sort of sentence though she had
long abandoned religion in hope of finding salvation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">She had been rich in sin right from the
very beginning and had, by her tenth birthday, known self-pleasure enough to
offer tutorial. It had been both comfort and shame but at least in that she was
no different from anyone else who masturbated in a God-fearing land. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">Then there were the boys who at first
seemed to be co-conspirators for their parts in it but that was soon proven a
lie. She had never needed them as much as they had come to want her and in that
lay her tragedy. She valued the orgasm more than the device that got her there
and since she was able to find fulfillment long before the boys arrived they
would soon prove themselves no more than fallacy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">He had been the one that she wanted to
matter, the one, in whom she had pinned all hopes for a normality of which she
believed herself capable. She had given him what all the other girls wouldn’t
but none of what was expected and in the beginning it had been perfection. She
had no demand of his time nor had she required monogamy of him and in return he
received all she had to offer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">She had not flinched at sodomy or gagged at
</span><span class="ft"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">fellatio but she
would not allow him to penetrate her in the usual way. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That</i> he could get from any other girl. And they went on in their
way until he wanted more, demanding of her truth, time and commitment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">She had
panicked about how much she had lied to him. Not about other men for there was
no one else at that time but him not really. There had been little flirtations
but for the most part she had made herself so she had been just for him and even
that had all been a lie. It was more intimacy than she wanted to own up to so
she made it about something else. She made it about him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">It had
been easy to make it about him possessing her in the one way she had insisted
was sacred and it had taken no more than her confiding in the one man he believed
capable of what he wasn’t. Her confidant was one his dearest friends but there
had been a sort of rivalry between the two and she was a point of pride for her
man. She knew this from the very beginning and there were times when he took
pleasure from seeing his friend look at her with lust and at he with jealous.
So, it had been easy for her to make it his torment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">A few smiles
and a carefully placed hand was all it took for him to be consumed by it. Then
he was left impotent, unable to find release, made insane to the point of
meticulous action. In this she was a willing party and of course it would
ultimately mean their end but what else could she do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">By
November she was twenty-six and willingly lost, thus waited for him to act. When
the time came he had kissed her in the manner of lustful teenager for nearly an
hour on his sofa without hurry stilling her every attempt to put an aggressive
end to their building desires. Then he was selfless, his face buried between
her thighs. He had planned everything to perfection. He didn’t have to pause or
rush forth with purpose for that matter. Once he had lifted his head to look her in
the eyes they both knew.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">He was not
looking for her consent nor would he have proceeded if she had said no but he
knew she wouldn’t have and not because she was swept away, for that she was not
capable of. He knew only that she would rather sacrifice body rather than tell him a single
truth and he no longer cared.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">She
braced for pain that never came and then it was nearly nice because for
whatever reason it still mattered to him that she knew he had tenderness and
capacity but it was for naught. She was in familiar ruins.</span></span></div>
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">My love my care,</span></span></div>
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua', serif; font-size: 10pt;">Simone</span></span></div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-35821519443744150642011-11-05T04:26:00.000-04:002011-11-05T04:26:33.139-04:00Don't pick at it<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">You will only bleed and it'll leave
an ugly scar</span></span></div>
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</div>
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the intercepted love letter by Carl Spitzweg</div>
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Funny<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></div>
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Say it was good<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">No, say it could not have
been better<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And love me<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">No suffer for having loved
me<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And be turned inside out at
the thought of not having loved me<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Say perfect is knowing I’m
part of you and you can’t bear me being torn away<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">No, say aguish is your leaving
and having me be a compliant accomplice<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And insist on my blood,
tears and regrets so our end is as our passionate beginning</span></span></div>
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<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">My love my care,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span class="ft"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Simone</span></span></div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-80269059625715994112011-10-06T04:21:00.000-04:002012-01-25T05:02:19.692-05:00Suddenly the impossible...Someone who knows me completely<br />
<br />
If I were to marry it would be to someone to whom I was able to show all the awful bits of me. All the deep dark secrets pieces that I keep hidden in order to save face and protect heart. The tender vulnerable little girl parts of me that won’t let anyone see her cry and who leaves before she can get hurt or never bothers getting too involved because she is too afraid. I don’t know I’m capable of it and understand that it is an ideal that could easily be lost to want for children or fear of being alone. I’m at least self-aware enough to know it would take me trusting enough to let go my control and being honest. <br />
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Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Triosson's Hortense de Beauharnais</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
This would not be easy for me and not because I’m unwilling but because it is fundamentally who I am and fundamental to the person I’ve grown into. In my family keeping secrets is a mitzvah and as romantic as I am I'm able to see with clarity the woman I’ve become. She is no less than a perversion of the ideal girl I wish I was but never was capable of being. I will more than likely marry without having shared more than the necessary bits and sadly it will be enough.<br />
<br />
I hope against all that I’m wrong <br />
<br />
<div align="right">
My love my care, </div>
<div align="right">
Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-23921781899553023112011-09-22T04:38:00.005-04:002011-09-24T04:12:31.884-04:00Nine Years<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Nelson Shanks' Bluebird</div>
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<br />
I haven’t seen the man of my life in 197 days. I think of him no less than twice in every breath which is half has much the amount of times I glance at the door expecting him to enter. I’m well aware of how pathetic it makes me and still I take solace in it for missing him is all that remains. Well that and my increasing understanding that we will never be.<br />
<div align="right">
My love my care,</div>
<div align="right">
Simone</div>
The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-52862792761243226582011-09-05T03:06:00.000-04:002011-09-09T01:45:30.476-04:00Jews for Mel Gibson...And other out of the way rubbish said when in company with my provoking sister. It started with me telling her about some lecture I saw on youtube by some Harvard don on justice. The question presented by the academic was this – ‘if placed in circumstance where one is to choose between the lives of many verses than of one what would you choose?’ My first thought had not been one of logic but of heart and it was what could I live with plain and simple. I would choose one but I would do all I could including jumping in front of the cart to save that individuals life. <br />
<br />
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<a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/5/48712.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/5/48712.jpg" width="414" xaa="true" /></a></div>
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Erik Suidman's De Bezoekers</div>
<br />
For this answer I was rewarded with a little tale of a town called happy or some such nonsense where all the residence of this ideal godforsaken fictional town rest on the misery of one child locked in a dark pit. Just you imagine it a place where your child is safe to play outdoors unattended without fear of harm and nothing bad ever appends all thanks to the sacrifice of one wretched child that is not permit kindness or the humane.<br />
<br />
I love my sister but there are times when I wish she would simple be quiet and let me enjoy my blissful ignorance. Like this time I was reading this article on Mel Gibson’s comeback when she said, ‘I should stop reading fairy tales.’ This got me so mad I said, ‘It’s possible you know, all it would take is for some powerful Jew like say Harvey Weinstein or Steven Spielberg to wear a Jew for Mel t-shirt.’ I’m pretty sure that was blasphemous and a thousand other awful things still there is no one I would rather spend an afternoon with.<br />
<br />
<div align="right">
My love my care, </div>
<div align="right">
Simone</div>
The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-7146686553035945842011-08-26T03:33:00.000-04:002011-08-26T03:33:04.976-04:00Louis Ritman <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/3/24877.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" qaa="true" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/3/24877.jpg" width="502" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Louis Ritman's Early Morning Sunshine (At the Window, Giverny)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", "serif";">For to me his painting of the female form reads as sacred. Most often bath in light always treated with respect. When it comes to art I know what I like on sight and I truly adore Mr. Ritman’s work. I always come back to the ones who leave an impression and he my dears have left light on canvas but more than that is the hearts delight.</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/3/24881.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" qaa="true" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/3/24881.jpg" width="524" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">His 'Lady by a Window' is one my absolute favorites</div><div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", "serif";">My love my care,</span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", "serif";">Simone</span></div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-66807368325858814302011-08-12T02:32:00.000-04:002011-08-12T02:32:03.906-04:00Until then...<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">I look forward to putting you behind me.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/4/34639.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" naa="true" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/4/34639.jpg" width="514" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Portrait of Achille de Gas in Uniform by Edgar Degas</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">Today is precisely as yesterday and still I’m content to live in our misery for now I’m but marking time. I’ve already decided to leave you but why it should be for this thing that is no different from the other awful things we have been party to when we were so long heading here. I know you won’t struggle against my going when the time comes or shed tear nor will you visit or so I hope for I wouldn’t want to be the heavy who had to hold you accountable, yet again. I’m praying you will have grace enough to allow me a clean break without thought for yourself. Be concerned for me this once, wear it as duty for it was after all meant to have been just so. But then ours was never as it should have been, so starting now I will steel myself against your need with the hope you will let me be. No more will I offer you care in my hour of need. Going forth you are to be stranger allowed the kind indifference and genial consideration without row or contentious attempt to understand your hurting me time and again. </span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">My love my care,</span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">Simone</span></div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-56078254040049575132011-08-02T05:57:00.000-04:002011-08-02T05:57:48.955-04:00Professional opinion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Believe me it works!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/4/32885.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/4/32885.jpg" t$="true" width="446" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Rolf Armstrong's Golden Girl</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Don’t just drag something on; now and then get dress with purpose. Trust your mirror and think I’m attractive. If I feel good I’m more likely to smile and the chain reaction from that simple gesture can be life changing or at the very least it will make you feel better. This works for your home too. Dress your bedroom for purpose or your kitchen for that matter. T<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">his is good advice.</span></span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">My love my care,</span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Simone</span></div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-39839328429351962182011-07-25T22:38:00.000-04:002011-07-25T22:38:04.777-04:00The Perfect Man Is:<div align="center"></div>Quick to laugh with a killer smile<br />
Tall<br />
Independent<br />
Eloquent <br />
Kind<br />
He is fit with a six pack <br />
Well read and of proper books too, none of this Malcolm Gladwell popular fiction nonsense <br />
A Professional<br />
Good with his hands<br />
A Yogi<br />
And Masseuse<br />
A baby whisperer<br />
Tantric sex master<br />
Chef<br />
Plays the piano<br />
Volunteers <br />
Parallel parks with one hand<br />
Love foreign films<br />
Is a world traveler and is multilingual.<br />
The Perfect man is more than a renaissance man he is pure fiction.<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/2/19776.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="434" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/2/19776.jpg" t$="true" width="640" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">John Frederick Kensett's Sunset on the Sea</div><div style="text-align: right;">My care my love,</div><div style="text-align: right;">Simone </div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-49742465864226352702011-07-17T06:16:00.000-04:002012-09-10T12:19:19.297-04:00Mid-July<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/1/9501.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="506" m="m" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/1/9501.jpg" true="true" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Louis Aston Knight's Flower by the Edge of the River</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", "serif";">I can’t bear it and not because the change I’ve so long anticipated is nowhere in sight but I’m bothered by the near comfort I take from the mundanity of todays that too often resembles yesterdays. I’m afraid of my pass, terrified my ills will manifest themselves as some awful change and so I’m glad to wallow here in the relative misery of Tuesdays that favours Saturdays. I’ve been wicked and ungrateful but it does not weight so heavy I fear as the worry of the consequence that karma promises. Though, why I a non-religious descendant of nonpracticing Catholics and Jews turned Rasta and half-assed Buddhist should worry so about sin is beyond me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", "serif";">Bad people get away with murder all the time while innocent babies die from hunger. Let’s face it, good things happen to bad people all the time without rhyme or reason and still I can’t help but fret over the grand judgement. I wonder if that is a universal human worry.</span></div>
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My love my care,</div>
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Simone</div>
The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-51287361184083362532011-07-09T04:23:00.001-04:002011-07-09T04:25:34.747-04:00Why I never wait by the phoneBecause at sixteen I wrote this in between breaks of frantically pacing the floor of my room while waiting for the boy I liked to call<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/2/18379.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/2/18379.jpg" /></a></div><div align="center">Odilon Redon's Ophelia</div><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Me at 16</span></strong><br />
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For him I’m flames on the ocean and any thought of him sweeps me up as frenzied northern wind on wild fire<br />
I burn and boil the water scalding the fish<br />
I’m mayhem near cataclysmic<br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", "serif"; font-size: large;">Violent, no?</span></div><div align="right">My love my care,</div><div align="right">Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-82354771415964024672011-06-30T04:24:00.000-04:002011-06-30T04:24:19.138-04:00The civility cocktails allowIt’s just good manners really<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/2/12413.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" i$="true" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/2/12413.jpg" width="474" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Jean Francois Raffaelli's Blacksmiths Taking a Drink</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>True to tell I was raised to believe that cocktails before an awful true told were not only good decorum it was necessary. So, of course when the gentleman sitting next to me said he thought drinks being served before the ceremony were most civilized I knew I had made a friend for life. The wedding would more than likely have been as bile – the bride’s first and the groom’s third – if it weren’t for the mimosas that made drinking before noon acceptable I would not have made it twenty minutes let alone seven hours. There had champagne after the awful ceremony for which they had written their own vows, I still can’t believe she quote lyric from a Celine Dion song and I’m sure if we check the video from his previous weddings he recycled some of those sentiments. This had been the third such wedding of the season and I’m not going to anymore of these arrangements this year for fear I’ll become alcohol dependant. <br />
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<div align="right">My love my care, </div><div align="right">Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-23778014616782757812011-06-21T04:26:00.002-04:002011-06-21T14:06:34.328-04:00Three of the One Hundred Women that has inspired me<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">More than beautiful they are Striking, each of these stunners is a master of nuance capable of brilliant silence with an enviable talent earned and honed through her relentless hard work.</span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style", "serif";"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Please allow me to present the actors Viola Davis, Tilda Swinton and Maggie Cheung, for they read to me as echoes of the same note heard at different points in the cannon. Each in her own way the personification of craft to artist.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><img height="640" src="http://www.dailymakeover.com/appImages/galleryImages/all_womens_looks/Viola_Davis+Jan_30_2009.jpg" width="480" /></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Times;">Viola Davis</span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ms. Davis has the gravity of a complex protagonist and is accomplished at conveying heartbreak with dignified smile. She is also able to do small and vulnerable but sadly it is not a part given to her enough. I would love to see her in something tender and layered as ‘Same Time Next Year’ or in the same vein as a Neil Simon perhaps reminiscent of say ‘The Goodbye Girl’ or one of those female positive films from the seventies.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> <img height="568" src="http://images.usatoday.com/life/_photos/2009/02/18/violax-large.jpg" width="490" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Viola's Tiny Bio: Juilliard graduate, two times Tony Award winner along with Academy Award, Golden Globes and Screen Actor Guild nominations. Her opus magnum thus far is ‘Doubt’ but there is genius ahead of her yet and I for one can’t wait to see what she does next. She was nothing short of mesmerizing in ‘Solaris’ watch it or ‘Trust’ and let her blow your mind.</span><br />
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<div align="center"><img src="http://thebosh.com/upload/2008/06/08/tilda_swintons_partner_admits_he_has_another_lover/Tilda-Swinton.jpg" /></div><div align="center">Tilda Swinton</div><div align="center"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ms. Swinton has the mutability of an epic antagonist with what seems to be limitless reach; the woman can play anything and if you don’t believe me simply spend an hour with her film ‘Orlando,’ you will not be able to look away, I guarantee. She was phenomenal in Michael Clayton but as far as I’m concerned her opus magnum thus far is ‘The Deep End’ for in it she was no less than a divine vessel for the determined Margaret. </span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><img height="562" src="http://www.trendnista.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/tilda-swinton-2.jpg" style="-ms-interpolation-mode: nearest-neighbor;" width="422" /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Tilda's Tiny Bio: Cambridge graduate, Academy Award and British Academy of Film and Television Arts winner along with Golden Globes and Screen Actor Guild nominations. There has never been one the likes of her on screen and she is truly a joy to behold.</span><br />
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<div align="center"><span style="font-family: Times;"></span></div><div align="center"><span style="font-family: Times;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-8748" height="640" src="http://aznpic.com/macimg/2010/06/141.jpg" title="14" width="492" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times;">Maggie Cheung</span></div><div align="center"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Ms. Cheung has the incandescence of a masterful heavy for it is not only that she is apt at playing human it’s also how seldom you take note she is but play the part. She is in it and we the audience is all the better for having seen what she has set forth. Her face is a mirror and within it all lives experience. In ‘Clean,’ her opus magnum she embodies loss and despair with just enough hope to make her pain tolerable to the onlooker.</span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUg9OfIew9QXGK63RLHyfnAlT4tRPPel9442yPWEzKoWneaGXqej2ZKTqVT3loSQyvHlsmlD0PSI0W6zOa1PHcESqAnLvHLMGpPBnoVTujijDJUHWrsicrXfokev_hW2_8bNFQMJT78KC5/s1600/W020070216364456544129.jpg" /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Maggie's Tiny Bio: Singer, Composer and she is the first Asian actress to win a prize at the Cannes Film Festival. She plays extraordinary with such ease that I would love to see her play a suburban soccer mom or desperate house wife. </span><br />
<div align="right"><span style="font-family: Times;">My love my care,</span></div><div align="right"><span style="font-family: Times;">Simone</span></div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-46788171670142982962011-06-16T02:36:00.001-04:002011-06-16T02:38:32.243-04:00Three Sixty Five<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Health, wealth and a ceremony on Wednesday in blue.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I wish for a few things with every breath</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Fortune without fame</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> Love without dating</div> To be ten years younger and ten years wiser<br />
But then I’m such a practical girl I would gladly accept the fortune and sort out the rest on the morrow.<br />
Still I’m too sensible to believe any of it will ever happen for me and have long since sat down with financial adviser to draft up an alternative life plan. I’ll be a millionaire soon enough but what of the rest? <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/4/30017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" i$="true" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/4/30017.jpg" width="531" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Quint Buchholz's Morning (I.)</div><div align="right">My love my care,</div><div align="right">Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-12557555913322292382011-06-09T01:59:00.003-04:002011-06-22T05:22:26.151-04:00Ode to Daniel Craig’s bum<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I have nine great girl friends and besides a three times a year must get together there is seldom anything we can all agree on... that was until we say the print ad for ‘Cowboys and Aliens.’ Now you must understand they are women from ages twenty-seven to forty in this set. Some married for decades (one to her high school sweetheart), others single (one happily divorced) and a few that won’t admit to monogamy being a real state so believe me when I say for us to have consensus on anything is nothing short of miraculous.</span></div><br />
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.cowboysandaliensmovie.com/index2.html"><img height="446" src="http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/cowboys_and_aliens_movie_image_daniel_craig_02.jpg" style="-ms-interpolation-mode: nearest-neighbor;" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We have had knock-down drag-out pissing matches over shoes and cake. Cake is good and shoes is better what is there to fight about I ask you and still... well I digress. Daniel Craig’s bottom is a thing of beauty and so says all of us. Not George Clooney’s easy charm or Chiwetel Ejiofor magnetism or William Fichtner soulful eyes or Gad Elmaleh eloquent silence or sweet Eric Bana for that matter could get the nod of all nine. </span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;">My love my care,</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: right;">Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-1263378650776776052011-06-06T04:03:00.002-04:002011-06-06T04:07:47.291-04:00The irrational strangely linear path of an idea in my mind...<div style="text-align: left;">The thought: Am I happy here?</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.ownapainting.com/images/MartinJohnsonHeade-VictorianStillLifewithAppleBlossoms.jpg" style="-ms-interpolation-mode: nearest-neighbor;" /><br />
Victorian Still Life With Apple Blossoms by Martin Johnson Heade</div><br />
I’ve always known that I was happier in the summer but it has only just dawned on me that it may also be necessary for my happiness. I was watching a film of oranges growing in someone’s backyard in some tropical paradise and it made me feel homesick. I kept thinking I don’t have enough money for that and I would miss my sister too much but she lives in another city and I hardly see her. We talk on the phone all the time so all I would really need is a good long distance plan. My mother would hate this! Money stops me doing everything. I don’t have a baby because I don’t have enough money and it would be irresponsible besides I’m not married. I don’t know if I fully believe one ought to be married to have children but I do believe children do better with two parents but what is to stop me packing-up my belongings for sunnier shores. I’ll more than likely make a list of pros and cons that will end with me popping down to the research library to find out how to create an orangery in my tiny back yard. I wish I had the courage to simply take my life savings and just go. Sadly, I won’t for I’m too sensible besides I have an obligation to my future self to take care of our retirement.<br />
<div align="right">My love, my care,</div><div align="right">Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4658469631060045142.post-74937425473086358222011-05-27T04:50:00.001-04:002011-05-27T05:19:32.461-04:00The man I will love tomorrow will be so much more...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/5/47662.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.museumsyndicate.com/images/5/47662.jpg" t8="true" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Jaroslaw Kukowski's Untitled</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">The man I love today is:</div><div style="text-align: center;">Beautiful as youth and promise fulfilled.</div><div style="text-align: center;">He is paradise and live flesh.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Strength and victorious warrior.</div><div style="text-align: center;">He is my ideal </div><div style="text-align: center;">An erotic, charming, virile soul.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Accomplished and the reason for my blissful smiles.</div><div style="text-align: center;">He is Sundays and sentiment.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Kind, arrogant and competitive athletic.</div><div style="text-align: center;">He is bright, solid and a bit exotic.</div><div style="text-align: center;">For him I’m vulnerable and for me he is unavailable.</div><div style="text-align: right;">My love my care,</div><div style="text-align: right;">Simone</div>The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-afterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13382165250238920938noreply@blogger.com2