Free The Maid's Quarters by Holly Bush

thought possible. But I am
very tired, and you are as well.”
    Albert opened the door for her and walked her to the waiting
carriage. Two men sat on the driver’s bench and he told them to stay where they
were, that he would hand Miss Porterman in.
    “This evening has been a dream come true.” Albert said and leaned
toward her, bringing his face just inches from hers. He touched her cheek
softly with a shaking hand, and she watched as his face, his lips, came closer
and closer to hers. His hand warmed her, and she looked into his eyes, locked
onto hers. “I cannot resist you, Alice Porterman. You are the woman I’ve been
dreaming about.”
    Albert’s lips touched hers gently, tentatively, even
reverently, and he let the rough stubble of his beard touch her chin lightly. His
tongue traced the seam of her lips, now parted slightly, and ran its way around
the edge of her mouth. Alice took a deep, shuddering breath. Whatever mysteries
made one man’s kiss repugnant and another’s sensuous she could not explain, but
she did know that her eyes were closed and she was breathing in short, static
breaths, and there was magic and eroticism at the heart of his kiss that had
now turned passionate. Albert slanted his head to kiss her more deeply and move
his tongue in her mouth in a way that made her heart beat rapidly and her
breasts harden against the fabric of her chemise.
    He broke the kiss and touched his forehead to hers. “We’d
best say good night before my stablemen jump down to see what is the matter.”
    Alice nodded. “Yes.”
    “I will call on you soon, Alice.” Albert kissed the backs of
both of her hands and then called up to the driver.
    Alice stared at him until she could no longer see his figure
standing on the steps of his home in the glow of the gas lamps. She leaned back
against the cushioned seat. She had much to decide.

 
    Chapter Five

 
    “What do you mean you won’t come
down to see Mr. Donahue?” her ma asked her the following day.
    Alice busied herself putting away her things in her new
bedroom furniture. “I have nothing to say to him, Ma. We had a lovely evening.
I told you that. But I don’t have any interest in him apart from him being a
pleasant man and don’t want to lead him to think otherwise.”
    “I don’t believe that. Not for one minute.”
    Alice dropped onto her bed and shrugged her shoulders.
“Believe whatever you will. I am not seeing Mr. Donahue again.”
    Her ma stood for a few seconds longer and then let out a
string of curse words under her breath. Alice heard the front door close and
imagined Albert walking down the path to his carriage or horse. She would not
go to the window to look at him as he walked away. She would not. She was worried
she would throw open the sash and call out to him to stop and that she loved
him. Where had that word come from? Love? But it was the only explanation for
the way her insides felt as if her heart were crumbling.

 
    * * *

 
    “But what do you mean, Mrs.
Porterman?” Albert asked. “She didn’t seem upset last night, in fact, I was
certain that she enjoyed herself thoroughly, even aside from the fact that she
told me so herself.”
    Maeve Porterman shook her head. “I think she had a lovely
evening, Mr. Donahue. But she says this morning that she doesn’t want to see
you. I don’t have an answer for you, but she’s my girl, a good one at that, and
I won’t take sides against her.”
    “Of course you won’t,” Albert said, and tipped his hat as
the front door of the Porterman home closed slowly. He stood there thinking, or
not thinking, for some minutes and finally turned to his carriage driver to
dismiss him. He would walk home and think and plan when he would call on her
again.
    Albert spent the week recalling and reliving everything that
had happened between them and could not for his life determine what had made
her dismiss him so permanently without even speaking to him personally. He was
hurt, which was an