Free Cecilia's Claim by Raven McAllan

move?"
    Caleb stood and held out his hand to help her to her feet. She
took it and stood up in her usual elegant manner.
    "Minx, let us show you."
    Philippe joined them. "Sadly not at this
moment." He picked up Cecy's clothes. "Perhaps as you had the
delights of undressing our lady, I can have the privilege of re-clothing
her?"
    That seemed fair enough. Caleb pulled on his shirt and britches
and looked around for his boots. How they had landed in a gorse bush he had no
idea. With the utmost care, he pulled them out one by one and donned them.
Behind him he heard Cecy's half-hearted protests, and looked back.
    "I fail to see how my nipples need to be adjusted in that
manner." There was no anger in her voice. If anything it held a tinge of
husky desire. "They do not need to be placed over the linen, it is there to cover them." She slapped at Philippe's hands, which were
busy arranging her clothing below the globe of her breasts. With every
adjustment, he rolled her nipples between his fingers.
    "Such a pity, for they look perfect as they peek over the top
to welcome us," Caleb remarked as he strolled back to the other two.
    "That's as may be, but I cannot walk through the village
dressed as a trollop." There was a definite twinkle in Cecy's eyes as she
pulled the material of her gown up to cover her breasts. "There's enough
talk of me and my misdoings circulating as it is."
    " What? " Caleb
was outraged. He had heard nothing and as the local magistrate most gossip got
to his ears sooner rather than later.
    "Nothing too outré," she assured him. "I was only
asked if it was true I had allowed a so-called gentleman to drink champagne out
of my slipper."
    "How did you answer?" Philippe asked before Caleb had a
chance. The interest in his voice was obvious.
    "I asked the good lady to define a gentleman to me. I said
without her definition I had no way of answering."
    Caleb roared with laughter, and Philippe raised one eyebrow in a
very Gallic gesture.
    "Did she?" Philippe asked.
    Cecy shook her head, and her hair swung and glittered in the
sunshine. "She gobbled somewhat like the turkey on Perry's estate, went a
peculiar mottled shade of puce, and muttered something about hussies and
heathens before getting into a much too elegant carriage for the lanes around
here."
    "Mrs. Crimp I wager," Caleb said. "Fifty-ish,
stout and puffed up? Wearing clothes more suited to town than
here?"
    "That's her. She did introduce herself, but her accent wasn't
easy to understand. Who is she?"
    "It's not who she is, but who she'd like to be. Her husband
is a minor landowner up river. She thinks they should be the elite of the area.
Sad for her there are others more suited to hold that position."
    "Like you?"
    He laughed. "If you like. My family
have been here for generations, I'm Lord of the Manor, magistrate and
considered to be a good upright citizen. Do not snigger," Caleb said as the other two did just that. "Considered only. It can be seen I am not that well
known, for which I must be grateful."
    " True, and I must leave before it is
too late for me to be wandering along the foreshore. Where are my shoes? Ah
under this…where did this come from?" She held up a piece of delicate lace
about three yards long.
    Caleb glanced at Philippe whose face was a blank canvas.
    "Why do you ask?" Caleb said as he took it from her and
passed it to Philippe, who didn't say a word. His eyes never left Cecy's face.
    "Do you recognize it, love?" Philippe spoke quietly,
however Caleb heard the interest.
    "Hmm. May I?" She held her hand out for it to be returned
to her.
    Philippe gave the material to Cecy, who ran it through her
fingers. "Hmm, it's obvious this is new, so I daresay I don't recognize
this specific yardage. But I have seen something similar not too long
since." She wrinkled her nose and bit her lip. "No,
'tis gone. No matter it will come to me when I least expect it. Is it
important?" She looked from Philippe to Caleb and back again. Her interest
was