Free Under a Stern Reign by Raymond Wilde Page A

was. Another time, perhaps.’
    â€˜Then perhaps you might like to borrow a cloak to take with you.’
    Genevieve accepted the thoughtful offer and Emelie hurried to another room, returning with a heavy woollen mantel and wrapping it tenderly around Genevieve’s shoulders.
    â€˜What fine hair you have,’ she said, gently pushing back the golden locks of Genevieve’s hair over the collar of the cloak. Affectionately Genevieve took Emelie’s hands as she finished fastening the cloak at her throat, without thinking she kissed the girl’s cheek, and as she did the girl turned her face and met her lips with her own.
    Emelie gave the kiss intimately, with her eyes closed, and as Genevieve’s mouth lingered on hers, she subconsciously allowed her lips to part, surprised to feel Emelie’s tongue grazing hers. It probed nervously and she allowed it to roam inquisitively for a few seconds, as if to signal that the unusual response to her farewell kiss had been noted, her heartbeat quickening.
    Then, reluctantly pulling away, Genevieve gazed at the girl. ‘I really must be going now, but I’ll come again soon,’ she whispered.
    â€˜Be careful,’ Emelie called, standing at her front door, waving as Genevieve set off on her way.
    Â 
    The trace of the girl’s lips remained with Genevieve as she walked quickly through the woods. It was getting chilly, but she felt gratefully warm beneath the cloak. What a lovely new friend she had found. The memory of Emelie’s prettiness and soft nature made her smile. It would have been so delightfully cosy to remain there.
    She pictured herself sitting by a warm fire next to the girl, chatting into the night. Then she thought of the kiss again. What had inspired her to do something like that with a stranger, and to let the stranger return her kiss like she had?
    Then for a moment she felt like turning back, but she feared her hosts at the chateau would worry about her absence.
    Much of what Emelie had said left her worried and curious, though. What if it were true that the revolutionaries could descend on the chateau and arrest them at any time?
    And what about the experiences the girl had been through at the hands of the count and his stepdaughter? She remembered the count’s erect member as Madame Coubette knelt at his feet, and tried to imagine him doing the same to fair Emelie as she took him his breakfast.
    And what had Elise done to her that still seemed to haunt her so? It had sounded as if Elise had been very cruel indeed.
    Was Elise trying to do the same to her now? Had she decided to make her Emelie’s replacement? If so, what sort of fate awaited her? But whatever was to be, it appeared she had found a new friend, she reflected.
    Before she knew it, it was getting towards dusk and she decided to increase her pace. The singing of the birds had been replaced by other less familiar and somewhat disconcerting sounds, and she wanted to get home. This time she kept to the road, and after a little while she heard a noise behind her and turned to see a coach and horses approaching, and she recognised it at once as Madame Coubette’s.
    The prospect of meeting the woman again was not in the least bit welcome, for she recalled how the woman was present when the count discovered her and Elise together. There was, however, little chance of avoiding the coach.
    It soon caught up and halted, the near door swinging open. ‘Why, if it isn’t the fair young Genevieve,’ crowed Madame Coubette. ‘What are you doing out here by yourself?’
    â€˜I was just taking a walk,’ Genevieve replied shyly, ‘but I got a little distracted and didn’t realise how late it’s getting.’ She didn’t see any reason to tell the woman about her new friend.
    Madame Coubette wore a brocaded gold dress, studded here and there with bright stones. It was cut low to reveal her ample cleavage, and on the generous