Free Reads!! Wednesday Briefs – Innocence & Carnality Part 33
Welcome to the next part in my Wednesday Briefs flash fiction serial, Innocence & Carnality! Each chapter has to be between 500 and 1,000 words and this week I skipped using a prompt. No prompt this week, my head was elsewhere.
Nathan discusses things with Harston.
Click here to start from the beginning
Part 33
Rother rose from the breakfast table, dropping his napkin into his plate. “I have business in the city today.”
“Will you be back later?” I asked.
“In time for supper, I think.”
“All right. I’ll see you then.”
I watched my husband strut out the door, smiling as he adjusted his cuffs.
Out of habit, Harston collected our dirty breakfast plates. “Lord Rother seems to be in good spirits.”
“He was taken care of well last night. How are you faring this morning?”
Harston blushed. “I’m well, thank you.”
I waited for Harston say more, but he was silent as I followed him into the kitchen. He passed the dishes to the housekeeper to wash and moved back into the dining room. Barely a word had been spoken between us since I walked in on him and Blythe last night. The uncharacteristic behavior unsettled me. Barging in as I did was something I’d like to forget, but I would think our relationship could weather the awkward moment. Was his silence telling a larger story?
Now that Rother had left, I hoped he would confide in me. Harston witnessed far more intimate details of my life over the years than I of his. Our relationship was more important in some ways than the one I shared with my husband. I waited to hear something. Anything. But his eyes shifted away at every opportunity and I realized I would need to act first.
“So, you and Blythe…”
Harston glanced at another staff member and spun away, making quick steps towards the sunporch door. “Yes.”
Outside, I directed us to the garden, surrounding us in trees, foliage, and a modicum of privacy difficult to find in Delaga House. Clearly, Harston wanted a lack of witnesses. Choking down the edge of my impatience, I kept a sweet demeanor as we strolled through the lush backyard.
“I have to admit I was a bit taken aback.”
Harston’s response was hesitant. “No more than I.”
“I hadn’t realized he was so keen.”
“Blythe is a relentless man.”
An awful thought came forward, somehow justifying Harston’s reluctance. One I didn’t want to believe. “He didn’t… force you—”
“No! Of course not. I would have said something. Blythe is… strangely persuasive.”
There was a kind of wistful tone to his words which piqued my curiosity, but good sense warned me off asking what my bodyguard could do to seduce my valet.
“I suppose he has his skills.”
“Oh yes he does.”
Given Blythe’s lewd behavior, I didn’t need more of a picture than I already had. Before gruesome details could emerge, I redirected the conversation. “Am I to believe you and he are together now?”
“You mean…”
“A couple?”
Harston pulled a face, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Blythe is a fun bloke, but we’re only having a laugh. I’m not the man he’ll settle down with. Even if he would.”
“And why not? There’s nothing wrong with you.”
“No, I’m just not the right man for him.”
Ingrained lessons came to the front and I blurted out my comment as if I’d never left Victoria. “I’m not sure I approve of such casual liaisons.”
“Why do you think this was so hard? I may have been born in Victoria, but I was never a nobleman. We servants looked up to you lot, wanted to be like you, but knew we never would be. Holding such high virtues were your goal, not ours. And knowing how your brothers caroused with the maids, some of the lords held those standards higher than others.”
I cursed myself internally. Expecting Harston to follow Victorian protocols when he was not a noble or living in a Victorian manor was hardly fair. The goal was to soften my rigid edges. Shouldn’t he be afforded the same option? Perhaps I was jealous of his ability.
“Are you happy with such an existence?”
He shrugged. “For now. Sometimes we have to take our happiness in small doses.”
“From what I saw, it wasn’t that small.”
Harston gaped at me. “Nathan!”
I slapped a hand over my mouth. “Oh! I didn’t mean to say that out loud!”
We stared at one another until both of us burst into laughter. My hand did little to stifle my hysterical outburst as I howled until tears began to form. The nearest tree became a makeshift support, keeping me from falling into an undignified pile. In our outrageous foolishness, I forgot to care enough to look and hide myself from spying eyes.
“That was scandalous,” Harston said, each word stilted between fits of humor.
I struggled to catch my breath as more chuckles bubbled out of me. “I know! I can’t believe I said such a thing. I really am sorry for walking in the way I did.”
“No more than I am. I worried you’d be upset.”
“I’d like to believe we’ve been though enough together to forgive both our transgessions.”
“Back home, you’d have sacked me.”
My amusement drowned in the reality. Harston was right. In Victoria, a servant openly caught in a delicate position would be let go immediately. The risk of allowing such scandal to play out under your roof couldn’t be allowed. It could stain the household reputation, which was unforgivable. With what I’d learned of my family, it was the height of hypocrisy.
“You’re probably right. But we don’t live in the walls of Victoria any longer. I don’t need to follow all of its stuffy rules if it doesn’t suit me any longer.” I quietly laughed at myself in reflection. “Maybe living here has rubbed off on me after all.”
“Maybe it has.”
“Do you think it’s a good thing?” Is it possible I was changing? It was a somewhat difficult proposition to see. The last thing I wanted was to lose myself in the transition.
Harston replied with a bright grin; the kind that lightened the world with its subtle brilliance. “I’d like to think so.”
Check back next Wednesday for the next installation… Be sure to take a read at the other briefers free reads this week here: Wednesday Briefs
