[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
makes it unfamiliar. Wonderful. Jonty s hand inched lower, to where the shadows danced over the part of
Orlando which had been inside him. I wonder if Mrs. Ward will be away a while longer?
She can stay away until tomorrow but you won t be getting an encore. At least not yet. You ve worn
me out. Orlando ruffled his lover s hair. I promised turnabout but I did say later.
You re getting old. Time was, when we first moved here, when you d have been the one demanding
a repeat performance in double-quick time. Jonty took his hand away, went back to doodling on his
lover s chest. You look like you re made of some fine stippled marble.
Alas, it s all flesh and blood, and flesh which is losing its stamina according to you. Orlando sighed.
The sun makes your hair glow as if it were spun gold, but it s just an illusion. A lovely one, but an illusion
none the less.
Funny how we always seem to be looking at illusions, isn t it? Started at the White City, all plaster
and whitewash pretending to be marbled grandeur or genteel fantasies of poverty. I mean, those Irish
village girls were no more authentic than the Court of Honour. You look at things and see what you want to
see, not the reality. Jonty sighed.
They lay in stillness, the peace broken only by the whispering of the leaves in the tree and the tapping
of a twig against the window. Jonty suddenly thumped his lover s chest.
Ow. Leave off.
Sorry, I ve just been a genius. What I mean is, is there a chance we got the wrong end of the stick
about your grandmother?
Which stick? Orlando groaned. I feel I m in a forest of sticks at present and I never get the right
end of any of them.
www.samhainpublishing.com 121
Charlie Cochrane
Poor old confused Mrs. Lever. You ve been chasing Pattersons and Parkinsons and who knows what
else. Suppose that was the bit she got wrong? Suppose what really mattered was the bit about the Catholic
Church? Jonty took his lover s hand. It would make an awful lot of sense if those swines who cast your
grandmother out were Catholic the honour of the faith as well as the honour of the baron.
I thought your father said there couldn t be a baron involved? Orlando rubbed his chest. He was
going to have a bruise the size of a penny there and he just hoped it was worth it.
Maybe we ve been looking in the wrong place. We ve kept our search to the British Isles. Jonty
turned his lover s face in the late afternoon sunshine. I ve always felt there was a hint of the
Mediterranean about your wonderfully olive skin, especially when it s caught the sun.
Don t be stupid, it s Orlando stopped, like Archimedes with a whole new theorem to expound.
There was an Italian-sounding name among the list Mrs. Lever gave me and I ignored it. My grandmother
spoke perfect Italian I once heard her practice it on an ice-cream seller. She told me she d had an Italian
governess, but what if that was another one of our illusions?
An English governess for an Italian nobleman s daughter? Jonty leaned up, gave his lover a hearty
kiss and leapt from the bed. Only one way to find out. Open that letter. Come on.
I m not going down to the study until the pair of us are respectable. I suppose Mrs. Ward has seen a
bare chest or even a bare backside before but she ll have a heart attack if she sees the state of your shirt.
Ah. Better get this in the soak, then. Yours too. Jonty peeled his shirt off, making Orlando
reconsider but only for a moment whether turnabout later could actually be turnabout now. Been a
lovely interlude, Orlando, but a terribly messy one. I sometimes think Lavinia has a point.
Orlando, looking now as neat as a new pin, stood holding the letter, turning it in his fingers as Jonty
had turned the telegram what now seemed a lifetime ago. I still don t really understand why you didn t
open this at the time.
How could I? I felt like our guardian angel you do remember that we have one, he or she must be
exhausted after these last few weeks, I bet they have a rota now
Will you ever get to the point? Orlando grinned.
I felt I was being entrusted with something which I could only deliver into your hands, as if your
grandmother was giving me another great commission. It s addressed to you and you alone. Jonty spread
his hands, unable to give any objective evidence for what he felt so strongly. Seeing as I made rather a
hash of the first commission, you getting so upset and all that, I couldn t afford to get it wrong this time.
He traced the edge of the envelope. Hidden away for her favourite boy to find.
Orlando stood another few seconds in thought then suddenly grabbed the paper knife and deftly slit
the envelope. Read it with me. You deserve the honour, the trouble this has put you through.
122 www.samhainpublishing.com
Lessons in Trust
My dearest boy&
See, I said it had to be you to open it. Jonty laid his arm across his lover s shoulders.
You have found this, and in that act alone confirmed all my expectations of your intelligence.
I can t claim that, Jonty. Your father worked the oracle. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl wyciskamy.pev.pl
makes it unfamiliar. Wonderful. Jonty s hand inched lower, to where the shadows danced over the part of
Orlando which had been inside him. I wonder if Mrs. Ward will be away a while longer?
She can stay away until tomorrow but you won t be getting an encore. At least not yet. You ve worn
me out. Orlando ruffled his lover s hair. I promised turnabout but I did say later.
You re getting old. Time was, when we first moved here, when you d have been the one demanding
a repeat performance in double-quick time. Jonty took his hand away, went back to doodling on his
lover s chest. You look like you re made of some fine stippled marble.
Alas, it s all flesh and blood, and flesh which is losing its stamina according to you. Orlando sighed.
The sun makes your hair glow as if it were spun gold, but it s just an illusion. A lovely one, but an illusion
none the less.
Funny how we always seem to be looking at illusions, isn t it? Started at the White City, all plaster
and whitewash pretending to be marbled grandeur or genteel fantasies of poverty. I mean, those Irish
village girls were no more authentic than the Court of Honour. You look at things and see what you want to
see, not the reality. Jonty sighed.
They lay in stillness, the peace broken only by the whispering of the leaves in the tree and the tapping
of a twig against the window. Jonty suddenly thumped his lover s chest.
Ow. Leave off.
Sorry, I ve just been a genius. What I mean is, is there a chance we got the wrong end of the stick
about your grandmother?
Which stick? Orlando groaned. I feel I m in a forest of sticks at present and I never get the right
end of any of them.
www.samhainpublishing.com 121
Charlie Cochrane
Poor old confused Mrs. Lever. You ve been chasing Pattersons and Parkinsons and who knows what
else. Suppose that was the bit she got wrong? Suppose what really mattered was the bit about the Catholic
Church? Jonty took his lover s hand. It would make an awful lot of sense if those swines who cast your
grandmother out were Catholic the honour of the faith as well as the honour of the baron.
I thought your father said there couldn t be a baron involved? Orlando rubbed his chest. He was
going to have a bruise the size of a penny there and he just hoped it was worth it.
Maybe we ve been looking in the wrong place. We ve kept our search to the British Isles. Jonty
turned his lover s face in the late afternoon sunshine. I ve always felt there was a hint of the
Mediterranean about your wonderfully olive skin, especially when it s caught the sun.
Don t be stupid, it s Orlando stopped, like Archimedes with a whole new theorem to expound.
There was an Italian-sounding name among the list Mrs. Lever gave me and I ignored it. My grandmother
spoke perfect Italian I once heard her practice it on an ice-cream seller. She told me she d had an Italian
governess, but what if that was another one of our illusions?
An English governess for an Italian nobleman s daughter? Jonty leaned up, gave his lover a hearty
kiss and leapt from the bed. Only one way to find out. Open that letter. Come on.
I m not going down to the study until the pair of us are respectable. I suppose Mrs. Ward has seen a
bare chest or even a bare backside before but she ll have a heart attack if she sees the state of your shirt.
Ah. Better get this in the soak, then. Yours too. Jonty peeled his shirt off, making Orlando
reconsider but only for a moment whether turnabout later could actually be turnabout now. Been a
lovely interlude, Orlando, but a terribly messy one. I sometimes think Lavinia has a point.
Orlando, looking now as neat as a new pin, stood holding the letter, turning it in his fingers as Jonty
had turned the telegram what now seemed a lifetime ago. I still don t really understand why you didn t
open this at the time.
How could I? I felt like our guardian angel you do remember that we have one, he or she must be
exhausted after these last few weeks, I bet they have a rota now
Will you ever get to the point? Orlando grinned.
I felt I was being entrusted with something which I could only deliver into your hands, as if your
grandmother was giving me another great commission. It s addressed to you and you alone. Jonty spread
his hands, unable to give any objective evidence for what he felt so strongly. Seeing as I made rather a
hash of the first commission, you getting so upset and all that, I couldn t afford to get it wrong this time.
He traced the edge of the envelope. Hidden away for her favourite boy to find.
Orlando stood another few seconds in thought then suddenly grabbed the paper knife and deftly slit
the envelope. Read it with me. You deserve the honour, the trouble this has put you through.
122 www.samhainpublishing.com
Lessons in Trust
My dearest boy&
See, I said it had to be you to open it. Jonty laid his arm across his lover s shoulders.
You have found this, and in that act alone confirmed all my expectations of your intelligence.
I can t claim that, Jonty. Your father worked the oracle. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]