The Invisible Husband (11 page)

Eve lay awake
for several hours listening to the sound of the rain, her noisy
heart calling for its master in the next room. She finally fell
into a fitful sleep. She was dreaming she was in the Garden of Eden
searching for Adam while being pursued by a large laughing snake
with Mr Robert’s teeth. She finally spotted Adam through the trees.
Excited and relieved at the sight of a naked masculine shoulders
she tried to call out to him, but she couldn’t raise her voice
above a normal tone. She could hear the snake hissing her name as
it slithered closer. Looking behind her she tripped and fell. She
couldn’t move, couldn’t get back on her feet. The snake had her by
the legs; constricting her throat with terror. Her heart screamed
as her lungs froze. Then the snake was touching her, coiling itself
around her body. She couldn’t breathe as its tongue flickered over
her lips issuing the vile stench of rotten teeth. She tried to
escape, but the snake laughed in a hissing whisper promising it
would eat her.

The dying fire
in the grate cast long ugly shadows as she was awakened by a draft
of cold air and an uncomfortable weight. Opening her sticky eyes
she found herself

Uncovered; her
bedding flung away allowing her to be intimately crushed by a dark
shadow hissing her name. Putrid breath warmed her face as unseen
tendrils dragged at her nightdress. She pushed with all her
strength until she could fill her lungs with air. “Adam!” The word
was no more than a choked sob.

“I’m right here
Eve. A man can’t wait forever to claim his wife’s bed. Be still and
let me have my way.”

The thought of
someone impersonating her husband filled her with fury.
“Adaaam!”

The shadow
snake merely hissed with laughter. “Don’t fight me Wife or I won’t
be so gentle.”

Evil tendrils
kept groping, entwining; she was being suffocated by fear. She
clawed at his face and pushed free long enough to scream before
succumbing to sobs at the thought that her husband might think
she’d encouraged the shadow. He might stop loving her. He might
annul the marriage. Her horrified heart wailed in horror as she
called again, “Adam! Help me…”

“Relax Eve; I’m
merely claiming my conjugal rights…” The evil tendrils became more
determined to drag the hem of her nightdress towards her hips as
she fought to free herself from the nightmare.

“Get your hands
off me you slimy snake! Adaaam! Adaaaaam! Adaaaaaaaaam!”

“I’m right here
Eve…” A forked tongue flickered tasted her lips making her gag.
“…this won’t take long if you…stop…fighting me.”

“Get off…get
your hands off me…Adaaaaaaam!”

Her piercing
scream made the shadow emit a string of oaths and curses. “The
servants will think you don’t enjoy your husband’s favours.”

“You’re not my
husband…”

“Ah, but they
don’t know that and when Latham denies having bed you, you’ll be
flung out of his life without a souvenir, unless I give you a brat
or some unpleasant disease.” The shadow seemed to think this funny
as his foul breath rolled in waves up her nose as he quietly
chuckled in amusement. The horrifying prospect of losing Adam’s
love enraged her heart. If only she could reach the connecting
door…she tried to scream, but the snake silenced her with a hard
unpleasant kiss. She bit his lips making him swear an oath as she
tried to crawl towards the edge of the bed calling for her husband,
but the furious snake dragged her back. “Where do you think you’re
going? I’m going to pleasure you and earn a small fortune. Your
ugly Lord won’t want you when I’m done with you.”

“Adam!” The
thought of being cast out of the demon’s life filled her with
terror as she thrashed free and kicked with all her strength before
emitting another ear splitting scream as she twisted to protect her
face from the man’s angry blows. Her sobs and the snake’s angry
curses covered the soft sound of the connecting door sliding open
and bare feet pounding towards the bed. One minute the snake was
suffocating her and the next she was blissfully free to fill her
lungs with air as the snake screamed in pain as he was pummelled
half senseless by an enraged demon. “Adam!”

“Go to my room
Sweetheart. I’ll take care of the snake.” She dragged herself off
the bed and ran to the secret passage where she shivered in relief
as she peered into her room. The demon furiously rang for a servant
before returning his wrath back to the man groaning on the floor in
front of the fire. She forgot her ordeal as she watched her
demon-Lord crouch down in front of the fire revealing a beautiful
profile that made her heart sigh with hunger for more. Needing to
put distance between her and the snake she retreated deeper into
the passage until she abruptly stepped into the demon’s bedchamber.
Moonlight reflecting off rain spattered windows outlined a large
tester bed. Her heart dragged her feet across the room. She crawled
into the vacated warmth and pulled the covers up over her eyes and
sobbed in relief.

Nearly an hour
later the sound of floorboards creaking told her there was someone
in the room. Shaking in fear she peered over the covers as a shadow
closed the thick curtains causing total darkness. “Adam is that
you?”

“It’s me.” The
soft worried whisper filled her eyes with tears. “May I join
you?”

Only the demon
would ask her if he could climb into his own bed. “Yes.”

Feeling the
mattress move, she reached for his nightshirt and clung tightly as
ancient bed ropes creaked as he climbed in and lay down beside her.
Strong arms gently slid around her causing her heart to moan with
ecstasy as she pressed herself up against its master. “Is he
gone?”

“Yes.”

“What if he
comes back?”

“I horsewhipped him on the drive and promised him that if he comes
near you again I’ll personally cut off an important part of his
anatomy. He’ll avoid you like the plague. As for the pregnant Mrs
Robinson; she was amazingly slim for a woman about to give birth.
It appears the babe was nothing more than a large sack filled with
cabbage under her dress.”

“She called it
cabbage…I thought there were two servants outside their
chamber.”

“Laudanum…fast
asleep in the hall.”

“He said he was
being paid to ruin me.”

“Yes…Roberts
revealed under duress that my mother promised to pay the pair five
hundred pounds if they could find a way to force an annulment. This
is the last time she interferes in my life. Her coachman will
deliver the ultimatum; one more scheme and I’ll have her locked up
in an attic. I’ll be hanged before I let her hurt you…did he hurt
you?”

“He hit me
several times…”

“Bastard!”

“…and he
touched me.”

“Where?” She
could feel him shaking with fury.

“My legs, my
chest, my face and he kissed me…it was disgusting. But I bit his
lips. I don’t want to be alone…you’ll let me sleep here with you,
won’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry I
upset you earlier. I don’t care if you look like Herbert; would you
kiss me? You don’t have to if…” Silenced by soft adoring lips, her
heart moaned his name with pleasure as an unseen hand caressed her
throat. Adoring lips reluctantly released her. “You’re not angry
with me?”

“No.” He
punctuated the small word with a short kiss on her cheek. “Forget
Herbert; let’s relive today tomorrow only without the Roberts and
boring Herbert.”

“Can we relive
that kiss in the garden?”

“Yes.”

“Good…” Her
heart pressed against her ribs and begged, ‘Tell him he owns me.
Tell him…tell him…tell him! Open your mouth and tell him that I
need him.’ “Adam?” ‘Tell him to take off his nightshirt and let me
feel him breathing. Bring me closer…closer…closer…’

“Yes?”

Blushing at her
wild thoughts Eve silently commanded her heart to be silent. She
couldn’t seduce her husband; he might think her a complete wanton
or that she’d invited that snake into her bed. “Nothing. Are you
still upset? You feel rather rigid.”

His arms held
her tighter against his stiff body. “The creature in my chest is
being rather difficult.”

“What’s my
creature saying?”

“Nothing you’d
want to hear tonight. Sleep. We’ll start over tomorrow.”

Morning
sunlight stretched into the room across apple green bedclothes into
her eyes. Her dreams had been spent kissing the boring Herbert who
turned out to be Lord Latham. She didn’t care; his kisses were
exquisite. Yawning, she sat up to find herself in her husband’s
most private sanctum. It was clearly used by the same man who
haunted the library, but with a very personal theme of Adam and
Eve. His nightshirt was a white crumpled heap on the black and
apple green carpet near a deep chest of drawers. There were several
other heaps of clothes behind it as if he’d lifted them out of the
drawers and thrown them over his shoulder in disgust. Sitting up
she looked around; the demon had escaped. All the masculine
furniture looked black, but it wasn’t a dark room. The walls were
covered in a light apple green silk, and the ceiling shimmered as
if was made of polished silver.

Half read books
were balanced on the edge of the mantelpiece packed with Italian
Renaissance love tokens, plates painted with the naked figures of
Adam and Eve. Magazines on the window seat shared space with
crudely embroidered Adams and Eves sewn onto pillows. There were
books under the window seat, magazines on the bedside commode, and
books apparently forgotten in the middle of the floor in between
the odd hat and pair of gloves. The only mirror was on the dressing
table. The large space over the mantel was filled with an oil
painting of another naked Adam and Eve standing under a leafy tree
contemplating a red apple. She blushed as she curiously studied the
naked man holding a fig leaf. She eventually pulled her eyes away.
Directly across from the bed on the wall was a framed life-size
pencil sketch of her profile facing right. She’d never seen it
before. Had he paid someone to sketch her? It was odd to imagine
anyone longing to see her features that badly. Next to it on the
wall was an empty nail; the demon had taken his profile away, the
wretch. Her eyes swung back towards the painting over the mantel.
What would it be like to stand naked in a dark forest with the
demon? Her cheeks burned until her heart distracted her by asking,
‘Did he leave us another note?’

She tore her
eyes away again to find his note pinned to his pillow with a small
lover’s portrait of a single eye. The words scribbled in pencil
made her blush with hope as she glanced again at the painting which
had a snake entwined around the tree.

‘
I love
you
…
I promise there are no snakes in our garden!’

Was it a
painting of his eye? Had it been painted for her? Was her
demon-Lord hiding in his library? Feeling safe and strangely
excited she jumped out of bed holding his latest offering, but
stopped at the open door into the secret passage. There had to be
an obvious catch on the inside. Her eyes gleamed with unholy
delight as she found it. All she had to do was figure out how to
open her own door and then she’d visit the demon in the dead of
night with a lit candle. Even if he was hideous she’d at least know
what he looked like. The painted green eye seemed to wink at her.
It was a beautiful eye. Her heart cooed in delight as Eve tried to
imagine it smiling at her from visible flesh. She scowled in
irritation as she failed to conjure a fitting face. If her husband
had wanted to torment her he’d succeeded.

Her own room
was bright, the cheerful pink and white stripes mocking her
memories of Mr Robert’s attack. She approached the bed with caution
to find another note from her demon-lord pinned to her pillow with
a diamond studded silver L.

My Heart

I had the
servants change your bed linen and personally inspected the room
for snakes. If you need me I’m in the library. Come knock on the
door after dark and I’ll show you the gardens, though I warn you
I’m in agony and the sun’s barely risen. The clock is sneering that
I’ll have to wait endless hours until I can kiss you while my
foolish heart torments me with possible endings to the evening. If
I wasn’t ugly I’d be holding you in my arms kissing you.

Adam and his
heart

Fearing her
cheeks would catch fire, Eve heard her heart say, ‘I wish he was
holding us! Why does he have to hide away in his stupid library? I
don’t care what he looks like I need to see him now…now…now…’ Eve
looked down at her chest and shouted, “Oh shut up! You’ll drive me
to Bedlam! Stop whining and moaning; you’re not the only one who
wants to see him. ‘Take me to Adam…Adam…Adam…’ “You’ll see him as
soon as I see him.” ‘I can’t wait till dark…I’ll die…die…die…’
“You’ll give me some peace or he won’t want us; we’ll be mad.”
‘I’ll die…die…die…’ “You won’t die!” ‘I will…I will…I will…’ “You
won’t…” ‘Hussy! How could you deprive me of my Adam…Adam…Adam…?’
“This is insane! We haven’t been married for three days! I can’t be
in love with a man whose face I couldn’t identify on a pirate
ship.” ‘I need him…need him…need him…’ “Yes, I need him too…there
has to be a way of getting him out of the library. ‘Chop down the
door…the door…the door…’ “I’m not chopping down a door. We have to
be a bit more cunning than that. All I have to do is get Adam to
partake of the forbidden fruit…and then he’ll kiss me.” ‘Hurry! I
need him…need him…need him…’ “I have to get dressed first you
stupid heart. I can’t go down to breakfast in my nightdress…”

Adam sat at his
desk with his head in his hands suffering from acute self-denial.
There was nothing to stop him from opening the door, finding Eve
and… His heart perked up, ‘Oh yes, let’s go find Eve…Eve…Eve…’ “No!
We will not go find her.” ‘Take me to her you stupid man…I beg you!
Don’t make me suffer! I need her…I’m going to die if I don’t see
her. Just let me see Eve…Eve…Eve…’ He was lying to himself. He
didn’t want to see Eve, he wanted to hold her and kiss her. He
moaned as his heart taunted him with memories of her soft warmth
pressed up against him all night. His heart rattled its cage in
fury, ‘Take me to her you imbecile! I want to see my Mistress. I
want to smell her hair. I want to hear her voice; Eve…Eve…Eve…’