Persuasion in the Pantry [Maid for More #1]

Secret Chapter 34 Prequel: The Masquerade of Dreams

[Welcome to the Secret Chapter. As usual this has no bearing on the plot of the story. It is just an amusing side note. If you wish to, just skip ahead to the next chapter to continue the true tale.] 

[I needed a break from studying and had a burst of creative energy without all the hassles of grammar/plot/editing etc. Hope you enjoy this bit of 'free writing' which is once again, a huge THANK YOU for your support.]

Cain fell asleep exhausted after a hard ride back to London. He had barely had a moment to spare while pulling together the tangled threads of the Secret Service and yet a certain maid managed to find her way into his thoughts. The intangible touch of her skin seemed like a taunting wickedness which lingered at the periphery of his mind.

Throwing his coat over the footstool at the end of his bed, he flung himself onto the soft downy mattress and within moments sleep came to consume him.

Cain's eyes opened to the wafting of fine golden hair floating across his face. He stared up into Verushka's grey eyes dancing with laughter and ran his fingers through her softly curtained locks.

"My darling..." he began.

"Ssh," Verushka whispered with a giggle lacing her voice.

His brows furrowed as he looked about his room. There was no one present and yet she had glanced around as if she suspected company. Suddenly, the precariousness of their position dawned on him as she lay supine over his body.

Verushka lifted her hand to once more caress the smooth ring upon his eyebrow with a delicious lilt to her lips.

Cain felt his chest heave with the pull of untamed desire and grasped her wrist, touching it to his lips. His tongue flicked out at the pulsing beneath her soft olive skin, encasing sinewed muscle beneath, and he noted that she didn't pull away. Cain pressed his advantage further and took her into his arms, pulling her down and twisting to capture her slim body beneath his.

She tilted her neck to the left, allowing him access to the satin column of her throat and she moaned his name as he sucked in the skin there, biting and laving over the tender meeting at her shoulder. His hands moved from her wrists to drift in sweeping caresses down her body, holding her firmly at her hips as he pushed their combined weight further into the lure of the bed beneath.

He luxuriated in her touch, both wild for every inch of her and reverent at the gift she offered up to him like a Grecian priestess waiting on the temple steps. Light kisses became deep, and fragile caresses took hold with the raw ferocity of unsated passion, but at the corner of his mind he knew something was missing. The maid in his embrace, held him and laughed with the genteel amusement as debutants were oft to have, but she did not argue or banter or rile at him. There was not a single kick at the liberties he was taking or a demand for her precious book and that was most certainly absurd. The Verushka he knew could not keep her mouth shut for any given period of time and it was an attribute that he most adored about her.

Cain raised his head from the swells of her breast and met her eyes. With the swinging of an axe her gaze changed from light to dark, superficial to deep with emotion, and she was not pleased.

"Is this what you want, Lord Bexley? A woman to merely warm your bed? A girl who has no mind to challenge the mighty Duke of many lands?"

"What?" Cain choked as sprang away.

She sat up slowly on his bed to face him with a hardened gaze. "Is this not what you dream of? To bed me and then forget me?"

"No, of course not!" Cain answered infuriated. "I only want to be with you. To make you my mistress."

Verushka's face contorted as if she had eaten rancid chicken. "Urgh, don't insult me, Your Grace."

Cain ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "Where is the insult? I care for you. I am unable to marry you given my station and yours. The entire ton would shun you and I would likely be forced to surrender the honour and responsibility of the Bexley title to another. Is that a life you wish to live?"

"Those are not your only two options," she replied archly. "You demean what we have by even suggesting to make me your mistress."

"I did it to make certain that you are well cared for. For God's Sake, Verushka, I just want to take care of you!" the duke shouted.

Before she could respond the doors to the room flung open and men with masks and weapons streamed in. Well shone swords flashed in the moonlight and Cain could smell gunpowder primed to be fired.

"Verushka!" he reached for her to pull her behind him, protecting her with his own body but she was yanked away from his grasp.

He rolled quickly to his feet, pulling his sword from beneath his bed and thrusting it into his nearest opponent. Cain searched for his maid through the shadows but lost the beauty of her form in the melee. Hearing her shouts retreat further away he sliced and stabbed anything that came between him and his fair maiden. He fought his way valiantly into the hallway and tore through the corridors filled with assassins bred to kill and followed the sounds of his woman in distress.

Cain pushed open the doors of the pantry with a thud and stood still at the sight before him. Verushka danced atop the kitchen table between the swinging strikes of steel blades. Not one ounce of her looked distraught as she parried against them with the heavy iron skillet in her hands. She tumbled and bounced from one end to the other, picking up stray books and clobbering them over the head until they ceased to move. Finally she stopped and blew a strand of sunshine gold hair out of her eyes and stared at Cain still poised in the doorway.

"When will you learn that I don't need to be taken care of?" she asked between heaving breaths. "I am a free bird and no net ensnares me!" she yelled triumphantly and sent a thickly bound copy of Jane Eyre careening in his direction with startling precision.

Cain woke up to blinding morning light and touched his head, expecting the pain of a blow. "Urgh," he groaned. He had never met a woman before who had not wanted something from him. It was a novel idea to be involved with one who did not have her own agenda. It almost seemed a foreign concept to entwine his life to another, without one vine suffocating the other in its quest for sunshine.

Cain sat up with aching muscles from a restless sleep. "Neither maid, nor mistress will she be. So what else does that leave?"

Wife?

The answer fell as heavy as Verushka's literary blow. But how does a duke marry a peasant?

Vote if you liked it!

Vote if you liked it!!

Vote if you liked it!!!

A/N: So what do you think of the dream?? Any advice for Cain?

As always this doesn't have to be read to understand the full story but it happens just before the next chapter so it might help you to understand Cain a bit better. I know he is not yet as intriguing as Jay but they all have their own lessons to learn and individual mystery which shrouds them. 

Also, just a quick poll: Who is your favourite duke? Cain, Jay or Marco?