Soldier of the Queen by Max Hennessy Read Free Book Online Page A

spinsters.’
    ‘But civil war! Like fighting your own brother! Like Cain killing Abel!’
    Still chattering, she led him between the trees. The weather had gone mad and the day was a scorcher, full of the sound of bees. Finding a stream and a grassy bank covered with poppies, celandines and daisies, she sat demurely alongside him, spreading her skirt and taking off her shawl.
    ‘It’s so hot,’ she explained. ‘You won’t think I’m fast if I unbutton my dress a little at the throat, will you?’
    Colby was all for unbuttoning the neck of her dress if it gave him a glimpse of that glorious bosom of hers. She was lying back in the grass now, smiling up at him. Her hair had come loose and lay in a blond cloud about her face. By God, he thought, startled, she wants me to kiss her!
    He tried it, gently, warily, and to his surprise, after a preliminary flutter, her arms came up and swept round his neck. He’d been right, he decided, it wasn’t love he felt, just plain ordinary lust, and he could feel his loins stirring. He touched her breast and was surprised again when one of the dozens of hands she’d always seemed to sprout on previous occasions didn’t come up and push it firmly away.
    Hello, he thought, what’s this? She wants to indulge in a little fun and games, by God! After the constant parading of her virtue, it was a new idea that required some taking in, but her mouth was moving under his, her lips parted with passion.
    ‘Colby,’ she breathed. ‘Do you love me?’
    Encouraged by the fact that she hadn’t stopped him unfastening the last one, he was busy unfastening another button, and he left the question unanswered.
    ‘You are so naughty to do that,’ she whispered. ‘And I expect you think I’m terrible to permit it.’
    He was about to protest that if she persisted in lying about in this tantalising fashion, she had to expect a certain amount of sauce, when she sighed. ‘Why must men spoil everything with passion?’
    That magnificent bosom of hers was rising and failing swiftly now and he was kissing the hollow between her breasts. Her hand was on his, not restraining but with convulsively clutching fingers, and he could feel her swift breathing on his cheek.
    ‘Oh, Colby,’ she murmured. ‘We are so wicked. May God forgive us for what we are about to do.’
    He lifted his head, startled. He’d just been enjoying a roll in the grass, like any other hot-blooded young man, and he’d imagined she’d been enjoying it, too, like any other hot-blooded young woman. But she seemed to be expecting more!
    ‘Tell me what I must do,’ she breathed. ‘I know so little about these things.’
    With a married sister? He didn’t believe her.
    She was melting in his arms, her eyes half-closed, her lips apart, her face flushed and pink. Her dress had ridden up so that he could see what seemed to be yards of plump leg encased in white stocking. He could even see the red garters with which she held them in place, tied neatly just above her knees. Her bodice was open to the waist now, with all the ribbons that secured her underslip unfastened, and he realised she wasn’t wearing stays.
    By God, he thought, she’d come prepared! She’d planned it all!
    Her breasts, white and pink-tipped, were soft beneath his hand. There were pale blue veins in the marble whiteness of them and, over the sound of the stream and the hum of the bees, she was making little passionate mewing noises in his car. Far from fending him off now she was even helping him, her breath coming in swift little pants, and he seemed to be knee-deep in discarded linen.
    ‘No one will disturb us here,’ she whispered. ‘Take me, Colby, take me!’
    She had thrown aside all the coy pretence. For a second his senses shouted ‘No’, then a flame of desire shot through him that threatened to scorch his soul, and a towering wave thundered over him as his arms closed round her.
     
    Staring at Georgy’s letter which he held open inside the