Forbidden Love (Sapphic Historical) Read Online Free

tonight.
     
    As I reached the laundry, wary to tread quietly, as Lydia, the young girl who’d been frogmarched into showing me the ropes on my first morning had said, I heard my cousin’s disembodied voice drifting over as I entered the steam-filled laundry. 
     
    “We can’t, Liz,” Helen sighed. “It ain’t right – not with your being married now.”
     
    “Well it feels right enough. We can meet tomorrow at-”
     
    I stilled as I rounded the corner and spied the two women who’d been furtively talking before, watching in stunned surprise as a brown-haired maid I’d seen briefly during my time here reached around Helen’s front, cupping her breasts, squeezing them through her dress.
     
    While I was certain there was no breath left in my body at the shocking sight – and conversation – something must have alerted the two women to my presence for they were turning in alarm, staring at me wide-eyed as I hovered by the door.
     
    “The cook said I’d find you here but I…I wasn’t sure how much longer you’d be staying behind tonight. I-I’ll leave you to it,” I said quickly, clumsily turning away.
     
    I moved through the silent house quickly and I was glad of the cold evening once I exited the manor, the chilly air soothing my burning cheeks.
     
    It could not be , I thought. I must have been mistaken in what I saw .
     
    “Wait up!”
     
    I stopped, glancing over my shoulder as a pale figure jogged towards me.
     
    “You certainly walk fast!” Helen panted, shaking her head as she reached me. “Well – aren’t you going to say anything, then?” she asked on sigh after we’d made our way around the back of the building, waiting for one of the riders to ready a cart and take us back to the village.
     
    “I don’t know what you mean,” I shrugged, stopping in the stables.
     
    I turned away from Helen to stroke the horse beside me, running my unsteady hands over its quivering body.
    Helen snorted. “Pull the other one – your face said you ’d been nosy for long enough-”
     
    “No!” I defended, lowering my voice even though we were quite alone for the moment. “I did nothing of the sort, I-”
     
    Helen flapped a dismissive hand. “No one ever comes to the laundry at that time but we were silly to have been so careless. Will you tell, then?”
     
    The question was asked in such a nonchalant way that I found myself relaxing in spite of the awkward situation.
     
    But I hadn’t a chance to reply for a good-humoured man was jogging up to us, gesturing for Helen and I to mount the cart.
     
    “Stayed late again tonight, Helen?” he called over his shoulder as he urged the horse into action.
     
    Helen replied, shaking her head as he continued,
     
    “Will you come out with me Friday night? We can walk along the sea-front and-”
     
    “No, thanks, Andrew,” she said firmly, and his broad shoulders lifted in a shrug.
     
    “‘Nother time, then,” he nodded, and Helen said nothing.
    He drop ped us off a little way from Maypole Street and we closed the gap to Helen’s house in silence.
     
    After a quick chin-wag with my tired mother, I washed and dressed for bed, my body heavy with exhaustion. The monotony of my new daily routine was almost pleasant.
     
    Helen was already in bed once I left the bathroom and I slipped in beside her – my pallet had arrived shortly after my arrival here but it had been so worn and stained that my aunt had been mortified, and I’d ended up sleeping with Helen ever since.
     
    I whispered after a moment of debating with myself whether I should bother: “You may think me coddled and an eavesdropper but if there’s one thing I’m not, it’s a gossip,” and then I turned onto my side and closed my eyes.
     
    “You mean it?”
     
    Helen’s quiet reply hung in the air for a moment and though I’d only known her for a short while, her sudden soberness struck as uncharacteristic and I found myself hastening to reassure her.
     
    “Of