“Why ever did we agree to come here tonight?” groaned Lady Eustacia Lumley to her bosom bow, Margaret Durrell.

Margaret, the fourth daughter of a near-penniless vicar, looked all around the famous Almack’s Assembly Rooms. “Because your father wanted to flirt with Lady Jersey?”

Gervase Lumley, the Earl of Wentworth and Lady Eustacia’s parent, was indeed talking to “Silence,” as Lady Sarah Jersey was affectionately known for her ability to talk non-stop.

Eustacia laughed. “He probably had to promise to dance with her protégés to convince her to give him the vouchers for you. He’d much rather be in the card room, but she knows he dances very well and she has ever had a soft spot for a man with an elegant dancing style.”

“Truly I am grateful to be here. One has not arrived until one has received vouchers for Almack’s.”

“Besides, you look lovely in white. And the simple style of your gown is perfect.”

“You mean no one will think the gown is plain because my father cannot afford a wealth of ribbons and lace? That they will assume it’s because I am young and virginal?”

Eustacia’s hazel eyes danced as she suppressed a giggle. “Precisely. Oh dear. Here comes the Honorable William Hughes to dance with you. Be sure you smile at him, he’s quite a catch,” she whispered behind her fan.

Within moments Eustacia, too, was swept into the country dance just forming, and although her partner bored her almost to tears, she did enjoy the slow and stately movements of the dance.

* * *

After a week in Town, Eustacia was keen to return to Green Meadows, her home outside London. It was ideally situated on good farming land, a full day’s journey from the bustle of the city—close enough to make a trip to Town for shopping or parties easy, but not so close that people were endlessly arriving unannounced.

She was particularly pleased to have Margaret staying with them for at least three months. Margaret’s long-suffering Papa despaired of marrying his four motherless daughters appropriately. Both Margaret’s Mama and her Papa came from the nobility, but the Reverend Mr. Durrell had inadequate funds to launch them onto the marriage mart. He loved them and wanted them to be happy, not just married to the highest bidder.

“Ah well, he won’t need to worry about Margaret for a while,” she mused.

Although Margaret was eighteen to Eustacia’s twenty-four, they both had lively minds and had formed an instant bond in the brief year they’d both been at Miss Marcomb’s Academy for Young Ladies—Margaret’s first year there and Eustacia’s last. They both loved learning and had read avidly. Since then, they’d kept in touch with long letters and had recently been reading and discussing Sappho’s poetry. Eustacia was looking forward to talking more about it with her friend.

Sappho’s sharp imagery, her immediacy, her control, and the rhythm and almost melody of her words were immensely appealing. Not to mention some of her underlying ideas—ideas which were increasingly compelling to Eustacia.

Eustacia had never been sexually attracted to men. While all the other young ladies at school had been sighing over the dancing master and the riding master, Eustacia had only desired to learn the subjects they taught. Their male beauty stirred her heart not one iota. When she had first made her curtsy to the Ton, many handsome and eligible young men had sought her hand for that lascivious dance, the waltz. Not one of them had made her heart beat faster. Fortunately, her father, the earl, had made no attempt to push her to accept any of the three very flattering offers he had received for her hand. Even more fortunately, Gervase’s younger brother, Anthony, had three fine, strong sons to inherit the title, so there was no pressure on Gervase to marry again and produce an heir, or to marry off his daughter to ensure a grandson to inherit.

But Margaret. Ahh, Margaret did make her palms sweat and her heart beat faster. Margaret’s bright, inquiring mind and ability to converse intelligently on any topic. Margaret’s soft brown eyes and shiny brown hair. Her white skin and pale cheeks that flushed enchantingly when Eustacia smiled at her.

Eustacia had read widely about Sapphic love and was eager to experience it—but only with Margaret and only if Margaret was willing. Meanwhile, her reading had taught her much, and with the help of a handheld looking glass, she had learned a lot about the art of self-pleasure. As for the anatomist Mateo Renaldo Colombo, who claimed to have discovered the amor Veneris, vel dulcedo—“the sweetness of Venus”—Eustacia was willing to bet her late mother’s emeralds that Sappho and her followers had known about their nubbins six hundred years before the birth of Christ!

* * *

That evening, the women settled into a comfortable sofa in front of the fire in the yellow sitting room at Green Meadows with their embroidery.

“It’s good to be home again,” said Eustacia. “I like the hustle and bustle of Town, and shopping and parties are always fun, but I prefer to come home and sleep in my own bed.”

“Thank you once again for inviting me to stay with you for three months. Poor Papa is at his wits’ end wondering what to do about us all. Now that I have turned eighteen, he’s suddenly realized that Anne is very nearly twenty-two and time is running out to find her a good husband.”

“Four children in four years. Ugh. That’s one aspect of marriage I have never accepted—a baby every year.”

“No. I find that concept unappealing too. In fact, I find most men unappealing—selfish, arrogant, and quite often, silly. So many of the notables I danced with at Almack’s could not think past their clothes and their horses. They all either owned, or would inherit, property. Shouldn’t they be thinking about their lands and the needs of their tenants? Papa is always concerned about the lives of his parishioners.”

“Maybe they thought they shouldn’t talk about such things with a young woman.”

“Possibly.” Margaret did not sound convinced.

“Do you not want a husband and children of your own?”

“What I want is irrelevant. Papa cannot keep supporting us all and what else is there for a woman who is noble-born but impoverished? I’ve thought seriously about becoming a teacher or governess, but families wanting a governess usually also have sons, so they will not hire a young woman like me. I could be a companion to an old lady. I can sing, and draw, and sew, as well as speak passable French. But I suspect agreeable old ladies wanting a companion are few and far between, and I am much more likely to end up with a most disagreeable old lady.”

They both laughed, then turned the conversation to happier topics.

Much later that evening, Eustacia noticed Margaret screwing up her eyes and frowning. “What’s wrong, Margaret?”

“I have the headache. I seem to get it more and more often these evenings. I don’t understand why. The light here is good for sewing, much better than at home. Good wax candles are so much more expensive than tallow,” she said and sighed.

“It’s almost time to go up to our chambers anyway. Would you like me to come and massage your head? My nurse used to massage mine and it really helps.”

“Yes, thank you. That would be nice.”

They put away their embroidery and walked companionably up the stairs together. Eustacia’s maid was waiting for her and soon Eustacia was in her night rail and robe, her hair brushed out. She dismissed the maid, then walked down the hall to Margaret’s room. Margaret, who had no maid, was just tying her robe.

“Sit at your dressing table and let me undo your hair,” Eustacia said.

Slowly, she pulled out the pins and untwisted the braid. Margaret’s long, shiny brown hair rippled across her shoulders and down her back. Eustacia picked up Margaret’s hairbrush and drew it through the thick, wavy hair, pulling carefully and steadily from root to end in smooth sweeps.

“That does feel good. I can remember when my nanny used to brush my hair. I always enjoyed it.”

“I want you to enjoy this too,” Eustacia whispered, letting her hot breath tickle Margaret’s left ear as she kept up the smooth strokes with the hairbrush. From front to back, from root to tip, Eustacia drew the brush through the hair in firm but gently soothing sweeps.

Margaret’s eyes closed and her shoulders relaxed some of their tension.

Eustacia noticed this, nodded to herself, and put down the brush, replacing it with her fingers as she pressed against Margaret’s scalp and began her massaging. First she rubbed in deep circles, beginning at the left ear and moving across Margaret’s head to the right ear. Then she moved to the front of Margaret’s head, massaging deeply, pressing her fingers firmly against Margaret’s scalp, kneading from front to back this time.

By the time she’d finished, she could tell Margaret was much more relaxed, her shoulders no longer tense, her brow no longer furrowed.

Eustacia bent and pressed her lips to Margaret’s still-exposed neck, kissing it with soft, light, butterfly kisses from left to right across her neck, ending at her right ear which she gently sucked into her mouth and nibbled on. Eustacia blew into that ear, then began to kiss her way across to the other side and repeated her caress on the other ear.

“Mmm, feels so good.”

Eustacia let her hands rest on Margaret’s shoulders, rubbing them softly, then more firmly, soothing and stroking her way down to the elbows, then back up again.

Margaret’s eyes were closed, her breath coming more harshly, her body totally relaxed in Eustacia’s hands.

Eustacia rested her hands on Margaret’s sides, and when Margaret made no move to complain, she ran them up to cup the younger woman’s breasts. Margaret’s nipples were hard little points under the soft velvet of her robe. Eustacia pushed the robe apart so she could touch Margaret’s breasts through the thin linen of her night rail. The breasts were full and round, her nipples now engorged, and just touching them made cream seep from Eustacia’s cunny.

“Take off your night rail. Let me see you naked.”

“You first.”

Eustacia untied her robe and let it slide off her shoulders. Then she lifted her night rail up inch by inch, exposing first her neat little ankles, then her long slender legs, and finally her cunny, dew-slicked with desire for the younger woman. Eustacia pulled the shift over her head, revealing rounded hips and stomach, and large, firm breasts with hard, berry-brown nipples. “Now you.”

Margaret’s soft brown eyes stared deeply into Eustacia’s compelling hazel ones, their greenish, golden, brownish depths ever-changing in the light from the fire. She stood up and slipped her arms from the robe and night rail. Then, holding her night rail from the inside, she copied Eustacia’s movements of slowly revealing her feet, ankles, legs, and knees.

But then, in a teasing maneuver, she pulled her head out of the garment and held it in front of her midsection as she bunched it into a ball, gradually revealing the tops of her creamy-white breasts, then the full globes, her belly, and finally she dropped the linen shift onto the floor exposing her cunny.

The curls covering her womanly center were the same shiny brown as her hair, her hips were narrow, and her belly flat. With her legs slightly spread, she was the most inviting and delicious thing Eustacia had ever seen.

“I want to kiss you. I want to touch your body. I want to give you pleasure.”

“I want that too,” whispered Margaret, opening her arms and inviting the older woman’s caresses.

Eustacia stepped forward, lightly held Margaret’s shoulders, then gently, softly, lightly pressed her lips to the younger woman’s.

Margaret showed no shyness. Immediately, she kissed back, her arms automatically going around Eustacia’s waist.

Eustacia deepened the kiss, licking along the seam of Margaret’s mouth and flicking her lips with the tip of her tongue. As soon as Margaret parted her lips a little, Eustacia slid her tongue in, letting it rest quietly for a moment, then running it gently along the inside of Margaret’s cheeks, and behind her teeth.

After a gasp, Margaret joined in, her tongue sliding deep into Eustacia’s mouth and exploring there. Eustacia sucked on Margaret’s tongue as her hands ran down the younger women’s arms and rested on her butt, pushing her against Eustacia, so they stood pressed belly to belly, breast to breast, pelvis to pelvis.

Eustacia could feel the heat coming off Margaret and was sure the other woman could feel the heat she generated too.

She redoubled her efforts, sucking on the other woman’s tongue before pulling back to kiss her eyelids, her forehead, her nose, and her cheeks, then returning to her mouth for another deep, tongue-thrusting union.

Eustacia could feel Margaret’s heart pounding against her own chest, hear the other woman’s breath coming in harsh pants, so she dropped to her knees and spread Margaret’s legs wide so she could kiss her cunny.

Eustacia licked along Margaret’s nether lips, gently sucking first one then the other into her mouth, before licking her from her hot, hard little nubbin to her anus. Holding Margaret’s thighs, she inserted her tongue into the other woman’s cunny, licking the nether lips and then sliding her tongue along the walls, feeling the other woman’s cream drop onto her tongue.

Next, she nibbled the nether lips again, before licking circles around her red, engorged nubbin. Finally, she sucked the nub into her mouth and was gratified to feel more cream seep from Margaret’s channel, which she licked up.

Standing once again, Eustacia said, “Kiss me. Taste yourself on me. You taste better than the finest French brandy.”

Margaret threw her arms around Eustacia’s neck and pressed her breasts into Eustacia’s, rubbing her aching nipples across the older woman’s soft breasts and feeling Eustacia’s nipples as hard points against her own breasts.

“It tastes strange. Not unpleasant—but different,” she murmured, pressing her body harder into Eustacia’s. “I want more. I need…”

“You want to reach your pleasure. Have you never experienced your pleasure before?”

Margaret was confused. Many things in life were pleasant. But she needed…something, now.

“Lie on your bed. Let me show you.”

Margaret lay on the bed, moving to the middle to allow room for Eustacia, but Eustacia slid down so her head was at Margaret’s cunny again.

“Oh yes, kiss me there again, please.”

“You taste wonderful. I’ll do much more than just kiss you,” Eustacia promised.

This time, Margaret kept her eyes open and watched as Eustacia licked and sucked at her privates, gently pulling on her nether lips and then sucking that hard, hot piece of flesh into her mouth. As Eustacia touched her, and licked and sucked, Margaret could feel a ball of fire in her belly growing and growing, wanting to consume her.

Eustacia’s tongue was deep in her cunny, running along the walls and pushing up against a place that felt oh-so-very good.

Then Eustacia pressed a finger inside Margaret’s cunny and Margaret couldn’t help but gasp at the pleasure it gave her. Eustacia’s mouth was on her hard button again. Eustacia’s finger was in her cunny, and the ball of fire in her belly was growing, growing, expanding…

With a cry, Margaret felt herself explode into little pieces as the fire roared through her body from her belly out, down her arms and legs, and up through the top of her head. Waves of fire rolled through her over and over again, shaking her and still Eustacia licked and sucked at her cunny, making the intense feeling continue on and on until Margaret thought her body might break.

Finally, Eustacia slid up the bed, lying on her as she kissed her. Margaret kissed back enthusiastically. “Oh, my, that was— I’ve never—”

“That was finding your pleasure. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

“Enjoyed is too mild a word. I’ve never felt anything like that before.”

“But you will again. We can do that any time you want.”

“Thank you. But you need to teach me how I can do it for you. I want you to experience it too.”

“I would like that. And I’ll show you how you can pleasure yourself too. It’s not quite as intense, but it is still very enjoyable indeed.”