Chapter Text
Edith waited, trying to ignore her anxiety, and not strain at every sound that broke the heavy silence of the night.
She had to be useful. She turned her attention to the fire. Cora would be cold when she got back. Settling down before the fire, she found the kindling and started to coax the banked embers to produce a flame. Having succeeded, she placed more kindling on the fire and a log from the pile to one side. Next, she turned her attention to the bed. Cora might not have time to sleep but it couldn’t be good gallivanting around without any at all and Edith thought she might persuade her. She decided to see if there were spare sheets. There was a dressing room to one side and in a great chest shoved against one wall, she found extra sheets. She placed them on the bed and replaced everything. She wasn’t lingering over the pillow which was heady with the scent of lavender and thyme. It was just a particularly recalcitrant pillow which absolutely refused to be fluffed. Damn thing.
She heard a pop and a shiver ran through her. She tried not to think about what it was but she started to listen more carefully again, waiting for the tell-tale sound of Cora’s ascent. Climbing up must be harder. She had every intention of pulling her up as much as possible.
She soon heard the scratch of Cora’s feet against the wall and went over to the window. She signalled down her intention to pull and Cora gave her a nod. When she finally appeared at the window, Cora was slightly winded but she smiled and clapped Edith on the shoulder. ‘Well, that’s a lot quicker with a helper. Once in Spain, I had to climb up and down eight stories… Jesus, that was a climb. I thought my arms might actually fall off.’
Edith smiled and began to untie the sheets, preparing to fold them up and return these old ones to the chest. Cora walked towards the fire. ‘You got it going again, you marvel!’ she said. She held up a thin sheaf of papers. ‘This is what all the fuss was about.’
Sitting cross-legged on the rug before the fire, she removed the fire guard, and started to feed the papers one by one into the flames. Edith came and sat beside her and looked into the fire. Cora leant against her, feeding the flames lazily with one hand.
‘Sat like this, I can almost imagine we were a normal couple. An evening in front of the fire. Buttered toast in our past or our future.’
Edith answered with a non-committal hum.
‘You don’t think so?’
‘I don’t think we’d ever be a normal couple, Cora. But a fire like this, an evening like this, that we can have.’
Cora placed the last paper in the flames and turned to look up at Edith, the firelight casting a dancing tapestry of light and dark across her face. With what Edith felt to be an exquisite inevitability, Cora closed the gap between them and placed her lips against Edith’s own. The kiss was tentative at first but soon it deepened. Edith was happy for Cora to lead. She had no idea what she was doing but nothing had ever felt more right or more beautiful. Her gown was taken from her and she forgot to feel embarrassed about darned patches or her own body laid bare in the firelight. Cora’s hands were magic. The drew feeling from every inch of her. And her clever mouth on Edith’s breasts had her heart singing with pleasure.
Edith wanted to give Cora the same pleasure that she was experiencing. Every nerve on fire from her wandering caresses. She echoed Cora’s movements and was rewarded with sighs of pleasure and quickening breath. Cora drew back. Rising, she held out her hand and pulled Edith up with her. She pulled her gently towards the bed and lifting the quilt, pushed her back against the sheets. And they tumbled into the bed, fresh made for this new start.
Cora’s fingers and her clever tongue set fire to every part of Edith’s body until there was nothing in the whole universe but her burning body and the siren whose touch set her ablaze. Her pleasure reached it peak with Cora’s lips on her on and her fingers moving inside her. Still trembling she turned her attention once again to Cora’s body and following her movements, listening to her pleas and the softly whispered requests, she had the pleasure of seeing Cora as lost in passion as herself. When Cora too had found her pleasure, spread open beneath her, begging for her touch, they turned to face each other and held each other. The weight of Cora’s head on her shoulder felt achingly sweet.
Edith must have fallen asleep and she woke to feel Cora running a delicate finger along her back, tracing patterns on her spine.
‘I have to go, Edie. They’ll find him when they wake. I shouldn’t have stayed so long.’
Edith turned to face her. ‘Do you regret that you did?’
Cora looked her in the eye and raised a hand to her cheek. ‘Never.’ Edith was surprised to see something suspiciously like pain cross her face. ‘It was beautiful. You are beautiful. We…we were beautiful.’
‘We still are.’
‘I can’t leave this life, Edith. I like it. I’m good at it. I can’t be faithful to you. If they tell me to seduce a man, I’ll seduce him and don’t think I can’t enjoy it. I can.’ Her tone was challenging but there was an undercurrent of longing.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Edith. She leaned over and wiped a tear from Cora’s face. ‘It doesn’t matter if you sleep with every man and woman in the world. I mean, be safe...obviously. But it doesn’t matter. There’s no condition for my heart, Cora.’ She paused. In for a penny… ‘It’s always been yours.’
Cora met her gaze and slowly began to smile. The expression half wondering.
‘I said I was half in love already… I’m all the way in now. This heart is yours. Whatever I do, I promise that’ll still be true,’ she said softly.
Edith didn’t have words so she leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead.
‘I have to go. But I’ll find you. I’ll find a way. There are some who might need persuading round to my way of seeing things.' The light in her eyes was martial. 'Excellent cover though... Whoever I am next will need a companion. I'll make sure of it.’
‘Companion extraordinaire, right here,’ said Edith smiling, pointing to herself.
‘Yes, indeed, those were excellent credentials you gave me last night,’ Cora replied with a wink. ‘Come on, love, time for me to flee and you to put on the mask of respectable and boring.’
Edith laughed and Cora followed suit, their voices mingled together in the pre-dawn hush. The companion and the assassin.
Watching Cora as she prepared for her departure with what was evidently practised efficiency, Edith let her mind wander. Idylls spun across her imagination. Many of them involved roaring fires and firelight flickering on shared secrets and shared pleasures. Her mind lighting on a particularly seasonal image, she suddenly remembered the day. ‘Merry Christmas!’
‘Merry Christmas, indeed,’ returned Cora. Pressing a kiss to Edith’s lips, she headed towards the door. Turning back, she looked at Edith with a crooked smile. ‘Never been much of a believer in Christmas miracles but you might just count, Edie. To a hundred more!’