"Let us go up to your room, then, Tess," he said, winking.
"Aye, let's," she agreed.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Her room was three storeys above the street, beyond the grandness of the lower staircase, where marble was replaced by solid oak, and the carpetting was more worn. Tess lit them up with a single candle in one hand, and Lewrie's in her other. They went down a wide and gloomy hall, only lit here and there with a sole candle on a table, or one or two mounted in wall holders.
There was a final door at the right of the hallway, which Tess opened. Beyond it, instead of a good-sized bed-chamber, there was yet another passage, much narrower, which forced them shoulder-to-shoulder as she led him past a door to either side, then an equally narrow cap to the T, which presented a final pair of doors. The one on the right-hand side was slightly ajar, and Tess preceded him into the room beyond, tiptoeing and hesitant.
Ambush, here? Lewrie had to worry for a moment as he followed, quickly peering about for the sight of a bully-buck with a lead-loaded leather cosh, or a whacking-thick cudgel.
"More light, Captain Alan?" Tess asked. "Or, d'ye prefer th' dark?"
"At least one or two more candles… for now," he said, satisfied that he would not be bashed on the head and robbed. Yet. As she ignited more candles with her first one, Lewrie could see where he was.
There had to be four smaller rooms carved out of the original large bed-chamber, he deduced, the new walls and passageway made up of plain deal partitions, though painted white with the impression of fine mouldings just painted on, like stage scenery. The wall to his right was substantial plaster, still wallpapered. The one ahead of him was also papered, with a set of dark and heavy drapes covering a window… He crossed to it with difficulty, squeezing between a chest-of-drawers and the foot of the bed to pull the drapes apart and look out, down to Panton Street far below. He let the drapes fall back together, for it was cold, the panes frosted and semi-opaque. Come to think on it, the room was chilly, too, and he couldn't imagine what they'd done with the fireplace that should have warmed the larger, original room.
Now that he could see, Lewrie took in the bed, fairly close to the draped window, then to a taller old-style night-stand on the other side, where his requested bottle of champagne stood chilling in a pail filled with slushy snow, aside two fresh glasses. There was a folding screen set out from the deal partition they had passed through, on the floor beside it a storage chest, and, against the middle wall, by the chest-of-drawers, stood a wash-hand stand with a pitcher, towels, and two bowls.
"They charge extra for the candles, do they?" Lewrie asked her with a wry chuckle.
"Oh, nossir," Tess told him with a little laugh of her own as she finished lighting the requested candles. "Now, d'ye wish t'have a fireplace, those rooms there, an' there, t'ones we passed comin' in, well… th' established girls get those, 'less ye put in a request t' Mother Batson."
"Didn't know," Lewrie said with a shrug, peeling off his coat. "Where does one…?"
"There's a row o' pegs, yonder, sir," Tess told him. She went to the row of pegs herself, quickly exchanging her lacy and revealing silk dressing gown for a heavier one of tan wool, wrapping it round her body with a shiver. Not so quickly that Lewrie couldn't get an appreciative eyeful of her figure, despite the looseness of her chemise. It only came to mid-thigh, and, silhouetted by a fresh candle, the sight made him grin. She was girlishly slim in arms, back, and hips, with very shapely slim legs, right down to an alluring gap 'tween her upper thighs. Yum-bloody-yum! he thought in sudden lust.
He went to the pegs, hung up his coat and waist-coat, stuffed his sporty paisley neck-stock into a pocket, and sat on the chest to tug at a boot.
"Lemme help ye with those, sir," Tess volunteered, kneeling to lend a hand. Lewrie stood in his stockinged feet and shivered. There was a set of small carpets on the floor, but they were old and threadworn, without a bit of give or insulation.
"Maybe I should bring a dressing robe along, next time," Lewrie said, hugging himself for warmth.
"I can only wish ye think enough o' me t'come a second time," Tess teased, still sitting on her heels below him. "There's a quilt t' wrap up in, do ye want." She rose to her knees and placed a hand on the buttons of his breeches, looking up somewhere 'twixt shyness and flirtatiousness as her fingers found his mounting erection. "Might I help ye further,… Captain Alan?"
Lewrie's hand to the waistband buttons, hers working up from the bottom of the row, and he was free in a trice, breeches and stockings discarded atop the chest, and the boots, and the room's chill a sensual thrill from the hem of his shirt to his groin.
"Ye have 'armour'?" she softly asked, her hands under his shirt, on the tops of his thighs. "They'll not let us, without. Do ye not, I've a few in the-"
"A round dozen," Lewrie told her in a throat-constricted mutter as Tess's hands slid up to his hips, bracketing his taut belly.
"Saints preserve us, but I hope ye'll spare me the use of all of 'em, arrah!" Tess said with a gasp of alarm, false or not, he could not tell. She dropped back to her heels, eyes wide.
"The Green Lantern's Best," Lewrie assured her, offering her a hand. "Let's get under the covers, then have another glass of champagne, me girl. Vite vite, as the Frogs say."
Out of her shoes, Tess was about four inches shorter than his five feet nine inches as she rose to her feet, and, with his hand in hers, quickly led him to the bed. He whipped the coverlet, blankets, and sheet back and they both jumped in, her heavy wool robe slung to the footboard, then the covers pulled up to her chin, the pile of pillows flounced up and braced behind their shoulders and heads. Lewrie reached for the bottle and the glasses, poured for both of them, then shifted to his side to face her, clinking his glass to hers once more.
She took a sip, then leaned back against the pillows, sighing contentedly. "Never had champagne 'fore I come t'London, I never," she told him, flashing her that rather sweet, shy smile again. "La, 'tis a grand thing, the 'bubbly.' "
" 'Deed it is," Lewrie happily agreed. "Why, a fellow captain I know, Benjamin Rodgers, couldn't go to sea at all, did he not have at least three dozen dozen bottles in his lazarette store. Goes through it like a country squire sucks up ale," he said with a hoot.
"An' here I thought goin' t'sea was all misery an' hard times," Tess said, shifting to her side to face him, one hand propping up her head. " 'Twas bad enough, just goin' by packet from Belfast t' Liverpool, and sick! I thought I'd die 'fore settin' foot on hard ground. Whush! Sure, and it'd take a power o' strong drink t'get me aboard a ship again. T'make such life even passin' tolerable."
"It ain't always that stormy, in the main," Lewrie told her. "More good days than bad, really. The worst part sometimes is days on end o' boredom. One week after t'other, exactly the same hum-drum and routine."
"And there's dancin' t'hornpipes, an' all?" Tess asked, smiling and much more at ease than their first moments. "Shinnin' up masts, an' such?" she added, with a sly leer in her eyes.
"Ye'd not ask me t'shin up a mast tonight, will ye, Captain Alan?" she asked with feigned dread.
"Seein' as how you're a landlubber, not a 'scaly fish,' I don't think I'll put ya to the main-mast truck quite yet, m'dear," he joshed with a grin and a throaty chuckle. He slipped closer, putting an arm behind her head, and she snuggled up to him, bringing welcome warmth and a heady mix of enticing aromas. "Perhaps I'll start ya out on the mizen… only as far as the cro'jack yard."
"Ye haveta learn another tongue t'be a sailor?" she asked with a shake of her head.
"We've our own language, for certain, Tess," he agreed.