Her Enticing Muse by Violet Cowper

Author:Violet Cowper [Cowper, Violet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B0B94KFC49
Goodreads: 62968883
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-01-14T23:00:00+00:00

Maria knew the pigments she was going to employ as soon as the sitter had been shown into the studio.

To her, his maritime complexion really suggested some crimson, even purple tints of the deepest dye. It would be difficult to get the truth of this on canvas, but she was going to do her utmost. Besides, some part of her was thrilled; she had always enjoyed working with vibrant colours.

Always. Such an all-encompassing word to denote the year that passed since she first crossed the threshold of Sudley House. But it was entirely natural, she decided, for this was a whole new life – a life she was longing to cling to.

‘I am giving my studio up to you until the light starts to fail,’ Stella told her before the newly made master of the HMS Invincible arrived at their doorstep. ‘Not a minute later, mind you – drawing by candlelight is an expensive pleasure.’

You didn’t mind indulging in this pleasure those months ago, Maria thought.

She was not stupid. She had noticed the way Stella Wesley looked at her that night in the studio – in the very same studio where Maria was now to sit down and draw, then paint, a man in a naval uniform. Stella had looked at her then as though she were a piece of marzipan she wanted to take between her lips and let linger on her tongue.

She had noticed also the way Stella took care to avoid her in the months that followed. Everything in Maria rebelled against this furtive avoidance, this rotten politesse. She wanted to take Stella Wesley by the shoulders and hold her until she heard an honest answer.

Granted, if someone were to do the same to Maria, she was not sure she would have known just what to reply. She was not the woman to delight in someone’s desire for her, but neither was she a bashful creature to flee from it. Rather, in the years that preceded the night of the fire, she gave the notion very little thought. Desire happened between human beings – that was why most people married, after all, outside of the charmed circles of the gentry with their talks of lands and dowries, at least. It had simply never happened to her so far.

So far.

The fact that, while it happened between human beings indeed, these human beings were generally men and women, caused her peculiarly little trouble. Things were what they were, and nature, tangled thing though she was, rarely committed true mistakes.

As for the question of whether Maria desired Stella Wesley in return… She made an agreement with herself to postpone the resolution of this question until the knots on Stella’s tongue were finally untied. The landscapes of such wanting were unfamiliar to her, and she decided not to venture there until she knew for sure they contained no deadly swamps.

Besides, she had a debut portrait to paint.

‘It’s a great honour to me, sir,’ she said, looking at the man sitting in front of her, the words feeling like polished stones rolling around in her mouth.

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