The Shadow Witch by Samantha Grosser

Author:Samantha Grosser [Grosser, Samantha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Samantha Grosser

After the sex they lay entwined in the bed, the quilts drawn up against the chill air of the room. Mary trailed her fingers through the fine hair on his chest, his shoulder hard beneath her head.

‘Tell me about your wife,’ she said. ‘Does she do the same things for you? Does she please you?’

To her surprise, he laughed. ‘That, and much more.’

‘A devil in her too?’

‘Oh yes, without a doubt.’

‘So why come to me?’

He turned his head on the pillow to gaze up into the shadows of the rafters. The candle flame lifted and fell with the draught that blew under the door, and the beams seemed to waver in the changing light.

‘My wife …,’ he began, ‘is a complex woman.’

‘Are we not all so?’ She pinched his nipple lightly, playful.

‘Not like her.’

‘Tell me.’

He rolled onto his side towards her, their faces close on the pillow, their legs still entangled.

‘Why do you wish to know?’

A memory trickled through her thoughts of asking similar questions of Toby in the same bed, many years ago. She had been jealous of Judith, she recalled, his girl at church when they had only just met, before the sorcerer had lodged his hooks in them both. She gave a coy smile and shrugged.

‘Curious, merely.’

‘Are you jealous?’

‘Perhaps,’ she murmured. ‘A little.’

‘Do you fall for all your customers so easily?’

‘Only the handsome ones …’ She glanced up through her eyelashes to see if the flattery was working. Most men, she had found, like to think they mean something special to a whore, that they’re different from the others.

He smiled. ‘She is not like you. She is dark, and not only in colouring. Her moods are mercurial and hard to fathom – passionate both in love and in fury.’

‘Does she have a name?’

‘Isabella.’

A sharp breath lifted in Mary’s chest and it took all her force of will to suppress it. She was aware of Henry watching her, just inches away. He was the charming man the woman at the brazier had spoken of, she realised, always ready with a smile and a coin, and married to the fortune teller. A new fear swept over her – there was more here at stake than his interest in the book. She, Mary, had been to see his wife. She had asked about her daughter. So what did he want from her, really? What did they want from Kate?

‘Pretty name,’ she said, continuing to play this game she did not understand. ‘She has Spanish blood?’

‘On her mother’s side.’

There was a silence, and beyond the door a woman’s boots thudded along the passage. Henry said, ‘Are we finished talking about my wife?’

She gave a light laugh and slid her tongue across her lips. ‘Why?’ she asked. ‘What would you like to do instead?’

‘This.’

In one rapid motion he was over her, his weight heavy on her chest, forcing her onto her back. This time she simply lay and let him take her, no pretence at her own pleasure. He came quickly, shuddering

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