Two Ships Passing by Hayden Rexelle

Author:Hayden Rexelle [Rexelle, Hayden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Helena felt her breath catch, then leave her in a whoosh.

“Helena, Helena where are you?”

“Shit!” McKenzie muttered. “Henry.” With one last glance at Helena’s astonished face and despite the opulent dress she was clothed in she launched herself quietly off the balcony and was gone in a flash of aubergine.

“Here, Henry,” Helena said, voice shaking.

Henry rounded the corner and pulled her into his arms. Helena’s mind was a whirl of emotion. Morgan McKenzie loved her? Henry leaned in for a kiss, his mouth tasting bitterly of scotch.

“Henry, you are drunk.”

Henry laughed. “Only a little my love, all the better to taste you with.” He kissed her roughly, tongue tangling in her mouth and she pushed him away.

“No, I won’t be treated like this. Call yourself a cab please. I’m going up to bed.”

Helena made for the door but Henry grabbed her by the arm and pulled her tightly against him growling in her ear, she could feel a throbbing bulge at the front of his trousers and found herself repulsed. She struggled against him but he only held her tighter, grinding his hips against hers.

“Do what you will, my darling Helena, but when we are wed you will love, honor, and obey. In our daily life and most definitely in our bed.”

Placing extra emphasis on the “bed” Henry released her and was gone. Helena’s shoulders sagged as a tear escaped the corner of her eye. Who was this man she was marrying? And who exactly was that woman to proclaim such feelings for her? Helena pulled the softness that was Morgan McKenzie’s fur shawl tighter, as if in an embrace, and went upstairs to cry herself to sleep.

* * * *

The next morning, she ate her breakfast alone. Henry sent flowers and a note, apologizing for his behavior at the party and saying he had some important errands to run and couldn’t dine with her. Frankly, Helena wanted to be as far from him as possible anyways. After eating a couple bites of her eggs and roasted tomatoes, she pushed the plate away with absolutely no appetite. Instead, she paced to and fro in the drawing room staring at Morgan McKenzie, or was it Katharine Twist’s? fur shawl, which she’d carefully draped over the sofa.

“‘I’ve quite fallen in love with you’…what kind of person says that?” She was fuming, but she was also very confused. Coupled with the shock of what had been said, she’d felt a small twinge of what could only be labeled hope when Morgan had uttered those words before leaping off the balcony like a madwoman.

While McKenzie paraded around London as a male sea captain, she was indeed a woman, as was Doctor Helena Jane Kelly, a woman. Of course Helena knew such dalliances occurred. Some of her more adventurous friends had leaned towards such lady on lady activities before they were married—especially Elizabeth. Elizabeth had at least three dalliances with women Helena knew of and her best friend had highly recommended it. But Helena herself had never been so inclined.

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