Sunlight streamed through the windows, hitting Hannah right in the eye. She half woke and realized that they both had fallen asleep in front of the fire in their wedding clothes. They were exhausted. Talbot was so excited about everything that he touched in his trunk that he had to tell a story about each origin. And there were many stories. She lay down beside him with her head on his chest and her arm across him. He held her in his arms, wrapped around her. She felt so secure and cherished.
Sleep overtook them.
Just then Talbot stirred. Realizing where they were and that they were still in their wedding clothes the first thing that he said was, "Sorry."
"Why are you sorry my Love?" She kissed him then.
"Ummm because I did not make love to you last night."
"Nevertheless, I feel loved this morning." She kissed him again. "Let me call for some breakfast and I must bathe."
She got up and rang the bell.
Then started taking off her headdress. She laid it out over a chair. Wanting to keep it as a keepsake in a box to show her children when they were old enough to appreciate it.
"Could you help me out of my dress?"
"Gladly!"
He started to unbutton the fifty satin covered buttons at the back of her dress. With each button he opened exposing her skin he kissed the spot. Hannah shivered. For many reasons she would feel untouched by a man. With no love in her previous marriage and with a current marriage full of nothing but love, this would prove to be a new experience for her. How long had she longed for Talbot and felt guilty about her feelings? Now she was free to love him, to show her love to him.
The buttons were freed from their formal prison. He put his hands inside her wedding gown touching her bare skin. Kissing the back of her, between her shoulder blades. She shivered again. He was pleased. He turned her around to face him and kissed her running his fingers tenderly, sensitively up and down her bare back.
She felt heady. As though she had drunk potent red wine. Her knees became weak, too weak to hold up her body. He took her in his arms, picking her up as though she were a feather.
Startled by a loud knock on the door.
"Mrs. Chamber-lane...hump..... I means....... Mrs. Talbot, your tray."
The lovers jumped up to separate themselves from the heated moment.
"Come in." Talbot ordered.
"Essscooose me, Sir, Miss. Here da tray." Betzy said with her face reddened, for she knew that she interrupted .........some.........marriage.........something.
"Thank you Betzy." Talbot said.
Betzy curtsied and tripped while she was backing out of the room.
When the door closed Talbot and Hannah looked seriously at each other and then burst into laughter and fell on the bed laughing together. When the laughter subsided Hannah said, "Let's have breakfast, then a bath."
Talbot agreed with that suggestion. "We don't want your coffee to get cold."
After breakfast Hannah went into the bathroom and came straight out again. "I am going to have to install a larger bathtub in this bathroom so that the both of us can bathe together. I should have thought of that before." With a sorry look on her face.
"That's all right Love. You go first."
Hannah exited the bathroom a while later in a thick robe and flopped on the bed beside Talbot, who was reclining, waiting for her.
"Was that wonderful, my Darling?"
"Terribly. Now your turn."
More kisses and off he was to bathe.
When he returned there was Hannah fast asleep breathing softly. His heart went out to her and he covered her with a coverlet, kissed her forehead and left her there to sleep.
When Hannah woke hours later she called out to Talbot but everything was silent. She looked around the room and did not see him. Then she caught sight of an envelope propped up on her vanity against the mirror. She jumped out of bed and took up the envelope. It simply said, "Hannah" on the front of it. Smiling she took the letter back to bed. Adjusting her sitting position to make herself comfortable, still smiling because she loved surprises, she opened the envelope. As she started to read the letter her smile melted way and sadness took over, then tears began to fall.
The letter was from Talbot.
He had left her.
His trunk was gone too.
