Read The Hidden Mistress - An Erotica and Romance Paranormal/Historical Novelette for Free Online

believe her. “A burglar, or an assassin. There was – I felt – oh, please forgive me,” she pleaded.
    The wind raged faster outside the window. Underneath the cauldron, the fire snapped and cracked in the near-silence. From somewhere in the room came the sound of dripping water.
     “So you took down a sword,” the baroness said, “and rushed here to protect me?” Slowly, she lowered herself into the water again and threw the towel aside. “Very bold,” she mused. “How very noble indeed.”
    “Had I known that it wasn’t –” Marie started, then stopped when she saw the baroness frown. Marie bit her lip to hold back her tears. There was nothing to do but to bow her head and accept the shame. She would not be able to show her face at any ball for the next ten years. “I mistook the sound for – something else,” she finished. “I heard –”
     “You heard nothing,” the baroness said.
    Marie blinked. The baroness’s comment was casual, almost offhand, but Marie felt a moment of vertigo. When Marie’s focus returned, she tried to recall what she had heard, but it felt like trying to clutch mist with her bare hands. Surely there had been screaming. Or could it have been the wind all along? An illusion created by storm and night.
    “I’m sure I did her something,” Marie said to herself, then shook her head. Now that she thought about it, the sounds she had heard must have been the wind. Yes, that was it; the storm outside, howling like a woman. “Perhaps I was wrong,” she mumbled.
    “Put aside that weapon before you kill yourself,” the baroness suggested. “The candle, too. Yes, leave them on the floor. Now come closer.”
    Careful not to slip on the wet floor, Marie walked closer on trembling legs. She glanced up at the artwork in the ceiling. It depicted hordes of mythological beasts running through a dense forest. The baroness gestured at a low stool next to the tub, and Marie sat down. Mist rose from the hot water and its thick layer of bubbles.
    Marie kept her eyes on the floor; she was not sure it was appropriate to look up just yet. There was also the case the baroness, who was very close and very naked. The bubbles did not cover much of her upper body. Her hair, pinned up at the back of her neck, seemed to glow in the soft light.
    When Marie had sat down, she had been unable to resist a quick glance into the water, and the sight had left her short on breath. No woman should be allowed to be so gorgeous. Marie felt like a dumbstruck kitten next to a mountain cat.
     “Even though you were mistaken,” the baroness said, “it was brave of you come here. Did you see anyone else outside the room?”
    “I saw Mademoiselle Sophie,” Marie answered. Too late, she realized that she should not have let the baroness know. This was a night of endless blunders.
    “Ah.” The baroness leaned back in the bath and moved a hand through the bubbles. “Well, there is not much I can do about that.”
    “I’m sorry?” Marie asked, not understanding what the baroness meant.
    “Nothing.” The baroness sighed. “Well, I suppose that I am to blame for this.” She shook her head ruefully and looked down.
    “Blame?” Marie said, now ever more confused. “Surely you have done nothing wrong?”
    The baroness regarded Marie and smiled kindly. “You are young,” she said. “Unblemished and pure.” Her voice grew quieter. “While I have fallen so far.”
    Marie was unsure what to say. The baroness could be no more than thirty years older than she was, yet she was speaking of herself as someone much older.
    “Perhaps when you are my age,” the baroness continued, “you will understand how the mind is full of pitfalls and perversion.”
    “Everyone I know speaks of you with highest regard,” Marie said. It was true; every rumour she had heard about the baroness suggested that she was influential and intelligent.
    “Not many truly know me.” The baroness turned her eyes away and down. “I