Early the next morning, Virginia and Forrester hired a carriage and headed out to their new home. They were armed with a huge amount of soap, furniture oil, buckets and rags. Using oil lamps to guide their way they slowly explored the house. Virginia groaned inwardly at how filthy it was. This is going to be a lot of work, she thought. Although it might be just the thing to keep at bay the unwanted memories of Drake that kept flooding her mind.
After an initial inspection of the main floor, which contained a magnificent two story foyer, a sitting room, a music room, an extensive library and a grand ballroom, they returned to the foyer. Virginia opened a door in the far wall to reveal a large kitchen. Most of the items inside were covered in dust. It appeared that Otis hadn't had any house servants and that he was a very modest cook. As they wandered about, inspecting the facilities of the kitchen, Billy called her attention to a trap door in the floor.
"Would this be the cellar?" he asked.
He bent down and pulled on the ring, easily lifting the door up. He swung the other side open and they peered down into the dark. Damp, musty smelling air wafted up. They could see a short flight of stone steps descending down. "It doesn't smell too bad. That's a good sign," he said with a smile. He picked up the lantern and proceeded down the steps, with Virginia following him. The cellar was quite large, appearing to be about half the size of the house. The ceiling was supported by heavy wooden posts. They hung their lanterns on hooks that had been attached to the posts and began to look around.
There were several crates that had been pushed into the center of the large room. One held sacks of sugar, and bundles of ginger, cinnamon, and other spices. They also found several crates of rum, brandy, and wine. One of the crates of rum was almost empty showing Otis' apparent preference for the drink. Other trunks and crates held a wide assortment of household items. They climbed back upstairs and into the kitchen.
"It appears we have a few luxury items," Virginia commented as Billy closed the trap doors.
"I wonder why Otis would buy those things," Billy wondered. "And why all the brandy and wine when he clearly favored rum?"
"Like you said, he's a strange man," she replied, shaking her head.
Back in the foyer, Virginia stared up into the darkness at the top of the stairs. "Let's see upstairs, shall we?" Holding the lamp up high she started up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs she turned to the left. She was facing a hallway with several doors opening off it. The walls were heavily paneled and just as dirty as the others on the floor below. The doors opened onto three bedrooms, one facing the front of the house and two facing the back. They made their way back down the hallway and into the ballroom. The mezzanine only covered the back wall, but had two sets of french doors that opened onto a long balcony.
"Well Ginny, I think it's a fine house," Forrester commented as they headed back downstairs. "It needs a good cleaning, and the outside needs some fixing up, but it appears to be fully furnished and structurally sound. I think it may have been quite grand at one time."
"Yes, and it will be grand again, once I get through with it." At the bottom of the stairs, she stopped, and looking back up at him, she asked, "Forrester, what's your first name?"
Blushing, he replied, "William, but everyone back home called me Billy."
"Do you mind if I call you Billy?"
His blush deepening, he said, "No Ginny. Not at all. I prefer it actually."
"Billy it is, then."
Billy returned her comment with a shy smile.
"Well, Billy, shall we get started returning this house to its former glory?" she asked as she headed outside to retrieve her trunk of cleaning supplies.
They started with the sitting room and the sun was low in the sky by the time they had finished cleaning it. They pushed the furniture into place and put candles in the wall sconces. She flopped down on one of the floral tapestry couches and admired their work. The bright and sunny yellow room was very pretty.
"Billy, what do you think we should call our farm? It doesn't appear to have a name and it should. Do you have any ideas?"
He thought for a moment and then suggested, "How about Aurora, because that's where we met?"
She was unsure if she wanted to be constantly reminded of the ship all the time. Although, she did like the name, and she could give it a new meaning. "I like it. Aurora it is then," she declared.
They were both exhausted when the carriage returned to collect them. They both went to their rooms at the inn and ordered baths. Afterwards they had a sumptuous dinner in the hotel's dining room. It was a luxury but after the work they had put in that day they figured they deserved it.
They returned early the next morning eager to get to work. They repeated the cleaning process with the music room. When they had finished and she was relaxing on one of the couches he surprised her by sitting down at the piano and playing a lively tune. "Billy, I didn't know you could play!" she exclaimed when he had finished.
"Me mum taught me." He proceeded to play a more classical piece, his fingers dancing along the keys. "It's in pretty good shape. It needs a tuning, but I can do that later."
"Why Billy, you are full of surprises!" Virginia smiled at him.
Blushing, he said, "I wouldn't admit it to any of the fellows on the ship, but I really enjoy playing and I've missed it. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to play every now and then," he said nervously.
"That would be wonderful," she said with a smile.
With that, he set off again, his fingers gliding effortlessly across the keys.
It was early September and even though the house wasn't completely ready, they moved in anyway. It had taken two full weeks of cleaning before they were ready to leave their lodgings at the inn. Billy insisted that Virginia take the grand front bedroom and he would take the one on the other side of the hall.
"Ginny, perhaps we should convert one of the rooms downstairs into a bedroom? It doesn't seem proper that I sleep just across the hall from you without anyone else in the house."
"I'm sure it's fine Billy. Anyway, I feel safer with you across the hall. And if anyone says anything, I'll just say we're cousins," she said with a smile.
That night as Virginia lay in the large four poster bed in her bedroom she almost felt like she was back in Liverpool. Her mind drifted to thoughts and memories of Violet. She wondered how her friend was faring on her own. Without Virginia to keep rein on her she was probably flirting with all the men in town and had most likely received half a dozen marriage proposals. She only hoped Vi would fare better in the game of love than she had.
Her thoughts then turned unwillingly to Drake. She had resisted reliving memories of him but tonight it seemed she was unable to push the thoughts and images away. She squeezed her eyes shut but all she could see were his hazel eyes glowing with passion. He once again was holding her down on the bed of his cabin telling her that he was the one to show her what a real kiss was. She felt her breath coming faster as she recalled the feel of his tongue in her mouth, touching her own. Then the unbidden memories of their lovemaking flooded her mind.
Her hands slid across her stomach as she felt the familiar ache of desire curling through her body. Slowly she trailed her fingers over her thighs, dipping her hands to the tender insides as her legs opened. Memories of standing at the helm of his ship, gripping the worn handles of the big wheel as he entered her from behind edged into her mind. Tentatively she slipped one finger into the nest of curls between her thighs and closing her eyes, sighed as she gently stroked herself, calling up memories of Drake's fingers touching her there. A loud gasp burst through her lips as her finger touched her clit causing her back to arch. Her fingers returned to the sensitive spot and writhing on the bed, she quickly stroked the hardening nub. The other hand slid upwards to cup her breast, finding the nipple and tweaking gently.
Squirming on the bed, she turned her face into the pillow to muffle the cries coming from her lips. "Oh Drake," she murmured, recalling the night she had stood at the bow of his ship, trembling with the delights of his tongue between her thighs. Her hands became more insistent, rubbing faster and squeezing harder. Her thighs began to tremble and clench as a delicious heat spread through her body, tingling her senses just before the orgasm broke free, ripping through her body, leaving her damp and breathless on the bed.
After the glow of climaxing had passed, she curled into a ball beneath the blankets, allowing tears to overtake her and wondering if any man could ever make her feel like that again. She tossed and turned restlessly for a long time before sleep finally claimed her.
A week later they decided to explore what was behind the four dormer windows on the top floor of the house. There was no obvious staircase but since many houses had hidden passages for servants to move about unseen they set out to find it. After an extensive search, they finally found the small catch hidden in the doorframe of Virginia's bedroom and the staircase that led up the top floor.
After investigating the four small bedrooms that held the dormer windows and concluding they were servant's quarters, they went back into the short hallway that held the entrance to the stairs and paused before the closed door at the other end. "I would suspect that this is the attic," Billy said as he turned the knob and slowly pushed the door open.
A large open room spread out before them. Three large windows on the far wall illuminated the heaps of trunks, crates and discarded furniture. There were sofas with velvet cushions, a wardrobe with a broken leg, rolls of carpets and other items covered with dust sheets.
Virginia began picking her way forward to inspect some of the items. As she neared some of the furniture she noted that the cushions had been slashed open and the stuffing torn out. She turned around and saw that all the stuffed furniture was in the same condition. As she continued to look more closely she saw that every crate had it's lid pried off and some of the contents were strewn about. The trunks were the same.
"Billy, look at this. What happened?"
"It appears that someone was looking for something. Something that they suspected was hidden."
"But what? What would be hidden in the seat of a chair?" she asked, touching the torn velvet of a high backed chair.
"I don't know Ginny. But if it was Otis, it seems like another strange thing for him to have done."
