Stopping at both Raleigh and Charleston for a night, the four hundred or so miles trip passed quite pleasantly. Adam met her at the train.
"God he's handsome," she reminded herself, not having seen her brother for three years when he had visited her in London.
Adam had inherited his mother's artistic side and not the commercial nature of their father. Amanda had more commercial acumen, but was also an artist at heart. Both had taken on the warmth of their mother and not the hardness of their father.
Her brother had left the South, just as Amanda had. Following four years at Harvard, and graduating Phi Beta Kappa in fine arts and history, he could not bear the thought of being 'culturally buried' at the plantation. Additionally, he felt little affiliation with the South where he had been raised.
What with Florence's 'Yankee' propaganda during his childhood and the eight years he had spent in New York and Boston at school and university, his perspective, attitudes and whole range of views were far more in tune with Northern thinking than that of the South. He had never expected to return to the Deep South, other than on visits.
After Harvard, he had worked in an art gallery in Boston for a year or so, before moving to New York to join an eminent firm of artwork auctioneers. With the inheritance, he gained when granny O'Rourke, Florence's mother, had died ten years ago, he set up his own gallery on Madison Avenue right in the centre of Manhattan. Whilst it had enjoyed only varying levels of modest financial success, it had been absolutely fantastic as an entrance to, and a way of maintaining a position in, New York's social scene.
So, as Amanda and Samuel had been in London, Adam was in New York, right at the heart of the heart of the trendy, sophisticated, artistic and creative set.
He had studied at Harvard for four years from when he was twenty-two. Florence and granny O'Rourke had paid his fees, his father thinking that most education, other than business related subjects, was a waste of time and learning about art and history was totally pointless.
Adam loved the student way of life. The whole idea of education purely for enjoyment and for learning's sake appealed to his intellectual and creative philosophy. The partying, drinking and mild drug taking played to his hedonistic aspirations and the reasonably ready supply of sex satisfied the constant needs of his flesh.
It was at Harvard that he met Guy, a French Canadian also studying fine art. They got on well, they helped each other with their studies and partied together. They became almost inseparable and a force to be reckoned with by the increasing number of female students at the nearby Lasiter University for ladies. They went whoring together in downtown Boston in the area that later became known as the 'combat zone' and to the many opium dens around Quincy Market and the harbour.
They also had sex together!
It had been accidental. Neither had experienced gay sex before. Neither had really thought about it; it just didn't register with either of them that they would be attracted to another man. And in a way they weren't. It was the buzz, the turn on, the thrill, the adventure, the taboo and experiencing the forbidden that attracted them.
They were in Guy's apartment. They were discussing whether to go and smoke some opium or visit a nearby, upscale brothel.
"It's very cold outside, I think it might even snow." Guy said.
"Shall we stay in then?" Adam asked.
"Yes, shall we?"
"Why not, we've got some booze left." Adam said brightly, for they had been drinking brandy most of the afternoon. They were both slightly drunk.
"No dope though." Guy said gloomily.
"Or women." Adam commented.
"I'm getting fed up with whores, even those at the Craven," Guy responded, referring to the brothel they had thought of visiting.
"I know what you mean," Adam replied, walking over to where Guy was sitting on the floor in front of the blazing fire and poured more brandy into his friend's glass. He stood there in his tight, white breeches, no boots or socks and his lacy, white shirt undone almost all the way down the front, looking down at his similarly dressed friend. "They rarely turn out to be as good as they look," he added, loving the warmth from the fire on his thighs and stomach.
"No, but then I can't be bothered chasing the Lasiter bitches who lead you on then won't get their drawers off for you," Guy sneered.
Adam nodded as he slid down beside his friend on the floor, feeling an unexpected thrill as their legs touched. "Fucking women," he muttered, sipping his brandy and not moving away even though their hips were now also pressed together. He was well aware that he'd instigated the physical contact, but wasn't sure why. The trembling he felt inside also told him that Guy had made no effort to move away.
Instead, he laughed. "That used to be my hobby."
"What did?"
"Fucking women of course," Guy told him, flashing his eyes across at his friend. He and Adam often had this sort of cosy chat, but not with any physical contact between them.
"Who needs 'em?" Adam slurred, reaching up and pushing away the thick lock of black hair that continually fell over his eyes.
"Not us, mon ami," Guy said, casually resting his hand on his friend's leg, midway between his knee and groin. He hadn't meant to, had he? It was as if some sort of external force controlled it.
Adam shivered. It was as though a hot poker had been placed on his thigh. His whole body was tingling at the contact. Did Guy feel the same? Was his friend's cock twitching and starting to lengthen, just like his own? What the hell was happening?