Chapter Forty-Four
GRIETE HOUSE, ANTWERP, 1630
She woke with the pale light of dawn already seeping through the gaps in the bed drapes. It took her a moment to remember what had happened … and then many more to make sense of how it had. There had been no decision. No moment when they could have halted it. Whatever it was … they had been of one mind. Clothing had somehow been shed but she had no memory of how this had been accomplished. Her only awareness had been the heat of his hands and mouth on her body and of hers on his. The sense of shared desperation.
She knew he had spoken, asking had she done this before, and then to warn her of it but could not recall the words he used. And he had hurt her for an agonising moment followed by the rush of him filling her. The sudden ease of taki
