Lucy Absolute heard the hall door slam and rose from her chair into the sunlight by the window, as she had half a dozen times already that afternoon. He would see her first backlit by fire, her golden hair aflame. She would draw him dazzled into the light to dazzle him further with the eyes he had so praised in verse. His would then drop, drawn to her breasts. Like every other man, she thought. How he had enjoyed them, with almost a child’s wonder, when first he’d gained admittance. She’d had to teach him much, she the elder by four years. He had been an apt student.
Footfalls upon the stair. Placing her hands under her bosom, she lifted and compressed. She was wearing the new dress she’d borrowed from the playhouse, a countess’s castoffs acquired by Davenant, for the nobles who attended
