Victoria's Demon Lover - By Alia Bess Page 0,43

to her ankles and a thick useful apron tied over the front of it. And no wonder. At her feet was a wicker basket filled with wet linens. It must be laundry day. She bent to pick it up and was surprised at how heavy it was. Natural fabrics were much heavier than cotton or polyester. There would be no silk here. At least not on the body of a blacksmith’s wife.

She did not have to be told where the clotheslines were. They were strung between trees on the south side of the cottage. She carried her basket there and bent to lift and hang the sheets. Her hair fell forward and she saw it was very dark. I must be Maggie, then, and not Victoria. She straightened and pulled the long braid out from behind her and looked at it with interest. She lifted her skirt and lifted a leg to look at her foot. She was wearing a soft leather shoe and thick knitted stockings. She heard the clang of metal and turned. The forge was on the north side of the cottage. She grinned and trotted around the house to see him. Finally. Jack.

There he was. He had two young men with him. They had to be assistants. Only a master could have apprentices. He was still a journeyman. She watched him raise the hammer and bring it down on something. Horseshoes, probably. He didn’t look up. Of course not, she told herself. He sees me every day. She tried not to look as excited as she felt. Another clang and another. An assistant carried fresh water in a wooden bucket and poured it into the barrel where he quenched the metal.

He lifted the horseshoes with the long tongs and submerged it quickly into the water. He held it there a minute as a bit of steam drifted up, then lifted the horseshoe and eyed it carefully before handing the tongs to the assistant. He turned back to the forge and nodded to the other man who used the bellows to make the coals glow.

Victoria felt she could watch him work forever. He was stripped to the waist. His back and shoulders moved constantly, the thick muscles under his bronzed skin relaxed and contracted as he lifted the heavy hammer and brought it down. He glistened with the sweat of exertion and with the heat of the forge. She squirmed. She wondered why she had been forbidden to come to Shrewsbury. She was starting to feel an excited twinge that her brain told her was happiness. Maggie had a nice life. This was nice.

Maybe the laundry basket and what it implied was not so nice. She might miss electricity and washing machines and hot showers and movies, but she was willing to trade them for Jack. She was his wife. They were a team.

She wondered if she was responsible for feeding his men. She glanced at the sun. It was mid-morning. There didn’t seem to be any sounds coming from inside the cottage. He had assistants but it appeared she did not.

Reluctantly she turned from the forge and went into the dim cottage to get her bearings. Something was already simmering in the big iron pot suspended over the fire. The bed had been neatly made against one wall. A long table dominated the center of the room. Benches were pushed neatly under it, though the table was full of many items. She could see a sewing basket, various pieces of crockery, some broken leather harness needing buckles, and a stack of folded cloth which reminded her that it was laundry day.

She returned to the south side of the house and finished hanging the sheets on the ropes. She breathed in the clean air, free from industrial pollution, though she didn’t need to turn her head to know where the barn was. The sky was clear and the sun was warm. She bent to pick up a pillowcase and wondered how laundry was dried when the weather was bad. I will learn, she told herself as she stretched to hang it over the rope.

“You can’t stay here.”

She looked down. Jasper had a sad face.

“You have to go,” he repeated.

“I will not.” Victoria was firm. “I know what I am doing.”

“No, you don’t.” Jasper glanced over his shoulder.

“I don’t want to go back. Ever.” She certainly wasn’t going to go back before the end of the day. She imagined the assistants leaving to go to their homes at