James and Eleanor Pt. 01: Release

A confusing cocktail of pain, exhilaration, profound love and admiration for James and an as yet unlabelled, primitive sensation that went to the very core of her feminine identity swirled around in her mind and it was quite some time before she became aware of the towel placed caringly under her head by loving hands and of the delicate attention those same hands were now giving to the four emblems of her release, as cooling gel was spread lightly over them, causing her to wince.

She felt the flap of her night dress being lowered with exquisite care and then the firm and trustworthy grip of James' hand as he helped her slowly and unsteadily to her feet, before guiding her to lie face down on top of the bed. James left the room for a moment and returned with the tray and placed it on the table at his side of the bed. He stepped out of his slacks, hung them up, then peeled his T-shirt off and dropped it into the laundry basket before climbing onto the bed and lying close alongside the woman for whom he ached with every dimension of his personality.

He looked at her with the deepest tenderness, dabbed her eyelids and cheeks with the lightest of touches and then leaned forward to kiss her softly on the moistness of her rich and full lips. She closed her eyes again and enveloped him in her arms. The tears continued to flow, but these were mixed tears of pain, of joy, of penitence and of release.

Outside, the evening sunshine cast its warm beams into the bedroom as the rooks' final raucous calls died away and an atmosphere of peace settled over the house. A tortoiseshell butterfly landed on an ivy leaf outside the window and spread its colourful wings to soak up the residual warmth of the day.