The Training of Rose Ch. 04

"Lord Cumberland, Oi understand that you feel responsible for me. There be no need ta be feelin' that way. If you needs me to go to yer fancy house and play Liedy, then I will do that, but only for tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow noight I be back 'ere working."

Nodding his head he gets up from the chair, walks over to Christopher, hands him a bag of coins and gently taking her arm in his guides her out to where Mari is already in the carriage. When Rose gets in the carriage, Mari leans over and hugs her. "I am glad that you came."

* * * *

When they arrive at Lord Cumberland's house, he gets out first and helps Mari out. When he reaches back in for Rose she hesitates. "Rose?"

"Sir, please tell me one thing before I go in." He is happy to hear that she has dropped that dreadful accent.

"Anything."

"Are you going to use me tonight?"

"Rose! No! I brought you here so that you could get away from everything tonight."

Looking up at the outside of this very high society house she knows that she doesn't belong here, but she is looking at seeing how he lives when he is not in the country initiating women into anal fucking. As she steps out of the carriage and walks into the grand entryway she looks around and is surprised to find that Mari is nowhere to be seen. A staircase goes up to the second floor, but Lord Cumberland gently guides Rose into a room a little further down the hall.

Once they get inside, the tension that Rose felt growing in the carriage snaps and without thinking they end up in each other's arms kissing wildly. Suddenly Lord Cumberland breaks away. "Rose, I brought you in here because we need to talk."

"I don't want to talk, and I know that you don't either." Reaching down, she caresses his manhood through his trousers and she can feel that it is as hard a rock. "I know that you want to get me on my back, or should I say my front, so that you can fuck me hard." With a groan Lord Cumberland gently moves her hand away and takes a step back.

"Rose, yes, I will not lie to you. I would love to bury myself in your body right now, but I am not going to. You are no longer going to be a whore that has to walk the streets to find a partner. Neither will you be working in a tavern anymore. You will stay with me."

"Milord!"

"Please, Rose, please call me by my name. My name is Jeremy."

"Jeremy?"

"Yes. Please call me that. I would greatly appreciate it."

Looking down at her work worn hands and skeletal thin wrists she comes to the conclusion that once again he feels sorry for her. "Sir."

"Jeremy."

"Jeremy, please, you do not have to feel sorry for me. I know what I have become and I know that you could never introduce me as a lady like Mari. She is beautiful. I am just common." Slowly she walks over to a table that has a beautiful oil lamp on it. "Sire, no one ever thought me good enough to expend any time with. Not my family; that is why they hid me away in the convent. Not the nuns at the convent; they treated me like a servant because I had to earn my keep there. My family quit paying the fees two years after they left me there. The Mother Superior actually told me one time after I had accidentally slipped and dropped her meal that I would be better suited for life on the streets than as a nun. I was to loud, to boisterous, and my eyes inevitably followed the young priests that came monthly to lead us in worship. I was examined after the priests would leave every month to find out if I was still a virgin because if I wasn't, they would be able to send me out in disgrace." Not looking at Jeremy, Rose walks over to the window and looks out into the darkness. "When you found me, I knew that a storm was coming, and I purposely went out in it. I thought that if I died in the woods, no one would find me and no one would remember me."

Jeremy looks flabbergasted. How could anyone be treated the way that Rose has been all her life? It almost would have been better if she wouldn't have been sent to the convent at all, then she might still have some semblance of self-esteem left.

Knowing that if he were to touch her now she would completely break apart, he stays where he is. "Rose, I, for one, am very glad that you ended up on my doorstep." How much to tell her? "For the last six months, since you left me, I have searched for you. Today, on the docks, I was there. I saw the interaction between you and the sailor, but I was not sure it was you until Mari came and told me that she had found you. When I saw you in the tavern, my heart broke for you. I had promised to help you set up your house as a house of pleasure and then I didn't fulfill my obligation. If you would still like to, I will help you, and you will not have to earn one farthing working on your back. You have earned the right to be what you want to be."

"Jeremy, I have been back to my house a few times in the last months. I know what it is like. It needs a lot of work done to it to make it useable."

"That is not a problem. If that is what you still want to do, then I will help you as I said I would. There are, however, other options." Suddenly he notices that she seems to sag against the wall. "We will discuss them all in the morning. Tonight, I want you to go to bed and sleep until you wake up. There will be no one pounding on your door in the morning, and you need to sleep."

"Won't you be there in the morning?"

"I will be there only to bring you breakfast or lunch, whichever you wake up for."

"Sir, I want you to use me. I want you to slide your manhood up into me and pound it into me until I scream. It has been way to long since I have had a man."

"Not tonight, Rose."

Again she sighs. "I know that I am no longer easy to look at. The gentleman in the carriage that brought me to London made sure of that before he threw me out of his moving carriage when I said no to working for him. There was so much blood I didn't know if I was going to survive." She grimaces. "Unfortunately I have a nasty habit of surviving. Even when Sire Christopher found me, I was hoping that I wouldn't make it then, but, as you can see, I survived that nightmare too."

"Rose, you are still beautiful in my eyes."

"Then you are blind."

"I want you to stay with me. I want to be able to make love to you, not just have sex. Rose, when you were at the mansion, I was the most content as I have ever been. If you were to ask anyone who knows me they would all tell you that I am not a content man, but with you around, you ground me."

"What do you mean that I ground you?"

"Rose, I set up that auction as an excuse to take your virginity. I knew that I would not allow any other man to have you, but I wanted to show you how much you were worth to me. You are priceless. I bid three times the highest bid just to make sure that I would be the one to break your maidenhead. I knew those other men would not be easy or gentle with you and I could not let them have you. That is also why I paid Mari and the others an extra amount to come all the way out to my estate."

"Sire, you don't have to say that, you know. I know exactly what I am worth, and it is far from priceless. I can't even get one night out you without you trying to tell me that you want to make love to me, but not have sex. How? I know that is just something that men say when they do not want to get with a woman." Suddenly she seems to sag against the wall a little bit and Lord Cumberland is right there to catch her.

Carrying her out of the room and up the stairs he encounters Mari in the hall. With just one look at the two of them Mari knows that Jeremy is off the market, unless Rose takes off again. Jeremy motions to Mari to follow them and goes to the room next to his own, slowly opens the door and brings Rose inside to lay her down on the soft bed.

"Mari, can you please help me? She needs help, and I am not sure that she will accept it from me."

"Milord, I will do what I can. Now, though, why don't you go and see if your housekeeper has any broth that we can give to her. We may have to have a doctor come and tell us if there is any damage to her that will not be able to heal -- I have heard of instances like that -- and then we can make plans as to her care." Going to a chest of drawers Mari pulls out a nightgown that she knew would be in there. "While you see about the broth, I will get her tucked in." As soon as Jeremy leaves the room, Mari looks down at the woman laying there.

"Rose, I am not sure if you can hear me or not, Honey, but I am just going to talk to you as if you can hear me. I need to tell you that before Jeremy found me I was a mess. My family had just been killed, and I had been used by the gang that killed my family. Jeremy heard me crying as he went past on the road, but he stopped and found out what was going on. He bought me. He paid the guys off for me and took me in." Mari is not sure how much of this Rose is hearing, but she has to let this girl know that Jeremy is not the monster that she obviously thinks he is.

A sound at the door has her going over to it. When she opens it she has to bite back a laugh. Jeremy is standing there with a tray, and on it is a bowl and a small vase with a single pink rose in it. He was trying to balance the tray and open the door, but not doing a very good job of it. Quickly Mari reaches for the tray and they both walk back to the bed.

"Has she moved?"

"Not yet. Sit beside her and get her propped up so that we can try to get some of this broth into her." Instead of sitting beside her though, he props Rose up and sits behind her with her between his legs so she can rest back against his chest. When he feels her sigh and snuggle in to him he places his arms around her and just holds her close.

"Just leave the broth. I'll see what I can do tonight. Go and get your sleep. I think we may have a fight on our hands when she wakes up, so we should probably be at our best."

"Jeremy..."

"I'll stay with her. I should never have let her go in the first place."

Placing the broth by her bedside, Mari leans over and gives Rose a light kiss on the cheek. "Get well soon, Little Sister. We are all pulling for you." With one more look at Lord Cumberland Mari walks out of the door.