A/N - This one shot is set in the 1920's
**
She couldn't remember a time before Summergrove Place.
A time before him.
Her days simply melted into one another, passing by in a haze of solitude and loneliness. But now as Lucille looked at the man who slept peacefully beside her - chest rising and falling, even she knew that heaven could not last forever.
They were worlds apart - he was the lowly gamekeeper, the one who her husband trusted to keep things around the estate in order, and she?
She was the mistress of Summergrove.
The lady of the manor.
But although treated like it as such by others, her husband did not - instead choosing to have her sister warm his bed of a night, something that Lucille had been unaware of until just months after their marriage when she'd caught them together.
In their bed...
Steve wasn't like Clyde. He didn't neglect her in the ways her husband did. He gave her attention, affection, the passion she'd longed and hoped that marriage would bring.
And it was a dangerous game.
Word of this got out and the Morley name would be a laughing stock. She could have nothing.
What is more, her punishment would be that Clyde would never allow her to leave, and instead would rub it in her face that her sister was a better lover than she was. Her sister was widowed and he'd wanted someone untouched at marriage - hence why Lucille had been his choice. She possessed more elegance and manner of a Lady than her sister Virginia had.
It was Clyde that had driven her to this level of desperation.
To be loved.
To be wanted.
"Luci". Steve was now looking across at her. "You should go before mom gets back".
Yes. His mother.
Mrs Rogers was their housekeeper and would probably have a fair few words to say should she find her here. The home in the grounds of the estate that they shared. It wasn't much, but it was enough. Mrs Rogers was always kind to her. She and Steve had come over some years ago, when he was a child, on a crossing from America and hoping to start a new life in England. It had been Clyde's father who had given her the position and Steve his once he was old enough.
The man had been kinder than his son for sure.
"I know..." She said quietly and sat up, slipping on her undergarments and then her dress over the top.
He watched her from the bed as she dressed. Taking in her body as much as he could before she had to return to her world that was waiting for her back at the manor.
"Will I see you tomorrow?" He asked.
She turned and smiled. "Is that even a question?"
"I don't know - you might decide to just push me aside..."
She snorted, "For who? Clyde? Because he sure as hell isn't going to wake up tomorrow and decide he wants to actually treat me like his wife?"
Steve shrugged. "What's to say that he won't? He's the Lord of the estate, he can do what he wants".
"And as his wife so can I". She grinned and leant down, kissing him gently. "And I choose to be with you".
He smiled up at her tiredly. "I wish it could be easier, I'd take you away from here and to Brooklyn where no one can find us".
"You wouldn't leave your mother here". She chuckled.
"No, but that's of her choosing. Luci - if I could run away with you tomorrow then I would, even if I don't exactly have much to offer".
"I don't need you to offer me anything - I just want you". She smiled, kissing him hard one last time and then making for the door, opening it and then turning to look back at him. "I'll see you tomorrow afternoon".
And then she was gone, Steve now becoming used to her being there and then not in the blink of an eye and talking to the spot where she had stood just moments before.
"See you tomorrow...my lady...."