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She returned his eagerness, fuered, they caether He’d never felt so desperate She was incredible He ran his hands up and down her length, lifted her skirt

She was bare beneath the white dress The feel of her naked skin was incredibly erotic His erection surged painfully against the cup of her hand

He fell back, and she was on top of hi her

He closed his eyes as the urgency of their passion rode with them

Later, as he held her, he wondered how he had survived the days without her

London Fall, 1888

Having recently arrived in London, the A in an apartment at St Ja doctor and his wife, Peter and Laura Austin

They were charpassed, she and Laura became the best of friends She told Laura about her ancestral hoo fashion until returning to New Orleans to take over the reins of the fa the American Civil War because of the death of a close friend, and an had been to New York City and Chicago and even San Francisco, but she‘d not yet been back to her faone now, she would soon return to the States for good

Laura, in turn, told Megan about her own life Peter had been born to a wealthy and aristocratic fahter of a poor church rector She had grown up without rown up withmet Laura while he tended to her father on his deathbed, Peter had opted for love

A friend as traveling on the Continent had given the St James’s Place apartments to the Austins for their use for the next three years, so, despite their apparent affluence, they were poor as churchmice " Peter is an excellent doctor, but he is even a hed "He is desperately determined to help those who are so terribly down and out in the wretched slu must be done, there’s such terrible poverty, especially in the East End" Megan’s heart ireat deal War, poverty, sufferingbut in the rigid society of Victorian England, she saw a sadness unlike anything she had ever seen before

Laura often accompanied her husband on his charitable trips into the tawdry filth of the East End But coan insisted on taking over for her friend "Ask Peter! The place is ripe with infestations and disease Laura, for your health, for the baby, youPeter

In the East End she found a pathetic horror unlike anything she had seen in America or France or anywhere else she had traveled Not that she had been blind to poverty and suffering before, but here, mothers with children slept ten and twelve to a tiny, rat-infested rooe was cast to the streets, and women turned desperately to prostitution for the few pence needed just to have a room in a doss, or flophouse, off the street

Men and woh drink stole the in was coes off the et, if just for a spell, that they lived with no hope

Peter was a saint, Megan deter the days, and he worked all hours of the night, leaving the apartment quite late someti mothers of the East End He tended to the hts, the battered woiving the naht need domestic help to ato find a way toand toys which were left at his apart patients who knew about his double life

Laura’s pregnancy was a difficult one Peter started spending more time at home, but that merely served to upset Laura Peter an prolad to be busy

One night in theat a pub table with Peter, talking "For meI aift to heal, I believe I feel I an, you ‘re rich and beautiful and young! You need to find a life with a good man ill love you You will not find such a man here" She smiled "I’ve been in love"

"And?"

"He died," she said softly

"There will be another--"

"No, never He can never coain"

"Ah, but perhaps--"

"I’ve no desire to be in love, thank you I’m older than you, trust me I know my own mind, and I’m happy to ith you, and to help Laura--"

He lowered his head And he broke down and cried He was so worried about Laura Megan tried to soothe and assure hiot control of hiized "And here I’ve got you drinking with a man in such a mean establishment! You say you don’t want to find a proper man, but I shall ruin your reputation, nonetheless"