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“I don’t want to risk it. Everyone knows we come to this party. You know about our neighbor and how nosey she is… If she sees us or notices a light on, she might call the police.”

“Okay. You’re sure we can go now?”

“I’m sure,” Cheryl replied with a smile. “Come on,” she added and nodded toward the door that led out of the main lodge room.

They hurried by the smaller rooms – one where men were sitting around, smoking cigars or pipes, one with all the food, and the main lobby area – before they finally made it outside and into the cool, night air.

“Through the back lot,” Cheryl reminded.

They turned left and then left again at the edge of thebuilding. A few people were outside, milling about, but no one paid them any mind. Then, they were in the darkness, hidden by it, so Diana took Cheryl’s hand and entwined their fingers as they walked on.

“I had an idea,” Cheryl said once they were far enough away so as not to be heard.

“What’s that?”

“Well, you know… We’ve been waiting,” she said.

Diana’s eyes went wide, and she swallowed.

“But we stopped last time because we heard someone, not because we wanted to stop.”

“I know,” Diana replied, recalling the time when she’d been about to unbutton Cheryl’s shirt but stopped because she heard someone in a nearby backyard. “I remember.”

“I’m ready, Diana,” Cheryl professed. “If you are, too, maybe we can have our first time tonight.”

“You really want to? Tonight?”

“Yes,” Cheryl confirmed. “I know we’ve talked about just waiting until we’re both out of our parents’ houses – and we can, if you want; we can wait until June when I’m working at the paper and you’re in school – but that seems so far away. Six months… And we’ve been together for three already. I don’t want to keep waiting.”

“Cheryl, I love you,” Diana said. “I don’t want to keep waiting, either. But I also don’t want to do this just because it’s been three months. I’m not Richard or one of the other boys in school.”

“I know that.” Cheryl chuckled as they made their way into the grass. “And it’s not because of that. It’s that I don’t want to wait another month or two or six. Diana, I want to touch you.”

They arrived at the row of shrubs, and before Diana could process hearing Cheryl say those words, Cheryl walked through and into the field, pulling Diana along with her.

“I brought a few things, mostly things I could sneak out without being noticed, but there’s the picnic basket with some food in it, if you’re hungry. I also managed to pour a little winefrom an open bottle my parents had on Christmas to ring in the new year with you. There are several blankets, so we can lie down, cover up, and keep warm,” Cheryl rambled in that way that she did when she was nervous.

“Do you know that today I had a vision of their first time?”

“Who?”

“Bess and Elizabeth. They were teenagers, just like us, when it happened.”

“Theywere?”

“And yesterday, I got a flash of Isabella and Maria. Their first time together, specifically.”

“You did?”

Diana took a few steps toward Cheryl and held out her hands. Cheryl took them and looked down.

“She was a princess, and Isabella was her servant.”

“I asked Mrs.Buckingham about her last week, and she told me Princess Maria was a minor Spanish princess who no one remembers. She even had to look her up in one of her books to figure out who I was talking about,” Cheryl said of the school’s librarian. “She asked me why I wanted to know, so I told her I was thinking about writing a history paper on her. You were an actual princess, my beautiful Diana.” She cupped Diana’s cheek. “And I was your servant.”

“I know,” she said, still not believing it. “When they made love for the first time, they thought they’d never get to do it again. Maria was supposed to be married but was able to go to a convent instead. She wouldn’t marry a man, and her father had tried to marry her off a few times already, using her to make deals with other countries.” Diana shook her head.

“You’ve seen them a lot, then? I didn’t know any of this.”