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T he carriage pulled up and the driver loaded Silas’s case and his bags and boxes onto the back. Silas joined Ezra inside the carriage, sitting close on the tufted seat. “I am very glad you are joining me,” Ezra said. “The house has always been a lonely place to me, as Rebecca and I crept around, careful to stay away from each other. I believe things will change with you installed there.”

Silas relished the feel of Ezra’s thigh close to his own, and leaned back. All the cares of the past weeks seemed to fly past the carriage windows, even though he knew this was merely a brief enchanted moment before the storm clouds continued to gather.

Ezra’s house was two stories of golden stone, with a bow window on the ground level and two windows above with white shutters. A small gate opened onto a tiny courtyard, with steps down to a basement level and a half-dozen steps up to the front door. Though Silas knew something of what to expect, he was still awed. It was nicer than anywhere he had ever lived, even back in Sheffield with his family.

It was not fancy by the standards of men like Pemberton, but it was a whole house like that occupied by Magnus and Toby. It was not an elegant neighborhood but not an impoverished one either. The carriage driver carried everything into the courtyard, and then Ezra paid him and he drove off.

“What do you think?” Ezra asked.

“It’s marvelous,” Silas said.

Ezra laughed. “Not quite. But it is pleasant. Let us get everything inside.”

He hefted the heaviest box on his shoulder and walked up to the front door. He touched his fingers to a rectangular plaque beside the door and then kissed them, and then unlocked the door and walked inside.

Silas followed, carrying his suitcase and a pair of bags, though he stopped for a moment to look at the plaque Ezra had kissed with his fingers. It was made of brass, with writing in a foreign alphabet and a glass cylinder attached. It appeared to have a tiny scroll inside the cylinder.

“That is our mezuzah,” Ezra said, returned to where Silas had stopped. “It is a commandment from God that we bless our home by placing prayers written on that scroll at our doorpost. We kiss it with our fingers on our coming and going, to bless our lives and our home.”

“May I?” Silas asked.

“Of course. This is to be your home, too.”

Silas mimicked Ezra’s action, touching the plaque with his fingers and then kissing them. He smiled and followed Ezra inside.

The interior of the house was simple—a bare wooden floor, a sitting room to the right and a stair to the upper level in front of him. He set his bags down and Ezra went back outside to fetch the rest.

They left everything in the sitting room and Ezra gave him a quick tour – a dining room that led to a kitchen, and an indoor toilet compartment beside it. “The height of luxury!” Ezra said. “No trekking outside in the middle of the night to relieve yourself!”

They carried Silas’s clothes upstairs, to where there were three bedrooms. Ezra opened the first door and said, “This is my room.”

It was larger than Silas’s room at Bryanston Mews. Ornate plaster swags hung over tall windows that looked out to a garden, and had long drapes gathered at the center. A worn Oriental rug covered most of the wooden floor. But the centerpiece to the room was a large four-poster bed, covered with a spread in a floral pattern. Two large pillows were at the head.

Silas stared at the room. Did Ezra expect him to share such a luxurious space?

“You can stow your things in the chest of drawers. Most of what I own needs to be hung up.”

Silas began unpacking his case and placing his clothing in the drawers as Ezra watched. He barely took up two of the drawers before he was finished.

“This is all you have?” Ezra asked.

Silas shrugged. “It is all I ever needed.”

“I must have my clothing custom tailored to fit my body,” Ezra said. He opened the armoire to show off the rows of shirts, trousers, and jackets, all neatly hung. “And my tailor is always interested in new business, so he encourages me.”

Silas shook his head to see the row of suits in different fabrics. “And I considered myself a peacock with a few brightly colored shirts and scarves.”

Ezra smiled. “I shall have to see to it that you get some new feathers, my peacock. And now let me show you the rest of the house.”

He opened a door across the hall from his room. It held a narrow single bed, an armoire with the doors hung open, and a table with a ewer and bowl. It showed signs of a hurried departure in the irregular patches of dust on the floor.

“Rebecca slept in here,” Ezra said, standing in the open doorway. “It was easy to justify to others because the way we were both raised, a man could not touch his wife while she was in her time. And since I did not want to have sex with her, I was happy to let her be on her own.”

Silas marveled at the ability to own a home with separate bedrooms for husband and wife. When he was a boy, his family lived in one room for a while. His parents had the bed, and he and his sister slept on pallets on the floor.

There was one more small room on that floor, which they had set aside for visiting family. “I am thinking with Rebecca gone no one will come to visit,” Ezra said. “I might make this up into an exercise room for myself, so that I don’t have to go out to the gym when it is cold or wet.”

He sighed. “Or if I am no longer welcome where I have gone.” Then he smiled at Silas. “Let us check the kitchen and see if Rebecca left anything behind we could eat for supper.”

There was bread and cheese and a container of marinated mushrooms, and Ezra opened a bottle of wine. He poured out two glasses. “At least tonight I do not have to worry about getting you home if you drink too much.” He raised his glass to Silas, and they clinked them together. “L’chaim,” Ezra said. “That is a toast among out people. To life. To our life, together.”

Silas felt like his heart might burst with happiness. They ate, and talked, both of them avoiding any conversation about the charges still looming against Ezra, or what the future might hold. Instead they spoke about places in France Ezra loved, where he hoped to take Silas one day. Silas talked about Sheffield.

“Do you think you will ever speak with your family again?” Ezra asked.

Silas shrugged. “I doubt it, while my father still lives. I have been in contact with an aunt, to let her know that I am safe in London, and I recently posted her a letter about my promotion to head clerk. She has been kind in response, though never mentioning anything about my parents or my sister.”

Silas yawned, and Ezra followed a moment later. “It has been a long day,” Ezra said. He led them back to the large room. “I will wash up for bed.”

He began stripping off his clothes, and tossing them onto a counter where Silas presumed the maid picked them up to be washed. He watched in awe as each garment that was removed revealed a new and magnificent set of muscles.

“Are you only watching?” Ezra said. “Don’t you need to get ready for sleep?”

“For now I am enjoying the view,” Silas said. But in truth he was still terrified of the speed with which his life had changed. Without a thought, he had committed himself to this one man, one cock, one arse. For the rest of his life?

His heart beat more rapidly. No, he could not think of it that way. He cared about Ezra and was excited by their sexual congress, and Ezra needed his support in this difficult time. If things changed between them, he could always leave.

He laughed to himself. And return to squalid rooms, after being spoiled in this manner? He would have to become a barrister himself to be able to afford anything comparable.

No, he would be Ezra’s kept man, at least for a while. Raoul had accustomed himself to living at John’s teat without problems.

Silas’s attention returned to Ezra, as his lover pulled off his undershirt and the marvel of his chest was on display. But he didn’t stop there. He kicked off his shoes and removed his socks, and then quickly dropped his trousers and his undershorts.

Silas was open-mouthed as Ezra took the washcloth and soap and began to clean himself. “There is a tub downstairs, but it requires the maid to fill it. So I do this every night before bed,” Ezra said. “My father taught me this long ago, when we could not afford to wash our sheets very often, and the habit has stayed with me.”

When he finished, his skin glistening with water droplets, he held the washcloth out to Silas. “And you?”

Silas only washed his whole body once a week, if that much, but he followed Ezra’s lead. The soap had a faint lavender scent, and while at first he was self-conscious about exposing his body to Ezra, when it was lacking in so many ways, but he found he enjoyed the ritual and focused on it.

Ezra climbed into bed, and motioned Silas to join him. Then he extinguished the candle and the room was filled with a milky darkness, only a tiny bit of light from the night sky. They turned to each other and kissed, and then Ezra settled quickly into sleep.

Silas sat up for a few minutes, wondering at the way his life had changed in a single day. Ezra had swept in and assumed that Silas would want to leave his dismal room and join him in such luxury. If he’d had the chance to think about it, would he have agreed so quickly, and without discussion?

He didn’t even know if Ezra had household staff. Would a maid come in and disturb their sleep early in the morning? He wasn’t sure what Ezra did all week, between his bouts. Exercise? Sparring?

The thoughts crowded his mind until he, too, was overcome by sleep.

The next morning, Silas woke in confusion. Where was he? It took him a moment to realize that he was in Ezra’s bed, in Ezra’s house. In all his time in London, he had never slept in a bed other than his own. He had had many lovers, and brought many of them back to his room, but he had never gone to another man’s house or slept in his bed.

Until now.

He turned on his side to see Ezra still asleep beside him. One muscular arm had snaked out over the bedspread, and Silas stared fondly at the face of his lover. Once again, he thought that Ezra was not classically handsome—his nose was too large, his jaw too narrow. And yet the sight of that face filled him with warmth. Was this to be his life, waking each morning beside this man?

It pleased him to think so. But he knew they had many obstacles to overcome. He needed to be sure that he could be satisfied with one man’s body beside him and not lust for every handsome figure he saw. That he could be sure Ezra would not reject him the way his own father had.

And there was the question of his independence, as he had discussed with Raoul. Could he give up his work with Pemberton, just as he had been promoted, to travel the continent as Raoul’s kept man? Could they negotiate any agreement between them that they could sleep with other men when they were apart, yet come back together again?

The complications were endless. He had to empty his bladder, and when he reached for the chamber pot he realized that there was a toilet compartment downstairs, as Ezra had shown him the night before.

He crept quietly down the stairs, worrying that he might disturb some household staff and have to defend his position. But all was quiet.

He marveled at the warmth of the house, so much more comfortable than the unreliable heater at Bryanston Mews. That he didn’t have to trek out into the wintry cold to use the privy. Surely this was a life he could get used to quickly.

When he returned from the toilet, Ezra was awake. “What time is it?” he asked.

“A little after seven,” Silas said.

“Come back to bed, then. We are still celebrating.”

“We will have the whole weekend for that,” Silas said. “I must dress and find my way from here to the Inns of Court. And then work.”

Ezra pulled the covers back and grabbed his stiff cock, and waggled it. “Can you not work here first?”

“Will you be a demanding taskmaster?” Silas asked with a smile. But he moved over to the side of the bed, and got onto his knees so that Ezra could push his cock into Silas’s mouth.

“This is the first time I have had sex in this bed,” Ezra said. “I like it. And you make the wait worthwhile.”

Silas’s heart soared as he sucked and stroked Ezra’s cock. Ezra ruffled his hair and the feel of his hand, and his cock, was enough to cause Silas to spend right after Ezra did.

Ezra smiled. “I am glad that fate brought you to me, Silas Warner. And now I will go back to sleep, and see if I dream of you.”

Silas washed himself, dressed, and walked in the direction of the Thames, using his internal compass to find his way to the Inns of Court. It took a longer to walk there than it had from Bryanston Mews, but it didn’t matter. It gave him more time to think about what the future might hold.