They were two sides of the same coin, buckle and strap, hand in glove, fitting perfectly together.They moved together, their ragged breathing filling the waggon, until Solomon was spending inside him.
“Your hand… touch me,” Jed got out, and it took scarcely more than the brush of Solomon’s fingers before he too was spending, pleasure surging through him.
They lay slumped together afterwards, gasping for breath.
“Christ, that was good,” Jed said at last, with feeling.
Solomon laughed softly.He turned his head towards Jed, seeking him in the shadows, and Jed pressed a kiss to his lips.
Next morning, Solomon sucked him off, hard and fast, encouraging Jed to fuck his mouth.Afterwards, they lay panting on their backs, shoulders pressed together.It was still dark outside, and the cock had not yet crowed.
Jed’s entire body felt wrung out.“Christ, you’re good at that.”
“I’ve had a deal of practice.”There was a hint of amusement in Solomon’s voice.
“The delights of London, City of Vice?”
Solomon hummed in agreement.When he spoke, he sounded thoughtful.“When I was a boy, I heard a lot about the evils of man’s carnal nature.When I… left home and came to London, I think I felt I had a lot of catching up to do.”He turned his head to meet Jed’s eye and winked.“London is a monstrous fine place for a young man looking to meet new friends.”
Jed turned onto his side and put one arm over Solomon’s chest to feel him warm and solid under the palm of his hand, to soak up the pleasure of being so close.A long list of tasks awaited them when the sun rose, but for now they could just lie here together.
In the distant stables, a horse neighed.A glimmer of dawn was creeping around the canvas doors of the waggon.Jed tilted his head back, examining Solomon thoughtfully by that pale light.In some ways, Solomon was almost a different person in bed: more open, readier to share his desires in a way he didn’t share anything else.
“If you want something, you’ll tell me, won’t you?”Jed said impulsively.
“Of course.”He sounded puzzled.
“It’s just… Sometimes I think you have a tendency to… think too much of what other people want.”
Solomon gave him an odd look.“I assure you, I wholeheartedly enjoyed everything we just did.And last night.And the times before that.”
“I know.I just… I didn’t mean in bed, so much as out of it.”He realised he wasn’t quite sure what he did mean.But he was saved from having to explain further by the sudden crowing of a cock from somewhere nearby.
Solomon groaned and sat up, feeling around for his breeches.“Ugh.Still twelve miles to Exeter, en’t it?”
“Speaking of Exeter,” Jed said, with a certain reluctance.“I was thinking of London, and what you said about how easy it was to meet like-minded men there… There are places of that sort in Exeter too, you know.A certain back street.A secluded corner of the quayside.I’d be glad to give you directions, if you want.”
He made the offer sincerely: he knew the district, and Solomon didn’t.It seemed only right to share his knowledge.But he found himself caring more about Solomon’s response than he had expected.
Solomon regarded him thoughtfully.“I find I’m satisfied enough for the now.”
Something unknotted inside Jed.“Well, good.Same for me.”He got up, feeling oddly lighter.“Come on.Them horses won’t harness themselves.”
Chapter Eleven
“Any word of the press gang in town?”Jed asked the boy at the provisioner’s yard, where he’d come to buy a tub of axle grease.
Exeter, like Barnstaple, was a river port.Jed knew its narrow streets well.But familiarity didn’t breed contempt: a port meant seamen, and seamen might meant the press gang, for Exeter, unlike Barnstaple, didn’t have the advantage of a local magistrate hostile to impressment.
The boy pulled a face.“They pressed four men out of a tavern on the quays last week, I heard tell.But that was a gang from a ship anchored out in the Exmouth, and it’s since sailed, I expect.You want anything else with that axle grease?”
Jed shook his head.He hoisted the wooden tub onto his shoulder and set off through the streets of Exeter, back to the place where he had left Solomon and the waggon.They had arrived in town earlier that afternoon, and he’d been looking over his shoulder ever since.
He was in a narrow lane under the old city wall, uncomfortably close to the coal quays, when he heard a commotion up ahead.
Around the corner marched an adolescent midshipman in uniform, followed by a gang of burly armed men.In their wake came a group of angry women, shouting and throwing stones.They fell back whenever one of the gangers turned to brandish a cutlass at them, then surged forward again.
Jed froze, fear choking off his breath.The lane was almost deserted.A few yards ahead of him, another man ducked prudently into a doorway.But Jed had nowhere to hide.
