Best Lesbian Romance 2014 by Radclyffe

Author:Radclyffe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Social Science, Lesbian Studies, Fiction, Romance, Erotica, Collections & Anthologies, Lesbian
ISBN: 1627780106
Publisher: Cleis Press
Published: 2013-09-17T22:00:00+00:00

A STURBRIDGE IDYLL

Lee Lynch

The first morning of their stay, the sun poured warmth into streets that just a few days before had been wintry. Spring leapt into Sturbridge Village like a chorus line of pastel-clad dancers. A soft April rain had come in the night before on a warming wind. All of a sudden, the tips of crocuses poked up through the ground and green grass returned to the world. On the forsythia bushes were noticeable buds. Jays loudly scolded at the tops of thawed trees. Iridescent starlings rasped at one another over scraps of food. Paris felt dizzy with the balminess of noon, wondering if the goddess set the stage for them.

They rolled along a dirt path in a cart, their feet resting on hay, alone except for the driver, horses and a het couple who were way up on the front seat. It was a time to hold hands, to look into eyes, to bask in the romantic perfection of the day, to lay her head on Peg’s shoulder, the world smelling of sweet warm hay. She didn’t. They climbed off the cart and meandered from exhibit to exhibit. Neither of them said a word for half an hour. A bonneted woman churned butter.

“So,” Paris said, afraid to break the mood, afraid not to. She tried to read Peg’s eyes behind her sunglasses. “Who wore the bonnet back then? The butch or the femme?”

“Please, darlin’,” Peg answered, lifting her hands as if to a bonnet. “Picture it.”

“You’re so true to type,” she said with a laugh. “You’d look ridiculous. That doesn’t mean I’d be a knockout in a bonnet.”

Peg turned and measured her head, her face, with her eyes. There was such mute affection in them she wanted to be looked at like that forever. “But you would be, Paris,” Peg said.

She sighed. Where was the strife with this one? When they added sex would it come? She caught herself. If—not when. They moved outside.

“I’d like two female goats when I retire,” said Peg, arms folded across the top of a fence. The sheep had backed off, but a lamb bolted from its mom and returned again, curious and scared of the two-leggeds. The warm sun heightened the less pleasant barnyard smells.

“Not a couple of these wooly little things?”

“They don’t stay little. And they’re not very companionable when they grow up.” Peg bent to stroke the wet black nose poking through the fence. “Goats are feisty and loving and funny.”

Were those the qualities of a woman who could land Peg? Never mind, she told herself, she didn’t want to know. The cart returned with a larger load. The horses clomped off and three families headed for the lambs, children filling the air with noise. Paris and Peg followed the cart back. A tinsmith assembled a lantern. A spinner spun sour-smelling wool with a drop spindle. A cooper up to his ankles in nose-tickling sawdust finished up a wooden bucket and handed it to them to examine. They stopped in the general store and bought penny candies.

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