The Master's Lessons

By Isadora Rose

As a French mistress at one of England’s most renowned boys’ schools, Amelia Montague has all the security she needs, but she cannot resist the temptation to risk it all for the sake of a few stolen nights in the arms of the earl’s roguish son. When the foreboding headmaster, James Cooper, discovers Amelia’s secret, he forces her into his arms instead – and the lustful lesson of surrender he teaches to her turns her entire world on its head...

~

Amelia could barely even breathe under the weight of the fearful anticipation she felt, let alone speak with the cool wit she was used to being in possession of. She opened her mouth in a desperate attempt to answer him, but before she could form any words with her dry mouth he rose to his feet again and came around the desk to stand behind her chair.

“Sir -” she said wildly, but then the headmaster’s hand descended to rest upon her shoulder as she twisted her head to look up at him. Dazed by the force of her conflicted emotions, a violent shiver ran down her spine and he smiled again.

"Hush, now. If you have no words, then perhaps it would suit you to listen to me instead – for that is, after all, why I summoned you here today.”
He reached out to tuck a stray tendril of fair hair back behind her ear, and her heart lost a beat. His smile only widened as he leaned in closer still, so near now that the tantalising sensation of his warm breath on the vulnerable skin of her bared neck consumed her.

Amelia tried and failed one last time to pull away from him. The headmaster’s hand tightened around her shoulder, and with a sharp intake of breath his smile slipped away as he pressed his mouth against the top of her ear and breathed a dozen words that stole away the very last of her composure.

“Now, I hear tell that you have been rather wicked, Miss Montague.”

Cooper knew.

With a strangled cry, she shook her head in desperation, but her efforts to escape only brought her parted lips within reach of his. For a dizzying moment she thought they would lay claim to hers, but then he forcibly pushed her away and straightened back up again.

“Nothing to say?” he said, his voice dangerously low and clipped. “Do you care to deny my accusation that you have been entertaining a gentleman caller, perhaps?”

To her chagrin and frustration, hot tears stung at her eyes as she battled the unwelcome compulsion to arch towards him. “Would it be of any use to do so, sir?”

He snorted. “None at all, Miss Montague. I have eyes everywhere, particularly when it comes to you. I saw the two of you together last Friday – and the intimate way in which you were permitting the rogue to touch you made the carnal nature of his visit all too plain.”

Cooper reached up to his right, and to her horror his long fingers closed around the handle of the riding crop that had until now been resting harmlessly on one of the highest bookshelves. As Amelia fought for breath, he took it down and then turned to fix his penetrating stare upon her once more.

“We have standards here at Highdown Hall, and those who fail to meet them must be punished. Tell me, Miss Montague, what happens to the boys if they misbehave?”

The headmaster circled restlessly around her and absently stroked the leather handle of the crop as she buried her flaming face in her hands to conceal a low sob from him. She did not want him to know how afraid she was – nor how very much she found herself wanting him to follow through upon all the fire in his eyes threatened.

“I asked you a question,” he said sharply. “Answer me – now!”

Amelia closed her eyes tightly as the reluctant words left her lips. “They get punished, sir.”

“Precisely so. Stand up and bend over the desk, Miss Montague.”

~

• Language: English
• Publisher: Isadora Rose
• Release date: Apr 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301554294

Isadora Rose

Isadora Rose is a nom de plume for this author to unleash some of her darker tales upon the users of Smashwords. You won't find PWP here - if that's your thing, then great, but I believe that the experience of reading erotica is enhanced by a story woven throughout that pulls you in just as surely as the erotic encounters themselves. My stories are written with that aim in mind. I make no apology for the dark twists and turns they might make, and I only hope that you enjoy the journey in every way. All reviews are gratefully read and much appreciated.

Book preview

The Master’s Lessons

By Isadora Rose

Copyright 2013 Isadora Rose

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for the recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

I.

Lesson One

England, 1899

Amelia Montague surveyed the neatly-cropped heads of hair before her, all lowered in concentration as their owners applied themselves to the translations she had set. Some people became teachers from a love of learning, or from a true passion for the vocation. She came to Highdown Hall because she had no other choice. With no family – and thus no dowry – making a respectable marriage was out of her reach. She had to earn a living by fair means or foul, and despite her lack of experience she had somehow won the position of a junior mistress at one of the most prestigious boarding schools in all of England.

Fate had certainly smiled upon her when in desperation she answered the notice the headmaster, James Cooper, had placed in the Times calling for new teachers to join his staff. She had fully expected he would dismiss her in an instant, but here she was a year later secure in her employment. Though far from content with her restrictive lot, her life here was far better than it would have been had she been forced to go into service.

Still, though, Amelia could not help but allow her thoughts to wistfully turn to the forbidden pleasures that tonight promised. The still classroom offered little distraction, after all. The air was stale, and the high windows allowed next to none of the late afternoon sunlight into the room. As was the custom, even the walls themselves were bare save for a half dozen maps that the geography masters used. The French verbs and prepositions she had spent the afternoon teaching were etched into the dusty blackboard, and the cursive script of her own hand danced before her eyes as she shivered in secret delight.

Finally, the bell rang to herald the end of the school day, and with a dizzying rush of relief she dismissed the class. Her cool and calm voice gave no hint of the anticipation that blazed through her heated veins, nor of the distinct throb of lust that already burned deep down in her core at the thought of the night ahead.

When the last of the youths pushed through the open door with a backward grin directed at her, she smiled back at him and gathered her papers before readying herself to follow in his wake and prepare herself for all that was to come.

However, as Amelia glanced up, to her deep frustration she found she was no longer alone.

Miss Montague?

The mathematics master, Mr. Austin, had moved across to swiftly and skilfully block her exit from the classroom.

Though her heart thudded against her ribcage, she showed no outward sign of how unwelcome the elderly teacher was. What can I do for you, sir? she asked with a smile.

His lips thinned. The headmaster wants to see you, Miss Montague. He requested that I escort you to him without delay.

Despite her best efforts to control herself, Amelia’s blue eyes widened. The headmaster rarely fraternised with the staff, and she had never been summoned to him before. She feared this unexpected summons could have only one cause.

Resigned to the inevitable, her stomach lurched even as her polite smile remained in place. Then we shall go to him, Mr. Austin. Is he waiting in the office now?

No, not the school office; his private study.

The faint wrinkling of the senior master’s nose told her precisely what he thought of that, but at the school the headmaster’s word was law. Austin was just as unable as she was to disobey, and so it was that he turned sharply on his heel to lead her through the unseasonably dark corridors of the school. Boys of all ages from ten to sixteen lined their way, but each one of them dropped back in deference to the two teachers despite the interested glances the older of them tossed in her direction.

Impassive to them and their implication as ever, for the only man she wanted was not yet within the school’s confines, Amelia held her head high and battled to calm the treacherous pounding of her heart as nerves churned her stomach. Even passing through the intimidating double oak doors of the entrance hallway offered no relief, for the scorching heat of the early summer’s day only deepened the flush of her face that the walk had brought on.

Cooper’s private office was in the lower levels of the cottage that sat apart from the main school building, nestled into the embrace of the woods that Highdown Hall backed onto. As they made their way towards it, she found herself consumed anew by fear of what she would find within.

The headmaster was feared by students and teachers alike. He had that rare talent of commanding respect and obedience wherever he went, which was surely part of the reason why he had risen to the prestigious position of headmaster of Highdown Hall before he had even reached his fortieth year. This was his third year in the post, and the school had thrived under his command.

This afternoon, though, his focus seemed to be on her – and the only reason Amelia could attribute that to was the one she had feared would be revealed ever since she had begun the dangerous dalliance. By the time Austin raised his hand to knock smartly on the door to the cottage, her heart was in her mouth, but turning back now was impossible.

The door swung open in an instant, forcing her to the grim conclusion that the headmaster had been standing behind it awaiting her arrival. Unwillingly she looked up, and there he was. James Cooper’s thin lips drew back into a ghost of a smile beneath his moustache as his grey eyes settled upon her.

Thank you, Samuel. You may leave Miss Montague in my hands now; I shall escort her back up to the school when I am through with her.

Very good, sir.

And with that Austin departed to leave her alone and defenceless, entirely at the headmaster’s mercy. His smile widened as he crooked one finger to beckon her inside.

Come, Miss Montague. Are you afraid that I shall bite?

Amelia shivered despite herself. The low Scottish burr of Cooper’s accent had fascinated her ever since he personally conducted her interview for the position she now held. In truth, the man himself intrigued her against her will; it had been a blessing she had seen so little of him over the past year. It seemed that today that blessing would be no more.

As she stared at him wordlessly, he had taken her arm to lead her inside and now the door closed behind them with an unsettling and definitive click of the lock in the catch. Afraid to look at him for fear of the unmistakable fever that was spreading through her veins with his touch, she forced her eyes to dart over the cottage’s entrance hall instead. The ceilings were so low that the wooden beams threatened to graze the top of Cooper’s head, and the dark green wallpaper blended in seamlessly with the woods that surrounded them outside. Through an open door to the right Amelia caught a glimpse of the parlour room, filled with groaning bookshelves, a velvet-upholstered settee and a high-backed armchair beside the inglenook.

It was surprisingly homely; enough so to disarm her and make her too slow to realise that he had hold of her arm once more and was now steering her into the small room at the rear of the property that served as his study. Yet more textbooks lined the shelves on every wall, but the vast mahogany desk in front of the window dominated the room. A chair was on each