Ivy needed to talk to someone about this, that was for sure. But not someone she knew, that would be too weird. It was times like these when she would...go to the church. Just pour her heart out about all her troubles to some unseen minister sitting behind a screen. The Minister had ruined that for her. Ivy sat there for a while longer before she decided to walk home and buy a sandwich. While she walked home slowly, she decided to make a stand. It was getting late and she needed someone to talk. .was a mistake and I'mgiving the baby up for adoption the moment it's born. All thearrangements have been made."She looked surprised, but knew better to inquire further."I'll probably only be away for a week or two, then we'll be workingside by side. At the moment I'm the only secretary, and I support bothRuth and our Finance Director, Nick Rawlinson. I also seem to doubleas Office Manager and Financial Controller, so in the first instance Iexpect you'll be taking over my secretarial tasks. . Our lives could never be the same again and our love could only continue if we were careful to conceal our true feelings for each other in and around the court. Her new husband no doubt has many expectations of her in the royal bedchamber but as her personal maid I am always the one she confides in both before and after her lord and master has lain with her. “He is a lusty Prince in bed,” she told me, “But there is little tenderness about him. He fucks me hard and cums readily, which does not. "You've told me so far that Walter has made sexualadvances on you. I haven't asked yet, point blank, if any of these advances have been successful. Have they?" "I don't know what you mean." "Have you fucked him?" "Of...of course not!" Patty spluttered, instantly reddening with shame andfear. "What kind of question is that? I would never allow him to help himself to my own body." "That's not what Walter says." The ensuing silence was long and tense. Patty's blush.