PLEASURE AND PURPOSE – Megan Hart

Order of Solace, Book 1

Berkley Sensation

ISBN-13:  978-0-425-22969-9

September 2009

Erotic Anthology Historical Novellas – S & M, Bondage, Ménage

The Court of Firth – Some time ago

The Order of Solace is an agency people can go to and ask for a Handmaiden, to provide them with solace in their lives.  Whether it’s a minute, an hour, a day, or longer than that, solace is something greatly to be desired in one’s life.  A customer must apply for a Handmaiden, be accepted, and then a Handmaiden is sent to them.  Three women: Stillness, Honesty and Determinata are assigned to three very different men.  This is a journey of discovery as each person must figure out what specific quality their Handmaiden has been sent to them to provide.  One such person is…

STILLNESS

Edward Delaw desperately needs and want solace, and has sent for a Handmaiden.  He has a complicated history with his old friend Cillian Derouth, the crown Prince of Firth.  Cillian and Edward and their friend, Alaric Dewan, went to school together, and their activities included drinking, smoking herb, and having sex with as many women as they could every night.  But Cillian and Edward took things one step further, one would do the flogging and the other enjoy the woman, and the stripes on the back of the women excited both of them.  But the death of a woman during a flogging all those years ago had Cillian being sent to the insane asylum.  After being released, Edward’s assignment from the king is to watch Cillian and make sure he doesn’t get into any more trouble.  Edward still feels the enticement of the flogger, and watching Cillian continue doing it with his women makes Edward  long for it too, but he is too ashamed of his part in the woman’s death all those years ago to participate any more.  Perhaps a Handmaiden can lighten his feelings of guilt that follow him every day.

Stillness Faine has been assigned to Edward.  Women are Handmaidens for only one reason, to provide solace for someone, and when that is achieved, an Arrow will fill Lord SInder’s Quiver, and when it’s full the Holy Family will return, surely a worthy occupation.  Stillness tries to anticipate everything Edward might desire, including sexually.  But then it turns out Stillness herself longs for the flogger, and things go wild.

Can Stillness provide solace to Edward, and then easily leave a man she has come to love?  Don’t read PLEASURE AND PURPOSE without being aware of the flogger and other sexual proclivities that might not be your usual fare.

HONESTY

It’s been six months since Cillian last saw Edward, and while he wouldn’t agree with me, he’s definitely jealous of Edward and his Handmaiden, Stillness.  He gradually thinks that perhaps he needs a Handmaiden to do everything for him like Stillness.  So, CIllian filled out the application for a Handmaiden (a Handmaiden isn't given to just anyone) and he has anxiously waited for months.  All he wants is someone to anticipate his every wish before he makes it and keep him content.  Thank goodness he still has Alaric as a friend with Edward gone, but Alaric is with the Lady Larissa (a worse wench he’s never seen, but that’s Alaric’s problem).  One night to ease the tension, he is in the middle of a good flogging in his playroom when she finally appears, NOT the type of first impression he wanted to make.

Honesty has come from her last patron directly to Cillian, and is definitely tired, hungry, and worst of all, doubting her vocation.  If she hadn’t been ordered here, Honesty was thinking of giving up the Handmaiden job, as she’s starting to think badly of her patrons, calling them names in her own mind, and now she has this spoiled brat, even though he’s a prince.  But after their first sexual contact, Cillian keeps away from her even though they sleep together.  SHE IS NOT WHAT HE WANTED!

But Lord Devain is in court making friends with Cillian’s father, the King, and gradually amassing more and more power.  The King does not want to see Cillian because of all his shenanigans, including being in the asylum.  What evil is Lord Devain concocting, and will Honesty leave Cillian before giving him solace?  That’s the question that will be answered when you read this story.

DETERMINATA

Alaric Dewan, friend of Edward and Cillian, has let his life get into such a state that they take it upon themselves to request a Handmaiden for him.  Lady Larissa led him a merry chase and dumped him, and since then Alaric has taken to herb, bottles, spoons and needles that bring him the oblivion he longs for.   For all CiIlian and Edward’s friendship all these past years, during their time at college he never developed a taste for the flogging that they did.  He always preferred a different type of woman.  Alaric’s weakness is his yearning to be bossed, to be told what to do.  When Determinata throws away all his drugs, he knows the sleeping dragon in his stomach will demand soothing, and he longs for the darkness of oblivion that would soon come.

As a Handmaiden, Determinata will be his comfort and his grace, even though it will take getting the drugs out of Alaric’s system and helping him face life without them, and acknowledging what he has become because of his relationship with Larissa.  But could it be that at the core of Alaric’s despair is the love he feels for Edward?

Can Determinata finally complete the circle of friendship between Edward, Cillian and Alaric?  She is a strong Handmaiden, is she up to the task?

Three Handmaidens, each assigned to a different man, can they give up their life’s work to be with the one man who needs them more than anyone? Who could resist such a trio of stories?

CeCe Johns