Last Wine at Malmaison

[Honey_B]

The horse surged beneath her, making Maria's blood race. It brought roses to the delicate ivory of her cheeks. She twisted around and frowned. Her highwayman was letting his prey get away. Napoléon and Caulaincourt were still engaged in discussion. That dour man could always be relied upon to abscond with any amusement. Maria refused to let it spoil her delightful morning.

The Schönbrunn's gardens were magnificent. Now she knew why Napoléon had brought her here. A vast sea of emerald spread out before her, broken only by the geometric beauty of the formal plantings. Maria rushed past them with the exhilaration she felt only on the back of a swift horse.

The air was perfumed with roses and Maria remembered that these gardens were famous for the flower. She would have enjoyed seeing them, but she was nearing the dark green walls of a hedge maze. Slowing the magnificent animal to a stately walk, she reined up at the maze's entrance and dismounted. Casting a glance in the direction from which she'd come, Maria saw that Napoléon was but a distant figure. With a wicked grin, she entered the maze, singing an old folk melody from her native Polska. Maria began the song again as soon as she had ended it, singing as she walked. She would give Napoléon only the song's sweet notes to guide him to her.

 

[ariosto]

He dismounted at the entrance to the maze and listened.
He was familiar enough with Polish, thanks to her, to catch pieces of the song. It was about a young shepherd girl who leads her lover into a dark wood by singing to him.

*Just so...just so.*
He thought and smiled. Maria his lover. Maria the sweet mother of his child.

He began to whistle with the same determined patience with which he rode.
But she heard him and knew he was close.
Maria busied herself with the task at hand and waited, singing softly...

After a few minutes the Emperor's confidence began to wane.
He who had led armies from one end of Europe to another even to Egypt! was lost in a ridiculous maze behind the Schoenbrunn palace.
He turned another corner only to meet another small green alcove and the fragrance of roses.
He reached over and picked a large, wine red one and sniffed it.

"Maria...you have bested me. I am undone! You hear?"
he sat on a stone bench.
"Undone little Countess...now where are you?"

The singing came again...very close.
Napoleon began looking in all directions and then he jumped as something touched his back.

"What!"

He spun around to see her beautiful face peering through the shrubbery.
She laughed.

"Silly Goose of a man! I'm back here, right behind you.
Now come here, I've made a surprise for us."
The air seemed suddenly alive with the wild intoxicating scent of the roses.

 

[Honey_B]

Roses! How delightful to find roses growing within the maze. Maria picked them as she walked. When she reached the heart of the maze, she gave out a little gasp of delight. More roses bordered the circular space and at its center stood an arbor, covered with the climbing version of the flower.

The secret garden gave Maria a delicious idea. She had already collected an armful of the flowers. Working quickly she gathered more. Beneath the arch of the arbor, Maria seperated the blooms from the stems, letting the silken petals fall through her fingers like crimson rain. Before long, the soft grass had been covered by a perfumed carpet. Her smile was more than a bit devilish as she completed the rest of her arrangements.

Maria heard Napoléon drawing near. She took an adjacent path to his and teased him, asking him to follow her. On dainty feet, Maris ran back to her roses. When Napoléon alighted into her enchanted bower, she had already reclined on the silken mat, her back to him, striking a pose as lovely as Valasquez's Venus and just as nude.

She glanced over her shoulder.

"Do come in, Napoléon. Cleopatra once seduced Antony with roses. They made love in a sea of rose petals. How could I offer less to mon emporeur."

 

[ariosto]

"Enchanter!
Maria, ma petite fleur parmi les roses..."

Napoleon's heart, so very susceptable to beauty, melted at the sight of his lovely Countess and the fragrant bed she had prepared for them.

"Do you approve mon empereur?"
She smiled over her ivory shoulder mischievously...


"My coquette!...My true love!...need you ask?"

She kept her eyes on him as he impetuously cast his garments to the ground.
Yes, he had grown somewhat stouter but by no means fat as some had whispered. In fact she felt he had grown even handsomer over the past two years. The extra weight didn't bother her and...and...he was still MAGNIFICENTLY endowed!

"You like the roses then, Napoleon?"
The world was full of their intoxicating scent.
She winked at him.

Winked!...the little vixen!

He knelt behind her, oblivious of stray thorns against his knees and wrapped his arms around her slender body. She felt his large hands come 'round, sighed leaning back against his chest and watched as he cupped her firm round breasts, lifting them and finding the rosebud nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, nipples with the same blush of crimson as the petals strewn in soft confusion beneath them.