The sharp-eyed one smirked.
"Come on. You can just go in those bushes, can't you? No one walks this path before noon."
Rhea arched one thick brow.
"Well, how could you?"
They both laughed. The two women waved her off and continued down the path toward the kitchens, still talking. Rhea watched their figures grow smaller between the hedges, then stepped off the gravel into the deeper green.
The bushes here were old and dense, the sort that had been allowed to grow wild for decades.
She pushed through until the path was only a pale suggestion behind her, then stopped in a small natural hollow where the ground was soft and the leaves made a private curtain.
Her hands went to the hem of her dress.
She lifted it slowly, bunching the fabric at her waist, and revealed the heavy, soft curve of her lower belly, the thick thatch of dark hair that framed her sex, and the silver plug seated firmly between her cheeks—its rose base just visible when she shifted.
