"Goblin Market" was a poem written by Italian-English poet Christina Rossetti in 1862. She was a pre-feminist writer, though she claimed to be indifferent towards the Suffrage movement. She's known as one of the greatest female poets of the 19th century and may or may not have been a lesbian.
So of course I'm going to re-work her most famous poem into some erotic prose. The original piece definitely has sexual undertones, and the first time I read it I thought, "This could be more overt. Why don't I make this more overt?"
This is quite a bit different than my other stuff, partially because it's so old, and partially because I was trying to be artistic and thus while erotic, its not exactly as in your face as my other work. I don't even have it listed as 'erotica.' It's filed under fairy tales, and lesbian fiction.
Note: This is a 6,000ish word file. It contains my 3,000 word short story, the poem, and author's notes. It is $0.99
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Description:
Eliza and Laura grew up together and planned to never be apart. But every seven years the goblins come and offer their fruit, enslaving young maiden's hearts until they waste away, pining for one more taste. Laura falls victim to the goblins, and Eliza must risk everything to save her beloved.
Excerpt:
Laura’s mother had nursed Eliza along with her own child, caring for the little girl when her father could not. She took the child home to her family’s cottage and where the two girls grew up almost sisters. Over the years the village seemed to forget the two had ever been anything but.
Both girls grew up well. Both had golden hair and clear blue eyes. Except for a slight freckling across Eliza’s nose, and the fact that Laura was a bit more stout than her companion, they were very much seen as sisters to anyone who met them, and they loved each other more dear than any sisters could.
Laura’s mother saw this when they clung together in bed at nights, even in the summer when a warm breeze blew in through their windows. “It’s high time the two of you were married,” she said the year they turned eighteen. “You’re too old to be sharing a bed like children, when it should be your husbands’ beds you share.”
She had more motive than that for them to be married. That summer was the summer of the Goblin’s Market, as it was every seven years. Before they had been too young to hear the goblin’s call, but they were young women now, and there was nothing a goblin liked more than ripe virgin fruit.
“I don’t want to leave Laura,” Eliza replied.
“And I don’t want to leave Eliza,” Laura added. “There is no man or lad in the village that could tempt me.” Eliza nodded, grasping Laura’s hand to her breast.
“And what about the Goblins?” the older woman prompted. “I was married right fast to your father the fortnight before Midsummer. Poor Jeanie Hinkle was not so lucky.”
“I’ve heard that story,” Laura said, her voice defiant. “I heard she wasted away for want of Goblin fruit."
“Mayhaps she did,” Eliza said, the more timid of the two. She had always been aware that she was an orphan, and to be grateful for her foster mother and always obey. If Mother believed that Goblin fruit poisoned Jeanie Hinkle, Eliza did too.
“She died of consumption, she did,” Laura insisted, and pulled Eliza up to bed.
Once they were settled in their night clothes the two cuddled up together under the sheets. Eliza found Laura’s hand in the darkness. “What if there really are goblins?” she whispered.
“I shall not let them take you, and you shall not let them take me. Isn’t that right?”
Eliza nodded in agreement. She stroked Laura’s hair and kissed her goodnight. “We won’t be separated by goblins, or marriage either.”
“Never,” Laura agreed.
