Back in Service (25 page)

Leo rolled up his shirtsleeves and stood poised with the Longton Quirt in his hand. Seeing the length of the lash, Hetty was afraid she and Jane might inadvertently receive a taste of it if they continued to hold their victim down, and glanced around the room. ‘Lady Alice,’ she said, ‘please hand me those curtain ties.’ They were thick ropes with tassels at the end, just the thing for securing Baines’s wrists and ankles to the legs of the couch. She struggled wildly, but Leo came to lend a hand and soon they had her trussed up like a calf bound for market. She looked a sorry sight sprawled heavily on the delicate furniture, her great bulk making the cushions sag beneath her, but Hetty’s heart held no pity for her, only a gratifying sense of justice.

The atmosphere in the room was tense as Leo raised his right arm with the whip trailing down. ‘This is for all the times you beat me when I was a boy,’ he declared, and there was a terrific crack as the lash came down square upon Baines’s defenceless buttocks.

‘Ah!’ she cried. ‘Damn you all to hell! You will pay for this! To hell with you all!’

He repeated his punishment with even greater vigour, making her wail in agony. Then suddenly her mood changed and she appeared chastened. ‘That is enough punishment for a poor old woman like me, please!’ Instead of cursing she resorted to grovelling. ‘Oh, it hurts my poor bottom so! Stop now, I beg of you. I will never lay another finger on anyone, I swear it, so long as you leave me be!’

‘Did you listen to poor Jane’s entreaties when you were whipping her?’ he asked relentlessly. ‘Or did you listen to my own? Of course not, so why should we heed you? Another strike is coming your way right now, so prepare for it.’

As the woman continued crying and snivelling like a baby, Hetty’s heart hardened against her even more. The miserable creature could not take the punishment she doled out so freely herself. Even a sensitive creature like Jane had shown more restraint and dignity when being whipped.

The third stroke caught the nurse in her arse crack and made her screech like a banshee. Already her cheeks were red and Hetty knew all too well how smarting the pain must be. Then Leo announced he would not be doling out any more chastisement and the woman visibly relaxed.

‘Thank you,’ she gasped. ‘Thank you!’

‘I said
I
would not be administering any further strokes,’ he added, clearly enjoying the situation. ‘But there is someone else who deserves vengeance for the torment you have inflicted upon her. Jane, take the whip and deliver three more strokes, if you please.’

Baines yelled imprecations at him, calling him all manner of names under the sun, and Jane looked terrified, but Leo walked up to her and placed the Longton Quirt firmly in her grasp. ‘The honour of Longton is in your hands now,’ he told her solemnly. ‘Do your worst.’

‘Remember how I showed you, Jane dear,’ Hetty whispered, taking the opportunity to plant a kiss on the girl’s soft cheek. ‘Think of what she has done to you. Or if that will not move you sufficiently, remember how she has also tormented me. Now raise your right hand and strike. Do it.’

Her words seemed to have the desired effect, because Jane drew herself up to her full height, her nubile figure lending such dignity and grace to her pose she resembled an avenging angel as she raised the whip high in the air. Then with a calm, steely-eyed expression, she flicked her wrist as she brought her arm down and the lash snaked forth from the handle in a sinuous movement that found its home on the bare flesh of her erstwhile tormentor’s posterior. The tip of the whip bit cruelly into the woman’s right buttock, causing her to yelp in agony.

Calmly, Jane ran the full length of the rough leather through her hand as if she wished to savour her victim’s pain to the full, then she raised it again and aimed at her other buttock. Baines screeched as the searing heat scourged her flesh again, and a look of deep satisfaction passed over Jane’s face as she inflicted a third and final blow. ‘That is enough,’ she announced. ‘I am avenged and she is chastened.’

‘Are you sure?’ Leo asked. ‘Are you satisfied you have repaid her for what she did to you?’

She nodded. ‘Quite sure, thank you. I do not wish to grow cruel and become like her, punishing not for the sake of correction but for the pleasure of inflicting pain. I am not like her, and never will be.’

Hetty felt her eyes fill with tears. Jane was so noble, so pure. It seemed no amount of depravity could ever sully her innocent soul.

When Baines realised her ordeal was over finally, she tried to raise herself off the sofa, but she had to wait to be released from her bonds before she could do so, grunting and groaning and pulling her voluminous drawers gingerly up over her raw backside.

‘Now get you gone,’ Lady Alice dismissed her with a look of distaste. ‘And mend your ways, Mrs Baines, or I shall not hesitate to have similar punishment inflicted upon you again in the future.’

The woman slunk from the room, looking cowed and strangely shorter than before.

‘They always say the biggest bullies make the biggest cowards,’ Leo remarked sombrely, and then suddenly laughed.

‘I think Baines will take
pains
to avoid upsetting any of us again in future,’ Hetty added, and giggled helplessly.

Even Jane was smiling as they left Lady Alice’s rooms. Hetty and Leo went to their own quarters, where they sat in their sitting room facing each other whilst sipping glasses of Madeira.

‘Leo, I need to speak to you further about Jane,’ she began tentatively. ‘Do you not think it would be immoral of me… I mean of my brother, to continue his courtship of her even though it can come to nothing? She is thinking of marriage, Leo. But if he were to abandon her now, I know she would be utterly bereft. Is there no way out of this quagmire of deceit? I feel responsible for having brought it about, so I now have a conscience over it.’

‘Leave it to me,’ he said, setting his glass down and opening his arms, so Hetty set her own drink aside and went to sit on his lap. He nestled his cheek against her bosom. ‘I shall think of some solution, my love, but right now I want you to think only of me. Let us pretend we are back in our garret in Paris where we were as happy as we were poor… listen, can you hear the bells of the
Sacré Coeur?
’

They kissed deeply and Hetty felt his hand caressing her breasts and stimulating her nipples to a tingling hardness. Yet her mind was still on sweet, delectable Jane and the dalliance they had shared. As her husband took her to bed, planting warm kisses first on her bosom and then on her moist labia as a preliminary to penetrating her, she was reliving the exquisite sensations making love to another woman had aroused in her, feelings so wonderful she longed to experience them again.

Once Leo had fallen asleep beside her, she found herself quite unable to follow him into the realm of dreams. It was not that her husband had failed to satisfy her, far from it, but the thought of making love to Jane whilst pretending to be George possessed her imagination; filling her with teasing fantasies and keeping restful slumber at bay. She considered creeping out of bed, putting on George’s clothes and sneaking into Jane’s bedroom. It was a daring plan, yet once the idea took hold she could not rid herself of it.

The house was quiet and Leo was sound asleep, so she slid carefully out of bed and reached beneath it for the suitcase containing George’s apparel. She took it into the bathroom, lit a candle, and put on the outfit, wig and all. A thrill of excited anticipation surged through her as she studied herself in the glass, but then she suffered a moment’s trepidation wondering how it would all turn out.

‘Oh George, I shan’t have to kill you off with some dreadful disease, shall I?’ she whispered at her reflection. Then, fired up by the thought of more sensual sport with Jane, she crept from the room.

Jane’s bedroom was next to Lady Alice’s, so Hetty knew they must be quiet. Gently, she opened the door, closed it silently behind her and approached the bed. The girl was lying across the coverlet with her plain cotton nightdress unbuttoned, for it was a warm night, and the delectable swell of her breasts was just visible bathed by a ray of moonlight shining through a gap in the curtains. Hetty gazed down at her for a few moments, entranced.

How to awaken her? She could not risk a cry of alarm, so she crouched over the bed and placed her right hand firmly over Jane’s mouth while she called her name. The girl stirred, her eyes opened, and seeing George there with her in the darkness, she promptly reached up and flung her arms around his neck. Hetty removed her hand from her mouth and replaced it with her lips.

‘Oh my dearest, dearest one,’ Jane breathed. ‘I was dreaming of you, and now here you are!’

‘I had to be with you, Jane. Something told me it would not be right to leave without saying goodbye.’

‘Please, George, kiss me again, for I am yours!’

Hetty did as she was bid, relishing the sweet taste of Jane’s lips and tongue. She lifted her nightgown and felt the smoothness of her thighs, which instantly parted beneath her caress, allowing her free access to the delectable pussy secreted between them. Soon her mouth was drinking at the fountain of Jane’s young sex, savouring the delicately musky flavour of her moist labia and probing deeper with her tongue as she felt her clitoris swelling and hardening, demanding her attention. Her hands roved upwards beneath the gown, seeking the ripe hardness of her nipples, but when Jane cried out with pleasure she felt obliged to caution her.

‘Shush, dearest, for if her ladyship should hear us it would not be a good thing.’

‘I cannot help myself,’ Jane whispered. ‘You are giving me such pleasure, George, that I am in rapture. Oh…’ Her voice trailed away in a tremulous sigh as Hetty resumed her ministrations with lips and fingers.

The girl’s pussy was infinitely soft and completely open to her, and not for the first time Hetty wished she possessed a man’s organ so she could penetrate her fully, but she did not wish to introduce any foreign object into that silky and still virginal passage. Instead, she slipped a finger inside it carefully, and felt the yielding inner walls close over her digit in a welcoming caress. Emboldened, she slid a second finger inside the lovely writhing body, and then a third, delighting in Jane’s sighs of fulfilment. Then, very slowly, she began moving her bunched fingers in and out of the deliciously tight space while kissing the soft thighs around it. Jane’s cunny was so drenched with sensual juices the movement induced soft squelching noises she found thrilling. Then suddenly Jane let out a loud moan and Hetty could feel the vibrations of a mighty climax rippling through her, undulating against her fingers and drenching her with the elixir of love. Eagerly she applied her mouth to the ripe, pulsing vulva and licked and sucked hungrily, prolonging the sweet pleasure for both of them. Her own clitoris was throbbing urgently, seeking similar satisfaction, and she felt the extreme frustration of her position; she could not ask Jane to do anything to assuage her lust, not while she was posing as a man.

When her orgasm subsided, Jane drew Hetty into her arms again and covered her face with kisses. ‘Dearest George, you have brought me such happiness. I shall never love anyone but you!’

Hetty lay silent in her arms, listening to her breathing become slower and more regular as sleep slowly possessed her. When she was quite sure the girl was in another world again, she gently disengaged herself and crept back to her room. Although she felt a deep sense of pride and satisfaction as far as Jane was concerned, her own body was still glowing and hungry, its needs unsatisfied.

In the bathroom she took off George’s clothes and spread some towels on the floor. She lay down across them on her back, opened her legs, and found her swollen clitoris with her fingertips. It was the work of a couple of minutes to rub herself to a perfunctory climax, but the experience left her feeling sad and empty. She wanted to feel Jane’s soft lips on her sex, to enjoy the touch of her inexperienced tongue and fingers tentatively giving her the same pleasure she had given her. She wondered if she would ever be able to reveal her true identity to Jane and let her know it was not George, a boy, she had fallen for but a girl, Hetty herself.

The following day Jane approached her in the library looking perturbed. ‘Please, Miss Hetty, may I have a word with you?’

‘Of course, Jane.’

‘Not here, if it please you, but in private, for what I have to say is for your ears only.’

Hetty smiled. ‘Well now, I think we may meet later in the summerhouse. We should not be disturbed there. Why do you not bring us over a tray of tea at three o’clock?’ She knew Lady Alice took her afternoon nap then and Jane nodded, a fleeting look of relief passing across her face.

After that it was hard for Hetty to concentrate on the book she was reading. She wondered what Jane had to tell her. It was something to do with George, no doubt. Perhaps it would be as well to despatch the rascal once and for all, and yet that would be extremely cruel. ‘Oh what a tangled web we have weaved,’ she sighed, slamming the book closed. Leo was out in the lower field again so there was no one she could confide in. Instead she sat gazing out of a window over the green lawns into the hazy distance. It was going to be a fine sunny afternoon.

The library door opened again and Sir Victor wheeled himself in slowly. He so rarely came to the library these days that Hetty was quite taken aback by the sight of him.