Rising, she opened her purse and took out a cigarette from a paper packet. It was not too new a habit then, but few women indulged in it in public. Her hands trembled slightly as she lit it from a candle. The aroma was Turkish.
"You have not behaved. Have you behaved?" Aunt Maude asked her. "The reports have not been good."
The Lady Arabella's face was blurred through smoke. Did Caroline recognise her voice?
"I did not want," Arabella began. Then the gong for dinner sounded. We entered the dining room. Frederick and Amanda served us. Our glasses were refilled constantly. They were the finest wines. My uncle conversed with Aunt Maude and Katherine about the house, the grounds, the farm. There would be a new summerhouse, he said. I squeezed Caroline's thigh. She had the grace to blush. My aunt whispered with Arabella who occasionally shook her head.
"I did not come for this. Will there not be an entertainment?" I heard her ask.
"You know why you were sent again. Disobedience ill becomes you," my aunt told her. Arabella glanced at us for the first time to see if we were listening. Our heads were bowed. We absorbed ourselves in lobster and Chateauneuf du Pape.
"They were blindfolded before," Arabella muttered.
My aunt waved her hand. "It is of no account," she said, "come, you must permit at least a little display." Rising, she moved behind Arabella, bent over her and unbuttoned her dress at the front. I saw the purpose of its buttoning there. As the sides slid away her breasts were lifted out in all their splendour. Her nipples were rouged. Katherine slid her chair back and did the same to Caroline and I. Aunt Maude smiled, took her seat once more and brought a goblet of wine to Arabella's lips. Her throat worked as she drank.
"So you must sit in future when you return-it is more seemly," my aunt told her.
Amanda entered. Frederick followed and cleared away our plates. He went out. In Amanda's hand was a silver jug.
"You have brought the cream?" Katherine asked her. "It is warm?"
Amanda nodded. There was bemusement in her face. A cloud of unknowing lay upon her features. Her lips were rouged, her eyes shadowed. She looked beautiful, I thought. At the flaring of her skirt as she passed I saw faint pink marks upon her bottom cheeks. The hem fell like a broken promise and then lifted again. She approached Katherine's side.
"Not here-to the Lady Arabella," Katherine said impatiently. My aunt's hands disappeared beneath the table at Arabella's side. Arabella's face suffused. Her body seemed to lift a little. There was a loud rustling of silk. Her skirt had been drawn up. Amanda's footsteps were quick, small and elegant as she moved around the long table to Arabella. She appeared to be learning quickly-in hope, no doubt, that she would be released. Would she run to the woods and hide? There would be a hunting. She would be trussed and taken home, her skirt wound upwards amid the tight cords.
"Pour," my aunt said. She appeared to grip Arabella's hand nearest to her own beneath the tablecloth.
Arabella gave a start, her chair creaked. Amanda had bent and poured the warm, rich cream between the valley of her breasts, the deep divide. I wanted to rise and see its trickling-the white lava. I dared not.
"Be still-it will flow down-let it flow," my aunt told Arabella.
A balloon of smoke from my uncle's cigar floated over the table. We were virginal in our sitting, Caroline and I. We looked and did not look.
"Down, girl!" my aunt said to Amanda. Their eyes clashed like rapiers. The jug was empty. Its creaming oozed its last over the lip. Falteringly Amanda placed it on the table. Her knees bent. She disappeared. Beneath the polished table of oak 1 felt her. Her bottom nudged my toe. Arabella's eyes rolled, she leaned back. A soft gasp. I could feel her legs open, guided no doubt by my aunt's busy hands. The warm cream made a white trail down between her luscious breasts and disappeared beneath the looseness of her dress where Aunt Maude had slipped the tie at her waist.
"You liked the horses?" It was my uncle's voice. He addressed me.
"Yes, Uncle." Caroline said yes uncle in turn. The wine bottles passed. Our glasses were refilled.
"Let us be quiet for a moment," my aunt admonished as if we had been chattering constantly. I wanted my boot to slide off to feel with my stockinged toes the bulge of Amanda's bottom as she knelt, her face most obviously now between Arabella's thighs. Tasting cream. Cream on her bush, her pouting, her sticky.
Arabella gave a little jump. Her eyes half closed. "Drink your wine," my aunt told her. The goblet was raised to her lips anew. Her lips slurped. Beneath my feet there came another slurping. Arabella bubbled and spluttered into her goblet.
"Mounted but twice indeed since you visited," my aunt said to her scoldingly. "Are you not bad, my love?"
Arabella's eyes closed. She moved her lips away pettishly from the goblet. Wine spilled its fall on to her breasts. "P… p… p. .. p…" Little explosions of sound from her mouth. Her hips worked, breasts jiggling. The slurping noise beneath the table increased.
"Such ripeness-it is always pretty to see," Katherine murmured. She emptied the rest of her wine into my uncle's glass. He drank upon it immediately. My aunt glared at her. Katherine smiled. For a moment I thought she would embrace me but instead she got up and passed around behind me to Caroline. Bending over her and drawing her face round, she covered Caroline's mouth with her own and passed her fingertips suavely about the snowy hillocks which stood revealed. I could feel the tingling in my mouth of my sister's nipples. Katherine's tongue delved. I could feel it delve.
The feet of Arabella's chair were scraping. The chair rocked.
"You are difficult, too, Caroline, are you not?" Katherine purred. Her mouth was a rose. Would I ever kiss her fully? She desired to make me jealous, I know. The sound of Amanda's lapping tongue was in my ears. Small noises of hysterical sound wisped from Arabella's lips. My aunt held her.
"Look at me, Caroline-haven't you been difficult?" Katherine coaxed. "Yesssssss," Caroline gritted. "Oh, but it was so big and.."
"What nonsense she speaks," my aunt laughed, "you have sucked it-I know you have. Amanda, rise, leave her!"
A scuffling, Amanda appeared, face hot, lips wet. My uncle beckoned her. Her skirt, caught up, betrayed the wantonness of her bare bottom.
"Your report was no better. Worse, indeed," he told her. "Is it not true?"
"Sir?" Amanda asked thickly. Her eyes were bleared, her expression slightly vacant. I expected him to draw her forward and fondle her bottom. To my surprise he did not. I thought of Father. He lay on the beach, perhaps, his cutlass limp, fallen. Pebbles stirred as people approached and stared down at him. He rested in his waiting.
A murmuring beside me, a soft moist sound of lips. I hated Caroline. She was shy. She had sucked the liqueur of love-the sperm had inundated her mouth. She had lain on her bed naked, her thighs apart. Her nest had waited for his eggs to nestle against it. I would whip her.
Arabella lay back against the high back of her chair. Her mouth was open, a look of languishing upon her face. I judged her about twenty-seven. Her hand wore no wedding ring. Her fingernails glistened, perfectly manicured. My aunt's hand worked gently beneath the table, between her thighs. Arabella's eyelashes fluttered.
My uncle waved his cigar. "Take her upstairs," he said to Katherine. Led out in docile tread, Caroline did not look back. Footsteps on the stairs. Katherine returned.
"As to Amanda…" Katherine said. Everyone waited for her to speak except perhaps Arabella who was floating still in a luxury of sensations. "Amanda, stand in the corner there facing us. How wicked you have been!"
My aunt rang a bell. Frederick entered. He carried a small silver bucket wherein stood a wine bottle packed around with ice. Placing it on the table, he removed the bottle, wiped it with a napkin and left it there. The door closed again behind him. The cork of the bottle was round, black and polished.