She shook her frail fist at the ceiling:
Now look, look hard..!»
She weighed on Ghislaine's shoulders:
«Take her, Jerome, take her… Hurt her!»
Jerome was white with pent up desire. He stood naked, powerful and impudent as a god.
Slowly he opened up Ghislaine's thighs. He laid his hands on her small heaving belly, wrenched the flimsy triangle that protected her sex. He looked dazedly at this lovely cunt. Then he pushed his prick against her crack, it was burning and quivering. Ghislaine tried to free herself, to escape… too late! Jerome pierced in, pushing it in with a vengeance. She arched back, her whole body thrilled under the shove, a raucous cry fused under her gag. Then she fell back as broken puppet, while Jerome fucked away for dear life.
A frightful roar of pain had come from the room above. Myriam listened very white about the lips. Then she kissed her victim in the lids:
«Forgive me Ghislaine, I didn't know a revenge could hurt so much!..
«Adieu!.. She ran away.»
— Dawn was already touching the woods with silver lights. Fantastic shadows receded in to the brakes.
On the lake, the last stars flickered out. Somewhere birds were waking. In that serene scenery a light shape wandered… was it a fairy? was it Cinderella hurrying back to her cottage?
The shadow ran, stopped, and fled like a will o' the wisp.
Myriam was crying.
«Why did I do such a thing..? Why..? Poor Ghislaine… Poor darling… Her revenge had been to much to bear. She understood how filthy and brutish it had been.»
Love didn't exist, nor beauty… There was nothing left to hope for, to live for…
Myriam was sobbing. She was obsessed by her craving for purity. She longed to wash away all stains on her body and soul… She was running to the lake… nothing any longer mattered… utterly hopeless she ran to end her life where her miseries had started on a fine sunny afternoon.
She had almost reached the bank when she heard somebody running, running after her. It was a man. Was it Kozincko? she shuddered. She tried to escape, he was too quick for her.
It was Freddy.
«So this is the way you keep your promises? If I hadn't spotted you, you'd be far by now!»
Myriam was silent. Freddy seized her hands.
«I suppose I'll have to help myself..?»
Myriam freed herself, tried to flee. He caught her in two strides.
«You bitch! You won't get Me! You owe me something and you'll pay! He tumbled her on the moth, pushed three fingers inside her and began whipping it up. She was struggling, scratching. With his other hand he slapped her face masterfully.
«I'll teach you how I deal with such bitches as your likes!»
I told you I'd fuck you and I'll do it. You're going to feel something; I'll make it come out of your mouth you silly cunt!
Myriam yielded: what did it matter now?.. He was stroking her breasts and whispered thickly:
«You're not a virgin, still it must be god…»
He slipped the tip of it in between her lips:
God! What a warm cunt, I don't wonder Kozincko is crazy on you.
He rammed it up the whole way up with a groan of pleasure, it was so brutal it felt as if something had given way in her womb, she wailed.
«It's less comfortable than a bed but it makes a lovely country scene! He was panting on top of her moving in and out as fast as he could. Suddenly in spite of herself Myriam felt the surge of pleasure heaving her up. She arched her loins, threw her legs up to feel him coming deeper:
«You little bitch! you like it, don't you! don't you!»
He was fucking at her with all his might. When the… psychological moment came she instinctively recoiled. But he clung to her and sneered:
«No my dear! With me it's everything or nothing, and God! I'd be sorry not to shoot it all off into your lovely twat..!»
— She fled as soon as he released her, he laughed:
«I wish you a pleasant journey, be ware of strangers…»
— Myriam cried long on the water's edge. She cried over her spoiled youth, her useless beauty, on her dreams, on men's vileness, on her own wickedness.
Then she rose in her Cinderella dress, and walked into the icy waters. She walked as in a dream, entranced. Her dress floated about her as an opalescent blossom sinking in to the glancing mirror of the lake as the sun rose.
Love's frail Cinderella would die to find again peace and purity.
EPILOGUE
No! Myriam didn't die. A fairy appeared. It was Ghislaine, followed by Jerome.
Jerome was but a modern pirate but when the circumstances required it he was a man. He had freed Ghislaine, and she had taken him along…
Myriam was rescued.
— When both girls were alone together, Ghislaine implored:
«Please forgive me everything that hurt you. Please forget!»
The mystery of feminine souls! Ghislaine felt responsible for her father's, for all the other men's wrongs.
Myriam was crying with happiness.
Jerome had vanished.
Kozincko went away too. How he had escaped from the observatory. What had he done afterwards? Nobody ever knew what happened on that night…
Mrs. Cornavin kept her mouth shut. A few weeks later she left with her daughters and one never heard of them again.
Ghislaine and Myriam lived at the Chateau Vert. One day they were summoned to the attorney's. Three letters awaited them there.
The first one for Ghislaine: Her father was emancipating her and made her a very fine settlement.
Two letters for Myriam…
One from the English Embassy, she was Lord Disney's nearest relation, and the vast fortune of the Chateau Vert former owner was hers.
The other from Kozincko who was bequeathing her the Chateau Vert, and added to the official act this words:
«Love isn't to be bought, but forgiveness may be won.»
As many other fairy tales this will probably end with two marriages… Yet, as a well known writer used to say: «This is another story…»