"Will you continue to wear your mask, sir?"
"I will. Afterward we might meet in polite society. I should not like you to be embarrassed, Lucinda, by such a meeting, nor your husband either." He opened another door, and they entered into a large bedroom.
The walls of the room were paneled. The large bowed window opened out onto the gardens. The casements were lead-paned. There was, to Lucinda's relief, a big fireplace on the wall facing the great oaken bedstead with its red velvet tapestried bed hangings. There was a standing chest on another wall and an upholstered chair by the hearth.
"Where is Polly to sleep?" Lucinda demanded.
"There is a little chamber next to this room that Polly may call her own. She will spend many nights, I expect, in other beds," he said.
"Yours?" she replied scathingly.
The Master laughed. "Nay, my pet. I shall be spending my nights in your bed, teaching you how to be a good and obedient woman."
"I want a bath," Lucinda said. "I am sticky with your sweat and your juices, sir."
"Of course," he said pleasantly. "I shall have my servants arrange it, and they will help you as Polly is otherwise occupied. I must go back to the amphitheater to make certain the lasses from the village have arrived and all is as it should be." He bowed, and then was gone from the bedchamber, leaving Lucinda standing naked, and not just a little angry.
She gazed about her, shivering, for the evening was growing cool. The door to her bedchamber opened. She looked desperately about her for something with which to cover herself. She did not find it. A bare-chested, liveried footman in a white wig hurried into the room, going immediately to the fireplace to light the fire already laid there. He then rose and, turning, smiled at Lucinda, who was attempting to strategically hide behind the bed's draperies. The footman bowed.
"The bath is being brought, m'lady. Is there a particular fragrance that you prefer?"
"Lavender," Lucinda managed to say.
"Very good, m'lady," he said. "My name is John. My companions and I will be servicing you. Ahh, here is the bathtub. It's probably a bit old-fashioned to a London lady, but we can bathe you quite nicely in it," John assured her.
"I am quite capable of bathing myself," Lucinda said haughtily.
"We have our orders, m'lady," John said quietly.
She stood silent as the round oak tub was filled by two other footmen. John disappeared from the chamber for a brief few moments, returning with a vial he poured into the tub. Immediately the scent of lavender filled the room. With a smile he held out his hand to Lucinda as the two other footmen fussed about, laying towels across a towel rack they placed be-fore the fire. Taking the footman's hand, she allowed him to settle her in the tub. What else was she to do?
John pinned her thick hair up, then took up a large sponge. After rubbing a cake of hard soap across it, he began to wash her back. The sponge swept down the length of her back several times. It was followed by warm water laved over her skin until it was soap free. One of the other footmen placed a small goblet of cordial in her hand. "The Master has ordered it, m'lady," John said. "Please do drink it down while I continue to bathe you."
Lucinda sipped at the liquid. It had the flavor of ripe strawberries and was absolutely delicious. She drank it down as John washed her arms and neck. Now, as his hands moved to her breasts, Lucinda wondered why she wasn't distressed, but she wasn't. The sponge moved quite impersonally about the full mounds of flesh, brushing the nipples carelessly. He smiled at her as they thrust forward. Then his hands moved beneath the water to sponge her more private parts. Lucinda stiffened, but his actions while intimate seemed harmless enough.
"Please stand," he said, and when she had been helped up, he continued his careful bathing of her buttocks, pushing the sponge between her twin moons to cleanse there also.
Lucinda felt her face grow warm. In fact, her entire body was growing warm. The rinse water trickled down her skin and was strangely arousing. She tried to concentrate upon anything else and noted that the three footmen all had thick bulges in the groins of their blue satin knee breeches. John lifted her from the tub. At once the other two young men were wrapping her in warm towels, drying her, their hands moving sensuously over her body. She attempted to move away from them, taking the toweling in her own hands.
"Now, m'lady," John gently chided her, "you must not hinder us in our duties. We have our orders, and we never disobey The Master. We should lose our places if we did, and frankly our employment here is most pleasant. Please allow Dick and Martin to finish."
Her hands fell away, and the young footmen began to towel her again. When they had finished, they brought her to the bed, indicating she should lie down. "Where is my luggage?" Lucinda asked John. "I should like a night garment."
"The Master forbids it, m'lady," he replied, "but on his instructions, we shall soon have you warm." His hands moved to his breeches, and he released his penis. His companions did likewise, and the three young men drew her down onto the bed.
"I do not think…" Lucinda began nervously.
"Nay, you must not think," John said. "You are only to experience the pleasure we will give each other, m'lady." He was a pleasant-looking man of medium height with a stocky build.
"Until tonight," Lucinda said, "I have known only one man."
"That is as it should be, m'lady, but now you are in The Master's charge. This lesson we will give you while we await his return is a lesson in pleasing. You will learn to give as well as take. Do you believe your husband was a good lover, m'lady? Even virtuous women have an instinct for such knowledge."
"He was tender, and he was kind," Lucinda said. "I believe I grew to love him. I certainly respected him."
"But he was not particularly exciting, was he?" John said. "Here in The Master's house, m'lady, we will teach you excitement. Then when you choose your next husband, you will be able to enslave him with your skilled erudition. I think you will like that, m'lady."
"Indeed I will," Lucinda agreed, "although the three fools who have arranged for these lessons will not benefit from my new learning." Lucinda suddenly realized as she was speaking with John that her other two companions had arranged themselves on either side of her and had begun to play with her breasts. Her eyes met John's mild gaze, and he smiled.
"Is that nice, m'lady?" he asked her. His fingers began to massage her thigh.
Lucinda closed her eyes for a moment. The hands on her breasts and the hand on her thigh were indeed very nice. She stretched slightly, giving a little purr of appreciation. A mouth fastened itself upon her nipple. "Ummmm," she murmured. The second nipple was engaged. Both of her breasts were being suckled at the same time. It was quite a delicious sensation. One such as she had never before experienced. Fingers kneaded at her. Tongues and teeth teased at her sentient flesh. John's fingers brushed her dark bush. She let her eyes follow his hand, her thighs opening for him as he cupped her.
"Your mons is sweetly plump," he said. "I like a woman with a pillowy mons." His fingers pushed themselves between her nether lips, and he began to play with her sex. "Do you like that, m'lady?"
"Yes," Lucinda said with a small smile.
"You are getting nicely moist," he told her, his fingers working her harder, pressing into her love sheath, rubbing.
The door to the bedchamber opened, and The Master entered. He smiled at the lascivious scene before him and immediately began to undress himself. "Can you two greedy lads leave the lady's titties long enough to take my boots off?" he demanded of Dick and Martin.
They immediately jumped from the bed and went to his aid. Then he dismissed them, and with a wave to Lucinda they left the room.
The Master joined the two remaining figures upon the bed, saying, "Come, Lucinda, and play with my cock like a good girl."