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“Now you must show just how Guillaume behaved and in what position he was when his hand slid under your kirtle, my daughter,” Father Lawrence said, and then I heard the bed creak more noisily with his great weight and strength and he too assumed his place upon it. I was in his cassock pocket, but evidently not too far from the bed, for I could hear clearly all that proceeded.

“It – it was like this, mon Pere. He lay on his left side towards me on my back, and he stared at my face and he blushed like a timid girl. Then I told him that if he loved me truly, he would not just stare at me but would find ways to praise me if he found me pretty.”

“So then you were the temptress rather than he being the seducer, my daughter?”

“Why no,” the dear child naively responded, “I did not do anything but suggest to him how he could please me. It was up to him to do it or not.”

Father Lawrence had indeed met his match in Louisette! Her casuistry was as able as that of the most skillful heretic in all Christendom who found himself on trial for his very life at the stake, if he could not avoid the ingenious pitfalls set for him by the bevy of Grand Inquisitors. I strained my flea-ish ears so that I would not lose a single word of this fascinating conversation.

“Well, we will let that pass for the nonce,” he said, and I thought I discerned a certain heaviness and huskiness in his voice. Also, there was another creaking of the bed which suggested that he had moved still closer to the charming Louisette. “Now show me exactly what happened next on the occasion of which you speak, my daughter.”

“Why, Father, I had hold of his hand, which was trembling, and I moved a little closer to him while at the same time drawing his hand toward my limb till his fingertips rested on my ankle. And then I stared up at him and said that it was very pleasant to be touched by one's intended fiance.”

“Well,” Father Lawrence thoughtfully responded, “it cannot be gainsaid that there is truth in that maxim, though from it may spring more dangerous ramifications which you yourself might never have intended. But continue, and spare not a detail of the incident, on your hope of salvation, my daughter!”

“Well, mon Pere,” Louisette continued in her charmingly sweet, little voice, “his fingers seemed to leap away as if he were afraid of being burned. But when I said that I was not offended, presently he put his hand back again, and this time all fingers firmly, on my calf. I kissed him on the tip of his nose and I giggled and I told him that I liked him very much and that it was very pleasant to have his fingers touch me so. Whereupon he kissed me hard upon the mouth and, doubtless in his excitement, mon Pere, his hand seemed to slide upwards. Before I knew its destination, it had slid under my kirtle and along my bare thigh just to the hems of my culottes. I then grasped his hand through my kirtle and told him it was not yet seemly for him to be so bold so soon, at least not till we were properly betrothed and had our banns read from the pulpit.”

“That was sensible and righteous, my daughter. But do not stop now, for you are at the very crux of your confession. Now, let me understand you, Louisette. You were lying thus and Guillaume – whom by now I am proxy for – was on his side towards you. It was his right hand, I presume which fell upon your dainty little limb?”

“Oui, mon Pere.”

“And then, from what you have just now told me, you kissed Guillaume hard on the mouth with his right hand already upon your slim ankle, like so? Well, let us repeat precisely those past actions, so that I may judge your audacity or ingenuousness, as the case may be.”

“Oh, Father, I – I should never be so bold as to offend you!”

“It will offend me more if you do not obey your guardian, dear Louisette. Come, kiss me now upon the mouth, and tell yourself that I am in Guillaume's place as his substitute.”

Upon such eloquent urging, many a far more mature female than the charming Louisette had capitulated to Father Lawrence. So I was not surprised when I then heard the sound of a smacking and rather long kiss, which, knowing Father Lawrence as I did by now, I am certain that he himself prolonged and abetted. There was now a stifled little squeal as Louisette fairly gasped out, “Oh, Father, F – Father, Guillaume did not put his hand up as high as that, truly he did not! Oh, and his fingers were never inside my culottes – oh, oooh, Guillaume – I mean, Father – you must not do that, it tickles me so much that my senses begin to swim!”

“Are you certain that this gentle young man did not, once he had found how satiny smooth the bare skin of your thigh is, dear Louisette, wish to taste with his sensitive fingers the sweetest fruit of all which nestles between those shapely limbs? Never once?”

“Oooh, m – mon Pere, well, perhaps just once, but it was over and not inside of my culottes. And that was on the day when he swore to me that he truly wished to wed with me, last week, when I begged him to help Denise and me to reach Calais.”

“So, my daughter, you have not been entirely honest with me, telling me at first, as you did, that it was only through the expedient of a few harmless kisses that Guillaume was willing to be your accomplice in this naughty and thoughtless escapade. Well, for your penance, since I now am not priest but man beside you, as Guillaume was, you shall have the proper conclusion of these licentious advances which you yourself contrived to bring about. And if I mistake not, Louisette, Guillaume must certainly have behaved very much as I shall now. I am going to tickle your tender little cunny, just as I am sure he either must have done or at least dreamed passionately of so doing. Ah, how delicate and dainty the lips are, and how they quiver and shrink with sensitivity though my forefinger scarcely brushes them! Oh, what is this? I feel a suspicious moisture, like the first drops of the morning dew upon the rose! And you begin to wriggle your saucy bottom on the bed as you feel my touch, do you not, Louisette? No, do not try to move away, for remember that we are enacting in full candor and unashamedly the secret tryst between you and myself who am now Guillaume!”

“Ooo, aahh, m – mon Pere, mon – oh, Guillaume, Guillaume, I cannot stand what you are doing, it is so sweet, it is so torturing, ohhh, mon petit con, you are making me burn with longing!”

Louisette's sweet clear voice had now taken on a huskiness not unlike Denise's. He had achieved that confession of fleshly weakness by frigging her soft virgin cunny.

“Now, my daughter,” he continued in a voice that was hoarser than ever, “you must tell me what he did with his left hand, which in your recital seems to have been unoccupied all that while. Take your own hand and hold my left and guide it to the place which Guillaume admired on that occasion.”

“Oh, Father, I – I shouldn't ever dare!”

“Take care, my daughter, lest I visit severe penances upon you for all your naughty deception. Do as I order, and no harm will befall you.”

“V – very well, mon Pere. It was here that Guillaume's left hand applied.”

“On your tittie! Oh, the rogue, the young scoundrel! Do you not see, my daughter, that by trying to play the guileless fool Parsifal, he was ingeniously achieving the goal of Lucifer himself! Taking pity on his innocence, as your good, young girl's heart bade you do, you allowed him to take liberties with you which only a husband should take with his beloved bride, and this without declaration of the holy banns. Oh, the wretch, would that I had him here before me to scourge him for his lubricity!” thundered the English ecclesiastic.

Then there was a moment's silence broken by the creaking of the bed and Louisette's soft, slurred moan of fleshy rapture: “Aaahhh! Oh, where have you put your finger, F – Father, oh Guillaume, you are touching my little button now, oh, I have never felt this way before, oh, oh, mon amour, do not stop now, I am going to faint with the sweet pleasure of it!”