The Irish Witch

The girl had auburn hair and fine blue eyes. Her name was Susan, and she was Roger Brook's daughter. She had been presented at Court the previous season and was just over seventeen.

Her companion was Charles, Earl of St. Ermins. He had inherited the tall figure and dark good looks of his ancestor, King Charles II, and was some six months older than the girl. His mother was Georgina, now, by a later marriage, Duchess of Kew.

Georgina and Roger had been life-long lovers; but, as a secret agent, he had spent much the greater part of the past twenty years abroad. In consequence, as Roger's wife Amanda had died when giving birth to Susan, Georgina had played the part of a mother to her. She had shared a nursery with little Charles and they had been brought up as brother and sister, sharing every joy, anxiety, distress and naughty prank.

Both had long held the opinion that neither could be equalled by any contemporary of the other sex and, at the age of twelve, they had secretly and solemnly become engaged. Neither of them had ever referred since to the matter, but both took it for granted that in due course they would marry and, after greeting Susan in her bedroom that morning, Charles had given her, if not a lover's kiss, something very near it.

That night Georgina was giving a New Year's Eve ball for them. For a few minutes they talked of a new dress that Susan meant to wear, then Charles said, a shade nervously:

'M'dear. I hate to break it to you, but you will have to choose another partner for the supper dance tonight.'

Susan's blue eyes opened wide and she exclaimed, 'What mean you? I fail to understand. We always have the supper dance together.'

‘I know it and am much distressed.'

'Oh, come, Charles! We agreed long since that both of us should amuse ourselves with such flirts as we wished. And you've made no secret of it that your latest is that Irish wench, Lady Luggala's daughter—what is her name?—yes, Jemima. Surely you do not intend to break our custom on her account ?'

'No, no!' He shook his head. ‘I find Jemima most amusing company, for she is witty and no prude. But I'd not cut a supper dance with you for any woman. 'Tis that after we have seen the New Year in I have another party that I have promised to attend.'

Susan frowned. 'A party of what kind ?'

'It is with friends I made whilst in London during the autumn. It is a very special occasion for them, otherwise I would not desert you.'

'Dam'me, I don't believe you.' Her voice rose angrily. 'Naught but a woman could induce you to throw me over in this way.'

'Nay, you are wrong in that. There will be women there, of course, but no-one to whom I am especially attracted. It is, in fact, just a club that provides unusual diversions in which I have become interested.'

'A club indeed! What sort of club? Charles, be honest. Is it that, now we are again in London, you mean to explore the pleasures of a brothel ?'

He bridled. 'No. This is no brothel. Though had I no prospect of relieving the emotions you arouse in me with some attractive woman, I'd not hesitate to go to one. Anyone of my age needs such an outlet from time to time. I told you last summer how I had first achieved man's estate with Mama's maid Harriet, and before she married our coachman last month enjoyed her a number of times. I told you, too, how I paid a midnight visit to Lady Wessex's bedroom while she was staying with us at Stillwaters over Christmas. In neither case did you show any undue perturbation, so why question my actions now?'

This was true enough. Susan had accepted the canons of her day and age that, from their late teens men were entitled to seek sexual satisfaction where they would, whereas girls of good family were required to remain chaste until they married. Then, if it was a love match, a wife could expect her husband to remain faithful to her, at least for a few years. Later perhaps both might seek pastures new, but in all other ways remain loyal to each other. Knowing that she aroused Charles's desires, she had felt it would be unreasonable to object to his satisfying his physical passions with other women; but only with the proviso that she retained his love.

And now that was the crux of the matter. For Charles to be slipping away from a ball given in his own house seemed to her a certain indication that he had started an

affair with some woman, and had become so enamoured that he could not bring himself to refuse her demand to celebrate the New Year by sleeping with her. To probe the matter further, she asked:

'This club you speak of, with its unusual diversions. What form do they take?'

'That I cannot tell you,' he replied. 'I have been sworn to secrecy.'

Tears started to her eyes. 'Charles, you're lying to cover up an intrigue. Are we now, after all these years, to start haying secrets from each other ?'

'That is the last thing I would wish,' he protested, then tried to take her hand. But she snatched it from him.

Hesitantly he said, 'I pray you bear with me in this. Although I am bound to secrecy about what takes place, I can at least give you some idea of the type of gathering I mean to attend. Have you ever heard of the Hell Fire Club?'

She nodded. 'I've heard vague talk of it. Back in the last century, statesmen and other prominent men used to meet on an island up the Thames. There was a ruined abbey there, in which they performed strange rites and copulated with women whom they imported for that purpose.'

'You are right. And it is to a revival of the Hell Fire Club that I belong. I find the secrets of the occult that are disclosed to me there most fascinating.'

'And, no doubt, the woman you are taking with you.'

'I am taking no-one. We draw lots for the women who are to partner us in the rituals.'

Forcing back her tears, Susan cried angrily, 'Charles, I do not believe you! For you to have bedded pretty Harriet and Lady Wessex was no shame. But to pleasure any slut that is thrust upon you is a very different matter. I do not believe that you would so demean yourself. All this is a tissue of lies designed to cover the fact that you love me no longer and have become besotted by some woman who insists that you sleep with her tonight. Very well then, do so. But what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.'

Charles came to his feet with a jerk and stared down at her in horror. 'Susan! Susan, you cannot possibly mean... .'

'Why not?' she retorted sharply. 'Surely you are aware that on reaching their teens girls are subject to the same urges as young men? Since I came out last season, half a dozen handsome beaux have implored me to give them a rendezvous. For your sake I have kept my virginity, but I'll admit that their petting has oft excited me. Why should I now deny myself the delights which several of my young married friends unashamedly extol ?'

'But, Susan! You are a girl of good family. How can you possibly contemplate lowering yourself by taking a lover?'

'Lowering myself, fiddlesticks! What of your Mama? Other mothers are oft stupid enough to keep their daughters in ignorance of such matters, but from the time I started to become a woman she has always talked to me frankly about the mating of the sexes. All the town knows that, whenever he is in England, my father is her lover; and, despite her marriages, has been for many years. Once when I pressed her, she confided to me that he first had her when they were both no more than fifteen.'

‘I know it, for it was a revelation that you in turn confided to me. But, as you are well aware, my mother has gipsy blood, so she is an exception to the rule.'

'Rule be demned! Well-born girls are no less passionate than those of the lower orders. Why should we suppress our desires? Go, have your new love if you will tonight, but in future, should I feel inclined I too will indulge myself with any man who takes my fancy.'