'B… but Mary…', stammered Reggie.
'Why yes, of course. There is no need to leave her out of things, dear boy, is there?' counselled the Vicar gravely and then guided him without.
Chapter Three
A sense of devil-may-care ran deeply in the veins of Reginald Markham on his return. Intoxicated by thoughts of what was to be, he entered the house quietly, expecting Vanessa to have returned to bed, but by then she had regained her composure and, in her outward self, was as placid as she had first been upon the arrival of the Vicar.
No longer, however, was she the same young woman, as she well knew. Always introspective and hence often a dreamer, she felt herself now to have been shifted into a new and different compartment of life. The appearance of her brother in the drawing room, wearing a brasher air than he normally had, gave her reason to believe that he, too, had suffered a sea-change, so that her immediate and stiffly-put question to him immediately was, 'Where have you been?'
'I returned the Vicar's visit', replied Reggie calmly, though inwardly he was trembling with excitement.
Even to Vanessa it seemed that his eyes pierced the brown and white gown she had donned, seeing beneath it the ivory columns of her thighs, the proud thrusting of her breasts whose hot nipple he had felt brushing his hand, the cleft between her wondrous buttocks, and the hairy dell that nestled so invitingly between her thighs.
'Why?' Vanessa asked, producing a slight tremble in her voice that was real enough.
Despite what he had been advised to do, Reggie then drew from his bulging pocket what Vanessa had in fact tremulously sensed was already there. Tossed into her lap, the thick strap slithered like a snake and then hung its head down the side of her leg, causing her expression to become frozen.
'You are to replace it beneath your pillow where I found it, Vanessa. It will be required tomorrow'.
'wh… aaaart?' Her fingers trembled in touching it and then fell away.
Bravado still upon him, and in the manner of a man who thinks he can conquer the world with but a stick in his hand, Reggie fell to his knees before her and to a smothered screech from Vanessa ran both hands upwards beneath her voluminous skirt and assailed the creamy surfaces of her thighs where he could also so excitingly feel her garters and her stocking tops.
So swift and unexpected was the assault that for a frenzied moment Vanessa felt much as she had done with the Vicar in her bedroom. Instead of fending her brother off, she bit her knuckles to prevent herself from crying out for Mary. Even as he endeavoured to force her legs apart, her face went wildly to the door, but it was closed and all beyond was quiet.
'He will attend upon you again, Vanessa, and you will again remove your drawers when he does so and…'
'You brute! What has come over you! Oh my God, no, you dare!' came her cry as the fingers of his right hand succeeded in insinuating themselves between the upper silky surfaces of her thighs to caress the cunnylips that protruded so boldly through the fresh batiste drawers Vanessa had donned. Feeling their emergent moisture through the material, Reggie grew even more enraged with desire and made to dip his head beneath her upraised skirt.
'hah! no! mary-eeee!' Vanessa screeched at the top of her voice and with such rending volume that an appalled Reggie immediately scrambled to his feet and cast open the door just as the maid appeared upon the threshold.
'Yes, ma'am, what is it?' Mary asked anxiously, trying to peer past Reggie who successfully blocked her view.
'Nothing, Mary-we were merely playing. Will supper be ready soon?' Reggie asked in as steady a voice as he could control.
'Yes, sir, but…
'Be a good girl then and do your tasks', Reggie commanded, trying to ape the manner of the Vicar while Va-nessa sat trembling and silent, and thankfully beyond the view of Mary whom she had so involuntarily called. Yet even as her brother closed the door again, she gathered herself and rose, her face flushed and her breasts rising and falling. Such was the expression on her face that her brother's countenance fell.
'Dearest…', he began weakly.
'I shall take supper in my room', Vanessa replied stiffly and all but thrust him aside with her arm so that Reggie was caught between apprehension and anger at having been so thwarted.
'Then you had best take this', he rejoined, snatching up the tawse which had fallen to the floor and thrusting it into her hand.
'Oh, is that what you want?' Vanessa sneered. She was minded to cast it down again, but upon thinking that Mary might see it and that in any case it was better in her possession than his, she swept proudly and swiftly from the room, leaving Reggie rather aghast at the wilfulness of his actions which had followed like a wave upon his visit to the vicarage.
Better to have followed the Vicar's advice, he told himself mournfully, for he could no longer conceal from himself his lust for his beautiful sister while as for Vanessa herself she found herself caught between bewilderment and her own arisen desires which her body could no longer deny. So fraught with tension was she that upon reaching her room, she rang for Mary who came up at a trot.
'What, ma'am?' Mary asked, finding her Mistress seated and looking woebegone.
The intuitions of a female are sharp and Mary herself knew that something strange was afoot, though she could not fathom what.
'Mary, I will have supper up here, and then pray will you stay with me tonight for I feel restless and strange'.
'Ma'am?' blurted Mary to whom such a request was overwhelming. Quickly enough she gathered herself, however, for she suspected that all had something to do with what had just occurred downstairs, and hence she answered, 'Oh yes, I would like to. Whenever you retire, ma'am, I will come up immediately'.
'Thank you, Mary', Vanessa replied faintly, and thus Reggie partook of a lonely supper, smoked another cigar, drank several whiskies with bravado and told himself smugly that Vanessa had at least obeyed in returning the tawse to her room. She jolly well knew what she was going to have now, he thought, and stomped up to bed without so much as a goodnight to Mary who sniffingly told herself that it was all his fault.
No sooner had Reggie entered his room than the waiting maid followed in his footsteps and entered Vanessa's room with a sense of awe and excitement. Vanessa lay abed already, saying in a seemingly weary voice, 'Hurry, Mary'.
'Yes, Ma'am'.
From that moment on an electric atmosphere seemed to fill the darkened room. With a curiosity, shy but eager as it was, Vanessa turned lazily in the bed and watched the nubile young girl casting off her dress. Dim as Mary's figure was, it looked even more alluring to the young woman who saw to her surprise how slim the young girl was, how firm her melon-like titties and how apple-round her bottom. Even as Mary began to discard her petticoat and uttered, 'Oh, ma'am, I forgot my nightdress', Vanessa replied softly, 'It's all right', and reached out an arm to her, drawing the naked maid into her bed which Mary found deliciously warm and soft.
What happened next could only occur between intense lovers or two females whose silent understanding is complete. Their lips met in a quivering of desire, bringing Vanessa to pass her hand up and down Mary's thighs and to mould her fine silky hips. Not a word passing between them and only the hurried breathing from their mouths betokening the coming of a storm, their tongues met, whereat a thoroughly excited Mary immediately passed her own hand up beneath Vanessa's cloudy nightgown and found the velvety orb of her bottom.