Elizabeth 04: Late Summer (Part 2)

"We both tried to keep it to ourselves," Jonathan recalled.

"The way you tried so hard to be gentlemanly about it all," Elizabeth added, rubbing his back. "Then and now, we have nothing to be ashamed of! So what if we like rather more tea and wine than Irene and Benjamin do?"

"Or Alexandria," Jonathan agreed.

"Oh, heavens, that little brat," Elizabeth said. She let Jonathan continue to hold her, but the mood was broken for the moment. "I am afraid there is much more where she is concerned, Jonathan. It seems she knows all about my life at the baths, the pub, and even my body!" There was no need to tell Jonathan what aspect of her body she referred to; it was, after all, what Elizabeth was known best for in certain circles. "And the worst of it all is that Agnes seems to have told her all about it!"

Jonathan, to his eternal credit, was sceptical. "Agnes? Are you sure she would tell the children such things? Darling, she is not that naïve and certainly not that disrespectful of you! Or of any of us."

"But you heard her, outside the pub yesterday! About how Mr. Marlston wanted me to talk to Alexandria."

"Yes, and that is all she said."

"About Alexandria! Think of all she let slip about Irene! And me, for that matter!"

"All that pertained directly to her, though, Elizabeth. It makes no sense that she would tell Alexandria your secrets!"

Elizabeth slipped out of his embrace, and Jonathan looked around for something to cover himself in. With the changing of the mood, he now felt naked rather than nude. But there was nothing at hand, and a racy thought in the back of his troubled mind suggested it would help for Elizabeth to have an uninhibited view of his body. "It makes no sense that anyone would share that information with a fourteen year old girl!" she countered. "But clearly someone did!"

"Or she overheard it," Jonathan suggested.

"From whom?! Who would say a thing like that in her presence?"

"Someone who did not know she was listening?" Jonathan suggested. "Remember who we are discussing here, Elizabeth. Alexandria is hardly respectful of adult boundaries, is she? How many of her father's business associates might have made inappropriate comments about you over cigars and brandy in his study?"

Elizabeth nodded with an embarrassed smile. There had been several male visitors over the years who knew all about her hairy and horny reputation, a few of them first-hand. She had long suspected Mr. Marlston knew most of her secrets but was gentlemanly enough to keep such things mostly to himself. A stray look or word from him now and again had often raised her suspicions, as did his wife's frosty demeanour towards Elizabeth, but there had never been any proof.

"But Mr. Marlston would never discuss such things with his children!" Elizabeth finally protested.

"I never suggested he would. But darling, Alex is a little sneak, you know that. Is it really so hard to believe she may have taken to listening in on his meetings now and then, perhaps through an air duct?"

Elizabeth cringed, and Jonathan saw the unmistakeable look of one who has just put two and two together. "Heavens, Jonathan, that's it! How could I have forgotten that?"

"Forgotten what?" Jonathan asked. "Have you been to her bedroom? Is it just above her father's office, perhaps?"

"I haven't been there, no," Elizabeth said. "But every now and then she has complained of the stink of his cigars in her bedroom! One day she came to the nursery in tears and said she'd been whacked by the nurse for opening her bedroom window on a cold night. Of course I wondered why on earth she had done such a thing, and she explained how her father had been in a late night meeting in his study and the smoke from all the cigars had wafted up to her room. I remember it because I had been present at the meeting, and she was right, the air was positively dense with smoke. I could still smell it in my hair the following morning myself."

"So if the smoke was keeping her awake," Jonathan said, "the little wretch would no doubt be thrilled to sit by the vent and wait for some juicy gossip."

"And once she heard one intimate comment about me," Elizabeth continued.

"She would always be on the lookout afterward for more!" Jonathan concluded.

Elizabeth ran her fingers through her thick mane in frustration. "Dear God, I owe Agnes a lavish apology," she said. "Perhaps I should go to her room now..."

"Perhaps you should take some time to relax first," Jonathan countered. "Allow cooler minds to prevail. He touched her shoulder gently, and she arose and returned to his waiting embrace. The crisis over, she now allowed herself to enjoy his nudity once again; his bare body was delightful as ever in her arms! "Do you still want that tea?" he asked her now.

Elizabeth laughed. "Jonathan, I had no idea you felt any shame over the matter of our tea drinking!"

"I have had less practice than you in such things," he said.

"Well, I am capable of letting it upset me as well from time to time," Elizabeth admitted. "Alexandria certainly knew how to hurt me with it this morning. But never mind her now," she said, relaxing in Jonathan's arms. They swayed together in intimate comfort for a few moments, and Jonathan finally reached up to untie her dress. Just as he had the bow undone, Elizabeth frowned anew. "Oh, good heavens!" she exclaimed.

"What now?" Jonathan asked.

"If Alexandria knows so many of my secrets, is it not very likely that little Thomas does as well?"

"Elizabeth..." Jonathan began gingerly, with a grin he could not hide.

Elizabeth saw the grin. "You find that amusing, do you?"

"Hardly," Jonathan reassured her, taking her hand in both of his. Her dress slipped off her shoulders as he did, and neither of them tried to stop it or help it along. "It is only that Thomas is madly in love with you. You know that as well as I."

"I know it only too well," Elizabeth conceded, now pulling her arms out of her sleeves. Her dress floated gracefully to the floor and she stood before Jonathan in her brassiere and panties, which were bursting with hair at every edge as usual. "That is why it concerns me that he may have heard more than he should know about me."

"I assure you, Elizabeth, whether he has heard any of these things or not, in his imagination he knows all about your body – or at least his ideal of it! Remember, I was a twelve-year-old boy once, with a teacher I adored. I never heard the first thing about her private life, but I imagined at least as many steamy little details as I know about you in real life!" He stroked her bush gently through her panties as he explained. "Including what I wanted to believe she looked like in the nude."

Elizabeth allowed a relieved sigh. "I suppose this teacher of yours was as hairy as I am," she said with a chuckle.

"Nearly," Jonathan allowed. "And nearly as fond of sex as well." He now had her panties off and was running his fingers gently through her large triangle while Elizabeth squirmed in pleasure at his touch. "I say, Elizabeth, did you never have a male teacher – or some adult in your life – at that age to whom you were attracted?"

Elizabeth dissolved into quiet but salacious laughter, as she recalled the butler's young assistant her parents had hired the year before she had been sent off to school. "Mr. Penton," she recalled. "I do not believe I ever even knew his first name, yet somehow I knew all about what his body looked like underneath that crisp uniform of his. I knew just how long his cock was, and how thick it grew when hard, and...well, those were the days when I believed all adults were ever so hairy down below as I already was by then – this was before I was aware of how unusual I was, you will recall – and I would imagine him disrobing casually for me to admire, and maybe even let me touch it...oh, dear, and Thomas probably imagines me doing such things for him all the time!"

"And so what if he does, Elizabeth?" Jonathan reassured her. "This Mr. Penton never did anything inappropriate with you, did he?"

"True, he did not," Elizabeth agreed. "And I would never be inappropriate with Thomas."

"Then there is no harm done. Indeed, Elizabeth, perhaps it is best that he has you to practice growing up on from a safe distance."

"Jonathan, that's a perfectly lovely thought!"

"Perfectly lovely is correct," Jonathan whispered in her ear, and simultaneously he eased his middle finger into her perpetually hungry vagina.

Elizabeth felt her breath catch in her throat as she lay back on her bed and indulged in his expert inner massage. There were no more thoughts of the children – or of me, I suppose – as he rubbed her slowly and teasingly into a lather. "Oh, Jonathan...ohhhhhhhhh!" She wriggled in delight as his fingers disappeared into her lush bush time and again, only to reappear glistening wet a moment later. She opened her eyes but once, to be satisfied with the sight of his fully-engorged cock at the ready. That only increased her hunger as she feasted on his gentle fingers.

Just as Elizabeth's moans were reaching their telltale fevered pitch, Jonathan slipped his fingers inside and held them still. Her ecstasy turned to sweet frustration, she opened her eyes to see him grinning innocently at her. "You marvellous torturer, you!" she exclaimed, squeezing her inner muscles around his still-unmoving fingers.

"Why, thank you!" Jonathan slipped his fingers out, a sensation that was pleasant but too slight to satisfy her longing; and he climbed atop her.

With a relieved sigh, Elizabeth took his cock in her hands and guided him in. With a satisfied grunt, she whispered, "That was worth waiting for."

"I am ever so glad it was!" Jonathan whispered. But he was not done teasing Elizabeth. He pulled back nearly out, very, very slowly, and then eased back in just as slowly. Gazing lovingly into her eyes, with no sound but the rain against the windows, he continued to make love to her but an inch at a time. Gliding steadily, slowly, in and out, he went on for how long neither of them knew or cared.

With only Elizabeth's mellow moans to mark the time, Jonathan was nearly ready to graduate to a higher pace when she spoke at last. "Jonathan, this is beautiful!" she whispered. "Make it last forever!" And with that encouragement, he did not increase the pace one bit. The frustration of her just-missed orgasm now forgotten, Elizabeth indulged herself completely in the gentle sensation he was inspiring within her. The occasional further encouragement escaped her lips – "This is unbelievable...Never stop!" – but nothing else disturbed the magic in which they were enveloped.

Jonathan lasted so long he was tempted to look at the clock; but he knew better than to do so. He hoped – in vain towards the end – that Elizabeth would come, yet he knew it was unlikely at such a slow pace. For many minutes he was likewise in no danger of bringing the magic to a close; but inevitably, he did feel the gathering storm deep within his loins. Try as he might to put it off, his orgasm washed over him and he came to rest buried deep inside Elizabeth. When the moment arrived and he collapsed atop her, she threw her arms around him and all was quiet.

All was quiet for a moment or two, in any case, before Elizabeth broke the silence with her weeping.

Jonathan propped himself up on his elbows. "Elizabeth? What's the matter?"

"Sorry, Jonathan, no one has ever been that gentle before," she said through her tears of joy.

Realizing now that they were tears of joy, Jonathan pressed his body up close against hers once again, and she squeezed him as tightly as she could. There were no more words for several minutes.

But Jonathan suspected that Elizabeth, although delighted, was not finished. When at last he had rolled off her and onto his back, she confirmed as much with a playful hand around his now-soft cock. "Is the poor dear asleep already?" she cooed.

"It would appear not," Jonathan conceded, as he felt himself stiffening once again. Though he was now ready to sleep, he could hardly deny Elizabeth a second helping after such a wonderful session.

"How can I persuade you to take another round?" she wondered aloud, both of them knowing the rigidity in her hand rendered the point moot.

"It appears you needn't persuade me, now doesn't it?" Jonathan asked. And with no more words, Elizabeth climbed onto him and once again enveloped him.

She went at him just as hard and fast as he had been gentle in the earlier session. She rocked hard back and forth, even leaning back on her palms and moaning at the ceiling. Jonathan was tired, but not too tired to reach up and run his fingers merrily through her bush as he knew she loved, even reaching in with one thumb to graze her clitoris. Elizabeth yelped loudly at his touch, and ground hard into him as her belated, intense orgasm at last washed over her. Jonathan had no trouble in joining her moments afterward. Satisfied at last, Elizabeth lay down to kiss him, still clamping him within until she felt his erection receding, and soon they were fast asleep in a joyful jumble of arms and legs.

I, who knew none of what had transpired in Elizabeth's room, was caught unawares at breakfast the following morning when they both appeared in the doorway. Instinctively, I tore my gaze away and wished I had a newspaper to bury my face in. The discomfort was fleeting, for Elizabeth and Jonathan both joined me at the table with apologetic smiles. "Agnes, I am sorry," Elizabeth announced. "I believe you didn't tell Alex anything."

"You believe?" I was relieved, but still rather upset. "Does that mean you are sure?"

"Yes," Elizabeth said. "Completely. I still don't know just how she learned what she knew, but Jonathan and I have a good idea of it."

"How, then?" I asked. "If you wish me to forgive and forget, I'd like to know what bright idea came over you."

"The air ducts," Jonathan said. "We think she heard someone – maybe several someones – talking about Elizabeth in Mr. Marlston's office, from her room."

"Listening through the air ducts?" I asked. "Yes, that makes as much sense as anything. But I won't lie to you, Elizabeth: I am hurt."

"I do not blame you," Elizabeth said. "I truly don't."

"Just what has overcome all of us lately anyhow?" I demanded. "Suddenly we are all so angry at one another, and all for no good reason." After a pause, I conceded, "Okay, Benjamin has a good reason."

"But he's not angry at you," Jonathan countered. "Not anymore, in any event. I spoke to him yesterday."

Now, that was a relief! "He got my letter, then?"

"Yes, and he accepts your apology. And..." Jonathan looked around to ensure neither the children nor the servants were present to overhear him, and they were not. "...Well, Agnes, let's just say I saw his reaction when we talked of your fun with Irene and Elizabeth, and clearly he did not find it fully disagreeable."

It took me a moment to understand just what he meant, but in good time I made sense of it. We then shared a laugh and I enjoyed a jolt of titillation within.

"I think we are badly overdue for our retreat together," Elizabeth concluded. "Don't you both agree?"

"Completely," Jonathan and I said in unison.

The issue remained of Irene and Benjamin and their relationship. None of us wished to pry, of course, and at least we knew Benjamin knew and approved of Elizabeth's proposal. Though we had little doubt Irene would be open to joining us, none of us knew just how – or even if – to address her just then.

As usual, Elizabeth was more than up to the task. Unbeknownst to Jonathan and myself, she sent Irene an invitation to meet for lunch that day. Though Irene did not respond to the invitation, she did arrive unannounced shortly before noon. Because the secretary knew her well, she bade Irene see herself to Elizabeth's office. "Yes?" Elizabeth asked when the door opened, not looking up from her work.

"Erm, hello," Irene said, more nervous than she had ever felt with Elizabeth since their awkward first meeting in the baths.

"Irene!" Delighted, Elizabeth set down her drafting pencil and rushed around the desk to embrace her friend. "It has been far too long!"

"I'm sorry I did not respond to your invitation," Irene said, somewhat reluctantly returning the hug. "I was uncertain as to whether I was up to coming by today."

"That is perfectly all right," Elizabeth said.

"You say that, but I'm afraid there are some things you don't know about what went on while you and Jonathan were away," Irene told her.

"Agnes told us all about it," Elizabeth said as gently as she could.

"Oh, dear God!" Irene looked horrified in the instant Elizabeth could see her face, before she turned away and retreated behind Elizabeth's desk to stare out the window.

Elizabeth gave her friend the space she so clearly needed in that moment. But she addressed her from behind. "Irene, it is all perfectly all right as far as I am concerned. What you and Agnes did is none of my business, and I understand Benjamin has forgiven you both."

"Then Agnes did not tell you about...my private desires?"

"I am afraid she did, and I am most sorry she violated your trust, Irene. But I take no offense at your thoughts." She paused and hoped Irene would look back at her, but she did not. "Indeed," Elizabeth pressed on, "It sounds like great fun. For Benjamin and me both."

Irene still did not turn to look at her friend, but she did allow for a nervous laugh which slowly grew heartier and more comfortable. At long last, she did turn around. "I appreciate your open-mindedness, Elizabeth," she finally said. "I do, really. But I am absolutely mortified nevertheless."

"What have you to be mortified about, Irene?" Sensing it was now welcome, Elizabeth reached out and slowly took her friend in her arms. "How much time have we spent together at the baths? You knew my body before you knew my name, and we did have that night with Agnes!"

"Thank you, yes," Irene admitted. "But I still feel a poor excuse for a friend for not telling you myself. And it was most unfair to Benjamin as well."

"Have you spoken to Benjamin since you confessed to him?" Elizabeth asked.

Irene shook her head.

"Well, then," Elizabeth said, turning to lock the office door. "You will be delighted to know he and Jonathan had a chat about it at the baths yesterday, and the very idea had him harder than a rock."

Irene dissolved into relieved laughter. "What a lovely image that is! Lest you think I care only for women anymore, Elizabeth, I can assure you..."

"No explanation necessary, dear," Elizabeth told her. "I know perfectly well how fond you are of Benjamin and all parts of his body." It then occurred to her that Irene was the last of the gang to have no knowledge of her holiday plans. "And on that topic, Irene, there is a wonderful idea I had after Irene broke the news to me. We all had a rather unpleasant weekend, if the truth be told, and the more I think about it, the more I believe it is an idea whose time has come."

"What would that be?" Irene asked.

"A private retreat for the five of us, at the seashore perhaps."

"A private retreat?" Irene asked?

"Exactly what you are thinking," Elizabeth reassured her. "A chance for us all to clear the air, and act out any fantasy with which we are all comfortable. Sort of a last hurrah before Jonathan and I are married – and you and Benjamin should it come to that."

"He hasn't proposed," Irene said. "And now I'm not certain he ever will."

"Perhaps," Elizabeth told her. "But he has agreed to my proposal. So have Jonathan and Agnes. But if you are uncomfortable with it –"

"I'm not!" Irene said it so quickly and emphatically that soon they were both laughing together at her eagerness. "Thank you, no, I am most interested." After a comfortable lull in the conversation, she spoke up again. "Of course, this could change everything between us all, you know."