Astoria Park

"Nothing."

"Give over and let me see." Reluctantly the bag was handed over. A cursory glance revealed not one, but two bottles of gin inside. "Wot are you doing stealing my gin?" This question was closely followed by a heavy smack to the ear.

"I took it for some lads at school. They told me that if I could get some for them that they'd let me in their gang."

"I think that it's time I took a visit to that school of yours. It's costing me a pretty penny to have you taught right and I find that you're being taught to thieve, and from your own father."

The summons to appear before the Headmaster was both an inconvenience and a blessing for William Astor. It was an inconvenience to have to go into Sydney, a journey of several days, during the harvest season, but then he could kill three birds with one stone. He could combine this un-expected and inconvenient appearance before the Headmaster with a visit to his agent to discuss the sale of his wheat, and, while he was in town he could call on a certain lady friend who was always willing to accommodate his sexual desires in return for his contributions towards the rent on her house.

As he left the property and his wife behind him, his thoughts drifted to the accommodating Juliana Langtry and her beautiful body. Priscilla, he thought, was a more beautiful looking woman but it was a cold beauty, their lovemaking had taken on a sameness that came from familiarity, while Juliana was ever ready to do whatever he proposed, no matter how bizarre that might be. As his mind wandered into the near future there was a stirring of anticipation in his loins.

His horse stabled he caught a carriage to a small discreet terrace house in a small discreet street in Paddington. He had sent word ahead so that when he knocked on her door his knock was answered by a darkly beautiful young woman who threw her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately on the lips. "William, as always it is a pleasure to see you. How long will you be in town?"

"Three days only. I have an interview tomorrow with the Headmaster at Wills' school and then I have to meet with my agent for a few hours, the rest of the time is yours."

"What is your pleasure?"

"To get out of these dirty clothes and have a bath, then we'll see what happens."

She pulled a tassel and in a back room a bell rang. A woman emerged from the rear of the house. "Lily would you please run a bath for this gentleman and lay out his clothes on my bed." Lily picked William's valise from the floor and carried it into the main bedroom. Juliana went to a cabinet and poured William a whisky and invited him to sit beside her on the chaise longe. "What has young Wills been doing that has brought you into town to meet with the Headmaster?"

"It appears that he has been a part of a group of lads that have been caught drinking."

"You know what they say, boys will be boys. I suppose that you would have done the same thing when you were in school."

"Yes, but we didn't get caught at it."

"I hope for your sake that the school isn't too hard on the boys."

"We'll see I suppose."

As they chatted and drank Juliana's fingers brushed lightly up and down the inside of his thigh, the more she stroked him the longer and harder his penis became.

"The bath is ready Ma'am."

William and Juliana entered the steaming hot bathroom and Juliana closed and latched the door behind them. She reached for his coat and hung it on a peg on the wall before un-buttoning his shirt and placing it on a bench along with his trousers and under-garments. Before he stepped into the bath she knelt at his feet and, taking his now hard penis in hand, began to stroke and suck on it in the manner that she knew gave him great pleasure.

He stood looking down at her head bobbing back and forth, her long curls forming a black wave until, with a moan he emptied himself into her mouth. When he had finished she withdrew his penis from her mouth and looked up at him with a smile, a semen drooling smile, which told him that she had taken great pleasure in pleasuring him.

She stood up and kissed him before leading him to the bath tub. He tasted himself in her kiss.

Juliana washed him thoroughly, taking care to remove from him the dirt of the trail as well as the traces of their sex. When she had finished, she dried him thoroughly and led him to her bedroom, where the covers had been drawn back in readiness for them.

She did things to him that Priscilla would not. She allowed him to things to her that Priscilla would not.

Priscilla was seated at the dining room table as the kitchen staff cleared up from her solitary meal. She wondered if William had arrived in Sydney safely, whether he was staying at his club or a hotel, or whether he was staying with his whore. She knew of the existence of Juliana and was glad of it because she no longer felt guilt at denying him his obscenities, she would no longer have to tell him that she was never going to take his penis in her mouth, or allow him to put it in her anus. If he wanted that, he had his whore who was willing to do that.

She heard someone walking down the hallway from the back door. It could only be Ben Robinson, the overseer, the man who looked after the day to day running of the property. He was everything that Willy was not. He was tall and his body was tanned and toned from spending every day in all weathers, from the searing heat of the summer to the cold, frosty and wet days of winter. It was he who supervised the lambing during which he often spent all night helping the hands tend the ewes and their newborn lambs. He thought nothing of this because that was his job.

"Missus Astor, there will be a crew arriving next week to begin the spring sowing. We will need to get in extra supplies and let the cook know so that she can arrange for extra help in the kitchen."

"Ben, we've known each other for how many years now? Is it ten? I think that it is about time that you began to call me 'Priss' in private, after all we are friends, aren't we?"

"If you say so."

"Well we are. Now come here and sit down, I want to talk to you." Ben sat across the large table from her. "You work too hard, do you know that? What I would like you to do is to take the likeliest looking of the hands and teach him some of the things that you do yourself so that you can take some free time to do what you want to do. What do you do in your spare time? Do you have a lady friend that you call on?"

"I have none of that Missus, I mean Priss. I haven't had the time to take up with anyone."

"What about when you go to the pub, is there anyone there that you are friends with?"

"No-one, no-one at all." He said quietly.

"I tell you what, tonight, you will come and dine with me. It is ridiculous that I have to sit at this huge table on my own, with no-one to talk with. I want you to be my guest this evening, will you come?"

"I would be honoured."

"I'll see you then, there's no need to dress up for the occasion, just wear whatever's comfortable." Ben rose, bobbed his head to her and left.

Priscilla had just walked into the dining room when there was a tap at the door leading from the rear of the house. It was Ben. He stood self-consciously in the doorway waiting for permission to enter. "Come in Ben, don't stand on ceremony. Would you like something to drink while we wait for dinner, a whisky, or would you prefer beer?"

"Whisky would be fine thank you."

Priscilla went to the sideboard and selected one of the crystal decanters and poured both of them a liberal amount of whisky. Passing his to him she raised it in a toast. "Here's to a pleasant evening. Sit down why don't you." She indicated a chair opposite where she was seated, half way down the long table. She picked up a small bell and rang it. A minute later a serving girl walked into the room carrying a platter on which was a roast leg of lamb. She was followed by another with a dish of steaming roasted vegetables. "Would you carve?"

Ben picked up the carving knife and touched it lightly with his thumb to test its sharpness. Not satisfied, he picked up a steel and expertly honed the edge to razor sharpness. He then carved several slices and placed some on her plate and some on his. Priscilla lifted the bowl of vegetables to beside her plate and took all that she wanted before passing it over to him. She picked up the gravy boat and poured some of the rich brown liquid over her meat before passing it too, over the table to him.

"I think that we can dispense with 'Grace', don't you?"

"Never held any store in that, we know what's in the food and who produced it so why should we pray to God for providing something that we worked hard to produce." He cut a piece of lamb and placed it in his mouth. "I'll say this for Cook, she really does know how to cook lamb."

They ate in silence for a while before Priscilla broke that silence. "Don't you miss not having a woman in your life Ben?"

"Don't say that I miss something that I never had."

"You've never had a woman?"

"I had a girlfriend back in England before I came out, we was young and her parents didn't take kindly to her taking up with a farm boy such as me, so they shipped her off to an Aunt somewhere and I never saw her again."

"How sad. Have you ever made love to a woman?"

"Yes. A lady on the ship coming over invited me to her cabin one night, I met her as I strolled the deck getting some fresh air, it gets kinda stuffy in those cabins, so I went with her. She got off the ship at Cape Town."

"You haven't had a lot of luck have you?"

The maids came in and cleared up the plates from the main course. "Would Madam like us to serve dessert now?"

"Yes please." Presently a steaming treacle pudding and a jug of pouring custard were placed on the table and Priscilla and Ben helped themselves. This was followed by a good brandy and she offered Ben one of William's best cigars. He politely refused it.

After the table was cleared Priscilla stood up and extended her hand to Ben. He took it a in a handshake grip, but she withdrew her hand before he could shake it. "Come with me, I have something to show you." She held out her hand again, this time he took it in the correct manner and followed her down the hallway to the main bedroom. "This is where William sleeps." She then led him to the adjoining bedroom. "This is where I sleep. You will notice that there is no connecting door. What you don't know is that it has been an awfully long time since my husband and I have slept in the same bed. Oh he does come into mine occasionally to have sex with me, but there is no love involved. He is now probably thinking of what he will be doing when he is in bed with his whore in Sydney."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because my dear Ben, tonight I aim to rectify this deplorable situation. Tonight I want you to spend the night with me. Tonight I want to feel the arms of a man, a real man, around my body. Tonight I want to feel the penis of a real man inside me. Be that man for me Ben, please."

She turned to him and placed her arms around his neck and kissed him, passionately. He did not resist. He did not resist when she placed her hand over the bulge in his trousers. He did not resist when she placed his hand between her legs, she wore no undergarments. Neither of them resisted the needs of the other, Priss did to Ben the same things that she refused to do to William and she allowed, encouraged, Ben to do those things to her that she refused William. She was once more a complete woman.

Isobel poured over her books. In the background she could hear the other girls giggling with each other. That she didn't join them caused them to make fun at her expense, but she cared little for their amusement, nor did the reputation that she had amongst her peers, that of being aloof and distant. Her interests were wholly centred on gaining the best formal education that she could with the hope of becoming one of the few females who gained a position at University.

To be continued...