Each & Every Corner Ch. 05: Devoted

"A fancy evening out," said Ray. "For all three of us. And this is really the best you have managed to come up with. Please put my mind at rest and tell me at least that we're not going to the theatre."

Thursday evening found them alone in the house again. Lizzie was out for drinks after work. This was actually an event she wasn't only attending but which she had organised as well. She was intent on following Angela's advice and was taking her first tentative steps toward becoming a leader of her colleagues. Laying the foundations of her kingdom to come.

Sarah was barefoot and dressed in her thin cotton gi. She was stepping through a set of tai chi forms in the space she had cleared to one side of the room. Flowing forward, turning and rising, bending space into shape with her hands.

Meanwhile Ray was leaning back on the sofa, controller in hand, working her way methodically through the broken columns and dripping lichen-covered walls of a ruined city and laying waste to it's hapless skeletal citizens as she went. Her latest victim collapsed into shards and dust under the final blow of her axe, dropping the ladle and saucepan it had been desperately using to try to defend itself and its home as it fell.

Sarah glared over in exasperation, "As you're well aware darling my experience of the mysterious arts of seduction is only marginally greater than yours. So yes, unless you happen to have a yurt handy, that's my big idea. Got a better one? Then I'd love to hear about it. And anyway I like the theatre, it's got the drama and the special occasion atmosphere, so what's wrong with that."

Ray paused her game, throwing the controller carefully aside she looked back over at Sarah smiling with one side of her mouth and raising the corresponding eyebrow.

"No yurt, and no better idea as yet. And we'll all enjoy getting out whatever happens so ok why not, let's give it a shot. It's a shame we can't ask Lizzie for some advice really, she'd definitely know what to do."

This effectively broke the tension between them and forced a laugh from Sarah. She stopped what she was doing and went to sit down next to Ray, tesselating close in against her body.

"There is absolutely no way we're getting her drunk and jumping on her in a nightclub. And that, if I understand correctly, has been the classic Lizzie modus operandi up to now. Really Ray let's face it, neither of us would be any good at that at all, it would go amazingly badly. No, let's stick with what we understand. So we'll take her out and try to show how much we like her by treating her as well as we can. Even if it ends up going nowhere it'll be a lovely thing to do."

"Ok but, don't take this the wrong way - maybe something a little less stuffy than the theatre Sarah. What about that fairground thing they're having on Hyde Park. The adverts have been up absolutely everywhere and it looks really good. We can go during the day, stay until it's dark and sparkly and pretty, and it'll be more casual. I just think she'll feel more comfortable somewhere like that. We all will probably."

Sarah wriggled and squashed herself into Ray's side even harder, "Of course that's true, your idea is much better than mine. But Ray do you think Angela is really right, Do you think Lizzie does like both of us the same way we like her."

"Put your faith in Angela, Sarah," said Ray, a hundred percent confident in her closest friend. "She's nearly as good at getting inside people's heads as you usually are. And sadly you're out of action on this one on account of being blinded by your own emotions. Which is very attractive by the way but apparently not that useful."

She duly received the light punch on her arm which she'd been begging for. Then used it as her excuse to turn on Sarah, tickling her shrieking into submission before holding her down with one hand while she unknotted the tie of her gi with the other.

*****

The Hyde Park Autumn Fair turned out to be far more than it had sounded. It was practically a city in miniature, spanning the huge expanse of open parkland bordered by the Serpentine to the south and west, and stretching all the way up to Marble Arch at the opposite corner. Within these bounds the funfair itself, although gigantic in its own right, took up less than a quarter of the real estate. Dotted across the rest of the reserved area were a circus top, an open air cinema, an elaborately decorated Belle Epoque spiegeltent, and countless other smaller stages, pavilions, and bandstands.

Each one of these hubs was cunningly situated at its own intersection of carefully mapped out meandering paths, and each hosted its own individually curated itinerary of musicians, performers, and comedians. Turning any corner the three women might encounter just to give some examples, a stage magician, a duo beatboxing and taking requests from the crowd, or an acrobatic display team somersaulting over an artfully constructed scaffold sculpture. All of these and a myriad other spectacles were in their turn new delights to stop and enjoy for a while before moving on.

They even came across a yurt at one point with a chalkboard sign outside advertising Reiki, Hot Stone, and Shiatsu. Ray nudged Sarah as they were passing, "Shortcut?"

All the answer Sarah gave her was a pointy elbow to the ribs and a tolerant, if slightly withering look.

"Shortcut to where," said Lizzie brightly.

And Ray was left scrambling for a plausible reply while Sarah collapsed into peals of silent laughter out of Lizzie's view.

Lining the crowded makeshift streets between the foci of entertainment as they wandered around, were craft stalls and food sellers, artisanal producers and stockists of treats of all kinds from close at hand and from far away. At one tented table, advertising produce from the west country, Ray spotted a selection of the aged and infused apple brandies made on their family farm back home. Even better than that there were samples in tiny plastic cups for passers by to taste.

"You've got to try these Lizzie," she shouted excitedly as she ran over. "Our life's work this is."

Sarah and Lizzie strode after her more slowly, arm in arm. Darkness had fallen by now and the air was cooling fast, their breath already puffing mist into the air, so they were glad to have bundled up well.

"She'll have picked that line up from one of her cousins," Sarah said. "You can hear it in her voice when you learn how to listen and both of them are proper evangelists for the cause. It's so important to her the farm you know. They gave her a childhood there and I'd love them just for that even if I didn't love them for themselves. I think it will always be a very important part of her life, though it's been years since she moved up here. You'll be shown around the whole place when you come down to Somerset with us of course. The boys are bound to insist on giving you the grand tour. And you're going to adore Jennie and Lynne, they're the sweetest couple in the world."

"So I'm to come down to meet the family am I," said Lizzie. She found herself a little amused but very touched by Sarah's casual assumption.

"Oh absolutely." said Sarah. "That's definitely part of the plan."

"There's a plan?"

Sarah looked at her, she seemed very earnest all of a sudden. For a moment Lizzie thought she was going to say something else, but then Ray called impatiently back to them again.

"Lizzie, there isn't time for this right now, I'll tell you all about it soon though OK, I promise." Sarah said. "Right now let's not keep her waiting any longer or the poor thing's head will explode."

The moment passed and Lizzie shrugged her confusion off for the time being as it was eclipsed by the intense activity which quickly developed around the stall. It turned out Ray and Sarah had a passing acquaintanceship with the girls (Josie and Gemma) who were running the place so there were greetings, introductions, and polite conversational exchanges to be attended to. At Ray's insistence she tried sips of several different varieties of the fiery aromatic spirit but while they were juggling the tiny tumblers in the semi-darkness she completely lost track of which was which. She assured Ray she had enjoyed them all though and that seemed to suffice as a verdict for the present.

Then the roller coaster loomed ahead and the seats were in pairs so Sarah tactfully assured the other two that she needed to nip off to the toilets anyway, and that they should enjoy the ride on their own. Truth be told (though she never would have done so) the sensation of the world dropping away beneath her feet was not something she needed to experience again in this life. She would leave them to their fun and meet them again at the end.

And sure enough, when they stepped off and looked around to find her, there she was. Juggling hot sweet drinks and a waxed paper wrap of roasted chestnuts in her hands. Telling them excitedly that she had seen them at the zenith, seen them shining like a binary star, looking out onto the world from the top of the ride before tipping over the peak and going down the long slide together to join her again on the ground.

*****

When they made their way by taxi home it was late, but according to Sarah, today's self-proclaimed authority on the subject, not quite yet late enough for bed. She insisted they all get changed and that she would make them some hot chocolate to enjoy in the living room as they relaxed for a while before sleep. Nobody felt inclined to object to his so they reconvened there only a little later, with steaming mugs and looser clothing. Sarah, although she'd prepared the drinks, had somehow contrived to settle in first and had already curled herself deep into her favourite spot in the armchair before the other two made their way in and sat down on the sofa.

"Come on, snuggle up close then Lizzie," said Ray. "Your loss Sarah."

Lizzie lay back next to her, sharing her warmth under the blanket Ray had cast over them and they nestled there for a while and sipped their drinks. The three of them talked about the day, the things they had done and seen, comparing highlights and remembering how magical everything had been.

"What's on your mind Lizzie," said Sarah. After the conversation had slowed, when the dregs of cocoa were long cold, and the silence had drawn comfortably out for a while.

Lizzie had been drifting happily, the room had warmed up now and the blanket had slipped down. In fact she had been pretending Ray's arm around her shoulder belonged to a girlfriend of her own. Someone big and kind and supportive just like Ray, who would look after her and be nurtured by her love as much as she would be by theirs. Someone who could join her in a sharing of their lives and their meaning which would amplify them and make them collectively greater than the sum of their parts. Her quiet fantasy had aroused her a little, her skin felt glowingly warm, and her pupils had dilated, darkening her usually pale hazel eyes. She could feel she was getting a little wet and she even moved deliberately in her seat slightly so that she could savour that moist sliding softness, just for a moment. There was no real urgency to it though and she was contentedly basking in the idyllic world her imagination had built for her.

Sarah, tucked up in the armchair across the room, was facing toward them, and even as recently as couple of weeks ago Lizzie might have felt secretly embarrassed about being in this condition in their company, but now they had all grown so close recently that she found she didn't mind. Sarah and Ray wouldn't judge her, and she couldn't lie to them with her body by pretending she wasn't in heat. But at the same time they both knew by now that she loved them so deeply that she could never have thought of trying to come between them.

"I was thinking that days out and nights in with you two are the best things in the world, and I've had both of them today." she said. "It would make me so happy you know, if I could find something like that for myself, if I could just have what you two share with each other."

From her snug nest Sarah looked across at the two other women on the sofa, taking in the idling heated state of Lizzie in particular. Paying attention to the flush darkening her skin, that slight loss of focus in her eyes, the little movements of her hips which Sarah knew from her own bodie's responses would be deliciously addictive, priming that wonderful ache that just didn't want to let her stop. She knew as well that Ray would be acutely aware of the little humming ball of sexual tension she was cradling close to her and could easily imagine the effect this would be having on her wife's libido too.

It was Lizzie to whom she spoke but she was gazing into Ray's eyes as she did so, "You've said something like that before once upon a time I think Elizabeth my darling. And yes, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could stay like this forever, just the three of us, I think perhaps we'd all like that."

"Mmm," said Lizzie, revelling in the idea. She dimly felt the arm around her drawing her in tighter, curling lower around her body until Ray's hand was flat against her stomach.

Her thoughts flowed back over the evening again. How perfectly lovely it had all been. She couldn't remember having been happier. She'd been so moved by how Ray and Sarah had gone out of their way at every step to make her feel involved in it all, how attentive they had both been. Even though it had been so romantic, as they had picked their way from stall to stall, as they had looked out over the tens of thousands of coloured lights floating on the surface of the lake. Where the censors had filled the air around them with perfumed smoke while a thousand fireworks burst in the sky.

And surely they must have wanted it to be their night, but instead throughout the evening one or the other of them had been with her all the time, and generally it had been both of them. Making sure she was happy, making sure she had been left in no doubt that she was part of the team and not just a hanger on.

They'd been so solicitous of her she reflected, checking that they were doing whatever she wanted to do, making sure she had everything she needed. She paused to taste again the heady memory of walking on air, guided assuredly by a beautiful woman holding happily onto each of her arms. She'd not felt that she was getting in the way of their evening out at all, in fact looking back on it she'd felt like the entire centre of the thing. As if the two of them had only even been there to spend time with her. She gasped.

"Oh."

Sarah saw the dawning realisation break onto Lizzie's face along with that little exclamation and knew that their big secret was a secret no more.

"Yes," she said, "that's right Lizzie, you've got it. Maybe we should have said something earlier, but it was a difficult thing for the two of us you see, figuring out how we were going to try to explain how we feel about you. Because let's face it, it is all a little unusual. So we decided we'd try to show you instead. We wanted to let you see for yourself how special we think you are, and how much we would like you to be part of our family. We want you to know that would mean always sharing everything with you and that we'd be really happy if you thought you might want to try that too."

Lizzie, moved in her seat to stare at Ray, then back at Sarah again. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped short realising she had no idea what it was going to be. Sarah looking across the room at the two of them could feel her heart pounding. She waited, rapt, she'd said her piece now though and it was Lizzie's turn to speak.

Lizzie tried again and actually managed some words this time, "So you took me on a date, we've been out on a date."

She felt Ray's arm still around her where it had been casually comfortable while she'd been indulging in her whimsical fantasy. It hadn't really moved, it wasn't applying any more or less pressure than it had been before, just the same old arm. But suddenly it wasn't the same at all, suddenly it was making her feel very small, and safe and excited. The weight of the hand on her belly was transformed into an explicitly sexual promise. Ray's arm felt possessive and reassuring, and at the same time like the one true anchor which held her onto reality itself. Lizzie knew that she always wanted to know that would be there, every day for the rest of her life.

She could feel her pulse rising and the tension of each individual heartbeat as the nerves below her skin became more sensitive and the blood flowing through dilating capillaries stimulated them. Her arousal had changed up a couple of gears, from something casual and abstract into something more vital and demanding. Little trembling tendrils of desire were coiling down through her belly, melting her insides into a liquid thirst as they passed. Feeling a reflexive flash of guilt at this she automatically looked across the room to Sarah only to find that she was smiling hopefully, encouragingly, back.

"It seemed to us that you might be interested as well." said Sarah, "It seemed as if you might like both of us. You know, like us a lot I mean. And that you like might like to be girlfriends with us.

"Um, we're talking about team-of-three not two-plus-one if that makes any sense. We wouldn't do that to you, that's not what this is about."

Sarah took a deep breath, "Look Lizzie we're both terrified, and I feel like I'm fucking this up. We wanted to try to invite you to join in with our relationship but we've got no idea what we're doing or even how to talk about it properly, and you're probably just really freaked at the mom-"

"Yes." said Lizzie.

And time ground to a halt.

"I mean I am interested." she clarified into the silence, her voice cracking and squeaking as she spoke. She cleared her throat.

"Ok I'm a bit freaked out as well, it's a lot to take in, but mostly I'm really very, very, interested. I mean I'd have to be completely insane not to be wouldn't I."

"Thanks for stepping in there Lizzie." said Ray, "Sarah's usually pretty good at explaining herself but she can ramble a bit when she's nervous."

"Not nervous at all yourself then Ray?" said Lizzle as casually as she could manage.

Ray laughed, "Oh no don't be fooled, I totally am. It's a mess in here, butterflies in the stomach and all sorts. But it doesn't make me talk so much generally, and anyway we're going to be ok now right?"

"Hope so, although I'm still having a hard time believing you're serious."

"We couldn't be more serious," said Ray. "We've fallen in love with you. So if you think you might feel the same way, and we're really hoping you do, we would really like to try and make a proper go of it with you."

And it's all for one and one for all, eh?"

"Three Musketeers, hah, that's what I've been calling it too. Sarah hates it though, she says it's silly."

"It is silly," said Sarah. "And I don't want it to be silly, I want it to be wonderful."

"You see," said Ray. "So we're not allowed to call it that apparently. But yeah you've got it, all for one and one for all, that's the plan. And Lizzie, no messing, really completely cards on the table, we are totally committed to this."

Lizzie giggled, her voice still edged with just a slight note of hysteria. "The plan. Well to be fair you did tell me there was a plan Sarah, but I can't say I saw this one coming. Although you almost told me earlier didn't you, now that I think about it."

Sarah smiled, "I wanted to, and maybe I would have done if we'd not been interrupted. But I was scared of spoiling it if you didn't understand, or if you didn't want us. Because we were having such a lovely time, and you were so happy too, and it just didn't seem like the right time."