Elizabeth 04: Late Summer (Part 1)

"By choice, undoubtedly," Jonathan replied. "There are none so blind as those who choose not to see, and all that. So many of our parents' generation are of that mind, you know. And yes, she always has been that way. Heaven knows how she and Dad ever came to go about creating me."

"I know that feeling all too well," Elizabeth acknowledged. "But it seems your grandmother was quite the exception?"

"Feisty in her old age, I suppose," Jonathan admitted. "I do hope I did not give you the idea that she was any sort of pervert, Elizabeth. She never acted inappropriately with me in any way, I assure you."

"Of course," Elizabeth said, but she knew it sounded uncertain.

"She merely wanted me to understand the facts of life, and she knew my mother well enough to know she -- Mother -- would never tell me certain things a boy ought to know. Besides, Elizabeth, I think she may have been something like yourself when she was younger. She shared few details, but I often got the impression she had had a rather wild youth. I don't know just how Dad turned out so much more conservative."

"How can we ensure that our children won't make that same mistake, do you suppose?" Elizabeth mused. "Perhaps we need to avoid being too forward, do you think?"

"I think that may have been Grandmother's mistake, as it happens," Jonathan said. "I suspect that was why she was so upfront with me about sharing so openly. Perhaps she did not want to repeat the mistakes that had made Dad so uptight."

Elizabeth was silent for the next few steps, and then began laughing gently. "I do apologize, Jonathan, but I cannot stop imagining just what all this may have been like!"

"More chaste than you can imagine, believe it or not," Jonathan said. "All perfectly natural and healthy. Of course, when she was out and about and I could get those art books to myself..." He did not finish his thought, for they were both laughing quite hard by then.

It was in the easy silence that followed their laughs that they heard other whoops and hollers from somewhere beyond the thick woods alongside the road. "Oh, heavens, that's a disappointment," Jonathan said.

"What, that we're not alone?" Elizabeth asked, thinking it would be far less like Jonathan than herself to have dreamed up such a plan.

"Well, yes," Jonathan conceded. "I could hardly explain it in my parents' presence, but I did have an ulterior motive for this walk, I'm afraid." His face grew into a reluctant grin, which he finally gave up trying to hide. "Just beyond those trees is our beloved swimming pond, as the gents all called it. Home from university in the summer, you went there to swim in the altogether, and to try to convince the ladies to do the same. Every now and then we succeeded."

It was no surprise to Jonathan that Elizabeth was perfectly delighted. "That sounds absolutely lovely! Especially in this heat, and all the dust...a swim is just what the doctor ordered, isn't it, darling?" She stepped gingerly off the road and into the tall grass bordering the trees, already on the lookout for the young swimmers on the other side of the wood.

"Yes, but Elizabeth -- company!" Jonathan protested, nevertheless following in her footsteps.

"The more the merrier, Jonathan."

"I must warn you, though, usually it's all or mostly male..." his voice trailed away as he realized that would only make the prospect all the more attractive to his beloved Elizabeth.

He was correct. "Young and inexperienced men, then, Jonathan? All the better that they see an unorthodox beauty like mine and come to appreciate that most women do not look like those paintings your grandmother gave you!"

Jonathan burst into nervous laughter, and admitted happy defeat as Elizabeth took his hand and found her way through the trees. The woods were as thick as Jonathan recalled, and they were nearly to the clearing before either of them could see their fellow summer revellers, though they could be heard all the way back on the road. Mostly male from the sound of it, as Jonathan had warned, but there was at least one female voice among the cacophony.

One female voice and two other women holding their tongues, Elizabeth and Jonathan discovered as they emerged into the dazzling sunshine that reflected ever so brightly on the water. They were seated on an old log on the bank, all fully clothed in the fashionable lacy off-white university dresses of the day, two brunettes and a pale blonde; the loud voice belonged to the latter, who was teasing the nude men in the water. Three of them as well, from the looks of it, all frolicking barely-decent in the muddy water. "Somersaults, then!" called out the blonde. "Show us all what you've got if you're so eager to bare all!"

"Going to join us when we do, then?" called back one of the men.

"Wouldn't you love to know!" she replied. Turning to her companions, she added, "Right, girls?"

"You'll never get me in there in the presence of any of you!" replied the taller and plumper of the two brunettes. "Man, woman or both, forget it!"

"Heavens, I remember feeling that way!" Elizabeth exclaimed quietly as they stepped out into the open. She was not quite quiet enough, for the three young women heard her and all turned to see her and Jonathan.

"Company, then," said the blonde, with an uncertain smile. "Hope you don't mind the view!"

"Not in the least," Elizabeth said, gazing happily out at the pond, where the three bathers seemed by turns titillated and intimidated at her presence. "Such a shame, though, that you ladies aren't also enjoying the water. Aren't you horribly hot and sticky in those dresses, and the refreshing water right here for us all?"

"It's a man's game, isn't it?" suggested the brunette who had just proclaimed her privacy. "As long as they don't mind, why should we have to pretend to be like them?"

"I rather think it is how you are not like them that appeals to them," Elizabeth said with a chuckle. She then extended her hand to shake. "My name is Elizabeth, by the way, and this is my fiancé Jonathan."

"Jonathan Wright, from town!" came one of the male voices, followed by the splashing of water as the owner of that voice made for the shore. "I'll be damned!"

Elizabeth had just enough time to learn her new friend's name was Frances, and her two compatriots were Molly (the other brunette) and Gretchen (the loud blonde) before the urge to turn around and greet the nude man on the bank became irresistible. He was dripping but utterly uninhibited as he made his way up the bank. "Jonathan, you devil! I heard you were engaged. How's Westfordshire City?"

Elizabeth tore her gaze away from the stranger's lovely male body to look at Jonathan. She could see that he was struggling to recognize the man. At long last it came to him. "Keith!" he exclaimed. "Our neighbour," he explained to Elizabeth. "I am sorry, Keith, I hadn't recognized you. All wet and all grown up, you see." Turning to Elizabeth, he said, "He was barely into his teens when I left for university. I take it you're there now, Keith?"

"Indeed!" Keith said. "Summer term is out for a week. Brought back my closest pals and our girls for a swim -- Mum and Dad are abroad and don't even know we're here -- but you can see we haven't had a lot of luck coaxing them into the water." He turned to Elizabeth. "And your name...Elizabeth, was it?"

"That's right," and they shook hands, Elizabeth recalling her manners just in time to look him only in the eye. "And you will have no trouble coaxing me into the water, if your dearly beloved don't object to you having female company?"

Keith looked down at his naked body. "I am hardly in a position to complain." Even as he said it, he -- and all assembled -- saw his cock growing stiff at the anticipation of Elizabeth undressing. The other women on the bank looked on in wonder at the spectacle, though they all remained seated. "Oh, I am sorry about that," he said, looking back and forth to her and Jonathan. "Can't be helped, but perhaps I should hide in the water."

"Nonsense!" Elizabeth exclaimed. "Jonathan will tell you, I do not embarrass easily. At least not when it comes to such things as that." Turning to him, she asked, "Shall we?"

"Absolutely," Jonathan said, swallowing his mild embarrassment at the prospect of going nude in the presence of Frances, Molly and Gretchen. It would hardly do for him to remain shy forever if he were to be spending his life with Elizabeth and her delightful lack of inhibition, after all. He loosened his belt buckle, pausing there when Elizabeth presented her back to him so he could untie her dress.

"Come on in when you're ready!" Keith said, and he turned to join the other men in the water.

"I had hoped you might get to meet some of my hometown friends," Jonathan said as he pulled Elizabeth's dress down carefully around her middle and her hips, thus regaling the unsuspecting audience with the first hint of her big bush, barely contained in her bulging panties and readily visible around the edges. It would soon occur to Elizabeth that this was the first time in years that her reputation had not preceded her in this regard. The other women stared shamelessly, in any event, while Keith and his friends did their best to look without staring. "But most of the lads I grew up with are long gone just like me. And Keith, well," his voice dropped to a whisper as Elizabeth stepped out of the dress and he lay it carefully on a rock. "He was only a kid when I knew him."

"He certainly isn't that anymore," Elizabeth said as she reached back to undo her brassiere while Jonathan kicked off his shoes and unbuttoned his pants. He was just as hard as Keith, whether out of nervousness or titillation, and he did not begrudge the admiring looks from Frances, Gretchen and Molly. In light of subsequent events, though, he could not be sure that Frances was not paying more attention to Elizabeth than to him.

"Lovely looking, there!" Gretchen encouraged him.

"Why, thank you." Jonathan swallowed the last of his inhibitions and pulled his shirt off. Elizabeth was fully nude by the time he had it off, much to the delight of Keith and his friends. She and Jonathan both wondered for a moment if her huge bush would not go over well with them; but if any of the men had any such complaint, it was well hidden. And that was all that was hidden as Elizabeth pranced into the cool water. Jonathan, now equally bare, dared one last shy look at the women before he turned to follow Elizabeth in. "Sure you don't care to join us?" he asked.

"I think I might," Frances announced, a pleased look on her face. She was looking at Elizabeth rather than at him, and all at once Jonathan understood both her earlier reticence and her change of heart. So, naturally, did Elizabeth, who gave Frances a knowing smile just before she splashed into the water.

"You?!" Molly exclaimed; she, unlike Frances, was admiring Jonathan's nude body. "You've been the one holding us all back!"

"I've done no such thing, Molly!" Frances protested. "You could have joined the guys anytime you wished! You've just sat there just like me."

"No need for me to say anything when you were so adamant," Molly argued.

"She's right, Frances," Gretchen said. "You've been the prude here."

"I didn't see you tearing your dress off!" Frances exclaimed.

"I just didn't want to be the only one of us among the guys!" Gretchen shot back, loudly enough to be overheard by everyone in the pond. "And now that I won't be..." Jonathan saw her stand up and take the sash of her dress in both hands; he turned away to offer her a modicum of privacy and was greeted with the happy sight of Elizabeth frolicking about with her new friends. Any jealousy he might have felt was easily overcome as he saw the men were all careful not to get too close; they were happy just to gaze upon her body. Elizabeth had no reservations about returning that favour. Jonathan knew her well enough not to let that distress him. Or to have any similar qualms about admiring Gretchen's lithe, pale body as she splashed into the water among them. Her smallish breasts swung carelessly about, and Jonathan noted that she was, like himself, endowed only with a modest thatch of pale hair. He had just enough time to take that sight in before her lower body disappeared into the water.

"Yea! There's the stuff!" called out one of Keith's friends.

"Dare we ask if you've seen it before, Frank?" Keith asked.

"Does it look to you as though he has?" Gretchen teased, throwing herself at the man just identified as Frank. "Congratulations, dearie, you finally got me naked!" There was laughter all around, and if Frank resented the revelation of their chaste-to-date relationship, he hid it well.

"Isn't it a wonderful feeling, Gretchen?" Elizabeth offered. "So liberating!"

"Certainly is," Gretchen admitted. "Something you do all the time in the city, is it?"

"Hardly," Jonathan said.

"Not in mixed company," Elizabeth clarified. "But perhaps you have heard of the baths in Westfordshire City."

"Thought that was a joke," said the man whose name they had yet to learn. "You hear all sorts of crazy stories up this way about that."

"They're all true," Jonathan said. "Great fun, but they are single-sex."

"What a shame," Keith said.

"My thoughts exactly at a time like this!" Elizabeth replied.

"Jonathan," Keith said, "Please tell me there are many more like her in the city!"

"Hate to disappoint you, Keith, but she is truly one of a kind," Jonathan said proudly. "Besides, aren't you with one of the others up there?" He turned towards the shore, only to see Molly eagerly pulling her underwear off. "Oh, more company, I see!" he added.

"Yes, but the other one is mine," Keith said. "Frances. Poor dear is awfully shy, and I don't even know why. Guess you've already figured out, we've never..."

"Well, yes, I had guessed that," Jonathan said, though he was gazing shamelessly upon now-nude Molly as she waded in to join them.

"Molly is William's girl," Keith explained, gesturing towards the man to whom Jonathan and Elizabeth had not been introduced. "And I'm guessing this is nothing he hasn't seen before." The nonchalant look on William's face as Molly bobbed up to join them led Jonathan to the same conclusion.

"Welcome in, dear," William said, looking happy but unsurprised. "I was hoping you would beat your inhibitions down soon enough."

"Yes, you're just that irresistible to me," Molly said with a sarcastic laugh that was contagious among the others.

"Such a shame about Frances," Elizabeth said, looking up at the last holdout just beyond the water.

"Well, not everyone can be as free-spirited as you are, Elizabeth," Keith said.

"Believe me, I know," Elizabeth told him. "I used to be just like her."

"You were?" Keith, William and Frank asked in surprised unison. "Why?" Keith probed.

Elizabeth paused to consider giving a frank answer, and Jonathan jumped in to her rescue. "Fellows, you'll notice Gretchen and Molly here weren't surprised. Perhaps it's a female matter."

Frank grimaced. "You mean it's Frances'...time?"

"No, not that!" Jonathan quickly corrected himself.

"Well, it could be, now that you mention it," Elizabeth said. "But no, guys, I was rather thinking it's a matter of something more personal. It certainly was with me."

"What was that?" Keith asked brazenly, still clueless on the entire matter. "I mean, look, I mean no disrespect, it's only that I love Frances and yet she gets so very nervous when it comes to intimacy, always pushing me away."

"We shall see if and when Frances joins us," Elizabeth told him. "In the meantime, well..." She looked down at her own body, most of which was visible albeit barely in the dark water, and continued. "Where were your eyes drawn to when you saw me in the nude?" Before Keith could answer, Elizabeth kicked back into the water and did an elegant backstroke off to the deeper reaches of the pond. In the event that she was correct about Frances, she thought, it might be best to give the poor girl a chance to bond with her alone. Jonathan knew her well enough not to follow her; the others followed his lead.

"What did I think?" Keith repeated when Elizabeth had swum away. "I thought she was beautiful, of course. What's not to like?"

"Quite sure she was talking about her pussy, Keith," Gretchen said. "Surely you noticed how...well adorned it was?"

"I did," William admitted. "Just like us boys, I'm sorry to say, Jonathan, but that's what came to mind."

"Not like this boy," Jonathan pointed out. The fact that he was far less hairy down below than his beloved was a longstanding point of amusement among them, so he had no trouble laughing at the matter.

"Sorry, then," William said. "But yes, I noticed it. But so what? Like Jonathan said, not all men are alike as far as that goes either."

"You have clearly never had to live with that sort of thing as a woman," Molly told him gently. "I shudder to think what her school chums might have had to say about it all."

"Indeed," Jonathan confirmed. "She was teased horribly."

"Jealous, I bet," Keith said. "I mean, look at her, she's beautiful! I'll bet the other girls just wished they could be unique like that too."

"Shame Frances can't hear you say that," Jonathan mused. "Might make all the difference."

On that note, Keith turned toward Frances' perch on the edge of the pond, as if inspired to confront her about it all. He then realized he and his friends were both a moment too late and joyfully correct in their suspicions, for Frances had undressed and was now braving her way into the water unadorned and uninhibited. She wore a determined smile as her eyes met Keith's, and her nervous arms made as if to cover up her nudity, only to have her plant her hands on her hips against her natural modesty. From between her thighs blossomed the second most robust ladygarden any of the others had ever had the pleasure of viewing. Scarcely smaller than Elizabeth's but no less dark and thick, it stood out against her pale skin like a lovely erotic cloak.

"Oh, Frances," Keith exhaled in an awestruck tone. "So beautiful."

"Worth the wait, was I?" Frances asked, her voice a nervous chuckle.

"And how!"

Jonathan turned back to call for Elizabeth, only to see her already hurrying back from her self-imposed exile in the deeper water. She would later tell me she had been nearly certain of Frances' secret from the moment the younger woman had seen her in the nude: "I know the look of fascination other women so often give me, including you on the first occasion, Agnes; and I know the look of attraction or repulsion men give me. Frances' look -- first at my body and then in my eyes -- was neither. The only other time I had inspired such a look as hers was from Benjamin, and you know why he looked at me the way he did! I had no doubt Frances was just like me underneath, and I could only hope my own comfort and pride in my body would inspire her to the same. And it did!"

There was, of course, no time for such analysis in that wonderful moment when Frances waded through the water to her true love. "So beautiful," Keith repeated just loudly enough for everyone to hear as Frances melted into his arms while the others applauded.

"Well done, you," Jonathan whispered to Elizabeth, slipping his arms around her just as she arrived at his side.

"What on earth do you believe I did, my darling?" Elizabeth asked.

"I'm quite sure I do not need to answer that!" he said, and he kissed her ear playfully.

I suppose Elizabeth and Jonathan and their new friends played quite late into the afternoon. In my randy imagination, there may have even been a frank discussion of the wonders of pubic hair once they were out of the water and sunning themselves dry on the grass. In all honesty, dear reader, I cannot report exactly what transpired as I was rather too bold in my subsequent questioning of Elizabeth on the matter. "Please, Elizabeth, tell me when the swimming was over, your new friends took turns admiring you and Frances up close and running their fingers gently through both of your bushes! How I'd have loved to see that!"