Manon and Belle Pt. 14

She put a big pestle and mortar out on the table next to her, and poured a little of the oil into it, sunflower oil she noted, just as Romi came quickly back into the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

"Now put all the herbs on top of the oil there Romi, and grind them to a thick paste. Use more oil if you need to, but not too much," Manon told her. Romi set to work straight away, as Manon expected this was a job she would be used to from helping in the kitchen.

Manon pulled down several small vials and jars from those the apothecary had delivered to her, and placed the big green bar of soap in a wide deep glass bowl. "Is this good enough my lady?" Romarin asked, and when Manon inspected the mashed herbs, found them to be perfect, and said so.

"Now Romi, you must be quiet now, completely quiet while I work, even though you may be startled at times, can you do that?" Manon asked. When Romi nodded, Manon continued, "You may watch, and I'll explain later if you have questions."

She took the herb paste, and dumped it all on top of the bar of soap, and poured the remaining oil into the bowl as well. Then she measured two different powders and several drops of liquid from another bottle into the oil in the bowl.

"Now," Manon said, turning to Romi who was watching intently," have you ever seen any form of magic before? Maybe some healing?" Romi nodded slowly wide eyed. "Well what I am about to do is another form of petty magic, to make these things into a different type of soap."

"So it will make everything in the bowl hot, and melt together. Then I'll mix them, and cool it off. A little smoke, some bright lights, and a strong smell from those herbs and it will be all done. So nice and quiet, remember?" Manon said, smiling when Romi nodded.

Being well rested and under no stress, dropping into the almost trance-like state that she needed, Manon was readily able to pour energy into the contents of the bowl, and quickly saw the bar of soap liquify and melt into the oil, carrying the herb paste with it. Manon stopped then, and gave everything a good stir with a big spoon, before again dipping into a trance.

This time, in her mind's eye she 'saw' the ingredients and as they heated up and started to produce a little smoke and steam she 'moved' them the way she wanted. They flashed a soft green light as they were manipulated by her, until instead of several different ingredients, she 'saw' only one, a big ball of green coloured goo.

She stood up then, relaxing and drawing breath, and turned to check on Romi, who had actually moved closer to watch, but who still looked wide eyed back at Manon.

Manon prodded the mixture, it was cooling rapidly, and could now be shaped as it was a clay like consistency. She divided it roughly into two portions with her hands, and patted each into an oblong shape, each about the same size as the bar of soap she'd transformed.

"My lady, what does that do?" Romi asked, as her curiosity overcame her nerves.

"Well, as for that lovely girl, I've made a special soap, and in a moment I'll show you why. I hope you won't mind, I'll have to wash you again?" Manon said, smiling at Romi.

Who blushed prettily and said "Oh no my lady, that would be lovely." Strictly speaking of course, Manon didn't have to wash the girl, she could easily do it herself, but Manon wanted the fun for herself.

"Back to my bathroom Romi, quickly now," Manon said, shooing the girl out as she picked one of her new soap bars to take with her. As she followed Romi out, Belle was shepherding the other four girls into another bedroom, so Manon gave her the other soap bar. "I think you can guess what that is for Belle?" "Oh yes miss," Belle said grinning.

Romi was waiting for Manon in the middle of the room, and undressed Manon when she was told to. Manon led her into the bathroom, and set the large shower running, waiting until it was really quite hot. "In we go girl," Manon said, pulling Romi in who squealed as the hot water cascaded over her skin. Truth be told it was hot enough that Manon was a little uncomfortable as well, but Romi's skin had to be good and warm for the soap to work well.

When Romi stopped dancing about and just relaxed in the hot water, Manon pulled her forward gently by her collar, until her head was out of the stream of water. "This soap," Manon said, "removes hair from your body. For about three months it will stop it growing back afterwards as well."

"Oh," was all Romi could think to say, though Manon saw her look down at her own hairless cunt. "I prefer my girls without body hair Romi, and while I like your pretty patch here," Manon said, "I want to see your pretty pussy more."

Romi thought about that for a moment, but then grinned, "yes my lady," making Manon laugh. "Now, I'll wash you all over, but be careful not to get this on your head, unless you want to be bald?" Romi shook her head vigorously, and Manon stroked her face.

"Step out of the water," Manon said, turning it off, and quickly bending to start soaping Romi's feet and legs. "Oh, it's silky," Romi said, surprised as the soap quickly produced a lot of soft white foam.

"It is but in a minute it will start to give you a feeling a bit like pins and needles, which will be more intense where you have more hair. After that we rinse you off and I'll oil you to help protect your skin." What Manon didn't tell her was how stimulating that would be on her breasts, pussy and arse, but she'd find out shortly.

Manon worked quickly, covering the girl with the rich lather that the soap generated. She made Romi dance and giggle when she soaped her underarms and then thoroughly soaped her pussy, working the soap into and between her folds, and all the way to her bum, before she turned her around and soaped her lower back and then her bottom again, causing a surprised squawk when a soapy finger circled the girl's anus and briefly penetrated her.

"Oh, my lady!?" Romi said, and started to shift and wriggle, as Manon stood back and watched her. Her face flushed pink, "oh, oh my lady, I think, oh"" Romi said panting.

"You may climax Romi," Manon said, thinking the girl probably didn't have a choice.

Manon had originally come up with a formula like this from her own researches, albeit a cruder form of it, and used it on her loathsome older half brother. She'd watched him showering through one of her secret spy holes, laughing gleefully and silently as she saw his hair starting to fall out as she'd used it in his shampoo as well.

That had turned to disgust and she'd fled, when she'd seen his erect penis ejaculate forcefully even though he was crying out in horror as his hair came out in handfuls. That was the incident that had finally persuaded her step father that sending her away to school was a good idea after all.

Romi suddenly reached out and grabbed Manon by the arms, tightly enough to hurt, as an orgasm shook her body from head to toe. Manon reached down and wiped the lather off the girl's mound, and seeing her skin looking pink and bare, turned the water back on, and pushed the girl back under the water.

She let her rinse, holding her steady, and kept her under the water for a long time, making sure all the soap residue was washed away. Stroking the girl gently, especially under her arms and over her pussy, established both that Romi's skin was now very sensitive, making her very ticklish indeed, and that she was completely hairless.

Cecile had it appeared liked her bathroom luxuries, as Manon had seen an array of soaps and oils, all of good quality, that hadn't been removed from the house. One of the oils, an orange scented one that particularly appealed to Manon, was labelled as a bath or massage oil. So Manon used it to oil Romi's skin, causing the the girl to almost orgasm again as Manon took her time to rub a liberal coat of it into her skin.

Half an hour later, as Romi was returning the service, Manon did in fact orgasm as Romi rubbed her with the same oil after her own bath, Romi's little fingers and tongue had it seemed been paying close attention to their recent lessons.

Manon, now languid both from her bath and the afterglow of her climax, took Romi to bed, to find that it was already occupied by Belle. "Let your mistress see you girls," she said, and Claire, Kitty, Sage and Thym rose from their kneeling positions by the bed, revealing that they too had all their body hair removed.

Their skin also shone with oil, and Manon laughed as she got closer to them. "You used the orange oil Belle. We did too."

"I thought it was the nicest miss, I'm glad I got it right," Belle said.

"Now, off you three go, I'll see you in the morning," Manon said, watching fondly as the three maids left, each kissing Belle on the cheek and giving Manon a curtsey.

"So that's how it is?" Manon said, smiling. "You get a kiss and I just get the formalities?"

Belle was obviously about to plead guilty and suggest she should be punished. "Hush Belle dear. After how well you did with the girls in the dungeon today, I have already decided you and I need some time there together."

"Ooh thank you miss," Belle said happily, making Manon as well as Claire and Kitty laugh.

"No suit Kitty?" Manon asked. "Ah, no miss, we thought I might be a bit oily for it," Kitty said a little downcast.

"Hmm, probably true, so we will get you suited up tomorrow as soon as your duties with madame Persil allow," Manon told her. "Oh thank you my lady," a beaming Kitty said.

"Now, I am tired and tomorrow Belle dear, we have a lot to do. Rien owes us a story, and I mean to have it."

It was again a very warm night, so Belle pulled the covers down, and they slid under just the top sheet. Claire on the outside of the bed holding Belle's hand and a very warm Kitty snuggling down against Manon. Despite being a little too warm as a result, Manon fell asleep quickly, the bright moonlight and a gentle breeze coming in through the open windows.

Sometime later, Manon woke up, now cradled by Belle. She lay there for a moment, unable to work out what had woken her, but knowing that something had. Just as she understood what it was, that she couldn't hear the guard's footsteps on the gravel paths outside, she turned in Belle's arms to look at the open floor length windows to see a shadow appear, climbing over the rail onto the balcony.

"Belle, to arms!" Manon shouted and kicked her lover hard to emphasise the point, rolled over out of bed, pushing Kitty ahead of her onto the floor. Grabbing her revolver off the bedside table, she stood up, recoiling in horror as she saw Claire sit up, in the path of an arrow meant for Manon.

Claire fell back on the bed, undoubtedly quite dead, as the arrow had punched through her neck, the bloody head of it poking obscenely out of her throat.

Manon moved sideways, trying to get a shot at the figure silhouetted in the window and felt another arrow pass very close to her, that had been shot astonishingly quickly after the first. Manon levelled her revolver at the figure who had backed up onto the balcony, and as Belle rolled out of bed towards the window, Manon fired two shots into the shadow.

Belle produced a sword and a pistol, which she had apparently stashed under the mattress of the bed, and in one smooth motion stood and stabbed the intruder, who silently fell to the floor.

"My lady?" Kitty's voice said shakily from behind her, and Manon whirled around, to find Kitty sitting on the floor clutching her right arm, a thin trickle of blood running down it from between her fingers.

Thanking her luck that Kitty appeared unaware of what had happened to Claire, Manon knelt by Kitty, pulling the girl's arm away. The arrow had grazed her, leaving a deep groove cut in the meat of her bicep, but thankfully it wasn't worse.

"Stay still, I can help you," Manon said, but hearing an odd noise, a sort of choking cough, from Kitty looked up, so see the girl's eyes rolling back in her head as she fainted. "Belle?" Manon said, bending over Kitty.

"Secure, this one is dead. Manon, Claire?" Belle said quietly.

"Yes, I know, help me with Kitty she's passed out." Between them they lifted Kitty onto the bed, and Manon groaned in anguish as the moonlight fell across Kitty's face. Her lips had gone purple, and her face was pulled back in a terrible grimace, and she was quite dead.

"Poison," Belle said. "Poison," Manon repeated.

She looked up at Claire then, who was lying on her side in an ungainly tangle. A short very heavy arrow with a broad barbed head was protruding through her neck, some black fletching just showing where it hard cut through Claire's spine.

Further inspection showed the intruder was indeed quite dead as well. He was dressed all in black, a black turban like garment that wound around his head and face, leaving only his eyes showing, with a tightly fitting soft wool shirt and trousers, and soft soled leather boots. The bow he had been so very adept with was a very short compound bow, and he had a small quiver on his hip with half a dozen more arrows in it, besides the one he'd dropped when he was shot.

Belle pulled back the wrappings from his head and face, revealing the face of a middle aged man, dark brown skin like some musselman and blue tattoos over pretty much all of his skin, even, as Belle closed his eyes, on his eyelids.

"He's not going to be alone?" Manon said, as Belle passed her a heavy cane, and the two women quickly made their way out of their room, but having to go more slowly and carefully than Manon liked due to the risk of ambush.

They could hear shouting and see a fire in the distance, coming from where their guards were quartered, but kept going, heading downstairs since they found no one else upstairs.

Turning into the kitchen, Manon could smell blood, and warily pushing into the little parlour where madame Persil had her quarters, they found her dead. She was sitting in her nightdress in an armchair, pinned to it by an arrow that had punctured her chest, so that only its fletching was showing. She had it appears been knitting, a ball of wool had rolled across the floor, leaving a trail of red wool behind it.

Belle had pushed into the bedroom behind, where the maids slept on pallets on the floor, next to madame Persil's bed. "Manon," Belle said.

She walked into the room, to see Belle standing over the bodies of the three maids. Sage and Thym had both been stabbed while lying on their mattresses on the floor, but little Romarin was lying across the room, face down with one of those horrible black fletched arrows in her back.

"Down!" Belle suddenly shouted, and as Manon fell to the floor she felt the blast from Belle's pistol as she shot at something behind her. Twisting around and getting to one knee, Manon saw another black clad figure slumping to the ground, dropping a knocked arrow and a bow from their hands as they fell.

A quick inspection showed this one was a woman, again with a tattooed face, though not so heavily as the one they'd killed upstairs. "Rien," Manon shouted running for the corridor.

As she got to it, the door to the corridor swung open and Manon found herself almost touching another black clad figure. This one was carrying two heavy knives, both bloodstained Manon saw as she rapidly dodged back. The figure swung at her with alarming speed, off balance and as surprised as Manon, their reactions were very fast. Firing from the hip Manon emptied her remaining four shots into the figure, the blast at close range knocking it back into the corridor.

Which turned out to be quite lucky, as the figure behind shot at Manon with a bow, but was impeded by their now dead colleague and the shot went wild. Belle's however did not, a single shot to the forehead flinging the fourth attacker to the ground.

Manon ran on down the corridor, ignoring Belle's imploring shouts to wait for her, and burst into Rien's cell, to find a fifth intruder calmly waiting, two heavy daggers in her hands. It was obviously a woman, a heavy chest leaving no doubt of that.

Manon could immediately see that Rien was dead. Her throat had been cut, a huge pool of blood showing that she'd been left to bleed out.

As soon as Manon was near, the intruder attacked, weaving her daggers in a criss cross pattern meant to confuse and disguise the real attacks when they came. Manon used the cane to parry, but was quickly in difficulty as there was little room for her to move about in, and if her attacker got in close it would not go well for her.

Belle charged in behind her, and immediately went on the offensive, her longer reach and sword enabling her to drive their opponent back onto the defensive. "Manon, here," Belle called out and threw her pistol to Manon, who having caught it turned it on the intruder.

"Surrender!" Manon shouted at her, but the woman just snarled something in a language that Manon didn't know, and launched herself at Manon, who shot her twice in the chest and head as she did, killing her instantly.

The sound of boots and shouting echoed down the corridor from outside, some guards arriving, some only partly dressed but all well armed and looking very tense. Manon turned to one of them, a corporal she recognised, "sweep the house, make sure there are no more of them," she ordered and he nodded and left, issuing orders as he went.

"Janine? Cornet Russel, where is she?" Manon asked as the corporal came and reported that the house was clear. "She sent us to you my lady, she is badly wounded."

"You have more wounded as well?" When he nodded, Manon said, "Bring any you can move to me here, I will do what I can to aid them, and send word that we have been attacked."

"A galloper is already saddling up my lady," he said. After a little while, as dawn was breaking, Manon had done what she could to aid the four men she had been brought. They all had nasty knife wounds, but were in a way lucky. Anyone that had been wounded by an arrow had died.

Finally, Janine was brought to the house, leaning on the shoulder of her Sergeant Chef, who in reality was carrying her as it was clear that her legs wouldn't have held her up without his help.

She had a deep gash in her thigh, which by some miracle had missed the major vessels, another cut across her ribs on her opposite side, and her left arm was hanging uselessly at her side, yet another cut weeping blood slowly from a long gash down her upper arm.

She'd passed out, but Manon was able to staunch her wounds and stop the bleeding, anything more would need more expert intervention than Manon was capable of, at least for now.

"What happened?" Manon asked the sergeant. "Thay set a fire my lady, on a wagon. When we ran to investigate, they shot us down with those damn bows, we couldn't see where they were even."

"My officer, she led us out of the back way. She knew it was likely a trap, warned us of it, but went first anyway. They shot at her, but missed, and then she ran into them, forcing them to fight her and letting us out of the building. There were three of them, she killed two before I got there, but," he said falling silent and looking at his officer lying pale on a blanket on the terrace.

"We killed the other two, once we could get around them it was easier."

Manon had the bodies of the attackers brought to the terrace, and they were stripped and searched by the guards. All had the same dark clothing, with very similar black silk underwear, and each had several thin bladed knives concealed in their clothing. There were three of the short heavy bows, which looked almost like toys until you tried to draw one.

They were expertly made compound bows though, and Manon thought they probably had a 100lb draw at least. With short heavy arrows, they wouldn't have a great range, but would hit hard, and were of course completely silent.