Miss Chadwick's Journey

"We are honoured indeed," he declared, addressing Hanno. "To be the first to pluck as fine a flower as this is a gift rarely granted."

"You flatter me," Miss Chadwick declared, "although I shall decide later how far I like your metaphor. To be sure, a flower can only be plucked once, whereas I see no need to cease at two pluckings."

"My apologies, my lady Miss Chadwick," said Numa. "And may your bloom ne'er wilt."

"Thank you. And are the requisite rites now complete?" Miss Chadwick enquired.

"I fear that they are not," Numa admitted. "The Warding of Quaroun imposes stern conditions. Those who wish to enter the city must spend an entire day in frenzied fornication, to the limits of their bodily abilities. Only if we obey this rule may we pass through the gates of the city on the morrow."

"That is an unusual law," noted Miss Chadwick, "although I confess that I am unfamiliar with the ways of magic."

"And yet you ride upon a gryphon," Numa said with a humorous grimace. "Howsoever and be that as it may, the explanation is a matter of reliable legend. Quaroun is a fine city, and its women and men are a comely people. But it is also a remote city, and caravans coming here must spend many days crossing the desert. In ancient days, those who came with those caravans frequently entered the city in a state of erotic frustration. Seeing the comely folk of Quaroun, they all too easily fell to excesses of lust, and were a recurrent source of inconvenience, prone to opportuning uninterested citizens and lacking simple courtesies. And so the Warding of Quaroun was laid upon the land. Now, all visitors who enter the gates of the city do so in a state of erotic exhaustion. They recover the capacity for desire in due course, but gradually and moderately."

Mis Chadwick frowned. "An effective measure, then," she acknowledged, "but an inconvenient one. Does it not make trade difficult for the people of Quaroun?"

"Somewhat," Hanno murmured. "But there are ways."

"Indeed," Numa agreed. "Most caravans which come here hire with them a party of robust ladies of the Harlot's Guild. It is a considerable expense, however."

Miss Chadwick sat back and gazed about her. "I understand," she said. "And yet, I see no such hirelings here present."

"We seek to trade for a small number of goods of high value, and to avoid superfluous costs," Numa explained, "and so we arranged matters differently."

"But how did you propose to conduct the necessary rites before I came to you?" Miss Chadwick asked.

"We intended to make shift as best we could," said Numa, casting a sly glance at Hanno, who preserved an impassive expression. "To succeed as a merchant oft demands adaptation."

Miss Chadwick understood, but refrained from observing that making shift in that fashion was against the laws obtaining in London, and could also have one cast out from many respectable circles there. The customs of this land were evidently different, and her father's advice once more applied. "A sound basis for a business partnership, perhaps," she merely observed instead.

Hanno rose to his feet and crossed the space to where Numa sat. The merchant fixed his gaze upon the drover's member, which had by now regained a certain turgidity. "We make shift," Numa repeated, and reached out to caress Hanno's organ, which responded by visibly beginning to stiffen. Numa then handed an oil-flask to Hanno, then turned onto hands and knees, presenting his buttocks to the other man. Hanno made liberal applications of oil to what was before him, while Mis Chadwick watched with only partially aghast fascination as Hanno grew once more ready to perform further rites.

A moment later, the two men were engaged in what Miss Chadwick assumed was termed sodomy. It seemed quite odd, and unlike anything she might have expected to take place in Jarrold Square, London, and yet neither man seemed uncomfortable with the act. Numa folded his arms, bringing his head close to the rug on which he was resting, closed his eyes, and sighed deeply as Hanno thrust slowly into him.

"Pray excuse me," Miss Chadwick ventured, "but is there not a danger here? This may be frenzied fornication of its kind, but it does not involve myself. Might I not be excluded on the morrow by the Warding of Quaroun for my neglect of frenzy?"

Hanno paused his thrusting. "We indeed neglect our guest," he agreed in a tone of self-reproach.

Numa opened his eyes once more. "If you indeed feel the capacity for further frenzy," he addressed Miss Chadwick, "pray come and sit before me."

Miss Chadwick obeyed, and further obeyed Numa's specific instructions, which placed her thighs either side of his shoulders and his face in her naked lap. Then, as Hanno resumed slow thrusting, Yuma extended his tongue with a quite unmasculine delicacy. Miss Chadwick drew yet another startled breath as it probed the inner folds of her loins, and then relaxed in confusion as Numa stimulated her in ways of which she had previously no conception.

She sat still for a little time, resting her hands on Numa's shoulders and watching as best she could what he did. Then she looked up, and her gaze met Hanno's. They shared thoughtful smiles as they shared Numa between them, Hanno's more vigorous thrusts pressing Numa's face and tongue harder into Miss Chadwick's loins. After some minutes, Hanno groaned deeply, and gave a simple cry of "O fine Yuma!" before falling backwards. Miss Chadwick saw that his member was softening even as it withdrew from Yuma, and then she let herself fall backwards, uttering small cries in the affirmative as she too attained satisfaction. She was a little surprised but not displeased when Numa scrambled forward and showed himself to have been stimulated by proceedings, entering her once more in full force and spending himself after but a few moments.

On this occasion, it was Hanno who handed Miss Chadwick a cup of wine.

The three travellers fell in due course to relaxation, their capacity for frenzy having been exhausted for the moment, and Numa amused Miss Chadwick for a while with tales of the cities wherein he had traded, while Hanno pleased her with cynical remarks as to Numa's veracity and passing caresses on various parts of her body. At length, however, after a luncheon of unleavened bread and dried meats - a little tough, Miss Chadwick thought, but one had to make shift - and a period of digestion, she sighed.

"I fear that the Warding of Quaroun imposes on me quite unreasonably," she announced, "for I fear that I am regaining my capacity for frenzy."

Numa and Hanno exchanged glances.

"There is much of which I was quite horribly ignorant," Miss Chadwick further admitted. "For example, the means by which you would perform the rites with each other was something to which I had heard only cryptic allusions. And yet, I found the sight quite charming and stimulating. I am told that my curiosity in many matters is other than properly feminine, and yet having it satisfied has so far proved most... satisfying."

"We will continue to endeavour to assist you," Numa promised.

"Thank you," Miss Chadwick said. "I fear that I impose on you quite unforgivably. It seems to me that for two persons to perform these rites correctly must be quite straightforward, for they can exhaust each other's capacity for frenzy in a simple fashion. But with three persons, there is always the danger of one being excluded and left unsatisfied."

"There are many ways to evade that difficulty," Numa reassured her. "May we demonstrate further?"

"Pray do," Miss Chadwick replied. "I wish to learn all that you can teach."

"Then pray - stand up."

Miss Chadwick obeyed, and Hanno stood facing her. She was pleased to see his organ once more regaining full function, and when he stepped forward and kissed her most passionately on the lips, his tongue entering her mouth in a way that reminded her pleasingly of other recent experiences, she was yet more glad to sense yet more reaction below his waist. Stepping back a half-pace, she ventured cautiously to touch his part, noting how the soft skin was growing taught. Then, with a smile, Hanno lifted her with his hands under her thighs. With an embarrassingly girlish squeal, Miss Chadwick threw both arms around his shoulders and her legs about his waist, and was pleased to note that the muscular drover could support her in that position.

That left his hands free, and he took hold of his rigid organ and carefully positioned it so that the tip was once more at her entrance. Understanding the plan at this point, Miss Chadwick lowered herself onto him, sighing yet again at the renewed penetration. She lowered her legs, finding that her toes could barely reach the ground at this point, for Hanno was a tall man, but he supported her with his hands on her buttocks.

It was now that Numa stepped up behind her, and she felt him applying yet more scented oil to her back - and lower, his fingertips guiding it into her buttock-cleft. She was distracted still by Hanno's rigidity within her, but after a moment she discerned Numa's intent, and gasped in startlement - but only a moment later, his member, also restored to virile rigidity, slipped into her anus.

Miss Chadwick again invoked her deity, and then paused to assess the sensation. If her body had felt occupied during the previous fornications, now the sensation was redoubled - and Hanno and Numa both began moving gently, squeezing and caressing her body between themselves. The arrangement was in a way uncomfortable for her, to be sure, as Numa's penetration affected her in ways more extreme even than Hanno's initial elimination of her maidenhood, but the discomfort was mingled with fascination. It seemed to her that the two men must feel each other's rigidity, as their members were close to each other within her, and in some wise, awareness of this intensified the sensations yet further. Her breathing soon became a most un-ladylike gasping and panting, and she clawed quite violently at Hanno's buttocks as her own were pressed hard by Numa's hips. It seemed that the desperation of her passion had an influence upon both Hanno and Numa, for they groaned lustily; Numa it was who spent himself first, and in the few seconds that then passed before Hano also achieved climax, Miss Chadwick was overwhelmed by her own response, approaching closer than ever to a dead faint.

Indeed, when the two men stepped back from her, she slumped in Numa's arms. He hastily braced himself, and then Hanno caught her legs, and the two men gently laid her down on one of the silken rugs. It took her some minutes to regain a measure of equilibrium, although she smiled readily enough at the end of that time.

"I was until now disdainful of love," Miss Chadwick admitted, "perhaps mostly because it was never in prospect for me. And yet, now, I feel a most passionate amity."

"For one of us, or for both?" enquired Numa.

"You misunderstand me," Miss Chadwick corrected him. "You are both charming gentlemen, but I do not feel that I know either of you sufficiently to form a romantic interest. No, the love I feel is for the act of fornication, and that which enables it." She stretched, and then ran a thoughtful hand across her own naked flanks. "Thus, most of all, I think" she continued, "I feel a great amity for the penis, in general and in the abstract."

"That is a fair compliment," murmured Hanno.

"Indeed. Especially as I am only acquainted with you gentlemen's penises." She smiled ruefully. "Perhaps you are both exceptional, and I will be disappointed in future trials."

"Much as I love to flatter myself," Numa admitted, "I think that you might find other organs that will please you adequately."

Miss Chadwick expressed her pleasure at being so informed, and the three of them spent some time lying together as the conversation moved from the topic of Miss Chadwick's developing tastes to other matters, and wine and dates and spiced sweetmeats were consumed.

At length, in fact after some hours, Miss Chadwick observed that Numa and Hanno were both visibly regaining some capacity for action.

"And yet, all my parts but one are exhausted," declared Numa jestingly. "Perhaps you should take the superior role on this occasion, My lady Miss Chadwick."

"Is that possible and permitted?" Miss Chadwick asked.

"Of course," Hanno declared, lying flat on the floor of the tent. "Come to me, witch who is no witch, virgin who is no virgin. The youngster may guide you, perchance."

Miss Chadwick and Numa obeyed the suggestion, the former bestraddling the recumbent Hanno, the latter taking hold of the older man's organ and aligning it carefully with Miss Chadwick's entrance until she lowered herself, fully engulfing Hanno's part in the process. Hanno grinned wolfishly as Miss Chadwick considered this arrangement, moving her hips experimentally.

"Would you mind greatly if I focussed on my own pleasure for a little time?" Miss Chadwick enquired cautiously. "I have much still to learn of these matters."

"Pray, focus as you will, my lady Miss Chadwick," Hanno replied. "There are few sights as satisfying as a naked woman extracting joy from one's stiffness."

And so, Miss Chadwick set to with enthusiasm, moving upon and astride the drover, working her most secret parts against the root of his organ and the hard muscles of his abdomen. Applying all she had learned that day of her own responses, she was able to achieve extremes of frenzy no less than three times. As she slumped forward after the third occasion, moaning wordlessly, Hanno gave one of his characteristic wordless growls and lifted her bodily from the floor by arching his whole body, with only his feet and shoulders on the rug. Then he relaxed once more.

"As I told you," he said, "the sight of a woman pleasuring herself of one's body is a fine thing."

Numa watched this entire process with appreciative interest, and was indeed entirely ready to assist when Miss Chadwick decided to repeat the experiment with himself a few minutes after finishing with Hanno.

Miss Chadwick was drinking deep of sweet relaxing wine, and telling tales of the London Season and of plays seen in the theatres of the West End, when Hanno looked briefly outside the tent. "The sun is setting," he announced, and indeed their surroundings grew dark in mere moments. Numa fetched and lit an oil-lamp.

"The rites are complete," he announced. "We may enter Quaroun on the morrow."

"Thank you," said Miss Chadwick. "I shall be fascinated to observe a city with such unusual laws and customs."

"Do you propose to trade there?" Numa asked.

"I confess that my plans are unformed," Miss Chadwick admitted. "I have nothing to trade."

"Your tales of this London-city have an exotic charm," Numa noted, "and you would be a welcome guest for some days in many a household with those. The folk of remote places are fascinated by word of the wider world. I can introduce you to some prosperous merchants of Quaroun."

"Thank you," said Miss Chadwick. "I will explore that possibility. Though I should doubtless return to London at some point, if the gryphon will bear me thence."

"You have responsibilities there?" Numa enquired.

"Very few," Miss Chadwick said, "and frankly little to do. I was raised the youngest of my parents' children, with the expectation that I would be their nurse in their old age, and hence I never acquired education nor husband. Nor was I left wealth or a home when they passed away. I live in the house of my brother, in truth on his charity."

Hanno and Numa nodded; families have much in common in every land. "Does your brother have duties for you in his household?" Hanno asked.

"Again - but few. I do keep the household's books of account. His wife has less gift for that than I."

"A useful task, if a little dull," Numa acknowledged. "I am poor at keeping my own goods-list and money-tally up to date."

Miss Chadwick frowned. "Is that the form of your accounts? A list and a tally?"

"What other forms are there?" asked Numa, with furrowed brow.

Miss Chadwick thought back over the day's experiences. "Perhaps I may yet introduce you to new practices," she said, "such as mine own arts of double entry. I may yet make myself useful in this land."

And hence and so it was that, six months later, on a morning after Miss Chadwick had accomplished the seduction of the two sons and two daughters of a certain guild-master, she was wandering in tree-shaded meadows which lay in a secret valley outside the walls of the city of Quaroun when she observed the Gryphon of Lust, of which she had seen but little in recent days, descending once more from the sky. When it had come to rest, she was amused to see the daughter of her brother's solicitor dismounting from its back.

"Miss Anne Chadwick, of Jarrold Square?" the newcomer, a reed-slender, stern, quiet person of nineteen years, enquired.

"I believe that you know me," Miss Chadwick replied. "I am sorry if my costume, which is in the local style, makes you confused, but I have reasons to have adopted it."

"I have a letter for you," the visitor announced in tones of stiff formality, and presented an envelope of stiff white cartridge-paper. Miss Chadwick opened it, and realised that it held a formal note from the respectable ladies of London. She did not ask how those persons knew of her location or condition, for the respectable ladies of London possess great resources and have access to secrets beyond the ken of most of mankind.

The note held but a single line of pertinent text. "Your behaviour is Not Respectable," Miss Chadwick read.

Miss Chadwick folded the note and tucked it away beneath her girdle. Then she turned to her visitor. "Might one enquire why you particularly were charged with the delivery of this message?" she enquired.

"It was determined that only this creature could bear a messenger to this city with adequate despatch," the other woman replied, "and for some reason difficult to discern, only I, of those who was tried, proved able to ride it."

Miss Chadwick looked away from her to contemplate the gryphon. In the past six months, she had spent some little time in the hidden libraries of Quaroun, and now she possessed a certain basic knowledge of mythical beasts and their constraints and their senses. Then, she looked back to her visitor.

"Indeed," she said in a casual tone. "But I am remiss. You have travelled far, and I must offer you tea."

"Thank you," said the visitor. "I will of course accept." For it is impossible for a respectable Englishwoman to refuse a proper offer of tea.

"There is a pavilion in these meadows where we may take tea," Miss Chadwick stated. "and I am sure that we can arrange for you to be accommodated there for one day or two, while you rest. I fear that you cannot yet enter the fine city of Quaroun, but you have come a great distance, and it would be a great shame if you did not experience all that there is to be found here before you returned home. I will make every effort to ensure that you gain full access to the wondrous sights of the city in due course."

//END//