Sisterhood - Initiation Ch. 19

They hurried down the hallway hand in hand. At first they had to wind their way around a few other loitering groups, then one or two couples who were heading in the same direction, but more slowly. To her left through paneless arched windows Leah saw a lush interior garden. She was fairly sure that it was the one that Lena had led her through on the way to her chambers.

Then the arched windows gave way to a blank stone wall. The press and chatter began to thin out. Ahead of them, Lena and Yvonne strode on at a relentless pace, arm in arm. They seemed to glide evenly like swans on water, their long, high-heeled legs in step with one another, plowing away at the carpeted stone floor. Leah and Ellen followed, from time to time braking into a trot to close the gap that grew between them and the leading pair.

"The library," Lena called out, slowing her pace and waving her arm to indicate a large closed door to their left. It looked thick and sturdy, two panels of old, gnarled wood, with a worn metal doorknocker set in the center of each.

"The library?" Leah turned to Ellen, curious but not able to think of a specific question to pose about it.

"Yeah," Ellen replied, "I don't know why she wants to show you that especially. I think she spends a lot of time there."

"You don't go there often yourself, then?" Leah asked.

"No," Ellen spoke a little more quietly, "It's more for Sisterhood girls really. They study stuff. I guess one of them could take you there, if you really want."

"Oh." It sounded as if Ellen meant that there were places in the house that she would be discouraged from visiting. Leah was surprised to find that the thought excited her, though she couldn't place why.

Ahead of them, Leah could see that Lena and Yvonne were talking, their heads periodically inclining towards each other to exchange a few words. But she could not hear what they were saying. The noise of the great hall entrance still echoed behind them, and occasional groups of girls passed moving in the other direction.

"So you wanted to know about my time here, with them?" Ellen asked.

Leah spoke softly. The noise of the hall still felt close, "Maybe we shouldn't talk about it yet, right? I mean, you can tell me about it a bit later if you prefer."

"No, it's fun to gossip," Ellen replied. She looked over her shoulder, "We should just talk about certain things obliquely, in case guests are about." She whispered, "Like, don't mention the D."

Leah looked behind them, saw Annika and Kathi walking several meters behind. "The D?" she whispered to Ellen.

Ellen pulled Leah a little closer, so that they walked with hips touching. She leaned her head onto Leah's shoulder to whisper more softly, "Big, hot, throbbing, hard..."

Leah hunched her shoulders, Ellen's breathy whisper tickling her neck. "Okay, I get it," Leah giggled.

"And don't mention other things related to it, of course," Ellen continued, "You get the idea."

Leah wondered about something, "But you mentioned it, back in the hall, when we were all sitting together."

"Yeah," Ellen laughed quietly, "I got a bit carried away with the whole Kitty thing. I should be more careful."

"I think Lena likes Kitty," Leah giggled, nodding ahead of them to where Lena and Yvonne were walking.

"Maybe," Ellen replied, "You have to experiment a bit to learn how to push their buttons. What turns each of them on."

"Sisterhood girls?" Leah asked.

"Right," Ellen continued, "Like with Lena, she's a bit of a mystery. Tough to figure out. I sometimes wonder whether she even likes, er, girls like us at all."

"You think she prefers...?" Leah asked, whispering. Lena and Yvonne were now quite some way ahead of them, but Leah was worried they might still hear her.

"Maybe," Ellen's brow creased into an uncertain frown as she looked ahead at where the other two girls were walking. She laughed, "Or maybe she just isn't into me. I don't know. But I see her looking at girls, you-and-me girls, I mean, and she likes them. But then maybe she's also a bit ashamed of it. She has some weird morals about it or something."

Leah listened, fascinated. She found it difficult to focus her imagination on the image of Lena that Ellen had painted, to reconcile it with her own experience. But Ellen seemed, despite her lighthearted, playful, act, a worldly girl, perceptive. Back when they had been walking through the great hall, she had thought of so many things that she wanted to ask Ellen about, but now she drew a blank, didn't know where to start. "So you've got to know them quite well?" she asked.

"Right, you were wondering how long I've been here," Ellen replied, "Several years now. I guess I've gotten to know them fairly well. Some more than others."

"What about...?" Leah wondered who she most wanted to ask about.

"Yvonne?" Ellen cut in, anticipating, "I'm not so sure what she likes. She hasn't been here for so long. I think it's mostly physical things for her." Ellen reached down and squeezed Leah's backside, giggling, "She definitely likes a nice plump ass."

"I'm glad," Leah smiled.

"And..." Ellen hesitated. She lowered her voice, "I think maybe she has a sort of special thing for fat girls."

"Fat girls?" Leah echoed.

"I don't mean you," Ellen added hurriedly, "You're just curvy. You know, buxom. But the girl you came with, your sister, was it?"

"Cousin," Leah corrected her.

"Your cousin, sorry," said Ellen, "She's kind of bigger. No offense intended. I mean, she's kind of hot, too. But chubby."

"Yes, she's gotten a bit bigger," Leah affirmed, feeling a little ashamed at how glad she was to hear Ellen say it.

"Well Yvonne was properly drooling over her earlier," Ellen continued, "Could hardly conceal her excitement, so to speak. You should have seen the look in her eyes."

Leah hadn't thought again of Caroline since she had spotted her briefly from the gallery a while earlier. Afterwards there had been the encounter with Kathi and then her thoughts had been elsewhere. The idea that Yvonne found Caroline desirable was curiously disconcerting, felt strange and uncomfortable. Leah changed the subject, "So how did you first come to be here?"

Ellen glanced upward at the arched ceiling and sighed quietly, as if retrieving a cherished memory, "I was invited to the ball several years back."

"The Summer Ball?" Leah prompted.

"Right. Like you, and like most girls who end up here," Ellen continued, "And I was initiated and all that, and then I was made an, um, offering." Ellen turned to look Leah in the eye for a moment, "They told you about that, right?"

"Yes," Leah replied quickly.

"Good. So I was offered, and since then I stayed, and that's all there is to it I suppose."

"Do you like it?" Leah asked.

Ellen squeezed Leah's hand and pulled her closer again, "I loove it," she whispered, drawling enthusiastically. Then she spoke evenly again, quickening her step, "I think you'll like it too. You've got potential."

"Thanks. I'm excited," Leah replied earnestly. She was enjoying talking to Ellen. Engrossed in their conversation, she had missed the moment at which the walls to their left and right had again become punctuated by open arches looking out onto the gardens in the interior courtyard.

They reached a junction, where the hallway joined another that led away left and right, mirroring the one at the opposite end. Leah looked back, saw Annika and Kathi not far behind them, and over their shoulders the distant crowd of girls still gathering and milling outside the great hall. Where back there the grand open entrance to the hall had stood, here in front of them was a corresponding set of doors. They looked formidably thick and heavy, reinforced with iron studs, and they were very firmly shut.

Lena and Yvonne were waiting at the corner. When Annika and Kathi had caught up, Lena stretched out her hand towards the doors in front of them as she had when they had passed the library. "The East Wing," she declared.

"So Annika," smiled Yvonne, "I suppose this is where we'll be dropping you off. Have fun."

"Har har," Annika scowled, "I knew you would say that."

Yvonne stuck her tongue out at Annika.

"You know Lena spent some time at the East Wing?" Annika said.

"Did you?" Yvonne asked.

"Indeed I did," Lena smiled, "And I'm all the better for it." She took Yvonne's hand and led her away, walking briskly off down the hallway to the left.

Ellen led Leah along to follow, and once Leah was satisfied that the other two were far enough ahead, she turned and whispered to Ellen, "So what was that?"

"The East Wing. A... well, it's weird, but it's a sort of convent," Ellen whispered, "There are nuns and everything. Occasionally one of the Sisterhood girls goes to stay there, for quite a long time, for study or contemplation or something. And then sometimes they joke about it."

"There's a convent here?" Leah wondered how it was possible, with everything else that seemed to go on in the house.

"It's older than the rest of the building, I think," Ellen replied, "The newer parts of the house were built around it. Like the great hall. That used to be a church or something."

"Have you been inside?" Leah asked.

"No," Ellen shook her head, "I've seen some of the nuns come out, just every now and then. But I've never been in. Definitely NPA."

Leah thought for a moment, hoping she might be able to work it out and not have to ask, but gave up, "NPA?"

"No pets allowed," Ellen smiled.

"Ah. Of course," Leah laughed. "So they have a lot of secrets?"

"Yes," said Ellen, "Fair enough, I guess. They look after you. But some things are theirs. They want their privacy."

The hallway narrowed at its far end, into a cozier, lower-ceilinged corridor. To the left, there was still a view of the large courtyard gardens, through slightly smaller windows. Leah recalled the trip she had made with Lena from the great hall the first time, and remembered that the interior courtyard had been divided into smaller square portions joined by arched openings in the dividing walls. Back then she had only passed through two of the gardens before ascending the stairs to Lena's chambers, but each had had a slightly different character and layout. Here too, the view changed from time to time as they passed one garden after another. The one she could see now consisted of a neat square lawn bordered by flowerbeds of roses and some other plants that Leah couldn't name. In the middle of the lawn, illuminated by the cool moonlight, stood a plain stone plinth. The garden put Leah in mind of a churchyard. The other side of the corridor was bare stone, windowless, but they passed occasional doors. Some of these were open, and offered brief glimpses of rooms where small groups of girls were sitting or standing, talking calmly, their conversations drifting out into the hall as an indistinct murmur.

Leah realized she had been silent for a while. She turned back to Ellen, "So, can I ask, do you have a particular mistress? You called Yvonne 'mistress' earlier, but it's not her, right?"

"Right," Ellen answered, "That was just an expression. I say it to flatter them, I guess. But no, only the Seven can keep pets."

"The Seven Sisters?" Leah whispered. She wondered for a moment whether it was permitted to mention them out loud. But then, Ellen had just done so, if obliquely. And Leah recalled that the phrase had also been on the invite card.

"That's right," said Ellen, looking pleased, "If you're offered, it's to one of them."

"And then you become a pet?" Leah asked, "And the one you're offered to is your mistress?" Leah had been told this much or had pieced it together from what Lena and occasionally the others had said, but it felt reassuring to hear it confirmed, and it rekindled the excitement she had experienced when Lena had first talked about it.

"That's right," Ellen repeated.

"Are they actually sisters?" it occurred to Leah to ask.

"No. It's just a name for their cabal, their coven," Ellen giggled again, "It's supposed to sound kind of sexy and mysterious, I guess. With the alliteration and all."

"I see."

"Although," Ellen held up a clawed finger, correcting herself, "Three of them actually are sisters. But that's incidental, I think."

Before Leah could formulate a further question, Ellen continued, "Anyway, you asked who my mistress was. Lisa is her name. She's the eldest of the three that are actual sisters."

"Is she nice?" Leah asked.

"She's beautiful," said Ellen wistfully, "And she's very generous with her pets."

"So they can have more than one?" Leah had already assumed this to be the case, but she wanted to be sure. In particular, at the back of her mind the thought had nagged her that if she herself were offered, then she would be sharing her position as a pet with others. Lena had implied as much. Leah couldn't be sure whether the idea troubled her or not. She felt perhaps a twinge of jealousy when she thought about it, which she tried hard to quash.

"Yes, of course," Ellen looked at her, surprised. She gestured ahead to Lena and Yvonne and giggled, "You can't expect ravenous she-beasts like these two to be happy with just one girl each, can you?"

Leah remembered something else that she had wondered about earlier. She thought of the winter landscape she had seen upstairs. "Does she let you go out? Or do you stay here the whole time?"

"All pets are free to come and go," Ellen replied, stating it flatly. "I think maybe unfortunately it wasn't always like that, way back in the really olden days. They did bad stuff. But then I guess so did everyone back then. They won't force you to do anything, if that's what you're worried about. They're nice. There's the sorcery and all the other hokum and the secrets, but a lot of that is for show, to impress girls."

"Well, I'm impressed," Leah laughed. It hadn't even crossed her mind that there might be anything sinister about the Sisterhood. Everyone had seemed so inviting, had shown her such a good time and made her feel comfortable.

"But in practice I don't actually go out much," Ellen continued, "No need to, really. And it's sort of quietly frowned upon. I guess there's always the worry that you'll give something away somehow, or just draw other people's attention to the place. They're very, very particular about secrecy."

"I guess that's fair enough, like you said," Leah replied.

"Right. They don't want the outside world prying in. It would only ruin it."

"So you stay for the winter up in the mountains, too?" Leah returned to her earlier thought.

"Oh no," Ellen looked at her again, "I mean, I don't go out on my own. But when Lisa travels I get to go with her."

"They travel?"

"All year round," Ellen replied, "They have other places. They take some of their pets with them, those that want to come. And we go somewhere warmer, or just to another of their homes."

Leah wondered at the great wealth the Sisterhood must have at its disposal to maintain not just the Summer House, but other places like it, and to travel between them. "And Lisa takes you...?" Leah wasn't quite sure what she wanted to ask, other than to keep Ellen talking, to prompt her to divulge further wonders.

"For sex of course," Ellen replied, "I keep her, um, entertained. They have a lot of business and stuff, so they have pets for recreation, stress relief I guess," Ellen giggled. She put her arm around Leah's waist affectionately. "Our job is to pleasure them."

Leah felt a brief visceral thrill shake her from the top of her spine to its base as she heard Ellen refer to it as 'their' job. "Sounds like a nice job," she said.

"My dream job," Ellen replied, "I've really found my calling. It isn't all just lounging around getting fucked. You have to find new ways of turning them on, to keep it fun, make sure they don't get bored of you."

"Like nice outfits?"

"That's a big part of it. They like dressing you up."

"I'd noticed," Leah laughed. She thought of the two or maybe three times she had changed clothes already that evening.

"Right," Ellen laughed with her, "That isn't the dress you arrived in if I remember right, is it?"

"No," Leah replied, "I think maybe it's not even the one I wore after that."

"Did the others get, um, soiled?" Ellen giggled.

"One did," Leah thought back to her very first encounter. She looked over her shoulder to where Annika was still walking some way behind. She and Kathi were talking. "The others I think I just changed out of." Leah already couldn't remember when exactly.

Aware that they had come a long way from the great hall, Leah had been making more of an effort to keep track of where they must be in the building as they had made their way along this most recent stretch of their journey, while at the same time focusing on what Ellen was saying. When Annika had led her up to the guest rooms, and then later when Lena had led her to her chambers, it had been difficult to keep her orientation, but now it was a little easier. They had walked only through very long, straight hallways, and had made a single left turn, in front of the doors to the convent that Lena had referred to as the East Wing. The position of the courtyard gardens was a helpful constant, and the route seemed to be tracing around their edge.

They approached a corner where the corridor turned to the left. Ahead of them, Lena and Yvonne turned and disappeared around it without stopping.

Ellen brought the two of them to a stop and turned to Leah. "It's nice," Ellen said. Leah wondered for a moment what she was referring to, then Ellen put her hand to the neckline of Leah's dress. She ran it down the side of Leah's body where the laces held the open seam of the dress together, "You look really hot."

"Lena chose it for me," Leah said, feeling a shiver of excitement as the delicate, ticklish touch of the tips of Ellen's sharpened nails made its way along her bare skin.

Ellen glanced from side to side, then turned back to Leah, "Do you think you still like other girls?" she said.

"Am I still attracted to non-Sisterhood girls, you mean?" Leah asked. It seemed clear enough what Ellen's question was, but Leah wanted to buy herself a moment to think.

"Right," said Ellen.

Leah hadn't thought about it like that. She cast her mind back to her encounters with non-Sisterhood girls since first learning the secret of the Sisterhood, and was surprised at how many there had been in a fairly short space of time. Looking back, it was as if the special thrill of being in on the secret, and knowing the pleasures of Sisterhood girls, had granted her a new confidence with other girls, had released her from some of her insecurities. As for the two times that she had gotten as far as what she thought of as proper sex with other non-Sisterhood girls, with Emmie and then later with the acrobatic girl in the colorful dress, it had perhaps felt a little different from before. Knowing the much more intense, abject pleasure that Lena and Yvonne had been able to inflict on her, nothing quite compared, but she had still wanted those two other girls, and she had definitely still enjoyed them. "Yes, for sure," she replied, "Why? Do some girls not?"

"Some go off it, perhaps. Corrupted by dick," Ellen whispered almost silently, barely more than mouthing the last few words.

Leah thought about it, tried to imagine not liking other girls any more, and found she couldn't, "No, I'm pretty sure I haven't."

"So do you want to kiss then?" Ellen looked for the first time a little coy as she met Leah's gaze.

Leah looked around. Annika and Kathi were approaching from further back down the corridor. Otherwise nobody was about. At Leah's back, a window looked out onto one of the square gardens, empty, with a circular pond at its center, in which lilies floated. "It's okay to do that here?" she opened her arms as their bodies came together.