Sisterhood - Temptation Ch. 20

She held the towel to the front of her body as she crossed the chamber. She looked around. There was nobody. Her clothes lay draped over the back of an armchair in the middle of the room. She took them and laid the towel in their place, then separated out her swimming briefs and pulled them on over each leg.

After tucking herself, pulling on her shorts, her pants, and her top, Katharina realized that her thoughts were blank. The heat of the shower had left her pleasantly exhausted. The skin of her chest and her back glowed warm beneath her loose blouse. Having adjusted, she noticed again the more subtle warmth of the summer air that permeated the house.

She looked around and under the chair. She was fairly sure she had not brought her shoes back from the bedroom. They would still be there, though she couldn't recall where. Perhaps in the bed, or on the floor near it.

She walked barefoot across the floorboards to the bedroom door, still open. As she approached it, she saw again the two dressing tables that stood against the wall, one scattered with vials of perfumes and cosmetics, the other with the small framed photographs. She stopped and bent to examine the photographs again. The picture of Anna and her sister Miriam drew her eye. Katharina picked it up and held it in her hands. Anna looked exceedingly beautiful. Slender, elegant, a look of cheerful defiance on her freckled face.

Examining the picture, Katharina noticed that the photograph did not sit quite square with the frame. A little corner of the paper backing was showing where the photo had slipped. Mildly irritated, she turned the frame over to see whether there was some easy way of opening it to adjust the position of the photograph. She found two clasps, undid them, and opened the back of the frame. When she did so, she found herself looking at a second photograph, which had been placed concealed behind the other.

The photograph looked old. It was in color, but the colors had faded, and the sheen of the photographic paper was broken by a few creases. It showed an attractive, young-looking woman, perhaps Katharina's age, with very long black hair. She looked slim, but sturdy. Her long legs were bare from the ankles to the tops of her thighs. She wore walking boots, a pair of short, tight sports pants, and a plain white t-shirt over a fairly big bust. There were the straps of a rucksack over her shoulders. She stood with one foot on a rock, against a backdrop of mountain tops that were too hazy and faded to identify.

Katharina wondered who she might be looking at, and why her photo was stored in this way. The girl looked familiar in a way that Katharina couldn't place. She wondered whether it was because the girl resembled Anna, and might be a relative of hers, but if she did then the resemblance wasn't striking. The sense of familiarity was more vivid than that, as if she had seen this particular face before, or one much more alike to it than Anna's. Katharina shrugged it off. She took a moment to fix the image of the girl in her memory, then she replaced the photograph as it had been and closed the back of the picture frame.

After adjusting the placement of the picture frame on the dressing table until she felt sure it was back where it had been, Katharina walked through into the bedroom. She savored the quiet of an empty room, stopping for a moment to strain out the distant muffled hubbub of the ball, then approached the first bed, the one in which she and Mari had lain. She tugged the curtain aside and found her shoes near the foot of the bed. She flung them down on the floor and slipped her feet in.

She paused and wondered whether she should smooth down the bedcover, try to leave the bed looking as neat as it had when they had entered. But there would be the other beds to tidy as well, including the one in which she had smeared the sheet and the pillow with Ivy's cum. That one probably couldn't be salvaged. She turned away and headed back into the main room.

It was still empty. Now dressed and ready, Katharina stood idle. She checked again the photographs on the dressing table. They looked undisturbed, correct in their original semicircular arrangement. She stood by the other dressing table, waiting. Absently, she took one of the bottles of perfume, a flat, oval glass flask. She lifted the spray head to her nose and sniffed. Bitter, citrus-like, quite pleasing. She tried to recall whether she had smelled any perfume on Anna when they had met. But they had probably not sat close enough. Katharina circled the tip of her finger around the nozzle, and felt some liquid there. She dabbed it onto her neck, then sniffed. There was a faint trace of the bitter fruit scent. She liked it.

Then she startled when she heard a door open. She twisted her head round quickly, worried she might see someone entering through the main door, but then she saw the other three girls entering from the dressing room.

Ivy had a towel wrapped about her head. She and Josephine were still naked, but Mari was dressed. Mari was wearing a short, red cotton summer dress. Mari's stature looked oddly different. Then Katharina looked down and saw that Mari was also wearing a pair of very tall high-heeled shoes.

"Hi Katja. You're ready," Josephine smiled. She skipped across the room and called out behind her, "I'll just go get my clothes. I'll get yours too Ivy."

"Thanks," Ivy called out in reply.

Josephine turned her head to smile again at Katharina as she passed by. Then she hurried off through the door to the bedroom. Katharina approached the other two. She felt a twinge of awkwardness on Ivy's behalf when it occurred to her that Ivy was the only one of the three of them who was still naked.

Ivy glanced at Katharina, with a quick dart of her eyes that Katharina found she could not read. An acknowledgment, perhaps, the trace of a coy smile. Then Ivy pulled the towel from her head, fluffed several times at her hair before wrapping it around her chest and tucked it in, covering herself.

"So," Ivy said, "Are we finally heading to the North Wing now?"

"Yes," Mari cried. She raised one hand in the air and spun around on her tall shoes. She turned to Ivy and smirked, "Now that you're freshly milked and ready."

"Fuck off," Ivy bumped her hips into Mari, knocking her aside.

Mari stumbled, and nearly fell aside, but Katharina caught her by the elbow and heaved her upright.

Mari laughed, "Or at least I am. You two have still got to find a date for Katja."

"Um, Mari?" Katharina frowned.

Mari ignored her and turned to Ivy, smirking, "It's a shame you're not a dmurrhisi, Ivy. Katja could take you."

"You had better not be serious," Ivy groaned, "You promised Katja could take you. Think of Jo. We can't take her there until Katja has someone too."

"Well you had better get to work fast then, for her sake," Mari strode past, nudging Ivy aside as she trotted towards the door nearest the main entrance to Anna's chambers, "I believe in you."

"Come on Mari," Katharina sighed, "Enough of this stuff. I think you've been plenty naughty enough to get whatever punishment you're hoping for. You've made a complete mess of Anna's place. She's definitely going to, um... spank you or tie you up or whatever it is you want."

Standing by the door with her hand on the knob, Mari turned and grinned, "But what are you going to do to me? That's the question."

"Mari," said Ivy sternly, "You promised."

Mari lifted both hands, and crossed the index and middle fingers of each, "I had my fingers crossed behind my back. Doesn't count I'm afraid. Now, I've got door duty, like, an hour ago," she stuck out her tongue, then slowly uncrossed her fingers and turned her hands around, leaving her middle fingers raised. Giggling, she quickly swung the door ajar and slipped through it, pulling it closed behind her.

Katharina looked at Ivy, perplexed. Before she could say anything or think how to react, the door swung open once more and Mari's head peeked out, "Oh by the way, you two should totally get married."

Then the door slammed shut and there came the faint click of the latch slotting into place. Katharina thought about following her. Mari had seemed to want that before. But something about her demeanor made Katharina doubt that Mari was simply being playful this time. There had been a subtle extra edge of malice to Mari's gloating, and a certain finality to her parting statements.

Katharina wasn't even sure whether she had the energy to give pursuit. It felt like conceding too much, as if she would be laying herself completely at Mari's mercy this time. She was nonetheless relieved to see Ivy march over to the door and try the handle. Ivy twisted it firmly, tugged, then tried pushing. But it remained shut.

"Locked," Ivy threw her arms up in exasperation, "Fucking unbelievable."

Katharina sighed. "Hm. Well, I guess maybe that might have been my fault, in a way."

"That fucking crazy bitch I am going to throttle her!" Ivy shook the door by the handle. She looked up at Katharina, "Wait, your fault? Why?"

Katharina thought back to when she and Mari had been alone in one of Anna's beds, how she had shied away from being quite as enthusiastic with Mari's little fantasy scenario as Mari had perhaps seemed to hope, "Maybe I, um, didn't quite give her everything she wanted."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, I think she sort of wanted to live out some fantasy," Katharina twisted her lips, trying to recall what exactly Mari had said at the time, "And I guess I didn't really get into it."

Ivy let go of the door and gave Katharina a curious look, "But you fucked her, right?"

"Yeah. Yes, I did," Katharina replied hurriedly. She shook her head, "Anyway. I'm sorry if that was it. Or whatever, maybe she planned to abandon us all along. Wouldn't totally surprise me."

"So we can't take Josephine to the North Wing now," Ivy sighed.

"No, no. You take her. Come on, Ivy, of course you take her," Katharina nodded towards the main door, "Don't make her wait. I'll catch up with you later."

"Take me... what?" Josephine's voice called out from across the room.

Katharina saw Josephine walking in through the bedroom doorway, still pulling on her colorful dress over her head.

"Ivy will take you to the North Wing now," Katharina replied, "If you want."

The dress fell into place around Josephine's body, the hem coming to rest at the tops of her thighs. She shook her hair behind her and looked at Ivy and Katharina in turn, "Great. And you? Where's Mari?"

"Mari has ditched us, the traitorous bitch," Ivy walked across the room to join Josephine, "Don't worry, Katja is going to punish her later. And I mean actual punishment, not pretend punishment that's actually hot sex or anything like that."

"Hah. So naughty. She just loves to mess with you, doesn't she?" Josephine laughed. She looked unfazed, even amused. She pointed to a pile of clothing draped over the dressing table beside the door, "Your clothes."

"Thanks," Ivy grabbed her clothes. There was a hint of residual anger in the swiftness of her movements as she swiped the clothing off the dresser and flapped out her shorts in front of her.

"Yeah, she's mean," Josephine smiled, "But she's hot, so I forgive her."

"You forgive her, huh?" Ivy was hurriedly pulling on her pants, staggering as she lifted her leg.

"Yeah, Whatever," Josephine took hold of Ivy's shoulder to steady her. She looked over at Katharina, "So, we going to find you another date then, Katja? There's a rule, right? You have to take a... a girl with you?"

Katharina walked slowly over to join the other two, "Yeah, that's the rule. But no, you can go with Ivy. I'll be fine."

Josephine shook her head, "Nope. Ivy and I are going to help fix you up. Come on Ivy, get your top on, cover up those perky little tits of yours."

"Okay, okay," Ivy straightened up, found her top and pulled it on. She looked around on the floor, then slipped her feet one after the other into her shoes. She fluffed her hair behind her, smoothed it into place along the sides of her head, and looked at Katharina, "Right. Fuck. Then I guess we have to head back to the hall. Yet again."

"Well. If that's what you really want," aware that the other two girls were standing close to each other, Katharina stepped aside and made for the main door ahead of them. She swung it open and stepped out, then looked back to watch Ivy and Josephine follow her. "Okay," she looked up and down the corridor, "Here goes then."

Katharina thought for a moment about which way to turn. She found her sense of orientation and set her picture of the house into order in the space of her imagination. They had arrived from the left, where further along she could just make out the archway that led onto the staircase down to Lisa's garden. A shorter route back to the Great Hall was right, along and round the corner to where some of the guest rooms were located. She smiled at the other two, then set off.

She walked slightly ahead, watching the wall hangings and paintings pass slowly by, as she listened to Ivy and Josephine talk.

"We're gonna slay this mission, you'll see," said Josephine, "Katja will bag the first girl she talks to."

"Heh," Ivy chuckled, "Probably."

"What kind of girls does she like?"

Katharina smiled to herself. Josephine's question seemed to have been directed at Ivy, so she maintained her pace and led on ahead, without looking back or giving any indication that she was listening.

"Well, I dunno," it sounded as if Ivy was pondering, "I guess earlier we were talking about which girls we liked, in the house, and Katja's first pick was one of the bar girls. Maybe you saw her earlier? The one who was going around topless."

"Blonde hair? With the fucking monster boobs?" Josephine sounded excited, "Oh yeah. I want her to flatten me."

"Yeah her," Ivy replied, "So anyway, I think maybe Katja likes big tits."

"Thanks Ivy," Katharina chuckled, "I'm not completely superficial Jo."

"I'm not judging," Josephine called out, "She is really pretty. You should take her."

Katharina shook her head, smiling, "She would definitely not let me do that. Anyway, she's one of the girls who already lives here. If we can, we should really try to find another new girl, like you."

"How's that?" Josephine asked, "You've had all the others already, or what?"

Katharina laughed, "I wish. No, it's not that, it's just... well, it's nice to introduce new girls to something they might enjoy."

"How charitable. You're really considerate," Josephine laughed, "So come on, Ivy. Katja said you two were telling each other which girls you liked. What about you?"

They reached the point at which the corridor turned a right angle. Katharina paused and turned to point the way, "Along here. We'll get back to the Great Hall."

She walked on, Ivy and Josephine now at her side. Josephine held Ivy's arm and tugged on it playfully, "So Ivy, I'm waiting for your answer."

"I have completely forgotten all other girls since meeting you," said Ivy flatly.

Katharina remembered suddenly, "She said she likes one called Ellen. Who, um, also has fairly big boobs."

"Oh really Ivy?" Josephine giggled.

"More like, you know, normal big," Ivy mumbled, "Not like Louise."

"What is it with you girls and boobs, huh?" Josephine looked down at her chest, "I'm feeling really inadequate now. Is it titfucking? You like big ones because you can fuck them?"

"Yours are absolutely delightful," Katharina smiled. She stopped, and held Ivy's arm to halt her, then she turned to Josephine and lowered her voice, "But, um, please, no mention of stuff like... titfucking. Not in the public part of the party."

"Oh, sorry," a look of realization crossed Josephine's face. Then she smiled and whispered, "Specifically titfucking?"

Katharina laughed, "Or anything related to, you know, us."

"Dicks," Ivy whispered hurriedly. She tugged on Katharina's arm, "Okay, let's go."

"Right, sorry, sorry," Josephine shook her head and blinked, "I am gonna have to be careful. I'm terrible at keeping secrets."

"It's okay," Katharina reassured her, "It's easy to forget, I suppose, if you've already been, um... initiated and then you go back to the main area."

After taking one pace onward, Katharina stopped again. There was a trace of a sound in her ears, a sense of having heard something but without a clear impression of what it had been. Ivy opened her mouth to speak, but Katharina held up her hand and shushed her. She cocked her head, listening.

"Is someone crying?" Josephine whispered.

Katharina heard it only after Josephine had spoken. Then she saw what might be its source. Several meters ahead, one of the doors on the right was slightly ajar. The sound, a faint, high-pitched sobbing punctuated by little sniffs, seemed to be located in the room on the other side.

"Oh yeah. Right. Crying," said Ivy, "Should we go see?"

Katharina shrugged. She beckoned the others to follow her, and continued walking. She tried to tread quietly, setting her shoes carefully on the floor with each step. She held her gaze on the open door ahead, and focused on perceiving the crying sound.

The sound stopped for a moment when they were nearly at the door, and Katharina wondered whether the occupant of the room had heard them approaching. But then it renewed, and the voice, clearly a girl's, seemed to grow even more distraught. Katharina could hear the little spasms of breath in each sob, could picture how the girl's chest must be trembling.

"I suppose we should check," Katharina was unsure, and found herself looking at Josephine, "In case someone is really in trouble or something."

Josephine nodded, "You go. You're the nicest. It'll be intimidating if we all barge in."

Katharina laughed beneath her breath. She was surprised to find that it irked her a little to be thought of as the nicest.

"Yeah you go Katja," Ivy whispered, prodding her forward, "If it's a new girl you could comfort her and she might want to come with you as your date."

"Ivy!" Katharina giggled, "Come on. Some poor girl's in distress and your first thought is to fuck her."

"For you to fuck her," Ivy corrected her.

"See, I told you you were the nicest," said Josephine.

"What if it's a dmurrhisi girl?" Katharina countered, aware that she was gradually being argued into a corner by the other two, "She might appreciate it better if Josephine comforts her."

"A dmu...?" Josephine frowned.

"A girl like you," Ivy explained. She turned to Katharina, "Well she doesn't need to know right away, does she? What, were you planning on wiping her tears with your dick or something?"

The volume of Ivy's voice was making Katharina a little nervous. She couldn't judge whether someone on the other side of the door would be able to hear it, but perhaps they could, or would do eventually if Ivy continued talking. When she held her breathing still for a moment, Katharina could hear the weeping sounds continuing unabated.

She sighed, "Okay, okay. I'll check." She walked quietly over and put her hand on the door. She looked back at the others, "Just, um, wait for me a bit further along. Don't stand right there."

Josephine nodded silently. She and Ivy walked briskly on several paces down the hallway. Once Katharina felt that the others were far enough away that their presence would not somehow be discernible by whoever was inside the room, she curled her fingers and tapped them against the wood.

There was no response that Katharina could hear. It seemed as if the crying ceased for a moment, but perhaps the girl was merely pausing to draw a long breath, as a moment later the sound resumed with a long wailing sigh. Slowly, Katharina pushed the door open.

"Um, hi? Everything okay?" Katharina slipped round the door, pushing it back into place behind her but not closing it.