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Her Awakening
(A working title - Novel in progress)
© H. Cooper
Chapter Five
"Well now that was interesting!" Catty crowed gleefully
as they neared the heavy stone steps that led up to the huge circular
patio.
Bella whirled around, heaving for a breath. "I can't
believe what goes on in there, in my own family's maze and that....HE..participates
in it!"
Catty threw back her head and laughed. "Bella, do you
know how fond the English are of a good maze? There are all kinds
of hidden alcoves in there and I can assure you there are far more
than those two couples we heard" Her voice lowered to a conspiratorial
whisper. "I know because I have spied since I was a kid."
Bella's answer was to just shake her head, suddenly
forgetting all of the escapades she had conducted over the years that
had gotten her nearly flayed alive. It had been funny to hear the
first couple, but Raven..
"You want him!" Catty exclaimed. "I can see it all
over your face!"
"No, I do not! He is far too overbearing for my tastes..acting
as if the whole countryside is in line to.."Her voice began on an
indignant note and trailed off at the end with more of a put off sulk.
Catty grinned and took her hand, tugging her across
the patio. "You do, and they are."
*****************
Bella was nodding politely every fifth word or so
as her dancing partner regaled her with tales of his days at Oxford.
He was not unpleasing to look at with dusky blonde hair and warm amber
eyes, but he was not much older than Bella herself and his anecdotes
were dreadfully dry and boring and she had long since tuned him out.
"Splendid! Than I will come calling at noon a week
from tomorrow"
The exclamation brought Bella back to her senses and
she peered up at Donnie Covington the Third with a bemused smile.
"A week from tomorrow?"
Donnie shook his head with a boyish laugh. "You girls
can be so short of memory! I asked if you would like to go walking
with me in Hyde Park a week from tomorrow and you nodded. Really you
should see a physician if this quick memory problem persists...."
Bella groaned inwardly as Donnie then went into a
long dissertation on his various medical problems and the steps taken
to cure them. She tried to pay attention after getting herself an
afternoon date she just did not want to keep and when the music ended
she claimed the need for refreshing herself up and quickly made her
getaway.
***
"Now, you get yourself into bed and have a good rest,
I shan't expect to see you until at least noon tomorrow."
"But Aunt Catherine, there are still so many guests
I have yet to speak with.." Catherine placed a guiding hand on Bella's
lower back and turned her firmly towards the stairs.
"Tomorrow, most of our guests are staying the weekend.
You did splendidly tonight, Bella, your mother and father would have
been exceedingly proud. Go rest, I will see to the guests."
Bella hesitated still, oceanic eyes swept the crowd
for a last glimpse of Raven or Catty, both of whom she had not seen
in over an hour now; Other guests had departed but many showed no
signs of slowing down.
It was with great reluctance suddenly that she began
trodding up the long staircase towards her bed chamber.
"Yes Aunt Catherine, I will see you in the morrow."
"That's a good girl" Catherine watched her reach the
very top of the staircase before turning, and over the crowd her eyes
met a dark eyed gaze and she nodded slowly.
She shifted once more, turning from her left to right
side. She wasn't sure how long she had been trying to fall asleep
now, quite a while. Her mind was just too full of the nights events.
She could not put a finger on the reason seeing and
hearing Raven with that woman bothered her so. He was after all, a
grown man. He was not hers. She was not his.
"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh."
The groan resounded loudly in her large bed chamber
and it was quickly matched by a rumbling in her belly that reminded
her she had hardly eaten in the last twenty four hours.
Surely in the kitchen there would a plethora of left
overs to nibble at, she thought. She flipped back the satin coverlette
and sat up, swinging her legs over the edge.
"Oh God's teeth it is freezing." She grumbled, her
feet slipped into satin slippers, thinking to herself that it was
just a sin that the days could be so lovely and the nights so chilly.
She pulled a dark blue wrapper around the sheer material
of her nightgown, and lit a thick taper, holding the small candle
dish by a slender brass handle. The ethereal glow lent an eerie cast
to the room and the heavy cherry wood furniture loomed with hulking
shadows.
She slipped her heavy room key into the small pocket
sewn just inside her robe and slipped out into the hall. It was as
silent as church, as one would expect at such a late hour. Most of
the rooms were filled with the guests staying over the length of the
weekend and she was careful to walk on the pads of her feet, nearly
tip toeing as she made her way to the staircase.
It was a faint sound that caught her attention just
as slender fingers wrapped around the solid oak bannister. A scream.
So deep into Bale, she would not have made it out had there been any
other sound around her.
But the hall was empty and the night was long in its
hour. She felt chills raise up like millions of tiny soldiers along
her flesh. Who could it be? Where was it coming from? The questions
inundated her immediately though the loudest part of her conscience
told her to head straight back to bed right that moment.
But Bella was never one to listen to carefully to herself
and though her trepidation sprung up brightly, it was her overwhelming
curiosity that won out. Murder and mayhem be damned, she had to know
what was going on.
She turned back, peering down the length of the hall
which faded quickly into a black nothingness that did little to encourage
her to explore. She had never gone past this bit of the stairs at
her Aunts cautioning, telling her that Bale was filled with twists
and turns which had been protection in times of war and invasion.
Indeed her Aunt her told her, some of the massive structure was not
fit for curious girls to be sneaking about in.
All the more reason to search out the owner of that
scream. Someone could be in serious trouble, gone out for a midnight
walk like herself, a guest now lost in the dark turns and unstable
landings of Bale.
She had to search, it would be wrong not to. She nodded
decisively to herself and with a palm splayed against the silk fittings
of the walls, slowly began to edge her way down. The small glow of
her taper lighting only a small portion of the hall around her.
She regretted her bravery the moment the taper was
met by a whisper of cool breeze that threw it into a convulsion of
dancing motion, finally extinguishing it.
"Blast!"
She moved closer to the wall, following it as the hall
rounded and she slipped into even darker recesses. The air was even
cooler and she sat the candle down to the floor to pull the robe more
tightly around her body. She had no concept of time as she followed
the long narrow of carpeted hall. She knew she was definitely deep
into the very center of Bale when again she hear a muffled scream,
only this time followed by a symphony of murmurings; Freezing in her
tracks, straining to make out the direction.
Down, somewhere down and to the east. She crossed the
three feet of hall to the other side and felt along the smooth surface
until she happened upon the next door. To her surprise the door pushed
easily open. It was huge, this room, she could tell by the shaft of
moonlight beaming into the room through a sliver of parted drapes.
And Emtpy. She stood against the door very still,
only the sound of her breath breaking the silence every few seconds.
She could make out the murmurings now constantly, she was getting
closer.
Closer to what?
"You are a fool girl, Bella" She muttered, spiting
herself by moving along the inner walls, in the direction of the murmurings.
One door tried, opening to a large closet, empty with
nothing to find. She even remembered to pat down the walls as she
had read in some fanciful murder mystery novel she had read over the
summer in Italy.
The bare wood floor creaked softly beneath her steps
and the cool air wrapped itself around her, filtering through the
delicate material of her robe.
But she was determined and she could feel she was close.
It was with renewed intent that she tried the next door, feeling much
like Alice in Wonderland as she entered into a smaller closet, knowing
by some instinct there was something else to be found in the seemingly
empty space.
She carefully slid her hands along the rougher surface
of the walls, starting high and working slowly down as she followed
the square shape of the room with five full turns until her fingers
found what she though was there.
Another door.
Tall enough for an older child to walk through, but
one that she would have to duck to clear. Her heart beat wildly in
her chest when her fingers closed solidly around the brass knob. Turning
it slowly, wishing now more than ever for that taper, she crouched
and stepped through.
The voices were a buzz now, loud enough for her to
make out male from female. There was laughter and moans and she knew
whatever she was about to discover, her Aunt Christine would most
certainly not condone in Bale
She felt along the narrow space, unable to see an inch
in front of her face as black enveloped her. The voices were steadily
growing louder and she knew she was about to happen upon the source
of the screams. The voices.
She shook with fright, and the little hallway seemed
endless as she inched her way through the dark. When she finally came
to the end, there was a most unladylike curse as her body bumped up
hard against another door.
Whatever she was going to find tonight, was going to
be on the other side of this door. She could be caught. She could
be hurt. Or someone else could be. She felt it was her obligation
to open the door, take the step to find out what was going on in her
own home. She had just come to far now to turn back in schoolgirl
fright.
With trembling fingers she turned the knob, pulling
the door open only a fraction, finding it took a bit of tug as the
door was much heavier. She realized its thickness had aided in muffling
the sounds within because now, the voices were loud, many voices.
Moans, gasps, grunts. She could hear it all as she pressed an ear
into the crevice she created. Felt cool air slither into her ear and
tease her as she strained to listen.
There were mixed voices coming from it seemed, every
direction.
"..that's it, beg for it.."
"Please Sir! Please!"
Groans and whimpers, moans and stifled screams. Heavy
thuds. Collisions of flesh to flesh. She could hear all of it and
she begin to shudder violently. She could not stop herself from pulling
the door ajar further, from stealing a peek through the small space
provided.
The room was huge and filled with candles, she decided
there must have been well over three hundred easy. People were everywhere.
People dressed in dark robes, wearing black dominoes that concealed
half their face. Some, she gasped at what she saw, some were hardly
dressed or not dressed at all.
People in groups of two to five. Lone figures that
stood on the fringes with arms folded into the flowing ebony of their
capes. She shivered as to her, they looked quite like the Grim Reaper
in her nightmares. People were kissing, touching, being tortured with
devices she had never seen much less imagined in existence. The back
of one man was striped with red welts, but instead of shrieking in
anguish the man writhed with pleasure. Bella could see his arousal
quite clearly and it made the heat rush up into her cheeks.
What was this!?
That question replayed in her mind over and over as
she watched. Stuffing pale fingers into her mouth, biting down as
she became quite fascinated with a woman who was on her knees before
a man. Fascinated because what she saw was so, sexual. Unlike anything
she had ever known, ever fantasized of in her darkest hours alone.
The woman whose back was to Bella, was spread on her knees over the
face of man who lay flat to the floor. His hands were locked around
the girls thighs and she was rocking over his face. It was so very
clear what he was doing to this girl.
She thought she might faint right then she grew so
hot. But there was to much to see, and the girl was also being whipped
with some sort of many tailed device. It looked to be made of leather
but she wasn't sure. A huge man loomed over her and was bringing the
thing down against the girls breasts and stomach as she writhed over
the mans face. Bella could hear her moans, her gasps, her shrieks
as if she were right beside her.
She watched. She could not look away, she could not
breathe as her gaze was pulled here and there. She watched a man take
a girl from behind, using the girl in her bottom. Such a foreign concept
to her, but so..raw. So sexual that it made her body throb deep inside.
She could hear her own breath falling in heavy pants as she watched
another woman force a man down before her, watched in utter wonder
as the man licked at the woman's high laced boots.
So many images. Decadent images that toyed with her
mind. It was like a dream. She could not believe it was really happening.
People bound down onto long tables, probed by many fingers, nipples
and sexes pinched, tugged, twisted until they were screaming with
a kind of agonized pleasure.
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