The long hot summer of '76. Despite everything we hear about the swinging sixties, sexual liberation didn't even reach the end of the drive up to the door of Loxford Hall, the medium ranked girls public school to which my parents had sent me.
Loxford Hall: a big Victorian redbrick building, set in its own grounds, or demesne, in the middle of the Derbyshire hills. Cold, isolated, perhaps romantic in a strange Gothic Horror way.
A school typical of finishing schools in 1976. Unheated, cold baths, miserable food, second rate teaching and governed by a group of frustrated harpies keeping order by the use of a host of more than condign punishments.
I was sent there at the start of the summer holidays when it would have been expected that we girls would be spending a few happy weeks away from school with their families.
But my family was no ordinary family, my parents were separated and my mother had gone to live with 'Uncle' Emil on the Riviera. Father was in the diplomatic posted to Africa, where he had deemed it unsafe for me to go.
It had ever been thus. I had always had the feeling that I was an unfortunate mistake. That my parents felt that I had been sent to get in the way of their, to them, perfect lives. Father devoted to his career, and mother devoted to a string of unsuitable gigolos and paramours.
It was not as if I was an unattractive child: short perhaps, and slightly too heavily built, but with big bosoms, an attractive face and straight hair of a colour usually described as 'chestnut'.
I was not particularly sociable though. I tried to work hard and keep out of trouble. Not like Lulu.
I had no other relatives, except for a dotty old grandmother living in the Wilds of Woolly, and not even my parents would send an eighteen year old girl to live with somebody like that.
That is probably why I ended up in Loxford - sent there at the start of the summer holidays. Myself and a few other girls abandoned by their families. Among these was my room mate Lulu.
We didn't mix much with the other girls, Lulu seemed to want my companionship and I was strangely attracted to her.
When I think about Lulu, I think about a girl seeming old for her eighteen years: a beauty, a romantic, a girl who not only looked romantic but seemed to embody the essence of romanticism. What dark events in her life had bereft her of friends and relatives I never knew, but it had left her with a depth of soul which I could never hope to match.
That sultry August evening the sun was just coming down towards the horizon. It must have been sometime between eight and nine, as the school had a strict curfew and we had to be in our rooms by eight thirty engaged in improving activities.
Lulu sat at the open window reading Byron. She was on the fourth canto of Don Juan (a book expressly forbidden as likely to bring salacious thoughts to the minds of young girls), alternately reading and looking out over the wild hills of the Dark Peak.
It must be explained that salacious thoughts and methods for their prevention were a constant preoccupation of the staff at Loxford Hall, who knew only too well the effect of burgeoning sexuality on teenage girls.
She looked lovely, completely naked as she always was, her copper coloured hair let down, her long slim legs, tucked up, her small breasts. She was an extraordinary beauty. Imagine Lizzie Siddall as painted by Rosetti and you get the idea.
She seemed deep in thought, frowning constantly as if something preyed on her mind, possessed her, blotting out the book, the room, me. Suddenly she put the book down and turned to me with those extraordinary green eyes of hers. The eyes that gave her that bewitching romantic look.
"Coming?" she asked.
"What do you mean 'Coming', you idiot? We're on curfew remember."
"Curfew. Who cares about that."
She was off on another of her trips. She hadn't really wanted me along I felt. And I knew what she had in mind. She did this some times; climbed down the wisteria that clung to the old stone walls and set off across the peak in search of...? In search of what I was not to discover until much later.
Without another word, she put on her pyjamas, shrugged again and swung herself out onto the sill and then down the wall of the house and onto the gravel drive that led down to the lodge and freedom. I let her go. She'd be back by midnight.
She wasn't.
The night was light, with a full moon and I stayed up hoping to see her slight figure striding back up the drive. But she didn't come.
By six in the morning I was frantic. Should I wake Miss Trevelyan the iron willed and iron haired house mistress in charge of the school in the absence of Miss Dodds, the headmistress. She would have the police out. There would be a frightful fuss and Lulu would probably be sacked (that is expelled).
I couldn't bear that. Surely she must get back soon. I could think of only one thing to do. I swung out onto the Wisteria myself and, terrified, clumsily clambered down, falling the last few feet into a flower bed and shattering a cucumber frame.
A struggled to my feet and limped down the drive. I was still twenty yards from the end when she came into view, rounding the wall of the demesne and entering the drive.
She was riding a milk white pony, no saddle, no bridle; her long auburn hair hung down her back almost to her waist, and she was stark naked except for a black velvet collar and one black velvet garter round her left thigh. Each bore a single ruby red gemstone.
"Lulu!" I shrieked, "what are you doing!" but she just smiled back at me with a strange seraphic smile.
"Girls!" What are you doing, "My office at once!"
I turned to see Miss Trevelyan. The martinet, wakened by my clumsy crash into the frame, was dressed in her dressing gown and looked as furious as I'd ever seen her.
How can I describe Miss Trevelyan, who plays such an important part in this strange tale: on the tall side, short cropped grey hair, deep piggy eyes, her mouth a gash of ruby red lipstick. Every school seems blessed with at least on sadistic martinet, and Miss Trevelyan was Loxford Hall's.
We were in for it now. We'd be sacked, both of us, sure thing. But we weren't. I thought perhaps Miss Trevelyan didn't want to lose the business, or didn't want the publicity, I didn't know.
We stood in front of her while she railed at us for our wilful disobedience.
"What were you doing girl? Dressed like that. Out in the middle of the night? You could have been... Could have been...ravished"
Ravished! The word, redolent more of Bram Stoker than modern Britain, brought a fleeting wry smile to Lulu's lips, and I wondered for a moment...
But not a word would Lulu say.
"Unless there is to be a thrashing you will tell me girl. Right now. What were you doing dressed like that and where did you get those!"
A thrashing! Back in those days even eighteen year old girls would be belted at schools like Loxford. Six strokes on the bare behind at a minimum.
Still she remained silent.
"Where did you get those?" She pointed at the black velvet bands with the ruby like stones. She was red in the face with fury. For some reason the stones held a particular fascination for her.
She took out the leather strap or tawse that was used in those days to administer punishments in strict discipline schools. Which was as horrific as it sounds. Administered for maximum pain and humiliation , it was a common punishment for even trivial offences and I only say because it seemed to point out Lulu's strength of will.
For Miss Trevelyan was pointing at me to receive the punishment. I could see the psychology you see. It would take a much greater strength of purpose to see me thrashed and say nothing. We both knew that Miss Trevelyan knew that the unfairness would test her more than any punishment for herself.
Still she remained silent.
"Where did you get those?" She pointed at the black velvet bands with the ruby like stones. She was red in the face with fury. For some reason the stones held a particular fascination for her.
She took out the leather strap or tawse that was used in those days to administer punishments in strict discipline schools. Which was as horrific as it sounds. Administered for maximum pain and humiliation , it was a common punishment for even trivial offences and I only say because it seemed to point out Lulu's strength of will.
For Miss Trevelyan was pointing at me to receive the punishment. I could see the psychology you see. It would take a much greater strength of purpose to see me thrashed and say nothing. We both knew that Miss Trevelyan knew that the unfairness would test her more than any punishment for herself.
I bent over her desk and pulled my pyjama bottoms down. Even at eighteen years old a bare bottom thrashing was considered suitable punishment for young ladies.
“Don’t tell her Lulu,” I shouted.
“You’re going yo get double for that,” snarled Trevelyan
I heard the leather strap whistle and suddenly my bottom was on fire
I got twelve strokes, the maximum allowed under the school rules, and I gritted my teeth. I didn't want her to have the satisfaction either. Lulu said not a word and Miss Trevelyan, her ace card played, could do no more to drag the story from her.
I got twelve strokes, the maximum allowed under the school rules, and I gritted my teeth. I didn't want her to have the satisfaction either. Lulu said not a word and Miss Trevelyan, her ace card played, could do no more to drag the story from her.
We were returned to our room gated for a month till the end of the holidays.
"Lulu," I gasped, "what on earth happened! I was beside myself."
She shook her head.
"You owe me," I said.
So she sat on the bed, watched the sun rise, and told me the extraordinary tale.
"I was barefoot," said Lulu, and it was something, I must admit, I hadn't thought of, "...but I'm used to that. I walked out through the gate and into the lane. The night was bright and clear with a full moon high in the sky. I left the lane on the path that leads through Lakey Woods and left my clothes about four hundred yards into the trees."
"You did what!" she had said it in that steady rather mature slightly upper class voice of hers, more as if she were reading a short story by Somerset Maugham than recounting her own adventure.
"I took my clothes off and left them. I always do that. There is nothing quite like strolling naked through the woods on a fine summer's night completely naked, feeling the cool breeze on your bare skin. It's addictive. And you feel so much at one with nature, so free, so liberated. I must have walked miles. The night was so clear, the feel of the beaten earth on my feet so sensual, it is so important to be barefoot, to be completely nude. You know, I’m never so happy as when I’m completely nude.”
"You owe me," I said.
So she sat on the bed, watched the sun rise, and told me the extraordinary tale.
"I was barefoot," said Lulu, and it was something, I must admit, I hadn't thought of, "...but I'm used to that. I walked out through the gate and into the lane. The night was bright and clear with a full moon high in the sky. I left the lane on the path that leads through Lakey Woods and left my clothes about four hundred yards into the trees."
"You did what!" she had said it in that steady rather mature slightly upper class voice of hers, more as if she were reading a short story by Somerset Maugham than recounting her own adventure.
"I took my clothes off and left them. I always do that. There is nothing quite like strolling naked through the woods on a fine summer's night completely naked, feeling the cool breeze on your bare skin. It's addictive. And you feel so much at one with nature, so free, so liberated. I must have walked miles. The night was so clear, the feel of the beaten earth on my feet so sensual, it is so important to be barefoot, to be completely nude. You know, I’m never so happy as when I’m completely nude.”
She said it in a totally matter of fact way, as if it were the most natural thing.
"The next thing I knew I was completely lost. Things look so different in the dark. It was strange. So exhilarating and so scary. I was going to have to seek help. I was going to have to go up to somebody's door in the middle of the night, stark naked, knock them up and ask them to help me get back to the school. What sort of reception would I get?"
She paused for a second contemplating.
"Then I heard it. The sound of music coming from over the brow of a small hill in a wooden dell. Mozart perhaps. Some eighteenth century composer anyway. Somebody cultured playing a record of Mozart. Somebody unlikely to, what did the old harridan say, 'ravish' me.
So I made my way towards it. Over the brow of the hill and then I saw it. The sight that has changed my life."
I wriggled a bit on my seat. Lulu looked across at me and smiled. "Let's have a look at your bum," she said.
Rather embarrassed I pulled up my nightie and turned to look at my bottom in the mirror. It was bright red.
"Come on," said Lulu,"take it off and lie down on the bed on your tummy."
I did as I was told and she started to rub cream into each cheek.
"Sorry," she said.
"What for?"
"For everything. Giving you this."
"Oh that's nothing," I said. The circular motion of her hand was strangely erotic, "I'm used to it."
And indeed I was. My father had taken the belt to me ever since I was little. Whenever mother got a new boyfriend, or ran off, or embarrassed him in some other way. It was the affront to his dignity, the fact that other people would sneer or laugh at him or think him a cuckold. Even at that age I understood. He needed to vent his rage on something and I was available. A younger version of my mother.
"Still, I owe you," she said.
"Nonsense, go on, what happened next."
She took off her nightdress and lay with me on the bed.
I closed my eyes and listened, both of us naked, arms around each other, and me feeling her soft hand caressing me. My desire for Lulu had grown so much that I'd have taken all the belts in the world for that.
"There it was," she said, "It was built like an ancient Greek temple. I suppose. A large hunting lodge perhaps, a folly on a ferme ornée, I don't know. I could hear the music clearly now, and make out the people inside. It was lit, not brightly like electric lighting, but a flickering glow as if illuminated by a thousand candles. Outside the front door stood two flaming torches to mark the entrance."
She stopped a moment to think.
"I suppose if I'd been sensible I would have tried somewhere else. It was hardly the thing to go peering in through the window with no clothes on, but some strange attraction drew me towards it. There were large casement windows on the side wall, and although the curtains were drawn there was enough of a gap for me to see the sight within. I looked through and gasped. The room was lit by a myriad of lighted candles. Guests mingled dressed, as if for the carnival in Don Giovanni, in capes and domino masks. It was like an extraordinary mystic dream, I stood there entranced, as the couples whirled and danced around the room.
I don't know how long I stood there entranced by the music, the costumes, the flickering candlelight, when suddenly I became aware of a sound behind me. I turned and suppressed a gasped and there standing a few feet off were two masked figures dressed in multi-coloured Harlequin costumes. Their masks were not the domino masks worn by the guests but grotesque animal faces. I shrieked, suddenly aware of my nakedness and instinctively trying to hide my breasts and my vagina with my hands, the way you do you know, when someone sees you naked...”
To be honest I didn’t know, but I nodded my head spellbound. She'd said 'vagina'. Public schoolgirls don't use words like that. They say 'you know where' or 'down below' or such silly euphemism. It made her seem so mature. It made my 'you know where' tingle. She carried on, speaking in a strange level voice as if reading from a script.
“...well I do anyway. I just stood frozen to the spot. I’d been seen. Whatever was going to happen! I was scared. I didn't like the look of them. They looked almost evil in an odd way. Then one of them gestured to me. ‘Follow us’. That was all, just ‘Follow us’. So I did. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I did, still covering my privates with my hands, horribly aware that I was otherwise completely nude...”
I gasped. The thought of being completely nude and totally vulnerable in a strangers house, was at the same time both frightening and strangely and erotically exciting. Lulu continued.
“I was led in through a side door, and up some dark stairs at the back of the house, lit only by the candle that one of the Harlequins was carrying, and into a small dressing room. It was full of costumes and on one wall was a full length looking glass. ‘Look at yourself’, grunted one Harlequin, more a barked order than a request. I put down my hands and looked myself in the long glass. You know, it was extraodinarily, I don't know how to put it, sort of tingle making, to see myself like that, nude in the flickering candlelight, in the power of these menacing creatures. Then I saw behind me one of the Harlequins had picked out a costume, a beautiful Regency gown, the sort you see in illustrations of Jane Austen; it was virgin white, and pure silk and adorned with a scarlet sash. It was perfect, and it was for me to wear. Nothing else you understand, no knickers or anything..."
She broke off from her discourse to giggle a bit and blush. It was strange, she hadn't blushed at 'vagina' but she did at 'knickers'.
"...I don't think ladies wore such things in those days. No, just this beautiful silk dress, clinging to my figure, fastened tight beneath the bust and pushing them up and forwards..."
She blushed and giggled again...
"That was considered, you know, sexy in those days.”
I smiled, “Well go on. I can’t believe it!”
“Neither could I. I was led down into the ballroom where all the dancing was, and the music, and the champagne and the food, and I danced and drank and ate and it was the most wonderful mystical, magical experience of my life. But the strange thing. Nobody spoke. Not to me. Not to each other. A figure dressed in cape and pantaloon would take a lady by the hand and lead her out onto the dance floor and there we would waltz, that strange old fashioned waltz with the lady with her hand on the gentleman’s shoulder and the gentleman with his hand behind his back, or dance a quadrille or cotillion, but no-one spoke, not a word.
Most of the guests looked mature, older, but there was one other girl."
Lulu stopped. She seemed to find it difficult to talk about this girl. A strange look of anxiety came into her face as she mentioned her and I wondered if they had somehow had a 'special' relationship.
"She was stunning, slightly taller than me, raven haired with extraordinary violet blue eyes and skin as pale and smooth as bleached velvet. She was so attractive and danced with such disdain and wore a green sash to her dress and a green jewel on a black velvet band round her neck.
And we danced and never stopped. Not until midnight....”
She suddenly stopped and turned to face away. The excitement had gone out of her face to be replaced by a strange look, a mixture of wonder and embarrassment. Something strange had happened at midnight and she was reluctant to talk about it.
“Well. What happened at midnight?” I asked, barely able to contain my excitement.
“I don’t know. It was... It was...”
“Was what for goodness sake. You have to tell me now.”
She seemed to make up her mind all of a sudden.
“The music stopped,” she said. “Quite suddenly, as a clock chimed twelve, the music stopped. And everybody fell back, and they all looked at me and the other girl. I didn’t know what to do. I looked round, and there were the two Harlequins. And they led me up to the end of the ballroom, where a figure stood, in mask and cape, a woman, tall and imposing, short cropped dark hair, a livid scar on her left cheek. And I stood in front of her, and the two Harlequins stood behind, and then I felt a tug at the scarlet sash round my waist and...”
“And what!”
“It fell off. Quickly, smoothly, the silken material slipping over my bare skin. If I close my eyes I can almost feel it now, soft and sensuous as it dropped over my bosoms. And there we were, the other girl and me, standing there naked.
I closed my eyes and listened, both of us naked, arms around each other, and me feeling her soft hand caressing me. My desire for Lulu had grown so much that I'd have taken all the belts in the world for that.
"There it was," she said, "It was built like an ancient Greek temple. I suppose. A large hunting lodge perhaps, a folly on a ferme ornée, I don't know. I could hear the music clearly now, and make out the people inside. It was lit, not brightly like electric lighting, but a flickering glow as if illuminated by a thousand candles. Outside the front door stood two flaming torches to mark the entrance."
She stopped a moment to think.
"I suppose if I'd been sensible I would have tried somewhere else. It was hardly the thing to go peering in through the window with no clothes on, but some strange attraction drew me towards it. There were large casement windows on the side wall, and although the curtains were drawn there was enough of a gap for me to see the sight within. I looked through and gasped. The room was lit by a myriad of lighted candles. Guests mingled dressed, as if for the carnival in Don Giovanni, in capes and domino masks. It was like an extraordinary mystic dream, I stood there entranced, as the couples whirled and danced around the room.
I don't know how long I stood there entranced by the music, the costumes, the flickering candlelight, when suddenly I became aware of a sound behind me. I turned and suppressed a gasped and there standing a few feet off were two masked figures dressed in multi-coloured Harlequin costumes. Their masks were not the domino masks worn by the guests but grotesque animal faces. I shrieked, suddenly aware of my nakedness and instinctively trying to hide my breasts and my vagina with my hands, the way you do you know, when someone sees you naked...”
To be honest I didn’t know, but I nodded my head spellbound. She'd said 'vagina'. Public schoolgirls don't use words like that. They say 'you know where' or 'down below' or such silly euphemism. It made her seem so mature. It made my 'you know where' tingle. She carried on, speaking in a strange level voice as if reading from a script.
“...well I do anyway. I just stood frozen to the spot. I’d been seen. Whatever was going to happen! I was scared. I didn't like the look of them. They looked almost evil in an odd way. Then one of them gestured to me. ‘Follow us’. That was all, just ‘Follow us’. So I did. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I did, still covering my privates with my hands, horribly aware that I was otherwise completely nude...”
I gasped. The thought of being completely nude and totally vulnerable in a strangers house, was at the same time both frightening and strangely and erotically exciting. Lulu continued.
“I was led in through a side door, and up some dark stairs at the back of the house, lit only by the candle that one of the Harlequins was carrying, and into a small dressing room. It was full of costumes and on one wall was a full length looking glass. ‘Look at yourself’, grunted one Harlequin, more a barked order than a request. I put down my hands and looked myself in the long glass. You know, it was extraodinarily, I don't know how to put it, sort of tingle making, to see myself like that, nude in the flickering candlelight, in the power of these menacing creatures. Then I saw behind me one of the Harlequins had picked out a costume, a beautiful Regency gown, the sort you see in illustrations of Jane Austen; it was virgin white, and pure silk and adorned with a scarlet sash. It was perfect, and it was for me to wear. Nothing else you understand, no knickers or anything..."
She broke off from her discourse to giggle a bit and blush. It was strange, she hadn't blushed at 'vagina' but she did at 'knickers'.
"...I don't think ladies wore such things in those days. No, just this beautiful silk dress, clinging to my figure, fastened tight beneath the bust and pushing them up and forwards..."
She blushed and giggled again...
"That was considered, you know, sexy in those days.”
I smiled, “Well go on. I can’t believe it!”
“Neither could I. I was led down into the ballroom where all the dancing was, and the music, and the champagne and the food, and I danced and drank and ate and it was the most wonderful mystical, magical experience of my life. But the strange thing. Nobody spoke. Not to me. Not to each other. A figure dressed in cape and pantaloon would take a lady by the hand and lead her out onto the dance floor and there we would waltz, that strange old fashioned waltz with the lady with her hand on the gentleman’s shoulder and the gentleman with his hand behind his back, or dance a quadrille or cotillion, but no-one spoke, not a word.
Most of the guests looked mature, older, but there was one other girl."
Lulu stopped. She seemed to find it difficult to talk about this girl. A strange look of anxiety came into her face as she mentioned her and I wondered if they had somehow had a 'special' relationship.
"She was stunning, slightly taller than me, raven haired with extraordinary violet blue eyes and skin as pale and smooth as bleached velvet. She was so attractive and danced with such disdain and wore a green sash to her dress and a green jewel on a black velvet band round her neck.
And we danced and never stopped. Not until midnight....”
She suddenly stopped and turned to face away. The excitement had gone out of her face to be replaced by a strange look, a mixture of wonder and embarrassment. Something strange had happened at midnight and she was reluctant to talk about it.
“Well. What happened at midnight?” I asked, barely able to contain my excitement.
“I don’t know. It was... It was...”
“Was what for goodness sake. You have to tell me now.”
She seemed to make up her mind all of a sudden.
“The music stopped,” she said. “Quite suddenly, as a clock chimed twelve, the music stopped. And everybody fell back, and they all looked at me and the other girl. I didn’t know what to do. I looked round, and there were the two Harlequins. And they led me up to the end of the ballroom, where a figure stood, in mask and cape, a woman, tall and imposing, short cropped dark hair, a livid scar on her left cheek. And I stood in front of her, and the two Harlequins stood behind, and then I felt a tug at the scarlet sash round my waist and...”
“And what!”
“It fell off. Quickly, smoothly, the silken material slipping over my bare skin. If I close my eyes I can almost feel it now, soft and sensuous as it dropped over my bosoms. And there we were, the other girl and me, standing there naked.
With all those people gathered round. All of them looking at us. Our naked bodies on view. And I didn’t feel embarrassed. I didn’t try to hide my breasts or my vagina. I just stood there and let them all look at me. And it was... I don’t know quite how to put it. Enormously erotic, arousing, being the centre of attention, being seen naked by all those people. Then...”
I was staring at her wide eyed. What an extraordinary adventure. I couldn’t believe it.
“Then?”
“Then...” her eyes misted over again, “she took out from a box the velvet bands with the ruby red jewels and placed one around my neck and one around my thigh. So that we each, the raven haired girl and I, both were adorned, she with the green jewels and I with the red. To show that I was initiated, she said. Then the Harlequins took us through a door and down to a private room and there were men there.. naked… completely naked and they were… you know! Aroused!
I was staring at her wide eyed. What an extraordinary adventure. I couldn’t believe it.
“Then?”
“Then...” her eyes misted over again, “she took out from a box the velvet bands with the ruby red jewels and placed one around my neck and one around my thigh. So that we each, the raven haired girl and I, both were adorned, she with the green jewels and I with the red. To show that I was initiated, she said. Then the Harlequins took us through a door and down to a private room and there were men there.. naked… completely naked and they were… you know! Aroused!
I did know. I remembered my father when he belted me. He was always naked with his big member hard a throbbing. But I couldn’t say that.
“Gosh! I’ve never seen that. Not even pictures.’
“... And then... I don’t remember much. I was lying on my back suffocating… I couldn’t breathe.. and someone was feeling me…. you know… down there… my… my cunt…”
I gasped. It was a word we all knew but we never used. It was taboo. But for Lulu taboos were there to be broken.
And if Lulu broke it I had to too.
“Someone was feeling your…” I was going to have to say it, “…your cunt.”
“Yes, and then something soft and vibrating held against it and the feeling was wonderful.”
Lulu looked at me, “Can I show you,” she whispered, “can I feel your cunt?”
I nodded.
And gently her hand touched my private part and started massaging it. The sensation was extraordinary. Not at all like when I did it to myself. And then I felt for hers and we gently pleasured each other as she continued.
“And then the excitement mounted and mounted… and I became more and more overwhelmed until it burst in an explosion of ecstasy like I’ve never felt before. Then I passed out. When I woke I was outside in a small wooded dell, apart from the jewels I was naked and the white horse was beside me. And the sun was coming up and I knew it was morning. And I rode the horse back and well... You know the rest.”
I might have known the rest, but I didn’t know all.
“But what happened. Between midnight and waking up! What happened? Who is the other girl? Where is she now?”
I was wide eyed with curiosity.
“It was wonderful,” she said, “and I have to go back. I have to find that house again! I have to find the other girl!”
We were gated. That is to say we were not let out of the school. We breakfasted together the next morning, sitting apart from the other few girls who had been abandoned for the holidays.
We were expected to sit in the school library and do improving things, read Latin or sew or something, but of course what we did was plan.
"We can't get out during the day," said Lulu.
"We?"
"You're coming with me. I can't tell you why, but I have to find it. I can't do this on my own. I need you. You must come with me."
"I can't Lulu," I said, "I couldn't do it. I don't know that I want to go wandering round the woods at night. It's too much, too scary. Anyway you can't get out; the dragon watches the door like a vulture."
"Not at night she doesn't. Out through the window, down the wisteria, the usual way. She sleeps sometimes, occasionally, in a coffin probably. Anyway, I'll find my way better at night."
"You two. My study!"
The powerful voice of Miss Trevelyan carried through the room, cutting the atmosphere like a knife. Had she heard? I jumped and flushed red. She looked at me suspiciously, her piggy eyes narrowing.
"Are you girls up to something?"
"No Miss Trevelyan," I answered as meekly as I could.
Had she heard? Did she know what we were planning? I wondered. But it appeared not as we stood before her again.
"Well?" she said.
"Well what," said Lulu defiantly.
"Don't cheek me girl. I'm waiting for an explanation."
"I've said all I'm going to say. We've been punished. You can't do any more," Lulu looked her straight back in the eyes.
"You think so," said Miss Trevelyan malevolently, taking the strap out the desk again, "dumb insolence I call it. You know what I want to know, and you will tell me you know. And do you know why? Because this one," she pointed at me, "will get thrashed every day until you do tell me."
The sheer malevolence of the tactic was astonishing. She knew she would get nowhere punishing Lulu, but making me the whipping girl, that was a psychological pressure of an altogether different sort.
"Eight o'clock tonight. In my study. Both of you. You have until then to make up your mind. You tell me or you both get thrashed."
"Again!"
"Every day. We'll see how long you can keep this up Missy. Eight o'clock tonight," and she brought the strap down hard on the table with a loud crack.
"That's it then," said Lulu, her head in her hands when we got back, "I'll have to speak to her, and that will be that. It will all be over."
"What are you talking about 'all over'," I said, "we're going out tonight. It's planned."
"But you said you didn't want to go."
"If I'm going to get thrashed I'm going to find out what it's all about. She must know something. She wants to know what we know desperately. So I want to know now."
"But tonight! Every night. I can't let you do it."
"And let the old cow win. No way. No way at all. See if I care.”
Lulu laughed. A look of intense relief on her face.
So it was agreed, that night, we'd slip out and find again this mystic realm locked in the past, unless like Brigadoon it existed for only one day a century!
And as for the strapping. Did I care!
Back in Miss Trevelyan's office my determination wilted a bit.
I might have known the rest, but I didn’t know all.
“But what happened. Between midnight and waking up! What happened? Who is the other girl? Where is she now?”
I was wide eyed with curiosity.
“It was wonderful,” she said, “and I have to go back. I have to find that house again! I have to find the other girl!”
We were gated. That is to say we were not let out of the school. We breakfasted together the next morning, sitting apart from the other few girls who had been abandoned for the holidays.
We were expected to sit in the school library and do improving things, read Latin or sew or something, but of course what we did was plan.
"We can't get out during the day," said Lulu.
"We?"
"You're coming with me. I can't tell you why, but I have to find it. I can't do this on my own. I need you. You must come with me."
"I can't Lulu," I said, "I couldn't do it. I don't know that I want to go wandering round the woods at night. It's too much, too scary. Anyway you can't get out; the dragon watches the door like a vulture."
"Not at night she doesn't. Out through the window, down the wisteria, the usual way. She sleeps sometimes, occasionally, in a coffin probably. Anyway, I'll find my way better at night."
"You two. My study!"
The powerful voice of Miss Trevelyan carried through the room, cutting the atmosphere like a knife. Had she heard? I jumped and flushed red. She looked at me suspiciously, her piggy eyes narrowing.
"Are you girls up to something?"
"No Miss Trevelyan," I answered as meekly as I could.
Had she heard? Did she know what we were planning? I wondered. But it appeared not as we stood before her again.
"Well?" she said.
"Well what," said Lulu defiantly.
"Don't cheek me girl. I'm waiting for an explanation."
"I've said all I'm going to say. We've been punished. You can't do any more," Lulu looked her straight back in the eyes.
"You think so," said Miss Trevelyan malevolently, taking the strap out the desk again, "dumb insolence I call it. You know what I want to know, and you will tell me you know. And do you know why? Because this one," she pointed at me, "will get thrashed every day until you do tell me."
The sheer malevolence of the tactic was astonishing. She knew she would get nowhere punishing Lulu, but making me the whipping girl, that was a psychological pressure of an altogether different sort.
"Eight o'clock tonight. In my study. Both of you. You have until then to make up your mind. You tell me or you both get thrashed."
"Again!"
"Every day. We'll see how long you can keep this up Missy. Eight o'clock tonight," and she brought the strap down hard on the table with a loud crack.
"That's it then," said Lulu, her head in her hands when we got back, "I'll have to speak to her, and that will be that. It will all be over."
"What are you talking about 'all over'," I said, "we're going out tonight. It's planned."
"But you said you didn't want to go."
"If I'm going to get thrashed I'm going to find out what it's all about. She must know something. She wants to know what we know desperately. So I want to know now."
"But tonight! Every night. I can't let you do it."
"And let the old cow win. No way. No way at all. See if I care.”
Lulu laughed. A look of intense relief on her face.
So it was agreed, that night, we'd slip out and find again this mystic realm locked in the past, unless like Brigadoon it existed for only one day a century!
And as for the strapping. Did I care!
Back in Miss Trevelyan's office my determination wilted a bit.
The old cow scowled at us, “Clothes off. All of them. Over the desk with you both. We’ll see if twelve more will make you more amenable.”
Old cow indeed. We knew it would be bare bottoms, but she was going to belt us naked. I hesitated, but Lulu as defiantly as ever just sneered and took off her clothes. I felt I had to do the same.
We bent over her desk naked, our bare bottoms an inviting target for the strap…
… and she wielded the strap with venom, seeming to enjoy every stroke. But it was important I took it with nonchalance. I mustn't give her the pleasure or give Lulu a moment's doubt. My face didn't move a single muscle other than to smile.
"You poor thing," said Lulu, rubbing more cream in that night.
"It's nothing," I lied. But in a way it was worth it just to lie there naked and have Lulu rubbing cream into my bottom. Little did I know how much I was falling under her spell.
"You poor thing," said Lulu, rubbing more cream in that night.
"It's nothing," I lied. But in a way it was worth it just to lie there naked and have Lulu rubbing cream into my bottom. Little did I know how much I was falling under her spell.
I felt for her cunt and she felt for mine.
By midnight we reckoned it dark enough to slip out. We climbed down the wisteria in our pyjamas.. It was important, Lulu had said, to recreate that night as much as possible. I hadn't realised though, that by recreation she meant stripping naked as soon as we got into the woods.
But there she was, taking her pyjamas off, and I had to follow suit. We hid them by an old tree, marking the spot with twigs in the form of an arrow and we set off hand in hand through the darkness.
It was incredibly erotic to be out there naked with Lulu, holding hands, her deep sensual power gripping and enslaving me to her will. The weather had turned cool in late August and the breeze was distinctly chilly causing me to break out in goose bumps and making my nipples go hard. Unlike Lulu with her small firm breasts, I have big breasts and big nipples and they looked impressive in the moonlight with my nipples hardened that way.
Lulu strode on the wood, along this path, and down that track, out onto a forest road and back into the woods again, seeming more and more frantic as I shivered more and more.
"Are we nearly there?" I asked plaintively.
"It must be somewhere here it must," Lulu snapped, "sorry she said. But I'm sure it's here somewhere. We have to find it, we absolutely must, there isn't much time. It's the Harlequins you see..."
"What about them? I want to meet a Harlequin!"
She looked at me strangely.
"Believe me," she said, "you do not."
"Where are we?" I asked.
She looked round in despair.
"I've no idea. No idea at all. But I'm sure I followed the same route."
"But if you've no idea where we are how do we get back?"
She just looked at me with a hopeless look.
"I've no idea," she said with a touch of despair in her voice.
"Lulu, please, I'm cold."
She suddenly to make a decision.
"We'll have to wait till morning. It gets light about five."
"Morning! But I'm cold with nothing on."
"I tell you what. We'll lie down here on these leaves and cuddle up till morning. That'll keep us warm."
So we did. I lay down and Lulu lay beside me and put her arms round me. It was incredibly comforting to be wrapped in Lulu's warm embrace, out in the woods, naked. Feeling her nipples pressed into my breasts, her hand caressing my back, soothing me to sleep. I fell asleep and dreamt the most incredible erotic dreams.
By midnight we reckoned it dark enough to slip out. We climbed down the wisteria in our pyjamas.. It was important, Lulu had said, to recreate that night as much as possible. I hadn't realised though, that by recreation she meant stripping naked as soon as we got into the woods.
But there she was, taking her pyjamas off, and I had to follow suit. We hid them by an old tree, marking the spot with twigs in the form of an arrow and we set off hand in hand through the darkness.
It was incredibly erotic to be out there naked with Lulu, holding hands, her deep sensual power gripping and enslaving me to her will. The weather had turned cool in late August and the breeze was distinctly chilly causing me to break out in goose bumps and making my nipples go hard. Unlike Lulu with her small firm breasts, I have big breasts and big nipples and they looked impressive in the moonlight with my nipples hardened that way.
Lulu strode on the wood, along this path, and down that track, out onto a forest road and back into the woods again, seeming more and more frantic as I shivered more and more.
"Are we nearly there?" I asked plaintively.
"It must be somewhere here it must," Lulu snapped, "sorry she said. But I'm sure it's here somewhere. We have to find it, we absolutely must, there isn't much time. It's the Harlequins you see..."
"What about them? I want to meet a Harlequin!"
She looked at me strangely.
"Believe me," she said, "you do not."
"Where are we?" I asked.
She looked round in despair.
"I've no idea. No idea at all. But I'm sure I followed the same route."
"But if you've no idea where we are how do we get back?"
She just looked at me with a hopeless look.
"I've no idea," she said with a touch of despair in her voice.
"Lulu, please, I'm cold."
She suddenly to make a decision.
"We'll have to wait till morning. It gets light about five."
"Morning! But I'm cold with nothing on."
"I tell you what. We'll lie down here on these leaves and cuddle up till morning. That'll keep us warm."
So we did. I lay down and Lulu lay beside me and put her arms round me. It was incredibly comforting to be wrapped in Lulu's warm embrace, out in the woods, naked. Feeling her nipples pressed into my breasts, her hand caressing my back, soothing me to sleep. I fell asleep and dreamt the most incredible erotic dreams.
In my dream I was naked with Lulu, we were both naked and she was caressing my body stroking it and kissing my breasts, the tip of her tongue just lightly touching my nipples as her hand wandered over my naked body.
Then I awoke and found my dream was true. The sun was up and it was light and Lulu was kissing my bare breasts. I gave a little start. She put her fingers to her lips, "Shhhh!" she said, and her delicate finger tips fluttered down my tummy to come to rest between my thighs.
"Open your legs," she said.
I moaned slightly and parted my legs. I was so under her spell, I would do anything for Lulu.
"That's right," she said and she kissed me, running her tongue down following where her fingers had been until it reached its goal. I opened my legs as wide as they would go and over the next half hour experienced such pleasure as I never in my life had experienced before. Lulu seemed so expert and to know exactly how to pleasure my virgin body, which she placed in every position of erotic delight that man, or woman, had invented.
By six I had been exhausted and it was light enough to find our way back. Through the woods and along the track to reclaim our things where we found the arrow marking the spot. We had to be careful up the final road back to the drive up to the school as it was light and people were up and about, but we made it eventually.
But as I climbed the wisteria, I thought I heard a noise. I looked round quickly and a shadowy figure seemed to suddenly flit across the lawn. I looked again and it was gone.
"Lulu," I said, "did you see something?"
"No," she answered, "what?"
"Nothing, probably nothing," I replied, and I climbed back into the bedroom.
Lulu sat on the bed and looked at me.
"Did you enjoy it?" She asked
"Enjoy what?"
"You know. Being sexed. Being pleasured. You've never had it like that before have you."
"I shook my head," well I hadn't. Of course I'd felt myself down there, who hadn't, but being pleasured by somebody else, that was something new.
"Never been with a boy?"
A boy! Never! I'd never been alllowed near one. I shook my head vehemently.
"It's better with girls," said Lulu matter-of-factly as if she had had a lifetime's experience of both. Again, she suddenly looked older than her eighteen years, and I wondered what she had experienced to make her like this.
"We didn't find it," I said.
"No, we didn't, and we have to. You do know we have to. I can't explain why. Not without putting you in danger. We'll try again."
"We'll keep trying."
"But the old cow. She means what she says you know."
"That's all right. She'll never break me, never, and I get my bottom rubbed," I giggled a bit at my forwardness, "anyway, it's nearly September. School proper comes back next week and the awful Trevelyan won't be in charge anymore. Miss Dodds will be back and she's an old softy you said, she can't keep thrashing me then. We'll tell Doddsy what she's been doing and get her into trouble."
"Can't do that," said Lulu, "or the old cow will tell her about my naked escapade and we'll both be sacked."
"Won't she tell her anyway," I said horrified, the thought had only just occurred to me.
"She can't, not without us telling on how she's beaten you every night for a week for nothing. It's the old game of mutual assured destruction. Nobody will say anything."
"So there's three more days. Three days to find the mysterious house."
"And three thrashings," said Lulu.
I grinned. "I can do that," I said, though in my head I was doing a rapid calculation. By the last night it would add up to another twelve strokes. Yes, for Lulu, I could do that.
Next morning the weather had broken, as it often does towards the end of a hot summer with a day of heavy rain. We pretended to keep out of the way in the library, doing improving things like reading, but I had a plan. There was something funny about old Trevelyan’s behaviour. Why was she so keen to find out what had happened to Lulu. Was she just a vicious trout or was she desperate to get our secret out of us for some other more nefarious reason. My idea was to look for information in the school year book. Information about Miss Trevelyan or perhaps other girls who had experienced strange things.
I started on the school year books.
“What are you doing?” asked Lulu.
“Just looking,” I said.
She didn’t seem happy. Still obsessed with finding her old house. I was looking through previous school yearbooks. They came out at the end of each year with information about the teachers and the pupils, and the achievements of the school and that sort of thing. There was singularly little about Miss Trevelyan. Not even her birthday or her age. Just a brief note of her qualifications and the fact she had been with the school for five years. I glanced idly at the form photographs for the previous year. And there it was staring out at me. I was so surprised I nearly dropped the book.
“Lulu,” I gasped, “look at this!”
“What?” she sounded irritated.
“Just look!” she came over and stared over my shoulder
“So?”
“That girl! Look at her!”
“I’m looking.”
“Well? Isn’t it her?”
“Who?”
“The girl in the house. She fits the description exactly. Raven black hair. Slim figure. And just look at those eyes. Violet! Just as you described them. Surely there can’t be two girls with eyes like that.”
Her look suddenly changed.
“Don’t be stupid. Stop looking at that book. It can’t be her.”
“But it must be. Don’t you recognise her?”
“It was candlelight. I don't know. It can’t be her.”
“See here – in the pupil list. Her name. Maria di Chiesa. She sounds Italian. I wonder where she is. Can we get in touch with her? Will she be coming back next term?”
“Well the answer to the last question is no. She is in the final year there. See. We need to find the house. I’m going to go and look at some maps.”
“But don’t you know her? You were here last year, I only just came at the start of the holidays.”
“I only came a year ago, I kept myself to myself, because... well because. I hardly got to know anyone, and some of the girls left early for the holidays anyway.”
Reluctantly I put the book down. To me the girl seemed to hold the key to solution, but Lulu seemed to want to avoid the topic, as if it was somehow contagious. She didn't seem interested in any mystery, only in finding her house. Only in reliving her night of passion or whatever it had been. She had never explained.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap," Lulu looked apologetic, "come and look at these maps. They're the two and a half inch maps of the area. There's lots of detail." I went and peered over her shoulder. "There, that's the track I went along, and then I went left and down this little valley, then over a beck. It must be in this area here somewhere. There's only three buildings round there. It's quite remote. It must be one of them..."
"One of what?" The voice of Miss Trevelyan bellowed across the room. The old cow must have sneaked in. Lulu slammed the map shut and looked at her insolently, "Well," the old trout went on, "aren't you going to answer?". Lulu made no response. "We'll see about that then," her piggy eyes stared at us again, "eight o'clock tonight then in my office and you know what that means. I'll beat it out of you if it takes all night, at least out of this one," indicating me again, "I've had enough of your insolence. I've had enough of being nice. She gets thrashed till you tell me and there's an end to it."
And with that she stalked out.
Lulu looked at me open mouthed. "We have to get out today. Find it. Once we've found it then I'll know what to do. Then we can tell her everything."
"You don't have to. I don't mind."
"I wouldn't be so sure. She means it you know. We'll get out today, as soon as the coast is clear."
"But we're gated. She be on the lookout for us. The door's locked. How can we do it."
"Simple. Down the wisteria as ever."
"In broad daylight! Somebody will see us. A gardener. Somebody."
"What! In this rain. Don't be silly. Everybody will be indoors. Trust me."
But we didn't get away until the late afternoon. Lulu went over and over the map until she was sure she had located the building, then she had to make a detailed copy of it, tracing it out and transferring it in detail to another sheet, then despite what she had said there were always people about. Finally at about five o'clock we were ready to go.
"Won't we be missed at supper?" I asked.
"Supper's at seven, we'll be back ages before that. We can get straight there and back in under two hours easily. Come on, get your clothes off."
"What!"
"Have you seen the weather! It's teeming down. Our clothes would be soaked in no time and how would we explain that to the old cow. We have to go naked."
I wasn't convinced. I think she just liked the idea of another naked jaunt.
"But we can"t climb down the wisteria naked in broad daylight!"
"Why not. Come on scaredy-cat."
And she already had her things off. Of course I went with her. By now I would do anything for Lulu. I was terrified climbing down. It was broad daylight and if anybody came into the garden we would be caught not so much with our pants down as with our pants off. It would be totally humiliating. But there was no stopping Lulu and our luck held. In a few minutes we were running across the garden hand in hand, out through the gate, down the lane and into the wood.
I must say it was thrilling as well as terrifying, to be stark naked in broad daylight, the warm teeming rain pounding off my bare skin, my nipples aching they were so hard. We ran along the path. Of course we met no-one. Nobody would be about in that weather.
"Which way Lulu?" I asked.
"Damn," she said, "I left the map behind."
"You didn't!" after all that time she spent drawing it. That was what came of dashing out in the nude.
"Never mind, it's fixed in my memory. It's this way."
We we were soon plunging along a slippery muddy path. The ground which only yesterday had been baked hard had become a quagmire. Out feet slipping and sliding in the mud.
Lulu led us along the side of a small valley in a more sparsely wooded area. The path was narrow on the side of a bank. Before I knew it, my feet had slipped in the oozing mud and I went head over heels into the mire on hands and knees. I crawled out covered in mud, filthy and wet, and stinging where I had ended up in some nettles. Lulu joined me crawling on the path.
"Lulu," I said, "can we go back please."
"Come here silly goose," she said, taking me in her arms and giving me a big hug, "no we can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I haven't the faintest idea where we are."
There was nothing for it but to go on for hours. I was down in the mud more times than I care to remember, caked in slimy ooze all over: my legs, my bum, my breasts, my pubic hair all covered in the stuff like some filthy naked beast. Lulu fared little better, and if she hadn't hugged me and cuddled me and encouraged me I would have sat down and wept. But we kept going. It must have been well past supper time. Goodness knows what trouble we would be in when we got back. A thrashing for both of us would be the least of it, and it was getting dark.
Then suddenly we came into a clearing and there it was. In front of us. An old house in a clearing. Built like a Greek Temple.
"That's it cried Lulu," and she ran forward. I ran after her.
"It can't be," I said. It's derelict. Look. The windows are boarded up. I peered in through the half open door. There's no furniture. There's rubbish everywhere.
"It is, I tell you it is," said Lulu, and she rushed in, "Let's explore."
She rushed in and I couldn't stop her. She ran round the house exclaiming, "this is where they were dancing, and this was where they were eating, and here are the stairs they took me up," she ran up the stairs, "and here is the room I tried on the costume."
She ran back down.
"Here," she said, "this is the door I was led out of at midnight, and into this room."
"Lulu, what on earth are you doing?"
She was pushing and banging at a wooden panel at the end of the room..
"There's a concealed door here that leads to a set of stairs down to a sort of basement," she said, "but I can't get it open. I have to get it open."
She bashed frantically at the panel.
"It must open, it must," she said. But it didn't.
"Lulu," I said, "come on, it's locked. We have to get back. We'll be in ever so much trouble. It's getting dark."
I looked round. It had suddenly become very dark indeed. And then I saw it. The flickering light. Like a torch in the room we had just left. Somebody else was in the house.
I grabbed hold of Lulu shaking with fear opening my mouth the scream. She held me close to her, her hand over my mouth.
"The Harlequins. My God! The Harlequins. For God's sake keep quiet. They mustn't get you," she whispered.
We could her the sound of footsteps. Heavy footsteps. The sound of footsteps walking across the wooden floor. We could see the beam of the torch flickering here and there.
Then the voice. A deep man's voice.
"Come on out girls, I know your there."
The door opened into the room where we were cowering. And suddenly our two naked bedraggled figures were bathed in the beam of a powerful flashlight.
"Got you!"
I looked at the shadowy figure but the bright light of the torch blinded me. I looked at Lulu and myself. We were a sorry sight covered in mud and soaking wet.
"Stand up and walk towards me with your hands on your head," the voice commanded.
"Do as he says and get ready to run," whispered Lulu. She walked ahead of me. Even in my terror I got a strange thrill from the sight of her naked body as she walked slowly towards the flashlight. Then suddenly, without warning she moved. How did she do it so fast. Did she do martial arts for a hobby! Her foot came up like lightning and caught him square in what is politely termed the groin. He let out a grunt and doubled up.
"Come on," shouted Lulu, grabbing my hand, "Run!"
We ran through the big hallway and towards the front door. There, glory be, was salvation. A blue flashing light, a white car with a red stripe, and the word Police, in capital letters on the side, a police officer stood there, his hands on his hips.
"And where do you young ladies think you're going."
Lulu, still grabbing my hand, made a dash for it, but he caught her round the waist and brought the two of us to the ground. I found myself rolling free, I stood up and tried to run, but another hand grabbed me, I was thrown down and the next thing I knew my hands hand been pulled behind my back and handcuffed. I stood up. Lulu stood defiantly naked, and similarly handcuffed.
The man from the house had joined us limping somewhat and I saw for the first time that he too was in a police uniform.
"Little bugger kicked me in the goolies," he grunted.
"Lively little tyke isn't she," said the other, "here you two get in the back of the car."
"Where are you taking us?" asked Lulu, "Down the nick," said the second policeman, by which he meant the police station.
"We're from Loxford Hall school. My father is... Well never mind, we're from the school. I demand to be released and taken to the school. You've no right to..."
"No right eh! How about assaulting a police officer for a start, to say nothing of breaking and entering. Anyway we have orders to take you to the nick for questioning. The school is being treated as a crime scene. You can go back when the search is finished if you're not kept in the cells."
"The cells," I gasped, "are we under arrest?"
"Let's just say 'Helping the police with their enquiries for the moment."
"Well at least give us some clothes."
"Clothes?" Said the first policeman, "do we carry girls clothes with us on the off chance we come across a couple of naked tarts Constable?"
"That we do not," his mate replied, "naked tarts don't usually worry about clothes."
He picked up the microphone on his car radio. "We picked up those two schoolgirls at The Lodge, Sarge. Stark naked and filthy. Looks like they've been mud wrestling. And one of them kicked Constable Thomas in the balls."
"Well don't bring them in my station like that," snapped a gruff voice back, "hose them down in the yard. I'm not having mud all over the place."
Lulu mouthed "Say nothing" to me in the back of the car, and I'd seen enough cops and robbers programmes on the TV to go along with that.
The car pulled in behind the police station in the local market town.
"You two out," we climbed out.
"Bloody car's filthy," said the one called Constable Thomas, "Here, you two, into the yard."
We were pushed still handcuffed into a brick yard at the back of the station and made to stand against a wall. The policemen got picked up a big hose and pointed it at us. Suddenly I was hit by a freezing cold jet.
"Turn round and round," we were instructed as we were literally hosed down naked with a blast of icy water.
"What on earth are you two doing?"
It was a woman's voice. The water stopped and we turned to see a woman police constable with her hands on her hips.
"The Sarge told us to hose them down."
"I doubt he meant it literally. Come along girls we'll get you in the showers."
We were led by our rescuer into the building and paraded naked across the reception area.
"Are those the two suspects from The Lodge," a rather mean looking policeman with sergeant's stripes on his sleeve called out from behind the desk, "I need them for processing."
"Just taking them to the showers to smarten them up Sarge."
"Well bring them back decent will you. They might be little show-offs, but I can't having them getting Constable Jones overexcited."
The police station showers were hardly the most convivial place. Bare whitewashed walls and four large metal shower heads coming down from the ceiling.
"Get under there girls," said the policewoman, and her tone wasn't nearly so nice.
We stood under the shower and it was still icy cold water that poured over us. She looked at us. Up and down.
"Nice tits," she said, suddenly grabbing my left nipple and tweaking it. With my hands still manacled behind my back I could do nothing to protect myself.
"Ouch!"
"Just remember girls I'm going to to be in charge of you for a while, so if you don't want to spend a night in the cells with a load of down and outs you keep your traps shut. Do you understand?"
And she tweaked my other nipple hard. I nodded my head vigorously. I hadn't been going to do anything else.
"And who wants us to keep our traps shut?" Lulu wasn't so easily cowed.
"Let's just say it's a message from the Harlequins."
And I saw Lulus face freeze into a rictus of horror.
"All right, I'm glad that's understood," and she took a key out of her pocket and released our hands. She produced a couple of disposable paper suits and handed them over.
"Put those on and follow me."
We got dressed and followed her down a long corridor in to a small, bare , brightly lit room. A rotund, bald man sat behind a desk motioning us to sit in the two seats in front of him.
"Sit down," he said, "I'm Detective Inspector Grout, and I see you've met WPC Williamson," he motioned at the nipple tweaking policewoman who had seated herself in the corner of the room.
"What have you brought us here for?" Demanded Lulu, "it's hardly a major crime to go for a naked jaunt in the woods."
"That's as may be," said the Inspector, "but that's not what I'm interested in. We are investigating the disappearance of this girl," he pushed a picture towards us, "and there is serious evidence linking you to what could be a murder enquiry."
I looked down at the picture and gave an involuntary gasp. There, looking back at me, were the distinctive violet eyes of Maria di Chiesa.
"Do you know her?"
"No but..." Then I caught the eye of Lulu glaring at me.
"But what?"
"But... But, I think I may have seen her picture in the school yearbook."
"Highly likely," said the Inspector, "her name is Maria di Chiesa, and until last term she was a pupil at your school. She hasn't been seen since the start of the school holidays six weeks ago."
"And nobody's mentioned it till now!"
"Well she had been supposed to go and stay with a rather dotty old great aunt in some god forsaken place in Wales, and when she didn't turn up, the Aunt thought she must still be here. Then when she called here to speak to her she found she left before the last week of term and hasn't been seen since."
"She'd probably just gone to London or something," said Lulu, "wouldn't catch me staying with Great Aunt Doolally in Wales."
"First thing we thought of," said the Inspector, "then we looked in her room. All her clothes are there, her purse, her money, her cheque book, her passport. Everything. She wouldn't have gone of on a jaunt to London without those."
"What does old, I mean Miss, Trevelyan have to say about it? She's supposed to be in charge of the school after all."
"There's another strange thing," said the Inspector, "Nobody's seen Miss Trevelyan since ten o'clock this morning. She was supposed to meet Miss Dodds for lunch in Loxton; Miss Dodds is back from holiday and was coming back to take charge on Monday, but Miss Trevelyan never turned up. Her room is a total mess, like someone has ransacked the place and..."
He got no further.
"What has all this got to do with us," asked Lulu, "why were we arrested and brought here. She's just a pupil we barely knew."
"As I was about to say, and..." He picked up a brown paper envelope from the desk in front of him, "and we found this in her room."
He emptied several large colour photographs onto the table. I looked at them in horror. They were pictures of two girls lying naked on a bed of leaves in the forest. Several of the pictures depicted the smaller girl in a number of revealing positions being orally and manually pleasured by the other girl. In two pictures she was obviously enjoying a violent orgasm. I gasped. The girl being pleasured into orgasm was me, the other girl was Lulu.
I could feel myself turning bright red with shame and embarrassment. Who had been watching and photographing us. Somebody had watched me being sexed and orgasmed, and taken photographs. It was too humiliating for words.
But Lulu was unfazed, "So?" she said, "we had sex in the open air. It's not illegal is it?"
"Maybe, maybe not, but it's not that which I'm interested in."
I must say if he wasn't interested in pictures of naked girls having sex he was the first man I've come across who wasn't.
"What are you interested in then?"
"This..." And he picked up a second envelope of photographs and tipped them on the desk. What they portrayed shook my beliefs and convictions to the core. My world was suddenly turned upside down. Two girls were lying on a bed of leaves in the wood stark naked. One was depicted manually and orally pleasuring the other. The girl in the throes of a violent orgasm was Lulu, but my eyes opened wide at the other; there naked, raven haired, violet eyed and wearing a black velvet band with a green jewel around her neck and around her thigh, was Maria di Chiesa.
I gasped and opened my mouth to speak. Lulu had lied to me, openly, brazenly and comprehensively. She had said she barely knew Maria, and here she was being comprehensively sexed, to use Lulu's word for it, by her.
I tried to keep a straight face. Explanations were for Lulu to give to me privately, not here with the police.
"So," said Lulu, "I admit it. I had sex with her."
"There seems an awful lot of sex between the girls at your school."
Lulu shrugged. "It's a girls school. Girls need sex and there's no boys. What do you expect."
The Inspector's face seemed to indicate the fact that he did not believe that teenage girls needed sex.
"We found these in your room," he produced two velvet bands with ruby red gems. The ones she had been wearing when she returned riding the pony.
"Just like the one's Maria is wearing in these pictures, only red."
"What were you doing searching my room?"
"A gardener reported seeing two girls climbing naked out of a window and running across the lawn. He had put it down to some sort of schoolgirl jape, but then... When he saw the police here he told us. So we searched your room. Found these, and a hand drawn map showing the way to the lodge, so we sent a couple of coppers to pick you up. And here you are."
He paused a while.
"Anything more to say?"
We hadn't.
"All right. You can go back to the school. But I don't want you to leave the building. I haven't finished with you yet. Miss Dodds has come back early to take charge. I haven't told her about these..." pointing at the photos, "...yet."
"Lulu!" I shouted at her as soon as we were back in our room. We had been sent ignominiously back in our paper suits. Everybody knew we had nothing on underneath them. It was so humiliating.
"Lulu! You lied to me. You knew Maria all the time. You, you, you..." Words failed me. I slapped her hard.
She took off her paper suit and unzipped mine, slipping it down over my naked body. We stood facing each other naked. Then she enveloped me in her arms and pushed me back on to the bed, she produce four lengths of cord, using these she tied my arms above my head and my ankles to the foot of the bed pulling my legs wide apart so that I was held immobile my cunt (yes, I am going to use that word that Lulu taught me) exposed and at her mercy.
She put a blindfold over my eyes so I couldn’t see what she was doing. The next thing I knew there was a pillow over my face, she was sitting on the pillow so I couldn’t breathe and I felt something vibrating against my cunt, then suddenly it was inside me, up my cunt, the vibrations sending huge waves of pleasure through my body. I struggled and struggled fighting to breathe the ecstasy growing and growing until it exploded engulfing all my body and I passed out.
When I came round I found Lulu, now fully dressed, had trussed me up, my knees pulled right up with arms fastened round them to expose my intimate hole. It was a painful and humiliating position, designed I knew to make me subservient and obedient, to do anything she asked. And it did.
Lulu just looked at me, “After the pleasure the punishment,” she said, “and believe me you deserve it.”
She turned round and walked out the room.
She left me there two hours like that before she returned.
I felt her hand go between my legs. I couldn't help it. She had me totally in her thrall. Whenever she pleasured me I felt enormous waves of desire for her pass over me. My anger couldn't last for long. And she put all her skill into it that night. I was back in her thrall.
As we lay in each other's arms afterwards all my anger had evaporated. She could twist me round her little finger.
"Lulu," I said, "what's really going on. Tell me. There couldn't have been a grand ball in that house the night you disappeared. I take it that was all a lie."
"Not exactly," she said, "it all happened, just like I described, but it was a year ago. I met Maria there, and we were dressed by the Harlequins as I described, and stripped at midnight as I described."
"And... Go on... What happened next. You never really said."
"What do you think happened. Why do you think schoolgirls are taken to a masked ball to be stripped naked and paraded in front of the guests. It was an... Well I suppose orgy would be the best way of putting it. An orgy of food, wine, dancing and..."
"And sex?" I added.
"As I said. Why would you invite naked schoolgirls to an orgy? Not for their abilities at the cotillion that's for sure."
"And they paid you for this!"
"Good heavens no! We did it because we enjoyed it. There is something thrilling about being on display naked, to be chosen to give pleasure to others. After that night we were taken there often, picked up from a meeting place in the forest, blindfolded and led there. That was why I couldn't find it again."
"Well what were you doing that night? Where did the horse come from, and the jewels."
"I was looking for the house. The balls had stopped. Maria had disappeared at the end of last term. I didn't know where she was. I had to find out what was happening and to do that I had to find the house. And as for the jewels. Those were the jewels they had given us for the balls. Any girl wearing them was well, for hire I suppose. I don't quite know how to put it. I found the horse in a field. I thought it would make a grand entrance to ride it back."
It was all beginning to make sense.
"The panel in the wall? The secret panel?"
"There's a room at the bottom of the stairs fitted out for... Well that's where they took us. I had a notion Maria might be there. Might be I don't know, hiding out there, being held prisoner there. I don't know."
"What about Trevelyan?"
"She suspected something of the sort was going on I suppose. Perhaps she had heard rumours. The funny thing is I might have confided in her if she had been nice, but no way was she going to beat it out of me. Out of you I mean."
"But she had those pictures."
"Spying on us. Perhaps she used a private detective I don't know."
"But where is she now?"
Lulu shrugged, "You know what? I don't know and I don't care. The only thing that is important is to get back there tonight."
"What! You must be mad! We can't go back!"
"But we must! Don't you see. They're holding Maria prisoner in the room there. I'm sure of it. She must have threatened to spill the beans on them or something. Now the police are involved. The Harlequins - they'll move her out or worse..."
She went pale at the thought.
"But we can't get into the room"
"Give me a bit of time. There's a secret catch. I'm sure I can find it."
"Then we'll do it," I said, "as I said. She could twist me round her little finger."
"Come on then," she said, opening the window.
"Can't we get dressed first?"
"It's still teeming," she said, "our clothes would get soaked and the paper suits would disintegrate in no time."
I was sure it was just that she got a strange thrill from her naked escapades, but I said nothing, her little finger was twisting.
We got down the wall and out without being stopped or seen. At least I presumed we weren't seen. I no longer really understood who knew what and who saw what.
Lulu had the route more thoroughly in her head now and I had brought the sheets of paper with the diagrams of how to get to the house, and a little stub of pencil to make notes. The path was still treacherous though and I was over on my face, my backside and my hands and knees, once ending in a bramble patch, my bare skin lacerated by the thorns. I was a sorry sight by the time we reached the house again.
As we lay in each other's arms afterwards all my anger had evaporated. She could twist me round her little finger.
"Lulu," I said, "what's really going on. Tell me. There couldn't have been a grand ball in that house the night you disappeared. I take it that was all a lie."
"Not exactly," she said, "it all happened, just like I described, but it was a year ago. I met Maria there, and we were dressed by the Harlequins as I described, and stripped at midnight as I described."
"And... Go on... What happened next. You never really said."
"What do you think happened. Why do you think schoolgirls are taken to a masked ball to be stripped naked and paraded in front of the guests. It was an... Well I suppose orgy would be the best way of putting it. An orgy of food, wine, dancing and..."
"And sex?" I added.
"As I said. Why would you invite naked schoolgirls to an orgy? Not for their abilities at the cotillion that's for sure."
"And they paid you for this!"
"Good heavens no! We did it because we enjoyed it. There is something thrilling about being on display naked, to be chosen to give pleasure to others. After that night we were taken there often, picked up from a meeting place in the forest, blindfolded and led there. That was why I couldn't find it again."
"Well what were you doing that night? Where did the horse come from, and the jewels."
"I was looking for the house. The balls had stopped. Maria had disappeared at the end of last term. I didn't know where she was. I had to find out what was happening and to do that I had to find the house. And as for the jewels. Those were the jewels they had given us for the balls. Any girl wearing them was well, for hire I suppose. I don't quite know how to put it. I found the horse in a field. I thought it would make a grand entrance to ride it back."
It was all beginning to make sense.
"The panel in the wall? The secret panel?"
"There's a room at the bottom of the stairs fitted out for... Well that's where they took us. I had a notion Maria might be there. Might be I don't know, hiding out there, being held prisoner there. I don't know."
"What about Trevelyan?"
"She suspected something of the sort was going on I suppose. Perhaps she had heard rumours. The funny thing is I might have confided in her if she had been nice, but no way was she going to beat it out of me. Out of you I mean."
"But she had those pictures."
"Spying on us. Perhaps she used a private detective I don't know."
"But where is she now?"
Lulu shrugged, "You know what? I don't know and I don't care. The only thing that is important is to get back there tonight."
"What! You must be mad! We can't go back!"
"But we must! Don't you see. They're holding Maria prisoner in the room there. I'm sure of it. She must have threatened to spill the beans on them or something. Now the police are involved. The Harlequins - they'll move her out or worse..."
She went pale at the thought.
"But we can't get into the room"
"Give me a bit of time. There's a secret catch. I'm sure I can find it."
"Then we'll do it," I said, "as I said. She could twist me round her little finger."
"Come on then," she said, opening the window.
"Can't we get dressed first?"
"It's still teeming," she said, "our clothes would get soaked and the paper suits would disintegrate in no time."
I was sure it was just that she got a strange thrill from her naked escapades, but I said nothing, her little finger was twisting.
We got down the wall and out without being stopped or seen. At least I presumed we weren't seen. I no longer really understood who knew what and who saw what.
Lulu had the route more thoroughly in her head now and I had brought the sheets of paper with the diagrams of how to get to the house, and a little stub of pencil to make notes. The path was still treacherous though and I was over on my face, my backside and my hands and knees, once ending in a bramble patch, my bare skin lacerated by the thorns. I was a sorry sight by the time we reached the house again.
It was deserted. I had thought there might be police there, but they must have thought it unimportant. We crept in through the door and across the big hallway that had been used as the ballroom. Lulu opened the door into the adjoining room, which I could see now had once been the library.
She went over to the panel where the secret door was hidden, and feeling along one of the empty bookshelves she must have pressed a secret switch, because the door suddenly swung open.
Behind the door was a staircase descending to a basement. She put her hand on the wall and it was bathed in light. The electricity was still on.
We crept down the stairs, my heart was pounding; what would we find in the room at the bottom: A joyous Maria, an empty room or... I dreaded to think.
At the bottom of the stairs was a heavy oak door with a large key in the keyhole. Trembling, I watched as Maria turned the key, the door swung noiselessly open. Somebody kept it well oiled.
"Maria,' Lulu whispered, but there was no answer. She felt round the door and pressed a switch. The room was flooded with light from a single bare bulb in the ceiling.
I don't know what I had been expecting. A tart's boudoir perhaps. A sumptuous double for poster bed, pink velvet drapes, erotic art on the walls depicting Bacchanalian orgies. What I saw was quite different. What I saw was like a dungeon.
At one side was a small. Metal single bed; there was a small table in the middle, a washbasin and toilet in the corner. The walls were bare and damp, and attached to them, most chilling of all, chains and manacles.
"I'm sorry," Lulu's voice had a tinge of sadness, which I had noticed from time to time before, "I'm so, so sorry."
I spun round. She stood in the doorway, a tall dark haired woman with short cropped hair and a livid scar on her cheek next to her, holding a small snub nosed pistol and pointing it straight at me.
"It was the only way," said Lulu, "the only way."
"What!"
"They had to keep her here you see. She was going to ruin everything. I tried to find the house. To let her out, but I was too late. And now everything is ruined. I'm sorry."
"Come on," said the woman to Lulu, "we have to get going."
"Stupid Trevelyan guessed you see, she couldn't beat it out of us, but she guessed, and she would have told everything. So she had to be dealt with. The Harlequins you see. They dealt with Maria, and they dealt with Trevelyan."
"What about me," I cried.
"I'm truly sorry," said Lulu, "I had to deliver you here naked. That’s what they said. They said they'll come for you in a few hours. That isn't too long is it. They took days before they came for Maria, it must have been awful for her."
"Who'll come," I gasped, but I understood already that she didn't mean a rescue party.
"Them, the Harlequins, they won’t… they won’t. … I hope,”. I saw her eyes glance towards the manacles, beside them for the first time I noticed the horse whip. “I do hope.. honestly…” and there were tears in her eyes as she turned and went out through the door. The woman, still pointing the gun at me, backed out, the door slammed and I heard the key turn.
That was a few hours ago I guess. I thought I should write everything down, for when the police rescue me. I had the sheets of paper with the maps drawn on them, and the little stub of a pencil I'd brought to make notes. How long ago and how stupid that seems now. So I thought I would write it all out like a short story, as if I were safe and well and it was fifty years time and I was looking back on a strange adventure in the distant past. And of course I will. They will rescue me won't they? They must have noticed I'm missing. There must be search parties out. Somebody will think of looking here and find the hidden door. Won't they.
I can hear them now. Noises. Footsteps on the stairs coming down. Lulu said the Harlequins would be a few hours coming. It can't be them yet. It hasn't taken me a few hours to write this.
They must have come to rescue me, it must be them... Oh my God... Please... it must....
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