Anonymous - Maude Cameron And Her Guardian

No one else had descended from the three coaches, and now the stationmaster was talking to the engineer, who had once more ascended to his cab and was ready to start on the rest of the journey. Meanwhile, the golden haired young girl, for such she was, approached in his direction, with the porter carrying two of her valises and looking about anxiously, aware that the train was about to start up without him. She espied Charles Cameron and in a sweet voice inquired, “ Are you by any chance Mr. Charles Cameron, sir?”

“ Why, yes, indeed I am,” he replied excitedly.

“ My name is Maude Rivers. Then I believe you are here to meet me, Mr. Cameron.”

“ I- er- yes, of course.” The mature bachelor solicitor recovered his aplomb and strode forward to seize the valises from the porter, whom he generously tipped. The latter hurried back to the coach and clambered aboard, just as the engineer tooted the whistle as a kind of farewell to the rustic village of Rushton.

Charles Cameron felt as if he were transported to another world. Beside him was one of the most beautiful young girls he had ever seen in all his life. She was of medium height, perhaps five feet five inches or a quarter more. Her form had that ripe voluptuousness without excess which can be found in an adolescent female of good breeding. Her skin was a satiny pink, with a gloss and freshness such as one might find on a freshly picked peach. Her eyes were widely spaced, enormous, and a translucent blue, appealing and poignant and utterly feminine. Her forehead was rounded and pure, her nose dangerously snub, with just a saucy hint of a flair to it, while her mouth was ripe, sweet and full It was a heart- shaped face of character and alluring feminine mystery.

“ Then you must be Douglas Rivers’ daughter,” Charles Cameron said rather astonishedly. “ You see, I had Mrs. Beddlington’ s letter, but I somehow thought my old friend had led me to believe that you were still in the nursery.”

“ Oh, fie, no indeed, Mr. Cameron,” Maude Rivers protested. She blushed divinely. Charles Cameron’ s keen eye swiftly rode over her face and form, and this blush assured him that she was of a sanguine temperament which augured well for his own sensual interests. It was not without a certain foreknowledge that he found himself enraptured by the sensuous charms of this golden- haired young girl, for after all she had been entrusted to him by a dying man, and he was honor bound to give her every tender care and aid in this her hour of great loss. But he had already come to the reflection that he would be her legal guardian, under the terms of Douglas Rivers’ letter, and that even in a court of law the lovely creature beside him would be handed over to him until her twenty- first birthday.

For the first time he began to be conscious of his great good fortune, and he began to congratulate himself on his foresight in having agreed to Douglas Rivers’ plea.

“ Oh, what a lovely mare!” cried Maude. “ It was very nice of you to come to meet me. My father spoke highly of you, you know,” her high, sweet voice assured him. Charles Cameron helped her into the surrey, not forgetting to feast his eyes on the neatly turned ankles which she exhibited, chastely veiled in rather drab and unprepossessing black cotton hose. She behaved quite like a little lady, holding her skirts just so, and there was a proud bearing to her. Yet the softness and loveliness of her curvaceous body had already begun to excite him. He reflected to himself that the old adage about casting bread upon the waters and having it returned a thousand- fold had never been more truthfully borne out than on this particular day.

On the way back to his house, Charles Cameron put himself out to behave as affably as possible, so as to make the best possible impression on his lovely young ward. For her part, Maude chattered away like a veritable magpie, exclaiming over the natural beauties of the scenery around her, the peacefulness of the landscape and he general neighborhood. Interspersed with these amenities, she provided spontaneous tidbits of information about herself and her father which helped document Charles Cameron on the cruel set of circumstances which had brought her to this virtual orphan’ s estate. She revealed also, unwittingly to be sure, that her elderly and ailing father had practiced a kind of deception on her new guardian: Douglas Rivers had purposely neglected to inform Charles Cameron as to his daughter’ s actual age, preferring to have the younger man suppose that Maude was a very little girl.

“ But I promise I shan’ t be the least trouble to you, Mr. Cameron,” she exuberantly declared as the vivacious mare at last stopped before the house. “ I learned quite a few things in school and from Father’ s housekeeper, you see, and I can sew and cook rather well and I shall try to make myself very useful to you, Mr. Cameron, in return for all you are going to do for me.”

“ No, now,” he chided with a pleasant smile, “ there is certainly no need to try and compensate me for taking care of you. After all, I was your father’ s good friend, and it is little enough to do for so fine a man.” This sentimental speech which Charles Cameron made without unction, and, indeed, with a definite effort to keep from smiling and thus revealing how hypocritical it really was, seemed to delight the lovely golden- haired young girl She clasped her hands together, sighed, and gave him a dazzlingly beatific look from those enormous and expressive soft blue eyes of hers. That look alone repaid Charles Cameron for having disrupted his placid schedule in going to the railway station to meet his unexpectedly grownup ward.

“ Oh, thank you, thank you,” she cried delightedly. “ But just bear in mind, Mr. Cameron, all you need to do is just tell me what you wish, and I shall learn to try to anticipate your desires. I wish to make myself useful to the extreme in this my new home.”

Had he been more cynically inclined, the handsome mature bachelor would have retorted that there were innumerable ways in which she could do precisely that. But as to that subject, which was far too titillating and risquй in that day and age for a young lady’ s ears, he contented himself with a smiling nod and the noncommittal retort that he would try not to make too many demands upon her good nature.

Her delight was unbounded after he had taken her through the house and shown her the room on the second floor, to the left rear, which was to be her very own. She found his accommodations extremely spacious and much more handsome than she had been used to in London, and she innocently inquired, “ But this must be quite a bit of work for you, Mr. Cameron, to take care of so large a house all by yourself. And you say you don’ t even have a housekeeper to look after you? Now I know how I can repay you- I shall be your housekeeper.”

Laughingly, he took her soft little hand, brought it to his lips as a Continental cavalier might do, and kissed it, saying, “ Then assuredly no house in all England could ever boast a more lovely housekeeper.” He was rewarded by seeing the soft satiny pink cheeks of his new ward crimson vividly, which made him, connoisseur that he was of female aptitudes and instincts, aware of the intensely and emotionally excitable temperament which his new ward must certainly possess. It would, he thought, augur quite well for the future. For already he had made up his mind to enjoy his authority and his legal tenure of this mouthwatering specimen of young, unprofaned femininity by adroitly, consummately and deliberately seducing her. He had not in all his career as a bon vivant and amorist ever had the opportunity to enjoy an intimate relationship with so young and ravishingly lovely a partner. There were, to be sure, certain technical grounds, and he being a member of the legal profession knew them better than most men, which might cause difficulty in attaining to such a degree of felicitous collaboration with the charming young Maude, but his agile and ingenious mind was already leaping far ahead to determine just how to circumvent even these temporary obstacles.