Anonymous: A Stately English Mansion

'This is where the good work is done then, Madam?' boomed the Colonel.

'Indeed. It is here within that we nourish the minds and spirits. It is here… Oh dear, who is that?' Miss Martin asked in a slightly irritated tone at having her rehearsed discourse interrupted by the ding-dong sound of the doorbell below. Turning to Adelaide, she said, 'Please see who it is, dear'.

Only too pleased to escape, Adelaide scampered down, her bottom feeling unaccustomedly strange still, for she had received the dildo-like end of the handle of the whip therein that morning for the third time in several days and this time she had not cried nor whimpered quite so much while at the same time having her cunny lightly brushed by Annette's fingers.

'Now, darling, you can begin to learn to move your hips', Annette had instructed her, whereat Adelaide had timorously obeyed, causing the slender wooden plum to move deeper into her.

'Ah, no!' Adelaide had gasped, but with the further tickling of a finger around her bud, her protestations had died away. More than that, her belly had begun to glow and all sorts of hitherto unknown sensations had overtaken her until a vibrant explosion had seized her and then her fingers had clenched. A thin mewing sound had come from her lips which Annette had seemingly recognised for she had eased the pestle further up into Adelaide's firm young bottom while the maiden continued spilling helplessly over her fingers.

'Tonight you will have something much nicer, Adelaide', she had been told afterwards even while her knees trembled in the delicious agues she had experienced, but now with the everyday world once more about her, she reached the door, perceived a figure through the stained-glass panels, and opened it-'It is a gentleman to see you, Miss Martin', Adelaide announced a few minutes later, having again tripped up the stairs.

'A gentleman? Did he give a name?'

'No, Miss, he said he had come to enquire.'

'Indeed? At this rate I shall need even more desks', uttered Miss Martin with a sigh of self-satisfaction, 'Please entertain our visitors for a moment, Miss Sanderson. I shall not take longer than is needed.'

Her curiosity at that moment being as great as it ever had been, Miss Martin descended to find the front door annoyingly wide open and no visitor in sight. Perhaps he had stepped again beyond the threshold, she thought, and did so herself, looking this way and that across the surrounding lawns but seeing no one.

Consternation wrinkling up her eyes, Miss Martin made to turn back, though not quickly enough, for in that moment a large sack descended over her head, enveloping first her shoulders as well and then the upper parts of her arms. The scream that she then commenced to utter was quelched by a hand that came over her mouth through the sacking while the barrel of what seemed to be a pistol was pressed against her neck.

'I 'as a gun 'ere wot will blow your 'ead off if you move or shout, Missus', Miss Martin heard in a voice much disguised but which, had she not been stricken with terror, she might otherwise have recognised. For a moment then the cold ring of the barrel left her neck and, with the careful slipping of the hand from her mouth, a gag was applied which forced part of the dusty sacking between her lips.

All this having taken but seconds, Miss Martin had stood petrified, but now made a gallant movement to free her arms by thrusting them upwards. That, too, however had been anticipated and the two ends of the leather thong that had been threaded through holes just above the mouth of the sack were swiftly drawn together, thus making her a mute and bound prisoner of darkness.

'Now I guides yer forward, gentle like, and we goes fer a nice drive, that's wot we does', came a voice in her covered ears as she was prodded forward.

Vainly and wildly shaking her head under the confines of the sack, Miss Martin was guided indeed, though more roughly than the spoken words had indicated, and in but ten paces had been lifted into a waiting carriage and placed full length on cushions that had been placed in readiness on the floor, the driver of that vehicle men climbing down as Johnson closed the door, grinning to himself as wild kicking sounds came from within.

'I'll take 'er, Alf. You sit up on my seat, keep yer collar up and yer 'ead down and no one will recognise you. They never does look up at us, that's what, nor will they when they git out. Just bide yer time till they git in the 'ouse, then carry yerself off. 'Ere's the sovereign wot I promised you, matey, and another when you done the job'.

'Bit of a lark, is it? Bit of a lark you told me. That's wot it is, eh?' asked Johnson's drinking companion from the village who could not in any case have recognised Miss Martin even had he known her.

“That's it. Like I told yer, bit o' fun as these gentry gits up to. No 'arm to be done 'er. Soon 'ave 'er free', Johnson assured him, and then he himself was up and away, leaving his companion to mount Easton's carriage and sit, head down, in waiting.

'I should go down, perhaps', Annette was saying at that point.

'No, dear, you continue what you were saying-I will go', rejoined Letitia who had during this time manoeuvred herself closest to the door.

'Bit of a hitch, eh? Deuced chap's keeping her talking', said the Colonel upon whom a strange feeling of unease had descended, for Annette had been heard to be wavering and was clearly undecided as to how to continue the peroration on purity and education that only Miss Martin herself could have given.

Easton himself shifted about a little and several times glanced towards the closed door until, within the passing of but three minutes, Letitia reappeared.

'What news! What strange news!' she uttered, causing all eyes to turn to her, and not a few to look dismayed.

'News, news? What has passed?' demanded the Colonel in a chokey tone.

'Our coachman himself told me. It appears from what he saw-though quite discreetly, of course-that Miss Martin was very taken with her visitor and departed with him. To use our manservant's own words, she got quite carried away', declared Letitia without a blush while then a frozen silence fell on all, interrupted only by a decidedly more choking sound from the Colonel.

But all that-as Letitia decided to herself a while later as their carriage trundled off again-was all in the past. Easton sat decidedly silent having uttered such gruff remonstrances about Miss Martin as went through one of Letitia's ears and out the other. Ethel sobbed, or pretended to. Bella's face looked puffy and uncertain. The Colonel it was who had been literally sent off by Letitia to apprise an otherwise unknown Vicar that his daughters needed to be gathered back into the domestic fold. Annette had repeated over and over, 'I do not understand!' and so many questions had been put-rhetorically-as to who Miss Martin's visitor might have been that Letitia had lost patience and had declared that since no one could know, no one should ask.

'I did not trust her from the moment I laid eyes on her', Letitia had grandly announced in sweeping out, followed sheepishly by Easton and a bewildered Ethel and Bella.

All was well now-or much better, at the least. Letitia assured herself of that. In carrying off Miss Martin to London, as Letitia had instructed him to, Johnson would no doubt enjoy himself en route by giving her his pestle in precisely that place where she had so often ordained that young girls should receive it. In principle, Letitia had no objection to that, but in respect of Ethel, at least, she was not going to be bettered by Miss Martin.

Besides, Letitia further comforted herself with the thought that she had not left the woman bereft. Johnson had instructions to finally hand her a small package which contained twenty sovereigns and a note of advice from Letitia that were she to show her face again then all manner of complaints would be officially placed against her to which Easton and Ethel at least, and most possibly Adelaide and Maude, as well, would be witnesses.