‘I hope you won’t,’ she said robustly. ‘My doors are always open to you, sweetheart. You know that. You can stay here and shag me until the cows come home.’
‘Or the legal owners.’
‘Don’t start that again. Honestly, Adam, if sex is going to make you tetchy and navel-gazing, perhaps we should see about getting your dick removed.’
‘Perhaps you should,’ he said bleakly.
Julia sat up, shaking her head.
‘I should have known there’d be remorse. I wasn’t expecting it to kick in so quickly, though. What’s good for sexual remorse? Tea?’
Adam could barely see through the fog of exhaustion swirling behind his eyes.
‘Sleep,’ he suggested. And that was the last word of the conversation.
Somehow, Adam couldn’t leave the house. He thought about staying away, about giving Julia a wide berth, but every night of that sultry July, he ended up back at the manor, in her bed.
What was it he felt for her? He couldn’t put his finger on it. He didn’t think it was love, because when they were apart, he barely thought of her at all. Indeed, at his desk in the vicarage, all his thoughts were of Evie, of what she might be doing in France, of how they would be together when she returned.
She sent him emails every day and he treasured them, although they were no more than little notes, full of trivial detail about her days. She never referred to her promise that they would be lovers. Perhaps she had forgotten she ever made it.
He would read and write sermons and visit the sick and tend to his other parishes and eat the tea Mrs Witts had cooked for him. Then, as soon as the sun began to sink in the sky, something would draw him out towards the manor house and Julia.
Nobody seemed to realise she was squatting, for she lived there completely undisturbed. He spent every night in her bed; she taught him every position imaginable and some that weren’t. He was an eager learner, somehow able to sublimate the guilt for as long as he was with her, though it always hit him with ugly force as soon as he was outside the manor house gates.
His skills were considerable now, in the last week of July, days before Evie’s return. He knew where Julia’s G-spot was and how to stimulate it. He knew the best positions for deep penetration. He had explored endless variations on where to put his hands and his mouth while his cock was sunk deep inside her cunt. He could identify the first stirrings of her orgasm, and he could facilitate it or frustrate it at will.
Her initial control of the situation was waning. He knew how to give to her, and he knew how to take away. She, it seemed, was quite under his spell and he enjoyed the power of it.
Climbing over the broken section of wall for the last night before its rightful owners’ return, he pondered the possibilities. They had ransacked the toy room and tried out the vibrators, massagers, probes, plugs, paddles, shackles in various combinations over the last fortnight. Adam had gone from a man who didn’t know what clover clamps were to a man who knew exactly how to apply pressure to the most exquisitely tormenting effect during the course of their use. He pictured them on Evie’s fat brown nipples while she stood on tiptoe, suspended by fine chains from a ceiling hook. He would have a riding crop and smack it down on her bum while she twisted and moaned. Then perhaps he would fuck her with it until she came, multiple times in succession. Her eyes would roll like Julia’s did and he would kiss her body all over and take her down and carry her to the bed, setting her down tenderly before rubbing in more of that cream.
He was hard before he reached the door.
He pushed it open, finding it on the latch, and peered around the hallway.
‘Julia.’
He took a few steps inside, then suddenly a figure leapt on to his back from behind and slipped a blindfold over his eyes.
‘What on Earth … Julia …’
‘Yes, lover.’
‘What are you doing?’
‘Surprising you.’
‘Consider me surprised. Can I take this off now?’
‘No, keep it on. It’s the last night before those impostors come home and I want to make the most of it. I want to feast on you. Take me upstairs.’
‘I can’t see,’ he objected. ‘You’ll have to get down.’
‘Oh.’ She climbed off his back and took him by the hand, leading him away. ‘I’ve got so many treats lined up for you tonight.’
‘Are you really going to leave tomorrow?’ he said hopefully, dreading a huge scene between Julia and the pornographers.
‘No, I’m not. But I suppose you will. I’ll miss you.’
Adam was silent as they walked along the landing towards the room Julia had reclaimed as her own. Things were going to change. This peculiar idyll was drawing to its close.
He heard her shut the door behind them, then she pressed herself against him and fed him with her kisses, which he devoured without second thought. Her hand reached for his dog collar, ripping it off, exposing his throat. He let her undress him, still joined at the lips, and made no demur when she laid him backwards on the bed.
She warmed him up with a thousand little tricks of fingers and mouth on his straining cock, until he bucked upwards into her face, begging to fuck her.
‘I want to tie you up first,’ she said.
‘You? Tie me?’
It had been done the other way around, but Julia had never tried to restrain Adam, being too keen on the unrestricted movements of his hands upon her.
‘Yes. For a change. I’ll drive you wild with desire and you won’t be able to do anything about it.’
‘I’m not sure …’
‘Please, Adam. Just this once. Then you can do it to me. Is that a deal?’
‘All right. You won’t hurt me, though? I don’t like pain.’
‘I won’t. I promise.’
He held his arms still while she wrapped black silk ties round and round his wrists, then attached them to the bed posts. He had never felt such on such high alert, everything much keener and sharper than he usually felt it. Her fingers on him made him shiver now, with a kind of apprehension, for he would not be able to stop whatever she decided to do.
She repeated the process with his ankles until he lay spread-eagled and helpless, unable to see, but certainly able to feel how straight and tall his cock stood in the middle of it all. And now she would tease him again, kissing the shaft, flicking her tongue over the tip, squeezing his sac and stroking his perineum, even poking a finger against his tight-shut anus.
‘Julia, have mercy,’ he pleaded.
‘Poor baby,’ she crooned, but to his immense relief, she began to wrap the condom over his cock, then she straddled him. He felt her lower herself slowly, a gorgeous gush of warmth over his rubber-clad length, moving downwards, silky smooth and tight. He tried to thrust, but his capacity was limited and she held all the cards. She established a slow rhythm, grinding hard then pulling back, while her fingernails grazed his nipples.
‘We’ll do this my way,’ she gloated, almost removing her cunt entirely from his cock. ‘You’re my boy tonight and I’m not letting you get away.’
Adam’s heart thudded. What did that mean?
He decided she was talking only about the sex. That was all. She meant to take her pleasure from him one last time before they had to part company.
‘Ride me,’ he said faintly.
‘Oh, I’ll ride you all right. Let’s go.’
She set a merciless pace then, as if she intended to wear his cock out, gripping his shoulders tight, digging her fingernails into his firm flesh. The friction built rapidly and he knew he wouldn’t last long.
When she bent right down and sucked his earlobe, he lost control and let her milk his orgasm out of him, enjoying for that delirious moment the additional element that his bound helplessness brought to it.
‘Oh, I knew you’d like it, deep down,’ she taunted, popping a finger into his mouth. ‘I knew your rampant cock would like to get used while you were tied up. Well, perhaps we can try t
hat again sometime.’
‘Again?’ He shook his head. This was the end for them. Tomorrow Evie would be back.
‘In the meantime,’ she continued breezily, ignoring his confusion, ‘I need a little help. You were a bit ahead of me there.’
She climbed off him, letting his softened cock lie.
The next thing he knew, a waft of her heat and scent hit his nose. She was going to sit on his face.
‘Come on, sweetheart,’ she wheedled, squatting over him. ‘Use that lovely tongue of yours.’
He never missed an opportunity to taste those secret, hidden parts and he satisfied her whim with a will, licking her clit and sucking at it, pushing his tongue up inside her just-fucked cunt, until she could take no more and her thighs quivered at the sides of his face.
‘Oh, that was nice.’ She bent her head to his and kissed him, tasting herself. ‘Now you could do with a little rest, I expect. I’ll leave you to it.’
‘What?’
He tried to sit up, but of course, he couldn’t.
‘Where are you going? Julia!’
But she had shut the door.
Chapter Fourteen
WHEN JULIA ARRIVED at the wishing well, she performed the same ritual Evie used to call up the spirit of John Calderwood.
He was not best pleased to be aroused, and especially not by Julia.
‘What are you doing here, woman? I must conserve my energies. And you do not have the authority to summon me.’
‘I have come with a plea.’
‘A plea from a Shields? How are the mighty fallen.’
‘Yes, we are. And much is changing in Saxonhurst. I don’t have the manor any more. And it’s time you released Evie.’
‘You are talking nonsense. Release her? She is bound to me, by love as well as duty.’
‘Unbind her, then. Set her free. If you love her as you claim …’
‘If I set her free, then I die for all time. We will never be together. That is not what either of us desires.’
‘It would be best for the village.’
Calderwood roared with anger.
‘You dare tell me what is best for my village? You, you miserable little jumped-up heir of sycophants.’
‘All right. Keep your hold on Evie, if you must. But leave him alone.’
‘The preacher?’
‘Of course.’
‘You love him?’
‘It doesn’t matter what I think about him. He does not deserve what you have planned for him. Let him go. Find some other way to be with Evie.’
‘There is no other way.’
‘If you will not leave him alone, then I will take him away from you. I will protect him. I don’t care what I have to do.’
‘He has to die. His predecessor –’
‘He is not Tribulation Smith! None of those others were either. He is a peaceable man, a little out of his depth, just beginning to know himself. He is an innocent.’
‘He wants his hands on Evie. He is not so innocent when it comes to her.’
‘I can keep him away from Evie. I can stop the repetition of history.’
‘You can’t.’
‘I will do everything it takes.’
‘Do what you will. He will die. And Evangeline and I shall live.’
It was a warm night, and Julia’s activities had certainly added to the heat, but after 20 minutes or so, Adam was starting to feel decidedly chilly. Stretched on the bed, without any covers, and with no means of getting them, he felt the cold keenly on his nipples, which throbbed in their suffering. He tried twisting his hands and feet, to keep the circulation going, then he worked at every strategy he could to wriggle out of the tightly tied ribbon, but nothing had any effect. Julia had trussed him up in fine style.
The cold intensified, beyond what he expected of an English summer night. Suddenly he was shivering, teeth chattering. It felt as if the seasons had done a dramatic and unannounced swap.
‘Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner,’ he muttered between his teeth. Perhaps here at last was God’s vengeance on him for all this fornication. He would have to bow to it, accept it as best he could. He had no defence prepared.
In the corner of the room, he heard a crash, as if something had fallen from the chest of drawers. A vase, perhaps. He tried to sit bolt upright, wrenching his arms in the process.
‘Who is there?’
But no reply came.
An icy wind blew over his body now. He heard footsteps, small ones, pattering about the room.
‘Julia? This isn’t funny, you know.’
All those stupid, mad stories she had told him about the ghosts of her ancestors crowded into his mind. Her husband and his sudden heart attack – was he now in line for one of those? His toes and fingers curled while he tried whatever he could to seek warmth.
Somewhere close to his ear, a chain rattled, then there was whispering, as if from multiple mouths, very faint, but finally crystallising into recognisable words.
‘Your time is short,’ it whispered over and over again. ‘Your time is short.’
‘Who are you?’ he begged. ‘Lord, have mercy on my soul. May the power of Christ smite those who deny Him. I invoke the name of the Lord.’
But the whispering continued, and so did the cold. He heard rattling, as if an earthquake or a heavy thunderstorm struck the room, making every loose item vibrate.
‘Get thee behind me, Satan,’ roared Adam, trying to make himself heard over the growing din. He began to sing Rock of Ages, concentrating hard on the words in order to keep his mind, which threatened to slip away into a black maw of terror.
Something else crashed to the ground. Then he felt a pain, like the blade of a knife, dragging up his thigh.
‘Get away!’ he shrieked. ‘Go away!’
At that moment, a light snapped on and he heard Julia’s voice.
‘Oh, for pity’s sake. Leave him alone. Go after me if you must, but he’s done nothing to offend you. Good God, it seems every ghost in Saxonhurst is after you.’
The noise ceased and the air in the room gradually reheated.
Adam tried to talk to Julia, but his mouth failed to co-operate and all he could do was twist his wrists and ankles in a mute appeal for freedom.
‘Oh dear,’ she said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. ‘They are awful. They’re in a terrible mood at the moment, but I wasn’t expecting them to take it out on anyone except me.’
Adam found his voice and croaked out a few words.
‘Either I’m mad – or you’re sane … I don’t know which …’
She stroked his cheek.
‘It’s all real enough.’
‘Untie me.’
‘You know, I’m not sure I should.’
‘Julia!’
‘You aren’t safe and I want to keep you out of harm’s way. What would be easier than keeping you up here, locked away from the world, until the danger has passed?’
‘You can’t kidnap me. For pity’s sake, set me free.’
With a sigh, she set to unravelling the tightly wound ribbons, first at his ankles, then at his wrists, until he was able to sit up, stretching his arms and legs to dispel the pins and needles brought on by the bondage. He took off the blindfold and stared at Julia’s despondent face.
‘What was that? The noises, the – feelings?’
‘My ancestors. Poltergeists. I didn’t think they’d bother you, but they’re having an angry phase, so …’
Adam shook his head. ‘And I was going to insist you saw a doctor, once you were out of here.’
She smiled. ‘I’m not mad. But perhaps you’ll believe me now. There is danger, and Evie is the one charged with leading you right into it.’
‘These ghosts … Don’t they haunt Seb and Kasia?’
‘They’ve never mentioned it. They wouldn’t haunt Evie’s friends, though. Evie has special protection.’
Julia’s voice was bitter.
‘Special protection?’
> ‘As the village mascot. The one who performs all the rituals.’
‘I am going mad,’ muttered Adam. ‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind, have mercy on me. My indulgence of the flesh has poisoned my brain and I suffer delusions …’
‘Stop it, Adam. They are not delusions.’
He stood up and started collecting his clothes from the bedroom floor.
‘They drove my parents mad, by inhabiting my body when I was a small child. The things they made me do … You’ve seen the film Poltergeist?’
‘Never.’ He paused in the midst of putting on his trousers to frown at the concept of horror movies, of which he strongly disapproved.
‘Oh, never mind. And my husband’s heart attack – that was their doing. Not that I entirely blamed them for that one …’
‘Julia!’
‘You mustn’t go. Please stay.’
‘I can’t stay. You are in league with Satan. I have to go.’
‘I just want to save you …’
‘You are damning me. You and your – perverse lusts.’
‘Hey – they’re your perverse lusts too. Don’t put this on me. You’re every bit as sex-mad as anyone in this village. You just can’t handle it, that’s all.’
‘I was pure. I lived a chaste life, until I came here. I have to leave. I have to get away. This is what they call a breakdown, is it?’
He laughed wildly.
‘Don’t go.’
She lunged for him, but he had put on his boots and he sidestepped her, hurrying through the upper corridors to the main staircase, looking left and right for signs of the presence that had so terrified him, but it was gone and he left the house unhindered.
He ran across the moonlit lawn and vaulted the broken wall. He did not break his pace until he was back at the vicarage.
He went straight to the study and booted his computer, then fired off an email to the Archdeacon.
‘I have been feeling unwell both in body and spirit since coming to Saxonhurst and I would be very grateful if you would agree to giving me some time off for a retreat. There is a place on the Welsh borders I have visited before. I suspect some weeks spent in solitary contemplation will revive my wearied mind and re-invigorate my faith. Please indicate as quickly as you can whether this will be possible.’
Saxonhurst Secrets Page 19
