by Smith, Skye
Britta clambered clumsily down from the bench and did as she was told. She left the doors open and could hear everything and could see much.
"I dare you to do that to me," Lydia said, replacing Britta on the bench, and leaning forward over the table. He dared, and she moaned, and he dared more, and then more, and then more. By the time Britta saw Robert walking towards the house, their passion was spent and Lydia had gathered her clothes and had gone to her bedroom to repair herself. Red lay exhausted and half naked on the floor. Britta scurried around the room collecting his clothes and telling him to get dressed, and hurry.
By the time Robert looked in on them, Britta was writing numbers into the open ledger, and Robert was looking neat but flustered sitting beside her. Robert laughed. "When I sit close to her, she has the same effect on me. Be careful, else Lydia will take a hundred pounds from you to buy her bond."
Red laughed with him and grabbed a half full bottle of rum bottle from a library shelf and suggested that they go downstairs to find glasses and some shade.
Britta closed the ledger and the inkpots and then put her head on the table and felt so sad that she thought she must die. Under her breath she said, "He offered me marriage, and moments later he is cuckolding his host. Lydia was right. He is evil."
"I told you to stay away from him," said Lydia in a stern voice as she entered the library. Then in a much, much softer tone, "But oh my, that man knows how to pleasure a woman. Perhaps you should let him take you, after all. You will not find a more skillful man to do it. Far better than being dragged into a barn to be humped by some rude bumpkin."
"More skillful than your husband?" Britta asked pointedly.
"Oh yes, no comparison. Robert is stingy with his tongue and with his kisses."
"Robert, your husband." Britta made the point again.
"Don't you dare to judge me," said Lydia, her temper rising. "You don't know the half of it. That was just to keep Red as an ally in case I need his help."
"Ah, yes, I heard all the moans of alliance."
"Do not be flippant, and, and do not speak of it again. Do you realize what would have happened if we had been caught out, or worse, if loose tongues reached the church? Robert would be expected to shoot Red. He would even be forgiven for whipping me, or worse. He got away with it once already." She held her hands to her mouth. "No, I never said that. Forget everything you saw and heard in this room today, and I will release you from your bond six months early."
Britta agreed, though she expected that Lydia would deny the six month reprieve when the time came. "On one condition. That you do not take these risks with Red again."
* * * * *
On a particularly hot Tuesday, when everyone was keeping to the shade, Jon was asked to take Lydia and Robby to a special meeting of all the new mothers of the valley. Lydia treated any invitation from the village women as suspect, but also with relief. She so wanted to be accepted as the wife of the largest land owner, rather than as the bond woman who stole a prized husband from their daughters.
"You must not come, Britta. They will not be pleased to see you," she explained. "Though the teen girls will gather around Jon for sure. Stay here. Stay cool in the shade and practice your reading." Lydia waved as they pulled away. Jon kept the horse at a slow walk so he could chat with every black woman that they passed. Strangely he had become like a son to them all. A replacement for all the grown up sons that they no longer saw or knew, who now lived far and wide across the provinces.
Britta was listening to Red speak as she waved goodbye. He and Robert had been discussing their latest idea for changing the farm away from using slaves. With their latest plan they would replace the slaves with redemptioners like Britta. There were increasing numbers of them arriving penniless and in rags on the docks of New England, survivors of the hard times in Europe that had lingered since the end of the world war. They were desperate folk and therefore a cheap source of labor.
The slaves were to be sold in groups to farms in Rhode Island, specifically the large plantation style farms of the southern Narragansett County. That county was the closest to Newport, and thus the price of slaves was high. Red had even sent a letter to the Hazard family of South Kingstown inviting them to visit and inspect Robert's farm.
Red was in effect teaching Robert the basics of money lending. The secret of a successful moneylender was never to loan too much to any one borrower, and yet to keep each forever in your debt. In that way you could control them, and take a tithe from every thing they worked for, or saved, or produced.
They were discussing various tactics, especially those where the borrower could not pay, such as deciding when it was more profitable to force the borrower to fail. Britta was disgusted when they were laughing about how they could one day own this entire valley just by making it easy for the farmers to borrow from them during these hard years.
Red looked at the height of the sun and decided to go home for a nap so he ended the lesson by saying, "Banking and money lending is how the rich stay rich. Why should the elite such as ourselves ever need to work, when we can make a profit from the toil of the sheeple? They are so stupid that they even thank us for loaning them the money. The fools will even toast us at Thanksgiving for enabling their dreams."
Britta could not listen to any more. She had heard much of their planning over the last month, and remembered almost all that she had heard. All that they had discussed disgusted her. Not wanting to be near them, she decided to go upstairs to fetch her bible so she could practice her reading.
These two men made her seethe with anger. She hated being a bond slave herself, and the plans that these men were discussing had the aim of making everyone around them a bond slave. What had Red called the normal folk. Sheeple, Peons. Folk who were supposedly free but owed their very souls to the money lenders and bond masters.
The men stopped talking as she passed between them and both watched her lithe form climb the stairs. Her tight bum jerked enticingly as she trotted up the steps. She had to lift her skirt high as she climbed and they could see her long straight legs and her honey-colored skin. They winked at each other and watched her until she was out of sight on the second floor. Robert turned to Red and said, "See you tomorrow," and then he slipped out of his summer clogs and followed her upstairs, moving silently on bare feet.
Red watched him follow Britta up the stairs and sighed. Jon and Lydia were gone for the afternoon. The children that usually filled this level were lying under some shade tree staying cool. Robert would have her alone in this house, perhaps for the first time. He knew instinctively what was about to happen upstairs. Today, now, she was going to be taken. How did he know? Why was he so sure? Because that is what he would have done if he were Robert.
* * * * *
Britta entered the bedroom and cursed under her breath. Lydia had enjoyed a cool bath before she had dressed. Britta had carried all the water up the stairs from the pump in the kitchen. Now she had to empty it. Usually she had the young girls do this kind of work, but never when Robert was near to the house. He would beat any black he found upstairs.
She walked to the window. It was open in hopes of catching any breeze. She leaned over the waist high sill and peered out. There was no one and nothing below save for grass and garden. Out the window was the fast way to empty the bath. It explained why the grass and the herb garden below always stayed lush even in the hot weather.
She picked up the bucket and went to dip the first bucket full. She was tempted to take a cool bath herself, but not with the two men downstairs. It wasn't worth the risk of being caught naked in this bedroom. She lifted the bucket but it clipped the side of the tub and spilled over her front. Oh well. By the time she was finished she would be even wetter. No matter. The splashes were cooling.
"Very nice," Robert cooed. He had startled her. She had not heard him come in, or heard the door close behind him. He was lighting the kief pipe that Lydia had carelessly left beside the bed. "Are those towels clean e
nough for me, if I bathe?" he asked her and walked towards her while undressing. "A cool bath would feel good right now."
She tipped the water in the bucket back into the tub, and turned away from him to check the towels. Two of them were still clean enough and dry enough to use. Lydia never used soap on her skin, so the water was still clear and had no soap scum. She turned around to hand him the towels, and immediately felt foolish. The bath story had been a ruse. His arousal told the true story. He was here for her.
She backed away from him and tried to rotate slowly towards the door. He simply reached out and grabbed her by the arm and pulled her close to him. He said softly "There is more in this pipe. It is kief. If you do not smoke, I can blow it into your mouth like I do with Lydia." He took a deep suck at the pipe and then trapped her head and blew it slowly into her mouth. He finished blowing with a kiss, a full lip kiss.
Britta got more than the pungent smoke. She felt a darkness inside that was coming from his touch. It was creeping into her body from his hand and she knew that soon it would make her faint. The smoke was making it worse.
He took another suck on the pipe and tried for another kiss, but she pressed her lips closed and the smoke was wasted. He put down the pipe so that he could grab her breast with his free hand. The darkness and the smoke were making her dizzy. The room was spinning. She tried to struggle and run, but he tripped her with his foot and she went down, with him on top of her.
"This is not how I want it," he whispered. "Don't make me use force. You knew all along that this was going to happen eventually. Think, girl. Gentle is better, less painful. I can be very gentle."
"No, no, no," she repeated endlessly as she struggled and squirmed on the damp floor trying to get away from him. Her clothes tore. She was exposed. She swore to herself that she would never stop struggling. He tried to kiss her and she bit his lip. That stopped his attempts to kiss her, but not the rest.
"Alright," he said, "I am tired of your struggles. If you wish to save your virginity then you can please me in other ways." He dragged her to the mirrored dresser. "You have seen how Lydia kneels to take me in the mirror. Do that, and afterwards I will be too spent to threaten your virginity."
Almost as soon as he finished these words she stilled, lost in thought, balancing her options, should she or shouldn't she. Slowly she moved to get onto her knees and he loosened his hold on her so she could turn and look at the reflection of herself and him in the mirror. He moved into position in front of her.
He was so ready. The erotic reflection of her and him in the mirror was almost enough by itself. Her hair was undone from the struggle. The thin fabric of her slip was torn and hung down from one shoulder. The skin of her chest and her exposed breast were the color of honey. She was getting ready. Moistening her lips. And then he saw a look of cunning cross her face.
Just as she was about to take him into her mouth he pulled back and yelled "No." She was going to bite it. Bite it hard. He knew it from the look in her eyes. Just like she had bit his lip to stop the kisses, she was going to bite his penis to stop anything else.
He pulled her up by both arms and pushed her down onto her belly on the bench in front of the mirror. He moved around to stand behind her. He moistened himself by spitting into his hand, and then aligned himself behind her, ready to push it home.
"Stop it. Leave her be," said Red from the door. The room smelled of spicy smoke and he could guess what had happened. Robert had gotten hold of some drugs from somewhere.
Robert looked around at him, confused by his presence. Baffled by how someone would dare to give him orders in his own bedroom. Red was walking towards him, but he was wise enough to stay beyond reach. Robert was smiling and swaying from the effects of the smoke.
"Let her up. This is unbecoming of you, Robert. You are a better man than this. It will ruin your marriage. Destroy it completely."
Robert pulled back from Britta and stood up straight. He was blinking rapidly while he collected his fuzzy thoughts from the haze of the smoke. "My marriage is a farce. Lydia was going to blackmail me for thousands. I outfoxed her by marrying her. A wife cannot testify against her husband. She whored for me before we wed. She whores for me still, and now so will this little tease. They are from the same mold. They are grasping women who use their good looks to gain a living from men."
Red continued arguing, "You do not own her bond, Lydia does, so you will be accused of raping a virgin. The village will drum you out of the valley. Our plans for taking over this entire valley will be finished."
Robert grabbed Britta's hand and spun her around. "This one. No one will believe her. The men of the village offer me good cash for a turn with her, for they already think she is my harlot. I can bring witnesses that will tell of her time as an ale wench in a dockside tavern. By accusing me, she will destroy herself. She will sentence herself to a short life in a dockside brothel."
"You are the Devil," accused Britta trying to get her hand away from the darkness seeping into it. "You would do that to me. What have I ever done to you?" He would not let go. She was feeling faint, losing consciousness.
"You have refused me," Robert hissed. "I own you and you refuse me." He looked towards Red, and a look of cunning crossed his face.
"You can have her after me, Red. She has no witness if both of us do her. Look at her. Is she not the most delicious dish you have ever seen?" He pulled Britta up to stand in front of him, and tore her dress further. "Look at her. Don't tell me you don't lust for her. I have seen you lust for her. Don't pretend that you are not aroused just looking at her."
She fought to stay awake by squirming in his arms and trying to free herself. Too late she realized that her very squirming was losing the battle for her. Red was leering at her, watching her squirm with growing lust. He was undoing his belt and buttons. She was alone in a room with two men who were fully aroused, and they were going to use her.
Robert cleared the dresser top with one sweep of his arm and laid her on her belly on top of it, then pushed her skirt up to exposed her. One of his knees was pushing her legs apart.
Red came closer. He was panting. "I'll hold her for you." This wasn't the way he had planned to seduce this girl, but it was good enough. Once she was ruined, she would be easy prey for as long as she worked for Lydia.
"Britta, I forgot to take my...." Lydia called out as she opened the bedroom door. There was a moment's silence while the two men looked towards her, and while she gathered her breath to scream. She took another moment to calm herself, and then she hissed, "You rotten bastards! You rotten evil bastards!"
She stepped forward with fury in her eyes as if she were going to slap them and slap them hard. She stopped mid-stride, and instead she ripped at her own clothes and they tore and loosened until her breasts jiggled free of them. "Fine. You want to bang someone. Bang me, not her. Don't ruin her, when I am already ruined." She wrenched again at the wreckage of her clothes and then pushed them down to the floor and stepped out of them.
She grabbed Red by the hand and drew him closer to Robert, then she turned to Robert and said, "Is this what you wanted?" and she hung her arms around his neck and kissed him fully and long on the lips. The passion, the lust in his kiss was wild, demanding, breathless. While he was devouring her lips, she dropped one hand to below his waist and grabbed him and started a series of slow squeezes until his moaning stalled his kisses.
Knowing that Red was behind her, she arched her back. That womanly arch that pressed her bum towards one man as it pressed her breasts against the other. It was not until her breasts were moving rhythmically against him that Robert realized what Red was now doing to her. He tried to break away from her but she held on and looked him in the eye. "This is what you wanted? Right?"
Robert was stunned in his realization of what was happening to his wife, by his neighbor, here and now in his presence. He was still holding Britta with one of his hands and now he let her go and she slumped to the floor like a dead weight.
Britta was woken out of a dark trance by the bump of the floor, and began to crawl away from the three animals and the moans of lust so that she could make a run for the door.
"No," Lydia called to her, "don't leave me alone with them. I may need you."
Robert stood straight and looked over Lydia's shoulder and down her arched back to where Red was pushing in and out of his wife. He was searching for words through the fog in his mind. "Adulteress," was all he could say before he found her lips again and was lost in lust.
Lydia renewed her little squeezes. He was fully swollen and moaning in ecstasy whenever he broke free of her kisses. She hissed into his ear. "You wanted this. You set this up. Now you have it. Enjoy."
Britta was picking at the clothes that Lydia had dropped to the floor. Eventually she had put on enough pieces to be modestly covered. She turned and watched the three perform to each other in the mirror. It reminded her of peeking through the reed walls of her mother's hut on the few days when both of her fathers were home at the same time.
The thought made her relax a little. When her mother was pleasuring two husbands at the same time there were never harsh words or arguments. So it was now with Lydia. Her enjoyment was growing with theirs, and then her lust was growing with theirs, and then it exceeded theirs. After ten minutes they were oblivious to everything but the heady sensations of an ever-increasing physical ecstasy.
Britta opened the door just wide enough to allow herself to slip out of the bedroom. She skipped down the stairs, feeling as light as a feather. She was safe. Lydia had rescued her. She saw Jon sitting in the shade letting Robby, who was teething, gnaw at his knuckles. "Lydia has decided not to go after all. Unhitch the mare and get her out of this sun. I will take Robby upstairs."
Jon frowned at her. He had been looking forward to the drive and to having the luscious Lydia all to himself, and of course, to hanging about with teens his own age. "Women," he said, "always changing their minds."
