The guard was still in a daze as he locked the door and led them downstairs. As they came to her door, Therese stopped. “I don’t think I’ll go up to the club tonight, Maria. It’s been a tiring day; I think I’ll go to bed early. You can take care of things without me. Good night.”
“Good night, Mistress,” the girls chorused. Therese pulled the door almost closed behind her and waited. She could hear the girls chattering with the guard, and also surreptitious noises above her. After what seemed a long time, she slipped off her shoes and tiptoed out of the door and down the stairs.
She stopped at the edge of the light, where she could hear Maria speaking. “Dorota my love, go and stand at the corner for me, won’t you? I’m going to show this big soldier just what a little girl can do to him. Cough or something if you hear anyone coming.”
“But what about Mistress Therese?”
“What about her? You heard her, she’s going to bed. Besides, I’m sure we’ll hear if she opens her door up there. Go on with you.”
Therese heard Dorota tap away, and then Maria started again. “Now, my man, sit down and look at this.” She heard a tip-tap of shoes and a swish. Therese could imagine Maria pirouetting and throwing her coat aside.
“Do you like what you see? Say something or I’ll put it back on.”
“Come here,” rasped the soldier.
“Very well, but no touching. Hands by your sides, soldier. That’s it. Do you like them? Oh yes, that’s very good, oh yes. That’s right. Kiss them. Suck them. Oh yes. Look, they’re going hard. Mmh. No! No hands! Just keep kissing them.”
“God, you’re beautiful! You’re making my prick as hard as a cart pole.”
“I’m glad about that. I was beginning to think you hadn’t noticed me. Oh, that’s good…. Now do it to the other one. Mmh. So tell me what you’re going to do with that cart pole of yours.”
“I’m going to stick it into you so hard it’ll come out of your ear. Here, let me get my hands on you.”
“No! Hands by your side! And don’t stop kissing my tits. Is it strong, this cart pole of yours? I’m not going to stick it into me and then find it’s as soft as bag of tripe, am I? Take it out and let me see. If I like it enough…. Mmh, that’s not so bad. It’s a nice handful. I wonder if it’s hard enough.”
“Come here, you slut, and I’ll show you what it’s good for!” The chair scraped as the soldier stood up.
“Not here, you idiot! Let’s get in there behind you. Lie down, quickly, and let me get at that cart pole!”
Therese crept forward. The two of them were out of sight in the storeroom. Maria was silent, but she could hear the soldier breathing heavily. Maria’s coat lay on the floor with her high-heeled shoes tipped up beside it. The keys lay on the card table beside the logbook. She heard a sucking pop from the storeroom and Maria’s voice again.
“Did you like that, soldier? Is your cart pole going soft yet?”
“Aah, stick it in, you bitch! Stop making me wait for it. Sweet Jesus, give me your cunt!”
Therese silently picked up the keys and fled.
Chapter 21
The door was already open and the lock hanging half off. Rado waited just inside, the open toolbox on the floor beside him. She rushed to take the handcuffs from the radiator. Rado put them into his pocket.
“Boots?” she whispered. Rado pointed to them behind the door, but Therese put them in the open doorway. “Come on!”
Soundlessly they crept down the staircase. She pushed Rado into her room and carried on down the stairs alone. A regular thumping was coming from the storeroom, and she could hear Maria moaning. “Aah, aah, aah, yes, that’s good. Yes, yes, do it to me. God, I’m coming, yes, do it—”
Therese returned the keys carefully to their place and stepped into the doorway. Maria was crouched over the guard’s thighs with her back to him. His heavy legs and giant boots made her look smaller. She was violently hammering her bottom into his stomach and, between her open thighs, Therese could see the dark shaft disappearing into her with each stroke. She had an expression of pained concentration on her face, and her brow wrinkled as she laboured towards her climax.
“Maria! What are you doing! Get up immediately!”
Maria looked up with an expression of intense frustration and disappointment on her face, and then she smiled impishly and jumped up. “Not you, soldier! You stay right where you are!” He lay to attention on the floor, his incongruous white sex lying collapsed on his trouser front and rapidly diminishing. A large drop of clear liquid oozed from it and stretched down to puddle on the rough cloth of his uniform.
Therese turned to Maria. “You hussy! How many times have I told you not to mix with the soldiers? Get back to your room this minute! I’ll deal with you later.” Maria squeezed past her to pick up her coat and shoes and padded off in stockinged feet.
“Now you! What do you think you were doing raping one of my girls? Eh? Answer me!”
“Your Honour—” he stammered but was at a loss to say any more.
“Don’t you know that she’s Major Lamoreaux’s woman? Oh yes, he’s definitely going to want to talk to you. You’re in very deep trouble.”
“Please, Your Honour, I didn’t know.”
Therese let him suffer for a while. “Damn you for an idiot, soldier! If I could think of some way of skinning you without upsetting the Major, I’d do it myself. I’m going back up to my room for a minute, and then I’m going to deal with Maria. She’ll be eating her breakfast standing up when I’ve finished with her. Get up and dress yourself!”
Rado was standing in her room and waiting. She silently showed him the bathroom and then how he could press the back of one of the armchairs against the open wardrobe and climb into its upper compartment. The compartment was spacious and taller than its door, and gave access to the narrow ceiling space above the room. Squeezed in up there, he would not be seen unless a searcher had a torch.
He struggled up into the darkness. Therese pulled him down again and made him practice. After two attempts he could get in quickly and silently. She moved the chair back a little and left him up there. She locked the bedroom door as she left.
Downstairs the sentry stood rigidly at attention, and she ignored him. Then she turned back as if she had forgotten something. “What have you put in your book, soldier?”
The laboured writing showed Maria, Dorota and herself arriving with food, and Maria leaving with Dorota. “Good. Now put my name down. I warn you, don’t breathe a word of what you’ve done. Not to anyone, understand? The slightest rumour reaches the Major, and you’ll be dealing with the police for rape on top of whatever the Major has for you. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Your Honour.”
“Good. Not a word!” and she stomped off like an avenging fury.
She sat in her office with the door closed. Her pulse was still racing, and she felt sick with worry. She willed herself to relax and she waited.
A long time later, a light tap came at the stairway door at the back of her office, and she jumped up to open it. Maria stood there smiling. She looked wet and disheveled, and her hands and face were black with coal dust. She was wearing thick socks and carrying Rado’s boots. She looked a mess.
“I did it, Mistress!” she said triumphantly. “Just like you said.”
Therese pulled her into the room and took off her coat. Her stockings were torn and her knees were as black as her hands.
“Stand still, or you’ll get dirt everywhere.” Therese took the boots from her and knelt at her feet. She peeled the socks off and unhooked the stockings. They were finished. She would throw them onto the fire when the club closed. She went out to the bar and came back with a bowl of warm water and a damp cloth.
She knelt again and started to wipe Maria’s legs. “Now, tell me what happened. Start at the beginning. You were giving a fine acting performance with the soldier. I could almost think you were really doing it because you wanted to.”
Maria h
ung her head. “It wasn’t easy, Mistress. Oh, it was easy enough to get him excited and into the storeroom…”
“I know. I was listening. You certainly convinced me.”
“Anyway, once I’d got him there and played with him a bit….”
“As Wanda showed us….”
“Yes, just like that, but he got all excited and he came all over my hands as I was trying to put it in. Then he wanted to get up but I knew we needed more time. I pushed him back down and sat on his chest to keep him there. I was pulling and sucking at his thing and trying to get it to stand up again. I didn’t think I’d ever succeed, but I found that when I was sucking at it and wiggling my dupka in his face, he started getting excited again, and eventually it was hard enough for me to sit on. His thing was nice. And then you came,” she ended lamely.
“A moment or two too early, I think.”
Maria blushed. “Yes, I was nearly there,” she said wistfully. “Still, at least he stayed hard longer than Lieutenant Drazevich. Oh well. I hope I get Lieutenant Stoibel next time to make up for it.
“Anyway, I went upstairs like you said and picked up the boots. I found the little door onto the roof and sat on the step to put on my socks and the boots. That made my dupka cold, but when I got the door open and went outside, well, then I got really cold. There’s so much snow up there! I pushed through along the edge of the battlements but I was exhausted by the time I got to the top of our steps. Anyway, it’s only snowing a little now so they should be able to see where I went. Then I went down the steps. It was very difficult in the boots because they’ve got nails in them and make a lot of noise. You should have given me more socks, Mistress. The boots are very big, and now I’ve got blisters all over.
“Anyway, I got down to the boiler room, and at least it’s warm there. I took off my coat to keep it clean. I climbed over the coal to the chute and thank God the cellar is full. If the coal had been any lower I don’t know if I could have got out of the hatch. Anyway, I opened the hatch very quietly and looked out. There was no one around, so I crawled out and made some boot prints. I didn’t leave any handprints or anything, and then I carefully got back inside and climbed back down the coal. I took the boots off and put my coat on, and here I am.”
“You’re very, very brave, Maria. One day, when all this is over, I’m going to write this story down–parts of it, anyway–and everyone will know what a heroine you are. Give me your hands, they’re filthy.”
Clean hands, clean face, a new pair of stockings from Therese’s desk, and Maria was fit to face the world again. “Go to bed, Maria. Brush your coat off just in case and hang it in your cupboard. If anyone asks, it got damp when you were out walking this afternoon. I’ll get rid of this dirty water when the club closes.”
Maria pulled her shoes from her coat pockets and put them on, wincing as she touched her blisters. As she reached for the door, Therese called her back. “Oh, Maria. I’ll get Franz Stoibel for you as soon as I can, and you can have him all evening if you can keep up with him.”
Chapter 22
She locked and bolted her bedroom door before whispering for Rado to come down. “If you promise to behave yourself, you can sleep down here tonight. Get washed; I’ll wait for you.”
He came back dressed only in his shirt and smelling of her soap. He looked embarrassed. “I can sleep in a chair, Ma’am.”
“Don’t be silly. I think we’re both adult enough to use the bed. Go ahead and use that side. I need a bath.” He took his clothes and climbed up to stow them in his hiding place. His stocky legs were covered in curly ginger hair that did nothing to disguise the black bruising. She bit her lip in sympathy but said nothing. She turned and went into the bathroom.
When she returned, the light from the bathroom door fell across the darkened room. Rado lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. With a start, she realized that a tear trail led down from the corner of his eye down towards the pillow, and his eyes were shiny. He had been crying. Her heart leapt out to this lonely boy. She switched off the bathroom light and hurried to join him.
He was the second person she had welcomed to her bed, and he was harder and heavier than Wanda. She turned to him and reached up to wipe the tears away with her fingertip. “Don’t worry. You have friends, and we’ll take care of you here and in the forest.”
“It’s not that. It’s just that I always sleep in my bed, and now… I feel like when I was sick as a boy, and my mother used to put me in her bed. She died…”
She felt sorry for him and useless. She reached across his chest and pulled her body close to his. “Go to sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning.”
His elbow poked uncomfortably into her ribs. “Excuse me,” he said and pulled the arm out from between them to put it under her head and around her shoulders. She lay half on his hard body, and the sensation was strange and exciting. His scent came through the smell of soap and played tricks with her brain.
He gave her a gentle squeeze and she whispered, “Don’t touch me, Rado. Just go to sleep.”
“I can’t,” he said and pulled her closer. She felt comfortable, her thigh resting on top of him and her hand feeling the hardness of his chest. It was a good, secure feeling to be a woman in a man’s arms. She sighed and snuggled closer.
She became conscious of something trapped under her thigh, something firm and growing. For an instant her mind reeled. How should she feel? Horrified? Frightened? Not really—now it felt, well, natural, she supposed. She did not blame Rado, but… “Rado, I can’t.”
“That’s alright, Ma’am. I understand. Don’t move. We’ll try to sleep.”
It continued to grow under her thigh. Therese felt at a loss. After all, she should know what to do in situations like this. None of the girls would be confused, and the thought made her feel inadequate. Still, she knew enough to realize that sleep would not come and solve the problem, and anyway, a strange light-headedness was creeping over her. She would have to do something.
“Promise not to move, Rado, and I’ll help you.” She moved her hand down across his stomach. His shirt confused her, and she pulled it up to reach his sex. It was big and heavy, and the skin felt dry and silky to her touch. Feeling it stiff in her hand excited her. She slid her fingertips down its length to its hairy roots, and then slowly back up to its tip. It felt very long.
She was conscious of her ignorance and thought of the demonstration that Wanda had given them so long ago. She gripped the shaft and pulled the skin gently back.
“Aah!” grunted Rado. It was satisfying to hear him, and she repeated the movement. “Oh, that’s so good,” he sighed.
It felt good to give pleasure like this, and she concentrated on drawing out the experience. Rado would go back to the forest soon, maybe tomorrow. At best he faced a hard, lonely winter. At worse he might be hunted to death, or die of cold. She would give him something to remember. She continued to move her hand very slowly up and down. Rado sighed and muttered unintelligibly.
She was becoming very excited herself. Her breasts felt swollen and tight, and her nipples grew sensitive and demanded attention. Her sex was swollen and crying moisture. She concentrated on the pleasure she was giving.
Suddenly, she knew she was not doing enough. She threw back the bedclothes and jumped to her knees. Snow bright from the window gave enough light to see Rado’s form. The shaft she held sprang from his dark hairy centre. She gripped it in both hands, and Wanda’s lesson came to her again. She pushed down and saw the shining plum uncovered at the summit of his sex. She bent forward and licked experimentally. Rado stiffened instantly. He was wet and slippery, and that made her more excited.
His arm now free, Rado reached for her thighs and the hungry sex between them. He was clumsy and did not seem to know what to do. “No–stop–don’t touch,” she pleaded, but he did not stop. She grabbed his wrist with both hands, pinning it to the mattress. Reaching for his fingers, she clenched them into a fist, and then pulled on his calloused thumb until
it stood up in a crazy signal of agreement.
Still pinning his wrist, she pulled her nightdress up, shuffled forwards, and eased herself onto it. She slid easily downwards and pressed the sensitive surfaces of her sex against his wrist. It felt satisfying and good.
“Don’t move,” she said and pressed down harder. She reached for his sex and bent forward to take it into her mouth. Leaning forward on his fist felt good, and she pressed down again. Sucking the head of his sex and pumping with her hands, she tried to concentrate on giving pleasure. Very quickly, almost immediately, she knew that he was coming. All his muscles were tightening, and his sex reached up higher and higher towards her. She felt his fist heaving strongly up and down below her. She wanted more, more of his shaft, more of his thumb inside her. She wanted his shaft inside her; she wanted to stop and jump from his fist to his shaft. She wanted everything.
Crazy and out of control, she ground her sex down on his invading fist and bobbed her head up and down to take him all. Too late, and he was coming. His sex buried deep in her mouth, she welcomed it pulsing and spurting into her. Her thighs had closed on his forearm, but he continued to muscle her up and down, lifting her from the bed. “Stop – oh, stop,” she sobbed, pulling herself from his thumb. She collapsed onto his chest and curled up, trembling and burying her face in his shirt. Her sex was singing and sending uncontrollable spasms through her.
Slowly she relaxed. Rado had his arm around her and was stroking her hair. She moved off him and fell back onto her pillow. Her heart had slowed again, and a feeling of warm contentment flowed through to her toes and fingertips. She felt very good.
“Are you alright, Ma’am?” asked Rado.
“What? Oh yes. Yes, I’m fine.” There was cold air on her thighs, and she sat up to pull her nightdress around her legs again. She pulled the bedclothes over them both. “And you? Did you like it?”
The Prince and the Nun Page 14
