THE NEXT DAY, Allegra dutifully followed the other novices as they carried out their tasks. In the morning they sewed for the poor, sitting in a high, airy room next to the chapel. Allegra listened to the other girls’ idle chatter and found it soothing, so ragged and fretful were her own innermost thoughts. The lofty walls of simple, white plaster soothed her mind, as the girls gathered beneath a modest image of the Virgin, so different in character from the strange figure of the Aphrodite she had puzzled over the previous night.
After a simple lunch of barley broth and sweet bread, the novices were given leave to go outside to harvest the lavender from the fields by the shore. Each girl was issued with a large straw hat to save her complexion and, with cotton gloves to protect their hands, they ventured out into the summer heat.
‘Are you no longer speaking to me?’ It was Celina, who had kept back from her all day, only giving her occasional sorrowful looks as their eyes met across the sewing room.
‘Of course I am. I am distracted, that’s all.’
They walked together down the path, falling back a little from the others.
‘I wanted to ask how you are. After last night.’
At first, Allegra could not answer. Indeed, when she recalled the bizarre events in the underground chamber, she could barely credit their really having happened. ‘It was strange,’ was all she said, after a long pause. ‘Very strange. Listen, why did you not tell me more about this strange cult of Aphrodite the sisters follow?’
‘Shh! It must not be spoken of. I told you there was a secret.’ Celina lowered her voice confidentially. ‘The Philomastrix is only another name for their Santa Agnetha, but they do take her worship very seriously. If I had told you, you would never have believed me.’
‘That’s true. It is certainly a strange set of beliefs.’
Celina took her friend’s arm companionably. They were entering the cool, speckled greenness of the woods. ‘Allegra, it may be a harsh way, but their hearts are well intentioned. They truly believe it is a hard road to achieve goodness. It may not be our way, but their tests are honestly designed to scrutinise the innermost workings of our spirits.’
Allegra looked at the calm and placid face of her friend. For her, it seemed life truly was so simple. ‘But what about you, Celina? You and I have enjoyed … pleasures together. How can you bear your shame?’
‘What shame? I do not aspire to be a nun, or even a respectable woman. Why die a respectable woman and never have experienced any real fun? I am here by way of circumstance. It is you who have all these high ideals.’
They were silent for a while, as they followed the path through the woods. Celina stooped to pick some wild flowers and then wound them with grasses to form little posies of pink and blue and violet flowers. Laughing, she caught up with Allegra to pin a posy to her dull brown costume. ‘Let me rather be a vain little starflower, who enjoys the sun and then fails, than one of your stiff and prickly thistles who lives on and on and on. I should die of boredom.’
‘Is that what you think of me? A thistle?’
‘Well, you are rather prickly,’ Celina laughed. ‘Do you never just want to give in and be happy and carefree?’
Allegra stroked the little nosegay pinned at her breast. The petals were exquisite shades, as lovely as any jewel. ‘I do not know,’ she answered. ‘I have never really thought.’
Eventually, they found the others in one of the large fields by the shore. Already some of the novices had begun their work, stooping to slice away branches of tall lavender spikes. Later, these would be spread in the ovens to dry, in readiness for hanging inside the convent through the long, stale winter months. The girls, in their broad-brimmed hats moved gracefully at their work, and soon the air was sweet and heavy with the balmy fragrance of the herbs. Again, as she immersed herself in the simple work of cutting the boughs and loading the scented spikes on an old cart, Allegra felt herself regain some of her former peace.
The afternoon seemed to last forever; the air grew softer and wore a hazy burnish of gold. Conversation ceased; the only sounds were the snap and rustle of the herbs and the buzzing complaints of droning bees who puzzled at the disturbance of their familiar crop. After some hours, Allegra found an area of soft ground next to Celina, and together they stretched their tired limbs in the last of the golden sunshine.
‘Would it not be bliss to go bathing tonight? The water will still be deliciously warm.’ Celina kept her eyes dreamily to the front of her, as if she were addressing no one in particular.
‘Where?’
‘Out by the shore is the most perfect little island. Tonight there will be a full moon. Shall we go together?’
‘I don’t know,’ began her friend. ‘I cannot say, I seem to have broken so many rules already. What would happen if we were caught?’
‘How do I know? Very well, we may be punished, but it would be worth it. What is a punishment in return for a lovely moonlight dip. Especially after such a warm day. Are you not dry and dusty?’
Indeed she was, and the prospect of a dip was certainly enticing. Only there was the other view all the time – would she be letting her better nature down? And what if the sisters were to find out – surely she would deserve yet more punishment again?
‘I am, but that does not mean I will go with you,’ Allegra said carefully. For a while she watched her friend as she stretched out languorously on her stomach. Celina really was as much of a temptation as one of those little demons who tormented the saints in the paintings displayed in the churches on saints’ days. Though she certainly was not ugly – quite the opposite indeed, with her soft creamy skin and plump little lips. Quite artfully, Celina kicked up her legs in the air, showing a long length of knitted stocking and an inch or two of bare flesh above the knee. She really is scandalous, Allegra decided.
‘I am going back in,’ Allegra announced. ‘No, no need for you to stir yourself. I need a little time alone in the chapel.’ Seeing the beginning of a sulk form at Celina’s mouth, she added, ‘There is no need to be upset. You forget, I still want to be a nun, or at least try to be one. If you are truly my friend, you will not oppose me, will you?’
Celina shook her head smiling. ‘Get along then,’ she teased, laying back in the grass. ‘And I will stay here, as idle as the lilies of the field.’
‘I’ll see you here later?’
Celina nodded as her friend quickly squeezed her hand. But before Allegra even reached the main building one of the other novices came rushing up to her.
‘There is a letter for you, Sister Almoro. It arrived just now with the boatman.’
She could not imagine who might wish to write to her here. Her immediate family were no longer on this earth, and her guardian and his son had seemed to find her departure little enough of a trial. Curious, rather than concerned, she made her way to the little grille at the convent parlour. The letter waited there for her, in the care of one of the older sisters. Allegra stared at the ivory parchment and scarlet seal. She could not think who might write to her with such pomp.
Noticing the prying looks of the nun, she decided to take it back to her room. Only once she was sitting sedately on her bed, well away from the inquisitive eyes of others, did she carefully inspect the missive.
Her first observation, on inspecting the seal, was that it was loose. Closer scrutiny showed that the seal had already been broken and then hastily sealed again to disguise the breach. What was this? Did they really believe it was right to interfere with her private things? Her fingers shook as she pulled the letter open.
It was from a Signor Bartolemeo, a notary of the Castille district of Venice. Within a few eloquent lines he had explained to Allegra that her guardian had recently died of a low fever; for reasons of public health the funeral arrangements had been speedy and he had only this week succeeded in locating her whereabouts. Now, Signor Bartolemeo wished to explain the terms of her guardian’s will.
In summary, the Palazzo di Rivero and almost all of its contents, the estates in the country and the title of Senator were all to pass to Leon. The only mention of herself in the will was the acknowledgement of her dowry, which the notary understood was now signed over to the Prioress of the convent of Santa Agnetha, and one small bequest. The personal bequest, which was described as a sentimental gift, amounted to the contents of her guardian’s private study at the Palazzo di Rivero. He understood it to contain a number of rare and unusual books and paintings. He now awaited her further instructions.
‘I cannot believe it,’ Allegra muttered to herself again and again as she read and re-read the paper. Her dutiful sympathies of course went out to her guardian, who had always appeared to be a strong and vigorous man – but the indignity of his bequest! He must have written such a thing only to vex her; there could be no other reason. Was it not enough that he had shut her away in this strange, unholy place, without continuing to laugh at her like this, from the very grave?
Allegra felt the blood in her veins boil. All the heat of the day, the close air and beating sun seemed at that moment to oppress her. Her skin flushed red with fury; she could barely breathe. No, there had to be some way to strike back. He would not badger her in this way.
The question was what instructions she could possibly give to the earnest Signor Bartolemeo. For a while she frowned, then collected some writing implements and began. Back in the privacy of her room she carefully described in writing exactly what course of action the notary was to take. With a sense of satisfaction, Allegra delivered the missive to the nun at the convent grille that same evening and asked that it be conveyed with direct haste to the city.
Her immediate duty done, Allegra wandered back through the gardens in search of Celina. It was indeed an enchanted evening; the sun was sinking like molten gold among pillows of violet and amber clouds. The air was still warm and heavy, though purple shadows now lengthened beneath the black towers of cedars. All of nature seemed sleepy and contented: the insects droning happily over the water, the wild flowers drooping like nodding children. And there, amid all this loveliness, lay Celina, contentedly sleeping in a bower of summer grasses.
Allegra sank down beside her, watching her smooth face for signs of waking. Indeed, she looked like a woodland dryad, slumbering after a wild hunt with Pan through the forest. Her hair had become tousled in the sunshine and tangles of grass and seeds stuck to her dress. It was a face and form that would suit an archer’s bow at her waist, an ancient linen toga and garlands of flowers across her brow. Smiling, Allegra chastely kissed her nose.
‘Do I now wake to find a hundred years have passed?’ Celina murmured, her eyes blinking open.
‘Why, do you feel an enchantment wearing off?’
‘No. I swear I feel one beginning. I am glad you are here at last. Let us be off.’
With this she was up and away, dragging Allegra after her, pelting down to the ocean’s edge. Halting by the tumbling waves, Celina pointed up to the huge harvest moon. Although the sun had barely set across the sea, already the moon cast a baleful silver light across the waves. In the endless violet of the sky, the first stars were blinking, like diamonds scattered across the dusk.
‘Does it not make your heart ache? If only we could swim out far, far away to some magical other world.’
‘The only magical world we might find out there is that one.’ Allegra pointed back to the mainland. In the far distance, at the very edge of sight, there was a misty glow reflected in the blackness of the water. ‘Is that really the city, shining at night?’
Celina turned from the glowing disc of the moon and peered into the darkness. ‘It is indeed, for at night when the city wakes, all the ships are guided into port by torches burning on the quay. And all around the Doge’s palace flambeaux are kept alight to defend his grace from assassins. Maybe we could swim out to see it.’ At this she began to pull off her dusty gown, letting the skirts and petticoats drop on the sand. In nothing but her corset and shift, she waded through the edges of the water, splashing the spray up to her knees. ‘Come on, it’s so wonderfully cool. Get your boots off and feel the sea run through your toes.’
Enviously, Allegra watched Celina wade deeper and deeper, lifting her shift up in bunches around her thighs. The leather corset pinched Celina’s waist in tightly, so the voluptuous spheres of her buttocks curved roundly below, moving gracefully as she waded. Watching the shift grow damp and transparent, Allegra felt a sharp flame of tenderness ignite in her breast.
‘What about your clothes?’ she shouted nervously.
‘Very well,’ Celina pronounced and, running back to the shore in a great splash of spray, grasped her friend’s hands like an over-excited puppy. ‘Come on, help me.’ As she proffered the cords on her corset for her friend to unlace, Allegra slowly set to helping her. With a welcome creak, the heavy stays unloosed, and the compressed flesh below was released. Standing only in her wet shift, for a moment Celina hesitated, looking back at the sombre shadow of the convent buildings. But next moment, with the moonlight reflecting on every curve, she stood naked on the sand, looking soft and vulnerable, like a smooth pink sea creature freed from its shell.
‘You thought I wouldn’t dare,’ she taunted, slipping back into the water. Slowly the dark water lapped over her calves and knees. For a while she stood dreamily beckoning to Allegra as the waves lapped and sucked about her thighs. Against the blackness her body looked palely translucent, accentuating the curve of her stomach and pointed breasts and the waves of pale hair covering the narrow shoulders. ‘Come join me,’ she called, like a siren.
Again, Allegra remembered the sisters and their harsh ways, the impossible standards of goodness she never seemed to be able to attain. Suddenly a cool rivulet of water splashed against her thick boot. The barest coolness of spray soaked against her bare leg. She could see Celina’s head bobbing up and down now, like a porpoise immersed in its own salty element. The waves rose and fell beneath the moonlight. To turn and leave Celina alone: it would deny some fierce and greedy part of herself that should never be suppressed.
Tearing at the laces and fastenings of her costume, Allegra threw the dull, dusty clothes on to the smooth sand and waded into the sea. The air was still warm about her skin; she was surprised by how natural it felt to be naked out of doors.
At first the water was cool, easing her swollen feet and refreshing her legs. Then it grew warmer, as mild as a bath, as the water lapped at the juncture of her thighs and body. With a small leap, she threw herself forward, sliding into the water like a gull into the air. Far ahead now, she could see the silvery back of the other girl, always skimming just out of reach.
‘Celina! Just wait until I catch you.’
With a little scream, Celina sped ahead, splashing and panting like a dog in a pond. But with the long easy strokes of a natural swimmer, Allegra bound up behind her until the girl’s silky foot paddled a few tantalising inches in front of her. With another laughing scream, Celina tried to struggle away but it was too late; with a hard grip Allegra grasped her friend’s silky calf. In a second Celina had kicked herself free, but in the struggle that ensued Allegra once more gained a hold of her legs and this time Celina gradually lost her momentum and succumbed.
For a long moment they found themselves flung together by the tide, rising and falling on the high waves which rolled at this depth. Tenderly, Allegra held her friend safe above the surging breakers, holding her very close. Beneath the water she felt as slippery as an eel as she still tried to struggle and continue the chase.
‘Stop it,’ Allegra whispered. ‘Let us roll on the waves.’
Relaxing beneath Allegra’s grip, Celina nestled warmly against her friend’s body, their arms folding around each other and their limbs cradling around each other’s legs. Side by side, they floated a while on the rolling brine, swinging up and down, until Allegra could bear it no longer and kissed the girl long and deeply on the lips. In response Celina pressed harder against her, rubbing her breasts against those of her friend and pushing against her so that more and more of their skin was in smooth contact. A primitive passion arose in Allegra’s loins, to possess the girl, but she did not fully know how. Reading her desire, Celina suddenly struggled away, out of her grip.
‘I am off to the island. Catch me if you can.’
With a sudden plunge head first into the water, Celina disappeared. For a few anxious moments Allegra watched the dark seas rolling around her, searching for a glimpse of the fair-haired girl. Then, some dozen yards away, she saw her break the surface and, gasping for air, begin to thrash out again into the ever deeper sea. With a series of fast, gliding strokes Allegra followed her, delighting in the gliding passage of the water over her naked skin.
Again, Celina’s foot danced teasingly ahead of her. But this time Allegra decided to outflank her. Moving out to the left, she pushed her muscles to their limit, speeding around Celina’s splashing motion. With a swoop, she reached for her shoulders but, like a slippery eel, Celina evaded her grasp, laughing and shrieking as she swam onwards. Feeling the passionate heat of pursuit burning ever stronger, Allegra sallied forth again, driving her legs in powerful kicks and her arms circling in ever stronger and faster strokes. This time, when she reached the narrow, bobbing back of the girl, she threw herself on to her slippery back.
Barely knowing what it was she wanted to do but possess her, she buried her mouth in the soft nape of the girl’s neck, clutching her waist and squeezing her open legs against her plump rear. Surrendering, Celina let her friend fondle her breasts. The nipples were hard and stiff to the touch, driving her assailant to distraction. With a furtive movement she probed downwards over the soft swelling of her stomach to the wet fur below. Groaning with satisfaction she found the small cleft, hot and smoothly slippery, offering no resistance to her gentle fingers. Desperately, she wished they were natural sea creatures, even that nature had equipped them with contrasting organs of sex. Then she might take Celina fiercely as she was now and be done in a few seconds of violent attack.
‘The island,’ Celina breathed, her voice choked with playful excitement. ‘Come on, I will show you.’
There on the horizon, like the dark shape of a slumbering whale, lay a solitary block of stone rising out of the water. Hurrying through the water, hand in hand, the two girls glided towards the hard rock. At the furthest side was a ledge, which with some effort they could reach from the water and thenceforth clamber on to the barren rock. It was still warm from the sun’s long beating, but decorated only with a few fronds of seaweed and a colony of clams clinging to the niches in the rocks.
Following Celina up on to the dark island stone, Allegra could not resist catching her once more into her arms. The chase had roused her appetite which had been left so cruelly unsatisfied the night before. But now Celina seemed oddly diffident. Crossing the rock away from her companion, she turned and stared once more at the moon. ‘I would love to have been born a mermaid,’ she said, ‘and sit in such a lovely place with my mirror and comb.’
‘That would suit you,’ Allegra replied, admiring the long curve of her friend’s wet hair clinging around the stiffly pointed breasts. Taking Celina’s hands, she pulled her down to sit beside her on the rock. ‘And many sailors, I am sure, would be enticed by you.’
Celina dropped beside her, and the moonlight glinted in her eyes so she did indeed seem a mysterious, otherworldly creature. ‘But why should we bother with them?’ Celina suddenly whispered, cupping her friend’s face in her hands and laughing sweetly. Their kiss was long and deep and tasted of the salt of the ocean as well as their own sweet mouths. Again Allegra felt the burning need to possess the girl, and pushed her tongue in deeply to lick and probe the sensitive recesses of her mouth. She could feel her own breasts jar and jut against the girl’s spiky nipples, making the blood course faster through her veins. In a sudden surge of abandonment, she reached down and cupped her own swollen breasts, rubbing them against the girl’s stiff and darkened nipples. The effect was like flame to a taper; Celina seemed all at once to surrender, laying back with her hips arched high as Allegra straddled her jutting pubis.
Greedily, Allegra eyed the delights of her friend’s craving body – the straining back which pushed up the twin tips of her tender breasts, the opening rift where the reddish hair parted to reveal aching, hungry lips. With trembling fingers she caressed these delights, squeezing the hard buds of Celina’s breasts until she moaned with pleasure, massaging the sensitive pit of her stomach and finally exploring the delicious open seam of scorching flesh at her very centre.
As sensitive as a hair-trigger, the girl responded to Allegra’s soft fingertips with a downward bearing movement, so ardently did she crave the full impact of satisfying touch. With a whimper of frustration, she at first clutched Allegra’s hand, and then her neck, in desperation.
‘Please kiss me,’ she whispered, but the tug on Allegra’s neck revealed she did not merely want the same ardent kissing on the mouth as she had experienced before. Instead, Allegra began to move very slowly downwards. Firstly she kissed the girl’s soft and sensitive throat until she thrashed about in the grip of desire. Then each breast was slowly kissed and teased, the elongated nipples sucked until they stiffened as hard as wooden beads. Next, Allegra wriggled down to kiss Celina’s stomach, her thighs and the reddish hairy pubis which now tasted of sharp salt.
In her eagerness, Celina had parted her legs as widely as she could, and for a few seconds Allegra lingered, transported by the beauty of the unfolding flower at the girl’s centre – the series of shiny lips, the arched bow of pleasure and the mysterious entrance to her dark, salty chamber. As her lips dropped on to the shiny skin, her friend gasped, pushing her thighs about her head. In a delirium of pleasure, Allegra worked her tongue and lips from the swelling bud of pleasure at the front of her lips to the darkening opening behind. When she flicked her stiffened tongue towards that aching chamber, she felt the girl’s thighs tremble with excitement and a series of moans escape into the empty air.
Suddenly in a hoarse voice, Celina cried, ‘Quick, kneel over me.’ With a few struggling movements, the girl had pulled Allegra backwards so she now straddled Celina’s face. Like a flame shooting into her bowels, she felt the girl ram her tongue into her own being, teasing and tormenting her with its silky surface. Rocking and groaning, she mimicked the same actions on the girl’s twitching cavity, probing and jerking in unison with her tongue. It could only continue for a few more moments. Not only the bliss of probing the wonderfully sensitive gorge she was working on, but the heady delight of the girl’s miraculous mouth nipping and flicking and sucking her most sensitive parts – both of these were driving Allegra towards a violent climax.
Then, all at once, she felt the girl beneath her buck and ride, pushing herself upwards on to the erect tongue, so her very sex seemed to clutch and snatch at those few inches of exquisite pleasure. As her peak ebbed away, in ever slower spasms, so did this bring Allegra to the brink of hers. As if knowing this, the tormenting tongue at her centre slowed down to a maddening, excruciating pace. Moving to her swollen bud of delight, it idly slapped against that most sensitive spot. Then, as Allegra cried out that she could bear it no longer, a pair of long fingers suddenly shot into her innermost chamber which clenched like a fist around their thrusting rhythms. With a hoarse cry she felt her body convulse in ecstasy as she thrust herself down on the deliciously spiky fingers. Then, with a sigh of relief she crept down beside Celina and they lay for a while entwined and at peace.
For a long time they lay, watching the twinkle of the stars far, far away in the heavens. Still the air was mild and pleasant, ruffling them occasionally with a mild refreshing breeze. Only as she slipped across the edge of sleep did Celina wake her. Then, like two strange mermaids thrown up from the ancient deeps, they set out into the oily blackness, their hair flowing behind them like cloaks and their fingers interlocked. By the time they scrambled up to the shore the stars had begun to fade and the moon was turning paler. Picking up the bundles of discarded, sandy clothes, they turned to the woods and the shrouded building beyond, their bodies clean and spotless and both of their hearts strangely innocent and light.