Chapter Eight

Another maid brought her some broth and bread for her supper and lit a lamp as the light was fading. Then there was the sound of hooves on the cobbles of the yard and as soon as the maid had left, Sarah scrambled to the window to peer down. Sure enough the duke had returned and she watched him stride forcefully into the house, calling for Mrs Chambers as he went.

She eagerly ate her supper, quite sure that at some time in the evening he would call for her.

It was nearly fully dark and the lamp on the windowsill shone brightly when Mrs Chambers finally came for her. And it was not Mrs Chambers as Sarah had seen her before. This Mrs Chambers wore a gown with a daring - nay scandalous! - décolletage. In the light of the lamp she held, Sarah could clearly see the divide of her breasts and some of the smooth skin of their upper curves. Over her arm she held another gown and in her hand a ewer of steaming hot water.

“What’s the matter, child? Have you never seen an evening gown cut like this one?” she asked with an amused smile as Sarah’s eyes fixed themselves on the low neckline.

Sarah shook her head.

“Then it’s time you did, they’re all the rage in London you know! And it’s also time you wore one. His lordship requires it.”

Of course, once the duke was invoked, there was no argument.

Mrs Chambers helped her wash her hair after she had scrubbed herself all over with some of the hot water poured into the washhand stand. Having always lived in small, cramped spaces, she felt no awkwardness at being naked in Mrs Chambers’ presence. And the stream of compliments the woman plied her with as her body was revealed brought a blush of purest pleasure to her cheeks. She had never fully realised that she was beautiful; for the simple reason that no one had ever told her she was.

The only distasteful part of the procedure was the harshness with which Mrs Chambers combed out her long hair.

“Don’t make such a fuss!” she scolded as Sarah yelped and squirmed. “By the time tomorrow’s sun comes up, this’ll seem like a stroll in the park. And anyway you’ll look every inch the fine lady by the time I’ve finished with you. At least, you will to start with!”

Eventually Sarah was led out into the corridor to stand in front of a cheval mirror on a landing and she gave an excited squeak when she saw herself.

Her pale green gown, from under which peeped two exquisite, embroidered, heeled slippers, swept up to a tight, high waist and the material was then drawn over her breasts in folds and pleats that blatantly portrayed the weight and size of the breasts themselves. The naked, smooth curves and the dark cleft between them were prominently displayed and Sarah felt suddenly more womanly than she had ever done before. Her blonde hair had been brushed until it shone and then done up in a complicated and womanly chignon - so different from the usual loose, girlish way she normally wore it.

Mrs Chambers went on fussing, primping up the short, puffed out sleeves, tidying a wisp of hair here and there and finally giving her a quick hug from behind.

“My! Don’t you look fine!” she whispered. “You’ll bowl his lordship over and no mistake!”

In the mirror, Sarah saw the woman’s roguish smile as one index finger reached over her shoulder and ever so gently stroked the skin on her right breast, making her shiver involuntarily.

“He said to me; ‘Fetch the girl!’. Well you aren’t no girl, not any more.” The woman’s finger ran lightly across the swell of her breast, into her cleavage and then across her left breast.

“Only a real woman’s got beauties like them!”

Sarah smiled back at the woman via her reflection in the mirror. She could feel her body against her back but although the physical closeness was not something Sarah was used to, she relaxed and bathed in the compliments and the fact that she was about to be presented to His Grace the Duke of Loughmore.

“Come on, my dear,” Mrs Chambers said and took her hand.

They walked along corridors where their slippers’ hard soles clicked on the bare boards, then they descended into the rear of the main body of the house and rag rugs muffled their steps slightly. Then they crossed the great hall with its floor of gleaming marble and its chandeliers burning brightly high up in the ceiling. Then Mrs Chambers opened the double doors into one of the day rooms and hurried them through it, holding a lamp aloft, their feet sinking into rich rugs.

Sarah gazed about her in wide eyed wonder as portraits passed them, glowing dimly in the lamp light and then fading behind them.

Room after room they passed through until they climbed a broad staircase that curved around the wall of a hallway.

“His lordship’s private chambers!” Mrs Chambers whispered and Sarah felt her own heart leap as she heard the excitement in the woman’s voice.

At length they came to a door on which Mrs Chambers knocked and the duke bade them enter.

Sarah could only stand and look about her as Mrs Chambers closed the door behind them. In the glow of the lamps placed about the room and the candles in their holders, she looked around a gentleman’s bedchamber.

A four posted bed stood on her right, the door to a dressing room stood open opposite her and a desk and winged armchairs were arranged in the centre of the room before heavy, drawn curtains and a hearth in which embers glowed. The duke half sat on the desk, one leg swinging and a glass of amber liquid in his hand that Sarah could only assume was whiskey.

Her heart sank as she formed the suspicion that she might have escaped the frying pan but had landed firmly in the fire. However the duke was smiling and relaxed as Mrs Chambers went to stand beside him. And here her interest was piqued because the woman stood much closer than was seemly and one of his arms draped itself over her shoulders, the hand resting on her upper right breast.

“Well, well!” he said. “What a pretty morsel we have here!”

He stood up and approached her, then with a wider smile he offered her his arm.

“Where are my manners? Come and sit and tell me what made you take to the wild so recklessly. Do not be afraid; tell me everything. I am a man of some influence who might be able to help solve whatever your problem - whoever your problem might be.”

Sarah recalled the calm use of power she had seen earlier in the day and the luxury through which she had just been led. Mrs Chambers, who had told her how beautiful she was, smiled across at her as she swept her skirts carefully forwards and sat up straight - as she had been taught, her hands clasped in her lap.

She took a deep breath and told them everything - there really didn’t seem to be anything else to do.

If they were repulsed by her; so be it.

If not; then who knew what magic the duke might be able to conjure.

They heard her out in silence.

Sarah kept her eyes averted downwards and so missed the looks that passed between the duke and his housekeeper as she stammered her way through an account of the use to which her uncle had put her.

When she had finished there was a long silence and then the duke spoke.

“My dear girl, it is a strange and yet a benevolent providence that has washed you up on my shore. For while I and Mrs Chambers have every sympathy for a young beauty like you who had to suffer at the hands of such intemperate brutes, we may assure you that we applaud the fact that you were not only able to endure - but also to extract the gold of pleasure from the mire of lust and violence. Such women as you are far from being rare and yet they are scarce enough that their talent can provide them with a life of considerable comfort. For there are many men who value them most highly.”

Sarah looked up, her eyes wide with hope but terrified she might see mockery in their faces but Mrs Chambers was leaning against the duke, whose hand was now blatantly inside the neckline of her gown and manipulating the breast within it.

“Mrs Chambers is one such woman,” the duke told her, meeting her stare, then extracting his hand, standing up and coming over to her.

Nervously Sarah rose as he approached but he merely took her hand and brushed its back with his lips.

Sarah was stupefied. A duke had actually bowed before her and kissed her hand! She was lost in gratitude that they hadn’t slung her out into the night, let alone honoured her for what she had been most ashamed of.

“We frequently indulge in our shared passion for the pleasures that pain can provide in here. Would you care to join us, Sarah?”

The duke stood before her, his square-jawed, handsome face just a few inches from hers, his hand cool and strong about hers, his dark eyes stared steadily into hers and she felt her knees go weak. Whatever was going to happen, she was quite certain it would be nothing like anything she had hitherto encountered.

“I......” her voice came out as a croak, she cleared her throat and took a breath. “I would be honoured to do as your grace wishes,” she managed.

Her heart leapt as a broad smile lightened his intense features and she basked in his pleasure.

“We would be honoured to have you join us, Sarah. For you are a remarkably beautiful young woman.”

She could think of nothing else other than to bob him a curtsy.

He laughed aloud and led her over to the desk and Mrs Chambers, whose features were now plainly flushed and excited, the flush even spreading down across her chest, which was heaving noticeably.

“Well done, my dear!” the older woman whispered and kissed her cheek.

Sarah caught the scent of lavender water and a much more pungent scent as well, as the smooth skin of the woman’s cheek slipped across her own.

“What would you have me do, my lord?” Sarah asked as she smiled at Mrs Chambers.

And with that question she sealed her fate and set the course of her future.