Home of the White Dolphin - Segment 15

Chapter 71

December 23, 2008 – At Walker's Maison du Renard Rouge

”How the hell are you, you lucky son of a bitch?” Walker whirled around when he heard this familiar voice. Standing next to the entrance room’s desk stood Jeff Randall. The San Francisco forensic agent was a frequent and welcome visitor at Maison du Renard Rouge. Walker had phoned him a week ago, inviting him to spend a few days at the mansion before the wedding.

“Hey, Randall, glad you could make it.” The two friends shook hands while Walker welcomed his friend. “I worried the storm last night would make the roads here impassable.” He smiled when he saw Samantha coming to join them. As usual, the sight of his future bride made him wonder why she had chosen him.

“Walker, wake up!” teased Randall, grinning at the bemused expression on the older man’s face. He then spotted Samantha and understood why Walker had suddenly tuned him out. Even though he knew she was going to marry Walker, Randall still had romantic feelings for Samantha. After their first meeting, though, Randall saw she was in love with Walker. He sadly realized the only way he had a chance with the beautiful redhead was in his dreams.

“Randall, I didn’t know you were coming.” Samantha gave Walker a scolding look for not telling her. She turned back to Randall, delighted to see him. “Can you stay for awhile? Did you know Walker and I were getting married? Has anyone shown you a room yet?”

“Slow down, sweetheart,” said Walker. “Let him get a word in edgewise.” Delighted, he saw her blushing at his term of affection. “Yes, he knows we’re getting married in two days. That’s why I invited him. Yes, there is a room already prepared for him upstairs. And, yes, Randall told me he’s staying for the wedding, but leaving that evening to go back home.”

Randall also noticed the blush. “Samantha, do I get to kiss the bride before the wedding?" He didn’t wait for her answer before leaning down to touch his lips to hers. After Samantha ended the kiss, Randall said, trying for a joke, “Samantha, are you sure you want to marry Walker? Just think of all the fun we could have exploring San Francisco again.” He was shocked by the lust he felt from their quick kiss. She’s going to be a married woman in two days, off limits after that. Damn, why can’t I get over her?

Almost as if he could read Randall’s thoughts, Walker put a possessive arm about Samantha’s waist. "Find your own woman, Randall. That’s your first and only kiss of my bride.” He realized this sounded rude, and continued in a friendlier tone of voice, “The ladies will line up for you to kiss them at the reception. I bet one of them might even turn out to be the love of your life.”

Samantha thought for a minute, and then said quite seriously, “Walker, don’t you think Sophia would be perfect for him? Can’t you just see them dancing at our wedding?”

Randall didn’t understand the choking sound Walker made when imagining the two of them dancing together. Sophia was a charming elderly woman, but rather diminutive in height. On the other hand, Randall was six feet two inches tall, topping Walker by only a scant inch.

“Sam, I think you need to work on your matchmaking.” Walker couldn’t resist Samantha’s silliness, so unlike the usually serious woman. He pulled her closer and gave her the second kiss she’d received in less than five minutes. Samantha let her tongue run over Walker’s lower lip, wanting to prolong his tender embrace. Unlike with Randall, she poured all the love she felt for Walker into that kiss.

When she felt him responding, Samantha wondered, as she always did when he held her, With all the women he could have as his wife, why did Walker choose me?

Chapter 72

December 23, 2008 – At Walker's Maison du Renard Rouge

Samantha reluctantly moved out of Walker’s embrace. As usual, being near his warm masculine scent had her pulses racing. If not for Randall standing next to them, she would have gladly remained in Walker’s arms all day. “Gentlemen, you two have fun. I’m summoned upstairs for another gown fitting.” She groaned at the thought of Sophia sticking more pins into her. “Walker, why don’t you show him Whiting’s ship log? I bet you haven’t been reading it lately, have you?”

“You’re right,” said Walker, remembering the letters in the back cover’s pocket. “I’ll admit I am curious to read more of Jane’s letters.” Seeing the puzzled look on Randall’s face, he continued, “Remember over the phone I told you about the diary and log? Well, we recently discovered Captain Whiting kept the letters from Elizabeth’s sister. We’ve both been curious if she had her husband’s baby yet.”

“So go already and find out.” Samantha gave Walker a gentle shove in the direction of the glass elevator on the other side of the large room. As the two men were walking away, she called out, “Be sure to let me know.”

* * *

Once upstairs in Walker’s living room, Walker and Randall settled in two comfortable easy chairs. After giving Randall a quick review of what Whiting had written in his log up to that point, Walker checked the date on the top of Jane’s next letter. “This one, Randall, is a couple months after her last one and is dated August 21, 1846.”

He started reading, having to squint because of the young girl’s tiny handwriting. “My dear sister, we learned from the family solicitor, Mr. Tucker, that Mitchell decided to keep you on his White Dolphin during the British West Indies voyage. I had thought he’d be tired of you by now and sent you either back to me or Father. Anyway, I’m delighted to share my good news, wherever you are.

“I am with child and due to deliver what I hope will be the next Edgeworth heir in eight or nine months, not exactly sure of the date. This morning when I told my husband of the upcoming blessed event, he patted my belly and said, ‘I hope it’s a boy. Maybe then my father will stop pressuring me for a grandson.’ I just smiled since that was what I hoped for, too.

“This will only be a short letter, dear Elizabeth, as I promised to join my father-in-law after dinner to discuss my child’s future. I almost forgot. He told me to send you his love and hopes you will return soon for a much longer visit. Your loving sister, Jane Edgeworth.”

Walker stopped reading, surprised by what Jane had written. “Nice to know I was wrong, Randall. From what Whiting said before, I thought her husband preferred boys. Guess you can’t judge someone by their taste in art.”

Chapter 73

August 20, 1846 At the Edgeworth mansion in Derbyshire

Jane decided to wait until the next day to write her sister with the good news. After telling her father-in-law the doctor confirmed she was with child, she felt relieved she no longer needed to spend the evenings in Lord Edgeworth’s bed. Jane quickly grew tired of having the old man touch her, although she had no scruples about using him to provide her with a child, hopefully a boy. Jane thought she’d throw up every time she now felt his naked body touching her or listen to his grunting as he tried to climax.

Late that night as Jane prepared for bed, she thought Granted, he’d given me a fairly good time that first night, but nothing since. I hadn’t had a man since leaving Boston, no thanks to that bitch stealing Mitchell away from me. By the time I seduced Lord Edgeworth, I was desperate, so even that old fart was better than nothing. Jane stripped off her frock and went to stand naked in front of the floor-length mirror.

I wonder when I’ll start showing. She posed sideways, but her belly was still flat. She then twisted around to admire the round curve of her ass. Deciding the evening was too warm to wear a nightgown, Jane walked back to her bed. She pushed the top sheet and thin blanket out of the way and lay down to let the slight breeze from her open window cool her body.

Jane reached a hand down between her legs and began gently rubbing. The pleasure she always got from doing this began building slowly. Her hips came off the bed while she rubbed harder and faster. Her moans, increasing while she worked her fingers ever faster, drowned out the sound of her bedroom door opening.

“So, this is what my father’s whore does when he’s not humping her.” Ronald’s sneering comment startled Jane. She sat up to see her husband standing in the shadows near the door. She pulled a sheet to cover her nakedness when he came to stand close to her bed. “Father just told me the good news. It seems you’re going to be a mother.” He took the edge of the sheet and yanked it off her.

“What do you want?” asked Jane, hopeful at the way her husband was studying her body. After that one aborted attempt at intimacy on their wedding night, Ronald had shown no interest in her. While the idea of her father-in-law touching her again was revolting, what she recently saw Ronald doing might be what she needed to overcome her current ennui.

Only the week before, she had gone to his studio and walked in unannounced. Ronald had started sleeping there after the wedding night, and he had placed a narrow bed on one side of the room. That afternoon, Jane saw her husband kneeling on the cot with a naked boy of around eight or nine under him. She didn’t recognize him as one of the children Ronald painted quite often. She knew he only painted boys, and only those from families who needed the money he paid them. Jane realized this must be the boy’s first visit.

The little boy was lying on his stomach and giggling from the feel of Ronald kissing his bare bottom. He stopped giggling and began squirming to get away when he felt Ronald trying to enter him from behind. She watched her husband ignore the terrified sobs as he forced his way into the child. Rather than being disgusted about what she saw, Jane felt only interest. She came further into the room to get a better view, still unseen by her husband.

* * *

Minutes ago, her fingers had readied her body for a man, even her husband. Jane smiled seductively and slid her hands to lift her plump breasts as if offering them to him. Now, she sat up on the bed, exposed and waiting.

Chapter 74

August 20, 1846 At the Edgeworth mansion in Derbyshire

Jane pouted when her husband ignored her blatant sexual invitation. She watched him prowl around the room, picking up her frock from the floor where she had recently dropped it. When he held the pale yellow material to his nose, she wondered if he smelled the scent of her body that she’d left behind on that hot day. He dropped the frock and reached for the nightgown Jane had decided not to wear.

“Here, you stupid slut, cover yourself.” Ronald tossed the gown onto the bed. “I don’t take my father’s leavings.” While Jane hurried to put the gown on, her husband sat on the edge of the bed. “Did you know my father told his cronies all about you when he returned? I overheard their drunken laughter when I passed by his study that evening.”

“Returned from where? What are you talking about?” By now, Jane had on her nightgown covered and sat cross-legged on the bed. She was sorry she’d asked these questions when he went on to explain.

“He went to Boston a couple years ago to finalize our marriage with your father. I knew he thought I preferred boys to females, ever since something happened when I was 15 or so.” Ronald angrily glared at Jane, as if his father’s opinion of him was her fault. “Your father was a good friend of his, and they decided he should train you to be my future wife.” His sudden anger gone, Ronald watched to see if Jane understood what he was saying.

Seeing she didn’t, he gave a humorless laugh before he went on, “I understand you were about eight the first time your father whored you out to his friends. My father saved all the letters from Boston detailing, and I mean in full detail, how your training was progressing. When he was out of the house on business, I would go into my father’s study and read the latest letter.”

Ronald reached and ran a finger over Jane’s mouth. “Did you enjoy Stanley Whittaker? I understand he was the first to find his way between these lips. Did it taste good when he finished and filled you with his spunk? How about Jonas Thompson? What he did to you must have hurt, but I read in later letters that you begged other men for it.”

Ronald stopped when he saw Jane glaring at him. “Do you know what your father called you? He’d write to my father describing how turned on he felt watching ‘his baby bitch’ servicing his friends. He practically waxed poetic the first time two men took you at the same time.”

“You’re wrong about my father,” she shouted. “He loved me and always told me I was his good girl.” She suddenly remembered her father’s treatment of her sister. “It was Elizabeth who always disappointed him, not me.”

“Ah, your little sister. Let me tell you about her.” Ronald leaned back and relaxed against the bed’s headboard, causing Jane to dread what he would say next.

Chapter 75

August 20, 1846 At the Edgeworth mansion in Derbyshire

“First, let me give you a bit of history about this family.” Ronald began picking at a flake of green paint on his thumb, his face almost appearing young as he smiled. “When I was around 15, my mother hired a new downstairs maid. Melissa, that was the name of this pretty servant. Mother worried about me and hoped I would find Melissa interesting since there were few girls of my age in the nearby town. It wasn’t that I didn’t like girls back then. I was just painfully shy around them. Since she’d just turned 14 before Mother hired her, Melissa was as innocent about sex as I was, and we simply became good friends.”

Ronald stopped to gather his thoughts. “Everything changed one Sunday. My mother and I were out visiting friends when my father raped Melissa for the first time. When I got home, I went to her room on the servants’ floor to give her the latest neighborhood gossip. Melissa huddled on her bed crying, and there was blood down the front of the torn chemise she was wearing. I managed to find out what happened and knew there was nothing I could do for her. Father was too powerful.”

“Couldn’t you have gone to him and begged him to leave her alone?”

“You weren’t listening, Jane. Father was a powerful man, both in strength and influence. I tried to comfort as well as I could that afternoon, but she changed as the months went by. Father not only forced himself on her most nights, but he beat her when she tried to resist. Never her face, though. He loved her beautiful face and used his fists only on her body. Mother never knew what he was doing. She was so happy when he told her I was showing interest in their little servant. When Melissa became pregnant, mother thought the baby was mine.”

Ronald no longer appeared to be talking to Jane. His words came out almost in a whisper. “When the baby was born, he was perfect. Father allowed Melissa to keep the baby, and we spent hours outside away from the mansion, away from my father. He took little interest in his new son, no more than he had for me when I was growing up. After the baby came, he went back to forcing Melissa and insisted the next one better be a daughter.”

“Why a daughter? Most men seem to want sons to carry on their names.”

“I don’t know, but I do know he liked young girls. When Melissa eventually gave him a daughter nine years later, dying in the process, he was more upset when the baby girl died hours later.”

“So, where’s your brother?” Jane had never heard her father mention another Edgeworth son. Despite her lack of interest in her father-in-law’s mistress, Jane found her curiosity piqued by the mention of the baby.

“Because my mother thought the baby was mine, she told Melissa she no longer needed to do the duties of a maid. For the first seven years after Mouse was born, Melissa and I spent as much time together spoiling the child. On warm summer days, we went on picnics, and he always loved swimming in the estate’s pond. By then, I’d discovered I had a talent for drawing and would often bring my pad and charcoal on these little excursions.

“One day, Melissa was watching Mouse skinny-dipping and romping like a little seal. We were laughing at his silly antics, and I began to draw him as he left the water. I planned on using this quick sketch as a guide for a watercolor painting, a gift for Melissa’s upcoming birthday.”

Jane interrupted him, trying to stifle a yawn. “Ronald, I’m sure all this is very interesting, but what does it have to do with Elizabeth?”

Continued in next segment

Home of the White Dolphin - Segment 16  (GC) Chapters 76 thru 80 #2091648 by J. A. Buxton