After the Dreams (Caroline's Company) (20 page)

Caroline took both of Cassie’s hands in hers. ‘You must be
hungry; the rest of us had tea and cake while you were entertaining us with
your amazing croquet.’

The girl nodded.

At that moment, the gong sounded from the hall, and Sylvie
appeared in the doorway. She was wearing a long cheongsam, with her hair put
behind her head; a sophisticated contrast to the fluffy blonde kitten of the
croquet match.

She put her hands together and bowed low. ‘Supper is
served.’

‘Very good Sylvie, and what have we got for supper?’

‘Well there’s soup, and the bread
baked this morning, and I made up a stir-fry using some of the beef from
yesterday, once I’d stopped Sadie from dropping things that is; and there’s
cheese and fruit, and a new sorbet that Belle made before she went home. It’s
all laid out in the dining room, but we thought people could eat where they
liked.’

‘Good, we’ll be in a moment.’

Sylvie put her hands together bowed again, and retreated
backwards into the house. Her graceful Chinoiserie style was somewhat disrupted
when she tripped over her long silk skirt, and some rather basic English words
could be heard on the terrace.

Caroline and Cassie laughed.

‘Do you mind eating with all the others, or shall we find
somewhere by ourselves?’

Cassie shook her head. ‘I’ll be fine now thank you; and I am
a bit hungry.’

‘Let’s go in. I suspected that Sadie had been banished from
the kitchen. That’s why she was playing her clarinet. But she does play well,
doesn’t she?’

‘Yes, very beautifully. She must practice a lot. People here
seem full of surprises.’

‘Including yourself young
lady.’ Caroline kissed her gently on the forehead’

They went through the hall into
the dining room, their grey silk floating around them, revealing glimpses of smooth
skin, and with magical glints of silver and pearl.

John and Philip stood up as they entered. Philip took
Cassie’s hand and kissed it gently. ‘You look like the evening star Cassandra;
and here is our Goddess of Stars and Light and Storms and everything else round
here!’ He kissed Caroline’s hand as well. ’Did you summon the thunder
especially to provide a dramatic end to the afternoon Caroline?’

‘Even if I could Philip, you would take the prize for drama,
you and Poppy, for your performance this morning!’ She took a glass of
champagne from John, who was acting as butler. ‘To Poppy and Philip,’ she said.
Everybody responded.

 ‘And to Cassie and Janet’, proposed Philip, ‘Victors of the
croquet lawn’, and again there was a response from everyone.

‘And what about us,’ asked Sadie? ‘We had to work hard to
provide entertainment!’

‘Attempted distraction and subversion you mean’ returned
John. ’Not in the spirit of croquet at all! It was fun to watch though.’ He
raised a glass to his wife.

‘Never mind,’ Caroline pointed at Sadie and Sylvie; ’You two
will get your reward when Cassie puts her secret plan into action.’

‘We’ll get her to tell us though,’ Sylvie said in an
undertone.

‘You will tell us won’t you Cassie?’

Cassie smiled an ostentatiously
satisfied little smile. ‘No,’ she took a sip of champagne. ‘It’s secret!’

Jo was impressed by how far
Cassie’s confidence had built in only a few days. ’But before those two get
their just desserts, please could we start with the soup. I’m hungry.’

*****************************

When they had all finished
eating, Cassie volunteered to help Sylvie and Sadie with the clearing up. They
did keep trying to get from her the secret of what their punishment was to be;
but they were light-hearted and not serious. Apart from a certain amount of
giggling, and chasing round the kitchen table to the accompaniment of a
vigorous (and sometimes rather arrythmical) piano duet coming from the music
room, nothing untoward occurred and nothing was broken. This, according to
Sylvie, was something of a record with Sadie in the kitchen. Sadie had stuck
out her tongue at this comment, and gone off to pack up her clarinet.

Once the musical entertainment
(and Cassie was rather surprised to find that it was provided by Poppy and
Janet) had finished, and after speculation by everybody else as to who had won
the duet, they gathered in the big drawing room. The fire had been lit,
although the big doors still stood open. A breath of evening air mingled with
the gentle perfume of the apple logs burning on the grate. At supper they had
discussed watching a detective mystery later in the evening; with a suitable
prize for the first to work out who the murderer was. Janet claimed that John
was very good at doing this. They couldn’t agree on the prize though, and any
potential winner would probably have risked being murdered themselves!

In the event, they all talked
quietly in the firelight.

Cassie went out to the terrace
to look at the stars. Jo went to follow her, but Caroline pulled her back. They
stood for a moment framed in the doorway, looking at the slender grey figure
half visible against night sky. Aphrodite the cat, waving her long tail, joined
the girl, who stooped down with a small cry of delight, picked the cat up, and
rubbed her cheek on the soft black fur.

‘She’s doing very well,’ Caroline whispered to Jo.

‘And she will do even better, you know she will.’

The blonde woman and the dark
kissed each other briefly.

When Cassie came back inside, Janet made space the sofa
between her and John and pulled Cassie between them.

‘You look very cold,’ Janet whispered. ‘You shouldn’t have
gone outside again, especially after you were in the water for so long this
afternoon.’

‘At least she went in to the water wanting to swim. Other
people wanted to make more of a splash!’ John was protected from his wife’s
physical response by Cassie’s presence between them. He asked quietly ‘Did you
tell Caroline about Lucy?’ Cassie nodded.

‘I have to spend some time in Africa when I make my next
overseas trip. I might be able to help. I’ll let Caroline know when I’m going.’

‘That’s kind of you. But really...’

‘I’m only too happy to help. We know you’ve had a difficult
time, and of course we’ll help if we can, won’t we Janet?’

‘Of course we will,’ Janet pulled Cassie closer to her; ’and
if you can play croquet like that we might be able to take on Caroline next
time I come.’

‘You might be too busy to play
croquet next time you come,’ her husband responded in a slightly mischievous
tone.

Janet cuddled into Cassie and,
for once, stayed silent.

*****************************

When Cassie awoke next morning,
there was a blonde head on the pillows to each side of her. There was an arm
over her chest and another over her tummy. When she stretched out there were
contented little sighs from both sides of her. What woke her though, was a
tickle of feline whiskers on her face. Aphrodite mewed softly at her, and jumped
down from the bed.

Cassie gradually remembered the
previous evening.  After the two married couples had left, Caroline and Jo had
been standing in front of the fire. Caroline had smiled at Cassie, and made a
little complicated sign to Sylvie.  Sylvie had gone to her mistress, kissed her
hands, untied the silken halter of her suit, and helped the wisps of silk clear
of her body (and the fire!). Sadie had performed a similar service for Jo.
Cassie had thought she should leave at that point, and made her way quietly
upstairs.

She had sat down on her dressing stool and was taking off
her earrings when there was a quiet tap on the door, and Sylvie and Sadie
slipped into the room.

‘Everybody else has got
somebody, so we didn’t want you to be lonely; but if you want to be by
yourself, we’ll quite understand. And don’t worry about Sadie’s ... little
abnormality. I’ll keep her under control and we won’t embarrass you.’  To
prevent Sadie making any reply she had kissed her briefly, and then kissed
Cassie much more languorously. ‘You do look lovely in that grey you know. Is
that Caroline’s necklace?’ She had helped Cassie off with her jewellery, and
after a little pause that could have been awkward, had just slipped out of her
cheongsam (she wore nothing underneath) shaken her hair free, and pulled both
Cassie and Sadie onto the bed with her.

Cassie could remember a great confusion of arms and legs and
lips and breasts. She could remember being mounted by Sylvie while Sadie rubbed
her breasts over chest and her mouth. After they had collapsed all together,
Sylvie had asked in a gently murmur if she would mind if Cassie would mind if
she, Sylvie, took care of Sadie as well. She slipped Sadie out of her thong
(which out of concern for Cassie, Sadie had been wearing up to that point) and
enjoyed herself with the second ‘abnormality.’  All the time she kept one hand
on Cassie and kept placing Cassie’s hands on her and Sadie’s breasts.

The second climax involved all
three of them, and after that they subsided into a magical warm time of kissing
and cuddling; broken only when Sadie slipped out the bathroom. When she came
back she had her thong on again.

Now, in the morning as Sadie turned over, Cassie could feel
the thong against her own skin. What would it be like, she wondered, to make
love to someone with a penis? She would prefer to wait, she thought, until she
had developed more herself and felt more confident in her own body.

As Sadie stirred Cassie whispered ‘I’m sorry that I’m still
a bit... “inhibited”. I hope I didn’t upset you.’

‘Good Morning Cassie. Mmmm.  And no, of course you didn’t
upset me. You’re very nice. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.
Just see how you get on as you... develop.’

Cassie, daring just a little moved to kiss Sadie’s breasts.

‘Good Morning,’ said Sylvie
opening her eyes and blinking.’ And what about me? What’s she got that I
haven’t - don’t answer that, just do that to me here...’

It took a while for them to get out of bed.