Cecilia's Claim (11 page)

"Really?" she asked. Her eyes held interest now.
"A boy?
How?"

Caleb indicted the clothes.
"Old, tired,
but a better camouflage than petticoats, especially for riding astride.
Will you put them on? It's safe now. He, whoever he was, is well gone. He
walked down the hill like the Whist hounds were onto him."

Cecy picked up the garments Caleb had dropped. "Hmm, I
foresee one problem. These." She looked down. Philippe followed her gaze
and grinned.

"I see your point. I can't envisage that shirt and jacket
covering your breasts, and they would be somewhat of a giveaway. I have a
suggestion." He pulled the strip of lace from inside his jacket.

Cecy giggled, her composure was obviously restored. "Not what
it is intended for, but yes, it will be perfect. Will you help me please, both
of you?" She fluttered her eyelashes.
"As I am so
sweet and innocent and helpless."
She held up her arms.

"Sweet in one way I would agree, but innocent and
helpless?" Caleb raised one eyebrow."
As likely a
scenario as Prinny losing weight."

It seemed the thought of a slim and svelte Prince Regent was not
to be imagined. All three of them sniggered.

"I lost my composure somewhat just then," Cecy remarked
as she stood up and began to undo the ties on her gown. "That scent must
hold powerful and unpleasant memories for me. If only I knew what they were. I
know, I know." She grimaced. "It will come when I least expect it. I
will forget it for now." Her voice was muffled as she pulled her gown and
petticoat over her head and then stood naked in front of him and Caleb. Her
body glowed in the soft light and with typical predictability his cock took
notice.

"Not now sadly," Caleb murmured. "And I am in the
same state." A swift glance from Philippe toward Caleb proved his
statement to be correct.

"How do we bind my breasts tight enough to flatten them and
not cut off my circulation?" Cecy asked, seeming unselfconscious in her
nakedness.

"Stand still and hold your arms away from your body."
Philippe commanded. Cecy raised her eyebrows. "Sadly for no other reason
than to flatten your silhouette, love. Though I say here and now how much I
will look forward to revealing them once more."

"My silhouettes?
I have more than one?"

Philippe pinched one of her nipples. "You will have
soon."

"Touching me like that, apart from making me want more, is
not likely to decrease my silhouette 'tis more likely increase it," Cecy
complained. The look on her face made it clear she wasn't serious with her
grumbles.

Caleb reached out and tapped her bare arse. She jumped and
squealed. "Later you will have all you want and more, and we will gladly
help your body regain its shape."

Philippe began to wind the strip of lace around her breast and
upper body. "Tell me if I make this too tight, love. But I need to flatten
you as best I can." With one eye on her face—he wasn't sure that on this
occasion she would obey him—he worked swiftly to bind her breasts.

"There." He tore the end of the material and made a neat
knot under her arm. "That may not be the most comfortable place, but it
will be the most discrete." He stood back to admire his handiwork. The
delicate lace covered her from under her arms to just above her waist, and left
the rest of her body exposed. It was erotic and arousing. He didn't need to
hear Caleb's murmur of approval to know he agreed. "Try the shirt
now."

Caleb helped her wriggle into the shirt. It was a tight fit, but
her flattened torso worked in their favor and with a few twists and turns the
well-worn cloth slipped over her.

"I must say, you still look rather fetching," Caleb
said.
"Though as you are bare from the waist down, no
one seeing you would accept that your body is a sylph-like as it seems."

Cecy stuck her tongue out at him. "Pass me those breeches and
your handkerchiefs."

Puzzled, Philippe took the square of linen out of his pocket and
handed it over, as Caleb handed her his handkerchief as well along with the
breeches.

"Right, look." She pulled the garments up her legs.
"How old are these?" She asked Caleb.

"Very. However they are clean, and unworn since I fell in the
stream. I returned them to the barn in case the necessity to change clothes
occurred. I forgot about them, but they were wrapped inside the jacket, so
didn't get musty or damp." She looked at Caleb in amazement. "These
are yours? They fit you?"

Philippe smirked as a faint rosy hue crept up Caleb's cheeks.

"They did ten years ago. Now I fear I would split them at the
seams if I tried to wear them."

She giggled and pushed the handkerchief inside the breeches and
re-arranged them over her quim.

"Now I have a cock. I agree if you were to wear them
now…well?" She rubbed her hands over the mound. "I could swear you
have more down here than I suggest."

"Minx, I'll remember that slur."

She looked injured. Only the mischief in her eyes showed the
expression was contrived. "It was a compliment."

Caleb helped Cecy into the rough jacket.
"Almost
a scrubby schoolboy except for the hair.
We'll have to try and pin it
under the cap."

"No need. Do you have a knife?
A sharp
one?"
Philippe grinned; he had an idea what she was about to do.

"All our knives are sharp." He pointed out as Caleb
pulled out a hunting knife. "But do we need to go to such extremes?"

"Maybe not, but there again maybe we do. If you have kept me
safe so far, then it behooves me to help in any way I can. Who will do the
honors?"

Caleb looked at Philippe, and he saw the entreaty in his eyes. He
sighed. "I will. However I use my own knife.
Face Caleb
and stand still."
He waited until she did as he bid and took out
his own knife, a wicked-looking instrument, which had helped him in many a
sticky situation.

He took the weight of her tresses in one had and held the knife
away from her throat. "Ready, do not flinch," he warned her, and
before any of them had time to reconsider slid the blade through her hair.
Strands of auburn hair fell to the ground in tiny curls.

It surrounded Cecy like soft raindrops and he heard her muffled
gasp.

"Almost done."
He took a final hank and
ruffled the hair left. It surrounded her head like a wavy halo.

"You look like an angelic choirboy." He patted her rump.
"Right.
Put on the cap, and once Caleb has checked
all is clear, we'll go."

"I feel like I should have a catapult or a pea shooter."
Cecy said as they began to walk toward the barn.
"And
maybe a snare or two.
You know, as props."

'If you think I'd trust you with any of those items you are sadly
mistaken." Caleb said as he and Philippe pushed open the barn doors.
"I value my hide."

Philippe watched Cecy bristle.

"No, not because I distrust your aim."
Caleb remarked.
"But because you may feel the necessity to get your own back for some
slight, imagined or otherwise."

Cecy poked him in the ribs. "I
never
imagine slights, I remember them."

Philippe choked back a laugh. Cecy rounded on him.
"Pardon?"

He held his hands up in the universal 'who me' gesture. "I
didn't say a word."

"You didn't have to. You two think alike." She walked
over to where three horses were tethered. Her arse hardly swayed in the tight
confines of the breeches, and Philippe ached to touch. He ached to reach out
and touch her, to pull the trousers down her legs, trapping them and then
plunge his cock inside her. If that could be achieved with Caleb's
participation, then his own personal nirvana would be reached.

It was a sad fact that was unlikely to happen again anytime soon.
He shook his head to clear it of erotic ideas.

"What?" Caleb has seen the gesture.

"Seeing Cecy walking in front of us in those garments is
sending such interesting ideas to my brain my prick is hard."

Caleb reached out and rubbed Philippe's cock over his clothing.
"True." Philippe groaned. "If you do that not only will I stain
my breeches, my resolve will disappear and I will have both of you."

"Not at this moment you won't." Cecy had turned back and
heard his words. "I may have got into these clothes. Once I am divested of
them, there is little chance of shoving me back into them again. I feel like a
sausage in its casing."

Philippe gave Caleb a swift hug, and kissed him hard on the mouth.
For one swift, satisfying moment their tongues met and tangled together, before
he made himself pull back.

"My turn," Cecy said lightly, and gave each one in turn
a long lingering kiss. "Now, where were we?" Her eyes twinkled.

A shiver of excitement ran through Philippe, and made his skin
tingle.

Later.

Chapter Eleven

"About to put you over my knee?"
Caleb suggested.

"Oh, you wish." Cecy danced across the barn floor back
to the horses and stroked the nose of a small dainty mare. "We won't let
him, will we?" she crooned to the horse.

"If it was my desire,
neither you or
Sally there would stop me. However we need to move." Caleb strode toward
her as Philippe closed the doors they'd entered by. The gloom was broken only
by a shaft of sunlight filtering though from the high windows, which
highlighted the mites of dust and hay in the air. Cecy turned toward him and
the sun hit her hair and made it a burnished halo around her face. She looked
so beautiful it stole his breath away.

"What?"

"You are beautiful," he said simply. "We're
lucky."

Cecy colored and dipped her head. "At the risk of you
spanking me for demeaning you both, so are you. When I saw you together, I
thought I'd never seen anything so perfect. And I worried. Why on earth would
either of you want me, when you have each other?"

She is serious. I had thought
we reassured her, it seems not.

"Because without you there is a gap.
One only you can
fill. Believe me love. This is a triangle that needs all three of us to
complete it. If any of us is not here, well…" he shrugged. "We
survive but without the depth that we can achieve.
 
I for one want it all."

"And I."
Philippe joined them. "I know my ideas are
the stumbling block here, but I promise if you will keep an open mind, I will
also."

Caleb looked at each of his lovers. He was content with either,
but needed both for true happiness.

At last Cecy took a deep breath. "I can honor that."

"Then that is all we ask. Now let me throw you up onto Sally
here." He cupped his hand to allow Cecy to step on his palm and be tossed
into the saddle. "Comfortable?"

"The stirrup is a little long. She fiddled with the straps.
"Yes, that is better. It feels so much better to be astride in breeches. I
had forgotten how good it is."

He glanced at her as he mounted Casper, his tall black gelding.
Philippe led his horse to a door in the far end of the stable they had entered
by, and opened it to let them pass.

"You make a habit of riding astride?" Caleb asked Cecy
as they waited for Philippe to close the doors and join them.

Cecy collected her reins. "Only in the shires when I visit
Nash. He keeps hounds."

"I'd heard that. It seems an unusual occupation for a
Gretton." They moved off up the slope at a steady walk, letting the horses
pick the best path.

"Well papa wanted him to go into the church. A less likely
vicar than Nash I have yet to find. He of course ignored the parental diktat
and did his own thing. I envy him. Life is easier as a man."

"Not if you are our woman." Caleb said.

"You think not?" She sounded surprised. "As far as
I can tell that position is full of worries and pitfalls.
Two
men and no husband?
Not an easy scenario to pull off." Caleb could
understand her point of view, and later he would put the idea to her that he
and Philippe had discussed.
Later.

"Maybe, we'll see."

The hill leveled out, and Caleb pulled up Casper. "We head
along the bridle path toward the moor. This next mile or so is the most open to
view. Therefore we must take care. If I say so Cecy, you leave us and ride in
that direction." He pointed to the north.
"Without
hesitation.
Go and find your brother. Tell him he knows where he will
find out all I know.
Don't ask, this isn't the time.
Right let's make haste."