Then he had found his friend, Sir Derek Bowen, at White's Club, surprising him.

"I was not aware you were in London," Sir Derek said, calling for a drink for his old friend.

"I have been here for several days," The Master said. "I needed to do some research and, having done it, am amenable to your offer of employment, Derek. Come down on the weekend, and we will discuss the particulars. I have one stipulation, however. No one is to know who I am but you. You may tell your friends only that The Master is a gentleman of good breeding. That is all they need to know else they attempt to treat me as a servant. Do you understand, and are we agreed?"

"We are!" Sir Derek had said immediately. "I shall see you Friday night, my friend."

Sir Derek had traveled to Oxfordshire several days later, and together he and The Master had worked out the ground rules. The Master was to have full responsibility for the women brought to him. Virgins would not be raped. He would simply awaken them to their own sensuality before turning them over to their gentlemen. More experienced women would be treated differently, but with the same end results.

"Find me three footmen who can aid me in these lewd pursuits," he had requested of Sir Derek. "I suspect you know just the right men."

Sir Derek had smiled, and nodded.

"I have an ancient Roman arena on my property. It is quite small, and was probably used by the local patrician family that once inhabited the region. We will use it for our meetings in the summer. You will find us a secure spot for inclement weather nearby. As I will be training these girls in my house, I will want to bring them out to your meetings quickly so they cannot grow fearful."

"There is an old monastary quite near here," Sir Derek had said. "It has been deserted and ruined for several centuries, but the cellars beneath it are quite habitable and dry. We'll arrange to have it fixed up for our meetings." He had smiled.

"You have obviously been there recently," The Master had noted with a small smile himself.

"It is a very private place," Sir Derek had replied, "and a gentleman likes to have a private place to escape to now and again, eh?"

"Indeed," The Master had acknowledged.

They had then continued to work out a number of small, but important details of their enterprise, and on Sunday afternoon Sir Derek had begun his return journey to London to tell the Devil's Disciples of his progress. Several days afterward John, Dick and Martin, the footmen, had arrived, references in hand and a letter from Sir Derek to The Master. That had been three years ago.

The first girl brought to him had been a high-spirited farmer's daughter. It had taken only a week to master her. She had gone on to give her lustful lordling hours of pleasure, and two bastards, before she was retired to a cottage. There had followed more country girls, shop girls, and several months ago, Lord Meldrew's governess. She had been a most prim young lady who had foolishly resisted her employer's overtures. In The Master's charge, however, she had been developed into a shameless hussy who now ruled her employer by virtue of her big breasts and her nutcracker cunt. The Master had heard recently that Lord Meldrew was looking quite pale and weak as of late.

A rumble of thunder brought his thoughts to a halt. Looking about, he saw the rain coming, and turning his horse about, he cantered back to his stables, arriving barely before the storm. Hurrying across the stableyard and into the house, he met Dick and Martin. "How is her ladyship doing?" he asked them.

The footmen grinned, and then Dick said, "She's taking to the training nicely, m'lord. John is with her now."

The Master ran up the stairs and down the hall to the bedchamber where Lucinda was imprisoned. Entering the room, he saw John bending over her, his hand furiously working the dildo as Lucinda moaned her pleasure openly and encouraged him to continue. The footman turned his head at the sound of the door.

"She's a proper one for passion, m'lord. Yer going to have no problems with this one. Look at this." John opened Lucinda's cunt lips with two fingers to reveal her clit, swollen to twice its size. Taking his hand off the dildo, he flicked the sensitive little organ, and she shrieked, her juices flowing copiously.

"Very good, Lucinda," The Master approved. Then turning to the footman, he dismissed John. Sitting upon the edge of the bed after his companion had departed, he said quietly, "John is correct when he says you are a proper one for passion, my pet. Are you enjoying it?"

"Y… yes, and no," Lucinda said. "I have never had such pleasure, even with my dearest Robert, but it is now, I think, too much. I cannot stop coming, sir. I lie perfectly still, but I cannot help squeezing it, and then… What is happening to me? I have never before been weak."

"You are not weak," he said. "You are passionate, and it has been several years since you were allowed to indulge those delightful feelings of lust." He worked the dildo gently, and she shuddered. "You are, my pet, a far better woman than any of your suitors deserves, I fear." Then he bent and brushed her lips lightly with his. "We have a great deal of work to do, Lucinda, if you are to have your revenge. When you give your body to each of those three in September, it must be the absolute best passion any of them has ever experienced. It must be so good for each that the mere thought of you choosing one of the others for your husband will drive them to a frenzy. I do not believe that can happen unless I change my method of training. I think, perhaps, you will learn more quickly if we become lovers instead of master and pupil. Would you agree to such a thing?"

She nodded. "Yes," she said, "but only if you tell me your name. How can you be my lover when I do not know who you are."

"I will tell you my first name only," he said to her. "Will that suffice, Lucinda?"

"But you will not take off your mask, will you?" she replied.

"No, and you know that I am right in that. My name is Robert, as was your late husband's name."

"It will certainly be easy to remember," Lucinda said dryly. Then she chuckled. "How deliciously amusing this all is, Robbie."

"I want to make love to you," he told her quietly, and withdrawing the dildo laid it aside. He stood, and pulling off his own boots, quickly undressed. His manhood was already engorged and ready for battle.

"Will you not untie me?" she asked him.

"Your legs, yes, but I should like to keep your arms bound. You will find the sensation of being fucked that way very pleasurable." He loosened the silk cords that had kept her legs spread wide.

"So I am to remain your captive," she said softly. He excited her. He excited her far more than her husband ever had. Than any man ever had. He pressed a finger between her lips, and Lucinda sucked thoughtfully upon it. What did he look like behind his mask. It was not, of course, a full mask, only covering his eyes and part of his nose, but it was impossible to tell what a man looked like without seeing his entire face. Did she dare to tear the mask away, but then she remembered her hands were constrained. Besides, if she did not keep to his rules of this game they were playing, she might never learn the truth of who he was. She must be patient. One thing, however, Lucinda did know. Robbie was a real man, unlike those three fools who sought to force her into marriage with one of them.

What was she thinking? he wondered, as she sucked his finger so sensuously. He bent his dark head and began to lick at her throat, kissing it first, then letting his tongue sweep up the column of warm flesh. She stirred in his arms, moving against him so that her silky skin aroused him even more than he was already aroused. His fingers tangled themselves into her chestnut hair, kneading at her scalp.

"There can be no niceties between us at this moment," he said almost desperately, and plunged himself deep into her body. Then he began to ride her, and seeing the look upon her face, he groaned with his own desire. She was so very wet, and so very hot. She excited him by knowing she must struggle a little against her bonds to arouse him even more. Her legs fastened about him, gripping him hungrily. For the first time in his life, he cried out while loving a woman. He couldn't help himself. She was utterly delicious! To his surprise he realized that he was not mastering Lucinda, Instead, it was Lucinda who was mastering him. He kissed her, a deep, passionate kiss, and she shuddered hard beneath him even as his own juices burst forth in a torrent of lust and desire. Rolling off of her, he undid her bonds with his last bit of strength and gathered her into his arms.

Lucinda lay quite aware upon his broad, smooth chest. His heart beat slowly now beneath her cheek. She could smell their passion upon his body. It was madness! They had been together but two days, but she knew that this was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with no matter who he was. Why had she not met him in London this past season, and would she have even known him if she had? Yes! Oh. yes!

"Were you in London recently?" she finally asked him.

"I have not the means to attend the season," he replied. "Besides, as I am not seeking a wife, there is no real necessity for it."

"Then, we have not met, even in passing, before," she sighed.

"No, we have not met until two days ago," he admitted.

Lucinda bit her lip in thought. "But you will come to the Countess of Whitley's ball this autumn, Robbie."

"To see you triumph over your suitors?" he said, a small smile upon his lips.

"Yes," she responded. "To see my triumph."

"I will come," he agreed. "I shall not want to master any more females after you, Lucinda. Your suitors have been very generous with your fees. I shall be able to afford one small treat. I shall stay with my friend, Sir Derek, attend the countess's ball, and then return home to my horses." He stroked her thick chestnut hair. "And what shall you do afterward, Lucinda?" he asked her.

"I shall live happily ever after just as they do in the children's stories, Robbie," she told him.

"Without passion when you have such a capacity for it?" he wondered aloud. Damn, why could he not have the means to offer for her himself?

"Oh, I shall remarry," Lucinda assured him, "but the choice shall really be mine, and no one else's. Like my sister, Julia, I care not for position or possessions. Thanks to my late husband I can wed with a pauper if it pleases me. I cannot, I will not, be mastered by anyone, Robbie. I will only truly yield to a man who loves me. The man I love. That is what Robert Harrington wanted for me, and it is what I want." She lifted her head off of his chest and looked into the green eyes behind the black silk mask. "Have you ever been in love?"

"Once, years back," he responded. "I wanted to marry the daughter of a wealthy local gentleman. We had known each other since our childhoods. Elise was very lovely. We made love for the first time when I was seventeen, and she, fifteen. After that our passions were unleashed, and scarcely a day went by that we did not meet. I was planning to offer for her when her betrothal was announced to a marquess from Yorkshire. When we next met I asked her if it was what she wanted. I practically wept with my distress. She coolly informed me that her marquess was fabulously rich, and she wanted to be a marchioness.

"'But when he learns you are not a virgin,' I replied angrily, 'what shall you do then, Elise? Your marquess will divorce you and send you back to Oxfordshire in disgrace.' She laughed, and said they had already lain together. 'I cried,' she told me, 'and played the innocent. Then afterward as he slept I smeared my thighs and the sheets with a small skin of chicken's blood my nanny obtained for me.' I was astounded at her perfidy, but then came a worse revelation. She told me she was already with child, although whose it was she couldn't be certain. Mine, or her marquess's, she said. It made no difference as he would believe it to be his and recognize it as his heir. She was married with much pomp the following week. My grandmother and I attended her wedding. We could not avoid it. I was amazed at the dewy innocent she appeared that day," he finished.

"So that is why you dislike women," Lucinda said.

"I do not dislike women!" he protested.

"Then, why do you allow the Devil's Disciples to use you to prepare reluctant lasses for ravishing?" Lucinda asked him politely. "You are, I believe, still angry at this girl for deceiving you, and so, unable to punish her, you punish them."