John pinned her thick hair up, then took up a large sponge. After rubbing a cake of hard soap across it, he began to wash her back. The sponge swept down the length of her back several times. It was followed by warm water laved over her skin until it was soap free. One of the other footmen placed a small goblet of cordial in her hand. "The Master has ordered it, m'lady," John said. "Please do drink it down while I continue to bathe you."

Lucinda sipped at the liquid. It had the flavor of ripe strawberries and was absolutely delicious. She drank it down as John washed her arms and neck. Now, as his hands moved to her breasts, Lucinda wondered why she wasn't distressed, but she wasn't. The sponge moved quite impersonally about the full mounds of flesh, brushing the nipples carelessly. He smiled at her as they thrust forward. Then his hands moved beneath the water to sponge her more private parts. Lucinda stiffened, but his actions while intimate seemed harmless enough.

"Please stand," he said, and when she had been helped up, he continued his careful bathing of her buttocks, pushing the sponge between her twin moons to cleanse there also.

Lucinda felt her face grow warm. In fact, her entire body was growing warm. The rinse water trickled down her skin and was strangely arousing. She tried to concentrate upon anything else and noted that the three footmen all had thick bulges in the groins of their blue satin knee breeches. John lifted her from the tub. At once the other two young men were wrapping her in warm towels, drying her, their hands moving sensuously over her body. She attempted to move away from them, taking the toweling in her own hands.

"Now, m'lady," John gently chided her, "you must not hinder us in our duties. We have our orders, and we never disobey The Master. We should lose our places if we did, and frankly our employment here is most pleasant. Please allow Dick and Martin to finish."

Her hands fell away, and the young footmen began to towel her again. When they had finished, they brought her to the bed, indicating she should lie down. "Where is my luggage?" Lucinda asked John. "I should like a night garment."

"The Master forbids it, m'lady," he replied, "but on his instructions, we shall soon have you warm." His hands moved to his breeches, and he released his penis. His companions did likewise, and the three young men drew her down onto the bed.

"I do not think…" Lucinda began nervously.

"Nay, you must not think," John said. "You are only to experience the pleasure we will give each other, m'lady." He was a pleasant-looking man of medium height with a stocky build.

"Until tonight," Lucinda said, "I have known only one man."

"That is as it should be, m'lady, but now you are in The Master's charge. This lesson we will give you while we await his return is a lesson in pleasing. You will learn to give as well as take. Do you believe your husband was a good lover, m'lady? Even virtuous women have an instinct for such knowledge."

"He was tender, and he was kind," Lucinda said. "I believe I grew to love him. I certainly respected him."

"But he was not particularly exciting, was he?" John said. "Here in The Master's house, m'lady, we will teach you excitement. Then when you choose your next husband, you will be able to enslave him with your skilled erudition. I think you will like that, m'lady."

"Indeed I will," Lucinda agreed, "although the three fools who have arranged for these lessons will not benefit from my new learning." Lucinda suddenly realized as she was speaking with John that her other two companions had arranged themselves on either side of her and had begun to play with her breasts. Her eyes met John's mild gaze, and he smiled.

"Is that nice, m'lady?" he asked her. His fingers began to massage her thigh.

Lucinda closed her eyes for a moment. The hands on her breasts and the hand on her thigh were indeed very nice. She stretched slightly, giving a little purr of appreciation. A mouth fastened itself upon her nipple. "Ummmm," she murmured. The second nipple was engaged. Both of her breasts were being suckled at the same time. It was quite a delicious sensation. One such as she had never before experienced. Fingers kneaded at her. Tongues and teeth teased at her sentient flesh. John's fingers brushed her dark bush. She let her eyes follow his hand, her thighs opening for him as he cupped her.

"Your mons is sweetly plump," he said. "I like a woman with a pillowy mons." His fingers pushed themselves between her nether lips, and he began to play with her sex. "Do you like that, m'lady?"

"Yes," Lucinda said with a small smile.

"You are getting nicely moist," he told her, his fingers working her harder, pressing into her love sheath, rubbing.

The door to the bedchamber opened, and The Master entered. He smiled at the lascivious scene before him and immediately began to undress himself. "Can you two greedy lads leave the lady's titties long enough to take my boots off?" he demanded of Dick and Martin.

They immediately jumped from the bed and went to his aid. Then he dismissed them, and with a wave to Lucinda they left the room.

The Master joined the two remaining figures upon the bed, saying, "Come, Lucinda, and play with my cock like a good girl."

"You didn't say please," she taunted him. "Ohh, yes, John, that is quite nice."

His eyes narrowed behind his mask. "I see, Lucinda, that you need a first lesson in obedience," he said. "John, turn her so she lays across the bed the other way, her head on the edge. Then you know what to do."

"Yes, m'lord," the footman said, and pulled Lucinda about protesting. Then John mounted the woman beneath him and thrust deep into her love nest. "Master thinks you need a good fucking, m'lady, and I am most happy to oblige," he said with a grin.

"Ohhhh," Lucinda cried out, and then she gulped as The Master pressed his love lance between her open and surprised lips.

"You can take two, my pet," he told her. "And you will rouse it one way or another!" He caught her hands to prevent her thwarting his desire "Suck, Lucinda! Suck, or I shall punish you."

Her head was spinning with myriad sensations. The man atop her pumping her fiercely. The male organ in her mouth that had entered relatively soft and manageable, but with each tug of her mouth was growing hard and very long. She choked slightly, struggling to contain him between her lips, fighting not to gag because while she and Robert had often discussed this manner of passion, they had never had the opportunity to attempt it. She concentrated on relaxing, and sure enough her throat opened to embrace him deeply.

"Ahhhhh, God!" The Master cried out, genuinely surprised by her compliance. There was no surrender in her actions. She was enjoying it all every bit as much as they were.

John gave a shout, and his juices spilled themselves into her. He rolled away from her almost immediately, panting with his exertions.

"Release me!" The Master's deep voice grated harshly.

Lucinda opened her mouth and was quite astounded to see the size of his engorged organ. She had practically swallowed him, and yet she had believed she could have taken more. "Ohh," she said as he first mounted and then thrust deep into her with a groan. "Do not come, you devil," she murmured, "until I have had my pleasure of you first!" Then she surprised him by pulling his head to her and kissing him.

Her lips were fragrant; her tongue teased at his. She sucked upon it hungrily. He could taste himself in her mouth, and it excited him even more. He pushed her legs up, gradually pressing them over her head, kneeling as he screwed himself slowly and deeply into her love sheath. Lucinda moaned, the sound a most distinct little noise of pleasure. He withdrew from her as slowly, and then plunged quickly back into the soft, wet heat of her body.

"Ohh, God, yes!" Lucinda encouraged him intensely.

His member was absolutely throbbing with excitement. "Bitch," he growled in her ear, "are you not yet satisfied?"

"A little more, Master, and I will be content," she murmured. "Ah! Ah! Ahhhhhh!" Her body shuddered with its release.

The Master let his climax burst forth in a torrent of hot love juices. He could not, it seemed, stop coming, his big body jerking with the discharge until finally he shivered one last time. After a moment he said, "My dear Lady Lucinda, I do not know when I have had a better fuck. You are indeed magnificent, my pet!" He rolled off of her and onto his back.

Leaning over, Lucinda whispered in his ear, "Send John away. You and I need to talk, my lord."

"I do not think talking is your strong suit," he replied.

Lucinda laughed. "Why is it that men think with their bodies and not their brains, sir? Send John away. Please."

"You and the lads are dismissed for the night, John," The Master said to the footman. "I will call you in the morning."

John rose from the bed, bowed politely, and left the room.

"Well?" The Master asked Lucinda when the door had shut behind the servant "What are we to talk on, my lady?"

"Revenge, sir. Sweet revenge," Lucinda told him. "You do not appear unintelligent, and I have already ascertained you are a nobleman. You must certainly understand by now that I cannot be brought to heel like some animal you are training."

The Master was silent, and so Lucinda continued.

"I will not under any circumstances wed any of the three gentlemen who tendered me offers this season. I love none of them. My late husband advised me to marry for love the second time."

"Was it not love the first time?" The Master asked her, curious.

"No," Lucinda answered him frankly, "it was not."

"You married him for his money, then?" How typical of a woman, The Master thought, half-angry.

"No, I did not marry Robert for his money," Lucinda responded.

"Then, why did you wed him?" Now he was truly curious.

"My late father, Lord Worth, of Worthington Manor in Worcester, was a rich man at one time, but not a very rich man. He married for love. Mama brought him a small, but respectable dowry. Then they went and had seven children, all of whom needed to be provided for if they were to make their way in the world. My brothers, William and George, were first- and second-born. They had to be educated at Eton and Oxford. George, as you know, chose the church for a career, but William had always loved playing at soldiers, and so Papa purchased a commission in the King's Own Royal West Worcester Dragoons. Papa said providing for the boys was straightforward. It was when it came to his girls things grew more complicated."

"What happened to your parents?" The Master asked her.

"Mama died when I was twelve. Papa shortly after I married Robert Harrington," Lucinda explained. Then she continued on with her narrative. "Finding husbands and providing dowries for five daughters proved to be more expensive than my father had anticipated. Each of my elder sisters went up to London for a season. The first three came back with a duke, a marquess, and an earl. It was when Julia went up to London for her season, the year she was seventeen, that Papa realized the difficulty of his situation.

"My sisters always stayed at Papa's aunt's home. She is Lady Dunstan and adored launching my sisters, as she so quaintly put it. But that year after Papa had provided Julia with her wardrobe and the other fripperies she would need, he discovered he had barely enough monies left for a modest dowry for Julia, and that there would be nothing left for me." Lucinda sighed deeply. "It was then," she said, "that my father did a most reckless thing. He took Julia's dowry and went to White's to gamble. And at first he won. His luck was incredible that night. Everyone said so, but then his fortunes turned. His friends advised him to take his winnings and leave the tables, but poor Papa foolishly gambled on. Finally he had lost my sister's dowry, and he was desperate. Julia had already met Lord Rafferty and was madly in love. While our great-aunt, Lady Dunstan, was against poor Rafferty because he was Irish, she and Papa knew he was going to ask for Julia's hand in marriage. He might be Irish, but he possessed a respectable fortune and was the best my sister would do. There were far too many very wealthy heiresses seeking husbands that season. Papa knew that Rafferty would accept Julia's modest dowry.

"Julia isn't like my three oldest sisters. Position means nothing to her, as it does to Laetitia, Charlotte, and George-anne. She was in love. He was in love, and that was good enough for our father. Now he had gone and lost her dowry. While I believe Lord Rafferty would have accepted her without one, it was a matter of honor to poor Papa that he provide his daughter with her portion. So my father did the absolute unthinkable."