Chapter 4
With school vacation having just begun, Jill was assured of the whole family being around for a while. There was no time for being complacent though. A job had to be done, she set out to do it.
She was up early next morning and hurried to the guest bathroom wearing only a filmy negligee. As she bathed, she heard footsteps in the hall outside. The steps stopped at the room next door. She heard a key fitted into a lock and a moment later, the sound of a door closing.
Remembering the tour of the house she had been given the previous day, Jill knew it was Carl's den. Among the family, it was called the inner sanctum because the door was always kept locked and none were permitted to enter.
At the time, Jill wondered that the family accepted it as a joke. She had determined then that she would see the inside of the mystery room. Now she was even more determined.
Why, she asked herself, would a man rush from his bedroom into his locked study on a working morning before even going to the bathroom or having a cup of coffee?
Filing the question, she went on with her bath. The water was hot, the tub comfortable, the appointments of the brightly lighted room invited relaxation. She relaxed. As she did, Jill noticed that there was even a small suction fan in the ceiling to draw the steam out of the room.
Forcing herself to leave the luxury of the tub, Jill stepped out and reached for a big, rough towel. As she dried her body, she watched herself in the full length mirror and liked what she saw.
At twenty-six, her body was even better than it had been at nineteen when she married. Two babies had done no damage at all. Her body was just a little more rounded, her breasts, belly and thighs, firm and smooth, her buttocks retained a sleek hardness which permitted her to avoid girdles except when wearing a tight-fitting dress.
She thought of the man in the room next to her and smiled as she thought of how he would love to see her as she was at the moment.
My God, she thought, as the smile vanished, what if that mirror is one of those trick things that serves as a window from the other side.
Oh come on, she scolded herself, the man may be sick, but don't look for ghosts and devils everywhere. Dropping the towel, Jill slipped her negligee on again and walked back to her bedroom.
She left her door open about two inches so that she would be able to check on the other occupants of the house. A minute later, she heard Lucy tap on the door of the den to notify her husband that breakfast was almost ready. The woman went downstairs then, her husband was close behind. Only Amanda and Jackson remained upstairs with her.
Hearing a door open, Jill pressed her face to the narrow slit at the hinged side of her door and saw the young man walk down the hall to the bathroom. Easing her door open a little more, she dropped the negligee and selected bra, panties, nylons and a garter belt. She began dressing slowly after adjusting a small mirror on the bureau so that it would give her a picture of the partially opened door.
When she heard the bathroom door again, Jill turned her back toward her door and began fussing with a suspender. Her body was twisted in such a way that the admirably filled bra and nylon bikini panties in matching pale blue were displayed to best advantage to anyone who looked from the doorway.
Her eyes never left the small mirror. She saw Jackson stop, then draw his body behind the protection of the wall, she could still see a portion of his face though. She had provided a show and was smiling to herself as she watched her appreciative audience of one.
Letting go of the suspender, Jill raised one leg at a time to smooth out the already smooth nylon, her hands moving in a caressing motion along the firm thigh. When both nylons had been attended to, she bent a little from the waist, smoothed out pretended wrinkles from the skin tight panties, straightened up and walked across the room.
Show's over, sonny boy, Jill said under ,her breath. I think you got enough to make you properly receptive for my next move.
She guessed that Jackson would stay in his room for a long time. What he had been permitted to see would have a tremendous impact on him, especially if, as she suspected, he was completely inexperienced with women.
Cheer up Jackson, she smiled, I am going to use you, but you will be more than well paid for your part in the scheme of things. She finished dressing and went downstairs.
"Good morning," Jill greeted her hosts cheerfully.
"Your timing is just magnificent, Jill," Lucy replied. "Everything is still warm and you just missed prayers."
"Good for me." Jill laughed with her. "I always did prefer eating to praying."
"We do not laugh at prayer in this house." Although Carl stared at his wife as he intoned the words of scolding, it was obvious they were intended for Jill as well as Lucy.
The storm passed and Jill ate with an excellent appetite for the first time in a very long time. During the meal, Carl explained the deep religious conviction with which his family was trained.
It was obvious that while Carl discussed the subject with a fervor bordering on the fanatic, his family went along with it out of fear rather than faith.
"I'm surprised that you don't try to find solace in prayer, Jill." Carl made no effort to hide his disapproval.
"I've never been a religious person, Carl. I hear a lot about some Christian God who looks after everybody on earth, but I'm not very impressed with the evidence I've seen."
Jill decided she was playing a dangerous game and warned herself off.
"I must say though, Carl," she added to smooth things over, "your system seems to have worked excellently with your family."
"Indeed it has, Jill." He beamed proudly. "I can absolutely assure you that those children have never been touched by carnal lust."
"But isn't that difficult in our society?" Jill asked with a great show of being impressed.
"Goodness and purity are always difficult. There are pagans and communists who constantly strive to corrupt the young, but a strong home life with prayer and discipline can rise above all that."
"But surely discipline becomes more difficult as they get older."
"Discipline never changes in this house." He pointed proudly toward a shelf behind the kitchen door. From it, hung a broad, old fashioned razor strop.
"That strap has been polished smooth from regular applications of discipline. All who come under my care know that every fault is punished by the pain of the strap."
Without warning, Lucy's face was covered with a hot, painful blush. It told Jill that she too submitted to the strap. Jill tried to ease the woman's obvious discomfort by looking away.
Carl's eyes gleamed as if he were transfixed. The man saw himself as an avenging angel, an instrument of God or, she shuddered, a god himself.
Does that, she asked herself, explain his killing the girl? Had he been carried away in a fit of passion to the point of raping her? Then, seeing her nude, abused body, did he convict her of sin and execute her?
She was sure he had killed once. Had there been others? Would there be more killing by this insane man? If he knew of her suspicion, would he find a logical reason in his sick mind to put her to death as punishment for sin?
Strangely, the thought didn't bother her. If anything, it infused an added air of excitement to the already dangerous game she was playing.
As if suddenly returned to the world, Carl glared at the wall clock. "It's twenty minutes after eight and Amanda is not at the table."
"Don't be harsh with her, Carl. All the strain of studying has made her tired. She probably fell asleep again. I'll go call her." Lucy began to rise from the table.
"Stay." The one word froze the woman and caused her to drop back to her chair.
"Laziness and sloth are sins which must not be encouraged. You two," he looked from his wife to his son who had just walked into the room, "be ready to leave in fifteen minutes. Why are you late for breakfast?" He glared at Jackson.
"I'm sorry dad. I was a bit sick this morning but I feel all right now."
"You do look a bit pale at that. Drink a cup of coffee and go get the car ready."
"I don't feel like coffee right now, dad, I'll go get the car now."
The boy shuffled out of the room nervously without once looking toward Jill. She could understand his paleness and nervousness.
Finding the atmosphere too tense for comfortable conversation, Jill excused herself and returned to her room. The heat of the morning as well as the tension at the table had caused her to perspire beyond the point of comfort. In her room, Jill removed the dress and half slip she had worn and looked around for something else to wear.
At that moment, she heard Carl walk heavily along the hall. Listening, she heard him push open the door of Amanda's room and storm inside without closing the door behind him. She opened her door slightly to hear the lecture she anticipated.
Poor Amanda, she thought, as the man's voice raised angrily, the whole household will hear her being scolded for the sin of falling asleep and missing prayers.
While many of his words were lost, some reached her clearly.
"Sin of laziness ... prayers ... punished ... sins of the flesh ... remove it ... bare naked ... turn over...."
The sound filled the house like a shot and was followed by a high pitched shriek of protest. The man, Jill realized, had actually forced this nineteen year old woman to strip so that he could beat her nude body with the wicked looking strap.
As the sound of strapping went on, intermingled with cries and pleas for mercy, Jill stood rooted to the spot. She was unable to believe that a woman of Amanda's age would submit to it.
From time to time, between slaps of the strap, the man's voice could be heard above the other sounds from the room.
"Evils of the body ... slap ... punish ... slap ... wash away sins ... slap ... beat the devil from your body...."
Jill was sorry she hadn't kept count, but she knew the girl must have received forty or fifty slaps of the belt by the time the sound ended.
"Kneel." She heard the curt command. It was followed by two voices in a more subdued tone. Jill realized that the two were kneeling to pray as a climax to the cruel strapping.
In a little while, the man walked out of the room to rejoin his family downstairs. From the room across the hall, Jill heard the continuing sobbing of the beaten girl.
Looking out her window, she saw Carl ushering his wife and son into the family car. A moment later, it pulled out of the driveway with Carl at the wheel, the other two sitting upright in the back seat.
Throwing her negligee on, Jill scooped up a jar of cold cream from her bureau and hurried across the hall. Amanda lay naked on the bed, her body wracked with sobs, her full buttocks and upper thighs laced with bright red marks.
Moving to the bed, Jill stroked the girl's back and spoke soothingly. As she turned, Amanda's eyes were filled with surprise and terror.
"Don't worry, dear," Jill soothed, "they've all gone. We're alone in the house. I'll see if I can make this feel better for you."
Jill's hands were soft and comforting as they smoothed the rich cream over the silken skin of the younger woman's tortured buttocks and thighs. As she massaged the tender skin, her voice was soft and comforting, her gentle hands even more so.
After a little while, the sobbing stopped as Amanda gladly surrendered her body to the tender ministrations. Jill's hands had covered the most obviously exposed marks and moved in search of the others where the strap had found its way between madly threshing thighs.
Amanda offered no resistance as her thighs parted to permit the soothing cream to relieve some of the burn the strap had planted on her sensitive skin.
Jill's hands continued to move with insinuating tenderness. When she felt the sleek body tremble under her knowing touch, she realized that Amanda's emotions now had nothing to do with pain, the body was responding with wild abandon.
Slowly, Jill's hand moved along the soft inner thigh until there was no more thigh and still it moved, pressed gently, stroked.
Under her, she heard sounds of labored breathing, saw the still hot buttocks arch upward in greedy invitation. Jill's lips still moved as she cooed gentle, comforting words, her face moved down slowly until light kisses bathed hot receptive skin.
Still the body under her arched hungrily, her arms wrapped around the young woman, her hands held the firm thighs widely parted, her face moved quickly, found, held.
Moments later, Jill heard the screaming sigh of completion and held tightly until it finished. Only then did she toss aside her negligee, draw the limp, satisfied form into her arms and lie beside her.
"Was it nice, Amanda?" she whispered as she kissed the young woman's ear.
"I never knew about that. It was the most wonderful feeling I ever had. Tell me about it. Explain it to me."
Moving quietly, Jill slipped off her bra and panties and began her whispered explanation of the human body and its needs and wants and appetites.
Amanda's hands were eager as Jill guided them on an erotic tour. In a little while, the last remnant of shyness passed. As they sat on the bed together, they compared beauties proudly and played exciting little games as passion slowly mounted to new heights.
"Do you like it that way too, Jill?"
"Mmm, I love it Amanda. Aren't you afraid?"
"No. I want to try. Will you help me?" Jill drew the young face to hers and held the smooth cheeks as they kissed passionately.
Their mouths still clinging, they fell to the bed together.
When the kiss ended, Jill guided the younger woman's lips to the warm swells of her breasts. The girl learned quickly and grew anxious to taste other joys.
With Jill's hands guiding her, Amanda moved the trail of wet kisses over the silken swell of belly and into the triangle of foliage.
"Now, Amanda?" Jill asked breathlessly.
"Yes, Jill, now."
As Amanda watched in rapt fascination, the tapered thighs raised and drifted apart to reveal the luscious, forbidden goal. Her face fell into the sleek nest the thighs formed. Her mouth moved unerringly until it found the soft warmth. Her hands caressed unseen slopes as her mouth pressed harder and harder as if to devour this strange, new sweetness.
When it was over, they talked again. Jill told tales of sorority initiations, of strange games with stranger forfeits for winners and losers.
There were many things to be learned and explained and demonstrated; there were passions to be built and satisfied. When they dressed hurriedly at noon to prepare for the return of the tyrant, they had achieved a wonderful new relationship.
Jill wasn't sure how she would be able to use this to break the man, but she was content to figure that out later. One down, she whispered to herself, and two to go.
Back in her room, Jill reconfirmed her decision to disrupt the family's way of life entirely. She hoped the remainder of the task would be as enjoyable as the first step had been.
It had been many years since the exploratory days of college, she had forgotten how much fun it could be. Her body reminded her now as she planned the next step.