Chapter 7

She took a long time waking up. Perhaps it was the bed.

The orphanage had never had a bed this intense before.

That was the word all right. Intense. It seemed to go on forever.

She'd gotten so used to having her feet stick out over the edge of the bed in the orphanage that she wasn't sure what to do here ... she stretched out, as far as she could possibly go, and she was still covered up. All of her!

Wow, she thought.

And then, there were the windows.

In the orphanage, you were usually awakened by the light pouring through the cheap yellow paper window shades.

Easily a half hour after dawn and there was enough light to make you squint whether you were asleep or not.

When she opened her eyes here, she thought that it was still night.

Then she saw the thin line of light around the edge of the curtains, and realized that there was a world out there that had already begun its day.

In here, however, wherever that was (she still had no inkling) the day waited on them. Daylight did not enter until it was called.

The temperature was perfect, as well. She'd gotten used to sweltering in the summer and freezing in the winter.

There had been perhaps two weeks out of the entire year that had been comfortable.

But she had the feeling that here, they were comfortable whenever they chose to be. Again, the weather seemed to be at the mercy of the people who controlled this world.

For that's how it felt to her, like she'd been plucked from the world she knew and set down in this strange environment.

Every sensation seemed to be new ... alien ... bizarre.

Certainly not unpleasant.

But strange ... things that she would have to learn to accustom herself to in the future.

She could smell a faintly delicious scent from somewhere in the house, and she assumed that somebody was preparing breakfast for someone.

Her?

She hoped so. She was, as usual, hungry. Perhaps, whoever these people were, they would place as much importance on having good food, and lots of it, as they did on having a comfortable environment.

She slowly got out of bed, and again, there was a new sensation. Her bare feet came into contact with a thick carpet, one that extended from wall to wall.

She was once again stunned.

She'd gotten so used to the hard wood floors of the orphanage, and of feeling sand and dirt whenever she walked barefoot that the change was profound.

And significant.

She touched the blankets that had been covering her.

Some kind of finely woven material ... maybe silk. Maybe something else ... but without a doubt of the highest quality.

She looked around the room, which she could now see in sharper detail. It was beautiful ... there were paintings on the walls, and without even checking, she knew that they would be originals, and not some cheap department store reproduction.

That, for some reason, frightened her.

It, more than anything else, seemed to be a symbol of the opulence into which she'd been dropped, and she wasn't sure at all how to cope with it.

She pulled the curtain back from the window and looked out....

And she gasped.

Immediately below her, there was a large, rolling lawn extending down a gently sloping hill, perfectly clipped and manicured for almost as far as the eye could see.

It looked like a park.

There were several expensive automobiles parked in the driveway, which seemed to curve away out of sight ... curve around the most imposing element in the view that greeted her.

It was a house ... palace was more like it.

It was the most splendid mansion that she'd ever seen in her life, either with her eyes or in a book.

She saw that she herself was in some kind of smaller structure ... a guest house perhaps....

The mansion itself was across a large courtyard, salted with beds of flowers, beautiful hedges and other foliage.

She was in another world.

"Leapin' Lizards," she said softly to herself. "I've got a feeling that I'm not anywhere I've ever known before."

She was a little stunned, a little frightened, and quite a bit excited.

Then, she realized that she was still very weak.

This was made known to her in a most direct fashion.

She fell to the carpeted floor when her legs grew weak and gave out beneath her.

She cried out, and for a second was afraid that no one would be around to help her and wondered if she was just dizzy or if she was really sick....

But then the door opened and a maid came rushing in.

"Oh my ... my. Mistress Anna, are you quite all right?"

"Yeah ... I think so," said the plucky girl ... "but I really don't know."

"Come on ... come on ... I'll help you up."

"Thanks. Who are you."

"I'm Rose."

"Rose. I like that name. You're from England, aren't you?"

"Oh, yes ... how could you tell."

"I think it was your accent."

"Oh, it's still pretty thick, then, is it?"

"Yeah ... kind of."

"Well, I don't mind. I guess there's worse places you could be from, ain't there?"

"I wouldn't know. I've never been anywhere."

"Oh, I know. But that's all changing."

"What do you mean, it's all changing."

"Well, now that you've come here to live, you'll be like royalty. Well, you are royalty, kind of. It's like being a princess or something."

"Umm ... right. Listen, uh, Rose. I was wondering. Just exactly where am I?"

"Oh, you mean you don't know?"

Her eyes widened in shock."

"No ... all I know is that these two weird clowns were following me around yesterday after I split from the hospital, and-"

She was smiling. "What's funny?" asked Anna."

"That was last week."

"What?"

"Yes. You've been in bed for a week."

"You're not serious."

"Yes. They kept you sedated ... it was safer that way ... you were very sick and in great pain."

Anna was stunned. "How long have I been here."

"Oh, several days."

"You're not serious."

"Oh yes. I wouldn't lie to you. Hardly. It wouldn't be proper."

"Well ... I'll go along with that, but I'm a little confused. Why ... I mean, where the fuck am I?"

Rose's eyes widened at her language, but she giggled and said "This it the home of Mr. Oliver Warcrimes."

"Really?"

Somehow, it didn't surprise, her. "You know, I thought I'd turned down the offer."

"Mr. Warcrimes doesn't like to be turned down ... for any reason. He simply won't tolerate it."

"But ... who am I? I mean ... what is it about me that he wants? I'm just a nobody, and I don't have anything that would make someone like him want me?"

"Oh? And how would you know that?"

"Gosh ... look at this place, Rose! I mean, it's like the Roman Empire ... he's a fucking Ceasar ... and who am I? Why me? Why would he go to all the trouble of watching over me ... and of protecting me...."

She fell silent.

She hadn't quite thought about it in those terms before ... but in a way, that's what had been going on. He was her guardian angel....

But she hadn't asked for it, and she wasn't sure she wanted it to continue ... despite the fact that he'd been very, very good to her....

"I'm feeling a little strange, Rose ... " said Anna. "I think I need some food."

She giggled.

"I'm not a bit surprised. That's why I'm here. Now ... you just crawl right back into bed, and I've got a nice surprise for you."

"A surprise ... for me? Oh ... wow ... I don't think I can take too many more surprises...."

"I think you'll find this one fairly easy to take."

"Really ... ? "

She climbed back into bed ... not without a touch of trepidation ... she'd had more than enough surprises for anyone in the past week or two....

Still and all ... Rose seemed to be honest, and a good person.

She waited, pulling the thick quilted blanket up over her head, sort of as means of protection ... and then ... Rose opened the door and came in with a push cart that was packed with the most sumptuous breakfast that Anna had ever contemplated ... in her dreams or anywhere else.

"Leapin' Lizards ... is all that for me."

"Well, the servants certainly don't eat that well."

"I'm ... I mean ... gosh! I guess I just don't know what to say."

"That's best! You shouldn't talk with your mouth full anyway ... and unless I miss my guess ... you're going to be keeping it full."

She stared down at the cart.

"I don't believe it. I really don't believe it."

There were eggs ... there were English muffins ... there were bowls of jam and jelly ... there were pancakes ... there was french toast ... there were crushed walnuts.

There was fresh fruit, fruit juice (three different kinds) there was cake, there was whipped cream (real whipped cream, in a bowl, that you spooned out ... not that you sprayed from a can) there was coffee.

"I don't think I can possibly eat all this."

"Oh ... well, of course not. But you deserve the right to choose."

"What?"

"Well of course. That's what Mr. Warcrimes is always saying. 'We live in America!' he says, 'and in America you have freedom of choice!" Oh, and it's so stirring, to hear him speaking in his deep rolling bass voice ... ah, he's such a fine splendid example of what the upper classes are supposed to be."

Anna stared down at the array of food set before her.

She found it hard to believe that she'd been put in the hospital by Miss Fimp for sticking one small filet of fish behind the radiator. Waste ... she had said. Waste. My God ... what was this?

"What's going to happen to the food I don't eat?"

"Oh, it will be thrown away, of course," Rose said in passing.

"Well, if I'm supposed to have freedom of choice, why didn't you come and ask me what I wanted before you fixed all this stuff ... then, you could have prepared just what I was going to eat, and there wouldn't have been any waste."

Rose giggled. "My, but I find that so charming. I suppose that's what the lower classes out in the world have to do, don't they ... develop a pragmatic attitude. Well ... I can tell you this, you'd best get rid of that in a hurry. Mr. Warcrimes does not approve."

"You're kidding?"

"Oh no!"

"But, I would think that with all his money, he'd be the kind of person that would insist on saving."

"Oh no ... " Rose giggled. Then, she assumed a solemn look, lowered her voice and imitating

Oliver Warcrimes, she said "The consumers, God-bless 'em, they're the ones who make America what it is. How else do you expect business to record profits, if they don't sell! And how the fuck are they going to sell if all those stupid consumers are out there being frugal and thrifty. Hell, consume ... consume ... CONSUME!! ! "

"Oh my," said Anna, "he gets very worked up over it, does he?"

"Yes ... quite."

Anna looked back at the array of food that was in front of her, swallowed one last bit of reluctance about the waste that was in evidence, and then, succumbing to hunger, she dove in.

By the time she had finished, there was much less wasted than she would have imagined.

"Well leapin' lizards ... would you look at what I've gone and do ... I think I've eaten a lot more than my poor stomach can hold."

Rose giggled.

"I think it's splendid. I did so enjoy watching you eat. It's evidence of a healthy body, when one has a good appetite."

"What about you, Rose? Don't you want some?"

"Oh my heavens, no," she said, sounding just a little shocked and scandalized. "I've already eaten, thank you, but even so, it's just not proper for the servants to eat with the family."

"But I'm not family."

"Well ... you are now ... at least, we've been instructed to treat you as such."

Anna sat back, feeling stranger and stranger.

"Now," said Rose, "I think it's time you had a bath. It's been over a week you know."

"I guess so. I'm starting to get just a little ripe, aren't I?"

Rose laughed.

"Come, I'll draw your water, and then we'll wash you."

"We!"

"Why, of course. That's why I'm here. I'm your personal maid. I've been assigned to you. I think we'll get along famously, don't you?"

"Gosh ... I don't know ... I've never had a maid before. It all sounds kind of barbaric, sort of."

"Oh, don't say that. It's a quite honorable profession, I assure you. I'm very proud to be in the employ of the family. It's such a prestigious post. I really couldn't ask for anything more."

"Wouldn't you like to be your own person though? I mean, don't you get tired of existing only to serve someone else's whims?"

"Oh my ... " she said looking nervously about. "I don't think that's proper thinking at all. I mean, it's virtually subversive."

"I agree ... there's no harm in stirring the stew now and then, is there?"

"Oh, Anna, you have such spunk and spirit."

Rose sounded almost envious. "I don't know what to do with you. But please, for my sake, don't be talking all the time about such notions ... it's really unthinkable."

"But why ... ? "

"Please ... I shouldn't be letting you say such things to ine. It's not proper, and it's not right. Now. What about that bath."

"I'm quite able to wash myself."

Rose looked very hurt.

"But you don't understand ... that's my job. It's why I'm here. If you don't allow me to do my job, there won't be any use for me ... and they'll just send me elsewhere...."

There was a catch to her voice, as if that prospect was far more horrifying than she was suggesting on the surface.

"Where would they send you?"

Rose fell silent for a moment. Then she said "Never you mind. Lordy, but aren't you the snoopy one?"

She was lighthearted again, all smiles, but the cloud that had crossed her face remained in Anna's thoughts. So, she thought to herself, things weren't all roses for Rose, here in fantasy land.

"Come along now," Rose said to Anna at last. "I'm going to run your bath, and then, I'm going to show you why you have a personal maid, and why it's something that you won't want to give up."

"Okay," said Anna, resigned to the fact that if she refused she would hurt Rose ... not only her feelings, but in ways that she couldn't understand yet. But she would. She was going to learn what made this place tick.

The bathroom was opulent ... that's the only word for it.

"I feel like a queen," said Anna, stunned by the glittering fixtures. "Gosh, are they really ... ? "

"Oh, yes. Quite. Gold. Mr. Warcrimes insists on it. He feels that unless one is allowed to surround oneself with the finest, one's values tend to become blurred, and the temptation to compromise oneself increases ... he refuses.

Anna stared in stunned awe.

"He's been known to say 'I'll wipe my ... my butt ... only he doesn't say 'butt' ... with silk, before I'll settle for second rate."

Anna was starting to get an idea of what the man was all about. She wasn't at all convinced that she liked it.

The water was the perfect temperature ... of course.

"My ... what's in it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well ... it feels so good against my skin ... kind of oily ... but not greasy or anything...."

"Oh ... of course, I forget ... I suppose you were only used to water from the pipe lines, isn't that right?"

"Yeah ... you mean this isn't ... ? "

"Good heavens no. Mr. Warcrimes has his own personal wells that provide the entire estate with nothing but fresh, pure spring water."

"Wow ... I don't know what to say."

"Well, if you want my advice ... I'd say that you should lie back, and close your eyes, and relax. And let me take over from here."

The tub had at first seemed to be strangely contoured, but as Anna allowed herself to relax, she realized that her body fit into the gentle sloping curves almost as if it had been molded to her.

"I've never felt so comfortable in a tub in my life."

"That's only the beginning," said Rose. Anna opened her eyes and saw that Rose had removed her white maid's dress, and now was wearing a small, two-piece bathing suit.

"Wow, that's a neat suit," Anna said.

Rose blushed.

"Well, I don't want to get my outfit all wet, now do I."

Anna was looking at the girl's body. "You've got a great build, you know that?"

"Oh ... now stop that. You're going to give me a swelled head."

Anna noticed that she was very nicely swollen elsewhere. She compared the girl's breasts to her own, and found that she had a ways to go before they developed to those dimensions.

"Gosh," she said "I wish I was that big."

"Anna! Really ... you do say the most amazing things."

"Well, it's true. I've wanted big ones for the longest time now, and they seem to have stopped."

"Oh, I think you've got a very nice shape."

"Not as nice as yours."

Rose again blushed. "You hush now ... it's just going to get in the way of your enjoyment of this. I'm going to make you feel better than you've ever felt in your life."

The welts and broken skin that Anna had sustained in the whipping back at Father Speilberg's church seemed to have for the most part healed ... the skin was still tender, but the water was extremely soothing, and comforting. " Rose's fingers touched Anna on her shoulders.

Her touch was soft and delicate. Anna felt a surge of tingling sensation flutter down her back. "Oh ... my...."

"Shhhh ... " soothed Rose. "It's going to get better. Much better."

Rose began to gently work on the muscles in Anna's shoulders. Anna felt the girl's fingers pressing into her skin, felt her pressing harder and harder, almost hurting from time to time ... but the feeling was never really unpleasant.

"What are you doing?" she asked Rose.

"I'm doing something that I don't think you've ever had done before."

"I know ... I'll agree to that, but what is it?"

"You've got all this horrible tension in your muscles. I swear, some of them feel like thick rope. I'm just trying to force them to relax. You have no idea how much energy is taken up by keeping all that tension in your muscles ... it's terrible."

Anna felt pockets of energy as if they were suddenly materializing out of nowhere and then exploding inside her.

"Oh ... " she moaned at one point.

"Did I hurt you?"

"No ... it feels great. I've never felt anything so wonderful in my life."

"Oh, I do so like that. Tell me more."

"I like the way you touch me, Rose. It feels great."

"Mmmmmm ... I like hearing that too. I like the way you feel."

She continued her almost loving caressing of Anna's body, softly bringing her fingers closer and closer to the girl's breasts, yet never making herself obvious.

She worked the muscles of Anna rib-cage, slipping her fingers beneath the girl's body, pressing up and down along her spinal column.

"Why don't you sit up a moment," Rose suggested, and Anna did so, leaning forward a ways.

"Right ... that's fine," said Rose. "You're going to find this a little painful at first, but I promise you, it will be worth it."

Rose then began to seek out specific points along Anna's back, seeming to fall right between the joints of her bones, and there, she would apply pressure that was so intense that Anna thought she was going to cry out in pain.

"Be careful," she said at one point. "That's still sore and tender."

"Oh, I know," said Rose. "I can tell. My God, I'm just shocked that you were so badly abused."

"I know ... but it's all worked out for the best, probably."

""I hope so," said Rose, once more moving her fingers around Anna's body, moving them to the front, touching them to the girl's breasts.

Anna's nipples were hard and taut.

She felt Rose's fingers on her, felt them stroking and caressing the tender flesh.

It seemed perfect, somehow, for Rose to be doing this. It felt so delicious, and the oils that had been added to the water made her skin feel perfectly smooth and yielding.

Rose's fingers slid easily over the surface of Anna's body, and as they did so she managed to continue to seek out. pockets of tension, work on them till they relaxed somewhat, and then move on to somewhere else.

Anna had never dreamed that she was so wracked with tension ... but she couldn't deny the results that Rose was having on her body.

It was as if new and vitalizing energy had been pumped into her.

She felt as if there were places in her body that she was now suddenly aware of, that she was able to reclaim as her own.

And all the while, Rose managed to continue returning to Anna's breasts, pressing into the soft, pliant flesh, rubbing them, squeezing them, however, doing it softly, with loving care ... and not with the harsh finality that she'd experienced at the hands of other men.

She was devoting all of her attention now to

Anna's breasts. Pressing her palms against Anna's nipples, the girl began to rub her hand slowly but firmly up, then back down ... up, then down ... up, then down."

Anna closed her eyes, feeling the sensation seeming to build up within her, each new tactile stimuli simply adding to the overall effect....

And then, as if her conscious thoughts had for a moment been suspended, she felt like she woke up suddenly, and realized ... she's getting me aroused ... the same way that Gus did....

She could feel sensations gathering between her legs, even though Rose hadn't yet touched any part of her below the waist.

But her cunt was starting to feel that familiar warm glow that told Anna that there was a lot more sensation in store for her ... a lot more than was being felt at the moment.

She closed her eyes, settled back and allowed Rose to just do whatever she wanted to do with her breasts.

A breasts massage ... that's what it was turning into ... and Rose knew what she was doing, too.

Anna had never been so aware of her breasts, or of all the minute pleasure centers within those spongy mounds of flesh. She began to want more.

Please, she was thinking to herself, touch me harder ... work on my nipples more ... squeeeze them a little harder....

Rose held back though, deliberately or not, Anna couldn't tell ... but it had the effect of driving her wild.

She felt frustration and tension mounting ... strange, because Rose was supposedly there to ease the tension.

But the tension that she was creating was of a far different variety....

It was a carefully controlled sexual tension, and Anna slowly allowed herself to fall into the rhythm that Rose was setting up inside her body.

She found that the desire for more, was in itself arousing.

Each moment that she thought to herself, I want more, I want more, she was becoming hotter and hotter ... whereas if Rose had simply granted her the release that she thought she wanted, right then, it wouldn't have been nearly as effective.

Higher and higher, still with the girl's fingers touching her only above the waist.

But Anna began to think about that mossy grotto between her legs, and she knew even without touching herself that her clitoris would be stiff and throbbing.

She could feel it pulsating there, sending out gentle itching sensations.

And was she ever starting to want someone to scratch it! Rose!

Oh please, she thought to herself, please ... touch me ... touch me there....

She wanted to feel those gentle fingers right on top of her clit ... she wanted to feel her body respond to Rose's touch ... she wondered, did the girl know what she was doing?

Was it possible that Rose was merely giving her a 'rub-down' with no real thoughts of sex intruding?

No, thought Anna ... it wasn't possible. The girl knew exactly what she was doing and she was doing it with exquisite style.

Finally Anna couldn't take any more.

She moved around in the tub, halfway stretching her body, emitted a low moan from her lips, and looked up at Rose.

"You've got lovely fingers."

"You've got a lovely body to touch," said Rose.

"Mmmmmmm ... well why don't you just keep on touching it."

"I'd like to ... I'd like that very much," said Rose, her voice deeper now, sounding as if she herself was growing as aroused as she was making Anna.

"Anna arched her back just a little, but it was enough.

As if she'd openly offered Rose her cunt, Rose let her fingers move for the first time below the girl's waist.

"Oh," Anna said, feeling a sudden surge of energy rippling through her body.

"I don't know what to say ... " said Rose, staring at Anna's cunt now. "You're so pretty ... I can't believe that someone was allowed to do such terrible things to you. Oh ... it's tragic."

"Yeah, but it's over now."

"Is it. But what about the scars ... on your body ... and on your poor young, impressionable mind?"

"I guess I'll just have to hope they're not there."

Rose touched Anna's clit. The girl cried out.

"Did that hurt?" asked Rose, alarmed. "I don't want to hurt you."

She quickly pulled her fingers away from Anna's pussy.

Anna grabbed them, and jamming them back between her legs, said, "Don't you worry about that. I'll tell you if you're hurting me. But let me promise you now ... if you keep that up ... you're going to have to get used to hearing me make a lot of noise."

"Mmmmm ... " said Rose, sounding pleased, "I think I could easily tolerate that."

"Then what are you waiting for, lady?"

A good question.

There was, in fact, nothing left to wait for. And with that, Rose began to make Anna feel like she'd never felt before.