Grace of the Lady Elgin, Part Two

  • Posted on May 31, 2022 at 1:31 pm

by Karin Halle

By Sunday, Grace was sufficiently recovered to walk into Port Clifton. She left early, eager to look at the listing that had been posted in the general store that showed the names, as far as could be determined, of the dead from the Lady Elgin, and of the survivors, and of the missing. Perhaps one of the names would spark her memories.

In her absence, Harriet and Susannah were alone for the first time in a week. The opportunity was precious to them.

“Have you really found love with Grace, my darling?” Harriet asked after they had eaten breakfast. Neither was dressed yet, and Harriet wore her nightdress. Susannah would have been naked, as had become her custom, but Grace had dressed in Susannah’s good clothes to go to Port Clinton, leaving the girl in the nightdress that she hadn’t worn for a week.

Susannah did not hesitate to reply, but she took care to sound mature.

“Oh, yes, mother. I am sure of it. Even now I miss her, though I know she will be back in only a few hours. Still, I am afraid that she might learn something to bring back her memory, and that thing from her past might come between us. Oh, mother, I know it is wrong to be so selfish, but I cannot help feeling that way. Is it so very wicked?’

“No, my sweet. Love – true love – is too precious to deny, no matter where it is found. That is the reason I can accept the … the passion you two have for each other. I know that feeling, child. I felt that way about your father. I still miss him, my darling.”

“I do also, Mother.”

Harriet smiled softly. “Oh, child, I mean I miss other things – his nearness, his touch, his loving.”

“You could always marry again,” Susannah offered, but her mother only turned a smile upon her.

“Ah, my sweet. I really have no wish to find another man. And besides, I could never find another to equal your dear father, and I will most assuredly not settle for a lesser one.”

She sighed and lowered her voice. “And other than to give me a little loving sometimes, I have no great need of a man. Certainly I need no man to provide for me. And I am content with my life – I have work, and I have you … who could ask for more?”

Susannah tried to choose her words with care.

“Mother, I too feel no need for a man.” She paused to take a deep breath of courage. “Grace and I have shared love with each other, and I am certain that I do not wish ever to feel the touch of a man.”

She had expected her mother to be shocked, but that was not the reaction she received.

“Such a love as that shared by you and Grace is not very common, but nor is it too rare.” After allowing Susannah time for thought, she added, “Of course, you understand that love of that kind can never provide you with children.”

“Mother, women can also give birth to ideas and skills and other things – must all women only ever create offspring?”

Harriet looked admiringly at her daughter. “And wherever did you get these notions? From Grace, I suppose.”

“It is a fact that Grace is very modern,” Susannah confessed.

“And progressive, and unconventional,” her mother said. “Attitudes such as these are most controversial, particularly in such a little place as Port Clinton.”

“There are issues in this nation that are far more controversial than simply modern ideas.”

“So says Grace, I presume.”

“Mother, I am intelligent, even if uneducated. I can learn, and Grace can teach me. Then I can teach others, especially girls. Females have so much to offer, if allowed the opportunity.” Looking intently at her mother, Susannah added, “You must surely share these views, mother. You are strong, and when dear Papa died, you sought employment and now you rely on no one. While doing that, you have also raised me. You too are smart, though uneducated – imagine what your life could be now if you had been educated when you were my age.”

Harriet laughed gently. “Had I been educated, sweet child, I might have never even met your dear papa.”

Susannah leaned close and placed a kiss on her mother’s lips. “We no longer have Papa, but at least we have each other.” She kissed Harriet again, more forcefully. “I can make you feel good, mother. Maybe not in quite the same way as Papa did, but still good …”

They kissed again, before Harriet said, “And what about Grace? Will she not become jealous?”

“Oh Mother, you don’t understand at all. Grace says that everybody needs to be pleasured by a lover.”

Unable to hide her amazement, Harriet gaped.

“She said that you too deserve to be pleasured,” Susannah went on, “with the same pleasure that she and I give to each other. And indeed, she was fearful that you might grow jealous of us.” She took hold of her mother’s hands. “Mama, the walls of this house are thin. And I could hear you and Papa when you were with each other, just as you can hear Grace and me when we are together.”

Susannah put a hand to her mother’s breast. “Grace said that there is no need for jealousy in this house, as we all have love enough to share.”

As she unfastened the buttons on the front of her mother’s nightshirt, she said. “We have love enough in this house for all of us.”

Never would Harriet have admitted it, but Susannah was right about everything. The sounds of her daughter and Grace together had indeed made her pine for her late husband, and even to feel a little jealous of the children. Until recently, she had never given serious thought to the possibility that two females might do such things with each other, but she had begun to think about it quite often of late – particularly in the night when she could hear…

And when she heard, Harriet thought not only about what they were doing, but of her own desires.

Ever since Susannah’s father had died, Harriet had felt the occasional need to pleasure herself. She had never felt any guilt about it, regarding it as nothing more than relieving a physical urge. But lately, when she entertained such feelings, they were far more than merely physical.

She yearned for the pleasure that her child and their guest were sharing, and the intimacy that accompanied it. And lately, after she had attended to her needs, she did feel shame. But now her daughter was suggesting that she too could participate in their unusual arrangement. Susannah’s comment about the issues confronting the nation was true.

Attitudes, and even society itself, were changing – and would continue to change. The issue of slavery had troubled the nation for years, and was approaching a crisis point. The coming election would be of unimaginable significance – some people even predicted that the Union would break apart.

As a woman, she had no entitlement to vote, but she fiercely expressed her opinions.

She had been fortunate in having a good man as her husband – she knew of other wives who were not so lucky. Never once had her husband beaten her, or forced himself upon her against her will, but she had seen other women who had been treated in those ways. Yet, legally, a man behaving so brutishly was well within his rights. Under the law, whether explicitly or implied, as well as in public sentiment, a woman was merely the property of a man, either her husband, her father, or even her brother.

That principle was repugnant to her, as it was to many women. She had heard that some people even considered the situation of a woman to be akin to that of the enslaved Negroes.

She had also heard of people who advocated new ideas about relationships – particularly the “free love” movement, which stressed women’s rights since most laws governing relations between the sexes discriminated against women. Under the notion of free love, men and women alike would have the right to choose their partner, regardless of gender.

Harriet made her choice. She shrugged the unbuttoned nightshirt off her shoulders and stood naked before her daughter.

Her nakedness was not unusual, but her attitude was. She reached out, taking Susannah’s hand and raising it to her bare breast. Then she pulled the girl close and kissed her with more than motherly tenderness.

They lingered only briefly before Susannah pulled away. “I have learned so many things from Grace. And I so much want to share those things with you,” she told her mother.

Peeling off her nightdress, Susannah led the way to her mother’s room. Her own bed was smaller, made to accommodate two children, whereas Harriet’s bed had been intended for use by two adults. It was both wider and stronger.

As she lay down, Harriet said in a soft voice, “You will have to guide me; you have loved a woman. I have not.”

Taking her place beside her mother, Susannah replied, “I’m sure it isn’t too different, as long as both find pleasure in it.”

Bending close, she kissed Harriet tenderly, and then placed her hand on her mother’s breast.

Harriet drew a deep breath and released it slowly. As her daughter began to tweak the nipple, Harriet’s needs grew apace. She placed her hand over Susannah’s and moved it downward over her belly. Her intent was unmistakable.

Susannah moved her hand into the matted hair on her mother’s mound. She pulled gently, untangling a few curls and making her mother gasp with delight.

Then she ran her hand along her mother’s nether lips and found that they were already wet and plump. She teased her mother’s tiny bulb, but Harriet needed more.

“Oh Lord. Please, baby, do me. Do me like Papa! Be rough with me!”

“But Mama–”

“I said, be rough!”

“Yes’m.”

Susannah thrust two fingers into her mother’s body, more abruptly than she ever had with Grace.

“God yes!” Harriet cried. “So good! Finish me, my sweet. I am already so close!”

***

When the war came, almost all of the young men of Port Clinton and the surrounding area volunteered to serve in the Union army. Many, alas, never returned. In their absence, women and younger boys stepped up to take the place of the men. Girls took on domestic chores, and so were no longer able to attend school in nearby towns as they had done previously. The town never recovered from the loss of manpower, and it began to die.

Seemingly abandoned by the other towns nearby, a demand took hold for Port Clinton to provide a school of its own, and in late 1864 it was decided that the town’s little church could be used as a schoolhouse Mondays to Fridays. The town also resolved to engage two teachers, one to provide basic lessons and the other to teach at a more advanced level.

Susannah was by that time literate and numerate, having easily mastered those subjects, and she and Grace filled the roles of teachers more than capably.

Harriet was proud of her daughter’s accomplishments, and lived long enough to see the school become a success, thanks mainly to its teachers, before she succumbed to consumption in the summer of ’65.

A few months later, Grace approached Susannah in their schoolhouse, which was by then known more for that role than as a church. They were packing things away after classes had ended for the week.

“Do you know what day it is?” she asked.

“Friday,” Susannah replied.

“And the date?”

“September the eighth. Why?”

“My birthday,” Grace said firmly.

“You’ve remembered something?” Susannah gasped.

“No, silly. It’s the anniversary of the Lady Elgin, and the day you found me on the beach. You saved me, dearest Susannah. Five years ago on this date, you gave me life as surely as if you had given birth to me. So today is my birthday, and I have brought a gift to give to you.”

With a little grin, Susannah pointed out, “If it’s your birthday, you should be receiving the present, not I. Why should I have that honor?”

“Because I can never thank you enough. I owe you so much – my very life, indeed – so I have a gift for you.”

“That is very kind of you,” Susannah said. “But I have all I want, all I could ever want. You, and our little school.”

“Oh hush!” Grace said, and then called out, “Alice!”

Responding to the summons, young Alice Finucane came into the room. She was one of the more senior pupils – not only because of her age, but also because of her academic abilities, which placed her in Grace’s “class.”

In such a small school, both teachers knew all the students, whether they were among Grace’s “advanced” learners or Susannah’s elementary group. Alice was the prettiest of the girls, as well, with red-gold curls and a pale complexion proclaiming her Irish heritage – a trait that appealed to Susannah. And the child had a crush on her, according to what Grace had said, although Susannah was wary of believing Grace when she said such things.

“Hello Alice,” Susannah said to the girl. “Why are you still here?”

“She’s your present,” Grace informed her.

Susannah scoffed. “I beg your pardon? You can’t give me Alice. Slavery has been outlawed. Or have you been sleeping these past five years?”

“I’m not giving her to you to keep, only to borrow.”

“I don’t understand, Grace. What are you talking about?”

“Alice wants to spend some time with you. Alone with you. Don’t you, Alice?”

“That’s right, Miss Susannah,” the child confirmed, her green eyes aglow.

Her mouth gaping, Susannah managed to say, “What do you mean? Are you saying … what I think you’re saying?” She looked from Alice to Grace, then back again.

“Yes, Miss Susannah. I’m in love with you! You’re beautiful and you’re kind, and you make me feel … oh, all funny inside. And funny in one particular place.”

“But we can’t!” Susannah looked to Grace for support, but found none.

“She told me once how she feels about you,” Grace said quietly. “I told her that she should tell you, not me.”

“But we can’t!” Susannah repeated. “It wouldn’t be right. If anybody found out … and she’s too young.”

“She is thirteen,” Grace noted. “It’s still common enough for girls to marry at that age. And you were not much older when we first … well.”

“I really am a woman, Miss Susannah,” Alice said. “I’ve had my bleed for almost a year now.” She stepped close and kissed the young instructor on the corner of the mouth. “I really want to … to love you, Miss Susannah. And for you to love me. Miss Grace told me I should ask you.”

“Grace …”

Susannah looked at Grace, only to see Grace smile at her.

“Alice dear,” Grace said without taking her eyes off Susannah. “What did I say, do you recall?”

“Yes Miss Grace,” the girl said. She took Susannah’s hand and held it against her small left breast. “Can you feel my heart, Miss Susannah? It’s beating for you. Perhaps you can’t feel it through my clothing.”

As she spoke, Grace began to unbutton the child’s dress in the back. Alice slipped her arms from the sleeves, letting the bodice fall to her waist. Under the dress she wore a thin singlet-vest.

“Can you feel it now, Miss? Can you feel my heart?”

Susannah put her hand to the girl’s breast again. She was feeling many things, although the girl’s heartbeat wasn’t one of them.

“I’ve locked the door, Susannah,” Grace said quietly.

By the time Susannah looked at Grace, and then at the front door, and then back to Alice, the youngster was pulling her vest up and over her head.

Susannah stared at the bare-bosomed young girl. The teats were small, but shapely, despite the pupil’s youth. And the white flesh was almost translucent, etched with faint blue veins. To Susannah, they were irresistible. She cupped one pale bulb, gently fondled it, and lightly squeezed the nipple.

The girl sighed dreamily, and Grace murmured, “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

Susannah’s hand ceased caressing the girl’s breast.

“Have you two …?” she gasped.

“No,” Grace said with a chuckle. “I told you – it’s you she wants.”

Alice nodded enthusiastically.

“Perhaps a little later, though,” Grace speculated. As she spoke, she moved behind Susannah and commenced unfastening Susannah’s shirtwaist.

“Grace!” Susannah protested, but the garment was already loose, and Alice had reached out without hesitation to pull it off. Its removal revealed an unadorned chemise, sleeveless and loose-fitting. Grace was already pulling it down off Susannah’s shoulders as Alice removed the shirtwaist entirely.

In seconds, Susannah was bare to the waist, like Alice, who was transfixed by the sight of her teacher’s naked breasts.

“Oh Miss Susannah,” the girl sighed. “You are so beautiful. I’ve dreamed about seeing your fronts, but I never imagined they would be so perfect. And I never believed my dream could ever come true.”

Before she could recover her wits sufficiently to speak, Susannah heard Grace say to Alice, “You may touch them, if you want. She loves having them touched.”

Susannah forgot not only what she was about to say, but even her intention to speak.

What Grace told Alice was true, and Susannah found that she wanted the little girl’s hands on her so much that propriety was of no concern. She almost melted when the small, warm, soft hands covered her breasts – a touch was so light that it was almost no touch at all.

“Oh sweet heaven,” Susannah sighed.

Alice leaned forward a little – she was precisely the right height for her lips and Susannah’s breasts to align. A first gentle kiss was followed by a suck, both of which thrilled Susannah to her core.

To her surprise, Susannah felt her skirt and petticoat drop away from her waist. She hadn’t even noticed that Grace had untied the ribbons that held them in place. Alice loosened her own skirt and underskirt, and they too fell to the floor.

All three watched absorbed as Susannah and Alice untied their drawers, then stood to drink in the sight of the two naked forms.

“Touch her,” Grace said. “You know you want to.”

Simultaneously, Susannah and Alice obeyed. The instruction had been directed at each of them. Susannah’s hand reached for the coppery hair on Alice’s mound, as fine as strands of cornsilk. Alice found herself unable to move, for fear of breaking the spell. Guiding her, Grace pushed Susannah back toward a bench that was usually cluttered with teaching materials. At this moment though, it was utterly vacant.

Grace! You think of everything, Susannah thought.

As Susannah sat upon the bench and drew Alice toward her, she peeked over the child’s shoulder at Grace, who had brought a chair from the main room and placed it in the doorway, where she was now seated.

“Miss Grace, will you be watching?” Alice asked nervously.

“Yes, I am,” Grace told her. “Could there be anything more wonderful than seeing two beautiful women in pleasure … women whom I love very much?”

Alice’s nerves vanished as Susannah drew her down and kissed her.

The action caused Alice’s buttocks to rise, offering Grace an unobstructed view between the child’s legs. She licked her lips at the sight of the young girl’s naked sex – tinged with a pink that blushed against paleness of her thighs and bottom, which were so wantonly displayed.

Grace’s other lips grew moist as well, and as Susannah and the little girl kissed, she stood up and took a single step that put her beside them. Reaching out, she took hold of the girl’s buttocks and spread them apart, so she could clearly see Alice’s tiny anus, as well as all of her maturing womanhood, which glistened with the evidence of how aroused she had become.

Fighting the urge to join them, or to at least fondle the secret places that were right before her, Grace sat down again. This day was for Susannah, a demonstration of the love Grace felt for her. And it was for young Alice as well, who had confided her innermost thoughts, and was now being rewarded for her trust.

But Grace could not deny herself entirely. Raising her skirt to her hips, she opened the crotch of her drawers. Even as she put a finger to her own wetness, Susannah’s fingers appeared at Alice’s sex, as if acting in tandem with hers.

Alice fell forward across Susannah, wanting nothing more than to relish being fingered by the beloved teacher.

“Do you touch yourself, Alice … here?” Susannah asked, running her finger over the youngster’s vulva.

Alice could only answer between gasps. “Yes, Miss Susannah. Only when I think of you. When I do think of you, I feel … warm tingles deep inside me, and I make wet, and I touch myself. And I dream that it is you touching me …”

“Alice, have you taken your maidenhead?”

“Oh yes, Miss, but I pretended that it was you taking it.”

“I’m here now,” Susannah murmured, and she slipped a finger into Alice’s depths.

Still gasping, Alice said, “There’s a word Miss – a naughty word, and I don’t like to say it – but it’s what I want … right now … I want you to fuck me, Miss Susannah.”

As Susannah pushed her finger further into Alice’s hole, the child raised her voice and said confidently, “Fuck me, Miss Susannah. Please fuck me!”

A long moan of wonder declared Alice’s satisfaction as Susannah drove her finger home. The moan turned into a series of pants as the finger withdrew, just a little, before plunging in again. The finger set a pattern of partial withdrawal followed by a thrust, and the pattern was matched by the rhythm of Alice’s panting.

“Oh, heavenly Father, yes! Fuck me, Miss Susannah! Fuck me hard!”

Alice was about to say “Fuck me” once again, but instead made a strangled sound and began to quake.

“That’s the way, my precious Alice. Come for me! Come for Miss Susannah!”

Instantly obeying her teacher’s instruction, Alice wailed and shuddered, and a fine mist of juice burst from nether lips.

Watching, Grace thought of the spray made by the squeezing of half an orange – the droplets flew randomly, spreading their sweetness. And when Susannah buried her face between Alice’s legs to lap up the spray of Alice’s dew, release claimed Grace as well. Her juice ran down her thighs, and she collected some on her fingers for her own delectation.

When Alice had recovered sufficiently to speak, she couldn’t contain her words.

“Oh Miss Susannah – that was … amazing. I don’t know what to say. I want to thank – may I thank you?”

As she spoke, she reached for Susannah and slid her hand between the teacher’s legs, and it almost made her swoon to discover Miss Susannah was wet for her.

She finger-fucked Susannah rapidly – Susannah would have much preferred Alice to take her time, but the child was impulsive and inexperienced, and Susannah found, unexpectedly, that she was reacting just as quickly as the girl herself had done.

She was about to come – so soon!

She groaned and submitted as one climax rolled into the next, and the next. After that she told Alice that she’d had enough. It wasn’t entirely true, but she thought it best to stop.

“Thank you, Miss Susannah. Thank you. Thank you so much! Thank you too, Miss Grace.”

She looked at Grace, who was sprawled on her chair in an obscene pose. The opening in the crotch of Grace’s drawers was wide open, enabling Alice to see everything. She looked away, though she realized how silly discretion was at such a moment. She had seen and done so much, yet suddenly she felt a twinge of modesty.

She picked up her calico dress and coyly held it up in front of her nude body, and at the same time asked, “Will we be able to do this again, Miss Susannah?”

“Yes, my pet, of course.”

“Oh, Mi … Susannah. It’s all right to call you that, is it not? Not in class though, but … is it all right?”

It was Grace who answered. “Of course we want you to call us by our Christian names, Alice. And as for doing this again – I thought perhaps tomorrow.”

“But tomorrow is Saturday,” Alice observed, puzzled. “There’s no school tomorrow.”

Although she was equally baffled, Susannah knew her lover well enough to anticipate that Grace had already formulated a plan, and asked, “What precisely do you have in mind, Grace?”

“Today was for you two, you sweet things. But tomorrow we shall take a walk in the woods, and go to that little clearing – you know the one I mean. And there all three of us shall be together.”

Alice didn’t know the place that Grace was referring to, although Susannah obviously did. The mere mention of the location was enough to bring a reaction from the girl.

“Do you mean outdoors, where anybody could see?” she gasped.

“Where only Nature can see,” Grace corrected. “You are free tomorrow, are you not? You’ll be permitted to go for a walk in the woods with your teachers?”

“A nature walk,” Susannah added.

“Oh yes!” the girl squealed. “Yes, yes, yes!”

On to Part Three!

 

7 Comments on Grace of the Lady Elgin, Part Two

  1. sue says:

    Interesting, and very erotic, looking forward to more, Karin

  2. cherryco says:

    What a beautiful story. I loved it, can’t wait to see the next part!

  3. David says:

    Well written Karin and very erotic. Looking forward to see how this continues. Was kind of wondering what happened to the time before Susannah’s mother passed and if Grace ever found out anything in town about her life, but I guess she didn’t and we continue 5 years later.

  4. Erocritique says:

    .
    I feel like I’ve gone down the rabbit hole. There seems to be a flight of ideas going on with this piece. The disjointed nature of the narrative is proving to be a challenge. I would have preferred a more linear progression from the premise. I can’t begin to imagine what the next chapter holds in store.

  5. Tina says:

    Exquisite. Jumbled, disheveled, off-the-walls, and delectably exquisite! During my life I have been each of these young ladies, and during each of those many moments felt equally thirsty, afraid, invincible, fearless, and dripping wet – sort of like I feel right now 🙂

  6. Tim says:

    Well written, highly arousing, and quite beautiful.
    A few leaps in time, but I don’t particularly feel it is disjointed, just very enjoyable.
    Thanks Karin. Looking forward to part 3 now!!

  7. No One says:

    Hmm, to be honest, the plot feels rather… incohesive, I guess? At the beginning of the chapter, I already felt like getting Susannah and her mom in bed was a little rushed (I mean, Sue goes from having sex for the first time to seducing her mom within a week? Okay, I guess this is Juicy Secrets), but then immediately after, the mom is killed “off-screen” in a random mid-chapter 5-year jump… That’s um, quite the aggressive change of pace. I don’t know, to me it feels like an abrupt departure from what the story was building up to, and negates the character development that had just happened.

    Anyway, as to the actual events after the jump, I liked the situation with Alice well enough. I must admit that my perverted side was a little annoyed that Susannah and Grace were now suddenly all grown up, but introducing a younger character solved that quickly. There’s much potential for fun between the three of them, and who knows, maybe some other students… But now I have to wonder if we won’t just jump to something else again.

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