Chapter 6

I recognized Sir William immediately on the spiral staircase with the impressive huge painting of his historical forebears. It was obvious from his youthful stature and twinkling eyes why my twin sister Claudia had invested her heart in him despite his advanced years and serious demeanor. He looked at me with a mixture of happy welcome and disapproving disappointment. I knew my sister had caused him a great deal of pain with her wild parties and dubious companions but I knew she was really not evil-intended, merely naughty beyond comprehension of normal folk.

Fully immersed in the guise of my twin sister, I felt the full brunt of his disappointment and I was filled with an urgent need to mitigate her shortcoming by satisfying his physical needs if he was of a mind to require my services. I know my sister thought it was far too late to repair the rift that separated them at present but since I had nothing to lose; I was willing to at least make the attempt on her behalf. I hoped he would not discover my deception because it could only make matters worse, if that was at all possible.

Standing next to him was a tall, beautiful young blonde woman in riding clothes and he introduced her as Lady Marshburn of the Hampshire Marshburns. I assumed that my sister had never met her before so I just acted like we were meeting for the first time and I saw right away that the little minx was poised to sink her claws into my sister's fiancée at the earliest opportunity. I pretended it was all a mystery to me and accepted everything at face value knowing my sister would have panicked the moment she saw the blonde.

I made a point of swishing my hips up the staircase with the intent to change into riding clothes for the afternoon session. Lady Marshburn made the remark,

"Oh, so you DO ride, my dear" to my departing back and I guessed that some little birdie had already informed her that Claudia wanted nothing to do with horses or hunting. I could see why my sister had opted to avoid the weekend knowing there was nothing but embarrassment arranged for her as she would be ridiculed for her inability to ride and brought to task for her immoral activities with her jet-set friends.

I quickly changed into the riding outfit which my sister had selected for its perfect enhancement of her figure and slender hips. The boots also fit perfectly and I could tell they had never been worn. I wondered how my sister could have expected to carry off such a subterfuge with little or no practice.

The stables were conveniently located right within the quadrangle of the castle and the party of about a dozen young riders was ready to depart. I was the last addition to the party and they had a slightly frisky young stallion ready for me to mount. I imagined it was selected personally by Lady Marshburn to scare me from even attempting to ride or to cause me to have an accident which would be far worse than the embarrassment. I was beginning to summon up a healthy disliking for the haughty young woman and decided she was in severe need of some correction to her attitude. I swung the nasty little riding crop hitting it sharply against the seam of my tight riding trousers finding that the sharp little stab of pain made me determined to get Lady Marshburn bent over my lap as soon as possible.

I mounted the steed thinking such thoughts were not typical for the boring Claire and far better suited to my sister Claudia.

We all clip clopped out the castle entrance making a terrible racket inside the echoing walls.

The servants were watching us with a mixture of respect and envy for we truly represented the ruling classes from their menial point of view. Despite the fact they were free to leave anytime they wanted to cut themselves off from the lucrative compensation that Sir William provided at the end of each month, none of them were tempted to do so in these lean days of economic shortcomings. I posted with my usual competence and I saw Lady Marshburn looking at me with a puzzled look probably wondering where I had suddenly picked up my talented expertise.

There was only one other female besides Lady Marshburn and myself. Her name was Drusilla and she had an ugly nose that made her look a bit like a bird of prey except for the fact that she had the most sensuous of figures inside her custom-tailored riding outfit. I saw that most of the gentlemen were concentrating their attention on her perfectly rounded bottom bouncing delightfully down onto the nicely polished leather saddle. I knew that both Lady Marshburn and I were not up to her posterior excellence but that our facial advantages would make us the center of attraction in the dining room for conversation or the bedroom for nocturnal sports.

My husband-to-be, that is, Claudia's intended jumped a rather dangerous looking stone fence and the others swept after him like lemmings on a cliff. I made it easily and smiled when I noticed my posh rival's mount scrape the top rock with an iron-clad hoof. We shouted and our egos were stroked by the competition of making obstacles some more difficult than others. The workers in the fields looked at us like we were visitors from another planet and in a way I guess we actually were exactly that. Drusilla's horse stumbled on a mole hole but recovered almost throwing the mature woman into a nasty looking spiked bush. I rode up alongside and steadied her drawing her attention for the first time.

"My, Claudia, you certainly have changed your attitude toward me. The last time we met you tried to bite off my head with your terrible sarcasm."

I did not remember Claudia talking about this woman so I figured she was not very nice to her because of the disfiguring nose that dominated her facial features like a Swiss Alp rising into the clouds. I knew that with her head buried in a pillow her assets at the other end would certainly keep the horny males constantly striving to share her bed. The trick was to get them there without discouraging them with too much conversation.

"So sorry, Drusilla, I have been not myself lately because my sponsors have been cutting back on the number of work projects and Sir William is still angry at me because of the dreadful tabloid stories about my parties."