Chapter 11: The Masked Ball

The Earl and Countess had been invited by a ducal family to attend a very grand masked ball. A call that morning from the Duchess had added an invitation to spend the weekend at their enormous house in Derbyshire. The couple had discussed the trip over dinner that night and he had suggested they keep their costumes secret from each other. She readily agreed and spent much of the evening quizzing him about the form for a visit to such an amazingly grand household. He had some helpful suggestions and advice, but he rapidly turned the conversation to the fine country-house tradition of sexual high spirits and expressed a hope that all that had not entirely disappeared.

The following morning she wasted no time before phoning her dressmaker to discuss her costume and several other outfits for the special weekend. She visited one or two of her favourite sites online and ordered some new lingerie and a couple of new toys. She would have to make sure he was not disappointed.

When they arrived at the house, armies of servants opened doors, carried bags and ushered them to their rooms. She was impressed that, with so many house guests arriving that afternoon, they had been given adjoining rooms, each with its own bathroom. The footman arrived with her bags and told her that Eve would be along shortly to unpack for her. Eve turned out to be a young girl who was currently shadowing the Duchess's lady's maid in order to learn the job. For this weekend, she was to help three of the female guests. She showed the Countess how to reach her on the internal telephone system, then set about unpacking her bags with speed and skill.

Lady S passed through to her husband's room and announced with great delight that she had a third of a Duchess's trainee maid for the weekend.

They met their hosts and fellow guests at tea in the Long Library, which the Duchess used as a drawing room during large house parties. As they went up to dress, they speculated about the costumes some of their colourful fellow guests might wear.

She had a quick bath and when she returned to her bedroom, Eve had appeared to offer her help dressing. Happy for assistance with a laced bodice she planned to wear, she readily accepted. She shrugged off her bath robe and stood wearing only a tiny black G-string. She watched Eve trying to prevent her face from registering surprise. She picked up the black brocade bodice and wrapped it round her waist.

"Could you lace me up please, Eve?" she asked.

"Certainly, Milady," she replied. She leaned forward to begin lacing from the bottom. Concentrating on her task, she carefully avoided looking at the Countess's breasts, whose nipples were barely covered by the top of the brocade. Once the laces were in place, she asked Eve to pull them tight and tie them off. As the bodice closed together, her breasts were pushed up into a cleavage worthy of a courtier at Versailles.

She pulled on black seamed hold-up stockings and stepped into black fake-croc shoes. Eve held up her very full royal blue taffeta skirt for her to step into, then fastened it at the back. She then held up a black velvet bolero to complete the Countess's outfit.

"Would you pass me that garter from a dressing-table?" she asked Eve. She raised her foot onto the dressing-table stool, slipped the garter over her shoe, then pulled it up her leg until it lay exactly halfway between her knee and her stocking top.

A knock on the connecting door announced her husband was ready. She called to him to come in, then thanked Eve for her help and released her to go on to the other two ladies.

"I think I've shocked the trainee maid," she told him.

"Ask her to come back later and we can shock her a bit more," he teased.

Dinner was wonderful. The food was marvellous, since the Duchess was proud of the fresh produce from the estate and her superb team of chefs. She noticed that the men she spoke to were finding it difficult to focus on anything higher than her long, deep cleavage. She also noticed that her husband was aware of it too and was enjoying their envy.

She was rather surprised to find that once everyone was mellowed by lots of good wine a great deal of the after dinner conversation was quite racy. She found that the suggestive talk was making her very hot. She caught his eye and understood immediately that he felt the same. It was too early to retire, but when someone suggested walking in the garden they both jumped at the chance to move.

Once outside, they soon managed to slip away from the others. They let themselves into the famous orangery and grabbed each other hungrily. Hardly bothering to check they could not be seen, he immediately hitched up the yards of taffeta. His hand went straight to her bottom, which he found naked. Exploring further he came across the tiny thong which disappeared deep within the crease of her arse.

Reaching his hand round to the front, he pulled the thong to one side and began to finger her urgently. Whilst his mouth was busy on the cushion above her bodice, he fumbled to unpack his pants, then fought through her skirts once more. Frustrated by the persistent return of the thong into the valley he wanted to occupy, he reached down with both hands and dragged it over her hips and down to her feet. She lifted out one foot, then with the other she kicked the offending thong across the floor of the orangery.

With her back against the door, he hoisted her up against the glass and lowered her unceremoniously onto his cock. There was urgent, greedy grunting and rattling as he humped her and came so hard his legs buckled.

They heard voices approaching and in seconds he was repacked in his pants and her skirt covered the wet trail down her thigh.

"Oh, you're in here!" said one of the ogling husbands.

"Yes, we thought you had all come this way," he explained, as she kicked the discarded thong behind a large flower pot. They rejoined the group and survived the rest of the evening until they were able to retire. On the landing they met Eve.

"Can I help you now, my Lady?" she asked.

She exchanged looks with her husband.

"Yes, thank you, Eve. I would appreciate that."

The Earl passed through into his adjoining room, leaving the door open. Standing where he could see her, so that Eve's back was to the door, the Countess allowed the young maid to help her out of her evening clothes.

First the velvet bolero came off. She kicked off her shoes and hoisted her leg onto a chair to slide off the garter, then roll down the stockings in turn. She turned to let Eve undo her skirt, then stepped out of it and turned to catch the girl's reaction to her nakedness under the skirt. She stood waiting for the maid to undo her laces. Over Eve's shoulder she caught sight of her husband sitting in a chair, enjoying the show.

As the laces were undone, she allowed Eve to pull away the bodice, leaving her entirely naked. The maid crossed to the bed and brought back a silk wrap which she held up for the Countess to put on.

"Will that be all for tonight, Milady?"

"Yes, thank you, Eve. Good night."

As Eve closed the door, the Earl walked through the connecting door from his room.

"I don't know whether it's more fun to undress you or to watch a pretty woman do it for me," he told her. Shedding his own clothes in seconds, he left them in a heap on the floor and pulled her onto the bed with him. They each came twice more before they finally collapsed, exhausted.

The Saturday had been quite well planned so that there was plenty to keep them out of the way of the staff who were preparing the house for the ball. By the time they returned from a visit to a neighbouring estate, they all had an early informal dinner before they went up to dress.

The connecting door stayed firmly closed now, to preserve the secret of their costumes a little longer. She pulled her costume out of its garment bag and hung it on the wardrobe door. She took out of her vanity case a small box into which she placed a jelly butt plug and a remote control. Taking a sheet of headed paper from the writing desk, she wrote a note.

"To wear with your costume. Find me when I give the signal."

She put the note in the box, then rang for one of the staff to deliver the box to her husband's room.

She showered quickly, then began to prepare for the ball. There was a knock on the door and Eve came in to offer her help. She asked her for help with her long black wig, then stood up and allowed Eve to remove her dressing gown. She caught sight of herself in a cheval mirror and laughed. She was a comic sight, naked in a knee-length black wig.

"Well, Eve, if it weren't an opera ball I could go as Lady Godiva!" she laughed.

"I think you might cause a riot, my Lady."

Eve brought over the long cream silk robe and helped her to put it on. Lady S liked the way it moved across her naked skin as she climbed onto the strange platform sandals.

Once Eve had left her, she pulled up the over-long sleeves and hitched up the hem of her robe, putting her foot up on the stool. She slipped a gold vaginal egg inside her. The cold intruder gave her a lovely shudder as she settled the removal cord and put her foot down. She had a pocket inside her long sleeve, into which she put the remote control.

Once she was ready, she waited for the knock on the connecting door which signalled that her husband was leaving to go downstairs. She pulled on her mask, which was a white face with oriental eyes and the artificially small red mouth of a Chinese princess. She waited for five minutes, then made her way carefully down the grand staircase on the precarious sandals.

In the Great Hall, there were already many people milling around and there was a low hum of conversation. She glanced around at the eerie sea of masks. She couldn't immediately identify her husband, but she was confident that she would do so quite soon.

She began to talk to someone who had come as Rigoletto and who she thought she could identify as one of the ogling husbands. They were discussing Verdi when she felt her egg burst into life. She stifled a little laugh as she realised that the Earl would just have concluded that his butt plug control didn't work.

She waited for a moment, then tweaked the control inside her pocket. From just behind her she heard a little squeak which she recognised. The Earl had now discovered that he did not have control of his own toy. There was an instant surge of her egg to show that he had worked it out, which she happily answered, turning to see Don Giovanni give her a little wave.

The two toys slept for a little while as the couple circulated, guessing the various characters and true identities of the guests. Moving through the public rooms, they both enjoyed the evening, sometimes together and sometimes circulating separately. The dancing began, although all she could do was to sway gently because of her costume footwear. Before long she opted out for a rest and was talking to Pagliacci, who was certainly the Duke. He was giving her his view on various Turandots he had heard when she felt her egg come alive.

By the time she could politely leave the Duke, the egg was pulsing insistently in her. She looked round for Don Giovanni and saw him by the library door. She hobbled across the ante room to join him.

"I thought you'd never come," he complained.

"Well I could hardly tell the Duke I'd have to leave because the egg in my pussy was buzzing."

"Oh I don't know. The old boy might have enjoyed that."

"Well?" she enquired. "You summoned me?"

"Well, I feel like living up to my character's reputation and I have an appetite for Chinese tonight." He slipped through the library door then pulled her through behind him and immediately backed her up against the door. He ran his hands over her body and detected no bands or seams beneath her gown.

"Very nice," he whispered. "Though not at all consistent with the ice maiden image."

In reply she reached down to the bulging front of his breeches and gave him an affectionate squeeze. He was about to reach up and remove her mask when they realised they were not alone in the library. At the other end of the room Cavaradossi had Tosca bent over the huge carved table. They appeared to be oblivious to the new arrivals as he rode her hard. The Earl kneaded his wife's breasts and she squeezed and rubbed his cock as they watched the show. At the end of the performance they applauded and a slightly surprised Tosca and Cavaradossi made pretty bows to cries of "Encore".