Chapter 2: The Bathhouse

One of the disused buildings was a bathhouse, designed almost like a Roman Bathhouse; instead of the four chambers this one had only two. It appears the rest of the household were like many others of the period, a bit shy of water. The bathhouse had been built by Petal's grandfather who loved his steam and hot baths. This was something alien to most of the gentry of the day. Before Gerald's meeting with The Watchers he had similar thoughts, now he couldn't get into a hot bath quick enough.

After Petal had left and without wearing his coat he went to the old bathhouse and was sitting on a marble seat inside, wondering how he could get the bathhouse back into working order.

Thinking that someone had left the door of the bathhouse open Archie a man of the same age as Gerald, who worked at the stables entered. Seeing Gerald sitting with his chin in the palm of his hand and his elbow on his knee, knew he was thinking about something. Then Gerald on seeing Archie stood to meet him.

"Archie, just the man, think we could get this up and running again?"

"I don't think there would be much trouble, the vents would need cleaning out, for weeds and muck has built up in them."

"If I take you off stable work, how long do you think it would take the two of us to get it working?"

"A couple of weeks, instead of wood we have coal, which will work much better, but it will take some time to get it back up into a sweat box.?

"Well there is no time like the present, let's get to it."

Gerald and Archie worked for four hours without a halt. There wasn't much to show for their work, but they felt they were going to complete the task. The sluice where the water supply came from had long ago stopped working, but they knew with a day's work and some material they would have it working as good as it ever was.

At dinner, Petal no longer sat at the far end of the table, but had taken the seat directly opposite Gerald. Gerald said nothing about the move, but smiled at her.

"I needed something to do, so I have decided to bring the bathhouse up to working order. I have borrowed Archie from the stables to help me, I hope you don't mind." Gerald said, knowing even after one fuck, she was hooked. How he knew this fact, he had no idea, another one of the strange abilities he had gained.

"It hasn't been used since my grandfather used it. He bathed every day you know," Petal said almost in a whisper as if it was a crime to admit a relative bathed daily. "No, I don't mind, Archie is a good worker, but not much good around horses. Use him you can have him as one of your servants, a gift from m," she replied.

After coffee they both went upstairs, Gerald never even asked, but followed her into her bedroom. The room was dark, the windows covered with thick velvet curtains that not only kept out the light but air as well. The room was lit only by a single oil lamp. This fact resulted in the room smelling stuffy, but masked by the scent of a woman and perfume, which seemed to have been used profusely.

Petal stopped at her dressing-table, looking at him in the mirror as she removed her jewellery as well as the rings on her fingers, all the time smiling. When she started undressing, Gerald did so as well, until there was a pile of clothes beside each of them. Petal had her right arm across her chest holding her breasts and her left-hand over her crotch.

"Shall I put on a nightdress?" She asked, more for breaking the ice than anything.

"No way Petal, just the way Nature meant us to be. Anyway you have a nice body and I would like to see it."

"You think my body is nice Gerald?"

"I certainly do." What a liar he was, her breasts though large were drooping and she had the beginnings of a spare tyre around her waist. Her hips though were wide and plump, just the way he liked them. If he hadn't found out how good a fuck she was he doubted he would ever have looked at her again.

As he looked at himself in the dressing-table mirror he could see why on the Penelope he had the nickname 'Stallion' for his hard cock was bouncing just like a stallion's does. Petal had got on to the bed and it was obvious what she wanted. Her feet were square on the feather mattress and the knees wide apart, displaying her snatch, which to Gerald was so inviting.

Petal held her hands out and wide as Gerald guided his huge cock to her not so thin vulva lips. Somehow they had become slightly swollen since earlier today. Sliding into Petal was like sliding into honey, that slight resistance making all the difference. As he penetrated she had lifted her hips and so making it even easier. Once their pubis touched her legs went around him, locking him into her plump body.

"You sure don't want to lose me, do you Petal?" He said grinning down at her smiling face.

"Oh, my fantasies are being realised and I don't want to miss a fraction of them."

"So you randy old witch you had sexual fantasies, what else do you fantasise about?" Gerald asked as he slowly moved his hips back and forth, sliding smoothly in and out of her well secreting pussy.

"Oh I can't tell you all my fantasies, anyway I don't think you would approve."

"Go on tell me, don't hide anything from me. You are my sex kitten."

Gerald said, but thought. 'You randy bitch, censuring your daughter for going with other men and here you are with whom you think is your grandson, rove up your lovely pussy.'

Now Petal was going with him, rolling and thrusting her hips as Gerald had one of her lovely soft breasts in each hand. His thumbs were working on the nipples and they were standing out like acorns. Again he just unleashed his sperm into her body, having no care if she was still productive or not.

Now he knelt there still embedded in her pussy, rolling her clitoris against her pelvis bone with his thumb.

"Come on Petal tell me your other fantasies."

"I have always dreamt of being seduced by two men at the same time. After a friend of mine told me about her affair, I wondered how it would feel. The feeling got stronger and I used to lie in bed at night and try to imagine it."

"Many women like two men at once, so it isn't that bad a fantasy, I was imagining it to be something different."

"Thinking about it makes me want more of what we just had."

"Petal, by the time the sun rises you will be wishing you never said that," Gerald said, feeling himself getting hard a he slowly filled her up with his hardening cock.

Archie was overwhelmed when Gerald told him that he no longer worked in the stables, but with him. Archie was an orphan and lived in a corner of the stables, getting his meals from leftovers from the main house kitchen. Granted he was paid nearly two shillings a day, but even that didn't buy much. Gerald put up his pay to four shillings a day on the provision that he continued to work hard.

In three weeks they completed the task, the pebble and sand filter boxes were all replaced, the sluice system from the spring was now working. The large copper vat sized kettle where the water was heated took the longest time, for it had slowly filled up with leaves and all sort of 'nasties'. When the fires were lit the heated air flowed through all the under floor channels and up out of the chimney at the far end and started heating the water.

Splashing the water on the floor caused the steam to rise and soon the whole inside of the first chamber had become a sweat room. The first two to use it was Archie and Gerald. Years of ingrained dirt poured from their pores as they rested on the marble seats. The seats or benches were placed around the outside of the main room with the sunken hot water bath in the centre. In a proper Roman Baths there would have been two chambers the laconicum or steam room and the calidarium, or warm bath. The tiled bath could hold at least ten people, through into the other room was the frigidarium or cold tub similar to the hot one, to rinse off in. Between these two rooms the Romans would have had an addition room with a bath called the tepidarium, the name says it all it had a bath with tepid water.

"I never thought it would be so pleasant to bathe. You know this is the first time I've stripped off to wash myself and never in a place like this," Archie said as he reclined on the bench with the sweat pouring out of his body.

Unknowing to Archie, Gerald had arranged for a disused servants room in the main house for him. Also on the small bed was a bundle of clothes, granted old ones of Gerald's, but far better than the rags he was now wearing.

It was during the time when they were scrubbing each others backs that Archie noticed the scars on Gerald's back.

"How did you get these, they look like you were given the cat."

"Yes, one dozen and I would never wish it on any man."

"I thought officers never received the cat?"

"They don't, but that is a long tale that I may tell you one day. You won't find your clothes; I've thrown them in the fire. Wrap the towel around you when we finish and come with me to the main house." Gerald replied changing the subject.

"But the others will see me naked," he said as though his nakedness would end the world.

"That's all right; I'll dress the same, if that makes you feel better. I had better tell my grandmother, since she seems to have taken an interest in this place."

"I doubt it, Mrs Watkins told Mabel, my girlfriend the Lady has gone to her friends for a few days."

I wonder if it is the friend who told her about having it off with two men at the same time. I also told Petal I wondered what it would be like with two women. I had no sign that she even heard my reply, but one never can tell.

All her friends who had called and there were quite a few were all brought down to see the progress on the Bathhouse. Gerald had the feeling they thought him eccentric, trying to restore a Bathhouse when most people only washed about twice a year. Archie and Gerald noted a few giggles and blushes when they caught a few women talking to each other. This was after we told them that one had to be naked to get the full benefits of the hot steamy conditions.

The pair of them never ran, but just strolled the couple of hundred yards to the main house where Gerald showed Archie his new room and the bundle of clothes that he had laid out for him.

"These clothes are too good for me Gerald; I wouldn't know how to wear them."

"When we go out together I want you to be as well-dressed as I am. Archie I want you to be my companion, not a servant, no matter what my grandmother says. I will try to get you a better room than this cupboard, but these things take time," Gerald said clapping Archie on the back and then left the room closing the door after him.

It was then Gerald done a quick dash to his room, in case Mrs Watkins the housekeeper or one of her maids saw him with just a towel around his waist. He never saw any of them as he closed his room door. He felt the cleanest he had ever felt, but still there was dirt and grime embedded in his pores. He was determined that he would remove the last vestige of his past life, for seeing the ingrained dirt reminded him of his past.

He was dressed, sitting reading a book when there was a gentle knock on his door. "Come in please," Gerald called out.

The door opened and Mrs Watkins entered. Mrs Watkins was dressed from head to foot in black, except for the frilly bonnet she had tied on with the large bow under her left ear. Mrs Watkins was younger than Petal, but older than Magdalene. I doubt if she had ever been married, but it seemed all housekeepers took the title of Mistress. She certainly was the Mistress of this household and all the servants feared her. She was just the shape Gerald liked a woman, not thin, but with a good rounded body.

She was standing just in the room with hands clasped in front of her. "I have wanted to talk to you for a while, but your grandmother has always been around. I don't know what happened to you after the sinking of your ship, but you have come back a different man. You are no longer the rude and bad-tempered Gerald I have known since you were a young boy.

Your grandmother thinks the same, at one time she wouldn't pass the time of day with you, now I see you laughing and joking together. Giving Matthew the silver coin was a shock to all of us, then you have taken Archie under your wing and I have been told you have given him some of your clothes."

"I hope for the better and yes I think of Archie as a companion, not a servant. I would like a better room for him than the cupboard he has."

"Yes very much for the better. As for the room, there is a lovely bedroom and sitting room above the Coach-House that has been vacant for a couple of years. It used to be Thomas's until he died, but Peter doesn't need it because he is married. I will get a couple of my girls to clean it out, since Madam isn't around, it will give them something to do."

"Thank you Mrs Watkins, I appreciate your help."

"Oh by the way, Archie wanted to come up and see you, will that be all right?" She said smiling.

"Sure, he can come up and see me in my room anytime, if that is all right by you."

"Thank you for asking me, see that is another thing you would never have done in the past."

With that she left and Gerald got back down to reading his book, but his mind wasn't on the written word. He was woken out of the trance by the knocking at his door. He rose and opened the door; Archie dressed in his new clothes confronted him.

"What a difference, you look the proper gentleman," Gerald exclaimed seeing how well Archie looked.

"Well the purpose of my visit isn't very well-mannered and gentlemanly," he replied.

After Archie entered and took a seat. Gerald asked Archie to explain." Now what could that be Archie?"

"You said I could take my girlfriend into the Bathhouse, but she won't go alone. Mrs Watkins would like to go, but she won't go without you. Do you know she has a crush on you? I know the woman's age doesn't put you off, so I hope you will agree to come."

"How do you know a woman's age won't put me off?"

"Well you have been fucking the Vicountess almost every night for weeks."

"How do you know this?"

"The chambermaids make the beds and nothing happens in that house without everyone else knowing."

"I thought I was being discreet too." Gerald replied bursting out laughing.

"Where does your girlfriend work?"

"She works in the kitchen."

"I thought the cook was a real protective bitch with her staff?"

"I had to fuck her a few times, before I could walk out Mary."

"You fucked the cook; she is huge and as old as Petal."

"Who's Petal?" Asked Archie?

"The Viscountess, her name is Petal."

"She's a good fuck, believe it or not. See we are more alike than you think," Archie replied, he too laughing.

"Sure I'll come with you; I was just thinking I need a few more sweat sessions and baths to get all the ingrained dirt out of my pores. We will have to go and light the fires again though."

"No need to worry, the fires have been looked after and everything is just right."

"Sure that I would agree, weren't you?"

"It takes one to recognise one," he said laughing again.

Two hours later Archie and his girlfriend Mary were at one side of the steam room and Mrs Watkins and Gerald were at the other side. The only illumination was from a lamp burning in the cold room and the light shinning through the archway. The steam had clouded the lamps globe, thereby only a pale orange glow was seen. Neither couple could see the other and this was what Archie wanted, for he wasn't here just to have a bath.

Archie had seen only the barest outline of Mrs Watkins body, but what he saw was what he expected and much to his liking. One thing he discovered she had the firmest breasts he had ever felt on any woman. At first they sat beside each other each with a towel wrapped around their waists. It was during this time he was asked to call her Susan, for in their state of undress it seemed out of place to call her Mrs Watkins. Most was small talk and how much she liked the feeling of being cleansed.