Chapter 7

Days turned into weeks, and thenmonths. The men found that simply having tasks allocated to them was quite relaxing. In their own worlds they were constantly turned to for leadership, decisions, advice etcetera. It was their class, their position in society; they were expected to be leaders. Now they just had to turn up in the morning, having breakfast with increasingly scantily clad young women, be allocated jobs, and go and do them. The ladies were less concerned about what they wore, and what was seen. Some of it was simply practical and some was the heat, and some was a desire to be seen a little more.

The women and the men had all adapted clothing now to suit the weather and the fact of needing something sensible to wear when (people still assumed it was a when) they were rescued. The men had tried various combinations of leaves and had finally ‘allowed’ the women to sew them some shorts made from a tough broadleaf and held together by fibres from another plant. This was something that Crichton noted the women and men had collaborated on to produce something practical and sensible for their tougher jobs. Collecting coconuts, for example, had been a challenge which they had overcome when Treherne was found to have tough feet that could grip the trunks of trees without too much duress. The first idea – that they all wore grass skirts – would hardly have been suitable since it would present a bare-arsed view from the ground.

Some of the old society persisted; when Agatha suggested that they could all wear similar shorts, she was outvoted by the other women. Crichton had agreed to let them decide for themselves what to wear, but was pleased that they opted for grass skirts. So the ladies wore skirts which offered interesting views of legs further up than ever viewed before. Even when not running or moving rapidly, the length of the skirts was only to the knee for practical purposes, which presented more leg than they had ever shown in public. When they ran, the pink of their upper legs frequently became visible, causing visible (and amusing) reactions on all the men, including Crichton. Even though Sultan Crichton, as he was called behind his back, found that, although he had seen these women naked frequently, he enjoyed the unexpected view of their thighs. Experiment had shown that to make the skirts thick enough to hide all, they were heavy and impractical. There was a limit to the amount of grass to use, which pleased all the men when the came to visit.

The men went bare chested now and had become bronzed and better looking (the women thought). The women took to using large leaves to cover their mammaries, tied with similar fibres to the men’s shorts. Some days they gathered garlands of flowers around their bodies or heads. Fashion was starting to arrive on the island.

Crichton still maintained control. It was accepted now, and no-one seemed apt to rebel even though they could probably have survived well without him – or at least survived. His practical skills ran well ahead of the men and women in so many ways. But after a month or two of accepting his rule and his right to all the women, no-one seemed apt to question the status quo. He would tell one or other of the females that he would visit them, usually for the evening, and they would simply prepare themselves for his lewd, or rude, demands. When visiting Mary or Catherine sometimes he would say they should both be present and after servicing one or other of them he would watch as they pleasured each other. The sisters were never quite sure if this would be approved in polite society (the viewing certainly not, but sisters helping each other?), the sexual actions of females with females was not something that their society had even condemned. A blind eye was turned on such friendships.

Crichton introduced them to things that they might never had discovered otherwise: the delight of a woman’s tongue pleasuring that special place inside the other’s vagina; the unusual experience of multiple pairs of hands stroking the body, having a man enter you from behind whilst a woman rubs the same organ from outside, the ability of two woman to rub their loins together to achieve satisfaction; for, to give him his due, he took pleasure in seeing and hearing a woman reach her own climax. He liked the tastes of a woman, something Catherine and Mary were less sure about; but since they both benefitted from the other’s tongue inside, they were prepared to accommodate such tastes. They never understood his delight in ‘drinking from the fountain’ as he called it. He rarely pursued his enjoyment of having them drink from his, but he still liked seeing their breasts drip with water that he or a sister had produced. He knew it was probably the sign of a sick mind, but was fairly sure that all were sick in some ways.