Chapter 8: Learning to be a lady

So it was that I slipped into my new life with much help from Diana, from Reginald, as I was told to address Lord Barton, from Mistress Black and Johnstone and especially from Annie who had the knack of always being cheerful about the apartment, humming as she worked, and instilled a measure of confidence in me when I became discouraged with all I had to learn and remember. Strangely, it seemed to me, even Janice went out of her way to be helpful and there was no trace of insolence or rebellion in her attitude. Indeed, it was she who went far and wide to find a particular cloth Diana thought would make a lovely summer robe for me. I even asked Diana if she could see her way to reinstating Janice, if only to the position of assistant to the new Seamstress, so Janice regained much of what she lost. I never had any disrespect from any other member of staff except once, which I will relate later for the rest of my time as a guest at Barton Court and Annie reported once that Janice had vehemently defended me when a kitchen drudge made a disparaging remark about 'that upstart, Jane Fairfax'. Diana and I both agreed that our maids had taken up their duties well, including our erotic needs.

My mornings were all taken up with lessons from an array of tutors. I learned to read and write, I learned about geography, etiquette, deportment, dancing, horse riding ... so many things to learn, sometimes my head was spinning before it was time for me to share lunch with Diana. I would spend most afternoons with my ostensible cousin; we became close friends quickly and she relished her task of creating a lady out of a serving wench. When the weather was clement, we would stroll together in the extensive gardens of Barton Court. There was a delightful walk through an old stone quarry with trees and bushes lining the pathway, which sometimes zigzagged through the maze of canyons from which the stone had been quarried to build a Roman Fortress a mile away on top of Longset Hill. Sometimes we would ride our horses around the Estate, either ambling gently through the trees or racing at top speeds across a meadow. That was fun. It was after one such ride that I retained the horsewhip so that I would not have to borrow Diana's, should I need one.

Diana admitted me to any discussions about household management with the Housekeeper. "Jane," she explained, "When you have to run your own house, you will need to know about your duties in that direction."

"Tell me, Diana, I notice you always call Roberta 'Mistress Black'? You do not use such terms to the rest of the staff."

"Jane, this is a large household and we employ many staff. Your household at Tradiscombe will be even bigger and you could not possibly manage alone. If you look at Barton Court, we have Johnstone who attends Reginald. He acts as Reginald's second-in-command as far as the rest of the staff are concerned. To help him he has Roberta Black who looks after the everyday running of all the services they provide.

"We can ask for whatever we require or desire and we communicate with the Butler and Housekeeper, often via our maids, and it is their task to ensure that we are served with all expediency. Tell me, when you were my maid and I sent you to Mistress Black or Johnstone, did they ever keep you waiting?"

"Never, Diana."

"No, of course not because they know that the whole household exists to keep me, my husband and our guests happy. Those two run our household and maintain discipline just so we get what we want. I often consult Roberta Black about our needs, any important changes I want made, or perhaps to organise a party. I could not do without her so she deserves the respect from me that using her honorary title gives. If another member of our staff hears my respect, then she gets respect from her. So it is little enough for me to call her Mistress Black."

"Yes, I see, Diana. Thank you so much for explaining these things, I had not truly realised their importance."

Diana and I would often call upon her friends, some of whom became my friends too. We would go into the city to look around the shops, stopping for tea at the best hotels. Sometimes Reginald would escort us to a dinner and dance party and Lord Barton arranged our own parties. They were fun. Diana and I wined and we dined and we danced with all the handsomest men under the benign eye of her husband. We would go home in a gay mood but exhausted, to be greeted by our faithful maids who pampered, undressed and put us to bed, sometimes I would have Annie join me for the night. She always brings me sweet relief and has a lovely body to hold when I have her sleep with me.

Our social life included the church. We walked there every Sunday but rode in the carriage in inclement weather and it was at the church that I widened my small circle of friends. Two or three times each week Diana and I would visit one friend or another or we would receive them in our apartments.

My new wardrobe took about four weeks to arrive in a cart. Before I left Percy, his Seamstress had carefully taken all my measurements and had, I learned later, devoted all her time to looking through the latest fashions and recreating the loveliest gowns, petticoats, undergarments. Everything a Lady would need. We all had so much fun opening each carefully wrapped package and examining the wonderful contents. One gown was a deep purple velvet with gold braiding, so lovely that I held it to my body daydreaming of Percy dancing me around the room.

Percy wrote letters to me two or three times a week. At first I had to get Diana to read them to me and write my replies, which made me learn to read and write much faster, I wanted to read for myself my lover's messages of his devotion to me. One of my lover's epistles to me, before I could read them myself, described in very explicit detail what he would like to do with my body. "Oh, Jane. I wish he would do that to me, you lucky girl."

I know he kept and treasured all my letters, and especially those in the childish fashion of a learner. I, too, have all his letters bound in a red ribbon, pressed in rose petals and saved in the ottoman under the window of my apartments in Tradiscombe, my home as Jane, Lady Underweir. Even now, I often spend happy hours sitting on that ottoman in the sunshine reading Percy's precious letters.

It was after I had learned to read that I discovered the pleasure of books and I devoured Reginald's library, reading everything from translations of the old Latin philosophers and historians to the latest novels by Mr Charles Dickens and anything in between. I became a voracious reader and one of my greatest pleasures was to sit in my chair reading a romance aloud while Annie was beneath my skirts, slowly lapping at my pussy. I taught Annie the basics of literacy so that she, too, could enjoy the huge wealth of literature available. Annie's preference was the romantic stories.

Some afternoons Diana and I would play canasta in her rooms then one day I had an idea. I gave Annie her instructions in the morning, before my session with Brother Dominic who was teaching me geography. That afternoon, we both took our seats at the card table. I watched Diana's face as she dealt the cards. Suddenly her eyes widened. I knew why because my legs were being parted at the same time and I felt Annie's tongue licking its way to my pussy. Diana quickly realised what was happening so she and I opened our legs as wide as the smiles on our faces to give our girls full access. I don't remember which of us won the card game. It didn't matter because it was interrupted several times by the girls exchanging places. Diana asked if that had been my idea and I confirmed that it was.

"Thank you my dear friend," she said, hugging me, "for such a lovely surprise." Her voice changed to a whisper although we both knew that the girls under the table could hear. "When did I last whip you?"

Her words gave me that deep gut feeling of a long-denied craving. "Not since Lammas Day, Diana, when Percival asked for me one last time." My nipples were tingling, my heart was thumping in my heaving chest, my knees felt weak. By all the gods in Olympus (yes, Ancient Greece was one of my studies) I needed the release I had not had since I stopped being her maid. Annie had tried to satisfy me but her heart was not in the task; she did not want to hurt her Mistress. I looked at Diana with a plea in my eye.

She had an enigmatic smile playing about her lips and a twinkle in her eye when she leant over the table and stroked my cheek as she said, "Come to my rooms after dinner. Bring Annie. And you, Annie, don't stop what you are supposed to be doing right now." I think Eleanor had difficulty coping with the sudden flood from my pussy when Diana told me to come to her rooms.

We played another couple of hands of canasta but my thoughts were elsewhere so Diana chuckled and told me to return to my rooms as I was in a different world. I told Annie to go about her duties as I sat in my chair and picked up the book Brother Dominic had left me that morning but the olive groves of Italy could not hold my attention, not with all the little erotic daydreams spinning through my mind.

Annie was currently brushing the carpets around my feet when she looked up at me.

"Forgive my impertinence, Mistress Jane, but do you really enjoy what M'Lady says she is going to do? Does it not hurt you terribly?"

I took her face in my hands and kissed her. "Bless you, Annie. Yes, it does hurt very much. That is the whole point. Nevertheless, your Mistress has needs, the pain is a powerful thing and I find that the more I get the more I want. There comes a time when the pain seems to go away and it is as if I am in the middle of a warm glow, my Golden Place. I feel every stroke as just more flame which burns through my body, I feel the heat in my pussy, in my breasts. My nipples are on fire. Truly, I like it so much that I climax."

Her eyes were wide open, looking at me as I saw her trying to digest what I had told her, trying to believe it.

"It is true, Annie. Tell me, what do you feel when I spank you?"

"As you say, Mistress, I feel a warmth in my pussy which makes me want to achieve a climax but surely, Mistress, I don't think Janice enjoyed it or had a climax when you whipped her."

"Different circumstances, Annie. Janice was just getting punished, she knew it and all who were there knew it. It comes down to what is in your mind. A punishment just hurts, as we both know from the Housekeeper's wooden spoon but pain in the bedroom is entirely different because it is a matter of the pleasure which the pain gives. As far as Janice was concerned, it was a very harsh punishment but let me tell you, Annie, I really did enjoy beating her. You know how she used to treat me? Yes, well she made my life a misery and I enjoyed every stroke of that whip. Did you know I had a climax when I beat her?