Chapter 2: Welcome to Chelmsford Hall

Mary Pilson knew that her ‘uncle’ Walter was grooming her. ‘Uncle’ was a silly term that Mary’s mother used to describe the men who moved into their home to take advantage.

Mary had no time for her uncles; she saw them for what they were, parasites and users. Mary’s mother could hardly make ends meet working as an usherette at the local cinema. Her good looks, curvy body and long legs ensured that she was well tipped by the male customers but she also attracted the sharks.

Mary mostly ignored the string of uncles who came and went; she lived in her own fantasy world where she was the star in a movie that she had made up in her imagination. Mary was well developed and very mature for her age; she was also very intelligent and excelled at school. But Mary had no intention of finishing her O-levels; what would be the point?

Her mother was unable to fund her tertiary education, and in 1950s Britain women were expected to stay at home and be housewives. But Mary had other plans.

Walter had started buying Mary little favours as soon as she reached the age of consent. He bought her crisps, pop, chocolate, copies of Girl Magazine and other treats. Whilst other girls her age made do with long socks or heavy tights, Mary was wearing fifteen denier fine stockings bought for her by Walter.

“Here. I know that young ladies like you want to grow up as soon as you can. Don’t tell your mother,” Walter had given her a cosmetics case.

When he started to buy her underwear, nylon and satin knicker and bra sets, she knew what he was after. She had seen him with her mother; he was quite blatant and thought nothing of squeezing her mother’s breasts or pinching her bum in front of Mary. Then he started doing the same to Mary.

“Look at my two girls; I can’t decide which one has the better arse,” he would say pinching them both.

“Don’t be naughty Walter,” was all her dippy mother would say in response to him pawing at her daughter.

It was a Saturday night and they were all at home, congregated in the little sitting room of the two-up two-down council flat. The fire was roaring and they’d had fish and chips for dinner with beer for the grown-ups and dandelion and burdock for Mary. The only light came from the black and white TV that they rented, which was showing a British suspense movie. Mary had dozed off in the big lounge chair, full of dinner and pop, the warmth of the fire causing her to become drowsy.

“Stop it Walter; Mary is right there!” her mother giggled.

Her mother and Walter lay snuggled on the couch, initially under a blanket but it had been discarded because of the warmth of the fire.

Thinking that Mary was asleep and emboldened by the beers that he had consumed Walter was up for some slap and tickle as he called it. He was lying with his back against the back of the couch with Mary’s mother lying in front of him, spooning. They were both fully clothed but had kicked off their shoes. Walter’s erection had been poking Mary’s mother in the bum all night and she had been playfully batting it away.

“She’s asleep you dozy bint; besides the girl’s gotta learn all about it one day, she’s old enough to shag now,” Walter whispered into Mary’s mother’s ear.

She winced. The thought that her daughter was of the age of consent was disturbing; not because she was concerned about Mary’s chastity; Mary reaching censual age meant that her mother was getting old.

The drone of their whispering and the squeaking of the couch awakened Mary; she pretended that she was still asleep but watched her mother and her ‘uncle’ through heavily lidded eyes.

Walter was nuzzling her mother’s neck and his hand was under her skirt, which he’d rucked up her thighs. Her stocking tops were visible and Walter seemed to like stroking them and then sliding his hand further up under her mother’s skirt, exploring her buttocks and the treasures she kept in the confines of her loose nylon panties.

“Oh my!” her mother wriggled on the lounge and bit her lip.

Walter must have found what he was looking for Mary thought.

She watched her mother push back against Walter’s hand as her breathing became heavier.

“Jesus I can’t ... that’s better,” Walter sighed and her mother lifted her rump off the couch so that Walter could get his hand where he wanted it.

She opened her legs for him.

She looked over at her sleeping daughter.

“Be quick and be quiet,” she whispered.

“You’re the one who needs to be quiet; you scream like a banshee when you’re coming,” Walter chuckled.

Her mother blushed.

Walter fumbled with his flies and her mother wriggled out of her knickers, bunching them around one ankle.

“Here,” Walter bent her arm behind her back and put his phallus in her hand.

“It’s bloody huge!” her mother gasped as she began to stroke Walter’s rampant member.

Walter had his hand between her mother’s legs and whatever he was doing she liked it. She mewed and bit her lip to stifle her moans and the stench of sex filled the air. Tonight was supposed to be bath night but they’d delayed it until Sunday so they could watch the telly. The pungent reek of a week’s worth of her mother’s vaginal secretions, only dabbed at after she pissed, permeated the room. Mary’s mother’s genital hygiene was over-reliant on perfume and roll on deodorant.

Walter however obviously found the scent arousing; he fumbled behind her buttocks easing himself inside her labia in order to penetrate her. She lifted a leg to assist him.

“Oh!” her hand flew to her mouth to stifle a moan as Walter slid all the way inside her.

Walter lowered her leg and began to thrust slowly in and out of Mary’s mother. He smoothed down her skirt so that to the uninitiated it would just look like they spooning on the couch.

He didn’t take long. He thrust a few times, pummelling against her soft creamy buttocks, working his penis all the way inside her then nearly pulling all the way out, then plunging his cock deep inside her again. He stifled his orgasmic cries by crushing his mouth on her neck and her mother bit down hard on her fingers as she shuddered and suppressed her shrieks of pleasure.

They both grunted as they rutted, she saw her mother push back with her buttocks; writhing and wriggling as Walter held her by the hips and rode her to coital completion.

Mary still pretended to be sleeping. The musky smell of semen joined with the piquancy of her mother’s sex and assaulted her nose.

There were rustling and mutterings as her mother pulled on her knickers and they adjusted their clothing to make themselves decent.

Mary stirred and feigned waking up. She reached down to the carpeted floor and found her pop bottle. The sweet liquid was sickly warm but she forced herself to drink it.

“You ok love?” her mother called across the room.

“I’m fine mom. I think I might go to bed,” she smiled wanly at her mother, who remained wrapped in the arms of her lecherous lover.

“Be a poppet and bring us both a bottle of ale off the sideboard before you go up please Mary,” Walter raised his head over her mother’s supine body.

Mary popped the caps off the beers and bought them over, handing them to Walter over the back of the couch. He grinned up at her and winked salaciously; Mary shuddered but kept a false smile on her face.

“Time to move on,” she said to herself as she climbed the staircase to her pokey attic bedroom.

In fact the time to leave came the very next day.

With her mother required to work the matinee session at the cinema and Walter at the afternoon session down at the pub, Mary decided to get dressed up and go for a walk.

Mary was very much a loner and enjoyed her own company. Most of the girls at school were better off financially and looked down at her but were jealous of her academic achievements and good looks. She was also allowed to dress more grown up, wearing makeup and stockings to school; her breasts were well developed and the boys made advances but were quickly turned away.

Mary had very few nice clothes but she made the most of what she had.

A Bri-Nylon panty-girdle with suspenders attached; matching brassiere and flesh-toned fully-fashioned stockings completed her foundation garments over which she wore a navy-blue fitted skirt with a tight waist, the hem resting just above her knees. She wore a tight red satin blouse and fitted jacket to match the skirt and her only pair of black patent leather high-heel pumps.

Her makeup was perfect, dark eyes and bright-red lipstick, her dark ginger mane complemented her peaches and cream complexion. She had a pair of navy-blue gloves to match her suit; she wore plain silver-plated jewellery, which was all she could afford.

In her mind she was Audrey Hepburn heading out for a stroll through Paris as opposed to the young lady she really was, about to walk through the dingy streets of Birmingham. She lived on Upper Thomas Street in Aston and she intended to walk through Aston Park and admire the gardens and lawns, an oasis in a city of soot-stained red brick, and maybe explore Aston Hall if it was open to the public.

This was one of Mary’s few escapes from the drudgery of her home life.

She’d nearly made out it out the door when Walter staggered in reeking of beer and tobacco.

“Well don’t you look pretty my girl,” he leered at her.

“I’m going out for the afternoon. Mom’s got the matinee but she’ll bring dinner home,” Mary tried to pass Walter at the doorway.

“Well that just means we have all afternoon to get know each other better with your mother out the way,” he grinned and blocked her way.

“What on earth do you mean Walter!” Mary spat at him.

Walter grabbed Mary by the shoulder and hip and flung her across the room. She careered into the couch, dropping her handbag. Walter pounced; pinning her beneath him.

“Don’t treat me like shit on your shoe you fucking stuck-up slag! You take all the presents I give you! I bet those nylons you’re wearing are one of my gifts. What about yer knickers; did I buy you them?” Walter tried to get his hand under Mary’s skirt.

Marry used all her strength and pushed Walter off her as he tried to kiss her and force his hand between her legs.

“Get off me you fucking pervert!” she squealed at him; her strength superior to his only because he was drunk.

“I’ll tell mom about this!” she panted, catching her breath.

She had gotten off the couch and was adjusting her clothing; seething with anger. Walter was on his hands and knees near the fireplace, winded and heaving in lungsfull of air.

“Tell her you dozy prat. I’ll tell her that you offered yourself to me for a few quid to go out on the town. She’s already jealous of you; she’ll believe me over you,” he sneered.

“I’d rather be mounted by a pig than by you!” Mary snorted.

Walter shot out a hand and gripped Mary by the ankle. He yanked her feet out from under her and she tumbled to the floor.

“Well you might get to make that comparison girly cause I think I’m gonna fuck you right now,” Walter grasped her other ankle and wrenched her towards him.

Mary’s skirt rode up as he dragged her across the carpet and Walter leered at her. He got to his knees and fell on her, prising her legs apart with his knees. Mary struggled underneath him but he used his weight to pin her down, his foul breath assaulted her senses.

“Ok girly; time to pop your cherry,” he pulled at his belt buckle with one hand and yanked at Mary’s knickers with the other.

Mary’s hands scrambled across the floor, looking for something to grip onto so she could pull herself free. She found the tiled hearth and then the fireplace tool caddy. She knocked it over and her fingers wrapped around the handle of the poker.

Walter had freed his erection from his trousers and was now using both of his hands to pull down her knickers.

Mary swiped the poker sideways with all her might and caught Walter on the temple. He lurched sideways and let go of her underwear and bought his hands to her throat to choke her. Mary swung again and this time the spur of the poker lodged in Walter’s skull.

He looked down at her; surprised and stupefied. He put his hand to his head and was bewildered to see it covered in blood.

“What have you done you cunt?” he slurred and fell off her.

He lay comatose on the carpet, blood pooling around his head.

Mary did not hesitate. It took her less than five minutes to pack everything she owned into a single suitcase.

She didn’t even look at Walter’s body as she left the house.

One year later...

Charlotte Beason felt a little sick having scoffed the chocolate. She was a quite surprised that she could see out of the windows of the limousine that had appeared dark and impenetrable from the outside.

They were heading north-east through Essex past Brentwood, and Charlotte, finally warm and comfortable, fell asleep.

The man gently shook her awake as they entered Chelmsford. It took Charlotte a while to come fully to her senses and then she remembered where she was and how she had got here. She was acutely aware of her body odour, which she had tried to disguise with perfume until it had ran out two days ago.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“There,” the man pointed to an imposing structure that could have been a small castle through the trees.

Behind the building loomed a huge metal tower; the structure towering above the treeline in the dwindling light. Charlotte knew from her World War Two studies that it was an old Second World War radar tower; the only one still remaining and it helped Charlotte find her bearings and figure out where she was.

The car pulled onto a long driveway girded by tall pines followed later by the crunch of gravel as the car entered a courtyard out the front of what appeared to be a manor house.

“Welcome to Chelmsford Hall; I’m Lord Edward Tilsbury, and the distinguished gentleman driving us is ex-Sargent William Pitt,” Edward said, patting Charlotte chastely on the knee.

The car pulled up beside the steps leading to a grandiose set of wood and glass double doors. William leapt from the driver’s seat and opened the door for Edward and then made his way to the boot to heft out Charlotte’s suitcase.

Edward opened the door for Charlotte and she stood bewildered and shivering looking up at the three-story sandstone mansion.

“This is Mary Pilson; one of my personal staff. She will look after you from now on,” Edward smiled down at Charlotte and indicted Mary who was standing on the bottom step with a beatific smile on her face.

Mary rushed forward and took Charlotte’s hands in hers.

“Welcome to Chelmsford Hall; or just call it ‘The Hall’ as we all do,” she beamed.

Charlotte was still very befuddled and she shook her head to clear it.

“Who are ‘we all’? Why am I here? Who are you?” she said perplexed at the situation.

“All very good questions Charlotte and they will be answered soon enough but let’s get you bathed and settled for the night,” Marry led Charlotte up the stone steps and through the doors.