Chapter 7

They continued to stare into each other’s eyes for what seemed, at least for them, an eternity. But life reinserted itself upon them when a twelve year old girl, Johnetta, grabbed my arm and began pulling me toward the vision I beheld in the beautiful carriage. I certainly didn’t resist, for in that moment I wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere else in the world. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on, and it wasn’t just the beautiful dress and hat she wore. I couldn’t even see what color her hair was. Her breasts were small, but a generous amount of cleavage was exposed to my view. As I was willingly pulled closer, I found her eyes were bright cerulean blue, like the sky reflected off a still pond on a bright cloudless day. Her lips were perfect, not too thin or too thick. And her smile exposed perfect white teeth that lit up her face more completely than a magnesium powder flash.

She stood and offered her hand to me, I took it and helped her step down from the barouche. Our eyes re-engaged as I brought her hand to my lips to kiss, then I introduced myself and my companions,

“Madam, I am your host and the owner of The Canyon Hills Ranch, Zilas Jones! My companions are Tyra, Vera and Sonja Bergman, Georgia Jones, and Alice Brown.”

“Charlotte Carmichael and my friend and companion Sally Johnson”

“We welcome you to the ranch, you’ve had a long journey, please go with the girls, they will get you situated in your rooms and draw a bath for you. If you will excuse me, I have other business to attend to. We’ll talk at dinner, usually around six o’clock.”

I watched as the girls took the pair of women into the castle, Sally was a looker too! As the door closed I turned to Frankie and shook his hand, drawing him closer into a hug. I did the same with Elroy and James. Then I looked at the six women they had brought with them from Kansas City, they were an eclectic bunch, some tall, some short, thin and not so thin, dark chocolate skin, to caffè latte, some middle aged and some very young. None of them were what I would call beautiful, but they weren’t ugly either.

I introduced myself to them and welcomed them to the ranch, Frankie introduced them and I escorted them into the castle and showed them their rooms and the tubs in their bathrooms. Explaining how to fill them and where towels and soap were located. As I left I told them dinner was at 6:00, or thereabouts.

After a good meal we talked about their trip over coffee. It was quite a story and that Charlotte and Sally had saved everyone was something, beauty and guts, as they sat at the dinner table both with short hair. Presumably they had cut their hair to pass as men. They were both still beautiful. I couldn’t wait to talk with them and hear the backstory. There had to be a reason for them to suddenly open the Church doors and blast that imposter to hell.

When Sally and I walked into the castle, we were overwhelmed by the beauty and opulence of the inside. To the left was a great room with a huge fireplace in the opposite wall fifteen feet from the floor on either side of the fireplace were stained glass mosaics of hunting scenes. In front of us a granite staircase curved to the right and evidently kept going all the way to the top. A huge candelabra hung from a chain anchored forty feet above. We walked up to the third floor and down a wide hall. At the first door on the right, the girls opened the door and indicated that it was my room.

Both Sally and myself walked into the room. They just followed us into the room and showed us the bathroom. It was huge, I have slept in hotel rooms half the size. The tub was a cast iron affair as big as a double bed, a thing called a water closet was in the outside corner. You would take care of your business then pull a chain and everything would be flushed out of the bowl. A large window was made of glass that had tiny waves in the glass so that it let in light but you couldn’t see but a distorted view out of, and other people couldn’t see in. With the cliffs all around us, it would have been easy to look in with clear glass. The tub had two valves, one for cold water, the other for hot. Both could be run at the same time and you could adjust the temperature of your tub water by adjusting the flow from one valve or the other. We were told that a 500 gallon tank on the top floor was constantly heated by boys paid to keep the fire going twenty four hours a day. A rubber stopper was used to keep the water in the tub until you wanted to drain it, a string attached to the plug was pulled and the water went down pipes to water a garden.

As soon as the ladies left Sally and I started filling the tub. By experimenting we adjusted the water temperature until we both liked, we made it a little warmer than we liked it so the cold cast iron wouldn’t sap all of the heat from it. At the halfway point we stripped out of our clothing and got in facing one another. Such luxury, no interruptions by maids bringing more hot water.

I love how Sally’s dark body shines when it is wet, her nipples alway poke out as the water evaporates from her skin. The soap was scented, it was very mild and smelled like roses. We both enjoyed the smell it left on our bodies even after rinsing.

But most of all we enjoyed cleaning each other with soapy hands, taking turns standing in water to our knees, bending over with our hands on the rim of the tub while the other cleaned the other, especially between our legs and butt cheeks. Our titties received a lot of attention too. By constantly running hot water we kept the temperature just like we liked it, as a result we stayed in the tub for almost an hour. The last half an hour with Sally sitting the same direction as I sat, between my legs and leaning back with her head on my left shoulder. We almost fell asleep. It was so relaxing!

We discovered that the skin on our fingers were very wrinkled, it scared the both of us at first until as they dried the wrinkles went away. Large fluffy cotton towels had been provided, they felt wonderful as we dried each other. We still had almost two hours before dinner, so we piled on the bed and explored our clean bodies with our tongues, the exquisite smell of roses increased our ardor and it wasn’t long before we both simultaneously exploded in very strong orgasms. It was very nice not to have to hold in our screams, the thick walls and door would contain them.

We fell asleep and were shaken awake by Alice. It was obvious what we had been doing, just the smell was a dead giveaway. She just smiled and asked if she and the other girls could join in. I looked at Sally, she looked back and we both nodded in agreement.

“Are you both bisexual?” At our blank looks she added, “That’s when you like having sex with both girls and boys!”

“The only men that we’ve had raped us! So we aren’t sure if we would actually like having sex with one voluntarily! I would be willing to find out with the right person, I don’t think Sally would though.” Sally had been shaking her head no.

“That’s alright, you have plenty of willing partners here, unless the two of you are exclusive. And that is alright too! Don’t ever feel like you have to do anything, we appreciate help sometimes but it will be totally up to you to decide to do so. Get dressed and come down to the dining room. It’s off to the right of the great room.”

We dressed quickly and returned to the great room to the right behind the stairs was a large game room with a poker table, a billiard table and a long bar. Then another room, equally large was a library full of books on floor to ceiling bookcases, in the center of the room were library winged chairs in dark leather and tables for the assembly of jigsaw puzzles as well as studying.

The dining room might better be described as a dining hall as it was a large room. A long table with two candelabras hanging over it, each identical in their design. All forty candles in each, were already lit, the floor to ceiling windows with their curtains open showed the sun sinking over the western wall of the canyon at the waterfall. Almost everything was in shadow on the floor of the canyon. Like everything else here in the canyon the view of the setting sun was beautiful. On the wall opposite the windows were sideboards on either side of a large China Cabinet. One sideboard held desserts, pies and cakes, the other side held coffee and tea. On the end opposite the great room entry was a doorway with batwing doors, the kitchen could be seen beyond them.

I found our names next to the end of the table, the end where Zilas Jones sat. Across from us were the five girls, to Sally’s right sat Jill and Gladys then the six new women interspersed with the three men that had retrieved them plus three more likely suitors. Beyond them were ten men important to running the ranch. A man by the name of Rufus sat at the far end of the table. A five course meal was served, a Gazpacho, a cold tomato soup was first, a leafy lettuce and cabbage salad with small tomatoes and cucumber slices was next. Hot French style loaves, sliced thick and lightly toasted along with an olive oil infused with spices were served along with small plates for dipping as the third course. Thick beef steaks cooked on a grill were served on huge platters where you could choose the cut as well as your preference of how cooked your choice was. From mooing when stuck with a fork, to so blackened that it was doubtful any meat remained non carbonized, baked potatoes with butter and cheese available. Of course the last course was dessert. Apple, peach, pecan pies, chocolate, and angel food cakes with strawberry sauce to add to either slice. Wine was served with the meal.

The meal was the best meal I’ve ever had the pleasure of eating. To say we were stuffed would be an understatement! Once everyone had had their fill we moved to the great room. A giant fan propelled by a series of belts and pulleys that I was told ran off of a water wheel from water diverted from the stream just before falling down the cliff as a waterfall. The water then feeds a small pond in a flower garden on the side of the castle. The gentle breeze felt good as it cooled us off.

Coffee or tea was served as we met one another and let our meal settle, some of the men strayed into the game room to shoot billiards or play cards. I discovered a grand piano in a corner, it was even in tune. I sat and began to play Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony for piano by heart. Then I did a melody of Mozart songs. Then I switched to popular songs and began to sing. I didn’t realize that everyone had stopped whatever they were doing and had gathered around the piano listening, and then joining in singing some of the songs.

Almost two hours later, my fingers were beginning to hurt, so I had to stop. It was the first time I had played since my manager had been killed and I was raped, I began to cry as they started clapping. I was crying over the loss of my friends, including the two girls that had disappeared. I was crying for the loss of my virginity, for being forced by circumstances to kill several people. But I was also crying with joy for being able to play again and to play on such a marvelous piano, in front of people who appreciated my music.

To my surprise and embarrassment Zilas sat next to me on the bench, he held my hand and softly whispered in my ear,

“Would you do us the honor of telling us your story? Maybe not all of it, leave out whatever you need to, but tell us why you are crying!”

“Are you sure you want to hear my life’s story?”

Everyone there said “Yes!”

“Charlotte Cunningham is my real name, the one that was given to me at birth. My parents loved me and I suppose my early years were much the same as any other white Anglo Saxon person. That all changed when I was ten years old. My parents took me to an office Christmas party at the owner of the company he worked for as an accountant. These people were rich and had a large estate outside of New York City, on Long Island. The mansion was one of the largest in the neighborhood. We were greeted at the front door by their Butler, he escorted us to a huge room where others were standing around a large fireplace telling stories and lies to each other in a friendly manner. Almost all of the other employees at the company were fifteen to thirty years older than my father, as a result there were no children but me present. My parents mingled and found people to talk with, leaving me to find my own entertainment.”

“I wandered away and went exploring. One room was a library, I had never seen so many books! Another door led to a conservatory that held thousands of exotic plants. I didn’t go in. But the next room, the next room changed the course of my life!”

“It was a music room. In the center of the room was the largest piano I had ever seen. I had seen upright pianos before and had no interest in them. But this piano, which I later learned was called a Grand Piano, drew me like a moth to a flame. I found myself sitting on the bench in front of the keys, the strangest thing happened. I knew suddenly, that I knew how to play it! I don’t know how or where I gained this knowledge, I had never shown any inclination to learn about music in general, never wanted to take lessons.”

“But here I was sitting in front of a huge piano knowing that I could play it! The audacity, the unmitigated gall to actually play the thing gripped me and my stomach clinched in fear of being caught in the room, in the room sitting at the piano. Dare I actually place my hands on the keys? The door was closed, with it closed perhaps no one would hear me play, I reasoned. I found myself daring!”

“My fingers went on the keyboard, my feet, which could easily reach the petals because I was tall for my age. A song came to me, I didn’t know the name of it, much less the composer! I had heard it played before at a concert we had attended when I was eight years old. I began playing it! I became enraptured by the sounds, the rhythm, and the dancing fingers, my fingers, dancing on the keys. I didn’t realize how loud the Concert Grand Piano was! When I finished the song I was astonished when applause began, all of the party goers and the Master and Mistress of the house were standing around me wildly clapping their hands together!”

“Shouts of more were voiced by several people, then more joined in! I found my parents, aside from the looks of astonishment on their faces, they too were yelling “More!””

“Thinking back to the same concert I played another song, this one was much softer than the first one. The owner of the house and his wife had worked their way around their piano and stood behind me. They noticed that the sheet music on the stand in front of me was not the song I was playing! They looked at each other and nodded. Unknown to me or my parents they had reached a nonverbal agreement that changed my life. I would live with my parents for two more weeks, then I would only see them for a few weeks a year during holidays for the rest of their lives.”

“The songs I had played were the same ones I played tonight, Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony”, Mozart’s “The Haydn Quartets” adapted to piano. Chopin’s folk songs, and Schubert’s “Ave Maria”! Not used to playing, my fingers began to blister and the muscles became too sore to continue. It was late and people had to go back into the city, so the party broke up. None of the people at the party realized what they had witnessed, except the owners of the place, not even my parents realized the full truth of what had just transpired.”

“For the next two weeks my father’s boss, Mr. Johnathan Wheeler, and his wife Cynthia talked to experts in the field of music, and then to my parents. They discovered that I was what was known as a Child Prodigy. I had an innate musical ability, without being able to read music I could hear a song and then play it on the piano. They made my parents a deal they couldn’t refuse, they would pay for my education in music along with the other academic subjects all the way through college, if they would sign parental rights over to them. They, my parents, would be able to visit with me on holidays.”

“Johnathan had had Scarlet Fever when he was seven years old, it left him sterile, he couldn’t have children. They didn’t find out until they had remained childless after five years of marriage. They both consulted a doctor and that’s how they found out. They both had wanted children but loved each other and accepted that they never would. Then I showed up, an instant kid, with a talent, a new cause to take up! They didn’t love me, they used me as a showpiece to show the elite of society how great and wonderful they were.”

“I played at parties and social events, don’t get me wrong, I loved to play! But it began to wear thin over time. Cynthia did take me to schools, where they taught me to read musical notes, and a great pianist taught me to play even better than I had. Two years later my parents died in a Typhoid epidemic. I wasn’t allowed to go to their funeral.”

“Cynthia took me to Europe, where I played for the Kings and Queens of Europe. We even went to Moscow and played for Czar Alexander III and Czarina Maria Feodorovna. But as I grew older I was no longer the little girl phenom and my surrogate parents began to lose interest in me. Shortly after my sixteenth birthday they exiled me to a swank girls school in Boston. There I graduated from High School with honors. They didn’t come to the graduation ceremonies. They also failed to provide me with the promised college education. They sent me $200 along with a note that basically said “have a nice life” and I never heard from them again.”

“I went back to New York City and hired a manager, the first thing he did was change my name to Candy Caine. He booked me into Major Hotels as a lobby pianist and played between band sets when they were on their breaks. I gained a following and some of them were wealthy. They sponsored me in performing concerts, which were often sold out.”

“I was paid a good amount, but never realized that the manager was taking over sixty percent of the net revenues. He kept double books that showed a substantially lower amount of ticket sales revenue. One day he disappeared, not even trying to hide both accounting books. He had swindled me out of $100,000! The scandal was exposed in the newspapers and my career was ruined.”

“Finally a man approached me and wanted to form a traveling troupe that would travel from town to town putting on shows. I had discovered that I had a good singing voice, so we hired two beautiful girls to dance and I would play the piano and sing. Caleb Morris, Daniel Wilson, a dancer and singer, Ginger Bates, Victoria Smithers, and I traveled in a box wagon, the one I arrived in. We had finished a successful show in St. Louis and played on a riverboat up to Hannibal, Missouri. I played there for a week, then heading for Kansas City, Caleb had booked us into Coates House Hotel.”

“Twenty miles west of Hannibal, three men jumped from in front of us and immediately shot and killed Caleb and Daniel. They captured the three of us, tying our hands and leading us with a rope around our necks, to a cabin almost five miles from the point of the robbery. They hadn’t even gotten much in the way of money or loot, but they had us!”

“At the cabin they began raping us! One at a time they stripped our clothes and burned them. Then they tied us over a bench with our butts in the air, and began fucking us, each of the brothers took a turn the first time. Then they would recover and get the next girl, then they dragged me over, up to this point I was a virgin! They took me, all three of them, they didn’t care that it hurt me, they took me, and took me, and took me again! The next day they fed us their spend for breakfast, their nasty, foul smelling dicks were thrust into our mouths until they would cum, forcing their cocks down our throats. I had been a virgin there too! Then later that same day they took turns fucking our assholes. It was even more painful and degrading than the others. And yes, it had been a virgin hole too!”

“Over the next five days they continued to rape us. Sometimes all three of them would fill all my holes, sometimes just two, other times just one at a time. They did feed us some food on the second evening. On the fifth day the fucked us all one on one, then they tied us up again and walked back to their favorite ambush site. Several hours later a preacher walked in the door, we thought we were saved! Then he started taking off his clothes, as he was doing that, he introduced himself as the Reverend Tobias Smith and he was on the way to Kansas City, Kansas to a church in the Argentine District. He was a very large black man, a large cock was slowly growing erect as he gazed upon us.”

“He was no preacher! He fucked us everywhere, mouth, pussy, and asshole in every kind of position he could think of. Each time he would cum, someone had to swallow his cum. If he was fucking your throat, then you had no choice, he would cum down it directly, or he would pull out and cum in your mouth, then you had to swallow it. If he fucked your pussy or ass, then one of the other girls had to suck and lick his cum out. This became pleasurable for the three of us.”

“He also liked to inflict pain, spanking our tits or our butt cheeks as he plowed one of our holes, pinching nipples, forcing his cock inside us without lubricants, natural or man made. Forcing other objects into our bodies, ears of corn, cucumbers, squash, bottles and broom handles. After seven days of this treatment our bodies were hurting so much we couldn’t stand.”

“On the morning of the eighth day, after he got up from the bed he peed in each of our mouths making us swallow. Then he got dressed and checked the knots on our binding ropes, and walked out the door laughing! He planned on the three of us dying of thirst or starvation, our last liquid was to have been his urine.”

“We tried, all three of us tried to untie our knots, or rub the rope on an edge, trying to get free. On the morning of the third day, my fingers bleeding and torn, I was able to untie the knot tying my wrists together. I untied the other two and we went to the well and drank our fill of the sweetest water we had ever tasted.”

“The brothers had burned our clothes, naked we went looking for the only clothing we knew of. We planned to find the brothers bodies and take their clothes from their bodies. They had been dead for eleven days, even if animals hadn’t eaten and torn the bodies and clothes, they were going to stink! We found the bodies and they were definitely ripe! Just as we were going to start getting their clothes, I happened to see red and gold through the trees, it was our wagon. The mules were gone, our clothing was in disarray inside the box, but we had clothes! The brothers had not found the hidden compartment that held a revolver, and a shotgun, along with ammunition for both. There was also a money box with over four hundred dollars in it.”

“It was decided that I should walk west on the road with the revolver to the next town and purchase horses and then bring them back. We were going after that bastard and we were going to kill him if it was the last thing we did in this world!”

“We found a stream and pool of water about three feet deep. We bathed each other taking care when we soaped the tender parts. There was some food left in the wagon that the brothers overlooked, probably in their haste to get us back to their cabin to start raping us. So we had supper and ate a little bit slowly over a period of two hours. We slept like the dead but woke up early and had more food. After breakfast I left, found the road and began walking west.”

“I had walked for almost an hour before I heard a wagon coming from the west, I hid in the trees until they passed by. Another eastbound wagon passed me as I stood behind another tree. Twenty minutes later a group of men on horseback went by. Within the next two hours two more groups of men passed as I would hide when I heard them coming. Finally I heard a wagon going west, I saw it was a family in a Prairie Schooner. I stepped into the middle of the road and asked for a ride to the next town. They had added a seat to the wagon and offered a place to sit on a cask of something behind them. The three kids were next to me on a storage trunk.”

“I was telling them of our ordeal when two men jumped into the road ahead of us, they were armed with guns in their hands. I didn’t hesitate, I quickly stood and shot both of them. The couple would likely be deaf in one ear the rest of their days, but that’s better than dead! They questioned my shooting of the men before they had said anything, I explained that honest men wouldn’t jump from behind trees right in front of the wagon. They understood, and I hoped they learned a valuable lesson.”

“Thinking they might have captives, the man and I followed a trail that led us to a cave, inside were two naked women tied spread eagle in beds. They were emaciated, just barely alive. They begged us to kill them, they told us where the loot was. We gathered it up, as we were leaving we untied them and I gave them a revolver. We hadn’t gone very far down the trail before we heard two shots. We didn’t go back, it might not have been the Christian thing to leave them, but with the wife and kids on the road we couldn’t take the time to bury them. They were beyond caring.”

“In the next town, Macon, we told the Sheriff the story and offered up the loot, he laughed and told us to keep it. Against their protests I split the treasure with them. I wished them luck and thanks as they continued their trek to the west.”

“I took two baths after I bought new clothes, men’s clothes, and the Chinese girls who helped me bathe cut my beautiful long hair short, like a man would wear. I left there dressed as a man, with my new name Chuck. I went back to the Sheriff, he had found me a black man named Silas Greene to drive the wagon. I liked him right off, we went to the General Store and I bought him new clothes and we bought several guns. Two Colt revolvers with cross draw holsters, two Winchester 73 lever action rifles with scabbards, and a shotgun. We bought plenty of ammunition for all of them. At the Stable we bought two horses, along with saddles and tack, and two mules that looked like the two that had pulled our wagon before.”

“We rode out to the place where I had shot the bandits. The Sheriff identified the two men I had shot, they each had a $50 bounty on them. We buried the women and said words over them. When we arrived at the box wagon the girls were gone, no blood, no signs of a struggle other than four spent shotgun shells, just gone along with the shotgun. Nothing else was missing, even their spare clothes were left! I would miss them, they were my best friends, the first ones I ever had.”

“After hitching the mules up to the wagon, we went back to Macon. The Sheriff paid me the $100 in $20 gold pieces. We left town after the Hotel refused to give Silas a room, and they wouldn’t let him share mine. Traveling west once more, my total reason for living was to kill the Reverend Tobias Smith or whatever his name actually was.”

“We figured out fairly quickly that we were both women, and we both liked having both male and female lovers! Let’s just say that I haven’t slept cold at night since that day.”

“Twice more we were accosted by would be robbers, we killed them all! We didn’t find any captives, but we found horses and we would load the bodies on the horses and collect the bounties on them in the next town. We split the money, each of us collected over two hundred dollars. And another hundred after selling their horses and guns. If I wasn’t on a mission, we could have made a good living traveling that road.”

“We arrived in Kansas City and found the Argentine District. I had no idea what religion the Reverend ascribed to. So we visited several on Saturday after we had arrived. On Sunday, we had gone to one other Church, staying just long enough to peek in the door to find it wasn’t who I was looking for.”

“We rode to the next Church arriving just after services had finished, we looked around and found the building behind the Church. Just before opening the door I heard the voice of that bastard threatening someone. Silas and I drew our Colts and opened the door and shot that son of a bitch. I emptied my six shooter into his body, the first shot went into his groin! My only regret is that he didn’t suffer long enough, my sixth shot hit him between the eyes.”

“Now my mission is completed, I’m at a loss about what to do! I could find a new manager and a couple of dancers, but my heart just isn’t in it right now. Silas and Chuck could become bounty hunters, and make good money. But it would be just a matter of time before one or both of us would be shot or worse captured by the bad guys. We’re open to suggestions!”

Zilas spoke up, “Charlotte, Sally, why don’t you just stay here? We have plenty of room, and you’ve both made a lot of friends already! Stay here with us, you can work if you want or not work. I would love to have you both model for me. At least stay the winter and think about what you might want to do long term. Take your time and make plans before you leave and end up in trouble. I think I speak for everyone in saying that we would love to have you both stay! Am I right girls?”