‘Susan’ developed as a side story to the engineer series and it was only expected to be a single story, but the best laid plans...

Susan paused, leant on the shovel and realised that she had nothing to mop up the sweat that was running into her eyes from her forehead. After a moment’s thought, she lifted the bottom of her tee shirt, bent her head forward, and used that. Susan, she thought, was a very sensible name, unimaginative, but then she supposed her mother hadn’t been very imaginative. Which was unfair because she couldn’t really remember her. She could remember her step mother, she could hardly avoid that, even though it was something she would like to forget. But her task at the moment, and the cause of her sweat, was the unaccustomed use of the shovel she was leaning on.

Until this Monday morning Susan had never used a shovel, and it came as something of a surprise that it was something you had to learn how to do, there was a definite technique to it. In her previous job she hadn’t really had to learn very much, just passing the items that the customer had selected over the barcode reader and telling them how much they had spent, waiting until their card payment had cleared, and then giving them the print out. Hadn’t taken much thought at all. She chatted to the customers, some of them wanted to talk and some didn’t. So far this job hadn’t exercised her brain very much either. But she was enjoying it, and that was very different. She put another shovel full of manure into the wheel barrow and savoured the odour. That might seem odd, but it was horse manure, and Susan loved horses.

I called in to see Annie one morning at the time that I would get a mug of her excellent coffee. That, to be honest, was any time.

“George!” she welcomed me, “I’m so glad you called in, How are things going?”

Since the death of her husband Annie had positively blossomed. She had never been ‘under the thumb’, but his very presence had always been a dampener on her life. Now she took a great interest in our business, of which she was a valued director.

“Everything seems to be going well,” I replied. “Always worrying, though I can’t think why. Jennifer’s side of things is going well, in fact I think that her brother will be jealous of her success. Her farm shop is going well, Kevin’s vegetables are a big help there of course.”

“You’re not referring to the girls who help him are you?” Annie giggled.

“Well, they are pretty awful,” I agreed, “but I’m sure they have some good points,”

“Saves Amanda for you.”

“She says he never touches her, and he doesn’t touch whatstheirnames either. She reckons he gets off on vegetables.”

I didn’t feel it was necessary to pursue that any further. “Wendy and Madeline are doing incredibly well, and I can see you know that because you are wearing one of their creations. I did wonder about the bondage gear, but it sells well and the new girl, Frankie, seems to have taken that over even if she blushes bright red every time she has to talk about it. She organises the advertising, which is the website mainly, and sees to the pack and dispatch. We are developing some interesting variations that will be produced shortly. Your twins seem to have things well in hand up at ‘The Grange’, I don’t like to enquire too deeply, but I know you’ve been keeping an eye on things.” Most older ladies don’t blush as much as Annie did, but, as I said, there are some things it is best not to enquire too deeply about. “So there we are, my pessimistic side says something, will go wrong, but I’ll be on it when it does. And yes, I will have another mug. Thank you.”

“I had a visit from Dolly and her sister yesterday.”

“Her sister ... Barbie isn’t it?”

“No, George, it’s Binky, as you well know,” Annie grinned.

“Oh yes,” I said, “Named after Death’s horse, Terry Pratchett, yes, unlike Dolly she looks like one too. People tend to look like their pets I suppose.”

“Unkind, George,” said Annie sternly. “Even if true. Anyway Binky asked what we were doing with the stables.”

“Nothing as far as I know,” I replied. “ What did she want?”

“Riding including for the disabled. So that’s business and charity, I don’t think it would do any harm and could be very good.” Annie was nothing if not sensible.

“I don’t think I have any objection in principle, but we’ll have to run it past everyone concerned. We can chat to them all between us, and see if anyone has a real and valid objection.”

And there we left it.

I had a ‘meeting’ with Jennifer that evening. She had complemented the black, red and gold bedroom décor with red satin sheets. I know she’ll be successful as a farmer, but if she weren’t perhaps there was another profession for her. We had a long conversation about the riding proposal at the end of which she was fully supportive. It was, she thought, a good idea and the charity side would give us a good image. She had obviously taken all the marketing and PR stuff to heart. I already knew that she had turned out to be very at good sales.

At breakfast the next morning it was clear that Annie had been out doing her stuff, and as people came and went it became clear that the idea of the stables and riding for the disabled was firmly on course. There was one other surprise for me when Charles our general factotum and chef approached me.

“I was wondering, Sir,” Charles always calls me sir, or occasionally Mr Smith, and curiously, once he had accustomed himself to our somewhat Bohemian lifestyle, he worked out that Diana was my wife and he addresses her as madam. The rest he calls Miss whatever. “I’m not fully employed with the household,” he said, “and it might be nice if I could make some pies and terrines, that sort of thing for Miss Jennifer’s shop.”

“I can see no problem with that, Charles. Have you spoken to Jennifer?”

“No, Sir. I thought it best to mention it to you first.”

From the language you might well have imagined the accent to be that of say, Jeeves. But Charles’ voice is distinctly gravelly and with definite East End tones.

“Let me know what she thinks of the idea, Charles.”

Which I knew he would anyway.

I compared notes with Annie later and we agreed to invite Binky, honestly, I supposed I’d get used to the name, to make a proposal.

I had several things I needed to do for the rest of the day and I didn’t meet up with Jennifer until suppertime. She had a number of things to go through with me, and finally told me that Charles had approached her regarding his earlier conversation with me.

“Once he told me what he proposed it occurred to me that we ought to have a cafe as well. When I mentioned it he told me that there were probably other people in his situation who could help.”

“I can see that that would be a good idea,” I said, “but I think we need to take it one step at a time. Perhaps you could develop a business plan. I suppose there are young people in the village who would appreciate part time work. We need someone to manage it though. Maybe Charles’ friends could do that. We’ll have to sleep on it.”

“I wasn’t thinking of sleep,” she said, pulling me to my feet. “Until later.”

A man’s gotta do...

It was a week later when Binky and Dolly, Annie and myself walked around the old stables and looked at the attached paddocks discussing the proposal. All seemed to gel, they had the necessary qualifications and clearances, you have to be checked for criminal records and that sort of thing, so apart from suitable horses they were ready to go.

“You’ll need some help, I assume,” I said. “I saw something in the figures.”

“Yes,” Binky replied. “We’ve got a girl picked out, I don’t think we’ll have any problem getting her here.”

I was watching Dolly as Binky spoke. Something odd in her expression.

“But there is a problem,” I said. “You’re not so keen Dolly?”

“Well, it’s just...”

“She is supposed to have ADHD and a touch of autism, highly intelligent. But not academic.” said Binky.

“ADHD, that’s attention deficit, umm,,, something else, disorder.”

“Hyperactivity.”

“Right, and you say supposed?” I was following this, but I wasn’t getting it yet.

“Dolly is friends with one of the teachers at the comprehensive,” explained Binky. “This is what she said about Susan, but I think that teachers are far too ready to pigeonhole kids into this or that, dyslexia or whatever, just to cover up for the kids who don’t conform. She was never academic, although she is very intelligent. A loner, but I think that living with her stepmother is the problem. Deirdre is the archetypal wicked stepmother, she’s a lush and she puts the girl down all the time. Susan is overweight and not a particularly attractive girl, but she holds down a job on the checkouts at the supermarket in town, and she’s had the nous to buy herself a scooter, so I can’t see much wrong. And she rides and loves horses.”

“Can she use a shovel?” I asked.

“We’ll soon teach her,” Binky laughed.

“You may well be right about her,” said Dolly. “On reflection I think we should try.”

And that is how we got Susan.

I like to get to see all the tenants occasionally, and to this end I called round to see Tom and Rick, the Pentons, who had moved their car repair business into one of the outlying barns. They had spent what seemed to me to be a fortune fitting it out, and the paint booth with its carefully controlled heating and fans must have taken a fair amount of it. Mind you, when you saw the kind of cars they had there, and had met some of their customers you realised that it would produce a good return for them. When I walked in there was a D type Jaguar that was having a new front wing made.

“Hi George,” Tom greeted me, “see what some silly bugger did last weekend?” he indicated a large piece of crumpled metal.

“How did they do that?” I asked.

“Racing, historic stuff.”

“Must be an expensive hobby,” I said.

“Oh, they can afford it, this one is worth well clear of a million, but if you’ve got it, why not enjoy it? And it means good business for us.”

I looked over to where Rick was running a piece of sheet metal backwards and forwards through the English wheel.

“Rick has started on the replacement, just as well, the owner wants to take it racing again in a fortnight.”

I shook my head, I simply couldn’t conceive spending so much money on a hobby, and risk destroying a historic car, but each to their own. Mind you, over in one corner there was a Riley RMF saloon that had to have its wooden frame replaced, I rather fancied it, but it would be some time before the businesses produced the money for me to indulge in such fripperies. I left wondering whether charitable things came under that heading.

Susan was naturally very excited. Mrs Withers-Green had come to Susan’s checkout at the supermarket, and asked if she would meet with her and her sister at Home Farm on her day off which, fortunately, was the next day, otherwise she didn’t know how she could have coped with the suspense! Dolly had indicated during the short conversation that it would involve working with horses, and Susan wanted that more than anything.

Susan rode up to Home Farm on her scooter. I was pleased to see that it was electric, obviously a modern young woman who cared about the environment. I felt safe in thinking that because it was more expensive than a petrol one! She was well bundled up in protective clothing, but by the time she had removed that and her helmet she revealed a head of fair wavy hair, and the cuddly figure that the ladies had suggested she had. They were also correct about her not being very attractive. Unlike Madeline, who was cuddly and pretty, Susan didn’t carry the excess weight well. She did, however, have a sunny smile when she said hello to Dolly and Binky, although she naturally greeted them with their full names, which was when I discovered that Binky was Ms Bradley. Why I hadn’t known this before I’ve no idea. Actually I’m sure I did know. I was introduced to Susan as Mr Smith with no explanation.

The ladies explained to Susan what would be required of her and she seemed very happy with what she was told, especially with the idea that she would be able to exercise the horses once the work was done. Susan was happy to accept the job on the spot, and all that remained was to finalise the details of pay and starting date. To that end I took her over to the office to meet Felice who would do all the boring stuff.

It was, as I keep saying, always a pleasure to call in on Annie for coffee, sometimes I just needed to talk to someone who had their feet on the ground. Some of my people could be ... lets say a little too enthusiastic.

“How is young Susan doing?” she asked me one morning about a month after Susan had started.

“Pretty well, according to Binky,” I told her. “Mind you I understand she has to take some shit at home as well as shovelling it here.”

“Problems?”

“You know her mother died when she was a toddler, and her father a year or two ago?”

“Yes,” said Annie, “I felt sorry for her, her father having married a woman who wasn’t all that much older than her.”

“And a regular bitch it seems. She doesn’t like her working here, says there are no prospects, as if there were at the supermarket,” I said. “Apparently when Susan told her that she’d met me, she told her that she was fat and ugly so she’d be perfectly safe.”

“Well you’re right about Deirdre being a bitch, that’s an awful thing to say to the girl, she isn’t that bad. A little weight loss and her face fining down I think she might be quite attractive.” Annie paused, then grinned. “Jack and Jill call her your ponygirl.”

Oh well, that’s the sort of thing that pair would say, I thought, more something larger although I didn’t want to do the girl a disservice.

It was a week or two later when the twins found me having breakfast. Today they were both dressed as boys, well, men really, and even then I couldn’t tell them apart. I know it’s all makeup but it is quite disconcerting.

“We wanted to use the stables up at ‘The Gables’,” said one, could I tell that was Jill?

“And have a couple of ponies for our own use,” said the other. No, that might have been Jill.

“Could we borrow Susan for a day or two to sort things out?” that was the first again. They were practising this alternate sentence thing as well as looking more and more alike.

“I don’t see why not,” I replied. “Of course you’ll have to sort it out with Binky, Susan’s not really mine.”

“Of course she is, she’s your ponygirl.”

And there it was again, something stirred at the back of my brain, but first of all:

“Of course her time will be charged to you, the riding business can’t afford to be charitable to you two.”

“What? The riding thing is a total tax loss. We’ll be doing you a favour.”

“Oh well, just sort it out with Binky.”

The twins high fived, “Yay, we’ve got a ponygirl!”

And with that they disappeared.

I spoke to Binky later in the day and had found that she was quite happy with Jacques and Jill ‘borrowing’ Susan. She had a couple of young lads coming in to help with the shovelling and that sort of thing, and as I later discovered that was much more to her taste. I hoped that wouldn’t cause any problems

I didn’t see Susan or indeed many other people for the next two to three months because one of the companies I had worked for previously had offered me obscene amounts of money to sort out a very important contract which was on its way to being tits up. The team that had been in charge were poorly led and everyone was more interested in scoring points than getting the job done. So hardly a team at all.

All my businesses were set up with good people and there was never much for me to do, and in any case I was not far from a phone, and home at weekends, of course. In fact no one ever bothered me. So it was some time before I saw Susan again. By then there had been a lot of changes. I pieced together the full story much later from lots of snippets from various people.

One shouldn’t, they say, hell, it’s always ‘they’ isn’t it? Anyway you should not speak ill of the dead. So we shouldn’t say anything nasty about Hitler et al. The hell we shouldn’t. And Susan’s father had really been a truly miserable bastard. He had left very nice house, and investments producing considerable income, despite which his widow, Susan’s stepmother, Deirdre, usually known as Dee, and Susan were allowed a pittance to live on, after the property’s expenses were paid by the estate. Susan was able to live at a reasonable level because she had a job in addition to the pittance, but Dee spent most of hers on drink. Susan would inherit when she was twenty five, when she would have to continue Dee’s allowance. Until then the two women lived in a state of open war, with Dee generally sniping at Susan who avoided her stepmother as far as possible, so the chance of Susan increasing her allowance in time wasn’t good. Susan has already been described, Dee was almost completely opposite, a slim, attractive brunette. Since the age gap was no more than that of many sisters it was a pity that they could not have got on together. Such is life. Dee also had one other problem, she was allowed to live in the house as long as she did not have any male visitors. So naturally, that probably made her even unhappier.

Susan found the twins attractive and rather exciting, they had something about them that she couldn’t define, but she felt she wanted to know more about them. So she was delighted to have the opportunity, but it was a day or two before she was able to sort out getting to ‘The Gables’ to get the stables ready for Jacques and Jills’ horses. Jacques and Jill didn’t seem to be about when she got there, so she found her own way to the stables. When she looked around there didn’t appear to be that much to do, they’d need some hay and straw, but with a bit of a clean all would be ready. She stripped off her scooter gear ready, and whilst she was standing there assessing the situation, the twins turned up.

They came up on either side of her and stood closer than she would normally accept, and they both put an arm around her. Since her mother died Susan had never had any hugs, or loving contact, and she was not sure how to react. When they moved so that she was in a group hug she decided she rather liked it. They both smelt clean, something she was not sure she did after her morning’s work, and their perfume was intoxicating. Their hands were moving over her, she wasn’t sure where they were from one moment to the next, and she wasn’t sure they should be in some of the places where they were. And they were talking, to each other, and to Susan, wasn’t she cuddly, did she like to play ponies, would she like to, and when she objected that she was there to work the twins said if they wanted to play then she had to join in, and then one of them kissed her, and a moment later there was a clink and she saw the other had a handful of harness.

“We’d like you to try this for us.”

Susan wasn’t sure that she’d agreed when her tee shirt was lifted over her head. Whilst one of the twins kept her senses occupied with constant contact, caressing here, then there, kissing here then there until her mind didn’t know what was happening to her through a haze of sensual pleasure. At some point her bra was removed and replaced by soft leather cups that left her nipples exposed, she thought she ought to object but somehow things moved too quickly, there seemed to be straps everywhere, and she realised that her shorts and knickers were around her ankles, and her feet were being lifted out of them. She came near to surfacing when something went between her legs, and she felt something nestle against her ‘most private part’, and then they stepped away from her. One of them went behind her whilst the other dropped something in front of her.

“Ooops, can you pick that up for me, please?”

Susan, ever helpful, and still not fully compus mentis, bent to pick the object up not realising that as part of what had happened her wrists were secured to her hips by the harness. The twin behind her swiftly exposed Susan’s rosebud, and thrust a well lubricated butt plug through it. Attached to it was a long tress of hair.

“Awk!’ exclaimed Susan at the intrusion, stepping forward to be caught in the arms of the twin in front of her. She was given no time to object as she was kissed open mouthed, something she had never experienced.

“Oh! That is just so right,” said the other. “Doesn’t she look lovely. And the tail! Our very own ponygirl!”

Then with one on either side of her they urged her to walk. The harness part that was sitting against her ‘most private part’ rubbed as she walked, and after the sensory overload of the last half hour, within a minute Susan orgasmed. They supported her as she shook and gasped. They urged her to walk forward again with the same result, and after a third she collapsed on the floor, squirming in pleasure.

The twins high fived each other, then crouched down either side of Susan who was beginning to ‘come to’. Both kissed her and then helped her to stand up.

“Ooh!” Susan began, “nothing like that ever happened to me before.”

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Mmm...”

“And you’ve never had an orgasm before?”

Susan blushed and shook her head. The twins looked at each other.

“Not even ... you know ... in the shower, or...”

“No, I didn’t know...” said Susan, uncertainly. “Everyone told me it was dirty.”

Both the twins looked skywards.

“The other girls at school, didn’t they talk about it?”

“Not to me, I didn’t have any close friends, well, none at all really,” Susan replied with a sniff.

“Come on, we’ll go over to the house, you need a shower, and I dare say a drink.”

“Umm ... I can’t...” Susan was a little hesitant.

“Oh, we’ll take it off ‘til next time,” said whichever one, Susan was sure she’d never know, “and that part that you’d like to indicate is detachable.”

They both laughed.

“Next time?” asked Susan timorously.

“You want to experience that again don’t you?”

Susan paused, her blush if anything even brighter. “Yes.” she said quietly, and then quite definitely. “Yes, yes I do.”

“Good! Let’s go shower.”

Susan learnt a good deal more in the shower. But before that she learnt that it is best to stay still and not object when someone is using a razor on delicate parts. With plenty of hot water and a walk in shower there are a lot of things three people can get up to. The next thing Susan learnt was that Jack – really – and Jill, were fraternal twins, and her first exposure to a naked male came as something of a surprise. She also learnt to give as well as receive pleasure. In the finish they were all clean as well as satisfied.

A while later, with a mug of tea Susan sat pensively. She was dressed in a towelling robe as were the other two.

“You’ve a pile of questions to ask,” said Jill.

“Well,” Susan started, “to begin with you’re brother and sister.”

“Yes, I’m Jack and she’s Jill. But sometimes I’m Jacques or Jacqueline, and she’s Ghillain, sometimes I’m Jack and she’s Gilles and sometimes it’s all the other way around. It just depends how the fancy takes us or what we need to be. Mother can always tell us apart, but no one else can. It’s all makeup, smoke and mirrors.”

“Your mother is Annie,” said Susan. “I met her. She seems pretty smart to me.”

“You are quite right there,” Jill laughed.

“But you’re brother and sister and you...”

“So what?” said Jack. “We’re not having babies, just fun. Who cares, except some silly people.”

“What do you do here?” asked Susan. “There must be something ... I mean, I know Mr Smith is involved ... but ... you said what you need to be, why would that be?”

Jack and Jill exchanged glances.

“Drink your tea for a few minutes and we’ll be back,” said Jill.

Fifteen minutes later they returned. It was now impossible to tell the difference between them. Both were attired in thigh length shiny black boots, a black bustier with black stockings attached, long black gloves past their elbows and a high black shiny leather collar. Their hair had been pulled back and was part contained in a jewelled lace net on their heads, with a pony tail hanging down. Their makeup was faultless, the eyes now slanting and the cheekbones high, lips full and red.

They twirled in unison, but in opposite directions.

Susan could not tell which was which once again.

Once again the twins pulled her along, this time into what appeared to be a theatre dressing room. The chair in front of one of the mirrors was swung around back to the mirror and Susan was pushed into it. The twins looked at her with critical eyes, looked at each other and then one of them left. The other started on her face with a foundation, and then various powders and colourings. She was working on Susan’s eyes when the other twin returned with the pony harness.

“We haven’t got anything that will fit you at the moment. Our stuff is too small and mother’s is too big, but this will do for the time being.”

“You will,” said Susan, “take that part out, you know...”

“Already done,” the twin laughed. “We need you to concentrate.”

“Hold still!”

With her eyes finished it was the turn of her lips. Then the twin who was working on her stood back and surveyed her, or was that his handiwork.

“Well done, she looks good. Now hair.” And for a few minutes Susan felt her hair being primped, then a spray to finish off. Then the chair was spun around to face the mirror.

There was complete silence.

“That surely isn’t me. If the mouth didn’t move when I speak,” said Susan, “I’d think you were playing a trick on me.”

The twins laughed. “It’s you alright, just a paint job! Now let’s put the harness on, we’ve got boots to fit and I think that short top hat. Don’t you?” They were talking to each other. “Very Cabaret!”

“Yes.”

“How do you manage to sound alike?” asked Susan.

“Practise. Now, hold this,” Susan was handed a whip, “And come and look at yourself in the long mirror.”

“Fuck me!” Susan put her hand in front of her mouth in surprise at the exclamation that had just come from her.

“Not right now. The pony stuff and the rest is fun, but right now this is business. Now what you are about to see is not to be mentioned or discussed with anyone. Anyone at all, d’you understand? We can see something in you that you can’t. You don’t even know what it is and for good reason we are not going to tell you. But you will discover it, whether that will be tomorrow, next week, or next year we don’t know. We know you don’t understand now, but you will. That’s all we can say because we don’t want to influence you.

“What we do want to do is slim you down some, get you to eat healthily, and exercise properly, you don’t want to turn that excess to muscle. Okay?”

“Yes,” Susan agreed without hesitation. The vision in the mirror had already given her the idea that there was more to life than she had already realised. Whatever problems she had, whether a touch of ADHD or whatever, there was no denying that Susan could recognise change.

“Now come with us.”

Susan thought she was shocked out, so many things had happened in a very short time. So when she arrived in the dungeon she was merely ... surprised. But the shock returned when she saw a naked woman attached to a torture frame. Susan guessed the woman was middle eastern, young and very attractive, or at least she would have been in other circumstances.

“Her husband,” one of the twin nodded to the woman, “has sent her for some attitude realignment.”

The twins went on to show Susan some of the gear that was there, and they explained the use of some of it.

“Of course we never damage anyone, not even if they request it. We are strictly BDSM, that’s bondage, dominance, or discipline, sadism and masochism, normally with consenting adults. That,” the woman was indicated, “is a special favour for a wealthy client. It seems she thinks that she is going to rule the house and spend money, and does not wish to provide him with an heir. She needs to be persuaded otherwise. Now, time to let Horace out.”

They went over to a coffin and unlocked a padlock, and lifted the lid. Susan looked in and saw a middle aged man, completely naked. In the lid she could see metal pads that would align with his nipples and penis when the lid was closed.

“Electrodes,” said one of the twins by way of explanation.

The man sat up and one side of the coffin was lowered so that he could turn and put his feet on the floor.

“Thank you, Mistresses,” he said.

The man knelt and kissed the twins feet, and then Susan’s. He stood, bowed and left.

“Horace is quite interesting, he likes to sample all our torture equipment and sometimes comes up with something new.”

“And he pays for that?” Susan was somewhat incredulous.

“Handsomely.”