Chapter 3

“What was he like, Julia? This knife thrower – can he be trusted. Is he any good?”

“Not a shadow of a doubt. Not the faintest possible shadow of a doubt. Not a shadow of a doubt whatever! I watched him perform for two solid bloody hours and he didn’t miss once! He can place a knife a millimeter away from the body and never touch it once. He can throw them, one under the last and leave a perfect vertical line of knives. I did a session with him – stark bloody naked as I will be on the great day – and he pronounced me the best, coolest and most unflinching partner he’d ever had! That part of the mid-morning and afternoon is no problem. Giles is a honey for coming up with that suggestion – I love him more and more all the time! And he’ll make me a Lady one day – lovely dear boy!”

“I’m glad about that sweetheart. But, my love, I’m so terribly worried that the villagers are going to do something horrible to you. I keep hearing whispered conversations between various women that break off when I am in earshot. Some of those girls are insanely jealous of us both and especially you because their boyfriends prefer us to them. And that cow Jenkinson (do you know, I heard the most amazing rumors about her and a dog – horrible). I’m sure she has something nasty in mind; and that loathsome Colonel – what Uncle sees in him, I can’t imagine!”

“Of course they all have it in for me, my darling. This Fete is their big once in a lifetime chance for them all to take out their petty resentments on me. The hell with them all! I despise the whole lot damned lot of them and with very good reason and they know it! I can’t wait to find out what they propose to do! They don’t scare me! In fact, if they try anything, they are the ones who need to be frightened – very, very frightened indeed – I promise you that! And I know about the dog; I know a whole lot about that!”

“Darling Julia, please be careful!”

“Course I will, my love! Now let’s go into the wood and be really nice to each other in ways that dear old Giles and Piers can’t even begin to think about – poor buggers!”

An earnest and increasingly desperate Mrs. Jenkinson was deep in conversation with the increasingly irritable Brigadier. They stood in the drawing room of Fosse Hall and watched the two nude girls walking hand in hand, and talking animatedly, towards their beloved wood.

“I really think this Pagan Sacrifice idea will be terribly popular, my dear Charles. I’m so disappointed Julia will not consider being the victim – she would come to no harm, I promise you – just be tied down on a stone slab for a few hours. She has just the face and figure for it – such a perfect body with those amazing breasts – I can’t ever get over their firmness! It would be delightful to see her squirming and struggling as the hour of sacrifice approached; such a splendid actress, dear Julia! I really am very saddened at her lack of public spirit.”

The Brigadier bridled both at the wretched woman’s persistence in the matter of a humiliation for his niece that neither he nor Julia would ever countenance and even more at her unwelcome familiarity in using his Christian name – he was a stickler for protocol.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Jenkinson, but Julia is quite adamant on that score. She has agreed to be naked for the entire day – somewhat reluctantly – she will perform as a gymnast and take part in a knife-throwing act and consider any other proposals either before or on the day. She will NOT submit to the indignity you keep proposing and that is final. And if you will excuse me, dear lady, I am rather busy. I have several meetings to attend in Town. I bid you good-day.”

Mrs. Jenkinson accepted her defeat (or appeared to) and left. Having failed in a frontal attack, she decided on a more elliptical approach. She walked towards Dorothy’s home to have a conversation with her mother. As she emerged after half an hour from the humble abode of the girl known as “The Village Bicycle” there was a smile playing about her lips. It was a smile that Julia would not have been happy to see, and rightly so, since it boded the lovely and haughty young blonde no good – no good whatever!

Darlene Smith, Tracy Nicholls and Kylie Harrison, the three candidates for dropping into the cold-water tank, were deciding on what swimwear to don on the great day, assisted by their boyfriends, Wayne, Dean and Gavin.

“Oi can’t see why you can’t be nude. If it’s OK for they two stuck-up

la-di-dah bitches from the big ‘house, oi can’t see who it is not right fer you three – straight, Oi can’t.” This was Gavin’s opinion and probably the longest single utterance of his entire life.

“I bet you can’t, your filthy sod,” said Darlene. “Moi Pa would spank me black and blue and that’s the end of that. That Brigadier, Lord Muck, should be ashamed for the way he lets those two shameless tarts carry on. Oi hear there’s moves afoot to take them down a peg or two, especially that Julia – though it’s good of her to offer to take over from us for a while – I’ll give her that much! So, I’ll not be party to anything nasty against her!”

The other girls agreed. They were not looking forward to their ordeal and only the persuasiveness of their landlady, Mrs. Jenkinson, had persuaded either them to take part or their parents to give their sanction. If Julia was offering to give them a mercifully welcome break from their suffering, then she was their friend, if not for life, at least until the fete was over.

Darlene opted for a mauve one-piece suit with a thong back and very high cut legs. Tracy chose a fluorescent green bikini of conservative cut. Kylie, the most adventurous chose and tried on to Gavin’s delight, a black thong bikini whose top scarcely hid her ripe pink nipples from view and allowed the watching world a generous glimpse of her areola rising up from the cups like twin dawn suns on the Eastern horizon. One violent movement too many and more, much more would certainly be revealed.

The three stood in front of a long mirror and were pleased by what they saw. They were well-made, fit and moderately pretty maids (in the loosest possible sense of the word). The bottoms of the two thong-clad lovelies looked particularly inviting – firm and well-rounded, covered with silky smooth skin, lovely backsides to slap – as the two boys in question were not slow to demonstrate, to the delighted squeals and giggles of the lucky girls.

With two days to go, all three were beginning to experience the onset of stage-fright, but they were all in it together, having agreed to take turns, giving each a chance to warm up after her immersion. This sisterly solidarity gave them some confidence. They wondered how the two nude girls from the Hall were feeling and what exactly was in store for them and they agreed that, whatever it was, they hoped it would not prevent Julia coming across to take their places for an hour or so. She would have their assistance as far as that was concerned!

“I wish you two would wear something. I allow you to run around the grounds naked, but I think you might appear for breakfast properly dressed, my dears!”

“Why, Uncle? We’re going to be very publicly naked most of the day. Why bother to dress, only to have to take it all off later? We’re walking to the village like this and we’ll stay this way all day. You let us in for this, after all said and done, trying to get yourself back on the Council – fat chance of that, by the way,” said Julia. Beatrice nodded her agreement as she chewed enthusiastically on a piece of toast and marmalade.

“I know! I regret it more and more and you can still pull out – say you are feeling unwell or have to go away suddenly. I won’t blame you one little bit.”

“We gave our word, Uncle and I’m not reneging and I’m certainly not lying to anyone, even those unspeakable villagers. You agree, don’t you, Bea?”

Beatrice, by now tucking into a plate of eggs and bacon, again nodded her agreement.

“Beats me how you stay so slim, Beatrice, eating all that fattening stuff. You never seem to stop.”

Beatrice paused unwillingly, just long enough to say, “All to do with the metabolism, Uncle,” and then continued her systematic and rapid demolition of two fried eggs, three thick rashers of bacon, two large mushrooms, a brace of sausages and two substantial pieces of fried bread. Julia smiled at her beloved cousin as she herself finished off her muesli and cup of weak China tea without milk, eating and drinking with that amazing delicacy which characterized her every action.

The great day had arrived at last. Untrue to form, the sun was already shining and the temperature climbing. A bright and sunny day and an unseasonable high of 80 were forecast, much to the relief of Tracy &Co as they prepared for their ordeal by cold water. Julia and Beatrice were none too disappointed to be robbed of their chance to shiver together; only the poor Brigadier was reading the forecast with a heavy heart.

Mrs. Jenkinson had just put down the phone, after talking to the amiable Dorothy. That young lady was now fully briefed on her expanded role for the day. At first there had been reluctance, even outright refusal, but the atrocious Jenkinson’s powers of persuasion and a financial inducement had finally made up the girl’s mind. The evil woman’s scheme to get back at the Brigadier for a million and one slights through the ritual humiliation of his favorite niece was coming along nicely.