Chapter 10

It was two weeks later and close to Thanksgiving. This time it was Susan's chance to get even with Colette for keeping her wedding a secret. The two girls had spent a lot of time preparing for what Colette thought was to be her change of ownership. She was going to Jim Fletcher as his body slave, but the two girls spent a lot of time getting things together for her to bring with her. What everyone else knew was that there was another palatial penthouse just waiting for her to return from her honeymoon. When Susan dragged Colette into the shower and the girl protested, Susan replied, "Do you think for one moment, young lady, that I want Dr. Fletcher to think that my sister — and his new body slave — is a slob? Good grief!"

After working on her body Susan fixed her hair in another very impressive arrangement similar to the one she had had at the cotillion. All the time, though, Sue arranged it so Colette couldn't see herself in a mirror. Finally, she slipped a bridal gown over her head and in an instant slipped into a blue dress that featured her own blue eyes, then rushed the girl out the door. Again, Steve Sloan was waiting at the car. When they reached the church, while Susan arranged her veil, Colette was dumbfounded to find Jack Taylor, her brand-new father, waiting for her.

"Isn't this a hell of a note?" he complained. "You only became my daughter four weeks ago, and I'm giving you away already."

"What's happening, Daddy?" the girl asked softly. "Please tell me."

"My beloved Colette, today you're becoming Mrs. James Paterson Fletcher. Jim is taking you as his wife, my darling. Does that please you?"

At that instant Jack Taylor decided it was impossible for a person to be happier than Colette was at that instant. She was utterly joyous.

Then she asked diffidently, "Daddy, is ... is ... is Mommy going to be with me tonight? The way she was with Sue? I would utterly love it if she would be."

The music began just as Jack said Andy was just waiting to be asked. "Pumpkin, absolutely nothing would please your mother more than for you to ask her to be with you for your defloration." Again, Caitlin was serving as a flower girl. She pointed out that she was now well-practiced in the rôle. The wedding mass unfolded and finally, after the exchange of vows, she was Mrs. James Fletcher.

Again the reception was at the Taylor's. Now that Colette accepted the reality of her marriage, it was very funny. As a French girl she took great pride in coming to Jim with a dowry — a dot — of $100 million. Sticking her tongue out at Susan she said, "You didn't come to Jeff with nearly that much money!"

"With my beauty, I didn't need to," Sue retorted, sticking her tongue out, too. The two girls just howled with laughter.

They discussed their plans for the immediate future. Because it had all been a secret from Colette, the others delighted in her excitement. Early in the afternoon, they even slipped into Levi's and went over to see their new apartment along with Kelly who had supervised the decorating. Colette was utterly speechless with joy.

Then, upon their return to the Taylor's, Jim diffidently revealed his plans for the honeymoon. "My darling," he said, "I thought we might honeymoon in Paris. Would you like that? I have a suite reserved for us at the Hotel Ritz. What do you think?"

"What do I think?" she screamed. "What does my darling and so-generous husband think I would think? My love, that's the finest hotel in Paris. And we have a suite? My darling, it's utterly superb. But why, my dearest?"

"Honey, I didn't really think it through. But I guess what I was thinking about was the fact that your parents threw you out on the street after you had been so terribly beaten. Susan told me it was because of your punishment coupled with the masses of scar tissue. They were convinced that it would be impossible for you to make a good marriage."

With a grin he continued, "Well, I like to think of myself as a good catch for a poor little girl who didn't even graduate from high school. So anyway, my darling, we have a Rolls-Royce limousine at our disposal for the three weeks we'll be in Paris. I thought we might pay a visit to your parents.

"You could wear your rubies or your emeralds, along with your platinum mink. Then your new sister, Anita, has made arrangements with the finest couturiers in Paris for private showings so you might even have a dress or two to show off to your former parents. But, my darling, whatever you wear, I want it to show lots of your skin. In fact, do you know what I would really like?"

Colette had been studying him closely. In addition to being madly, desperately in love, she found that they were so closely attuned to each other, they even thought alike. She said, "I don't know, beloved master, but I know what I would like to do. I would like to wear my emeralds, my mink, and heels. My darling, I'm now so proud of my body and so used to being naked, I would utterly love it! And you do like my little bush, don't you? I'll comb it the way I did that afternoon with you. What do you think?"

"I think it would be great!" he exclaimed. Then he winked and added, "Besides, as a plastic surgeon, I'll just be displaying my handiwork." The two were scheduled to leave the following day on the Concorde to Paris.

With Colette and Jim off on their honeymoon, things were very quiet around the apartment. Jeff and Susan now realized the degree to which Colette had truly brightened things for everyone. Then, on a day when Steve Sloan was off, they invited the Duncans up to visit. Ellie Duncan was the Taylor maid, while Sam Duncan was the chauffeur and butler. He had retired from the Army as a senior master sergeant.

When the doorbell sounded, Jeff and Susan both went to the door. Greeting the Duncans they were impressed by how youthful they both appeared. The fact was they had two young children, a boy, eight, and a girl, four. At the same time they were grandparents to Dave and Sally Wilson's four children whose ages overlapped their own.

"How do you do it, Ellie Duncan?" Susan demanded. "How can you be a grandmother and look younger than I do?"

"Younger? I doubt that very much," the woman replied. "How do I do it? Ask Andy. She does it for all of us."

When they were all seated in the living room, Susan served tea. As she did, Ellie looked at Sam and then said, "Susan and Jeff, we can't tell you what a thrill this is for us today. To be guests of yours in this ... this palace, and to be served tea ... It's just so incredibly elegant. Thank you so much."

Then holding her head high, Ellie said, "I should have warned you, though. I was a stripper when I met Sam. That's what I did for a living. If you knew that, I'm sure you never would have invited us."

"You were?" Susan exclaimed. "Ellen Duncan, you've been holding out on me. How long will it take you to make me into an adequate stripper? Although we haven't been married that long, Jeff has been seeing my naked body for months. Finally I realized what the nudists discovered years and years ago: the naked human body is really sort of dull. So anyway, if you teach me how to strip I could spice things up a bit for him."

"Susan Collins, your body... dull? Hah! You're golden perfection on a par with Andy Taylor. And, as you know, I worship the ground that woman walks on. Dull? Phooey!" Then with a very alert look she continued, "But there was a purpose beyond the purely social for having us over today. What is it?"

Susan and Jeff exchanged looks. Then she grinned at Ellie, stuck out the tip of her tongue, but then nodded her head quickly. "You're right, Ellie," she admitted. "It's also why we invited you to come when you did. Incidentally, you're also our guests here for dinner, as well. What we want you to do, though is 'sing for your supper.' Specifically, we would like you to tell us about Steve Sloan. What happened?"

This time the Duncans exchanged looks. Then Sam, who was a giant, standing six feet two but almost as wide, looked down at his hands. When he looked up again, Jeff and Susan were startled to see that there were tears in his eyes. "It was more than fifteen years ago in Vietnam," the big man began. "Steve Sloan was a captain in the Rangers. He had succeeded to command of Alpha Company, First Ranger Battalion, when Ken Carlson was wounded.

"Anyway, there was this gorgeous female correspondent who Steve met in Saigon. After a whirlwind courtship they were married. Shortly afterward, Steve was captured. The enemy knew we had hidden bases and supply points all through their territory. They wanted them out of business and they knew that Steve knew where they all were. They were also smart enough to know that they couldn't possibly force him to talk, regardless of what they might do to him. But they also had learned he had recently married."

Now tears were flowing from the big man's eyes. "She — her name was Susan, too — was utterly gorgeous. She had the most beautiful brown hair and warm brown eyes I've ever seen. Anyway, the VC kidnaped her and brought her to where they were holding Steve." Swallowing hard he said, "They spent three days torturing that girl to death. Each day, they had Steve make love to her. The first time was when she was brought in. Except for being in public, it was great. The second day, her skin was in strips, but still she wanted Steve inside. By the third day, she had no eyes — they had poked them out — no ears, no tits..."

Now he was crying uncontrollably. "They cooked her tits and made Steve eat one while Sue ate the other. Do you know what she did? She said her tit was delicious. Her tits had been broiled and she actually exclaimed how juicy and perfectly-prepared the one served to her was. She only hoped the one served to Steve was as good. 'My darling, ' she said, 'I always talked about serving you one of my tits for breakfast, and now I really am. Isn't it neat?' The enemy almost died when, after screaming as they sliced off both of her tits, she asked them please to give Steve her right one. She thought it was the better of the two.

"When they were about to poke out her second eye she asked to be looking at Steve when they did. She wanted her last sight on earth to be her beloved husband. After fainting from the pain, she recovered and told Steve that the sight of him would accompany her to Heaven. Then all she kept doing was telling Steve how much she loved him and not to say anything to the enemy. She wouldn't allow him to talk! Can you believe it? That's the girl Steve married."

At that point Ellie sat across Sam's lap, cradled his face between her hands and just melted her lips to his as his tears flowed uncontrolled down his cheeks.

When they broke the kiss, Ellie picked up the narrative. "Steve escaped that night. When he got back to the base, he got his men together and told them what had happened." With a mirthless smile she said softly, "The bastards never had a chance. When the Rangers finished, there were just pieces of them. They made them reveal what they had done with Susan Sloan's body. They had just thrown it away. The men recovered it — and got sick when they saw how she had been so foully tortured. When they returned to Saigon, Steve just resigned his commission and brought Susan's body back to the States for burial."

The woman swallowed hard and added, "His escape was part of the problem, you see. Steve always knew he could escape easily, but didn't want to leave Susan. Afterwards, he was second-guessing himself thinking that she wouldn't have been tortured to death if he hadn't still been there. Can you believe the torments that poor guy has put himself through?"