Chapter 14

Jack and Hugh had never been close, probably because Jack was a bully back in the days when he still lived at home with his little brother. Jack's attitudes had changed radically, once the mistress took him firmly in hand. I intend no pun there, though I notice one exists. I rather suspect there had been little intercourse between the brothers since Jack's ... awakening ... and so I imagine Hugh expected his brother to still be an insufferable oaf. If so, he was pleasantly surprised. That first week, as he began to use the reawakened forge to do his work, he was visited by Jack several times, who offered whatever help his brother might need. Metal wasn't all that was forged in those fires. In short order, a new kind of sibling relationship was forged as well.

And it was through Jack that his brother first began to be exposed to the girls about the place. That part of it I am sure Mistress Penelope oversaw. It seemed that there was always some need for one of the serving girls to take a message to someone in the stable, or to obtain some information from there. And with the forge working again, if something needed to be repaired, it was simply sent to Hugh, to see what he could do with it.

As I said, Sally was the first to be exposed to Hugh. She went to the little smithy with a brass candlestick, on which the rivet that held on the base had loosened, causing the candlestick to lean. Wax had dripped onto a lace doily, which made the mistress unhappy, and Sally was sent off to get the offending appliance repaired.

When she got there, she saw Jack first, and of course stopped to chat (and flirt) with him. Mister Flannery was in the paddock working with a horse, so there was no one there to observe them. Jack knew he was preferred by Her Ladyship for sport. She loved that curved prick of his, but he wasn't loathe to scatter his seed beyond that particular garden. I suspect he bred his sister as often as he could arrange it, and he didn't mind spreading Sally's legs either.

They did not engage in such behavior that day, though, when he escorted her to his younger brother's tidy forge, their arms were around each other. In these modern times, such behavior is taken for granted, but back then, such familiarity would have raised many eyebrows. Hugh noticed, and I suspect he envied his big brother for having the affections of the blond beauty.

But then, the boy saw his brother simply turn and leave. There was no warning that the girl was his, and to leave her alone. There were no words at all. He simply took his hand from her hip (scandalous, I know!) and his arm from around her and said, "Sally is one of our Lady's maids. She has something that needs repair."

Suddenly, Hugh was left alone with this vision of loveliness. The forge was hot, as all forges are by nature, and he had been working bare-chested. His sweat-slickened skin was already stained with smoke and rust and dirt. His longish hair hung in sweat-glued strings, and his dark eyes peered between those at the girl. It was dark in the forge, and most of the flickering light came from the fire itself.

Hugh may have thought Sally was overcome by the heat and closeness of the little room. In fact, Sally decided he was the most handsome young man she'd ever seen in her life. Sally liked to be dominated by a man - to a degree - and Hugh apparently looked somewhat dominating to her at that point.

Nothing could have been farther from the truth, however. Poor Hugh was almost overcome by shyness. While he worked for his father, he did just that - worked. Aldo gave him no time to socialize with those his own age, or chase girls. He worked by the light of the forge, which was always lit, and that meant he worked from dawn to dusk. So he didn't know how to act around girls ... especially one so fair and beautiful as this. Added to that was that she was a lady's maid, who had access to the mistress of the manor. He had seen the lady, as she dickered with his father, and her beauty had simply taken his breath away. Sally's simply paralyzed him.

Sally's own reaction to this fascinating, muscled youth caused her to be a little more circumspect than she might otherwise have been.

The two youth stood, simply observing each other. Eventually, though, the experiences Sally had been through in the previous months, and which had matured her in strange ways, broke through her reserve. She held out the candlestick.

"I brought this for you to repair," she said softly.

"Oh!" said Hugh, shaking loose from his torpor. "What's wrong with it?"

"It wiggles," said Sally. Since the candlestick was in her hands, instead of on a table, she couldn't display the problem. For whatever reason, she wiggled her body instead.

Hugh stared at a runnel of sweat that left her neck, and ran down between her breasts, the inner slopes of which were exposed. His throat was suddenly dry.

"Can you fix it?" she asked.

"I'll try," he said, suddenly feeling like this was his most important mission since arriving at this wondrous place.

Their fingers touched as she transferred the heavy brass to him, and he jerked.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Sometimes, when a man is overcome by emotion (or lust) he is more forthcoming than he might otherwise be.

"I've never seen anything like you," he sighed.

"Any thing like me?" She arched an eyebrow.

"Any one like you," he corrected instantly, actually bowing.

She laughed. She thought this boy was handsome, and now she liked him for other reasons.

"I'm just a girl," she said. Her mistress had taught her to speak in a coquettish manner, and she did so now.

"I know," he sighed again. Some little pride must have gripped him then. "I don't get to talk to girls very much."

"Well you can talk to me any time you like," she offered, smiling at him.

"Really?" To him, this must have seemed an impossible boon. He would soon be disabused of that noble notion.

"Of course," she said. "We're all a big family here."

He frowned. That didn't sound right at all. His fingers found the problem with the candlestick, and he was distracted. He peered at it and, back on familiar ground, said, "This will take but a moment to fix."

"Can I stay while you do it?" she asked.

He looked and saw more sweat running down between her delicious cleavage, and on her brow beneath her bangs, where he could see through them.

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Penelope, Mistress of the Manor

Lubrican

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