by Maxwell Avoi
“Aye, try to keep it down, Saucy,” said the other unknown maid, and they shared a laugh. Justin surprised herself again by joining in; the laughter didn’t sound mean so much as accepting, which was a delightful change. She swept out the door and into the hall, keeping her eyes downcast.
Justin’s entire body was still sore and glowing with residual pleasure from the incredible session with the two guards, so she didn’t think that she was in danger of becoming aroused any time soon. She forced herself to think of her actions as simply satisfying a hunger rather than being humiliated by her own needs; she wasn’t embarrassed about needing to eat and this was just the same thing for now. The fact that she needed to fuck men was just something she would have to live with and take care of often enough to keep her mind clear so that she could find the way to end this curse.
Until then she needed to know how to get around the castle. Getting lost in the maze of corridors wasn’t a good plan, no matter what was going on, and she wanted to be sure that she wouldn’t wander into areas that were off-limits or otherwise suspicious during her investigations. Her greatest advantage at the moment was that no one looked twice at her unless it was a man looking for sex; if she started to act strange that advantage would evaporate quickly.
She worked her way down to the ground floor, making a careful mental map as she went along. She found that the castle wasn’t that difficult to understand once she knew the key piece of information: everything was oriented toward the throne room. All the hallways eventually led there, sort of like the spokes of a wheel, and once she figured that out it was easy to navigate.
She found her way outside without difficulty, enjoying a tiny flash of pride in her ability to use her mind as well as her body, and she started to explore the grounds. Everything was ringed by the wall except for the gate, which was impassable for other reasons. Justin was sure that she would never get past the guards in her new form and even if she did there was nowhere for her to go once the road ended.
She found the stables easily enough, glancing at the water trough as her cheeks went warm, and she hurried past them in spite of the welcoming smells of the horses. She would have liked to spend more time with the animals, but her first sexual experience as a woman tainted the surroundings and made her uncomfortable.
The grounds actually went for quite a distance, encompassing a small farm and even some woods that teemed with game. She suspected that Chuck came out here to kill helpless creatures from time to time, and the kernel of hatred inside of her grew a little larger.
The sounds of rhythmic clanking drew her to what she eventually found to be the smithy. There she found Daniel, wearing his leather pants, boots, and apron but otherwise unclothed. He was in the middle of pounding away at a piece of glowing iron, his heavy muscles rippling under his skin. Justin found herself staring and she blinked to focus her mind. The pleasure inside of her and the incredible satisfaction from her session with the guards was enough to keep her from lusting after another man for quite some time.
Surely.
When he took a break to quench the iron and wipe his brow, she called out to him. “Daniel!”
He started slightly and turned to see her in the doorway of the smithy, and his expression shifted between surprise, shock, and joy so quickly that she wasn’t sure what he was thinking. She was surprised to feel a surge of affection for the huge man, and she frowned a bit. His face fell at the sight of her frown and she forced herself to bring her smile to bear on him.
“Ah, hello, miss, I didn’t know you in your new dress,” he said, sounding as though he was forcing the words out of a tight throat.
“Please call me Julia, Daniel,” she said. She smiled a little, the affection within her swelling at the way that he blushed. What was going on here?
“Yes, miss. Uh, Julia. Um. Did you need some help with anything, Julia? A pot mended, or…?”
Justin looked around and found a place to sit on a nearby bench. She jumped up onto it, crossing her legs like a lady when she did so. “Can I just watch you work for a while? I promise to stay out of your way.”
He blinked. “I suppose that would be all right, miss. Julia.”
Daniel was obviously flustered by her presence; his rhythm wasn’t as sure as before, the cadence thrown off by his distraction as he kept sneaking glances at her. Justin scarcely noticed, most of her attention on the way that he moved and how his muscles looked under his taut skin.
She asked herself, with the spare bit of attention that she could muster, why she was even there. She still had things to do, things to learn about the castle and its grounds, but every time that she thought about getting up she found herself sitting again, lost in contemplation of his movement.
Daniel gradually relaxed, his rhythm becoming sure again as he stopped being as nervous. He still snuck glances at her but they were more admiring sidelong peeks than full-on stares. He even managed a smile once when she caught him at it, and he seemed delighted when she smiled back. Something about his shy smile kept her there even though she knew that she should move on.
“What brings you here tonight, miss?” he said after a goodly time. Justin started a bit at the sound of his voice; he seemed more certain, more together than he had before. She suspected it had something to do with him being comfortable with his own skill. It was the fact that she found it so attractive that surprised her; she wasn’t used to being attracted to men without wanting them to fuck her unconscious.
Rather than pursue that train of thought she said, “I was just sent upstairs to be a maid, and there aren’t that many nice people up there. I wandered off to learn more about the castle and, ah, Lord Charles, and I heard your hammer so I came in. I hope you don’t mind.”
He ducked his head a little. “Oh, no, miss. Uh, Julia. I spend most of my day with horses, and you’re prettier than they are.” His eyes widened in shock and he stared at her with a stricken expression. “Not that you look like a horse! I-“
She cut him off with a peal of laughter. It was the first time that she’d laughed since awakening to find herself in the body of a sex-crazed woman, and it felt better than she could have imagined. When she finally got ahold of herself she said, “That’s the nicest thing that anyone’s ever said to me, I think.”
“Really?”
She nodded, still smiling. “Really. But now it’s your turn. What are you doing out here this late? Why aren’t you home with your wife?”
“Oh, I’m not married, miss,” he said, turning back to his anvil. She thought that she detected a bit of a blush still.
“What? Why not? You’re a very nice man, and you’re not unwelcome to the eye.” She closed her eyes for a moment as the compliment slipped out. Whatever was in charge of making her want to stay here had taken control of her tongue for a moment.
“Oh, ah. I suppose it’s ‘cause I’m just hoping for the…for the right one, miss.” He sounded scared, and kept his eyes on the anvil now.
“That’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Daniel,” she said. “Are you thinking about anyone in particular?”
He nodded, still not looking at her. He picked up a pair of tongs and turned to the forge.
“Who’s the lucky girl?” she said.
“Ah…she doesn’t know, miss,” he said.
Justin was surprised again by another surge of emotion, this time a flood of jealousy. She frowned and shook her head. Had she actually hoped for a moment that he might say that she was-
She stood up, bouncing off the bench. It was time for her to go.
“Oh, ah, leaving already, miss?” he said, turning to look at her for the first time in a while.
“I have more exploring to do. Good luck with your young lady,” she said. She went to him, on impulse, and stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. Her enormous breasts pressed softly against his hard arm, and the scent of him, all smoke and sweat and steel, made her want to keep kissing, but she mastered herself and pulled away.
; He rubbed the spot, his face set in an expression of awe. He looked at her for a moment and said, “You can come back. If you want. Sometime.”
She smiled and said, “I probably will. Soon. See you later, Daniel. Thank you for letting me stay.”
“Thank you for, ah, for coming, miss.”
She nodded to him and headed back out into the semi-darkness. As she walked, taking in the rest of the grounds, she found her mind straying back to Daniel again and again. The smell of him stuck with her, and the sight of his shy smile hit buttons in her that she had never felt before. She tried to shake herself out of it, tried to pay attention to what was around her, but she was too distracted to do more than wander.
By the time she got back to her tiny room in the servant quarters, she realized that the entire time that she’d been with Daniel, she hadn’t felt the faintest stirrings of the unnatural lust.
That night she dreamed as she had since coming to the castle, of sex and screaming. This time she only had one partner the entire night, a huge man who smelled of steel and who brought her to breathtaking climax again and again with gentle hands and shy lips.
She awoke feeling refreshed in mind and spirit, with the sensation of a weight having been lifted from her. She was sure that the man in her dreams had been Daniel and there was something in her that not only didn’t object to the idea but that actively welcomed it. The afterglow from her marathon fucking of the guards had mostly faded and the lust hadn’t started to rise again; she felt more comfortable in her own skin than she had since waking up that first day, in spite of the fact that her spectacular body had been forced upon her. Millions, hell, billions of women walked around like this every day, she told herself. You can survive it long enough to break the spell.
She was out the door and into the common area before having to be awoken, for which she congratulated herself. Two other upstairs maids were already at the table, and a scullery maid from the kitchen was just putting bread and honey on the table for the morning meal. Justin blinked when she recognized the woman who’d kicked her washtub over and then had beaten her in a fight. The woman glared at her and turned to the others.
“Careful that Saucy Julie don’t steal your men,” she said. “That one’ll rut with anything that’ll have her.”
Justin felt a surge of anger and hopelessness pour through her as the scullery maid left and the others stared at her. Finally one of the women said, “Don’t listen to her. She’s just envious that you got up here and she didn’t.”
Justin blinked. “She is?”
The woman nodded. “Sad, really. If she was prettier, without that crooked nose, she might be up here instead. Come sit.”
The other woman nodded as Justin sat, already spreading honey over her bread. Justin did the same, finding the fresh food to be delicious. The anger and hopelessness turned suddenly into a blast of gratitude toward these women and Justin felt tears prickling at her eyes.
The first one reached across the table and patted Justin’s hand. “Now now. If we were all to be fired for liking a roll with a boy now and then, none of us would be here. I’m Sonia, this is Molly.”
Molly swallowed and said, “Not that I like to talk out of turn, but I hear that you’re one for more than one roll if you can get away with it. Is it true that you had three guards at once last summer?”
Justin stared at her. Molly’s tone wasn’t cruel; she was asking as if simply curious about a rumor rather than looking for something to use against Justin. She was curious, even impressed with Julia’s escapades. Finally Justin decided to take a chance; if it turned out that she couldn’t trust Molly, then it wasn’t like she was losing anything. She said, “I think it was four.”
Both of the maids gaped and then burst out laughing, Sonia swatting Justin on the arm companionably. “Good on you, girl!” said Molly. “Have fun while you’re young, I say, as long as you can keep the stork away.”
Justin felt a deep chill. She hadn’t even considered the possibility of becoming pregnant; before now sex had simply been a method of calming a hunger. Now she had to think about it in terms of possible motherhood, and the idea terrified her. What if she couldn’t stop fucking?
“Have you got a lad, though?” said Sonia. “Surely one like you can’t get away from the boys.” She gave a cheerful snicker and took a bite of bread.
“Maybe,” said Justin before she could think about it. Unbidden, the image of Daniel’s sweet smile jumped into her mind. “But he doesn’t know it yet.”
“Best let him know before it’s too late,” said Molly. She was older than the other two but she had a bawdy grin hidden beneath her initially severe exterior. She took a breath to continue her comments but she stopped when the main door opened and Mrs. Melver marched in.
She gave them a look that would have frozen meat. “I trust that this levity means that you are all prepared for a solid day’s work,” she said. It wasn’t a question. The maids wolfed down the rest of their meal and followed her out into the hallway for their assignments.
Justin was assigned to laundry duty. She carried armloads of sheets and tablecloths downstairs to the laundry room, where she spent the day boiling, rinsing, and hanging them to dry before going back upstairs to make up the beds with the spare sheets. Her only consolation was that the other maids were being worked just as hard.
It was difficult at time particularly when the guards saw her and started making comments as she passed by. The two younger guards that she had fucked the day before were especially crude and the worst part was that about halfway through the day’s work she found that the lust had reignited in her belly. She fought it off by working harder until even Mrs. Melver was impressed, but nothing that she did slowed its quiet growth.
Every time she caught sight of a man, or thought about one, the lust took the image and turned it into a little more heat. By the time the day’s work was done and she sat down at the dinner table with the other maids, she wasn’t able to keep completely still. She disguised her squirming with occasional grimaces and a comment or two about her aching back, which led to good-natured ribbing about her enormous tits. Justin endured it with aplomb, aware now that they had accepted her and were kidding with her out of a sense of camaraderie rather than spite.
She was surprised to find Elsa looking much more relaxed. Justin went up to her after dinner and said, “You look like you’re feeling better.”
Elsa’s sudden blush told Justin what had happened, and her quick response of, “It’s none of your business” confirmed it. Justin put her hands up and backed away. Finally Elsa gave her a grudging nod and escaped into her room.
Justin went downstairs again, enjoying the feel of the castle now that the bustle had died down for the day. She was determined to do some more exploring, though she had learned the location of many of the rooms in the course of the day’s cleaning. The most important room that she’d found was the one that Chuck and Helen apparently shared. The idea of Helen being forced into marriage with the asshole that had caused all this made Justin’s blood boil but she knew that the only way to fix it was to break the curse. She reminded herself that she had to act normal (for Julia) and keep her head down.
In the midst of reminding herself of all those things, she looked up and found that her feet had carried her outside and around the corner; she stood before the smithy again.
Daniel was inside and at work at his anvil. The lust that burned inside Justin flared and she shut her eyes to spare herself the arousing sight of his muscles working beneath his sweat. She opened them wide when she realized that the lust was mostly gone. It had simply faded away as if it had never been. She still had interest in him and the heat’s shadow was still there in her belly, but she wasn’t driven to go to him. As an experiment, since he hadn’t yet noticed her, she backed away and headed for the stables. The further she got from the smithy, the more the unnatural lust inside of her flared up, until it was back to its previous levels. When she went back to the smithy it die
d down again. She was stunned but she certainly wanted to stay in a place that allowed her to think straight.
She went into the smithy and called out to Daniel when he had a break in his hammering. He started and turned, breaking into a wide smile when he saw her. He touched his forelock and said, “Welcome back, miss. Julia.”
She resumed her previous seat on the work bench, noticing that the barely-adequate space from the night before was cleared in a wider area that allowed her rounded ass and hips to find more comfortable purchase. She said, “I’m glad to be back. Daniel, do you have time to talk?”
He glanced at the forge and the anvil. The only thing he had to worry about was a horseshoe that was sitting in the coals. He shrugged. “I suppose so.” He came over and stood next to her, not close enough to touch but close enough that the hot smell of him cut through her. Justin tried to focus; even though the magical lust was dampened, the regular kind was coming to the fore.
“Have you ever noticed anything strange around here, Daniel?” she said, trying to think of a way to broach the subject of magical curses.
“Strange, miss? Like what?”
“Like the way that the road stops at the gate. That’s not normal.”
He frowned, his brow wrinkling in a way that made her want to reach out and smooth it with one tiny hand. Justin shook her head to snap out of it. Finally Daniel said, “No, that’s how it’s always been at Castle Litt, miss. Ever since I was born here.”
“You were born here?”
He nodded. “So were you, I remember. I was about six on that day.”
“You…remember me being born?”
He flushed. “I wasn’t there, but I remember the first time I saw you.”
All thoughts of the magic forgotten, Justin said, “Why do you remember that? Was something else going on at the same time?”
“Oh, uh, no. No, that was…I mean, it was something I wanted to remember. Is all.” He stammered and turned to the side, his voice uneven as he spoke, and Justin suddenly realized what was going on.