The Sorceress and her Lovers

Home > Science > The Sorceress and her Lovers > Page 20
The Sorceress and her Lovers Page 20

by Wesley Allison


  “You two sober enough to leave?”

  The one who had spoken before, stepped cautiously out. The other held back for a moment.

  “You’d rather wait for the justice of the peace?”

  “No.” He darted quickly out and started for the stairs.

  “We were just celebrating a bit too much,” said the first, hanging back.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Drake, Kaspar Drake.”

  “I don’t want to see you in here again.”

  “No, sir. I’m going to be a model citizen. Got myself a girl and everything.”

  “Go on then.” Saba pointed toward the stairs that the other man had taken, while he himself headed for the elevator. Once back upstairs, he tossed Butler the keys, saying, “Send somebody down to help Chesterton. He’s fallen and hurt himself.”

  Back up the elevator to his office, Saba was surprised to find Eamon there, sitting behind his desk and looking over paperwork. He got up when he saw Saba and moved around to the seat opposite.

  “Well, did you find anything?” asked Saba, expecting a negative response.

  “I think I did. I think the arson at the Dumont Apartment was committed by the same fellow that set off the bomb at the shipyard.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “I talked to several of the former tenants. Some of them remembered a man who lived in one of the apartments—said he was a bit odd. He fits our description, about forty, dark hair. I got ahold of some records and found his name—Seifer Caldell.”

  “All right, put out a bulletin.”

  Saba left the station a little early, but he didn’t go directly home. He stopped at Stein’s Pub. It was a little building just north of Town Square on Pine, a few doors up from where years before Mr. Darwin had sold goods made from dinosaur skin. It was a small room, lit by the yellow glow of gaslights. The woman behind the bar looked like she had lived some hard years, but wasn’t totally unattractive.

  “What’ll you have, luv?”

  “Pint of bitter.”

  He wasn’t the only customer. Four other men sipped from sudsy glasses. One was obviously a sailor. The others were workmen. Saba didn’t recognize any of them.

  “Another?” The inspector looked down at his glass, not having recognized that he had almost emptied it.

  “One more.”

  When he was finished, he climbed back into his steam carriage and drove the last half mile home. The house was dark when he entered through the kitchen. He found Risty in the den, dusting.

  “Where is everyone?”

  “Lady and child at Tacktotott to eat.”

  “They’re dining at the governor’s house again?”

  The lizzie bobbed his head up and down.

  “Where’s my wife?”

  The reptilian pointed upwards.

  With a scowl, Saba shot up the stairs, passing his own bedroom and opening the door to his wife’s. She was lying on her bed reading Brysin’s Weekly Ladies’ Journal.

  “Have you been in bed all day?” he demanded.

  “I’m not feeling well.”

  “Did you know that my mother and daughter went to the neighbors for dinner? What does that say about my wife that she can’t be bothered to feed her own child?”

  “I told you I’m not feeling well.”

  “Ssotook! There’s nothing wrong with you that a stern hand wouldn’t fix.”

  Loana wrinkled her nose and blew him a raspberry.

  Grabbing the magazine from her hands, Saba threw it across the room. Reaching across her, he grabbed her right wrist with one hand and her right ankle with the other, and flipped her over onto her stomach.

  “Don’t you dare!” she screamed, struggling to get away.

  All she managed to do was to get her ankle-length nightgown to ride up to her thighs. Seizing the hem, he pulled it up to her waist, exposing her bare body. He slapped her on her ample bottom. It jiggled satisfyingly. Flipping back over, Loana sat up. Saba took the nightdress and pulled it completely over her head, leaving her arms trapped and her face covered, but the rest of her naked and vulnerable.

  Rolling her back onto her stomach, he sat down beside her and put his leg over her to hold her in place. Then he began raining open hand blows upon those generous but perfectly proportioned buttocks, first on one side and then the other. Soon her bottom began to glow red and her sounds of protests had changed to soft moaning. They weren’t moans of pain, but the sounds he had heard many times before—moans of desire.

  He got up and undressed. She didn’t move. He rolled her onto her back and stroked her the way he knew made her weak. She cooed. No, there was no mistaking her for any other woman, despite her face being hidden. Those wide hips, that soft but flat stomach, and those massive breasts that somehow defied gravity. No one would call her thin or lithe or willowy. She was a curvaceous goddess of sensual pleasure, and she hadn’t visited her temple in far too long. She spread her legs a little and he needed no more invitation than that. He took her.

  Afterwards he lay back propped up by two pillows.

  “My poor bottom is so sore, I won’t be able to sit down tomorrow,” she said, snuggling into the crook of his shoulder.

  “Keep that in mind when you decide you can’t be a proper wife and mother. Do you think you’re too good for us?”

  “No, no. Of course not. I’ve been selfish.” She pressed her face into his neck. “It won’t happen again.”

  “Too right,” he said.

  Chapter Sixteen: Friends and Relatives

  “Are you going to kick me out again at teatime?” asked Baxter, folding his arms and looking down at Senta.

  She was reclining across a Mirsannan divan. She wore a long, flowing silk gown that completely covered her charms, though on the wall directly above her was a photograph of her and her mother reclining on the same piece of furniture—both nude. She reached up to rub her long, exposed neck. Then she ran her hand over her head, her blond tresses about the same length as his own red hair.

  “Of course not,” she smiled. “I want you to be here. These girls today are my oldest and dearest friends and they’ll want to see you. Afterwards you can run along so that they can all tell me how jealous they are.”

  “What about yesterday?”

  “That was different. It was more of an obligation. I know that Graham’s sister will see me with you sooner or later, but I didn’t want to throw it in her face the moment I got back.”

  “It’s been a long time,” he said. “He’s been gone a long time.”

  “Almost four years, but when I see Gaylene, it’s like it was yesterday. Not like now—now it feels like it was eons ago. It’s a kind of magic, you know.”

  “So I’m invited?”

  “You’re more than invited. How did they say it when you were in the navy? You’re requested and required. You can skip out tomorrow if you like. The same girls will be back again, along with some others. But you have to be here the day after. The governor and her family are coming.”

  “Really?”

  “Oh, yes. You’re living in sin with a very important mucky-muck.”

  “Should I dress?” he asked.

  “We always dress for tea in this house—unless we don’t.”

  He stared at her for a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders and left the room. Senta knew he was going upstairs to dress. He had been given over for his own use one of the thirty rooms in the three-story mansion, but he had spent both nights in Senta’s bed. Looking up at the clock, she decided that she should dress too.

  Climbing the stairs still causes a pain in her chest where she had been shot, but it was the only time now that she thought about it. At the top of the sweeping staircase, she waved her hand, magically summoning her lizzie dressing maid. The deep olive reptilian appeared from a room at the end of the hall and met her as she stepped into her boudoir.

  One of only three servants in the house as of yet, Aggie was new. Cheery the butler, and
Thonass the maid had worked for Senta for years and had taken care of the house while she was away. Thonass had given Aggie the recommendation. They were from the same family—or what passed for family among the lizzies.

  “Something pretty today,” she told the reptilian. “Bring me my yellow and white striped day dress.”

  “Yess.”

  The dress was a traditional one. Cut for a medium-sized bustle, the skirt was vertically lined with broad yellow and white stripes while the bodice was a solid yellow with puffy frills of lace around the high neck and at the end of each long sleeve. She topped off the ensemble with yellow emeralds dangling from her pierced ears. She slipped a ring on her right hand that featured a yellow garnet. It was practically worthless, but she had purchased it in Bangdorf because she thought it was pretty.

  “Nice,” said the dressing maid.

  “I was just thinking the same thing,” said Baxter, stepping into the room. He was sharp in his grey suit. He was always sharp.

  “Thank you, kind sir,” she said with a curtsey. “Shall we go down?”

  Suddenly the baby began fussing from her crib in the next room.

  “I’ll be down in a minute,” said Baxter, following her cries.

  “Hmm,” she murmured, observing him. Then she turned to the dressing maid. “I’m going down to set up. Tell Thonass to find me.”

  In the dining room, Senta found the table set with the everyday china, but the food for the afternoon tea filled several wooden crates stacked nearby. Having no one to cook and no one really to serve, she had ordered the tea catered from Café Etta.

  “Uuthanum,” she said and the food began flying out of the crates, soaring around the room, and landing on the appropriate plates and serving platters. A spice cake was coming into a landing in the center of the table with Thonass stepped into the room.

  “Take this envelope,” said Senta, retrieving the stated item from the lamp table along the wall. “Deliver it to the employment agency at the Department of Lizzie Affairs. It is a list of the other servants I shall need.”

  “Yess,” said the lizzie.

  As Thonass was going out, Cheery was coming in.

  “Guests,” he said.

  “Bring them on into the dining room please.”

  The reptilian stepped out and came back a few seconds later leading three young women.

  “Senta!” squealed Hero Markham, rushing forward and wrapping her arms around the sorceress’s waist. “I’ve missed you so much! Look at your hair. You look like a boy.”

  “Well it’s good to be appreciated. You look wonderful. How’s the baby?”

  “Brilliant.”

  “She’s beautiful too,” said Gabrielle Bassett from behind Hero. She looks just like her mother.

  Taller than Hero, though still shorter than Senta, Gabrielle was radiantly beautiful with sparkling blue eyes and ash brown hair. Behind her stood the third young woman. Dutty Morris was attractive but not pretty. Though her widely spaced eyes gave her a kind of blank expression, she was witty and kind.

  “Hello, Gabby,” said Senta, disentangling herself from Hero and giving the other two girls quick kisses on the cheek. “Hi Dutty. Thanks for coming yesterday.”

  “It was my pleasure,” said Dutty. “And I didn’t give away any of your secrets either.”

  “What secrets?” asked Gabby and Hero at the same time.

  “Let’s sit down,” said Senta. “I don’t want the food to go bad. I didn’t expect the weather to be this warm.”

  The four women took seats on either side of the table. Neither Gabby nor Dutty gave any sign that they had noticed them, but Hero kept looking toward a fifth place setting at the table’s head, next to which sat a high chair.

  “So why did she get invited yesterday?” asked Gabby, pointing at Dutty. “Hero’s your oldest friend, and I’m a much better conversationalist than this one.”

  “I will concede both those points,” said Senta. “But I had tea with Gaylene and she and Dutty are about as close as you can get.”

  “I’ve think I’ve just been insulted,” said Dutty.

  “You have been, twice,” said Gabby. “So you wanted her here because Gaylene hates you?”

  “She doesn’t hate her,” said Dutty “It’s just a complicated relationship.”

  “You see?” said Senta. “She’s like the minister of state.”

  “Never mind that,” said Hero, pointing to the empty seat. “What’s this then?”

  “She has a man,” said Dutty, and then slapped her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. I haven’t seen him though, but I did smell his aftershave on her yesterday.”

  “I’m sorry,” said a voice over Senta’s shoulder. “I didn’t know you had company.”

  The four women turned to find Peter stepping into the room from the back hallway. He stopped and smiled crookedly.

  “Hi.”

  “Is this him?” asked Gabrielle. “Is this your fellow?”

  “No no no,” said Peter. “No no no no, no no no. I’m her brother.”

  “Brother?” wondered Hero, a curious look on her face. “I’ve seen you before somewhere.”

  Senta stood up and took Peter by the elbow, guiding him to the empty seat at the opposite end of the table from the spot that had so occupied Hero’s attention.

  “Ladies, this is my half-brother Peter Bassington,” she said, emphasizing the “half.”

  “That’s starting to feel a little hurtful,” he said, sitting down.

  Senta returned to her place and handed her own plate to Peter, replacing it with her tea saucer.

  “These are my friends Hero, Gabrielle, and Dutty.” Senta placed a wedge of ham sandwich on his plate. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

  “I don’t have to stay.”

  “Nonsense,” said Gabby. “How did you two get together? Did you know that Senta was your sister?”

  “Um, she found me, and no.”

  “I’ll tell you the whole story after we eat,” said the sorceress. “Eat your soup, girls.”

  “It seems like you have way more to tell us than will fit into one tea,” said Dutty. “We won’t have time to tell you about our adventures.”

  “That’s why I’m having you again tomorrow and then you’re all coming to dinner later in the week. I’m having invitations made right now. You’ll bring your husbands and children too. Gabby, have you found a young man to bring along?”

  “I’ll have to choose from one of my many suitors,” she replied, fanning her face with her fingers.

  “She doesn’t have anybody,” said Hero. “It’s sad really. She was dating Marzell Lance for a month or so and then she dropped him like a hot potato.”

  “He dropped me. I’m sure I just didn’t seem exciting enough after he had dated the Drache Girl. But it doesn’t matter, because I just so happen to have a new young man, and he’s head-over-heels for me.”

  “I can’t imagine anyone not falling head-over-heels for you,” said Peter, dreamily.

  “Easy boy,” said Senta. “She’s too old for you.”

  “Maybe,” said Gabrielle, as if she wasn’t so sure. “But I do have a younger sister. What trade are you in?”

  “I’m a wizard,” he said, puffing up slightly.

  “Oh, I’ll have to tell Abigail.”

  “Now I know where I’ve seen you,” said Hero. “You were here in Port Dechantagne about six or seven years ago. You were just a kid then.”

  “I hope there’s some food left,” said Baxter, suddenly striding into the room, carrying the baby. He bent down to kiss Senta on the lips before putting his charge in her high chair. The three visitors just stared at him. “Let me guess. You are definitely Hero, with beautiful black hair and exotic good looks. You have to be Gabby, with a face like an angel. So that makes you Dutty—pretty and sweet.”

  “Damned with faint praise,” said Dutty. “So you’re him, eh?”

  “Him who?”

  “Him. Her
him. The him to her her.”

  “This is your man?” exclaimed Gabby. “He’s so…”

  The four women finished her sentence all at the same time.

  “Heroic,” said Senta.

  “Distinguished,” said Dutty.

  “Gorgeous,” said Gabby.

  “Old,” said Hero.

  “Ha!” laughed Peter, pointing at Hero but looking at Baxter. “She called you old.”

  “Ladies, this is Kieran Baxter—my lover.”

  Both Gabby and Dutty suddenly seemed to have trouble closing their mouths. They simply gaped open as their eyes went from Senta to Baxter to Hero to each other.

  “Whose baby is that?” said Hero, suddenly pointing toward the high chair.

  “That’s my daughter Senta Bly.”

  “You had a baby?” wondered Dutty. “But you’re so skinny, I mean thin.”

  “Senta?” said Hero. “You named your daughter Senta? How could you do this to me?”

  “What are you going on about, Hero?”

  “I named my daughter Senta. You should have named your daughter something else. Hero would have been a good name.”

  “I already have a daughter named Hero, Hero,” said Dutty.

  “That’s different. There aren’t that many Heroes.”

  “I’ve seen a few,” said Gabby.

  “There aren’t that many Heroes,” continued Hero, “but there are at least a hundred Sentas in Port Dechantagne, but I never minded. I knew my Senta was closest to the original because I was the Drache Girl’s oldest and dearest friend. She was special. Now you have a Senta that’s way closer because she’s your daughter and now my little Senta isn’t the special one anymore.”

  “Of course your Senta is special…” the sorceress began.

  “Wait!” Hero demanded. “How old is your baby?

  Senta tried to remember and then looked to Baxter for help.

  “She’s about to turn nine months,” he said.

  “Then you were preggers when you were with us last,” gasped Hero. “You were more preggers than me and you just looked at me being fat, fatter, and you were all skinny and tall and not at all stout. It’s some kind of dirty magic trick.”

 

‹ Prev