She pulled back and manoeuvred us into another of those strange positions depicted in the villas murals. I followed her lead eager to experience everything this woman had to offer me.
“Do to me whatever you wish.” I begged.
Our legs scissored awkwardly, pushing our cunnies together. I held her shoulder for support, her own hands gripping my forearms. We moved as one, wet, slippery flowers pressed hard to peel open petals.
“Uhh.”
“Mmm. Harder.”
I pulled her tighter. Our pearls sliding together amongst the folds of our two flowers. My eyes watched my own movements, following the actions of my own arousal. Something I would never have done with George.
An inferno built where we joined and the waft of salty heat filled our nostrils. Maya no longer held my awe. In this moment she was no more powerful than myself. Her face red, her lungs fighting to fan the fire.
“Oh. Oh. Yes.”
I felt as though I was teetering on the edge of a precipice. The two of us together under the Indian sun that squeezed past the curtain, ready to leap from a waterfall into the churning waters.
“Uhhh.”
Maya was rigid as her flood of bliss struck a second time. I followed almost immediately.
“Mmm… yes.”
My back snapped to attention and the wave of delight swept over me taking my consciousness from me. I shuddered in unison with Maya before she went limp, then we fell apart, each snatching breaths from the humid air.
I lay staring at the ceiling watching the shadowy patterns thrown by the curtain in the sunlight. I could still hear the throng of people outside and didn’t doubt that passers by had heard our moans of passion. For the first time I felt alive. And I was without shame or disgust.
“Is this how it is for you?”
I didn’t have to explain. Maya understood perfectly.
“Whenever I choose.
I have everything I want. A life of bliss and the delight of love with my Maharaja and his concubines. We are a family in mind, body and soul.”
She hesitated before asking what I had known for a while was coming.
“Join us Rayne. Accept a new life that you can only imagine.”
“The other girls. Would I…?”
“Only if you and they want to. Who and when is your choice.”
“And the Maharaja?”
I pictured him from my one brief sighting of him at the dance. A fine example of a man. And now I realised what lay behind his acknowledgment of me. Why Maya had approached me.
It was unbelievable I was considering giving myself to a man I had not even spoken to. That I would be expected to participate in the behaviours covering the walls of his hall was incomprehensible. And yet…
“The Maharaja will lift you to heights of ecstasy I cannot. He is an accomplished lover that will turn your fire into a raging forest fire and then quench it with such satisfaction you will believe you are in your Eden. His seed will taste of the Heavens themselves. And his staff will fill you like no other. You will achieve the liberation of your soul.”
Could it really be that good? Could I really find inner peace by entering Purdah?
“But once I enter I can never leave. Do you know what you ask of me?”
Maya nodded.
“It is true. No complete man may ever lay eyes on you again. Only the Maharaja. You can leave but if you do you can never return.”
“And what about you? You come and go as you please.”
“That is also true. And unusual I will grant you. Every purdah is different. Muslims and Hindus have their own rules. The Maharaja has his. And I leave only to do the Maharaja’s bidding.”
“And does that bidding include me?”
She didn’t even hesitate.
“It does. He is captivated by your golden hair and fair complexion. He describes you as the sun on earth.”
I stared up at the ceiling, watching several circling flies that had evaded the nets. To think a man of such standing as the Maharaja could be ‘captivated’ by me was very flattering. And it would be a life free from worry.
“It’s unthinkable that an English girl could enter such a place.” My words lacked conviction.
“It is not unheard of.”
She rolled on top of me, pushing her leg between mine until her thigh pressed at the source of my torture.
“Uhh.”
My body responded even though I knew it was another step towards the breakdown of my defences. Again, beginning with the gentle rub of her leg she was taking my flesh and lifting me to bliss.
“Will you guide me?”
That was it. That was the moment I was subdued. I was turning my back on everything I knew and understood. In just a matter of days Maya had invaded my mind, absorbed my body and now I was letting her take my soul.
“I will always be at your side. I will guide you, teach you and love you. We will go to the Maharaja together.”
I imagined she meant to introduce me but then it occurred to me that some of the murals had more than two people in them. I was struck by how they were imprinted on my memory as though I had at my disposal an instruction manual on how I would finally enjoy my body. I quivered at the thought.
Finally I moved to dress myself. With my fire quenched I was again becoming self conscious of my nudity. And I had need of some normality that would allow me to see things objectively.
“No. Not those.”
Maya had other ideas.
“It’s time to let go of the ribbon and lace you conceal yourself with. Modesty and propriety belong only to conform with English ideals that have no place here.”
Maya with no such qualms around her nudity opened a wardrobe and lifted out clothes like her own. “These are what you shall wear from now on.”
She lay them out on the bed in front of me.
“The top is called a Choli. The lower garment a Lehenga. And this is a Dupata scarf.” She said drooping the pink and gold cloth over me, purposefully letting her fingers brush my bare skin.
I would feel like a queen in such luxurious garments. And without the corset I would feel free. Unrestricted.
“It’s beautiful.” I said looking down at myself in just the Dupata.
“Or there is this.”
She lifted out a beautiful green and gold silk sari.
“It is my choice of wear. Cool and un-restricting.”
One piece of cloth wrapped around the body. I understood exactly what she meant by Uni-restricting.
“Many wear a blouse with the sari, an introduction of the English for your obsession with modesty. I choose not to.”
I ran my fingers over the delicate material imagining how it would feel against my skin.”
“Dress. Then you will be ready to enter the Purdah again.”
“I…”
She waited a moment for me to voice my protestations but I couldn’t.
Maya smiled.
“I have shown you everything. Given myself to you as I wish to do many times more.
Now it is up to you Rayne. You must decide.
Be at one with India, or go back to your life as an English girl and whatever that may bring.”
Maya knew I had limited funds and no alternative course presenting itself. She also knew I couldn’t turn away from the delight she’d brought to me. The idea that I might be a wife to another George who lifted my skirt occasionally to sink his tackle in me while never quenching my own fire was unbearable.
But to commit to a lifetime in Purdah…
I surrendered silently, draping myself in the bright sari. Light and free, I felt naked as we left the room. The old man gave me a cursory glance as we passed which brought a blush to my face, and then I found myself outside. An English girl now at one with my adoptive country. I had the tremor of fear, knowing only a thin silk separated my naked body from the thousands of eyes around me. But I felt liberated.
We took a rickshaw back to the villa, Maya holding my hand all the way in a display I could never have accepted before today.
“What about my things at the Coolidge’s?”
“I will arrange for them to be brought on.”
I thought for a moment. What did I actually want? I only had clothing I would never wear and a few trinkets. And of course my Bible. A symbol of a life I was turning away from.
“No.” I said firmly.
“Dispose of them. Everything.”
I wanted nothing. From now I would be a new person with no connection to my old life. Even the Bible I’d had since childhood could not lead me to the spiritual cleansing I sought. Another person would have said I was betraying God, or even that I had been abandoned by God. In reality I felt it was something altogether different. God had shown me a truth.
I stood at the heavy curtain for a moment. Searching my soul for any doubt. Once I entered here I was committing to becoming a concubine to the Maharaja. To do his bidding whenever he summoned me. I thought again of the murals that lay in the first hall beyond this point. Of the contorted positions the characters in them were twisted into, and I knew I had to know that pleasure. Maya stood back, waiting like a school ma’am for a child to show the lesson had been learnt.
I stepped through leaving the world of England, Empire and its stuffy conventions behind.
SIX
For a week I enjoyed my new home, unrestrained by convention or the embarrassment foisted on me by upbringing and church. Here I could dress brightly, or swim naked in the pool. I lived for the day, concerns for my future lifted away forever.
To my surprise there was upwards of fifty girls rather than the twenty I’d assumed. Some were teachers and readily passed their knowledge on to the less educated. Others looked after young children that I hadn’t seen before and I grasped that I too would likely give birth here if the Maharaja deemed me worthy of being summoned.
Some mornings I questioned my sanity. But by breakfast I was again becoming the obedient willing participant in my own enslavement as whatever magic this place held gripped me afresh. This morning I had questioned what drove my insatiable hunger. The spices perhaps.
The fire which constantly engulfed me turned me into something I hardly recognised but I’d mostly avoided answering its call. Once I’d succumbed having found a secluded part of the garden. I wasn’t yet ready to behave with abandonment as many of the girls did. But each day I was getting closer.
All the while I waited for the Maharaja to summon me how a child would wish for Christmas.
For most of the day the bright sun fell into the open garden, warming the sheltered space. I would lay naked on the grass thrilling myself with my unaccustomed exposure. I was unconcerned that my pale complexion was no longer protected. Slowly I was taking on an even shade of brown. Not as dark as the Indian girls, but also no longer the pasty pale washed out look of an English lady who had never been exposed to sunshine. My skin had begun to glow and despite the very British attitude that a translucent pale skin displayed my social status I’d accepted, at Maya’s insistence, that I looked healthier.
Once, Maya had taken me back to the hall with the murals and talked slowly through several of them, explaining the beauty of what they portrayed, describing in detail how each would feel. I must admit some reticence still remained in me to hear it, but after we had drunk tea Maya had again taken me to her private quarters for instruction. This time exciting my quim to new heights over and again until I’d screamed myself into oblivion.
Eventually the day came I had expected, waited hopefully for and feared. The day when a servant girl came and spoke to Maya before pointing to me.
I had been selected. I had been summoned to please the Maharaja. My heart pounded as though to burst free from my chest as I waited patiently to be told where I should go.
Maya approached me with a smile. It wasn’t the probing or knowing smile that only sat on the lips. This time it filled her face.
“Come. I will take you to the Maharaja.”
I snatched a few quick breaths to calm myself. Already I could sense a tremble and the first hot coals in my belly.
“Stand straight and be respectful in front of the servants.
When they are gone, then you can relax and be yourself.”
“Thank you Maya.”
“The maharaja is an attentive lover. Follow his lead. He will take you to even heights that I cannot.
I will be there to guide you as needed.”
I followed Maya out through the curtains and along the corridors. As always she seemed to float on an air of confidence I could only wish to acquire. Following behind I felt more like one of the servants. She led me up a flight of wide stairs and along a corridor I had never seen towards the Maharajas quarters that seemed sunk even deeper in this never ending palace.
Still the scent of flowers filled the air from thousands of petals picked daily and placed throughout the building.
The closer I got to my destination the more I felt nervous. My flesh tingled and under my Sari I could feel my flower watering in anticipation.
“We are here.” Maya said stopping outside two large ornate doors.
I gave a nervous smile and thought back to the first time my husband had required carnal knowledge of me. A rather staid affair of him telling me it was time and instructing me to sit.
This would be a much more elaborate affair and I hoped far more satisfying.
The doors swung open and I followed Maya inside.
Such an opulent room. Even more ornate than the one Maya had taken me to when she had initiated me into love making.
Colossal ornate windows lined the wall bathing the large space in brilliant sunshine.
I stood as I had been told while Maya said something in Punjabi to a servant girl preparing tea at the side before taking over her activities. The young girl left without making eye contact with me.
The Maharaja was everything his picture had suggested. Everything promised by that once only glimpse of him I’d had at the Garrison party. Tall, majestic. He had the muscle tone of a warrior and the face of, dare I say it, a lover.
This was the man who would shortly take my earthly flesh in his hands and enter my cunny with his staff. My knees weakened and I felt the prickle of goosebumps rising on my arms.
“Rayne. Such a lovely name.” He spoke with perfect English as he circled me I felt myself shake all over as you do on that first day at a new school.
“Please, sit.”
He led me to an arrangement of large cushions and I lowered myself to sit next to him.”
I glanced to Maya still busy with the tea. What was that? A slight of hand I almost missed Had she added something?
Maya realised I had seen.
“A local spice that will help you relax. I doesn’t spoil the tea, it’s almost tasteless.” She smiled.
I took the cup offered to me and without questioning it any further I sipped the hot liquid.
“You are exquisite. The skin of fine porcelain and hair the colour of the golden sun.”
I blushed at his attention.
“Thank you.”
The Maharaja stoked my cheek, trailing his fingers over my neck and around my throat.
Somehow the Sari came loose and fell away exposing my globes. In the moment I realised he was the first man who had seen them. George had only gripped them through clothing, never laying his eyes on them. An undignified groping that had none of the arousing tenderness of Maya’s touch of them. And now the Maharaja himself would shortly enjoy their splendour and delight me with his attention.
My breath shuddered as I let him feast his eyes. Ruby tips hardened and pointed out sharply. A moment later he was suckling like a baby as I sat looking down at him. His mouth gently sucked as his lips massaged the soft flesh around my nip. A hand cupped the mound and tested its firmness. Tendrils of bliss spread out over my skin and excited every part of my being.
“Mmm.” I gasped.
A gentler, female hand joined in kneading my other globe as I felt the Maharaja’s tongue play with the pert little button topping the first between his teeth.
“Oh my God.” I was shaking, almost unable to breathe.
His hand pushed away the rest of my clothing and I found myself laid back as his palm circling amongst my sable fur. Juices leaked from me which he collected and spread over my inner thighs and bush, soaking me in my own fluids.
A hand laid on my cheek and turned my face to an almost forgotten Maya. She planted her mouth on mine and I opened up accepting her searching tongue.
Hands caressed me all over, exciting every inch of my skin. Time passed as though stretched out into an eternity. Fingers invaded by most private place. Others peeled back it’s fleshy entrance. My fruits became Maya’s focus as the Maharaja replaced his fingers with his tongue.
Never had the fire burned so fiercely inside my belly as it did now.
“Uhhh. Don’t stop.”
Eventually he did. But not before I had been taken by my first la petite mort. The little death of orgasm.
He stood and removed his clothing letting my eyes savour his physic. The Maharaja was an artwork. Sculptured muscles that rippled with each movement under taut youthful skin.
But it was his staff that held my attention.
It was bigger than Daksh’s. Both longer and thicker. I couldn’t really know but I was confident George had also been much smaller.
I realised I was expected to excite it with my mouth. I feared it. It’s size, how it would taste, how far into my throat he would thrust it.
This was something that Maya had not been able to instruct me in by demonstration. But she had explained what I should do in detail.
I moved closer, intent on pleasing my master. Tentatively my lips closed over his crown finding it slick with his fluids. Salty, thicker than Maya’s nectar with a more acrid taste. Not unpleasant by far. I rode my lips down his shaft, feeling the smooth head slide over my tongue until it threatened to invade my throat and choke me. I pulled back before I gagged and positioned myself over his legs before taking more of it.
Behind me Maya worked her magic on my cunny and the shear delight of her fingers inside me powered the desire of my mouth. I worked him, gripping his staff with my lips to imitate the feel of my hole.
The maharaja lay back, relaxing into my actions. He shuddered under my touch and I could feel the hotness of his hard staff. This was the delight that Nisha had brought to her husband and now I was bringing it to my new master. My head span with delirium as though a drug had weakened my natural reticence. I was both a servant and master in that moment.
And all the while Maya found new places with which to send shivers up my spine.
“Delightful.” He muttered.
I felt even more excitement at the knowledge I was pleasing him. I let my lips continue giving him delight as I became more confident. My hands instead exploring his limbs, brushing through the short coarse hair that covered his thighs up into the thicket surrounding his root. I found his whirligigs. Ovoids that rolled under my palm in their wrinkled pouch.
When he entered me it was like my first time all over again. He filled me in a way George never had. His bare body against mine so much more pleasing than the clothed fumbling I’d known with my husband.
His pumps into me came faster and deeper and I cried out.
“Oh. Yes. Yes.”
I thought I should say something original but my head swam and only gasps and more utterances of “Yes” came.
My legs were forced wide at the hips to accommodate him until they hurt. The pain was just another glorious aspect of this… this… fucking. A word I would be horrified to hear myself use in normal company but as with Maya it seemed appropriate for that was what was happening to me. I was being fucked.
“Oh my God. Yes.
Fuck me.”
The understanding of my situation just made me wilder. My fingers gripped his shoulders, nails crawling at his flesh as the pressure and heat built within me at each thrust.
My head was in Maya’s lap as the Maharaja took his please of me. Her hands stroking over my shoulders, down around my fruits and up over burning nipples.
The moment came with the impact of running into a wall.
“Fuuck.”
I bucked under him. My body possessed by a higher power. My skin tingled, sensing every brush of flesh against it. Both his and Maya’s still caressing hands.
I think I lost consciousness for a moment as I became just a toy impaled on his instrument of delight.
He withdrew from me with an urgency, scrambling over the top of me, thrusting his staff into my mouth for a second time. Almost immediately I found myself hit by his warm gush. It run over my tongue towards my throat. More followed from the hot twitching shaft and I swallowed instinctively.
I knew it couldn’t be more than a small amount. Anything else would have been unnatural. But in that instant it felt like a torrent of hot lava forcing its way down my throat. I choked and he withdrew.
As I gathered myself Maya had my face in hers, licking away the excess of his seed, then invading my mouth to share the saline mixture that remained there.
I gasped for air as though I would die when she released me.
To my side Maya had planted herself on the Maharajas still firm shaft and now proceeded to ride him like a stallion. Her long black hair flayed out around her sweating face and small fruits bounced against her chest.
I had a clear view of where he entered her and with wide eyes I stared at the connection of their two bodies.
“Uh. Uh. Uh. Uh.”
On it went with a ferociousness I’d never seen her gripped by. Sweat dripped from her dusky skin and the dark points of her fruits seemed harder than I’d ever seen them. Then it came. That moment of pleasure stinging her, breaking her rhythmic stride.
“Yes.”
She swayed, almost loosing balance as she tried to service her master to his final moment.
The Maharaja lifted her and jerked his hips under her. The glazed look of his eyes told me he was delivering more of his pearly shower deep inside her.
“Ahhh.”
The tension left his body and he went limp under his princess.
I was weak as I walked back to the purdah. But I was also elated. I’d passed what I felt was a test. I had satisfied the Maharaja. And as importantly, I had been satisfied. I’d felt joy and delight such as I hadn’t believed possible. I had been ‘fucked’ I reminded myself. Whatever my late husband had done to me, he had never truly fucked me. That I knew with a certainty.
SEVEN
The next afternoon I was both surprised and delighted to be summoned by the Maharaja a second time. I was thankful as the fire had burned inside me all morning to the point I’d finally considered approaching one of the other concubines to help release me from my agony.
The maharaja’s rooms were as before, except this time rose petals had been sprinkled on the floor where I walked. My guiding servant didn’t enter and we were alone immediately.
The object of my desire sat on his bed of cushions where he and Maya had taken me yesterday. Only a wrap covered his lower body and I was greeted by his masculine physic.
“It is delightful to have an English girl join our family.” He said in almost perfect English.
The Maharaja took a piece of peeled fruit from a bowl and put it in his mouth. It was sensuous.
“I’m here to please.”
Words that just a few weeks ago I’d never dream I would speak came easily. I was a concubine. That was my purpose and there was little point in denying it. A willing concubine I reminded myself.
He smiled warmly.
“I hope I please you.”
“You do.”
“And Maya?”
I shook, unsure if my knees would hold my weight. All my strength had deserted me, rushing to the furnace between my legs.
“She does. Very much so.”
“I am pleased.
Now come. Let me see you. I wish to feast my eyes on your exquisite body once more.”
I knew I was blushing as I unwrapped myself from the sari and let it fall to the floor. He was my master now.
“So pale. Like a delicate porcelain.
And your hair is like the gold mined from the mountains, or a golden ray of sunshine.”
He stared a while longer and for a moment I felt my naked beauty held power over him.
“Sit with me.”
I did as he said, trying hard to portray the same confidence that Maya showed. I fought the desire to just run my hands over his chest before he initiated our intimacy. There was no doubt that I wanted him.
Maya had made clear there were rules to love making. The Maharaja was the master. It was his place to lead and mine to follow. But he also had a duty to please in return. I was certain there would be no question of that.
Leaning forward he took a piece of fruit from the bowl and drew a line under my bosom with it, then up around my aching nip. I quivered and allowed my eyes to close. He squeezed the fruit and let it dribble and run over my mound. I could feel it cooling my flesh as at the same time it added coal to my inner fire. Then his mouth encompassed my ruby topping.
“Uhh.”
My hand went instinctively to his thick dark hair, caressing the back of his head until he finished his delightful suckling of me.
He pushed more of the fruit between my lips and I chewed, tasting mango.
“There is no greater pleasure than fresh fruit.”
I wondered if he referred to the mango or myself.
He took more in his hand and I lay back on his bed of cushions, letting him squeeze the cool fruit juice onto me. It tricked over my belly and into my notch. His tongue followed licking it from me.
“So much sweeter when taken with womanly flesh.”
“Oh my God.”
He’d found my cunny. Pushing my legs apart with a gentle firmness he buried his face in my spring moss and pushed his tongue deep inside me. My juice and mango juice mixing in a cocktail that delighted his senses.
Now I braved myself and sought out his staff, eager to quench my own thirst with his creamy ejaculation. I found it standing proud, dancing for my attention and with some enthusiasm I took it between my lips.
“Oh my little English lady. You do that so well.”
I took pride at his words. That I would have been disgusted to the point of vomiting just a few weeks ago at the thought of doing such a thing, I was now eager and felt that it was becoming a talent.
Up and down his sinuous member I rode my lips while my tongue circled his deep purple crown. It was hard and hot and responded to my actions with tiny jumps that rubbed against the roof of my mouth. My master groaned with the attention but never forgot that my own fruitful alley also required sustenance.
I found myself laid along him as we squirmed our parts into each other’s faces, covering ourselves in a mixture of sweat, oozing fluids and the mango juice. It was wonderful, both feeding and easing the inferno that sat below my womb. It smouldered eternally like an underground coal-seam fire.
We rolled and I was pinned under his weight, his hips now thrusting himself into my throat.
I swallowed his creamy gush as soon as it filled my mouth and gave a muffled cry as my own moment came.
“Mmmmm.”
My thighs gripped the Maharaja’s head as I bucked like a wild horse against his sweet mouth. Still he devoured me until unable to take any more I struggled free.
“Sorry.” I said fearful I might have displeased him.
“Don’t be.
When the body rebels then I know you have experienced all that I have to give.”
He stroked my leg and took more mango. Some he pushed between my parted lips before eating more himself.
“Have you given any thought to what you will do here? How you will occupy your time?”
I must admit I hadn’t.
“Perhaps music.” He suggested.
I laughed.
“I’m afraid I’m not particularly musical.
I could teach the children about England?”
That suggestion pleased him greatly.
“And improve their use of the language. It’s especially important that boys can converse in English.”
I could see how that would be.
“Then yes. I will teach English.”
“Very good.
Now come. We have had time to recover and I have to teach you more of the art of love. Let us try another position.”
I was a little apprehensive as he manoeuvred and positioned me like a mannequin. I couldn’t help but giggle like a school girl which seemed to please him.
I found myself sat facing the sculptured features of my master. Dark eyes that twinkled with kindness and warmth studied me intently. His hands gripped my hips and looking down I saw his staff press at the entrance to my whore pipe. At hardness subtly depressing the puffy swelling hidden under my small golden thatch.
“Oh my.”
In the bright sunlight our juices gleamed and sparkled on our fur like stars.
My legs were pushed wide over his hips as he moved closer, pulling me onto his instrument of love as though I was a glove to be worn.
“Uhh.”
Fixated, I saw my own flower part, sliding around his penetration of me. Wet delicate flesh that glided over a rod of Indian steel, and below what I can only describe as two tiny quails eggs jiggled in a purse of loose skin.
“Now rock your hips.”
I lifted my head and stared into his eyes as I did as instructed. Immediately I felt pleasure. My pipe gripped him all of its own as I rode along his shaft.
“Slow and long.” He said.
I pressed to the base of his root until our fur mingled, then twisting my hips I swivelled back until only his tip remained inside me.
“Uhh.”
Then back down as he filled me again.
The Maharaja closed the space between us until my tips brushed the hairs of his chest. His lips closed around mine and we explored mouths where our nectars still lingered.
I wanted to taste him, to taste myself on him. I wanted to be at one with him, to have him absorb my very being. All the while I kept up the movement of my pelvis.
I rode my master with increasing vigour, unable to hold myself back until I broke free of his face to gasp for air.
“Uhh. Uhh. Uhh.”
I swear under oath he had become harder as I burned around him.
“Aww. God.”
I trembled from head to toe then bliss flooded me, wiping all thought from my head.
“Mmmmmm.”
His gush filled me, squeezing free of us as I continued to thrust myself along his staff several times more.
The Maharaja put his arms around me and held me tight while my body jerked with tiny earthquakes I was unable to control.
“This is how it will always be.” He said.
“I will love you with all my body and spirit as will Maya and the others in Purdah. One big family.”
It seemed strange having a conversation as I sat astride him with his stiff sinew still filling me.
“Have you taken pleasure with any of the others?”
“No. Not yet.”
“You should not hold back. Choose your favourites and they can join us. I will take you while you take them.”
My veins were filled with fire at the words. A promise of bliss I could not imagine. For a moment I saw myself as a mural in the hall. My pale body bent over to feed on the quim of an Indian girl whilst my master impaled me from behind.
“I will.”
The shudder in my voice betrayed my ongoing desire and letting his staff slide from me he pushed his fingers inside to work me a third time. With my arms around his neck and my legs spread either side of his body I stared down able to see every movement that sent tendrils of fire leaping up my spine.
EIGHT
Breakfast came as it always did. Delivered by servants, young boys and girls it yet on the cusp of puberty overseen by one of the only men permitted entry to this hidden world. A eunuch. An ineffectual man who it could be certain would never lust after us.
I knew of their existence of course, but to see one in the flesh had been a shock. To think that a man could willingly accept losing the very things that made him a man was beyond my comprehension. My recent experiences had also made me understand just how great their sacrifice was for their life of servitude.
The food itself was traditional Indian fare. A taste I was quickly becoming used to. And as always it was served with tea.
We sat on cushions with the food and drink served on long low tables, each of us taking what we wished. Everyone was present for meals. All of the Maharaja’s concubines and their children. A noisy and busy event that sat in contrast to the rest of my much quieter day.
With children perhaps seventy people were present and it was a testimony to the size of the palace that they could all disperse so widely after meals.
Children were ushered away for schooling and the girls moved to whatever duties they had accepted to maintain Purdah. I’d agreed to assist in teaching but had yet to take my first lesson as I settled in. I was to instruct in the use of English Language and explain how the Empress ruled over India and her Empire.
I don’t know why, but as I lifted the tea to my lips I was suddenly hit by the image of Maya adding spices to the beverage in the Maharaja’s rooms. In the same moment I saw every other instance of her offering tea to me. Even the hint of its flavour on her fingers when they had touched my lips in the moments I’d wavered. I took the cup and went to the garden.
Maya must have seen me leave so abruptly as moments later she appeared.
“You are angry.” She stated.
“What did you put in my tea?”
I was angry. I knew Maya’s power over me now.
She looked at the cup still in my hands.
“It’s only a blend of herbs and spices to help you relax and open your mind.”
“You drugged me.” I was incredulous.
“I see now why every time we met you offered tea. You drugged me so that I would go along with your scheme. Have you drugged everyone here?”
“I only lowered your guard so that you might see things more clearly. It enabled you to do only what you would have liked to do but feared to. Nothing more.”
“That I and the other girls might be easier to manipulate.”
My interpretation seemed clearer.
“No one here is manipulated. I told you these girls come here of their own free will. They know what is in the tea and drink it willingly to help them enjoy their mortal life. I explained to you the importance of herbs and spices to Indians. I even told you the purpose of each one. It is perfectly normal to add them to drinks as it is the food.”
She could see me studying her. Trying to decide where the woman ended and the Dayan began.
“You should know I drink from the same pot. The Maharaja himself drinks the same blending.”
Maya’s eyes looked into my soul. Already I was withering so completely as I remained in awe of her.
“Let me ask you this. Were you happier lifting your skirt for a husband that took his pleasure and gave you none? Or are you now more satisfied knowing that the fire in your belly can be truly quenched?”
I stared unable to answer. Like it or not I was satisfied beyond my dreams.
“Does the Maharaja not show you consideration and take care to meet your own expectations?”
I looked at the tea. The innocuous pleasant drink that we all drank in Purdah with our breakfast each morning. Drugs or herbs? Different names with the same effect. To lower inhibitions, to make us pliable to the games of the Maharaja and the Maharani. We were toys, puppets to be positioned as the murals portrayed. Or so it seemed in my anger.
“What if I choose to leave?” I snapped.
Maya looked genuinely disappointed.
“I have no power to stop you.”
She stepped aside as if to indicate I could leave there and then. My bare feet remained rooted to the spot.
“Decide Rayne. Decide if you want to return to the quest of finding another Englishman with his stiff upper lip and limp instrument. Perhaps you will be the kept woman of the married Captain Andrews.
Or stay here where you can attain true spiritual enlightenment and enjoy the sexual fulfilment that your creator intended.”
Her brown eyes burned into me as though she might hypnotise me. I turned away unwilling to let her touch my soul.
I saw the girls, perhaps ten or so, each happily playing games or reading. Two, more intent on each other were tucked away under a tree.
Every one of them had drunk the tea daily as I had. Every one of them compliant for sexual gratification of their mistress and master.
When I looked back Maya had vanished as though her presence had been an illusion.
I had my confirmation. Maya’s spell over me had been delivered in a cup. Each time we’d met she had encouraged me to drink tea. Each time laced with some intoxicating herb that made my flower bloom and want for pollination by any means. But then there was the very real question. Did I care? The sensations and need were real enough as was the gratification.
I looked at the tea again now with the certain knowledge of what it contained. I pondered it for a moment along with my question. Did I care? Did I want to leave?
I took a mouthful of the now cold tea. I swallowed, this time with the realisation that the fire inside me would begin its burn again. It did. Almost immediately. Today though I wouldn’t fight it.
I looked about, spying Greta, a particularly pretty girl a year or so younger than me. Her name meant sacred song and I had heard her sing. It was appropriate.
She glowed in the hot sunlight and her large fruits moved with the restrained grace of fluffy pillows against her chest under a thin sari. She saw me watching and beckoned me over.
I decided it was perhaps time I partook of some of the other delights Purdah offered.
I smiled and approached, losing my Sari as I reached her. I could see her eyes widen at the sight of my naked body. I was already leaking at the thought of knowing what her ruby tipped globes would feel like against my lips and in my hands.
Greta raised her hand palm up and collected my nectar as she smiled into my eyes.
“Uhh.” I gasped at her touch. My knees already weakening.
She tasted my juice, still holding my gaze as she sucked her fingers clean. I would take her here in the open where everyone could see I decided. Then later, perhaps the Maharaja would summon me again and I could deliver on my promise to bring a favourite.
I did so hope so.
I leant forward, letting my hands stroke the smooth shoulders of the young girl that waited expectantly before me. I closed my lips gently around a swollen tip and sucked it in.
I had made my decision. Purdah was indeed where I wanted to be.
The End