When Simone was gone, Janey came over and sat on my lap, curled up in a ball and wept. All the fear, all the terror, all the unknown came rushing out. Things were OK, now. Simone was back safe. She could let go.
I let her cry. In between her tears, she told me that she had remembered what I had done for her when she had been hiding from reality. How I had sat by her bed and talked to her. So she did that with Nicole. She told Nicole about Steven's attack on her. What she had felt like. How she had wanted to die. She told her of Sally's bet with me, the whole thing. How I had agreed, reluctantly, to help her adjust sexually. That that was why we were so open in the house, why Janey could tease me like she did. She told Nicole everything she could remember.
I let her cry herself out. We were both lying there when we felt the reunion between Nicole and Simone. I felt almost guilty eavesdropping on their emotions like that. I asked Janey if she ever got used to it. I think she felt as guilty as I did. It was a rather touching reunion.
Nicole and Simone came out of the Free Room together. In European fashion, they were holding hands. They came over to where Janey and I were sitting. Nicole was naked, as she had been with Sally as her mistress. That would have to change. I whispered for Janey to go get her one of Sally's slave outfits. Janey jumped up and came back with it in a flash.
I had Janey help Nicole put it on. It didn't fit quite the same as it did on Sally, but it did wonders for her ego. She knelt down at my feet and grabbed on to my ankles. I felt her tears washing over them. I looked up at Simone to see what she was thinking. I wasn't prepared for the beaming smile she gave me. Whatever I had done seemed to have been a step in the right direction.
I had been dreading going down to get Sally. When Nicole seemed to be less weepy, I told her to get up and follow me. I told the girls to have Bala call Amud and to help her pack. I knew he didn't like to be away from her any longer than necessary. I also knew he didn't like her in the house with me when he wasn't here, too. It's not that he didn't trust us both. He just didn't trust us both together. I didn't blame him. Bala was beginning to grow on me.
I had been sensing Sally since I got home. I had shot her a message to prepare herself when I had arrived. I had sensed a quiet resolution and peace from her in return. I wasn't sure I liked that serenity in her and, frankly, it scared the shit out of me. I made my way to the dungeon, sending her reassurances the entire way. All I got back was that damned calm message that she was at peace with herself.
Nicole followed me into the dungeon. She gasped as she saw Sally. Her face was drawn, haggard, as if she had not slept in the week or so that we were gone. It was entirely possible that she had refused herself that luxury. In preparing for us, she had fouled herself. There was a trail of urine beginning at her knees that was slowly heading for the floor drain. Streaks of brown on her thighs indicated the path of her feces. The stench was just beginning to reach eye-watering intensity. Her eyes clouded with tears for another reason as she saw Nicole wearing one of her slave costumes. I felt the fear in her heart. I did nothing to still it.
"Master? Has she been here the entire time?"
"Yes."
"Mon Dieu!"
The whip Sally had used to beat Nicole was still on the floor where it had fallen that night. It had been within her view the entire time as she knelt in the stocks. I went over and picked it up. I handed it to Nicole.
"Get it out of your system."
She looked at the whip as if it was of alien origin. She looked up at me confused.
"Master? I do not understand."
I pointed at Sally.
"She hurt you, beat you badly. Now it is your turn."
Sally, already pale, whitened completely at that statement. That was not what she thought I had meant when I told her to prepare herself. She braced herself when Nicole went up to her holding the whip in both hands like a club. I was prepared to intervene if necessary as she raised it high over her head.
The whip crashed down, but I didn't move. The force of the blow as it hit the wood of the stocks broke the shaft of the weapon, knocking it out of her hands and across the room. Nicole walked over to it, bent down and picked up the now ruined whip. She handed it to me.
"It is out of my system. May I help her clean up now, Master?"
I looked at her and smiled in gratitude. She had made the first important unilateral step of forgiveness in the process of reconciliation between the two women and made it in such a way that ensured a healing. She had broken the whip over the post behind Sally. I was looking forward to getting to know this exotic looking woman better.
"Come into the Free Room when you are both ready."
As I was leaving, I heard the two women crying and sobbing, asking each other's forgiveness. They had both been wrong, they had both been hurt. It had been all my fault. We all knew that, too.
They made me wait. Amud came and gathered Bala. Janey and I expressed our thanks to him for letting her come to help us out. He sincerely wished me peace in my house. Bala, surprising both of us, requested Janey to come visit her for an extended visit. She had been impressed with her taking charge, how she had handled herself. There was much she could teach her, she said, if I would allow it. She didn't ask Amud's permission before speaking up, and I saw him roll his eyes in exasperation. He did give me a quick nod of assent before I agreed, however, grinning as he did. As much as he protested, I think he enjoyed his wife's unpredictable nature more and more. It was exciting, anyway. I agreed that Janey would go over in a few days and stay for an extended visit.
When Sally and Nicole did come into the Free Room, I saw immediately what had taken so much time. Sally had whipped up a slave outfit for Nicole, one that fit her like a glove and showed off her charms in a most appealing and inviting way. I'm not sure who was more pleased with my stares at Nicole, she or Sally. I kept checking my sense for any jealousy from Sally, but there simply wasn't any. So I kept staring. Eventually at both of them.
Sally, giggling, finally broke the lustful interlude.
"Did you want to see us, Master, or just see us?"
She giggled at her own joke. It was good to hear her laugh, but there were serious matters to discuss.
I grinned at her and held out my arms to her. She collapsed against me, dissolving in the sobs of the deep sorrow that was still just below the surface. I held her to me, consoling her. Nicole stood watching our embrace. She was not embarrassed at this intimacy nor did she turn away. It was simply not her turn. She would wait.
Setting Sally down in one of the comfortable chairs around the table in the room, I held another chair out for Nicole. I took another chair facing the two. Briefly, before I started, I checked with my senses on the two teenagers. Both were intense sources of curiosity, standing just outside the door. I gave them a good-natured growl over our link, thought of a picture of a grizzly bear, which I knew Janey would hate and sent them to clean their room. We heard mock screams of terror as they fled the vicinity.
Nicole looked puzzled at what had just happened. She had not yet experienced the link we all shared, perhaps never would. Sally looked stunned. I had just sent a message with such apparent ease over my link where a week before I could hardly come to grips with having the ability at all. I didn't try to explain it to her but she was clearly impressed with my grasp of it.
"This is the Free Room. Free Room rules apply. Is that clear?" I asked them.
Both nodded.
"I made an error in judgment giving Sally authority over you, Nicole. I apologize."
I turned to Sally.
"I made an error of pride in not listening to you, Sally. Please forgive me."
I waited.
Nicole spoke first, after first glancing at Sally, who nodded.
"Lawrence, what works with some will not work with all. You need to see Sally and me as different. You need to see us for who and what we are. For myself, I do not wish to be a mistress and have authority over someone."
"I find that hard to believe, Nicole. You were the CEO of a successful company. You made decisions and controlled people's lives every day."
"I was terrified every minute of the day, every day of the week. It is not that I cannot make decisions, or think, or act on my own. I just do not wish to have responsibility for others. It terrifies me. Can you do that, Lawrence?"
"You are asking me to treat you differently. I can do that. Will you also accept that many times, most of the time, in fact, I may need to treat you in the same manner? That there may not be much difference?"
She grinned, nodding.
"Apology accepted, Lawrence."
Sally was quiet for a minute.
"You hurt me, by not listening to me."
I nodded. This was not going to go well, I could tell.
"I forgive you."
It couldn't be that simple.
It wasn't. I suddenly felt an awful pressure on my balls. I looked at Sally. Both her hands were on the table, as were Nicole's. Both sat too far away to reach me with their feet. Still the pressure increased. Sweat broke out on my forehead. I groaned in pain. I saw spots. More than anything I wanted to reach down and break the grip of whatever it was that was slowly grinding my gonads; but I knew there was nothing there. I groaned again, fast losing consciousness.
Opening my senses, I saw two dainty hands holding an oversized garlic press to my nuts. I recognized those hands. I had just seen them. They were resting on the table across from me. I looked up in terror at Sally.
"Don't you ever ignore me like that again, buster," came her sweet voice lilting across the link. "That hurt me, that you, you, you toyed with me. Oh. By the way, you aren't the only one who has been practicing lately. I've had a lot of time on my hands recently and well..."
I gasped as the pressure suddenly disappeared.
"One more thing. I love you, Master," she ended.
I didn't know you could giggle across the link.
I had to wait to stop shaking before I continued. I would never be safe in this house again. With my voice still shaky, I asked, "Are you done?"
"Lawrence, is something the matter. You don't look well. You are flushed."
"He's OK, Nikki."
Nicole, too, had apparently acquired a nickname. Sally was looking at me, talking to me through her explanation to Nicole.
"It's just something that happens to a man when he realizes how stupid he's been. This time the pain passed quickly, but the reason for it will be remembered for a long time. That about right, Larry?"
Nicole looked puzzled, but didn't press it.
I nodded in full agreement, then got on with the meeting.
"There are going be some changes. First, Sally, I want you to take Nicole down and set up hers and Simone's accounts like yours and Janey's. Nicole, the way the money is handled around here is like this: I don't touch your money. Any interest, wages or other income is yours. It goes into the accounts that Sally will help you set up. You are free to spend or invest your money however you want. Until Simone is of legal age, you will have signatory authority on her account. I will be paying for all living expenses for my household out of my own funds. Anything having to do with the functioning of the household, I will pay for. Is that clear?"
Sally and Nicole both nodded in agreement. It had been bothering Nicole that this issue had not been addressed.
"Second, we are moving."
That got a bigger reaction from them. Nicole relaxed a bit more. It was another area of concern for her. Sally looked surprised, and a little distressed.
Before she could protest, I explained my reasons, "Sally, this is your home. Nicole is uncomfortable."
I waited to see if she would accept that.
Sally looked over at Nicole, pleading in her eyes.
"Don't hold this against Nicole. It's my decision."
"Where will we move, Master?"
"To my family home. You just stayed there with Marion."
"But Janey..." she started to protest.
I cut her off. I had thought this out. It was decided.
" ... will commute to her high school here for her senior year. She has her license and I will get her a dependable car. Simone will be seeing a kind of special counselor in Washington on a weekly basis and the new house is closer for her commute. It is also closer to the symphony, Mac and CeCe, and Amud and Bala. It is also closer to the Guild, which is important for a reason I will explain later"
Sally sighed in resignation. That attitude wasn't what I wanted to see in her. She had to not only accept this but embrace it enthusiastically.
"Sally, this is not a punishment or a reflection on you in any way. You will still keep this house. You can use it as an escape, a haven for yourself. I'm sure Nicole will use her own home for the same thing, from time to time. What you two are asking me to do means we're going to have to turn all of our concepts of marriage and the traditional gender roles of who does what upside down. It could get intense during the adjustment period and for a long time afterwards. New things may come up and disturb the environment from time to time, too. You may need to regroup, readjust to the new situation. You may need to leave for a while. You can't do that now."
"I would never leave you, Larry!"
"Never is a very strong word, Sally."
"I..."
She stopped, suddenly realizing the enormity of the implications of what she had started by bringing in Nicole. It had felt right to her, she knew it could work. She just hadn't bothered to work out the details. Putting it into practice needed planning, not feelings. I knew her a little better now; I knew this was how she functioned. She went on feelings, I went on facts.
"You are right, Master. I hadn't thought about that. I'm sorry I doubted you."
"It's still going to be tough. I haven't worked out everything, you know. You two will have to do some thinking, too..." I grinned at them both. "Sally, since you are in charge of the household — yes, that will continue to be your chief function — you will be in charge of the remodeling and the move. I want to be moved by the start of school, so you're going to have your work cut out for you. Work out with Marion which rooms she needs, which ones we can have. There should be more than enough room for all of us in one wing. She can have the other. Work with her. Whatever you decide is OK. Clear?"
She nodded, her mind already working. Give a woman a reason to spend a lot of money and you could generally count on a few peaceful days.
It was going to take more than a few days to remodel the monstrosity of a house my father had purchased when he hit it big. He had been a struggling family lawyer, barely making enough to feed his family and keep us out of the slums. As it was, we were right next door to them. It was a hard time for us - even I remember that - but we were happy. I remember the laughter, the stories around the table, the love.
Something happened to change him. He never said what it was, exactly but I suspect that he finally realized the futility of trying to change human nature. The people he represented were no more interested in truth or justice than was the legal system. They just wanted a ticket to easy street. He fought against the trend towards frivolous lawsuits for years and refused to file them, mostly as a matter of honor. He tried to work out equitable settlements between the parties when there was a real injury or loss. He was a highly respected man, but you can't eat respect.
It nearly broke his practice when the courts started making punitive damage awards on the basis of pain and suffering or mental anguish. I can remember one winter we had almost no food and less heat. Momma got sick and any money we had went for medicine. We all chipped in and helped, and she got better, but she wasn't ever the same.
Whatever happened, he did a complete about face. Fuck the system, seemed to be his new motto. He was going for the bucks. As he did with everything, as he had taught me to do, he went after it with all that he had. He was good, too, but it ate him up inside.
Within a year, he had nailed several large contingency cases with exorbitant damage claims. His contingency fee was 50% for an out of court settlement, and the usual 30% for a court settlement. He couldn't seem to lose a case, even with the most ridiculous positions his clients wanted him to take. He took particular relish in quoting the liberal court's rulings and turning them against the particular perversion of justice that had instigated the ruling. Most people remember the Bakke reverse discrimination case, where a white male sued a medical school because minority students, who were less qualified than he, were accepted while he was not. My Dad was the architect of that strategy, although he didn't represent Mr. Bakke. He took particular delight in setting the liberal court on its ear. I think he was hoping the system would come to its senses. He was trying to illustrate absurdity by using the absurd.
When the dollar amounts of the court settlements he was winning started reaching the stratosphere and going even higher on the appeals, opposing counsels quickly began offering out of court settlements to avoid having to pay those judgements. It made no difference to Dad.
With more money than he could spend in ten lifetimes, Dad decided to buy a house. Not just a house, though. He wanted it to be a fitting legacy to the ludicrous manner in which it had been earned. Against all advice of the city planners, real estate agents and pretty near everybody who knew about it, he bought a huge parcel of land about 10 minutes from his office, surrounded by low and very low income housing. An imposingly high and very solid brick wall surrounded the property. The property, about four city blocks square, or 16 square blocks, had belonged to a cloister that had consolidated with another order many years before. It had stood empty for that time, as no one in their right minds wanted to invest that much money in that area of town. Its close location to Mac's house was the reason I went to the same high school as Mac. As a white boy and girl, Marion and I were in the minority in that school.
Whether he was a savvy investor or just plain lucky, he bought the place, probably to spite the experts. Knowing my Dad, though, it was more likely because he hated a long commute to work. The reconstruction project was initially called "Sampson's Folly", not very original, but just try to buy that house today. The last offer we had was approaching one billion dollars with a strong hint that that could be doubled or tripled. Some oil-rich country wanted it for an embassy or something.
Originally there was a monstrosity of a building on a hill in the center of the estate. Veritable park-like thickly wooded pastures surrounded it on all four sides. A long sweeping drive led from the gatehouse up to the house that I humbly called 'home' during my formative teen years. I still remember the first time I saw it. I thought it was a hospital, it was so big and had so many rooms with beds in them.
Dad gutted the place, starting on one wing. We lived out of boxes in the other wing during the reconstruction. The building was basically 'U' shaped, about 3 stories above ground, and at least 2 below. I say at least, because it was rumored by the construction crews that the floor at the lowest level didn't sound right. It wasn't solid enough to be the bottom floor, as there were hollow sounds and echoes that seemed to come up from below. Dad figured that's where the nun's had buried their dead, as there weren't any other burial grounds on the property. We never found any way that led deeper and the place had really been torn apart during the remodel.
That make-over had been in the late 1960's. The task I was giving Sally was to upgrade the place. Cable, telephone and Internet access to the living and working areas, modern fixtures in the bathrooms. In particular, to revitalize the industrial sized kitchen. That room was such a key area in our family life now and I expected that to continue. She was going to have her work cut out for her to add any functionality to that monstrosity of a kitchen.
From the twinkle in her eyes, I could see she had already accepted the challenge. I wanted to add a small twist. There was one room I had in mind for a particular use. It had been my favorite room growing up.
The main entrance to the house was at the base of the 'U'. A huge double door opened onto an expanse of marble flooring that seemed to stretch forever. Twin curved staircases wound down from a salon on the second floor. Dad had added a mammoth chandelier that hung down from the ceiling, three stories above the floor. Glass French doors along the far wall separated the huge entry from the main ballroom. These doors could be opened to nearly double the floor space for a cotillion.
It was the salon on the second floor above the ballroom that was my favorite room. The room above it, on the third floor had been gutted and the floor removed. From the peak of the roof and extending down the entire expanse of wall to the floor of the salon had been glassed in as a kind of solarium. As I grew up in that house, with all of the tensions and turmoil of being a teenager and horny, when I had to think, I would go in there, lie on the floor and stare at the stars high above. It was like you were outside, they were so clear.
I wanted that room to be the center point for our new relationship. I told Sally to take the ideas from the Arabian room we had here at her house and apply them there. She looked puzzled, but on that point I was insistent. There were to be pillows, thick carpeting, a few plants, but no telephones, TVs or large furnishings. I also wanted two distinct areas, a Women's area and a Men's area.
Having said that and given Sally her tasks, I turned to Nicole.
"You will go to work. I've contacted some people I know who could use a good neurochemist. You will have the opportunity to meet them first and test some of their devices before you decide to work for them."
I thought Sally was going to explode with laughter when she figured out what kind of 'testing' Nicole would be doing with the Rosen's devices. A sharp look from me barely contained her gaiety.
"If that place doesn't work out, we will find something else, perhaps teaching; but you will work in your field. Agreed?"
Nicole's face was streaked with happy tear-tracks. She nodded her agreement happily. If she thought she had been getting the best end of the deal so far, she hadn't heard anything yet.
"Sally, I need you to know that my next decision was very tough for me to make. I made the decision I did for one basic reason, all other things being equal. I know you have asked me to treat you differently and I will. I will also attempt to do so without showing either of you a preference. With our history, Sally, that will be hard. I know you, I'm comfortable with you. Our feelings for each other have been tested and found to be strong.
"That's the reason I have decided to take Nicole to Washington with me. The President has decided to throw a party, balls and fancy dinners and stuff. I have to go. I need to spend time alone with Nicole to get to know her. So, if Nicole will consent to going off for a long weekend with me on our first date, she will accompany me."
Sally took it hard. If she had one vice, if was for fancy dress parties. She didn't like to throw them so much as she loved to dress up and go watch the people interact. She said it was like nothing else she had ever seen. People who would stab each other in the back if they met on the street would smile and talk like old friends at a ball or cocktail party. It was where she and I had met the first time.
Trooper that she was, she nodded. She understood and would try hard not to let it get to her. Besides, with the deadline I had given her on the remodel, she was going to be a busy lady. I knew she was going to make me pay for it later.
We called the two teens in and broke the news to them. Janey wasn't too thrilled about moving until she heard she was going to get a car out of it. She was excited and talking Beemer or Porsche, she was getting a Nissan or Toyota.
Simone's eyes glistened when she heard she would be seeing Gertie regularly and would be close enough to her Agency office at the new house to see her whenever she wanted. The only fly in the ointment came when I told her she was going to have her own room. I could see that disturbed her. I asked why. She asked, looking shyly at Janey for confirmation, if they couldn't just have a larger room and call it their room, rather than one for her and one for Janey.
Janey nodded her agreement quickly and I looked at Sally and then Nicole. They both agreed, a secret smile shared between them. Already I didn't like the way this was going. Four against one was just about fair odds when I was in a combat situation against men. I didn't stand a chance in this circumstance with one woman, much less four!
It was going to be a Hell of an adventure, though.