Editor's note: this story contains scenes of non-consensual or reluctant sex.
*****
DAY SIX
Chapter Ten: The Limits of Propriety
Morning dawned, softly. I found myself alone in my room, Olive's bed neatly made. I sank back down into the pillow and blinked up at the ceiling, taking a moment to gather myself before beginning another day at Eros House.
Yesterday, after the library, Master Aries had scooped me up and taken me back to his study to recover. He'd let me stay there, wrapped in blankets, while he worked. Although he hadn't sat with me the whole time, he'd ordered comfort food sent up, and I'd fallen asleep listening to his fingers tapping on a keyboard and his footsteps in the warm room.
I'd felt in a daze, then, and I felt that way still, I thought as I dressed myself in my "morning uniform" after my shower. This outfit (the soft pink silk shorts, the stockings and pasties); these showers; the task of sucking cocks that waited for me down the hall: all these things had become part of a familiar routine. As I regarded myself in the large, fogged bathroom mirrors, an outrageous whore looked back. Guilt began to creep in, disorienting as I stared at my reflection.
Was this what I had wanted?
"Yes," I whispered to the mirror. Letting myself become a slut was what I had come here for. And I was loving it, that much I could not deny. I wanted more. But my old life was beginning to seem very far away and foreign. Had everything about the way I'd lived my life before now come undone, somehow? Could I—would I want to—go back home? I felt giddy and sick at once, struck with the strange vertigo of hurtling, recklessly, into an unknown and untested future.
With no answers in front of me other than the choice to panic or to keep on going, I turned away and strode toward the hall.
He was there already.
At the centre of the noise and chatter of the bright breakfast room, Master Aries stood in conversation with a clutch of friends and patrons. He was attired, delightfully, as a regency-era gentleman in a light grey fitted tailcoat and trousers, complete with tall black boots, a waistcoat, and a gloriously tied cravat. As I walked in the room, he glanced my way, and my little Jane Austen-loving heart beat wildly in my chest. I went to him as if under a spell.
"Good morning, Perdita," he said, his voice washing over me like a warm sea.
"Good morning, Sir."
Aries placed a hand hand on my back and smiling dashingly at his friends.
"Gentlemen, you'll have to excuse me; I'm afraid I have a matter of some import to attend to, here."
"Ah, yes, duty calls!" one replied, and the group of them giggled to each other as Aries drew me away.
He showed me to a seat at a bistro table that had already been set with a plate of croissants, a carafe, and two china cups and saucers.
"Please, sit and eat with me."
I glanced toward the spot, beside the buffet table, where I customarily knelt for my morning task. There was still no sign of Olive.
"Olive is not feeling well today," Aries said, as if he guessed my thought. I watched him pour rich coffee from the gleaming silver carafe, tore a buttery hunk from one of the croissants, and popped it in my mouth.
Aries set down the carafe and levelled an earnest gaze in my direction. He was handsome all the time, but now, dressed as a perfect Mr. Darcy, he was alarmingly distracting.
"And I'm afraid your fans here will have to go a day without, as well. I have an apology to make you, Perdita."
I wrapped my hands around my coffee cup, savouring the rich aroma.
"You do?"
Aries laid his hand, palm up, on the table between us, and haltingly I placed mine in it.
Out of sorts today or no, as his fingers closed around my hand, a bright jolt of desire shot through me. I could hardly stand to meet his eyes, which seemed to me to burn from where he sat across the table.
"I must confess I have been rather too preoccupied this week with business matters, and I have let it detract from my responsibilities with you. To be honest, you've been adapting here so readily that sometimes I forget you're still so new. But that isn't an excuse on my end to neglect you, and I am committing to you to do better for the remainder of your time here."
"Oh, well. I'm fine, don't worry," I said, not quite sure in which ways he felt he'd neglected me. But even as I said the words, a bubble of emotion wobbled up from somewhere in my chest, and tears sprang to my eyes. "Oh my god, I swear I have no idea why I'm crying right now," I said, with an odd laugh. I swiped the heel of my hand beneath my eyes, annoyed at myself.
Aries ran a thumb over my cheek, caught a tear, and matter-of-factly sucked the teardrop from his thumb.
"Right. This is what I mean precisely," he said. "Even if you were used to experiences like you've had here, some care and softness in between the other stuff is necessary. As you've seen, the activities of Eros House are both physically and emotionally intense. Sometimes things can come up unexpectedly, or be difficult, or need processing time. And you are still pretty new."
"I guess you're right," I said.
He nodded.
"I suspect that yesterday took you a bit close to the edge of your rope, so to speak, and that's at least partly my fault. So. I'd like to take the morning to put aside my distractions and do something a little bit different, just you and I. What do you say?"
In one sense, I felt tension I hadn't known I'd been holding drop from my shoulders at the thought of a more nurturing change of pace; in another, equally real sense, the prospect of a dedicated morning doing "something different, just he and I," gave me a certain... thrill.
"Ok," I agreed, blushing.
Master Aries smiled.
"Good. I thought we'd start with a proper stroll before it gets too hot, and perhaps return for a picnic lunch. The only thing you need to do is tell me whether you want to dress up or dress down."
Aries flicked his eyes toward the doorway and gave a slight nod. I turned to see a neatly-dressed woman wheel a garment rack through the middle of the parlour. Diners glanced up curiously as she rolled the rack to where we sat and came to an abrupt stop. Moving efficiently, the woman clicked a safety brake into place, pivoted on her heel, and looked me up and down with the cool eye of a professional.
"This the girl?"
"Yes," said Aries, giving my hand a little squeeze before releasing it. "Perdita, I have a dress in mind I want to see you in, but you should also know that I have access to the coziest of comfort-wear, if you'd prefer it. Don't I, Daphne?"
Daphne nodded, briskly shoved several hangers to one side, and pulled out an outfit of soft-looking grey sweatpants and a matching zip-up hoodie.
I felt spoiled and unexpectedly touched by the attention to my comfort. As I thought of the outfit Master Aries had chosen to wear this morning, though, I couldn't bring myself to choose the casual option.
"You know, I can always wear sweatpants at home. Could I take a look at the dress?"
Daphne promptly hung the sweatsuit back on the rack and unzipped the large garment bag beside it. Inside was a decadently-skirted, peach-pink gown constructed of layers of gauzy-looking fabric.
"It's a Georgian style gown—more or less," commented Aries, as Daphne bundled the skirts out from the confines of the bag and smoothed them out for best display. "Normally, I would have preferred to choose something for you that matched the period of my own attire more closely, but in this case... I have reason to make exception."
Daphne instructed me to stand, and began to dress me. First, several layers of strange-looking undergarments, fastened to me overtop the shorts and pasties I already wore. However, it was only when Daphne began to lace me into a corset made of sheer panelling that left not only its internal boning but my body beneath it visible that I realized the true intent of the design. Other than its accents of peach satin stripe, the dress was as see-through as a garment of so much fabric could possibly manage to be.
With the addition of layered skirts, satin ivory shoes and day gloves, and a parasol, I was a pervert's reimagining of a nineteenth-century genteel lady. The silhouette was perfect, but the transparent fabric made a mockery of "respectable" attire. Fully dressed, I could still clearly see the grey nipple pasties I wore beneath the corset. The rest of my body was only partially obscured by the multiple layers of fabric. It felt surprisingly audacious, and I loved it instantly.
"My wife designed that one," Aries remarked, seeing my admiration. "It looks well on you."
"It's beautiful," I murmured.
"Yes," he said, smiling, and offered me his elbow. "Shall we?"
We walked arm in arm out the breakfast parlour's garden doors. The trees surrounding the patio were alive with birdsong, and the surrounding fresh-cut lawns sparkled wetly in the morning sun. I could feel the strength in Aries' arm as we walked past the patio and towards one of the several paths that meandered back into the treed grounds.
I smoothed a hand over my decadent skirt, marvelling at the quality of the fabric and the sight of my absurdly daintily gloved hands.
"I feel like I'm on a date two hundred years ago," I said. "Or, like we're on our way to the fairy ball or something. You know?"
Aries smiled.
"Don't be absurd, Perdita, the fairy ball isn't 'til tomorrow eve."
I giggled, then stopped short.
"Wait... I actually can't tell whether you're joking."
"It's no joke; tomorrow night we will be hosting a Midsummer Night's Dream soiree. Do you like Shakespeare, Perdita?"
"Are you kidding me? That's my favourite play," I said.
Aries stopped to pluck a rose-coloured blossom from a flowering shrub, and presented it to me.
