WHEN IN SERVICE
“You rang, sir?”
“Ah, there you are, Smedley.” Lord Randolph Springbottom smiled expansively at his butler. “Yes, indeed. I’m afraid the opera has given my wife a dreadful headache, you see. She’s retired for the evening, the poor dear. Would you fetch a cup of tea and some aspirin for her, please?”
“Certainly, sir. And for you, sir?”
“Nothing for me, thank you. Afraid I’ll be all night working on these briefs.” He swept a hand over the stacks of documents that littered his desk. “Parliament is no place for a shirker, you know.”
“I couldn’t agree more, sir.” Smedley pointed to a magnum of champagne perched precariously on the corner of the desk. “Shall I take that, sir?”
“Heaven’s no. I think I’ll require a bit of the bubbly to wash down this dry lot,” he said frowning at the papers. “Just see to my good lady and then you may retire as well.”
“Very good, sir. Thank you, sir.”
“Thank you, Smedley. Pleasant dreams and all that.”
The butler took his time in the kitchen, preparing Her Ladyship’s tea just as she liked it, and fixing the pot, creamer, cup and saucer, spoon and sugar bowl in an attractively precise arrangement on a silver tray. He frowned and fussed with the aspirin bottle, moving it like a chess piece from one position to another, until finally, he slipped the container into his waistcoat pocket rather than allow it to spoil the elegant presentation of the tea service. Smedley draped a crisp, linen napkin over his forearm but, before he set off for Madame’s upstairs bedchamber, he trod softly down the narrow hallway that led to the maid’s quarters. Placing his ear gently to the maid’s door, he listened, then nodded with satisfaction and returned to his duties.
The butler balanced the heavy tray on one palm as he knocked lightly at Lady Springbottom’s bedroom door.
“Yes, come in, please.”
Smedley entered the room and closed the door quietly behind him. The lady of the manor reclined against a small mountain of pillows in her wide, four-poster bed, a beautifully embroidered duvet snugged close under her chin.
“Your tea, ma'am.”
“I’ll have it later, Smedley,” she said. “You may set it on the table for now.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
“Will my husband be joining me, Smedley?” she asked.
“Oh no, ma'am. I’m afraid his Lordship will be quite indisposed this evening.”
“Good.” With an empirical sweep, Lady Cecilia Springbottom threw back her bedclothes and unveiled her naked body. Her legs moved slowly across the silk sheets, until her thighs were spread wide apart and the entrance to her secret harbor cleared for navigation.
“Am I to understand,” said Smedley, “that her Ladyship no longer has a headache?”
“In fact, I feel perfectly delicious,” she said. “Well, don’t just stand there, Smedley. Strip.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
The butler undressed himself in the same meticulous manner he performed all his duties, smoothing and folding each item of apparel before stacking it neatly on a chair, while Lady Springbottom studied his every move. Watching Smedley unclothe was almost as good as foreplay. He was far from handsome, but his tall frame was lean and well-proportioned. He turned his back to remove and fold his pin-striped boxer shorts, and the sight of his hard, white flanks caused her nipples to tingle with anticipation.
Smedley turned to find his mistress caressing the most intimately feminine parts of her body with both hands. Cecilia Springbottom (who claimed quite falsely to descend from Eleanor of Aquitaine) retained little of her youthful bloom, but she was still a regally attractive woman with alluring curves and crevices. Large breasts with prodigious, dark nipples adorned her noble chest. Time had thickened her girlish waist, but the sweep of her flaring hips was enticingly Rubenesque. Her legs were heavy, but smooth. A forest of thick, black curls decorated the convergence of her generous thighs.
Like his body, Smedley’s member was long and lean. His sense of duty and the sight of Lady Springbottom’s naked charms had stiffened it to match his ramrod-straight posture. He climbed onto the wide bed and knelt between her welcoming legs.
“Shall I penetrate, ma'am?”
“Not yet.” Her Ladyship’s eyes misted as she gazed longingly at the butler’s erection. “Do you think we might—I mean just on these special occasions, of course . . . Do you suppose, Smedley that you might bring yourself to address me as Cecilia?”
“I think not, Madame.”