Three months passed, and summer was now ending, autumn starting to turn. Alexandra's child heavy belly was now fuller in front of her, although looking at her from behind, one would never know. Her breasts were rounder, heavier, and she carried the healthy, sensual glow of a woman at her absolute peak of well-being. She was beautiful in her fullness, with a sensuous, sexual presence.
Aunt Catherine was most concerned for Alexandra's spiritual health, and the older woman and the younger woman spent many hours together. In this time Alexandra learned more of her aunt's past, learned her strengths, and prepared herself for the huge sacrifice she would have to make. She also discovered much of her family's history, and began to understand how important the bloodline was.
Odette and Octavius the cerval continued their special girl and beast bond, as if sanctioned by Catherine, and the cat was constantly by the young maid's side. But the creature was remote towards Alexandra, and kept his distance from her. Sometimes he would circle around her as she walked about the grounds, as if observing the woman, two hands hidden, two hands showing, and two hearts. But he would keep his cat's paw quietness and distance from her.
Alexandra knew that her maid often disappeared to the library come the evenings, and imagined her on the device. She also pondered her Aunt Catherine, who was clearly the owner of the clever wooden engine, and wondered about her and the cat. Other than the one night when she discovered her tantalised maid, she had not seen the slender youth. Indeed, she occasionally wondered whether it had been a dream. But she only had to see her maid to know that if it was a dream, then her golden haired maid had shared it with her.
But still, she had a longing for something different, something exotic, something to remember. "Aunt, when did you get the apparatus in the library made?"
Perhaps if she got her aunt to talk of the inventor of the device, she might be able to turn the conversation to herself, because in a small way she envied her maid the pleasure she had received. And Alexandra knew that soon she would be near her birthing time, and then there would be the short feeding time, and then there would be the wrenching time, and then there would be a great, dark, horrible void. Sometimes the bloodline had to be broken....
"Why do you ask, niece?" Her aunt looked upon the young woman with a steady gaze, her eyebrow half raised. Was this a test?
"Because, Aunt, it is an engine of wickedness, and you are permitted to use its wickedness, and Odette is permitted to use its wickedness. But I, who have committed my own wickedness," and she gestured to her belly girdled in her long dress, "I am not allowed its wickedness. And that is not fair!"
Catherine did not expect this burst of temper from the girl; but then she remembered Alexandra's age, and remembered herself at the same age, and thought about the responsibility being thrust upon the girl, and she took pity. Catherine knew of the dark days that were ahead of her niece, and yes, she took pity.
"Alexandra, I shall summon my girls, and they will come for you, once it is dark. I think we can make some entertainment tonight." So Alexandra was taken to her room to be made ready. She was dressed in a rich velvet gown, deep red; and with her long black hair and her pale skin, the effect was like a black and white photograph with hand coloured red detail. Hand coloured photographs were the latest rage, and Catherine had arranged for a photographer to make some images, so that Alexandra might have a keepsake. But there were to be no photographs this night.
Catherine's senior maid carefully dressed the girl and braided her long hair, and placed some soft leather straps on her ankles and wrists. Alexandra knew then that she would be strapped to the device, blindfolded and bound, and she assumed Octavius would take his pleasure on her and in her. Her heart pulsed and the centre of her sex answered with its own beat. She was led to the library and instructed to stand completely still and to await instructions. The library was deserted. The wooden device was centred in the bay, and the only light came from the fire. She heard the rattle of a sliding frame, and wondered who was in the gallery this night. And then the door opened, and Catherine made her way into the room.
But her aunt was as Alexandra had never seen her. Her hair was coiled tight in a bun on her head and she was wearing a magnificent brocade corset, richly embellished with red and gold braid. Her waist was clinched in small, and her slender hips were sheathed in a black skirt made of the finest, softest leather. The skirt was long, but slit right up the front so that it separated as she walked, each long flared panel sliding away from her legs which were clad in long boots, strapped with laces all the way up the front and all the way down the back. Catherine circled her niece, as if inspecting her, and caressed her hand to the girl's belly, filling now. And then the aunt led the young woman to the device and bade her lie on it as if it were a bed. Alexandra was placed on her back, with her body slightly raised and her legs strapped by the ankles to separate wooden supports. Her legs were together, but she could see that the supports for her legs could be moved apart. And then she could no longer see, a soft band of cloth placed over her eyes. Then she was left, sightless, and not a sound in the room.
And a viewer in the gallery (let us imagine it is you, or let us imagine it is I - perhaps it is us both, since there are two comfortable chairs...) a viewer would have seen this: Alexandra in her red gown, tied to the wooden device, blindfolded; arms stretched above her head so that her filling breasts were upright and proud; her legs now spread apart so that the folds of her gown fell between her thighs; her head with its coil of plaited blackness, tilted to one side, to enhance her hearing. Her senses were alert, the blackness of her hidden gone sight a background for her other senses, touch, taste, feeling (but her wrists are captured and she can only stretch and grasp at the air), smell, hearing. But all she can hear now is the crackle of the fire.