"Why, what do you want with me?" asked the wretch.
"Milk," replied Mary, "you are with child as I am, and I shall require a wet nurse for my child, while you I suppose need accommodation."
"My husband tried to kill you yet you seek to help me." she asked in amazement.
Mary answered. "well perhaps he was not the assassin, and my Aunt was perhaps precipitate in despatching him with her musket, and your friend Betsy spoke up for you, so the offer is there, say yes and we shall send the carter for your traps and you shall share a little room at Ashfordly hall until such time as the nursery shall be prepared, then there shall you reside to suckle my child and thine own so that I may return to pleasuring my Lord, as soon as is practicable."
"Then I accept, thank you My Lady, but traps I have naught but this bundle since I was cast from my lodgings this very morning when the tale of the foul deed were told, my bed and cooking things seized for the rent I owe."
"Come then" Mary offered and the Girl followed,
"You would have more fun here with me" the Stubbins woman bellowed as they departed, and Rokeby playfully slashed Stubbins temporary lover across his backside with the riding crop, causing him to thrust mightily and for Stubbins to at last feel his appendage within her leather walled tunnel.
The door slammed and the hag realised she was now alone, her present time mate excepted, the prospect dismayed her, yet she was sure she should find a young attractive friend from whose earnings to live soon enough.
The trio trudged from the house, then Rokeby strapped the wenche's sad bundle to the saddle of Mary's horse then hoisted the wench onto his own steed and then they set forth for Ashfordly.
"Mrs Fragginshaw, what is your Christian name," asked Mary.
"Tis still Ellersbeck, we never did see the Parson, Mary Ellersbeck" she confided.
Lady Rokeby sought to avoid confusion in future "You shall answer to Nanny now, and if you serve faithfully it could be your task for life, unless you should find some kindly lad who would accept a ruined wench with a bastard for his beloved, and may be with proper feeding and decent clothes such you may find among the lusty farm-lads we have at Ashfordly."
The thought stayed with Lord and Lady Ashfordly until passing a hay barn they could control themselves no longer and to Nanny's discomfiture they repaired to the hay leaving her minding the horses, the noise of their lovemaking echoed around and Nanny could not resist sneaking to the door to observe.
She had heard ribald rumours of Rokeby's prong yet in the flesh she could scarce believe how such a small person such as Lady Rokeby could accept such a member with pleasure, and yet here they writhed in the forenoon, while sober, her own dalliance had been in drunkenness and neither she nor her common husband should have entered the union had they chosen, indeed he had continually chided her, yet it was he who failed to satisfy her needs, so often had she laid abed her own fingers her only comfort.
Nanny watched the lovers as if in a trance, her fingers stole to her under-things and having them set aside unto her slot, her breathing deepened and suddenly her pleasure was interrupted by Rokeby and Mary leaving their love nest,
"Look, beloved, is it not sad she has no one for to pleasure her but herself" asked Mary.
Rokeby smiled "Perchance it is but it is a very pretty sight, have you a minute my love, something has come up," Rokeby spoke the truth for his breeches strained to restrain his prong.
Mary grinned mischievously, her favourite pass time was coming around sooner than she had thought and she grabbed his breeches and in a flurry he was unleashed and as she was devoid of undergarments he was instantly sheathed within her as she lay against the wall next to Nanny. Poor Nanny, or was she to be pitied as the waves of pleasure swept over her as the excitement of the lovers transferred to herself and she reached the heights of pleasure or so she believed.
It was a tired but content trio who arrived at Ashfordly House that noon tide, a repast was prepared and Hermione, the Dowager Lady Ashfordly, now reduced in rank to the lowest order of servitude proved to be by far the most useless object ever to clutter a kitchen or scullery.
Hermione served the repast, much of which landed on the platters and salvers, and perhaps as much as half of the wine found its way from pitcher to tumbler, Mary noted the ravenous way Nanny consumed her rations, suspecting she had not partaken of such a feast since Christ-Mass if indeed then yet this were a mere trifle compared to formal Dinners they would presently be expected to host.
The meal consumed Rokeby retired to see his friend and business partner or Agent the Hon. James Flemming about estate business whilst Mary set about transforming Nanny into a reasonable Nanny.
First they set the big tub in the yard and with every kettle as was found to hold water boiling they filled the tub to half way with the hot water then cooled it down with the cold so it became bearable then ignoring Nanny's shrieks Mary and Hermione stripped the wenches rags from her and tossed her within the tub, ducking even her head to clean her hair, the water became fouled with dirt even as a sweet pink person appeared from the accumulated dirt and filth, Hermione commented, "Dear Lord, I thought it was sun-tan, but no it was dirt.
Nanny cringed, she had seen but eighteen summers, and to her horror realised not just maid servants were observing but man servants and farm lads, come to ogle the new arrival, enticed by her screams, so when the time came for her to be dried an audience stood by. Mary addressed them, "This is Nanny, she is to be your sister in servitude so treat her kindly, and don't dilly dally, there is time enough to charm her when work is done.
The men slid away and Hermione and Mary took large horse blanket each and proceeded to dry Nanny.
They took her to a chamber where her traps were laid out but when they looked nothing was of any consequence, all filthy and worn out, just a trinket or two as keepsakes were worthy, so all but the trinkets were put for the rag man and fresh raiments brought from the store room, boddice, crisp and white buttoned to the neck with a black jacket and black skirt, and so was she transformed from base guttersnipe to respectability, and underthings and three sets of each for her so she may keep them clean. She seemed happy beyond anything, neither seemingly missing her beloved nor troubled by the bold repair where with his last breaths had rent the ceiling asunder with his feet, which she must now pass and repass.
Hermione took to grooming Nanny, combing her hair and snipping and cutting so it became the very model of propriety, Mary looked on, perhaps the Dowager had redeeming qualities, she could make the basest guttersnipe the very facsimile of a Whitechapel trained maidservant, then her talents should be harnessed to the good of all, and where better than her role as Brothel Madam at Catesby Bordello.
Rokeby fell in with the plan and borrowing the sheep cart they transported the fallen Lady back to her domain, barely three days after she set forth to murder them. The whores were genuinely pleased that their Madam was returned safe, and they had their mistress back for in truth they were at their wits end over how to continue had she gone for ever, and quickly Hermione seized control realising she had found her station, raised but slightly above the very dregs, yet visited and indeed loved on occasion by the very highest ranks of society. Hermione knew her situation to be much more to be desired than that of companion to some demented harridan or governess to a spoiled brat, the forms of occupation normally the province of those of rank whose finances fail.
The Lord and Lady departed after their now customary use of a spare bedchamber and Hermione set to ordering maids and harlots alike to clean and polish so all is fit for such gentry as may wish to partake in pleasure or merely find such necessary relief as swift and discrete as may be delivered.
Trade was slow travellers had lost the habit of taking a pasty and taking a wench by alighting at Catesby and then rejoining a later train, but as she strove to rise from the basest form of whorehouse to the like of those in Paris or St Petersburg.
She dreamed that all would visit, Heads of State, General Officers of Militia, Archbishops perchance and her fortune restored she may retire yet the mood of love thrilled her as it had when she, young, frightened and recently ruined by her own uncle had been cast adrift at the Bordello, the men, they had sorely used her and abused her, her innocence shattered like a precious vase, never to be repaired, the depravity, the shame, yet soon she had risen from cheapest outcast for railway worker or street cleaner to bejewelled darling of the aristocracy.
So many would have willingly taken her as wife had not her rank prevented it then the offer from old Ashfordly, his fortune she sought, setting aside his rank unpleasantness, his incessant farts, his withered near impotent prong which would on occasion not arise despite an hours sucking, she regretted it most sincerely, yet it had led thus, to her happy band of girls frolicking in pleasure in her very own temple of lust
As eventide approached Hermione again inspected her harlots as a Captain may his troops, their hair and teeth, to be cleaned fresh always, their attire, such as they wore, and that mainly under-things spotless clean and fresh and their equipment, not the sword or musket of the soldier but the lower orifices, Hermione had each in turn attend her in her private chamber and stand upon a stool so that she may inspect, and enhance, this first night all were sent forth to try again, cleanliness or unruly hairs to attend, until they did pass the test whereby Hermione should taste each slot and rectal orifice with the tip of her very tongue and pronounce herself pleased. And for her caring she became loved as a mother by the harlots, most of whom had known no motherly love, only violence and the love of the Bordello, passion and desertion thrice each hour.
Hermione watched her brood, she took to greeting the men, eliciting their preference and calling the most suitable girl as she thought to serve, checking the girl was ready to perform as requested and then allocating a bed chamber, sometimes she would accommodate the gentleman herself, but more often she would listed to sounds of love and pleasure herself with the smooth ebony toys left by the Bordello's previous incumbents, for all its humiliations Hermione had to admit it was a thousand times more endurable than lying abed with the Late Lord Ashfordly, with his vile stench and the vile grey stinking seed he sought to impregnate her with.
When the last man had departed his needs and desires fulfilled and harlots and maids had eaten and found a bed, Hermione too went to her soft bed and entered the land of dreams to dream of the knight in shining armour who would sweep her up and take her.
