Warning; this story has incest content.
"I would weave strong magic for protection,
Deep magic to bind and chasten."
(Chant to Feyja)
A hand touched his arm and a voice said, "Hello Richard."
He turned to see an exceedingly striking woman wearing, in marked contrast to the somber attire of those around them, a silver coloured dress that stretched from neck to ankles.
For a few moments he didn't recognize her and seeing his puzzled look she laughed saying, "Oh dear, you don't recognize me do you?"
"No...er...yes....I..."
"Pagan." She laughed again; "Your aunt Pagan."
"Pagan! My God you've..."
"Changed? Of course I have and so have you.
"Yes, I suppose we have, but you look so different. You used to be...to be..."
"Go on say it, skinny, all arms and legs, and you were a chubby little boy."
Her demeanor changed, "A sad occasion for us to meet again."
"Mmm, there aren't many of grandfather's generation left now. See that group over there; they're what grandfather used to call 'The Dunkirkers.'"
"Yes, he was with the Guards and they were among the last to get away."
Richard grinned, "Yes, they used to meet once every year and have a drink."
"A booze-up you mean," Pagan chuckled. "It looks as if they're going to have one today, are you going to the wake?"
"Yes."
"Look, I'd better go and talk to some of the other relatives, but suppose we catch up later. It's been years since we last saw each other; we should have a few things to talk about."
"I'd like that Pagan, where shall we meet."
"I'm staying overnight at a motel, suppose we go there and have a talk, have you got a car?"
"No, I can't afford one, and mum and dad can't afford..."
"That's all right; I can drive you after the wake, I've hired a car while I'm in town and I can take you home when we've had our talk. Don't get drunk with the Dunkirkers."
"No," Richard grinned as Pagan left him to do her catching up with other relatives.
* * * * * * * *
Richard's memories of Pagan were of a girl he had thought very grown up, but unlike the other grownups in the family she took a lot of notice of him.
Once when he was about five years of age, he went with his parents and Pagan, and spent a fortnight at the beach. She had taught him to swim, or more accurately, how to splash and stay afloat. She built sandcastles with him and took him for walks along the beach, and together they hunted among rock pools for crabs and shrimps.
This was the occasion when for the first time Richard saw a naked female. They had hired a beach bathing hut and it was used to change for swimming. Pagan, lacking in modesty, stripped off in front of Richard.
He was only five years of age at the time so he had no prurient interest in this rather skinny girl. He was however curious about her lack of what his mother called, "A dicky," and the little clump of hair and a sort of groove where her dicky should have been. The sweet buds of her young breasts with their tender pink nipples he noticed, but they made no impression on him except he wondered why his weren't like that.
She saw him gazing at her and asked, "Do you think I look pretty?"
He loved Pagan and so according to his childlike view of "pretty," she was pretty, so he replied, "Yes, and we're going to be a mummy and daddy."
That being interpreted by Pagan as they were going to be married, she decided that the reasons why they could not be a "mummy and daddy" were too complicated to explain to him at his age.
Instead she had smiled and hugged him to her slender naked body murmuring, "That was a lovely thing to say, Richard."
His little body was naked and he felt the touch of her nakedness against him, his cheek resting against one of her burgeoning breasts and inhaled the rose scented fragrance of her skin, and this had lodged in his memory and had stayed there ever since.
When he had first become consciously aware of Pagan her name had been Peggy. It was when she was thirteen and had read a book about old Scandinavian gods that she declared herself to be a devotee of Freyja because she was the most beautiful of the goddesses, and that she, Peggy, was going to be just like her.
The family, who were inclined to be church going people, had said she was a pagan, and the appellation had stuck. Peggy said she liked the name "Pagan," and so "Pagan" she became thereafter.
She had married very young. This came about when in search of a birthday present for her mother she had seen a brooch in the window of an antique shop. On asking about the price she had been stunned by the answer.
The shop owner, Mr. Paul Wendell, had tried to explain why antiques cost so much, and Pagan had been fascinated.
Seeing her interest Paul Wendell asked her if she'd like to work for him part time. She, and then her parents, agreed, "Just so long as it doesn't interfere with her studies." And so Pagan had started working for Mr. Wendell on Saturdays.
Mr. Wendell was an efficient business man not lacking money. In his early fifties, of somewhat noble appearance, he was a widower.
An astute young woman, and not lacking in affection for her employer, Pagan had eventually allowed him to deflower her on a rather elegant eighteenth century bed he had in stock. At his age Paul should have been more astute and used a condom, but since he didn't, the fertile young Pagan was soon announcing herself to be pregnant.
The family was horrified, but was placated when Paul declared that he would marry Pagan.
Here the story becomes hazy. Was Pagan pregnant or did she just think she was pregnant; or had she been calculating and trapped Paul into marriage? Whatever the case a little way into the marriage she had to announce that it had been a false pregnancy.
Some men might have baulked at this, but not Paul. He had got himself an exceedingly attractive and young bride and was in no hurry to send her on her way. In addition he had discovered soon after their first sexual union that he had unleashed a sexual tigress that was willing to engage in some interesting bedtime experiments.
Paul was no longer at the peak of his potency, but he did his best to keep up with Pagan's bedtime demands, and if he fell short in this respect, Pagan was content to deal with any residual libido via a vibrator, during which performance Paul was happy to watch.
Whether Pagan had trapped Paul into marriage with a purely pecuniary objective in mind or not, she proved to be a good and faithful wife. The cynical might object that she was such because she had her long term interests in mind, and since it was highly likely that Paul would pre-decease her by many years she would then be able to play the merry widow.
In many such situations the elderly and wealthy partner, whether male or female, will often frustrate the younger partner by living on into extreme old age. Paul was more obliging. He went to that Great Antique Shop in the Sky seven years after marrying Pagan.
It might be thought that Pagan's sexual demands on Paul had brought about his early demise. There might be some truth in this, in that it might have exacerbated an undiagnosed heart problem, which was in fact what carried him off from this vale of tears.
Whether or not it was Pagan's sexual energy that sent Paul into eternity, she found herself the owner of an antique shop and considerable additional financial assets.
It was, however, not her ambition to run an antique business. She was one of those city dwellers who romanticize rural life. Consequently she sold the antique business and bought herself a three hectare rural property about fifty kilometres from the city.
This property had once been part of a dairy farm. On the farmer deciding to retire the farm had been sold off in various sized blocks. Pagan bought the block with the old farmhouse on it, together with various outbuildings.
The property had been much neglected and Pagan had lots of work to do on it, and for several years she virtually disappeared from the orbit of the family, only to resurface at her father's (Richard's Grandfather's) funeral.
* * * * * * * *
The wake over, Pagan drove a sober Richard to her motel for a long overdue catch-up session. Pagan began with enquiries about what had happened in Richard's life, and he told her he was, at the behest of his parents, studying law at the university. His manner of relating this suggested a lack of eagerness for this course of studies and Pagan commented, "You don't sound too enthusiastic."
"I'm not," Richard said bluntly, "I hate the bloody law, but I don't know what I do want to do."
Pagan seemed to let the matter pass and went on to talk about her activities in her rural retreat. This included the running of a number of horses, hired out to people, mainly teenage girls, who liked to be bounced up and down (I've often wondered about the fondness of young girls for being jounced on the back of a horse).
The originally projected chickens, sheep, one goat (to keep the grass and weeds down) and vegetable garden had become reality, and Pagan ended by saying enthusiastically, "You should see it, why not come and spend some time with me?"
