Joseph and Ophelia

This is a work of fiction. This story involves a young woman losing her virginity to the new owner of her father's house back in the nineteenth century. If any of that disturbs you, then you should stop reading now. Any similarity to real names or real people is coincidental. Constructive comments are always welcome, but please read the whole story to the end before you comment.

My philosophy is that a story should be like a woman's skirt. It should be long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to keep it interesting. I try to do that in my stories. You may or may not agree with me as to where I should end a story, but know that I end each story where I think it should end. If you haven't already figured it out from the previous chapter, Rob (one of the main characters) is really only interested in the sexual side of these girls, so don't expect much in the way of background.

Nobody in this story was under 18 when they had sex.

Ophelia was the daughter of an upper-class couple in New York City. She was born on April 30th, 1875 in her parents' bedroom. Unfortunately, there were complications, and her mother only lived a few days after she was born, leaving her with only her father. That wasn't to say, however, that she didn't have any women in her life. Her parents had servants, several of whom were women.

When Ophelia's mother died, her father hired a wet nurse to suckle her and look after her for the first two years of her life. Then, she was given to a governess, who educated her in their home until she was old enough to go away to an exclusive girls' school. Her father wasn't super wealthy, but he was a factory manager and had invested heavily in the stock market, which considerably increased his worth.

Ophelia had a hard time adjusting to the boarding school at first, but soon was able to get along and even made friends, and since she was allowed to go home every summer, she was also able to make friends with girls who lived nearby. Everyone agreed that Ophelia was a beautiful girl. With fair skin, blue eyes, a pencil-thin waist, and long blonde hair, she was envied by her friends.

It was just before she was to graduate when disaster struck. She had no idea what was about to happen to her. On May 5th, 1893, the bottom fell out of the stock market. Stock prices fell more than they ever had in the past (or in the future for that matter). Her father was overextended, and he couldn't pay back the loans he made to buy the stocks. In addition to the stock market crash, thousands of businesses collapsed, and the company Ophelia's father worked for was one of those.

When her father figured out that he was ruined, it was just too much for him. He had leveraged everything he owned, including his home, and had nothing left. He walked out of the window in his seventh-floor office and made a quick trip to the pavement below. Ophelia was now an orphan, but it took two days before she was actually informed of this fact at the boarding school. Two policemen came to the school to inform her and the school of her father's death.

When Ophelia regained her consciousness after fainting, the officers and the head-mistress were hovering over her as she lay on the couch in the head-mistress' office. The head-mistress talked with the two officers, and then asked Ophelia what she would like to do. Obviously, she would have to arrange a funeral for her father, but the mistress asked if she would return to the school for graduation at the end of the month.

Ophelia had no idea whether or not she would be able to attend graduation. Her world had just crashed around her ears, and she didn't even know the extent of that yet. She was escorted to her father's home, and a servant let her in. The next morning, her father's attorney came to see her.

It turned out that her father had made the necessary arrangements for his own funeral long before disaster had struck, so at least she didn't have to deal with that. Obviously, due to the circumstances, it would be a closed coffin funeral. Since there were no other relatives that Ophelia knew of, she asked if the funeral could be taken care of quickly, so the attorney arranged to have the funeral and burial in two days' time.

Disturbingly, though, the attorney told her about her dire financial situation. There was no money, and the house would be repossessed by the bank. She could live there until that process was final, but there would be no money to pay the servants. While the attorney was still there, Ophelia called the servants into the parlor, and told them that she would have to let them go immediately because she could no longer pay them. They were shocked, but understood that she had no choice. They were gone by the end of the day.

This left Ophelia alone in the house, wondering how she would be able to live. She spent that night, and several more to come, crying in her bed, worried about her future. There was still food in the house, and she knew how to cook, so she wouldn't go hungry, but nothing else was certain.

Ophelia stayed in the house by herself for a couple of weeks before anything changed. One morning, she heard noises downstairs, so she went down to investigate. A man was entering through the front door with the key in his hand. She was scared, and she asked him who he was. He must have seen the terror in her eyes because he calmly introduced himself. "I'm Joseph Wainwright. I am the new owner of this property. I bought it yesterday from the bank. And you are?"

Ophelia was stunned. She was staring at a well-dressed man in his mid-twenties, who had declared himself the owner. Tears immediately started streaming from her eyes, but that didn't last long before she fainted and fell down. She was only wearing her nightdress, having come downstairs straight from bed, and when she woke, she was lying on a couch, and the man was leaning over her. He had obviously carried her there.

When she came to, he again asked who she was. She replied, "My name is Ophelia Watson. This was my father's house and I live here."

"I see," he said. "I heard about what happened, and I am sorry about your father."

Suddenly worried, Ophelia immediately asked what she had wanted to know since learning of her father's death. "Will I have to move out? I have no place to go and I am terrified."

Joe smiled at this beautiful young woman and told her, "I'm sure that we can work something out where you can stay, provided that you are willing to do your part."

"I will do whatever I can," she replied. "I can cook and I know how to take care of a house, if that is what you are talking about."

"That would be part of it," he stated. "I am not married, so I don't know how to do any of those things. If you are willing to accept whatever duties I give you in return for room and board, then you won't have to go anywhere." In reality, Joe was seeing a lot of potential for a relationship with this girl. He just didn't want to spring it on her so quickly. "By the way, you can call me Joe."

"I will do whatever you ask," Ophelia replied.

"I am not comfortable with a typical master-servant relationship though," Joe said. I would prefer that you act more like a wife than a maid."

Ophelia's eyes lit up. "That would be wonderful."

"Why don't you show me around the house and the property to start with then? Then we can go from there," Joe said.

Ophelia was still in her nightdress as she showed him all of the rooms of the house. She was a bit surprised when they got to the master bedroom, and Joe crawled up on the bed. "This is very comfortable," he said. "Why don't you join me?"

She wasn't sure what to do, but she knew that she needed to do as told or risk her position. She crawled up on the bed and lay down next to Joe. Joe took the opportunity to roll toward her, laying his arm over her waist. Joe said, "I think I could get used to this. I'm sure that this bedroom can get cold at night, and it would be good to have you here to keep me warm."

The request shocked her because she hadn't expected him to request such a thing. Maidens simply didn't go to bed with men they hadn't married. However, if this was something the new owner wished, then she would have to comply or risk his ire. "Is that what you want?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied. "I think it is. However, the first task we must accomplish is to remove all of your father's clothes and move my clothes in. Unless there is something you would like to keep to remember your father, then we will give all of his clothes to charity."

Joe turned to Ophelia and kissed her on the cheek before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing. "I need to make some arrangements, but I will be back in a few hours. Get dressed and started cleaning out you father's clothes from the armoire and dresser, and take them down by the front door. When I get back, I will have help to clear them out and to move my things in."

"Yes sir," she replied. "I will clean out my father's things and will have them by the front door."

"Please," Joe said. "Don't call me Sir. From now on, I will always be Joe to you. By the way, do you have a nickname that I can call you?"

Ophelia nodded her ascent and replied, "Yes, Joe. My father called me Opie."

"I like that," he said, and then Joe walked out and Ophelia went to her room and quickly changed into some work clothes. She immediately started moving her father's clothes from the master bedroom to the front entrance. Ophelia had no interest in any of her father's clothes, and the only thing she kept was a small photograph of her father and mother from when they were young and newly married. Looking at the picture, she could see that she had gotten her looks from her mother. She placed the picture on top of the dresser in her own room, not realizing that she wouldn't be in that room for long.

As promised, Joe returned a few hours later in his carriage, and behind him were two men in a wagon filled with boxes and furniture. Joe showed the men where to put the few pieces of furniture, and had them move the boxes to the master bedroom. They then took her father's clothes to the wagon, and they were gone.

When they were alone, Ophelia asked Joe if he had already had lunch, to which he replied, "No. Can you make something for us, Opie?" Ophelia smiled and spun around to head into the kitchen. There was no meat in the house, so she sliced some homemade bread, sliced some cheese, buttered the bread and grilled cheese sandwiches. She took some preserved tomato soup from the pantry, opened it, and heated it up on the stove.

Joe was sitting in the parlor when Ophelia brought lunch out to the dining room table. She quickly set two places at the table and went to retrieve Joe. When he saw the lunch that she had prepared, Joe smiled. "Lovely," he said.

Ophelia apologized for the lack of meat, explaining that there was none in the house. "I will fix that tomorrow," Joe stated. "I saw a butcher shop a few blocks from here."

When Joe noticed that Opie had set the two place settings across the table from each other, he moved one of them so they were on two adjacent sides. He said, I would rather we sit closer together, rather than sitting removed across the table. Ophelia smiled and nodded.

Joe enjoyed the lunch that Opie had prepared for him and told her so. She blushed and replied, "It was nothing. I truthfully just threw it together."

"If that was thrown together," Joe said, "I can hardly wait to see what you prepare when you have time and ingredients."

That made Ophelia blush again. "Thank you. I will try to do a good job for you."

When they were finished, Joe had Opie show him the rest of the property, which included a carriage house with servant quarters above it and a workshop behind the carriage house. "I can see that it will probably take a couple of more servants to keep this place running. It is nice that there are quarters for them. Do you know of any servants who may be available?"

"I do," she replied. "I had to let my father's servants go because I had no money to pay them after he died. With things as they are, they would probably be willing to come back, if they haven't found work. Would you like me to have them interview with you?"

"That would be fine," he replied. I will need one man to take care of the animals, the maintenance and the grounds, and we will need a maid to take care of the house, including the laundry. I don't want you to get rough hands from doing laundry and hard cleaning."

"I will contact them tomorrow," Ophelia said. "I think I know where to find them. Where and when would you like to meet them?"

"If you can arrange it, I will meet them tomorrow afternoon at five," Joe answered.

"I think that should work," she replied. "If it doesn't, then I will let you know."

They went back into the house, and Joe went upstairs to unpack his clothes in the master bedroom while Opie took the dishes into the kitchen to clean up. When she was finished in the kitchen, she went upstairs to see what Joe may want next. She was thinking about how radically her life had changed in so short a time.

Joe had already finished unpacking his things and was lying on the bed when Ophelia entered the bedroom. He patted the bed next to him when he saw her in the doorway. She knew that meant that he wanted her to be next to him, so she went to the side of the bed and then removed her shoes before crawling over to sit next to him.

Joe surprised her when he rolled toward her and lay his head on her lap as she sat there. She had never had anything like this happen before, and she wasn't exactly sure how to react. However, when she laid her hand on the back of his neck, it felt very natural to her. She automatically started to massage the back of his neck.

Joe was almost purring. "That feels really good," he said. "I think I will have you do this every evening."

"I could do that," she replied. "It sounds like I won't be overworked, since you want to have another maid do all of the hard work around the house."

"Opie," he said. "Please don't think of yourself as a maid. I certainly won't. Who knows? Maybe this arrangement will turn out very well for both of us. It really just depends how things go between us and how you react. By the way, I think that you smell very good."

Ophelia blushed again, since he was lying on her upper legs. She could only imagine what smell he thought was good. Nevertheless, she continued massaging his neck and even ventured down onto his upper back. He seemed to like it all. After a while, he was breathing deeply, and she figured he had fallen asleep.

Looking down, she admired the handsome man asleep on her lap. Ophelia was sure that this was the kind of man that she was destined to marry. Was Joe the one? She was scared of what might happen if they were going to sleep together, but she decided to just trust that whatever happened, it would all work out in the end. After all, things had worked out so far.

Joe woke about an hour later to the sensation of Opie still rubbing his neck and back. He smiled and then turned to face her. "Thank you. I didn't realize that I was so tired. You made me feel very loved lying here."

She didn't know how to respond. Had he been reading her mind when she had been wondering if what she was feeling was love? She just smiled and leaned down to kiss his forehead. In doing so, her breast brushed against his cheek, which sent a tingling sensation through her body. The fact that her breast was right there wasn't lost on Joe either. He turned his head enough to let his lips touch her breast as she retreated from the kiss.

Joe could barely wait until they went to bed that night, but he didn't want to scare her either. He asked, "Do we have food in the house for dinner and breakfast, or should we go out to eat?"

Ophelia smiled at his consideration and replied, "If simple food is enough for now, then I can cook for us. Then, we can put together something more tomorrow."

"That will be fine, Opie," he said. "Tomorrow, we can stop at the butcher and the grocer, and I will take you to see if we can locate your old servants. We will also have to arrange for regular home deliveries for things like ice, dairy and other such necessities. We can set up accounts, so I only have to deal with the bills once a month."

"I need to get a start on dinner, if we are going to eat this evening," Ophelia replied. Joe laughed and rolled over to let her go.

"I will take care of my horse and carriage while you are preparing dinner," he said. "Hopefully, we will be successful tomorrow in getting the servants back." With that, both of them headed downstairs, her to the kitchen, and him to the carriage house and horse stalls.

When Joe went back into the house an hour later, he was amazed at the good smells coming from the kitchen. He stuck his head in the door to see what Opie was doing, but she was no place to be found. Pots and pans were simmering away on the stove, but she wasn't there. He went upstairs and opened her bedroom door.

There she was, with a sponge and a basin, washing herself before dinner. She hadn't noticed him, so he quietly backed out of the room. However, the vision of her beautiful bare breasts and bottom was forever etched in his brain. He was determined that he would have this woman as his own before the night was out.

Joe went into the master bedroom and noticed that a wash basin and towels had been set up for him as well. He undressed and washed his body thoroughly before getting dressed for dinner and going back downstairs. He once again stuck his head into the kitchen. This time, Opie was standing at the sink, cutting up some vegetables from the garden. He asked if there was anything he could do to help, and she asked him to set the table, if he would.

Setting the table only took a couple of minutes, and then Joe retired to the parlor to smoke his pipe. He enjoyed cherry-flavored pipe tobacco because of the rich smell it gave the smoke. It was very relaxing. It didn't hurt that the ladies seemed to appreciate the rich smell as well.

Joe sat reading the newspaper and smoking his pipe until Opie came into the dining room carrying a platter and a soup tureen for dinner. She set them down, went back into the kitchen, and returned with a loaf of bread with butter on a cutting board. Then, she entered the parlor to fetch Joe for dinner.

She stopped in her tracks when she entered the room, and her eyes filled with tears. "Oh my God," she cried. That smells just like my father's pipe." Then she pulled herself together and said, Dinner is on the table." They went into the dining room and sat. Joe reached for her hand and bowed his head. "I neglected to pray at lunch, but I don't want to make that a habit." He then proceeded to give the most beautiful blessing of the food she had ever heard.

She said, "Amen, and thank you. That was beautiful." They settled down to eating their dinner, though there were a lot of questions and answers as well. By the end of dinner, they both knew each other much better. She was quickly falling in love with him.

Ophelia was amazed when Joe helped her clear the table and take things back into the kitchen. Once there, though, she shooed him off so she could wash the dishes and clean the kitchen. When she was finished, she rubbed some lotion into her hands and joined Joe in the parlor. She sat for a few minutes while he read his newspaper, but then she rose from her chair. "It has been a long day. I will go upstairs to get ready for bed, and then I will prepare the bed for you." With that, she climbed the stairs.

Once in her room, she took off her clothes and slipped into her nicest nightgown. Then, she went into the master bedroom and got under the covers, waiting for whatever would come that night. She didn't have long to wait because Joe was excited to join her in the bed. He brought a lamp into the room with him, but he set it on a stand across the room and turned it down to provide only minimum light. He then turned toward his armoire, and undressed for bed.