This is a bonus entry in the Pleasure series.
Think of it like a bonus feature on a DVD. This short story is like a deleted scene. Good enough to have been written, but not good enough to be included in the final cut.
But there's no point in not sharing it.
It takes place in the 1880s, a time when young people, especially women, were often very uninformed about sex and especially about pleasure.
I'm going for described pleasure more than historical accuracy here, so I hope you can read it in that spirit.
All characters are over the age of eighteen.
~~
"It will hurt dear," said Mary to her daughter. "It will also feel a bit humiliating. But even in the moment as you feel used, remember that William is a good man who has pledged to take care of and protect you. You're feeling those things because it's a way to show him that you care for him."
"I think I'm ready Mother," Elizabeth said. "For all of it. Alice says she has adjusted to it and has been quite encouraging. Besides it's a part of being wife and even a mother, isn't it?"
"It is," said Mary with a proud smile. "My young girl has all grown up."
She impulsively hugged her nineteen-year-old daughter and fought back a sudden surge of tears.
It wasn't that long ago that her own mother had tried her best to prepare her for her wedding night. She'd secretly thought that her mother was foolish to be so embarrassed by the idea of a man and woman doing what nature intended, but here she was fighting the same shame.
"Although I'm not sure that you and Alice should be talking about such things," Mary said, straightening up and smoothing out her daughter's beautiful dress. "Your sister has always been too enthralled with worldly things. She's a good woman, but I worry about her."
"Alice is a good woman Mother," said Elizabeth, affectionately touching her mother's cheek. "She learned from the best after all. And she will make a fine mother just as she makes a fine wife. You'll see."
They both smiled. Elizabeth's older and already married sister Alice had not been able to attend the wedding because she was due to give birth to her firstborn any day now.
"Come!" said Mary, taking her daughter's hand. "Let us not get caught up in emotional talk. The time for crying is done. For the rest of the day let us celebrate and enjoy ourselves!"
Mary led her daughter from their simple frame house out into the yard, where friends and family were gathering and laughing merrily.
Not an hour earlier Elizabeth and William had been married, and as was their custom Mary had done her motherly duty and had a final conversation with her young daughter about what the consummation of her marriage would be like later that night.
She had been struck by the realization that while she was doing that, William's father had been doing the same thing, although she had no idea what men would tell other men about such a thing.
Not only did such discussions come more easily to men, but the consummation of a marriage was something that most men enjoyed. Elizabeth's own father had enjoyed it so much that they had done it twice that night, and then again the next morning and again that afternoon.
She smiled at the memory. While her mother had prepared her to endure the event, she had instead found it quite satisfying to be able to hold the man she loved closely while he experienced something so pleasurable with her body.
As all the assembled cousins and aunts and neighbors surrounded Elizabeth to congratulate her and talk happily of the future, Mary stood at the edge of the crowd and smiled happily.
Her husband had already indicated his intent to take her to bed after the wedding, most likely because of memories of their own wedding night triggered by today's celebration.
Her smile grew wider when she saw her husband, supervising the men and young boys who were setting up tables for the food that was being prepared, and behind him in the pasture she saw Elizabeth's new husband William, showing a group of small children how to fly one of the kite's that he so often built and sold.
She thought them both to be good men. Both she and her daughter were blessed.
Elizabeth also saw her husband playing in the pasture, and it made her proud to have a man of her very own who was so taken with simple pleasure and beauty. He was ambitious and serious of course, but he didn't worry about what others thought.
If he thought something should be fun, he pursued his enjoyment of it with abandon, the same way he threw himself into his work when he saw a task that required commitment and strength to complete.
Despite her mother's attempt to caution her, she was looking forward to not just being married, but to being in bed with William as a wife.
William had courted her properly, and her father and then mother had both approved of his family and his work ethic, and by the time he asked for her hand in marriage her parents were nearly as pleased as she was.
One night, on the front porch, sitting quietly in the moonlight, William had quietly taken her hand and pulled her close and kissed her.
Not the chaste sort of kiss that her mother would have begrudgingly approved of, but a tender and warm and even wet kiss, that sent shivers through her slim body and made her heart swell with emotion.
When he pulled away, she'd stared at him for several seconds.
"We shouldn't," she whispered. "That's not for us. Not until we have married."
"We will be married, remember?" he'd whispered back. "And what's more I don't just like you, nor do I merely love you. I want all the happiness and pleasure and excitement and ecstasy that two people can possibly share, and I want them all with you, and I can hardly force myself to wait."
In those words she remembered the time he'd confessed that as much as he enjoyed his family carpentry trade, one of his most secret desires was to move east to a big city, and write poetry and stories, and listen to music, and experience life on only the happiest of terms.
That memory coupled with the look in his eyes that night had caused her to impulsively lean forward and kiss again, this time pressing her lips against his with a hunger that surprised them both.
He met that hunger by pushing his tongue into her mouth, where she instinctively and lewdly sucked on it, feeling a heat between her legs that frightened her almost as much as it excited her.
She'd been awake for hours that night, up on the big mattress in the loft that she had shared with her sister before Alice had married and moved away. She'd fought an almost losing battle with a desire to touch herself down below.
The kiss had awakened something inside her and she wasn't sure it was at all proper. She'd worked hard to convince herself it was just anxiety over the coming wedding, and not some sort of immoral and tingling reaction to being kissed.
"What will William think of me if every kiss makes me behave wantonly and foolishly?" she wondered.
That had been a month ago, and she spent as much time convincing herself that her reaction had been a one time and fleeting feeling as she did thinking about what it would be like to have William kiss her behind a closed door where there would be no fear of being caught.
As she gazed at her husband she wondered if another such kiss would be offered and enjoyed as a part of her wedding night duties? And would she merely endure her wedding night duties as her mother had encouraged her to or would the pleasure of the kiss make even that a tolerable experience?
She felt butterflies in her belly when she thought of the duty she would perform later tonight. Two of her aunts had warned her about it, and her mother had told her all about it when she was first engaged, and then they'd discussed it again a week ago, and then once more just a few minutes earlier.
None of them knew about the kiss though.
And none of them could possibly know what Alice had told her, about closing her eyes and seeing fireworks and hearing music as her body responded to her husband's.
She'd dismissed her older sister's claims as romantic nonsense, but now that the wedding night was so close she wondered if there wouldn't be some sort of enjoyment out of performing the task with William.
The tables were set up, the music began, and with punch and wine and even some whiskey the dancing and games began, young and old alike laughing and talking and occasionally squealing with delight.
And then the food arrived, and the bride and groom ate and walked along the rows of guests, laughing, and talking and thanking them for being a part of the start of their new life together.
And then there were toasts, from each father and from several of William's brothers, and then the preacher had more words to say about love and grace and kindness, and then they danced together to soft music, with their family and friends all around.
And then William had taken her hand and led her to a carriage, and the assembled crowd had sung and cheered as they climbed aboard and headed down the road to their new home.
Their private home.
Their bed.
"What a perfect night," said Elizabeth, leaning against her new husband in the cool night air.
"I agree," William said. "My brother told me that he'll come along to the house later to collect the horses if we leave them tied up outside."
"Why would we do that?" asked Elizabeth.
"He thinks that we have much more important things to do than to put the horses up for the night," William laughed.
"Why what could be more important than tending to our own animals?" teased Elizabeth as they rode along in the long shadows of the rising moon.
"Tending thoroughly to my bride of course," said William.
Elizabeth leaned her head against his shoulder then and fell quiet, suddenly gripped by nervousness. It was one thing to imagine or even discuss her wedding night, but quite another when it was about to happen.
At last they came along to their own small home, and William helped her down from the carriage and she stood silently on the porch and watched him secure the animals and then make sure they were properly watered.
