Content Note:
Incest
It was such a brief note that I would have missed it if I had been anything less than obsessed: "Following her daring capture of the Xanadu frigate XS Narwhal, damaged previously in battle at Epsilon Eridani, Ensign Winter has advanced in rank to Lieutenant, pending transfer. We await details with impatience!"
I too was impatient for details, but it was enough to see her name and to know she was alive and doing well. The love of my life was out there winning battles! She never called me, nor I her, and I knew not whether she ever still thought of me. I was a fool, perhaps, to cling to such an absurd hope, and knew better than to trust in it, but my love for her was an anchor that could not be weighed - to use an ancient nautical phrase. (Starships, naturally, have no anchor.)
I, on the other hand, was going for walks (to avoid the stagnancy of the House), visiting friends (to escape as long as possible from the delusions and debauchery of my father and older sister), suffering parties (I'd despised the orgies even before I was forced into chastity), and (from time to time) getting my ass vigorously caned and wonderfully fucked by Rosa. I could hardly compare my suffering (poor me!) and successes (do orgasms count?) to Freya's.
Nothing ever seemed to change on Kell Island. My father's wrinkles deepened and Eliza's sexual diversions seemed ever more desperate and varied, but otherwise life merely continued. On Ux, on the other hand, Charlie and Mara married and had two boys and Charlie's sisters grew into young women. I visited often, and was always welcome. It was almost possible to be happy there.
And yet, there was one change at Kell. My father's remaining fortune dried up slowly, until there was only the income from the trust, and that was not sufficient for the life he enjoyed. "You have to choose," Shep said. He was our lawyer and accountant. "You can pay the gardeners and maids to look after the house, or you can pay them for sex, but no longer both." In other words, we could have a well kept and respectable house and garden, or we could entertain ourselves and our guests with lewd delights.
"Ridiculous!" my father raged. "Both! We must have both!"
"Absolutely!" Eliza cried. "No one will ever come here if we give up either."
"Maybe you could have six of one and half a dozen of the other," I suggested.
"Oh, do shut up, Ana," they chorused.
Rosa, ever the practical one, suggested a radical solution: "You could move to the Avenue."
The Avenue was the cultural centre of O-Stred. It was home to many wealthy families, their grand houses arranged in concentric circles about the cultural heart of the island. There were theatres and opera houses and special schools for the rich and/or talented. There were artisanal shops and shops that imported rare and expensive goods from all corners of human space. There were even, if you looked very carefully, places where ordinary people lived and worked.
"How dreadfully common!" my father said.
"Yes," Rosa soothed, "but you will require only three, perhaps four, permanent servants, and should you require sexual services, these are readily available and of the highest quality."
"I suppose we will have many more visitors," Eliza mused. (Poor Eliza! She was yet to find a man she liked even half as much as her father.)
"And," Shep interrupted, "I'm sure I can find tenants for the House. The income will ensure the house and gardens are kept in proper condition, and even cover your main expenses on the Avenue."
My father shook his head in irritation. "I don't like the idea of strangers living here. What if they wreck the place?"
"Trust me," Shep said. "Just yesterday, I heard from an admiral who will be retiring shortly. She has done very well in the war and is looking for somewhere pleasant and isolated to live. Kell House would be perfect for her."
I perked up at once. "Admiral who?"
"Admiral Cross, I believe."
It took real effort not to betray my sudden excitement. "Corossa, perhaps?"
"Why, yes. That was it."
Everyone was looking at me. "Admiral Corossa was in charge of the fleet at Teegarden last year," I explained. Which was true, but it wasn't why I was excited. What I absolutely wasn't about to tell anyone is that Corossa's wife and my long lost love Freya Winter were sisters.
"I do recall something about that," my father said, and shrugged. "Well, having a hero of the navy stay at Kell is no terrible thing, and it is tiresome having to travel so far always just to watch a play."
"And I've grown so tired of seeing the same faces every day," Eliza added with a none-too-subtle glance in my direction.
*
Admiral Corossa would be retiring to Kell Island! Surely it was only a matter of time before her sister-in-law visited. My Freya, whose heart I broke eight years before.
The year after being promoted to Lieutenant aboard the TS Asp, she was tagged in a photo, several naval officers on shore leave at Groombridge, somewhere I'd never heard of. The year after that, she was listed briefly as missing, possibly captured, only to turn up weeks later: "Back from the dead! The XS Anaconda, one of Xanadu's newest and fastest scout ships, caused quite the stir this week when she turned up in friendly space piloted by none other than missing-presumed-dead Lt Winter." Another two years, and she was listed as captain of the TS Stork, and tagged at numerous social events. As far as I could tell, she was still single.
My Freya. My Captain Winter. Years had passed since I broke her heart, but no one yet had succeeded in diverting my own.
*
With my father and Eliza away to the Avenue, I moved my belongings into Rosa's and, since Rosa was away on a long interstellar cruise, invited myself to stay with Charlie and Mara.
The boys were away at their grandparents' place when I arrived, and there was no sign of Charlie. Mara, however, was in the lounge, no longer a black-and-white shrine to Charlie's favourite sports team but rather a pleasant family room safe for two young boys to run around in. There was one new item of furniture, however: a sturdy wooden pillory.
"Thank God you're here," Mara cried. "Get me out of here!" She was quite naked, bent over with her neck and wrists captured, and positioned behind her was a device that vibrated just out of reach of her clit.
Ignoring her demand, I took a seat that let her look at me without having to twist her neck painfully. "Where's Charlie?"
"The game, of course. I've been stuck like this for hours. Please, Ana! If you're not going to free me, at least help me come! There's a dildo in the kitchen."
I thought it over for a minute. Clearly Charlie wanted her to be bound and helplessly excited, much as Rosa liked to play with me, but I didn't think he'd mind me playing with her in his absence. "Okay," I said.