The Virgin of Greenbrier: The Greenbrier Trilogy, Book One

Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

She curled under the blanket, knowing in her half sleep that the fire had gone out several hours ago. Everything would be fine, no matter how bad the night before had been. Lucretia tried to burrow deeper into her bedding, but it was no use. She could not get warm enough. With her shivering, she also could not get back to sleep.

Lucy had never been taught how to rebuild a near dead fire. There was always a slave to do that for her and she had always assumed there would be, but nobody had sat on the hearth tending it through the night. Maybe she was supposed to be that someone. Lucretia had watched Little Mike hundreds of times rebuild her own bedroom fire. Looking at this one before her now from under the blankets, she wondered if she could do it herself. The snoring doctor would certainly not do it.

“Can I do it?” she asked herself. From her vantage point on the floor, she could see a basket brimming with twigs and beside it a small pile of starters. On the opposite side of the hearth, the heavier wood was stacked. How hard could it possibly be? If Little Mike, who was barely ten years old, could do it, she certainly could.

With one of the blankets wrapped as tightly as possible around her, Lucretia crawled silently to the hearth. One or two pieces of charred wood remained, covered in ash. She held a hand over it. The vaguest hint of warmth radiated up to her palm. Lucy laid a small handful of twigs on top and waited, hoping it would ignite on its own. A wisp of smoke rose but nothing more. After another handful, Lucretia leaned as close as she dared and blew hard into the tinder. A cloud of ash rose up and curled back into her eyes and nose, followed closely by another puff of smoke. She leaned back on her heels to wipe her eyes and stifle a cough. The fire remained dormant. She blew into the bundle a second time, more gently, and saw the orange glow of the coals beneath grow brighter. Again and again she blew until a tiny flame danced on a twig. It burned a second then went out again.

“Damn it. Light,” she whispered, pushing the blanket off her shoulders and out of the way. Lucretia repeated her efforts. More flames moved along the twigs. Lightly, she added the starter sticks, delighted when the flames continued to grow in size and warmth. She was doing it. She, who had never built a fire before, was doing it now. Once the starters were going, she added two of the smaller logs.

“Open the flue, little one, before you smoke us to death.”

“What?!” She spun around.

“If you don’t open the flue to let the smoke out, we’re both going to suffocate.” He was sitting up in bed, grinning.

Lucretia looked at the blaze she’d made then saw the smoke that rolled over the upper edge of the mantel and was quickly collecting at the ceiling.

“Up, just inside, you’ll find a handle. Give it a pull.”

Finding the handle, she yanked it down. The flue opened and the smoke moved up the chimney instead of into the room. Feeling quite proud of herself, Lucy pulled the blanket onto her shoulders again.

“That was superb.” His warm hand touched her long, dark hair, jolting her out of her proud revere. Lucretia stiffened, suddenly afraid to move, not daring to turn around or pull away. He was sitting beside her left shoulder and from the corner of her eye Lucretia could see his bare knee and left arm. She turned her head away, modestly wishing to see no more of him than she had to.

“How are you feeling this morning?” he asked, never taking his right hand away from her hair, stroking her like a prized pet.

“Fine, sir,” she whispered. “I was cold.”

“You could have come into bed with your Master. That would have pleased him a great deal.” The words were followed by a chuckle.

“I would never do that, sir.”

“You don’t think so?”

“No.” She wanted to move away from him. He scared her and the way he touched her scared her even more.

“You will eventually, if you are to be an obedient slave, that is.” His left hand lifted to stroke her cheek and jaw. “Turn and look at me, Lucy.”

Lucretia shook her head, wishing to God she could make herself move away. “I can’t.”

“You did a wonderful job with the fire, little one. You deserve a reward.” His fingers pulled at her chin. “Turn and look at your Master.”

She dreaded disobeying him. She could not stand another punishment right now. “Must I?”

“Yes.”

With her heart full of fear, Lucretia turned her head and looked up into his eyes. Although she didn’t see, she was positive he was just as naked as she was. She looked at his face and dared not let her eyes stray beyond it. “You have done very well so far, Lucretia. I’m proud of you.”

“I’m horrible.” She wanted so much to look away from him.

His hand cupped her face for a moment. “Why do you think you are horrible? Difficult, definitely, but not horrible.”

“I don’t want to obey you and I don’t like it when you touch me and…” His fingertips brushed over one of her n*****s, which instantly grew taut.

“The way your body reacts when I do touch you tells me differently. And I think that your body is telling you what it wants. You are denying it and that is the whole problem with Lucretia Borgia. That is the whole source of your hysteria, my dear.” Shame washed over her. “And your blush is one of the loveliest I’ve seen. Besides, look at what a nice reward you are getting now. Do you have any idea what my Cassy would do to be where you are now?”

Without thinking, Lucretia’s eyes moved down. The fold of the blankets covered the doctor’s groin but the rest of his body was open for her to see. It wasn’t as if she’d never seen a man’s bare chest before. But those had been slaves, not someone like Dr. Addams. Not someone like him at all. “No, I don’t know, sir.” Lucy focused on the center of his lightly-haired chest.

His fingertips touched her chin again. “Anything, my little Lucy, anything at all.” Lucretia looked up, remembering what it had been like to be kissed by him the night before. Would she too do anything at all for something as simple as a kiss?

He was drawing her hands into his and standing. “Come with me to the bed.” Lucretia rose as if hypnotized, not caring of her own nakedness, not caring that she saw the soft down that covered his s*x or the smooth curve of his bare buttocks. Before she could even think at all, he was pulling the blankets over the both of them, tucking her against his chest and stroking her bare hip under the blanket. Her whole body was shaking and it had nothing to do with the cold. “Don’t worry. Your virginity is safe with me,” she heard him say through the strange fog she’d entered. She was screaming with life and things only ever dreamed of before, of passion and desire, of lust and want. What was she supposed to do? She was so confused that the tears burst from her without warning.

And for perhaps the first time in her life, nobody asked her why she cried. Nobody treated her like a child for it, telling her to stop acting like a baby and to be strong about whatever emotion she was feeling. She didn’t have to try to explain something she couldn’t. Dr. Addams held her, pressed her to his warm chest so she could hear his heart.

It was not until the tears finally quit flowing that he spoke again. “My sweet Lucy, you are far more fragile than anyone realizes. You try to be strong, don’t you? You try to be the son your father will never have and the one he wishes you were. Yet inside, you are a delicate flower, precious and lovely, and very much in need of tending. Am I right?”

She could only nod for the tears trickled down her face again.

“But you mustn’t be spoiled any longer. There is a difference in being taken care of and being turned into a brat. Two days ago, you were a brat. That is going to change. While here, your every physical need will be tended to. You will be taken care of, but at the same time you will do for yourself as much as you do for others. You will earn what you are given and what you are given is entirely in your own hands for the most part. You earn your rewards and your punishments, but as I am Master, I will decide what deserves punishment and what does not. You may do nothing at all wrong yet find yourself over my knee being spanked. That is my power over you. You will respect it and remember it at all times. The punishments you have taken, you gave to yourself by being and acting like that little, rich girl you think you still want to be. That’s not what you want to be really, is it?”

“No, sir.” She closed her eyes. “I don’t like to be treated like that.”

“Then don’t act the way you have been. Give me reasons to reward you. Look up at me, Lucy.” She turned her head. “The rewards bring pleasure to everyone, little one.” His hand was to her face and his lips covered hers, kissing her far deeper than he had the night before. Heat poured from his body and mingled with her own, pushing a groan from Lucretia’s lips. He pulled away suddenly. “Now, you kiss me.”

“I don’t know how.”

He smiled, trailing a finger over her lips, “Oh, yes you do.”

“I’ve never…”

“Do as you are told.”

Lucy gazed into his eyes, wanting nothing more than to feel his lips on hers again but afraid to do to him as he had just done to her. But the desire was more powerful than the fear. She stretched up and kissed him lightly.

“Again, more slowly,” he instructed.

The second kiss lingered and for a moment she was being both kissed and kissing. Something warm and hard pressed against her leg. When their lips parted a second time, Lucretia was breathless. Was this what she had been fighting all these years?

“My God…”

The doctor would not let her kiss him a third time. “It’s still very early, my slave, and perhaps later today we can do what we’ve not been able to do so far. I had plans for yesterday until someone was a very naughty girl.” Lucy swallowed back the raging emotions to listen. “Go back to your bed on the floor and sleep until Cassandra wakes you.” Lucretia did not want to leave his bed, but the little pout she gave returned nothing but a stern scowl and the words. “Do as you are told, Lucy.”

Lucretia went, but it was with a new and wonderful stirring in her body. He had lit something inside her, just as she had brought to life the cold fireplace. The fear of the growing power he held over her stifled her thoughts. She crawled back under the blankets, watched the flames and shadows dance. The delicate crackle eased her back towards sleep.

She closed her eyes and whispered, “Master.”

“My slave,” Dr. Addams whispered back from the darkness behind her.