she was hiding something. They walked arm in arm down a narrow lane with a wall to the churchyard on the left and a low bank topped by a hedge, neatly covered with a tablecloth of snow, on the right. The crunchy virgin snow bore no evidence of traffic, vehicular or pedestrian, in or out of Smallfield Lane that morning; Lippinston was a sleepy village. After a hundred yards or so, the churchyard wall gave way to overgrown rhododendron bushes divided by a driveway leading to The Rectory, a large, rambling Georgian house. The other houses in the lane were nowhere near as grand, but they benefited from the same view over a meadow to Church Farm on the right, a copse on the left and then a patchwork of fields rising gently to a tree covered ridge.
Natasha tugged Barrie along until they came to a house with an Estate Agent’s board fastened to the front gate post. Holly Tree Cottage was the last property in the lane. It was thatched, but not that old, probably built in the 1930’s. The size and style of the windows reflected that era. Natasha looked over the gate. ‘It looks empty. Shall we take a peep?’ Before he could answer she lifted the catch on the gate and marched down the path towards the front door. Reluctantly following, he saw some movement behind the net curtains in the window to the left of the porch. ‘I don’t think it is empty, you know.’ She smiled and rang the doorbell. ‘I’m sure they’ll show us around if they’re in.’
The door opened almost immediately and a tubby, grey haired woman with a round face and apple red cheeks positively beamed at them.
‘Hello my dear, how nice to see you again. So this is your young man?’
Natasha beamed back at her. This is, Barrie,’ she said. ‘Barrie, this is Mrs Parsons. Mrs Parsons is one of my customers.’ He tried to imagine Mrs Parsons in a corset. Natasha gave him a nudge in the ribs. Could she read his mind?
‘You’d best call me Gwen my dears,’ said Mrs Parsons, as she ushered them into the hallway and closed the front door. She turned to Barrie. ‘You’re a very lucky man, Barrie, having such a beautiful and clever fiancee.’
Natasha turned away, pretending to examine some detail surrounding the light rose in the ceiling. Mrs Parsons chattered blithely on.
‘She’s sorted out my back, I can tell you. Without that wonderful medical corset she made for me, I don’t know where I would be. Well I do know – I’d be in a lot of pain that’s where I’d be. Now, let me have your coats.’ She took Natasha’s coat and clucked her disapproval as she accepted the scarf from Barrie. ‘You must wrap-up well in this weather. Show him around Natasha my dear while I make you a nice pot of tea. It looks as if Barrie could do with warming up.’
Natasha led the way upstairs to a landing and walking past others opened the door furthest from the top of the stairs. ‘There are three bedrooms, but this one has an ensuite bathroom and a wonderful view across the fields.’
He closed the door and whispered angrily, ‘What’s going on Tash? I don’t remember us getting engaged?’
‘Of course you don’t, silly.’ She took his hand and looked at him with those big blue-grey eyes. He could feel himself melting.
‘What’s a girl supposed to do? I love you. I know you’re frustrated because you want to get me to bed, but what about me? Don’t you think I feel frustrated too, rubbing against your – your thing when we kiss and wishing I could have it inside me.’
His ‘old boy’ would have leapt into a full erection, had it not been restricted by tight underpants.
‘Why don’t we then,’ he groaned, pushing against her.
She rubbed her stomach against his swollen penis and looked up at him with tears in her eyes.
‘Because I can’t. I've promised myself I won’t have sex until I marry. And – and I want to marry you. And this house is on the market. And Gwen wants me to have it. And I thought it would be a lovely place for us to live. And – and, you won’t ask me!’ She was sobbing now, beating her clenched fists on his chest and he felt like a real lowlife. This girl loved him and wanted him. He loved her – what the hell.
‘Okay, okay.’ He gently wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumb. ‘Will you marry me?’
She hugged him close. ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ She stifled a sob and pressed the side of her head to his chest. He felt her hand reaching for his penis and she giggled.
‘We’re going to have to do something about this though.’
‘What do you have in mind?’ he croaked.
‘We could forget the Fox Inn and go straight back to my place, Debbie’s away visiting her parents in Bath and she’s taken Kate, our house mate with her.
From that point on he could not care less about the rest of the cottage. If she wanted it, she could have it. He was on a promise!
Over a cup of tea, Natasha told Mrs Parsons they would buy the cottage, they just needed time to make the financial arrangements. Mrs Parsons beamed and told them how happy she was that it was going to such a lovely couple. She chatted on interminably, but eventually they managed to make their excuses and scamper away.
They retraced their tracks across the fields. The wooing over, they strode purposefully through the snow in silence.
A small brass plate next to the front door of number 27 Back Street, in a Victorian terrace behind Hamsworth High Street, was the only indication that it was also the office of DebTash Lingerie and Corsetry. They fell into an embrace as soon as they closed the door. Then, after hanging her sheepskin coat in the hallway and unbuttoning his jacket to unwind her scarf, Natasha took him by the hand, led him through the living room to the narrow staircase, giving him a guided tour as they ascended. On the first floor, she pointed through an open door a large double bed with cuddly toys propped against a pink headboard.
‘That’s Debbie’s room.’
She opened a door on the opposite side of the small landing.
‘This is where our clients try on their garments.’
He glimpsed an ornate full-length mirror and a narrow single bed with a red corset laid out on it, but he was in too much of a hurry to register any other detail. He followed her up the next flight of stairs.
‘My room is right at the top, so there's another lot of stairs. We use the two rooms on this floor as our work- space.
‘Where’s Kate’s room then?’ he whispered.
Natasha giggled. ‘She sleeps with Debbie, didn’t I tell you?’
‘You mean they’re…?’
‘Of course, didn’t you guess?’
Barrie had met Debbie several times and no, he wouldn’t have guessed she was a lesbian. She looked all woman, in fact he quite fancied her. But, what about Natasha, was she a lesbian too? After all, they had been friends through college.
For the second time that day she seemed to read his mind and turned to face him on the landing. ‘And no, just in case you’re wondering, I’m not that way inclined. Debbie knows and respects that. We’re the best of friends with a very good working relationship. It doesn’t bother me in the slightest that she has that preference, it’s her business.’
They climbed the last flight of stairs to the bedroom on the third floor. It was a spacious attic room with a single bed. The gold corset, which she’d worn for the website photograph, was displayed on a half model in the corner of the room. He asked her if she would wear it for him. Later she said, helping him take off his jacket. By this time he had a stonking hard on which began to hurt as Natasha stepped out of her jeans, took off her sweater and stood in front of him in fine lace underwear.
‘That’s not very practical for this cold weather,’ he said with a grin. She smiled back. God she was beautiful and her skin was a light golden colour, not honey as in the website image. She stretched out on the bed and held her arms out for him. He stripped down to his straining underpants and joined her. They kissed passionately as she rubbed herself against his erection. Then she rolled over on top of him and gently pulled down the front of his underpants to release his straining member. He reached around her back to undo her bra, only to discover it fastened at the front. With a twist of her slender fingers she did the job for him and the bra dropped away to reveal a pair of exquisite breasts. He placed his hands on them and she moaned softly as he caressed her nipples. He took one hand away and attempted to pull her panties down, but she shook her head, giving him an emphatic no. Then, straddling him and taking hold of his penis in both hands she placed the head carefully over the silk gusset to protect her virginity. He could not penetrate more than an inch. He hoped desperately that the thin material would give way, but it held and she rocked herself to a wonderfully noisy climax which, although it seemed to last forever,
