Mara seemed to carry with her the 'angelic quality of the folk of the bible!'
What disturbed Mara was the steadfastness of Allegra's gaze. A big-raw-boned woman with a massive bosom, there was somehow something almost Rabelaisian about her. Mara looked at her, she had, despite Allegra's outward conservatism, a sense of vast appetites, sexual as well as gastronomical, all tightly reined in. She was not only formal with everyone, she dressed very conservatively in black, high necked dresses with her hair done in a chignon so that she appeared to be an abbess, fresh from her daily meditations.
For several weeks Mara felt relatively comfortable with her in their interviews but the private chats continued to infuriate Ruth Peter. The chairman of the English department made no effort to hide her rampant jealousy. She would talk about it endlessly to Mara, wanting to know if Allegra had made any passes at her, if she had said anything that proved she was a lesbian.
'She hasn't and she isn't gay,' Mara repeated over and over again. But it was of little avail and she began to feel as if she were walking a tightrope. If she made one false move, Mara felt, Ruth would attack her bitterly. What would happen next she had no idea except that she feared Ruth Peter's jealousy more than anything. The tension finally became so great that she could hardly stand it and it was with great relief that she got a long newsy letter from Wendy.
Wendy was teaching at a private school near London and spoke with glowing nostalgia of their old love affair in Rangoon, of the easygoing life in Burma, of her hatred of the English climate and the English corseted personality.
'What I'd give to be back there with you, darling Mara,' Wendy wrote, 'snug in our little forest glen, with our own private warm clear pool to swim in naked, free of the stupid traffic, the personality dashes, the school politics that surround me. For two shillings I'd toss it all up and go back tomorrow for good. And if you came along I'd even make one shilling.'
The letter affected Mara so deeply that she carried it around in her purse for days. It made her feel good, warm, aware of a time in her life when she was happy. And it changed her mood completely from moroseness to happiness. There was a new brisk spring in her step. The change was so great that even Ruth was impressed and Allegra commented on it. She flattered Mara with several compliments on her new clothes and asked her to lunch.
One afternoon a few days later, Allegra Haskell invited her to have dinner at her house. It was not so much an invitation as an order. Mara, who had just arranged to spend the evening with Ruth, was taken aback but tried gracefully to decline. Allegra's steel like voice told her it was urgent that she come.
'Frankly I am planning to recommend that some of our teachers be transferred or dropped,' she said. 'Their work has become sloppy. I need your opinion.' When Mara tried again to back out, she said in a curt voice that maybe she was mistaken about Mara's interest in the school and her own job. The hint was unmistakably clear and Mara reluctantly agreed to come.
As she expected Ruth flew into a rage. She had planned a lavish dinner in her house and had bought special foods, wines and gifts. She demanded that Mara plead illness and get out of the date.
'I can't do that Ruth,' Mara protested.
'You're going there to go to bed with her just as you have with that bitch Patty O'Hare and Mills and Leonard!' Ruth yelled at her in the privacy of her locked office.
No amount of placating talk mattered. Mara patiently insisted that she had broken with Mills, Patty and Leonard. She repeated her explanation that she had saved their jobs. It was useless. Ruth was insanely jealous. It was all she could do to escape from Ruth's office and the jealous woman's accusations. As she did, she knew she would have to break with Ruth. She had become insufferable.
Three hours later she realized, as her car neared the area of Allegra Haskell's apartment near the beach, that Ruth Peter was following her. Her efforts to hide her car behind the flow of traffic were so pitifully futile that Mara felt sorry for her. She was sorry but Ruth's childish ploys also made her angry. She hated to be followed and spied upon this way. It was the same silly tactic that Mike had used and she promised to have it out with Ruth later.
Allegra Haskell lived in a high-rise building that overlooked the sea. The view from her eighteenth floor terrace was breathtaking. They began their evening meal by having Mai Tais and staring at the beautiful sunset. Mara thought the Mai Tais were uncommonly strong but said nothing. Allegra talked gaily of plays and films she liked, of her travel and continued to refill Mara's tall glass as well as her own. There was no mention of food.
After a while Mara began to feel giddy and imagine she was seeing things. Was Allegra really on her knees now and kissing Mara's bare toes after removing her shoes? She could not be certain. Then she was aware that Allegra was lifting her skirt and running her fingers over her thighs. One of the principal's actions seemed so bizarre, she thought she must be dreaming it.
Allegra had a small silver scissors in her hand. She was spreading Mara's thighs and lowering the girl's panties. Then lowering her nose, she sniffed deeply in Mara's rich pubic hair, digging her nose into the cleft of her vulva and licking her clitoris. A moment later she began to snip little tufts of Mara's curling dark pussy hair and then putting it in a large silver snuff box. Mara blinked her eyes as she watched Allegra.
Giggling, Mara heard a refrain in her head: 'Allegra's putting my muff in her snuff… Allegra's putting my muff in her snuff.' Muff was a term of endearment that Mike had had once for her pussy. Then suddenly she felt the sharp point of the tiny scissors and she jumped. More sober now, she stared in disbelief. Allegra was actually cutting little pieces of her pussy hair. But even more in credibly, the older woman had spread her own thighs on the adjoining chair. She was naked and Mara could see Allegra's thick luxuriant brown bush a few inches from her face.
As she watched Allegra snipped a few tufts of her own thick bush and then mixed it with Mara's pussy hair in the same box. Then she sniffed the box's contents reverently.
'What-what are you doing?' Mara asked, still a little woozy from the heavy drinks. Allegra's vast bush seemed like a veritable forest and as she spread her legs further Mara had a view of an enormous slit that was already pearling with the moisture of passion.
'I like to mix my pussy hair with those of girls I feel very close to,' Allegra confessed in a blurred voice. 'That way when I feel lonely, I can smell them together and it warms me up. It reminds me of the passion we enjoyed together.'
'I don't think…' Mara began. 'I mean, I didn't think the reason for tonight was… my coming here was-'
Her words faded away as the strong liquor made her brain whirl. Allegra's lips began to wet Mara's pussy lovingly, then using her two forefingers, she spread the pretty pink labia and ran her tongue in and out till Mara wanted to leap over the rail into the sea.
'Aaaaaahhhhh eehhhhhh aahhhhhhhh,' Mara groaned as the principal began to devour her pussy hungrily, greedily, without stopping even to take a breath. At the same moment, Mara, opening her eyes, saw that Allegra Haskell was running her own finger into her own pussy. She was masturbating vigorously while she sucked Mara.
'Oh I love your luscious cunt darling,' Allegra said. 'I love your lovely delicious cunt. I can't help myself… all month I've been holding back. I don't do this often. It's too risky. It's why I even married once… just to give people the feeling that I was straight. But there are times when I meet a girl like you and I go out of my mind…'
'Every day when you came in, I longed to get on my knees, part your thighs and suck your cunt, did you know that? And to turn you over my lap, raise your skirt and lick your delicious coffee-colored ass… did you know that?… But I held myself back… I held back because I know that if I give in to my secret desires I can't stop… I wouldn't have done it now except that you looked so gloriously wonderful today and I am a little tight… Forgive me darling… forgive me…' And Allegra went down on Mara's wet, hot pussy again, licking it madly, her hands groping for Mara's breasts, now exposed from her dress.
Mara, still groggy, her movements uncoordinated, tried to move her thighs from the principal's mouth. Impossible. It was like trying to dislodge a leech that would not let go of her crotch. What happened next was fragmented in her memory. At some point she heard the door open and Ruth Peters come in. The English Department chairman's eyes were red rimmed with anger and tears were coursing down her cheeks…
'You bitch… you goddamn bitch, let go… she's mine… she's mine!' Ruth kept screaming to an unheeding Allegra. Then as Mara watched with astonishment and complete disbelief she saw the drunken Allegra wrestle with Ruth Peter.
The two women fought on the veranda and Mara stared helplessly and tried to yell at them to stop. Allegra,
