Chapter 6

‘Yes’, she was interested, especially after mentioning introductions; but it would mean returning to London: and again, ‘Yes’, she could handle that; most especially, when she was offered the ‘Granny-flat’ in my Townhouse.

So; we’d re-shaped her future but, before embarking, we needed to re-shape her; harmonise her emotionally, spiritually, intellectually and physically. Getting her ready meant flushing her emotions, revitalising her mind, rebuilding her confidence and stimulating her spirit through the hard, physical exertion of honing-and-toning her body; fortuitously, we had various route-courses on the Estate where we invited local Cub-, Guide- and Scout-Troops to come, camp and familiarise themselves with bush-craft.

We started, early the next morning, with an eight-mile trek, which wasn’t intended to be a forced-march; uphill, downhill, along the banks of the streams, through pine-woods, over moorland, which is the hardest of the lot because heather drags your feet, and returning in mid-afternoon to hot soup and a hot bath; “bugger-the-shower!” was something I heard Tanya mutter but, the good-thing was, we bathed together; then took dinner.

We did similar walks for the next three days before moving onto obstacle-courses, which involved thinking; climbing netting, scrambling fences, crawling through tyres, ascending ropes, wading streams. As much as including physical exertion this distracts and occupies one’s mind; it shifts, completely, one’s world-concept from pre-occupation with the past to an existential focus on the present; the art of staying alive: this was survival; remaining extant.

It was working; Tanya’s mien improved, dramatically, then we reverted to endurance training; longer walks-shorter times to build stamina, increase the blood-flow, distract the mind to focus on the task: the whole programme, set over ten days, was designed to make-her not break-her; and that’s what we achieved. On the last day, we gave her a 35-pound pack and a map; her job was to navigate a 10-mile circuit, alone, and back to Big-House.

Of course, John and I kept a discrete eye on her, but Tanya never faltered; her initiative was high, her confidence was soaring, her competence stratospheric, her self-belief restored, her joy redolent: correspondingly, her libido had not only returned, it had returned with magnified interest; which is where she put me though my paces!

So, she was ready; ready to return to her rightful place in the balanced world of work-life-love; and we set off, back to London, and a round of meetings with prospective employers.

It wasn’t hard to find interested parties and, within a week, Tanya had half-a-dozen offers of engagement; some at low-level, one or two at medium-level and, astonishingly, one at senior-level, pending a 3-month trial. This was a no-brainer and she accepted, instantly, scheduling a start at the beginning of the next month; 25 days away.

The six-storey Townhouse is set in a residential area in central London, adjacent to one of its great Parks and with easy access to the Underground and the Stores that attract shoppers from all-over the world. It has a Basement, 4-main, above-ground floors and, on top, the Granny-, a Mansard Conversion in the roof-space where entry is through the front-door of the main residence, with open-access to all levels; the reason it, unlike the basement, hadn’t been let. However, for the time-being, this was an irrelevance because, Tanya was living with me, and we were spending much time, together, on a crash-course to prepare her for the kind of Activity in which she’d be employed.

The rest of the time was spent having sex: and this wasn’t normal sex; it was exotic sex that employed the full panoply of our experiences and imagination. Usually, it started in the Study, after intense sessions centring-on Q deep-throat. All the time her eyes would be raised to mine and she’d move her head and lips in close-harmony, finishing, as always, with a retention she’d share with me.

Then to the bedroom where there’d be more oral, tit-fucking, vaginal and anal congress until, one-day she asked me to whip her.

“Why? I thought you’d outgrown that.”

“It’s not that I never liked it: it’s more I hated him and the way he organised it; it was as though I’d ceased to be a human being and had become an animal, an article-of-fun, a factotum for the pleasure of men to exorcise their frustrations. That stripped-away my sense of humanity and all the joy; all the eroticism, all the pleasure of a thrashing followed by rabid-sex evaporated.”

“And you want that?

“Yes; yes please.”

“Talk to me, Tanya: tell me, why?”

“OK, bottom-line: it’s because I love you and I’m in love with you: but I haven’t lost my bearings by falling-in-love with you; this is my conscious choice: it’s something I want to give you and, there’s more; there’s something else.”

“There’s more?”

“Yes: I want you to have my nipples pierced so I’ll always remember you. Will you have me ringed?”

“Alright, and, while we’re at it, I’ll have my name tattooed on your ass and a bone put through your nose. We’ll make the arrangements tomorrow. Happy, now?”

“Look, I’m serious; please don’t make fun of me. You’ve got a tattoo and I’m not a naïve young urchin from the back-of-beyond; already, you know more about me than my parents and the stuff I’ve told you disgusts me; but, you’re different. You’ve shown me humanity still exists in this world: that love, compassion, attention, care, kindness, with no quid-pro-quo, no expectation of a return remains alive: just ‘gifting’ with no payback. I thought the world had gone to hell before I saw you in that railway station and, then, all of a sudden, there you were; glowing; radiant: like an Angel, and we were connected by the grace of a God- given-ordinance.”