Ghost of Bledgemoor Hall

The Ghost of Bledgemoor Hall

by obohobo

Chapter 1. New maid at the hall

An all-encompassing weariness overcame Rebecca. Slowly she trekked along the narrow path, head down against the biting wind and driving sleet. Pulling her inadequate shawl more tightly around her shoulders, she stumbled on for a few more paces. The low stone walls gave little protection to the lightly clad woman. In any case her clothes were soaked through from the icy torrential rain that had fallen for the last few hours. Mid December was certainly not the best time of year to be homeless and wandering the moors. The violent shivering she'd experienced for the past hour had eased somewhat but now she just felt so tired that each step was a mammoth feat. "I can't go any further," she told herself, "Bledgemoor Hall is still nearly a mile and I don't know what sort of reception I'll get even if I make it to there. Perhaps if I see Master James, he will take pity on me. I'll just sit down close to the wall and rest. Whatever happens then is in God's hands." Rebecca knew sitting down and dozing might well mean she would not wake again but by now she was past caring. As long as no one from the prison came and found her before she made it to the Hall.

Long minutes passed. Rebecca noticed through half opened eyes, that the latest squall had ceased as suddenly as it had begun. "I should move. I should move. I should move." Repeating these words almost as a mantra, Rebecca finally persuaded her lethargic body to its feet and once more began to plod along the slippery grass lane. The shivers recommenced. Every step took an immense amount of energy, sapping the very small amount of reserves her body had. She'd been on the run for nearly a week and had little to eat in that time. After what seemed like hours and with darkness falling, the gates of Bledgemoor Hall appeared. "Is that bitch of a housekeeper still there?" she asked herself, "And will she even help me? Will they tell James? Surely even she wouldn't be so cruel to turn me away on a night like this? No James loved her and they had lied to him."

Shuffling and stumbling on the gravel drive, Rebecca made her way to the familiar servant's entrance. Using the last of her energy she raised the knocker twice and let it fall. Several minutes later Mrs. Simmons opened the big oak door. It was too late. Rebecca fell seemingly lifeless into the hallway.

"Reggie!" Freida Simmons screamed for her husband, "What are we going to do with this Becky creature? The master's guests will start arriving soon. He'll turn us out if he finds she's been back here and we let her in."

"What the hell, Frieda! How did she...?" Reggie paused, taking in the situation and checking to see if Rebecca was really dead. He could not feel any pulse. "I'll get Harry. We'll put her in a shed somewhere until we can get her out of the way."

Harry, the old gardener after some deliberation, brought his wooden barrow and together they put the lifeless girl in and took her to the old carriage shed. Since the new and more grandiose housing for the stately carriage had been built, the old one served as a store for larger unwanted pieces of furniture and other items too good to throw away and yet surplus to requirements or unsuited to the present decor of the house. Entering by the little used back door, Harry opened a wooden chest and carefully lifted the body. With a tear in his eye he murmured, "Sorry Miss Becky. I knows you can't feel anything now but you deserved a better end than this. God knows that. You ain't even goin' to get a proper burial." Placing Rebecca in the chest and covering her with the clothing that was already there, he reverently closed and fastened the lid again. "Not a proper coffin Becky but at least you'll have some clothes around you. Clothes you could have done with earlier."

*****

"Veronica! Get yourself in here girl! Brush my hair. I don't pay you to laze around drinking coffee, do I?" The tall, middle aged woman shouted imperiously through the open bedroom door.

"No, ma'am," Veronica answered quietly. "Sorry ma'am. It's just that this old place is so big and everything seems to take longer than in the town house."

"Well we've been here three days so you should be getting used to it by now. I'll not accept that as an excuse any longer. You know what I promised your father when I agreed to take you on. He was most concerned you didn't become a lazy slut now your mother has gone and there was no one to discipline you."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll do my best ma'am."

"I'm sure you will. Now brush my hair and don't pull the knots or you'll feel the brush on your backside."

Veronica had known the woman, a Mrs. Gloria Hopkins, for only two weeks. Her father, a jobbing carpenter, frequently worked on Gloria's Harrogate home and spoke highly of her. In the course of a lunchtime break conversation, he'd mentioned seventeen year old Veronica and the problems he thought he might have with her in the next few years and the strain of just coping with his wife's death. "Since her mother died, she just wants to sit around and do nothing but read or lay abed till late."

"I fully understand, Mr. Markham, and maybe I can help and help myself too," Mrs. Hopkins replied, "As you know, I've had a succession of agency temporary helps. Why not ask Veronica if she will work for me? Help here for the first week and then live in Bledgemoor Hall when I move. I can also look after the discipline problems you seem so concerned about and certainly there will be more than enough to do settling into a new home, especially one as large as the Hall. A change of scenery may help to break her lethargy too." Jim Markham didn't need much convincing and virtually forced his daughter to take the job. For the first week, she had lived at home and worked 9 - 5 at the house, much of the time packing Mrs. Hopkins' personal stuff ready for the move and in the evenings, packing her own stuff. She knew Bledgemoor Hall was pretty isolated but a village had grown up some two miles down the valley and there was a twice-daily bus to Leeds from there.

On the last day, a removal firm cleared everything from the house and spent two days at the hall unpacking and arranging things to Mrs. Hopkins satisfaction. Veronica's work too had been tiring and this morning she'd overslept but she'd made up most of the time by downing her cereal while dressing and was trying to snatch a few mouthfuls of coffee when her employer called.

Now somewhat embarrassed, Veronica stood behind the woman and carefully brushed her long auburn hair. The image in the large, ornately gilded mirror showed a woman as near naked as made no difference. Her filmy baby-doll nightdress although actually covering her breasts, was so sheer the nipples and aureoles showed distinctly. Veronica tried not to look at them and tried to avert her eyes from where Gloria's pubic hair was visible at the Vee of her thighs. She wondered at the audacity of the woman, now past her prime, showing herself to a young girl. Until this morning she had worn a robe when Veronica attended her. "You've seen women naked before surely," Gloria commented, "Don't be afraid to look girl. You'll see more when you have to bathe me."

Veronica blushed scarlet. "Only in the showers at school ma'am. I didn't know... expect to have to bathe you."

"Of course you have to. That's what a personal maid does. You'll see me naked often enough and I expect I will see you too, soon if you don't get on with doing my hair. When I discipline a girl she has to take it completely on the bare bottom."

"Oh no. You wouldn't... Surely not when the girl is as old as I am." The thought both appalled and yet somewhat excited Veronica.

Gloria stood suddenly. "So you are already telling me what I can and cannot do. We'll see. I want you completely undressed this minute ready to take your punishment."

"No, no, please. You can't..."

"I can and I will." Gloria's voice had an icy authoritative tone to it. "If you don't do it voluntarily either you find your own way home or I'll wait for our gardener, Henry, to come in and he'll help to hold you. I'm sure he won't mind having his dirty hands on a naked girl while I do the necessary and I'm sure he'll want to have a turn when I tire. Make up your mind and quickly. You have the choice. Undressing now, running home, or staying until Henry turns up."

For Veronica there really wasn't a choice. By the time she'd collected her stuff together and walked to the village, the morning bus would have left and undressing in front of the gardener was unthinkable. Not only that, she'd have to face her father's wrath if she went home. Tearfully and slowly she started removing her garments. "Face me," Gloria instructed, "I want to see the body I am going to hold and punish." As the young flesh was revealed so Gloria became more aroused. Her vagina flooded wet with anticipation. "Yes," she said to herself, "I'm going to have a good time training this one. She hasn't put up much of a fight so far. If she'd been feisty she would have fought me tooth and nail and accused me of sexual harassment and abuse." Indeed Veronica put up very little resistance when Gloria picked up the hairbrush and led her to the bed.

"Please ma'am, don't hit me too hard with that. Mother only ever used her hand and always I had knickers on and the last time was years ago," Veronica pleaded.

Gloria ignored her and sitting on the side of the bed commanded, "Lie across my lap, head on the left hand side." Veronica flinched as she felt her pubic mound touch the warmth of her employer's thighs but the sensation was pleasant or would have been if she wasn't so worried about the spanking she was to receive. The first stroke of the hairbrush left her in no doubt that Gloria wasn't going easy. The wooden back cracked down hard on her right cheek, momentarily flattening it and sending a jolt of pain through Veronica body. Seconds later her left buttock suffered the same fate. Veronica cried out and squirmed but it was all to no avail. Twenty strokes to each globe later and Veronica was a sobbing pleading wreck. Her arse was on fire. Gloria held her still for a while and then slowly started to massage the tender flesh. Gradually her hands made their way between Veronica's thighs and onto her sex. Veronica was wet. Very wet. "I was right about this one," Gloria said to herself. Out loud she said, "Go and run a bath, I need to wash the sweat off me. No. No need to put your clothes on, you can bathe your bum afterwards."

Gloria insisted her maid not only wash her back but also to take time and trouble with her breasts and between her legs. Blushing most of the time, Veronica did as ordered. Although embarrassed, she knew her own vagina was dripping wet. Drying those places was worse. She had to kneel with her head between the woman's open legs and carefully dry the labial lips inside and out. Never before had she been so close to another woman's vagina. She could see every hair and smell the slight aroma that came through above the scent of the bath salts. Knowing her own juices were flowing hard she prayed she would soon be able to get in the bath herself and wash some of her own smells away. It was not to be. "Stand up Veronica. Open your legs." Gloria felt her cunt. "So washing me has made you horny, you little minx?"

"I'm sorry ma'am. I don't know what came over me."

"Of course you do. Playing with my tits and cunnie, sexually stimulated you especially after you had your arse nicely warmed." Gloria used crude terms to further excite her charge.

"I'm sorry ma'am," Veronica repeated.

"No you're not and I'm not. It means I shall have no compunction about punishing you in future and I will look forward to our bathing sessions. Now get into the tub yourself and make sure you clean yourself thoroughly."

Nothing untoward happened for the rest of the day. Gloria worked alongside Veronica cleaning and trying to make the main living rooms more habitable. As it had for the previous two days, in the evening, Veronica's role as maid changed to one of companion, and the pair sat in front of the fire with a glass of wine and chatting as though the morning's incident hadn't occurred. Veronica's bottom remembered. Every time she tried to move her muscles reminded her. "Gloria?" Veronica started, "I know you inherited this house from your late husband's mother but I don't understand why you wanted to come and live here. Why did you give up your nice town house? I know this is bigger and was once a grandiose place but now it's kind of decrepit."

"I really don't know myself, dear. I think it was the challenge. The fact that it was different and when we get more of the house cleaned and parts modernised, there'll be space to have my friends over. It's got character. The town house was much the same as every other town house. Don't you like this place?"

"It's spooky. I feel I am being watched all the time. I miss my own little bedroom and the road noise. Never thought I'd miss that. Here it's so quiet except for all the creaks from the doors and floorboards.... And the owls at night. It's eerie." A tear formed at the corner of her eye.

"Come here dear. It'll get better when the cleaners have been in and the kitchen is re-done. Come here." Gloria pulled her on to her lap and gave her a hug. Veronica winced as her bottom sat rather hard on Gloria's legs. "I think you'd better get the aloe-vera cream from my bathroom. It will soothe that bottom of yours a little and it has been tender for long enough for this time." When Veronica returned with the cream and was once again lying bare bummed over Gloria lap, she succumbed to the gentle buttock massage as Gloria worked the cream gently into the reddened skin and continued between her legs until she openly masturbated the recumbent girl.

"Gloria?" Veronica hesitated, "Gloria, are you a woman...? Do you like women? Are you a....?"

"Finish your sentences girl." Gloria gave her a playful slap.

"Are you a lesbian?" Finally the word came out.

"Not strictly speaking. More bisexual. I like sex with men as well as women. And if your next question is, 'do I want to have sex with you', the answer is, yes. From what I can feel of the wetness in your cunnie, you want it too. Have you had sex with a man or a woman Veronica?"

Veronica shook her head. "Neither," she whispered.

"Well with a woman there is no fear of pregnancy and there is plenty of pleasure although it lacks the feel of being penetrated by a warm throbbing cock. You will sleep with me tonight and find out first hand. Nothing will be forced on you. All you will have to do is relax and enjoy."