Chapter 6

At first her massage was firm and Agnes thought of the sanatoriums where society ladies went to relax. She worked on her shoulders and back firmly and yet as Agnes started drifting off the massage became softer and then sensual as she used her fingernails to tickle her back, and then her buttocks.

She felt Josephine tugging at her zipper and her eyelids fluttered open and once again she almost said ‘no’ but then she closed them again and exhaled. The zipper slid open and she was aware of the release as the garment parted and then she felt fingertips dragging over her blouse and half slip, flooding her with delicious sensations.

However when Josephine’s hand slipped further to the left she finally let out a groan and rolled onto her back. Josephine had an intense look on her face and in that instant Agnes read the hesitation in her eyes. It was almost frightening to watch this woman who had parachuted into Occupied France become nervous and halting as she let her hands fall to her lap.

Agnes reached out to touch Josephine’s collar tie, feeling the softness of the material, her hand moved further up to the neat bows and then she hooked her finger behind the collar and slowly pulled her forward, raising her head at the same time. Their lips met in another kiss that had far more passion than the previous ones they’d shared. She felt slightly giddy and her vision blurred slightly around the edges as she registered the familiar signs of arousal and yet the other woman wasn’t making any of the more usual moves.

It occurred to her a split second later that this was normal, they were both women and that thought was both frightening and yet exciting. They kissed again and again and then the music program ended for the hourly news. Josephine’s eyes shifted slightly to take in the large radio and Agnes smiled crookedly.

“Ignore it,” she murmured.

Josephine’s eyes widened however as the newsreader calmly announced that Muhammed VII al-Sharif, the Bey of Tunisia had been forced to abdicate.

“Huh,” she turned back to Agnes.

“That’s what they call all Tunisian monarchs,” she ran her hands through Agnes’s hair, “he has twenty five wives.”

“Twenty five?” Agnes stared at her, “is that even legal?”

“It is when you’re the emir, how anyone can keep one woman happy let alone twenty five is a mystery we are not going to solve tonight or any other night.”

Agnes smiled at that as Josephine drew her hands down her front, following the ruffled pleats to her breasts and then the line of her bra to her cleavage and on down to her belly. Agnes let out a low sigh and swallowed as Josephine tickled her belly, dancing her fingernails over it. She arched her back slightly and more out of instinct, moved her left hand down Josephine’s front but without touching her breasts as she followed the line of buttons. She repeated the move a few times in a row and then Josephine brought her hands up to her breasts and skirted around them on her way up to her shoulders.

Agnes kept her eyes fixed on Josephine’s as the Canadian repeated the same sequence several times in a row, each time avoiding contact with her breasts. It became almost excruciating because she very much wanted her to massage her breasts and thus when Josephine finally changed course and grabbed her breasts firmly, Agnes let out a loud groan and arched her back at the same time.

Josephine massaged her breasts slowly, finding her nipples through the thick bra with her fingernails and Agnes felt her temperature rising at the same time. This was different to the way Frank had touched her breasts, she knew how and where to exert maximum pressure and to stimulate her nipples. Agnes knew she was approaching the crossroads and while part of her wanted to end this, another part wanted to go all the way. She opened her mouth to let out another whimper, vaguely aware that Josephine had straightened up a little more to give herself more leverage.

“What is happening to me?”

“You are becoming aroused, non?”

“Mais oui,” she smirked, “and that’s one of the few French phrases I know, we went to the Normandy coast for our honeymoon and I discovered, to my shock that high school French is just not the same as real French.”

“Even the French find it hard in Normandy,” Josephine slid her finger behind Agnes’s collar and moved it back and forth, “when I was hiding out there I kept having to ask the same question twice.”

She stopped at the top button and stared into her eyes.

“We stop when you are not comfortable. Not everyone wants to go all the way.”

Agnes put her right hand on top of hers and moved it along her wrist, at the same time she slid her left hand up Josephine’s front, following the line of buttons.

“It’s all right, I just haven’t done this before with a woman.”

“We go slowly,” Josephine undid the top button, “women are not in such a rush,” she parted the collar and danced her fingertips over the exposed skin.

Agnes’s eyes closed a moment later as she let herself go. She had no fight left in her as the next button came undone. She thought Josephine was going to undo the third button but then she leaned over and a wet tongue slid over her throat and down her front. A shiver went down her spine at this very overt gesture and her eyelids fluttered open for a few seconds. Her hand moved down Josephine’s front to her right breast, the other woman leaned against it as she began kissing her gently.

Agnes shifted slightly and then she felt Josephine undoing a third button to deepen the vee, her eyes opened a few seconds later as she registered the colder air. Josephine traced her way up the sides of the vee to her shoulders and then back down the middle. She repeated this a couple of times and then Agnes let go of Josephine’s breast and propped on her elbows.

“The bed would be better.”

“Does it matter?” Agnes sat up and swung around as she put her feet on the floor, “but my bed is the bigger one.”

“For sure,” Josephine slid a hand up inside her blouse and leaned her forehead against her head, “you are ready for this?”

In reply, Agnes put her hand against Josephine’s cheek and kissed her firmly on the lips, the other woman parted her mouth to push back against her and Agnes grabbed her left breast in the other hand and moulded it slowly and resolutely. Josephine moaned something that was lost because their lips were still locked together and then Agnes was pushing forward and trying to rise. Josephine rose with her as they broke free briefly, only to lock lips together again in another passionate kiss that set Agnes’s pulse racing.

They made their way slowly across the floor, stopping every few steps for another kiss but at the door to Agnes’s bedroom she stopped and glanced over her shoulder.

“I have to close the curtains first,” she stepped back.

“And I have to get something from my room,” Josephine replied.

“What?” Agnes raised her eyebrows.

“You’ll see,” she took a few steps backwards, “something to make it easier.”

It was a mystery to Agnes as she closed the curtains and turned on a bedroom lamp. As she slipped off her shoes and slid onto the bed she heard Josephine rummaging around in her room and she closed her eyes and let her mind wander outwards past the walls and indeed even past the city. She imagined the desert sands of Egypt where Frank had been when he sent that last letter. They had talked of this possibility on his last day here, and he had been quite insistent that whilst she might mourn him when he was gone, she was not to spend the rest of her life in solitude.

“You’re a braw lassie,” he told her, “you’d make a fine wife for another man.”

She’d laughed at that through her tears but just lately those last words had come back to haunt her again and again. What would Frank think if he knew she was having intimate encounters with another woman? He’d been a Protestant but not a regular churchgoer, he was only Protestant whenever there was an Old Firm match.

Light footfalls sounded in the doorway and she opened her eyes to find Josephine standing in the doorway with an odd-shaped wooden ornament in her hand, at least that’s what it looked like in the dim lighting. As she moved towards the bed, Agnes focused on the object. It was long and thick with extrusions spiralling around the outside.

“A dildo,” she smirked.

“I bought it in Paris, it was nearly destroyed when I had to run for my life in France. We have to leave a next of kin address for our belongings but this thing was to be destroyed or otherwise disposed of by a friend who knew of my orientation.”

Agnes blushed as Josephine placed it upright on the bedside drawers, recalling in an instant walking in on a conversation her mother had been having with a neighbour about the weird sexual practices of the French.

“It was the shape of a man’s thing,” she blushed, “but bigger, I didn’t know where to look.”

Agnes had coughed then and her mother suddenly jumped and tried to extricate herself without losing face.

“What do you want, darling?”

Agnes had wanted to know about this object shaped like a man’s thing but because she was only sixteen she’d instead asked if she could go out to see her girlfriend. It was going to be dark soon and she had almost expected her mother to refuse or tell her to be back by a certain hour but instead she’d been almost too willing to usher her out the door. She hadn’t even asked which girlfriend she was going to see.

“What is it used for?” Agnes came back to the present.

“It’s used instead of a penis,” Josephine sounded almost matter of fact about it, “they’re very popular in France.”

“I remember my mother telling a neighbour about something like this, at least I can only guess that’s what she was talking about.”

“But she never had one,” Josephine’s eyes shifted.

“No, of course not,” she picked the dildo up, “it’s big,” she blushed as she pictured Frank’s penis, “no wonder men don’t want us using these things.”

“Married women in France use them when they can’t find a lover to satisfy their needs but I agree, men get jealous when they see them.”

She leaned over to kiss her lightly on the lips and once again Agnes traced her hand up the front of her blouse but this time when she got to the bow, she brought her other hand up as well and picked at the knot. Josephine pulled away from her mouth and looked down as she loosened it enough to pull one bow through the knot, followed soon after by the other bow as well. The remainder of the knot came undone as Agnes leaned forward to kiss her on the lips once more, every inch of her body was alert to the slightest touch and when Josephine slid her fingertips down her throat to the fourth button her pulse quickened.

She felt the button sliding out of the buttonhole to expose the top of her bra. She pulled her lips away from Josephine’s to glance down momentarily as the other woman parted the blouse even more. Her hands slid up the edges of the garment all the way to her shoulders and then she inched the material past her bra straps. Agnes’s breathing became noticeably shallower as Josephine traced tiny circles down her front, her fingertips barely making contact with her skin as she teasingly kissed her several times in succession.

Another button came undone shortly afterwards and something snapped in Agnes’s head as she passed the point of no return, although truth be told she’d well and truly passed it the moment she invited Josephine into the bedroom. She undid her belt and reached back to undo the button on her skirt as she looked up at the ceiling. Josephine’s lips descended on her yet again, covering her throat and front with delicate kisses.

Agnes undid her cuffs as Josephine pulled the blouse out from behind her skirt and undid the remaining buttons. The garment parted to expose her bra and Josephine sat back as if to admire her work. She had a sly smile on her face as she undid her top button, Agnes pulled the skirt over her buttocks with such haste that she took the half slip with it. Josephine had just undone her second button and she reached down to pull the skirt and half slip down her legs.

Agnes felt suddenly exposed for want of a better word. The blouse was wide open and the only other garments she was wearing were her bra and pants, Josephine on the other hand was still fully clothed. She pulled her legs around so as she could kneel. Josephine’s fingers danced down her semi-nude body with feathery sweeps, all the way down to her belly, over her private parts and down to her inner thighs. Down there, she lingered, making little circles with her fingertips before moving up to her vulva. This time she walked her fingertips over it until she reached the waistband of her pants. Agnes looked down and swallowed as a hand disappeared behind her panties and went all the way down to her pussy.

A gasp escaped her lips as Josephine slid her finger between the moist lips and then found her opening and knuckled it with a bent finger. The gasp became a moan as Josephine rubbed a little more and then the other woman pulled her hand out and proceeded to pull the blouse over her shoulders and down her back. Agnes felt a growing excitement mingled with more than a little anxiety as she recalled her first time with Frank, which had also been her first time with any man. The fear that she wouldn’t satisfy him, the fear it would hurt too much, there was a lot of fear that honeymoon night.

The blouse was tossed to one side and Josephine moved back and urged her to lie on her back, Agnes obeyed without saying a word. The Canadian reached under her and unclipped her bra and pulled it off her. Agnes’s nipples drew her attention instantly and she dipped her head and circled a nipple and then flicked her tongue over it before clamping around it and drawing it up into her mouth. She sucked and licked in turn whilst with her other hand she massaged the other breast and then she moved to that one as well to repeat the process. Agnes rose and fell again and again. Never had she experienced such a thing, not even with Frank and she felt a twinge of guilt that it should have been him but that thought was rapidly pushed out as Josephine moved down to her belly as she tickled, licked and kissed her bare skin and then she was at her panties again.