by Karin Halle
The following day was warm and sunny, and after an easy stroll through the woods, the two women and the young girl reached a location that Grace had discovered in the days of the war. It was a rocky clearing at the top of a gentle climb past widely strewn, sheltering boulders. Here they found a compact field of grass, where they would be invisible unless someone had followed in their footsteps and peered down at them from the boulders.
“It’s like … I don’t know,” Alice said in wonder. “And so warm.”
“The stones around us absorb heat,” Susannah lectured. “Undress, Alice.”
Alice looked from Susannah to Grace, finding that both adults were already removing their clothes. Alice had been instructed to wear britches and a blouse, since they would be hiking and climbing. The teachers were similarly clad. Such garb also made undressing easier, Alice discovered, and for a moment, she envied the boys in her class.
In only seconds, all three were naked, basking in the warming rays of the sun, and in their freedom.
Grace took the child by the hand and led her to a large rock with a flat surface, where Susannah was busy spreading a blanket she had brought along in a kitbag. Grace laid Alice on the blanket, which was already growing warm from the rock.
Taking her place at Alice’s side, Grace murmured, “I so wanted to do this yesterday, and it took all my strength to resist. But now, dear Alice, it is our turn to love each other.”
She leaned over the girl and kissed her, softly at first, but with increasing passion. A hand found one of the girl’s small breasts and pressed gently, concentrating on the pebble at its summit. The nipple responded, growing slightly as Grace squeezed.
Alice shot a glance at Susannah, who smiled at her.
She is going to watch, Alice thought. Her heart fluttered. How amazing is this freedom! How wonderful that these two women, neither of them much older than herself, can be so confident in their love for each other that they can sit and watch – not just watch, but enjoy watching – as they make love to a tender young girl!
Alice’s other nipple began to grow even before Grace turned her attention to it – and it grew more rapidly when Grace took hold of it.
Satisfied that Alice’s little breasts were adequately stimulated, Grace ran her hand down her pupils’ torso. In the middle of the most passionate kiss she had ever imagined, Alice managed to gasp. Grace’s hand brushed the red puff of her maiden-hair, which shone bright as a penny in the sunlight, and the girl’s eyes flew open
Grace’s feathery touch was almost as wonderful as Susannah’s. This is unbelievable, Alice thought, yet it is truly happening.
When at last Grace penetrated her with two fingers, Alice was transported.
Miss Grace, she quickly discovered, had a style of her own when it came to pleasuring women. While Susannah had started gently and continued thus, Grace preferred a firmer, almost manly course. Soon her thrusts grew powerful, awakening Alice to another new experience. If asked, she would have preferred Susannah’s technique, perhaps because of her deep love for the younger teacher, but the urgency of Grace’s fingers, she found, provided delights of its own.
It was rare in the days that followed that Alice made love with Grace alone. But when she did so … she could not deny the power of Grace’s touch. With those strong fingers pumping her, Alice climaxed more quickly than she did when Susannah fucked her so lovingly. Their differing styles made for variety, although Alice could never understand how Susannah, so delicate and gentle, could truly enjoy being fucked roughly.
When Alice began to climax, Susannah hurried over and gently teased the girl’s nipples, kissing her and whispering loving and naughty words into her ears.
After, Alice lay in her bliss, gazing up at the clear, bright sky. Turning her head to one side, she saw trees that were still green and lush. Turning the other way, she looked into the captivating face of her darling Susannah – and, when her eyes went lower, the equal perfection of Susannah’s naked body.
Grace finished licking the nectar from between Alice’s thighs and then lay beside her to share what she held in her mouth. So exquisitely sinful, Alice thought, to taste myself on Miss Grace’s lips.
With their open mouths crushed together, Alice hugged Grace to her. She ran her hand down Grace’s back, but immediately broke the kiss and sat up.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Grace asked urgently.
“Your … your back!” Alice stammered. “What is that?’
Smiling in understanding, Grace rose and turned her back toward the little girl.
“Oh my sweet Lord Jesus!” Alice gasped.
Grace’s back was covered by an irregular pattern of scars – some were raised, like cords, while others were merely discolourations of the flesh. Alice reached out and placed her fingers – just the very tips – on Grace’s back. She was aghast at what she felt.
“Have you been … beaten?” she whispered.
“No, sweet child. When I arrived here, it was from a wrecked ship, and I was thrown upon the rocks, which gashed my back.”
“Oh, Grace, that’s so awful.” Alice, almost in tears, blinked her eyes.
“I think you’re wrong about that,” Grace said. “They are a reminder of my salvation, for which I constantly thank God and my beloved Susannah. She kisses them, you know, because she too gives thanks that the Almighty saw fit to bring me here, and in that way brought us together. I think of them more as birthmarks than scars.”
Grace put an arm around the girl’s shoulders. “And I’ll tell you something else – something that Susannah likes to sometimes do. I lie on my front and she straddles my back, so that her private place touches the scars. She will then rub herself against them, rolling forward and back. When her honey begins to drip onto my back, I slip my hand to my core … with a little judgment, we can time our releases to occur together.”
Alice shook her head, almost in disbelief.
“You are so … accepting.”
“They are a reminder that we need always to be thankful for the good things that happen to us, and to overlook the bad things. And I have much to be thankful for … and that includes the opportunity to make love with you, a sweet little girl!”
She kissed Alice on the tip of the nose.
Shaking her head, Alice said, “But how do you know about these things, Miss Grace? I mean, about loving women.”
“My sister taught me.”
Incredulous, all three gaped.
“You have a sister! What is her name?” Susannah asked breathlessly.
Grace opened her mouth to answer, before she realized she remembered nothing more.
“Was she aboard the vessel with you?” Alice queried.
Grace looked blank, then her eyes filled with tears.
“Oh, poor Grace!” Alice exclaimed.
“Just then, only for a moment,” Grace choked, “I saw a face, but before I could see it properly, it faded away. Just like a dream … gone.”
The tears ran from three pairs of eyes. The day of freedom in the woods was over.
***
When Alice’s mother died the following spring of a fever Doctor FitzHerbert could neither treat nor diagnose, the child was left an orphan, but Susannah and Grace came to her salvation. They gave her the room in Susannah’s house that had once belonged to Susannah and her brother, and then to Susannah and Grace.
Alice sold most of the few possessions from her mother’s house and moved in with the teachers. She offered them the few dollars that she had raised, along with some $22 that represented her mother’s life savings.
“I can never adequately repay you,” she told them.
“Repayment is not required,” Susannah explained. “We are content as we are, with our life together. Your presence in our home will be an addition to our contentment.”
Alice’s presence also brought more than contentment – the three often shared the large bed, although each periodically slept in the smaller bed to allow the others to enjoy time together alone.
In 1868, Alice turned sixteen and “graduated” from Port Clinton Academy, as Susannah and Grace called their little school.
Not long after that a letter arrived, addressed to “Miss Susannah Croft and Miss Grace Elgin, Port Clinton Academy, Port Clinton, Illinois.”
The letter stated that it was from the “Townsfolk of Highwood” and explained that a teacher was required by the local school to replace one who had married and left the town. Before leaving, the bride had recommended that the town contact Susannah and Grace and offer the position to one or the other.
In a joint reply, Susannah and Grace declined the invitation with great thanks, and suggested Alice Finucane as an alternative.
“Alice has recently graduated from our school and, though she is young, she has many fine qualities to commend her. She has some experience already as a teacher, having led our more junior pupils in their lessons. She is both knowledgeable and wise, both patient and demanding, and possesses the gift of inspiring children to learn.”
A mere nine days later, a letter arrived addressed to “Miss Alice Finucane, Port Clinton Academy.” The letter contained an offer of the job and a small amount of money to cover relocation costs.
Alice was thrilled, if somewhat apprehensive about assuming such responsibility at her age. But of even greater concern was the prospect of leaving Susannah and Grace.
Susannah, naked as was her habit when inside her home, sat Alice, also naked, down on her lap.
“You know, my sweet, that despite being only seven years older than you, I think of you as my daughter.”
Alice happily fondled Susannah’s breasts as she listened.
“And the fondest wish of any mother is to see her child develop to her full potential, to know what she wants from life and to set about achieving it. And to appreciate her life, whatever it might be.”
Grace, who was also naked, added, “I am content with my life, and I think I can say the same for Susannah. But you must find your own place … perhaps in time you will return here, although there is no future in Port Clinton. This town is dying.”
“Perhaps you will visit us,” Susannah said dreamily. “There will always be a bed here for you, or a place with us in our bed.”
“You might even bring a husband and children,” Grace speculated, then added with a wicked grin, “or maybe you might bring with you a wife. We could always make room in our bed for you and her.”
Reluctantly, Alice took her leave the following day. Her departure was just as sad for Susannah and Grace, and they comforted each other long into the night. Alice’s absence left a void in their little home, which became a source of sadness for both young women.
Creative and devious as always, Grace hit upon a solution after a few weeks.
“Gwendolyn Hughes,” she suggested.
“What about her?” Susannah asked. Gwendolyn was a pupil in their school, aged twelve.
“Do you know that she walks for an hour and a half each day to reach school, and obviously for another hour and a half to go home each night?”
Aware of that fact, Susannah said, “So?”
“We should suggest to her parents that Gwendolyn might live with us during the week. I’m sure that her parents would approve – they have six other children, and such an arrangement would allow young Gwen a lot of additional time for her lessons.”
“I know what lessons you have in mind for her, you scheming woman!” Susannah said.
Their invitation to Gwendolyn was issued the next day, and was accepted promptly and gratefully by both the eager young girl and her unsuspecting parents.
***
In time, it became obvious that Port Clinton was, as Grace had foreseen, dying.
Eventually, Susannah and Grace faced the inevitable. They closed the Port Clinton Academy and relocated to Highland Park, where they re-established their school as the Elgin Academy for Young Women.
By then their enterprise had been successful for many years. Susannah and Grace were never wealthy but they enjoyed their life together, and the satisfaction of training young women to be their best selves.
When the increasingly strict supervision of schools became too burdensome, they closed the school in 1902, at which point they vanish from the historical record. Nothing is known of their final years.
But their legacy lived on in the many young women they taught to find independence and contentment in one another’s arms, and who passed the lesson on to those who followed.
The End