August 1858

The night air was uncomfortably warm and humid after an excessively hot summer day. As the sun went down and the worst of the heat began to dissipate into a clear, starlit sky, the old timeworn attic beams in Long Livery Hall started to creak and groan. In a servant's room at the top of the building, Mary Ann Everdene sat naked on top of her bed, listening to the sounds.

Across the room, two other servants were making love by the light of a single candle. Mary Ann watched them intently. She feasted her gaze on them: Colum Lanyon, the head footman, and Polly Vance, the lady's maid who shared Mary Ann's room and, on occasion, her bed. She knew now that it was not just the enjoyment of sex that brought Colum and Polly together. She knew that they truly loved one another. That was important to Mary Ann: her own future depended upon the knowledge.

She studied the way Colum kissed Polly's neck before running his lips up to her finely contoured chin and her puckered mouth. There was no doubt in her mind that their tongues were entangled as they explored each other's mouths. Secretly, she wished she could have joined in their sex games, but she'd made a firm decision to physically stand aside from their lovemaking this time. It was her final gift to them: to stand aside and allow them exclusive access to one another's bodies while she watched.

Enjoy watching them. Enjoy the sight of his rampant cock probing against her sex mound. Enjoy the rise and fall of her firm breasts and her glistening vagina lips. Enjoy it and imagine you have your fingers inside Polly, working her clitoris, bringing her to an orgasm. Enjoy it as long as it lasts. Tomorrow they would be saying goodbye to one another.

She and Colum would leave the Long Livery estate early the next day, leaving Polly behind. It wasn't going to be an easy time. They were destined to accompany Brigadier-General Sir John Windlesham's pregnant daughter into exile until her baby was born. They would be servants as well as guardians: delegated menials who were expected to be confidants to a woman who would never condescend to allow them into her private thoughts. They would be unwanted baggage attached to a woman who hated them.

Mary Ann knew full well she was going to miss the loving time she spent at Long Livery Hall with Polly: her best friend, the girl she slept with and made love with. She was certain, also, that Colum would miss Polly every bit as much. They were a loving threesome: herself, Polly and Colum. How had they got themselves into such an arrangement: two women and one man in a tangled affair of love and sex? She shook her head sadly: did it matter how it began? It would not last...could not last...and she would be the one to end it. One way or another.

It couldn't last because a major problem sat at the centre of their triple relationship: Colum had offered to marry Mary Ann. It was an offer he made before he first enjoyed sex with Polly, but one he'd never retracted. She doubted he ever would retract it because he was, at heart, an honourable man. But it was an offer Mary Ann had yet to accept. How could she accept it when she was privately certain he would have a better life with Polly?

After a few minutes spent passionately kissing the pretty little lady's maid, Colum lowered his head and started to lick and suck at her erect nipples, flicking his wet tongue over them as she arched her back. At twenty-two, Polly was two years older than Mary Ann, but she had the same slim build, the same shapely breasts and similar long, blonde hair.

The sight of Colum and Polly locked in a sexual embrace aroused Mary Ann more than she had expected. She sighed and juddered as a warm flush ran through her. She pushed aside a loose lock of her hair when it fell across her face, dislodged by her excitement. As her heart beat faster, she recalled the times the two girls had shared a narrow bed in this room, pleasuring one another with kisses and mutual masturbation. She recalled, with slightly less exhilaration, the times when Colum had fucked her.

Seeing Polly's elation grow by the second, Mary Ann felt a warm wetness between her own legs and realised how greatly stimulated she was. Her cunt was tingling with anticipation, as if it was she and not Polly who was about to be impaled on Colum's long, rigid cock. She ran her hands up her belly and gently squeezed her breasts, her thumb and forefingers closing on her hard nipples, pinching them lightly.

Polly had her head thrown back, her eyes closed, clearly enjoying what the footman was doing to her. With a light moan escaping her lips, she opened her eyes, went down on her knees in front of him and took his cock in one hand. She inclined her head closer to his tangle of pubic hair and pushed the erection into her mouth. With her gentle moaning now muffled, she used one hand to fondle his balls while the other held his penis firmly between her lips.

"By God, that's good." Colum grabbed hold of Polly's head and wrapped his fingers in her hair as she swallowed his cock as far as it would go, right down into her throat. His hands clasped her hair tighter when she drew back her head, sliding the erection out again until only the tip was left inside her mouth. Still holding his balls, she began to run her lips up and down his long shaft.

Mary Ann registered another sharp tingle of desire when she saw how Colum's face was creased with an expression of ecstasy. She pushed one hand down between her thighs and felt for her warm, damp vagina lips.

With sweat now dribbling down his naked body, Colum pulled his cock out from Polly's mouth and helped her to her feet so that she was standing naked and totally unashamed in front of him. She barely reached his shoulders and her petite body looked small against his muscular torso. He took a step backwards, dragging Polly with him, until he was able to lean with his back against the bedroom wall. Again they kissed deeply while he grasped hold of her bum and urged her tighter against him. Still kissing her, he pulled on the pert rounded cheeks of her bottom, lifting her up until she was able to wrap her legs about his waist and grind her hips against him.

Mary Ann stifled a gasp of sexual craving when she saw his balls wobble as he slowly pushed his erection up into Polly's cunt. They wobbled even more as he began to pump his cock in and out, never completely withdrawing the shaft, always thrusting in until his erection was totally captured inside her.

Polly gasped as the long, thick organ filled her opening, eagerly grinding herself up and down on it. "Keep going, my love!" she hissed. "Make it last, Colum. Please make it last."

"I'm not finished yet," he said, smiling. At the same time, he pulled his cock out completely and eased her down to the floor. Without wasting a moment, he turned her around and walked behind her, guiding her to the bed. There he pressed her upper body forward until she was bent over the side of the bed with her bottom raised up towards him.

Mary Ann clearly saw her glistening cunt; the lips wet and swollen, dribbling her sex juices down the insides of her thighs. With one hand Colum pushed Polly's neck down towards the bedclothes and he ran the fingers of his other hand into the maid's vagina. When he had brought her back to full arousal, he took his erection firmly in one hand and teased the girl by running the engorged knob around her thighs and her sex mound.

Mary Ann rubbed at her clitoris. The thrill that ran up and down her spine was caused partly by the sight of Colum preparing to push his cock into Polly's gaping hole, and partly by the sight of Polly in a position of total submission. Of the two, it was her view of Polly's juiced-up sex that gave her the greater thrill. She knew how Polly would be feeling now, keyed up and tense, waiting for Colum to enter her again.

Apparently satisfied that she was wet enough, he slowly and deliberately pushed his swollen cock into her. At the same time Polly pushed her bottom out towards him, taking his organ right inside her. He pulled back and then plunged forward again. Polly's head came up and she sighed long and deep. Mary Ann leaned to one side to see the sway of the girl's breasts and the rapid rise and fall of her lower ribs as he pounded into her again and again. Over and over, he rammed his huge cock into her. Polly gripped the bedclothes with fisted hands, the knuckles turned white. Her breasts juddered back and forth in time with his powerful thrusts. Her breathing came sharp and erratic until a huge orgasm hit her.

She suddenly stiffened and cried out for joy. "Ooooh! Oh God, my love, that was ooooh...so wonderful."

There was no doubting the intensity of her orgasm.

Colum was marginally more controlled. "Enjoy it, my darling Polly. Enjoy it! I'm not finished yet."

"Let me suck you again," she gulped. "I want to taste you again."

"Yes, yes, yes." He pulled his cock from her vagina and she turned to face him. Going back down onto her hand and knees, she quickly took his juice-slimed shaft into her mouth again. Colum groaned as she pumped it in and out between her lips, sliding from hilt to tip again and again until he threw back his head and let out a long, low gasp. At the very last moment, Polly pulled him from her mouth and his milky semen spurted across her face. A creamy pattern was thrown over her cheeks, her chin, her forehead, while her beaming smile glowed through the middle of it.

As Colum's gasp died away, she held onto his cock and licked the remaining semen from the purple head. Then, as his erection finally fizzled away, she wiped the spurts from her face with her hand. She beamed as she tongued it from her fingers.

"That was the best ever, Polly." Colum sank down onto the floor. "Dear God, but you're a marvellous lover."

A lover: that was what Mary Ann had waited to hear; yet more confirmation that their desire for one another was more than just lust. They were meant for one another, even thought it was she, and not Polly, who had received the offer of marriage. However, determined not to miss out completely on her share of sexual satisfaction, she knew she had some catching up to do. She pushed her two fingers faster and faster against her clitoris in an effort to give herself some sexual release.

After Colum had crept away to his own room, Polly lay asleep in Mary Ann's bed and Mary Ann's arms. The little lady's maid's chest moved in time with her regular breathing.

Mary Ann lay awake because she was still in a dilemma. She enjoyed sex with Colum, but she didn't love him. She wondered if she ever had. Polly Vance also enjoyed sex with him, and she loved him. There was no doubt about that.

Mary Ann knew marriage to Colum would never work for her because her future lay with another woman, not with the Long Livery head footman. She would have to refuse Colum's offer and allow Polly to take her place in his affections.

But when should she tell him?

Not yet. She wanted first to enjoy the opportunities that would come while they were away from Long Livery Hall, farther west into the Cornish hinterland at Polmere Manor. She would allow him to fuck her a few more times before she gave him her refusal. Maybe she would enjoy more than just a few sexual adventures with him before she threw in the towel.

With that decision firm in her mind, she cuddled Polly tighter and fell asleep.