Return to the Chateau by Pauline Réage Read Free Book Online

sleeves were cut out but not sewed on, with a seam on the upper part of the arm that extended to the shoulder seam and ended at the elbow in a wide, flared bias. A similar bias piped the d=E9collet=E9 neckline which tightly followed the curve of the corset.
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    But a large scarf of black lace covered her head, one corner of which hung down in the middle of her forehead, like a kerchief, while the other corner extended down her back, falling between her shoulder blades. It was fastened by four snaps, two on the shoulder seams and two on the bias of the low-cut neckline, just at the rise of the breasts, and crossed between them, where a long steel pin held it taut to the corset. The lace, held in the hair by a comb, framed the face and completely concealed the breasts, but was supple and transparent enough so that you could make out the nipples, as you knew that the breasts were ‘free beneath the shawl. Besides, all you had to do to make them completely bare was to remove the pin, as, in the back, all you had to do was spread the two folds of the skirt to bare the backside.
    Before she undressed her again, Monique showed O how, with two straps that raised the two sections of the skirt and then tied in front at the waist, it was a simple matter to keep them open. It was while she was demonstrating this that, in effect, Anne-Marie answered the question raised by O:
    “It’s the uniform of the community,” she said. “You didn’t have a chance to get acquainted with it on your last visit because then you were brought here by your lover for his own account. You were not, properly speaking, a member of the cornmunity?’
    “But I don’t understand,” said O. “I was just like the other girls. Anyone could …”
    “Anyone could sleep with you? Of course they could. But it was for your lover’s pleasure, and the only person it concerned was he. Now it’s different. Sir Stephen has turned you over to the community. Everyone can still sleep with you, true, but now it’s the community’s problem. You’ll be paid …”
    “Paid!” O exclaimed. “But Sir Stephen …”
    Anne-Marie did not let her finish.
    “Listen, O, I’ve heard quite enough. If Sir Stephen wants you to go to bed for money, he’s certainly free to do so. It’s no concern of yours. Go to bed and keep quiet. As for your other duties and obligations, we use the sister system here. Node will be your sister, and she’ll explain all the procedures to you.”

VII
    The luncheon in Anne-Marie’s bedroom was a strange affair. A servant had brought the meal on a heated serving table. Monique, in her community uniform, had served them, after having set four places at the table: Anne-Marie’s, O’s, Noelle’s, and her own. Before lunch, O had tried on several more dresses. Anne-Marie had chosen, and set aside, the gray and yellow dress, which O would wear that same day; another blue dress; a thing which was a paler blue mixed with green; and lastly, a very tightfitting knitted dress which opened in front from the waist down. It was dark purple, and O’s pale thighs and loins, so naked and so weighted with their metal rings, were visible even when she did not move, as were her naked breasts. The servant had taken all the dresses, except the yellow one that Anne-Marie had chosen, into O’s room, which adjoined Noelle’s. Monique would take all the others back to the storeroom.
    O watched Noelle, who was seated opposite her, laughing. She was laughing because the black horsehair of the chair on which she was sitting tickled her; O glanced over at Anne-Marie, who was trying to control her temper but was on the verge of losing it, then at Monique, who was concentrating on her domestic table duties. On two occasions, when Monique got up from her place, O saw Anne-Marie, as Monique passed to her right, slip her hand into the slit in Monique’s dress. Monique froze, and O realized, or rather guessed, from the slight yielding of her body, that she was