The Gentlemen's Club: Volume One in the 'Noire' series by Emmanuelle de Maupassant Read Free Book Online Page A

introduction in polite
society and this is not, after all, our first time of meeting.”

 
    Her tone, as ever, was
mocking. Her self-possession was without question, but her finer emotions
remained a mystery to him.

 
    “As you can see, I too have
laid myself bare before you. If you were to pass me on the street, you would
know me at once. My own anonymity is now also compromised.”  

 
    She added, after a momentary
pause, “As is that of dear Hetty and Daisy. However,
I believe our secrets are safe with you Lord MacCaulay .”

 
    “They are,” he replied. ”Although
the secret of your true name is yet to be disclosed, so your advantage over me
continues.”

 
    At this, she laughed in
genuine merriment. “Of course it does Lord MacCaulay and the revelation of my name would perhaps hardly change that, since I appear
to control the outcome of all our encounters.”

 
    Her face assumed a more
serious expression now. “I invited you here being desirous of better
acquaintance,” she admitted. “Since the time of my arrival, you have not once
followed the other gentlemen into the hall of games, to sport gaily with the
majestic ladies of this establishment. Had you done so, I would have been able
to observe you at play, seeing the cut of your cloth Lord MacCaulay .
I know but little of your tastes in truth. Perhaps you have none, being content
to follow the whims of others?”

 
    He began to remonstrate but
she moved at once closer, placing a single finger upon his lips. Her proximity
served to quiet him at once. He felt the smooth skin of her leg brush his below
the surface of the water and her hand rest lightly upon his thigh. Droplets
glistened at her throat and at the inviting parting of her cleavage, but her
body remained concealed, the suds of the bath preventing him from casting his
eyes over the rest of her form. Of course, he had beheld her nakedness in the
salon but hours ago; however, the theatricality of the performance rendered
those images as if from a dream. At this moment, she was real, close enough
that he might feel her breath upon his cheek.

 
    Her finger lingered, and he
took pleasure in drinking deeply of her eyes. He saw now that they were most
certainly green, flecked through with the same gold as was found in her auburn
hair. To his satisfaction, she allowed him to search her face in this manner,
with softness new to his experience of her.

 
    Her features were exquisite:
not childishly rounded like those of Hetty and Daisy,
who now watched he and she with interest, but noble in comportment. Her nose
was slender, her forehead high, her lips sensual in their fullness, rather than
doll-like. Her bearing was imperial. He believed it would never occur to her to
consider herself inferior to another being, much less any man. In others it
might have irritated him, as pure arrogance; in her, it inspired only his
admiration.

 
    Eventually, it was she who
broke the spell.

 
    Eyebrow raised, she joked,
”My dearest Lord MacCaulay , I might begin to wonder
if you attempt to woo me, so intense is your gaze. Of course, that would not do
at all, and is assuredly not my desire or intent. I only wish to conduct a more
thorough assessment of you, and to that end, Miss Daisy and Miss Hetty have kindly consented to help me.”

 
    MacCaulay felt the retort but allowed her to reprimand him. For
the moment, he was content to be near her. Whatever game she had in mind, he
would do his best not to disappoint.  

 
    Hetty and Daisy began now to lather their soap and commenced
their washing of one another: first stroking the foam over their shoulders, then squeezing water from their sponges. Their heads, one
dark and one fair, they held close, glancing at MacCaulay at they worked, alternately lowering their lashes in modesty, then daringly
meeting his eye, as if to say: ‘Be good enough to look upon us and say what you
think of us now my Lord.’ To his knowledge, both were