Read Online After the Dreams (Caroline's Company) by Caroline Jane Wetherby - Free Book Online

fell away. She also mentioned her
cousin Lucy and her sudden departure for Africa, and that Cassie had not heard
from her after the first few weeks. John looked up at that. ‘Does Caroline know
about that,’ he asked?’
    ‘I’m not sure,’ said Cassie.
    ‘Make sure you tell her,’ said Jo.
    Then Jo, to lighten the mood, congratulated Cassie again on
her makeup and dress, and went into a rather giggly account of another friend
of hers with the most appalling dress sense.
    ‘You women are so lucky,’ said John. ’You can choose
different looks and make what combinations you want.’
    ‘Well, you know what you could do about that,’ retorted Jo.
‘I’ve told you often enough.’
    ‘Thank you,’ said John, ‘but I would look hideous, and I,
we, are very good as we are.’
    Jo raised her glass in response.
    Sadie, who was passing just
then, winked at Cassie.
    As the moon rose, it flooded the room with a stronger light.
At a signal from Caroline, the butler and the girls removed the candelabras and
carried them out.
    (‘I hope they take care,’ whispered Jo. ‘Hot wax on bare
skin!’)
    The women, who had glowed in the candlelight, were now more
ethereal and remote, like silver statues. Poppy, whose arms were bare and whose
dress was the lowest cut, almost appeared to drip with liquid silver. Her
breasts were the most prominent feature on her side of the table. It seemed to
Cassie however, that Caroline whose black and silver shimmered in the
moonlight, and whose blonde hair shone like a ghostly flame, looked like some
goddess of the night. Without effort she dominated the room. She smiled at
Cassie, for although Cassie did not know it her copper and bronze also shone in
the moonlight. Her pale face looked very young, and eager for the possibilities
of whatever might follow.
    Jo, John and Janet, who of those round the table were the
least pre-occupied with their own concerns, were the most conscious of this
duality between Caroline and Cassandra. The room had fallen silent. John stood.
    ‘A toast to Caroline, and to our newest young friend,
Cassandra!’
    ‘Caroline and Cassandra,’ echoed round the table as glasses
were raised and lowered.
    ‘And to Poppy and Philip,’ Caroline stood. ‘This is their
night, and may everything that they desire come from it.’
    Again the room echoed.
    ‘Poppy and Philip.’
    Poppy’s rather horsey laugh rang
out again.
    For the last course, the girls
did not wear their transparent dresses, and were again naked and shining in the
moonlight. This time they wore stone coloured high platform shoes, and they
each carried a single candlestick as they walked one each side of Fred Newcombe
as he carried in a magnificent meringue, topped with a  complicated structure
of fruit and cream.
    The three of them processed in,
and stood in front of the moon bedazzled window. The girls turned sideways on,
so that the moon showed the curves of their breasts and their smooth rounded
bellies. The butler placed the dish on a small table in front of the window,
bowed to Caroline, and withdrew. The effect of the naked girls standing there,
lit partly by the cold moon and partly by the warm candlelight, was incredibly
erotic.
    Inevitably someone laughed, and
equally inevitably it was Poppy.
    Everybody helped themselves to
the meringue; the naked girls stayed standing to provide illumination. It had
been a magnificent meal, and Cassandra revelled in the both the food and wine,
and the very exotic company.

  
    Chapter Five
    An Evening’s Entertainment
    ‘Now we leave the men to whatever the men get up to.’
    Caroline, stood up and smiled
at her guests, then lead the way through the far set of double doors into the
drawing room. The fire was burning low, but the big garden doors were open to
the warm moonlit garden.
    ‘It is a lovely evening. I hope it will be warm enough for
you Poppy.’ Caroline looked at her red-dressed friend.
    ‘I’m sure Poppy can cope with a summer night,’ said