Read Online The Red Velvet Horse (Siren Publishing Allure) by Iona Blair - Free Book Online Page A

time, and now sought to reinstate himself in my injured affections?
    The thoughts churned around in my feverish mind as I trod the dirty sidewalks in my quest for decent lodgings.
    Later that night, after a particularly energetic rogering from old Jock, who as usual diddled me in all three orifices, I sat down and penned him a brief note.
    For all that we once were to each other I ended dramatically. I signed it, as was my custom, with a simple H.
    Because I was intending to move from Violet Ruth’s mean lodgings, and had not yet secured other premises, I affixed the address of my employer Mrs. Cloud.
    A reply arrived by return post.
    My very dearest and most darling Hannah:
    If you only knew how I’ve despaired of ever hearing from you again, torturing myself with thoughts of you lying sick or dying, or (may god forgive me) lying happily in the arms of another. And now I receive this blessed letter written by your own lovely hand. Oh my darling, my only true love, my sweetest one, why did you suddenly start ignoring my letters? Leaving me in a state of misery so great, I often thought of committing the great sin of self-destruction…
    This just wasn’t possible, I concluded with eyes narrowed like arrow slits. It was the other way about. It had been his letters…but wait, there was something wrong here…something very, very wrong indeed.
    Tom had obviously kept sending me letters, which I had never received. He had addressed them to the Simcoe Street address as usual. So where had they gone?
    I clenched my hands in a gesture of suppressed fury, someone, and I was beginning to get a very clear inkling of just who that someone might be, had intercepted them and kept them from me.
    For Mattie had formed such a close dependency on me, that she feared anyone who might displace her.
    Why hadn’t I thought of this before, rather than simply blaming poor Tom?
    She had obviously perceived Tom as her greatest rival, and had decided to remove him from the arena once and for all.
    Why you conniving little bitch, I fumed, with a dangerous degree of silent venom. I’m going to make you sorry you were ever born…
    “I wanted to keep you all to myself,” Mattie wailed, her pale eyelashes beaded with tears.
    “I could have you imprisoned for years for this,” I spat out furiously. “Didn’t you know that tampering with the King’s mail is a federal offence?”
    “I’m sorry,” she apologized profusely. “I never meant to hurt anybody…I just wanted to be with you…forever.”
    I could sense rather than hear the nosy landlady’s interest on the other side of the parlor wall. Violet Ruth was well known for her prying and gossiping ways. “Go to your room, I’ll deal with you later.” I immediately soaked a twig of birches in a bucket of brine. They would be nice and razor sharp for applying to Mattie’s plump bottom later on that night.
    “I’m sorry Ma’am…so sorry,” the wretched girl cried. “Please don’t birch me…please.”
    “Lift your night-dress and bend over the bed,” I ordered in a voice that would have frozen hell. “I’m going to spank you until you can’t sit down for a week.”
    Whack…whack…whack…whack…whack…whack…the brisk strokes fell in perfect tempo and unison, leaving a series of ugly red welts on the maid’s upturned behind.
    “Ow...” she screamed, terrified I daresay, that I meant to beat her to death.
    “Keep that up and I’ll put a gag in your mouth and tie your hands,” I threatened. “Bite down on the bed cover, and take your stripes without complaint.”
    I whacked the hell out of the deceitful little bitch until blisters formed on her behind and blood trickled down her legs. Then I tossed down the birch and stalked from the room.
    Mattie recounted what followed later to me when we were once again on speaking terms. I have taken the liberty of fleshing it out here for literary richness.
    “My god what has that monster done to you?” It was Violet Ruth,