"I'm not a rotten bitch!" A young Jennie whined, fidgeting and struggling in Sasaki's grip, tears streaming down her dumpling cheeks. "No! No!"
Having heard enough of the child's cries echoing off the walls of the library, Kouzuki, his jet-black hair, all black clothes and dark eyeglasses perched on the end of his nose posed an intimidating appearance, got up from his desk with the set of four golf-sized balls on a tassel firmly in his hand. Stripping off one of the balls, he held it out to Jennie.
"Put it in your mouth, Jennie." Her cries instantly settled, now only whimpering as she stood still in Sasaki's arms. She took the cold, metal ball from her uncle's gloved hand and hesitantly placed it in her mouth.
"Hold out your hand," Kouzuki ordered, a faux gentleness in his voice as he spoke to the child. With her hand outstretched, palm facing down, Kouzuki rested it on his. Raising his right arm high above his head, he struck the metal balls ruthlessly over the girl's knuckles, immediately drawing blood from the skin. Jennie cried hard, the pain unbearable. Grabbing her hand back, he struck her knuckles again.
"Next time you feel like talking back," He said, ignoring the girl's whimpers, "Remember the taste of this metal bead." He tied the string around Jennie's belt, the weight of the balls reminded Jennie of the awful pain.
Kouzuki nodded in satisfaction as Jennie began to wail once again.
***
Sasaki led Jennie up to her bedroom, the room pitch black aside from the lantern in the woman's hand. "You'll sleep alone from tonight." Jennie shuffled behind Sasaki over to her bed, picking up an empty oil light from the table. "All right?" Sasaki asked in a monotone voice, uncaring for the child.
Jennie hugged her doll tight in her arm. "Please give me a light." Jennie's voice was small and fragile, yet Sasaki was not phased.
"We've been ordered to save oil," The woman said, her eyes never blinking, "You little brat." Sasaki said the last part in Korean.
"Speak Japanese!" Jennie cried. Sasaki only glared at her.
Gesturing over to the sliding door which led to the maid's bed with her lantern, she said, "In there is a man the size of an ogre, who can't stand the sound of girls screaming." Jennie gulped. "If he hears you, he'll burst in through that door after you."
"And then?"
Sasaki leaned down to her height, the lantern glowing on her face made her look ghostly, "He'll smother you with his giant body, so you can't make a sound."
They both looked to the door, Jennie in fear as Sasaki teased the young girl. Suddenly, the door slid open unexpectedly, making both of them scream in shock.
"Aunt."
Jennie's aunt appeared from behind the door, a lit candlestick in both hands revealed her plain expression as she glared at Sasaki. "My, my," She whispered mockingly, "Scaring a little girl like that." A smirk lifted at the corner of her lips. She slowly walked over to little Jennie, lifting the oil light's glass case and lighting a flame with her candle. Jennie smiled up at her in appreciation.
Her aunt glared at Sasaki until she left the room, heels clicking away on the wooden floor. Sitting down on the chair at the end of the bed, her aunt pulled out a white envelope from her sleeve and emptied the contents into Jennie's small hand. She looked down to see a picture of her woman looking to the side, and a lock of hair.
"And me?" Her aunt asked, "Am I pretty too?" She raised herself halfway out of the chair, jutting out her chin, copying the woman in the photograph. "Look closely." Jennie only stared, not saying a word. "Everyone says I can't compare to my big sister." She said sadly, eyes lost, staring at nothing.
***
"Day. Night."
"Day. Night." Jennie repeated before turning the page in the picture book. With her aunt and uncle, she sat in the library learning Japanese words from painted pictures. She repeated after her aunt, while Kouzuki wrote things down on the opposite desk.
"Man. Woman."
"Man. Woman."
She flipped the page.
"Eye, nose, mouth, ear, shoulder, nipple, navel."
Jennie repeated the words obediently.
"Penis. Vagina."
Kouzuki was licking the end of his pen, ready to write when he didn't hear an immediate response from Jennie. Raising his eyes over his glasses, he watched Jennie stutter over the words, before removing them.
"P...penis. Vagina." Her aunt burst out laughing as she looked at her, barely containing her own giggles as they looked at the detailed pictures with blushing cheeks.
Kouzuki stood up from his chair in frustration, walking behind the two girls as their giggles died down when they realised they had pissed him off. Covering both their faces with his leather-gloved hands, he gripped and roughly moved their heads side to side in punishment. Muffled voices stuck in their throats, they gasped for breath. Kouzuki let go of their faces with a hard shove, while they returned to looking at the book with straight faces and focused minds, breathing heavily through their noses.
***
Jennie struck one of the maids harshly across the cheek, standing one step above her on the grand staircase to get the upper hand. "Do you think I won't understand if you speak Korean?" Jennie readied her arm again for another slap, when Sasaki appeared at her side, holding her wrist firmly and giving her a stern look in disapproval.
She was going a bit crazy and wanted everyone else to go crazy too.
Jennie marched up the stairs, turning around on the step and landed a stinging slap against Sasaki's cheek. The woman maintained her stern look as she twisted her head in Jennie's direction, coming face to face with an equally angry little girl. When Mrs Sasaki looked as crazy as she did, life was more bearable.
As a child whenever she stepped out of line, Jennie would know about it. Even as she grew up, she still received harsh punishments for her actions. Her personality grew colder over the years, yet her heart remained soft and warm.
Mrs Sasaki hummed in satisfaction, a tight-lipped, sadistic smile on her small mouth. She watched as Jennie struggled to keep her sobs within as she stood facing her and Kouzuki behind the desks in the library, her aunt silent beside him.
Removing his glasses, Kouzuki let out a sigh and picked up the long, metal ruler sat on the desk. Without hesitation, he slapped the bottom of her ear with it and a searing pain flooded her neck. Standing up and reaching over the desk, he did it again, and again. "I know you're a bit insane. It runs in your mother's family." He glanced disregardingly at Jennie's aunt, who was staring at nothing, her mouth closed all the time. "That's why I'm training you," he said as if it was obvious, his finger pointing and waving in the air, "to set your mind right. If I fail, there's a place called a 'mental hospital' in Japan."
Jennie's aunt looked to the ground at his words, a panic settling through her body as she listened.
Kouzuki explained, using his hands enthusiastically, "Established by rational Germans, it's very effective in treating lunacy." Jennie's aunt's breath was heavy, panting through her nose. "They dig holes in the dirt, put a patient in each one, and put lids on the top."
She shook her head, shivering.
"When the patients get better, they get a leash, so they can crawl around like dogs."
Kouzuki and Jennie turned to the sudden rush of her aunt climbing up the wooden steps of the dojo, frantically running away from the them and the thoughts of the mental hospital. Sasaki quickly but calmly got up from her chair, walking over to the corner of the room. As she pulled the lever, the metal gate shut all of a sudden in the woman's face, eliciting a gasp of shock. She turned swiftly on her feet, shuffling back down the hallway as if nothing happened. Sasaki grinned.
***
The cherry tree that came with Jennie on the ship from Japan bloomed twice.
Jennie turned the page of the picture book, once again sat in front of her uncle, and began to read, "When Jinlian finally took off her clothes, Ximen-Qing-examined-her-Jade-Gate... To-find-it-hairless-as-white-as-snow-and-as-smooth-as-jade..."
Both Jennie and her aunt screamed and jumped in their chairs when Kouzuki slammed his hand hard onto the table.
"You must pause between words." He gestured, frustrated, "Don't read like a dog lapping at his plate!" He dropped his glasses onto the wooden desk, "Listen to your aunt read."
Her aunt cleared her throat, "When Jinlian finally took off her clothes..."
***
"Ximen Qing examined her Jade Gate... to find it hairless, as white as snow, and as smooth as a jade."
Jennie's aunt sat in the dojo, dolled up, reading to lots of perverted men who liked to read perverted books.
Sasaki was off to the side, opening a cabinet full of levers.
"As tight as a drum, and as soft as silk."
Sasaki pulled on a lever, opening the sliding doors behind Aunt as she read, revealing the outside: snow covered trees in the night.
"Once he drew apart the curtains of flesh, a scent of well-aged wine emanated from within, and on fold upon fold of the red velvet interior beads of dew were forming. Its centre was dark and void, yet as if it had a life of its own, it twitched and twitched."
Amongst the hypnotised men smoking their pipes, Jennie appeared from one of the bookcases wearing a black dress and holding her doll. She watched her aunt withdraw handkerchief from the inside of her robe, dabbing it to her slightly sweating forehead. Jennie stared at her sadly, and her aunt only smiled at her while using a fan to cool herself down.
***
Swinging from the tree by her neck, white rope coiled around the branch, the wind showered the pink petals around her that juxtaposed the state she was in. A crowd had gathered at the scene, with Jennie at the front looking up at her aunt painfully.
Everyone wanted to cut it down, but Kouzuki refused. He said this tree from Mt. Fuji had absorbed her aunt's soul. The servants whispered it was due to the tree's high cost, but Jennie thinks her uncle was right. You can tell from the cherry blossoms, which turned brighter and bloomed longer.
Jennie began to sob, she hid behind her dolly with her head bent down. A maid picked her up as she wrapped her small arms around the other girl, eyes squeezed shut. She lifted her head, eyes landing on her uncle on the servants back to the side of the garden, peacefully reading a book. Jennie scowled at him.
Even as Jennie got older, became a young woman, she climbed up the cherry blossom tree and dangled off the edge of the same branch with both her arms. She revelled at the light breeze sweeping her hair off of her face, the simplicity and peacefulness of just hanging from the branch as if she were dead herself.
***
The library was decorated as a zen garden for Jennie's reading. Jennie sat down at the book rest at the back of the room, flipping through the pages noisily, her uncle observing her from the wooden steps. He made sure everything was ready by scanning the room under one thick, grey eyebrow.
"'Tell me, Juliette. Do you wish for this impetuous young knight to save you?'" Jennie began, eye down focused on the book whilst using her hands to gesture as the characters, "The duchess shook her head resolutely," Jennie shook her own head slowly, a small smirk playing on her painted red lips, "to my great disappointment."
Jennie looked at each and every usual suited man sitting on the steps in front of her, eyes so firm it made the men squirm in their place. "'Now, my brave knight.'" Jennie glanced back to one man in particular, a new face, relaxed in his seat as he smoked a cigarette. He was a handsome man, with dark hair and fair skin, his eyes sparkled under the low light.
(Bold = the Count's imagination)
"Now, my brave knight." Kouzuki removed his glove and placed his hand flat against a bare, beaten and scarred buttcheek of a restrained woman on a table; thick, leather belts tied around her limbs and hips. "When you see these old scars, and the fresh pink wounds," He trailed his palm over the pink lines, "what do you feel?" He looked up at the Count.
"I pity the poor woman." The Count replied, "I wish to lick her and lick her, caress and caress her."
"If you pity her so, why not take her place and let her whip you?"
The Count moved his eyes down gradually, looking at Jennie on the table.
Jennie continued reading, "The duchess raised the whip high in the air, and then..." She raised a small stick in the air, before bringing it back down again, as if imitating a whip complete with the sound. Another man in the audience gasped in delight, imaging himself restrained on the table, being whipped by the duchess.
Jennie lifted the stick again, "And again..." a 'psst' sound leaving her lips as she whipped it down. Every perverted man in the audience gasped to themselves, the words leaving Jennie's lips caused them to become desperately aroused.
"'My cock became painfully erect.'"
This time, the Count was on the wooden table, pink lines etched upon his bare ass, eyes bored into the floor below him as Kouzuki spoke to him.
"If she could be yours for ten minutes," Kouzuki leaned down so his face was level to the Count's, "what would you give in exchange?"
The Count's face grew flushed at the cheeks, pupils blown and eyelids hooded before they fell shut.
"Whatever your heart desires. Anything in this whole wide world." He murmured out.
"'Once the duke untied me, I sat on the chair, pulled her to me, and slid my cock into her cunt.'" Jennie spoke the words as she had been trained before, her voice even and unphased, while eyes barely blinked. She watched the men fidget in their places, clearing their throats uncomfortably. One man had to place his black hat on his lap with his legs clamped together.
"'Oh, Juliette, Juliette...'" The men listened closely, "As I felt the duke approach from behind, a rope slithered around my neck. The duke slowly tightened the rope. Like a drowning man grasping at the straws, I pulled the swirling currents of her hair." The Count wrapped the chain of his pocketwatch around his fingers, gripping it tightly in an effort to control himself, "Then the duke spoke, 'The ten minutes are almost up.'"
Jennie glanced at her uncle as he nodded. She turned the page slowly, and took a deep, sensual breath as she fell into character, "'Slowly, my dear,' said the Duchess..." Jennie laboured her breath as if she were moaning, "I haven't yet fully savoured his pain." She lifted her head to only look at the Count. She could see from his body language that he was extremely uncomfortable. With her eyes glued to him, she brought her leather-gloved hands to her neck, pressing so her voice was strangled. "'No,' the knight cried, 'don't stop!'" Jennie tightened her grip, "'Please let me die in the midst of this pain. In this suffocating pain.'"
Jennie continued choking herself, her face turning pink and her throat tight as she gasped for air. The Count's breathing got increasingly heavier, his eyes growing wider as Jennie neared the climax of the story.
Removing the tight grip from her throat, Jennie placed her hands back into her lap, closing the book's final page. The men coughed and squirmed again now that the climax was over. Kouzuki took off his shoes as he walked on the tatami mats in front of the audience.
"Is it Sade?" One of the men asked.
Kouzuki nodded, "It's Sade-esque. It is believed to be the same Japanese men who wrote The Lizard Skin. It was acquired from a Japanese sailor on a ship from Hamburg." He walked over to Jennie as she held out the book for him to take. He cradled it his hands, caressing the pages like it was precious. "Cheap hair and shabby clothes, old and worn down, a body foul with food waste and human secretion." Kouzuki stroked the book's cover, "Can you imagine my joy when," He opened the back cover, "after such a journey, it sat on my shelf with its brothers?"
"Even compared with an unopened first-edition of Milton's, it wouldn't be outstripped." The Count spoke up, leaning his elbows on his knees as the other turned their heads.
A sly smile drew on Kouzuki's mouth, "That's right. These are the babes to whom I feel the most affection. It used to contain an elaborate monochrome woodcut illustration," He opened the book, flipping a few pages before holding it open for the others to see. He revealed the remains of a torn out page as the men gasped in shock, "but as you can see..."
"So unfortunate." A man muttered.
Another man spoke up, "If that were intact, you could've named your price." Kouzuki grumbled and scowled.
A man with a moustache said, "The author felt words alone could not fully describe the positions, and so included an illustration."
"In that regard," Kouzuki interrupted, now rather frustrated and angry, "before we start the bidding... Jennie! Why don't you show us this scene?" Kouzuki eyeballed the audience with a frown before turning back around.
Sasaki entered from one of the sliding doors as Jennie stood, fanning herself. The lights were turned off as Sasaki began to untie the sash around Jennie's waist. A sign on the wall next to her read:
PAIN IS A GARMENT
Jennie opened up her robe once Sasaki walked back over the the cabinet of levers. She slowly slid the fabric off, revealing another red robe underneath. As Sasaki pulled down a lever, a wooden mannequin suspended by strings on the ceiling lowered onto the chair beside Jennie. The men watched in anticipation, the creaks and clunks of the statue caused tension to build.
Jennie straddled the mannequin in a sitting position, facing it, while reaching up to her hair, letting it cascade down her back. The sash was now wrapped around both her and the wooden puppet. Jennie sat still and straight, watching Kouzuki tie the noose around the mannequin's neck. He walked away, still holding the rope, while Sasaki pushed the lever again to make the puppet ascend. The mannequin's legs fell straight, in between Jennie's, her hands gripping onto its shoulders. A few feet off the ground, Kouzuki pulled on the rope, forcing the puppet to lean back and Jennie did the same, her hair falling beneath her, and their pelvises connected.
One of the men gasped in awe, "Beautiful!"
The Count stared with a straight face at the sight.
***
Standing behind a tree, Jennie spied Kouzuki parting with those perverted men, listening in on praises and thanks being exchanged between them. However, she noticed how the Count lingered back with Kouzuki, before watching them walk together towards the library.
Opening the door as quietly as possible, sliding the door an inch at a time, Jennie walked up to the partition in the library, sliding it open to peer in on them.
"You are of noble birth," she heard Kouzuki speak, "yet you engage in the lowly work of copying paintings."
The Count had a book propped open in front of him, copying the picture of an octopus onto another piece of paper, while Kouzuki stood behind him with his hands buried in his pockets.
"There was a time when I dissipated my wit and skills on gambling." The Count replied, concentrating on the paintbrush. "Imagine the torment of having so many women make advances on me, when I couldn't afford to buy them a glass of Burgundy."
Kouzuki moved his hands behind his back, "Do the women here make advances on you?"
The Count looked up from his painting at the other side of the room, "I look at women's eyes, only the eyes. They turn their gaze away, but then they always look back."
Jennie spied on them through the slats in the wall partition with her theatre binoculars.
The Count continued, "It's a silent exchange of question and answer. If I were to slide under someone's covers tonight, only one woman here would refuse me." His line of sight was in Jennie's direction, yet she did not move away and hide.
"Does that include Mrs. Sasaki?"
"Is she not your former wife?" The Count turned his head towards Kouzuki, as he moved around him, "You left her to marry a Japanese woman. But the servants tell me you still share a bed with her." He watched Kouzuki walk over to the dojo section, "Can I ask you something?"
Kouzuki hesitated for a second, "Of course."
"You went so far as to abandon your wife, why this urge to become Japanese?"
Kouzuki sauntered back, walking up the hallway between the bookcases ahead of him, "Because Korea is ugly and Japan is beautiful."
"Some Japanese say Japan is ugly," the Count said, "and Korea is beautiful."
"Beauty is cruel by nature. Korea is soft, slow, dull, and therefore hopeless." Kouzuki gestured enthusiastically with his hand, "Let's talk about that one woman who would deny you." He changed the subject with a firm voice, "Does it include Mrs. Sasaki?"
"Mrs. Sasaki..." The Count began, turning in his chair with his elbow propped on the back to face Kouzuki, "If I gave her the right signal, she'd knock on my door without her underwear."
Kouzuki stopped in his tracks. His upper lip trembled in anger as he took a quick breath through his noise to calm himself, and replied, maintaining an even voice, "My thoughts exactly. Then who is it? The one who would deny you?"
The Count stood up from his chair, walking up the hallway behind the old man, "I heard you own the highest quality antique bookmaking tools of the East and West, but I don't see them here."
"I'll show you them later," Kouzuki answered quickly. "Who is the one person to refuse you?" He asked again, but it came out more as an order.
The Count chuckled under his breath. "I met Jennie's eyes by chance, but she didn't look away. Indeed it was I, who shifted my gaze."
"Jennie," Kouzuki asked, "Will she make an appearance in your lewd dreams tonight?"
The Count looked over in Jennie's direction again, and spoke to Kouzuki's back, "Even if honoured with such a visit, I don't think I could consummate." He turned back towards the other man, "I would happily regret it the moment I begin," Kouzuki shuffled around on his feet to listen to the Count, "because her body would be as cold as a waterfowl."
Stepping behind a bookcase, Kouzuki absentmindedly grazed his eyes over the spines of the stacked book, "That is the result of long training." He picked up a book, examining it in his leather-gloved hands.
"I heard you are engaged to her." Kouzuki didn't say anything, but just walked back out from behind the bookcase. "If I'm not mistaken, you are yet to have intercourse?" Kouzuki still ignored him. "Her eyes have no desire. It means her soul is dead inside." The old man walked over to another bookcase and placed the book in between some others. "You should go easy on her training, unless you enjoy making love to a corpse."
Kouzuki walked towards him now, purposely getting close to make the Count move out of the way for him. The old man laughed as he passed by, sounding more like a wheeze. He opened a box on the side table, retrieving a pipe. "Would you like a smoke?" The Count returned back to his chair, pulling out his case of cigarettes. "How did such a noble count fall into the grouty habit of smoking cigarettes?"
The grey-haired man peered over the Count's shoulder, lighting the end of his pipe and taking a few puffs, watching him draw something on his rolling paper. After some brief strokes of the paintbrush, a picture of a naked woman laying down appeared on the thin paper. Drawing the final two dots for the nipples, the Count pinched some tobacco from his case and smoothed it out evenly over the paper. With practice, the Count rolled up the cigarette and licked the edge. Kouzuki frowned at him.
Jennie had decided that she'd seen and heard enough, leaving the library's back entrance without a sound.
The Count held a finger-sized bottle in his hand, dabbing the scent from a small needle onto the outside of his cigarette for flavour. "This is my particular way of possessing beauty." He took a small puff, and leaned his wrist on the edge of the table while his cigarette rested between two fingers, "Jennie too must have received painting lessons."
"No, she did not. I was too occupied teaching her to read with correct diction."
The Count turned to him, his eyebrows raised high in surprise, "Is that so? In England, where I studied, all ladies were expected to produce vibrant colour and graceful lines," He lowered his voice, "even in the less noble families."
Kouzuki coughed a bit, placing his mouth back on the pipe in an effort to hide his embarrassment.
***
The maid refilled the glass of wine beside Jennie on the dining table, while Jennie used her eyes in a silent thanks. It was rather quiet as they ate, apart from the Count's noisy slurping as he wolfed down his noodles. There was the sound of a telephone ringing, and a butler came into the room, leaning down next to Kouzuki's ear. "You have a phone call, sir."
The old man frowned, "At this hour?"
"It's the Iwamura Bookstore."
"Is that so?" Kouzuki finished his mouthful. "Excuse me a moment." He rose from his chair and walked out with the butler, leaving Jennie and the Count to finish their dinner alone.
Jennie kept her eyes focused down at her bowl, avoiding the Count's gaze but maintaining her confidence. The only time she glanced at the man was when he reached into his jacket to look at his pocketwatch.
"You are mesmerising." The Count said crassly. He had put down his chopsticks and sat straight in his chair, giving Jennie his full attention and respect despite his remarks.
The heiress barely lifted her eyes to him, replying blankly so she wouldn't encourage him, "Men use the word 'mesmerising' when they wish to touch a lady's breasts." The Count lowered his head in embarrassment. "I'm familiar with Western conversational etiquette." The man raised his head back up as Jennie crossed her arms on the table. "I do a bit of reading, you know."
The Count replied apologetically, "There was no calculation in what I said. It was a reflex, like pulling one's hand from a flame." But his voice was laced with intended lies.
"I'm no flame," Jennie said, "I'm cold as a waterfowl, your Lordship." She stared at him intently as he chuckled under his breath, understanding her reference.
Not knowing how to respond, he checked his pocketwatch again. "He will return soon." The Count changed the topic without a hitch, "Mr Iwamura only called with a frivolous inquiry, at my request. There's an issue regarding your future you should know. I'll wait by the stone lamp at midnight."
***
"Good night, Miss." Junko, Jennie's old maid, said sleepily as Jennie waved her dismissively out of her bedroom, closing the door right behind her. Jennie switched off the lights by the door, before shuffling across the room to the large windows and picking up the theatre binoculars from the window sill. Her left hand occupied wit holding her dolly, Jennie used her free one to spy out of the window at the Count who stood waiting at the bottom of the garden, a hand in his pocket as he wandered aimlessly around a tree. As the man glanced up to her in the window, Jennie moved behind the white curtain. A smirk graced his lips as he opened his cigarette case that revealed four white and two blue sticks. He lit the one between his lips as he walked towards the front door of the mansion.
Once Jennie saw the man walking, she placed her ear against the wall to listen for his shoes clicking on the wooden floor. The Count made his way upstairs, passing by the two oil paintings of present Jennie and young Jennie.
The Count leaned his hand against the door frame, Jennie stood on the opposite side of the closed door. "My maid is asleep in the room next door." Jennie whispered through the wood, "I don't fancy being in scandalous rumours with you."
The man replied, speaking normally even though his voice sounded throughout the empty hallway, "I saw Junko go to the servants' quarters with her pillow."
"Consider your reputation as a nobleman." Jennie interrupted.
"I'm no nobleman." He answered with confidence, "I'm not even Japanese. Do you think it was easy for a Korean farmhand's son to reach here?" He adjusted to lean his shoulder against the door frame, placing his hands in his pockets. "After fifteen hard years in Japan, I heard some things about you. Another three years were spent to prepare. I studied bookmaking and learned to paint forgeries. All so that I could meet you. To seduce and marry you, to possess your father's inheritance, and then probably to get rid of you." The Count admitted. He paused before continuing, "But I knew as soon as I met you. For a man to seduce you would be--"
The relaxed man was interrupted as Jennie opened the door, finishing his sentence for him, "...impossible."
The Count made a move to enter the heiress's room, but she stood, blocking his way. "So in place of seduction, I decided to propose a deal. Most marriage are like being imprisoned, but this one will free you." He entered the room finally, forcing Jennie to walk backwards out of his way, yet remained eye contact with him as he spoke. "I'll rescue you from here, take you far away, and give you freedom." He kept purposefully walking in Jennie's way. "Of course, we'll split the money." The Count removed his hat to place it on the table in the middle of the room.
"Nonsense." Jennie said, her voice sounding more as a stern whisper.
The man removed his jacket, still walking in front of the heiress, "Does marrying an old man with a black tongue at your tender age make sense?"
"I won't marry anyone." Jennie replied matter-of-factly.
"What have you in mind?"
Jennie just stared at him in the eyes. They stood in silence as the Count deciphered what she meant. After realising, he shook his head.
"That's not proper. There's no beauty in that. If you kill yourself, what of your fortune?" He asked, "That will be the sum of your efforts? Your fortune going to that pervert? So he can buy ten little girls and teach them to read books?" The Count spoke with a scolding tone, causing Jennie to look away guiltily.
"My uncle will find us somehow." She whispered sadly, "Then he'll take us to the basement."
Jennie thought back to her childhood, the memories of the basement that scarred her for life.
"Uncle," Young Jennie asked.
The Count furrowed his brows, "Basement?" He asked in confusion.
"It says here when people are hanged, their tongues stick out and faeces is expelled." Jennie read the words in front of her, her uncle sat uncomfortably in his chair opposite her. "But that day, aunt's mouth was shut and her bottom was clean."
Kouzuki stood from his chair, removed his spectacles, and leaned over the table. "Do you want to go somewhere nice?"
He led Jennie over to the corner of the dojo, moving a table to the side to access the mat underneath it. He peeled it away from the floor, dropping it at the child's feet with force that made Jennie jump back. Underneath revealed a wooden trap door.
Kouzuki followed Jennie down the stairwell, the oil lamp in is hand gave a dim glow to the darkness. "I'll tell you in detail what I did to your aunt after I caught her running away." Jennie was breathing heavily as she anticipated the basement. "So don't you ever think of running, understood?"
Her uncle removed the glass of the lamp, walking over to the side of the room to light another, much bigger lamp. As the fiery light filled the room, Jennie gasped and looked around in horror, the sight much too monstrous for innocent eyes.
"That day I just watched and listened." The heiress continued her eyes staring blankly as she spoke, "But if I ever end up there again..."
Looking at the woman with sympathetic eyes, the Count reached into his pocket and held up the small vial of blue liquid. "This is highly concentrated opium. Three drops will make you sleep all day. Five drops will knock down a horse." He unscrewed the top, letting the liquid drop back into the vial to show Jennie. "If you crave death within five minutes, drink it all. If you carry this, he can never take you to the basement," He explained, "at least not alive."
Jennie tried to snatch it from his hand, her arm swiping like a blur, but the man's reflexes were too quick. "It'll be my wedding gift to you. It's more expensive than jewels."
The heiress rolled her head and sighed, before walking over to the large windows. "Bring a girl to be my maid. One who could disappear and not be missed. If a bit dense, all the better. We'll send her to a madhouse under my name." Jennie perched herself on the windowsill, and looked back to the Count. "They dig a hole in the ground, put a patient in there and close the lid." She looked at him in the eyes sternly, "I want my name to be buried in that hole."
The Count leaned on the wooden room divider while loosening his tie. "I can find you a new maid, but what do we do about Junko?"
Jennie's reply was just a smug grin that spread across her face.
Later that night, the Count brought Junko back to the corridor outside the heiress's bedroom. Junko was pushed roughly against the table; she had a shy look on her face, and her breath was slightly laboured. "You really think I'm prettier than Miss Jennie?"
The Count looked around behind his shoulders, his voice low so no one else could hear, "Sure, Jennie's pretty, and you're pretty."
Junko's eyes widened in shock, "What? You speak Korean?"
"You know..." He whispered, inching his face closer to hers, "I learned it. To speak more easily with you." He unbuttoned the top of her uniform."I really wanted to say this to you." He pushed the sleeve down her arm. "You are just mesmerising."
The maid giggled, "Oh my gosh!"
The Count whipped down her top suddenly, exposing her large breasts. He pinched her nipple hard, eliciting a gasp and another giggle from the woman. "You little tart." He teased, before attaching his lips to her neck roughly, hooking her leg under the knee to bring it around his waist.
Jennie was bent down to spy on them through the handle in the sliding door of her bedroom.
Junko moaned, "I can't. If they catch me with a guest, I'll be thrown out!"
"Forget this wretched place. Come live with me!"
***
Spying through the door once again, Jennie watched Sasaki escort her new handmaiden, Jisoo, into her room. The curious handmaiden had opened her sliding doors an inch, but Jennie kept herself hidden. Jisoo was scared by a knock on the door, which was Jennie purposefully bumping her dolly's head onto the wood.
She peered through the door again once she heard the panicked scurrying of the new maid into her cramped bed.
"Of fucking hell." Jisoo had said.
"Fucking hell?" Jennie repeated, not knowing what the phrase meant, "Fucking hell..."
She watched the bed covers move until a hand poked out to drop the day dress onto the floor, before her handmaiden got out of bed to put her night clothes on. Jisoo was bare chested as she pulled on the white dress and removed her hair tie, letting her long, messy, black hair cascade down her back. Jennie observed as Jisoo got back into bed and leaned too far back, causing her to hit her head on the hard wood.
The Count had sent exactly what she ordered: naive and a bit foolish.
"We're alike somehow," Jennie spoke to her dolly, raising it above her head as she laid down in bed, "I heard you're an orphan, too." She placed the dolly on her chest before forcing out a fake scream, "Mother!" She opened her eyes, listening to the handmaid stumble out of bed and burst into her room, continuing her act of screaming in a nightmare.
***
Jennie read the Count's letter of instructions:
'Show Jisoo your clothes and jewellery at every opportunity. The material greed she got from her mother will make her more gullible. P.S. Don't worry if she reads this letter, she's totally illiterate.'
Jennie held out the letter to Jisoo, "Would you read it to me?"
"Pardon?" Jisoo panicked as she read the letter, desperately trying to remember what the Count read out to her back in her old house, "...looking for a maid. Maids are like... a spoon... no... are like chopsticks... Is it a spoon?"
Jennie smirked behind the paper.
--
She wrote down a name on her notepad:
'COUNTESS JENNIE NAKAMOTO'
She held it up for Jisoo to see. "This is your name. Can't you read it?"
--
"What's with your foot?" Jennie glanced down to the maid's feet, where one shoe was completely missing.
Jennie had found out what the other servants had done, summoned them to the courtyard and slapped each of their cheeks.
"Who did it?" She asked plainly, yet her voice was cold and stern. "Who took Jisoo's shoe?"
The three maids looked to the girl to their side, who looked down at the floor guiltily. Jennie slapped her the hardest and grabbed her hair harshly as she pushed her to the floor. "Apologise before all the servants!"
The three others gasped in fright as Jennie whipped her head around to glare at them, her cat eyes piercing. "If Jisoo ever runs away because of one of you, I'll strip you all naked and throw you out!" She gave them one final glare before walking away, "Fucking hell."
--
Jisoo removed the thimble from Jennie's mouth, "All smooth." She sat down on the edge of the tub, admiring the heiress as she played with her dolly.
"Do you like the scent?" Jennie asked, "Do you want to come in?" She didn't meet her eyes, still playing with the dolly.
"Pardon?" Jisoo asked in shock. Jennie didn't answer, but put the lollipop into her mouth. She only turned around to see Jisoo's back facing her as she unbuttoned her uniform. Jennie's eyes danced over the bare skin.
--
"A decent bone structure for a Korean." The Count said, turning the maid's face with his stick. Jisoo looked to floor, and the Count threw a wink in Jennie's direction.
"So, are you carrying out your duties faithfully?" He asked the maid. Jisoo looked back to Jennie before scrunching her nose up at him, a silent warning if he exposed themselves as impostors.
"What?" The Count mouthed to her. Onlhe wasn't cautious because he knew the real plan.
"Thank you for introducing me to her." Jennie spoke, "You found the perfect maid for me."
"It was tough looking for one that wasn't chubby." He turned back to Jisoo, "Take care of the lonely lady."
--
"There's no need to be ashamed at all. Your average fence can barely tell them apart."
Jennie smiled at her through the mirror. "Is that so?" She said as she opened up the rolled blue paper in front of her; another letter from the Count: 'I'm returning the earrings you loaned me. A woman might wager her fate on such an exquisite pair. I'm sure that Jisoo will try her very best in order to see herself wearing these in the mirror. I'll tell you how to keep her from getting suspicious. Keep her busy until the day of the wedding. Make her spend all her energy on making you fall in love with me. In other words, don't fall in love with me so easily.'
Jennie scoffed and smirked at his remarks.
--
"Men are so disgusting," Jennie said as she joined the Count in front of the fire, Jisoo watching in the rain through the window, "How can they be so single-minded?"
"What's on my mind?" The Count asked, "You don't really believe that I crave your body, do you?" Jennie only looked away. "You do." He chuckled, turning his head towards the window Jisoo spied through. "You read too many of those books. If there's something I'm after, Miss..."
He brought his hand to her face, trailing it down her arms to her butt, "It's not your eyes, your hands or ass, it's your money, only that. Of all that you have, money is the best." Jennie sulked in her chair as he spoke, watching him laugh, "It feels great being so rude to a noble lady."
--
'What's with her? Why does she stomp her feet, expressing her anger, sit up in the middle of the night and sigh?' Jennie thought as she watched Jisoo through the hole in her door again. 'Every time she sees the Count, her eyes seem to say...'
--
"I despise you." Jennie said.
"Try to bear it." He said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Only if she sees this will she believe the proposal." He moved to kiss her ear, trailing wet kisses down her jaw and neck. It felt disgusting, so Jennie pushed him off. "Think of me as that puppet, and I'll imagine another woman."
"What woman?"
"The duchess Juliette."
Jennie frowned at him.
"Lady!" They heard Jisoo call. "Milord!" Jennie quickly placed herself on the Count's lap and attached her lips to his.
"Lady..." Jisoo's eyes brimmed with tears as she witnessed the two. Jennie could only look at her apologetically before she watched the handmaiden take off, running back down the hill.
***
"The lady's emotions lay deep inside... Jinlian could not fathom their depths." Jennie read to the audience of men, "Knowing this, Lady Sun gave Jinlian four small silver balls. These are 'minling' or 'bells of passion'. Place two in the lady's Jade Gate, and the other two in yours." The lights above began to buzz and flicker, but Jennie continued reading, "Spread your legs apart and like two scissors try to cut each other, put them together." The men looked around at the flickering lights, frustrated at the distraction, "When the lips below rub against each other, you'll hear a clear ringing sound."
"A blackout! Bring a lantern!" They heard one of the male servants call from a different room, and a "Yes, sir!" in reply from a woman.
A poster hung on the wall beside Jennie, reading:
'THE SOUND OF BELLS ON A WINDLESS NIGHT'
"'When do I put this in?' asked Jinlian." Jennie read, "Does the lady breathe deeply and swallow hard? Does she whisper sweetly in your ear, and kiss you?" Jennie closed her eyes, taking in a long breath, before progressing through the story seemingly from memory, "Does she embrace you tightly and caress your nipples?" The room fell into darkness as the last lights flickered. "Does her secret part become slippery as she gently bites your shoulder?" Jennie paused for effect, "Then, put in the bells."
Her imagination had created the sounds of the bells, becoming completely immersed in the fantasy of the book. Jennie was snapped out of her daze once the lights finally flickered back on. Jennie realised she had dived deeper than she expected.
"Amazing!"
"Indeed!"
She was surrounded by applause and praise as she took out a cloth from the inside of her robe, dabbing at the light sweat on her cheeks. Jennie adjusted the shoulder of her robe as she felt the heat rise during the reading.
***
Pushing back the sleeve of the woman's night gown from the shoulder, Jisoo traced her hand over the heiress's side as she stared at her exposed breast. With Jennie laying flat on her back, Jisoo hovered over her. "It's so cute." She rolled the hardened nipple between two fingers with heavy breaths, "If the Count sees this..." Jisoo breathed out before covering the nipple with her mouth, eliciting a gasp and a few moans from the woman underneath her, making her legs squirm o the bed sheets.
"Will he really be as tender as this?" Jennie gasped out, the feeling of Jisoo's wet tongue on her sensitive breast sent tingles all through her body.
Jisoo moved up her body close to her mouth, her hands trailing down the heiress's body, "Of course. And he'll touch you like this..." Jisoo ghosted her hand up Jennie's thigh, pushing past the hem of the nightgown to cup the woman's centre, causing her toes to curl and her leg to lap over Jisoo's waist. Jisoo circled two fingers over her bundle of nerves, using her wetness as lubrication. Waves of pleasure spread through Jennie's body as she tightened her grip on Jisoo's back and bit down hard on her shoulder, making the handmaiden gasp sharply in her ear.
"Jisoo," Jennie panted, pushing down the other woman's night clothes desperately, "keep doing what the Count will."
Jisoo immediately rid of her clothes as she lay on top of Jennie completely, her hands covering every inch of her body as she trailed wet kisses down, "The Count..." She gasped and moaned, "He'll go crazy over this." Jisoo shuffled down the bed, "And this is what he'll say," The younger woman hooked her arms underneath Jennie's thighs and positioned herself in between them, "'It's so soft, warm, wet and... s... s... spellbindingly beautiful!'"
Jisoo brought her hand to Jennie's core, running them from her entrance up to her clit, teasing her entrance with the tips of her fingers. Jennie smiled down at her before throwing her head back at the feeling of Jisoo's fingers inside of her. The young handmaiden hesitated slightly as she neared her head to Jennie's heat, but the moans and gasps sounding from Jennie's mouth encouraged her. She moved her tongue through her folds, before sucking gently on Jennie's clit. With Jennie's arms above her head, she writhed under the pleasure that Jisoo gave her, her hips lifted off the bed as she arched into the touch.
Jisoo lifted her head from Jennie's heat, her mouth and chin coated with her arousal, "Shall I teach you more, Miss?"
"Yes..." Jennie breathed out as she gasped, "Teach me everything."
Jisoo closed her mouth back around Jennie's centre, continuing her movements and enjoying the woman's erratic hip jerks and moans.
The heiress lifted herself up, grabbing at Jisoo's back again and motioning her to get up too. Wanting to taste Jisoo for herself, she positioned both of them into a 69 position, and quickly buried her head in between her thighs. With her own core against Jisoo's hungry mouth, her hips bucked involuntarily as Jisoo repeatedly brushed her bundle of nerves with her strong tongue.
Before they could reach their peaks, Jennie shifted their position once again. This time, the heiress sat on the edge of the bed with Jisoo straddling her lap, Jennie's long fingers buried deep inside her handmaiden. Jisoo lifted her hips and sank them back down on Jennie's digits as she rode her; Jennie's mouth enduring open-mouthed kisses on her neck and collarbone. Jisoo tangled her fingers in Jennie's long, dark hair, while Jennie gripped onto her waist to balance her and latched her mouth onto Jisoo's nipple, building Jisoo further and further.
"Do you like it when I do this?" Jennie asked as Jisoo threw her head back at the intense pleasure of Jennie's fingers hitting the right spot. Jisoo nodded frantically, her thoughts clouded as she began to reach her high. "Do you like me?" Jisoo nodded again, her body arching deeper into Jennie's palm as she caressed her face, looking deeply into Jennie's eyes. "Can you promise that you won't betray me?"
Jennie stared up at the girl still riding her, the light shimmering on the sheen of sweat on her face. "I'll never..." Jisoo panted hard, "never... ever..." Jisoo squealed again, unable to finish her sentence. Jennie felt Jisoo's walls clamp around her fingers, anticipating the final climax, her moans becoming more high-pitched as she grew closer. All of a sudden, Jisoo's body stilled in her lap, her mouth in an 'o' shape as she silently moaned. Jennie slowed down the pace of her thrusting as Jisoo's body shuddered, prolonging the girl's earth-shattering orgasm, as she gripped harder on Jennie's hair.
Jennie laid Jisoo facing the headboard, still in aftershocks of her orgasm, and spread her legs again. Lifting one of her own legs over Jisoo's, she shuffled forward so their cores were touching in a scissoring position. Jennie began to grind her hips into Jisoo's, eliciting screams and loud moans from both of them and prolonging Jisoo's high.
"Miss, how could such an innocent..." Jisoo gasped in shock, "You must be a natural."
Jennie grinned at her statement, her cat eyes soft and hazy as she looked back at her lover. She held out her hand and Jisoo took it willingly, holding themselves in each others' grips as they grind faster, moans and harsh gasps filling the room in total bliss.
***
A/N
Word count: 8451