My mother dragged me out of the little room.
'Mother, I am naked,' I cried.
She was a fury and listened to no reason.
Maurice, also naked, was running after us, his dick still hard bobbing up and down with each step, holding my clothes in a bundle.
'Eloise!' he called out.
My mother made me walked up the ladder into the little shop as I was.
The two owners were looking upon me with great alarm.
'What is this madness?' my mother screamed at their address. 'Is this a whorehouse?'
'Madam, I assure you…' the old man was saying.
I now noticed a few patrons around who looked at me, much scandalised by my nakedness.
'Have you turned into a little slut?' my mother asked me. 'Is this what you want to become?'
People were now trying to calm her down, but she could not be pacified.
Maurice now handed me my clothes, and I tried to put them on as best as I could.
As I did so, I looked up and saw a man who was shopping there regarding me with a lustful look. I could not hide all that modesty demanded to be hidden: if I tried to cover my arse, my pussy showed; if I put a hand to cloak that part, now my breasts dangled before me. My fingers were sticky with Maurice's semen, and I could feel streaks of sweat and pleasure between my thighs getting cold in the air of the day.
I was much ashamed, and I believe my mother wanted me to feel in such a way.
'If you ever come near my daughter again,' she was saying to Maurice and his relatives, 'I will alert the police of this place of disrepute. I will slander you, if I have to. I know many magistrates in this city, and I will ensure you will be prosecuted and jailed.'
Maurice's aunt and uncle were now quite fearful of these words. They tried to excuse themselves, Maurice and me, claiming youth and inexperience.
Then, my mother pointed a finger at the old man, and with a cold voice which somehow contained all the fire that had burned within her until now said:
'You will die in jail. Mark my words, sir!'
Maurice's aunt now began to cry, embracing her husband.
The man assured my mother he would no longer allow Maurice to use the little room downstairs.
I looked at Maurice now, who was standing naked, covering his penis, now limp and much reduced by the great fear of my mother, looking at me with great sadness.
*
'Where is the food?' Blaise asked in an annoyed tone when Mother and I returned.
'Sit down,' she commanded. 'All of you.'
'What happened to Eloise?' Armand asked, looking up from the book he was reading, seeing me quite upset in my spirit and very ruffled in my aspect.
My mother didn't reply to this.
'Sit down,' she repeated.
We did what she ordered, and she, standing before us with a very dark face, spoke again:
'I have some money. That might last us a little, but you will all have to seek employment. The time to play is now over.'
Armand scoffed.
'What is that, Armand?' my mother asked.
Armand looked at her with a smirk on his lips:
'We will not find any.'
My mother wasn't in the mood for jokes or irreverence.
'Then, my foolish son, you will die of starvation in the workhouse.'
Armand looked at her, meeting her stern gaze:
'That will suit me more than the shame I feel now.'
Blaise was looking onto the scene with some trepidation.
My mother then turned to my other brother and said:
'And you?'
He shrugged his shoulders:
'As Armand said, we won't find employment in Rennes.
'And would you like to know why, mother?' Armand butted in.
My mother looked at him with an angry look:
'Amuse me, darling.'
'Let me then tell you a little story of what happened to me but a few days ago. I held my tongue until now, but, seeing that our situation is so desperate, I wish you to know what made it so much worse than it already was.'
My mother sat on the sofa, crossed her arms, and looked at Armand.
Armand, now smiling a small, but very telling smile, spoke:
'The other day, I went to visit the study of a famous lawyer, Mr Rossignol, who had been recommended to me as I was searching for employment.
'As I awaited to see Mr Rossignol, I overheard the clerks laughing with much hilarity. To befriend them and hoping to get some intelligence over their employer, I asked them what the great joke was.
'One of them told me that this story regarded Mr Rossignol, the famous barrister. He is a gentleman of fifty, although, the clerk said, he looks not a day older than forty. He is tall, strong, of athletic built, and, in general, quite impressive to look at. His hair is still black without any trace of white in it. He is indeed a rather attractive gentleman to the ladies, and, conscious of this, is uses his position, his wealth, and his good looks to impress them and woo as many as he can.
'I was then informed that Mr Rossignol was known as the Bull of the Forum, not just for the ruthlessness of his arguments before the court, but also on account of the largesse of the organ devoted to copulation.
'This man had just returned with tales of a recent conquest, which now the clerks were telling one another.
'I asked what had happened, hoping to hear a delectable tale to pass the time. So, the clerk told me that, the day before, a lady had met with his employer at his house.
'As she entered the room, Mr Rossignol was quite startled by her delicate beauty. She moved with grace and composure. She was lithe and very attractive. After speaking for a while, she asked him, with great eagerness, whether he wanted to take her then, such was her passion for this gentleman.
' "Where would you like to place your organ, my friend," the lady demanded.
' "My good lady," Mr Rossignol said, "I greatly favour the anus: it's tighter, and I feel I have full control over a fully submissive partner. However, on account of my size, I will not impose this on you. I will content myself with whatever orifice you believe can take this."
'He then produced his organ as a way to explain:
' "Massage it until you can see its full size and judge it for yourself."
'This woman made no difficulty. She proceeded to lick and suck this gentleman until she saw what she had to work with.
' "If you could produce some lubricant, I will grant you what you wish for," the lady replied.
'Oil was produced, and the lady undressed.
' "This must be one of those incurable nymphomaniacs the medical journals write about," the gentleman thought as he was pushing his glans into that tight orifice.
'The lady screamed, although she encouraged him not to stop. Her ass was smooth and milky as white, and the organ that was now stretching it so was very red and crossed by many veins. The gentleman pushed, nearly worried that those slim hips would break under the strain, but the woman seemed more used to such exercise than expected, and Mr Rossignol could fit the full girth and the full length of his cock.
'The lady kept thanking him for the pleasure he was granting her, that she was honoured to be so debased by him.
'Thus encouraged, he pushed his dick in and out of her, as she begged for more, and demanded for him to be rough and spank her. Now, the lady was so eager that she pushed back, trying to get that large appendage back inside her rear, instead of recoiling from it. She would look back at the gentleman with eyes filled with tears; her mouth would open, but such was her pleasure that no sound came out of it, until a new scream would begin and grow louder and louder.
' "Oh, my fucking God!" the lady would blaspheme over and over under this great assault.
'What excited this gentleman, even more than her readiness and the knowledge of how she could derive such pleasure from an activity that most women would have found not only disgusting but also a threat to their health and sanity, was the fact that the daughter of this lady, who was also quite attractive, was spying on them.'
At these words, I paled.
Armand didn't even look at me, but he continued his story in a rather cold manner:
'This silly young lady thought she could observe the scene from outside the door without being seen, but Mr Rossignol looked now at the mother, now at the daughter, getting more aroused by the unusualness of this scene.
' "I have heard that this type of madness, this insatiable desire, runs in the blood, and I believe the daughter is as lustful as the mother. Oh, to have been present to this great even and have taken the young lady too!" the clerk said. "I believe she would have pleased me greatly and would have done anything that took my fancy, and she would have enjoyed such things that no other woman on earth would hear without fainting."
'Mr Rossignol was now fucking this lady without restraint, as he saw he could do as he pleased without fear of hurting her. In fact, the harder he went the more she demanded.
' "I am now coming!" he cried.
' "Do it inside me! Fuck me hard, and don't stop!" she replied.
'His organ was so large but also his ejaculation was equally copious, and, when he finally released his semen, the lady begged him to continue, and, as he did, he could see his sperm spurting out with each push, as the woman's anus seemed incapable of holding the full load.
' "What a tart hidden under a lady's appearance!" the clerk said.
'I then enquired about her name, whether he knew it, as I might want to visit such a liberal woman, and I was quite surprised when he said:
' "Don't you know?"
'I looked around. How could I know?
'Everybody seemed amused, as if there was a great joke in this story that I couldn't quite understand.
' "It's the Countess of ***!" the clerk then said.
'I ran out of that room, red in the face, ready to cry.'
I looked up at Mother, and she looked rather undisturbed by this account.
'Do you see now, Mother?' Armand said, having concluded this anecdote, 'While my brother and I were breaking our backs looking for a job, you were precluding us any chance by whoring around, having your fun, and smearing our name.'
Armand was now quite animated: his eyes were filled with rage but also the joy of inflicting such humiliation onto our mother, finally telling her all that had been troubling him. His face was red, and, as he spoke, he sputtered. I believe he had gone quite mad for having heard such tale of his mother.
'You haven't even asked me if that account is true, Armand,' Mother asked him with a smile.
This humiliated him. He had not for a moment entertained the thought that our mother was innocent of this slander.
'Don't worry, son: I will now tell you that what you heard is true. I believe you will not be able to find employment in this city, and, you once again are right, it is because of my doing. I will now give you some money. You will leave and do as you please with it.'
Armand seemed taken aback. She seemed unrepentant, but, more importantly, she was kicking him out. It was clear to me that he only wished to blame her and to embarrass her but still sought her protection.
'What about you?' Mother now asked Blaise.
Blaise didn't know how to answer this. He stuttered a few words.
'I believe you too blame me for not being able to find employment, and I think you are right. Please accept what little money I can give you as your inheritance. We will dine together tonight, but I will be much relieved if you could leave in the morning: I now need to think about myself and your sister.'
Blaise and Armand stood there, confused, then Armand said:
'Fine! If this is what you wish, I will get out of your hair.'
'But you will take my money, won't you?' Mother said.
Armand left the room, throwing his hands in the air and exclaiming:
'I believe she has gone mad!'
Blaise too left, although in a much more subdued manner.
Mother and I were now left alone.
'Your brothers,' she said, 'believe that it is my indiscretion with Mr Rossignol that cost them their employment, even though I believe that all the clerks in his office have gained that position in a similar manner. Their mothers have sacrificed themselves so that, in due time, their sons could go and establish their own practice, make money, get married, and fuck the mothers of promising young men as much as it is needed for their own appetites to finally be sated and the wheels of this world to spin.
'No, the reason why nobody will employ them is, and for this is truly blame myself, that they have met the most powerful men in this city and tried to humiliate them by quoting Thucydides. Isn't that a silly thing? Nobody would regard this as useful knowledge, and yet they would certainly see it as an irksome trait. Your brothers have no skills these men would value, but this is not necessary: many unlearned and incapable people have risen to the highest positions of Government in this country just by being of service and doing what their superior asked of them.
'This is the most useful employment of an idiot: for the powerful to send them to do necessary but shameful things, for the powerful to blame them if the deed is detected, and then for the powerful to fear the idiot's knowledge of the crime and, therefore, to reward them.
'I have no power now to educate your brothers. They will learn in time, I hope, but on their own. I cannot bear them any longer, and their lack of ability and general blundering hurts my prospects, as much as they believe my talents in the bedroom hurt theirs. So, they're better gone.'
Mother now looked at me and seemed to divine what I was thinking. She then changed the topic of conversation:
'I myself have never had such high hopes for myself, as your brothers seem to have, but tried to lead a happy life, a safe life, by pursuing convenience. How disappointing to see that this has not served me well. But, after all, the pursuit of love has equally proven to be an illusion.'
Here I understood that she didn't regret marrying my father for convenience, although this marriage had not saved her from financial ruin as she had hoped, but she was much disheartened by how her love for Father Briac had been dashed by the object of her feelings.
Now my mother continued:
'I saw you with that boy today. Do not believe you are poor. Not yet. And you cannot behave as if you were. Fucking a poor shop clerk will not do.
'Over the past week, I have been searching for a protector. Although I cannot aspire to a husband any longer, I can still become a mistress. This is a useful position for a woman of my age and my temperament. You could be rich and powerful, even more than a wife. And you, in turn, would be able to marry someone with a position and some influence.
'But, alas, I haven't been able to find a gentleman with enough interest in my case to displace the mistress he has had so far.'
I now understood what those diverse sessions of matrimonial congress I had spied on meant. I understood that this was the only way Mother could see herself survive.
Mother now continued:
'I have received the news of the sinking of the Saint Mary. That was my last hope. This will force me to take a step I wish I didn't have to take.'
She now produced a card and stared at it for a moment.
'This will force me to renew an acquaintance I wish I could leave in the past. But it can't be helped,' she added with resolution.
I looked at the paper and, to my great shock, read the name and address of Mr LeClair.