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Against All Odds: A Gilded Age Romance
- Thread starter Barbaria1
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Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
You have to admire the lady's optimism....
Now Darwin's at it. Watch out for Archie's gun!
Call me a pessimist... but this is going a bit too well, isn't it?
Doragon
Tribune
Time to meet the secret dungeon...Call me a pessimist... but this is going a bit too well, isn't it?
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
Even an optimist would acknowledge : "they are still inside the building!"Call me a pessimist... but this is going a bit too well, isn't it?
windar
Teller of Tales
Chapter 36.
Stan was enjoying the breeze against his face from the motion of the Winner’s Circle as it chugged its way up the river. It had been another hot day and it was still sultry even though the sun had set. The two mates were sweating hard as they shoveled coal into the boiler near the stern. The captain stood in the wheelhouse, steering a straight course. Vandergrift was sitting on a bench at the side of the structure, saving his strength for the task that lay ahead.
The river was quiet at this late hour. They had only passed a few other craft, tugboats hauling barges filled with various essential commodities downriver to the city. He stood in the bow, watching the eastern shore on the port side of the ship as they drew nearer to the landing that lay below where his Barbara was.
Stan was nervous because so much could go wrong. Their escape plan for her was far from iron clad. Were the bars on the iron window really loose enough that Barbara could break them off? Could that be done without making noise? Would he and Archie be able to bring the ladder up to the window so that if she succeeded in getting the bars off, she would have a way to reach the ground, without attracting the attention of that very large man who worked for Darwin?
Stan didn’t know, because he’d never attempted anything like this before. Nor, he suspected, had Vandergrift. After all when life makes you a favorite to win the race, there’s no incentive to try anything too risky.
And there, in a nutshell, was the worry that caused Stan just as much concern as the potential failure of their escape plan. What if the rescue went swimmingly, but Barbara chose his rival? That would be the cruelest blow of all.
And, after all, why shouldn’t she? Her father and all of society would approve of that choice, and feel quite the opposite about her choosing him. And to be quite fair, she had spent time with Archie Vandergrift, time for intimate conversation that circumstances hadn’t allowed her to spend with him.
Certainly, the looks between them, her coming to his hotel room and kissing him and her eagerness for their encounter at the racetrack were signs that she was as attracted to him as he was to her, but did that translate to a life together?
Of course not, but Stan had every reason to think that they were indeed meant for each other, by God, fate, destiny, or whatever forces one believed in. But would Barbara really see it that way? Would she risk it all by choosing him or make the safe choice of Archibald Vandergrift? He was certainly the longshot, but he knew sometimes those came through and paid off handsomely.
Stan pulled his watch out of his pocket and placed it under the ship’s lantern. It was near 11. He wandered back towards Vandergrift. “Shouldn’t be much longer,” he said.
“I suppose not,” Archie replied. “We must be near,” he said, louder, so that the captain could hear.
“Aye,” the captain, a man who spoke no more than was absolutely required, replied.
Soon, Stan noticed that the tugboat was no longer near the center of the river, but was angling towards the right bank. Ahead was a small beach with a forested bluff above it. He couldn’t make out Darwin’s mansion through the trees, but he trusted the captain’s knowledge of these environs enough to assume that this was the right spot.
The captain brought the ship in as close to shore as the water depth allowed and ordered the mates to drop anchor. They lowered a small dinghy over the port side, securing the rope on the dinghy’s bow to a stanchion on the side of the tugboat.
Then, they lowered a rope and wooden ladder over the side. Archie scrambled down, sitting in the bow seat of the dinghy and Stan lowered himself into the stern.
Then, the mates lowered the twenty foot solid wooden ladder that Barb would use to descend from the window if she were able to remove the bars. After some struggles in which they almost capsized, Stan and Archie managed to balance it across the gunwales of the dinghy.
Stan took the oars and headed towards the beach. There was a light current that he had to row against, but soon he reached the shore. Archie scrambled out and pulled the dinghy onto the sand. Stan hopped out to join him.
They stared up at the bluff. It wasn’t that high, but it was fairly steep. “I’m pretty sure there’s a path leading down from the house, but it’s hard to see in the dark.”
“We can just climb up with the ladder, can’t we?” Archie asked.
Stan shrugged. “I guess so,” he replied. They each took one end of the ladder and maneuvered it to the base of the bluff. It easily reached the top. “Hold it steady,” Stan said, as he began climbing. He quickly reached the top of the bluff and climbed off the ladder onto the forest floor, which was littered with previous years’ leaves and fallen branches.
Then he took hold of the ladder, steadying it for Archie, who soon joined him at the top of the bluff. They pulled the ladder up behind them. Then, each holding one end with Archie in the lead, they made their way through the underbrush towards the house. Stan heard Archie curse softly as he encountered some sharp branches and soon Stan was cursing as well as he met the same obstacles.
Despite these travails, they persevered and soon reached the edge of the forest and stood, sweating and a bit bloodied, before the large house.
They took a moment to find their bearings. “I believe the bathroom should be around that side,” Archie said, pointing to the left. Stan nodded.
They carried the ladder around the corner of the building. They looked up at the small barred window under the eaves. “That has to be it,” Stan said. “But the bars are still on.”
They carried the ladder over and raised it. Stan breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the top rung reached up to the bottom of the window. ‘Good thing they didn’t short us on the ladder,’ he thought.
He heard a scraping sound coming from the window up above. It was hard to see in the dark, but the bars looked to still be in place. Then, a small chunk of plaster fell onto the ground at their feet. ‘That’s a good sign,’ Stan thought.
A moment later there was a loud crack and Stan saw a large piece of metal grating falling straight at him. He managed to duck at the last second and it crashed to the ground beside him. “Jesus!” Archie cried. “That was close.”
“Yes, but that means she got the bars off,” Stan said, excitedly. “Now we just have to hope that big lug, Max, didn’t hear it. Help me hold the ladder, Vandergrift.” Archie took one side of the ladder while Stan held onto the other. Stan could make out a figure climbing through the window onto the highest rung of the ladder and slowly descending.
As the descending figure reached the lower rungs of the ladder, Stan could make out that she-for its form was unmistakably female-was nearly naked, save for a sarong around her waist. The body-covering shift from earlier that day was gone.
She reached the bottom rung and lowered one bare foot, then the other onto the ground. Stan reached out his arms wanting desperately to hug her naked torso. Vandergrift had his arms out as well. “Barbara!” Stan whispered, not daring to speak loudly.
“I’m not Barbara,” the girl whispered back. “I’m Hazel, Hazel Baumann. Barb is coming.” She pointed to the window up above.
Stan saw a second form climbing through the window. He quickly took hold of the ladder again. Archie did the same. Barbara descended quickly and joined them on the ground. She was clad in the same sarong as Hazel. Her naked breasts, at least as much of them as Stan could make out in the dark, were visions of loveliness.
Stan took her quickly in his arms; pressing her body against his. “Stan!” she whispered. She quickly broke off the embrace then embraced Vandergrift. “Archie!” she whispered.
Stan was so excited to have Barbara there at last that he could barely speak, but he managed to croak out. “We have a boat down by the river.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Hazel interjected. “There’s a path that leads down there. We all went for a swim. Except Barb, though. She was being punished by that beastly Darwin.”
“Well, show us the way,” Archie said.
“So we won’t need the ladder to get down the bluff?” Stan asked.
“No, leave it there and follow me,” Hazel said.
“Wait,” Archie called. He stripped off his jacket and handed it to Hazel. “Put this on,” he said.
Stan quickly removed his jacket and handed it to Barb. The girls wrapped the jackets around themselves as best they could and Hazel led the way.
The path was much easier going than the way through the underbrush that Stan and Archie had ascended by. Still the girls had to be careful of rocks, being barefoot. “I’m sorry we didn’t think to bring shoes,” Archie said.
“That’s OK,” Barb replied, “We’re used to being naked here.”
“I’m so glad to be out of here, I’d walk across hot coals,” Hazel added.
Soon, they reached the beach and their dinghy. Archie helped Hazel into the boat and had her sit beside him on the bow seat, which was so narrow that they had to squeeze against each other, something which Vandergrift didn’t seem to mind.
Stan pushed the bow into the water, then helped Barbara onto the stern seat, which was a bit wider, so he only brushed lightly against her when he got in and sat down. But even that bit of contact was enough to set Stan’s heart racing.
He shoved off and began rowing towards the spot where they had left the tugboat. Because of the current, they ended up a bit downstream of their goal and he had to turn and row a bit against the current to come alongside the ship.
The mates were gawking over the railing as they took in the two lovely young women, clad in sarongs and men’s jackets. “Would you please lower the ladder?” Archie asked. The men scrambled to their task and soon all four of the passengers were aboard and the dinghy stowed away.
“Raise anchor!” the captain, who seemed to barely notice the half-naked women, ordered. The mates hastened to the stern and began stoking the boiler, and, soon, the engine engaged and the ship got underway.
Stan poked his head into the wheelhouse. “Would you have some blankets for the young ladies?” he asked.
“In the locker,” the captain replied, pointing at a metal chest against the wall to his left. Stan opened it and took out three woolen blankets, handing one to each of the women and laying one out on the forecastle for them to sit on.
Hazel told them a bit about herself. Her father was a German who had immigrated to Cincinnati around the same time as Stan’s father had come to the US. He had started a brewery which became highly successful and branched into a ferry service across the Ohio River and some German restaurants. While perhaps not as rich as Barbara’s father, he was well-off enough that he shared James Moore’s ambition to marry his daughter into New York society. Hazel had misbehaved with a young man, perhaps less dramatically than Barbara, but enough to have gotten her sent to the tender care of Dr. Darwin.
The girls gave them the lowdown on the Darwin Institute. “He claims that he’s helping us to control our sexual desires,” Barbara said. “With whippings and electric shocks.”
“We saw you staked out the other day in the hot sun,” Archie said. “It looked horrible.”
“It was,” Barb replied. “And so was the whipping afterwards.”
“I saw them beating you with those branches the Sunday before,” Stan added. “That looked awful also.”
“You have no idea,” Barb replied.
“It was all I could do not to leap the fence and try to save you,” Stan replied. “But I figured I needed a plan that had a chance of working.”
“And you came up with one!” Barb replied, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. Stan could barely contain his joy.
“I hope you weren’t whipped, Hazel,” Archie said.
“I was. Not as badly as Barb, but badly enough. I’m afraid the treatment didn’t work on her at all.”
Barb shook her head. “No, it didn’t. He straps you down naked on a table and stimulates you with a dildo. You know what it is, don’t you, one of those artificial penis things?” Stan and Archie, being men of the world, nodded. “Well, what can I do?” Barb continued. “It feels good, so I enjoyed it. Then he gives you a shock and you’re supposed to not want it any more. But, guess what? The next time he does it, it feels just as good!”
Stan and Archie both laughed and looked embarrassed at this frank description of female sexuality, a taboo subject in polite society, but Stan felt a twinge in his manhood at the vision of a naked Barb with a dildo up her female parts. He remembered the scene that Kristina, the maid at the Plaza had described featuring her, Barb and Mario.
“Darwin’s a quack. It didn’t work on me, either,” Hazel said. “He just enjoys looking at naked girls and watching us wriggle around in pain and pleasure. And milking our parents for money, of course.”
“That girl Gwendolyn claimed it had worked for her,” Archie said. Barbara and Hazel laughed at that.
“Darwin ordered us to lie to you under threat of severe punishment. She’s just pretending to be cured so she can get out,” Barbara said. “She made us pleasure her and her friend Elizabeth almost every night in the dorm. And believe me, she enjoyed every minute of it.”
Stan felt his penis stirring at this frank talk of sex.
They chatted more and dozed a bit as the boat made its way down the river. They watched the sun rise as they passed under the high railroad bridge at Poughkeepsie. By the time they reached Newburgh, it was mid-morning.
Archie stood, stretched and went to talk to the captain. The boat turned and headed for the dock.
“Why are we stopping here?” Stan asked.
“I think these ladies should be properly dressed when we reach the city, don’t you?”
“I’m kind of enjoying them the way they are, but I see your point,” Stan replied.
Archie took down Barbara and Hazel’s dress and shoe sizes, jumped down onto the dock and headed into town. It took him until almost noon, but he returned with complete wardrobes for the two women as well as sandwiches and beer for all of them and the crew members as well.
Stan couldn’t help appreciating the gesture, but also resenting it, because he felt that such generosity was at least partly designed to impress Barbara in the hopes that she would pick him.
The women accepted the gifts graciously and each in turn retired to the ship’s head, emerging looking like fashionable young ladies enjoying a river cruise with their beaux.
The captain had the mates cast off and they continued towards the city. Stan knew that it was time to settle the matter of Barbara’s choice. He felt very nervous, but couldn’t see any advantage in putting the matter off. “Hazel,” he said. “Mr. Vandergrift and I have a matter we need to discuss with Barbara. Would you be so kind as to excuse us?”
“Of course,” Hazel replied. “I know you came for Barbara and didn’t expect me to join you, but I just had to get out of there and you are so awfully kind to take me along.” She stood and went to sit on the bench by the wheelhouse.
“Barbara,” Stan began. “You may wonder why Archie and I, rivals for your heart, decided to work together. In truth, I don’t think we could have engineered your escape without our combined resources.”
Barbara smiled. “You are both my heroes,” she said. “I don’t know if I could have stood another day in that horrible place.”
“We both wanted you out,” Archie said. “And working together we achieved it. Perhaps in an ideal world we could both have you, but that doesn’t seem possible. So, we must leave it to you to choose, Barbara. Stan and I have agreed that whichever one you choose, the other will bow out gracefully and wish you all the happiness in the world.”
“You know me, Barbara. We have spent considerable time together,” Archie continued. “I can offer you a good life, filled with every comfort and with the approval of your father and my family and society.”
“I can offer you none of that,” Stan said. “Only my love and the promise that whatever we do and wherever we go, it will be an adventure. The choice is yours. Follow your heart.”
Stan was enjoying the breeze against his face from the motion of the Winner’s Circle as it chugged its way up the river. It had been another hot day and it was still sultry even though the sun had set. The two mates were sweating hard as they shoveled coal into the boiler near the stern. The captain stood in the wheelhouse, steering a straight course. Vandergrift was sitting on a bench at the side of the structure, saving his strength for the task that lay ahead.
The river was quiet at this late hour. They had only passed a few other craft, tugboats hauling barges filled with various essential commodities downriver to the city. He stood in the bow, watching the eastern shore on the port side of the ship as they drew nearer to the landing that lay below where his Barbara was.
Stan was nervous because so much could go wrong. Their escape plan for her was far from iron clad. Were the bars on the iron window really loose enough that Barbara could break them off? Could that be done without making noise? Would he and Archie be able to bring the ladder up to the window so that if she succeeded in getting the bars off, she would have a way to reach the ground, without attracting the attention of that very large man who worked for Darwin?
Stan didn’t know, because he’d never attempted anything like this before. Nor, he suspected, had Vandergrift. After all when life makes you a favorite to win the race, there’s no incentive to try anything too risky.
And there, in a nutshell, was the worry that caused Stan just as much concern as the potential failure of their escape plan. What if the rescue went swimmingly, but Barbara chose his rival? That would be the cruelest blow of all.
And, after all, why shouldn’t she? Her father and all of society would approve of that choice, and feel quite the opposite about her choosing him. And to be quite fair, she had spent time with Archie Vandergrift, time for intimate conversation that circumstances hadn’t allowed her to spend with him.
Certainly, the looks between them, her coming to his hotel room and kissing him and her eagerness for their encounter at the racetrack were signs that she was as attracted to him as he was to her, but did that translate to a life together?
Of course not, but Stan had every reason to think that they were indeed meant for each other, by God, fate, destiny, or whatever forces one believed in. But would Barbara really see it that way? Would she risk it all by choosing him or make the safe choice of Archibald Vandergrift? He was certainly the longshot, but he knew sometimes those came through and paid off handsomely.
Stan pulled his watch out of his pocket and placed it under the ship’s lantern. It was near 11. He wandered back towards Vandergrift. “Shouldn’t be much longer,” he said.
“I suppose not,” Archie replied. “We must be near,” he said, louder, so that the captain could hear.
“Aye,” the captain, a man who spoke no more than was absolutely required, replied.
Soon, Stan noticed that the tugboat was no longer near the center of the river, but was angling towards the right bank. Ahead was a small beach with a forested bluff above it. He couldn’t make out Darwin’s mansion through the trees, but he trusted the captain’s knowledge of these environs enough to assume that this was the right spot.
The captain brought the ship in as close to shore as the water depth allowed and ordered the mates to drop anchor. They lowered a small dinghy over the port side, securing the rope on the dinghy’s bow to a stanchion on the side of the tugboat.
Then, they lowered a rope and wooden ladder over the side. Archie scrambled down, sitting in the bow seat of the dinghy and Stan lowered himself into the stern.
Then, the mates lowered the twenty foot solid wooden ladder that Barb would use to descend from the window if she were able to remove the bars. After some struggles in which they almost capsized, Stan and Archie managed to balance it across the gunwales of the dinghy.
Stan took the oars and headed towards the beach. There was a light current that he had to row against, but soon he reached the shore. Archie scrambled out and pulled the dinghy onto the sand. Stan hopped out to join him.
They stared up at the bluff. It wasn’t that high, but it was fairly steep. “I’m pretty sure there’s a path leading down from the house, but it’s hard to see in the dark.”
“We can just climb up with the ladder, can’t we?” Archie asked.
Stan shrugged. “I guess so,” he replied. They each took one end of the ladder and maneuvered it to the base of the bluff. It easily reached the top. “Hold it steady,” Stan said, as he began climbing. He quickly reached the top of the bluff and climbed off the ladder onto the forest floor, which was littered with previous years’ leaves and fallen branches.
Then he took hold of the ladder, steadying it for Archie, who soon joined him at the top of the bluff. They pulled the ladder up behind them. Then, each holding one end with Archie in the lead, they made their way through the underbrush towards the house. Stan heard Archie curse softly as he encountered some sharp branches and soon Stan was cursing as well as he met the same obstacles.
Despite these travails, they persevered and soon reached the edge of the forest and stood, sweating and a bit bloodied, before the large house.
They took a moment to find their bearings. “I believe the bathroom should be around that side,” Archie said, pointing to the left. Stan nodded.
They carried the ladder around the corner of the building. They looked up at the small barred window under the eaves. “That has to be it,” Stan said. “But the bars are still on.”
They carried the ladder over and raised it. Stan breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the top rung reached up to the bottom of the window. ‘Good thing they didn’t short us on the ladder,’ he thought.
He heard a scraping sound coming from the window up above. It was hard to see in the dark, but the bars looked to still be in place. Then, a small chunk of plaster fell onto the ground at their feet. ‘That’s a good sign,’ Stan thought.
A moment later there was a loud crack and Stan saw a large piece of metal grating falling straight at him. He managed to duck at the last second and it crashed to the ground beside him. “Jesus!” Archie cried. “That was close.”
“Yes, but that means she got the bars off,” Stan said, excitedly. “Now we just have to hope that big lug, Max, didn’t hear it. Help me hold the ladder, Vandergrift.” Archie took one side of the ladder while Stan held onto the other. Stan could make out a figure climbing through the window onto the highest rung of the ladder and slowly descending.
As the descending figure reached the lower rungs of the ladder, Stan could make out that she-for its form was unmistakably female-was nearly naked, save for a sarong around her waist. The body-covering shift from earlier that day was gone.
She reached the bottom rung and lowered one bare foot, then the other onto the ground. Stan reached out his arms wanting desperately to hug her naked torso. Vandergrift had his arms out as well. “Barbara!” Stan whispered, not daring to speak loudly.
“I’m not Barbara,” the girl whispered back. “I’m Hazel, Hazel Baumann. Barb is coming.” She pointed to the window up above.
Stan saw a second form climbing through the window. He quickly took hold of the ladder again. Archie did the same. Barbara descended quickly and joined them on the ground. She was clad in the same sarong as Hazel. Her naked breasts, at least as much of them as Stan could make out in the dark, were visions of loveliness.
Stan took her quickly in his arms; pressing her body against his. “Stan!” she whispered. She quickly broke off the embrace then embraced Vandergrift. “Archie!” she whispered.
Stan was so excited to have Barbara there at last that he could barely speak, but he managed to croak out. “We have a boat down by the river.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Hazel interjected. “There’s a path that leads down there. We all went for a swim. Except Barb, though. She was being punished by that beastly Darwin.”
“Well, show us the way,” Archie said.
“So we won’t need the ladder to get down the bluff?” Stan asked.
“No, leave it there and follow me,” Hazel said.
“Wait,” Archie called. He stripped off his jacket and handed it to Hazel. “Put this on,” he said.
Stan quickly removed his jacket and handed it to Barb. The girls wrapped the jackets around themselves as best they could and Hazel led the way.
The path was much easier going than the way through the underbrush that Stan and Archie had ascended by. Still the girls had to be careful of rocks, being barefoot. “I’m sorry we didn’t think to bring shoes,” Archie said.
“That’s OK,” Barb replied, “We’re used to being naked here.”
“I’m so glad to be out of here, I’d walk across hot coals,” Hazel added.
Soon, they reached the beach and their dinghy. Archie helped Hazel into the boat and had her sit beside him on the bow seat, which was so narrow that they had to squeeze against each other, something which Vandergrift didn’t seem to mind.
Stan pushed the bow into the water, then helped Barbara onto the stern seat, which was a bit wider, so he only brushed lightly against her when he got in and sat down. But even that bit of contact was enough to set Stan’s heart racing.
He shoved off and began rowing towards the spot where they had left the tugboat. Because of the current, they ended up a bit downstream of their goal and he had to turn and row a bit against the current to come alongside the ship.
The mates were gawking over the railing as they took in the two lovely young women, clad in sarongs and men’s jackets. “Would you please lower the ladder?” Archie asked. The men scrambled to their task and soon all four of the passengers were aboard and the dinghy stowed away.
“Raise anchor!” the captain, who seemed to barely notice the half-naked women, ordered. The mates hastened to the stern and began stoking the boiler, and, soon, the engine engaged and the ship got underway.
Stan poked his head into the wheelhouse. “Would you have some blankets for the young ladies?” he asked.
“In the locker,” the captain replied, pointing at a metal chest against the wall to his left. Stan opened it and took out three woolen blankets, handing one to each of the women and laying one out on the forecastle for them to sit on.
Hazel told them a bit about herself. Her father was a German who had immigrated to Cincinnati around the same time as Stan’s father had come to the US. He had started a brewery which became highly successful and branched into a ferry service across the Ohio River and some German restaurants. While perhaps not as rich as Barbara’s father, he was well-off enough that he shared James Moore’s ambition to marry his daughter into New York society. Hazel had misbehaved with a young man, perhaps less dramatically than Barbara, but enough to have gotten her sent to the tender care of Dr. Darwin.
The girls gave them the lowdown on the Darwin Institute. “He claims that he’s helping us to control our sexual desires,” Barbara said. “With whippings and electric shocks.”
“We saw you staked out the other day in the hot sun,” Archie said. “It looked horrible.”
“It was,” Barb replied. “And so was the whipping afterwards.”
“I saw them beating you with those branches the Sunday before,” Stan added. “That looked awful also.”
“You have no idea,” Barb replied.
“It was all I could do not to leap the fence and try to save you,” Stan replied. “But I figured I needed a plan that had a chance of working.”
“And you came up with one!” Barb replied, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. Stan could barely contain his joy.
“I hope you weren’t whipped, Hazel,” Archie said.
“I was. Not as badly as Barb, but badly enough. I’m afraid the treatment didn’t work on her at all.”
Barb shook her head. “No, it didn’t. He straps you down naked on a table and stimulates you with a dildo. You know what it is, don’t you, one of those artificial penis things?” Stan and Archie, being men of the world, nodded. “Well, what can I do?” Barb continued. “It feels good, so I enjoyed it. Then he gives you a shock and you’re supposed to not want it any more. But, guess what? The next time he does it, it feels just as good!”
Stan and Archie both laughed and looked embarrassed at this frank description of female sexuality, a taboo subject in polite society, but Stan felt a twinge in his manhood at the vision of a naked Barb with a dildo up her female parts. He remembered the scene that Kristina, the maid at the Plaza had described featuring her, Barb and Mario.
“Darwin’s a quack. It didn’t work on me, either,” Hazel said. “He just enjoys looking at naked girls and watching us wriggle around in pain and pleasure. And milking our parents for money, of course.”
“That girl Gwendolyn claimed it had worked for her,” Archie said. Barbara and Hazel laughed at that.
“Darwin ordered us to lie to you under threat of severe punishment. She’s just pretending to be cured so she can get out,” Barbara said. “She made us pleasure her and her friend Elizabeth almost every night in the dorm. And believe me, she enjoyed every minute of it.”
Stan felt his penis stirring at this frank talk of sex.
They chatted more and dozed a bit as the boat made its way down the river. They watched the sun rise as they passed under the high railroad bridge at Poughkeepsie. By the time they reached Newburgh, it was mid-morning.
Archie stood, stretched and went to talk to the captain. The boat turned and headed for the dock.
“Why are we stopping here?” Stan asked.
“I think these ladies should be properly dressed when we reach the city, don’t you?”
“I’m kind of enjoying them the way they are, but I see your point,” Stan replied.
Archie took down Barbara and Hazel’s dress and shoe sizes, jumped down onto the dock and headed into town. It took him until almost noon, but he returned with complete wardrobes for the two women as well as sandwiches and beer for all of them and the crew members as well.
Stan couldn’t help appreciating the gesture, but also resenting it, because he felt that such generosity was at least partly designed to impress Barbara in the hopes that she would pick him.
The women accepted the gifts graciously and each in turn retired to the ship’s head, emerging looking like fashionable young ladies enjoying a river cruise with their beaux.
The captain had the mates cast off and they continued towards the city. Stan knew that it was time to settle the matter of Barbara’s choice. He felt very nervous, but couldn’t see any advantage in putting the matter off. “Hazel,” he said. “Mr. Vandergrift and I have a matter we need to discuss with Barbara. Would you be so kind as to excuse us?”
“Of course,” Hazel replied. “I know you came for Barbara and didn’t expect me to join you, but I just had to get out of there and you are so awfully kind to take me along.” She stood and went to sit on the bench by the wheelhouse.
“Barbara,” Stan began. “You may wonder why Archie and I, rivals for your heart, decided to work together. In truth, I don’t think we could have engineered your escape without our combined resources.”
Barbara smiled. “You are both my heroes,” she said. “I don’t know if I could have stood another day in that horrible place.”
“We both wanted you out,” Archie said. “And working together we achieved it. Perhaps in an ideal world we could both have you, but that doesn’t seem possible. So, we must leave it to you to choose, Barbara. Stan and I have agreed that whichever one you choose, the other will bow out gracefully and wish you all the happiness in the world.”
“You know me, Barbara. We have spent considerable time together,” Archie continued. “I can offer you a good life, filled with every comfort and with the approval of your father and my family and society.”
“I can offer you none of that,” Stan said. “Only my love and the promise that whatever we do and wherever we go, it will be an adventure. The choice is yours. Follow your heart.”
Migoz2
Senator
A left-field suggestion: Barbara and Hazel end up together, and the developing bromance between Stan and Archie turns into something stronger...............
Well guys, I dearly love you both, and it pains me so very much to disappoint either of you.. But you see … truth be told … there’s this charmingly boyish, extremely well-hung, Finnish lumberjack back in Duluth (he’s got a boner big as a white pine log), whom I never wanted to leave behind.
So if you don’t mind terribly, I simply must choose him over both of you.
It was great, though, that you went to all of the trouble of rescuing me from that nasty Dr. Darwin. I don’t want to appear ungrateful or anything, and I wish there was something I could do to repay you, but …
JUST KIDDING FOLKS. IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED…stay tuned for tomorrow’s epilogue posting.
twonines
LIMERICUS
Playful, as ever.
Whew... now I have to keep reading!!!
Doragon
Tribune
Of course. Even though the best bits have probably been spilled already and the wonderful Dr. Darwin won't reappear.
windar
Teller of Tales
You do seem to have a thing for forest products, Moore...watch out for the splinters
...But I thought your father arranged for a tree to finish off your Finn...I like that...
Fossy
SEXPIOGENTUS
Stan's words struck Barbara, who looked askance at her would-be beau, and said in a moderately accusatory tone, "Exactly how long have you been watching us Stan?" ...
Excellent chapter Windy and what an ending ... you should pause for a couple of days and seek the opinions of the voting public and let them choose lol
I think Barbara has to choose Archie, because with Stan an uncertain life awaits filled only with excitement, passion, and endless sex ... oh, on second thoughts though ...
Doragon
Tribune
I noticed as well. Maybe it's a thing.You do seem to have a thing for forest products, Moore...watch out for the splinters
old slave
FELIS RESPICIENS
After all the hints of Gwendolyn et al, I think it eminently sensible for two spinsters with private means to have a discreet apartment in the best area of town, and play tennis, play bridge, play........
Stunning even in the dark... that's our Barb!
At last I know what a dildo is...
A cupidian cliffhanger!
