Bleak House Revisited

My name is Miss Esther Summerson. If you have read Mr Charles Dickens' novel Bleak House you will have heard of me and the other principal characters in this text. His story is largely true but I blush to think how he exaggerated the goodness of my character beyond any benignity I can truly claim. I am writing this to shed light upon an aspect of the story which Mr Dickens seemed unwilling, out of delicacy to me, to bring to the fore.

If you haven't read Bleak House, you will not know that I was raised an orphan in a succession of charitable institutions, some good, some less so, until I was rescued by my present benefactor, Mr Jarndyce, to serve as a companion to his recent ward, Miss Ada Clare. I can never thank Mr Jarndyce enough for his generosity in trusting me to the companionship of Ada whom I loved on sight and whose welfare is ever at the forefront of my thoughts and actions. My tale begins in the fourth year of our domicile at Bleak House. I was then 21 and my darling Ada 20, and she had just become officially engaged to her cousin Richard Carstone, who was the other of the "wards in Jarndyce". My delight at this development was quite complete. I had witnessed the love growing between Ada and Richard from the day we three met and their blessed union, I felt, would be the culmination of all our good fortune, for it was planned that, after they married, I would live with them and continue in my happy role as companion and confidante to my darling Ada.

So it was that one night, a month or so prior to the wedding day, I was helping Ada with her evening toilette. I was brushing out her hair, a daily task I loved above all others, as she sat before the fire in her bedroom. The soft candlelight, together with the fire's glow, showed off all her delicate beauty. Here I must confess a tenderness for Ada not wholly platonic. The beauty of her body, as much as the warmth and generosity of her nature, played its own part in the tugging of my heart strings for her. Though modesty on her part had prevented me from seeing the full form of her beauty, I had stolen those glimpses of her nakedness that served to quicken the love I felt for her and make my own body vibrate with wanton tenderness. After some moments passed in comfortable silence my darling spoke to me with a certain urgency.

"Esther, my love, do you think I will make Richard a good wife - make him truly happy?" I smiled at her simpleness.

"My darling," I chided gently. "Richard could not love you more than he does and that alone will ensure his eternal happiness."

"Yes but.." and here I noticed a blush spread on her pretty cheek. "I know that a husband will expect certain ... favours. I have heard about ...well, certain physical intimacies that I know nothing about and I fear I may not respond in the correct way." She turned her face up to me showing she was on the verge of tears. I laid down the brush to kneel in front of her and take both her hands in mine.

"Oh my darling, do not fear," I crooned gently. "I'm sure your response will be everything he could wish." I could see my assurance was not convincing. "Now listen to me: when you are with Richard - I mean really close him - do you ever feel sensations in your person wholly different from those associated with other people?"

"Oh yes, Esther - truly I do. It is a rush of urgency - an agitation which I sometimes think will drown me in happiness."

"Well my darling, simply by giving expression to those feelings - and by embracing them - you will more than meet a husband's expectations."

"But Esther, forgive me if I seem to doubt you, but how can you be sure I will respond to him in the way a wife should, when I myself to do not even know what those responses should be?" Here I smiled at her, squeezing her hands with mine.

"Esther dearest, you know of course that I was for the past two years of my education the assistant to the head lady of the charitable school I attended?"

"Yes, of course dearest."

"Well, in that position I was ... how shall I put it ... trained in certain aspects of life that a companion ought to know to be of complete service to her lady. Can you guess what those aspects might be."

"In truth I cannot," Ada stated. Again I smiled at her simple innocence. And it was with a quickening of sensation in myself that I knew the time had come when I must impart certain knowledge to my young lady. I smiled at her again and fixed her eyes with mine.

"Ada darling, do you trust me wholly?" I asked.

"Dearest Esther, how can you even ask such a question, I love you and trust you completely."

"Very well then. It is time that I helped you to become a woman as completely as I can - a transformation that can only be fully culminated on your wedding night." She merely looked at me with eager anticipation. "Now tell me, my darling, when you are close to Richard, when you are in his arms or kissing him - yes do not blush, for I have seen you when you thought the cloak of love made you invisible to others - but at those moments do the sensations I spoke of a moment ago seem to concentrate in certain parts of your body?" Again, Ada blushed prettily and did not need to answer me. "I see they do. Do you feel those sensations here..." And I placed my small hand on her chest above the lacy edge of her shift. "...or perhaps here?" And my other hand I pressed to her lower belly, thrilling to the feel of her warm flesh through the almost sheer shift.

"Yes Esther, and ..." she hesitated, blushing more deeply. "... and in other places," she conceded casting her eyes down. My interest quickened as I began to feel similar stirrings in my own body.

"One moment dearest." I rose and crossed quickly to her bedroom door to lock it. Then returned to kneel in front of her again. I looked keenly into her eyes. "Now darling Ada you must trust me and submit to all I am going to show you." She nodded briefly and I felt sure I detected the same spark of excitement in her eyes as was at that moment inflaming my heart. I reached to the front of her night shift and unfastened the draw string. Then gently, I slid the gauzy material from her shoulders letting it fall bunched at her waist. Now for the first time, I was able to gaze fully upon the exquisite rounded orbs of her young taut breasts. The fire gave them a rose-gold hue which showed off prettily the small tight buds at their centre. I felt my heart - and the pit of my stomach - flutter with excitement as I reached out to capture the outer curves of her bosom in the palms of my hands. Her skin was as smooth as silk, the flesh warm and pliant. A small sigh of contentment came from my darling as I gently squeezed the tender globes.

"Do you feel now some of the same agitation as when Richard holds you close?" I whispered gently.

Ada closed her eyes and replied: "Oh yes, Esther."

"And when I do this," I used the pads of my thumbs to stroke and roll her puckered nipples, feeling them stiffen even more. "Does that intensify the feelings?"

"Oh yes," she gasped lightly. "Oh, Esther it feels wonderful."

My own eyes flamed at her growing excitement and I began to feel the seepings begin at the very core of my own most private place.

"Well, my darling, if Richard is a good and caring and gently husband, which I make no doubt he will be, I'm sure he will increase those feelings in you tenfold. For he will do many more things besides." Ada opened her eyes and looked down to where my hands were now massaging her beautiful titties.

"Can you show me more Esther? What more he might do?" I merely smiled at this as the growing knot of lust coiled tighter inside me. With a gentle sigh, I leaned slowly forward to capture the rigid peak of one peerless breast in my soft wet mouth. The answering gasp from Ada was all I needed for encouragement, as I first lightly kissed, then licked and finally suckled on the pliant rubbery nub of her breast. As I did so I let my hand twist and tweak her other nipple till both were swollen with excitement. Ada moved back in her chair taking me with her till her shoulders were against the high back. This to me was a clear sign of her surrender to my tender ministrations. I moved my mouth to the other breast, this time kissing and sucking on the satin flesh around the peak before centring my care on the eager tip. Presently, Ada's hands came up to the back of my head, pressing my face to her fragrant flesh. Now her moans of excitement were joined by my own, as I felt my own nipples responding in urgent tightness and the wetness gathering in the humid swollen folds of my sex.

What Ada could not know, was that this moment was something I had yearned for almost since the day we met. Her simple beauty and unaffected grace had acted as a spur to my longings the whole time I had known her. And I had waited, not without some impatience, for an opportunity to give full vent to the love I felt for her.

Presently I raised my head from her now moist nipples, delighting to see the fire reflected in their swollen wetness, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world to lean in and kiss those perfect rosebud lips. She responded to my touch with all the natural passion I had long suspected lurked behind her modest façade. I drew back and smiled at her.

"Now my darling, do you feel an even stronger yearning here?" I placed my hand again on her lower belly, feeling the muscles tighten under my touch. Her eyes were aflame as she nodded vehemently. "Then there is one more secret I shall impart to you tonight." Without further explanation I took her hands to pull her forward to the edge of the chair, then took the hem of her shift and pushed it slowly up her legs, reaching her knees then pushing it further as I slid my palms along the top of her delicate thighs. When the material was pushed to her waist leaving her almost completely exposed to my gaze, I gently took her knees and eased them apart. My heart was pounding almost painfully as my ultimate goal was revealed. Below the smooth plane of her taut belly, between the rounded perfection of her inner thighs, I saw for the first time the downy folds of her delicate, virgin sex. I parted her thighs more widely, easing apart the lips slightly to reveal a sliver of glimmering moist pinkness. Her belly began to contract in heated agitation and her breathing became more ragged as she saw me again lean forward to kiss the inner flesh of her thighs, once on each side, then move in a smooth stooping motion to place my lips and then my tongue at the core of her being, to taste for the first time the pearly essence of her womanhood.

TO BE CONTINUED