Miss Simpkins' School: Jane Read Free

remarry as expected, the humiliation and ruin could well happen anyway. Any man marrying me would expect an experienced woman to warm his bed, not an inexperienced virgin.”
    The silence was broken only by the shout of the lamplighter in the square outside and the rumble of wheels as a carriage trundled over the cobbles. Molly stood up and lit the lamps before she turned to look down at Jane.
    “What do you want though?”
    “That’s just it; I’m not sure. Oh, I’d like to experience a man in me, or whatever happens, but I reckon it would be a messy business.”
    Molly shouted with laughter. “Only if you chose for it to be. But why do you say that?”
    Jane rolled her eyes. “Well, on the few occasions I came upon my... er well, you know, one spilled over the other’s body, it looked sticky and messy. Does it really happen like that?”
    Molly contemplated her and Jane’s breathing sped up. Maybe after all these years she would find out.
    “Sometimes, but it’s a pleasurable messy. Do you want someone to show you?”
    “Who?” Jane asked baldly. “It would need to be someone very special I think. Because it’s not for love and well—”
    Molly held up her hand and Jane faltered into silence.
    “Jane, love doesn’t have to come into it. Of course it adds something extra, but believe me, sex and love are not the same thing. Lots of people enjoy one without the other. How else would the demi-monde ply their trade?”
    That was something Jane hadn’t thought of. She felt somewhat foolish, but before she had a chance to say so, Molly began to speak again. “Lovers come in many guises, and I think I may have the very man for you. You do want a man, and not a woman?”
    A woman? “Oh yes, a man please. Do you mean ladies er...?”
    “Yes, ladies do er...not all, but some, and why not?” Molly asked. “We don’t choose our sexuality; it is part of us. If men can love men, why not women loving women?”
    “No reason, I just hadn’t thought of it,” Jane said. “Now I have, and I want a man, please. One who will show me everything there is, and teach me how to be involved. Then, if I ever do have to remarry, at least I can do so on equal terms.”
    “Have to?”
    Damn. Jane wanted to kick herself. She aught to have known Molly would pick up on her terminology. “At the moment I’m able to live my own life, but sooner or later I suspect some well meaning relative will interfere. Probably my uncle, who will decide my single life is a waste. He grieves for John, and has always seen me as a surrogate daughter. In his mind women need a man. He always said how sorry he was that John and I were first cousins and he disapproved of such close relatives marrying. It’s as well, for John was the brother I never had. It would have seemed like incest.”
    “I can understand that. It may take a while, but I do have a candidate in mind. I’ll get back to you when I have spoken to him. Where do you want your initiation, for want of a better word, to happen?”
    Jane blinked. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. Certainly not where they might be discovered. “Um...”
    “It’s all right. If he agrees, he and I will arrange things. Can you be available to leave town at short notice without alarming anyone?”
    “Let me see.” Jane thought rapidly. “Yes, well if you give me a day’s notice, I can say I need to visit Leenie, my old nanny. Whenever I go there I go alone, for she has no space for anyone else in her house. Allegedly. In fact there’s plenty of room, but it’s our time without rules and regulations. Just me, her, and Pootie.”
    “Leenie? Pootie?”
    “Ah,” Jane said and giggled. Really it was becoming a new habit. “Miss Lenzie, and her, well man friend I think you could say. General Postlethwaite. They’ve lived together this past ten years, and if ever I need to escape it’s to them in Yorkshire I go.”
    “That sounds perfect. Yorkshire is a fair distance and news won’t travel