Ruth's words filled my mind with vivid images and my nethers with the tingling sensations, which I knew would be accompanied by wetness. After a long discourse, when she sighed and paused, I asked, "But, would he like the taste? Even now, my cunny has become wet, and I fear this would repulse him."

She laughed. "Oh, no! No, not in the least. Both your aroma and your flavour are designed to attract and to entice him. Have you not tasted yourself?"

I shook my head, so she continued, "Your cunny will be delicious to him, just as the flavour of his verge will be delicious to you, so you need not pause the pleasuring when you plug your passage each month. But not only then; you may do magic with your mouths whensoever it pleases. Heed well what I said, Camille; variety adds excitement."

Ruth paused to concentrate again on rethreading the needle, then she resumed, "When you have the desire and he is too preoccupied to notice, swipe a finger through your folds and dab it behind your ears and between your breasts before you approach him." She chuckled. "He will soon rise, and he will think the impulse was his own."

I chuckled with her, and I was about to speak when the bell on the door tinkled, and a voice sounded through the curtain, "Good morrow, fair lady. My cabin boy was to meet me here."

"And a fine morning to you, Sir. Camille is in there, being attended by a sempstress."

"Thank you; I shall wait, then."

My heart fluttered at the sound of his voice, and I said to him, "I am near done now, Charles. All that remains is another fitting and marking." I checked Ruth's progress with the basting. "Two minutes or less, it appears."

I picked up the strip of muslin Mary had earlier brought in, and as I bound my bosom, I said to Ruth, "Flattened like this will make it easier for your next adjustments."

Ruth looked up from her basting, nodding. "A clever one, you are. Be but a minute now."

I spoke again through the curtain, "Mary, you might show Captain Betheson the picture while he waits."

There was silence for a while, then Charles spoke, "What amount do you ask for this?"

I grinned when Mary replied, "I am sorry, Sir; it is not for sale."

"Oh, pother! I quite like this. How might I persuade you to sell it?"

I laughed. "I thought you would like it, Charles, so I purchased it for you."

"Huzzah! Oh, how thoughtful, Camille. Another reason for me to cherish you. Would you were here, that I could kiss you."

"You may come in here and do that."

Moments later, he parted the curtains, entered and pulled me into an embrace and a kiss.

Before becoming lost in his passion, I pulled my lips away, and nodding over my shoulder, I said, "This is Mistress Moore, Charles, and she will be unable to fit her work upon me if I remain wrapped in this manner."

As Charles released me and stepped back, Ruth stood to assess him, smiling and nodding. "I now see why you were so quickly smitten, Camille. My, what a braw young man he is."

Ruth continued examining him for another while, then she shook her head. "But, to work." She wrapped the basted cloth around my bound bosom and had me hold it in place at the front while she flipped the two straps over my shoulders. When she had finished chalking these, she checked her pleats, marking two of them. "Small adjustments only. This should be ready before noon."

I donned my shirt, and while buttoning it, I said, "I shall essay what you have told me, and if questions arise, might I again seek your counsel?"

"Oh, most certainly. It warms me to discuss such matters."

After thanking her, I led Charles across the shop to Mary, who was seated at the desk in the corner, and I counted her three crowns from my purse. "This is for the picture and the soap. Shall I pay now for the sewing, as well?"

"Thank you, no. You will pay Mistress Moore directly when she has finished."

A few minutes later, when we arrived at Zeelandia, Charles bade me show the picture to Mister Jenkins, and as I did, he said, "This is a fine depiction of how our sale might be this afternoon, and Boy thought it would find a place on the bulkhead above my desk."

"A superb image, Sir, but from the great interest shown here," Mister Jenkins paused and swept an arm to indicate the crowd, "this sorely understates it. Many have told me the ships bring little but slaves now."

"As we have heard in the shops." Charles pointed to one of the crates of ceramics. "I have a use in my cabin for two of those oblong bowls. Adjust their count in that lot and have a lad carry them aboard and knock at my door."

"Aye, Sir. It shall be done posthaste."

Zeelandia was a flurry of activity as I followed Charles toward the gangplank and up it. Hands aloft were overhauling running rigging, a hogshead of water was being slung aboard and a jib was being unbent from its stay, likely for mending. As we boarded and headed aft, we passed hands stoning and swabbing the decks and others who were buff-naked at the tubs, washing their clothes.

Charles led me into the great cabin, and he called out for Steward. Upon receiving no response, he swept me into an embrace and a kiss. I was still encumbered with the leather folder, the engraving and the bundle of soap, so I pulled my mouth away and said, "Allow me to set down my load, that I may properly requite."

Relieved of my burdens, we merged in a deeply passionate kiss, and when I felt Cyclops swell along my thigh, I thought to what Ruth had said. I moved to press my cunny mound to him, delighting in his throbbing and the deep-throated moan from Charles.

I unfastened Charles' breeches and as they fell to the floor, a knock sounded at the door. Startled, we broke the kiss, and I said, "That might be the bidets."

It was, indeed, and when I returned from the door carrying them, Charles' face was rather red, and I said to him, "We must remember to do such things only in the night cabin with the door closed. What if that had been Steward, and he walked in unannounced, as is his habit?"

"My thoughts, exactly, Camille." He looked down at Cyclops standing proud. "This would appear I am taking advantage of a young boy, and paederasty is punishable by hanging."

I set one of the bidets on the floor by the privy closet door, then giggling, I stood and pointed, "Hie thee to the night cabin, Charles, and I shall follow."

"Aye, Camille. To the night cabin." He chuckled as he retrieved his breeches and rushed away.

Inside, with the door closed, I knelt and kissed Cyclops. Then I bared his head as Ruth had instructed, and while I licked, I wondered how he might fit into my mouth. So huge.

I continued licking as I looked up into Charles' eyes, delighting in his sublime expression and the throbbing on my tongue. "Ruth had said you would enjoy this."

"Ruth?"

"Mistress Moore, the sempstress. I had asked her to tell me what Mother had not."

"And what of else did you learn?"

I told him what Ruth had said about my flavour, so he undressed me and tested this to the delight of us both. We then frolicked on the bed, making adventure from Ruth's words until Zeelandia's bell pealed. At the count, Charles paused his tongue and looked up at me. "That was seven. Shall I continue? I sense you are near again."

I trembled and nodded, not wanting the building to ease. He resumed, and a brief while later, I was overcome with convulsive shuddering as ecstasy coursed through my being. Charles moved up and held me as I calmed, kissing and caressing all the while.

He then joined with me, and it was not a minute before he spent, accompanied by deep guttural moans and tremulous quaking. While I soothed him, I thought to Mother finding no pleasure. If she regarded her nethers as the ugly place, she will not have allowed Father's tongue, nor likely his fingers. With a man so quickly spent, little wonder... My reflections were interrupted by the quiet snores, and I chuckled. Indeed, little wonder she was unfulfilled.

I gave Charles several minutes, then I woke him with a gentle shake and quiet words, "We must clean and dress. It nears noon, and Steward will soon arrive to lay the table for dinner."

"Hmmm. Seven bells just rang, so we have plenty of time."

"You slept for near a quarter-hour."

"Oh!" He sat up and swung his legs off the bed to the floor. "You might have awakened me sooner, that we need not rush."

I chuckled. "I awoke you now, that there be no rush. We have time to test the bidet." I sat up and kissed him, then chuckled again. "And you need to wash your beard; it smells of me."