Chapter 110 Sunlit Pleasures and a Last Embrace
In the morning, after Erika had returned from a brief trip to a tailor who
catered to European clientele, during which she had attended to some last-minute
personal business, Ju Hua came around to give Erika a manicure and to assist her
with her last bath in Shanghai.
After devoting meticulous attention to the nails of Erika's elegant fingers
for some minutes, Ju filled the bath with steaming water which she had scented,
on this final occasion, with a mixture of oils that bore the faint aromas of
vanilla and coconut.
As she had throughout Erika's stay at the embassy, Ju helped Erika to
undress, even though Erika's physical condition no longer required such
assistance. But this morning, the Chinese girl's usually nimble fingers danced
from button to button, from collar to clasp, much more slowly than usual.
"I am very sorry that you are leaving, Miss," Ju murmured in a soft voice
as she helped Erika remove her underthings. You have been very kind to Ju."
"No, no, my darling friend, it is you who have been kind to me. Look."
Erika, now entirely nude, took Ju's hand and pulled the maid gently toward
her where she stood in front of the full length mirror. As it had on her first
morning of consciousness, radiant sunlight streamed in through the second-story
window to enfold the two women in its warm embrace. Erika pirouetted
gracefully, while Ju's almond-shaped eyes slid reverently from the lovely body
next to her to the beautiful reflection in the mirror. "Don't you see? One can
hardly see the marks any more. And," Erika added, as she slipped her arm around
Ju's shoulders and kissed the girl with the downcast eyes gently on a
satin-smooth cheek, "I owe it all to you."
It was a bit of an exaggeration, of course, but a harmless one, and it drew
a shy but heartfelt smile from Ju as she took her mistress by the elbow and
helped her step into the bubble-rich bath.
There were budding tears in the pretty maid's soft brown eyes as she
sponged Erika's gently protruding shoulderblades.
"Are you going far away, miss?"
Erika felt a painful tug at her heart. "Yes, Ju. I will be traveling a
great distance. "But when I get to Vienna," she added brightly, as she reached
up to pat Ju's hand," I shall write to you. I will need to practice my Chinese,
you know. And you must write to me, as well! It will give you a chance to
practice your German!'
"Thank you, Miss," Ju answered, doing her best to return Erika's smile.
"But perhaps it is good that you are leaving Shanghai now," Ju murmured softly
as she slid around to the side of the tub.
"Why do you say that?" Erika asked, as Ju slid the soapy sponge along her
left collarbone. "Mmmmm," she whispered softly, as Ju squeezed the sponge so
that the warm water within cascaded lazily down onto the upslope of Erika's
left breast.
"This city -alla time more scary, Miss," Ju said as she gave the sponge as
second squeeze. Then she paused and looked around the room nervously, as if
to see if anyone had hidden in the closet or behind the door. "Two nights ago,
the black-shirts came to my neighborhood and took away a nice young girl.
Pretty girl named Qieu, never bothered anyone. I think maybe they were looking
for her husband. But she still not come home."
"The black-shirts?" Erika whispered, as she almost imperceptibly thrust her
shoulders back and her breasts out, aching for Ju's feathery touch. She often
tried to draw Ju out at this juncture of the bath, to distract her, hoping
that the maid's soft hands and softer sponge would linger on her sensitive
pleasure-mounds for as long as possible.
"Yes, Miss," Ju continued in a melodramatic whisper. " The Scorpions!"
Erika sat bolt upright in the tub for a moment and then fell back against
it slowly, once again plagued by the strange feeling of vertigo she had
experienced while listening to the doctor speak of the Black Pagoda.
"Who are these Scorpions?" she stammered. "What do they do?"
"No one knows for sure, Miss," Ju whispered as she moved the amber
sea-sponge caressingly around Erika's left breast. "Or at least no one who
dares to talk about it. "Ayee yah, Miss! You were right. I can hardly see
the marks, now, even the ones I noticed yesterday." Ju was more cheerful now as
she dabbed gently at the one or two faint striations that represented the last
remaining evidence of the savage flogging that Erika's froth-dappled mounds had
endured. "Didn't I tell you that Ju would take good care of you?"
Erica nodded, smiling again at Ju's good-heartedness.
Ju playfully twirled the soggy tip of the warm sponge around and around the
pebbly surface of Erika's left aureole, causing the sleepy button in the
bulls-eye to perk up a little more with each sensual circuit. After Ju's soapy
sponge had completed half a dozen laps around the pale pink roseate, the
slightly darker nipple at its center had stiffened into a taut and yearning
spike. Erika sighed softly and leaned back and closed her eyes and imagined
Daniel Kauffman's hands on her body. Not the detached and distant hands of
Doctor Kauffmann, but the questing, virile hands of Daniel Kauffmann.
She imagined him standing behind her, letting the slender straps of a
sheer nightgown slip from her shoulders and allowing it to slide gracefully down
over her hips until it fell like a silken whisper around her feet. Dreamily,
she pictured Daniel's strong, manly fingers, reaching around from behind to
touch the taut flesh of her midriff, exploring the smooth flesh that covered the
gentle prominence of her lower ribs. Then sliding up, slowly but resolutely,
until the edges of his thumbs inched their way under the soft, fleshy
under-curves of her heaving breasts, hefting them gently. As Ju continued her
sensual sponging, Erika could almost feel the delicious supination of the
doctor's hands as he turned them upward, cupping his adventurous fingers under
her lush breasts, lifting and squeezing them confidently, even as his
well-trimmed thumbnails strummed her yearning nipples, teasing the stiffening
tips of her breasts into sturdy, straining sentinels of pleasure and then ...
"Oooh, Miss - Ju must be doing good job today, no?"
Roused from her erotic revery, Erika's eyelids fluttered open. Ju was
leaning forward her, her face only inches from hers, smiling at her
coquettishly, as she squeezed the saturated sea sponge, allowing a soapy trickle
of water to anoint Erika's half-submerged love-melons yet again. Erika glanced
down at her creamy, froth-covered breasts; her aroused nipples poked ardently up
through the undulating surface of the bathwater, bravely fighting their way
through the fleecy blanket of bubbles as if they were struggling for
life-giving air, as they sought the next sensual stroke of Ju's sponge.
"J-Ju," she stammered, a little embarrassed by the shameless surrender of
her body to the enchantment of the pretty young maid's magical fingers.
"Weren't you telling me about the Scorpions?"
"Yes, miss," Ju giggled. "But Ju no think you were thinking about
Scorpions just now."
Erika tried to give her Chinese naiad a stern glance, but failed utterly,
and broke into a blushing smile as Ju placed a hand gently under her left knee
and lifted the shapely thigh out of the water, so that she could soap it.
"Then, this morning," Ju resumed her tale, as she sloshed the sponge first
down the outside of Erika's thigh, and then, more slowly, down its sleek inside,
while Erika luxuriated in the gentle tingle of her touch. "As I was walking to
work, I saw the Black-shirts taking Ming-tsu from her home."
Erika's blue eyes flitted open again, "Ming-tsu," she repeated
breathlessly, as her troubled mind reviewed some of the names she had heard in
the last day or so. The Chans, the Black Pagoda, the Scorpions, Ming-tsu - each
seemed to be a faintly remembered piece of tile in the shattered mosaic of her
memory.
"Yes, Miss, Ming-tsu. Everybody knows of Ming-tsu. She is one of the most
beautiful women in Shanghai. And don't think she doesn't know it!" Ju confided
wickedly. "But this morning I saw the Scorpions take her away in a cart and she
not look happy. Four of them, miss! And three of them were as ugly as
silkworms!"
"Ming-tsu ... it seems like I should know that name," Erika murmured, as
she tried desperately to assemble the pieces of the mysterious Chinese puzzle.
But the pieces that danced in her mind seemed to be shapeless and of the same
color, and she could make no sense of them.
"So, maybe it is good you leaving China, now," Ju concluded. She fell
silent then while she moved to the other side of the tub and finished sponging
Erika's graceful limbs. "All done, Miss," she said a few minutes later as she
reached for a fluffy bath towel.
Erika Weiss, her magnificent body still a-quiver from the steamy bath,
stood up in the tub and then stepped onto the little white mat on which Ju had
knelt while she bathed her, while Ju proceeded to towel her back and shoulders.
It was just as well, perhaps, that Erika could not see the reverence in Ju's
eyes for the creamy perfection of her north European complexion. Ju swept the
towel across Erika's glowing peaches-and-cream skin almost as if she were a
timid, feminine Aladdin rubbing a sacred lamp, looking on with wide-eyed wonder
at the effects of her pleasant labors. Diligently, but delicately, Ju polished
Erika's flesh, her back, her buttocks and the backs of her calves and thighs,
for the last time, before reaching for a dry towel.
Responding to a gentle prod from Ju, Erika turned toward the maid, who
dropped to her knees to dry the front of Erika's body. Now that Erika was
facing her, the petite beauty tried to be more businesslike, rubbing the German
girl's shapely thighs briskly. But she paused when her lovely Asian eyes lit on
the glistening tendrils that covered the soft, sensual rise of Erika's
sun-warmed pubic mound, and the alluringly pink petals of the nether-lips that
peeked through the fine-spun golden fleece.
Ju inhaled the sweet scent of vanilla and coconut, and then, as if suddenly
coming to terms with the notion that these were their last few minutes together,
she reached around and cupped Erika's deliciously rounded buttocks in her small
hands and pulled the taller girl closer, until she could feel Erika's moist
pubic hair against the softness of her own cheek.
Erika's heart skipped a beat as Ju held her close for an endless moment.
And then, moving as if in a dream, Ju drew her face back from Erika's treasure,
only to replace it with a tiny hand. Her delicate fingertips explored the soft
folds of Erika's femininity with the lingering, yearning touch of a sightless
young woman reading love poetry -- in the tactile language that the Frenchman,
Braille, had devised for those for whom the sense of touch could open new worlds
of pleasure.
Erika gasped softly in surprise at this unexpected caress, but could not
bring herself to push the maid's hand away. The gentle fingers stroked her with
soothing, circular motions that were half-innocent, half-sinful, and wholly
pleasurable. Erika closed her eyes and sighed languorously while Ju stroked her
body worshipfully for a few more seconds. Then the blonde, blue-eyed
Rhine-maiden took the lonely, affectionate girl by the shoulders and tried to
lift her to her feet.
But as Erika lifted her, Ju clung to her like a second skin, and when she
had pulled her upright, the diminutive Chinese beauty's cheek rested again
Erika's bath-moistened left breast. Ju slid her cheek back and forth against
the lush roundness of Erika's love mound, seeking solace and comfort in much the
same way that her child had nuzzled her own milk-laden breasts not so long ago.
"Ju," Erika whispered, but Ju could not reply because her soft lips had
closed on Erika's nipple as if it were a lifebuoy on a stormy sea. Ju pulled
Erika's body closer still and drew the taller woman's tongue-teased nipple even
deeper into her adoring mouth.
Erika held her tightly, offering a heartfelt embrace in return for the
affection and devotion that she felt in Ju's kiss.
"Ju," Erika whispered finally, "I must get ready. And you will get in
trouble if they come looking for you. Please..."
There were tears in Ju Hua's soft brown eyes, when she pulled away.
"Forgive me, Miss. I don't know what came over me. You ... you must think I'm
a terrible ... " She dabbed the towel aimlessly at Erika's taut, trembling,
saliva-slick nipple.
"Do not think that," Erika said, as she placed two fingers under Ju's chin
so that she could gaze into her brimming brown eyes. "I think you're a
beautiful young woman who wants only love and affection. And you have mine, and
you will have them always." Erika gave Ju a sunny smile. "I shall never forget
you."
Ju fell into Erika's arms, and the two women held each other close for a
long moment, before Erika kissed the slender maid softly on the cheek and pushed
her gently away. Having done that, Erika suddenly became self-conscious of a
nudity which had seemed so utterly natural only moments before. Reaching for
the dressing gown Ju had laid on the bed earlier, she continued, "I must dress
and make my goodbyes to the staff, Ju, and it would grieve me to learn that you
had gotten into trouble again on my account. You must go."
"But Miss, I have not even brushed your hair." Ju reached up and ran her
delicate fingers through Erika's golden tresses. She had brushed Erika's
shoulder-length hair devotedly each morning since her return to consciousness.
"Very well, then, my sweet chrysanthemum," Erika whispered, remembering the
meaning of 'Ju'.
And so, for one last time, with her eyes filled with tears, the exquisite
Chinese maid brushed Erika's hair until it shone like the rays of sunlight that
poured through the window.
When Ju was done, and had turned for the door disconsolately, Erika stopped
her. "Ju, wait. I had almost forgotten. Before you go, I have something for
you," Erika divulged softly, as she opened a small drawer in a night-table and
removed a sealed and scented envelope. She placed it in Ju's hands. "Do not
open this until after I have gone." She gave Ju a last hug and whispered, "It
would be best if you speak of this to no one - except, perhaps, later to Doctor
Kauffmann, when he returns. I think that he would understand."
Ju looked at the mysterious envelope whose elegant calligraphy limned her
own name, and tucked it carefully away. "If you say so, Miss Lorelei," she
added almost inaudibly as she turned dejectedly toward the door. Her hand was
still on the knob when a large puffy cloud passed in front of the mid-day sun,
leaving Erika's usually bright room encased in a murky twilight.
********
It was only hours later, after Erika had set off for the ship on which her
passage had been booked, that Ju found a quiet corner in a second-floor corridor
and broke the sticky seal on the envelope Erika Weiss had given her.
The envelope contained a large sheet of scented writing paper, folded in
quarto, on which Erika had hand-drawn a floral border. In the middle of the
page, underneath an endearingly lopsided basket of flowers, the German girl had
inscribed the following words:
"Thank you for everything, my loyal friend, and may fortune bestow upon you
all the blessings you deserve."
Ju smiled sadly, and unfolded the paper, from which several smaller pieces
of paper fluttered to the ground. She stooped to retrieve them, only to find
that they were bank notes, bank notes amounting to a month's worth of earnings
at the embassy. As Ju counted the bills, she realized that there was enough
money to help start a new life, to free herself from her abusive husband. But,
after a moment's thought, she knew that she could not keep the money. Lorelei
could not possibly afford such a munificent gesture. Once her friend arrived
safely in Vienna, she decided, she would have to return the money to her.
It was only then that the she saw that a second note, hastily jotted on a
small piece of vellum, had also fallen to the floor.
My dearest Ju,
Take this, please, with my wish that it might bring happiness to your life.
This morning I was able to sell the cloak in which they found me, to a dealer in
such goods, and I learned that it was surprisingly valuable. I could not bring
myself to keep this blood money, but there is no reason that it should not
bring comfort to another. Use it well, my dearest friend.
With hopes that we might one day meet again,
Lorelei
