Like a Wisp of Steam Thomas Roche (top books to read TXT) 📖

to take up the daguerrography that until then had been only an idle pastime for him. There had been some kind of scandal, apparently, something involving an older woman.

"Here, sir!" Dodgson said suddenly, so loudly and clearly that both Amelia and Mary Ann started. The daguerrographer was striding towards the Plum-Pudding Prince, who had snuck over to a table of refreshments and was cramming his spherical face with cream buns. "You show appalling muh-manners! No, d-don't blush and hide your uh-eye, your eyes at me, sir! I'll over-l-look it once, but don't tuh-try my patience again! I'll report this insolence to your f-firm, see if I won't!"

"You're a harsh taskmaster, Mr. Dodgson," Amelia observed. "I should give you my chimera for a week or so,"

she added, giving Mary Ann a thin smile. "An impudent creature in her own right. But you'd have her sorted out in good order, I don't doubt!"

"He has a way with them, no question," Roxby hastened to agree. "Ah, but the creatures are little more than children, after all. It's our duty to discipline them. The 'Natural Man's Burden,' as our Miss Felicia Blake would have it."

Dodgson bowed slightly. "Ruh-right you are, sir. Buh-but enough of these unpleasantries. L-let's to work, eh?"

He whistled piercingly and the air suddenly filled with the whisper of beating wings.

"This," he added wryly, "I suh-suspect, will put my duh-disciplinarian skills to a ruh-real t-test."

Fairies descended in a cloud around Amelia. "Hello," she said nervously, standing absolutely still. Her greatest literary successes had been with stories of fairies, but confronted with them in the chimerical flesh, they made her uneasy, much as flocks of birds did. Each was no larger than her hand, a naked, androgynous creature with sugarfloss hair and large, impudent eyes. They were pretty little things, but unlike most chimerae, they were quick-moving and could be unpredictable. The air rang with their chatter.

"Ooo, lookit ' er! Pipe, the grand lady lost 'er shoes! Don't she got funny toes, then!"

"Shut your gob, Peablossom! She's loverly, she is! That's a real lady, there. Ooo, I'd love ter give her a great big kiss, so I would!"

"I'm goin' ter giver 'er a kiss! There! I done it! Right on the lips, I kissed 'er!"

"Greedy! I want one meself!"

Dodgson had retreated behind his engine, operating it with dramatic flourishes and quick, precise movements of his hands. It lunged forward and back, lights snapping, clouds of steam rising from it. "Lovely, yes," he said, his voice muffled by the black cloth draped over his head to help him focus the shots. "Ah good. Yes, yes."

Fairies crowded squabbling on Amelia's shoulders and in her hair. One massaged her nipple through the thin material of her dress until it stood up like a thumb, at which point the fairy mounted it, rubbing its minute sex against it with hilarious squeals of pleasure. Amelia received innumerable tiny kisses and was pinched and tickled mercilessly on every inch of exposed skin. She had to stand still for every moment of it. After a time her nervousness evaporated, replaced by the teasing sexual heat she had felt earlier.

She knew the daguerrographs would come out well. They would show Miss Amelia Lessington, noted author of fairy stories, smiling and laughing rapturously, at play with her creations. It would undoubtedly help sales, which would please Edward and her publishers, and eventually herself.

And I'll walk out of here today with stiffened-up tits and asopping quim. She glared at Mary Ann, who was laughing and applauding the spectacle of her mistress's torment.

Later, indeed. Very much so.

* * * *

"Good afternoon, mum. Come in, then, don't stop in the doorway."

Amelia regarded with some surprise the young woman who answered her knock. The girl was several years her junior, and might well have been the youngest daughter of Ma Cullen, the old bawd who normally ran the house. Her suit was cheap but well-tailored, her manner brisk but entirely sympathetic as she bustled Amelia in for tea and a chat. Mary Ann was pleased to be given an entire plateful of crystallized lemon peel. Within perhaps fifteen minutes Amelia's still full cup was taken from her and she was ushered into an acceptably clean upstairs room.

"Here I am taking my boots off again," she observed.

"I hope he's lovely," was Mary Ann's only comment, but it was fervently made. When the door opened moments later, her eyes widened. Still munching lemon, she whispered, "Oh."

The chimera was a Raphael model, a dark-skinned boy of nineteen with an obscene mouth and obsidian eyes. The clout of purple cloth hung on his narrow waist barely hid a sizable erection. He stepped into the room and shut the door behind himself. Raphaels rarely smiled, but this one cocked his head and made a soft, yearning sound that made Amelia's bones itch.

"Like him?" she asked Mary Ann. She herself certainly approved, and she did tend to be somewhat particular. She was pleased that she wouldn't be disappointed this afternoon.

"Mmn. He is lovely."

"Have him, then. I'll join you shortly. I don't want to rush but there's no point in letting him cool down meantime."

As she removed the last of her clothes she watched Mary Ann go to work. The chimera simply trotted up to the Raphael and stripped away his loincloth. A moment later, without undressing herself, she began sucking his formidable prick.

"Try his bollocks."

"Mmn?"

"His bollocks," Amelia said, pointing at them. "See what lovely great dangling eggs he's got? Like ripe fruits they are.

See if you can get one in your mouth. Give it a good suck."

"What, all of it?" Mary Ann asked dubiously. But she applied herself willingly to the challenge, and soon the Raphael was gasping, bracing himself against her shoulders.

Amelia liked that. Male chimerae were often a bit on the dull side, and it excited her to see the Raphael react so strongly to her servant's ministrations. It also bode well for the rest of the session.

"Lick it while you suck it. And grab his