Mistress of the Air Ch. 20

The next day the party gathered outside the summer lodge to be met by Count Clitovsky. They were greeted with a morning toast of blueberry infused vodka; the shot, of what was practically pure alcohol, certainly woke them up.

Naturally, Lady Sally was dressed for the occasion.

"You see, isn't it lucky I insisted on packing my hunting gear? Didn't I tell you I should be prepared for every possibility," she said to her maid, looking the picture of a young country mistress, dressed in tweeds, a deer stalker hat with a pheasant feather, and sturdy, brown walking boots.

"Yes, madam, of course you were right... you're always right."

She brought one of the electro-magnetic blunderbusses stolen from the Prussian military. Lady Sally insisted this was an ideal opportunity to try them out, and that she had hit upon the perfect thing for testing it. The count and captain carried normal hunting rifles. Victoria was armed with a parasol, to protect her mistress from the sun.

"Do you hunt, captain?" asked Lady Sally.

"I don't hunt, madam, but I can shoot. When I was in the army, I fought in the Zulu Wars, before I left to pursue my interest in aviation."

"Oh, how terribly exciting. You must be a jolly good shot then?"

The captain shrugged, feigning modesty, but conveying the message he was indeed a crack-shot.

The party went hunting on foot because the density of the pine forest and its undergrowth precluded riding horses, which was why Lady Sally had chosen not to wear her scarlet jacket and black jodhpurs.

Lady Sally turned to her four submissive gentlemen, "I have a proposal for making this hunt more challenging for you, and interesting for me. I want you stripped naked. Then I'll give you a half-hour head start whilst I partake of another couple of shots of my uncle's delicious vodka before I set off in pursuit with my lightning blunderbuss."

The four men looked concerned.

It was the judge who was the one most prepared to incur his mistress's wrath, who spoke out, "But aren't there bears in these woods, mistress?"

"Well, yes. This is a bear hunt, isn't it?"

"Isn't it dangerous, mistress?" he queried.

"Don't be so disputatious; those hours in the court room have done you no favours. I'm hoping to bag one as I should love to have a black bear-skin rug for the entrance hall of Rudston Hall. You'll simply have to trust to my judgement. Now, at least if we find no bears, I'm guaranteed entertainment. Who knows, there may be a reward for the last one to be captured."

Tentatively the four men undressed. Apart from the duke, they were hardly brilliant specimens of the male species. The banker was too fat and the bishop too thin and weedy. Though the judge at one time had a tolerably athletic frame, over the years he'd spent far too many hours with his nose in law manuals to keep it.

When they were ready, and completely naked, she was ready to send them into the forest to be hunted.

"At the count of three. One... two... three."

She struck them each three times with her riding crop before sending them out in turn towards the forest. They looked comical as they ran off into the woods, their arms and legs flailing around in an ungainly fashion. It was only the duke, an Oxford blue for the hundred-yard dash, who might present a challenge.

The count's Siberian huskies, though not specialised hunting dogs, were sniffing at the discarded clothes to pick up a scent for the chase.

In the meantime, whilst allowing time to put distance between herself and her quarry, Lady Sally had another slug of vodka, whilst Count Clitovsky and Captain Wyndham took shots at pheasants. The men heard the blast of the rifles in the distance and wondered if the hunting party had started its pursuit. The captain bagged the most birds, gaining appreciative comments from the count.

It wasn't so long before Lady Sally got bored, "Come on, let's go."

She marched on ahead, her enormous bustle of Harris tweed leading the way.

On the count's command, the huskies scampered ahead, leaping and barking excitedly.

Once they'd penetrated the forest they proceeded carefully, treading through the undergrowth. Lady Sally led the way, the eye-piece of the blunderbuss fixed to her eye, not wishing to miss the opportunity to take a pot shot at one of her gentlemen.

It wasn't too long before the dogs started barking, and she spotted a flash of skinny, white flesh through the trees. She took aim and fired.

A stream of blue light burst through the air and struck a bush which, on impact, burst into flame.

The force of the shot propelled Lady Sally backwards straight into Captain Wyndham, who was directly behind her, forcing them both to crash into the undergrowth. She fell right on top of him, her huge bustle pinning him to the ground.

"Bugger, I missed him."

The captain, despite being winded both by the impact and weight of Lady Sally on top of him, was able to mumble, "It's just as well or the bishop might have met his maker. I think, madam, you may not have the settings correct. You were meant to shock a little not frazzle."

Captain Wyndham was happy to lie there for a while, the warmth of Lady Sally's body pressing on him, strands of her pine-scented, dark hair covering his face. His heart was pounding at the proximity of her sensuous curves to his body.

It was Victoria who leapt forward to aid her, taking her hand and pulling her off the captain.

She turned to him, an enigmatic smile on her lips, "Well, captain, this is starting to become a habit. Maybe I should punish you for these enforced indiscretions."

"Madam, madam, are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm perfectly fine, Victoria. There's no need to fuss."

The captain picked the blunderbuss up from the forest floor and adjusted the settings of the dial on the barrel.

"That should work if you want to deliver a tiny electric shock."

"Thank you, captain," she said taking the rifle from him. "I'll test it out on my maid first."

"What! But madam."

"Stand over there Victoria. Pull your petticoats up, and your knickers down."

Her maid obediently did as she was directed. Lady Sally pulled the eyesight up to her face and trained it at a spot on her maid's backside. She pulled the trigger. A line of purple light shout out from the barrel and hit Victoria with a sizzling zing.

"Ow! Madam, that stings."

"Excellent. Just turn it up a tiny notch for me captain and that will be fine."

After this interlude, they set off in pursuit of the bishop again. It was not long before the huskies sniffed him out. On being spotted he attempted to run off, but Lady Sally had the blunderbuss at her eyes and was ready with a direct hit on his arse as he was trying to escape. There was a yelp in the distance as the bishop crashed to the ground.

They ran through the undergrowth to catch up with him, and capture him. Lady Sally produced a leather collar with metal studs from one of the many pockets in her tweed dress and secured it around his neck. She threaded rope around a brass ring in it so she could pull her hunted quarry behind her.

It wasn't long before they caught up with the banker and the judge. Lady Sally was an excellent shot, and she was delighted to get direct hits on their backsides. The purple sparks of electricity delivered a sharp sting to the flesh and, Lady Sally noted, left a little red mark, which she told them they should treat as a mark of honour.

Not surprisingly, it took them more time to hunt the duke who was more athletic. They were climbing up an incline when they spotted him on the brow of a hill, his back to a tree. The dogs were strangely subdued. They soon saw why. Before the duke was a bear. A huge black bear, and it was snarling and roaring at the terrified gentleman.

The captain hurriedly adjusted Lady Sally's blunderbuss to a current that could kill. She lifted the sight up to her eye. The count and captain took aim, in case she should miss.

"Help!" came a plaintive moan from the top of the hill.

Lady Sally lowered her blunderbuss.

"What a magnificent creature. Having seen one in the flesh, so to speak, I couldn't possibly shoot a black bear."

The other two lowered their rifles.

"What do you want us to do, my dear?" asked the count.

"Well, I suppose I could let the bear eat him."

"That's a tad harsh, even for you, my niece."

"Give me cover and, when I get close, fire a shot to distract the bear," said the captain as he plunged up the slope to rescue the duke.

As he got nearer he approached more carefully, crouching to take cover in the undergrowth. When the captain was just behind him, the count shot his rifle into the air to distract the beast. The bear's head swivelled around, growling, slaver dripping from its jaws. The captain grabbed hold of the duke, terrified to the point of not being able to react, and bodily dragged him down the slope behind him. They stumbled into the others, the captain's momentum sending him crashing into Lady Sally's arms.

"Really captain, two encounters in the space of a few minutes. I'm beginning to wonder if they are not accidental at all."

"I'm sorry, Lady Sally," panted the captain. "I couldn't stop myself."

"Good show. I believe you have saved the day."

They were not out of the woods yet. The black bear stood up on its hind feet at the top of the hill, snarling, weighing up whether to charge at them. Victoria had wet her knickers again. This was just too much for her; explosions, daring escapes, collisions, and now wild bears.

The black bear got down onto all fours again, growled contemptuously at them, and proceeded to slope off in the opposite direction.

"That was a lucky escape," said the count.

The duke was effusive in his thanks for the captain, and the daring rescue.

Lady Sally was wistful, "What a magnificent beast. I simply could not pull the trigger. Seeing the creature in its natural habitat I can see how wrong it would be for me to have a bear rug in Rudston Hall."

They marched off back to the lodge, the four slaves, collared and linked with a line of rope, were led by Lady Sally.

On their return, it was tea time of course, so they retired to the tea room for a cup of char from the steaming samovar. When it was dusk Count Clitovsky lit a bonfire, and they sat outside the lodge, the gentlemen warming their still-naked bodies by the flames.

Lady Sally, having discovered her uncle kept a whole range of flavoured vodkas, began sampling every one of them.

There was a rustling in the trees and Lady Sally made out the outline of black figures in the shadows.

The count called out, "It's alright, you can join us."

Lady Sally's eyes flashed with interest, "Are these your anarchist friends?"