The Abbey Farm Curse. Ch. 14

The Abbey Farm Curse

Chapter Fourteen.

I was up bright and early the next morning, looking forward to hearing Rhys explain himself, but it seemed I would have to wait for that pleasure. There was a note clipped under a magnet on the fridge door telling us he'd gone to visit some old friends and he'd be back around six. He'd not mentioned anything about it the evening before, and I rather suspected it was a spur of the moment decision. Oh, well, I didn't doubt time would tell.

It wasn't long before the girls put in an appearance. Willow got up first, followed about fifteen minutes later by a very subdued Angie.

'You ok?' I asked her.

'Me? Yeah, I'm fine,' she answered, looking anything but.

'I suppose you heard Rhys with me last night?' she asked after a short pause.

Willow and I both nodded without speaking.

'I'll tell you about it in a while, when I've got my head around it. But it wasn't the best thing that's ever happened.'

'Well, whenever you want to talk....' Willow told her, taking in her mood.

Angie nodded and we sat down to an unusually quiet breakfast. Willow looked at me with questioning eyebrows as Angie stared at her bowl and moved the cereal around inside it. I shrugged in answer, not knowing what to say. After a few minutes Angie pushed her bowl to one side and announced she was going for a shower, and with that she rose abruptly from the table.

'But you've just showered,' Willow reminded her, sounding confused.

'And now I'm going to have another,' Angie shot back, stalking from the kitchen.

'I've no idea,' I told Willow, forestalling the question I could see on her lips, and we both continued to gaze thoughtfully at the table.

It was strange, Rhys having shot off like he had and then Angie looking as though she'd just lost her last penny, but I'd no idea what the problem was. I supposed it must have been something that had happened between them, but I'd not heard any raised voices, or anything else that might hint at a disagreement. Then a thought struck me.

'You don't suppose they went into another time window, do you? That might account for it, because I don't think he'd react well'

'Quite possibly,' Willow replied, her face brightening at a possible solution, 'and perhaps it'll have taught him some manners.'

I wasn't going to slag my brother off, but I couldn't help but agree and so I just gave a noncommittal grunt.

We turned our attention back to our food and awaited Angie's return, hoping for a confirmation and a report of when they went to. I've said it before, but one thing about Angie is her ability to bounce back. It was a little while before she returned to the kitchen, but she was completely changed both in the way of clothing and mood. She had replaced blue jeans with a bright summer skirt and it seemed with it had returned her normal bright personality.

'Right,' she said, as she sat back down to the table. 'I'm going to tell you about Rhys last night and then I'm going to forget about it.'

That sounded ominous. Willow placed a coffee in front of her and sat beside me to hear what she had to say.

'Okay. Well, we all went to bed and as per bloody usual in this place, no sooner had I taken my clothes off than I started to feel randy, and I mean really randy. Not to put too fine a point on it I think I would have welcomed a football team last night.' She looked at us to make sure we were listening, carrying on when she saw she had our complete attention. 'I was sure one of you would come to me, and I sort of wanted it to be Rhys, though I'm damned if I know why now - perhaps just to complete the set if that doesn't sound too shocking. So anyway I lay there and waited and sure enough he turned up in just his shorts with a damn great erection sticking out in front of him through his flies. It was bit gross to make that sort of entrance, but I was too hot to care, and he's got quite a weapon there too -- bigger than yours Gary, sorry.'

She smiled crookedly at me to take any possible sting out of that remark.

'The first thing he asked was why I hadn't gone to him instead of calling him to me -- which I hadn't, of course -- cheeky sod. So we had a bit of an argument about it and I nearly told him to fuck off, but then the abbey urge won again and in the end I let him get in bed with me. That was a mistake. He didn't make any attempt at foreplay, he just climbed between my legs and pushed it into me, but then I was so fucking horny I didn't want to wait anyway. I came almost straight away.'

'I heard you,' giggled Willow.

'I'm not surprised, I came really hard.' Angie looked at me.

'Yep, I heard it too, and it sounded like you enjoyed it.'

'Up to that point I did, even though there was absolutely no technique to it, because it's what I needed right then. But, because I'd come so quickly I wanted to come again, but I needed a little while to build up to it. The trouble was Rhys was pounding away at me trying to get himself off. It was as if he was using my pussy to wank with. You know what I mean?'

She looked at us for understanding and we both nodded sympathetically. We were beginning to get the picture of a selfish lover and a chauvinistic bastard.

'But he'd got me going again and I didn't really care, so long as he didn't stop. But he did. He came quite quickly when he got going, and all he did was shoot his load up me and then collapse in a heap on top of me, and he's fucking heavy. By then I was getting close to coming again and I didn't want that to be it, you know? I wanted more, a lot more, but he left me high and dry.'

Again Angie looked for sympathy and got it.

'So then he pulled out of me, well, he slipped out really, and straddled me so that his cock was in front of my face. Then, do you know what he did?'

Of course we didn't, although I suspected I might, so we shook our heads dutifully and waited for her to tell us.

'He said 'clean it up for me' and pushed his cock into my mouth. Now, I've tasted spunk before, and I've tasted myself before, but his slimy, wet cock wasn't nice to suck on, especially as it had gone all soft. I only did it really because I was too horny to argue and I thought he wanted me to get him hard again so he could fuck me again. But it wasn't that. What he really wanted to do was humiliate me, because he knelt on top of me so I couldn't move. Then he pulled his thing out of my mouth and started wiping it all over my face.'

Willow gasped at this and I felt anger and humiliation myself that she had had this happen to her.

'Then he stood up and started insulting me, saying really nasty things.'

'What sort of things?' Willow asked her.

'He said if I ever needed to earn my money on my back I was such a crap fuck I'd starve to death. And then he called me a fat pig and a no-good slut with spring-loaded knees who would take any cocks going. Then he up and left. He made me feel so fucking used it was almost as if I'd been raped.' Angie paused and then her face brightened a bit. 'But I've got a bit of my own back. I found his boxer shorts where he'd left them in my room, so I've put them through the shredder and then put the bits back in his drawer.'

Typical Angie, and good for her.

'We thought you might have gone back to another time again, and that might have given you grief,' Willow spoke for both of us. 'We never thought he might be so nasty.'

'I wish we had gone back. I'd have fucking well left him there in the past.'

Angie's response made us smile. We knew we didn't actually 'go' anywhere, so she couldn't leave him, but in the circumstances the idea appealed to us all.

'You know why he insulted you, don't you?' Willow continued.

Angie shook her head. 'No. But I know I didn't deserve it.'

'No, you didn't. He did it because he was ashamed of himself for needing to have sex with you, and he wanted to transfer the blame onto you. That's why he didn't make any effort to help you enjoy it, so he could look on you as an object instead of a person.'

Willows insightful summing up was probably very close to the truth, but I didn't feel as forgiving, especially remembering other sexist traits he'd revealed.

'There could be another reason for his behaviour,' I put in calmly.

'What's that?' asked Willow.

'He's a bullying arsehole!' My blunt answer raised a grin from both girls.

'I'm not fat, am I Gary?'

She asked it suddenly, and the fact she had needed to ask at all showed how Rhys had affected her.

'No, sweetheart,' I told her, 'you're delightfully built.'

In my eyes she was, she had full breasts and a lovely rounded arse, but it must be said that it wouldn't have taken too much extra to put her on the fleshy side.

'It's just that... Well, I want people to fancy me, not be put off.'

'How can people not fancy a girl looking like you?' I asked, deliberately laying on the flattery. 'You know that I do.' I meant it too.

'So do I,' Added Willow, taking her hand in hers.

I got up from the table and went to pour three more cups of coffee, needing to do something to deflect the anger that was building because of my brother's conduct. But rather conveniently for my mood, while I was doing it the builders unexpectedly arrived intending to begin the plastering, and the entire subject was put on hold while I found out what they were doing here on the wrong day.

Their excuse for arriving early was that another job had been cancelled so they thought they'd do ours. 'Cancelled' almost certainly meant that the incompetent lot had probably been sacked, and I suppose if I'd been out and the girls had let them in, they would have plastered over the wiring that the building inspector needed to check, so that we'd have had it all to do again. I'd had enough of a crew that thought they could do as they pleased, so I lost my temper and sacked them from this job as well. Now the first job on Monday was to find another firm of builders, preferably one that could adhere to instructions.

No sooner had I sorted them out than the drain laying team were on site, and as the embryonic dairy was now connected in, they wanted to know what I needed doing next. Even though they had written instructions and drawings it took a while to get through to them what I needed for the livestock drains and why they couldn't be connected in with the manufacturing side, but eventually they understood and I headed back to the house for my long delayed coffee. There must be such a thing as an efficient workman somewhere.

Even then life wasn't straightforward, because as I put my hand on the door handle the building inspector arrived to take a look at the rewiring. He was early too, but I'd have to put up with him. Coffee would wait a little longer.

He was friendly enough and very efficient, but having a job put under the spotlight is always a bit stressful, not knowing if it would get the thumbs up, and I escorted him in with bated breath. But it seems the firm of electricians we were using were known to him and he held their work in high esteem, so although he did all the checks he was supposed to, he wasn't perhaps a picky as he would have been with some outfits and everything passed muster quite easily.

At least the most important job of the day had gone alright, but it was late morning by the time I managed to climb the stairs and head for the kitchen, and by that time I was feeling rather stressed out. What a shame Rhys wasn't there.

Willow and Angie were in the living room, and so I made myself the much needed and long awaited coffee and went to join them.

'Sorry Angie,' I said to her, harking back to our interrupted discussion, 'I didn't mean to run out on you. How are you feeling now?'

'I'm ok Gary. Actually I'm feeling quite a lot better than I did. At least I know I've got two good pals here in you two.'

'That will always be true,' I told her.

'So what do we do now, then?' I asked them both after a moment, changing the subject.

'In what way?' asked Willow.

'Well, now we know Rhys is going to be a hindrance rather than a help, another day has passed and Ma turns up in a couple of days' time, and we still don't have a clue what we need to do.'

'We keep shagging, and hope!'

That was Angie's contribution.

'Even that won't be so easy now Rhys is under the same roof,' I told her. 'He's not likely to turn a blind eye to us bed-hopping all over the place, is he?'

'Don't say it like that Gary, you make it sound so sordid.' Willow was blushing and frowning.

'Sorry Will, but that's how it would look to any outsider. They wouldn't understand the reason behind it.'

We all fell silent for a while, lost in our own thoughts. I was remembering how this thing all started with a pair of erect nipples.

'Can you remember?' I said suddenly, thinking out loud, 'how we were all trying to find that imaginary draught the first day we were here. If we'd realised what it meant, we'd have all packed up and gone back where we'd come from.'

'Do you know?' Willow sounded surprised. 'I'd never made the connection. Until you said it, it had never occurred to me that my nipples sticking out like chapel hat pegs had anything to do with something so creepy.'

'It was the house dropping early hints,' I told her, smiling.

'And it dropped an even bigger one the next night when we came past and heard you at it,' Angie reminded her of her noisy masturbation.

'I bet it's why I wanted you to watch me, isn't it, because the house was manipulating me.'

'Hadn't you figured that out?' Her naivety surprised me.

'Not until now.'

'Shame we didn't watch you,' Angie grinned, 'while we were still a bit innocent.'

Willow cocked her head to one side in query.

'Well, if we did it now, we'd know why and it wouldn't have the same thrill, would it?' Angie explained.

'No, I suppose not, but it would still be nice, and I guess we'd both be less inhibited about doing it now as well.'

'True,' Angie grinned and went on, 'so sing out if you get the urge, maybe we can put on a show for each other.'

'In which case, the next time you hear those sorts of noises from my room, don't wait outside, come in.'

I sat listening to this exchange and it struck me how much the place had changed us. A conversation like that would have been unthinkable before we moved here, so maybe moving to the abbey had been no bad thing in some ways. Not that I'm advocating too much casual sex, of course, but I do believe in an open mind and I do think that sex is there to be enjoyed in any way that takes your fancy. If mutual masturbation floats your boat, then wank away, and if Willow and Angie decided that's what they wanted to do, then I would be first in the queue for seats. But be that as it may, we still weren't any closer to curing the abbey of its problems, and with Rhys such a no-hoper it was difficult to see how to move forward. Two days, that's all the time we had before brown stuff and fan got together. We had to try and do something.

'It may be....' I began, thinking out loud once again. 'It may be we don't have to screw the arse off of each other to solve this. So maybe Rhys being here won't matter.

'Go on,' Angie prompted.

'Well, it's occurred to me that the only time we opened a time window without having sex was where the pool used to be, and that was the only time we went there. How about we go there again and see what happens?'

'No.' she answered definitively, making both me and Willow to look at her sharply.

'No,' she repeated, 'how about we go up to the church and see what happens?'

Two mystified people gazed at her, waiting mutely for an explanation.

'I'm not sure how to describe it. I still feel randy this morning, but I'm a bit scared I won't enjoy sex anymore after last night, so if it's going to happen I want to be pushed into it a bit. Do you know what I mean?' She looked at us, hoping for our understanding but still seeing two puzzled faces.

'Well.' she tried again. 'It's like if you fall off your bike. You have to get back on straight away, don't you? So I need to get back on my sex bike, but I'm scared to and I figured if we go to the church then I won't get the choice, because it'll make me do it anyway.'

'Yes,' said Willow sagely, as reluctant understanding dawned, 'you might be right at that.'

I could vaguely see where Angie was coming from, though I wasn't quite so sure about her proposed cure. In any case, after the morning I'd had I wasn't in the mood for sex. Yeah, I know, unusual isn't it?

'So let's go over there now.'

Typical Angie, she gets an idea and it has to be followed up straight away.

'I don't know, Angie,' I tried to stall, 'what if nothing happens?'

'Then nothing happens.' It was her turn to look perplexed.

'Won't it make things worse?'

'How can it?'

There was a pause as she looked thoughtful.

'I've had an idea,' she said, 'and here's what I think might work. I reckon we should all practise a bit of do-it-yourself, I mean I've seen you come, and it's time you watched me -- and Will, if she's cool with it?'

'You want us to bring ourselves off in front of each other?' The surprise in Willows voice was obvious.

'Yes, why not. Then if anything develops, that's fine, and if not, then we've just given each other a free show.'

It was Willows turn to pause for thought. 'All right,' she said eventually, 'you're on. It'll be nice to have everything out in the open, as it were.'

I didn't have an answer to that, and so fifteen minutes later we were all settling ourselves within the church ruins. I felt about as sexy as cold mashed potato and so I was hoping nothing would happen. I was feeling coldly practical instead of hot and sexy.

'What shall we do about Rhys?' I asked.

'Keep him out of my bedroom,' Angie answered promptly and forcefully.

'That goes without saying, but it's not what I meant.'

Angie was sitting with one knee raised and I noticed how soft and smooth her thigh looked.

'What,' I continued, 'are we going to do about the house, with Rhys acting the way he is? Because he's not going to help us, is he? In fact the chances are he'll think we're nuts and try to stop us.'

Just for a moment I thought I caught a quick glimpse of pink panties under Angie's skirt.

'I've got a more important question,' Willow interrupted my train of thought, 'if I'm feeling adventurous and I want to play, how will I know it isn't Rhys outside my bedroom door? I'd hate to invite him in by mistake because I'm sure he wouldn't settle for watching.'

'That's easy,' Angie told her. 'You'll soon get to know his footsteps and until then me and Gary will shout 'goodnight' as we go past. So don't invite anyone in who hasn't said goodnight first. Easy, isn't it?'

'Do you expect to feel adventurous?' I asked her.

I could see that Angie's panties were peach, not pink.

'I feel adventurous now, let alone at night.'

I looked across at Willow, who had adopted the same position as Angie and was showing her white underwear even more blatantly. My cock began to twitch inside my own pants. Coldly practical was warming up.

'Me too,' Angie told Willow. 'Do you want to do it?'

'What? Now?' I could hear arousal in Willow's voice.

'Why not? That's what we said, and I'm game if you are.' Angie's voice held the same breathless excitement.

'Alright, let's do it.'

By now my cock had outgrown its surroundings and was straining for release. I reached surreptitiously and tried to work it into an easier position. All thoughts of a serious discussion were now out of the window.

'You can join us, if you feel like that.' Willow looked pointedly at my erection.

I thought about it for around half a second and then reached for my zipper. 'You're on.'

In unison the girls raised their haunches to lift their skirts and ease their panties over their hips. But that was as far as they were going to get, because at that point the familiar feeling of vague disorientation and the narrowing of our vision announced another look into our past. My last thought as the world closed in was one of frustration at being robbed of another chance to watch them bring themselves off.

As usual both sight and hearing were a little fuzzy around the edges when we came back to from nothingness. It is a long jump from imminent sex to historical travelling and our journey had caught us all unawares. We gazed around in some confusion, but it was immediately apparent where and when we had ended up. We were in the Iron Age, sitting in a little group at the edge of the ring of trees encircling the old druidic alter, the girls still clutching at the waistbands of their skirts and me with my hand still on my zipper. We hastily reoriented ourselves, letting go of our clothing and sitting back down to take in our surroundings.

We'd got used to being shunted back and forth along the length and breadth of history at the whim of our property, so being whisked back a couple of thousand years no longer fazed us. But this time we became scared -- no, maybe not merely scared, maybe horrified as well. Not from where we were but from what we were very reluctant witnesses to.

This time there was no doubt as to 'when' we were, it was very obviously the first century A. D. during the Roman conquest of Britain, because the altar was surrounded by a motley band of Roman infantry, professional soldiers, tough men, rough men, and as hard as only soldiers who have seen action can be. The unfair thought that Rhys would have been at home with them leapt unbidden into my mind. Even though we knew for certain we were simply not there as far as these men were concerned, we couldn't help but shrink back from them, not wanting to attract their attention.

'Fucking shit! I didn't expect this!' exclaimed Angie, grabbing hold of my arm for reassurance.

'Nor me,' I answered, trying to make out what was happening and trying not to look worried.

It was reminiscent of a crowd of kids watching a fight in the school playground, all cheering on the fight, not really bothered about the outcome, simply enjoying the spectacle of bloodletting. But these were not school children and it was a very scary moment to find ourselves abruptly deposited among a gang of men who were clearly baying for blood, and even though you know you can't be harmed, instinct took over and we scuttled back into the trees and out of sight.

From the imaginary security of the woodland we crouched and watched, knowing instinctively we had been brought to see this event, and it was important to our troubles, but unable to make out what was happening and reluctant to get any nearer. But we also knew that wouldn't solve anything.

'We'll have to get a closer look,' I told the girls.

They nodded unenthusiastically.

'If we go around, there's hardly anyone at the back,' Willow pointed out, indicating the far side of the circle.

It was true. Almost everyone was grouped in front of the altar, almost as if to watch a ceremony, and as far as we could see the area behind where the altar stood was pretty much unoccupied. We stepped further back into the trees and made our way around the circle, unconsciously trying hard not to be seen by keeping just over the rim of the slope, even though we knew we were actually already invisible in this time. It took us several minutes to find our way round and all the time we could hear the cheers and catcalls of the men and see them waving and jumping with enthusiastic applause. We didn't know what we were expected to see, we only knew we needed to see it, and we realised somehow it wouldn't be pleasant. Even so, we were not prepared for the sight that greeted us when the altar finally came into view.

From our new vantage point behind the proceedings we had a clear view of the altar and of the individuals involved. In front of the altar, on the far side to us, stood the Roman officer we had seen before, gazing down at a naked figure tied securely spread-eagled over the altar. The figure was the Celtic queen, the survivor of the massacre of her people, and the woman whose children had been brought before her for her to try to persuade them to have sex together. Her humiliation was now complete. She had very obviously been subjected to extreme ill-treatment, her body was covered in minor cuts and bruises, her face was bloodied, her lips thickened and her ear torn. But those injuries were comparatively minor and superficial. What caught our eyes were the clear signs of prolonged abuse.

'Oh my god!' Angie exclaimed, her hand flying to her mouth.

The woman's breasts were badly marked, with bite marks clearly visible and with one nipple almost detached so that dried blood streamed down her side. Her pubic hair was dirty and matted and her legs were tied wide apart, unnaturally and painfully apart, and we could see the livid bruises covering the insides of her thighs. She had manifestly been the victim of brutal and multiple assaults, her body used as a plaything for the men now surrounding her and now she must have known her death was imminent. Even so, there was a defiant fire in her eyes as she turned her head to address her tormentor, her unfamiliar language distorted by her injured mouth but her meaning instantly understandable to us.

'You have murdered my husband, my family and my people. You have stolen our lands, taken our young men and women as slaves, desecrated our gods and dishonoured our way of life. You have slaughtered my sons, raped my daughters and you have raped me. I am almost the last. After my death my blood will run only in those who were away on the day you came, so hear this and take heed, and be very careful how many more you slaughter in case my line fails.'

She took in a deep breath and stared straight into the eyes of the Roman, the malicious intensity of her stare making him take an involuntary step back as she began to speak again. 'With all the strength of my people and all the power of our ancient gods I curse you. You may have taken this land by force, but until upon the night of a long day when your blood and mine lie together knowingly and willingly on this sacred altar and call meekly upon our true gods for true forgiveness by their coupling you will never hold it in peace. Until that day comes I bid all our gods and the spirits of our forefathers to make you rut like animals in the fields, your sons to lie with your daughters and your wives to take their pleasure with all who offer. Your tenure will be such that you will forever regret that which you have done here this day.'

She tried to spit at the Roman, but her injured lips would only spray the spittle in his general direction. But then she smiled, her battered mouth curling into a crooked malevolent smile that took all sense of victory away from the officer and quietened the ranks of soldiers surrounding her. In the sudden silence the Roman's words sounded distinctly nervous as he gave the final order.

'Kill her.'

We had been given our answer, but when the world started to close in again a few minutes later our brains hadn't taken in the detail of what it meant.