Life and Times of a Priestess : Ch.13 : New Friends In Dumis : Part 1 (Section 2)

Section 2

     He drew her over to a small group of men and women who sat at a table beside the dance floor.  There were three men and two women.  All looked to Danella to be stylishly dressed, comfortable with their surroundings and confident. She had noticed them before, in fact.  The men had been engaged in some humour which had set the two ladies to retort with laughter.  They made more noise than any other table between themselves.  The three men were experienced strong looking men perhaps in their late thirties possibly early forties.  All wore moustaches which appeared to be the height of fashion in Dumis, as well as amongst some of the officers she had known in Dalos.  Their dinner jackets were well fitted and expensively styled. The ladies were finely sculpted, slim and beautifully dressed in with the wide bustles and corsets of the most up to date styles, hair neatly gathered and tied up with pins.  This would be an interesting group to meet there was no doubt, but she was tired.  Would she say the right words? Their eyes were upon her, but which was the man who had requested to meet her.

    “Danella please meet Mr Valsivar”, Mireau gestured at the tallest of the three men.  He was dark haired and flashingly handsome.

     “I am enchanted to meet you dear lady.  I have seen you dancing with Mireau tonight and I think I have seen you elsewhere recently.  I wanted to meet you.  I forced Mireau to explain who you are and I had to persuade him to introduce us.  Please call me Valery, that is my first name.” While he spoke his first part of a torrent of flattery and politeness he reached out his hand to hers and gently raised hers to his lips to kiss it, stopping his flow of words only briefly as he kissed her hand. “I must introduce you to my partners," he emphasised the word partners and unusually seemed to include the two women in addition to the men.  Danella had noticed that normally women would not be introduced as friends and equals or as business partners in Prancir, unless they were married partners, but in this case all were included together. Mercifully he did not introduce his friends by their full names.  Danella would never have taken all of that in.  “This is Alfred.  He is a director of one of my companies and a very good friend of mine.”

     “Enchanted also to meet you,” this shorter man said, but he was no less handsome than Valery Valsivar. “I hope you will be kind to us and accept a drink with us.”

    “No, no Alfred, not yet, let me introduce you all, so that the lady can make up her own mind. Whether she would wish to grace us with her presence,” said Valery.  It might almost have been rude in the high society of Dumis to impose on a female visitor such as Danella references to whether she might consider this group worthy to sit with.  How could she refuse when it was put so forcibly.  But they did it with such humour, she knew they were not mocking her, but rather laughing at themselves. And yet the question had been asked even before a full introduction had been given.  She was becoming used to the polite way in which people in High Society talked.  They avoided directness in matters of sexuality and romance often creating very delicate descriptions as a cover for the events or emotions they would really wish to describe.  And so intelligent parties would know what was really being talked of but it was kept polite.  Similarly it was unusual to put any feeling of obligation onto a person newly introduced.  But these people were very direct. She could not help but feel that she was being pressed into a longer conversation with these strangers than she really wanted.  On the surface she was free to refuse, but despite the humour of the delivery she might feel obliged to sit with them in order not to feel rude.  However they seemed lively and good company. Perhaps she would enjoy sitting with them.

     “And this,” said Valery, “is Philippe, my lawyer.  I use him on all my most important cases, but he is a friend also.” Philippe was well proportioned, slim, but not too slim, Danella thought judging by the perfection with which his clothes seemed to hang on him.  His face was still boyish and sweet despite his age in his mid to late thirties, a very pretty male face which drew Danella’s gaze immediately now that she was made aware of it.  He was a very beautiful man, smooth skinned, his eyes flashed and his smile made her heart pump faster with excitement.  Her eyes held him for longer than she needed to.  She had grown tired of being polite in company here in Dumis where it was considered wrong to look too closely at one’s opposite sex, even one’s wife should not be stared at in public.  With Ravelleon and now with Mireau she could relax and be herself, but even on the dance floor there were limits.

     Sometimes when she was on the dance floor, with Mireau tonight, she felt the urge to hold him close and open up his shirt and taste the sweat of his penis, without thought for onlookers.  But that was not possible here.  She had been raised in a place where that was possible at any time, it was applauded and encouraged by her elders, but Prancir was a nation where all real emotions and physical needs must be hidden.  Physical desire could be revealed only subtly.  Philippe was the kind of man with rare looks who drew an instant reaction from her.  In any ceremony of Pirion where the Priestesses were allowed their choice, which were many, she might have made an effort to choose such as him before anyone else, or to share him.  He was the kind of man she wanted to experience quickly while that instant reaction still burned inside her.  To miss the simple chance offered would be a great shame.  She could not help but let her guard down more than was quite polite here in Dumis.  She smiled and opened her mouth in unspoken invitation, her eyes glittered for those moments.  She returned his gaze and held if for long enough for him to become self conscious and lower his gaze at her improper onslaught.  Nonetheless he smiled back, her reaction noted and understood.  He liked her of course, that much was obvious to a woman of Danella’s experience with men.

    What men had she ever met who did not wish to engage in the pleasures of the flesh with her.  She had met a few here in Dumis, in the short time she had been here, who wished to, but had taken great pains not to show it.  These were men in the presence of their wives, men, politicians and soldiers, who considered her to be Ravelleon’s woman, and in deference and loyalty to their General refused to show even a glimmer of interest in her beyond formal flattery or the formality of flirtatious humour.  Many of them, despite being in important positions in this society of status, were lonely and shy men who believed a beautiful woman such as her to be beyond their wildest dreams and so had given up or never even begun to try.

      Philippe’s hair was lighter than the other two men, a light brown which suited his smooth skin, tanned a little by the sun.  She thrust her own hand forward to him to accept, and while he had been thrown by her obvious delight in his presence he was socially experienced enough to take up her offer.  He too kissed her hand.  “I am enchanted also. You are very beautiful.”  He was not slow to respond.  She guessed that unlike most Prancirian men she had met so far, Philippe must be quite experienced with woman.  She would have this man soon she promised herself, although she would be sensible to keep her dalliance away even from the liberal Mireau, who nonetheless would be upset.  She would not mind trying the other two also.  Valery was very handsome also and Alfred’s looks were wholesome also.  She paused to think.  It would be best not to embroil herself with too many men.  Her position here in Dumis was dependent on Ravelleon’s favour and she could not ignite his suspicion or excite his anger.  These three men might become very jealous of each other.  They were Prancirians and she would have to take care not to upset them.  It might be difficult to persuade any of them to join her embrace because the men of Prancir took the rules of engagement with women almost as seriously as the women.  The other two ladies she was about to be introduced to might be their wives, or if not, at least their mistresses.  All these thoughts flashed through her mind at once.  Philippe had already invited her into his bedroom by his forthright complement.  She would perhaps concentrate her efforts on him alone, but she would have to be so subtle as not to offend Mireau whom she already cared for and loved.

Part 1 : Section 3

    Valery was swift to move on after Philippe’s inviting complements, perhaps wishing to forestall any further developments of the flirtation of two so obviously matched.  Danella suspected that he wished to complete his introductions before returning to a more interesting conversation dominated by himself.  After all it had been he who had noticed Danella and summoned her over.  Life and Times