Victoria's Misfortune

Prologue

Victoria was born to Charles and Mary Sessions on the 3^rd of June 1894. She was named after Her Majesty Queen Victoria, stressing her parent’s loyalty to the crown and to the establishment within the country.

Charles was a middle-class businessman, with pretensions towards becoming upper-middle class — perhaps even gaining a title one day. His wife was the youngest daughter of a successful entrepreneur. Charles saw it as an opportunity to extend his contacts and to expand his own business, which was based upon the tailoring industry. He was always dressed in the smartest of suits in order to impress. Naturally, he insisted upon his wife being equally well dressed. He was used to her turning heads.

Although the couple had intended to have a large family (as expected in Victorian England), they were blessed with just the one child — a daughter. Victoria grew up in a household with a Nanny and half a dozen servants in a town house in the not-quite fashionable area of Hackney. She was sheltered throughout her life, with a private tutor being brought in for her education. She showed a reasonable level of intelligence and took easily to reading and writing. As with her mother and father, she was always dressed in the most attractive clothing.

She was approaching her nineteenth birthday, when her mother began to talk about finding a match for her. Her father was determined that this should be a step up the social ladder, but he needed to find an opening to make this possible. Then, one day in 1912, he announced that he had worked out how to increase trade and make his move into the upper echelons of middle class England. Everyone who was anyone was going to travel to New York on the White Star Line’s magnificent new liner.

The ship was due to depart Southampton on April 10^th. Charles took the train from London and hired a taxi to transport him from the station to the White Star Line Dock, where he boarded shortly after 10am. He was shown to his suite by one of the stewards, while a young man followed along carrying his luggage.

The ship left its moorings at around midday and sailed off to meet its destiny (and an iceberg) in the North Atlantic four days later.

Charles Edward Stimpson Sessions was listed as missing presumed lost when the RMS Titanic sank.

*****

Chapter 1

It came as quite a shock to Mary to discover that her husband had left considerable debts behind. He had taken a gamble on the voyage in the hope that he could advance his own position in the world. It had never occurred to him to consider what would happen in the event of his own demise. Fortunately, he had retained a good legal advisor, who took control of the financial situation. It was necessary to sell the town house, but afterwards there would be no remaining debt.

The problem of where to live and how to finance this became an immediate problem. Fortunately, she had one card up her sleeve — an ageing aunt who had always doted on her. Mary contacted Eleanor, who immediately offered her the position of companion. This would provide food, shelter and an income to enable her to dress well, while escorting her aunt on her travels. Mary asked about Victoria, but Eleanor explained that she wouldn’t be able to employ her as well.

For two days Mary pondered what to do, until Aunt Eleanor rang her again. She said that a gentleman she knew would be interested in taking on Victoria as a member of his household staff. Victoria’s mother was appalled. Just a month ago they had been discussing the possibility of finding an advantageous marriage for her. Now she was contemplating putting her into service. The fact that someone was prepared to take her on, when she had never done any household work before was a minor miracle. She had no choice but to accept this generous offer.

Victoria left London with her mother the following week. Her new role was a considerable distance from her mother’s destination, but fortunately it lay along the same railway line. This allowed them to travel together.

Since being informed of the situation Victoria had said very little. Her world had been torn apart, first by losing her father, then her home and now her leisured lifestyle. She wasn’t lazy by any means and had usually kept herself busy with reading, needlework, walking and playing the piano.

Victoria bade her mother goodbye as the woman left the train. Her great aunt had sent a manservant to escort her to the house. As the train pulled out of the station and she lost sight of her mother’s waving handkerchief, for the first time in her life she felt alone and afraid.

An hour later the steam engine slowed the carriages to a halt at Victoria’s destination. She stepped down carefully clutching her large carpet-bag, which contained the only possessions she had left in the world. She looked along the platform, seeing other passengers being greeted, but knowing that there was nobody to meet her. She put her bag on the ground and retrieved the envelope that contained her instructions. She sighed, picked up her bag and walked through the station exit, handing her ticket to the collector as she passed.

It was a warm day and Victoria set off with a determined stride. She ignored the looks that people gave her as she walked past, concentrating on maintaining a good pace. After a mile she found herself on a country lane. She knew that she was on course, but she was starting to suffer a little from the heat. The outfit that she was wearing didn’t help, being of a relatively heavy dark blue material. And, as fashion dictated, the various layers of clothing that she had on only served to exacerbate the problem.

The lane was following the course of a little stream, so Victoria decided to step off of the road and rest in the shade of the trees by the water for a while. She sat down by a fallen tree trunk in a manner that would not have been approved of by her mother, but realised that she wasn’t feeling any cooler. She stood up and looked around to ensure that she wasn’t being observed, before removing her ankle high boots. Feeling very nervous, she looked round once again and then raised her skirts high enough to be able to untie the ribbons holding up her stockings.

That felt so much better. She slumped back down and smiled at her toes poking out from under her skirt.

Victoria sat like this for as long as 30 minutes. She was trying to persuade herself to begin moving again when an idea occurred to her; there was nobody else around, so why didn’t she have a little paddle in the water to help the cooling process?

The stream was about ten inches deep and this meant that she had to lift her skirt and petticoats up to keep them clear of the water. She stepped carefully from the bank onto the gravel at the bottom and stood, feeling the water swirling around her toes. Looking down, she noticed that she had pulled her clothing so high that the frilly edges at the bottom of her open-legged drawers was visible. Standing with her legs apart she could feel the cool breeze upon her thighs. Her face flushed at such a feeling and she rapidly moved back onto the grass.

Victoria had to sit down to don her stockings and re-secure the ribbons at the tops. By necessity her skirts were pulled up above her knees. With her knee raised in order to tie the bow, she could once again feel the gentle caressing breeze on her flesh. She didn’t rush to complete the task and remained seated to put on and fasten her boots as well.

She was totally unaware of the young farmhand who had been watching her for some time from behind the bushes on the far side of the stream. His hardened penis was standing out from his unbuttoned fly and he had been gently stroking it as he watched. When Victoria lifted her leg and pulled her stocking up, he was afforded a perfect view of her naked thighs and dark bush. His hand began moving rapidly as she leaned back to pull the second boot on, the glimpse of pink amongst the dark curls became too much for him. His ejaculation was so powerful that the white strings were left hanging from the leaves and branches in his line of fire.

Victoria picked up her carpet-bag and began walking again. The house came into view a few miles later as she passed a small church. The house itself was Georgian in style and quite large, with fairly extensive gardens. For some reason, she had assumed that she was going to work in a household of maybe six servants. This place must have dozens.

Her feet crunched along the gravel drive as she approached the front door. She was looking for a knocker, but there didn’t appear to be one. As she raised her hand to rap on the wood it was suddenly opened. The butler stood looking her up and down, sighed and the said; “Round the back with you girl. This door is for guests only.”

Victoria tried to say sorry, but she felt it would be pointless to apologise to a piece of wood. She turned and began to walk around the building. There were a number of doorways at the back of the house, but outside one stood a stern looking woman with her hands clasped in front of her.

“Miss Sessions, I presume?” she asked.

“Yes,” replied Victoria.

“Not a good start. The front door is for Sir Robert’s guests only.”

“Yes, I know. The butler told me.”

The woman raised her eyebrows. “You will in future refer to him as Mr. Rogers. I am Mrs. Trustworthy, the housekeeper. You will not speak until spoken to in future. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Mrs. Trustworthy.”

“That’s better. We take discipline very seriously in this household. Try to remember that. “Now, come with me.”

Victoria followed Mrs. Trustworthy on what seemed a complicated trek through the house, until they reached her office. It wasn’t very large, but she realised that there was a door leading off from it into what she assumed must be a bedroom. The room itself contained a leather-topped desk, behind which was a large leather chair with arms. On this side was a straight-backed wooden chair.