The Artist and the Muse

"True, good job there's not more, could make life complicated," said Jane.

"Some people would argue that there are more than two..." said Mary, quietly.

This became the pattern of their days. Work in short quiet sessions, with breaks for refreshment and chat, and a drink and chat before dinner, and a quiet evening reading, listening to the radio, or chatting, or playing cards or Scrabble, with an early night. Sometimes after dinner, they walked on the hills.

One break in the routine was Thursday afternoon, when a car turned up bearing a nun. Sister Helen was apparently a regular visitor to Mary, just to check on her briefly. She was a woman in her late sixties who seemed very at peace with her world. She had barely a wrinkle on her attractive face, and a trim body. Mary told Jane after the Sister's visit that she came out every week, or couple of weeks, had a small glass of wine, and then left. They never discussed Mary's lapsed Catholicism, "but she would always be willing to if I let her."

In one painting, Mary had painted Jane with long blond hair. Jane quite liked the look, and had decided, after looking at the picture, to grow her hair out over the summer. In the second week, they had done some work down on the beach. Jane had kept her eyes scanned for people on the beach but there was no-one all day. Mary had insisted on Jane applying lots of sunscreen, and had applied it herself to Jane's back, so there had been no problems.

Each weekend they would go into Harlech. It is only a small town, with much of it being old buildings. The castle is still on the edge of a cliff, but below it the sea has retreated about half a mile or more. Nevertheless, it was quite pretty. They would wander around, explore the castle, and have lunch in a pub. Sunday was a quiet no-painting day, just to relax. Mary would do a little gardening and Jane quite enjoyed helping her. For some reason, Mary always liked to listen to the Sunday Evening hymn singing on the radio, and seemed to know most of the hymns off by heart.

Mary tried to encourage Jane to take her own car and go places in the evenings - Harlech, Porthmadog, or south to Barmouth, to meet people, but Jane would laugh it off, saying her summer with Mary was a retreat to escape the rest of her life, and she didn't want to leave connections behind when she left.

The paintings were just flowing out of Mary, and Jane began to like how she was presented in the various works. Sometime coquettish; sometimes serious, staring out to sea; sometimes with a flirty smile. It was quite interesting watching Mary find and explore different aspects of her personality. Jane even wondered about buying a painting to keep for herself when the time came to leave.

They were in their fifth week, well into June. Sister Helen was visiting while they were working, and Mary went into the cottage to get a book for her. While she was gone, Sister Helen gave Jane her card. "I don't want to scare you but Mary has been known to get a recurring bout of malaria if the weather gets really hot and she doesn't look after herself. So here's my card to call me if there's a problem. Just watch out for her getting tired and feverish, that's the usual warning."

Sitting there naked, Jane didn't have a pocket to put it in, but managed to hide it under her robe on a side table before Mary came back. Jane's nudity never seemed to bother Sister Helen, who always looked and acted so calm and controlled regardless of the weather or anything else. Jane was envious of how at peace with her world Sister Helen was.

After getting Sister Helen's warning, that afternoon over wine, Jane asked Mary about her childhood. Mary had been an Army brat and had had two periods of living in Nigeria while her dad served there, and that was where she had contracted the malaria. She had been lots of other places that Jane had only heard of from her days collecting stamps as a child.

Jane was really getting used to the way Mary liked to live. Her diet was varied but healthy, with fresh everything. "Never use anything out of a can," joked Mary, "I lost the can opener years ago and keep forgetting to buy a new one".

Now well into the early summer weather, some produce was starting to be available from their own garden, and a farmer's market in Harlech provided much of the rest. There were trout streams to the north, and a couple of old guys would drop in every now and then with a couple of fresh fish. The local grocer delivered good fresh fish too, much of it caught off the coast they were on. Local crabs were easy to get too. Most of the lobsters went to France.

They had painted a few times down on the beach, and had seen loads of seals, some sea lions and dolphins, and on one occasion, there was even a walrus laying on the beach. None of these seemed to particularly find Jane worth looking at as she stood naked, knee deep in water, being painted. Once, while painting Jane laying naked on a rock, Mary had added a sea lion on a rock behind her, but in reality they were not both there at the same time. When challenged by Jane on this, Mary pleaded 'artistic license' and left him in there. All in all, Jane had never felt so much peace since her parents had died. Sometimes she thought that time down here would be good for her sister, but then, that would have destroyed the quiet and the routine. If only summer could last forever.

That Sunday was really hot. Mary had been in the garden, maybe just a bit too long. After supper, she started sweating and then complaining she was cold, then hot. Mary got out her old thermometer and it was clear she was running a fever, but of course, didn't want a fuss made. In the morning, Mary was clearly unwell. That became obvious when Mary produced a bedpan and said she was staying in bed for a while. She was too embarrassed to ask Jane to monitor the bedpan for her, and empty it when required, and Jane pre-empted the situation by volunteering.

While Mary was napping, Jane phoned Sister Helen, who advised lots of fluids, but not tea or coffee, because they can cause dehydration rather than alleviate it. "Chicken soup. if you can make it, or Bovril as a drink, or other clear soups. Make sure they have salt in them to replace what she will sweat out."

Jane sat with Mary all day. She cooled her with damp cloths and mopped her brow. She made some chicken soup from scratch with some fresh chicken in the fridge. The doctor called in on Tuesday, alerted by Sister Helen. He was a lover of Mary's work, and had a couple of her landscapes in his surgery offices. "Would love one of her nudes if I could justify it as 'educational' to my patients," he joked. He brought hydroxychloroquine with him, and instructed Jane on its administration. "And call if she gets bad, but I have seen her worse than this. Plenty of fluids, and keep her mopped down!"

Jane had slept several times in the chair in the corner of Mary's room and was really in need of some proper sleep. Fortunately, Wednesday afternoon Sister Helen arrived, and she promptly ordered Jane to bed for three hours real sleep.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, Mary seemed calmer, and maybe slightly cooler. Jane emptied the bedpan and Mary spoke for a few minutes, but without making much sense. She was naked in the bed which did help Jane keep her cool and clean, but now Mary was a little cooler, Jane decided to sleep in Mary's bed alongside her. Wearing her full-length under-slip, she slipped into the bed. This way she could get some sleep and still be there to respond.

As it happened, both of them slept through till about 10 o'clock that Thursday morning. Jane woke up first and checked on Mary, who was much cooler. She got out of bed, and gave Mary a bed-bath while she was still asleep. As she was finishing, Mary woke up. Her fever was relinquishing its grip of her, although she still had a bit of a temperature. Clearly the medication was working.

Thursday evening, after bedpan duty and settling Mary down for the night, Jane stripped naked and slid quietly into the king-sized bed next to Mary, but trying not to touch her so as not to disturb her. Both of them slept for quite a few hours, and their sleep was peaceful. When Jane awoke, she slid quietly out of bed and put on her slip. By the time Mary woke, Jane had a glass of orange juice and a bowl of chopped fruit ready for Mary's breakfast.

"I'd love a coffee," said Mary, and was promptly refused it "until you can walk downstairs for meals. Doctor's orders!"

Mary looked at Jane. "Did you sleep with me last night?" she asked Jane. Jane knew she had to tell the truth so she said "Yes, it was the easiest way to supervise you and get some sleep myself. Even Jake slept in here with you all the time you've been ill."

"Thank you, it was very thoughtful of you."

By Friday evening, Mary wanted to get out of bed. Jane agreed she could, to use the toilet and have a shower, "but no going downstairs yet, the stairs are steep and you're a bit weak at the moment."

The weakness was obvious as soon as they went into Mary's bathroom. It was bigger than Jane's, and had a proper walk-in shower. There were even a couple of grab bars fitted to the walls of the shower, obviously from previous bouts of malaria. But as she stepped in, Mary realized she was not that stable.

Jane sized up the situation and removed her slip. "I'll join you in the shower and wash you, so you'll feel nice and fresh. Getting your hair washed will make you feel better."

So Jane got in the shower and washed Mary's hair, applied conditioner and left it in while she washed her body. Jane was surprised just how firm Mary's body was. "You've got a very firm body, must be all the gardening and other physical things you do around here."

"Good genes, my dear" said Mary.

"Just like my Gran" said Jane.

Jane carefully and tenderly, even lovingly, washed Mary down. She ran her hand over Mary's breasts, which were really still quite firm and with very little sag, despite their size. She knelt down to wash Mary's legs, and up her thighs. Mary opened her legs and Jane washed her vagina. "It's so nice to wash all that sweat off," said Mary.

"I can imagine," said Jane.

Eventually, all was washed, and Jane turned her attention to rinsing the conditioner out of Mary's hair. Mary was several inches taller than Jane, but her nipples were only a little higher than Jane's. As Jane leaned over to turn the water off, Mary embraced her and kissed her. It was meant to be a quick friendly kiss, but both women suddenly realized what had happened in the last few days. Both had become used to seeing the other naked and vulnerable. When they kissed the vulnerability came to the fore. Suddenly, they were each hugging the other, and the first little kiss became a second bigger kiss, and that became a passionate open-mouthed tongue-twisting kiss exposing both of them to emotions they had suddenly admitted to for the first time. Their bosoms touched, Mary's resting on Jane's, kind of. Their bellies were pressing against each other, and Jane could feel Mary's untrimmed bush brushing against her own bush. It was intimate, vulnerable, loving, all meshed with the relief of Mary's obvious recovery.

They broke the kiss and Mary reached for a grab bar.

"Sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen." Both of them said exactly the same thing at exactly the same time. Then they looked at each other.

Mary took the lead. "I'll withdraw my apology if you'll withdraw yours. The third time I kissed you, I did mean it to happen. And I'm not sorry it happened and I hope you're not embarrassed. I'm just an old fool."

"Well, I said sorry too, same time as you. And I can't blame being old. To be honest though, I'm not sorry for that last kiss either. "

"Prove it!"

So Jane kissed Mary again, and Mary kissed her back.

"I think you're getting better," said Jane.

"Damn right I am, and a drop of good red wine will set me up just right."

"Not sure the doctor would agree..."

"You tell him, and I'll spank you."

Jane cracked out laughing. "I'm getting more and more convinced that you are a reincarnation of my Gran. That's the sort of thing she would have said."

So Jane got Mary out of the shower, into her robe. She dried and brushed her hair, then finished drying off Mary. She found a loose-fitting dress in Mary's closet, and a clean pair of panties in a drawer, and got her dressed just in those. Then she went into her own room and got dressed.

Slowly, she helped Mary down the stairs, because Mary insisted and Jane couldn't stop her. They went outside, where it was just starting to cool off with a breeze off the water. They discussed supper, with Jane recommending some fish as being easy to digest following days on a liquid diet. Jane found a bottle of good red wine, and just as she was pouring it when, as if called by the bottle, Sister Helen turned up, so a third small glass was poured.

Her first words on getting out of the car were "I see you two survived without murdering each other."

"Oh," said Mary, "We're bosom buddies now!"

And then, realizing exactly what she had just said, both Mary and Jane cracked out laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Sister Helen, and Mary said, "I guess you had to have been there" and the pair just laughed again.

"Well," said Sister Helen, "They say laughter is the best medicine, so I guess I'll just go along with that."

"Jane says she's going to bake some cod in a cracker crust, as it won't be too heavy or spiced for my tummy. Care to join us, Sister?"

And so the three of them had a pleasant meal, and Mary actually ate a decent portion, showing how well her recovery was going. After Sister Helen left, Mary admitted to feeling happy but tired. Jane helped her up the stairs and into bed, naked as usual. "Are you going to sleep with me again?" asked Mary.

"Do you want me to?" The question kind of hung between them.

"Yes, but just to sleep. Will feel safer knowing you would know if there was an issue.

So Jane got into bed, naked. The king-sized bed afford them each sufficient space and both got a good night's sleep. In the morning, as they were laying there awake, Mary said, "This is the first time I have had someone in my bed for years. Shortly after my husband left, I had a short fling with a woman who came over from the dealer I have in the States. For a week or so, we were the most passionate of lovers and I wondered where 'it' would go. Where she went was back to the States. 'It' went with her and I never heard from her again. So in a matter of weeks, I was 0 for 2 on the lover front! Loser on both teams. So it's 30 years since I had my pussy touched by anyone but myself or my doctor."

After a pause, Jane said "Other than twice with you, I've only shared a bed with my sister, when we were young, and visitors got to sleep in my bed and I was sent to her bed. I've often wondered why people make a thing out of 'sleeping together'. It's not what people do while asleep that's the problem, it's what people do while they're awake!"

Mary laughed. "You got that right, girl. I am feeling much better. Let's get dressed and go and have breakfast in the hotel in Harlech, eh? My treat."

So they showered - separately - and dressed, and left for Harlech, this time in Jane's car and with her driving. They had a leisurely full breakfast, picked up a few things, and were back early afternoon. They sat in the kitchen with the door open, and played Scrabble until Mary announced that "The Sun is over the yard-arm" and they took a bottle of white wine outside to the patio.

Having had a big breakfast at the hotel, with Mary really making up for some of her time not eating, they had skipped lunch. Anticipating this, they had bought a large bake-it-yourself pizza in the supermarket (a fresh one, made by the store, not frozen) so they could have that when they were ready. So around 6.30, they decided to make supper. Jane added some additional tomatoes, mushrooms and peppers to the pizza, as well as a few pieces of Italian sausage Mary had for sandwiches when they were working, and they enjoyed getting into a second bottle of wine.

After supper, Mary produced some old vinyl records of 1940s dance bands and started playing them on her record player. She asked Jane, very formally, to dance, and giggling, Jane said "Yes."

Mary took the man's hold. As they danced that hold got closer and closer, and Mary's right arm was further around Jane's waist. When 'Red Sails in the Sunset' started to play, Jane looked into Mary's eyes and said, "Gran loved this tune."

And then Jane started to cry. Mary stopped dancing and just hugged Jane as close as she could. She made consoling sounds, but Jane kept crying. Finally, long after the room went quiet as the LP record finished, Jane got control of herself. She stared into Mary's eyes and said "Sorry, it kind of caught up on me."

Jane explained slowly that Gran had only died the year before and she missed her. Mary reminded her of Gran, and nursing Mary brought back the time when Gran was sick and dying. And being hugged, dancing, by Mary when that song came on just opened the flood gates. Gran was a great hugger.

Mary went to the record player and set it to play 'Red Sails' again.

"When you fall off a horse, you need to get back on before you lose your nerve. Dance with me again, but think of the happy moments with your Gran, not the sad."

The music started. Mary hugged Jane in close, and they swayed to the music. Mary sang along with the music, just quietly, as they embraced cheek by cheek. As the music stopped, Jane looked up and kissed Mary.

It was just a gentle kiss. It was meant to be a gentle kiss, but it was on the lips. And it lasted. Mouths opened, tongues danced, pulses raced, bosoms squeezed against each other. It was now a long kiss and no longer gentle. It exposed the inner passions, wants, needs, of both of them. Then Jane lead Mary upstairs. Mary passively allowed it. Neither spoke a word.

In Mary's bedroom, Jane faced Mary and started to undress her. Mary said nothing, just stood submissively, letting Jane undress her.

The dress Mary was wearing buttoned all the way down the front, about 10 buttons in all. Each was slowly undone. Jane looked at each button, never looking Mary in the eyes, just at what she was doing. The dress was pulled off Mary's shoulders and allowed to fall to the floor. She reached around and undid Mary's bra, and pulled it forwards and downwards, and it too finished up on the floor. She knelt down, and pulled down Mary's knickers, sensible white cotton ones, and Mary stepped out of them. Jane's face was almost touching Mary's thick, unruly, dark grey bush.

Mary was as naked as when Jane was modelling.

Mary spoke. "Okay Jane, think about this. If you want us to be lovers, you must let me undress you. You must ask me to undress you. Right now, nothing sexual has happened, you are simply looking at me naked. Something I have done to you for weeks. But if you let me undress you right now, at this moment, if you tell me to go ahead and strip you naked, we will become lovers and there will be no going back to how we were.

We are going to look upon each other's naked body in a different way. There will be love, and there will be lust. It will no longer be artist and model, or nurse and patient. You can return to your room, or undress yourself and we share a bed non-sexually as we already have. But if I undress you, we will become lovers. That's a promise.

Is that want you want? Now is your last chance to pull back and stop this. Once we cross this particular Rubicon, there is no going back. Even my paintings of you will be different. Are you sure you want this?...... Jane?"

Jane reached up and put a hand on each of Mary's breasts. She rubbed the nipples with her fingers and thumbs. Then she looked Mary in the eyes without removing her hands.