CHAPTER 11: MATRON
Introduction: The sexual adventures of a prep school teacher in the 1950s and 1960s. Chapter 11 finds him back at his school after an intense month of sex, reported in Chapters 9 and 10. The latter records the consummation with Denise of their activities in Chapter 1.
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As soon as Denise left I packed my few belongings into the saddlebag and cycled to Cherbourg, caught a ferry and biked from Portsmouth. Hustling and bustling was the only way I was going to get on. Besides, in the few days before term began I needed to wash, iron and mend my small wardrobe, and prepare some sequences of lessons. The trick was to keep so busy I had no time to brood, to wonder about the future for Denise, and Jeanne.
The term began as usual, except for one significant innovation. At the first staff meeting, there was a new matron, and my spirits began to lift. As the headmaster talked I studied this woman, and experienced that fluttery sensation in the stomach, with a slight breathlessness, that unerringly signals that a woman is sexually available. Of course, there is the qualification that she may not be available to me, but that is something to be tested.
This availability has nothing to do with appearance, of course. The lady may be more or less attractive. The point is that she has the aura. Matron had it, sure enough, though she was not consciously signalling, as some do. Indeed, I suspected she was suppressing her need, not just for sex but for warmth, fulfilment, appreciation.
I was confident no-one else present could sense this. Some women can detect it in another woman, but my female colleagues, I was sure, lacked this ability. My male colleagues were also not registering, being indifferent or simply not aware.
She was in her fifties, I guessed, with an appropriately matronly bosom, which was all of her physique on view above the table we were sitting round. Her hair was silver, short and fluffy, held in a nurse's hat. Beneath that her eyes, behind large-framed, black spectacles, were prominent and grey-blue. Her cheek-bones were also prominent and broad, giving her a Slavonic appearance, and that was no surprising, the head having introduced her with a '-ska' ending to her name. Her lips were lush, long and palely lipsticked.
She had looked at each of us, and given a little smile as the head named us, and in that brief eye-contact I had read sadness, longing and resignation. Indeed, I felt a pricking at the back of my eyes as well as that fluttering and breathlessness. Clearly, this was a woman who needed much more than bouts of sexual intercourse, and whether she would be willing to acknowledge such a need was another matter, also to be tested.
I had a feeling she had intuited something of my situation, my response to her and the likelihood I would be following up this fleeting spark of contact, and destiny seemed bent on delivering this outcome. The headmaster's wife was the bursar, but she also taught and could not be expected to do all the administration. Thus, at this new school year staff meeting we were allocated special responsibilities beyond teaching. Since we received modest bonuses, we were happy enough about this, and I rejoiced that my task was going to be the checking and security of the sanatorium equipment and supplies, to aid and protect the matron.
When the meeting ended and Matron stood to leave we got the full benefit of her outfit. A dark blue uniform cinched in by an elasticated belt with an ornate silver clasp. And when she turned to leave I noted that her bottom was quite large. I hoped I was going to investigate that quite soon, though that was not, of course, within my official remit.
My preliminary enquiries were with the school secretary; with whom I had had some unsatisfactory encounters in the past. She was now happily married and we were on good terms. Indeed, she rather enjoyed the odd cuddle and fingering when the coast was clear.
She informed me our new matron was a widow. 'She's too old for you, though. Fifty-five, and you shouldn't start something you can't finish.'
The secretary liked sexual language, though she pretended to be shocked, so I said, 'Age is irrelevant, if she's got a working vagina.'
'Well, I know you had a go in the art department, and she was older.'
'I couldn't comment on that,' I said. 'A gentleman never tells about such things.'
'You might as well. After all, you had that blonde who was here for one term.'
'Again, I couldn't comment on that.'
It seemed best to wait for Matron to settle in and get used to seeing me about the place, which meant mainly at meal times, before I made my first call. The rest of the time she was stationed in the sanatorium on the second floor. It consisted of a sick-bay with six beds, consulting room, small bathroom and the matron's own room.
I made my approach of an afternoon after three weeks, having checked there were no patients in the sick-bay. I reached the suite without being seen and pushed open the door of the consulting room. Matron was checking and putting away supplies.
She was not surprised to see me, knowing I was to help her keep track of her supplies and records. So for the first half hour we checked her drugs cupboard, amending the inventory and noting what purchases were needed. After that she made tea, and we chatted and exchanged parts of our life stories.
I let her know that I had spent August in France and had returned sad and in need of her sympathy and ministrations.
'Are you sick?' She asked.
'In a way, yes,' I said.
'What way you are sick?'
I moved towards her. 'The way you are, I think,' I offered.
'Explain me,' she said.
I reached for her and gathered into an embrace. She didn't resist. 'There is only one cure,' I said, 'And it begins like this.' I bent forward and down to place my lips on hers.'
Again, she didn't resist, so that we kissed for a good while. Then she pushed me gently away, and said, 'That was nice, but I still not know why you are here.'
'I think you do, though,' I said, gathering her up again, for another lengthy kiss.
When she pushed me away the second time, she said, 'This is not good thing. It is scandal, and I am so older than you.'
'Just a matter of not being found out,' I said, 'And the age difference is not important.'
'But you assuming I am willing to do things with you. Maybe I don't want.'