Sentence The Sixhundredandnineteenth

 

A white blanket of snow covered the garden of Hill House and the Eildons beyond, as Christiane Lauderdale (born Christopher North in 1990, who first started cross-dressing in his early teens, borrowing clothes from his sister Julie's wardrobe, supplemented by other items of his mother's, and became a serious transvestite after he had left school and found a job in The Melrose Woollen Mill; by the time he met Larry 'Knickers' Lauderdale at a disco in Melrose Rugby Club, he was passing easily as a woman and the two quickly became lovers; by the time they had moved to a bijou little cottage in Bowden, Knickers having been promoted to Detective Sergeant with Police Scotland, based in Galashiels, North had already changed his name to Christiane Lauderdale and, now officially regarded as a pre-op transsexual, was accepted as Lauderdale's wife and no-one in the village knew that he was not yet actually a woman; the couple had quickly become involved in village life: Larry became one of the Bowden Ringers and regularly rang the bells in Bowden Kirk and had developed his own side-line as a Children's Entertainer, while Christiane was proving to be an excellent Bookings Secretary on the Village Hall Committee and was a great help to Larry as his 'attractive assistant' at many children's parties; she absolutely doted on Larry, he was the love of her life, but she was beginning to feel slightly uneasy about his interest in small boys and girls, particularly those who came regularly to Uncle Ralphy's house parties; but they say that love conquers all, and Christiane managed to smother her unease for she was now, like Larry, a member of The Ring of Gold, into which they had been initiated three years ago by Ranulph Ochan'toshan and Martin Elginbrod; this was where she listened to other members speaking of the unfairness of a liberal Society which claims to value and respect difference – ethnic, religious, age and gender – but still had a long way to go, especially for those whose sexuality found expression in their love for children; she was taught that this was not about abuse, but rather breaking down the barriers which a Calvinist theocracy had erected to isolate and calumniate those whom it regarded as perverted and predatory: "what tosh!" said Ranulph Ochan'toshan, "we simply want to demonstrate our pure love towards the object of that love, why should we not be permitted to demonstrate our devotion towards the children we adore?" and Christiane, who was neither a philosopher nor sociologist, was soon won over by the generosity of their Host; for she had to admit to herself, that Uncle Ralphy was certainly loved by the children he bestowed his attentions on; she had been slightly unsettled by the practice of members of The Ring, of swapping with each other their playthings, so that for those few members who were not exclusively child-lovers, she found herself in regular demand, and Larry showed no jealousy when she was closeted with Elginbrod; but Elginbrod was gone and his place between her legs was now
taken on an almost daily basis – sometimes almost hourly, for he was a randy sod, quicker to resurrect than Larry could manage – and she couldn't complain for she enjoyed sex as much as the next man, or woman) gazed out on what is normally a willowwacks, but the dense foliage of which now seemed almost etched on the backdrop of the hills; she retouched her fard, because the exertions

of a romp with Parlane wreaked havoc with her lippy and mascara, and he always liked her to be freshly painted before each session; the snow makes the world seem clean, fresh, innocent, almost virginal, she thought, she who was as far from a virgin than she thought possible, and smiled, there was something quite delightful in being the object of a rampant male's desire, and she knew that Parlane enjoyed her even more than he said, although she was also aware that he was using her as a kind of filibuster, to avoid having to listen to Ralphy's worries, his concerns that, with the unexplained disappearance of Elginbrod, The Ring had lost both it's legal protection and the wealth which his enormous copyright holdings brought them, for his Practice was now in the hands of the Law Society of Scotland, who would be appointing another solicitor to oversee it pending any final decision, and that might mean someone's nose sniffing around in their business; but she also realised that her own hormones were in a welter, she had rather ballooned over the past few weeks, rather than losing weight with all the vigorous exercise she participated in with Parlane, and she felt increasingly lachrymose, often bursting into tears at the sound of a child's voice from Ralphy's room. or the sight of a discarded toy on the stairs, and she was forever collecting these little pieces of evidence and placing them in a toy-box in the sitting-room; and sometimes she merely wept silently, feeling the tears course down her cheeks – and that meant another application of slap!