She opened the door and stood back to allow me inside.
"This is your room, Miss Victoria," she said.
I stepped inside and stopped dead in my tracks. The room was huge. There were two large windows in the opposite wall, the top panes of which were stained glass. Between them was the biggest bed I had ever seen.
At school I was used to a comfortable but functional narrow cot. This, though, was a wide and deep four post bed with the coziest looking covers, thick and warm.
I scanned the room, trying to take in the sumptuous wall-coverings and drapes. The tie backs were gold fabric with long tassles and the drapes were thick and heavy. I imagined that when closed, not a glimmer of light would manage to penetrate them.
There were paintings hanging on the walls and I began to notice they were of a rather erotic nature. Various scenes of ladies in very little clothing. Nothing too severe but nevertheless, like nothing I had seen before.
My parents were practising Methodists and very staid in their ways. The only naked flesh I had seen in my life was my own! Even at school, we always washed under a robe and bathing was always in private.
I looked up and the ceiling high above me had the most amazing plasterwork and frescos. In the centre was a huge electric chandelier. This was another first for me as my school had been lit by gas and I was used to hearing the gentle hiss whenever the lamps were lit during the dark hours.
"If you would follow me, Miss Victoria, I will show the bathroom."
Melissa led me through a large, six panelled door and into the bathroom. It was bigger than my room at home had been. Tiled with dark green and black tiles which had a raised relief and electric lights along the walls with opaque white globes attached to brass fittings. A large green plant stood in a Chinese style pot in the far corner.
To one side of the room was a white enamel bathtub which had feet like lions paws and in the corner was not one but two toilet bowls. One with a high ornate cistern above it connected by a highly polished copper water pipe. The other appeared to have a tap.
A bidet! I had heard of those but never used one. I thought it very continental.
Melissa spoke as my eyes scanned the room in awe.
"I hope it is to your satisfaction, Miss Victoria."
I nodded slowly and whispered, "It is stunning."
"Your Aunt asked me..."
"She is not my aunt, Melissa," I interrupted, "She was a friend of my parents. I don't even know her really."
"I know Miss," Melissa replied cheerily, "Lady Helen has told us all about you but she wants you to feel at home here and asked us to refer to her as your aunt so you do not feel a stranger in your own home."
"She seems very nice. Very caring, my, um, 'Aunt'," I mused.
"She is, Miss. I wouldn't want to work anywhere else. She looks after all of us so well."
I wasn't sure, but did I detect a little twinkle in her eye and a slight pause before the word 'well'?
'Probably just my weariness,' I thought.
"How long have you worked here, Melissa?" I asked her.
"I was born here, Miss. almost fifty years ago." She paused, "My mother worked here as maidservant to Lady Helen's mother."
"You are almost fifty!?" I exclaimed, "You don't look it, I must say!"
"I told you, Miss," she replied with a smile, "Lady Helen looks after us well."
I returned to the main room and Melissa took my coat and hat and placed them in the closet that was like another room which was accessed through an equally large door in the wall opposite the bathroom.
"You may have noticed another door in the bathroom, Miss. That is the servants access when you need water to bathe, or anything else related to the bathroom," She seemed to emphasise that last part again, with a smile, "So that we do not disturb you in here."
I began to be aware that, as she spoke, there were faint sounds from the bathroom.
"Now then, Miss Victoria." Melissa stood before me. "I will assist you to undress for your bath."
"Assist me?" I said, "Why? I am quite capable of preparing myself. I am eighteen you know!"
"I am sorry Miss." Melissa seemed surprised. "I didn't mean any offence. Lady Helen did tell me you would not be used to being 'looked after'. I will leave you to undress yourself for today but this house is not like any other you have known."
"No, It is I who should apologise." I replied, feeling rather chastened, "You are right, I am new here. I am used to looking after myself,"
"That is all right, Miss Victoria. Now, shall I take your dress?"
"Oh, umm, I have never been undressed before. At least, not since I was a child."
"Never, Miss?" She frowned.
"No, never," I replied. "Is that unusual at my age?"
"Oh, no, I don't suppose so." Again, I noticed, she had a small smile playing on her lips as she began to unfasten the buttons down the back of my dress..
It felt strange but not unpleasant as I felt her fingers working lightly against my back until she undid the last one at the base of my spine.
She slipped the fabric from my shoulders and I stepped out of my dress which she laid on the bed.
I just stood still, in my petticoat and stockings now, expecting Melissa to leave that to myself but, instead, she began to unfasten the buttons on my underdress. I tensed at this, aware that I was naked beneath it and she would see me.
I didn't wish to offend her again so I let the satin slip from my shoulders and quickly lifted my arms to cover my small breasts.
I stepped out of the slip and shivered as I felt Melissa's cap brush against my lower back as she bent to take it from me after I stepped out of it.
"No, wait!" I gasped. Melissa had slipped her thumbs into the waistband of my large satin knickers and was about to slip them down.
"I... I will do that, please," I said nervously. I felt strangely excited and yet afraid of these new sensations.
"As you wish, Miss," she said. Stepping back and waiting.
My arms still covering my breasts as I looked back over my shoulder to see her still looking at me.
She must have read the pleading look in my face.
"One moment then, Miss, I will get you a robe."
She was back in moments with a red silk kimono from the closet room which she draped about my shoulders, allowing me a little privacy.
Slipping my arms through the fabric, I pulled the sides around me and slipped my knickers down and stepped out of them.
Immediately, before I had the chance to move, she had bent and retrieved them. She seemed to pause before placing them with my other clothes on the bed.
"Your shoes and stockings, Miss?"
I had not thought of those as my mind was reeling due to the situation being so unexpected for me. I sat on the chair by the dresser and bent to undo the buckles.
"Allow me, Miss Victoria." Melissa knelt before me and unfastened the strap holding my shoes.
She removed one then her hands ran up the inside of my thigh.
I jumped at her touch.
"What... what are you..." I didn't finish the question as the answer was given immediately.
"Your stockings, Miss."
I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth. I had never been touched like this before and the sensations I felt did not only seem to come from my legs. I could feel a million butterflies all fluttering around the pit of my stomach.
Melissa gently parted my legs so she could roll my stocking down from the top. I relaxed for a moment then, as she removed the second stocking I suddenly remembered I had already removed my knickers and she must have seen my nakedness!
I pulled my robe tighter around me and tucked it between my thighs in such a way, I thought, that she would not think anything of it.
She didn't appear to notice and she she stood and took my shoes to the closet, leaving my stockings on the bed with my other clothes.
When she returned she looked at me and frowned.
"Are you all right, Miss Victoria?" she asked. "You look a little flushed."
"Oh, umm, yes, thank you," I replied, with a little hesitance, "I think I am not used to being in such a state of undress in front of anyone. It is embarrassing."
"Oh, I see," She said. "Well, don't you worry about that, you will soon get used to it."
Again, that twinkle in her eye and the little smile.
"Will I?" I ventured.
"Oh yes, Miss," She smiled widely now, "You are just not used to having someone serve you," and this time she winked.
"I believe your bath is ready now, would you like to give me your robe?"
I began to tremble deep inside. Naked? in front of someone? I was not ready for that yet.
"Thank you, no, I can manage," I told her, hoping beyond hope that the timbre in my voice would not give away the myriad of feelings I was experiencing at that very moment.
"As you wish. Miss." If she had any idea about what I was feeling she made no indication. Instead, she stood and led the way to the bathroom where the steam rose lazily from the hot water that had been poured into the tub whilst I was undressing.
"I will leave you to take your bath. I am here to bathe you, but I expect you would prefer to be alone this first time?"
I told her yes, I would and, as she turned to close the door, I called after her.
"Thank you, Melissa."
"You are welcome, Miss. There is a cord beside the bath tub and another by the wall mirror." I had noticed the full length mirror when she showed me the room, "Just pull either if you need anything," and with a smile, she closed the door.
I looked around for a minute before slipping my robe from my shoulders and hanging it on the stand beside the tub then stepped into the pleasantly warm water.
As I slid down into it I relaxed and let all my fears wash away, the heat almost massaging me.
I lay back and closed my eyes, thinking about the events that had brought me here.
My parents were well off but not so rich that they had servants to look after them.
We had a housemaid and a nanny when I was too young for boarding school, but that was all.
I never really knew what my father did for income, but they both used to travel to America often, although whether this was business or pleasure, I was not aware.
They often mentioned the friend in the big house in Suffolk and about their visits there while I was at school, but I never met her.
Lady Helen had indicated, when we met on my arrival, that she knew me as a child, but I must have been only a small child as I didn't remember her at all.