Title: Restraint
Author: Fallenbelle
Rating: T/Teen for sexual matters
Spoilers: 812-The Devil Wears Whalebone
Summary: On his wedding night, William discovered that he had a serious predilection for corsets.
Notes: Does anyone else believe that William has a corset fetish after watching this episode? This is also my attempt to reconcile William's piety and perceived chastity (before marriage) with his smooth romantic moves that hint at experience. Let me know if this worked. Also, I am a terrible person for having written this.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the show, or else my student loans would be paid off if I did.
On his wedding night, William discovered that he had a serious predilection for corsets. Admittedly, he'd always been a little more than curious about the foundation piece than propriety dictated, but he had no idea how erotic the piece could actually be. He was supposed to be helping Julia out of the garment, but instead he found he was fascinated and aroused at how the garment ever so gently controlled and restricted her body while concealing her true form from the view of others. He couldn't help but take his time and examine the corset completely- examining the foundation piece with his hands-ever so slowly driving his bride mad with desire-noting how her breath hitched as he pulled on and tightened the laces and particularly the little gasps and moans she made as he slid his fingers alongside the edges and sometimes even under it.
He'd never seen Julia in such a fitful state, and quite frankly, it aroused him like nothing else ever had; taking him to dark places that he had long avoided but couldn't help but eventually be attracted to.
As he became a young man, he noticed that just as the girls of his village began to develop bodies that differed from his in an oh so intriguing way, and as they put their skirts down and hair up, they also began to walk differently than before, and they no longer played with as much abandon as they had previously. He'd eventually gleaned (secretly) from hushed conversations amongst his female classmates that the corsets they were now required to wear restricted their movements and made tasks they used to perform easily quite difficult.
William thought it curious, but didn't give it much thought beyond it being another piece of clothing. But when he went away to school with the Jesuits, talk amongst the boys in the dormitories often shifted to girls and sometimes even their corsets, along with the best ways to convince them to let you remove it so you could touch and gaze upon what was underneath. The older boys portrayed themselves as knowledgeable experts in this area and often bragged about how many girls they had gotten to know in this scandalous way, but William was always skeptical of their numbers, and thought much of it foolhardy bragging.
Still, when William went home for a brief visit at age 15, the knowledge shared in the dormitories proved quite useful in removing Mary William's corset behind the Rectory after Mass one Sunday. Not only had she allowed him to take it off (as well as give him a few pointers in how to better accomplish it), she had also allowed him to slip her chemise down and touch her beautiful breasts with his hands and mouth-an act William would remain forever grateful for.
He would have tried to convince her to allow him to undress her completely and further his explorations and experiences if the voices of her parents calling for her hadn't ended their investigations. Just as she had explained to remove the corset, she also hurriedly taught him how to fasten it back into place before she ran to rejoin her family-who thankfully remained none the wiser.
William would have liked to have known her better, but upon his next visit instead of finding her waiting for him as he had hoped, she was instead just recently married and quite far along with child-she'd apparently had to marry rather quickly, the rumors said. He was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to continue his education of women with her, but he was also reminded that if he wasn't careful, his explorations could bring responsibilities he wasn't ready for just yet.
Yet after he left the Jesuits, that didn't stop him from removing a few more corsets in some heated yet awkward fumblings in the dark of the dense woods at various logging camps. Rather than chase them as some of the men had to do, many of the girls and ladies approached him- with some even offering to allow him to become acquainted with them biblically as only a husband should, but remembering that he didn't yet want the burden of a wife and family, he always resisted.
Thus, a corset had really just been a troublesome article of clothing to grapple with, an impediment to overcome when he was trying to get closer to a young lady. He'd never considered the erotic implications until the first time he was with Julia on their wedding night, and he'd been able to take his time and discover and explore-there was no hurry now.
Thus his appreciation of the corset began in earnest.
He liked how the corset was removed only in the privacy of the home and how it was the epitome of propriety; William believed in propriety.
At least in public, that is. Behind the closed doors of their suite, William enjoyed nothing more than being anything and everything but proper. He could remove his suit and particularly his tie and was free to be the man he held in check all day, and Julia let down her hair and often changed into a flowing tea gown.
Thus it became one of their favorite games: Who would dominate the evening's proceedings? If he got to her corset first, he was in charge. If she reached his tie (his own article of restraint) before he got to her corset, her desires were his orders. If it were his night to be in command, he would undress Julia at his leisure, taking time to enjoy her heaving bosom and watching her come undone as he teased her into the sweetest turmoil.
If he were forced to name exactly what it was about a corset that intrigued him, he'd be hard-pressed, but he supposed it would have to be how the garment showcased, highlighted, and even exaggerated the curves of a woman's body. How the garment ever so enticingly thrust up a bosom to heave ever so intriguingly, how it tapered down to her waist and swelled back at out the hips, encasing a woman's torso in lace and steel-a most delicious contrast.
It was the fact that the stiff and unyielding foundation hinted at how soft and yielding the flesh beneath it that excited William more than he cared to admit. He'd also be loath to confess that the way it molded and controlled a woman's body was quite arousing.
Thus, as he stood in his office looking at the corset, he couldn't resist the temptation to show it to Julia. Despite the fact that the model had died wearing the corset, he still couldn't wait to take it home, where he hoped that they could examine it together. If it spurred other conversations or activities related to ladies undergarments, well, those things sometimes happened.
Perhaps he and Julia could even undertake a little experiment-they did work exceedingly well together.
And if this experiment excited him more than others, well, that's just the way some things turned out. It couldn't be helped. Those things sometimes happened too.