After a very happy hour or so had passed, Laura noticed that nobody had gone back to the serving table for more in at least fifteen minutes and, looking around the table, it seemed that everybody was done eating. The children had started to wander around, chatting to each other, leaving their plates gratifyingly empty.

“Maybe we should clear the table and get Sammie back to the kitchen?” she suggested. She was not in the mood for the hard work of stripping the carcass just yet but there would be plenty of time for that later. If they wanted to serve the puddings, however, they needed to make room on the table. Josh went to fetch the trolley while Laura asked people to start stacking their plates and passing them down the table, scraping any food remnants onto the top plate of each pile, not that anyone had really left anything to speak of.

There were several offers of help with the washing up but Laura explained that, not only was it not necessary but in fact they were categorically forbidden by the hall’s caretaker to attempt any such thing! This caused a lot of chuckles among the adults since, although none of them had ever met Mr Jenkins, they had all met enough of that peculiar breed to which he belonged to be able to imagine him almost perfectly!

Soon, Josh was back with the trolley and he and Laura lifted Samantha’s platter back onto it. The ravaged carcass was quite a contrast to the beautiful roasted girl that had come out of the oven! Her left foot was missing and most of the meat from the rest of that leg had been stripped, as had all but the hand of her right arm. Large chunks of belly were gone and even some of her ribs had been broken off and the meat peeled from them, the white bones left on the side of the side of the platter. Although her pretty, golden hair was still in place, her right cheek was missing along with both lips, her tongue had been cut from her mouth and both of her eyes had been plucked out. There was no doubt that the guests had been enjoying her meat and were eager to try every part!

“Still plenty left for later!” Laura assured everyone as the stacked plates were stowed safely on the bottom of the trolley and Julie and Gram began to help out by combining the left-over vegetables into as few tureens as possible. Soon, Samantha was back on the prep table covered over with several strips of foil, ready to be dealt with later, and the guests all happily worked together to get the tables cleared ready for the next course.

Although Laura had invited people to bring drinks and something to share in the evening, Gram and Grandma had both made large trifles to go with the various desserts that Josh and Laura had purchased or made. Most were to be served cold but the Christmas pudding needed to be warmed so Laura put this in the large microwave while she made the custard to go with it, remembering to take Samantha’s foil-wrapped liver out of the oven where she had left it to cook in the residual heat, ready for processing into pate later. This she placed on the prep table to cool next to the silver dome that was Samantha herself.

“Oh! It’s pudding time?” Ella exclaimed in delight as the first batch of desserts were wheeled out and put on the table. Like the others, she had been wandering around, chatting to her new friends, and was now stood with Willow and Nadine, her nearest contemporaries. “You know what that means?”

“What?” Nadine asked, puzzled.

“Remember?” she giggled. “Sam’s mum said we had to put our clothes on for dinner but could strip off again for pudding!” Nadine and Willow giggled as Ella immediately began to pull her dress off as if she found it unbearably restrictive and in no time at all was back to being stark naked, even more so than Willow as she did not even have a pair of Sidney boots on! The older girls seemed too engrossed in their conversations to think about what they were wearing for the time being but Nadine was feeling rather daring and decided to follow her new friend’s lead, not wanting to feel like the odd one out among the trio. Julie looked a little frustrated as she glanced over and saw her older daughter undressing but apparently decided against saying anything.

“What’s the big conspiracy?” Laura asked her brother and his husband as she passed them with the now empty trolley and saw them deep in what was clearly quite an important conversation. “You two plotting a Boxing Day bank vault heist or something?”

“No, nothing like that!” Clive chuckled, looking up. “We were just discussing finances and how much we felt like spoiling our darling daughter!” He winked. “Plus we seem to be one family member up on the deal, despite having just eaten our niece!” This took Laura a moment to understand but very quickly she realised that he was referring to the fact that, although they had lost a niece that day, they had not only gained a new one in Amanda but also acquired a nephew into the bargain!

“You? Spoil the kids?” she teased. “Surely not!”

“What was that about your darling daughter?” Willow asked brightly, skipping back over to her dads with her two naked friends following close behind.

“We were just talking about your birthday.” Martin explained. “Hey, sweetie?” he smiled and beckoned to Ella. “Can you come here a minute?” Ella approached him curiously but with a happy smile on her face, standing very close by his leg. Martin put his hand on her back and ran it down until it rested on her rump, although this move both looked and felt entirely affectionate rather than in any way predatory. “How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m nine.” Ella smiled.

“Willow’s going to be nine in a couple of weeks too, aren’t you honey?” he grinned at his daughter who happily confirmed. “We’ve promised to take her and her friends to Sidney’s for her birthday.” he explained. “Just to have dinner!” he added hurriedly. “Not to be on the menu. Not this time at least!” All three girls, including Nadine who was stood a little back from the others, giggled.

“Ooh that’s so cool!” Ella gushed. “We had so much fun when we went with Sam! We met a mermaid and got to watch two spittings! Are you going to get the carvery?”

“Well we were.” Clive took up the narrative. “But then, well, a couple of things happened. First of all,” he grinned, “we found out we had a new niece and nephew who deserve a proper welcome into the family, and secondly, we heard of a couple of very special little piggies on the private menu! So we’re thinking of doing a sort of combined party.” Ella’s eyes went a little wide as she mentally connected the dots, not quite wanting to believe what she was fairly sure he was building to until he said it for real.

“We want to invite everyone here,” Martin continued, “and I do mean everyone,” he smiled at Rachel and Aaron, “honorary family too, to join us as Willow’s friends for a special feast in one of the big private dining rooms at Sidney’s and we’d like you and your sister to be that feast! What do you say?”

“Oh wow!” Ella gasped then flung her arms around him. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She hugged Clive too, so hard that she nearly squeezed the breath out of him. “You do mean it, right?” she asked anxiously. “You’re not kidding? You are going to order both of us?”

“Of course we are!” Clive assured her.

“I’m gonna be your birthday dinner!” she told Willow gleefully as if she had not been standing less than a foot away for the entire conversation and the two naked girls joined hands and skipped merrily in a circle.

“What’s going on over here?” Caroline asked, wandering over to see what all the excitement was about as their mum did the same.

“Willow’s dad’s are going to order us for her birthday!” Ella informed her sister with delight. “And invite everyone here too!”

“Oh wow! Really?” Caroline gasped.

“We wouldn’t joke about something like that!” Martin chuckled. “So, if we put in a request to purchase, will you accept it?”

“Of course!” Caroline gushed while Ella nodded emphatically. “How are you going to have us cooked?”

“Well that’s really up to Willow, Amanda and Rob.” Clive replied. “It’s their party after all, but we do like the sound of your recommendations. Perhaps we could get a better look at you?” he suggested. “To give us an idea of what we’re working with?” Of course they had seen both girls naked for quite some time earlier in the afternoon but neither were in the habit of staring too hard at other people’s children in the nude. Now, however, they were discussing their cute young bodies as meat which was a different circumstance entirely.

Chuckling as her older daughter eagerly undressed, Miranda took out her phone and opened the Sidney’s client app that she had downloaded to manage the sale of her daughters. Without bothering the girls about it, she had already replied to several messages asking to purchase just one or other of them, or offering private arrangements which were strictly against the Sidney’s rules that she and the girls had agreed to when the contracts were signed. So far, however, there had been no official offers of purchase for the pair.

Leaving them to negotiate, Laura went to fetch the rest of the puddings as well as the custard and cream to go with them from the kitchen. Josh was delighted when she told him the news, thinking how kind it was of his in-laws to want to go out of their way like this to make his new children feel welcomed into the family but also very pleased to hear that he would be able to get a taste of Caroline and Ella!

As they returned to the hall, with the Christmas pudding on the top of the trolley and stacks of bowls underneath, Willow had just called for everyone’s attention and was using her gymnastics training to stand on Martin’s shoulders as she informed all the other guests of the imminent purchase and offered the verbal invitation to all with assurances of more formal ones to follow once the details were sorted out. The news definitely seemed to go down well with all the guests who cheered and applauded, offering congratulations to the naked sisters and telling them how much they were looking forward to enjoying their meat!

“Well,” Martin smiled as he helped Willow down off his shoulders, “shall we make it official?”

“Ready when you are!” Miranda grinned, waving her phone to show the open app. With Willow, Ella and Caroline all looking over his shoulders, Clive filled in the required information and submitted the purchase request. Within seconds, Miranda’s confirmation messaged pinged and the deal was done. Ella and Caroline had been sold.

With the excitement over, for the time being at least, everyone was encouraged back to their seats and invited to tuck into the puddings. Although if you had asked any of the guests just twenty minutes earlier they would have told you that they were so stuffed from their main course that they could not imagine wanting to eat again for a week, they all attacked the sweet treats with gusto. Although nobody noticed them slipping away to change, by the time the puddings were done with and the tables cleared once more, Amelia and Amanda were once more wearing nothing from their hats down to their boots.

As had been planned, to allow everyone a chance to let their dinner go down before any energetic activities started up again, Josh announced that they were now going to show a short film based on the book that had inspired Samantha to become their Christmas turkey, a book, indeed, that some of them had received a copy of in their stockings! The tables were all moved to the sides for the time being, all but the decorative lights turned off and the chairs arranged into two curved rows so that everyone would get a good view of the large television. Feeling tired, full and rather cuddly after the big meal, the children all opted to sit on the laps of various adults. Amelia, of course, firmly staked her claim to Josh while Rob slipped up onto Laura’s lap and Amanda sat with Gramps. Caroline sat on her own mum’s lap, as did Nadine, while Mike held George and Little Rosie snuggled with Grandpa. Although he worried he was too big to sit on her lap, Merlin moved his chair right up to Gram’s and cuddled with her, his head on her shoulder, while Willow sat on Clive’s lap and Ella on Martin’s. With everyone comfortable and relaxed, Josh pressed the button on the remote to start the film and everyone settled down to watch “Rosie the Christmas Turkey”.


To be continued...