I stood erect at his approach and, with his first exclamation of surprise, turned my back and flapped bound hands in a silent plea. When the cords were cut away, I turned and threw my arms around his neck, and whispered between kisses. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I knew you’d come.”
“What’s the silly old twit been doing to you now!” Hugo demanded angrily. “Don’t tell me he keeps you like this all the time!”
“It’s just a collar and chain, Hugo, dear. And, of course, tied hands. Uncle Andrew is a great believer in tied hands behind a girl’s back. You got Constance’s message?” We exchanged our news in hurried whispers as if it mattered. Uncle Andrew was probably watching us out a window, so what the hell! It was not long before Hugo said, “Let’s get you free of this damned chain. There has to be a way.”
I didn’t answer but my heart was beating fast and hard as male fingers explored the metal by which I was held captive. “I figured on something like this,” Hugo said. “I’ve brought along a pair of bolt cutters. I’ll soon have you loose.”
The bolt cutters Hugo had were impressive, magnificent steel jaws and long handles. I began to hope as I thrust myself against the pillar to hold tight while he snared the topmost link of my chain. I heard him grunt as he exerted all his strength. Nothing happened!
“I’m afraid it’s some sort of special steel, Hugo,” I ventured timidly.
“I don’t care what it is, I’m going to get you loose.” Hugo readjusted the bit of jaws to the other end of the chain. “The dirty old son of a bitch!” he exclaimed as this effort proved equally without result. “I’ll see if the damned thing protrudes the other side of the pillar. Just hold your horses.”
It was all quite useless. Hugo tried every way there was even to the point of having me lay down and endure the pain of inserting the blade beneath the collar. The collar defeated him as did the chain. That effort broke the handle of his bolt cutters, leaving him cursing and me fingering the sore spot on my neck. If Uncle Andrew was watching, I was certain he would be laughing.
I suppose I’d never expected Andrew Everleigh to let me get away.
My disappointment was only half of Hugo’s anger. He threw the broken bolt cutters to the ground. “There’s nothing for it but the police. I’ll get back to the mainland and lay a charge against this old bastard and put an end to this damned fool slavery business for end. I’ve allowed it to continue too long already. Look, dear, if I leave now I can get back before daylight. Can you hold out?”
Poor, dear Hugo! I felt terribly sorry for him in his male impotence. He was seething with fury. With my arms once more encircling his neck, I whispered, “Hush, darling. It won’t do a bit of good to go to the police. They’ll never act against Andrew Everleigh, and he’s capable to turning them against you. Just let things drop and stay the way they are. He won’t keep me chained to this stone pillar too long. And, anyway, it doesn’t hurt and I don’t mind.”
“I’ve got to get you away from here somehow!” Hugo’s ego was fighting hard.
“All we need is to be patient. Hugo. I think Everleigh is going to take me back to Rockley, and I’d be surprised if I can’t slip away somewhere, sometime. What he’s doing with those girls and with me is utterly impractical. Please wait a little while.”
“Damn it, this is unreal! I have to leave the girl I love standing against a block of stone, collared and chained! I can’t believe it!”
Hugo ranted and raved while I did my best to try and make him understand everything would be all right. I wasn’t sure myself about everything being all right, but what could we do! After a while I managed to calm him down until he strode dejectedly away with my promise to join him forever as soon as one of my jailer lowered his or her guard. I wasn’t all that happy myself but felt guilty over being able to watch Hugo’s back vanish into the night without being torn in two with longing and regret. I knew I should be as angry as he, and even angrier with Uncle Andrew for watching out of the window as I was sure he was doing. Hopelessly I fingered the steel around my neck and knew myself a slave.
I fell asleep crying tears I could not wipe off. Silently on the ground beside me lay a broken pair of bolt cutters.
The penthouse of Mrs. Valerie Latimer spelt money. It also spelt isolation. No one would hear my screams. I took a deep breath as, clutching Uncle Andrew’s letter. I stepped from the private elevator to whatever fate I was now consigned to by Uncle Andrew’s mission. I was scared.
Svelte was the word for Valerie, an ageless beauty with sharp, shrew eyes and sensual lips. Her hair was drawn severely back to focus attention on finely chiseled features. Her greeting was impersonal. She read the letter then tossed it laughingly aside to say. “I suppose you know you’re a bribe?”
“Yes.”
“I can do Everleigh a favor so he does one for me. I’m a lesbian and something of a bitch. But in between us, we’ll probably enjoy ourselves. Let’s drink to it.”
This woman was simple and direct. I wished I were there to do business instead of offer my nakedness for whatever pains she might impose. Uncle Andrew had been brutally frank.
“She falls short of being a sadist, Diane, but she loves hurting girls, especially ones like yourself who are out of their teens. I’ve told her of your legal background so she can enjoy getting back at a lawyer the same way I enjoy it. I don’t know how much she’ll hurt you but that may pretty much depend on how you handle her. If you can handle her at all.”
Valerie Latimer said without emphasis as she poured drinks. “I wish to see you naked.”
Valerie was wasting no time but I knew it would come sooner or later and stripped myself naked without comment. Posing to show off my equipment. I was subjected to the closest scrutiny my nakedness usually enjoyed, almost a male’s curiosity even though there was nothing male about Valerie Latimer. She motioned to an armchair. “Sit facing me. Diane, keep your legs well apart. We can talk while I look at you.”
So far so good, it was pretty much routine. And I didn’t give a damned if this woman did find sexual interest in what I had to show.
“You’ve got a nice body,” she said sincerely. “You know I’m going to hurt it.”
“Of course.”
“I’m puzzled you’d walk in here like this. Bribes usually have to be delivered bound and gagged. And come up the freight elevator.”
“I’m paying off an obligation.”
“Well, that’s your affair. I think I’ll enjoy you. Old Everleigh is a crafty bastard and stands to pick up about seventy million out of something I can do for him if you please me. But remember, the first time you act sulky. I’ll thrash your bottom and send you home. You’ve been well whipped so I don’t have to explain what that means to you.”
The drink was potent and I could feel its fire in my belly. Oddly, I was both scared and a little excited at the thought of what this woman would do to me.
“I haven’t known Andrew Everleigh all that long and I won’t pretend to understand him,” I ventured cautiously. “I don’t believe he’s interested in the things he does to girls, not sexually. I think his interest is more in the girls themselves. His thing is to put us in situations and watch us squirm. I’ve always believed him more interested in me as a person, the ropes and chains and whips being simply a means to an end, Just an opinion.”
“The old boy’s probably impotent. And those are the ones who think up these strange notions. And get more enjoyment out of them then they ever did from impaling a girl on their shaft. I don’t notice tendencies of submission in you?”
“I don’t see them in you, either.”
“They aren’t there to see. I have to admit, though, that when I’m hurting a girl, I do have a curiosity as to what it would be like to take her place. I’m not going to tell the old so and so, but if he asked me to submit to him for an afternoon, I’d be inclined to say yes just to get a good look at his technique.”