"An effing butler," he said disgustedly. "Might as well have been the Inland Revenue: Name, address, the whole bit."
"Was that so hard?" I asked innocently. He looked at me sourly. "I ain't that much o' a dummy. I told him nothing, nor her neither when she come on the line. Snooty bitch but anxious. A thousand in cash when I walk up to the door with you."
"See! I promised!" I was jubilant.
"Think I was born yesterday!" My leaping heart fell with a bang at the sourness of his expression. "More I thought on any of her propositions the more I could see meself walking right into the arms of a couple of rozzers. They'd call what you and me been doing a kidnapping."
"'Well, isn't it!" I could have kicked myself. It was not the right thing to say. "Yer see what I mean! Who's going ter believe me! I'd get about seven years."
"But I can prevent that. With me along you're safe."
"Ain't too sure they'd believe you either. The whole thing's a bit rummy when you look at it from their standpoint. I don't see no sense running the risk." He turned a pair of hound dog eyes in my direction. "Fact is I like you. I like having you around. I'd sooner have you than any thousand quid." I was surprised he did not hear the thud of my fallen hopes. "But you can have Daisy anytime for five pounds!" I protested.
"It ain't the same. She ain't got what you got."
"It's standard equipment."
"I ain't talking about boobs and cunts, you know I ain't. And, anyway, yours are better 'n hers. It's quality. You got it."
"But if you and Daisy keep on whipping me like this I'll be dead in a month."
"Daisy ain't touching you no more. I'll guarantee it." His voice was grim. "As fer me, I got a bit o' judgement. I didn't whip yer yesterday, I ain't a' goin' ter whip you today. I ain't spoiling a good thing now I got it."
"I suppose I'm your secret desire come true?" I asked bitterly.
"Damn right you are!" He struck the table for emphasis.
"You think men, any men, don't dream about a gal' like you are and the things we been doin', -you'd be crazy. A lot o' the silly twits 'ud deny it, but they'd lust for you and a whip just the same as me." It didn't seem like much of a future. I'd just been sentenced to a lifetime of slavery. "Aren't you ever going to let rile go?" I asked wanly.
"I'd hoped you wouldn't want to, Phemie." The sincerity of his words was like a blow. If he loved me I was indeed lost. With feminine guile I used this new advantage. "It's hard for a girl to love a man who whips her all the time." I made my eyes as fawn-like as I could and focused them on him with full candle power.
"Dammit, Phemie, I ain't whipped yer that much!" I suppose by his standards he had been moderate. He had not been as cunningly cruel as Daisy. My real fear of him was the stringent bondage in which he kept me. There was no hope for freedom in it, none!
"You've really been very kind, Mr. Hennery," I acknowledged. "I'm sorry if I seem ungrateful." I gave him a sweet small feminine gesture. "It's all so sudden, and it hurts a bit, and that business yesterday with Daisy…"
"I gotta' leave yer again today, love: But I'll make it real easy…" After he had copulated with me again and was ready to go about his affairs he chained me to a tree. Alone again, after Hennery, had vanished over the hill, I assessed my new status. I was loved. But I still wore the handcuffs! On the other hand I was not being whipped, not at the moment! There had been no suggestion that I had said good-bye to cutting thongs and limber canes, but I now had a day in which to allow my weals to stop hurting. As for real freedom, I did not have any, but I was a lot better off than before. Hennery had employed his longest chain. One end was padlocked round a tree, the other locked to the single link between the metal bands round my wrists. I had no faintest hope of escape. But if I wanted to, I could walk 'round and 'round the tree in quite a wide radius. I could sit, lie down or stand as I might desire. Exploring this relative freedom I felt a bit guilty in not having given my captor more fervent thanks for it. It must have been about noon when James Pollard came into view.
I saw him before he saw me. He was walking. I longed to wave, but I couldn't. He was making a determined bee line for the house. Just before he reached it he caught sight of me.
"Phemie!"
"Oh darling!" I forgot everything else. You don't want the jumble of love and kisses and half coherent explanations. There were a lot of them. Until I reassured him, James' first concern was of enemies. Then my own concern got attention. Imagine my gorgeous long drawn out sigh of ecstasy… James had the key. It's funny though. When I pertly turned my back and proffered my chains I found myself loath to part with them. Nuts!
"Damn! I suppose that yokel's got the key to this padlock?"
"I expect he has, darling. It's for sure I haven't, and it's not hanging on a nail anywhere that I know of."
"That means I'll have to leave him the handcuffs. The lock's in 'em. But I'll have you free in about four seconds." He was as good as his word. Now that I had hands and arms we loved all over again. Golly, my shoulders were stiff. It had been days… Yet, when I finally looked down and saw the shining metal that had held my wrists so long I knew a pang of remorse. They lay on the ground at the end of the long chain. Empty and forlorn… James must have felt something of my regret. They did look like a pitiful small part of me abandoned and rejected. It was easy to find a hammer. With a rock beneath the padlock and a few hard blows he shattered the device that had held me captive. The handcuffs fell free.
"Snap them on me again, darling," I pleaded. "I don't feel right without them."
"Afterwards," said James. The afterwards took quite a long time and I was very thankful for my arms. But when it was over and I had brushed the barnyard off my back and bottom I turned and wiggled my hands. I know it's crazy, but the click, click, click as the metal tightened back 'round my wrists had the sound of wedding bells. We walked back to where James had hidden the car. I wondered what conclusion Hennery would arrive at when he found his empty chain and broken lock. I had a sudden prescience of his loneliness. Perhaps, on the following day, Daisy would be able to earn another five pounds. I couldn't hate either of them. It was gorgeous in the car. I pleaded not to be covered. What would be the use! We were on our way to Castle Glynt, if I arrived dressed Yolanda would certainly strip me. I wondered if she'd be angry at all the trouble I'd gotten her into. She could punish me to her heart's content and I wouldn't complain.
"I figured those two chaps of Ashad's had spirited you away while I was puttering around that damn farm," James explained as the car purred it's way over the dirt road to the village. "I had not broken with Bolling, so I went back to the office. There I learned Ashad was as puzzled about you as I was, his bloodhounds were still chasing a lost scent." He looked at me sideways and grinned. "Girls like you don't utterly vanish: They're around somewhere. So I phoned your uppity Miss Harding."
"Yolanda's not uppity."
"She was with me. She demanded I deliver you on her doorstep, pronto. What's with that female? It took me about five minutes with servants asking fool questions before I heard her dulcet tones. She sounded a bit distrait."
"That's what Hennery said."
"He was my clue, of course, She told me about this uncouth voice that claimed to have you and how shy he was of contact. He hung up on her. It sort of clicked. I couldn't figure how he'd fooled me but I knew I'd have to come and find out. How come all those whip marks?"
"He enjoys whipping girls," I sighed happily now that it no longer mattered, then added ruefully: "Who doesn't!" I didn't tell him about Daisy. And I thought it best not to mention all those times I'd laid down with my legs apart. I mean, after all! It was beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! I snuggled into my handcuffs and into the upholstery. I kept my eyes on James in adoring contentment. I was safe, safe, safe! In a little while we'd be back at Castle Glynt and Yolanda. No matter what awaited me there I'd be happy, happy, happy! If a faint cloud of wonderment hovered as to how I'd reconcile Yolanda and James, I refused to think about it. Something always happened! I loved them both. My fire burned bright. The homecoming of a slave girl! What pictures it evokes! My heart thudded happily as we drew up at the foot of the steps. Capriciously, I refused to have my hands freed or to be covered. The Castle servants were conditioned. I'm sure the male staff regarded me as one of the more attractive perquisites of office. The females usually giggled or pretended I wasn't there. We mounted the steps like a victorious army. It was not Beddoes the butler who opened the door. It was one of the lesser housemaids. She produced only a faint giggle and gazed at my pubic hair with awe. "The Mistress is in the morning room," she announced breathlessly. Preceding us down the hall she threw open the door. Majestically, we made our entry. I never saw a thing. The rug enveloped me and strong hands held it down. Since I was inside it they held me too. How bitterly I cursed the joie de vivre that had prompted my sentimental plea for the familiar handcuffs. I was a neat package, obligingly delivered, helpless! I heard James's vehement: "You son of a bitch!" There were thuds and scuffles. They were still going strong when I was carried from the room and down the stairs. Even in my struggling distress I was too familiar with Castle Glynt not to know where I was being taken. Steps, doors, changing temperatures all combined to make me cringe in foreknowledge. When the last fateful door opened I was set on my kicking feet. The rug was whisked from over my head. Behind me the dungeon door thudded shut and the bolts shot home. In the dim light I beheld a girl. She was in the corner I knew so well. She was as naked as I. But, whereas I wore only handcuffs at my back, she was bedecked in chains. Ankles, wrists, waist and neck were encircled with the metal bands I too had worn. From the one 'round her waist a heavy chain tether ran to the ringbolt in the stone. She had risen to her feet at our entry and taken a hobbled step against the leashing iron.