opened her eyes now, blinking and cautious, and turning to survey her new captivity, what she beheld caused her to gasp in shock.
It was a rectangular stone chamber with vaulted ceiling convoluting into half a dozen stone pillars for support, slender columns well spaced in pleasant symmetry. It was to one of these she was attached. But her quick scan was momentary, its focus frozen on the nude figure of a girl suspended by its wrists, toes a foot above the floor.
It was gently turning on the rope tether reaching from above.
'Hello and welcome, darling.' Said Susan cheerfully. 'Don't worry about me.'
But there were two other shocks for the newly released vision. Griselda and Antonia, naked and gagged were attached to pillars in the same fashion as herself, handcuffs on wrists behind the column to which their bare backs were pressed. Their eyes signalled the greeting they could not voice.
'I've been a naughty girl, darling, so I've been hung out to dry awhile. Don't feel badly, I can stand it.'
Ilona was choked for words. But how could she and the gagged nudities exchange anything, all three were helpless, their arms held behind their columns! A smile was the best they could manage, spanning the space between them in inadequate frustration. Communication must be with the nude girl suspended from her rope.
'Oh, Susan. . oh, darling??' The words seemed poor things when measured by love. 'How. . ? What??'
'Two days after I came here, darling. First that awful woman on an expedient, and then three men. We never had a chance. They tied us up and we've been tied or chained ever since. When the men went there was just Nora and the bitch. They were waiting for you, they were sure you'd come? and I couldn't phone? oh, darling, I couldn't phone, I couldn't do anything. I was trussed up like a turkey.'
Susan kicked fretfully at the air in disgust.
Ilona found herself tugging at her wrists in her own painful expression of despair.
'Sweetheart. . oh, sweetheart! I should never have sent you.'
'Don't be silly. Griselda's a honey, and 'Tonia was so good for me? She's a marvellous Mistress. Poor darlings! Selma's been so mean to them, and for 'Tonia its been awful having to be submissive and humble and obedient, and to be whipped!
They've whipped her terribly just because she isn't the way Griselda and I are.'
'Susan. . to hang you up like this??'
'Well, I can't get loose, darling. If I gasp and moan a bit it goes with the package.
It's not all that much fun. I'm hanging like this as a terrible example to you three. I wish we all had our hands behind a column and could talk.'
'Did they make you blind the way they did me?'
'No. I think you're some sort of an experiment?' The young voice broke. 'Oh, darling, was it very terrible?'
'The worst thing I've ever known.' Ilona sighed, 'And I've got to go back to it.
You heard Nora??'
'Ilona, dear, I hate to ask?' The question was tremulous. 'Has a man ever? I mean, have you ever been??'
'Fucked?' Ilona supplied wearily. 'That's the operative word, we might as well use it. Yes, I've been fucked. It seemed to me a messy waste of time.'
'Well, we're going to be? all four of us. . fucked!'
'I sort of gathered that in the darkness. We're going to a brothel, aren't we?'
'Yes. Oh, darling. . !'
'Susan, don't panic about it.' Ilona realized her own limited experience. 'That thing between our legs doesn't wear out. That 'fate worse than death' thing was good old Queen Victoria. It's not a fate at all, it's simply the temporary use of a female facility we were built to accommodate.'
'But we'll all get pregnant.'
'They'll give us the pill, you can be sure of that.'
'Those great big things. . sticking into us?'
'They've been exaggerated, pet. If you just relax you won't notice half of 'em. The other half may give you an occasional orgasm, that's all.'
Susan, swinging on her rope, was mystified. 'But, Ilona, how do you know?'
'I'm a journalist. I've talked to whores.'
'Darling, that awful word! Is that what we'll be?'
Ilona's retort was bitter. 'Hell no! Whores get paid. We're going to belong to the house.'
'Nora says we're going to be used other ways too.' The youthful plaint was pathetic, tearing at Ilona's heart. 'If they pay enough the men will be able to spank our bottoms. . and whip our backs. . and? torture us?'
Ilona's heart bled. None of the four of them had anything to look forward to, but this darling girl hanging by her wrists, must not panic in hopeless desolation, at least not yet. 'All such places have whips and. . things.' She volunteered with simulated equanimity. 'It goes along with the rest The House makes sure we don't get damaged.' She sneered bitterly. 'We're merchandise now, sweetheart, we'l be looked after. We're valuable.'
'Poor 'Tonia, she's never been fucked at all!'
'Neither have you, Susan. It may sound callous, but neither of you'l die. After you've washed your pussies, that's the end of it. Like I said, It's simply messy.'
'Oh, darling. . ' The punished girl relapsed into gasping silence. Her exquisite nudity turned slowly, her head bowed. .
The glory of sight had spent itself against the implacability of captivity.
Despondently, Ilona pressed back against the stone and toyed with the handcuffs on her wrists. They were tight, there would be no slipping out of them, from now on there would be no slipping out of anything. She exchanged commiserating glances with the two girls chained as she was chained. Unhappily, she said to them; 'I'm sorry, I'm so terribly sorry.' Griselda and 'Tonia shrugged ruefully in reply.
There was nothing else they could do.
Dusk terminated Susan's punishment. Nora lowered her feet to the stone, placed her against another column, and handcuffed her wrists at its back. Then the gag. It was strapped tight into Susan's mouth. The youngster was exhausted. Secured and silenced, she slipped easily to the floor, still helpless, and leaning back against the stone, closed her eyes.
'I'm sorry.' There could be no doubting Nora's sincerity as she held the blinding bits of shaped metal for Ilona to see. 'I've got to make you blind again. It's not safe?'
'I don't mind, Nora. Honest I don't!'
Nora kissed the lips that had lied. 'Of course you mind.' She said somberly. 'But there's no choice, not for either of us.' She tidied her captive's hair. 'I'm going to kiss you good-night while you can still see. . Then I want you to close your eyes.'
Ilona sighed under the warm lips, then closed her eyes to feel the deft fingers busy with fastenings. When she opened them again site was blind. After a long time she let herself slide to the floor, her thighs and bottom warming the stone, her hands resigned within their cuffs. Soon, she slept.
The morning was basics. Ilona, handcuffed, was led to a shower, she was led to a place where she was fed, she was led wherever her needs might be. Blind, she was unable to be sure if she was alone. Nora remained her only link with reality.
'It's pretty soon now, Miss Paisley.'
'You mean the? the? the place where we're to be taken?'
'That's right. It's a lot better than standing with your hands cuffed behind that post.'
'Is it, Nora? Is it, really?'
'Well. . Gosh, Miss Paisley, that's no question to ask.'
'I'm going to be kept blind, aren't I? while I'm fucked by a hundred men?'
'I don't know, honest I don't I've never been where we're going any more'n you.
But I think they're going to treat you special.'
'Will they treat Susan special?'
'Not likely. That little girl's so damn lush. She's a dish.'
