Mark Townsend
Slavetrader's captive
CHAPTER ONE
'One thousand Turkish lira,' said the taxi driver. 'In advance.'
Penny Hale hesitated a moment, staring at the lean brown hand extended over the back of the seat. The man was filthy and his face reminded her of the pictures she had seen in books of the men who had tortured the Crusaders such a long time ago. His teeth were blackened, some broken off at the gums, and his left eye seemed to be blind. The young blonde shivered and reminded herself that the porter at the luxury hotel where she was staying had selected this man as reliable. Finally she reached into her purse, took out one crisp bill and paid him. With what seemed to her to be a derisive smile, he took the money and stuffed it into his torn shirt pocket. Then he started the engine and slowly pulled out of the parking lot.
Soon they were weaving in and out of the heavy late evening traffic of Istanbul. He certainly seemed to be a competent driver, she thought, as he skillfully threaded through the human obstacle course in the narrow streets. Suddenly they rose over the crest of a hill and she gasped at the sight. Below she could see almost all of the European side of the ancient city. The moon was nearly full, and combined with the lights of the city, it enabled her to get a panorama a hundred times more impressive than any travel poster she had ever seen. She recognized in the distance the famous Hagia Sophia, the Topkapi museum, the Blue Mosque with its seven minarets pointing at the sky like so many missiles ready to be fired. Beyond that, like a thick serpent curled around the Golden Horn, the Bosporus glistened brightly in the moonlight, separating the main part of the huge city from the darker Asian side. She knew that on the other side where she was going now there were camels and mud houses in some of the small villages, and that the men still wore baggy pants and kerchiefs tied around their heads. That much she had learned from the brochures that she and her new husband had been reading over the past year before finally deciding on Istanbul for their honeymoon.
The picturesque quality of the young boys running through the streets with brass trays balanced on their hands carrying the tiny dipper-like containers of thick black Turkish coffee, the strange babble of voices coming in the windows of the taxi, the whole exotic scene around made her suddenly very sad.
Why, oh why did it have to happen this way, she cried inside her troubled mind.
Penny had been looking forward to her first night with Robert for such a long time – she had never dreamed it would turn out this way. It didn't seem possible that only two days ago she was still living in her apartment in Philadelphia waiting for the arrival of the so carefully planned wedding day. Only by the greatest effort of her will could she recall her feelings of that time that seemed so long ago now.
She and her fiance Robert Hale had been engaged for over a year before that, and they had gone over every detail a hundred times before the big day. Finally the actual moment of saying the words that would tie them together forever came. Then under the colorful shower of rice and confetti they ducked into the waiting cab which had taken them directly to the International Airport. Robert had kissed her passionately all the way there, whispering into her ear that he would prefer to cancel their flight and postpone the Turkish honeymoon until the next day. He had tried his best to persuade her to check into a hotel near the airport, but Penny was determined to go through with the original plan and let him make love to her for the first time in the exotic setting of a foreign city.
At the airport they had separated long enough to change from their formal clothes to sensible travel suits, shipping her wedding gown and his tuxedo back to her parents' house, and then they began the series of delays and frustrations involved in getting from one country to another.
First there had been the usual three-and-a-half-hour delay in leaving the Philadelphia airport because of heavy air traffic. Then the weather was so bad when they put down for refueling that there was another six-hour wait. Finally, bleary-eyed and tired, they had arrived in Istanbul the next day, only to find that their reservation had been lost. They had waited almost two hours in the lobby as the agent who had supposedly booked their suite argued and gesticulated like a madman with the hotel manager. Eventually they were shown up to a less luxurious room than the one they had expected, and it was then, after the agent had been given a big tip and the bellhop had smirked his way out of their room, that Penny had first noticed that her husband Robert was in a state of angry frustration.
So fatigued that she could barely think straight, Penny had begun to carefully lay out her new nightgown and bedroom slippers. Then she had collected several toilet articles from her cosmetic case, and, trying her best to give Robert a girlish alluring smile in spite of her fatigue, she had gone into the bathroom to prepare herself for the moment they had both been waiting for.
The new bride was already very nervous about what was to come, and then, when she had started to close the door, she was half frightened out of her wits by the unexpected pressure on the other side. Robert had followed without her knowledge and was trying to prevent her from locking herself in the bath.
'Just a minute, Penny,' he had said hoarsely in a voice she hardly recognized. 'You've held back long enough.'
She had looked into his eyes in surprise at his tone, and the expression she saw there had made her blood run cold with fright. He had looked like a cornered wild animal about to attack, a twisted mask of desperation distorting his face. Before she could answer or react in any way, he had wrapped his fingers around her wrist and jerked her back through the doorway, causing her to drop the things she was carrying.
'Ohhhhh. Don't, Robert,' the young wife had wailed, trying to smile at him playfully. But his grip on her wrist was hurting, and the tears began to well up in her eyes. 'Please, Robert. I have to bathe and fix myself up first,' she had complained. 'You're hurting me. Let go!'
'In a minute,' Robert had growled at her then. 'First get undressed and let me have what I've waited for so long. You've tortured me enough for the past year, and now you're going to come through.'
Twisting her wrist violently he had flung her towards the huge double bed and she had staggered to a stop with her back to the foot of the mattress. Her eyes blurring with tears of pain and humiliation at being treated this way by her husband of only a few hours, Penny had stood meekly where she was, sobbing softly and wishing more than anything else that she were back home in her own apartment. She was so tired and felt so out of place in this situation that she was feeling like a lost child in a big city.
Robert's harsh voice made her open her eyes again.
'I said strip!' he had yelled, like a stranger she had never seen before. Slowly and reluctantly she had begun to undo the top buttons of her corduroy travel suit while staring blankly at the man she had so recently pledged to spend her whole life with.
Blinded by tears, she had heard the sound of his belt buckle being unfastened and the metallic ripping sound of his pants zipper going down. Then suddenly she had felt his hand under hers on the front of her jacket. At that moment her vision had suddenly cleared again, and she had seen him standing before her completely naked. She had hardly noticed his hands tearing the buttons from her jacket with one forceful downward motion as she caught sight for the first time of his fully erect penis.
It's huge! the astonished young bride had gasped to herself. Her husband's cock stood out from under his hard flat stomach like a majestically rearing cobra, ready to strike into the frightened inner depths of her trembling body.
It had only taken him a moment to tear her jacket and matching skirt from her body, and she sobbed and sucked in her breath as he tangled his fingers in the frilly white lace of her slip. It was the first time she had worn the garment bought especially for this momentous trip, but he had brutally jerked it downward, ripping the flimsy material into shreds before throwing it on the floor.
Then he had grabbed her up in his muscular arms and crushed her to him, wetly kissing her first on the mouth and then on her neck with fumbling lecherous fervor. She grew suddenly limp in his embrace as though she were about to lose her balance and fall. Robert had then guided her backwards to the bed while she struggled weakly – and then all her strength ceased to exist. He pushed her back farther, until the edge of the mattress
