'Sorry about this, love.' Jennie held up a pair of pliers and a length of wire. Sitting beside me on the cot she possessed herself of one of my feet. 'We'll call these ornaments, ducky. Nice little anklets.' I could feel myself curling up inside. 'Why can't I just be tied or hobbled with rope?' I asked fearfully.
'Because we do it this way. It's beautifully painful and very practical. You won't run. Hold still… you'll see.' I held still, breathless with suspense. My ankle was circled with the wire. Then the pliers gripped and pulled and twisted until the thin band of metal was well into my skin. The twist was at the back. The cutting blades of the pliers neatly snipped off the excess. My fingers, even if I had them, would be powerless against the join. Humming cheerfully, Jennie affixed a similar circlet round my other leg. 'Neat and tidy, love. How's it feel?'
'Tight! And they hurt.'
'But not more than you can bear, eh?'
'I suppose not.'
'Good. This way to the bathroom.'
'Aren't you going to join them'!' Jennie laughed. 'No need. You'll see. Come on. Want a hand'! You really are trussed.'
'I expect I can manage, thank you.' I sat up on the cot and took a good look at my ankles. The wire was indeed neat within my skin… but thought of the bathroom was enticing. I swung my legs over the side of the cot and lunged my tied nudity forward to stand up. Maybe you've guessed! I had not. When my tendons tautened under my weight the wire bands came into their own. With a yelp of agony I let myself fall back on the cot. I looked up at Jennie's interested features with frightened supplication. 'I can't! I can't stand.'
'Hurts a bit, love, but you'll manage. Leaves you free to walk about,' she snickered, 'if you want to.'
'But I can't stand the pain! They're too tight. It's when my sinews swell or something.'
'That's right, love. Ashad thought it up. He's clever about such things.'
'Please take them off. I promise-'
'That isn't the idea. We know you'll promise. Those bits of wire are to get you talking 'bout something worth while.'
'I don't know anything. But regardless, I can't even stand.'
'Ashad's a clever bugger. This is his idea too.' Seeing my agonized appraisal of the object she held up to view, she added: 'There's one thing to be said for stuff like this. It sure does help a girl make up her mind.'
'That's a sort of battery clip, isn't it?'
'That's right, love.'
'And you're going to snap it on me somewhere?'
'Handy to have you naked. Guess where it bites.' I could guess alright. In a spasm of anxiety to avoid the ugly thing being clipped on my nipple I stood up again, only to fall back once more, moaning. I longed for hands and arms, but they were no more than a burning misery behind my back. I was cruelly helpless and felt like tears.
'It's a sort of leash, see? I pull, you follow.' There was a cord attached to the pair of serrated jaws. I knew that, ordinarily, I would indeed follow with alacrity. But now! 'You're asking the impossible,' I told Jennie miserably.
'Never know 'till we try, love.'
'Please, not on my breast.' She was right about my nakedness being convenient. What she did then she did with ease. It caught me unaware. A moment later I was gasping at a fresh pain and looking down between my legs to where the metal clip was firmly biting one full lip of my vulva. From it the cord trailed to Jennie's hand.
'Oh please, please take it off. It's awful! I'll do anything!' The cruelty of its intimacy within my being had me demoralized. Jennie did not bother to answer. She knew what she was doing. I expect she had done it often enough. In response to the tug on my most sacred flesh I stood up and took a step. Talking about pain can be the same sort of bore as harping on the moments and strokes of being whipped. What I was feeling now on my ankles was a whole new dimension, something I had never tried before. It's principle awfulness was the knowledge I could end most of it my sitting down. In other words, I was torturing myself. That the clip on my cunt compelled me to was incidental. I knew, for sure, that given choice of a chair or a chance to run from the house I'd immediately sit on the chair. I glanced back longingly at the cot as I took my second step and gasped at what the wire band did to me.
'See what a brave little girl can do when she tries.' Jennie sounded almost sincere. The tension on my leash was minimal. I looked at her with a strange mixture of appeal and wonderment at what I was managing to do. The bathroom was nice. I mean about being washed and my hair tidied more than the other things. Jennie allowed me to sit while she did what she wished with me. I could not do a thing for myself. The ropes on wrist and elbow had become a part of poor little Euphemia. When the tug finally came, I plunged into agony once more. Ashad stood looking out of the bay window at a couple of suburban elms and a ragged sycamore. I was led to the center of the big drawing room and made to stand. Jennie did not even bother to hold my leash. I would not run and I was too scared of authority to sit down. My latest owner turned and appraised me with eyes preoccupied with more important things, probably murder. He nodded in approval at what he saw. I was not thrusting my nipples at him on purpose, the rope 'round my elbows did it for me.
'You are a delightful property, Miss Carstairs.' How does a naked girl answer a remark like that? I didn't. 'I deplore your status as something more than merchandise.' He gave me a lovely insincere smile before adding: 'But we're going to have a heart to heart talk now, I'm sure?'
'May I sit down please?'
'No.' It was not auspicious, was it! I hurt all over the place. 'Please take this clip off my… my-'
'What did Royden say about Sinclair and the options?'
'I don't know. You've got the wrong girl or something.'
'Where is Sinclair now? Surely Gyorkos let that slip?'
'Don't you understand? Gyorkos had me kidnapped so I could entertain his V.I.P.'s. Mr. Royden was whipping me for his own pure enjoyment when you came.'
'You slept with them both. You heard them talking.'
'I didn't! I didn't! Oh please believe me, you must!'
'You are in a good deal of pain, aren't you?'
'Yes. It's awful.'
'Yet you invite more?' It was hopeless. I was lost in his disbelief. I moaned in desolation and burst into tears.
'You know what to do, Jennie.' He turned once more to the window. Jennie knew what to do. So did I! Only once on the return journey did I pause long enough to get a peremptory tug on my puss lip. Deliberately, I invited punishing pain with each step, but I took them and ended up back on my cot in the cell.
'Well, we got that over with,' Jennie said matter-of-factly.
'Now for phase two. Sorry, love.' This time the wire was a bit heavier. I couldn't fight. I couldn't do anything except turn this way and that as she directed while she contrived my torture.
'Nice and simple, ducky. Takes a bit of time to get the full benefit.'
'Can't you take that beastly thing off the lip of my pussy now?'
'It's part of the picture, love,' she snickered. 'You may become fond of it.' Certainly it was simple. Everything was simple — for her! The rope was peeled off my wrists but left on my elbows. My hands were placed palm to palm and my hurt wrists circled with a single strand of wire. The pliers and Jennie's strong fingers did the rest. When the ends of wire were clipped my wrists were welded together by a band of scorching fire.
'If I knew anything, I'd tell you now,' I said heartbrokenly. My hands were helpless behind my back, so it was easy for her to loosen my elbows and put another single length of wire 'round them too. She had to take a bit of trouble to cinch my forearms as close together as she wanted. Throughout the operation of readying my arms for torture I sobbed and pleaded without pride. I had never known such miserable impotence. I was helpless and hopeless and afraid. I kept vowing I'd do anything… I'm ashamed at the memory. But I'd had enough experience with being tied to make a good estimate of what I was in for after the pliers made their final clip.
'You can always get these off, love,' Jennie said comfortingly. 'You have only to ask and say a few words.'
'I can't! You know I can't! If I could, d'you think I'd bear this?' It was not finished. My arms screamed, but Jennie's voice was firm. 'Stand up, ducky.' I was so obedient!
'Exhale and tuck your tummy in.' There was a sort of logic about the wire 'round the narrowest part of my