Chapter 8
The Tether
It happened on the fourth night. Mia awoke in early morning to a vague sense of uneasy. There was a bad taste in her mouth and a definite feeling that something was wrong. She was laying uncomfortably upon a hard surface and upon her stomach. When she sought to move she discovered that her hands were tied behind her back. She guessed instantly! Sitting up against dizziness, she confirmed her worse suspicion. She was back beside the tree in the woods. The birds were chirping brightly in the early sunlight. The blanket with which her nakedness had been covered slid away from bare shoulders. The rope tether from her neck to the tree was as inevitable as all the rest. She should have guessed and taken precautions. The twins had been constantly bad tempered and at odds with life. Since taking her captive and keeping her upon the tether appeared to give them immense pleasure, it was natural they should turn in that direction in the aftermath of Gentry's rigid controls. Mia cursed her folly, the twins had been difficult to deal with on the previous occasion, they would be doubly so now.
Wryly Mia knew herself an experienced and hardened prisoner. She wasted no time in shouts or lamentations. The twins had certainly put something in her evening drink in order to have her sufficiently inert to transport her to this place and so bind her. Furiously she went to work upon the rope. True, she had not managed to free herself on the previous occasion, but she must free herself now. This was no time in her life to be sitting down beneath a woodland tree.
But it was just the same. The knots in the cords upon her wrists had been cleverly and securely wired, the tether mocked her with a similar wiring around the tree trunk. After discovering helplessness and hopelessness, the naked girl gave way to fury and rolled and kicked a bit savagely at what she could. At the end of it she was as securely fastened as before. Her wrists and neck were chaffed, that was the only difference. Mia Argent relapsed upon the rug so thoughtfully provided and wept in a storm of frustration.
The twins appeared with breakfast. Fancy and Angel were happier that she had seen them since their return. They chose to ignore the few pointed remarks she made and fed her happily while expressing sentiments of their own.
"You're so silly, Mia, we had to do something."
"What is tying me up like this and tethering me to the tree going to do?"
"Well, it's better than nothing. We can spend a little time with you and we have to feed you and check your ropes and tease you a bit. It's nowhere as good as Mr. Gentry but it's all we've got."
"Don't you dare tell Mr. Gentry what you've done to me!" Mia said heatedly. "Don't even think of telling him, I'd die!"
"Well, darling, we haven't told him yet, we're debating about if we should. But if he were to come and take you away we would have lost our fun."
"How on earth did you get me out here while I was unconscious?"
The twins giggled. "That was fun, too. We sort of dragged you through the house and then brought you the rest of the way in a wheelbarrow. We really had fun doing it."
It was a giggle Mia did not share. But she knew if she was to gain release she would have to treat Angel and Fancy with kid gloves. She had no hope of it coming quickly, her problem was to make sure that it came at all. She stood dejectedly viewing her exuberant sisters and tugging and twisting at the cord they had tied around her wrists. Whatever she could say sounded trite and threadbare.
"Can't you two get it into your young heads this is a sort of cruelty," she asked plaintively. "I know I'm not hurting but would either of you like to be tied this way and tethered to a tree indefinitely? It's no way to treat a sister."
"If we were as dumb as you, we wouldn't mind," Fancy volunteered brightly.
"We're doing it for your own good, darling. Maybe Mr. Gentry will find you again and we'll all have fun," Angel suggested slyly.
Gentry was exactly what Mia feared. She knew the twins would wish it to come about and for the three of them to resume their strange relationship with the artist she adored. But Mia dared make no admission. Instead she said, "You make me so helpless. I don't see why you have to tie my hands as well as put the tether on my neck. Even if I had my hands I couldn't get loose, you must know that."
"Mia, you're a big sister who's too dumb to manage her own affairs. We're going to manage them for you. We're sure you're going to be sensible, but if you're not we'll get a cane and whip your bottom. It will be such fun!"
"What does being sensible mean?" Mia inquired suspiciously.
"Oh, that's easy, darling. You'll have to answer some mail and sign some checks to pay bills and maybe make some phone calls. We'll make sure you don't have a chance to get away while you're doing these things, but they do have to be done, you know that, you used to come over and do them with Mr. Gentry."
They had it all figured. They were not really children but their age was dangerous. Mia tried again, "Can't you understand how bored and unhappy I get sitting tied here this way?" she asked unhappily. "You don't come and visit me all that often and when you do you just make fun of anything I ask."
"We have the loveliest idea, darling, we're thinking about it a bit before we do it. But it would be so easy to phone Mr. Gentry and tell him were you are and suggest he simply pick you up. Having your hands tied the way you are would be so convenient for him, you couldn't do a thing."
"I'd kick him in the - well, never mind! If you're so damned anxious for his chains and ropes, why don't you go knock on his door?"
"But, darling, someone has to look after you. We couldn't possibly leave you without attention."
"Very well then. But move me somewhere else, to some other tree where he's less likely to find me. I don't suppose he'd guess you'd fasten me here twice running, but just in case ... please?"
The twins would not be persuaded. They knew what they wanted and were pleased with their elder sister exactly as she was. But they'd matured somewhat since Mia's original captivity to that tree, they had caught glimpses of previously unguessed delights. Ryan Gentry had, unconsciously, tutored them in erotic paths. Bright eyed, they assured, "We'll do things to you this time, darling. We found a place where we can buy things. We're going there this afternoon."
Since the first moment she had come awake that morning Mia had been resigned, the twins were playing for keeps and would find endless amusement in doing things to her. Mia realized there was a high probability of their keeping their promise about the cane and her bottom. She might be lucky if that was the only inflection she received. One thing was apt to lead to another and there was no telling what Gentry had acquainted Fancy and Angel with while they were in his chains. The very things he had done to them might now be done to her.
The forlorn and captive maiden spent a listless day surveying her familiar tree and tugging at her tied wrists. It was more impossible than before to do anything with them. She slept a little and wept a little. And made a solemn vow that if she ever got free the twins would pay for this temerity. She had supposed their captivity to Gentry had been punishment enough for the previous occasion, but that was evidently wrong. If only she could get free and get her hands on them!
The following morning Angel and Fancy arrived breathless carrying a box. Their sister could guess it's contents and prepared herself to talk the exuberant pair out of anything too outrageous. But the first object disclosed to view drew a gasp of admiration even from the girl who was destined to wear it. The object was a collar. Not an ordinary collar by any means or even by the standards of girls. It was implacable but also beautiful. The twins must have spent a lot of money to get a piece of craftsmanship that lovely. They also bought a yellow cane and advised her, with youthful wisdom, "If you don't allow us to do what we want with you, Mia, we'll use this cane on your bottom and we've a whip, too. That's for your back. If you make us use it, it's your own fault."
Mia made no demur. She was determined to play the placid and plaint elder sister until they drove her to revolt. Quietly she said, "It's beautiful. Thank you for buying it for me."
They made a ritual out of locking it upon her neck. Mia was forced to kneel and bow forward. One twin clasp her hair to draw it from her neck, the other fitted the collar in all its snug compulsion and clicked shut the padlock.
"It's a lovely padlock, darling, it's so cute the way it hangs down besides you neck. If you'd rather wear it like a pendent in front, just tell us," Fancy said happily. "But you're going to wear it either way, whether you like it or not."
There was a belt which appeared to have no useful purpose other than to constrict a girl's belly. It was as beautifully constructed as the collar and had its own padlock. Viewing it, Mia could think of no excuse for complaint. Perhaps if the twins locked enough stuff upon her, she would no longer be naked. She stood still while it was fitted and drawn tight. The happy pair paid no attention to her suggestion that it might be a trifle snug, they fitted it firmly and clicked the padlock shut with a tremendous flourish.
"We don't really know what its purpose is, sweetheart," they admitted cheerfully, "but there's a ring in it and I suppose we could tether you by it. Wouldn't that frustrate you to bits being compelled to stand with nothing but a belt around your tummy!"
Everything was of leather, had buckles and therefore needed no locks. Not that it mattered, there was no way Mia could possibly free herself of any of it. In fact the padlocks were an additional ornamentation. The twins declared them much the same as costume jewelry. They fitted cuffs around their captives' ankles and clicked padlocks shut with much gusto. Mia supposed that wearing them would be no worse off than before. The padlocks would make a noise when she walked, but what did that matter? Nothing seemed to matter very much anymore.
"We've got chains for your wrists, darling, but you wrists are already attended to and we like the way we've got them and they won't be changed. We're sure you'll simply adore these."
Mia stared in horror. "These" were two ordinary wooden clothespins - she guessed their purpose. "There's one for each of your nipples, darling, you'll simply love wearing them," said Fancy.
"We picked the ones with extra strong springs, Mia darling," added Angel with a most delighted smile on her face. "We didn't choose anything but the best."
"Look, darlings, you don't have to be unkind."
Mia's heart was thudding painfully. This was the beginning of what the twins would see only as "new things." But the prospect of wearing these small domestic trifles upon her breasts was something she could not contemplate, it was just too awful and too demeaning. They would probably bob around as she moved and the twins would laugh delightedly. In sudden urgency, she demanded, "Please, put them back in the box. I haven't done anything to deserve them. It's just too unfair."
"Yes, you have, darling. You've been sulky and disapproving all the while. You haven't given us a kind word at all. We think that wearing these little things will do you a world of good."
She could run and fight and kick but in the end they would catch her, pull her down and their combined weight would control her.
"You'd be wiser to let us put them on you without a fight, darling. If you make a fuss, we'll have to put them on you any way we can and they'll probably hurt more."
Mia knew they were probably right. But the idea of standing still and allowing domestic clothespins to be clipped on her tender nipples was simply too incongruous to consider. Defiantly she said, "Every well, if you want to be cruel, whip me. I refuse to submit to those horrid little things on my breasts."
Angel and Fancy looked to each other, quietly smiling. They had their big sister well in hand. Angel picked up the length of yellow cane and said smartly, "Bend over, darling, or do you want to be tied?"
Maturity triumphed over shame. Mia knew defeat. "Never mind," she conceded sadly, "I'll stand still if that's what you want to do to me."
They assured her that indeed they wish to embellish her nakedness with these two final inflections. For her to see, they were busily open and closing the small wooden jaws. "Don't they make you cringe, darling." they inquired as though it mattered. "If you stand quite still, we'll try and clip them on you so they stick right straight up. We think that would be cute."
Big sister thought of a dozen things to say but uttered none of them. Shamed and angry she stood firm while Fancy devoted herself to one breast and Angel to the other. Their task was first to enlarge the mature nipples to their utmost rigidity. It did not take long. The owner of the nipples was as angry with her own possessions as with the two girls. It seemed outrageous that parts of herself should so blatantly offer themselves to pain. She had often thought of her nipples as having a life of their own and she was tempted now to admonish them verbally. But that was too absurd, instead she clenched her teeth and stood, feet firmly apart, to bare what it appeared she must. Suddenly she was silent. She had no more to say.
The younger sisters were totally absorbed, all that existed for them was their older sister's breasts. Carefully and with deliberation, each twin approached a nipple with the small, open wooden jaws. They positioned the domestic contraptions to their satisfaction then allowed the wooden jaws to close.
The pain was many times what Mia had expected. After all these were only trifles to be obtained in any hardware store and used daily by any number of people. That they could be used as instruments of torture was out of the question. It was impossible. But Mia looked down now and saw the little wooden demons dancing at the point of each breast. As the twins had predicted, they stuck straight out as though a part of the curved structure of each breast, an elongated nipple. Mia moaned in genuine distress and imploringly demanded, "Take them off, oh, take them off. They're killing me! You've no idea!"
"They're simply gorgeous, darling, better than we ever expected."
"You'll have to put up with them, Mia, there's no way we're going to spoil something so beautiful."
"But this is torture!"
"Oh, darling, you exaggerate. You'll get used to them after a while. We think they're sweet. Why don't you give them names, like Nancy or Eva or something?"
"They're so delightfully intimate, Mia. Enjoy them. We wouldn't take them off for all the money you've got."
"It's not as though we don't know what they feel like," Fancy giggled, "we tried them on ourselves. Angel clipped one on me and I put one on her. It did sort of hurt and it was just a couple we took out of the box, not these lovely special ones, but just the same ... " The youngsters teased until them became bored. Their favorite trick was to flick one of the firmly attached pins with a forefinger to make it jump and bounce and be twice as painful. In the end Mia made her way to the tree and leaning against it, wept in solitary misery. If her sisters had truly experimented with this agony, it must have been with pins much less potent than those which bit her now. The nymphets petted her bottom and left her to her tears.
When the captive girl realized she was alone and without help she was horrified, for a moment panic-stricken. She had instant visions of the constrictions of blood flow and the killing of flesh now alive. Suppose the twins knew nothing of what they were doing and had cheerfully consigned her breasts to a lifetime deformity. They were so young and inexperienced and nothing in their lives until now had been like this, they were playing with fire.
Mia could not dry her tears but forgot them in a frenzy of activity. She rubbed her nipples against the tree but nothing happened. The clothespins appeared infinitely adaptable and hurt her all the more in ruthless reprimand for her attempts to dislodge them. They were there to stay. If she was to take them off, she would need her hands.
The captive girl's second thought was to lay down and use the friendly soil to open the wooden jaws. She was not sure how this might be accomplished but she wanted to try. But the idea was useless. The wooden pins, still firmly clutching her nipples, slid this way and that in an infinite adaptability. To make matters worse, the softness of her breasts offered no support, the harder she pushed or squirmed the more the wooden devils implanted themselves in her flesh. It all hurt bitterly until she surrendered her efforts and accepted what she could not dislodge. Even then the pain was atrocious. Ardently she longed to clip one of these small horrors on each of Fancy's and Angel's young breasts. There was also the question of what they would think up next.
By the time the twins came to end her torment, Mia was close to hysterics, the pins were so close and so much within her visual range they could not be ignored. The twins about summed it up, "Well, darling, you didn't find a way to take them off."
"If you hadn't minded hurting yourself, you quite likely would have managed it, Mia."
The captive girl was softly crying from her isolation with pain, the pins bobbed gaily at the ends of her breasts just as they had when first clipped on. For all her efforts she had achieved nothing, the clips were still a part of her.
"We know you can get them off, Mia, if you try in the right way. It's sure to hurt, but surely you want to get rid of them," Fancy suggested slyly.
"We know that's true because we tried it. We think we should leave you to find out for yourself."
In disbelief Mia watched them go. Her breasts burned with double intensity. In a fury of anger, she strained every nerve and muscle to follow the twin's advice. A moment later one of the clips lay harmless on the grass. It had hurt horribly but she had achieved it. She was bewildered that she had not managed it before. She could only suppose that fear of the pain involved held back her best effort. Without another thought she twisted and strained to free her other breast. It was not long before two wooden clothespins lay side by side upon the ground. Mia, her breasts throbbing painfully, stood in thankfulness and hoped the twins would not hurry back.
Angel and Fancy hurried back. They had been watching from behind a bush. With solemn faces they now played a little game they had rehearsed. That Mia recognized it for what it was would help her not at all.
"Ohhhh, Fancy, look at the naughty, naughty girl!" Angel's voice was vivid with implication. "Look at the wicked woman, she's taken off those lovely clothespins. What shall we do to her?"
Mia moaned inwardly. It was a trick, an unkind piece of mischief, typical of her siblings. If she fell back on excuses they would enjoy it all the more. She kept a stoic silence.
"Yes, isn't she awful!" Angel agreed. "We could easily pin the clips back on her nipples, but she'd only take them off again. What can you do with a girl like that?"
"We could whip her bottom?"
"Or we could hogtie her for the night, she wouldn't like that."
"Mia, darling, you name something. What should we do to you?"
"Let me loose. This isn't doing any of us any good. Darlings, you're my sisters. Don't give way to sadism."
"Ohhhh! Did you hear what she said, that awful word!"
"Do you think we should tie her to the tree again for the night, the way we did before?"
"That's no where bad enough. But I suppose if we tied her to it with her breasts against the bark it would be easy to whip her bottom."
Mia knew the youngsters had no inkling of the coin in which they dealt. Gentry had been reasonably kind to them. She, herself, had never used the whip. They intended to punish her from memories of fiction, the realities of which were too painful to contemplate. Striving to cut her loses, the older girl suggested abjectly, "All right, you're going to punishment me. If I stand still for you to cane me, will you let me off being tied to the tree all night? That was awful last time, I don't want it again."
"My, my, did you hear that Angel? She's going to let us cane her bottom."
"Will you really, truly bend over for the cane?" Angel inquired blissfully. "You'll promise to keep still?"
"I promise."
It was hard to believe it was happening but Mia kept her promise. Still tethered to her tree, she bent forward as low as she could. She hated herself and the twins, but what could she do?
"Darling, that looks silly," the young voices were suddenly much concerned with appearances. "What we would like you to do is kneel down on the grass then lean forward until your forehead is touching the ground. That way your bottom will be actually up in the air and we can cane it properly."
Mia moaned inwardly. The twins had certainly been learning things from somewhere. She voiced the obvious, "But, darlings, don't you realize it will hurt two or three times as much like that, I'll be stretched taut as a drum."
"That's right, Mia, dear. We can cane you beautifully. It's no good if it doesn't hurt you a lot." They paused as though in innocence before adding, "Doesn't it?"
It was no use. Fancy and Angel had her and would use her as they wished. No doubt they would stop short of actual injury, but until then ... ! Mia knelt, she leaned forward as directed. By the time her forehead was on the grass her bottom was indecently reared in an exposure the twins exclaimed over in jubilation.
"Gee, look! Her pussy's sticking out behind."
"It's suppose to, we can whip it along with her bottom! Gee, this is going to be fun!"
The first blow was more than Mia could stand. She yelped and fell over sideways in agony. Between gasps and moans, she told them, "It's no use, it hurts far too much, far more than I can endure. If only you wouldn't hit me so hard ... ?"
They rearranged their older sister with competent young hands, patting her this way and that and adjusting her torso to please their erotic dream. Their promises were fervent.
"All right, Mia, darling, we won't hit you so hard. We're very sorry."
"We still like this position, we'll try and be ever so kind, darling. All you have to do is keep still. You can scream all you want."
Mia screamed. The woods resounded with screams that lost themselves among the trees. The blows were far kindlier now, but they were still blows. When, delightedly, Angel and Fancy discovered the vulnerability and tenderness of her thighs, their enthusiasm knew no bounds. "That's gorgeous, darling, you're ever so responsive down there."
"We should have thought of this before, Mia, darling, aren't you simply loving it? We are!"
At the end of it the older girl was sobbing. Gaspingly she tried to tell them what they did not know. "Darlings, you don't understand. You've no concept of pain. You've been hurting me outrageously in a way I think you'd be ashamed of if you knew. Look, don't hurt me like this again. I'll obey whatever it is you want of me."
The quiet humility of Mia's voice had an effect. The twins lost some of their zeal and felt a touch of shame. Perhaps Mia was right. Perhaps they did not understand the measure of the pain they so happily inflected. They said, soberly, "Oh, very well then, we hurt you too much. But anyway you come out of it on top, you don't get tied to the tree. You stay just as you are and we brought your blanket. Here it is."
They tossed it to her as a bone to a dog. Mia was still kneeling and sobbing. Both of them kissed her with unusual tenderness as though to rescue something from a bad scene. They felt the weals they had planted on her round cheeks and tender thighs. They went away. It took the whipped girl a long time to entwine herself inside the rug, but when she had managed it she went to sleep. It had been a bad, bad day.
It happened the following afternoon. In bound loneliness Mia was leaning back against her tree and trying to think of something good in her immediate future. Her negative thoughts were interrupted by a male voice.
"Hi."
The tied girl came alive with a start. What she feared most had come to pass and found her without defense. She and Ryan confronted each other in silence until his ever-cheerful voice exclaimed, "Well, well, what have we here! If I'm not mistaken it's Miss Mia Argent and very nicely tied and collared. Where did you get that belt so snug around your middle?"
Mia had nothing to say. Whatever she thought of would be wrong. A minute passed. And another. Ryan just stood there and smiled at the bound and naked beauty. Mia squirmed under his stare.
"All right, Ryan, you've got the best of it, there's nothing I can do or say," she finally said. "Did the twins put you up to this?"
"Actually, no. Thought it up myself. Those mischievous nymphets of yours were bound to think up something. This seemed the most obvious."
"All right, take me away, I can't fight. They've got me too tightly tied."
"Take you away?" Ryan sounded puzzled. "Why would I do that?"
Mia wanted to scream. Instead she said, "Oh, well, have your fun, tease me all you want. But here I am, a package ready for delivery."
"Yes, indeed. You are that," Ryan conceded. "But I'm not the pickup. You'll have to wait for the next passerby."
Mia stared in disbelief. Surely he would not be so cruel. Urgently she repeated, "There won't be anyone else. If you don't untie me I'll just go on standing here like this. Ryan darling, please untie me?"
"Couldn't possibly, love, I'd be interfering in someone else's business. You obviously belong to someone else the way you're fastened. It's not for me to let you loose."
Mia stamped an angry bare foot. The effect was marred by a pebble which caused her to yelp and hop on one foot. She glared at the grinning Gentry and retorted, "It's all your fault. See what you've done!"
"I seem to be distressing you love. Perhaps I should go?"
"No, don't! Ryan, please stay, don't leave me like this."
They stood and stared, he in amused attention, she fuming and angry. Mia knew herself wickedly vulnerable to being teased. In fact she was vulnerable on all fronts. She weaved her bare shoulders against bound hands and asked, "I thought you loved me."
"I do, I do indeed!" Gentry assured earnestly. "But that's got nothing to do with your present condition, has it? I didn't tie you here, it was your own sisters."
Mia stamped her foot again, this time missing the pebble but the effect was scarcely more dramatic. A girl's bare foot is not a formidable weapon. "If you really love me, Ryan, you won't leave me here." She took a deep breath before saying, "My hands are tied, leave them tied. You can take me home at the end of the tether on my neck, the same as you did that time before." She stared fixedly at Ryan's eyes. "Please."
Ryan shrugged. He shook his head. "Sorry love, but I've got a visitor. Melody just happened to drop by."
It was like a physical blow. Mia's heart plummeted. She would have stamped her foot again but no action seemed appropriate to this devastating news. Ryan could, of course, be teasing but she was sure he was not. In the same pathetic tone she asked, "You mean she's moved back in with you? You mean you're living together?"
"Well, not exactly. The dear girl sort of dropped by and I sort of detained her. I'm sure you know what I mean. Right now I have her chained to the wall downstairs. I thrashed her this morning and I intend to thrash her again this evening. She is very happy."
"I bet she is, the bitch!" Mia could not contain her distress. Melody's having Ryan Gentry all to herself, with Mia sitting uselessly on the grass with her hands tied behind her back and her neck ropes to a tree, was bitter gall indeed. "Very well, then," she said from the depths of misery, "there's nothing more to say, is there? Sorry I've been a nuisance."
Ryan Gentry bestowed a brotherly kiss and went away. Evidently he had nothing to add.
Mia stood, forlorn and desolate, without hope. Her heart ached, her wrists hurt, her neck was chaffed. She had been standing at half the length of her tether but now returned to the tree to lean against it and examine her life. She decided she had no life without the man she loved. What remained for her was exactly her present plight. She could see no reason why the twins would ever release her. If keeping her prisoner amused them they could carry it on and on and on. She wept bitterly and could not dry her tears, nor did they bring relief. Mia Argent was the unhappiest of girls.
"They said I'd find you here. My, My, what a charming arrangement."
The feminine exclamation jolted the captive girl out of her reverie. She stared at Melody in disbelief. The enemy was most obviously amused at finding a naked girl so quaintly restrained, she was viewing the tethered Mia with pure enjoyment. Mia's response was bewildered, "You're not supposed to be here, Melody, you're back with Ryan. You're supposed to be chained downstairs in the basement room?"
Melody laughed, "I'll bet Ryan's been by and fed you a line. I haven't been by his place, I wouldn't dare. You know what he said he would do if I want knocking at his door."
"I don't know who to believe, everybody tells me something different," Mia moaned. "If you're not with Ryan, then what are you doing here?"
"I like to keep up with the times, darling. I dropped in to Dovecove for tea. I haven't been anywhere near Gentry's place. The twins were terribly sweet. They gave me the nicest tea and all the latest news. They told me where to look for you. They said I could take you away for a vacation, if I wished. They told me you'd be quite helpless and they were certainly right about that."
The bound girl wished her flood of hope was not so strong. Melody could free her and this whole incident be over, but she seemed no more likely to do this than Ryan. However, it would be best to act as though Melody's untying her hands would be the most natural of acts.
"Well anyway, I'm sure glad you came," Mia said. "Those little monsters have had me tied like this for a long time and I'll be glad to be free." As though taking it for granted, Mia turned her back and wiggled her bound wrists in invitation to release. "Would you mind?"
"Untying you was not really what I had in mind, darling," Melody explained patiently. "If I untie you I can't handle you so your hands will have to stay as they are. I rather like that neck arrangement so we might as well use that, too."
"I'm afraid it's wired. The knots, I mean. The twins are clever about that."
"The twins told me. They're really a delightful couple, they lent me a pair of pliers."
Mia wanted to scream. She was foiled at every turn. Silently she measured the possibility of kicking Melody in a sufficiently vulnerable place to deter, but that would only be asking for trouble. It would be best to keep Melody in her present good humor. With forced cheerfulness she continued, "You don't have to worry about me, Melody. I'll come with you. No one seems to want me around here. I could use a vacation. Now, if you'll just untie my hands ... ?"
"Stop talking about being untied," Melody said with a touch of irritation. "You know I can't possibly untie you. You'd be off like a shot. You'll be back in darling Ryan's arms inside three minutes."
Melody considered the situation and said in a pleased voice, "Now all I have to do is untie your neck rope. The rest of you stays as is."
"So, OK, you untie me from the tree. What then?"
"I'll take you home, darling, so you can say goodbye to the twins. When I get you to my home I'll only whip you enough to make you service me. It's going to be simply lovely having you."
It was a sulky, resentful maiden who was led by the tether on her neck back to Dovecove. Mia had never felt less of a person than now. She was reduced to responding to tugs upon the collar around her neck like a well trained dog. Melody's happiness overflowed but it failed to infect the captive girl.
No one had ever possessed a less willing captive. Confronted by her ebullient sisters, Mia demanded, "Are you going to allow me to be kidnapped in this barefaced fashion?"
"You're not really being kidnapped, we're sort of making a gift of you to dear Melody. She says she'll take every such good care of you and return you to us after a while. Then you can go back to your tree. Aren't you lucky?"
She could have murdered them! In fact, Mia could have murdered everybody, she appeared to have no friends. "But I'm your sister!" she explained heatedly. "I don't deserve any of this you're doing to me."
"What, sending you on a lovely vacation with an old friend!" Fancy and Angel affected disbelief at such ingratitude. "Well, if that's the way she feels about it, Melody, perhaps you should whip her a little harder. She's in a really bitchy mood."
"Well, at least phone Mr. Gentry and tell him what you've done with me," Mia said.
"Needn't bother with that," Melody interjected sharply. "Don't want him knocking at my door. Darling Mia and I will be very happy to be left alone."
It had all been said. Mia was led to the car and helped up into the front seat. Her ankles were tightly tied and the rope from the collar on her neck was draped over the back of the seat in the manner of a long pigtail. The twins, generously, loaned Melody the prisoner's extra leather cuffs and locks.
Mia sat, stiff and helpless and hoped they would have an accident. It seemed incredible that no one would free her hands. But no one had and it seemed that no one would. Angrily, Mia demanded, "Melody, do you realize that I've been tied pretty much like this for weeks and weeks?"
"Of course, I do, dear. Isn't it lovely?"
"No, it isn't lovely and I'm sick to death of it. I hope you realize I'll make you a damned poor slavegirl. I won't do a thing you want."
"Oh, yes you will, darling, you know you will. You won't enjoy me whipping you the way you do with darling Ryan. Do be sensible and let's enjoy ourselves."
The police car drew level and edged them towards the side of the road when they were no more than half way to their destination. Melody said a tremulous, "Oh, damn, I've been over the limit," while Mia felt ten times more naked than before.
There was the usual inane exchange.
"In a bit of a hurry, Miss? You were well above the limit."
"I'm terribly sorry officer, I suspect there's something wrong with my speedometer. I guess you'll want to look at these." Melody handed over an envelope well stuffed with papers.
The policeman wrote busily. While he was doing so, Mia was cringingly aware of his cocked eyebrow which from time to time rested upon her unconventional condition. He was equally aware of her. When he was finished with Melody's ticket, he retained her envelope while walking around the car to open Mia's door and disclose the full enormity of her condition.
"Doing a bit of kidnapping, Miss?"
Mia took a deep breath. It was going to be embarrassing as hell but would at least leave her in freedom. It would be worth the snickering of the policeman and his snide remarks to get her hands untied.
"No, officer, this is a joke in poor taste," Mia said. "I'd be grateful if you would untie me and give me a lift. Mrs. Gentry doesn't need me, she can go home alone."
"Ahhh." The officer looked from the one to the other of this unexpectedly rich haul. He fixed Melody with a stern eye as he intoned, "Holding a person against their will. Restraint of freedom. Indecent exposure. What do you say about that, Miss?"
"It's just as Miss Argent has told you, it's a joke among friends. I'm sorry you've been troubled."
"Naked in a public place, Miss. That is not a joke."
The voice of Law was heavily disapproving.
"That's part of the joke, too, officer," Mia interjected hastily. "I know I shouldn't have allowed it to happen. I'm terribly sorry. May we go now?"
"No, you may not." The officer, no doubt in the line of duty, was giving a detailed, careful scrutiny to ever part of Mia Argent visible to the eye. "If you are not being kidnapped then would you be good enough to tell me why you are tied up so securely? You appear to me to be a prisoner."
Both girls were heartfelt in explanation. The officer listened. When they paused for breath, in inquired, "Do I understand you do not wish to press charges, Miss Argent?"
"That's right, officer, I wouldn't dream of such a thing. Besides, it wouldn't be true, I'm not being kidnapped."
The Law sighed ponderously. Using a pocket knife he slashed away the cords indenting her ankles then did the same with the ropes about her arms. He viewed her tied hands in disfavor. "I'll leave them hands of yours just as they are, Miss, they'll want to have a look at them at the station."
Mia's heart sank once more. She was not going to get her hands untied, but instead was going to be a laughing stock at some police station where the best covering she could hope for was a policeman's jacket. Miserably she said, "I wish you'd let Mrs. Gentry and me continue on our way. We really haven't done anything wrong. Please ... ?" She put every ounce of feeling she possessed into the plea.
"Section Forty-nine, subsection Eight-two of Code Seven-six-four expressly states as follows-" The officer knew himself on firm ground, "--no person or persons shall, under any circumstances, exhibit themselves in public without clothes. The offense is a misdemeanor, punishable under the Law of 1846, Archive Seven, Volume Three." The policeman brought his rhetoric to an end with a fine flourish of justification and undeniable logic, "And, now Miss Argent, if you will be kind enough to step from the car."
Mia had never known such shame. Passing cars slowed to watch as she was led to the official vehicle. She was covered with a regulation overcoat and seated primly in the front seat besides the wheel. Melody was told to continue on her journey but be available for a court hearing in due course. Settled comfortably behind the wheel, the officer intoned, "You are under arrest, Miss Argent, for indecent exposure. I must warn that anything you say may be used against you in a court of law." Having delivered that speech, he mellowed somewhat to say, "You mustn't take on too much about this, Miss Argent. It is an offense and you will be punished, but your sentence is not likely to be a long one. A token of disapproval, perhaps. I would think ten days would be about right."
"Ten days! Me in prison!" Mia was aghast. "You're making a terrible mistake."
"I'm afraid not, Miss, it is you who have made the error. May I suggest you do not indulge in histrionics in the station."
It was horrible. It was outrageous. It was impossible. But it happened in a methodically procession, beginning with the exhibition of her bound hands, her recital of her story to an unbelieving Sergeant, then being delivered to a matron's untender hands. Miss Mia Argent was stripped, hosed down, disinfected and then ill-clad in a female prison tunic. Then, respectable to public gaze, she was led before a Magistrate who took the opportunity to deliver a discourse on modern morals and immorality before sentencing her to ten days penal servitude. She was then allowed to make the one regulation phone call.
Gentry was amused. "What! You're in prison! Oh, come off it, Mia, you're pulling my leg." The new prisoner handed the receiver to the guardian by her side who spoke a few official words to assure Ryan Gentry of her condition. But when she again listened he was his usual self, "I'll be right there, Mia, darling. Will they let me feed you through the bars?"
"Ryan, please, don't joke. This isn't anything to joke about. I'm going to prison. I'm in prison right now!"
"I'm sure the effect will be beneficial, love."
Mia longed to scream and act irrationally. She would have love to hit her stern companion with the receiver or, better still, hit Gentry. Everything was desperately unfair. Everyone was free and going about their affairs except herself. She, the most innocent of all, was incarcerated behind bars and what was far worse, forced to wear an austere little tunic and a pair of clod-hopper shoes.
Urgently she implored, "Ryan, do hurry. And bring a lawyer and get me out of this horrid place."
An official voice consoled, "I'm sure the gentleman will do everything possible for you, Miss. Now, if you will come this way."
Mia was propelled from the phone and into a bleak passage. It was the most awful passage she had ever seen. On each side of it was doors.
"We'll make you comfortable here, Miss. For a short sentence such as yours, you'll be able to serve it here with us. I'll be bringing you a cup of tea."
Prison was not what Mia had supposed, in some ways it was far worse. Instead of acres of iron bars there was no bars at all but a claustrophobic cubical with a wash basin, toilet, a bed and four walls of brick. The door was a solid panel without a handle but it did have a small grating through which she could be viewed. When the door closed and the key turned she had never felt more abandoned or lonely in her life.
There was one, single saving grace, perhaps two; she was clothed and had her hands. Forgetting her locked up condition for a moment, she viewed her reddened wrists with satisfaction. They had been bound for so long and if it took a prison sentence to free them, perhaps it was worth it. But a glance around the austere little compartment in which she was confined killed optimism. In her heart, Mia Argent knew she would have been far, far happier bound beside Melody in the car. The ten days that she must spend stretched out before her as an endless vista of frustration, boredom and anxiety.
Gentry arrived. It appeared her interview with him was a privilege by special permission. It took place in a tiny room with only three hard chairs and a table. The wardress sat disapprovingly in one corner to listen and to watch.
"Look, sweetheart, I went to a lawyer chap I'm friends with. He tells me there nothing to be done - you've been sentenced."
They had been warned that the table must stay between them. They must not kiss or even exchange a handkerchief. Across its sterile surface the prisoner complained, "But, Ryan, there has to be something. What's all this about appeals and being out on bail and stuff like that?" Mia looked around desperately as though for escape. "Nobody's done anything for me. I've just been popped into prison and told I have to stay her for ten days. It's just not fair!"
"You're right about that, love," Ryan admitted regretfully. "Look, I'll keep on plugging, I'll find some way, if there's a way to find. But with a Magistrate's Court and for a ten day sentence, I don't think there's anything that can be done."
It was born upon the prisoner at that moment - she would stay in this vile place the full ten days. For her there would be no escape. Her plight was certainly not Gentry's fault, she would trust him to do what was possible. In a minute he would leave by one door and she by another and that would be the end of the interview. And the limit of the such help as she might expect. Bitterly she asked, "Ryan, darling, if I'm here for the ten days - what then?"
Ryan looked, pointedly, at the Law seated with ears alert. He turned back to his former slavegirl and gave her a broad wink. "I'm going to see the twins now, I'll brief them. On the way out I'll ask if they could come and visit you. If this is permitted, they can give you a message."
"Time's up," said the Law with stern finality, rising to its feet.
Miss Mia Argent's first interview as a convict girl in prison was at an end.
The little cell looked worse the second time around. Without Ryan, Mia felt lost. The twins, if allowed to visit, would be an amusing relief, a break in boredom, but that was all. Mia was on her own within a small brick cubical which, no doubt, had housed a thousand others such as she. It was a desolate little place, devoid of hope.
The cup of tea arrived as promised. It was accompanied by a small biscuit. Both were brought by a hardy police warden who slapped her back and promised that time would go by fast. What she had to do was count each day as it passed. She made Mia feel better, as though she belonged somewhere if only in prison. He was kind and Mia missed him when he took the metal cup and left.
In bed at night she cried herself to sleep.
The twins were as good as Gentry's word. Being her only relatives, they too were privileged to visit and entered the station house and it's cells beyond like two rays of sunshine. They even imparted life to the austere visiting room with its stern table.
"Darling, isn't this fun! We can hardly wait for you to tell us all about it when they let you go. Will they whip you and things, Mia, dear? They don't just have you sit around all day, do they?"
They might be absurd but the twins were a delight for the period the Law allowed. Quickly Mia asked, "Did Ryan leave you a message?"
"Oh, of course, we nearly forgot. We're going to pick you up when they let you out with a ticket of leave, or whatever it is. And then ..." They both turned and most pointedly glared at the listening law. "And then we're going to take you to him. We're sure you can guess how."
Mia could guess. Mia did not mind. Mia would have crawled naked on all four to Gentry's house had she been given permission to do so. She listened to the twins' assurances of undying affection. Just before leaving they added, archly, "The tree's still there, darling and we've bought some more, you-know-what."
Her sisters' visit repelled morbidity for nearly an hour.
It was the next day Mia's fondest hope came true.
Ryan Gentry and his companion of legal talent descended upon the small police station like a fury. Writs were flashed. Legal terms were thrown around mercilessly. Sundry laws and precedence's were provided beyond question. Under this onslaught the local Magistrate was ill prepared to cope. He salved his dignity by nodding at each presentation and then signing the document which returned Miss Mia Argent back to life. Since she had entered the police station with nothing, she was to be returned to the world in the same condition. It was necessary for Ryan Gentry and his legal help to purchase the tunic and shoes that had been hers for so very short a time. The payment and legal forms took longer than the hearing before the Magistrate. They emerged into sunlight with the young woman, hoping no one they knew would see her shame.
The lawyer departed in one direction while Ryan and Miss Argent went in another.
"I'm taking you to Dovecove, sweetheart," Gentry told her in the car. "The twins are dying to see you and hear what it's like to be in prison."
"It's just plain horrible, that's all there is to tell." Doubtfully she asked, "I thought you were taking me to your place?"
"Well, I'm considering it," Ryan assured in seeming seriousness. "Certain conditions of course, I'm sure you understand."
"All I understand is that I've had a bad time of it and was scared out of my wits. Please don't make fun of me, I want to be loved."
"And so you shall be. Not much of a chance up to now. Want me to stop the car?"
"Oh, Ryan ... !"
"Very well, just be patient."
Mia sensed something waiting. No doubt Dovecove would provide the answer. Euphoria took possession of her in waves as the car made its way through the countryside without a uniform in sight. She was free, free, free! If it pleased the man beside her to delay the telling of her fate, she would not demur.
Dovecove provided a magnificent tea. The twins provided a hundred eager questions. They delighted in referring to her as the "ex-convict." If Mia felt like asserting herself, she failed to do so. She was in the grip of a strange lassitude, but along with it was an equally strange suppressed excitement. She was certain something was going to happen and she would get no answers to any questions about it.
When Gentry rose to leave the twins inquired politely, "Aren't you taking the ex-convict along with you?"
"I suppose I could. Have to do something with the poor girl." Gentry was his usual noncommittal self. "But if I were you two girls, I'd put her back with the tree, her natural state, you know."
The ex-convict stood with three pairs of eyes examining her in acute expectation. She defeated their curiosity by unconcern. Holding out a cool hand, she said, "Thanks a million, Ryan. I don't know what I'd have done without you."
She included her younger sisters in her generalization, "I don't know what I'd have done without any of you. You all came through like Trojans."
But the twins would have none of it. "But, darling, if you're going out into the open air, aren't you terribly overdressed? Those horrible shoes?"
"After Mr. Gentry's gone, I'll go upstairs and dress properly." Mia's heart was thudding painfully in awful suspense.
"But, Mia, darling, Mr. Gentry won't be leaving until we've got you properly undressed and fixed. We haven't drugged you this time because he's going to help us. You won't want to fight, not after just being in prison and all?"
They were enjoying themselves. Strangely, Mia was in agreement. She had no wish to fight. If the tree and the tether was what she must expect, she supposed there was no evading it. But, with the twins, she could never be sure. "You expect me to take my clothes off?" she asked as though shocked. "You don't really mean that."
"Oh, but darling, we do! If you won't undress yourself, the three of us will do it for you." They surveyed her with bright, shining eyes.
Big sister undressed. The act was not without its feeling of shame, the prison had returned her to false modesty. Saying nothing, but playing their own game, she stood nude and waiting.
Ryan produced a paper bag he had carried from the station house. "Oh, by the way, I had to sign for these." He handed it to the ex-prisoner.
Mia took it woodenly and upended it upon the table. From it fell the expensive leather of the twins' investment. Mia recalled with a burning shame the indignity of being relieved of these mementos of the twins' captivity by the policeman, who it had appeared, was an expert locksmith with a collection of tools not normally possessed by the public. The padlocks and the lovely leather bands had fallen free under his skilled hands. Mia had forgotten. Without complaint she stood passively while they were fastened back on her nakedness. The room was throbbing with vibrations from all four as her loveliness was thus enhanced by these symbols of her bondage. When it was done she said a cynical, "Thank you, you're very kind."
A rope appeared as if my magic. Three pairs of eyes searched each other then focused upon the waiting girl. Mia shrugged and said, without feeling, "Very well, if that's what you all want."
She turned and crossed her wrists behind her back.
Mia Argent knew her breathing quickened as the cords were looped around her wrists, her flame, which had been dormant within prison walls, now flared almost to incandescence. Whoever was doing the binding of her wrists took the usual trouble and produced the usual pair of pliers and wire.
"Can't have you escaping, now can we?" Gentry politely suggested. "I must say these two girls of yours know how to look after you. You're in good hands."
Mia still said nothing, but her spirits were dampened by the wire. The wire was a thing of the twins, it was all their doing. If Gentry allowed them to use it on her bonds, it meant she belonged to them and not to him. But it was now too late, her hands were tied behind her back in the old, familiar way. She did not hate the sensation of helplessness as she had thought she would. It was like coming home.
The leash to the collar on her neck followed as the night the day. When she was taken to the tree she would be back to square one.
Leashed, Mia Argent was led from her own home back into the sunlight. If it had been the twins alone she would have fought. But the twins could not have overpowered and bound her in the first place. Ryan Gentry was the kingpin in this new captivity. As she was being led she contrived to say, without sounding either plaintive or accusing, "Please don't tie me to the tree again. I don't want to spend my life tied to a tree, it's such a waste."
The twins giggled. They handed her leash to a smiling man who, in turn, led the captive maiden to his car. The twins waved goodbye but Mia could not wave back. When she was lifted into the front seat of Gentry's car the dam broke. The bound ex-convict burst into a flood of tears which she was allowed to expend upon a male shoulder while a male arm held her comfortingly close. The world was suddenly a very wonderful place.
Ryan carried the bound and naked girl across his front step with a flourish. Mia did not ask if the act was symbolic of something she desired. Since she was now helpless she abandoned herself to a pleasant passivity, she would contest nothing but obey everything.
When she knelt before her master in the lounge, he forcefully demanded, "I hope you have had enough of this woman's liberty nonsense?"
"Yes."
"This equality affair you placed so much stock in, this meeting me on your terms and as an equal, what about that?"
"That's gone, too."
"Anything else to say, any terms to demand?"
Mia looked her master frankly in the eye. "No, none at all. I belong to you."
"Sorry you behaved like an idiot?"
"Yes, I apologize."
Laughter possessed them. The question and answer session had been amusing. A game as it were. But after the laughter died down, neither the girl nor the man would ever be quite sure how serious the exchange had really been in the demanding or giving of those vows. It did not matter. They were together.
Ryan Gentry picked up his slavegirl and carried her to bed.
"Fancy didn't come. She stayed back at Dovecove just to be safe," Angel explained. The titter she now bestowed on Ryan Gentry was both arched and coy. "I bet Mia would murder both of us if she knew you've given me a drink. It's lovely, it makes me feel all nice inside."
"I didn't quite catch your reference to Fancy," Ryan said, even though he understood her absence all too well. "Perhaps you'll explain?"
Angel shivered delightfully and sipped the creme de menthe. "Well, it's sort of like insurance in case you dump me into a dungeon or something like that. Of course, we know you wouldn't but just in case.
"That's not a bad idea, the putting you in a dungeon, I mean," Gentry observed thoughtfully. "Now, suppose I do just that? What would be Fancy's next move?"
"We arranged that if I didn't get back for supper she'd call the police. May I have another of these, they're nice?"
Ryan went to the bar and returned with a well diluted glass of the liqueur. "Dinner's a long way off. Didn't it occur to either of you that I could bind you up, whip your bottom, cane the soles of your feet and hang you up by your thumbs and still get you back in time."
"Oh, would you do that?!" Angel was suddenly agog with excitement. "I think Mia been longing for you to do things like that to her but she's been too polite to ask." Angel took a deep swallow. "Which one of those things you said would you like to start on?"
Gentry gazed on his youthful visitor paternally. The twins, single or together, were a delight. Angel's enthusiastic reaction in the face of a horrible fate was hard to believe. He shrewdly guessed that either twin would be less inhibited in the absence of the other. Quietly he said, "You don't really want me to do any of those things to you, do you?"
"Well, it would be sort of fun." Angel was definitely beginning to show the effect of the drink. "I mean, you wouldn't have to do it to me too hard. And you're so nice."
"Would Fancy talk like this or is it just you?"
"Well, we're a little embarrassed. Fancy thought it would be better if I came and said what I said. But don't worry about Fancy, she's all for it.
"Do you know what I think, Angel? I think that green stuff has got the best of you. If you're both such gluttons for punishment, I don't see why Fancy stayed at home. I could do it to both of you and make you both very happy. Isn't that right?"
"We never thought of that," Angel said as though surprised. "I must say this nice drink you've given me helps a lot. But I've only said what the two of us have been thinking for a long time. Don't you want the two of us as prisoners anymore?"
Gentry sighed. There was no accounting for the twins. They were outrageously carnal and could only be controlled by a stern hand. "I'll do those things to you if you'll phone Fancy and tell her to come over and get them too," he suggested blandly. "This business of one of you staying at home implies a lack of trust."
"Yes, it does," Angel admitted with equal unconcern. "I say, this stuff is awfully nice, sort of minty. But I'm sorry about Fancy, we both agreed that we'd only come one at a time until after you've married darling Mia. After you've married Mia, then we can both come as often as you like because we'll all be one family and it won't matter too much."
Ryan did not bother to elucidate Angel's feminine logic. He made his rejoinder deliberately sharp, "No, you may not see your sister. This is not a police station where you can drop in and get visiting privileges anytime. If you want to see her you can phone for an appointment."
"That means you've got the poor dear up in some awful way you don't want me to see," Angel nodded sagely. "Either that or she's covered with whip marks or something. You do keep her naked, don't you?"
Angel made the question sound like an inquire over someone's health.
Ryan was smitten by sudden inspiration. "I'll let you visit your big sister if you demonstrate a bit more confidence. An act of faith? You will let me tie your hands behind your back."
Angel's eyes sparkled, she was concerned with an immediate delight. "Oh, all right, I'll let you do that. But if you tie my hands behind my back I won't be able to hold this wonderful glass. If you'll let me finish this one and have another, I'll let you tie me all you like."
Gentry did not fail to discount the drinks. They were very weak but Angel was very young. What he intended to do to her was innocent enough but what he planned would be facilitated by her being mildly tipsy. He had heard it described as "getting the giggles." It was a apt description. He watched her swallow then refilled her glass with a stem warning, "That's the last one, sweetheart, I won't have you drunk, especially if you're going to visit Mia."
Angel was in her glory. She was managing things and lovely things would happen. She accepted her last drink with a small pout but realized adults might know best about these things. While she sipped she did not allow the conversation to languish. "We both hope you punish Mia every day, Mr. Gentry," she said hopefully. "She's so stupid. I think big sisters always are. She hasn't the least idea what's good for her and gosh, all the fuss she made about being tethered out to the tree! She sure did beef."
"What do you two think I operate here?" Ryan asked in genuine curiosity. "Do you really believe I do something awful to your sister every day? All this talk about whipping."
"Well, you do, don't you! You kept Fancy and me chained or tied or something. Sometimes you were real mean and won't let us get close." Quickly she added, "But that doesn't mean we don't think you're ever so nice."
By the time her drink was finished, Angel was quivering with excitement. It was though she delayed the binding of her hands as an additional thrill. When she stood up and announced her readiness to be bound she added, "Do you want me naked, Mr. Gentry?"
"Might be an idea, I hadn't thought of it. Yes, it's decidedly a good idea. Strip."
Never had a maiden divested herself of covering with such alacrity. But she folded her garments with precise neatness and asked politely, "May I fetch the rope, Mr. Gentry. Just tell me where it is."
It was a ball of heavy twine. Gentry wound it around the willing wrists in a wry determination to teach the moppet a lesson. The twine would not deter circulation but would impose a discipline of its own. When the moppets wrists were tightly tied he produced a collar for her neck and a leash. In a big-brotherly way he asked, "There, how does it feel?"
"Mmmmmmm, I'm all gooey, Mr. Gentry. Gee, you've tied me so tight and the cord is so thin!" The enraptured maiden twisted and tugged in experimental joy. "I can't ever get loose, I just know I can't. And you're going to make me follow you with the leash and that collar around my neck. Gee, you're wonderful."
"I am not going to admit I've played a trick on you, Angel," Gentry said in cool honesty. "Sure, you can say hello to Mia. Then I take you out into the woods and I tether you with a long rope in the same way you tied your big sister. You understand?"
"Oh, Mr. Gentry!" Angel was aflame in excitation and more than a little tipsy. "Will you really? Oh, jeepers!"
"But first you're going to phone Fancy and you're going to tell her what we're going to do. If she can find where it is we're going to tether you, you're home free. If she can't find you, she's in a bit of a bind."
"She'll go straight to the police."
"I don't think she will, Angel, not after you've had this talk on the phone. If you want, you can tell her that if she can't find you, she can come to me and yield herself as a prisoner. How's that?"
"Oh, I can't possibly tell her that." Angel's voice was anxious. "Don't you see, Mr. Gentry, if I tell her that she won't bother to play this lovely little game you've thought of. She'll come right over and take her clothes off. The game is so much nicer."
It was like playing with animated Barbie dolls, the twins were enchanting. Whatever they did was always erotically delightful to the male view. Gentry led his young prisoner to the nearest phone. He dialed and held the receiver to Angel's mouth. It was a bubbling conversation he was forced to listen to, full of exclamations and admonitions. But when he was satisfied the message had got across to the girl at the other end of the line, he interposed his own male voice.
"That's it, Fancy. The rest is up to you. Angel will not be hurt."
Angel's visit to her big sister was not a success. Mia was inside a cage, she stood within the cage because of a collar and chain about her neck. She could neither sit nor kneel. She was far from pleased at being viewed thusly by a babbling adolescent. Crossly she demanded, "What on earth are you doing here, Angel and like that! Haven't you enough sense to stay at Dovecove where you're safe?"
Angel was taken back. A different greeting might have evoked a different response, but as it was she said a story book line, "My, what big tits you've got, Mia, dear and my, my, what a wonderful pubic bush. All that hair!"
"Don't be disgusting, you little whore. I'm tired of both of you. I hope Mr. Gentry canes your bottoms before he sends you home."
Mia turned towards her Master. "You are going to send them home, aren't you? After teaching them a lesson, I hope."
Then Angel told her story. "It's sort of a paper chase without the paper," she ended rather lamely. "Fancy has to find me, that's all."
Ryan did not prolong the visit between the two sisters, they were unlikely to agree about anything and it did not matter. A certain amount of friction added spice to the attraction the trio had for him. He led the trembling and radiant teenager from the house and out into the trees. Finding a not-too obvious location, he chose his tree and tethered the girl to it. Pliers and a piece of wire insured captivity. He patted Angel's bare bottom, gave her a big-brother kiss on her forehead and left her alone. There had been no promise of release, no information about anything, Angel was precisely as Mia had once been.
The effect of the green liqueur lasted longer than might have been the case with an adult. Angel revealed in its euphoria. She fought her bonds with every muscle of her being. She jerked and twisted and fought to her content. She was positive Mr. Gentry would not let her down, she would not be able to free herself and in that conviction, she was upheld. By the time sobriety had its influence, Angel had proved beyond doubt the inescapability of her captivity. Following euphoria came the delicious shivers of apprehension. If Fancy failed to find her then night would fall and with it would come the ghosts and the strange noises to make the flesh of maidens creep. In the meantime she was not unaware of the hazards of being discovered by the wrong person. The woods available to Gentry was not as isolated as the one in which she and Fancy had tethered their elder sister. Angel did not really expect to be discovered by anyone other than her sister or the man who had bound her here. But she could not be sure. The doubt sent fresh quivers of sensation up and down her shine and started something with which she was becoming increasingly acquainted, a fire within her loins.
She amused herself by walking around the tree at the end of her tether. She got an added thrill out of imagining it was Gentry who held the far end of the rope instead of the tree, he would be able to tug at her neck as he pleased, but the tree was a second best, she used it to the full. Angel's next experiment within captivity was to seek for a rough piece of bark or an exposed root against which to rub the bonds on her wrists. She was not too disappointed to fail in this search. She rose on tiptoe to see if she could reach the rope around her tree and its bit of wire. But that was awkward and far too high. It was while she was thus engaged her visitor arrived.
It was a sad anticlimax in as much as it was neither man nor woman but a ragged and soiled boy smaller than herself. He carried a basket and had been hunting for mushrooms. He stood transfixed and uttered an emphatic, "Well, I never!"
The bound maiden eyed the new arrival with disfavor. She knew his kind, they nearly always spelled trouble. Coldly she directed, "Go away, little boy, if you stay around here you'll get into trouble."
"You ain't got no clothes on!" The uneducated young voice was filled with the pleasure of discovery. "I ain't never seen no girl with no clothes on, not your age, only 'uns. Turn around so I can see you better."
"I told you to go away," Angel repeated sternly. "It doesn't matter about my clothes, I simple forgot to put them on. It's no business of yours. Go away."
The boy did not go. Instead, he came closer and remarked, in genuine astonishment, "You've got tits and things. Crykey, look at that there hair you got beneath your belly. I ain't got nowhere so much."
"You're a boy," Angel informed from her superior age. "Boys don't have as much as girls." Her mind was in the turmoil of seeking some way to banish this unwelcome guest. "My father will be coming any minute now, if he finds you here!"
"I bet you ain't got no father. You just saying that to frighten me," the boy said with youthful wisdom. "I bet there ain't nobody gonna come. Some body's tied you like that for a long time." In sudden discovery he added, "I got yous all to myself! I all's wanted a naked girl all just for me. Gosh, what I could do to you!"
"You can't do anything to me. If you come near I shall kick you in that thing you've got where it hurts. And if you don't believe about my father, you just wait."
"You ain't got no father, I can tell the way you say it. Look, you stands still while I feel you all up. You willing to do that?"
"No, I'm not, you horrible little animal. This is private property, you've got no business here."
"No, it ain't. I've been comin' here since I was a little 'un. You want to cock your leg up so I can see your hole?"
"I'm not going to do anything so disgusting," Angel affirmed valiantly. But her heart was sinking. Tied as she was this youngster could handle her, he could get her down, he could probably hurt her terribly if he wanted to. She hoped he was too young to think about rape.
"You know what that hole is for," he stated with an air of imparting grave knowledge. He unzipped his pants. "Here, look at this! You see what I got? It's made so it can be shoved up your hole and way inside. Want to try?"
The bound and naked teenager was busily computing odds. She doubted if her voice could be heard and if no one answered her scream for help, the boy would be doubly encouraged. The father and brother threat was one which her visitor obviously did not believe. Angel felt painfully on her own and fell back upon the only defenses she could think of. "If you come near me, I'll kick and I'll bite and I'll hurt you bad. Go away."
The boy nodded as though she was speaking of the weather. He continued a train of thought. "Anybody ever whip your bottom? They don't cane girl's bottoms in school anymore, I ain't never seen it done. I sure would like to. 'ow 'bout I cuts a switch and uses it on your little buns?"
Angel flamed angrily, "Don't you ever dare! You could go to prison for a long time if you do a thing like that to me."
"Worse than stickin' my thing in you?"
"No, that's every bit as bad. You mustn't whip me and you mustn't do that horrible thing to me, either." Bluffing, she added, "I won't let you. Don't get big ideas just because my hands are tied behind my back."
"They're tied real good, ain't they? Mind if I look?"
"You can see well enough, you don't need to come any closer."
The urchin leapt. Angel ran for her life but forgot the tether, before she had got started it jerked her neck back in a painful reminder of how helpless she was before this soiled young man. A moment later a smelly arm was around her neck, she was tripped and thrust to the ground and a young male knee planted triumphantly in the small of her back.
"See, I gotta. You'd better choose real quick. What do you want, your ass switched or to get fucked?"
The hateful question held an undoubtable authority. The naked girl could not even dislodge him from her back, her hands were useless. It was worse when he turned her to lay upon those bound arms and give him a full frontal view of everything she possessed. For almost a minute he was entranced with this discoveries and revelations while the girl beneath his knee panted from exhaustion and desperation. In a forlorn hope she promised, "If you don't do things to me, if you just go away and leave me alone, I'll give you money, a lot of money. Honest, I will."
"You ain't got no money," her captor mocked. "All you got is a cute little pussy. Here, I'm going to feel it."
He changed position and proceeded to finger and message that part of Angel she most desired to keep inviolate. "Gosh, you're nice down there," he ejaculated. "You and me gonna have fun. If you don't stay still the way I tell you, I'll cut that switch. You'll do what I tell you then!"
With a male knee in her stomach and a male finger and thumb grasping her right nipple, Angel was aware of male superiority. Everything was hurting including the thin twine around her wrists, even that was against her. And she was certain that, had it not been for the rope around her neck, she would have gotten clean away. She was ready to cry in humiliation and defeat. She had no curiosity about rape. She was certain it would be horrible and vile.
"Look, before I starts in on you I'd better cut that switch," her captor said sagely. "I don't trust you yet. If I don't whip you real good first you ain't going to do nothin.' You'll fight first. I'll be right back."
She watched him go then looked around in desperation but there was nothing and no one. Miserably the teenaged girl watched him search and find a couple of limber withes with which she would be whipped. Sure, she could run again, but to what avail! When he returned she said, in total surrender, "You don't need to use them on me. I'll do what you want."
"You mean you'll lay back and open your legs for me?" He demand was almost in disbelief that any girl her age could be thus easily coerced. His tone became derisive, "Naaah, I ain't trusting you. I'm gonna whip you first. You wanta turn over so's I can whip your rump or you wants it on your tits?"
Angel rolled over. All she could hope was for this young lout to find his sexual gratification in the streaking of her skin. She was not without wisdom in such matters and was playing her last card. She would take a whipping for a rape. If a rape came later she would at least have tried!
Knowing the target, she lifted her bound hands above her two curves about to receive the switch.
The pain was atrocious. Within her agony Angel realized this urchin knew no more of corporal punishment than she herself. In his ignorance he could cut her to bits. She tried to leap erect was but thrust down with an unkind foot and a second stroke cut her skin. She screamed in pain and anger and all the frustration of any female conquered by The Male.
It was then salvation came.
The knee was gone, the foot was gone, there was no third stroke. Angel rose in disbelief and a great thankfulness. Like the boy, she stared at the interruption. It was Fancy staring back at them in disbelief in what she saw. When comprehension dawned, she snatched at a broken branch and leapt into the fray, beating the would-be rapist so savagely about the head and shoulders that he turned and ran, leaving his basket of mushrooms as spoils of war. Panting, Fancy came back to her thankful sister and said, irritably, "I told you so. I told you you would get into trouble. Did Mr. Gentry make you do that phone call with a gun at your head or something?"
Angel was abject. She told her story and ended it with, "It would have been OK, Fancy, if this little so and so hadn't shown up. Mr. Gentry was real sweet."
Angel was untied. Angel was kissed and hugged, Angel was consoled. Leaving the rope and the thin twine on the grass and for good measure the basket of mushroom, the now free naked girl and her twin sister walked back home. By the time they arrived at Dovecove, Angel was feeling proud of her wounds, her fingers sought them constantly and she kept requesting of Fancy a report on their changing condition.
They were back at square one.