On their brief journey Jane was led within ten feet feet of her cousin, though neither were aware of it. But Jane felt the concrete beneath her feet alter to smooth stone, and by the change in the atmosphere she guessed she'd been taken indoors. Down a ramp they went, round a sharp corner, and down another long ramp, passing as they went the various dungeons in which the Ladies punished their slaves, all unseen by Jane but producing a shiver of fear in the slave who led her.

A small cellar of about fifteen feet square was their destination. There they found Mistress Sarah's slave carpenter and her saddle and harness maker, both lent to Lady Noire for her purpose. A thick rotating circular pillar stood in the centre of the room; obviously it was meant to be turned by the long capstan bar which jutted from it horizontally. This the carpenter had modified to be adjustable for height, and when the saddle maker had clamped a bulky leather yoke around Jane's neck and checked that it rested comfortably upon her shoulders the yoke was clamped to the bar. Then the bar was adjusted for height and secured in place. When they were satisfied, they left her alone in the darkness.

Jane took what little stock of her position she was able. Her neck and shoulders were rigidly held by the thick padding of the yoke, and the bar had been set at such a height that she was bent forwards a little at the hips. The air was hot and humid, and she could feel a stone floor beneath her feet. And that was the sum total of what she could learn about her condition. Closing her eyes behind her blinkers, she tried to get as comfortable as she could.

The sound of approaching feet brought her to full awareness and she listened carefully. There was the clack of of a woman's leather soles, the heavier sound of a slave's sandals, and the light patter of bare feet. They stopped a few feet from her, and she stiffened in apprehension.

Lady Noire smiled mockingly at her captive before making a cursory gesture at the sandal-shod slave holding the his barefoot fellow on a leash. He led his charge to the rotating central pillar to which the capstan bar was fitted and locked a chain to his steel collar. Thrusting a pony-whip into his hand, he left him and joined Lady Noire in the doorway.

She nodded curtly at the chained slave with the whip; at once he brought it down across the taut protruding haunches of the little woman yoked to the bar.

Lady Noire smiled again as Jane uttered a little gasp of shock and pain and began to move forwards, pushing her shoulders into the yoke. She waited as the slave brought Jane up to a slow walk before he pressed one of the switches on a panel fixed to the central column. Jane slowed a little, then resumed her pace, encouraged by a flick from the slave's whip. Another switch was pressed, then another. As each switch was pressed, the load on Jane's yoke increased, and the slave only stopped when she was panting lightly, her body leaning fully into the yoke. Satisfied, Lady Noire and her attendant went away, leaving the cellar door open to provide a dim light for the tethered slave to see his target.

In the elegant salons of the mansion large fans hanging from the ceilings began to turn slowly. The elaborately dressed Ladies glanced up at them, welcoming the stirring of the warm, scented air. They spared not a thought for whoever was trudging round and round like a blind ox in the darkness far below their feet.

Jane plodded on and on, in constant terror of the unseen whip at her back. After a time she fell into a sort of hypnotic trance in which the only realities were her steady panting and the smooth movements of the muscles of her calves, thighs, buttocks and back, broken into now and then by the lightning-swift sting of the lash. The demands of her full bladder gradually broke into her reverie and she automatically began to slow to a stop to empty it. Quick as thought, the lash fell on her back. Stifling a sob of despair, she increased her speed again. Finally she had no choice; still keeping up the same steady pace, she urinated, the warm liquid splashing down between her thighs with each step.

Not until the last Lady, yawning delicately behind her delicate paper fan, had gone to bed was Jane released, and then only to be tethered in a corner of the cellar on a heap of dirty straw. She was fed and watered, then left in the darkness to sleep. It seemed only minutes passed before she was yoked to the bar again and trudging on her endless journey. This time she was turning the fans in the kitchens, and the sweating slaves, preparing breakfast for their Mistresses, glanced up and were grateful.

Lady Noire kept Jane to her task for three endless days until she judged her spirit had been broken enough for her to be brought back into daylight. This time, when Jane was harnessed to her cart, she obeyed immediately. Lady Noire drove her round for an hour or so; satisfied with Jane's new docility and obedience, she generously put her, along with her cousin, at the disposal of Mistress Sarah and any other Lady who wanted a drive or had errands for their slaves.

For the two cousins the next few days became a routine of being driven here and there by various people, both Ladies and slaves, most of whom they never even saw. Kept blindfolded except when actually being driven, the first warning they would receive was the sound of footsteps, usually those of a slave, then the sound of their tethers being untied from the fence. Their heads would be wrenched round and they would be led forwards a few feet before being halted again. The opening of their blinkers and the lurching of their carts would come next, then the slapping of their reins on their shoulders. A flick of their driver's whip on a buttock and Jane and Carol would lean into their sweaty harnesses and pull their carts forward, faster and faster, obeying the whip at their backs and the guiding pressure of the reins on their bits.

Carol was in her element at this treatment, revelling in being a 'real' pony, her shyness at being observed relieving herself forgotten. But Jane still writhed occasionally at the mental picures she couldn't help summoning up; of herself, naked and harnessed between the shafts of a cart. A further insult was inflicted when, like her cousin's, her own hair was scraped back into a pony-tail and secured with a bright red ribbon. That she should be so bedecked at her Mistress's whim was unbearable.

When Lady Noire drove her (and she always knew by the whiff of subtle scent which came to her nose, and by the firm, self-assured touch on her reins) Jane still seethed with humiliation. Sometimes she raged at the trivial natures of the errands she and the slave who drove her were continually sent on, errands on which she was made to run a mile each way to bring a bucket of ice for the Ladies' drinks, or a fan, or a book some Lady had forgotten to bring back from some secluded glade where she'd been reading. The track to the Lodge became boringly familiar to her, so much so that she knew every little bump and hollow on its surface. Often she would see her cousin pulling her own little cart, panting and sweating like herself. Her vision, when she was allowed it, was firmly restricted by her blinkers, but occasionally some careless slave would forget to blind her before tethering her, and then she would see the Ladies walking elegantly along the raked and weeded paths around the Mansion, or sitting at tables on the lawn under the trees, sipping cold drinks while their slaves attended to their every whim, and then Jane would writhe anew.

The days continued hot and sunny, the nights, which the cousins spent tethered in the same stall, were still and chilly. Occasional short-lived thunderstorms occurred, always in the late afternoons, and then Jane and Carol would be driven through the rain to recover oddments of discarded clothing, fans, parasols and the like while the Ladies, having been transported by their slaves back to the house in dry comfort and in good time, sat drinking tea on the terrace.

But the worst times for Jane were the evenings, when the Ladies had dined. Before her meal, Lady Noire woiuld usually have her two 'little pale beasts' as she would refer to them harnessed side by side between the shafts of a two-seater cart in case she wanted a ride after dinner. Sometimes she drove them out, either alone or carrying with her a friend; sometimes she lent then to another Lady or Ladies. And sometimes they were left to stand in blind patience until a slave was sent to unharness them and put them away in their stall when the last Lady had gone to bed.

One particular velvet-soft evening, sweetly scented with night-flowering shrubs, Carol and Jane had been left harnessed to their individual carts. Lady Noire and one of her friends, a certain Lady Bronwyn, drove them out for a ride, intending to stop en route and take their coffee and digestifs at a little gazebo half a mile away.

Jane was vaguely wondering why she and her cousin hadn't been harnessed together that evening, and what their Mistress intended for them, when her halter was untied and she was led away. She felt the concrete of the yard under her feet change to the clipped turf of the lawn, then she was halted by the slave leading her. A moment or so later, she heard the distinctive lightness of her Mistress's feet on the turf, accompanied by a heavier tread. Her cart heeled under the weight of her driver taking her seat, then her blinkers were flipped open, dazzling her with the dim evening light. Allowed a moment to adjust her eyes she noticed the rear of her cousin's cart, above it the dark shape of her driver's back. Then the whip fell across Jane's haunches and she leaned obediently into her harness.

She very soon realised that she was being driven by a Lady other than her Mistress. The other Lady was heavier, for one thing, and she was by no means as skilful in driving her as Lady Noire, sawing with the reins on Jane's mouth as she drove her uncertainly in the wake of the other cart and using the whip to punish rather than to encourage her.

Jane was panting heavily when she caught up with her cousin, considerately brought to a stop by Lady Noire at the edge of the woodland. The two Ladies exchanged a few words, then Lady Noire flicked Carol's rump with her whip and drove her into the wood at a walk. Lady Bronwen's inexpert lash caught Jane painfully high on her back, and she uttered a little, stifled gasp of pain as she pulled the cart into motion. Head down, she followed the other cart into the wood.

The two Ladies drove around the wood for half an hour or so before going to the gazebo where slaves was waiting for them with coffee in a silver flask and a selection of digestifs. Little coloured lights had been strung in the branches of the nearby trees, and the rendezvous presented an almost fairy-like appearance as they came to it from the gloom of the wood. With glad little cries the Ladies dismounted and took their seats at the marble table after tossing the reins of their ponies to an attendant slave.

Carol and Jane waited patiently, tethered side by side to a sapling several yards downwind from where the Ladies sat. Jane had not been blindfolded on this occasion, and both Ladies were fully in her narrow field of vision though she couldn't see her cousin only a few feet away. She could smell the rich aroma of their coffee and saliva flooded her mouth; treated since their arrival as animals, neither cousin had drunk anything but water. She wondered just how long they had been at Mistress Sarah's, and how long they were to remain. The Feminine Domination session was to last three weeks, and she unsuccessfully tried to count how many days must pass before she and Carol resumed human roles again. But the days since she had been trapped by Lady Noire and made into a draught animal for her convenience blurred into each other, so alike in their drudgery as to be identical. A tiny scream of dismay from Lady Bronwen caught her attention.

"Oh dear!" she wailed. "I've left my cigarette holder on the terrace!"

At once her companion snapped a curt order at a slave and he walked briskly over to where Jane and Carol stood. Seconds later Jane was being driven at a fast trot back to the Mansion.

This was not the only time that evening in which one or other of the cousins was driven off at speed to fetch some trifle or other considered necessary to the Ladies' comfort. Fresh coffee, more ice, a silken wrap for Lady Bronwen, who was feeling chilly as the evening advanced, all of these and more.

At last the lateness of the hour persuaded Lady Noire's companion to return to the house for a nightcap before bed. She drove away with Carol between the shafts, leaving Jane alone with her Mistress and the slaves patiently waiting to clear away the debris of the evening. Lady Noire called out to her personal slave.

"I shall go for a drive in the moonlight," she told him. "I may be some time. See to it that a bath is drawn for me, and a hot drink and Brandy await me on my return!"

"Yes, Mistress!" he replied humbly. Striking him with her whip as a token of dismissal, she turned and walked slowly over the short, sweet-smelling turf to where Jane was tethered. Halting at her side, she ran her narrow hand down Jane's back and flanks.

It was one of those occasions when Jane's blinkers had been closed over her eyes when her driver had left her. Too far from her Mistress to have heard her conversation, she'd had no notion of her intentions.She stiffened as the casual hand swept down her body, and she heard the unmistakeable voice of her Mistress.

"I am not yet tired enough to desire rest, my little pale beast. You certainly are tired; but that is of no moment. I shall go for a ride, and you shall pull my cart under my direction. That is the way of things between a human being and an animal she has trapped and tamed!"

Jane clenched her teeth on her bit at these insulting words. Her blinkers were opened to the straight-ahead position, then she felt her cart heel as her Mistress mounted it. The reins jerked her bit, the whip flicked her buttocks, and she leaned wearily into her harness and began to walk forwards.

Whether out of an unlikely consideration for Jane's tiredness, or because she wished to prolong her own time in the cool night air, Lady Noire kept Jane at a slow trot, even allowing her to drop into a walk whenever there was an uphill slope in their path. Jane trudged on in that state of blessed indifference she had come to welcome; her vision limited to a few feet in front of her, automatically responding to the gentle pressures on her mouth which told her which way to turn and to the painful little flicks of the whip which told her when to exert extra effort. In this state of self-imposed hypnosis, it was some time before she realised that her Mistress was talking to her in her low, clear voice.

"I have said that I have tamed you, little pale beast, but that is not really true. Rather, I have trained you to obey me under fear of punishment. But, when I have truly tamed you and I SHALL tame you, little pale beast then you shall obey because your beast mind will not be able to conceive of any alternative to obedience. I shall make of you a friendly, docile, obedient little animal. I have not the time here and now, but you will come to me to be tamed when I command you; you and your pale beast of a sister, too|! But she will be easy to tame; she is very submissive. As for you; I do not think that you are submissive at all, and that will make my success the sweeter. But someone has tamed you in the past; I wonder who he was? I can see the invisible collar you wear; did he put it around your neck? Or did you do it at his command? You have been a real animal; and you shall be one again. I have you on an invisible leash, and you shall come to me when I call to you."

Jane, panting as she drew her cart across a patch of rough ground, only half-heard this soliloquy, though its words were later to become engraved on her mind. The whip flicked her hard on her rump, and she broke into a weary trot.

"Run, little pale beast; pant and sweat in yoiur harness!" she heard her Mistress say. "I grow chilly, and I want my hot drink, my Brandy and my bath before I go to my warm, soft, scented bed. And you; you will want to be given water and allowed to sleep in the straw of your pen. Run; little pale beast run under my whip!"

So saying, Lady Noire brought down the lash in a flurry of blows on the slender back and haunches before her.