CHAPTER SEVEN.











After she’d drunk the water he gave her, he slowly and purposefully began to unbind her arms. After undoing each twist of the rope he paused to examine the impressions it had left behind, tenderly tracing over the lines with his fingers, seeming to marvel in the perfectly parallel quality of the marks.

It was quite some time before he was finally done and she sat motionless until he was. She was fascinated by the way he could be so tender towards her now when he’d been so violent earlier that evening.

“What had changed? she wondered. She was sure that it wasn’t anything she was doing differently, her behaviour was completely governed by his actions. Everything she was doing now was merely a reaction to him.

When he had finished, he left her there on the floor while he went into the kitchen She was naked and chained but unbound, with no gag or blindfold, so she was able to stretch out her aching limbs and rub her shoulders while she looked about the room at her surroundings.

It was a modern house like so many others in South London, with a front door that opened into the living room like in an old cottage. The room wasn’t exactly large but it had plenty of space despite there being a large pile of what looked like plumbing supplies in one corner.

“Oh great, she thought, He brings his work home with him!

There were also two large sofas at right angles to each other at one end of the room, a television on a low square travel trunk and the dining table to which she was chained at the other end nearest to the door to the kitchen. She was sitting on a soft carpet that she noticed ran all the way up the staircase and presumably into the bedroom. That was what she wanted to see most of all. Where she wanted to be.

The house wasn’t quite what she’d been expecting but then she wasn’t really sure what that was.

“I suppose things never are how you picture them in your mind are they? she pondered to herself.

The feeling was starting to return to her arms now and she rubbed them vigorously to try to take out some of the aching sensation from her joints. She looked at the marks that had seemed to fascinate him so much when he’d untied her before. She could see why they had. They were perfect, each one symmetrical, parallel to the next with a slight lift at the back where the rope had crossed over before retuning to the front again, where it lifted once more, then back, then front, then back and so on. She could follow the line of the rope from the top of her arms all the way down to her wrists, where there was a neat impression of the knot he’d tied to secure her.

She traced the lines with her finger like he had done and was surprised to be able to feel every twist of the make up of the rope, like a spiral.

“God she thought, The detail is incredible. It’s so beautiful. A real work of art. No wonder he was so proud of his handiwork. I would be too.”

Then she noticed that she had marks around her ankles too, from where her tights had cut into her while she was tied up in the van. These were different though; there was none of the beauty of the ones on her arms. Instead they were just rough grazes around each ankle from where she’d pulled against the fixings as they drove, just in order to steady herself rather than in any attempt to escape.

She absent-mindedly rubbed her hands over the marks on her ankles as she wondered what he was doing in the kitchen. She assumed he was getting something to eat and she suddenly realised that she was famished. She hoped he’d bring her something too but she knew better than to ask, so she just sat back against the leg of the table and waited for him.

After a while, he came out from the kitchen but what he had in his hand wasn’t food but a pair of leather cuffs, which he attached around her wrists, once again fixing them behind her back. Then he returned to the kitchen and brought out a glass of wine and a plate of cold chicken and pasta for himself. He sat on one of the sofas and put his feet up on the arm of the other, resting the plate on his lap as he started to eat. All the while he was watching her in complete silence.

In return she watched him eat every mouthful. Slowly and deliberately he placed each forkful into his mouth and it seemed to her that he was smiling as he chewed.

“Bastard, she thought, He’s laughing at me. He knows I’m hungry and he’s just going to sit there and stuff his face without offering me any of it. I don’t believe him, it’s not fair. I‘ve tried to be good, why is he doing this to me?”

She could feel the tears starting to prick at the back of her eyes, when she noticed that he had stopped eating and was tearing the chicken into small pieces. Then he placed the plate on the floor where she could just about reach it and sat back in his seat without saying a word.

What was she supposed to do now? Was she allowed to eat or not? Was it a test?

She hesitated, unsure of what to do but unable to look away from the food that was now so close to her. Eventually she looked up at him coyly.

“You hungry, little one? he asked mockingly.

“Yes Master, very much, she replied with what she hoped was a pleading look.

In response he closed his eyes and put his feet back up on the arm of the chair. She waited. For a moment she thought he’d gone to sleep, after all he had said how tired he was but then he looked at her again and said,

“Ok then baby, you can eat if you want to.”

Her first reaction was to dive for the food but just in time she remembered her manners and thanked him. He nodded his appreciation and gestured towards the plate, then watched her as she struggled to get up onto her knees once more and shuffle over to the plate before bending her head and hungrily eating the chicken he’d left for her.

When she’d eaten everything he’d given her, he let her sip some of the wine from his glass and again she thanked him gratefully.

Then he unchained her and led her upstairs, still with her hands cuffed together behind her back. Her heart pounded in her chest as they reached the top of the stairs and he told her to go into his bedroom and wait for him beside the bed. She did so as he went into the bathroom and began to run a bath.

Her eyes quickly scanned the room before he returned, it was sparsely furnished. A bed, a chest of drawers, a television and a large built-in wardrobe which took up one entire wall.

“Must have a passion for clothes that I haven’t seen yet, she figured.

The only other things she could see made her heart race again, the fear building inside her. There was a long leather horse whip like the ones used by someone driving a carriage and a large shiny silver sword propped up in the corner behind the television.

“Interesting decorative scheme! she mused but she didn’t have time to give it any further thought as he returned from the bathroom and she immediately lowered her gaze to the floor.

He stepped past her and opened a drawer in the chest in the corner. He pulled out a silk scarf and tied it around her eyes before leading her into the bathroom and helping her to climb into the bath and sit down in the warm water.

She wondered why he’d blindfolded her again now but when he got into the bath with her she realised it must have been because he hadn’t wanted her to see his naked body yet.

“Ahhh, bless, she thought, amused. He’s shy!”

Slowly and tenderly he washed her body all over, carefully soaping every part of her and then rinsing her off again with water he wrung from a flannel. The water helped to ease her aching muscles and gradually she allowed herself to relax into what was happening to her. She let him lay her back against the end of the bath while he washed himself and she tried to picture what he was doing from what she could feel as he moved between her feet. After a little while he gently pulled her upright by her hair and helped her to get out of the bath again before wrapping her up in a huge fluffy towel and just holding her still for a few minutes.

She was utterly bemused by such tender behaviour from him but she was starting to understand that she couldn’t predict what he was going to do next and in a way that was exciting for her. She would never know what to expect next.



-