"Have your joke," Jennie retorted without rancour. "I almost feel sorry for the poor little cunt. I've never seen anything more naked and helpless. Look at her!"
"Quite charming. I will leave her in your care. If you let her escape you will be killed."
"And up your's too!" said Jennie. It wasn't encouraging, was it? I was still tied hand and foot and elbow. I hurt too much to struggle. I wished Jennie was a different type, but the vulgarity of her last rejoinder gave me hope. She had some sense of humour of her own. "I'm sorry to be such a nuisance," I told her submissively. "I'll try and not give you any trouble."
"You won't get a chance, love," said Jennie.
"Could I just have the rope off my elbows please?" I asked tentatively. Jennie consulted her watch. "You've been tied like that less than an hour," she said calmly. "You can stand it awhile yet."
"Am I tied like this to keep me from escaping, or as some sort of punishment?" I ventured.
"Hurts that bad, eh?"
"It's beastly."
"They whipped you at the other place, didn't they?"
"Yes." Mr. Royden seemed a million miles away.
"Did that hurt much?" She was morbidly interested.
"Try it sometime." Her eyes shaded in retrospective thought. "It 'ud hurt me, love. I was thinking about you. Ain't you the gal what loves it?" Here too! It is not comforting to a girl, tied hand and foot, to realize her captors actually believe she would enjoy a dozen with the knout. I tried to touch any heart Jennie might possess.
"Look, you're a girl, you know how girls respond. From someone I love I can accept an awful whipping and feel only gorgeous eroticism. From strangers I'm scared of it, it hurts so bad I curl up inside and scream. Haven't you ever…" Her laugh was half a sneer, but it was progress. "Sure, kid, I know. We're silly bitches just the way they say we are." Her eyes narrowed, "How about that rope 'round your elbows, work the same way for you?"
"Yes. Right now I'd give anything to get it off." She nodded. "Yes. Can't say I'm like you, but I can guess. And being naked… how's that?"
"I'm nearly always naked. I've got used to it. There's just moments when a man says something or looks at me in a certain way…"
"O.K. You're just another girl, but a damn good looking one."
"That man told you to look after me. What… "
"Look, love, there ain't much chance of you and me liking each other, but we can try. Mostly I'll be hurting you. But it will be because I've been told to."
"You work for them?"
"In a way. But I'm one of the believers too. Ashad and I sleep together, in case you're curious. If the other boys have a long dry spell they have a go at me as well." It didn't sound like privilege. "You like all this?" I asked, puzzled.
"It's better than working at Mark's amp; Spencer's, love. But you wouldn't know."
"Don't hold it against me." I looked up at her appealingly. "You mentioned torture… honest, I don't know anything."
"They won't believe it. You'd better tall 'em something. They've got nasty ways of hurting a girl."
"But he also said something about me being saleable?"
"You are. We get a lot of our funds that way. It's the reason for this cell. You ain't the first inhabitant."
"And they got tortured too?"
"Hell no, just whipped enough to make 'em behave."
"Whoever buys us doesn't object to a few whipmarks?"
"Ducky, they love it. Puts the price up." She grinned confidingly, "If we get a group of three or four we torture one of 'em and make the others watch. You know, the hot iron or the electric shock or hanging by her thumbs. Amazing how obliging they all become: stick their hands out for the handcuffs and say 'thank you' nicely."
"Jennie, I'll do that. I'll stick my hands out. You don't have to… to… do anything to me."
"Poor kid." There was unexpected compassion in her voice.
"You really are scared, aren't you? But you'd best forget about any kind of freedom of choice. Right now you and I have a job." She chuckled at whatever expression showed on my face. "It ain't good and it ain't bad, love. I'm going to tidy you a bit and take you to talk to Ashad. I'm going to untie your feet, but don't get ideas." To get rid of any of those torturing ropes seemed good to me at that moment. I stretched luxuriously and kicked my legs about, but obeyed her instruction to lay still.
"Sorry about this, love." Jennie held up a pair of pliers and a length of wire. Sitting beside me on the cot she possessed herself of one of my feet. "We'll call these ornaments, ducky. Nice little anklets." I could feel myself curling up inside. "Why can't I just be tied or hobbled with rope?" I asked fearfully.
"Because we do it this way. It's beautifully painful and very practical. You won't run. Hold still… you'll see." I held still, breathless with suspense. My ankle was circled with the wire. Then the pliers gripped and pulled and twisted until the thin band of metal was well into my skin. The twist was at the back. The cutting blades of the pliers neatly snipped off the excess. My fingers, even if I had them, would be powerless against the join. Humming cheerfully, Jennie affixed a similar circlet round my other leg. "Neat and tidy, love. How's it feel?"
"Tight! And they hurt."
"But not more than you can bear, eh?"
"I suppose not."
"Good. This way to the bathroom."
"Aren't you going to join them'!" Jennie laughed. "No need. You'll see. Come on. Want a hand'! You really are trussed."
"I expect I can manage, thank you." I sat up on the cot and took a good look at my ankles. The wire was indeed neat within my skin… but thought of the bathroom was enticing. I swung my legs over the side of the cot and lunged my tied nudity forward to stand up. Maybe you've guessed! I had not. When my tendons tautened under my weight the wire bands came into their own. With a yelp of agony I let myself fall back on the cot. I looked up at Jennie's interested features with frightened supplication. "I can't! I can't stand."
"Hurts a bit, love, but you'll manage. Leaves you free to walk about," she snickered, "if you want to."
"But I can't stand the pain! They're too tight. It's when my sinews swell or something."
"That's right, love. Ashad thought it up. He's clever about such things."
"Please take them off. I promise-"
"That isn't the idea. We know you'll promise. Those bits of wire are to get you talking 'bout something worth while."
"I don't know anything. But regardless, I can't even stand."
"Ashad's a clever bugger. This is his idea too." Seeing my agonized appraisal of the object she held up to view, she added: "There's one thing to be said for stuff like this. It sure does help a girl make up her mind."
"That's a sort of battery clip, isn't it?"
"That's right, love."