Per grinned as the line went dead. He wondered whether she would get through to him again. He thought it was unlikely-but it was quite certain that she would have several things to ask, and to say, when she arrived with her assistant in the evening.
He went back to the breakfast room. Margarete was at the sideboard, helping herself to a portion of bacon and eggs. She smiled at him, a warm conspiratorial smile, and said: "Good morning, Mr. Petersen. How are you this morning?"
He smiled back at her. "Very sore."
"Nice. Did you sleep well?"
"Yes. And I had a quite fantastic dream about you."
"Did you? What was it about?"
"Nothing. I'll tell you in a moment. Go on yourself."
"You strung me up naked to some rings in the ceiling and flogged me with a cat-o'-nine-tails made of wire. Then-"
"Oh no! It's unbelievable!" She stared at him with wide- open eyes. "You did, I assure you."
"And I branded you, didn't I?" She put the question incredulously. "With some red-hot branding irons? On your bottom?"
"Yes." It was his turn now to be incredulous. "How do you know?"
"I had the same dream. Only it wasn't really a dream-it was a sort of day-dreaming reverie."
"When?"
"When I woke up this morning."
"Mine was in the middle of the night, long before." She turned with her plate of bacon and eggs, and sat down at the table. "There's something very curious here. Some sort of telepathy."
He helped himself to eggs and followed her to the table. "It seems like it. It's rather weird. What else was there, in your own dream?"
"Nothing else. Just the whipping with a wire cat-o'-ninetails and the branding of your bottom. Oh yes-and keeping you locked up in the torture chamber for a week."
"Indeed? What about my work?" His penis gave an excited jump.
"It was given out that you'd had to go away for a week."
"Was it indeed? You know, you're a rather dangerous person to have around the house, aren't you?"
She laughed. "You're more or less safe, though. There's no torture chamber deep down below this house."
No, there isn't, he thought. And it's a pity that there isn't. My God, to live with the threat of being locked up by her for a week in a torture chamber, of being branded on the bottom by her… Oh God, God! What excitement! Perhaps, though, it isn't a pity, after all. Perhaps it's a good thing. The idea is wonderful: the act might not be. It's enough that she thought of it, telepathy or not. He said: "What are your plans for this morning?"
"I'm going down to the town to buy some nice-flowers."
He glanced up as she hesitated before the word "flowers" and saw that a servant had come noiselessly into the room with fresh coffee. He waited until they were alone again. "That was quick of you. We'll have to be very careful, both of us. But what were you going to say instead of flowers?"
She glanced at the door. "Whips," she said succinctly.
"I thought it might be that," he said, as calmly as he could. He did not feel at all calm. His heart was pounding furiously. He wanted to take her, strip her, throw her to the floor, and savage her furiously.
"And a nice whalebone switch. I wish I could find a cat-o'- nine-tails, too, but that's a dream."
"A very good thing it is."
"I could get one," she said wistfully, "if I were in London."
"You're not in London. And you'll have quite enough instruments without any cat-o'-nine-tails. When are you planning to use them?"
"This evening."
"Oh." He suddenly remembered Marlene Reitter. "All right. You'll have company, though. The girl from Munich is coming for dinner, with an assistant."
She frowned. She was about to say something acid, and changed her mind. She was still only the governess in his house. She would have to bide her time. "That's a pity-for me, I mean. Never mind, I'll wait till she's gone. Oh no, I forgot. She's a sadist too, isn't she? She'll be going to work on you herself. You'll be in no fit condition for me afterwards. I'll wait till tomorrow." She took a deep swallow of coffee.
He considered her thoughtfully. "Why don't we make a party of it-all of us? It might be rather fun."
"Is her assistant a sadist, too?" Her voice was a little brittle.
"Yes, I understand she is."
"You haven't met her yet?"
"No."
That would make you the victim of three women with whips. Could you stand it?"-
"Why not? The more the merrier."
"All right, if you want it like that," she said grimly. I'll certainly do my best to make it a very merry party. I hope you don't regret it."