Marlene Reitter and Erika Kostler were the first to arrive. Per Petersen received them in his study. He had wondered whether, since he was to have five guests, he should receive them in the large salon. This was a room, however, which had rarely been used since his wife's death, and he preferred the warmer atmosphere of his own domain. It was, in fact, quite large enough for the entertainment of five ladies.
Marlene was wearing a tightly-fitting dinner-dress of tabac-coloured velvet, and, with her lovely ash-blonde hair drawn back at the nape of her neck in a chignon, again looked like a goddess from some other world. In her eyes, as always when she visited him in order to flog him, there was a burning light, panther-like and menacing.
"Where is your children's governess?" she asked, after she had introduced Erika Kostler. "I'm dying to meet her."
"She's upstairs with the children," he replied. "She'll be down in a minute."
He looked at Erika appreciatively. She was wearing a dark- red dress which he thought was made of a very swishy type of flimsy taffeta. She was, to his eyes, very lovely. He reflected that the evening was going to he extremely exciting. "And so you're a sadist, too?" he said conversationally as he offered a box of cigarettes first to Marlene and then to her.
"Very much of one," she answered. He went close to her to light her cigarette. To his nostrils there came a smell- delightful, heavy, and heady-of sweetly perfumed rubber. He looked again at her dress and saw that it was made of rubberised crepe-de-chine, and not, after all, of taffeta. He glanced at her in some surprise. He had often heard of the fetish but he had not yet met anyone who possessed it. He felt, now, that it was not at all difficult to understand. She looked, and smelt, extremely fetching, and he longed for the time when he could press his body against her provocative dress, after he had taken off all his own clothes. His penis, which had erected the moment they came into the room, gave a tingling leap.
"What will you drink?" he asked, as calmly as he could. He addressed Marlene. He thought it might be unwise to show too clearly how attractive he found her assistant. "Sherry, perhaps?"
"That will be very nice," she said, crossing her lovely legs sensually and turning her burning expression on him.
"And you?" he asked Erika.
"Yes, please. The same."
He poured the drinks and brought them to the girls. "It's wonderful to see you again, Marlene. Did you have a good time in Paris?"
"Fairly good," she said. "But we were frustrated, of course."
"Why?" he asked. He knew perfectly well what she meant, for he had been told before of her masochistic English friend in Paris, but he wanted to hear the exciting words of her answer.
She smiled. She realised that he knew what she meant, but she gave him what he wanted. "My victim there can't be flogged as I want him to be flogged. He lives in an apartment with thin walls-not a house like this. It's very frustrating."
"But it's not frustrating here, eh?"
"Not so frustrating. But you have too many servants."
"There won't be any here after dinner."
She looked at him in surprise. "Oh? How have you arranged that?"
He laughed. "I didn't really arrange it. It just happened. It's the annual servants' ball tonight at the Town Hall. I've told them all that they can go."
She chuckled deliciously. "It seems that I chose my time rather well. Why didn't you tell me when I phoned you?"
"I must keep some surprises for you, my dear."
"You've already given me quite a big one."
"My children's governess?"
"Of course."
He drew deeply on his cigarette. "I have another one."
She smiled enquiringly. "Another governess?"
"No, another surprise. I don't know how you're going to take it."
"Try me."
He looked straight into her eyes. "You have two more assistants."
She raised her eyebrows. "Two more? You don't mean your governess and two more?"
"I do." He watched her expression closely but her eyes had a look now that he could not fathom.
"How did all this happen?" she asked, tapping the ash off the end of her cigarette on to the carpet. "Your house seems to be becoming a harem."
He realised that she was angry. "It's really nothing to do with me," he said in a conciliating tone of voice. "Miss Hansen, my governess, told me that two Swedish friends of hers have come to see her. I haven't met them yet."
"How does that make them my assistants?" Her voice was cold.
"They are sadists, too, it seems. At least, one of them is."
"So?" The coldness had turned into iciness.
He hesitated, and took a drink of his sherry to gain time. "So I told her to ask them for dinner."
"Go on. That's not all." She was looking at him now with her eyes half-closed. "Go on, dear Per."
He forced himself to meet her gaze. "For dinner and the- er-the party that follows."
She looked at him silently for a long moment. Then, unexpectedly, she laughed. "How absolutely delightful! Five women to flog you! My dear Per, I wonder whether you haven't signed your death warrant?"
He was only partly relieved by her laughter. "I thought it might amuse you," he said lamely.
Erika gave a chuckle from her chair. "And he's arranged for his servants to be out," she said to Marlene. "My God!"
He felt a sudden stab of fear. Perhaps he had been very unwise, after all. The thought of having five women to dinner, all of whom would give him a whipping after dinner, had excited him very much when he had first had it. Now that the whole thing was changing from a thought into a reality, however, he wondered whether he had not bitten off a great deal more than he would be able to chew. He turned his head to Erika and looked at her seriously. The way she had said "My God!" frightened him. The sight of her sitting in her slinky rubber dress, and the thought of taking her in his arms later, drove away his fear. This was the sort of evening that he had imagined in his masochistic day-dreams. It was happening at last. If he had to pay rather heavily for it later on-well, never mind; it was worth it. The exhilaration of the moment was worth anything at all that might happen later.
The study door opened. Margarete Hansen came into the room.
"Good evening," she said, looking rather at Per than at his guests. She had decided, as she came down the stairs, to conquer her feeling of jealousy. She had no right to it, she realised. Her manner, however, as she was introduced to Marlene and Erika, subtly suggested that she was not merely and simply a governess. Her appearance suggested nothing of the governess, either. She had dressed herself with extreme care, choosing a black dress that was aggressive in its stark simplicity. She wore but one piece of jewellery-a long and heavy chain of gold which she had looped round and round her neck and which fell, glintingly against the black, a little below her bosom. It was the only really expensive piece of jewellery that she possessed, but she was very satisfied with its effect.
Marlene regarded her with frank admiration. With her laughter of a few moments ago she had made a rapid decision. She would enjoy herself this evening, and would not spoil her enjoyment by giving way to stupid feelings of possessiveness for Per Petersen. He was free, after all, to live as he wanted. He owed no allegiance, no loyalty, no faithfulness, to her. It was infrequently, after all, that she came to Kiel to flog him. It would be unreasonable of her to expect him to regard her as his only tormentor. And if he was unwise enough to gather no fewer than five sadistic tormentors in his house on one and the same evening-well, that was his own business. He would certainly be made to suffer for it.
"You are very lovely, my dear," she said, and, to take away any possible hint of condescension, she looked at Per and added: "I don't think you will be taking any of those trips to London from now on."
His heart warmed as he realised that the ice was broken. He made no reply. He poured a glass of sherry for Margarete and listened gratefully to her spontaneous acceptance of Marlene's generous gesture. "I have heard only a little about you, Fraulein Reitter, but what I have heard has been-oh, what an understatement! You are-you are wonderful! No wonder he lives for your visits." There was a knock on the study door. The butler entered. He looked at Per Petersen. "Excuse me, sir. Two friends of Miss Hansen have arrived."
"Show them in, please," said Per. He looked expectantly towards the door.
The blonde and the red-head came into the room. He caught his breath sharply at their beauty. He flashed a look at the three women who were already in the room and then looked back at the two newcomers. He reflected, with a feeling of considerable awe, that no other room over the length and breadth of Germany could contain such beautiful women as his did at this moment. And they were all gathered there for a very special sort of party-with him as the victim…
He was in a condition of considerable dither as he was introduced to the two friends of Margarete. He gathered that the blonde was called Birgitta and the red-head Anna. He did not catch their surnames, and he did not bother to ask for a repetition. Everyone would be on a Christian-name basis soon enough. "Do you speak German?" he asked, in as even a tone as he could. "We have two German ladies here who, I imagine, do not speak Swedish."
Margarete answered for her friends. "They speak German quite well."
Per introduced them to Marlene and Erika, mumbling over their surnames. Marlene was very gracious to them. She felt the gathering of another constraint, however, and felt it was up to her, more than anyone else, to dispel it at once. "How very nice to meet you," she said. "I understand we're members of the same club. The club of sadistic women, I mean."
Anna, the red-head, smiled at her warmly. "I am, myself. Birgitta, here, is a sort of honorary member."
"Nonsense," said Birgitta. "I can be just as much a member as you, when I'm given the chance. But you're such a greedy pig that I don't get the chance very often."
It was Margarete's heart that was warmed this time, as the ice was broken for the second time. She had worried a good deal about the advisability of introducing her two friends to the party, despite her employer's stated belief that the more would make the merrier.
A spontaneous chatter began among the five girls, and Per Petersen gave drinks to Birgitta and Anna, and refilled the other glasses.
"We're sorry we're not dressed for a dinner-party," Anna said to him. She and Birgitta were wearing their leather jackets with tightly-fitting skirts and high stiletto-heeled shoes. "We're on a hitch-hiking holiday."
"You look very nice indeed," said Per. "And very fetching, both of you."
"So do you," said Birgitta. "But I'm looking forward to seeing you without your clothes."
"That will be very soon," he said breathlessly. "Immediately after we've had dinner."
Marlene looked up at him. "How long to dinner?" He glanced at the clock on his mantel. "About a quarter of an hour."
"Right." She stood up, reached for her bag, opened it, and took out two lengths of strong, fine cord. "Better lock the door for a moment. We don't want your butler marching in suddenly." He nodded and went to the door to lock it. The four girls stopped speaking and looked at her enquiringly.
She smiled at them. "This is something I always do when I have dinner with our host," she said. "It makes the dinner- table more interesting. There are always so many servants in the room that one has to watch one's conversation. But one doesn't have to watch all one's actions so much." She crooked a finger at Per. "Come here and open your trousers."
He walked up to her and undid the buttons of his flies.
She put her hand inside the trousers and brought out his enormously-erected penis and testicle-bag. Birgitta caught her breath. Anna grinned at her, and waggled a finger admonishingly. "This is most interesting," she said, looking at the cords which Marlene held in her other hand. "Whatever are you going to do?"
"Tie up his ball-bag," said Marlene, and made a loop in the end of one of her cords. "Then I can torture him whenever I feel bored at the dinner-table. I just pull on my end of the cord under the table."
"You have two cords tonight," said Per.
"That's for whoever sits on the other side of you," she said, and drew the loop tight around the testicle-bag, leaving the two testicles trapped between the bottom of their bag and the tightened cords. She made a loop in the other cord and fastened it in the same way around the testicle-bag. She gathered the other ends of the cords, a metre and a half long, into a sort of bow, and stuffed them inside his trousers. "Now you can button yourself up," she said. "And when we're at table you can unbutton yourself again, and bring everything out, and pass my own cord to me under the table as usual. Who has the other one is your own affair."
"You'll be on my right, of course," he said. "And I was thinking of putting Erika on my left."
"Erika will soon pick up the idea of the game, I've no doubt," said Marlene.
"Yes," said Erika. "I've picked it up already." She ran her hands over her dress just above her breasts. "I'm longing to pull on my own end."
"What a wonderful idea," breathed Margarete, watching Per button up his trousers. "I'm only sorry you haven't got three more lengths of cord."
"Do you dine with him as a rule?" asked Marlene.
"Yes," said Margarete. "Except when he has business dinners. Even then I sometimes do."
Marlene laughed. "It might be a little difficult to put a cord on him for a business dinner. But you can do it whenever you're alone."
"And I certainly shall," said Margarete, with determination. "It's a wonderful idea."
With the cords around his testicle-bag making him walk a little stiffly, Per vent to the door and unlocked it. "Now that I'm decent again," he said, "it had better be unlocked. Dinner'll be announced in a minute or two."
"And I'm hungry," said Marlene.
"So am I," murmured Birgitta to Anna. "But not for food."
"Ssssh!" said Anna softly. "Behave yourself."
Birgitta pouted. "Behave yourself, you say! I wonder what they'd say if they could see that dildo in your bag."
"Ssssh, will you! They'll see it soon enough."
The door opened and the butler announced formally that dinner was served.