The scene in the main salon half an hour later would have delighted the hearts of both the Marquis de Sade and the Baron Sacher-Masoch.
Per Petersen, stripped of all his clothes, was standing on the bottom rung of a three-metre-high ladder that leant against one of the walls. His legs were slightly open because his ankles were tightly bound to the sides of the ladder. His arms were stretched above his head, with his wrists tied, too, to the sides of the ladder. His testicles, still bound with the two lengths of cord, and his erected penis lay in the empty space between two of the rungs. He was silent because he had been gagged with Anna's panties.
On a piano-stool on the other side of the ladder sat Margarete. She held the ends of the two cords in her hands and pulled on them lightly but firmly as she put his penis in and out of her mouth. From time to time she lifted her hands tip to his breast, and scratched and squeezed his nipples with her long pointed fingernails. On the floor by her side were the instruments that she had bought that morning-a long whalebone riding-switch, a cruel-looking dogwhip, and a heavy leather razor-strop. She had not yet used any of them but she knew that a long evening was in front of them all and she was content to wait her turn. She had stripped herself down to her brassiere and panties.
It was Marlene now who was using one of her whips, a savage instrument made of two strips of leather with square edges. She had taken off all her clothes and put on her long black rubber cloak to protect her flesh from the blood which she knew would soon begin to fly. For the moment, she was whipping only his buttocks, as she usually did on her visits to him. She knew that he was not so much of a masochist as to take willingly a whipping across his back, but she also knew that such gentleness could not, in these circumstances, last for very long. With no fewer than four other girls ready and waiting to take her place, somebody was sure to become over-excited and start on his back. The thought occurred to her that when that happened it would be nobody's fault but his own. If he was so unwise as to fill his house with no fewer than five bloodthirsty women at the same time, he had it coming to him…
She altered her aim and began to lash him across his shoulders. His body flexed and jerked as though he was receiving terrible electric shocks. No sound but a low, continuous, strangled moan came from him. Anna's panties had been thrust too far into his mouth.
Anna herself stood a little way away to the left of the ladder. She was wearing nothing but her great dildo and her whip looped around her neck. She watched the thrashing with half-closed eyes and heaving breasts, feeling the tide of insane rapture ebb and flow over her senses.
To the right of the ladder stood Erika. She had taken off all her clothes too, but she had put her flimsy rubberised-silk dress back over her naked body. She had opened its bodice and pulled out her breasts. As she watched the thrashing she was playing with her nipples with her fingertips.
Birgitta, the nymphomaniac, was in a pitiful condition. She lay, quite naked, on her stomach on one of the sofas nearby, listening to-but trying not to watch-this first thrashing. As each lash swished through the air and cut into flesh with its s mack of pseudo-finality she gave a convulsive quiver. She felt as though a feather had lightly touched the lips of her vagina, maddening her with desire. She wondered desperately how long it would be before she could take this man and put him down beside her. She wanted to cry out to Anna to come and rape her with her great dildo, but she knew that Anna was waiting only to be given a turn with her whip and would not even hear her.
Marlene felt herself tiring. She felt slightly surprised because she knew that she had delivered only about forty lashes, and she could usually deliver up to a hundred before needing a rest. She reflected that she must be rather tired from the journey. She would give way to someone else, and sit and watch the rest. There was a good deal more to come. It would be exciting to watch it, and to see how much Per Petersen could take before he faulted.
She let her whip fall to her side. She looked round the ladder at Margarete. "Would you like to take over now?"
Margarete took her mouth away from his penis. In spite of the terrible pain he was receiving it was still erected, but he knew that it would go quickly soft unless someone else took her place at once. He wondered whether anyone would.
He did not wonder for long. As Margarete stood up from the piano-stool and picked up her instruments, Birgitta jumped off the sofa and ran to the stool. "I'll do this for a little," she said breathlessly. She opened her mouth and engulfed the saliva-wetted penis. She took the cords and tugged on them sharply.
Anna laughed. "Patience running thin, eh?" She took hold of her own false penis and agitated it roughly, so that she should be tantalised by the part that lay inside her vagina. She realised that her own patience was running thin, too. She did not know which she wanted more at that moment-to whip, or to push her dildo into someone. She knew only that she would have to wait some time before she could do anything at all to her host. She looked at Erika, standing on the other side of the ladder in her provocative red dress, and wondered whether she had been right or wrong when, at the dinner table, she had sensed some indefinable suggestion of lesbianism about the girl. It would be pleasant to use the dildo on her… She moved her position casually, and sauntered up beside her.
Margarete studied her newly-bought instruments. "I'm not hurrying," she said to the company in general, "because I expect he needs a moment or two to get his breath back." She was in a quandary. She wanted to use all three instruments, one after the other-but she knew that, out of politeness to the guests, she would have to content herself with only one. They were obviously impatient to take their turn. Which, then, should she use? The lovely slim switch? The whip? The razor-strop? A whip had already been used, and the red-head called Anna was wearing hers like a necklace around her neck. She was clearly going to take it off and use it when her turn came. That would be at least two whips used. Perhaps she herself should offer a little variety.
She made up her mind, put the whip and the strop on a chair, and took the switch into her whipping hand.
Anna looked at Erika with open admiration. "You look absolutely eatable," she said, and tentatively put out a hand to the breasts which lay exposed in her opened bodice. Erika's reaction would show whether she had any lesbianism.
Erika did not move away from her touch. She let Anna's hand play over her nipples. Her shoulders went back perceptibly as she strained her muscles to take the full lascivious pleasure. After a moment she put her hand on Anna's dildo and agitated it lightly.
"Be rougher," said Anna. "Then I can feel it better inside me."
Margarete went to the side of the ladder. "It's going to be me this time," she said. "And I'm going to use my new switch on your bottom and legs. I'll use my other things another day. Would you like to know how many lashes I'm going to give you now with the switch?"
He nodded his head. His eyes were distraught with fear. He wished he had not allowed himself to be gagged. He could then have had some chance of calling this whole terrible thing off. Not much, certainly-but he would have had more than he had now, gagged as he was with these sweet-smelling panties. He wished he had never thought of the party at all. One woman in his house to whip him was quite enough. Five was madness. They would flog him into insensibility. They might even kill him. And yet his penis remained stiff and hungry as it slid in and out of the mouth of the blonde Birgitta. Despite the agony he had suffered, he was still receiving a certain amount of pleasure.
"Fifty," said Margarete. "A nice round number, don't you think?" She went back to her whipping position and lifted her switch. It slashed down and cut into the flesh of his legs. His body jerked again as though it had received another electric shock.
"This will go on for some time," said Anna. "Why don't we amuse ourselves on a sofa while it's going on?"
"That's not a bad idea," said Erika, looking down at the dildo. "You mean with this, of course."
"Yes," said Anna, putting her other hand now to the naked breasts. "And something else, if you could take it. I'd love to do it."
Erika raised her eyes to the whip round Anna's neck. "That?"
"Yes, I'd love to whip you a little." Erika shook her head. "Not with that." She was quite prepared to accept a beating- the idea, in fact excited her greatly-but she would not allow this terrible whip to be used. Only her adored Marlene could use a whip on her. "I'd be quite gentle," said Anna. Erika shook her head again. She nodded in the direction of Margarete's razor-strop lying on a nearby chair. "But you can use that if you like." Anna looked at the strop. It would give more pain that Erika imagined. "I'd like to," she said. "It would be delicious. Then I could put you over my knees and make your bottom red-hot." She waited for Margarete to aim and deliver another slash, and said: "May I borrow your razor-strop for a few minutes?"
"Certainly," said Margarete, without looking round. She aimed again and slashed. "Nine," she murmured. "Forty-one to come." She saw that blood was beginning to spatter over the floor near her feet. She kicked a nearby rug a little further away. It would be easy to wipe the blood away from the polished parquet-it might be a wonderful idea to make Per do it himself, on his hands and knees, with everything flogging him while he did it-but a certain care had to be taken of the rugs and furniture. When she finished her whipping with this switch she would spread the car-cover over one of the sofas. He would never be able to lie down otherwise. She slashed again. "Ten," she said. "Forty to come." She felt light-headed with sadistic ecstasy. Life had never been so wonderful. This man was so utterly in her power. She could whip him to within a second or two of his life, if she wanted to. She began to feel that she wanted to, very much indeed. "Eleven," she almost crooned. "Thirty-nine to come."
Anna had taken the strop and sat on one of the sofas. She opened her legs to make a wide lap for Erika to lie on. Her great dildo stood frighteningly up into the air. She patted one of her knees. "Come on. Lie down."
Erika lifted the skirt of her flimsy dress and lay down over her lap.
"Wait a minute," said Anna. "Let's put this into you first. Open your legs. Lie a little over on your side." She guided the head of the dildo to Erika's wet vagina, opened its lips with her fingers, and slowly inserted the instrument. It slid easily up Erika's passage, making her catch her breath with delight. "Now lie flat," said Anna. Erika obeyed, and felt the dildo slide further up and into her. She put her forward in front of her and took hold of a cushion. She hugged it tightly to her breasts, took the heavy leather strop in her right hand, and lifted the skirt completely away from the delicate buttocks. "Oh," she said, as she saw the weals of Marlene's whipping of the day before, "somebody else has been doing this to you recently. Man or woman?"
"Woman," said Erika.
"It must have been quite a whipping. Let me see whether I can give you a better one." She raised the strop and struck hard at the buttocks. They gave a quiver as though the muscles beneath them were trying to escape. Erika felt the dildo thrust more deeply into her. Anna's own end of the instrument gave its answering stab of rapture. She began to strike hard and rhythmically.
Behind the ladder, Birgitta stood up suddenly. She pressed herself closely against the wood and put the dripping penis between her legs. She opened her vagina lips and forced its head into her passage. Because of the angle at which the ladder was leaning against the wall, she found great difficulty in staying in this position. Quickly she took the cords which dangled from his testicle-bag, separated them, and tied them tightly round her hips. This enabled her to keep his penis inside her, without using too much of her own strength. She put up her hands and took hold of a rung above her head. Supporting her angled weight like this, she began to thrust and withdraw her genitals over the penis that she had engulfed.
Marlene sat in her long black cloak with her legs crossed and with a half-smile playing on her lips. She saw that Erika and Anna were reaching a state of frenzy with what they were doing to each other. She was a little piqued at Erika's having gone so willingly to the sofa with Anna, but she gave a mental shrug and determined to deliver a severe punishment to the girl when she got her alone. For the moment she would not interfere. She turned her eyes to the ladder. Birgitta, it seemed, was having a very good time herself. Her eyes were closed, her lips open, her teeth showing. She was moaning with utter and final abandon. Per Petersen was also moaning, of course, from the agony of Margarete's switch, but it seemed that he was answering some of the thrusts of Birgitta, and so, perhaps, was not in such a dire condition as she would have imagined.
It would have been a gross exaggeration to say that Per was enjoying himself. The agony in his bottom and legs was enough, he thought, to drive him insane, but, nevertheless, he had received a good deal of pleasure from the mouth of Birgitta and now he was receiving even more from her vagina, even though her weight pulling on the cords round his testicles gave him spasms of unendurable pain. Inexorably, however, his juices gathered. When Margarete's switch cut into the fleshy part of his legs, they were driven away momentarily, but when her switch cut into his buttocks he received a stimulation that brought them back in a rush. He knew that, if he was lucky, he would have a culmination within a few moments.
Birgitta sensed this, and began to put a little control on her thrusts. She wanted her own fulfilment to be timed to his-if his own had any chance of coining. "Could you please," she gasped to Margarete, "concentrate on his bottom for a little while? I think he may be coming and it will stop him if the pain is too terrible."
"Certainly," said Margarete. "I'm all in favour of his having some fun too, if he can." She lashed at the buttocks. "Thirty- four. Sixteen to come. But what makes you think the pain there is any less terrible?"
"I don't know why it is," panted Birgitta, "but it usually seems to be more bearable."
"Is that so?" Margarete put more strength into her lash. "Thirty-five. Fifteen to come."
Ten lashes later, Per Petersen's body seemed to melt in a white-hot furnace of searing, agonising-yet blissful-rapture. Birgitta's body went as tense as a tightened spring as the sensation for which she craved poured over her nerves.
Margarete realised what was happening, and gave the last five lashes at the same speed but very hard. When she at last let her blood-dripping switch fall to her side, she was astonished to see that her victim was still ejaculating himself into Brigitta. "Good heavens!" she murmured, dropping into a chair. "What a man!"
Marlene took a cigarette from a box on the table beside her. She lit it and said: "I suppose we'd better have a bit of an interval now, hadn't we? And something to drink. You've probably had quite enough of whipping for the time being. Birgitta, I think, won't be very interested now." She turned her head and looked at the frenzied activities of Erika and Anna on the sofa. "And those two are too busy, far too busy."
"And yourself?" said Margarete. "Don't you want to have another go?"
"Not yet," said Marlene. "Later, of course. But I think I'll untie him for a little while. He'll need a rest." She rose to her feet and helped Birgitta untie the cords around her hips. Then she began to undo the bonds of the bleeding man.
Dully, he realised that his body had been drained of sexual feeling. He felt as though he was on fire, burning excruciatingly. The pain was terrible, shocking in its intensity. He began to feel a smouldering anger.
He lay quite still, in his agony, until all his bonds were loose. He continued to lie still while his gag was removed. Then slowly, stiffly, he stepped down from the bottom on which he had been standing. He turned round.
"Oh damn," said Margarete, totally relaxed in her chair. "I forgot to put car-cover over a sofa for you."
"I'll do it," said Marlene. She went to where it was lying, and brought it to one of the sofas. "Come on, Per. You'll be glad to lie down for a bit, I suppose." She threw the cover open and spread it, rubber side upwards, over the sofa.
While she was doing this, Per stooped painfully and picked up the whip which she had used on him. Then he moved quickly to the whip which Margarete had bought during the morning. His anger had turned into a wild, berserk desire for revenge. He put Margarete's whip into his other hand. He moved quickly up behind Marlene, snatched her long cloak away from her naked body, and slashed her, with her own cutting two-thonged whip, across her back. She screamed and turned. Another slash caught her full across her breasts. A back-hand swipe with Margarete's whip cut into the soft flesh of her stomach. She screamed wildly and threw herself on to the sofa, trying desperately to protect herself with the folds of the car-cover.
With a blazing light in his eyes, Per advanced to the sofa from which Anna and Erika were now gazing at him, speechlessly, with terror in their eyes. It seemed as though the power of movement had left them, they sat so still. Per was on them in a second, lashing and slashing with both his whips. At this, they came to life and began to scream. It was difficult for either of them to move out of the way of the lashes because Anna's great dildo was deep inside Erika.
Per lashed with all his might, hitting blindly, not caring where he struck. Anna lay back on the sofa, grabbing cushions with which to protect her face and breasts.
Birgitta, still, standing behind the ladder, looked on and felt she should do something… something.
But it was quite out of the question to go anywhere near those flailing whips. There must be something else she could do…
The same thought was running through Margarete's head. What could she do? She had not the courage to go and try to take hold of his arms. In any case she would not have sufficient strength.
She saw Marlene's long and voluminous cloak lying on the floor. Yes, with that she might do something. She could throw it over his head perhaps, and then they might be able to overpower him. But she would have to be quick, while he was still whipping Anna and Erika… She could move up behind him…
She moved quickly, picked up the heavy rubber cloak, nudged Marlene to show what was her intention. She ran up quickly behind him, waited for her moment, and threw the cloak over his head.
He gave a roar of anger and tried to throw it away, but her arms were round his waist now, her hands locked. "Come on, quickly!" she screamed. "Come on, help me! Marlene, Birgitta, Anna, Erika-all of you! Come on!" She clung to him as he furiously tried to throw her off, his movements hampered by the cloak over his head and shoulders.
Birgitta came suddenly to life. She raced across the room and flung herself to the floor, her arms around his legs.
Marlene got up quickly, disengaged herself from the folds of the car-cover, and ran to Margarete's aid. She gave him a great push. He crashed over on to the floor.
By the time Anna and Erika had disengaged themselves from the dildo, it was nearly over. Per struggled on for a moment or two and then felt his remaining strength ebb and die away. He let himself go limp. There was now no anger left in his body. There was only a dreadful fear.
"Bring some ropes," he heard Marlene say.
He felt his ankles and them his wrists being securely bound. When he was quite helpless again the cloak was pulled away from his head. He gazed up at the five girls. He was shocked to see the weals on the breasts and stomachs of three of them. He was even more shocked to see the expression on their faces.
"What have you done?" asked Marlene, very quietly. "What have you done?" He made no reply.
"You really have signed something like your death warrant now," she said.
"We may not actually kill you, of course-but I doubt whether you'll be able to walk for the next few months." She leaned forward to where her whip was lying. She looked round at the other girls. "Let's do this quite deliberately," she said. "Let's each get a whip and flog him here on the floor. Let's flog him, I mean, all together-all at once."
Without a word the girls provided themselves with whips and stood in a circle round him.
He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. It would be useless to plead for mercy. "Are we all ready?" said Marlene.
"Wait a second," said Margarete. "We'd better gag him again." "I'd like to hear him scream," said Anna.
"The children," said Margarete. "I know they're at the other end of the house, but-"
Anna's panties were thrust and fastened into his mouth again. "Ready now?" said Marlene. "Quite ready?" They nodded their heads, and poised their whips. A very terrible sound began to fill the room…