“Oh, don’t punish me,” she begged. “Not when there’s so little time.” Any other protest she might have made was silenced by a firm swat to her bottom. Several more followed, but Ross used his fingertips rather than his palm and the sting on her jiggling buttocks was mild.
“Remind me,” he said. “Who is in charge here?” His free hand pressed Kate’s belly deeper into his lap as he dealt her rear cheeks a harder smack.
“Ow! You are, Mister Ross, Sir.”
“Then who gives the orders?” Another slap made her bottom bounce, and she wriggled over his thighs.
“Ow! You do, Mister Ross, Sir.”
“And who obeys them?” He smacked her again.
“Ooh! I do, Mister Ross, Sir.”
“Right. So when I shout ‘down’ you get down fast. I don’t care if it’s sand, rock, mud or water. Soft or hard, you drop as flat as you can and you stay there until I say different, understand?” Once more his big paw came down and made her bottom bounce and smart.
“Ooh! Yes, Mister Ross, Sir.” Kate found herself back on her feet.
Confused, she tottered a few steps back, rubbing her backside and staring resentfully at his grin.
“There, that’s for questioning orders,” he said. “And any time you don’t jump the minute I say so, you’ll get more of the same. I don’t care if it’s a mountain track or the middle of the street in some native village, I’ll have your pants down and your bum smacked before you can blink if you don’t instantly do as you’re told.”
What?” Kate’s belly gave a huge flip and she caught her breath as his meaning began to sink in.
“And practising taking cover might seem silly here,” he continued, “but it’s important. When we’re up on the border, getting down fast could mean the difference between life and death.” He smiled at her.
“And I know I wouldn’t like not having you around, little miss. That’s why I’m taking you with me.”
Kate’s heart leapt, and her pent-up breath escaped in a joyous whoop as she flung herself into Ross’s arms. Laughing, he fell backwards onto the bed with Kate wriggling in excitement on top of him.
She clutched him tightly, rubbing her breasts on his chest, her belly squirming on the hard shaft of his cock.
“Ooh, I’m coming! I’m coming!”
“Yes you are,” he said, still laughing. “Haven’t I just said so?”
“No, I mean I’m really…. Ooh! Ooh! I’m coming right now,”
Kate gasped, shivering and writhing with the delicious spasms of her climax. The ex-soldier’s arms around her and his hand cupping her bottom held her close while she moaned and wriggled her way through the quivering delight.
Afterwards, she lay where she was with her cheek resting on his broad chest and basked in the warmth of the happiness filling her. For long minutes he held her in silence while her breathing steadied.
“Well, are you happy now, sweetheart?” he asked finally.
“Oh, yes!” Kate raised her head to look at him. “I love you,” she said with tears welling in her eyes and, suddenly bashful, laid her cheek back on his chest.
His throaty chuckle vibrated through her body. “And so you finally managed to convince me. And that I’d be a damned fool if I let you get away. A little fun-bundle like you doesn’t come along more than once in a man’s life. He’d be mad to throw over a chance to have her.
It’s funny though, I never thought a thing like that would happen to an old dog me.”
“Like what?” she asked, looking at him in sudden concern.
“What’s happened?”
His finger under her chin raised her lips to his. He kissed her gently and tenderly. “Something good, Kate. Something really good, my little love.”
A wonderful thrill ran through her. He had called her by name for the first time, and in the same breath come as close as he probably ever would to saying outright that he loved her. For Kate, it was good enough and always would be. She hugged him madly and smothered him in kisses until he laughingly called a halt.
“I love you,” she said again, just for the sheer pleasure of speaking the words. A thought struck her. “I don’t even know your first name.”
Ross’s mouth twisted ruefully. “It’s Archibald.” His hand closed over one of her breasts and tugged firmly. “And if you ever call me that I’ll take the skin off these pretty little tits of yours with my whip and then do the same to your backside.”
Kate suppressed a giggle. “Yes, Mister Ross, Sir.”
He gave her a smile that warmed her heart. “Just ‘Ross’ will do unless I tell you otherwise, but we’ll stick to ‘Sir’ in the bedroom.”
“Yes, Sir.” Her excitement bubbled up again. “How long before we can set off?”
“Well, I’ve been planning for years. Most of the preparations are made. The ones that are left shouldn’t take long and it’s the right season.
There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be ready in a couple of weeks or so.”
“Two weeks?” In her enthusiasm, Kate leapt to her knees and clapped her hands. “Oh, I can’t wait to get going!”
Ross gave her his stern look. “Kate, this is a serious business. It isn’t a jaunt on a liner to Europe. Not all the natives will be friendly.
Make no mistake, I’m taking you into danger if you come with me.”
“If? There is no ‘if’. I’m coming and that’s final. I’m not afraid.”
It was true. She would never be afraid with Ross at her side. She hugged him hard. “Who’s going to keep you warm on those cold, mountain nights if I’m not there?” Her hand strayed to his erection and closed around the hardened flesh.
He chuckled. “All right, sweetheart. Were you telling the truth when you said you know how to handle a gun?”
“Pistols and rifles,” Kate confirmed. “Daddy made sure of that.
Oh! I really ought to write to my parents. They’ll be starting to worry by now.”
“You can send a letter from Rawalpindi before we set off. Though quite what you’re going to tell them, I don’t know.”
“Not the full story, that’s for sure,” Kate said, and smiled. “I’ll tell them the important bit – that I’ve met a marvellous man and fallen in love.” Her arousal tingled instantly when his arm tightened around her.
She could feel the blood pulsing through the thick flesh under her stroking hand. “What about Jefferson? Won’t he be angry at losing the money he can get for me when you tell him?”
“I already have,” Ross said. “The minute he got back from Jargahal. I didn’t think he’d be very pleased about me upsetting his important client, but as I said he’s a man of his word. Oddly enough, he didn’t seem troubled at all, just smiled and said that like any good soldier he had a contingency plan and he was sure everything would work out satisfactorily. He even wished us luck and offered to pay for the mules we’ll need for the expedition.”
Kate remembered the pain of the beating Jefferson had given her.
“That doesn’t sound like the man I’ve met.”
“No. He did seem a lot less gloomy than usual. In fact, quite light-hearted. I hope something has cheered him up permanently at last. He got a rough deal from the army. It wasn’t what he deserved.” His calloused palm stroked the last of the sting from Kate’s bottom. “There’s one thing, sweetheart. Jefferson wants us both to turn up at the sale tomorrow.” He held up his hand as she looked up sharply. “Don’t worry.
No one’s taking you away from me, but I owe him a lot – my life for one thing, back in my soldiering days – so I agreed.” His eyes met hers.
“Trust me, Kate. You’ll be safe.”
She smiled. “I know. I do trust you.”
“Good. We’ll need to trust each other when we’re in the mountains.”
“What’s it like?” she asked eagerly. “Are there -?” A sharp tap on her right buttock cut her off and sent a tremor tickling through her pussy.
“Plenty of time for qu
estions later,” Ross said and pointed to his erection. Kate’s hand was still curled around it but had stopped moving when he told her about Jefferson. “You’re neglecting your duties, little miss. Don’t think you can start taking liberties just because I’ve decided to keep you, not unless you want me to give my naughty slave girl another spanking.”
Kate knelt up on the bed again, arched her back to thrust her stiff-nippled breasts towards him and gave him her best seductive smile. “Do you know, Mister Ross, Sir?” she said, “I rather think I do.”
*
Penny yawned. She had not slept well the night before. When Courtney’s servant had come to waken her she had already been up and dressed, and nervously smoking a first cigarette in anticipation of what lay ahead.
They had left in the pre-dawn for what had proved to be a long, tedious and uncomfortable journey. It had not taken much bumping and jarring over the uneven asphalt of the motor road for Penny to discover that while the discomfort the Prince of Jargahal’s assault had caused no longer troubled her, the same was not true of the effects of the canings and whippings she had endured. Her breasts and especially her buttocks, in constant contact with the car’s seat, were soon aching. She consoled herself that she was at least wearing underwear again, freed at last from that particular constraint now that she was no longer under Courtney’s roof. She had not dared do it sooner in case he found out and punished her, but to her great relief he had not made any demands upon her since her torment at the Prince’s hands. It was surprising how much more confident Penny felt wearing a camisole and panties beneath her outer clothing.
Courtney’s nudge of her elbow made her look up just as his old, wheezing Vauxhall rounded a bend in the road. There was a wall of rock on their right and a sheer drop on their left, and ahead and below she could see a fertile valley between the mountains with the mid-morning sunshine sparkling on the ribbon of a river that threaded its way through the green fields.
“Another ten minutes,” the Englishman announced.
In five, Penny could clearly see the ancient town of Dhokat below them and the pale-yellow stone of the palace of its prince standing on a small plateau above it. Soon the road angled downwards towards the river, with the size and grandeur of the palace becoming ever more obvious as they drew closer and finally stopped on a flat, paved area before its high gates.
“Jefferson’s beaten us to it,” Courtney observed with a nod towards two big, black Ford V8’s that were already parked there.
A servant hurried to open the Vauxhall’s door, and Penny thankfully climbed out and wished she could rub her sore backside. The sound of gunshots from the town made her look down towards the river.
“It appears the celebrations have already begun,” Courtney said.
“In the traditional way, by the sound of it.”
Penny’s alarm faded. It was just some locals firing into the air.
She picked her handbag off the car’s seat, slipped its handles over her left wrist and let Courtney take her arm as they walked towards the palace.
Her belly fluttered. At last, she thought. After all the years of being poor, after her fear and desperation when the girls were kidnapped and the humiliation, degradation and suffering she had had to go through, it was all going to be behind her. She could forget the embarrassing poverty and forget too her astonishing sexual response to being forced to submit to the orders of others. She was back in control now.
Yet, to Penny’s surprise, as she stepped out confidently she felt a quiver between her thighs at the memory, or perhaps, she thought, it was only the caress of her silken panties. She seemed more acutely aware of them after so many days of going without. Another kind of excitement bubbled within her as she thought how satisfying it was going to feel when Jefferson discovered she had outwitted him. Penny could imagine how incensed he would be when the Prince declared in her favour and George found he had to surrender the girls. The Prince might also be annoyed that she had turned up so late, but she was sure it would soon pass once he heard her explanation for the delay.
Her confidence seemed justified when she gave her name to the palace’s major-domo and he immediately asked her to follow him.
Clearly she was expected. With Courtney tagging along behind, she was conducted through a lavishly decorated, high-ceilinged reception room to an unobtrusive side door. With an upsurge of mingling relief and excitement that her ordeals were at an end and her plan about to be fulfilled, she stepped through the door and into the room beyond.
Penny spotted Kate at once, and was surprised that the redhead was not dressed in one of the skimpy, semi-transparent outfits she knew slave girls were usually required to wear. She wore a simple khaki skirt and white blouse, though it was obvious from the outlines of her breasts and the pink points of her nipples visible through the blouse’s thin cotton that there was nothing beneath it. The girl was holding the arm of a big, rugged-looking man who Penny took for one of the two sergeants Macdonald had told her about, and even more surprisingly she was looking up at him with an unmistakeably happy smile on her face. It was scarcely the expression Penny expected from a girl who had been kidnapped from her bed and was about to be sold into slavery. Nor did it change when Kate looked at her without any sign of hope or relief or excitement and merely gave her a single nod of recognition.
Penny’s puzzlement changed to alarm when she looked beyond Kate and saw the girl a second tough-looking man, who could only be the other ex-sergeant, was holding firmly in front of him by a grip on her narrow shoulders. The girl was staring at her, wide-eyed and fearful.
“Subaidah,” she gasped. Her gaze swung sharply to Jefferson who stood on the opposite side of the room, his head bowed close to that of the Prince while they conversed in low voices. She caught his eye, motioned her head towards her servant, who should still have been awaiting her in the hotel in Peshawar, and looked a furious question at him. His knowing smile made her temper flare but the Prince was coming towards her, his hand outstretched in welcome.
“Mrs. Winter, a pleasure. We meet again at last.” He gestured to their surroundings. “Rather different from a London hotel, with you in mourning and me weighed down by the worry of returning to recover my throne, don’t you think?”
The memory of their meeting, during which he had expressed his admiration for a beautiful, blonde-haired young woman who had been drinking cocktails in the hotel bar, was what had given Penny the idea of writing to him with her offer after Tom’s death. At the time it had seemed so straightforward.
“Yes indeed, Your Highness,” she replied. “I apologise for my late arrival. I would have been here days ago but some unforeseen difficulties delayed me.”
“So I understand. Jefferson Sahib has been explaining them to me.
And now you wish me to act as arbitrator, I understand?”
“Jefferson Sahib is the one responsible for them, Your Highness,”
Penny said with a venomous look at the Englishman. “It was he who….”
“Before we go further, Your Highness,” Jefferson interrupted, “may I point out that it is necessary for us to wait until your brother arrives before we begin.”
“My brother? Has he some part in this too?” the Prince asked, looking only slightly less confused than Penny was suddenly feeling.
“But the Grand Reception doesn’t begin until noon. He isn’t due ’til then.”
“He’ll be here long before, Your Highness,” Jefferson assured him, and glanced at his wristwatch. “He was due at ten, so he’s a little late, but you may be sure he’ll arrive shortly.”
“Very well, we’ll wait,” the Prince declared.
Penny opened her mouth to protest, and realized that Julia was not there either. She could hardly insist they proceed without the girl being present. Outmanoeuvred, she cursed George silently, cast a worried glance in Subaidah’s direction and forced a smile to her face as the Prince asked if her journey from Jargahal to Dhokat had been a pleasant one.
*
“You look beautiful,” Afia said as she added two gold combs encrusted with pearls and sapphires to the blonde hair she had just pinned up so artfully on Julia’s head. The English girl stared at the mirror, indifferent to her reflection, and uncaring. Eyes bleak and shiny with unshed tears stared back at her. The girls’ best efforts with the make-up had not managed to completely disguise the fact that they were red and puffy from all the weeping she had done during the night. Her heart ached.
Afia dabbed the corners of Julia’s eyes with a handkerchief.
“Come now, no more crying. You’ll have your cheeks all stained again.
You must be beautiful and perfect when you are presented.” She clasped her hands to the blonde’s upper arms and spoke more softly. “Be brave, my dear. You have shown us your courage before. You must do it again now. You have every right to be proud. Let your new master see that it is so. Show him your strength as well as your beauty, as you did Jahngir Khan.”
Julia felt a stab of pain. Unable to stop herself, she glanced towards the balcony of the zenana where the steady tap of the Pathan’s boot-heels told her he was still pacing back and forth, as he had been since the moment he had arrived. He wore a white shirt and trousers and a magnificently embroidered silk chapaan and matching turban. He looked every inch a prince. Another stab increased her heartache. But he was not. The Prince was the man to whom she was being given.
She had barely seen Jahngir at all in the four days since her whipping. For the first two Julia had barely been able to get out of bed to answer the calls of nature. The zenana girls had taken turns to bathe her ravaged bottom and try to soothe it with salves and ointments while she had lain virtually helpless, face down on her sleeping platform. Once, through a haze of pain she had heard the Pathan’s voice speaking quietly and Afia replying, and she sensed he was looking down at her. She had not turned her head. What was the point?
On the third day she had recovered enough to thank Afia and the girls for intervening and sparing her more pain, and to learn that so far they had not been punished for their actions. Julia had also discovered that, though bruised and ridged with welts, her buttocks had not been shredded as she had imagined and that though her skin was split in several places she had not shed much blood. She had not felt relieved.
Kate and Julia: Slave Girls of the Raj Page 15