'You'd rather see Matilda under the lash, is that it?'
'No I fuckin' wouldn't, you stupid little slut!' Hannah's eyes blazed. 'But what would happen if I paid 'em, eh? There's already rumours that they're thinkin' of tryin' the same thing with other gals, an' if I give in, who knows where it'll stop, eh?'
'If Wickstanner's involved,' Jane mused, 'then maybe he'll be after Harriet Merridew next.'
'That's one story I've heard, yes,' Hannah confirmed.
'Well, t'would serve the hoity-toity little bitch right, I say,' Jane sniggered.
'You're too fast with your judgements, Jane Handiwell,' Hannah snapped. 'Besides, you ain't exactly on safe ground yourself. You and your three friends. Wickstanner and this Crawley pig might be interested in hearing about what the four of you get up to, out here in the woods nights, as well as in your bedchambers.'
'There's no proof we ever did anything, old woman,' Jane snarled. 'Besides, do you think they'd listen to you?'
'Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't,' Hannah conceded, 'but how sure can you be, young lady?' Jane reached under the folds of her dark cape and Hannah saw the glint of metal as she withdrew a wicked looking blade.
'I can be very sure,' Jane said quietly, 'if I slit your old gizzard here and now.'
'"If" is a small word, but a big difference,' Hannah said smoothly. 'You could no more stick that thing in me than you could let a man stick his cock in your cunt, you silly little girl.' As she spoke she fixed her gaze on Jane's eyes and lifted her free hand slightly. A curious expression appeared on Jane's face and, a moment later, the knife slipped from her grasp and dropped onto the grass with a soft thud.
'Now, Jane Handiwell,' Hannah said, speaking very softly, 'I'll tell you how this is going to be, right? You came to me once, some years ago, when you were nothing but a child and I tried to help you, to advise you. Yes, you do have some of the powers and I tried to advise you how best to use them, but did you listen? No, of course you didn't. Instead you used them to satisfy your own cravings, and draw those other three stupid mares into your web, didn't you?
'Well, what goes up your hole b'ain't none of my business, I reckon, but there's a responsibility goes with power and now it's about time you realised that. Whatever you may choose to do after this night, that's your affair, but you'll give me what I ask, else I'll show you what real power is about and no mistaking.'
'If you have that much power, Mother Pennywise,' Jane replied, 'then why not turn it directly on those who have your precious granddaughter? What do you need me for?'
Hannah shook her head dismissively. 'Shows how little you know, you young fool,' she said. 'Wickstanner and Crawley both wear the sign of the cross about their foul necks. Maybe - more'n like, I dare say - they despoil their damned faith, but the symbols have been blessed and hold a power nonetheless.
'Besides, they both lurk in their lair in that church, which is like having the wall of a castle about them. Maybe my powers would be enough anyway, but I don't know for certain, so we'll use other more earthbound methods to begin with. Those idiots in the village are like children, so we have to fight their ignorance. Your father will help stop all this stupidity, but they tell me he may not be back until the morrow, by when it may well be too late. The miller's boy will make them listen, I know, so we have to find him.'
'Perhaps he's away, too?'
'No, that he ain't,' Hannah said. 'I bin askin', dearie, and he's missin', that's all. Very convenient that, in certain quarters, if'n you get my meaning?'
'You think Wickstanner and this Crawley fellow have got him out of the way?' Jane asked. 'How can you be sure they haven't just killed him?'
'Oh, I'm sure,' Hannah said confidently. 'Same as I said, there are powers you've not even begun to understand, let alone master.'
'So where is he then, if you know so much?'
Hannah chuckled. 'Somewhere in these woods,' she replied. 'Exactly where, I can't be sure, which is why I need your help. Your help, and the help of your daft friends. Your young legs can move a sight quicker'n mine and besides, you've got horses.'
'What makes you think I can get my friends to help in time, old woman?' Jane said caustically, and Hannah tapped the side of her nose with one bony finger and looked meaningfully at the simmering cauldron and crackling fire.
'You were thinking of spending the night out here by yourself, then, was you?' she cackled.
Chapter 11
'That's Mary Watling,' Matt Cornwell whispered, as the three boys watched the dark figure climb up the riverbank from beneath the bridge. 'There ain't no other woman round hereabouts is that big!'
'Yeah, that's her all right,' Toby agreed. He squatted down, thinking furiously. 'So that's three of 'em,' he said, 'if'n I'm right about Ellen Grayling. Three women, Matt. Women, not men.'
'So what you sayin', Toby?' Matt Cornwell was far from slow, but he did not possess his friend's reasoning powers.
'Not sure what I'm sayin', not yet,' Toby admitted. 'But think of it this way - everyone's gotten into their head that there are these four men who keep stopping the coaches down from London, right? God knows how many they've done so far, yet no one has ever got the slightest idea about who they are.
'Now, I ain't no magistrate, sheriff or nothing, but if I were, I reckon I'd be thinkin' as to which four men in the area were known for bein' seen in each other's company a lot, see? You can bet the soldiers've bin askin' around all the villages for several miles both ways.'
''Spect so,' Matt agreed, 'but I still don't see what you're geddin' at, Tobe.'
'Well, think about this,' Toby said, as Mary Watling strode past them at a distance of no more than fifty yards, 'with the rewards the coach company is offerin', you'd think someone would've talked, even if just to say that these blokes and these blokes were all pals, or whatever.'
'So?'
'Well, my pa spends a lot of time in the Drum, an' he gets to hear most things, but he ain't said nothing, which means that no one's bin' able to point a finger at four men as might be likely robbers, yes? But then, they wouldn't, would they?' Mary Watling drew level with the trees where the boys had last seen Kate Dawson leave the road and turned into the woods herself. 'Not if the robbers was mostly women,' Toby concluded.
Matt's eyes grew very round. 'You ain't suggestin' that...?' He shook his head. 'No, that's daft, Tobe. Ellen Grayling is a nob, for a start.'
'So? Maybe she just fancies a bit of extra loot, Matt.'
'Well, yes, I suppose—'
'Maybe she's in love with the man who's leading them all,' Billy suggested, breaking a silence he'd maintained for more than a quarter of an hour. 'Perhaps he's poor an' she's tryin' to help him get enough money so she can marry him?'
'Perhaps,' Toby said, but without enthusiasm or conviction. 'And then again, perhaps not. Then again, still,' he said, grinning anew, 'who says the fourth robber has to be a man?'
The second part of the 'entertainment' for Lord Soberton was prepared with careful elaboration, beginning with the reappearance of Adam and Robin, each man carrying an elaborate and curious looking contraption made from sinister black iron bands and rods.
These they placed in the centre of the room, spaced a foot or two apart, so that they resembled two four-legged animals, with spindly legs, long thin necks and circular bands where the heads should have begun. Looking at the two stands, Sarah realised immediately that the circular bands were intended for hers and Kitty's necks and that the strategically placed smaller bands on each of the four legs were intended to secure wrists and ankles.
Her instinct, when Robin placed his hand upon her shoulder, was to try to resist, but the sight of the wicked crop dangling from his belt was enough and she allowed him to lead her demurely behind the nearer of the two stands and dutifully shuffled her feet wider, so that he was able to cuff each of her ankles to the respective back legs.
Facing her, Adam was carrying out the same procedure with Kitty and both girls were pressed forward at t
he same time, so that their stomachs and chests rested on the near horizontal flat band that formed the back of the 'animal', their breasts hanging on either side of it and their arms drawn down the forelegs and cuffed in the same way as their legs had been.
Next, the two circular neckbands were opened and the girls were required to lay with their necks inside the lower halves. The top semi-circles were then swung closed and locked by means of a simple catch. Finally, two broad leather straps were produced and buckled about the girls' waists, pinioning them even more firmly.
'I say, Grayling,' Sarah heard Henry Soberton chuckling, 'what a splendidly ingenious idea. Like a couple of little ponies, just right for the mounting, eh?'
'And equally as well presented for a little rump warming,' Grayling said, and from the corner of her left eye Sarah saw the young aristocrat approaching, but he stopped short, at a point roughly level with the gap between the two helpless prisoners.
'Bit them, Prudence,' he said, flexing his crop, which appeared shorter and lighter than the implements carried by the other two men. 'Let them share this together, as they shared earlier.'
Without warning Sarah felt her lower jaw being gripped and dragged wide open and she had barely enough time to see what looked like a leather phallus being presented to her gaping lips, before it was forced deep into her mouth and a stout strap buckled at the nape of her neck, ensuring she could not eject it.
She fought against the gagging reflex, snorting air in through her flaring nostrils, her eyes widening as she saw that a second cock - in reality an extension of the one that filled her mouth - was jutting from her face on the end of a short metal tube that was perhaps six or seven inches in length. Where the bar joined the leather phallus the two ends of another strap hung down, their purpose unquestionable.
Adam and Robin took hold of the frame over which Kitty was stretched and began dragging it closer. At the same time, Prudence took hold of the projecting leather organ in one hand, using her other to prise Kitty's jaws apart, as she had just done with Sarah.
Wide-eyed, Kitty nonetheless made no real effort to resist and, at such close range that it was difficult to focus her gaze on her, Sarah was treated to the spectacle of her friend slowly swallowing the twin half of the foul-tasting member. When the leather strap to this was likewise buckled tight the two girls were held, heads pulled awkwardly erect, sucking noisily on opposite ends of the beastly gag.
'What a superb tableau, Grayling,' Soberton said, his voice hushed with complete awe. 'Would that I could have a painter record the scene.'
'Perhaps I could arrange that, milord,' Grayling chuckled. 'I do know a couple of aspiring brushmen who can be trusted to keep their own counsel as to what they might see here. The commission would not be cheap, however,' he added.
'Hang the money, Grayling!' Soberton exclaimed. 'Some things in this world transcend mere gold.'
'I agree, sir,' Grayling said, 'and you shall see many more of them before you leave here.'
When he had finished with her, Jacob Crawley added a thick leather blindfold to the outside of Matilda's hood, blocking out even the dim light in the cellar and plunging her into the most complete darkness she had ever known. With her hearing already dulled by the thick hide stretched over her ears, she now felt awfully isolated, cut off from the last vestiges of reality.
She could hear Crawley's laboured breathing and the sound of something heavy being dragged into the room, but then, after several minutes - which could almost have been hours - the chamber became completely silent yet again. With only the rasping sound of her own breath and the dull, thump-thump of her heartbeat echoing inside her skull, Matilda waited.
Her ordeal was far from over, she knew. Crawley had said nothing, but the vicious iciness in his eyes when she had simply stood motionless as he had her, told that he needed to be able to reduce her to a state of total surrender and that his failure yet to do so had kindled in him a burning hatred for her in particular.
As for women in general, Matilda thought, it was almost certain that this brutal animal had hated the female sex for a very long time. Behind the blindfold, she closed her eyes and fought back the tears that threatened to overwhelm her once again.
'Damn!' Matt Cornwell gasped, staggering to a halt and leaning against a tree at the side of the roadway. Toby Blaine stumbled up behind him, panting heavily and dropped to his haunches, wheezing noisily. From somewhere behind them they could hear the uneven and now faltering footsteps of Billy Dodds, who had been falling back almost since the trio first set off after the mounted women.
'S'no good!' Matt wheezed. 'No way we can keep up with 'em on foot.'
'No,' Toby agreed. 'I didn't think they were riding that fast, not at first. D'you reckon they heard us?'
Matt shook his head. 'Doubt it,' he said, turning to slide down with his back against the trunk. 'They'd not have heard our boots, not over the sounds of their horses' hooves. Besides, we was runnin' along the grass verges most of the time, wasn't we?'
'Too late now, anyhow,' Toby said. 'They're well ahead, though it ain't maybe quite so bad as it seems. Only one place they could be headed for now, unless they're intendin' to ride towards Winchester.'
'Well, there's a few more places between here and Winchester,' Matt pointed out, 'but I know what you're gettin' at. Grayling Hall is over this ways, ain't it?'
'Yeah, 'bout a mile and a half up the lane and then turn off,' Toby confirmed. 'Makes sense, I s'pose. If Ellen Grayling is involved they'd do worse than hide Miss Harriet's cousin somewhere on the Grayling Estate. It's big enough.'
'Ever bin in there?' Matt asked. His breathing was slowly returning to normal and he used one sleeve to wipe the cooling perspiration from his face.
'Only once,' Toby replied. His features clouded at the memory. 'Went lookin' fer rabbits, about a year back now. Took me dad's old crossbow so's not to make any noise to draw attention, like, but there was a couple of keepers, skulkin' in the woods like they was poachers themselves. Fired on me, they did,' he added indignantly. 'Maybe not aimin' exactly for me, but too fuckin' close for comfort an' they wasn't firing buckshot. One ball took a branch clear off only about that much above me head!' He held his hands about a foot apart to demonstrate the closeness of the unknown man's aim. 'Yeah, damned nearly shit meself, I did.'
'So, you don't fancy takin' a little look around the Grayling place now, I s'pose?' Matt said, and Toby gave him a disdainful look.
'Not a chance,' he replied firmly. 'Besides, what's the point? Like I said, it goes on for bloody miles in all directions. We could walk around all night and find nothin' at all.'
As he finished speaking the shadowy figure of Billy came limping up, slumping down into the soft grass at the edge of the roadway and collapsing into an exhausted heap.
'So what now?' Matt demanded, ignoring the younger lad.
'Go back and tell Miss Harriet what we seen and what we think,' Toby said. 'Then she can tell whoever she needs to and maybe send for the soldiers.'
'To search Lord Grayling's place?' Matt all but shrieked. 'You got to be jokin', Toby Blaine! They wouldn't dare!'
Roderick Grayling, Sarah quickly realised, was not a man who liked to be hurried in anything he did, yet his outwardly languid demeanour hid a ruthlessly efficient nature and a meticulous attention to detail.
Having allowed Henry Soberton a few minutes in which to appreciate the aesthetic delight of the way in which he'd had his people position the two girls, he returned to the fireside, unstoppered one of the wine carafes that stood on the side table there and poured fresh glasses for himself and his guest. Soberton, clearly very excited at the scene before him, took his drink almost absently, reluctant to turn away from the sight of the two girls so blatantly displayed and presented.
'What next then, Grayling?' he asked impatiently. 'Do we tup the little beauties?'
Roderick laughed and lifted his glass to his lips, sipping with exaggerated appreciation. 'Certainly not, my dear fellow,' he
said at length. 'Wouldn't do for a member of one of the oldest families in the land to be dipping his wick in the posy of a rough flower. No, these little rosebuds need careful cultivation before they'll be ready for the likes of us.'
Hearing these words, Sarah heaved an inward sigh of relief. Almost anything, she told herself, was better than the prospect of being abused by the fat nobleman - even the whipping it was now obvious they were both going to receive. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, steeling her nerves and wishing it would be over, but Grayling was still unrushed.
'It amuses me,' he said, strolling back across to resume his position almost between the two spreadeagled girls, 'to watch a pretty pair like this being brought back to the boil with finesse - finesse and a little cut and thrust. The trick is,' he continued, pausing to sip his wine yet again, 'to try to bring both wenches to a climax at the same time.
'You see how they've been placed, so they cannot but gaze into each other's eyes? Of course, they can close their eyes as this one has now.' He tapped Sarah lightly on her left buttock with the tip of his crop; it was the lightest of blows, but Sarah nevertheless jumped, pulling instinctively against her bonds.
'However,' Grayling continued, running the end of the crop delicately up Sarah's spine, 'it is my experience that, after the first few lashes, they find themselves unable to continue like that. Perhaps they derive a little comfort from watching their friends suffering the same sweet agonies, I don't really know, but you will see that they will gaze intently at each other as the moment of their final surrender approaches.'
'I must say,' Soberton observed, waddling over to join his host, 'that their expressions are truly delightful. Those fat cocks in their mouths seem to do something for them, eh?'
'Indeed,' Grayling chuckled. 'A gag in a woman's mouth always produces such a sweet look of what could best be described as surprise. See how the eyes appear so large and so round.'
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