by Ray Gordon
'You think the gardener did this?' Hayley was shocked by these very serious developments.
'No, the gardener doesn't come into the house, let alone into the kitchen where he could contaminate the food or drink. And I really don't think my husband would try to do away with me, so that only leaves you.'
'This is ridiculous!' Hayley exclaimed. 'Why on earth would I want to poison you?'
'I don't know,' Belinda said, 'but you've already assaulted me and knocked me unconscious.'
'But that was an accident, and you know it,' Hayley protested, realising she was slipping deeper and deeper into what appeared to be some kind of a trap. First there had been the lure of working for Dave Ruby, then Belinda's dramatic fall, and now a supposed poisoning. She also realised that whether this was a trap or not wasn't the point; the point was that she could find herself in very real trouble if she wasn't careful. Belinda was clearly a scheming and dangerous woman, and her husband was obviously under her thumb and would do or say anything she asked of him - including lying for her.
'Now go and get on with some work,' Belinda snapped agitatedly. 'Go on, don't just stand there.'
'I'm a prisoner in this house,' Hayley protested.
'A prisoner?' Belinda scoffed. 'I like that. I'm trying to help you. You're a vicious little brat, young lady. You struck me and knocked me out, you stole my money, you poisoned me.'
'I didn't do any of that,' Hayley sobbed, finally breaking down. 'None of that is fair. I am not a vicious little brat or a thief.'
'Go and get on with some work and have a good hard think about things,' Belinda ordered. 'And come back when you've decided you're going to do what I want when I want it. If you do that then all well and good, we can start afresh and put all this nonsense behind us. I'll give you half an hour to make up your mind. Right, off you go.'
Wiping tears from her eyes Hayley ran down the stairs to the lounge, slammed the door shut and started dusting the furniture aggressively, her frustrations coming out as she polished. She couldn't understand what was going on. She had no idea why Belinda was treating her like this. She'd done her best to get things right, or so she'd thought. Was the woman insane? Hayley didn't know what to think any more.
But she did know that she had to come to a decision. If she left Hadleigh Manor and went home to her parents, Belinda might carry out her threat and she might end up in court on assault charges. But if she stayed, she dreaded to think what might happen to her. What did Belinda want? Was she really a lesbian?
And what about Michael? Where did he stand in all this? He must have known what his wife was like, and he must have known what she was up to. Did he condone her treatment of Hayley?
Just then the very person walked into the lounge. 'Hayley,' he said to her, 'would you make up a large plate of sandwiches? Cheese or ham or whatever. I have a band in the studio and they're all pretty hungry.'
'Yes sir,' she replied, interrupting her cleaning and turning round to face him. There was a band in the studio? She hadn't seen or heard anyone arriving, and there wasn't much music coming up from there.
'I'm pleased that you've decided to stay,' he went on, changing the subject.
'I haven't made up my mind yet,' she corrected him.
'Really?' he mused. 'Then why are you still here working?'
'Michael, will you tell me what this is all about?'
'You mean Belinda and the way she treats you?' Hayley nodded. 'Well, she likes you, Hayley. But as I've said before, she has somewhat peculiar ways.'
'Peculiar ways?' Hayley echoed. 'I think that's putting it very mildly. You do realise that she's blackmailing me, don't you?'
'It's not blackmail,' he laughed.
'Isn't it? What would you call it?'
'She wants you to stay here, that's all,' he said simplistically. 'I'll be honest with you, Hayley, she does rather have an eye for attractive girls like you. Perhaps I shouldn't tell you that, but it's a fact.'
'So... she's a lesbian?' Hayley asked carefully, and then felt foolish as Michael laughed again and shook his head. 'Well what then? Please tell me.'
'She is the key to your future,' he said cryptically. 'I'm talking about Dave Ruby here. All you need is a glowing reference from my wife and the job's yours.'
'Yes but, to get a glowing reference I'm going to have to pander to the questionable whims of your wife.'
'So?' he shrugged. 'Is that a problem?'
'Yes,' she said, 'of course it's a problem. What kind of a girl do you think I am?'
'I honestly don't see why you're so worried about it,' he chuckled. 'If you keep Belinda happy and you get your reference, then what the hell?'
After he'd gone back down to the studio Hayley made the sandwiches and placed the large platter on the kitchen table, covering it with a cloth to keep the tasty snack fresh until Michael and the group came for them, then went back up to her room for a little quiet time alone to try and get to grips with what he'd said to her.
'What the...?' she shrieked, aghast as she saw her dressing table drawers were open and that all her underwear had gone. Then opening the wardrobe she gasped and held her hand to her mouth... everything had gone! Turning and staring at the chair where she'd left her jeans, she shook her head in disbelief. Belinda had removed them too!
'Where are my clothes?' she demanded, barging into Belinda's bedroom without knocking. 'What have you done with them?'
'I have no idea what you're talking about,' the woman returned indifferently, standing naked before Hayley. 'And I expect you to knock before coming in here.'
'My clothes have been stolen,' Hayley went on undaunted. 'Please give them back to me.'
'Young lady, I don't know what you're talking about.'
'My underwear was in the dressing table and my clothes were hanging in the wardrobe and now they've all gone. You've stolen them.'
'If you continue to accuse me of doing such a thing I'll have to—'
'I want my clothes back,' Hayley persisted. 'You've stolen them and I want them back!'
'Bend over the bed!' Belinda ordered. 'I am not prepared to tolerate such despicable behaviour and tantrums from you, young lady. Bend over and we'll deal with this now!'
Struggling as Belinda grabbed her arm and forced her over, Hayley realised just how determined the woman was. For someone who was apparently suffering from some sort of food poisoning she had remarkable energy. She'd planned this, Hayley knew as her hands were cuffed to the bedstead before she'd realised what was happening. Handcuffs? Belinda had planned this well in advance. She must have anticipated that Hayley would finally make a stand and had prepared to administer yet another spanking to quash her little rebellion.
'You'll start showing me the respect I deserve, young lady,' Belinda snapped, tugging Hayley's short skirt up over her hips and exposing the taut cotton of her white panties. 'You'll show me respect if it's the last thing you do,' she vowed aggressively. 'How dare you accuse me of stealing your clothes?'
'Respect?' Hayley echoed scornfully. 'You're a bully and a witch and I'll never show you any respect!'
'In that case I'll spank you until you beg for mercy,' the woman growled. 'I will not, I do not tolerate such impertinent behaviour from girls who work for me.'
Unable to believe that she was yet again bending over the foot of the woman's bed, that she was handcuffed to it and about to endure another gruelling spanking, Hayley instinctively feared that she'd never escape Hadleigh Manor, and as Belinda ran her fingertips over the smooth material encasing her rounded buttocks, Hayley shuddered. Was she about to be subjected to the lesbian's intimate attention? Was this what her future held in store?
With the first slap of Belinda's palm meeting the tensed flesh of her bottom, Hayley let out a squeal. Again and again the woman's palm met the quivering orbs of her buttocks with a loud slap, and with the stinging pain permeating her burning globes Hayley began to piece the puzzle together. The accusation of money stolen from her bedside table was merely a ploy to manipulate, she'd
faked passing out and falling to the floor, and she'd faked the food poisoning. But why would she do all that? To make sure that Hayley stayed on at Hadleigh Manor? She'd have stayed anyway had the woman been civil and fair with her. Why the need for such manipulative threats and duplicity - and physical punishment?
Straining to turn her head as the beating ceased, Hayley watched through tear-filled eyes as Belinda released the handcuffs.
'W-why are you doing all this to me?' Hayley sobbed, barely able to speak.
'To teach you a lesson you deserve,' the woman enlightened her, dropping the handcuffs on the bed. 'Now stand up straight.'
'But...' Hayley began, straightening up stiffly, her skirt and blouse settling back in position, making her wince slightly as the material brushed against her punished buttocks.
'There we are,' Belinda gloated triumphantly, standing back and admiring the flushed, tearstained complexion of the humbled girl, 'just perfect.'
'Please...' Hayley protested, 'why are you treating me like this?'
'To teach you some discipline,' the woman said simply. 'Clearly you need it. Now, I think we'll have a little talk later.'
'About what?' Hayley asked, unable to come to terms with this ongoing torment. 'I can hardly walk because you've spanked me so hard and you want to have a—'
'You'll soon get used to it,' her boss interrupted glibly. 'Besides, it's only until I decide you can be trusted.'
Hayley clutched her stinging buttocks ruefully. This was ridiculous, she thought angrily as Belinda stared at her. The woman must be insane!
'You simply can't do this to people,' she complained.
'I'm not doing it to people, my dear, I'm doing it to you,' the woman corrected.
'But why?' Hayley asked again. 'I mean, what makes you think I need to be taught discipline, and that you have the right to decide and administer it?'
'It's part of your training,' the woman said blithely. 'All young ladies need good training. Now, I don't want to hear another word of complaint. As it is I'm annoyed enough that I've had cause to spank you again.'
'May I go now, ma'am?' Hayley asked.
'Yes, you may go,' the woman allowed. 'We'll have our talk later, after I've had a little nap for a while.'
Leaving the bedroom Hayley headed up the stairs to her own room and closed the door. This was a madhouse, she was sure of that as she opened her wardrobe, wondering again where her clothes were hidden, then coming up with an idea, she crept out of her room and stole along the landing.
Opening the door at the far end she knew the room was full of junk. A perfect hiding place, she decided, closing the door and looking about. There was an old wardrobe in one corner, surrounded by cardboard boxes. If she hid in there Michael and his crazy wife might believe she'd somehow fled the house and made her escape. Then when they were distracted with trying to track her down she could make her real getaway at their rear.
Huddled in the wardrobe and pulling the door closed, she reckoned they'd go looking for her in the grounds, and if she were lucky they would leave the front door open while they searched the woods. It was a long shot, but worth trying. To escape Hadleigh Manor and the clutches of Belinda Philips, anything was worth trying.
Hayley's assumption was right. After an hour or so in the cramped, musty confines of the old hunk of furniture she heard Belinda calling for her. Hayley froze, hardly daring to breathe as she cowered in the gloom. If she was caught the consequences didn't bear thinking about.
Then she heard Michael calling for her too. Clearly Belinda had alerted him to her disappearance, and when silence finally fell she guesstimated the time was right, carefully emerged from the wardrobe, her muscles aching from maintaining such a cramped posture for so long, and peered out of the dirty attic window.
Sure enough, followed by her husband Belinda was working her way towards the woods, looking this way and that with jerked movements of her head, clearly looking and listening for any movement or sound that might lead her to her prey. For someone who'd been brutally assaulted and then poisoned she had amazing powers of recovery, Hayley thought sardonically.
As the woman disappeared into the woods Hayley smiled a little. This was what she'd been waiting for, so she turned and dashed from the room, along the landing and down the stairs. Once out through the unlocked front door she raced around the rear of the building and took cover behind a small, rickety old shed.
Hardly able to believe she'd made it this far, she decided to wait a while before heading into the trees on the opposite side of the expansive lawns, to her left. She had no idea what lay beyond them, never having ventured in that direction before, but she just hoped there'd be a way out to a road. If not, then she'd have to wait until nightfall and make her escape through the main gates in the dark.
Finally adjudging it safe to leave her hiding place, estimating Belinda and Michael would be deep in the woods to her right by now, she crept along a narrow path into the trees. Under their dense canopy it was darker, quite foreboding, but she kept going until thick brambles blocked her progress. There was no way she could get through their vicious barbs, she could go no further in that direction, and a tear of hopelessness rolled down her cheek as she hung her head.
Then she caught her breath and cocked her head to one side to listen as she heard a noise. Someone was heading her way, and desperately she looked around for a hiding place. If it was Belinda or Michael...
'Hello, what are you doing here?' a young man asked, emerging from the bushes.
'Oh, I...' Hayley breathed, holding a hand to her chest as her heart raced.
'Are you lost?'
'No, no I... well yes, I suppose I am,' she finally admitted. I came into the woods and now I can't find my way out. I need to go that way,' she added, pointing at the dense thicket of brambles.
'You must have come in through the main gates of the big house,' he said.
'Um no, I didn't,' she hastily denied, rather unconvincingly.
'There's no other way in or out,' he said, his eyes roaming over the shape of her breasts within the white blouse, then down to follow the shapely lines of her legs, causing her to tug uncomfortably at the hem of her short skirt. 'Not unless you climbed over the wall, which is ten feet high.'
'I - I can't remember which way I came in,' she lied, even more unconvincingly than before. 'I was out for a walk when I... when I...'
'You're hardly dressed for a walk,' he pointed out, brushing his long black fringe back from his tanned brow. 'Have you come from the big house?'
'Erm... no, look, can you get me out of here?' she blurted, a little too desperately. 'I don't want to go back that way.' She nodded in the direction of Hadleigh Manor. 'There must be another way.'
'Only if you've got a ladder,' he said. 'The wall runs around the perimeter of the grounds and there's no way to climb it unless you have a ladder.' He looked at her quizzically for a moment. 'You're not in trouble, are you?' he probed.
'No, of course not,' she replied hastily, forcing a weak giggle. 'I just lost my way and ended up here.'
'Hmmm...' he pondered, scratching his chin sceptically, his eyes continuing to scrutinise her shapely figure, crawling back up to her breasts, where they lingered blatantly.
'So,' she went on, trying to get back to the matter of escaping Hadleigh Manor, and trying to get his mind off her charms and the scanty uniform she wore, 'how did you get in if it's so difficult to get out?'
He smiled mischievously. 'I do a little poaching now and then,' he confessed, his dark eyes sparkling at her. 'If you need to get out of here I'll help you, because I do know a way over the wall... but...'
Hayley's spirits rose hopefully at the start of his sentence, but plummeted by the time he finished it. 'But what?' she asked, fearing the worst.
'But there are more brambles there too,' he told her, 'and dressed like that I don't think you'll manage it without getting scratched real bad.'
'I could do it with more substantial clothes on,' she sugges
ted, desperate to get away now she'd got this far. 'You know, jeans or something. Could you get me some?'
The youth scratched his chin again. 'Jeans?' He considered this for a while, his lack of urgency beginning to infuriate the anxious girl. 'Well, I suppose I could,' he eventually decided. 'You wait just here and I'll see what I can do. Won't be long.'
And then he merged back into the undergrowth and Hayley was alone again, unsure whether he could be trusted - unsure of many things. But there was nothing she could do other than wait, she decided, sitting on the ground, wincing a little as her spanked bottom settled carefully on the earth and fallen leaves.
Finding at least some peace and tranquillity among the whispering trees, she recalled the times when as a younger girl she would go for walks in the woods near to her home. The fresh summer air, birds singing, insects buzzing... she remembered sitting on the soft grass by a stream one afternoon after school; the unexpected and strange feeling she'd experienced deep in her tummy; the unfamiliar excitement between her thighs, in her panties... and she felt that same delicious sensation again, intensified by an urge to touch herself there.
Overcome by the solitude and peace of the woods, her surroundings somehow rendering her unable to resist, she reached beneath her thigh as she brought her knees up to her chin, and allowed her fingers to toy with the lips of her sex through her panties. She'd never masturbated before, and couldn't understand the powerful urge to seek self-pleasure now. Had Belinda's physical abuse turned her on? Certainly something had happened to her over the last couple of days, she knew, as she slipped her fingertip inside her panties and between the damp lips of her sex, tentatively finding and massaging the sensitive nub of her clitoris.
Resting back against a tree, her eyes closed, Hayley knew this was wrong as she continued to rub herself, deploying a second finger inside her panties. But why was it wrong? She'd always been a good girl, and it was unusual to find someone of her age still a virgin, so she surely deserved a little pleasure at some point...?
'I'll thrash the little bitch!' Belinda's voiced cut through the trees, and rudely wrenched from her dreamy pleasure, her eyes snapping wide open, Hayley scurried on her hands and knees around the tree she'd been reclining against and sank into the bushes behind it, holding her breath as she scanned the immediate vicinity for any sign of the woman or her husband. The traitorous youth must have told them where she was. He'd betrayed her, as she feared he might.