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Tricia’s downfall caused some consternation
in the organisation for a while. Nobody likes to see a colleague suddenly taken
out like that. On the other hand most people seemed to have had a belly full of
having their ears bent by Tricia’s constant, “Why won’t they let me lead a
collection?” so the general view was that she had it coming to her.
Harry and Rick were pretty nervous in case
Freddie came gunning for them too. After all it had
been Harry’s call, in the end to give Tricia the lead on that job and Rick’s
team had done the intelligence gathering. In the end I guess, Freddie decided
that it was better to have them in place worrying about things than to try to
change things around.
I saw Tricia after they’d been working on
her for only a few days. She was being put through her paces down in one of the
training rooms. The combination of the drugs and the mistreatment she was going
through had taken its toll already. Anatoly had said he intended to use her as
a housemaid at their summer dacha. Freddie had thought she should be delivered
in a state where she was fully equipped to perform her required role as well as
having no recollection of her work for his business. She’d been put into a
maid’s uniform, black dress, white apron and cap. Her trainer was sitting in an
armchair while Tricia served him a drink. I looked in on them. Tricia didn’t
respond to my arrival. Her blank look and the dribble of drool from the corner
of her slack mouth provided all the evidence that was needed of the
ruthlessness of the way in which she was being prepared for Kustenky.
Freddie had warned that there might be some damage. As far as I could see, it
was more a question of whether she’d even be able to function in the limited
way that we’d promised. From the way she looked it was surprising that she
could manage to walk and hold a tray. I found it pretty distressing to see her
like that, but I still didn’t think that there was much I could have done about
it, once Freddie (and, presumably, Elly) had decided
to cut their losses over her. I was just glad that it hadn’t involved Sukie or Rachel. That would have been a harder call to
make.
Freddie was busy. He and Elly had been talking together a lot. It was obvious from
what Elly had said that she wasn’t happy with how
things were going with the business. I’d mentioned the conversation that I had
had with Steve and we’d agreed that I’d follow that up if I got a chance. Then
Freddie told me that he and Elly had agreed on moving
things forward with Anatoly. I sat in on a telephone conference with the two of
them, Anatoly and Constanza.
Constanza kicked things off. “Things seem to have been a bit difficult for
you lately, Freddie,” she began. “I mean the business with Lady M and now poor
Alana. Not what I’d have thought from your operation.”
“I think you’ll find,” Clegg said slowly,
“that there have been rather fewer problems with my operation than with yours, Constanza dear. Let’s see, there was that concert pianist
whose fingers you managed to break during the collection process and I seem to
recall that there was a religious sect that was not so happy with the idea of
receiving a new priestess that was only almost a virgin. This is a risky
business, Constanza, we all make mistakes.”
“Hmm,” cut in Anatoly. “If you two can
avoid the bickering we might get a little further. Let me explain my current
thinking. You two run perfectly adequate collection and preparation
operations.” It sounded as though Anatoly almost heard Clegg’s grin of
satisfaction and I could imagine Constanza’s
querulously raised eyebrow. “At least most of the time, that
is. Constanza, your expertise is in
“I’m not sure, Anatoly,” Constanza began. “We’re not in a volume business, any more
than Clegg is. You’ve seen the sort of work we do. Most of it is custom
collection to order.”
“That’s very much the way for us too,
Anatoly,” Clegg agreed. “Almost all of what we are doing is very specific these
days. We’ve turned off the old operations that picked up girls on spec. I don’t
think we’d be very well set up to fill the cages of some Georgian sex camp.”
I watched Elly
wince. She wasn’t always comfortable with Clegg’s prejudices about foreigners.
“I think, Freddie,” Anatoly came back in
measured tones, “that you have a rather out of date view of my clients. We are
not talking about high volume but high quality. There’s a lot of money here and
a great interest in acquiring ‘toys’ as my clients call them.”
“Toys?” said Clegg.
“Yes, it’s rather a different product from
what you’ve been used to supplying. I sometimes think that the Europeans have
lost all subtlety, your barbarian origins are
reasserting themselves. The approach to slave owning there is often so brutal. Constanza, tell me, do you ever take product back for
resale?”
“You know we don’t, Anatoly. It’s too often
damaged. We leave the resale market for others. If we’ve picked it and prepped
it we can speak for it. Otherwise, someone else can take the risk.”
Clegg joined in. “She’s right Anatoly. It’s
a costly business, looking for new collections all the time, but most of the
customers can’t be relied on to keep them in anything like original condition.”
“Well,” said Anatoly, “I understand that.
But why is it? I’ll tell you. It’s because your customers are brutes. And
Clegg, you must know the Kushtian’s are the worst.”
Clegg grunted. “Now, my client base is rather different. They are looking for
something that they can care for and enjoy. It’s a very good life for those
that are purchased. They lose their freedom, of course, but apart from that
they have a very comfortable life. They have a rather unique relationship with
their new owners and we retain a continuing interest in their well being. The
owners all understand that they must not mistreat their toys – the consequences
for that are unfortunate for the owner. But on the other side the owner is
provided with a sexually delightful companion. We find that requests are often
for more mature women than is the case in other sectors. Forty plus year olds
seem to be highly desired and well suited to the role of toys.”
“And what does that mean for us?” Clegg
seemed wary. I had my own thoughts. As far as I could tell it meant lower
volumes with less repeat business, higher end user prices but lower margins
because we’d be shipping through Anatoly’s operation and I didn’t imagine he’d
be doing it for the love of it.
Anatoly spoke slowly. “I suggest it will
mean simply some additional business to your regular activities. You will be
concerned about margins and volumes I am sure.” Elly
leant forward towards the speakerphone, she had obviously picked up on the same
problem that I had. “That is not a point on which you should concern yourself,
the premium on this product line is more than sufficient to cover the expenses
of both my organisation and yours, whichever of you is contributing. I am quite
happy to pursue an open book on accounting for these items. As to volumes,
well, it’s just additional sales, isn’t it? These are opportunities you would
not normally reach. It’s marginal business for you,
additional coverage for your research teams, taking up unused capacity in your
Prep activities and so on.”
Clegg leant forward to the speakerphone.
“Could you excuse us for a minute, Anatoly?” He said.
“Sure,” said the Russian.
Clegg clicked the mute switch. “What do we
think?”
Elly spoke first. “I don’t trust him. Not one inch. But it’s additional business and we could do with it to help
cover overheads. As long as we don’t invest additionally.
And we don’t have to work with Constanza directly.”
The reference to Constanza
puzzled me. Clegg had seemed quite sanguine about their encounters. Their
exchanges seemed to have an amiable nature. Of course, I then thought, that
might well be what Elly had concerns about. Clegg
turned to me. “Larry?” he said.
“I think it’s a bit of a distraction and I’d
be surprised if it turns out to be genuinely marginal business. You always end
up needing more resources in my experience. On the other hand, it fits with our
aims to move up-market in terms of product and client if we believe what
Anatoly says about ‘toys’. Plus I’ve been worried by how much the Kushtian
volumes have been dominating what we’ve been doing. If they went away suddenly
for any reason we’d be in serious cash flow problems, I suspect. I suppose my
view is we should do it but keep our eyes open and carry on trying to develop
other routes to market or product lines.”
Clegg sat back. “All right,” he said. “I
think we’re agreed. Let’s go back on the line.” He flicked up the mute switch.
The sound of Constanza and Anatoly chuckling after an
exchanged joke came through the speaker. “Sorry for that,” said Clegg.
“Don’t worry,” said Constanza,
“I was just asking Anatoly how his daughter was.”
Clegg looked irritated. Elly
put out a hand to his arm as if to say, “Its not worth
it.” Clegg grunted. “I’m sure she’s fine. Isn’t she, Anatoly?”
“Of course, Freddie, of course,” Anatoly
came back. “Do you think I would be asking you to collect and prep high value
items if she’d come to any harm? In fact, but don’t tell her I told you, I
think you gave her rather an easy ride. Her story of collection and confinement
told me your people had the right methods for this sort of product.”
Clegg looked rather self satisfied. Elly gave him a “you’re being flattered, be careful” look.
Anatoly went on. “Well, Constanza
is keen to participate? Can I assume that you are too, Clegg?”
“Keen is too strong a word, Anatoly,” Clegg
responded. “Willing would be better. Let’s see how it goes. But you can count
us in, at least initially.”
“You’re too much of a sceptic, Freddie,” Constanza’s voice came in.
“Maybe,” said Clegg. “I just feel happier
that way.”
“All right,” said Anatoly. “I will set
things up with my team. I assume you can make available suitable communication
channels to allow us to specify our requirements. My legal team will put
together a distribution collaboration agreement.”
“You’d better let me see that, Anatoly,”
said Elly.
“Of course,” said Anatoly.
“Still spending your time with your head in
contracts?” said Constanza.
“Still spending yours with your head in
men’s laps?” snapped Elly in an uncharacteristic
momentary loss of control. Clegg coughed and looked sheepish. Elly looked as if she regretted saying it.
Anatoly cut in. “Well that’s all from my
side,” he said. “I expect we’ll all speak again soon.”
The line went dead. Freddie turned to me
and said, “I want to understand more about these ‘toys’. The way Glennis treats his stable is the nearest thing I’ve heard
of to that. Didn’t you say you were going to see him?” I nodded. “Well, I think
you should make it sooner than later.” I left Elly
and Freddie together. It sounded like they had some unfinished business to
discuss.
Rick was still busy refining the
sexualisation and pleasure programme. Harry was using the Tricia debacle as an excuse to get all of his team to re-run some of the basic
operations drills. As he said, after the problems with Lady Marchmont,
and now this, there was room for improvement, to say the least.
Life with Sukie
and Rachel carried on much as before. Sukie seemed
content in her role. Rachel had taken on the sexualisation programme with
enthusiasm and her writing was better than ever.
I was trying to set up a trip to see Steve Glennis but in the mean time business carried on as usual.
Clegg had been contacted by another of his chums who was looking for a more
personal contact. With Brian now long out of the picture, Clegg had asked me to
follow it up.
I was sitting in the Long Room at Lords.
Out on the pitch the
The door at the far end of the room swung
open and an elderly man in wheel chair barged his way through and headed
towards me. “Ross?” he asked as he pulled to a halt alongside me. I nodded.
“Good he said glad you’re on time. Do sit down.”
He was in his late seventies I guessed
wearing pale flannel trousers and a striped blazer. He wore a tie that had the
air of a demented snake caught in an act of strangulation. It carried the blood
and vomit stripes of the Marylebone Cricket Club.
I felt I ought to apologise for
interrupting his enjoyment of the game at a crucial moment.
“Enjoyment?” he snorted. “There’s more fun
to be had sticking your head in a wasps nest. Completely
useless bunch. No backbone. No fibre.” He held his hand out. “Colonel
Snell,” he said, “My friends call me ‘basher’. You can too.”
“Unusual nickname,
‘basher’. Cricket? Bit
of a batsman were you? Army days? ” I said.
“No,” said Snell. “Before
that. School days. Some of my friends seemed to
think I had an inordinate fondness for the masturbatory arts. Quite right of course. It’s kept me fit for the past sixty
years. Can’t complain can I?”
I was regretting asking. I was keen to
change the subject. “Mr Clegg said you had a possible project for us.”
“Yes,” Basher replied, “Do you never feel a
little cheated? As though your rightful legacy has
been usurped by others?”
I shook my head, I
really didn’t have much of an idea what he was on about.
“You see this?” He pointed to a large world
globe beside the case that held the tiny urn that the collective endeavours of
the two teams on the field were currently directed towards. “In my youth a
large part of this was coloured pink. The
I tried to look sympathetic. I wasn’t at
all clear what these rants had to do with the job we were being asked to take
on.
“None!” He barked, prodding at the globe with his stick. “None
at all. And they have the gall to beat us at our own games. Football. Cricket. Golf. All given to the world by the
British. And the weak kneed government does nothing about our national
teams. And to what avail? I ask you? Ha! The occasional success, perhaps, but
it’s the exception. Mark my words!”
The club steward was looking concerned at
my guest’s mistreatment of the globe.
“Never mind Barry, my young fellow, we’ll
show them.”
“Its Larry,” I said correcting him.
“Precisely. Barry. I’m no longer a young man, Barry,
want to find some companionship for my old age.”
“I see, a woman of mature years perhaps,” I
suggested, “someone to bring cheer in your autumn years.”
“Pah, stuff and
nonsense!” he exploded. “I said I wasn’t young not that I was decrepit. No, I’m
looking for some young girls to amuse me. Take my mind off my aches and pains.
Give me something to do on the long dark winter evenings if you know what I
mean?” he gave me a lascivious leer. “I may be in a wheel chair but just
because my legs don’t work, don’t imagine that everything below the waist is
non-functional. Constant use, that’s what’s kept it working. Constant
use!”
Well who was I to judge? “I’m sure we have
something suitable in stock,” I said.
“Shouldn’t think so,” he said. “I’m a man
of particular tastes.”
In my experience “particular tastes”
usually turned out to be a euphemism for “raving pervert” but again the more
specialised the tastes, the more opportunity for us to add value and the better
our fee. I said, “And those tastes are?”
“I wish to rebuild the Empire.” I raised my
eyebrows. “On a small scale to be sure,” he said seeing my astonishment, “but
rebuild it I shall.” He dropped his voice. “A stable of young
ladies from each corner of the Empire. A dozen young women – a dozen
mind not some nasty, continental, decimal ten.
All of them, under twenty five say. Brought back under the rightful rule of a scion of the
“I see,” I said, “So what
“Yes, all of those.
“Sorry,” I said, puzzled, “I thought we’d
covered the main ones.”
“You omitted the American Colonies.”
“What? The
“I don’t recognise that term. That fool
George’s fault He lost the lot. Should have held on to it.
Think what the Empire would be like today! But yes we must have at least one
representative of the Thirteen Colonies –
“Ah,” I said. “You realise, of course that
this will be an expensive project. I mean we’d be talking one and half, two
million, ah.” I caught myself in time, ”no, at least a
million pounds sterling.”
“Not a problem young man,” he replied,
looking relieved that I had avoided the use of the word “dollars”.
“You don’t feel that this could prove
something of a strain? I mean a man of your years. So many
young women?”
“I may be in a wheel chair, young Barry but
I’m not in my grave just yet. I’m more than able to provide them with the care
and attention that they deserve. People forget that the home country had a
great responsibility to care for those of its subject territories. These young
ladies will be well cared for, you need not worry. It might help if some of
them had some nursing skills though. Just to be practical.”
“OK, now perhaps we can talk about how we
should manage the project. Normally these days we’d let you advise us on
requirements, comment on our plans and so on through our web site but I guess
we could….”
He interrupted. “I’m happy with a computer.
Just give me the url the log-on i.d.
and a password.” He could see I was non-plussed. “Listen my boy,” he said, “if you knew how difficult it was to
get hold of pornography in my youth you’d realise that coming to grips with Mr
Gates’ abominations is a breeze compared with the benefits provided. I’m
perfectly at home on the Internet.”
I thought about Basher. It seemed he was
much closer to Kushnati and the Kushtians than to
Anatoly’s vision of a toy owner. I was pretty clear that if we did find him the
girls he wanted we’d not be able to re-sell them.
While Harry and Rick set up the colonial
collection I had my trip set up to see Steve set up. I thought I should let
Kelly know that I wasn’t going to be around for a while and the night I was due
to leave I wasn’t far from her place so I thought I’d drop in. I tried her mobile a couple of times but
didn’t get a reply.
I got to her house. It looked as if she was
there. The car was outside and there were lights on. I rang the bell. There
wasn’t any answer but I was sure I could hear people moving around inside. I
rang the bell again, longer this time. Eventually through the frosted glass of
the front door I saw someone coming.
Kelly opened the door. Dressed in a black
polo and slacks she looked pretty hot, but she didn’t seem too happy to see me.
“Oh,” she said, “It’s you.”
“Hmm,” I said. “Not a great welcome. Shall
I go away?”
Kelly looked apologetic and a little
embarrassed. “Sorry,” she said and then laughed. ”It’s just …. Oh look, come on
in, you’ll get the picture.” She led the way up the hall. I shut the door
behind me.
We got to the living room and I saw what
she was embarrassed about. Sitting on her living room floor were two helplessly
bound and gagged women. “This is Larry, a friend of mine,” Kelly said to the
two of them. “Don’t worry, he’s cool with this.”
From the looks on their faces I didn’t
think they were.
“Larry, this is Brianna,” Kelly pointed to
a hog-tied red head, rolling from side to side on the floor as she struggled
against the ropes that tied her wrists, ankles, knees and elbows. Her mouth was
filled with a knot tied into the middle of a scarf that was gagging her but she
was still able to communicate that she wasn’t happy with my arrival. “and this is Sue.” Alongside the red head, a girl with short
blond hair was struggling with her own bonds. Both were fully clothed; Sue in a
pale blue dress, Brianna in brown trousers and a cream sweater. Kelly turned
back to me. “Do you want some tea,” she asked impishly. I nodded. She said,
“Have a seat, I won’t be a minute.”
I sat down on the couch, Kelly’s two
captive friends struggling and mewling at my feet. Kelly was evidently quite
proficient in her use of ropes. Neither of the girls showed much sign of being
able to get free.
True to her word, Kelly didn’t take long.
She emerged from the kitchen with two mugs of tea. She sat down on the couch
alongside me.
“I didn’t have you down for doing the
tying,” I said.
“It’s not ideal,” said Kelly. “We take
turns.” Brianna and Sue looked distressed that Kelly was discussing things but
they couldn’t really object. “I’m going to be in real trouble when it’s their
go after this.” Brianna gave her an affirming nod. “Still
what the hell.” She leant forward and rolled Sue over on her face. As
she sat back on the couch with her tea, she put her feet on Sue’s bottom, using
her as a foot stool. The girl gave a muffled whimper of protest. “Now, what can I do for you?” Kelly asked.
“I don’t know that it’s the best time,” I
said, nodding to the two girls that were still struggling on the floor. “I’m
going to be away for a while, so I thought I’d come and say to look after yourself while I’m away.”
“That’s nice,” said Kelly. “It’s a shame
though. Maybe you could have come around and tie all three of us up.” Brianna
and Sue took to grunting their protests.
“Sounds like you have some persuading to
do,” I said, though the idea of the three of them, trussed up for fun had a
considerable appeal. “Look, I’ll leave you to this. I’ll give you a call when I
get back.”
Kelly looked down at the two helpless
girls. “Yeah,” she said, “It’s probably best. I’ll see you out.”
We walked out to the hall together. As I
stopped at the door I kissed her. She kissed me back, enthusiastically. “I
meant what I said about the three of us,” she said. “They will have so got off
on this, you know.”
“And I meant what I said about look after
yourself,” I replied. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be away.”
“You look after yourself too, then,” she
said, and we parted.
The flight out to
The pilot put the Beaver down close to the
pier as we taxied in I could see someone waiting in the dusk as the sun set. I
climbed out of the ‘plane, grabbed my bag from the back seat – no helpless
mewling female cargo this time – and stepped across from the Beaver’s float and
on to the wooden jetty.
“Hi,” said a voice. “You must be Larry.
Steve asked me to meet you.”
I looked up from my bag to see the broad
smile of Lady Marchmont. She extended a hand and I
reached forward to take it. “Hi,” I said, puzzled somewhat to see her walking
around without at least some sign of restraints. She was wearing the shortest
of denim cut-offs and a sleeveless shirt tied off under her tits. There were no
cuffs, collars, or shackles that I could see and nowhere to hide them either.
“Leave the bag, I’ll get someone to get it
later,” she said. She peered at me. “Have we met before?”
I felt honesty was the best policy. “Mmm,” I said. “You were in hospital in
“Of course. You were pushing the trolley. How did things turn out for those
nurses? They weren’t too terrible to me.”
I had to confess that I had no idea. The
last time I had seen them was when Harry and I had left them hogtied and
grunting into bandage wad gags on the bed at the clinic. I guessed that Constanza would have been fairly un-amused with them but I
didn’t really know.
I walked back up the jetty with Lady M.
Steve emerged from the house as we got to the edge of the lawn. Lady M took off
towards him at a run and threw her arms around him. Steve had just managed to
disentangle himself by the time I reached the veranda. He put his hand out.
“Larry,” he called. “Good to see you again. Thought you’d
like to see Angela too.”
I nodded.
“You’ll need a drink.” It wasn’t a question
and he knew I didn’t need to answer. “Get us a couple of rum punches, hun,” he said patting Angela’s backside. She wagged a
finger at him disapprovingly but laughed and disappeared into the house. Steve
watched her go. “Now that,” he said, “has to be one of the best purchases, I’ve
made.”
“I’m glad she’s a success,” I said sitting
myself down in one of the cane chairs. The view from the veranda looked out to
the ocean where the sky at the horizon was fading from dark gold into purple as
the last remnants of the sunset disappeared. “She seems to have adjusted to her
new life remarkably quickly. I thought she might be wearing a collar at least.”
“She’s an intelligent woman. I explained
how things were. She knows that she can go anywhere she likes on the island.
She has a lot of freedom here but she knows that there is no way off for her
and that if she tried it could be very detrimental to her health. On the other
hand she is treated well. Freddie shared with me some of your thoughts on the
sexualisation programme. We’re using something similar for Angela on a much
smaller scale of course but it seems to work. She’s very receptive to those
ideas and she’s now only too eager to please. I think she’s had a long time of
only pleasing herself. She’s glad of the change.”
Anglea reappeared from the house carrying a tray with three fruit and
alcohol laden glasses. She put the tray on the table between us and curled up
on the floor beside Steve, resting her head against Steve’s thigh. Steve
reached down to toy with her hair with one hand while he picked up his drink
with the other. I joined him.
We sat there, not talking, just enjoying
the early evening. Steve and Angela looked relaxed and comfortable with one another.
I downed the last of my punch. “I’ll turn in if that’s OK,” I said.
“Sure,” said Steve. “I know what it’s like.
We’ve got an early start tomorrow. There’s a few folk coming in for the
meeting. You’re in the end room. Can you find it?”
“Yes,” I said, “I remember.” Mainly what I
remembered was that it was where I had first encountered Sukie, It seemed that Steve
had a benign influence on the women he acquired. I waved them goodnight and
headed off into the house.
The room was just as it was before, the
large fan turning slowly in the ceiling, the white louvered shutters propped on
by a rattan chair. My bag had been unpacked and my things put away. I tossed my
clothes on a chair and fell into bed.
I must have laid awake for twenty minutes
or so before I started to doze off so it was through a half asleep haze that I
heard the door to my room open.
It was Angela. “Steve thought you might
need some help to get to sleep,” she said. I blinked my eyes into focus. The
light from the hall outside, shining through the doorway, threw her into
silhouette. It was clear that she was naked. Suddenly I didn’t feel quite as
sleepy.
“That would be great,” I said turning back
the bed sheet to invite her in. She slid into the bed alongside me, her hands
on my chest, stroking and running her fingers across my arms.
Although she was naked, I soon realised
that almost every part of her body appeared to be adorned with some jewelled
ornament. On her head she wore a chain that held a drop pearl in the centre of
her forehead. Her neck was encircled by a choker necklace with eight strands of
pearls, her arms and ankles carried bracelets and bangles. In each of three piercings in either ear she wore neat gold hoops, those to
the front slightly smaller than those to the back. It was as if Steve was
presenting her as a gift while showing the regard with which he held her,
making the gift more precious still.
Her love making was as generous as it was
creative, fired with the same energy and will to please that Rachel and Sukie showed. Rather than taking my mind off things, I
ended up feeling homesick. At the end we both fell asleep, her head against my
chest.
© 2006
Freddie Clegg
Download
PDF copies of my other stories at my Yahoo Group :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freddies_tales/
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