Thunder woke Maria up. She opened her eyes to see a flash of lightning followed closely by another clap of thunder.The window was plastered with rain drops and she could hear the glass shudder as the water tried to break it down.
Except for herself, the bed was empty, which surprised her. She had crawled in to sleep next to Joseph without bondage for once, for he had been asleep. She expected him to still be there when she woke up. She looked at the digital clock on the night stand. Despite the dark sky it wasn't as early as she thought. He had evidently decided to let her sleep in a bit.
Probably avoiding me, she thought.
As she found something to wear it occurred to her that he had to have gotten out of the bed and into his chair by himself, not to mention dressed. Maybe he wasn't as helpless as he made himself out to be?
She wrapped her sarong around herself, this time tucking it in just under her armpits, and examined the cuffs she wore again. They were tight, snug, there was no getting them off without a key. With a sigh she left the room in search of her bed companion. She found Melissa instead, in the kitchen eating breakfast.
"So you're up finally," Melissa said.
"Hi. Where's Joseph?"
"He and Robert took off fishing."
"DAMN!"
Melissa looked up in alarm. Maria was visibly quite angry.
"Does this have anything to do with Madame Borge up there?" Melissa asked, pointing at the ceiling.
"Don't get me started," Maria replied, walking over to the refrigerator to find something to eat.
"Oh no. You promised me an explanation, Sweety. And you aren't leaving here until I get one if I have to chain you down to get it."
Maria made a face, and continued to rummage around in the refrigerator. It wasn't until she sat down to eat that she began to explain a few things.
*
I told you Cynthia was his ex-wife (Maria began), that's true. Her full name is Cynthia Booth-Parker. She hyphenated it thinking it would give her credibility among Joseph's peers. It didn't work, but she's too blind to see it. Almost everyone knows that Joseph met her at a BDSM club in San Francisco twenty years ago while he was stationed there in the navy. She was working the club as a Domanitrix, giving spankings to middle aged men and caught Joseph's eye. He told me that she was really something to behold back then, full of power and life. He fell head over heels and asked her to marry him. Well, at first she wouldn't have anything to do with a simple sailor, even though he was an officer, until she found out he had family money. Then it was all she could do to wait until the wedding before trying to spend it all. She got a shock though. Due to some big family trust thing, his money wasn't available to spend, just to invest. At that time all it was doing was earning basic interest in a bank somewhere. So while Joseph was away at sea, she supplemented his sailor's pay by working the BDSM clubs.
Now I didn't get all this from him, most of the story I learned from talking to other Subs whenever I got a chance, or listening to other Dom's talk about her at parties she attended. I think I know enough to be pretty sure of the facts though.
Once Joseph quit his commission, he settled down to some serious investments, and was very good at it. Pretty soon his money tripled and the two of them were able to live very well off the proceeds. She stopped tricking behind his back and began living like the queen she thought she was.
But after spending an extended amount of time with her as man and wife, Joseph found that he really couldn't stand her anymore. He began fooling around with a submissive they had who served as their house slave, and Cynthia caught him at it and sued for divorce. It's been said that she planted the girl in the house with orders to seduce him, but that's just rumor and can't be proved. Still, she came away from the divorce with a big alimony and a good chunk of the shares in the various companies he had bought into. She now has money of her own and a virtually inexhaustible source for more.
*
Maria played with her food a little, unable to look Melissa in the eye. "Okay, that's who she is, but that doesn't explain why she's here or why you take orders from her like she has your life in the palm of her hand," said Melissa.
*
Well, like I said, she got ownership of a bunch of his shares (Maria continued), which meant she also got a say in several of the companies that Joseph had majority control of. When the divorce was done, he wasn't left with control of any of them. He needed the votes her shares represented to maintain control. So they made a deal. He would vote her shares, and she would collect the profits from those shares as long as she didn't sell them. For him it was the best deal he could make, it meant he could still do the business he needed to do to maintain HIS position in society. For Cynthia it was a winning situation for she was making a lot of money without having to do a damn thing for it. It also meant that she could, from time to time, drop in and make his life a living hell when ever she pleased. He couldn't do anything about it because she could always sell those shares.
That's where I come in. We met about a week after I joined Joseph, he had a party to introduce me to his BDSM friends. Of course she was there too. At first she treated me just like one of her own slaves, total indifference. But when she saw that I was becoming a bit more to Joseph than just another submissive, I think she got jealous. She uses me to get to him. I'm stuck in the middle.
*
"That sucks!" Melissa said with feeling.
"It does. I'm just glad that Joseph put his foot down about a couple of things."
"What?"
"Well, Joseph would never let anyone touch me, sexually that is, and he made sure that Cynthia knew that she was included in that rule. Also he told her that I was out of reach as far as her little fetish for whips was concerned. In the clubs, she had a nick name that followed her to New York, behind her back of course. "Pain Slut". It describes her well. But I just call her the "Woman"." Maria glanced at the clock.
"Now I have to go up and lay out her clothes for the day."
"Wait a minute," said Melissa, "you mean to tell me that you have to bow and serve that woman like one of her own slaves?"
Maria stood in thought for a moment, before looking Maria in the eye.
"Let me put it to you this way. Cynthia Booth-Parker and Eric Maximer would have gotten along well together. In my position, what else would you do?"
Melissa's face paled at the name of the man who had tortured her for several days in a row two years ago. Maria left her lost in thought as she exited the kitchen.
***
Cynthia was still asleep, not bothered at all by the storm outside the house. Maria hoped that the weather wouldn't keep Cynthia inside all day, especially since Joseph had apparently skipped out on her. I bet this is what that diamond chain was for, Maria thought as she quietly began unpacking the Woman's suitcases.
Maria quickly began to wonder what Cynthia meant by "roughing it" as she opened case upon case full of evening wear and leather outfits, until she came up on one that must have been packed by an outdoors shop. In it she found jeans, shirts, sweaters and even sensible boots. She chose a set in a fairly neutral color scheme and, adding some underwear from a case full of thong panties and assorted erotica, laid it out on a chair.
Then she started to shake the sleeping woman by the shoulder.
"Maam, Maam?" she said nervously.
After a minute, Cynthia opened an eye. "Oh, It's you. Alright, I'm up. Go draw me a bath. I'll be in shortly."
"Yes, Maam."
It won't be necessary go over Cynthia's bathroom routine, except to say that once again Maria was required to strip herself and bathe the woman she hated.
Breakfast was served in the kitchen, a cold breakfast of cereal and fruit that Cynthia, dressed in jeans and a tan safari shirt, thought terribly dull.
Melissa watched Cynthia's act with a sly smile. Now that she knew a little about her she was able to deal with her.
Maria acted as serving girl, carrying things to and from Cynthia. She was also nude again, as Cynthia had demanded she remain unclothed until she "earned them".
"Where's Joseph?" Cynthia asked as she ate, "I expected him to be here. We have a lot to talk about." She directed this to Melissa, apparently she decided that Maria was below talking to apart from giving orders, which suited Maria fine.
"Joseph left an hour ago with a friend of his to go fishing," Melissa said smiling. "I can tell you how to get to where they are." Cynthia looked horrified. "Fishing? In this weather?" As if to punctuate her statement, another clap of thunder could be heard.
"Apparently the type of fish they're after comes out only in the rain."
"Damn," said Cynthia. "Does the girl know where?" she asked, indicating Maria.
"I doubt it, they never took her there before."
"Still, I'll take her anyway. Go fetch your leash, girl," Cynthia ordered.
"Er, what should I wear, Maam?" Maria asked apprehensively.
"Just your leash! Are you deaf? It is on the property isn't it?"
"Just beyond, but..." said Melissa.
"Then, that's alright," Cynthia said with a smile. Maria was stunned in thinking she would have to go out naked in such a rain storm.
"BUT..." continued Melissa, "...as I was trying to tell you. I need Maria here to help me do housework, so she won't be able to take you."
"Surely you can get by without her. What about your girl?"
"What are you talking about?"
Cynthia's eyes narrowed. "Don't lie to me young lady. That other girl from last night. Lisa, was it. She IS yours, isn't she? She certainly deferred to you last night!"
"Lisa," said Melissa, visibly holding back her temper, "owns and runs a local restaurant, and that is where she is right now."
This clearly put Cynthia out. She looked at Maria and wondered if it was worth taking her naked out into the rain. Certainly it would keep her down and make her very uncomfortable, not to mention the affect it would have on her ex-husband. But if she was going to stay here, there were things she still needed done to her own luggage.
Screw it, she thought, the girl can get to it later.
"Go get your leash," Cynthia ordered.
Wordlessly Maria looked at Melissa in appeal.
"I really need her here..." Melissa tried to say, but Cynthia didn't let her.
"Listen young lady, I don't know who you are or what your position is here, but I am the Lady of this house and I rule here. Pretty soon this place is going to belong to me anyway, so unless you want me to throw you out right now I suggest you shut up and listen to your betters!"
Melissa sat open mouthed. "Wha...what do you mean, belong to you? This place is Maria's!"
"What? This little tramp? She signed away her ownership of everything she had when she became Joseph's. I have no doubt in my mind that he will gladly pass this property on to me if I ask. He has no use for it! Her..." she gestured to Maria, who stood fuming next to the table, "she doesn't even own the restraints she has on. She has nothing!"
Melissa looked up at Maria, silently asking if it was true.
Maria wanted to tell her that things weren't what they seemed, that Melissa didn't have to worry, but she got no chance.
"Girl! Do I have to tell you one more time to go get your leash or do I have to repeat the order with my whip?"
"Yes...Yes, I'll go get it, Maam," said a startled Maria, and she dashed out of the room.
"You can't take Well's Valley away from her, you have no legal way of doing it," Melissa said slowly.
Cynthia sat back, a very evil looking smile caressing her features. "It's already done."
***
Ten minutes later, Cynthia, wearing a plastic rain coat over her other clothes, dragged a naked, and very wet Maria out of the yard and onto one of the trails.
The track was muddy, the rain cold, and Maria stumbled along with her cuffed hands locked behind her feeling as miserable as she had ever been in her life. To make matters worse, instead of clipping the leash to her collar Cynthia clipped it to her clit chain. This meant Maria had to try very hard not to fall behind.
Once under the tree canopy the going got a little easier as they were protected from a lot of the rain, but very quickly Maria started shivering from the cold.
She couldn't imagine the two mile walk they had in front of them, and was very glad when it became obvious that they weren't going to make it.
The directions Melissa gave them, meant their crossing the stream. Usually not a difficult task, but impossible now. The several days of rain had swollen the quiet stream until it surged along like a heavy river. The tight confines of the valley constricted the flow of water making it move at an incredible rate, it also looked about five feet higher than normal to Maria. "Damn!" Cynthia said. "Is there another way around?"
"Not by f-foot, Maam, unless you w-want to w-walk about ten miles," chattered the freezing slave.
Cynthia turned to look at her companion. Maria was hunched over, eyes half closed, visibly shaking. It touched the sadist that was the core of Cynthia's being to see the woman in such misery. Still, she didn't want to over do it, not yet.
"Alright. Lead me back to the house. We'll go the long way by car."
"Yes, Maam," said a grateful Maria.
As they walked back, Maria discovered something strange. She felt as if she had gotten her second wind as she slowly grew used to the endless cold water flowing over her naked body. She still shivered, but it didn't feel as bad as before.
As thunder echoed above her, she actually felt a little better about being there until Cynthia gave her clit chain a light tug.
"Move it!" she yelled.
They got back in the yard and went straight to her car.
"Damn it, you're going to get my seats wet," Cynthia said, very annoyed. "Wait, I know."
To Maria's horror, Cynthia walked behind her car and opened the trunk. "Well, get in, girl!"
Maria pulled at her bonds, wishing to be free so she could deck the sadistic bitch, but a pull on the leash compelled her to do as she was ordered. In moments she was curled up in the trunk, cold, wet and very uncomfortable.
The car started and Maria heard Cynthia get out. She must have gone in to ask for directions, Maria thought. What Maria didn't know was that after getting them, Cynthia refused to tell Melissa where Maria was.
After Cynthia's car drove away, Melissa, dressed in wet weather gear, came bounding out of the house in search of her abandoned friend. Cynthia caught this in her rear view mirror, and smiled. Then her attention was caught by something else. Someone standing in the tree line. She looked back, but saw no one.
"Humph!" she said.
It was a quick drive to the bridge where Melissa said the men were fishing, she didn't know that it was the same bridge that Maria had found another young fisherman when she first came to the valley. Along the bank of the swollen river Cynthia saw a couple of cars and pulled in to join them.
Finally, she thought, as she spotted Joseph sitting in a deck chair. She got out of the car and walked around to open the trunk. It didn't matter to her that there were two other men standing with Joseph, Maria was coming out.
Maria was scared stiff of getting out of the car. She knew that they were no longer on the property, and her nudity was no longer protected. She hoped that the bad weather would keep everyone away, although the rain seemed to have died down a little over the short drive.
"Joseph!" Cynthia called out, propelling the reluctant girl in front of her. The three men turned.
"My God, Cynthia! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Joseph yelled.
Maria looked up and immediately wished she hadn't.
Standing with Robert and Joseph, was Peter Brown.
End of Part 8
Copyright (c) by Leviticus 1999