Four more from her mistress, four from Nora, one fearful stroke across her sex from Josh, to a total of ten. She sobbed and moaned her way out of the pain from each, only to lay there, a taut 'X' awaiting a cruelty she had not earned. A cruelty for which she found herself unable to bear malice. When, after many centuries, fingers tugged at the knots of her bindings her moans of pleasure were the strangest ones of all.
"I tied you so tight it takes a minute, but I'll soon have you loose. Was it very bad, Ilona?"
Ilona did her best to tell how very bad it had been. But found herself more thankful to tell of how good it was to be freed. When the cords were taken from a wrist she flexed her arm joyously as the maid pursued her task from stake to stake. She did not tear at the blinds on her eyes but waited passively for Nora to give her back her sight. When it came she saw it was the beginning of evening. Wallowing in the sensuous motions of release, she said over and over: "Oh, Nora, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Then, simply: "Kiss me. I want to kiss you."
It was good to have arms again. Ilona used them to enfold her companion in nakedness while their lips clung, appeasing the lonely hunger of slaves. When Nora returned the speech she sounded anxious. "You O.K., Miss Paisley?"
"I think I am, just stiff." Ilona rose to her feet and indulged in orgy of liberated motion. "I'm fine." She said joyously. "Look, I can kick. . Mmmmmm, this is so wonderful!"
"Can you walk alright? That cut over your cunt Josh gave you? It don't stop you walking?"
Ilona felt her swollen labia and winced. "It was just pain, Nora, that's all. It's still tender but I've still got a pussy. Nora, aren't you supposed to put something on me? I mean, handcuffs or something?"
"Sure I am. But I'm not going to. I'm sick of being mean to you. What I want right now is for you to run. There's nothing to stop you. Run like crazy. I'll cover for you as long as I can. . By then you can be ten miles away."
"Nora??" Ilona was bereft in shock.
"Do it." Nora's command was peremptory. "You do it, Miss. It's maybe your only chance."
"But she'll know! She'll punish you terribly!"
"Can't help that. Sure, I'll get a whipped ass or be tied up for a week. So what?!"
"But, unless you can come too??"
Nora laughed bitterly. "No way!" She kicked a shackled foot. "Josh ain't going to chisel these off to oblige us."
"Then I won't go!" The released captive was adamant. "Nora, darling, handcuff me."
"I can't, Miss Paisley. I didn't even have orders to untie you. You're still supposed to be spread out on the ground."
The brief silence was heavy with portent. Then, Ilona's decision was incisive. "Tie me to those stakes again, Nora. You must."
"It's no good, Miss Paisley. You're supposed to stay there 'till midnight. Then she's going to untie you herself. You couldn't see, but she's dropped wax on the knots I've untied. Even if I tie you again she's going to know." Nora's voice turned wistfuclass="underline" "I've done it, Ilona. If you don't run I'll be whipped for nothing."
Ilona Paisley would remember the moment forever. It was the moment of a decision she could not make, a decision to change a life. "I can't run away." She admitted is shame. "I'm in love with Cicely."
Nora laughed ruefully. "Think I don't know that! It's been sticking out a mile."
"Then why untie me?"
"Because you could get free and then have me freed, and then make love to her anyway you pleased."
"What, behind prison bars!"
"Ain't no way that much Texas money ever gets behind bars, Miss Paisley. Please do it for both our sakes. . ?"
Ilona kissed her hard, then turned and ran into the gathering dusk.
It was the second day. A naked woman sat on a rock on a small rise and surveyed her world. As far as she could tell she was its only human occupant. Ilona Paisley was facing the realization of being lost and being very, very hungry. She had found water in her flight, but that was all. Her bare feet were filthy with dust, their soles wounded and protesting. She was also facing a second realization, one that filled her with disgust with her own mixed up emotions. Ilona Paisley had made a terrible mistake.
With the clarity of crisis, the female fugitive from a strange slavery made her assessment of her condition. Everything stemmed from one single fact: She was desperately in love with, and dependent upon, Cicely Woods. Her enslavement to Cicely went beyond chains, it was a deeply emotional involvement, the depth of which she had not yet plumbed. She saw everything, from that first day of visiting Antonia Noyes, as an inevitable chain of events leading to where she now sat on a rock in the wilderness.
She had escaped on impulse, allowing Nora's sacrifice to cloud judgement. To flee was a human instinct for which she now must pay. She looked back at Paisley Publications as a shadowy menace from a distant past. She would never return to it.
In erotic reflection she fingered her whip wounds and found joy in them. She also felt shame, but closed her mind to it as a ghost of the past. If it felt comforting to play with the tender traces of Cicely's whip on the inside of her thighs she would do so.
There came then the cold assessment of her slavery to a woman. She spent little thought on it other than in longing. She belonged to Cicely Woods by right of purchase and because it was her human destiny. Beyond that she had no wish to peer. Slavery was an ancient human condition.
The present was not to be denied, it was demanding. Amusedly, she surveyed the plight into which impulse had lured her. Suppose she found another human in this wasteland, it would most likely be a man. She was a woman? naked! The equation was simple. If she found others with good intentions they would call the police to give her aid, and the police would deliver her back to Cicely with an admonition to be a good girl in the future. Most certainly that was not the way to return to her mistress.
Ilona knew now she should have gone to Cicely and pleased mercy for Nora's good intentions. It might have been granted. At any rate Nora's punishment would have been less than now. She herself would not have been punished at all, now she would be punished terribly. Even if she retraced her steps Cicely would punish a disloyal slave as being no more than was just. Ruefully, the fugitive felt an almost masochistic satisfaction in the thought. It would serve her damn well right. The pangs of hunger nagged constantly. Miss Ilona Paisley rose determinedly and began to retrace her steps.
There was a sizable eminence, a hill. It had been in view throughout her flight.
Using it as a mariner does a star, she set her course. Her feet hurt but even they seemed glad to be going home. When she awoke the following morning it was to the sound of horse's hooves. Joyously, Ilona sprang erect and emerged from the bushes to greet her love. But it was not Cicely Woods who gazed down at her. It was two men she had never seen before.
Ilona felt more naked than she had ever been. The riders were regarding her with lewd interest. She was gripped by disappointment and a mounting fear which held her mute.
"Reckon we've hit the jackpot, Luke."
"Sure 'nuff. Ain't likely there's two pieces like this running around out here. Damn nice stuff."
"What's yer name, lady?"
"Paisley. I'm staying with Miss Woods at her ranch." They guffawed. "She's the one, Rance. Dammit', that's a streak of luck. The rest of the boys'll be hoppin' mad."
"You mean, there's a search?" Ilona was nonplussed. "Shit, lady, there'd better be.
You could starve to death runnin' around here like that. You 'et since you run?"
"No I haven't. But do you have a shirt, a bit of cloth, or something, anything at all?"
"Wouldn't give it to you if we had, lady. You're fine as you are."
"But I'm naked!"
"Sorta' noticed that. Lovely tits."