“You have barely begun your sentence,” he assured her-watching the long silk stocking being carefully put on and drawn upward over a beautiful leg and whitely rounded thigh.
“Hardly begun,” she faltered, pausing in her occupation and raising apprehensive eyes. “Do you mean to tell me that all that has happened hasn't satisfied the… the indignation which you and Mrs. Bolton-justly, I admit, felt against me?”
“You shall not pay a cent,” he said. “You shall carry the thought that you have paid-and arc paying-with your lovely body-and your freedom. You are mine… do you understand? And you will come to me whenever I summon you. You will feel the weight of my authority and my hot desire for your lovely body-even when you are not with me at the time!”
“In evidence whereof,” he continued, with glowing eyes, “1 lay two commands upon you now. Firstly, you will quite inadvertently let your husband observe this very night that your pussy has been shaved!”
“Yon will tell him that you did it yourself-and will explain, when questioned; that you had a strange desire to see once more how you must have looked there when you were ten or twelve years old. You will whisper embarrassedly to him a query as to whether you don't remind him of the way Louise used to look at the time when he was so fond of kissing her between her legs?”
“You will spread yourself out complaisantly to let him look his nil at your nudities. You will see what will happen. He will be so wild with delight that he will not even notice the inflammation still remaining from my own violent embraces…”
“He will hug your thighs and begin to kiss you down here as he was wont to kiss his daughter. You will repulse him. He will plead-and you will succumb bashfully. And you will tell me-tomorrow afternoon in this room… exactly what occurred!”
“It's a changed life-a life of horrible phantasies-with which you threaten me,” stammered Doris. “And it's a dual life too-for how can I avoid the peril that my husband or my innocent daughter may not suspect?”
“It may be best to be somewhat frank with your innocent daughter.” he murmured.
And cynically he laid upon the table before her the photo of a totally naked and exquisitely formed young girl, Doris stared at it for a moment with wild eyes.
“It's Louise-all undressed!” she cried. “How-how did you get… this picture?”
“Not as you perhaps think,” he told the convulsed matron. “Look at the picture. She smiles-although with shy dismay. If she had been trapped thus by any man- or had even had the thought that any man might see the picture, she would never have smiled.”
“I think that this is, beyond doubt, the loveliest bit of photographic art I have ever seen. A lovely girl is your sweet, blonde Louise-in her slender shapely nudity- with those finger tempting young breasts-and that curly triangle below her smooth belly.”
“Please… please!” cried Doris chokingly, trying to atop him.
“Better tell her the source of the picture. Rose,” he suggested.
“Some of the girls who come here for dresses get a bit jolly,” explained Mrs. Bolton embarrassedly. “It's not very unusual for one of the party to have a camera and wish to snapshot the others while they are trying things on-or in a state of undress before trying on their silk or satin underwear!”
“And you deliberately brought this picture to Mr. Freeman accused the indignant Doris Tasker.
Rose shrugged helplessly. “I didn't,” she said. “He-he made me. He does as he likes-you ought to know that- and what could I do?”
“The fact is, of course,” he said calmly, “that your daughter is almost equally culpable with yourself in the bills you have run up here, and which have served to bring Rose to financial disaster.”
“She is paying now for the faults and carelessness of others-amongst whom are your daughter and yourself- by this state of what you term… slavery!”
“But-good heavens-she is little more than a child and it was really my fault that she ran up this account,” cried Doris. “You can't have in mind any personal penalty for her?”
“I have no compunctions in the matter,” he assured her. “I wish to see your daughter in the exact guise of this photo. And I shall see her this way, too, I can assure you. For if you falter in bringing it about-incredible things will happen to you… without your saving Louise in the long run. I should not hesitate to send a copy of this photograph to her father if that was necessary!”
“He would kill her-he would disown her!” wailed the frenzied Doris.
“There are certain things which are quite without any conscience-proverbially so…” he smiled. “You may not have heard of them-but I have one of them when I look at this delightful photograph!”
With a cynical gesture he indicated to her that his member was once more rampant. The lovely woman colored hotly-but her eyes returned again and again, through lowered lashes, to the marked pertuberance in his leather garments — a swelling that strained the buttons of his trousers and sought release.
“You will bring her here,” he went on calmly, “on some pretext of a legal settlement of her debt which requires her presence. Once here, I shall talk with her a moment… aside and privately.”
“She will be led to believe that prison, disgrace, faces you both-and that the only alternative is submission to the person who holds the obligations due to Mrs. Bolton. The photo she might take lightly-as a mere frolic-but she will not take lightly what I have to say to her.”
“Will you spare her-virginity… at least?” pleaded Doris, her lovely eyes filled with tears, and her slim hands outstretched in a gesture of despair.
“That much I will pledge,” he said. “Yet for her own audacity in trying to argue with me and limit my decisions, the lovely Mrs. Tasker shall insert her hand within my trousers and fondle the object she will find there… while we continue our chat.”
“When she emerges from her private conference with me, Louise will still not know what it is she has to do- but she will have been told that whatever it may be, she must do it And it is you who will instruct her in what is required-following directions which I shall give you beforehand.”
“I… I think…” whispered Doris huskily-for her extreme agitation over her present task rendered her incapable of speech. “I think that-after all… since you do not intend to ruin her-that it is not so shattering a thing for a pretty girl to show her naked body… to a man at least as old as her own father!”
“And I think,” he smiled, “that you are becoming reasonable and seeking valid excuses for pleasing me by showing me this vision which will delight me. For unless this picture is very deceiving, Louise is a perfect work of art-when naked-and the originator of such a masterpiece should be proud to exhibit it-What is the matter, is something wrong, Doris?”
“I–I don't know… I feel faint,” she quavered to him. “Yes-I do know too-and so do you… you horrible man! My nerves won't stand it-to do this to yon and just sitting here! Don't laugh… at m-me!”
“Ohh! Take me-for God's sake… just once morel Can't you see how I am tortured-wanting you… yet I was quite unconscious of such passion-until you made me… touch you again!”
Chapter X
Clad in a simple blue frock of fine material and cut, a slight blonde girl of some nineteen years followed Francis Freeman from a side room into the sitting room of Rose Bolton, the following Saturday afternoon.
The woman who rose to meet her with obvious anxiety was a ripened edition of this youthful beauty-but the massed hair was of a darker gold, tinged with a ruddy hue. She, too, was somewhat pale and nervous-but she strove to hide her shakiness as she held out her arms to the girl.
“Nothing to be frightened over, Louise,” she said-and her daughter ran across the room into her embrace.