He forced himself to meet her gaze. "For dinner and the- er-the party that follows."
She looked at him silently for a long moment. Then, unexpectedly, she laughed. "How absolutely delightful! Five women to flog you! My dear Per, I wonder whether you haven't signed your death warrant?"
He was only partly relieved by her laughter. "I thought it might amuse you," he said lamely.
Erika gave a chuckle from her chair. "And he's arranged for his servants to be out," she said to Marlene. "My God!"
He felt a sudden stab of fear. Perhaps he had been very unwise, after all. The thought of having five women to dinner, all of whom would give him a whipping after dinner, had excited him very much when he had first had it. Now that the whole thing was changing from a thought into a reality, however, he wondered whether he had not bitten off a great deal more than he would be able to chew. He turned his head to Erika and looked at her seriously. The way she had said "My God!" frightened him. The sight of her sitting in her slinky rubber dress, and the thought of taking her in his arms later, drove away his fear. This was the sort of evening that he had imagined in his masochistic day-dreams. It was happening at last. If he had to pay rather heavily for it later on-well, never mind; it was worth it. The exhilaration of the moment was worth anything at all that might happen later.
The study door opened. Margarete Hansen came into the room.
"Good evening," she said, looking rather at Per than at his guests. She had decided, as she came down the stairs, to conquer her feeling of jealousy. She had no right to it, she realised. Her manner, however, as she was introduced to Marlene and Erika, subtly suggested that she was not merely and simply a governess. Her appearance suggested nothing of the governess, either. She had dressed herself with extreme care, choosing a black dress that was aggressive in its stark simplicity. She wore but one piece of jewellery-a long and heavy chain of gold which she had looped round and round her neck and which fell, glintingly against the black, a little below her bosom. It was the only really expensive piece of jewellery that she possessed, but she was very satisfied with its effect.
Marlene regarded her with frank admiration. With her laughter of a few moments ago she had made a rapid decision. She would enjoy herself this evening, and would not spoil her enjoyment by giving way to stupid feelings of possessiveness for Per Petersen. He was free, after all, to live as he wanted. He owed no allegiance, no loyalty, no faithfulness, to her. It was infrequently, after all, that she came to Kiel to flog him. It would be unreasonable of her to expect him to regard her as his only tormentor. And if he was unwise enough to gather no fewer than five sadistic tormentors in his house on one and the same evening-well, that was his own business. He would certainly be made to suffer for it.
"You are very lovely, my dear," she said, and, to take away any possible hint of condescension, she looked at Per and added: "I don't think you will be taking any of those trips to London from now on."
His heart warmed as he realised that the ice was broken. He made no reply. He poured a glass of sherry for Margarete and listened gratefully to her spontaneous acceptance of Marlene's generous gesture. "I have heard only a little about you, Fraulein Reitter, but what I have heard has been-oh, what an understatement! You are-you are wonderful! No wonder he lives for your visits." There was a knock on the study door. The butler entered. He looked at Per Petersen. "Excuse me, sir. Two friends of Miss Hansen have arrived."
"Show them in, please," said Per. He looked expectantly towards the door.
The blonde and the red-head came into the room. He caught his breath sharply at their beauty. He flashed a look at the three women who were already in the room and then looked back at the two newcomers. He reflected, with a feeling of considerable awe, that no other room over the length and breadth of Germany could contain such beautiful women as his did at this moment. And they were all gathered there for a very special sort of party-with him as the victim…
He was in a condition of considerable dither as he was introduced to the two friends of Margarete. He gathered that the blonde was called Birgitta and the red-head Anna. He did not catch their surnames, and he did not bother to ask for a repetition. Everyone would be on a Christian-name basis soon enough. "Do you speak German?" he asked, in as even a tone as he could. "We have two German ladies here who, I imagine, do not speak Swedish."
Margarete answered for her friends. "They speak German quite well."
Per introduced them to Marlene and Erika, mumbling over their surnames. Marlene was very gracious to them. She felt the gathering of another constraint, however, and felt it was up to her, more than anyone else, to dispel it at once. "How very nice to meet you," she said. "I understand we're members of the same club. The club of sadistic women, I mean."
Anna, the red-head, smiled at her warmly. "I am, myself. Birgitta, here, is a sort of honorary member."
"Nonsense," said Birgitta. "I can be just as much a member as you, when I'm given the chance. But you're such a greedy pig that I don't get the chance very often."
It was Margarete's heart that was warmed this time, as the ice was broken for the second time. She had worried a good deal about the advisability of introducing her two friends to the party, despite her employer's stated belief that the more would make the merrier.
A spontaneous chatter began among the five girls, and Per Petersen gave drinks to Birgitta and Anna, and refilled the other glasses.
"We're sorry we're not dressed for a dinner-party," Anna said to him. She and Birgitta were wearing their leather jackets with tightly-fitting skirts and high stiletto-heeled shoes. "We're on a hitch-hiking holiday."
"You look very nice indeed," said Per. "And very fetching, both of you."
"So do you," said Birgitta. "But I'm looking forward to seeing you without your clothes."
"That will be very soon," he said breathlessly. "Immediately after we've had dinner."
Marlene looked up at him. "How long to dinner?" He glanced at the clock on his mantel. "About a quarter of an hour."
"Right." She stood up, reached for her bag, opened it, and took out two lengths of strong, fine cord. "Better lock the door for a moment. We don't want your butler marching in suddenly." He nodded and went to the door to lock it. The four girls stopped speaking and looked at her enquiringly.
She smiled at them. "This is something I always do when I have dinner with our host," she said. "It makes the dinner- table more interesting. There are always so many servants in the room that one has to watch one's conversation. But one doesn't have to watch all one's actions so much." She crooked a finger at Per. "Come here and open your trousers."
He walked up to her and undid the buttons of his flies.
She put her hand inside the trousers and brought out his enormously-erected penis and testicle-bag. Birgitta caught her breath. Anna grinned at her, and waggled a finger admonishingly. "This is most interesting," she said, looking at the cords which Marlene held in her other hand. "Whatever are you going to do?"
"Tie up his ball-bag," said Marlene, and made a loop in the end of one of her cords. "Then I can torture him whenever I feel bored at the dinner-table. I just pull on my end of the cord under the table."
"You have two cords tonight," said Per.
"That's for whoever sits on the other side of you," she said, and drew the loop tight around the testicle-bag, leaving the two testicles trapped between the bottom of their bag and the tightened cords. She made a loop in the other cord and fastened it in the same way around the testicle-bag. She gathered the other ends of the cords, a metre and a half long, into a sort of bow, and stuffed them inside his trousers. "Now you can button yourself up," she said. "And when we're at table you can unbutton yourself again, and bring everything out, and pass my own cord to me under the table as usual. Who has the other one is your own affair."