Chapter 10

he smell of damp air crept into her nostrils as she began to regain conscieness. She dared not upon her eyes as her other senses began to come into play. Her head throbbed but the pain was becoming tolerable.

She could hear the sounds of water dripping in the background and could feel the moist air on her face. Her arms were above her head. As she moved slightly she could sense that her wrists were bound. She opened her eyes tentatively and her vision began to clear.

"Where am I?" she pondered with a deep set fear that she could not shake, "What is this place?"

She cast her head back to see her hands bound above her head in chains. She looked at herself, she was no longer wearing the dress she had put on, but only her under things, which were now soiled and tattered.

She looked around the room, seeing a shaft of light coming in from a high window, being the only source of light within this hellacious pit, made her anxiety grow that much more. The shadows could be hiding anything, anyone. Stone and mortar made up the walls. "Am I in prison?" she asked herself, albeit out loud.

"Ahhhh, you're awake," a disembodied male voice from behind her spoke with an alarming reassuredness.

She struggled against her bonds to turn around to see who had spoken these words that sent trembles of fear up and down her spine, to no avail. She discovered her vision did not include much of her surroundings, and she began to feel nervous.

She felt something against her back, moving slowly, as if teasing her skin. Her skin? Had it been exposed? Panic began to set in.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" the words came from her mouth with an exhausted struggle that she had not intended.

No response came from the voice for a very long time. The stroking of her back continued, and her senses heightened. She could feel hot air against her skin, and then the course hair of warm skin. "Was he rubbing his face against her?" her fears wear confirmed when she felt his tongue licking her back and it sickened her.

She writhed to get away and then felt his hot breath against the back of her neck. "You will find out soon wench," he whispered in a gruff voice that sounded as if it were drawn across sandpaper.

"First we're going to have a little fun." She didn't even have time to reply when she felt the cold sting of something across her buttocks. A gasp came out of her mouth purely from the shock.

"Is my entire backside exposed? It must be because I felt that!" she thought to herself. Her assessment of the situation had just worsened.

She felt it again. The sting, the pain, the shock wave of something stirring inside her body. It sent tremors throughout her body, and she let out a moan. The strike came again and again, each with more veracity then before, and her body reacted in a way in which she had not anticipated. It moved against the pain.

"What am I doing?" echoed through her mind. Here she was, bound head to toe and for some odd reason, she desired more. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" she groaned, as each strike stabbed at her flesh. Her desire mounting rapidly... then it happened.

She blushed to herself as she felt the warm juices dripping down her leg and the strikes stopped. A tear flowed from her eyes and she began to weep.

"Enough," another voice shouted as it pierced the darkness. Her tears flowing as she heard a ruckus coming from behind her. Shouts of ignorance and defiance and then the familiar sound of metal piercing flesh.

She closed her eyes tightly mumbling to herself that it was all just a bad dream, that none of this was happening, until she felt an arm go about her waist holding her tightly and her arms fall like lumps of clay from her bounds. She collapsed in the arms that held her and began to struggle to get free, wanting to run away, escape this place.

"If you make this a habit mi'lady, I shall have to hire more help," his voice filled her ears. She opened her eyes to see his face, the face that she had been longing for.

He lifted her into his arms and her arms went about his neck, kissing him feverishly, "Thank you mi'lord, thank you, thank you, thank you," she said between kissing him and holding onto him for dear life. He held her tightly against him and carried her out of the dank place that had held her captive.