The four naked women bent over the veranda railing of the log cabin screamed out their pain about the rubber bits stopping their mouths as their bare backsides were whipped. Their cries rolled out across the tranquil waters of the little lake to the wooded slopes of its further shore, which uncaringly swallowed them up as if they had never been. There was nobody to hear them in this little valley. They were totally helpless.

Their wrists were cuffed behind their backs and their legs were spread with their sandaled toes protruding between the posts supporting the veranda rail. Ropes bound about their ankles, knees and waists held them pressed tightly against the rail. They were held bent over by heavy crocodile clips clamped about their nipples which were connected to bungee cords which stretched down and backwards to hook onto the ropes binding their ankles to the veranda posts. Each convulsive jerk of pain which arched their backs also stretched their breasts downwards into tormented pink fleshy cones and any attempt to stand upright would have torn their nipples off. To keep their heads up the handles of the heavy chain leashes they wore were stretched up to a row of rings, from which hanging baskets might have been suspended, which were screwed into the lower beam of the wooden panelling that ran above the veranda rail.

Two of the four were women in their late thirties and other two just eighteen. There was a blonde and brunette in each age group, with the older women bound side by side to the middle of the rail and the younger ones on each side of them matched by their hair colour. The resemblance was clear even in their distraught features: two generations who had lost their freedom and were now reduced to shared humiliation, fear, and pain. As the whip cracked across their backsides, they twisted their heads round to look into each other's shiny red anguished faces through tear-filled eyes, straining against their cuffs and leashes and dribbling about their gag bits. Then they looked around further to their tormentor, pleading incoherently for his mercy.

A large man in a full head mask walked up and down the boards behind them, swinging a short, braided whip across the four naked defenceless bottoms so perfectly presented for his use, laying searing slashes across their desperately clenching and shivering buttock cheeks. As the pliant whip curved about the yielding contours of buttocks and thighs, it licked up into the intimate humid cleft between them and across the lips of four reluctantly pouting sex mouths which throbbed and dribbled helplessly even as they stung and burned under the cruel onslaught.

But although the masked man's face was hidden, his penis was not. A huge thick cock-shaft jutted out from the flies of his loose combat trousers and bobbed stiffly in front of him as he moved from one of his helpless victims to the next. As he did so the women's eyes kept dropping to his rampant manhood in fear and sick anticipation, knowing where it was destined to go.

'Do you want me to stop whipping you?' he demanded in a deep powerful voice.

They nodded and whimpered pathetically.

'Then I want to see each of you wet yourselves right now as a show of submission to your master!'

And such was their state of despair that they obeyed, surrendering to the pain, and letting their bladders go almost joyfully. As hot fitful streams hissed from their sore clefts and splashed over the veranda boards, the masked man lowered his whip and raised the camera slung about his neck and recorded the intimate fountains play with apparent satisfaction. And for a moment the women felt a perverse sense of relief and even gratitude to their dominator for sparing them further pain. Then, as the last drips fell from their clefts, they realized they had simply disgraced themselves at his command, acting out of fear and confirming his mastery over them. Their tear-streaked faces burned with fresh shame.

'For the next week I will be your master,' he told them, 'and you'll be my total, obedient, pussy pets...'

And at that moment none of them had the strength or courage to doubt it.

Yet little more than an hour earlier they had been at the start of what might have been such a nice holiday...

* * *

'Are we there yet?' Zoe Parkinson asked dejectedly from the back seat of the old but sturdy silver Volvo estate. It was a bright August day and even with all the windows down the car was hot. Behind her its baggage compartment was packed high with luggage and groceries.

'A little more whine and you'll sound just like a twelve-year old again, dear,' Tess replied with gentle forbearance as she turned off the A38, which cut through the Devon countryside in a long arc separating its south coast from its upland heart, and onto a narrower "B" road. Ahead of them, hazy and purple in the afternoon sun, was the rising ground of Brent Moor which formed the southern extremity of Dartmoor.

Alice Winters, who was sitting in the passenger seat by her old friend, consulted the map. 'Just another ten minutes, Zoe.'

Alice's girl Karen, who was seated in the back next to Zoe, pulled out the earphones which had been connecting her to her iPad and looked about her, asking innocently, and not very enthusiastically, 'Ohhh... are we there now?'

Alice and Tess exchanged resigned glances.

'Why do we bother?' Tess wondered. 'They're eighteen. They don't really want to be here.'

'Because this is the last time they'll put up with having a holiday with their old mums,' Alice reminded her. 'Next year they'll be off having fun somewhere with all their new college friends, and if we're lucky we'll get a couple of texts the whole summer.'

Her light words did not entirely conceal her genuine emotion at the thought that this might truly be her last proper holiday with Karen, even if it was only for a week in a rented holiday cottage in the West Country.

'Felicity Saunders' mum has let her go off to Italy with her friends,' Zoe said pointedly, 'and she's a month younger than me.'

'And knowing Felicity, she'll regret it,' Tess countered.

'But it's Italy!' Zoe repeated.

'And Italy will still be there next year... if you save up enough money for the trip.'

The girls' lack of funds had clinched the matter of where to vacation. They had to have a holiday of some kind to celebrate finishing school, even if it was just a week in Devon, which was all they could afford. Then it was back to their holiday jobs to earn money towards their college expenses.

'Come on, give it a chance,' Alice persisted. 'You might even enjoy yourselves at the lodge. I mean it's got its own private lake. And we can visit Plymouth and the beach at Torquay.'

'Nice try, Mum,' Karen said, 'but Torquay verses Venice? Seriously? No contest!' Zoe raised a point of acute concern to her generation.

'The brochure said you couldn't even get a phone signal there! We won't be able to talk to anybody!'

'Apart from us,' Tess reminded her gently. 'Or don't we count anymore?'

'It has got a landline and you can go online through that,' Alice reminded her. 'We're not totally going back in the Stone Age.'

'That still sounds pretty primitive to me,' Zoe said grumpily.

'You'll be able to decide first hand in a minute, Zoe,' Alice said. 'I think we're there...'

A meandering side road running between red earth banks had brought them to the mouth of a turning lined with bushes and an arrow and signpost that read: Lakeside Lodge: Private.

Tess steered the big car slowly round the curve of an even narrower stone and gravel track until they came to a metal sheep grid, there to keep wandering livestock out, crossed by a big five barred gate which was padlocked shut. Beyond was a wall of trees.

Alice got out of the car and opened the padlock with the combination they had been sent with their booking details. Tess drove through it with a rattle across the cattle grid and Alice closed the gate behind them and then slipped back into car. Slowly they made their way along the rough track which curved and dipped down between overhanging trees. Then the vista suddenly opened out in front of them.

It was a small, shallow, thickly wooded valley cut into the rising moorland and running north to south, with a small clear lake filling most of its floor which shimmered in the summer sunshine. The track they were on led to a grassy clearing in the trees by the lakeside where the slope levelled out. They drove past a long wooden shed-like a building, opposite the double front doors of which a small wooden jetty jutted out into the lake, to an oval of hard standing which was set between the shed cum boathouse and the lodge itself.

Lakeside Lodge was a wooden chalet with a rustic finish, contrasting oddly with its large modern picture windows, fronted by a wooden decked covered veranda which looked out across the lake. It was almost as if somebody had tried to recreate in miniature the relaxed, spacious, close-to-nature feel of an American lakeside log cabin set in some picturesque north-eastern state. And on a summer's afternoon like this it looked as if they had very nearly succeeded.

Even though they all had seen online pictures of the lodge, the girls appeared grudgingly impressed by the real thing. Eagerly they clambered out of the car and went to look around with Tess and Alice following along after them. They were all lightly clad in sleeveless tops, shorts, and sandals and now that casual dress felt just right for such a place. This was where they could relax and have fun. Their holiday had begun. Tess and Alice exchanged hopeful glances. Perhaps this would work out after all.

On the far side of the lodge was an open lawn with a brick barbecue pit and a swing hung from a tree. A flight of steps ran down from its lower end to the waters edge.

'This is quite nice,' Zoe conceded.

'Yeah, not bad,' Karen agreed.

'Apparently there are garden chairs and hammocks as well as some outdoor games equipment stored in the shed,' Alice reminded the girls. 'But let's look inside first...'

They found the key safe by the front door and used the code they'd been given to open it up and let themselves into the Lodge. The front half of the building comprised a spacious combined sitting room, dining area and kitchen, with a central hall leading through to a well-appointed bathroom, two bedrooms with pairs of single beds and one double with an en-suite. Everything was well maintained, clean and inviting.

'All right,' Tess said, after the girls had approved of the accommodation and had chosen the bedroom they would share, 'before we start having fun and if you want to eat, we've got to unpack...'

They set about unloading the car and bringing everything inside. The girls were eager to go for a swim while the sun was still on the lake, but Alice said, 'We've still got to get the kitchen sorted. While we're doing that you can open the shed and find a garden table and a set of chairs. Bring them round to the lawn and set them up so we can eat supper outside. Here's the key...'

Zoe and Karen went across to the shed and opened its front double doors. Inside they found a rowing boat resting on trestles together with the usual assortment of items such places accumulated. There were several closed and padlocked boxes and crates, an odd legless round table-top under a dust sheet, a shelf of old paint cans and empty flowerpots, assorted ropes and chains hanging from nails, a bundle of bamboo stakes, a mower and assorted garden tools. There was a swing-ball and croquet set and a folded badminton net, while hung on the wall were a pack of rackets and shuttlecocks. Beside them was a big garden hammock and its stand, a stack of folding chairs and a couple of garden tables: one rectangular and the other round, which came with a large, furled garden umbrella which slotted into a hole in its centre.

'The round table will big enough for the four of us,' Karen said.

Between them they carried it outside, across the hard-standing area and along the narrow path that curved round the back of the lodge between it and the edge of the woods, to the top of the lawn on the far side. They then returned for a pair of chairs each. Then, leaving Karen to start setting them out on the lawn, Zoe went back for the table umbrella by herself.

As she walked into the shed and passed the upended rowing boat, a figure emerged from the shadows beneath it.

A strong arm was wrapped about Zoe's body while a big hand closed over face, squeezing a pliant rubber ball between her lips as her mouth opened to scream. The ball expanded behind her teeth, pressing her tongue down and filling her mouth, stifling her shriek of fear. She was pushed down onto her knees and her arms were twisted painfully up behind her. Handcuffs snapped about her wrists and were ratcheted tight. For a second, she managed to twist her head round so she could see her attacker and her eyes bulged in fear and she gave a choking scream at the sight of him. Then a thick fabric hood was pulled over her head, blindfolding her and further muffling her moans of fear. She was hauled onto her feet and thrown over a muscular shoulder. With one arm wrapped about her frantically kicking legs her attacker carried her out of the shed and around the side away from the lodge and then up into the trees.

The whole thing had taken less than thirty seconds.

* * *

A few minutes more passed before Karen came round from the back lawn to see what was keeping Zoe. When she couldn't find her in or around the shed and she saw the garden umbrella was still there, she went into the lodge to look for her.

'Where's Zoe gone?' she asked Tess and Alice, who were still packing away goods in the kitchen and planning their meal.

Alice and Tess looked at each other in puzzlement. 'I don't think she came in here or else we'd have seen her,' Tess said.

It only took a minute for them to check Zoe was not inside the lodge. Feeling apprehensive they went outside and began shouting her name. There was no response.

'You're too old to start paying hide and seek, Zoe,' Tess called out. 'If you don't stop it right now you won't get any supper...'

Still there was no reply.

Karen took out her mobile and tried to ring Zoe's phone, but there was no network connection in the tiny valley. They fanned out and searched along the narrow strip of shingle and rocks that fringed the grounds of the lodge and formed the shore of the lake, peering anxiously into the clear waters, but there was no sign of Zoe.

Standing once more by the car between the lodge and the shed they turned to look up at the western side of the little valley that rose steeply behind the lodge. There was nowhere else Zoe could have gone. It was not a large expanse of land but by now the sun was sinking in the sky and the wooded slopes were filling with shadows, making them look denser and deeper than they really were. In winter without the foliage on the mainly deciduous trees which covered the valley it would have seemed quite open to a search, but now at the height of summer lushness it was almost impenetrable to their gaze.

'Perhaps she went up there to pick some flowers for the table or something?' Karen suggested.

'But even then, she could still hear us,' Tess said, her face pale and pinched with growing fear.

'Maybe she's had a fall and hurt herself...' Alice began.

Then without warning something pale and fluttering flew out of the trees from halfway up the slope and bounced across hard standing to come to rest beside their car, making the women gasp and flinch away in surprise. When the object did not move, they ran to it. Wrapped about a large stone was a leaf of lined paper looking as if it might have been torn from a notebook and, infinitely more sinister, Zoe's underpants.

While Tess bit her lip and clutched at the scrap of underwear, Alice opened the sheet of paper. On it was written in bold black felt pen: I HAVE ZOE. MRS PARKINSON WILL NOW STRIP NAKED EXCEPT FOR HER SANDALS AND COME ALONE UP THE PATH FROM THE BACK OF THE BOAT HOUSE. IF I DO NOT SEE HER OBEY THIS COMMAND IMMEDIATELY ZOE WILL SUFFER.

Even as they read the chilling message from somewhere up in the woods, they heard Zoe's voice raised in a brief shrill cry of pain which cut off abruptly.

Tess went white and swayed as if she might faint while Karen moaned, 'Oh shit... shit...'

'We've got to call the police right now,' Alice said, struggling to remain calm. 'It doesn't say not to. We can use the house phone...'

Tess took a deep shuddering breath and recovered herself. 'You do that... but I've got to do what it says...'

'You mean... go up there naked?'

There came another shriek of pain from the woods, making them all flinch.

'What does that matter when she's being hurt?' Tess said with sudden steely determination. 'If it was Karen then you'd do the same, wouldn't you?'

Alice did not have to reply.

Tess pulled at the hem of her T-shirt and dragged it over her head. It did not take her long to remove her few pieces of skimpy clothing until she was wearing only her sandals. Alice and Karen's eyes shied away from her in embarrassment and concern, and she trembled as she realized some stranger had been watching her expose herself. But what else could she do?

She faced the woods and spread her arms wide; shivering and sick with fear as she displayed her naked body to unknown eyes.

Tess had shoulder length light blonde hair, deep set pale blue eyes, high cheekbones, a narrow nose, and full lips, all set in a heart-shaped face. Her complexion was pale but lightly tanned and her face showed few lines. Her figure was compact with a trim waist, full breasts caped by brown nipples, womanly hips and thighs, smooth fleshy buttocks, and a trimmed dark fuzz of pubic hair over a deep pussy cleft.

'See, I've done what you said!' she shouted. 'Don't hurt my girl again! I'm coming...'

She drew in another deep breath and then grimly set off around the boathouse and up the path into the woods.