CHAPTER I

 

Denise looked round at the dense sea of faces that scurried about her as travellers rushed towards waiting trains at the terminus. She was some fifteen minutes late and was not surprised that the other girls were not at the appointed spot where she had promised to meet them to start their annual vacation. Making up her mind, she hurried to the barrier where a group of holidaymakers were producing tickets to get to the all-ready overcrowded train.

She waited as the porter punched a hole in the thick parchment of her ticket and then, lugging the heavy suitcase behind her she raced towards the carriage in which their seats had been booked. For the umpteenth time, she glanced at the reservation paper clutched in her hand, and then she saw the first class coach. Another struggle to lift the suitcase onto the coach and then she was inside. The door slammed behind her and she gasped a sigh of relief. Just in time. Even as she walked down the corridor of the slow moving train, she felt her whole being responding to the exertions of her hurried journey from home to the terminus. She saw her three friends and they grinned in recognition.

"Couldn't wait."

'Where have you been?"

"Here... I'll give you a hand." All three spoke in unison.

Although it was a compartment for six, they had booked all the seats as a reservation and this enabled them to spread themselves out.

Denise explained, once she had her breath back to normal, of the traffic jam that she had suffered in the taxi on the way, but within minutes they were all four seated comfortably and were chatting happily. With the light-headedness that erupts when one is starting a whole fortnight's holiday, the girls responded to the sensation of freedom from their everyday chores. Each of them had an attractive quality, and there was hardly a pinpoint between them as far as good looks were concerned. None of them had reached twenty-one years of age, and with that spirited attitude of their young bodies and minds, they experienced a vitality of fresh womanhood. On this fortnight, it had been agreed; they would leave their various boyfriends behind and seek pastures new.

The tall, extremely handsome stranger slowly walked along the corridor of the train. He was seeking refreshment and he stopped as he came to the compartment in which he saw four very attractive girls sprawled out in careless poses of comfortable reclining positions. His deep set, almost coral coloured eyes studied the beauties, the tight jeans, the loose blouses and saw how all four of them had become aware of his scrutiny.

"He'll know us next time he sees us," Jenny, the brunette, announced.

"Bloody cheek," Barbara added.

"Stare right back at him," Stella suggested.

He seemed to read their lips, he simply smiled and continued on his way. Denise reached up and pulled down the blind to curtain off the compartment.

"That'll frustrate his little game," she smiled.

After the interlude of being studied, the four girls settled down to read their various magazines. Denise stood up and stretched her delightful torso...

"Going to the loo," she announced.

The others hardly glanced up as she closed the compartment door behind her. She looked towards each end of the corridor to see which of the loos were vacant. As she fitted her body to the swaying of the train, she moved to one end of the corridor. Then she saw the tall stranger approaching her... she reddened slightly and pressed herself against the coachwork to let the man pass... as he did likewise their bodies crushed together and Denise discovered a pair of warm, bewitching lips pressed to hers. A shock wave swept over her and a strange response thrilled through her system... then they were past each other. She was about to remonstrate but his eyes stared directly into her... she seemed to think better of it and hastily locked the toilet door behind her. She washed her hands after re-fixing the waist band of her jeans and then started her journey back, knowing that she hoped that the strange man who had kissed her would be there. He wasn't, and as she entered the compartment, she changed her mind about telling the other girls what had happened.

It was like a contagious disease. Once one of the girls had been to the toilet, the others followed suit. And each of them experienced the same encounter, each of them met Deveril in the corridor, each of them squeezed past and each of them received the Kiss of Obedience; consequently, each of them was doomed to a life of torment and obedient submissiveness.