Chapter One

 

Anne Steele ran on into the darkness. The wind blew coldly around her nakedness and her feet became chilled almost immediately by the wet grass. She didn't know where she was running to, all that mattered was that she had escaped. The Church of Ultimate Purification was not going to get its claws into her anymore. This was a small and crowded island, she told herself and somewhere, up ahead in the dark, there would be houses and sane people who would help her stop this madness which even her own husband - the Prime Minister of Great Britain for God's sake! - apparently now espoused.

Her blonde hair whipped across her face and her breasts began to ache as they swung and bounced on her chest, but her legs were strong - all the hours in the gym paying off at last - and with every pace she was putting more and more distance between those perverts and herself. She began looking for a fence of some kind; there surely had to be one, but there was nothing; no perimeter lights ahead of her, no sirens from behind her. The night was utterly dark as clouds blew in across the moon.

She ran on, her ragged breathing loud in her ears as the strain began to tell, then all of a sudden she ran full tilt into an old, rusty wire fence. It gave slightly and then rebounded, sending her sprawling onto her backside on the wet, cold grass. She sat for a moment to catch her breath and then stood up. In the moonless night, she had run straight into the perimeter of the church's land without seeing it. Now she followed it to her right, letting one hand trail along the wire. To her delight, in only a few yards her hand lost touch with the wire and by groping around she found that it had collapsed outwards. Gingerly she climbed over it, wincing as her feet came into contact with any sharp edges, but soon she was on the far side and the moon came out again. Now she could see the rickety fence behind her and in front of her there was a road. She made for it, chose a direction at random and began to trot along it, her heart singing and her mind full of revenge plans. The pathetic security arrangements the church had put in place to keep its kidnap victims locked in, aroused her complete contempt and buoyed up her spirits. Somehow she would find some clothes and then she would work from there.

After what seemed like an age she saw lights ahead of her. They weren't the moving beams of torches or headlights. They were the solid, comforting lights of houses. She realised that the road went round a slight bend and as she rounded it several more houses came into view. It was a village! There would be phones and she could talk to the police and go public on her wretched husband and wreck his perverted plans for the church...

She stopped at the first house but was brought up short by the fact that she was stark naked. Perhaps it would be best if she took a look to see what sort of person might live there. Heartened by the success of her escape and the discovery of the outside world, she tiptoed along the path up to the front door and then carefully she sidled around until she could just peer through into the living room through a gap at the side of the curtains. She saw an attractive woman in her late thirties sitting and watching the TV, she couldn't see a man but the woman looked pleasant, and even if there were a man, she would keep him in order surely. She went back to the front door, knocked on it and then hid by pressing herself against the wall a little way along.

She heard a chain rattle and a lock turn. "Yes?" a woman's voice asked.

"Please can you help me!" Anne whispered desperately. "I've escaped from being kidnapped and I need clothes and I need to talk to the police!" She wasn't at all sure about talking to the police but at the moment they were all she could think of.

"Oh, my goodness! You poor thing! Wait there and I'll get you something," the woman said and hurried off.

In only a few seconds she returned and handed an old dressing gown out to Anne who gratefully swaddled herself in it and stepped into the light.

"Come in, come in!" the woman urged and she stepped into the warmth of a small hall. From the other end came the sounds of a man whistling and presently he appeared from the kitchen. He was a tall man, dark haired and like his wife had a pleasant, cheerful face.

"I've put the dishwasher on, Julie and..." he stopped when he saw Anne.

"Ben, this poor girl's been kidnapped but she's managed to escape!"

He paused and gave Anne a hard look before replying. "Has she now? Well we'll set her on her way soon enough. It's too late to start phoning anyone tonight. We're a bit isolated see, out here, Miss. But you're welcome to stay and we'll see what's what in the morning."

Anne let herself relax and was ushered into the warmth of their lounge and was settled by the fire and soon had a cup of hot chocolate in her hands. Hesitantly she began to tell them about her abduction, hinting at her importance but as they didn't seem to have recognised her, not pointing it out to them. She said as little as she could about what she had seen and been through at the church's hands. She still felt very vulnerable with just the old gown clutched around her. Ben and Julie listened in silence and then Julie bustled out and returned with an old nightie.

"It's getting late," she said. "Let me show you our spare room and then we'll all turn in, Ben's got an early start in the morning."

Realising how exhausted she was now that she had a place of refuge, Anne let herself be led upstairs and along a short corridor to a small bedroom. As soon as Julie had wished her good night and she had put on the mid-thigh length nightie, she flung herself into the bed and tried to sleep, but thoughts of who to go to in the morning whirled around her head. Her own security guards had been turned and they were drawn from Special Branch, so were the police the right people to go to? She ran through her list of contacts and stopped when she remembered that she had recently had lunch with the female editor of a Sunday paper. That was the route to go down! And with that she turned over and relaxed just as her saviours came upstairs.

She heard them go into their room and she was settling down to sleep in earnest when she heard a sound she had hoped never to hear again. It was the smack of something hard landing on flesh.

Her eyes flew wide open and she stared into the dark as she heard it again. Her heart thundered and she froze, but then, terrified but desperate to know the truth, she tiptoed out of her room and along to theirs. From outside she could hear clearly.

"That's two for my trousers not being pressed properly. Now today was the third time this month you've made my sandwiches with stale bread," Ben said.

"I'm sorry, luv, but I am getting better at other things aren't I?"

"Yes, I suppose so. You fuck far better than you used to."

"Oh, thanks. I do love doing it now."

"Still, lapses like that have to paid for."

"Yes, sir."

"We'll say ten more."

"Yes, sir. But did I do right in bringing the girl in?"

"You did."

Anna listened in horror as the crop or cane descended again and Julie counted it and thanked him.

"I phoned the camp when you took her upstairs so they'll sort it from here," Ben said before he laid on another lash.

Unable to fully believe what she was hearing, Anne threw open the bedroom door. Ben stood naked behind his equally naked wife who was bending over in the middle of the floor, displaying four clearly defined sets of tramlines across her buttocks. Between them Anne could see her shaven sex, thick lipped and clearly open while Ben's erect cock thrust out from his groin in blatant lust.

At the sound of the door opening, Julie looked round but made no move to rise or to hide herself. Ben too was completely unabashed and merely grinned at her then lashed his wife again, making his cock swing.

With a cry of despair Anne turned and ran downstairs, tore open the front door and ran out into the night in the borrowed nightie. When she reached the road she turned back the way she had come but there were headlamps lighting the hedges as a car rounded the bend. She skidded to a halt and fled the other way, into the village. Desperately she looked from side to side for a way out, between the houses maybe, but now lights were coming on and doors were opening, showing silhouettes of people looking out.

"There she goes!" someone called.

"Just make sure she gets to the square!" someone else called back. She looked behind her and saw the figures of some men begin to pursue her along the road.

She knew she was doomed but couldn't bring herself to give up just yet. She ran harder, heading for anywhere that might be away from there and although she tried to flee into dark lanes and up garden paths, always there was someone there - and now they weren't all men. There were women too! All of them shooing her back onto the road and towards whatever new nightmare awaited her.

Eventually, breathless and staggering with weariness, Anne Steele tottered into a small square and halted. This was a nightmare beyond anything she could have imagined.

Under one solitary lamp she could see on the small green in the centre, where most villages might have a pond or an old set of stocks, stood a whipping post. Only a few days ago she might not even have known the word, but now she knew what the cuffs and chains signified.

There were four roads leading off the square and all of them, including the one behind her were blocked by cars shining their headlights onto the scene, and there were people; hundreds it seemed like, and all of them watching her with detached curiosity. But worst of all was the figure beside the post. It looked like something out of a horror film about the Inquisition. It was a tall robed figure with a hood thrown over its face, the cowl hiding it and depriving it of any comforting humanity.

Anne tried to back away but bumped into a solidly built male body and two massive hands clamped themselves around her biceps.

"Didn't like hearing our Julie get her end-of-day reckoning?" Ben's voice said. "Well Father Thomas knows how to deal with ignorant folk like you."

He pushed her forwards and the sinister figure by the whipping post turned and pushed back the cowl. It was indeed Father Thomas, although that afforded Anne no comfort whatever.

"Did you really think we'd let you go, Anne? Someone of your importance? No! All this is merely part of your training!" He stepped down and came up close to Anne's terrified face. "You will learn to obey us, Anne. I promise you. The only choice you have in the matter is how hard you make it for yourself. Take her away and keep her in the jail overnight," he said, speaking to someone behind him. "I'll sentence her in the morning."

As if to answer her earlier doubts about who to speak to when she escaped, a large man in a crisp white shirt and dark trousers with a radio and night stick came forward and took her in a grip even stronger than Ben's had been.

She was marched towards a building that faced onto the green and taken inside, through an office and into a smaller version of the cell room back at the church. In here though there were only two cells and both were empty. She was pushed into one and the door was locked behind her.

She recovered her balance and turned around to find the policeman was watching her through the bars.

"I heard you was a looker. Seen the photos of course but you can't tell by them, nor by the telly. But seeing you like that...well I look forward to when you're up for grabs 'cos I aim to grab a bit, lady!"

He turned and left her and Anne looked down for the first time. The nightie was torn and offered glimpses of her long thighs right up to her groin. The smocking at the bodice only served to emphasise the size of her breasts and the night air had had its inevitable effect on her nipples. She did look like a tramp and a slut. But suddenly the lights went out and she had no choice but to grope her way under the cot's blankets and do the best she could to get some rest before facing whatever the next day held.