Chapter 8

The Girls In The Van

In the performers’ caravan, Christa, Ginny, Sophie and Eleni were playing cards, resting before it was time to get ready for the show. Vesta was sitting reading. Two of the Gimps, Henry and James had been brought in to provide such services as the girls might need.

The van was comfortably equipped. Though not as elaborately as Adelaide’s, the couches were well stuffed, thick curtains hung at the windows, engraved mirrors adorned the walls and a three-jet gas lantern hung from the middle of the ceiling. It provided the girls with accommodation and their dressing room for the shows.

There was a tap on the van’s door. Vesta answered it to see Sasha, one the engine stokers, standing outside. Ginny watched as the two had what seemed to be an urgent discussion before Vesta went outside. Ginny carried on with her card game.

“What’s happening?” Sophie asked.

“I don’t know. A problem with one of the engine’s perhaps. Or maybe one of the Gimps, I suppose.”

“I though that Miss Adelaide had settled them?”

“Yes. So probably not that. She’ll tell us if its anything to worry about, I’m sure.”

Ginny turned to where Henry was standing, waiting quietly. “Henry, drinks please.”

“Yes, Miss” He gave the slow nod of acknowledgement that was almost the first gesture that all Gimps were trained in. He turned to the cabinet at the side of the van and poured five measures of a clear liquor. Placing them on a tray he carried them the few feet across the van to where the girls were sitting and knelt, holding the tray out. He became perfectly still, the most difficult of all Gimp skills. James watched him as he waited holding the tray. Although he had been trained to perform it too, he felt Henry managed to make stillness a suspension of self in the space that he could only aspire to achieve. Although he was not moving he had nothing to compare to Henry’s stillness.

Sophie saw him looking. “Oh, James, don’t despair,” she said. Training Gimps gave her a deep insight into their insecurities. “Come here,” she gesturing in font of her. He knelt down. She put her hand on the back of his neck and guided his head to between her thighs as she pulled her skirt up with her other hand. Sophie knew that a Gimp’s need to serve was obsessive. James was soon lost in submission to her demands, his tongue busy on her crotch, forgetting his own concerns.

Vesta had rapped on Miss Adelaide’s caravan door, insisting on talking to her urgently. She was eagerly telling of Sasha’s encounter and how the two of them thought he might be pressed into the service of the circus. “He’d be a good asset. I’m sure he could be trained. Sasha found him by the Cage Van.”

Miss Adelaide was stretched out on the couch in the main saloon of her caravan. She cocked her head to one side and peered over half moon glasses. “Vesta, you really can’t keep picking up strays. He must belong to someone.” She held up her hand at the Gimp that was kneeling alongside on her couch and he paused from massaging her back. After Alicia’s request this was just another complication, she felt.