Chapter 43: Tying Times

Panties sat on the barrel in the dimly illuminated room and pondered about what she should - or even could - do next. For the first time in her life, being tightly bound was not the exciting experience it normally was; now all she wanted was to be released, to be able to move... to be able to leave. But she couldn't... not now... not until someone came along and untied the ropes that Master James had secured her by.

'Sitting here isn't going to help me, ' she thought to herself. 'Maybe I should try to get into the main part of the house? I doubt that I can free myself but there might be a sofa I could lay on which would be more comfortable than this.' Having reached this conclusion, Panties stood up, a task that was easy enough to do though she was then forced to adopt a rather peculiar, forward stooping posture. Unable to walk at all, Panties started to move towards the door in a series of small hops. 'This is going better than I expected, ' she thought... just as her shins collided with some unseen obstruction causing her to pitch heavily forwards. Unable to use her hands to save herself, it was her head that made the initial contact with the door; this collision had three effects - the first was that the dazed Panties saw a spectacular array of stars exploding before her eyes while the second was that she found herself laying on her side on the cold, linoleum covered floor. The third effect was that the room was plunged into total darkness as the door slammed shut before her. 'Shit, shit, shit!' she muttered to herself.

Pondering what to do next, the slave girl considered possible courses of action. 'Getting to my knees would be easy enough, I suppose... but, after that, I doubt if I could get upright again... and, besides, how do I then open the door? If the handle had been one of the lever type, I might have been able to operate it with my chin... but since I saw that it's one of those shiny round ones, I think I'm stuck in here.' Feeling sorry for herself, Panties lapsed into a mental silence before her mind started to work again. 'On the other hand, having the door shut might not be a bad thing... I mean, the cops are bound to show up at some point and, were the door still to be open, they'd want to know what I'd seen... as it is, I can just deny knowing anything much about what happened to Master James... not that I give a toss about him but... well, I have to admit that I kind of sympathise with the Widows. Not with all of their methods, I guess, but with their general aims. Sometimes I think that men should be taught a lesson or two!' Not that any of this was going to help Panties for the moment, of course, and she lay still as she wondered just how long it was going to be before the lady of the house was due to return...

Time passed slowly in the darkness and Panties' muscles began to ache and to beg for some movement. She stretched as best she could, but this brought little relief. The chill from the floor began to numb her side and so she rolled over, trying to give herself a small break. The cigar tube that Frederick had inserted into her anus after the dinner party was beginning to bother her to and so, flexing her abdominal muscles, she forced it back out into the open. Eventually, despite everything, her eyelids grew heavy and Panties dropped into a light doze...

A high pitch scream of grief jolted Panties awake - the mistress of the house had returned, she guessed. There followed the sound of female voices attempting to calm the one screaming down - that would be the two slaves, Panties postulated. Now the sound of heavier, running footsteps and deeper voices asking what was happening - the male slaves arriving, drawn by the commotion. The screaming slowly faded as Mistress James got herself back under control. An order for a slave to summon the police... and the cue, Panties thought, for her to make her presence known. Painfully at first, Panties pulled back her legs before using her feet to drum loudly on the door. Outside, a startled silence and the another order. The door slowly began opening as a male face peered cautiously round the jam. A hand was inserted and the lights turned on. Panties instinctively shut her eyes and turn her head away as a voice exclaimed, "There's a woman in here, Mistress... and she's all tied up!"

Clearly more in control of herself now, Karen James flung open the door and looked in at the young slave laying before her. Mistress James knew full well of her husband's foibles when it came to young, good-looking girls and lengths of rope and she quickly summed the situation up. "Leave her be until the police arrive; we'll let them deal with her. She's not going anywhere. Pull the door shut... but leave the light on."

"Humpth! Hereath! Peeth..." Panties called through her gag.

"What? Oh, never mind - she's only a slave, after all. They're used to this sort of thing," muttered Karen as she withdrew from the room and allowed her bondsman to pull the door shut. Behind her, Panties collapsed back to the floor and closed her eyes. All she wanted was to be released for being tied up like this was getting beyond a joke!

Luckily for Panties, it wasn't long before the first police car pulled up outside the house with a squeal of brakes and the dying wail of a siren. Heavy boots moved quickly over the wooden floor of the hall and a deep gruff voice asked just what was going on. There followed a curt reply to the effect of 'are you blind man?' A half-hearted apology was grudgingly given before a second male voice suggested that the slaves might like to take their Mistress away to another room. The sound of footsteps leaving... then Mistress James' voice calling back that their was a potential witness behind the door to the right. "One of my husband's little playmates, I believe," she added, disparagingly. Again the door opened, a little faster this time, as one of the policemen poked his head in. Seeing Panties laying bound and gagged on the floor, he smiled and commented to his unseen companion, "I think we'd best leave her until the plain clothes guys get here."

Hearing this, Panties opened her eyes wide and frantically shook her head. "Musph gasth faitieth!" she pleaded... only to be ignored as the head withdrew and the door closed again. By now the slave-girl was beginning to feel those twin 'early morning just after you've woken up' desires - the need for a drink and the need to visit the bathroom. It didn't look like she was going to get to satisfy either hankering in the near future.

There followed a period of frantic activity as more police arrived on the scene, clumping their way through the hall. Panties could only image the activity out there - forensics, photographer, medical examiners, detectives, coroner's officers - all wanting their bite of the cake... and all the time she lay there as the urge to relieve herself grew and grew. Eventually the door opened, fully this time, and in strode two men in plain clothing but with their police badges attached to their lapels. "And just what have we here?" asked one, somewhat rhetorically.

"Let's get her up on that barrel," added the other, bending to get a grip of Panties' arm as he did so. For a moment he paused, reading aloud the tattoo on the girl's buttock. "Property of Quayle Sexploitaion Inc, eh?" he commented before proceeding with his intended action. Within moments Panties was back where Master James had placed her hours previously. The detective then bent forward and, gripping the rope over Panties' right breast, twisted and poked until he could read her name-tattoo. "Panties, eh? Well, Panties, you seem like our only witness so I guess we'd best interview you. I'm Detective Rogerson and this is Detective Lee... so, tell me Panties, what's you real name?... Oh, I beg you pardon," he added with a grin before ripping the tape from the slave-girl's mouth with a single, fluid movement.