Chapter 6: Penny's Predicament

Penny was wondering what on earth was going on. She and Krysta had been chatting. Krysta had been admiring her dress — a candy-striped, seersucker, shirtwaister with a stand-up collar. Then they'd been discussing her latest story. Penny had described how her heroine was going to be enslaved by a man she had long admired. She was particularly pleased with a scene that she had just finished where her heroine found herself handcuffed and forced to wait on her captor and then, when she protested about his treatment of her, she was gagged with a ball that he pushed into her mouth over the niqaab she was wearing. It was only when she finished that Krysta realised she hadn't seen Madeleine for a while. She looked out of the back window of the cottage. She said, "That's funny. Maddy isn't in the summer house. Where has she got to? I'll see if I can find her. We ought to think about some food, I guess."

Penny said, "Fine," and Krysta had gone out to the garden.

There had been that thumping noise, like Krysta had knocked over some of the tomato boxes that were stacked by the path and then, after a while, the sound of the wind pump. Penny had looked out to see what was happening just as the sails ground to a halt. Now everything was quiet again but there wasn't any sign of Krysta or Madeleine returning.

Penny suddenly felt very lonely.

She thought she heard a knock at the front door. Hoping it was Angela or Celia, Penny dashed out into the hall and opened it. There was no one there. Telling herself she must have imagined, it she went back to the living room.

As she went into the room she was suddenly seized from behind, a gloved hand clamped over her mouth. For an instant she felt as though she had been transported to one of her own stories but the terror of the situation broke through as something sharp pricked against her ribs and a voice hissed, "Keep very still and quiet if you don't want to be hurt. All right?"

Penny whimpered "Mmm" into the glove.

"All right. So put your hands up slowly and turn around."

Penny did as she was told and found herself facing a woman dressed in a black all in one suit and wearing a ski mask. For a moment she wondered if this was some game that the others had cooked up but this woman was slimmer and shorter than any of her week-end companions.

The woman was holding a broad bladed knife pointing at Penny's belly. With her other hand she held out a wad of cloth. "Push this in your mouth," she ordered.

Penny knew what to do. She'd tried it often enough in her own self-bondage games. 'Research for the stories' she had told herself it was but none of her "research" had prepared her for the frightening reality of her current situation. She crammed the cloth into her mouth, the dry, stuffing sensation at once familiar and frightening. She finished and raised her hands again, feeling foolish as she stood there, white cloth spilling from her mouth.