Chapter 4

I hardly slept at all Thursday night. I lay in my bed and stared at the ceiling in my darkened room. I tried not to think about what horrors tomorrow had in store for me.

It was just after one in the morning when I saw my door slowly open. I watched Laura peek her head in. Our eyes met in the dark. She quietly closed my door, tiptoed to my bed and crawled in beside me. She put her arms around me and quietly said, "I've been thinking. I don't want you to go to that bastard's house tomorrow. I don't care what he does to me. I really don't."

I laughed quietly and hugged my little sister. I said, "I love you, Laura. But you are a lying sack of shit. You have always wanted to go to college. You have talked about becoming a lawyer since you found out what they are. Felons cannot be lawyers. I saw that on television somewhere. And you do care. I can put up with anything for sixty days. Don't worry about it. If I come home and need a hug that will be your job."

She stayed with me until she was almost asleep. I made her go to her own room before she could go to sleep. God only knows what our parents would think I had done to her if they caught us sleeping together!

Friday should have been a joyous day for me. The first day of summer vacation, always a day to celebrate by emulating a sloth. I managed to get a little sleep. But when I finally gave up and got out of bed at eight that morning I started out feeling exhausted and sick to my stomach.

Laura didn't sleep much better than I did. I was standing at my closet door, staring at the dresses I was forced to wear and wondering how horrible my day was going to be when she came in to my room. She was still wearing her pajamas and she looked as bad as I felt.

She asked, "Did you get any sleep?"

I shrugged and answered, "Some."

I selected one of the dresses at random and hung it on my closet door. I went to my dresser to select the underwear I was going to wear this afternoon. While I was doing that I just barely heard Laura whisper, "Don't go. Please, Lindsey. Don't go."

I put my new underwear and a pair of thigh highs on the dresser and turned to look at her. I quietly replied, "I have to."

I understood that she didn't want me to go. But I think that it was obvious that I had no choice.

Out mother ... I find myself tempted to say Laura's mother, heard us moving around and called us down to breakfast.

We both went down in our pajamas. I knew how much mom hated that. But she didn't even give us a dirty look. We had juice and cereal, but I kept staring at the kitchen clock and counting down the time until my ordeal would start again. I knew that I needed to eat. But I only managed to eat a few bites. I was too scared to eat.

It wasn't until I was seated at the table that I realized that for the first time since the rape there was no pain. I had hurt a little less each day. The irony was that after today I would probably be hurting all over again.

Mom couldn't understand why I was so upset about having to spend eight hours cleaning house. That was what she did for a living. She didn't think it was such a big deal. I was almost tempted to explain.

I honestly don't think I could describe the rest of my morning. It passed in a fog of steadily increasing fear and I hardly remember it. I know that when it was time I showered and dressed appropriately.

The thigh highs were surprisingly comfortable. I would reserve final judgment until I had spent the day in them. But my initial impression was that they were cooler and more comfortable than pantyhose.

I sat in the front room when I was ready. Laura sat with me and tried once more to talk me into standing up to them. I wanted to. If it had just been about me I would have. But I couldn't let him punish Laura for something she had no control over. He would happily ruin her life even though it was obvious that he knew she was an innocent in this. The only thing that mattered to him was the power he had over me.

Mom stayed away from us. The relationship between the entire family had been altered when I told them off at the beginning of the week. My parents didn't seem to be on my case all of the time now. On the other hand, I had pretty much stayed in my room since then, when I wasn't in school. Mom had not asked me to do a single chore since that evening.

I came down at the usual time and did what I always did. I did my own laundry as usual. I started doing her laundry, as usual. But she stopped me and insisted that she would do her own laundry from now on.

I almost felt guilty. But I didn't want to argue with her. She said that since I had a full time job outside of the house starting Friday I didn't have any chores around the house anymore.

It is difficult to explain my reaction. I felt like she was taking something else away from me! I didn't say anything though. I just waited until she went back downstairs and then I helped Laura do the laundry.

It wasn't just the uncomfortable relationship between my parents and me now, though. They had started to distance themselves from Laura whenever I was in the room. They had stopped hugging her and kissing her and praising her. I had twice told them to stop treating her the way they had treated me. I suppose I could have said it better than that. But I think that they were so self conscious around me now that they couldn't help themselves. I apologized to Laura but she just smiled and said that she understood and she wasn't bothered by it.

At twenty before twelve a Towncar pulled up in the driveway. It was time. My legs felt weak as I struggled to my feet. But I forced myself up and said goodbye to Laura.

She winced and replied, "Don't say it that way!"

She gave me a hug and tried once more to talk me out of it.

I kissed her cheek and went out the front door. The driver got out of the car when he saw me coming. He went around and opened the front passenger door and held it for me.

I glanced at him nervously as I got in the car. He had yet to say a word. But the look on his face spoke volumes. It was obvious that he knew far more about me than I would have liked. And the slightly predatory leer on his face gave me the impression that he would soon know me a lot better.

He closed the door after I was seated, went around and got behind the wheel. There was a chauffeur's cap between us on the front seat. He was wearing a black suit. I guess he was the real deal.

I was put off by the look on his face. But he was a handsome man in his early thirties. He looked like he was very athletic. If he would stop leering at me like that I would have thought him handsome, instead of creepy.

Instead of driving into town as I expected he turned in the other direction and drove out of town. We lived on a quiet street near the edge of town. We weren't in a subdivision. There was just our street and one other that paralleled us and then almost nothing. There had been very little development out past us. We didn't have to go far, though. I doubt if it was five miles to the huge brick home out in the middle of a secluded, heavily wooded area. I didn't see any other building anywhere around us.

We pulled up to a large, ornate, wrought iron gate and the chauffeur pushed a button on an overhead console. The gates opened and we drove through the trees, catching only glimpses of the large house until we were almost at the front door.

He drove under a portico and parked by the door. He didn't get the door for me. He said, "Here it is, get out."

He wasn't rude or anything just a bit curt. He certainly hadn't been very friendly. He never said a word all the way out here.

He came around the car and took me by the arm as if he was afraid that I would try to escape. He held onto me and guided me to and then through the imposing front door.

This was the largest house I had ever seen. The huge, wooden double doors were wide enough that if both doors were opened you could drive a truck through them.

The chauffeur closed the door behind me while I stood gaping at the huge, marble foyer. The sound of the door closing echoed loudly and I suddenly felt like I was in a scene from an old movie!

The chauffeur put his strong hand around my upper arm again and led me through the house to a room, three walls of which were of glass that looked out onto the most beautiful yard that I had ever seen. It looked like Disneyworld back there, but without the rides.

Beyond the largest swimming pool that I had ever seen I looked out on what were surely the most perfectly manicured grounds in this part of the state. I could see half a dozen young men out there trimming and cutting and raking. I was so amazed at the view that I wasn't even aware of the woman sitting at the table watching me with an amused look on her face until the chauffeur said, "Here she is, Mrs. Porter. Will there be anything else?"

I finally turned to look at her. It was hard to say for sure. But I guessed that she was in her early forties. She was tall and slender and beautiful. She was so tall that I could tell she was tall even sitting down! She didn't even have to open her mouth for me to see how sophisticated she was. It showed in her bearing. It showed in her expression. She looked very intelligent and very strong.

As I looked her over and formed an opinion based on very little I thought, "There is no way that this woman is going to let the judge fuck around behind her back. He wouldn't dare!"

She smiled at the chauffer and said, "Not now, Aaron. I'll let you know. Thank you."

The chauffeur bowed his head slightly, turned and left quietly.

Mrs. Porter and I looked at each other, sizing each other up for a long, uncomfortable moment. Or at least it was uncomfortable for me. She seemed amused.

I was about to break under the weight of the silence and ask her what she wanted me to do when she finally spoke.

She smiled and stated as if for the record, "So, you are the young lady who will be spending most of the next two months in our house entertaining us."

Her smile was warm and friendly, but her words chilled me.

She asked, "Do you know what you will be doing here?"

I started to answer. But the words caught in my throat. I was so scared, despite her beauty and her warm smile, that I wished very much that there was something nearby that I could lean on. I was every bit as nervous now as I had been in her husband's chambers at the beginning of this horrible week.

I cleared my throat and finally managed to reply, "My duties were not clearly spelled out."

She grinned. She was really enjoying this! She said, "You don't have to be coy with me, dear. I know what happened to you in the judge's chambers. He told me all about it that evening. I have been dying to meet you since then. He sometimes exaggerates about the beauty of his little foundlings. I'm pleased to see that this time he did not. You are quite lovely."

I murmured under my breath, "Oh god!" I knew at that moment that the judge wasn't going to have to do anything behind this woman's back!

Her eyes continued to wander over my body, evaluating carefully. She looked me in the eye again and said, "I have seen your file. You don't look sixteen. I would have guessed were no older than fifteen, and that only just. But you have a very nice figure."

She said, "Your duties will be varied. You will be called upon to serve as a hostess on occasion. You will probably help the girls out at dinner time. But we have people who do the housework. You were not brought here to be a maid, strictly speaking. That is not to say that you might not find yourself wearing a maid's costume sometime before you are set free. But your duties will be more ... esoteric."

I didn't know what that meant. But I was too embarrassed to ask. And anyway, it was obvious from her expression that she already knew that I didn't know the word.

We were interrupted briefly when a young woman came in. She studiously avoided looking at me. She asked Mrs. Porter if she wanted anything else. The judge's wife shook her head and said, "No, Marie. You can clear the table now. Thank you."

While Marie cleaned the lunch dishes away, Mrs. Porter got to her feet and said, "Come with me, Lindsey."

I followed her back out to the foyer and up the wide, ornate stairway to the second floor. We went all the way down to the far end of the wide corridor and into a bedroom that was more than twice the size of all three of the bedrooms in my house combined.

She turned and smiled at the look on my face. I was embarrassed that my thoughts showed so clearly on my face. She made me feel like a country bumpkin without saying a word.

She gave me moment to look around and then she said, "It is my understanding that you are here, not like most of the girls that come here, to keep from going to prison, but instead to protect your poor, innocent young sister from having her life ruined. That is admirable. But I think that must mean that you are even more firmly in my husband's wicked clutches. Is that not true?"

She sounded like someone in an old movie. Maybe living in this mansion was getting to her. Wicked clutches?! For Christ's sake!

But she was right. And I knew that her point was just to remind me that I really had no option but to do what these people required of me. I nodded.

The corner of her mouth turned up in a self satisfied smile. Her next question hit me like a kick in the stomach. "Have you ever made love to another girl, Lindsey?"

I looked up in shock and exclaimed, "NO, MA'AM!!"

She laughed at my response. It infuriated me that I amused her so. But I had already made a pact with myself to do whatever was required of me by these horrible people. I hadn't anticipated this turn of events. But I wasn't going to fight this woman. I saw in her eyes that she knew it. She almost looked disappointed!