Chapter 37: Karl's First Visit

It was about a week after Sarah arrived that Karl's curiosity got the better of him. He had heard the story of Geoffrey's and Alf's visits to Jacqui's Place within hours and had heard several versions of each of them since. With every telling they became more fantastic than before.

When he got to Jacqui's Place, the door wouldn't let him in. It chimed to Jacqui that there was a visitor and she pretended not to recognise him. Eventually she let him in and agreed to list him as a regular for whom the door will open, but charged him fifty credits for the privilege.

"Right," said Karl, now in a somewhat bad mood, and expecting to work it off on a girl's arse and back, "Where is this new girl everyone is on about?"

Jacqui was very pleased to hear that "everyone" was "on about" Sarah. The Geoffrey and Alf sessions had worked as planned.

"I'll ask Mistress Sarah if she will receive you," offered Jacqui, holding out her hand for more credits.

"How much will it cost me?" asked Karl, taking a fistful of money out of his overalls.

"All of it," came the unexpected reply, and Jacqui scooped all of his money on to her table.

"That's not enough," she snorted, "No where near enough. Come on, you're rich; pay up."

Karl was so shocked by this unexpected aggression that he paid up all the rest of the money he had on him without a murmur and Jacqui disappeared into the back of the brothel with his cash.

Some minutes later, when Karl was really beginning to be angry at being kept waiting, she returned and said, "Mistress Sarah will punish you now. The doors are open," and waved him through to the back.

As he went through he was faced with three doors, one of which was open and led to a passage. Walking along this Karl saw that there was only one open door and so he went in. Once inside the door closed behind him and the lights were dimmed even further, but he could still make out the woman in the centre of the room and the whipping bench beside her. This was better; this was what he was here for. She was really going to be thrashed now and he would get his money's worth if it killed her.

As he walked forwards and reached for the woman to put her on the whipping bench, a whip cracked just in front of him and he stopped suddenly.

"Stop there. Down on all fours you dirty little dog," came the very confident sharp voiced message, "You are a dirty dog coming here expecting to visit me, Mistress Sarah, offering to pay almost nothing; wanting to be thrashed for free, almost."

As his eyes became accustomed to the light he saw that some, at least, of the stories were true. She did wear a horned helmet and some sort of leather and steel armour. She had a whip in each hand and she could handle then with enough skill to make a man feel the wind as it whistled past his ear to crack just beside his shoulder, and yet not touch him.

"Down on the bench," she ordered in a voice that brooked no dissent.

"But I came here to..."

CRACK-CRACK! Two whips, inches from either side of his head almost simultaneously had him ducking and Sarah took advantage of that to trip him on to the bench. Quick as lightning she had one wrist shackled and then the ankle on the same side. Karl realised that he could not escape now until she let him out and a frisson of fear ran up his spine; many times he had done the same to his victims, girls on Earth, women and men on Csadia, and he suddenly felt very frightened when he remembered how he had ignored their pleas.