Chapter 4

Peter called one evening. "Umm Ralph, you said you were thinking about getting a dog to protect Ruthie when you were unable to be with her. I think I have the perfect solution. It was kind of dropped into my lap and the more I have thought about it, I think June and I will be up this weekend with the answer to your problem."

"Good, for once the house is empty of company so we can enjoy ourselves. Ruthie is just starting to show her pregnancy and is getting excited more and more about our baby. She and June can compare notes." Ruthie was smiling all the time now, and to know her aunt and uncle were coming, made her all the happier. "I think Peter is bringing a surprise. Something to keep you company when I'm not with you. He said it was not a dog, so I'm guessing it is a monkey. It is the only thing I can think of."

Peter and June had not seen us since the wedding. June with her wet sloppy kisses crushed me to her ample body and made the very explicit comment that she hoped I was keeping her niece happy. Peter grinned at his wife's antics. "She never changes."

"Where's the monkey?"

"What monkey?"

"Ralph said you were bringing something to keep me company and said it wasn't a dog. We decided it must be a monkey."

Peter and June went into gales of laughter. June spoke, "Peter go get Gisele. It is time she met her new owners." June guided Ruthie into the house, saying, "Peter and Ralph will bring her in. For awhile she will need some care, but I think eventually she is just what you need."

I went with Peter to the car. I could see a person sitting in the back seat. She did not turn our way when Peter opened the door. "Gisele, look at us."

Peter stood there explaining about the girl who was now facing us. "Ralph, this is Gisele Adams. Gisele has been trained to be a submissive. Unfortunately, her previous owner was a very abusive person. Happy to say he is not with us anymore. She understands that she is to have you and Ruthie as her new owners.

"All you have to say is 'Gisele do this or do that' and she will comply. I cannot begin to tell you about the abuse she has suffered in the last few years. I suspect she will always be submissive, but I'm hoping that you and Ruthie can show her a life without the pain she has had to endure lately."

"How old is she?"

"She is twenty-two, and I have her medical records. They do not reflect what she has gone through recently though. She has a social security number and her birth certificate is with her papers. You can set things up as your employee and pay her as you would anyone. I don't believe she has had any money of her own recently and most likely would not know what to do with it if she had. You can sort this out as time goes on. Now you might as well start giving her orders immediately."

"Okay, but this is pretty strange for me." I turned to Gisele with my first order. "Gisele, would you get out of the car and come in and meet my wife. Her name is Ruthie and you can address her as Miss Ruthie. My name is Ralph and you can address me as Mister Burnam. You will be taking orders from both of us. You are to see to Miss Ruthie's needs at all times for she is blind. You will be her eyes and if she is at any time in danger you will decide how best to prevent her from being hurt. Do you understand all of what I have said?"

"Yes Mr. Burnam." Gisele got out of the car and followed us into the house.

Apparently, Gisele had been enslaved and abused to the point where she would follow orders without question. June and Ruthie were waiting for us to bring the woman into the living room. June had filled Ruthie in on the situation as Peter had done to me.

"Gisele, Ruthie is very independent even though she is blind. She wants to be able to go for a walk in the woods and fields when I am not here. Do you think you can keep her safe while she is out there?"

"Yes Mr. Burnam, I can do that."

"I told you that you were going to be her eyes. Can you describe a tree or a rock or an animal such as a deer if you see one?"

I was amazed at how this person's face was lighting up. "Oh yes I'd love to see the woods again and some wild animals. Will there be a coon in the woods?" This was the first indication that Gisele was having a thought of her own.

"Where are you from, Gisele? When you were young, did you live where there were woods? Why did you leave?"

"Somewhere in New York where there were woods for miles. I ran away from home."

"How old were you when you ran away?"

"I think I was fifteen."

"What happened after you ran away?"

"An old man found me and took care of me. He made me do things or he would tell the police. I didn't mind. He was nice sometimes. I did whatever he asked because he loved me."

"Then what happened?"

"He died. A man he knew who used to come and see him took me away. He had a paper he showed me that said I was his."

"Did you like this new man?" We waited for her answer. Gisele had her head down and wouldn't speak to us. "Gisele, tell me. You won't be hurt. We just want to know."

"I hated him. He hurt me all the time and kept me in a cage at night unless he let me out to do things to me. Then he made me do things with other people he knew."

"Did you like what these people did to you?"

"Sometimes. Other times I wished I could die."

"Do you think if we fed you and paid you some money and treated you nice, you would be willing to come and do as I asked to help Miss Ruthie? She is going to have a baby and you would be here to help her with that." Tears of happiness were running down Gisele's face by the time I had finished speaking.

"Oh yes."

I stopped the questioning and turned to Peter and June, catching up on things since our return from the cruise. I informed Peter that we were working on the book using the suggestions that Stella had given us. It still was not working out, but we weren't ready to give up yet.

June, Gisele and Ruthie went into the kitchen to prepare dinner. Peter and I were sitting in the dining room watching them through the open door. Gisele, I could see, did not have the slightest idea of what was going on. June and Ruthie were chattering away about the cruise. Suddenly Ruthie came through the door. "Ralph." Ruthie said this to find out where I was sitting.

I answered, "Yes, dear?"

Ruthie came over to me and leaned down as if to kiss me. Instead, she slapped my face. "Oh, I hate you!" Then she did lean in and kiss me. I couldn't return the kiss because I was laughing so hard. Peter couldn't figure out what brought this on. I had to explain to Peter and June how I had told Ruthie about the sun making her bikini transparent and she thought she was sitting naked around the deck swimming pool.

I said how the forty bucks I had paid the waiter to further the practical joke had brought about the best sex I had ever had. How I had conned Ruthie into believing that June had bought a trick suit for her. She had believed me up until now. June informed her that there wasn't any such thing.

Ruthie finally broke down and started laughing as hard as we were. Gisele had never seen anyone have such a hilarious time. She stood watching with a little half smile on her face. I tried to explain it to her, but I ended up telling her that someday she would understand.

"Are you still having your party nights Peter? You are up here on a Saturday night."

"Not as often. Things have changed since May when we were up here. June and I have grown closer together and I do not need the visual stimulation as much. Thinking about June and me having sex in front of you and Ruthie has been stimulation enough. The parties continue, because I still feel that it is a safe sexual outlet for those who have a certain kind of fetish. We just can't drop it all of a sudden. Eventually, unless we get new members, it will die out.

"It is odd, but when Nan stopped coming, it seems as though that was the turning point on several fronts."

"You still keep in contact with the members don't you? You are our major source of material for the book."

"Yes, but only because they are our friends and you don't drop your friends."

After dinner, I said to Gisele, "Would you like to take Ruthie and go for a walk? You just have to guide her. She will indicate what she wants and she will be telling you as you move along. We will tag along not far behind." We watched as the two women started walking. In a few steps, Gisele and Ruthie were hand in hand. When we went into the woods, we could see Gisele had a little more bounce in her step.

Ruthie stumbled, but Gisele caught her from falling. When we came up to them, Gisele had a fearful look as if she had failed in my request to care for Ruthie. "What happened, dear?"

"I just stumbled, that's all."

"Mr. Burnam, it is my fault. I forgot to tell Miss Ruthie to step up and over the branch that was lying in the path. You may punish me in any way you wish."

"We will talk about it later. I don't see that any harm has come to Ruthie so for the present, don't worry about it." We continued our walk with Gisele casting fearful glances my way.

Supper was a simple affair. Pancakes and sausages. Gisele said she had never tasted anything so good. The maple syrup was the thing that she raved over the most. She remembered it from when she lived at home many years ago. Gisele was asleep on the couch by eight that evening. It must have come from the uncertainty of having new owners, for that is what she considered us. In addition, the walk in the woods and the sweet food, tired her out.

We still had to go to the second floor for showers. That was going to change in a couple of weeks. I had contracted to have a bath put in off the downstairs bedroom. June took Gisele up to shower and showed her the room she would be sleeping in.

When June came back down, she said, "That girl has been abused beyond anything you can imagine. Whomever she was with was a sadist. She has been whipped, chained and has cigarette burns all over her body. She said her vagina and her anus always had to be available too. It is a wonder she is still alive. She is also skin and bones. I think he fed her dog or cat food. No wonder she thought pancakes were good."

Later as Ruthie and I made our way to bed, I asked, "Are we going to keep her?"

"Don't you even think about letting her go anywhere but right here. She will be just right for me when she gets used to us." I kissed Ruthie, turned over, and went to sleep.

I awoke early. Something was different. The person next to me was not Ruthie. I opened my eyes to find Gisele's eyes looking at me, inches from my face. She looked ready to run which was of course impossible for she was between Ruthie and me. "Good morning Gisele, you are looking pretty this morning. I have to go up to the bathroom. I'll be back."

When I returned, "Okay Ruthie, tell me about it."

"Simple. Gisele has never slept in a room alone before. She was always in a cage in her owner's bedroom. She was in a strange house all alone and afraid. She came downstairs to find me. I heard her sobbing outside our door and brought her in and let her sleep with us."

"What about tonight and the night after?"

"I don't know, Ralph. I have not thought that far ahead yet. I couldn't let her sit on the floor by our door all night, could I?"

"No, I'd have done the same thing."

Gisele said, "I can leave. Mr. Peter will take me somewhere if I ask him."

"No way. You are staying. We are just trying to decide if you are going to be sleeping in the middle or if I am. Isn't that right Ruthie?"

"I've already decided who is going to sleep in the middle. It is going to be me. End of discussion. Now Ralph, you look Gisele all over and tell me what she looks like."

I went over Gisele inch by inch. Whoever had abused her had sense enough to keep from marking her where it would show. Other than that, she was a mass of scars. Her wrists had faint marks on them from some kind of restraints. Her ankles had only just recently healed. She was also looking anorexic, extremely thin with little flesh showing except her stringy muscles.

Her breasts were little more than pips. Her back had stripes from some kind of whip. Her butt, what little she had, looked like it had been blistered, and it now had rough scars all over it. Here and there were cigarette burns mostly between her thighs. Ruthie was crying long before I finished the description of how she looked. When I was done, I just hugged her to me and Ruthie kissed her tenderly. "Nothing will ever happen to you like that again, I promise." I promised too.

After Peter and June left, I took Ruthie and Gisele shopping for clothes. I didn't buy very much, because I knew that Gisele would fill out with proper food. Winter was coming so I knew that not everything I bought for fall wear would fit by next year. I wanted things colorful for her though, so when we finished with the basics of dress and slacks, we chose some scarves and a kerchief for her hair. I also bought her a pair of dress boots that came halfway up her calf.

When it came to sleepwear, she said she was always naked and preferred it that way. A cage was no place for anything like pajamas. She had to always be available so clothes would have been a nuisance. I still could not imagine what her life had been like, it was so horrific.

Stella Peterson came and looked at our almost futile efforts with Nan's case file. "Here, you do it like this. You make a story out of it. Do it in the third person. Stick to the facts, of which you have many, just as if she is a living, breathing person. Pretend you are God, looking down on Nan from the time she was born until she got into the auto where she was killed. You do not know what happened there so just make up a snappy ending letting the reader know it was what might have happened.

"I'll be back in a month and I better see something credible. Who is that adorable person that is with you? She is like Ruthie's handmaiden, and yet you both act like she is the best thing that ever happened to you."

"She is the best thing that ever happened to us. Peter found her. I worried about Ruthie being here alone while I was at work. She was to be just Ruthie's guardian against any mishaps, but she has become both companion and friend. Actually companion and friend to both of us."

Stella tipped her head down and peered over her glasses at me. "Any love interest there, sexual or otherwise?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"Peter is my friend. Remember he was the one that found me for you and your book. He is a devious young man and always manipulating people."

I laughed at Peter being called young. "Well, he is young to me. You know Peter and I go back to when he was a teenager and I was teaching school. We became very close. I will have to tell you the story some time. I might even let you put it in your book if I ever thought you could write." She changed the subject, which left me wondering.

The following Monday, I was feeling daring. I was sick of telling Gisele to take a walk on occasion when Ruthie and I needed some privacy. It was inhibiting with Gisele in bed with us and I wanted to spice things up. I knew Ruthie was feeling the same. I said to Gisele, "Do you want to see a side of Ruthie that you wouldn't suspect?" She shook her head yes. I yelled, "Hey Ruthie, come here a minute."

Ruthie came in from the kitchen where she had been doing the breakfast dishes. "How would you like to go for a ride--up the interstate, maybe?"

Ruthie actually staggered, my suggestion hit her so hard. "I'll get my sweater. On or off?"

"Which do you prefer?" Gisele and I watched as Ruthie lifted her skirt, pushed her panties down, and kicked them off.

"I'm ready, and boy am I ready!" When we got to the car, I told Gisele to sit in front with me.

We were lucky this time as the situation presented itself much closer to home. It was a better site we found, too. There was a truck lane, just for slow trucks, so we could stay alongside, keep pace, and still not slow traffic in our lane. Ruthie was even more blatant then she was last time and it culminated in an explosive orgasm for her. Maybe it was because there were two people watching her from two different angles--the truck driver and Gisele telling me what position Ruthie was in with the running commentary of her actions. To tell the truth I was about ready to explode myself.

We were home well before dinner and I asked Gisele to start preparing the meal. I took Ruthie into the bedroom and finally we both had relief. When we were lying there, coming down, she said, "That was something I needed so bad. You know Gisele just snuck in and watched us don't you?"