Chapter 3: Due Humility

I suppose that I left her for about two hours. She was, as I expected, rather agitated on my return.

"Where have you been?" she demanded. "Surely you can't expect me to stay in here all this time? It's unreasonable!"

It was a predictable, if disappointing response to her circumstance, I thought. I held a finger up to my lip and waved for her to turn around so that she had her back to me.

She gave me a quizzical look but then finally did as I indicated.

I reached through the bars of the cage and dropped a ball gag in front of her face. As she went to cry out, a practiced jerk pulled the ball into place between her teeth. She gave a grunt of protest as I tightened the gag's straps and fastened them tight with a small padlock. As I released my grip the naked Nicola spun around, glowering at me, with her hands behind her head as she tried unsuccessfully to wrench the straps loose.

I put my finger back to my lips and left her once more, her muffled complaints following me up the cellar steps.

When I returned in another hour's time she had evidently learned her lesson. As she heard me arrive she got to her knees and waited quietly for my attention. I let her stay as she was for a while, taking a few moments to rearrange some of my tools on their rack alongside one wall of the cellar. Eventually I turned to Nicola.

"I should explain," I said, "that I consider you to be an intelligent woman. It is just that you have not yet focussed that intelligence as your husband needs and as a result it has been more of a problem than a benefit to you – at least as far as your married life is concerned. Generally speaking I will not tell you what you should or should not do. I will allow you to infer the behaviour that you feel is appropriate. Of course, if you misjudge things – as I think we both know you did just now," She looked up at me and then nodded before returning her eyes to the floor. "Then I will provide appropriate correction. I will not treat you with unnecessary cruelty," (I avoided the question of what might be necessary cruelty.) "and the extent to which your experiences are unpleasant will depend largely on your own ability to determine what is needed of you. Do you understand?"

Nicola nodded but, to her credit, made no attempt to give voice to her assent.

She made no noise either as I went to leave; an excellent response. As a reward I returned and removed her gag.

"Thank you, Sir," she said, her words slightly distorted by the stiffness of her jaw. The corners of her mouth were scored red from the gag's straps and her chin was streaked with drool but she did nothing to try alleviate either.

In the following day I took the opportunity to explore the limits of Nicola's obedience. She was not required to carry out any particular tasks at first but she was kept naked.

To her credit, she did not question this. It was clear that she neither felt uncomfortable with her nakedness (although on occasion her conventional modesty reasserted itself and she would start as I entered any room where she was) nor considered that I was unreasonable in requiring it of her.

It is my experience that when required to remain naked, my trainees exhibit one of a range of responses. Some attempt to withdraw, hiding themselves from contact. Some become flirtatious, believing that I can be diverted from my purpose in some way by their assumed allure. Some, a surprising few (perhaps not so surprising given their husbands' willingness to invest in their training) become angered, attempting to defy me and requiring restraint or worse. Nicola James, to my interest, responded by seeking to understand how her situation would assist her development.

"May I ask, Sir," she began with admirable humility, "how my nakedness will help? How this will assist in my becoming better able to support my husband."

In an age of engineering, I think of myself as an engineer of the human spirit. My father was an engineer of a more traditional kind, working on the great extension of the Manchester Canal that now carries ocean going vessels from the North Sea to the Atlantic. Beside that my own efforts are more modest but, I like to think, still important in their way. In consequence I like to share my thoughts on my methods. Perhaps it is a weakness of mine to enjoy discoursing upon my methods to those that are to experience them. Perhaps there is some vanity there on my part but, because of my successes, I must confess to feeling entitled to some vanity on the matter. For whatever reason, I choose on occasion to indulge myself with my guests. It has been my experience that sharing my views does not hinder my work. For those that I work with who are blessed with a reasonable amount of intelligence it even seems to help.