Kate and Julia: Abducted in India (5 page)

“No need. Tony Wetherell is going up there with two Rolls Royces and a platoon tomorrow. I’ll ’phone him and ask him to take you along.”

“Tony?” He had been Tom’s friend, and one who had tried to stand by him during the court martial. But would he be willing to help her?

Macdonald nodded. “It’s a show of strength. A reminder of what to expect if there’s any trouble after the
khillat
is given out, and to let them know they aren’t getting away with anything the government doesn’t know about by holding the auction.”

“The army knows about it?” Penny asked in surprise. “But it’s illegal.”

“Of course.” Macdonald chuckled and laid a hand on the servant girl’s dark head. “It’s much the same as the
khillat
. The government gives out the money, supposedly for services rendered by the tribal leaders, but everyone knows it’s a bribe to make them behave themselves.

They turn a blind eye to the slave auction for the same reason.”

“Surely not when there could be white women for sale.”

Macdonald shrugged. “I’d guess it depends who they are, or at least who they’re related to. They wouldn’t get away with selling the governor’s daughter, for instance, but having seen her, I doubt they’d want to.”

His flippancy irked Penny. The futures of two beautiful, young girls were at stake and, even more importantly, her own too. She bit back an angry retort.

“When will you ’phone Tony?” she asked instead.

“Now is as good a time as any.” Macdonald’s cock pulled from Ishani’s mouth with a plop as he rose and strolled nonchalantly naked into the next room, closing the door behind him.

The Indian girl got to her feet and faced Penny without any sign of self-consciousness. Once more envy drew the Englishwoman’s eyes to the firm jut of the girl’s breasts. She looked lower, at Ishani’s flat belly and the blatant pout of her depilated sex. Had Tom and the two other men she had given herself to found her pussy so provocatively enticing when she had kept it shaven, Penny wondered. Her heart missed a beat.

One of those other men had been Tony Wetherell.

The door opened, and Penny’s cheeks flamed in embarrassment as her pussy quivered when she looked at Macdonald’s rigidly erect cock.

“All set up,” he announced. “Be outside the town’s north gate at eight tomorrow morning. Wetherell will get you safely to Jargahal. He’s looking forward to seeing you again.”

Penny could not have said the same.

“Now I’m about ready for another fuck,” Macdonald said. “You were damned good, Penelope, but not up to Ishani’s standard. Of course, she’s been properly schooled in the art of pleasing a man, but I enjoyed you too. It’s pleasant to have an enthusiastic amateur from time to time.”

“Damn you,” Penny said in bitter humiliation. “You didn’t have to let that girl see me. The story will have spread through the whole household before noon.”

“And the rest of the street by dinnertime,” Macdonald agreed, laughing. “And this time tomorrow it will be all over town. But don’t worry. By then you won’t be in Peshawar to hear it. Unless you’d like to stay and do an encore?”

She snatched up her handbag, half-tempted to reach for the gun inside. He met her dagger look with another grin as he pulled Ishani onto his knee.

“Consider yourself lucky, Penelope. I did think of fucking your arsehole too.”

Penny could summon no dignity whatever under the barrage of laughter from Macdonald and the girl. She slunk from the room.

The ride back to the hotel in the rickshaw was an experience she never wanted to repeat. Before she was halfway there the crotch of her French knickers was soaking wet with the fluids leaking from her sex.

Penny consoled herself with the knowledge that at least Macdonald had given her the information she needed. She was one step closer to getting her girls back. What she found less comforting was that her nipples were still achingly hard when she reached her hotel room, and to her complete amazement the moment she took off her soggy underwear her clitoris swelled to a stiff little point. For a moment, Penny almost reached for it, and had to sternly remind herself that there were far more important matters to be dealt with.

*

Julia stumbled when the man behind her gave her a hard push towards the door at the end of the passage. She had only just awoken and was still groggy from the effects of the ether that had knocked her out.

Her mind felt numb and strangely detached. She knew what was happening, yet everything seemed distant and slightly insubstantial, even the floor beneath her bare feet. Her head ached, and despite the water Kate had given her when she had woken up, her mouth was dry and tacky. But through her confusion Julia was horribly aware of one thing – she was very, very afraid.

The door before her stood open, and another shove sent her tottering into the room beyond. She blinked in the bright light coming through the large window in front of her. As her vision cleared, she saw a spartanly-furnished room dominated by a big desk, and a figure sitting behind it with his chin resting on his steepled fingers. Kate staggered into her and she felt the redhead clutch at her forearm and closed her fingers over the girl’s hand.

“Oh God, you’re a white man!” Kate gasped. She pulled free of Julia and stepped towards the man at the desk. “What the hell is going on?” she demanded. “You can’t get away with treating us like this. We are Englishwomen. You’ve no right.” Kate thrust her chin indignantly forwards, breathing hard.

Julia thought she looked faintly ridiculous standing in only her underwear and telling the man what a mistake he had made. Her gut went suddenly tight as she realized that she too was dressed in nothing but her chemise and lace-trimmed panties.

The man raised his head and lowered his hands to the desktop. His craggy face was tanned and weathered, and deeply lined at the corners of his eyes and mouth. It remained expressionless as he regarded Kate’s angrily quivering form. Abruptly, she seemed to recognise her state of undress and took a step back, covering her upper-garment with her hands where her breasts poked against the semi-transparent silk.

Julia heard the sound of the door closing and looked around. The two turbaned natives who had forced the groggy and bewildered girls from their cell were gone and two Europeans now stood behind her.

They were big men with faces as brown and weather-beaten as the man staring at Kate. They were frightening and they were eyeing her bare legs. Julia looked away with a tremor of apprehension and saw the other man had risen to his feet.

She had thought the desk was bare until she saw his hand close around a varnished bamboo cane as long as her arm and as thick as her middle finger. Kate saw it too and took another hasty step backwards.

“We’ll be missed,” she warned him. “The police are probably already looking for us.”

He smiled without warmth, his hard, grey eyes never leaving her face as he came closer. Kate drew back, straight into the grasp of one of the men behind her.

“Let me go!” She jerked against his grip until she was out of breath. The man with the cane waited patiently for her struggles to subside to no more than an angry growl of frustration, and suddenly jabbed the tip of the bamboo rod into the swell of Kate’s right breast. Her startled squeak turned into another growl, this time one of outrage.

“How dare you, you uncouth lout? My father is an important man in Delhi. He’ll see you suffer if you dare mistreat me. I swear you’ll get no ransom for me if you hurt a single hair on my head. And they’ll hunt you down to the ends of the earth.” Kate was red in the face, as much from anger as embarrassment, Julia was sure. The laughter of all three men that followed her outburst only served to make it worse.

“Why, you.…” Her renewed verbal assault was cut short by the man smacking the cane across the fronts of her thighs. She gave a startled cry of pain.

“Shut up, you silly girl,” he said. “I’m not interested in your melodramatic threats.”

Julia was not sure if it was the softly spoken command or the shock of the blow that kept Kate silent.

“Now that the usual pointless protests are over with, you will be quiet and listen to me.” He raised the cane and tapped it on his palm in emphasis. “There may well be people looking for you. Since they have no idea where to look, it makes no difference. You will not be found. I have no idea who your father is, nor do I care, and I have no intention of ransoming you to him or anyone else.” He prodded the cane into Kate’s breast again. “You belong to me. Both of you.” His eyes flickered to Julia and back to Kate. “You are slave girls now and you will behave in the manner I expect from any slave of mine. Until such time as you are sold, you will be obedient, respectful and, above all, you will be silent unless told otherwise. And if you are not, you will be punished.”

Kate’s mouth opened but no sound came out. An awful emptiness clutched at Julia’s belly and she felt even weaker. Surely she had misheard him? He could not possibly have said the word ‘slave’.

“You bloody traitorous bastard,” Kate almost screamed, lunging against the grip of the man who held her. “You bloody swine slaver.

You’d sell us like cattle to the damned uncivilised natives.” She spat at him. “And you dare call yourself an Englishman, damn you!”

Julia had learned Kate had a temper very soon after they had first met, but she had not suspected how ferocious it could be. Even the man holding the cane seemed shocked. It only lasted a moment. His hand shot out and grabbed the front of the redhead’s chemise, squeezing one of her out-thrust breasts through the thin silk. She twisted, her cries growing louder and more anguished as he gripped her tighter and tighter. Only when she began begging him to stop did he let go.

“It’s clear you need a lesson in obedience,” he said and Julia saw a threatening glint in his grey eyes that heightened the intense fear she had been feeling ever since she had seen him pluck the cane from the desk.

“That’s often the case to begin with, but you’ll soon learn it is much less painful to behave yourself.” He gave a nod to the man holding the gasping redhead. It took him and the man behind Julia to grapple her to the desk and force her belly-down onto its green leather surface.

Appalled, Julia watched the man with the cane pull Kate’s chemise up to her armpits, while his minions held her wrists and ankles and stretched her limbs until she could scarcely even twist her hips in their grasp. He hooked both hands into the top of her panties and pulled them down past her knees in a single, fluid motion, exposing the twin, up-thrust cheeks of her bottom.

“You bastard,” Kate grated through clenched teeth.

“An extra one for that,” he snapped, “and two more for calling me a traitor.”

Trembling uncontrollably, Julia clasped her arms around herself and pressed her thighs tightly together as a sudden urge to empty her bladder overcame her. She watched the man raise the thick, ugly cane high, and with her heart pounding madly she clamped her eyes tight shut as it came down. The crack as it struck Kate’s flesh made her jump. She heard the girl’s sharply indrawn breath, followed at once by another vicious crack and a loud hiss from Kate.

Amazed at the redhead’s self-control, Julia opened her eyes to slits and saw the firm rounds of Kate’s buttocks yield under the cane and bounce back as it lifted to strike again. Three fiery red lines marred the paleness of their soft skin, suddenly overlapped by a fourth as the bamboo once more smacked down hard. It was too much to bear. Julia closed her eyes and felt herself swaying as her aching head spun.

Churning fear filled her mind. She could escape the sight of the brutes tormenting Kate but she could not avoid hearing the frightening, meaty crack of the cane on the helpless redhead’s flesh. Nor could she shut out the anguished gasps and whimpers the girl had begun making and which increased in volume as the wicked caning continued. By the time the man had dealt her twenty strokes she was crying loudly and pleading pathetically for him to stop.

Only when he had delivered three more cruel cuts did he step back, and the men holding Kate released her wrists and ankles and pulled her to her feet, supporting her between them. Their leader lifted her chin and ordered her to look at him.

“Now do you understand?” he demanded.

Panting and with her cheeks beslobbered with tears, Kate gave a short nod.

“To whom do you belong, slave girl?”

“To… to you.”

“Then you will call me ‘Master’ as any good slave should when her owner permits her to speak.” When she kept silent, he flicked the cane across her breasts. “Well?”

“Yes… Master,” Kate said in a tiny, hoarse voice.

“And you will be obedient. I want no more defiance.”

“Yes,” Kate said more firmly. She did not add ‘damn you’, but it was evident from the look she gave him. The cane tapped the jut of her right teat. “Master,” she added quickly.

The man laughed. “We’ll see. You have much to learn and only a short time in which to learn it. I have a feeling this won’t be your last encounter with the cane. And you have yet to make the acquaintance of the whip.”

Julia felt sick. The redhead looked so utterly vulnerable and helpless, standing forlornly with her knickers around her ankles and surrendering her freedom. She saw with horror the thick, crimson ridges the cane had raised on the girl’s delicate bottom. Kate was trembling.

Strong, confident, outgoing Kate had been cowed by the cruel beating, and shy, reserved Julia was more than cowed. She was terrified. With a sudden, crushing dread she saw the man Kate had called Master turn his iron hard gaze on her.

“We’ll do this one too,” he said as if it meant nothing. “She needs to learn the same lesson. It might as well be now.”

Panic surged. Julia thought she would faint. In that moment she could no longer contain her bladder. She wet herself from sheer fright.

The two men who had started towards her stopped as her piss squirted through the fine silk of her panties and splashed the terracotta tiles in front of her. A split second later a sudden wild surge of energy helped her turn and bolt towards the door. Somehow she yanked it open and, with her piss still spurting uncontrollably, rushed blindly down the passage, filled only with the desperate need to escape.