A Tale Of Two Families

Chapter 26

How could they? How could anyone be so cruel, Sally thought, not for the first time. Not even for the hundredth time, probably and yet they were so cruel! It was almost inconceivable that people could behave the way they did and yet think nothing of it. It seemed as natural to them as breathing was, and did they even think about it? No, not for one second. It was their horrible world, one they had created for themselves, and she was now a part of that insane, cruel, heartless world through no fault of her own. Worse, she could not see the slightest sign of an exit, and it was about to worsen. 

They were crazy, all of them, crazy bad, evil and perverted. Apart from her own unbelievably bizarre and horrendous situation, what of her family? Her mother, what had happened to her? Or perhaps more appropriately, what was happening to them? Sally had seen all of them a couple of times since the start of the nightmare, but she hadn’t seen her mother for a while, which worried her. 

Time was something she’d long since lost track of over the months, but her own body was providing a rough calendar, and by her reckoning, it must be four or five months since she’d last seen her mum. Alice hauled her out early that morning, tethering her to the walker to plod around behind Spider and Butterfly. As usual, the two young Aussies hadn’t been cooperative, and both had paid the price for their lack of enthusiasm before the awful machine started.  

A couple of hours later, they both carried additional smarting reminders on their thighs and bottoms of what was expected of them, as did Sally. Alice might have been out of sight, but they were not out of mind so far as she was concerned. The evil bitch had appeared unexpectedly several times and savagely corrected them for failing to maintain the correct stepping gait she demanded. In addition, the horrible girl had also tweaked the speed up a little with each visit.

It had started to rain at one point, not heavily, but enough for them to have become uncomfortably soaked over time. Not that anyone had bothered about them getting wet. Why should they? In their eyes, they were only animals, weren’t they? They had no clothes to worry about, just their leather harness, which wasn’t entirely impervious to moisture absorption, be it sweat or rain, but no doubt Alice felt that was as much a part of them as the bare skin she flogged so mercilessly!

Sally had spotted two figures approaching down the path from the house, one carrying a large colourful golfing umbrella to shelter the leading person. The pair drew near the walker and paused, watching the three helpless harnessed captives stepping out on their perpetual journey to nowhere. One of them, the fully dressed one, was the queen bitch, the foul empress who ruled the horrible place. The other holding the colourful umbrella had been her poor mother. 

Sally sensed as much as noticed the subtle change in her two truculent companions' attitude, their posture, their movements, their whole beings. Nothing major, but it was there, and she knew why. Much as they hated and loathed Alice, the girl wasn’t their owner, but the arrogant, beautiful woman watching them was. It was her whip they had first felt upon their harnessed helpless bodies as she broke them into their new life. They all knew Alice was just as cruel but could only go so far because they did not belong to her. The mother, though, had no such restraints upon her, and they bore the scars to prove it!

Initially, they had looked to be heading for another building, but upon seeing them switched direction and approached the walker to view the three high-stepping damp figures. Sally had only been able to see them briefly with each revolution partly because of the horrible high collar that held her head rigidly upright and restricted her neck movement; plus, and she was only supposed to look straight ahead. Ponies only needed to see the road in front, curiosity as to other directions was of no concern to a mere dumb animal and thus not permitted! 

The urge to move her head or twist her body was overwhelming, but the bitch was carrying a short whip doubled up, and even as she contemplated such action, the evil woman shook it out. There was no hesitation and, with the same fluid movement, swung it forward to crack hard against poor Butterfly's bottom, making the girl jump and squeal. The action repeated a second time as she passed her owner, struggling to maintain that stupid gait and shy away simultaneously. A futile gesture that didn’t save her from that second punishing stroke nor a third.

“Up, knees up, lazy beast!” the bitch ordered, slowly redoubling her short whip. All three of them instantly began to raise their legs into as perfect a stepping stance as possible, conscious of what might happen later either at that terrible woman’s hands or her eldest daughter's. You could only take mute rebellion and obstinacy so far when you were as helpless as they were, whereas the whips and canes had seemingly no limits whatsoever! Worse still, had Butterfly even deserved those three brutal strokes? Probably not, but the bastards never missed an opportunity to demonstrate their power and authority upon them, did they, Sally thought!

Her mother had only looked at her once, just one fleeting glance. Two pairs of eyes met in a moment of shared shame and misery that seemed to last both an eternity and a microsecond. Sally had been stepping in the right direction and seen that amused look on the bitch’s face as she’d turned towards her mother. In contrast, her mother’s face had been wooden, expressionless, her eyes modestly downcast, standing rigidly stiff as the woman beside her absently fondled her right breast with the same hand that held her leash.

Round and round, the three of them had stepped, each conscious of that biting whip in the woman’s hand and knowing how effectively she could use it, more so the two Aussies, for they belonged to the woman whereas she was owned by the bitch’s eldest daughter. Owned for Christ’s sake like they were cattle or something! 

Spider was the one tethered immediately in front of her, and the young Aussie was earnestly striving to step to perfection, his whole body held almost rigid. Not a sign of the usual belligerence he displayed when Alice dragged him over to that horrible piece of furniture she used to secure her victims before repeatedly raping them with one of her sex toys strapped to her groin. 

None of them was spared, but after Midnight, Spider seemed the terrible girl's next favourite or the chosen one of the movement as she satisfied her perverted lust by violating the poor boy night after night. It obviously amused the evil girl to remove or loosen his bit, and he wasn't shy about expressing his rampant anger at full volume in the foulest of terms. His vocabulary in that direction was both extensive and imaginative. 

Not that it did him any good, it never did, whether it was Spider or one of the others giving vent to their feelings and hatred of the bitch. Maybe it even fired her up for talking was an absolute no-no at any other time and any attempt savagely punished. He was a sturdy, well-built young guy so far as Sally could tell and yet harnessed as they all were, mere helpless putty in Alice’s hands. His sobs of rage always turning to sobs of humiliation, and every insult he hurled backwards at his thrusting tormentor futile and pointless as he danced on the end of her phallus. Captive livestock to be used and abused for entertainment! 

Sally had reflected that the latter part was correct. They were just that, weren’t they, ‘livestock’ and treated far worse than cattle! If only her mother had raised her head again, just looked up, if they could have shared another glance, but she hadn’t. The three ponies were not the only ones present carrying fresh whip marks on their bodies, she’d noted, and her mother was doubtlessly as afraid of the bitch as they all were. Probably more so, given how she had to live with the bitch!

Sally had wept, of course; she couldn’t help herself. Tears of anger, rage and frustration at her situation, her family’s seemingly hopeless situation and the unfair, unbelievable madness of it all. The shame and humiliation still rankled even after all the months she’d been a captive. She’d always been a touch conservative regarding the contents of her wardrobe. Her mother had frequently teased her about the modest one-piece bathers she favoured as opposed to her mother’s more daring bikinis when on holiday.

Now both were exhibiting all they had for the entire world to see or for the benefit of those who ruled this evil little part of it! Nor were such exposed body parts limited to mere visual titillation, something else she loathed. Hands and probing fingers caused waves of nausea that she had to fight to hold back lest she choked on her own vomit, denied exit because of that horrible mouth bit!

Her mother hadn’t been restrained like she was! Yet her mother must feel the same way, she pondered. Surely, she must? She couldn’t enjoy being groped by the queen bitch or dressed like that. Those fresh whip marks provided that answer. Looking at her mother for those seconds as she circled round and round with the other two enforced human equine’s she wondered which of them was the better off, but the answer to that question was simple, neither!

Neither of them was free or had any control over the lives they now lived or what past for living in this hellhole.  How did the woman get away with it? Slavery had ended centuries before, yet that is precisely what they were! No, not slaves, worse than that as far as she was concerned. Slaves, in many cases, might have been treated like animals, but to their owners, they were still human, unlike her, which was always a terrifying thought!

Her tears had dried up almost as soon as they’d started, that ever-present rage seething within her rose to the surface. If her eyes began watering now, it would be tears of anger and frustration she would be shedding! Sally was a pacifist, a member of Greenpeace, and a caring liberal. Still, if she ever got her hands on that evil bitch standing there so confidently, she’d soon remove that smug, self-satisfied look from the evil hag’s face forever!  

The tears did come unbidden as she watched the two women leave, heading for the stable. Tears that were somewhere between those of rage and self-pity. Tears both for herself and the woman now mincing along on the end of a leash held by her cruel Mistress. Two mature women joined by that slender tether but a world apart. The one in front comfortably dressed in boots, jeans and one of the tartan shirts she favoured. The one behind naked bar a deep red garter belt, red-hued stockings and glossy red stilettos that matched the red leather dog collar around her neck. She stumbled along in the rear like a dog on a leash handicapped by the hobble chain between her ankles, trying to walk on the uneven gravel path in those stupid, inappropriate heels!

*****

Now she was back on that fucking walker. Sally had been lying on her primitive bed when the two of them came for her daily inspection, the regular visit to the prized pet. The new broodmare, as that evil bitch Alice called her, the fiend who was responsible for her plight. Her and that enormous angry black guy who was kept as another helpless personal pet by the vile bitch. If he couldn’t escape this awful place, what chance had she with only a fraction of that massive guy’s height, bulk and muscles?

Getting off her bed was more difficult by the day, but Alice wouldn’t let her lie there wallowing in self-pity and misery, not that the wicked girl gave a damn about how she felt. Her pony's physical health, yes, her captive's mental well-being was irrelevant. Although Sally suspected that wasn’t entirely true and not just for Alice. Sally had seen it in their eyes whenever they looked at her, like an animal and yet there was also something else, that hint of cruel amusement that she wasn’t, but they didn’t give a damn, did they? That was a large part of the perverse fun for these evil perverts.

Exercise will be good for her, so make sure she stays active. That is what that other woman had said, the one in the white coat who appeared from time to time to examine her and her fellow captives. The vet they called her, although she’d heard the woman talking with Alice and her mother and knew she was a nurse of some sort. Vet! Fucking typical of their ridiculous terminology, and yet….fuck, they were treated worse than farm animals, weren’t they? Under the circumstances, the veterinary tag was almost appropriate. 

They’d fastened her to the outside walker tethered as usual by her high posture collar to a mechanical arm where she’d be obliged to tread that endless circular path going nowhere and seeing nothing but the same vista she’d seen countless times already. She could have done it with her eyes closed in a walking doze, but that wasn’t allowed any more than simply walking like a normal person would have done. No, she had to keep her eyes open, and ‘high step’ as Alice’s merciless whip had trained her. 

Trained at a slow speed and then faster and faster. Knees up, high, higher, thighs parallel to the ground and step and step and step. Always under the threat of that long lash, ready to flick out so casually and painfully to correct each perceived mistake! Look graceful, look sexy, and be a proud pony for your owner! Repetitively and painfully trained like any dumb animal lacking intelligence until it became almost automatic through dumb unthinking obedience based on fear of the lash. 

Today there was a variation in the shape of the new pony, the latest unfortunate to fall into the hands of these deranged sadists. Another girl and quite a bit bigger than she was, but then weren’t they all, and it was Eva who held the whip, and from the appearance of the other pony, the young girl wasn’t sparing it in the slightest! Nothing new there was there. The little bitch had been making that poor creature scream for days now, and for the first time, Sally felt grateful that she belonged to Alice and not the younger sister.

The pace was also slower than she was used to, which she found oddly disturbing. Likewise, the frequent stop-starts as Eva fiddled with the controls or paused the machine to chastise the unfortunate girl when she failed to perform as required for the little tyrant. The nasty teen she noted had swapped her whip for a wooden paddle not long after they’d started, presumably because of the appalling damage she’d already wrought upon that girl’s bottom! Given the existing bruised and bloody flesh, the effect was unlikely to be very different, she thought with a shudder. Alice had hurt her badly at times but never to that extent. That poor girl was likely scarred and marked for life the way that vicious little bitch was treating her!

It had been Alice and her friend who’d led her out earlier after the morning feed. Again, their term but apt for Sally had never considered it breakfast, nor evening feed dinner, or supper. Both were equally bland, equally repetitive and equally foul! There was no choice and no refusing. You ate every scrap, or you were punished. The stable’s prime rule, do as they always required or be punished and then you’d do it anyway. There was no escape from whip or cane, ever!

They’d mauled her, of course, Alice and the other girl, the redhead called Heather. That was something she just couldn’t get used to and hated, loathed with that passion that always made her feel physically sick. Hands, unwanted hands on her body touching and feeling her, nothing taboo, nothing and no part of her private, and it happened virtually every day, but she couldn’t get used to it. Sometimes deliberately or often and even worse, just casually, a hand, even a finger touching and probing absently because it could because her body no longer belonged to her but the fiends that held her captive. Like a pet to be patted more out of habit than anything else because it was there! Besides, thanks to them, it was no longer a single body because of what they had done to her.

After morning feed and the usual groping, they’d released her from the security chain and then walked her over to the exercise area, one hand each holding her bridle, although she might have been invisible to them in one way. The bitches talked across her as though she were not there, discussing the idea of paying a new restaurant that had opened a visit. ‘Getting excellent reviews, maybe visit them tonight. I called them, and they said there was no need to reserve yet,’ Alice had said. 

Was that deliberate, taunting her about living a life so vastly different from the one she now lived? A life where people did everyday things like visiting a restaurant and eating decent food, not the slimy muck she existed upon. Probably not, she decided for her abnormal life was their normal and to them, she was just an animal, wasn’t she? The elephant in the room! Their chat was probably as instinctive and habitual to them as putting their socks on in the morning! How could you possibly fight that?

She’d been mauled again before they started the walker. All of them were fascinated by her swelling bump and what it portended. Sally tried desperately to shut out that aspect of her life, her entire changed existence, out of her mind. To keep it remote, detached, separate like an item in a disused attic or a shed at the distant end of an overgrown garden. Her horror at what had happened that evening and the awful dawning realisation that her huge, black-skinned neighbour had accomplished the task his Mistress required of him! 

The prospect was one of sheer horror that grew worse each day as her belly slowly but remorselessly swelled. She had no idea what they intended or why, nor did she want to know. The fact that it was happening to her would happen was terrifying enough, and so she had somehow managed to divorce herself from the whole business, at least mentally if not physically. But for how much longer, she wondered. A few months ago, yes, but it was becoming impossible for her to do that!

Her condition inevitably prompted that additional attention. Prodded, poked, squeezed, fingered and fondled by the two of them before they started the walker, leaving her to benefit from some ‘healthy exercise’ and then returning to whatever other foul divers the horrible pair had planned for the day with some other unfortunates. Her mind recalled their words with a clarity that surprised her but was probably down to the frustrated anger she’d felt as her brain absorbed every word and callous nuance.

“My, but she’s big, isn’t she?” It was the newcomer, Heather, the young redhead who spoke, running her hands over Sally’s swollen belly. “Out here in the daylight, she looks huge, way bigger than back in that stall! Are you sure she’s not going to drop two foals for you!” the girl finished laughing.

“I was surprised too when she started swelling up like that, but Megan said no when she checked her over”, Alice had replied, stroking her head with a possessive hand and then lightly caressing her huge frontal bulge. “More to do with Midnight and his hereditary genes, I think. I did a bit of research online out of curiosity. His tribe is dominant within the country, not just by numbers and wealth but also by sheer physical size. Undoubtedly, why they became the main ruling force, local and national government, army, police, etc. They have been in power since the colonial era ended. Resuming their dominant position before that period, albeit via a somewhat dubious electoral process! The usual African thing, anything and everything that involves power and money!”

Heather had laughed and pointed towards the stable building. “How the mighty have fallen!” She gave her friend a mock bow, adding, “with a bit of help, of course, from the right enterprising girl”.

Alice had giggled and continued lightly rubbing her swollen belly. “Anyway, I can’t exactly take this pretty little filly along to the nearest maternity unit for an ultrasound scan, can I? How’s about a little wager? Want to bet on what it’s going to be, colt or filly?”

“You already know, don’t you?” Heather had sounded suspicious.

“How could I? I just told you I couldn’t take her anywhere. Anyway, you’re the expert. You’ve had far more experience than I have down at Margret’s….STAND STILL!”

Luckily, Alice, for once, didn’t have a crop or whip handy, a rare occurrence, so she grabbed her bridle savagely, shaking her head back and forth, making her dizzy and barely heard Heather’s question.

“So, what do you think she’ll drop? I’m not betting so much as a single penny with you, honey. No way, I know you too well!”

Alice had given her bridle one last shake and tapped her on the nose with a warning finger. “A little colt, I think. At least, that is what I’d put my money on. Law of averages kicking in, this little filly has two brothers, and Midnight is number three of five brothers. I can’t say I’m bothered either way, and like I said, no way of finding out till she drops it!”

“Mmmm, there might be one or two awkward questions if you did try”, Heather chuckled before adding, “I assume that you still intend to have Midnight cover her for the next one or have you changed your mind? I mean, she’s not that big, is she? Not compared to the older mares Margret always uses for breeding!”

“Chalk and cheese”, Alice had grunted, suddenly grabbing at her bridle again and pulling Sally’s head close, looking directly into her eyes with a mocking smile. “I’d been keeping an eye out for a couple of suitable animals and struck gold first with that giant fool Midnight. Just when I’d started seriously thinking of finding a suitable filly, this little cutie wanders in out of the blue and wants to see my ponies—a perfect pairing. You should have seen the way she writhed on the end of his monster dick for us that night! Although I’d already ensured she wasn’t a virgin, nor was a big cock quite the surprise it might have been!” Alice had added with a nasty laugh.

“A petite beauty and a huge beast”, mused Heather laughing. “Plus, you get to own the ‘happy ending’ to this version of this fairy tale—such a splendid little filly. Almost a waste, I know a few owners who wouldn’t mind adding it to their stables” Sally felt the girl’s hand stroke her bottom and automatically shivered and, on a sudden angry impulse, attempted to stamp her hoof on the horrible girl’s foot.

A moment later, she jumped and squealed into her bit as Heather laughed, side-stepping the foolish move, and promptly swung her riding crop up and down, twice cracking it hard against Sally’s bottom. It hurt more because she’d hardly felt the touch of such a thing in the past month, and she squealed into her bit, trying to wriggle out of Alice's grip on her bridle.

“Give her a couple more good and hard,” Alice said. “It won’t hurt her….well, not in terms of this”, she corrected herself, running one leather-gloved hand over the swollen belly. She pulled Sally’s head closer to her own, looking directly into her eyes and spoke words intended for her ears but aimed towards her friend. “Heather, kindly remind my animal for me of certain basics. I will not tolerate bad or disrespectful behaviour whatever the circumstances from any of my animals!”

Sally was sobbing quietly when they finally started the walker before casually strolling away, the pair of them still indifferently discussing her as though she was a lump of meat, no, not a dead thing! Like what they intended her to be, a broodmare which is precisely what she had become for them, hadn’t she! They’d had a chilling discussion on caesarean section and how that Megan woman would be in attendance should she be required—talking and discussing so brazenly as if she wasn’t even there!  Not just talking but both of them intermittently probing, poking and feeling the most intimate area of her body as they had their horrible discussion!

Worse, once they started the walker, they hung around watching for a few revolutions talking about fertilisation programmes for producing multi progeny. They started on that frightening subject like the other with no acknowledgement that she was just yards away from them. Of course, the bitches would know she could hear and understand every damn word, but did they care? Then again, and even more frightening was the thought that they were so accustomed to people like her, so insignificant in their thinking that perhaps they didn’t even bother taking that factor into account!

As they walked away, Alice said she’d give her a week or so to recover and then start the treatment Megan had recommended for a couple of weeks before allowing Midnight his annual treat again once she was in heat. Small as she was, the first should stretch her, so a double or treble might be possible, fun to try anyway! They’d both laughed at that. Fun! It was beyond normal comprehension! So horrible, so unbelievably cruel, she had thought, blinking back tears. So inhuman, but then they didn’t even see her as a human being, did they? Then she saw Eva exiting the stable and waving to them. The young girl was leading a big ponygirl that stumbled clumsily along on its hoofs, and they were heading directly towards her. Sally wondered if her day was about to become even worse!

*****

The smelly bitch had been on and off the phone nonstop for the last few days, and although she could only hear one side of the conversations, it was more than enough to get an idea of what was happening. That had been in the intervals when she wasn’t washing, ironing, folding and packing. 

The bitch was going away on a long trip, a cruise, and seemingly taking every single item of clothing she owned. Half of which was immediately rejected with a shriek of ‘I’m not wearing it like that or in that filthy condition, you useless lazy bitch, do it again!’ Even if the garments in question were acceptable, it wouldn’t be after she’d screamed about it being in the wrong case and thrown them on the floor. Such admonishments and rejections usually enforced by the bitches cane! 

Would she even wear them, given that she frequently wore the same clothes for a week or more, adding to that ever-present stench of body odour she extruded? Mumsie had begun to feel the whole exercise was one of sheet futility! Why couldn’t she do what everybody else did and buy herself a new holiday wardrobe? 

She knew the answer to that. Her Mistress was a natural miser, a penny-pincher of the first order. Every time she received a utility bill, she was immediately on the phone arguing that they’d made an error. She was not that extravagant with her water, gas or electricity. Frugal was an excellent word to describe the contents of her refrigerator and larder even after she’d paid her fortnightly visit to the supermarket, likewise the portions she cooked for the miserable bitch. Another source of punishment if she indulged in ‘wanton culinary extravagance and wastage’ by adding one carrot too many!

She wondered what the scrawny hag would make of the vast quantities of food she’d find available aboard the cruise ship. No doubt, she’d make the poor purser’s life miserable as she was doing with the cruise line office staff trying to get various discounts because she did not need this or that! The miserable bitch would stand there, phone to her ear, brochure in hand, telling the unfortunate on the other end that she did not require fresh bed linen every fourth day. Once a fortnight would be perfectly adequate; no wonder their prices were so unreasonable!

Mumsie had reflected on that one. Once a fortnight! In this house, once every six weeks would have been considered an unnecessary luxury! About the same interval as when the bitch decided to take a bath or a shower. No doubt she’d find the fact that the ship provided her cabin with hot water twenty-four hours a day another wanton extravagance. Odds on their kitchen staff didn’t have to wash up greasy plates in cold water with a minuscule amount of cheap detergent!

The bitch’s Scrooge-like attitude was a state of mind she knew rather than through financial necessity. Her younger sister, after all, owned a decent-sized chunk of the countryside along with all the trappings of a relatively comfortable lifestyle and certainly had enough money to indulge her unusual interests! Why should her older sister be a candidate for the poor house?

She wasn’t, nor was she overly bothered about her financial documents. Strange, given how paranoid she was about money, insignificant amounts often, and yet the lazy bitch, after one glance, would leave financial statements and letters laying around to be tidied away. According to her bank, broker, solicitor or financial advisor, she could have bought her own damn cruise liner or a sizeable share of one!

The upshot of all the upheaval meant the smelly old bitch was heading off for many months to inflict her foul company on another sort of captive audience. Whereas she was going back to her family in the care of her younger sister. Mumsie had no illusions about what that would entail, but at least her nose would nestle against fresh, sweet-smelling pussy hair, not the stinking bush of bitch senior! 

The summons earlier that morning had taken her completely by surprise. One moment she was on her hands and knees energetically scrubbing the chequered tiles in the hall, and the next, she was hustled through the door that led to the garage and seated in the bitch’s car. Front passenger seat, this time not crammed into the boot.

Promoted, she thought and then remembered that maybe Creature had been crammed into that dark, cramped and smelly space. The bitch had retrieved the wretched figure from that horrible cellar just after she’d started scrubbing. She had instantly averted her eyes as the hairless emaciated figure with his whip-scarred body crawled past on the end of his leash. Gollum, she’d thought. Gollum from Lord of the Rings that’s who Creature resembled in some ways. Pasty grey-skinned, bald save a few scraggy hairs, feet that seemed disproportionate to his small stature and big blue hopeless staring eyes that seemed to bulge out of their sockets with constant fear.

Not surprisingly, she’d thought watching him disappear into the kitchen, given every inch of his body was savagely scarred and looked like he’d also been badly burned. The bitch had threatened her several times when she’d been ironing. ‘Do it properly slut, or do you want me to run that hot iron over your fat udders to show you how it's done!”

Had that and worse been done to him by the bitch holding his leash? Who was the poor man? She’d often wondered and even begun to form a certain suspicion yet to be confirmed. Loath as she was to raise her head for the sight of him terrified her, she couldn’t resist another peep. Creature wasn’t even a man anymore, was he? They’d left nothing, nothing at all between his legs, poor ma…poor creature!

The front seat was a definite improvement, but she was still nude and couldn’t see anything of the journey. An old coat had been draped around her to cover her nakedness and her hands cuffed behind her back. A wide-brimmed hat had been rammed on her head and tilted downwards. Then she had been given a stern verbal warning to keep her eyes on the floor. One lapse, one single lapse and she’d suffer for it later! Any attempt to look up or sideways out of the window would bring severe, very severe repercussions!

Mumsie did as she’d been told, telling herself that the chances of her looking up and being able to attract some attention at the right moment weren’t worth the risk even when the vehicle slowed or occasionally stopped briefly. Severe repercussions! Besides, what could she do with her hands restricted and that hat covering two-thirds of her face? She dared not even risk a peek at the dashboard clock, assuming there was one somewhere, so she’d no idea how long the journey had taken. More than an hour, she thought, maybe even two but surely not much beyond that?

Her first thought when the bitch hauled on the handbrake announcing they’d arrived was one of relief and then a touch of ironic amusement. All that frantic packing over the last few days, and yet she hadn’t a thing to wear, had she? Not even a handbag, let alone a suitcase! Then her second thought was, where had they arrived? That journey when the bitch had taken her from her sisters seemed to last forever; she’d even slept several times for a part of it. She’d been wide awake for every second of it this time, hadn’t she?

“Out”, the bitch commanded, opening the door and reaching for the hat, lifting it off her head and casually tossing it onto the rear seats, atop a heap of other junk Mumsie noted. The coat followed, and she shivered as a draft of cold air hit her naked body. Wherever they were, it was not the house she’d expected to see nor the surrounding countryside. 

The bitch left her standing for a moment while she checked on the occupant in the boot, giving a grunt of approval so presumably, the poor wretch was still alive, for she bent into the opening fussing about doing something. After a moment, she heard an agonised squeal of pain then it was slammed down again.

There were hills, bare stony crags, open moorland and heather dotted with white blobs that must be sheep. Dry stone walls were everywhere, and down the narrow road in the distance, a cluster of houses and the squat shape of a church tower. The car had stopped on a small gravel patch outside two grey stone cottages at the side of the road. If it hadn’t been for that small patch of gravel, their front doors would have opened almost straight onto the road, and even now, a good third of the car was endangering traffic. The right-hand side cottage had a dilapidated lean-to garage with one door missing, and the front part of a car could be seen through the opening.

Windows and doors of both cottages were painted the same bilious shade of green or had been for everywhere the paint was cracked, curled and peeling, revealing more blackened wood than paintwork. The windowpanes on the outside were brown with accumulated filth thrown up by passing cars and didn’t look to have seen a wash leather in years. Whatever natural light that did manage to penetrate was probably smothered by those heavy-looking net curtains just visible through the grime. 

Mumsie had been looking hopefully up and down the narrow dusty road, desperately looking for some sign of life. She was standing stark naked from a dog collar around her neck and in full view of the entire world. Except the world was busy elsewhere, and any chance of rescue evaporated when the bitch propelled her forwards. Then the door creaked open, and a familiar face peeped out!

“Hello again, Gertie girl, I bet your tho pleathed to see uth again, yeth?” Miss Agnes smirked as she opened the green door wider “Mother ith buthy, but thee won’t be long. 

Mumsie froze with horror but had no choice but to follow as her Mistress dragged her through the open door by the leash attached to her collar. A moment later, the still sniggering Agnes slammed it closed behind them.