House of Intrigue

by Yvonne Strickland

  'Wait a moment,' said Sonia, turning away from her.

  Karen watched her stand before the maroon box but could not see what she withdrew from it. When she turned and walked back, there was something glistening and deep red swinging from her hand.

  'We'll slip this on for now,' said Sonia, moving around behind her.

  'Please Sonia ... I need -'

  But before she finished speaking, the leather hood slipped down over her head, blanking out her vision and plunging her into enclosed blackness.

  'Please Sonia!' Karen insisted as the laces were tightened and knotted securely at the rear.

  Like the straitjacket, the matching hood moulded closely over her features, its smoothness broken only by a small cluster of breathing holes about the nose and mouth. Sonia tidied her hair where it bunched out from under the helmet at the back.

  'All right, my dear, come along.'

  Karen, still wearing the high-heeled sandals, walked hesitantly, guided by Sonia. She knew when they had entered the bathroom for the feel of the carpet was different. Sonia left her standing in dark silence and Karen could hear her moving about, water running and other sounds which were meaningless. After a time, invisible hands took hold of her once more and she was taken a few steps on before being turned around.

  'Sit down carefully,' came the voice close to her ear.

  She lowered her body slowly then stopped abruptly, feeling the chilling hardness of porcelain against her thighs. She pressed down against it as a hand pushed her back against the padded leather back support, forcing her to spread her legs either side of the bowl.

  'Sonia! What are you doing? I just need to -'

  'Relax,' came the voice, then there followed the rattle of buckles as a strap was passed first about her neck, then her waist, immobilising her over the bowl. 'A few seconds -that's all,' came Sonia's voice and, at once, Karen stiffened as a hand reached between her legs and something cool touched her behind. Whatever pressed against her anus was smooth and hard, but lubricated and insistent. She tightened her muscles to prevent its entry.

  'Oh no - no don't!' she begged, but the intruder slid easily up, deep and cool into her rectum, and there remained as the hand departed.

  Karen had never before experienced what happened next. She could not see the rubber bottle suspended from the bracket above her. She could not observe Sonia turn the small valve on the tube which snaked down from it. But she did cry 'Aaah!' as the soapy water began to discharge through the nozzle. The liquid was still passing into her when she heard the sound of water splashing and bubbling in the bowl beneath. She tensed again as the object was withdrawn from her.

  'You'll feel much better soon, my dear,' came the voice, 'and you can keep on your birthday outfit for a good while longer!'

  Karen already felt the urgent stirring within her bowels. It soon became an insistent turbulence. She began to twist against the restraints but realised that very soon, as though plunging from a dizzy height, she was going to lose control of her body.

  The Fugitive

  The day had begun still and overcast. Angela, having little desire for company after lunch and no inclination to remain indoors, set off across the gardens and over the rise to the seat beneath the tree. For Karen, this was a working day, though she and Angela had earlier passed a few minutes of conversation in the restaurant. The pool was deserted though on the tennis court, some distance beyond the house, two people weaved back and forth, rackets slashing the air. The auburn hair of Annette was unmistakable. The raven black hair, done up in a pony-tail, belonged to Lorna.

  In the few seconds while she stood watching, a car flickered between the Jrees at the far end of the driveway. Though the blue light was not flashing, the livery of the vehicle was immediately recognisable. Angela looked on as the car came to a halt before the main entrance of the house. Only one figure emerged, though not a figure in uniform as she had expected. It was Inspector Gautier of the gendarmerie, apparently here on official business. What that business might be, Angela had no idea, though the inspector was on good terms with Sonia socially and on even better terms personally with at least one of her girls, as well as Angela herself.

  Sonia did not have any problems with the gendarmerie.

  By the time Angela had walked over the rise and out of sight of the house, the sky was beginning to clear. The far side of the valley was bathed in sunlight and the distant sea shone like liquid metal. Angela breathed in the warm air and its hint of the sea and, positioning herself comfortably on the bench, pulled from the bag her lighter, a packet of cigarettes and the paperback novel brought back from London and given to her by Karen.

  Apart from the electric buzz of the cicadas a small distance away and the occasional call of the birds, this place was silent and idyllic. Soon, Angela was lost in the intrigue of the book, puffing occasionally on her cigarette, the soft breeze gently coaxing the silver-blonde fringe of hair above her blue-grey eyes. She was unaware of the figure approaching.

  'Angle!'

  Her head turned in surprise. 'Oh! Mike, I didn't hear you.'

  An agitated Mike, hands thrust deep into pockets, stood before her.

  'I'm sorry Angie, I didn't mean to -'

  'What's up?' she asked, uncrossing her legs and moving aside her things to make space for him by her side.

  He sat down and let his head fall back. 'That car outside the house,' he said, out of breath.

  Angela laughed lightly and squeezed his hand. 'The gendarmerie, dear. Is that what you're bothered about? It's only Inspector Gautier to see Sonia. If they were after you they would have arrived in force with flashing lights and a fleet of helicopters!'

  'OK, but I only saw the car when I was going to get a bite to eat. It could have been full of them for all I knew!'

  'Mike, you're not getting paranoid are you?' She continued to hold his hand.

  'Yes I am,' he grinned. 'I think I need something more to worry about in life than Pauline.'

  'Has she been having a go at you? I thought Jackie was getting it all.'

  'No, but ... look, as I appear to be safe again for a while, give me a fag and I'll confess something to you that'll have you in stitches.'

  His eyes took her in as she turned around to retrieve the cigarette packet. He looked at her shining blonde hair, wound around and fixed at the side of her head in its light brown clasp, her loose-fitting white sleeveless top, low cut with her firm breasts pushing away the small buttons, her short mid-blue skirt, almost a tennis skirt, in nylon satin and her long legs with their gold sandals. She turned to him and held out the packet.

  'Since when have you smoked?' she asked grinning.

  'I don't usually. Only in times of stress.'

  'Stress! God, Mike, I can't imagine any bloke having fewer reasons for stress than you, unless you miss the traffic jams and the rat race. Anyway, what's the big confession? I'm all ears?'

  'You'll keep it to yourself?' he asked, affecting a grave expression but at the same time moving closer to her and taking her hand in his.

  'Everyone seems to confide in me, Mike,' she replied. 'I'm very discreet - but then, aren't we all - or should I say nearly all?'

  He gazed meaningfully into her eyes for a few seconds.

  'OK, here goes.' He cleared his throat in preparation for the announcement. 'I tried to get off with Pauline!'

  Angela opened her mouth to speak and her eyes searched into his before any sound came. 'Michael, you fibber! I don't believe you!'

  'It's true -1 did!' he insisted, releasing her hand and putting his right arm around her shoulder. 'And I got a metaphorical sock in the mouth.'

  'Well, I've seen you weighing her legs up now and then but I mean ... she'd eat you alive! Not just you - anybody!'

  He looked into her eyes, without expression, for a number of seconds.

  'All right!' he said, grinning and kissing her on the lips. 'I was just joking. I knew you wouldn't believe me.'

  'Some things are simply too far-fe
tched,' she said, returning his kiss.

  'Would you believe something else?' he asked, placing his other arm around her.

  'I did come here to do a bit of reading, but go on.'

  'Oh well, I'll push off if you prefer!'

  'Not until you've told me another pack of lies,' she whispered, moving her face closer to his.

  'OK,' he whispered back, gently squeezing her breast and kissing her ear. 'You're the loveliest lady in the world.'

  'I thought that was Jackie,' she responded with forced sarcasm.

  His eyes widened for a moment, then his face broke into a grin. 'She has a vivid imagination.'

  'And a big mouth,' said Angela, 'but never mind.'

  His hand moved to the front of her top, and while their lips met once more, he picked open the buttons one by one until the material was pushed aside and her breasts exposed to the warm sunshine, the pink, hard nipples testifying to her arousal.

  She ran her fingers through his hair and whispered, 'Mike, this isn't the place.'

  'There's only us around,' he whispered.

  'No,' she insisted, as his lips and tongue played about her breasts. 'If Karen gets out early, she'll probably come here.'

  'It'll do her good,' he responded.

  'Mike!' she urged, as his hand stroked up the top of her thigh and found the edge of her small blue briefs.

  'All right,' he whispered, 'near the tree. No one can see unless they walk around and look.'

  Once partly enveloped by the foliage, Angela sat naked, apart from her sandals. He knelt before her, holding her head in his hands and catching his breath sharply as her cool fingers, working their way up the leg of his white boxer shorts, closed with cool deliberateness around the heat of his erection, causing the head to thrust out against the thin cotton like a tent post against canvas. After long seconds of voluptuous manipulation, she pulled down the shorts, easing them over the reddened and swaggering organ while he struggled up to remove them completely. At once, he placed his hands beneath her knees and lifting up her legs, pushed them back and far apart to display her sex fully before falling upon her. He held her tightly while his tongue darted and coursed between the inflamed lips of her most intimate place, proclaiming itself upon the stage of her sensuality.

  The level of her arousal soon became obvious, not only from the glistening heat of her sex but from her repeated moans, coming ever louder and longer. He raised himself up and moved quickly forward, poising for a moment over her as if to savour the forthcoming assault, then drove into her up to the root. She wrapped her legs tightly around his body as though to pull him in further still and with each stroke forced her fingers harder into the flesh of his back. They bucked and pitched together as one, oblivious to the surroundings and caring nothing if another should pass by and chance upon them. When the boiling tide of lust overwhelmed them, her cries rose into the sky and drifted upwards to join those of the birds, wheeling and swooping against the blue expanse in cryptic games of their own.

  'It was just a routine visit,' said Sonia. 'They're on the lookout for someone and they've left a description with the local people as well as us.'

  She put down the glass and looked out through the conservatory windows across the gardens. The sun was lower, slanting across the gardens and through the windows. Around the table with her sat Valerie, Lorna and Pauline; Pauline affecting a demure, almost benign aspect, with Valerie also giving no hint as to the harsh words which had recently passed between them.

  'Apparently,' continued Sonia, 'there were three of our fellow countrymen involved in a robbery at Lyon. They took jewellery from two shops and cleared off in a stolen car. They were spotted heading for Marseilles but the police lost them near Avignon when they abandoned one car and pinched another. They were seen again between Nimes and Montpellier but people have been reporting them from all over the place, even as far as Toulon, so the police didn't put themselves out too much in this area. Anyhow, they got drunk and abusive at a bar in Montpellier and someone called the coppers in for that. Before they turned up, the three of them had cleared off. They were chased along the N109 through Clermont and crashed their car on some back road a few kilometres from here. Two of them were rounded up immediately and the other one is still on the loose.'

  'I suppose he's armed and dangerous,' remarked Valerie.

  'It's a she,' replied Sonia. Their female accomplice, would you believe?'

  'Oh well,' added Lorna, 'I suppose she'll get nabbed before long. Where can she go?'

  'I think someone ought to let Mike know,' said Valerie, grinning. 'I saw him through the window after the police car arrived. He took one look at it and headed for the hills.'

  Pauline smiled but remained silent.

  'Poor old Mike,' mused Lorna, 'he's probably spent an afternoon of utter misery wondering if they're on to him.'

  'Oh, I wouldn't say that,' commented Valerie, peering out through the french windows. 'I can see him over by the pool. He looks happy enough to me!'

  Sonia glanced at the window. 'Well, each of you can tell the others. The inspector asked me to type out a description in English and circulate it to everybody. Karen will have run a few copies off by now to leave at the bar.'

  'Who do I tell about it?' asked Kim, her soft face shadowed by disquiet.

  'I suppose it ought to be Pauline - it's the kind of thing Sonia pays her to deal with.'

  'Yes, I suppose so.'

  'If you like,' said Valerie, Til talk to her later.'

  'Oh, Val, no, it's up to me. I'm supposed to keep an eye on things. I'll check if the old bag's in and go straight up.'

  'All right, but I want you back down here in half an hour - we have three appointments this afternoon. If she starts on at you or tries any funny business, I'll be up there, OK?'

  'So what are you saying?' asked Pauline, eyeing Kim coolly across the desk.

  Tm saying it's been pinched. I know I shut the windows last night and I know where everything was. Angie and Rachel reckon stuff has gone missing too but we've never needed to keep records.'

  'And who,' asked Pauline quietly, 'do you consider has been taking it?'

  'I-I don't know. Why should anybody here want to steal cheese, bread, fruit and other stuff when they can just ask for it any time at the bar?'

  'Why indeed?' asked Pauline, with a humourless smile. 'Well, if it isn't any of you lot then obviously it's someone from outside, so you should have taken more trouble to secure the kitchen.'

  'But we've never had to, not here, nobody would ever steal anything ... and ... and there's the stuff by the pool - bits of food and drinks cans. Mike always clears up and hoses everything down in the evening. None of us would -'

  'Quite so,' interrupted Pauline. 'Then we know who it might be, don't we?'

  'Yes, that's what we all thought too.'

  'We all! And how long have "we all" known about this before telling me?'

  'It's not like that,' answered Kim. 'It looks like it's been going on for a few days. But it's not until people mention it to each other that anyone realises that something could be wrong. That's why I've come to you now.'

  Pauline sat back and regarded her for a few seconds.

  'All right,' she said at last. 'Then I'll talk to Sonia. I'll arrange for some of us to keep an eye open between the house and the pool. If the little bitch comes back again, we'll nab her and see what Sonia wants to do with her.'

  'Let's hope it's not an old tramp or a gypsy,' said Kim.

  'I doubt it,' responded Pauline. 'I very much doubt it!'

  'What time is it?' asked Valerie in a low voice.

  'This watch is barely luminous,' answered Mike, squinting down at his wrist in the darkness. 'It's nearly quarter to one.'

  'Are you staying all night?' i don't think it's worth it,' he whispered. 'Maybe I'll hang around until three or half past. What about you?'

  'I'll stay as long as Pauline. She's keeping an eye on the back of the house until half two.'

  'Has
she got her whip and spurs?'

  'No, she's got a gun.'

  'A gun!' he hissed.

  'Shush,' responded Valerie. 'Sound carries at night. It's a shotgun. She has to have something - it might be a man we're after despite what everyone else says.'

  it might be a bookkeeping error too. Nobody seems all that sure about what's gone missing.'

  'Oh, I don't know. I wouldn't be standing under this tree for hours if we weren't.'

  'Well,' answered Mike, 'at least it's a warm night. Look at those stars - aren't they fantastic?'

  'Yes, it's almost a stage set. Everything is so absolutely still, like an enchanted evening.'

  They stood breathing the silent air until Valerie said, 'I wonder where he's off to.'

  'What! Where?' hissed Mike, clutching her arm.

  'Steady deary, it's only Pancake.'

  They watched the shadowy feline stroll by, ignoring their soft calls completely, before vanishing into the obscurity of the nearby bushes.

  'Perhaps he's the culprit,' suggested Mike. 'We might think he's curled up most of the time doing bugger all when he's really figuring out plans to improve the quality of his menu.'

  'You could be right - if he'd developed a liking for fruit and if he was able to get into the fridge and open plastic containers. Any more good ideas?'

  Mike smiled into Valerie's face, then peered about into the darkness.

  'Look at the moon on the pool. It's like a mirror.'

  'Since you mention it,' whispered Valerie. 'I wouldn't mind a swim right now.'

  His arm slipped about her waist. 'Why don't we, one evening? When everyone else has gone to bed.'

  'Quite an opportunist, aren't you, dear?' she joked, squeezing his arm in the darkness.

  'Well I suppose -'

  He released his hold on her and peered towards the swimming pool.

  'What is it?'

  'I thought I heard - yes! Look at the water!'

  'There's someone in the pool,' said Valerie.

  'Let's sneak around behind the trees and - no, I'll go while you fetch Pauline. If it is a bloke, we might need the gun.'

  'All right,' said Valerie, 'but be careful just in case. Give me a couple of minutes.'