Sins of the Master

by Catherine Taylor

  “No.” She shook her head furiously. “You have no say over my life anymore. You gave that up when you walked away from me, after you had me believe that you loved me.”

  He glared back at her. “I didn’t have a choice. That was the cost of keeping you safe and I did love you.”

  “It’s been nineteen years, and you never came back. It wasn’t even me you came to see today. Save your lies for someone who hasn’t already had their heart crushed by you.”

  Lena walked out, distraught and exhausted. She headed to the bed and pulled the covers back enough to get in and pull them over her. Tears rolled down her face and she pulled a pillow towards her to cuddle.

  She sensed him come up behind her.

  “Lena, I’m sorry,” he said. “And I can’t tell you anything that isn’t going to hurt you.”

  “Yes you can,” she replied. “You can tell me you’re leaving now.”

  There was no reply for a moment, but when it came, Lena knew how much more her heart could suffer.

  “Goodbye, Lena.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  Paris, May 2005

  The blindfold was irritating in more ways than one. It got in the way when Mary tried to wipe the perspiration from her brow, but its purpose was annoying her most. The location was being kept secret from her. She made a mental note that she would indeed come to know the location once she was back in New Zealand. There were only so many chateaus within a two hour drive from Paris.

  The only reason she wasn’t protesting was that he had agreed to see her again, albeit upon a lie. He didn’t appreciate her unscheduled visit, though he might have contemplated her it with her being so close in London.

  It didn’t help that her Lithuanian driver was pretending to be ignorant of both French and English. It was a long silent drive wherever she was and a chat with the handsome young man would have killed the boredom. Mary suspected he had been instructed to stay silent.

  It still bothered her that Master had male slaves that worshipped him as much as his women. With them the sessions were always more brutal than she preferred, and she often excused herself from observing as the others did. These men were often an integral part of the group activities and often lightened the load upon Master. Having not ruled multiple partners out as a hard limit, it meant that she’d had to participate in what could be considered an orgy for her Master’s voyeurism. It thrilled her as much as it had disgusted her, being fucked and debased in front of him, as he silently watched.

  The exploration of her sexuality had led her into some dark places which had tested her morality to its limits, but still left her breathless. There was something incredibly exciting and liberating in abandoning moral values and offering her body to debauchery. Often, she could only deal with it by inciting her fantasy of being captive to him and forced to obey his wicked commands, leaving her moral innocence unaffected.

  Whatever it was, six years with him had been nothing but spectacular. The empowerment Master had nurtured in her had brought her joy beyond belief. Her sense of superiority to her peers was now indelible and she refused to fight against it anymore. Master needed to understand what he had done for her and be proud of what he’d achieved. Instead, he refused to acknowledge her equality and threaten her with expulsion.

  Mary knew what she stood to lose, but she had to believe that he would give her a chance, once he knew the danger he was facing.

  She felt about for the gift she had brought for Tammy. Her hand grasped a plastic bag and brought it onto her lap. There was a box inside which held a porcelain doll, smiling behind its plastic display window.

  Tammy had told her how she had possessed a collection of them as a child. This one had cost over a hundred pounds, a handmade little girl with wild, auburn hair and sad, dark eyes. It was disturbingly lifelike, and in its simple white silken gown, it reminded Mary of that first night she had seen Tammy on the beach. She knew she would love it.

  Mary realised the car had been driving slowly for some time and she grew excited as it finally stopped. She was eager to remove the blindfold, but obediently waited until her door was opened, and her hand grasped to guide her out. With her vision restored, she gazed at the magnificence of the structure before her. She was too close to take in all its beauty, but her eyes swept back and forth over the façade.

  “12th century,” she uttered, looking lovingly at the twin stone towers bordering the main central façade. She smiled. “The king and his castle.”

  The front entrance was two arched wooden doors that were twice her height. One opened and Mary smiled happily to see Tammy running to greet her. She winced at the sight of the girlish frock Tammy was wearing, which was just clownish on a short, chubby woman of her age. This was something else she didn’t understand, that Master catered to Tammy’s delusions and even encouraged them. It wasn’t healthy in any sense.

  Tammy was hugging her tightly. “You’ve come to stay with us, Mary.”

  Easing out of her arms, Mary shook her head. “I’m here for an hour or so. I brought you a present.”

  Handing Tammy the bag, she watched her face light up as she drew out the doll.

  “She looks like me,” Tammy exclaimed, beaming with delight. “I love her. Thank you, Mary.”

  “You’re welcome. How is Master today?”

  “He’s grumpy,” Tammy pouted. “He said I had to stay in my room and I didn’t even do anything wrong. I heard Jodie tell the others that you would be here today and I’ve been watching for you.”

  Mary suspected she knew his reasons, which only made her more determined.

  “Everything’s going to change for you soon, Tammy. I’m going to make it all wonderful for you.”

  Tammy frowned at her. “I don’t want anything to change. It already is wonderful, even when Daddy is grumpy. There’s so many of us here, at least twenty and it’s like I have this big family and…”

  “You don’t understand,” Mary told her firmly. “This isn’t real. It won’t last forever and you have a far greater happiness waiting for you, a real life and one you don’t to have to hide from.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You do know what I mean… Ashley.”

  Tammy backed away, shaking her head. “My name is Tammy.”

  “No, it’s not. You are Ashley Tait, daughter of a wealthy, business man, married off to a pervert when you were only fifteen and pregnant to him, because your mother was having an affair with him. She let him do that to you.”

  “Stop it.” Tammy started pacing about, shaking her head. “Daddy is going to take me to see the tower tonight and tomorrow we’re going to the beach…”

  “Ashley, your husband told everyone you were dead, for a reason, because of the baby…”

  Mary closed her mouth as the door flew open and Dylan strode towards them. His impassive face looked as hard as his body, dressed in black sweatpants and t-shirt. Even after six years, the first sight of him always drained her of strength, and sent a tremor through her body.

  “Master.”

  He regarded her for a moment before his gaze fell upon Tammy. “You were told to stay in your room.”

  His deep, quiet voice made both women shrink before him.

  “I wanted to see Mary,” she told him timidly. She held the bag up. “She brought me a present.”

  Calmly, he took her upper arm and drew her against him, but in one swift movement he had her bent backwards under his arm.

  Tammy screamed out. “No, Daddy.”

  He took his time raising the back of her frock and tucking it into the satin sash, uncovering a pair of yellow, frilly panties which were soon being tugged down to her thighs. Tammy was squirming furiously to escape, while still desperately pleading with him.

  Mary watched with a mixture of horror, embarrassment and awe as he proceeded to punish her. It didn’t help that three other women had emerged from the chateau and were also watching anxiously. She could feel Tammy’s exposure and humil
iation as if it were her own, and her whole body was electrified, her nipples hardening and the heat building between her legs. She felt the desperation of wanting to be in Tammy’s place, and suddenly didn’t want to go ahead with her mission.

  The spanking was hard and fast, peppering the entire surface of Tammy’s bottom and a good area of her thighs. She was screaming and wailing pitifully, pleading with Dylan to stop.

  When it was over, Tammy straightened up and was bawling as he brought her into his body and held her. She buried her head into his chest and clutched onto him, sobbing. His furious gaze shifted to Mary.

  “You lied to me,” he said. “You told me you wanted forgiveness, a chance to repent of your disobedience, but that’s not what you’re here for, is it?”

  “I needed to talk to you,” she whimpered.

  “It’s all been said. You do what you have to do and I will do what I have to do.”

  “But I have proof. I have the emails, the medical reports,” she insisted. “I have the DNA, and there’s much more that you don’t know…”

  “I don’t care what you have. We spoke about this and I told you to leave it…”

  “It’s not your life to make a judgement on.”

  Tammy’s cries had silenced and she turned her face from Dylan’s chest to stare at Mary. There was something angry and disappointed in her gaze that made Mary cringe.

  She looked up at Dylan. “I’m sorry, Daddy.”

  He stroked her hair tenderly. “It’s alright, baby. We will discuss your behaviour later.”

  “Am I going to get the strap?”

  “At least,” he smiled. “For now, the girls will take you back to your room. When I walk in, I want to see you in your naughty corner with your hands on your head, and nothing on your body. Is that understood?”

  Tammy sobbed. “Yes, Daddy.”

  “Good girl.”

  He turned to the others who came quickly to collect Tammy. As they walked away, Tammy turned back and looked sorrowfully at Mary.

  “Goodbye, Mary. Thank you for my present.”

  The girls quickly surrounded Tammy, comforting her and taking her back inside. Their cold parting glance at Mary sent an icy chill through her. Only months before she had shared a bond and intimacy with them as deep as any family tie. For the first time in many years, she felt a strange dread of loneliness and regret she had long forgotten.

  “Master, please…”

  “No.” His eyes penetrated her. “I am no longer Master to you.”

  Mary felt her chest tighten and the breath was sucked from her. “No, no, no. Don’t say that. You are my Master.”

  “That’s not what you wanted, Mary. You didn’t want to serve me. You wanted to be me.”

  She clutched onto his t-shirt and tried to mould into his body, but he remained stiff and unresponsive.

  “Please, let me explain, Master.”

  “No. The time for talking is over.” He turned to walk back inside.

  “She has a daughter.”

  Dylan stopped and turned back, nodding. “Eight years old who looks exactly like her mother. I didn’t need the DNA.”

  Mary gasped. “You knew.”

  “Of course I knew. Those people, wrong or right, are all that little girl has known. Despite the nature of their acquisition, they’ve treated her well and love her, and she loves them. What is it that you wanted to do, Mary?”

  “She belongs with her mother.”

  “With a woman who has been abused all her life, who has never known any love or happiness…”

  “You can’t give her that, but her daughter can. She’s Ashley, not Tammy, and it’s not right that you keep this from her.”

  “Ashley took a hatchet and killed her husband and his whore. That’s what I found in that house that day, before I burnt it down and destroyed everything and everyone that could hurt her again. And I found the tapes, recording years of her abuse at his hands, some of them dating back to when she was a kid.”

  Mary gaped at him. “You didn’t tell me.”

  “No, because you didn’t need to know. All you had to do was trust me. Tammy would never survive in the world you want her to go back to.”

  “If you had only told me…”

  “If you had only obeyed me,” he replied harshly. “But you thought you knew better, the so-called right thing to do. You wanted to take a little girl from a loving family home and put her with a woman she’s never known, who can barely look after herself.”

  “I just wanted what’s right.”

  “And what’s right for that child? If we do it your way, she will have to see her parents sent to prison, after she’s been ripped from their arms. She will probably spend the rest of her childhood in the foster system. If by some insanity, Tammy is awarded her daughter’s custody, that little girl will be forced to live with a woman who has no idea how to look after herself, let alone a child. Or maybe you want her sent to her grandmother who allowed a man to molest her own daughter so she could fuck him, until he got Ashley pregnant at fifteen years of age, and then married her off to him to save her own neck.”

  As Mary listened her face grew more confused. “I only knew some of that.”

  “Because you’ve never been woken by Tammy’s screams, or seen the terror on her face and held her for hours until she calmed down. You never saw the footage of what was done to her, after they took her child away.”

  Mary’s face lit up. “But I have names, Master. You will hardly believe it but it’s bigger than you know and Tammy’s mother is already in prison…”

  “Because I put her there,” Dylan stated. “She’s doing twelve years for the paedophilia they found on her computer. The men in those tapes are all dead by my hand, after I had inflicted the same torture upon them that they had dealt to Tammy.”

  Her mouth dropped open and she stared at him fearfully. “No, you wouldn’t do that. That’s murder. Those men had the right to a trial.”

  Dylan shook his head. “It’s all about law for you, isn’t Mary? Right and wrong are black and white to you when it comes to the law, which you yourself have broken to serve a criminal like me.”

  “No,” she snapped. “You set yourself up as a god, to satiate your ego and you think you know what’s best for everyone. Why don’t you at least give Tammy the choice of what she wants to do?”

  He shook his head “She’s not capable of that kind of choice. The least she knows, the easier it will be for her to finally find some peace.”

  “By pretending to be a child? You’re just reinforcing her perversion. She needs to be given proper psychiatric treatment and counselling.”

  “And she will spend the rest of her life locked away, and her child, which you profess to care so much for, will be taken from her family, and end up more damaged than her mother. This is the solution you prefer for her, so that justice can prevail.”

  “So, you won’t even tell her about her daughter?”

  “No, and I will do everything to stop you from telling her.”

  Mary straightened up and stared at him defiantly. “You can’t stop me, not anymore. It’s too late.”

  He glared at her. “What have you done, Mary?”

  “Everything I should have done in the first place. Zirconia needs to be handed over to the people who will use it wisely to better our world, to stop the criminals and terrorists in their tracks…”

  “And you think that’s what they’re going to use it for?”

  “Why wouldn’t they?”

  “Because they don’t give a fuck about crime. It’s about power, about who sits at the top and makes all the decisions for everyone else.”

  Mary glared at him. “Isn’t that what you do?”

  “Yes, it is,” he nodded. “Except every one of you has the choice to walk away from me at any time. I’m not out to rule the world or spy on it. My few powers of surveillance was all I ever needed.”

  “Thanks to me,” she fired at him. “That’s what you’re f
orgetting. You needed me to achieve that, and now that I have bettered myself you can’t accept that I have a voice, an opinion, and I deserve your respect.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” His cold eyes probed her. “I respected you six years ago, when you dared to obey my command to be in that car park, naked, vulnerable, exactly as I wanted you. What I feel for you now is contempt and pity, because with all your new found power, you are nothing to me. Goodbye, Mary.”

  He turned and strode back towards the doors. Mary hesitated, feeling her strength wither and her mind ache in confusion. She suddenly bolted after him, clutching hold of his arm as she fell to her knees.

  “No, this is wrong. This is not how I wanted this to go… Master, please, there is more I have to tell you. Please let me talk again and I will explain…”

  “I gave you your chance.” Dylan glared down at her. “Seth will return you to Paris and this is the last time we will see one another. Do whatever you have to do, Mary, but know that I will also do everything to protect them from you, Tammy and every other person who has ever called me Master.”

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  Wednesday, Wellington, New Zealand, February 2014

  It had been a long, uncomfortable night in the van, and Dylan was relieved to see Lena leave the hotel at four-thirty in the morning. He cursed to see she wasn’t wearing a coat and was shivering as she hurried along the deserted street.

  Starting the van up, he followed her at a distance until she turned onto Cuba Street. Pulling over, he got out and watched her walk down the street until she disappeared into a side alley. There were other tradesmen about, unpacking goods from their trucks and he accepted that she would be safe.

  Getting back into the van, he stared out at nothing, but saw every detail of her face and body. He remembered the softness of her skin, the dimpling in her buttocks and the effort it had taken not to apply a few hard smacks. Lena had lost weight, but there was still plenty to put his arms around, while holding her weighty breasts in his hands.