Discipline of the Private House (13 page)

Barat shuddered. He wanted to see Olena, rather than hear any more about the ways in which the harness could be made even more uncomfortable. 'Where is my robe?' he said. 'I must wear it if I am to exert authority in Olena's eyes.'

'I have it in the corridor,' Isabelle said. 'You will be permitted to put it on before Olena enters the training room. But haven't you forgotten something?' She climbed on to the bed, pulled a pile of pillows into the centre of it, and arranged herself face down with her legs apart and her bottom at the apex of the mound. As she pulled open her skirt Barat saw that her buttocks had a dull red glow and were criss-crossed with wide stripes. She had been whipped, and recently. Barat felt his engorged member twitch in its bondage. She looked over her shoulder at him. 'Come and lick me,' she said. 'Both holes, until I come.'

The cape should have made Olena feel less naked, but she found it made her even more aware of her body. Olena thought the garment would have been a good fit for a shorter woman with a much smaller bust.

Nicole led her along dark flagstoned corridors and through shadow-filled pillared halls. Olena found that, if she pulled the cape together in front of her, the material touched her breasts and the hem was pulled up at the back so that she feared that her bottom was on display; if she let the cape hang so that it covered her bottom and hips, it was open at the front and anyone walking towards her could glimpse her naked body. The two women did not meet many other people as they walked, but Olena was sure that each one they passed looked closely at her, and she felt very flustered as she tried to adjust the cape.

Olena was disturbed, too, by the muffled noises that emanated from beyond the closed doors that she passed. She heard voices speaking several different languages, including her own. She heard voices issuing commands, voices pleading, voices reciting - almost everything, in fact, except ordinary conversation. She heard wordless exclamations: cries, yelps, laughter, weeping, gasping.

The sounds were puzzling, and seemed to conjure the most unwholesome images into her mind. She couldn't rid herself of increasingly impure thoughts; she found herself listening for footsteps approaching, so that she could artfully let the cape fly open just enough to intrigue the passer-by; she would slow her pace and tarry behind Nicole at each doorway as she strained to hear the disquieting noises from within.

The air in the draughty corridors swept round her thighs and between her legs, making her aware of the damp heat there. She had noticed that whenever she had these strange sensations in her secret parts her nipples would harden and her breasts would feel more sensitive. It was all very confusing; the only thing that she was sure of was that the feelings were wrong and wicked.

'What are those noises?' she asked Nicole. 'What is happening in all the'rooms we pass? What is this place?'

Nicole, looking alarmed, put a finger to her lips. 'I told you the rules,' she whispered. 'Don't speak unless you are spoken to. You will be told what you need to know in just a few minutes. We are coming to the training room now.'

They had arrived at a pair of polished wooden doors. Nicole knocked on one of them, and Olena heard a reply from within. Nicole pushed open the door and gestured for Olena to precede her through the doorway.

Olena found herself in a long, high-ceilinged room. Along one side there were tall, shuttered windows through which cracks of daylight could be seen. The light in the room came from lamps concentrated at the far end, where there was a long table. Olena formed a fleeting impression of furniture and other more unusual and complicated items occupying the shadowed edges and corners. But her attention was concentrated on the people she saw behind the table.

Sitting at the central point of the table was the sinister-looking man who had insisted on being addressed as Master Robert. On one side of him stood Barat, properly dressed in his robe and looking sombre. Next to Barat stood a young woman with almost transparent clothing and piercingly bright blue eyes.

'Approach the table,' Nicole whispered.

Olena walked forwards. She tried to catch Barat's eye, but although he looked back at her his face remained impassive. She stopped in front of the table.

Master Robert's deep-set eyes surveyed her. At last he spoke. 'Nicole. Isabelle. Bring a chair for our guest. And bring lamps so we can see her.'

There was silence again while the two women dragged an armchair to where Olena was standing, and brought standard lamps to place one on each side of the chair. Olena found herself illuminated from both sides with pale yellow light. The rest of the room seemed more than ever full of shadows. She clutched the cape together to preserve her modesty; then she thought that the gesture would appear nervous, and she let go of the cape and tried to relax; then she realised that the man Robert could see her breasts, and she clutched the cape together again.

Master Robert spoke again. 'Olena, welcome to the

Chateau. You are a guest here by chance but, having spoken with your guardian, Barat, it seems that your presence could hardly be more timely and appropriate. Therefore we have decided to allow you to stay.'

There was a silence. Olena thought she had to say something. Thank you, Master Robert,' she said.

Master Robert inclined his head and gave her a thin smile. 'You are an intelligent young woman,' he said. 'A scholar, I'm told. You will therefore already have become aware that the customs of the Chateau are different from those of the community from which you and your guardian have strayed so far.'

That, Olena thought, was a considerable understatement. 'Yes, Master Robert,' she said.

'That very difference will, I think, prove to be your salvation,' Master Robert went on. 'I understand that in your community you are expected to resist certain temptations. You are required to be clean and pure, in your thoughts as well as in your behaviour. Here at the Chateau we know all about those temptations. We can detect impure thoughts. We are connoisseurs of impropriety.'

His hooded eyes seemed to Olena to be capable of seeing into her mind and her heart. No one but she knew the extent of her sinfulness. But if anyone else could find it out, she feared that Master Robert could. She looked away and blushed. She could think of nothing to say.

'We have been watching you since you arrived here,' Master Robert said, and Olena felt her heart fill her throat; she could not fail to be found out. 'And my mistress, the Chatelaine, and I have concluded that we detect in you tendencies towards pride, self-love and unwholesome desires. Your guardian will have none of it.' He looked towards Barat.

Barat gave her an encouraging smile. 'My faith in you is absolute, Olena' he said. 'You are a model member of the community. I will not believe that you could shame your parents or deviate from the purity of our customs, even in your most secret thoughts. I know you will prove to be entirely righteous and chaste.'

Olena managed to return his smile. If her disturbing fantasies and feelings had not become apparent to Barat, then perhaps it would be a simple matter to conceal them from Master Robert.

'And?' Master Robert prompted Barat.

'Oh yes,' Barat said. 'I have therefore agreed, Olena, that Master Robert and his staff, on behalf of the Chatelaine, will put you to the test. I'm sure that you have no guilty secrets. Or, if you do occasionally have wayward urges -as it is understandable a young woman might -then I have agreed that you will submit to sufficient mild discipline as will restore you to the rightful path. I will, of course, stay with you at all times.'

Olena's mind was reeling. She was to be tested. She would be disciplined. Barat would be watching. She didn't have any clear idea of what would happen to her, but the very phrases seemed to resonate through her body. Her nipples felt hard again, and she suddenly felt an almost uncontrollable impulse to touch the warm place between her legs. She wished that she had been allowed to sit in the chair that had been provided for her.

'Thank you, Barat,' she stammered.

There was a long silence, during which Olena felt the eyes of everyone in the room on her.

'Olena,' Master Robert said. 'I will begin testing you immediately. Remove your cape and give it to Nicole.'

Olena was unable to move. If someone had taken the cape from her, had torn it from shoulders, then she would not have resisted. But to volunteer to expose her nakedness, with so many watching - it was impossible.

'Olena!' Barat whispered hoarsely. 'Be obedient. You know it is virtuous to obey. I gave my assurance that you would follow instructions. Take off your cape. Remember: your body is a shrine that only you can defile. There is no evil in being naked, as long as your heart is pure.'

Olena closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Barat was relying on her. She would behave and think properly, for his sake. She would use all her strength and intelligence to prevent Master Robert from discovering anything that would incriminate her. She lifted the cape from her shoulders, turned to give it to Nicole, and turned back to face her inquisitor. She remembered to suppress the smile that came to her lips when she found that Master Robert and Barat were both staring at her breasts.

'Stand with your legs apart,' Master Robert told her.

Olena was aghast; not just because the instruction was obscene, she realised, but also because she was horrified to discover that she found the brutally brief command somehow exhilarating. In desperation she looked towards Barat.

He smiled at her again, and nodded.

Well, Olena thought, if Barat thinks there's no harm in it, I'll stand however they want me to.

She placed her feet apart, and her hands together in front of her private parts.

She looked at Master Robert. He gave her another of his parsimonious smiles. 'Come now, Olena,' he said. 'When you present yourself for testing in the Chateau, you must stand, or kneel, or sit, as required, always with your thighs sufficiently parted to permit examination of your vulva, both visually and manually. And your hands are in the way; cross them behind your back.'

Olena bowed her head. She knew she had to obey; if she had had no hidden desires, and if she had been truly innocent, then she would have had nothing to fear. She had to act as though she were pure. To protest would merely make Master Robert suspicious. She moved her feet further apart. When she crossed her arms behind her back she had to push her chest forward and her bottom back in order to keep her balance. She felt the heat of her blushing suffuse her face and throat, and was uncomfortably conscious that the private place between her open thighs was also feeling hotter.

'Barat,' Master Robert said, 'let us go and start the inspection.'

Olena heard his cliair scrape the floor as he stood; she heard his footsteps, and Barat's, as they approached.

'Nicole, Isabelle,' Master Robert said. His voice was little more than a whisper; he was standing in front of Olena, close enough to touch her. 'Would you come a little closer? Stand beside Olena; make sure she doesn't move.'

Olena shivered as the hem of Nicole's skirt touched the back of her left thigh. She leaned slightly to her right, and her arm pressed against the softness of Isabelle's breast. She could smell Nicole's perfume, and the muskier scent that emanated from Isabelle.

'She has very well-developed breasts,' Master Robert said. 'I wonder if perhaps they are slightly enlarged. One can almost feel the warmth of them. What do you think, Barat?'

'I'm afraid I don't know, Master Robert. I mean, I've never -'

'Of course. Look at the nipples, too. Quite definitely erect, and the areolae also appear to be hard. I suppose you don't know whether this is their usual state?'

'No, Master Robert. My duties as Olena's guardian do not require me to know such things.'

'I suppose not. You see, Barat, this hardness of the nipples is often an indication of sexual arousal. And in order for there to be arousal, there must first be desire. But you think that this is unlikely in this case?'

'Very unlikely, Master Robert. Olena knows her duty is to tell her guardian everything. And she has never spoken of any such desires.'

Olena had not dared to lift her eyes during this exchange. It was bad enough merely to imagine the two men with their gazes fixed on her out-thrust breasts. Sexual desire - that must be the source of the titillating sensations that were afflicting her nipples and her secret parts. She sniffed back a sob. It was so unfair! She had never intended to have sexual desires. She knew that to do so was unutterably wicked. How was it possible that she could have sunk into such sinfulness?

'Nicole,' Master Robert said, 'come and kneel in front of Olena. Yes, that will do. Now, can you see any visible signs of arousal?'

There was a long silence. Olena could see Nicole kneeling between her feet; she could feel Nicole's breath on the insides of her thighs. Isabelle's breast pressed more insistently against her upper arm. She glanced up: Barat had his eyes fixed on her breasts, but Master Robert was looking from under hooded lids straight into her face. Olena closed her eyes.

In the pit of her stomach she felt a slow, sinking sensation; it was like the feeling of fear, but with none of fear's urgency. It was a weight descending slowly, inexorably, within her. As it reached her belly the feeling expanded and began to merge with the warm tingling between her thighs. It became a delicious heat within her, and her head was swimming with the pleasure of it. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and felt her eyelids fluttering. In the back of her mind she hoped that Master Robert would not understand the significance of the expressions on her face. But such mundane considerations were overwhelmed by the wonderful, sinking warmth inside her.