Stephanie's Trial (19 page)

With her arms
freed, Amanda unbuckled the leather harness from around Stephanie's
neck and threw it to the floor. She watched her like a hawk as
first she allowed her into one of the toilet stalls and then made
her shower, wash her hair and clean her teeth.

As soon as
this was done, and without waiting for her to dry herself, Amanda
produced a pair of leather cuffs joined together by a short stout
chain.

'Hold out your
hands,' she ordered.

As she was
about to buckle the first cuff on Stephanie's wrist she noticed her
Patek Phillipe watch.

'Well, this is
very nice,' she said. She opened the bracelet that held the watch
in place and slipped it off Stephanie's wrist and onto her own.
'Very nice,' she said, holding her wrist up to admire her new
acquisition.

Amanda buckled
the leather cuffs round Stephanie's wrists. Attached to the link
which held the cuffs together was another chain, again like a
leash, and by this Amanda tugged her forward.

'My shoes...'
Stephanie protested.

Amanda thought
about that for a moment, then allowed her to go back and wriggle
her wet feet into them.

They
progressed through the main door of the cellars, through the racks
of vintage wine to the stone staircase that led to the main hall of
the castle. Picking their way carefully up the worn steps they
emerged into the daylight, Stephanie screwing up her eyes against
its power after the gloom of the cell.

When she was
able to see properly she was surprised at how little damage
appeared to have been done. The hall looked perfectly normal with
the exception of an empty brandy bottle in one of the huge
terracotta pots that held the indoor palm trees.

Amanda headed
down the long passage behind the main staircase that led to the
office complex, the two women's high heels clacking on the marble
floor. The small, ornately carved door at the end was open. Beyond
there was a large modern office, the hub of Devlin's business
empire when he was staying at the castle. There were three
secretary's desks, each with computer terminals, telephones, VDUs
and fax machines. The walls were lined with white filing cabinets
and shelves stacked with computer tapes and box files. But instead
of the neatly arranged order the office usually displayed, there
was now chaos. Every single filing cabinet had been ransacked and
some had even toppled over onto the floor. There were files and
paper everywhere.

On the far
side of the room was Devlin's office. A long picture window had
been cut into the side of the stone of the castle walls to reveal
the gardens and orchards at the back of the castle. Here, in this
office, there were no filing cabinets or computers, just a massive
desk carved from a single piece of walnut, a low leather sofa, a
leather high-backed swivel chair behind the desk and a single
telephone. Stephanie could see that the swivel chair was occupied
but as its back was turned towards her she could not tell by
whom.

As Amanda
pulled her into the room the desk chair swung round and Andrew put
his feet up on the thick walnut of the desk.

'Sleep well?'
he said, his eyes examining her naked body. 'Not very comfortable
down there, is it?'

'She deserves
it,' Venetia said. She was sitting on the leather sofa wearing a
one-piece Lycra and nylon body suit like a leotard and a pair of
tights combined in one garment. It was as transparent as tights,
showing every line and curve of her body and her big spherical
breasts, though most of these were already displayed by the
plunging neckline of the Lycra that reached almost to her navel.
The triangle of her belly was hidden under the body suit by a tiny
black G-string matching the black shading of the one-piece. Her
feet were clad in shiny black high-heeled ankle boots. She looked,
whether at her own behest or Andrew's, like a whore in a brothel, a
very expensive whore in a very expensive brothel.

Stephanie
looked around. Devlin's private safe, set into the stone wall at
floor level, was open and she could see the neat stacks of money
inside: Swiss francs, pounds sterling and Italian lire.

Andrew had
followed her eyes. 'Venetia has been most helpful,' he said.

Stephanie
glanced at her but again she refused to meet her eyes. She knew
Venetia had acted to protect herself but now it appeared she was
prepared to go further. Stephanie had found it difficult to imagine
that Venetia would betray her or Devlin but she was beginning to
believe that was precisely what she was doing.

'However,'
Andrew continued, 'we need your access code to the computer.'

'What are you
going to do?' Stephanie asked.

'We're
instructing the computer to destroy the files,' Venetia said,
standing up. Her bizarre costume made her magnificent body look
even more attractive; her big breasts trembled under the nylon, her
breasts and buttocks stretching the weave of the material and
therefore making the shading lighter, giving them an impression of
whiteness in contrast to the less stressed areas where the denier
was denser and blacker.

'Show her,'
Andrew said, getting up from Devlin's chair. He was wearing jeans
and one of Devlin's handmade white shirts.

The four filed
into the outer office. Andrew was unable to resist the temptation
to stroke Venetia's curvaceous arse. She greeted the touch with a
shudder of distaste and slapped his hand away immediately.

'I thought we
had an agreement,' she said.

'We do,' he
replied. 'Doesn't stop me wanting.'

'As long as
that's all you do.'

The nearest
computer terminal was turned on and Stephanie read the instructions
telling the mainframe to erase a whole list of files. At the bottom
of the screen a message flashed in bright green capital letters:
PLEASE TYPE SECURITY ACCESS CODE.

'Do it,'
Andrew said, pushing Stephanie forward.

Stephanie did
not hesitate. What was the point? She had no doubt what they would
do to her if she tried to resist. She typed in four numbers and
pressed the ENTER key. The screen went blank. One word, also
flashing, appeared: SURE? Venetia moved Stephanie aside and typed
in the word YES. The screen went blank again before, in
micro-seconds, it read: FILES ERASED.

'Which leaves
the hard copies...' Amanda said.

Venetia was
already typing out instructions. 'This will go to Devlin's office
in London. They will destroy the files.' She pressed the enter
button.

Stephanie's
heart missed a beat. She tried to remember what Venetia knew. The
security arrangements had all been changed. Did Venetia know that
no file would be destroyed without a security access code different
from the one she had already given? They had made the change three
months ago but had they told Venetia about it? Surely she must
know, she knew everything about the computer system? If she did
then she had not revealed it to Andrew and Amanda and knew
perfectly well the files would not be destroyed. Which meant she
was clearly still trying to act with Devlin's interests at heart.
But what if she didn't? Then she was betraying them, totally
prepared to do anything to save herself from Andrew, Mick and Paul
or any of the male slaves. Perhaps she had not been told because it
did not involve a computer program, just an instruction about files
which had nothing to do with the computer. Stephanie tried to
remember but couldn't.

'Are you sure
they'll do it?' Andrew asked.

'Positive,'
Venetia said, once again ignoring the look Stephanie was giving
her. 'Look...'

The screen
read: INSTRUCTIONS RECEIVED.

That seemed to
satisfy Andrew. He turned to the wall and ripped out the sockets
connecting the computer to the phone lines. He ripped out the
telephones and the fax lines too. The main terminal for all the
phones into the castle was a small grey box on the wall by the
door. He kicked this hard until it fell apart, a tangle of coloured
wires. 'Are there any other phones? Private lines?'

'No. They all
come through here.'

'Good. Don't
want to be disturbed, do we?'

'So now we
just need to know when Devlin arrives?' Amanda said, staring at
Venetia.

'I told you I
don't know,' Venetia said quickly.

'We know it's
today. We called his office. They were very helpful,' Andrew
grinned. That was how they knew when he was coming back. 'But
when?'

'I don't know.
He didn't specify a time. We send the boat out when we hear the
plane. The driver would do the same. That's normal.' Stephanie
thought that sounded like a convincing lie. Devlin was expected at
two. There was just a chance they might not get there in time if
they waited until they heard the plane circling. There was normally
time for the boat to get to the jetty by leaving when they heard
the plane, but they would also have to get into the car and find
the landing strip. There was a slim chance that Devlin might be
alerted if the car was late.

'I see.'
Andrew was thinking. 'Well, I think we'll lave to organise a little
surprise party for Mr Devlin. There's no way he can be here before
one. Then we'll sit and wait for him. Be prepared... isn't that
right, mistress?' Once again he sneered at the word "mistress".

'If you say
so.'

'But I do.'
Andrew smiled broadly, coming right up to Stephanie, his face
inches from hers. 'So let's go and see how our other preparations
are getting on,' he said, catching the leash that hung from her
wrists and jerking her forward.

Andrew led Stephanie out of the offices with Amanda and
Venetia following. They walked down the long passage and out under
the stairs into the main reception room. If Stephanie had any
illusions that the slaves were not causing chaos in the castle,
they soon disappeared. The living room and dining room were a total
mess. Pictures had been ripped and torn from the walls,
objets d'art
smashed and
red wine sprayed everywhere. All the bookcases had been ransacked,
the books lying in heaps on the floor, and the priceless rugs cut
into pieces.

In the dining
room the massive glass table had been shattered into a thousand
pieces and the glass display case containing English Georgian
silver lay on its side, its contents gone.

In the living
room a space had been cleared in front of the gothic fireplace,
where a wooden table looted from one of the other rooms had been
set up with two dining chairs behind it. To one side of the table
and in front of it, two leather wing chairs had been placed side by
side. Opposite these, on the other side, a smaller table and chair
had been arranged. The rest of the space had been filled with a
selection of chairs set in two rows.

'Excellent,'
Andrew declared.

Mick and Paul
had been supervising the work, each wearing nothing more than a
pair of shorts - Devlin's shorts - belted with one of his silk
Sulka ties. Three of the male slaves had been helping them, and one
of the females. The males were clothed from Devlin's wardrobe too,
Savile Row-tailored trousers and Jermyn Street shirts, their
sleeves rolled up and their tails knotted at the navel. Stephanie
recognised the black silk teddy the female was wearing as her
own.

There had been
five men and seven women in the cellars when they arrived but there
was no sign of the others.

'Well we've
got one defendant. Now we need the other,' Amanda said.

'Where are the
others?' Andrew asked.

'Oh, they went
to get the garden overseers. Seemed to think they had a score to
settle...' Paul said.

'We do,' the
female slave said eagerly. 'They're taking them down to the
cellars...'

'Sounds like
fun, I think I'll watch.' Mick grinned broadly.

'Well, it
seems we've got a little time for a diversion,' Andrew said. 'Let
me see. What shall we do now? Order some coffee while I'm
thinking,' he said to Venetia.

'The servants
have gone,' she replied.

'What!'

'They ran off
this morning.'

'How could
they? I locked the boat up in the boathouse myself. I've still got
the keys.'

'There were
two rowing boats down by the orchard.'

'Did you know
about this?' Amanda turned to Venetia menacingly.

'No, no, of
course not. You can't expect them to stay with all this going on.
Anyway, there's plenty of food in the kitchen. We can cook it
ourselves.'

'True,' Andrew
said.

'Can we go
back to the cellars now? We don't want to miss the fun,' one of the
male slaves asked.

'Sure. Do what
you like until the trial starts. Give them one for me.' Andrew
remembered how the overseers had reacted to any hint of slackness
in his work rate.

'I'm going
too,' Amanda said as the slaves headed for the cellar door. 'I
think this needs my personal attention.'

'Well, I've
got an idea, since we've got time on our hands,' Andrew said as the
slaves with Amanda and Mick headed for the cellars.

'I want to
eat,' Paul said, his sexual appetite still satiated from the
excesses of last night.

'Well, that
just leaves me, doesn't it?' Andrew picked up the leash on
Stephanie's cuffs and started to lead her out of the room. Venetia
stayed where she was. 'Come on darling. You're going to play a part
in what I've got in mind... And I don't want to leave you behind
anyway, do I?'

Venetia caught
up with him and slid her hand round his arm. 'Still don't trust
me?' she said, her semi-nude body looking so sexy under its sheen
of nylon Lycra.

'You're
getting there,' he said, eyeing her body as they walked up the
marble staircase.

Stephanie's
bedroom was a mess too. All the wardrobe doors were open and all
the drawers of the chests pulled out. There were clothes and
lingerie and sexual equipment everywhere: panties, basques, whips,
dildos, nipple clips, leather harnesses and gags strewn around the
room as though a hurricane had torn through it. The bed had been
slept in and the sheets were still ruffled.