Back to Lady Chapman's room

Adam stands outside Lady Chapman's room for the second time that evening.

A dull nervous ache fills his stomach.

There is no light shining under the door, but he now knows that it is so thick that this can't be trusted as a safe sign.

He presses his ear to the door and listens, but can't hear anything.

The gruff man has fucked her, and they've both fallen asleep, he thinks hopefully. I know exactly where her clothes are, and I know that the floorboards don't creak. Not in her room.

I can be in and out in three minutes, he tells himself. Maybe less. If they're asleep, they'll never know.

But still he waits.

He waits for ten minutes, unable to summon the courage to open the door.

And then, finally, summoning all his will, he pushes it open and slips into the room.

The room is till lit by flickering candles, now towards the end of their lives.

The first thing he notices is that the bed is empty. The restraints that bound Lady Chapman to it are loose, and the sheets are rumpled and sweaty. Her red panties and bra lie in a pile on the floor. It looks like the panties were ripped off her.

The seccond thing he notices is the swarthy man sat in the chair at the far side of the room.

He immediately tries to duck back out of the room, but he's too late.

"Boy! Stop!"

Even in his panic he feels slightly aggrieved. "Boy", indeed! He was a man!

But he reluctantly enters the room again, feeling defeated.

He hadn't even gotten past the first hurdle.

The man sitting in the chair smiles at him in a way that Adam really doesn't like. He is wearing a bath robe, and Adam suspects, little else. He has a mop of black hair, thick stubble, and a nose that has been broken on several ocasions by the looks of things. His eyes glint with a mean intelligence, and his hands look rough.

"And what brings you to Lady Chapman's room in the middle of the night, boy?"

A gruff voice. Definitely the man from earlier.

"I'm just lost. I didn't mean to intrude. Can I go?"

"Lost?" the man snorts. "Lost people don't sneak around like you do. You're a thief, yes?"

"No! I'm one of Nathalie's friends."

"Nathalie?" the odious, hairy man licks his lips slowly. "I thought she was out of town. She's in her room, yes? Maybe I should say hello."

He shifts position slightly and his bathrobe falls open. His chest is covered in thick, black wiry hair.

Adam takes an instinctive step backwards.

"Who are you, anyway?" he asks.

The man laughs. "Who do think? I'm Lady Chapman's lover. She's tied up right now. But I think she'll want to have words with you in the morning."

His eyes glint darkly. "Would you like to see her?"

"I... no..."

"You would, boy. Don't lie. Come with me."

He stands, pulling his robe together, and ushers Adam out of the room.

In the corridor, he opens a separate door to a side room. Adam knows that this was once the map room of the house - a large chamber filled with books.

It looks very different now.

Lady Chapman is hanging from her wrists in the centre of the room, standing uncomfortably with her entire body stretched taut. And what a body! Adam ogles her lovely soft breasts and neatly trimmed pubic hair, shaved fasionably into a Brazillian cut. She is still gagged and blindfolded and emits muffled sounds of indignation when they enter the room.

The room is well lit on all sides by small portable lights, and Adam notices video cameras dotted around the room.

He also notices the canes lined against the wall, and the dark pink lines on poor Lady Chapman's bottom.

She'd been caned.

"She loves it," the man whispers into Adam's ear, far too close for comfort. "She loves a good caning. She comes across all high and mighty, but look at what she can be reduced to."

Adam gaped, half excited by the spectacle, half threatened by the smell and proximity of the swarthy man and the growing bulge in the front of the man's bathrobe.

"Enough," the man says finally, and drags Adam out by the arm. "Me and Lady Chapman have got some more filming to be getting on with. In the meantime, you're going to stay here. And in the morning, Lady Chapman is going to have a bone to pick with you, you get me? Sneaking in on her and seeing what you've seen, seeing the state she's in, well she ain't going to like that one bit."

So saying, the man pushes Adam into a different room on the corridor and slams the door shut. Adam hears a key turning in the lock.

Damn. Trapped!

He is in Chapman House's second library, a small room lined with books and charts. A picture of a shipwreck is hung on the wall to his left, and immediately ahead is a window through which moonlight is pouring through.

This really does put a time limit on it, he thinks. I can't, CAN'T, face Lady Chapman in the morning after this! I need to do what I came to do, spank the shit out of her daughter, and then get out of this crazy house before anyone notices I'm gone.

But first things first. How the hell do I get out of this room? he wonders.