After my first High Tea, I got in touch with a couple of the women I had met there. Helen and Michelle stuck out as particularly nice, so I emailed each of them to let them know I enjoyed meeting them. I heard back from both and stuck up a little correspondence with each. Denise and I scheduled another lunch.
In addition to visiting with her, I wanted to ask about the upcoming Halloween party, since I had no idea what to expect. When she arrived and joined me in the booth, she winced as she sat down. I could also see red marks on her wrists even though she had tried to cover them with a watch on one wrist and a bracelet on the other. The look on my face as she sat down led her to confess Paul had whipped her the night before.
"It was a rough one too," she added. "He went at it quite a while."
"I'm sorry," was all I could offer as consolation.
"Not only did he whip the hell out of me, he got so tired doing it that he sat down to take a breather, leaving me hanging there by my wrists until he could resume. So, now my back, shoulders and wrists are sore in addition to the sting from the marks all over me."
"I am sorry. Is there anything I can do? Why was he punishing you?"
"He wasn't punishing me - this time. He just likes whipping me. He says, 'scourging me is cleansing for both of us.'" She used air quotes as she said 'cleansing,' giving me another glimpse of the rope marks on her wrists. "Now, he did punish me like that once when I forgot to order bottles. But that was more embarrassing than anything else because he had some of the hired hands watch."
When we finally moved on from her ordeal, I asked about the upcoming Halloween party, which was still a couple of weeks away. She told me the Halloween parties were always fun. When I inquired about us going in costumes or going nude, she told me, "It's both for us girls."
She saw the bewilderment on my face and laughed. "That's the challenge...and the fun. We are supposed to be in costume but also stay nude. It's all in the accessories. We get very creative."
Denise spent a while telling me about some of the costumes she had seen at past parties. While I appreciated the ideas I was getting for a costume of my own, it started to seem as if I would have trouble picking one that had not been done before. She also told me about the hosts, Dean and Vivien. They were older than most of the rest of the group; in their late fifties, she guessed. And Vivien was his wife, making her senior, in theory anyway, to those of us who were companions. Denise also told me there would be dancing and food and drinks, including wines from her vineyard.
We talked about a wide range of things in addition to the upcoming party and eventually she asked if Jonathan had taken in a slave, recalling our discussion about Pam at my first High Tea. I was happy to report to her that he had not taken Pam in as a slave. In fact, he had not mentioned Pam's name in several days. After eating lunch and having a couple of glasses of wine, we left, promising each other we would touch base before the Halloween Party.
Leading up to the party, Jonathan and I discussed our costumes a few times. We agreed to coordinate and, after suggesting and rejecting several ideas, decided to go as Little Miss Muffet and the Spider. Jonathan's costume took more work than mine. His would consist of black pants, a black, long sleeve shirt, and six spider legs fashioned from pool noodles painted black and attached to the back of his shirt. His arms would serve as the two remaining spider legs. I would wear a wig of bright, blonde curls, white knee-high socks and black Mary-Jane shoes. For an added touch, I would carry a plastic bowl with a plastic spoon epoxied to it.
The morning of the party, Jonathan took a couple of bags of gear and left for a while without telling Gabrielle or me where he was headed. He returned a couple of hours later minus the gear. I asked him where he had been, and he explained he had set up a photo area for the party. After lunch we each busied ourselves independently for a couple of hours and, later in the afternoon, we got ready for the big event. It did not take me very long to get ready. Most of my time was spent putting on make-up and getting my left stocking up and under my ankle chain. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I realized I looked very much like a nursery rhyme character, albeit a naked one.
I assumed I would wear a coat on the ride over, but Jonathan gently informed me there would be no place to put coats at the party, so we would be wearing only our costumes in the car. By now, I was used to being naked around him, and even around Gabrielle, but I still had some trepidation about riding around town in the car naked.
When we arrived at Dean and Vivien's mansion, we parked in the courtyard at the front of their house where lots of other fancy cars were parked. Even though Jonathan held my hand, I felt nervous walking the 60 or so feet from the car to the front door. Once at the front door, he did not knock or ring a bell, he simply opened the door, and we went in.
The large foyer was tiled with marble and there were just a few people mingling there. I did not know them, but Jonathan waved and said hello to them as we walked through the space. One couple were dressed as Dracula and, I assumed, one of Dracula's wives. He wore a tuxedo and had his hair slicked back and had some fake blood at the corners of his mouth. She was completely nude except for some black high-heeled pumps. She was also wearing the now-familiar gold chain around her left ankle. Her nails and lips were bright red, and her pale skin contrasted with her dark hair, which she swept to one side and held in place with a silver comb. She also had two red marks on her neck; the remnant of Dracula's bite. The lady was fairly slim and had nice sized breasts. I noticed her pussy was completely shaved, which I thought was odd for someone who would have been undead since the nineteenth century.
Dracula and his wife were chatting with a couple who I guessed were Lady Godiva and some stable boy. She was totally nude as well as barefoot, her ankle chain in plain view. She wore a wig of long hair which came down to near her ass, and she was holding one of those child's toys that had a stuffed horse's head on a stick. He was wearing some rags that he tried to fashion into some medieval outfit. So far, I was unimpressed by the creativity of any of the costumes. But I was impressed with how the naked women were carrying themselves; confident and carefree.
When we reached the other side of the foyer, we paused briefly before walking down three steps into a large room filled with lots of couples who were mingling, chatting and laughing; many had drinks in their hands. There was audible music, but it was not so loud that it would intrude on conversations. I noticed several of those in attendance looked at Jonathan and me as we made our way down the steps. I was both embarrassed and strangely aroused to be a momentary object of attention.
Jonathan led me as we waded into the small sea of humanity. We stopped several times as Jonathan exchanged greetings with people and introduced me. Not being good with names, I realized I would remember them by their costumes, not their names. The fourth couple Jonathan introduced me to were dressed as Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein. Just as we were saying our hellos, I noticed a nude woman who did not appear to be wearing a costume making her way through the crowd. As she approached us, I could see a slave's chain around her neck. She also had a tray of champaign glasses, but she was not carrying the tray; it was attached to her at the corners by a rope running around her neck and another rope running behind her back. She stopped when she reached us as if she were offering us champaign. Like all the slaves I had previously seen, she did not speak and was completely naked. Her breasts hung in plain sight just above the glasses on the tray and I could see her arms were tied behind her back, bent at the elbows.
