Chapter 22: The Olive Press
Lucio leads Julia and I away from the hunting lodge to the stone farm buildings clustered behind the main house. He unlatches the wooden gates to the olive press and pushes us into the building.
I find it strange there's no effort to bind us. I'm strong and know I'm capable of overwhelming Lucio to make an escape, though I've no wish to do so. It's not because I expect La Contessa would recapture me and drag me back anyway, I've been fairly caught out and should face my punishment. Another thought occurs to me; am I secretly pleased to get caught? Is my behaviour, knowingly taking such risks under La Contessa's nose because I subconsciously want to be exposed? I can't deny that possibility. There's another reason for not fleeing; I don't want to leave Julia to face the situation alone. Whatever my confused emotions about my servitude to La Contessa, I do love Julia, and have a lot of affection for her. I'm furious with myself in allowing those feelings to drive us into this predicament.
Julia looks distraught. I try to catch her eye but she appears to be in her own world of guilt and misery, oblivious to anything. How quickly things can change. Only minutes ago I laid at her side admiring her beauty and, here she is now, eyes reddened and face etched with a profound sadness, unable to even exchange a glance with her lover.
We sit in silence waiting for La Contessa's arrival. Lucio is prowling around preventing any contact between us. He's gloating, I can tell. Indeed, he can't resist commenting on our plight.
He mocks me, "So, you thought you could get away with it? Fucking mistress's maid. I made sure she knew what you were up to. Now your arrogance and lust will get their just reward."
"Ah, young lady," he says disdainfully, turning towards Julia, "you have become mistress's confidante but now you are undone, betrayed by your desires and stupidly falling for this young fool. Now with you gone, I'll get complete control over the household."
Bastard. So, it seems Julia, and I have been caught up in another agenda, the web of Lucio's palace politics. I wonder if La Contessa knows of his ambitions, or his plotting to bring poor Julia down. Mind you, he's the fool if he believes he'll ever control La Contessa. Julia couldn't care less. Lucio's words have no impact on her. Her misery runs deeper than Lucio's pathetic household power struggles.
But Lucio has played his hand; in his moment of victory he has shown his ambitions, whether he is wise or not remains to be seen.
Whilst waiting for La Contessa there's a chance to take in my surroundings. The olive press is an open-planned stone building, the equivalent of two storeys high, with white-washed walls. Rough wooden beams run across the building, some at ceiling height and others at what would be first floor level. In the centre, and dominating the space, is a huge cast iron frame and stone press with its cogs and wheels. Underneath it there is a large, shallow stone bowl used for gathering the oil once the olives have been pressed. The various implements used for the process: stone weights, wooden ladles, cast iron slatted spoons, funnels, and stoneware flagons are scattered around the building. There's a gallery at one end where barrels and jugs of oils are stored. My imagination is running away at the torment La Contessa can inflict with this stuff!
La Contessa arrives. She has changed out of her dressing gown and is wearing the same one-piece leather suit she had on last night. The gleam in her eyes is harsh and determined. Becky is behind her, naked with coils of rope hung over her shoulder like a human spindle, looking inscrutable as ever. Mademoiselle has come to watch the display too though her demeanour is subdued. She doesn't appear to be taking any pleasure out of this turn of events. For her, bondage and domination are a tool for sexual fun, but for La Contessa they're a serious business. She means it, it's part of who she is.
La Contessa's eyes flit around the olive press building, mentally noting its potential for sadistic punishment. She starts with me. She directs me to stand inside the stone bowl where the oil is gathered, with the press itself looming in front of me. The surface of the stone has a slick, oily texture. Lifting the coils of rope off the girl's shoulders, she begins by tying my ankles together. Then she ties my wrists and, throwing one end of the rope over a beam, she steps back and tugs at it until my arms are raised into the air. She pulls hard so the soles of my feet just touch the floor, and my arms are stretched. The rope is tied to one of the cast iron cogs used to turn the stones which crush the olives.
I'm compliant and offer no resistance. I understand why I need to be punished. I've no complaints. Indeed, dare I say I'm only too willing to submit to La Contessa, and accept whatever chastisement she desires to inflict.
She takes a narrower piece of rope, kneels in front of me and grasps my balls in her hand, pulling at them viciously. I let out a yelp.
"This is only the beginning, slave!" she exclaims.
She squeezes my balls and separates the two testicles with her fingers, running the cord between them, then threads the rope back around the base of the sac and pulls tightly. My balls are squeezed into two bulging blue-veined sacs. She holds one of them between her red painted fingernails and squeezes my testicle, her nails digging into the taut flesh. The pressure on my balls is intense and, again, I squeal at the intensity of the pain. She takes the loose end of the rope and secures it to a winch, part of the mechanism of the press. This enables her to pull the cord which in turn stretches my aching balls even further. She's not finished yet. La Contessa pulls the rope securing my arms and stretches them even further, forcing me onto tip toes. I'm in an awful predicament. She can cause untold agony by manipulating the ropes. My shoulders are aching, and I wonder how long I can hold this position.
La Contessa says nothing but, leaving me in this position, strides across to Julia. She takes her face between her hands and forces her to stare at me.
"Do you see your lover now? Observe the predicament he is in. You can watch him suffer, and then it will be your turn."
She removes more coils of rope from Becky, and secures one around Julia's ankles and ties her wrists with another, throwing the rope over a beam to haul her arms into the air. Julia does nothing to resist. Her eyes are blank and her body limp like a sock puppet. La Contessa could do anything with her and she wouldn't care. She takes one of Julia's nipples between her fingernails, squeezes it and then twists. There is a whimper as she finally gets a reaction from Julia. I feel sorry for her. I'm used to this treatment, after all, it's what La Contessa uses her slave for, but being naked and strung up is a new experience for Julia.
La Contessa strides over to one side of the building, the silver tips of her boots clicking on the stone slabbed floor. It's here where an array of tools is mounted on the wall, most of them fearsomely intimidating. Her back faces me so I can't see what she's selected. She returns with an armful of implements, dumping them into the circular stone trough with a clatter.
Her first act is to add to her ingenious cock and ball torture. She takes up a stone used as a counter-balance for the pulley of the press, and threads rope though a hole in the weight. She ties this onto the sac of my squeezed and stretched balls. She bends down in front of me whilst supporting the heavy stone, assessing its weight as she nestles it in her hand, the striking scarlet of her fingernails like flames against the dull grey of the stone.
"Do you see this slave?"
"Yes, mistress," I mumble.
"Can you see how heavy this stone is? You know I don't think I can hold onto it for much longer. And when I let go, imagine how the weight will pull on your balls."
I nod, acknowledging her taunts, and wait for the fateful moment when La Contessa releases the stone. She smiles a cruel smile.
"Oh, I'm only a feeble woman, the weight is simply too heavy for poor little me!"
She parts her hands and lets the stone go. It drops swiftly. The rope tugs on my balls and I expel a grunt. The pain is excruciating. The stone swings to a stationary position but it's a dead weight stretching my balls causing a relentless aching in my groin.
"Oh yes, that made you squeal. Was it painful slave?" she asks as she rests one hand against the press and raises a boot.
Even in my current predicament, I notice La Contessa is wearing my favourite pair of boots of hers, the ones with long silver-tipped heels and laced eyelets.
She kicks the stone weight with her boot.
"Ah," I scream as the weight swings from side to side, dragging my throbbing balls with it.
She lets the stone swing into a stationary position again, pauses a moment for effect, then kicks it again, this time harder.
"Oh," I shout.
"Your moaning and groaning is distracting, slave." She turns and calls behind her, "Mademoiselle, Would you do me the honour of lending me your knickers to gag this slave."
"
Mais oui
, madam. It would be my pleasure," she replies.
She hitches up her indigo velvet dress and wriggles her hips as she shuffles out of her knickers, and tosses them over to La Contessa.
"Mm. Look at these. Real silk, how delicious. And they are in the French style, see how petite they are."
She dangles them up before my eyes. They are beautiful, ivory silk with dainty lace trim. She pushes them up against my nose. They reek of Mademoiselle's French cologne.