Sweet Gwendoline

A few weeks ago, I had made a comment to Lyndsay how odd it seemed that both Dawn and I were such natural submissives. We took to bondage, humiliation, and harsh punishments as readily as ducks take to water.

"Is this something that runs in my family?" I asked, "If I researched my family tree would I find other women who took to bondage, nudity and cruel punishments the same way as Dawn and me?"

It was a rhetorical question, but I piqued Lyndsay's curiosity when I asked it. She visited the university, hired some undergrads to do research on my family and within a few weeks she had some interesting results.

"I found some fascinating stuff about your family," Lyndsay said as we sat on the couch in my mother's living room. Dawn was seated to my left, Lyndsay to my right and my mother was sitting in her recliner. Lyndsay had a legal pad with facts she'd learned about my family, but she wanted to wait until my mom, my cousin and me were all gathered in the same place before she would divulge any of it.

She flipped through pages on a legal pad and added, "Lesbians and bisexual women show up again and again in your family. The average family has one lesbian out of every ten females. Your family is way above average."

She flipped another page and added, "And you've had a lot of women in your family who are into bondage and corporal punishment, but not all of them want to be punished. Some of them want to do the punishing."

Pointing to Dawn and me, Lyndsay said, "The two of you have the Franziska gene."

Then pointing to my mother, she said, "You have the Katherina gene."

"Katherina gene?" my mother said, leaning forward, "I don't understand."

I felt I had a basic understanding of what Lyndsay was saying, but I kept quiet and allowed her to explain.

"Franziska von Konstanz was a German noblewoman who lived in the late 1700's. You're all related to her. You guys are also all related to Katherina von Konstanz. Both these women lived during the same time period, and they were two sides of the same coin," Lyndsay explained.

"Franziska had female servants who would tie her up, sodomize her with their fingers, bite her nipples, impale her noble vagina on candlesticks, burn off her pubic hair and do other humiliating things to her," she said as she made eye contact with me.

Then she turned and faced my mother, adding, "Katherina was different. She enjoyed spanking and whipping the naked bottoms of attractive, young females. She hired girls from the village and made certain that they understood humiliating, corporal punishments would be a regular part of their jobs."

"So, because I enjoy whipping naked girls," my mother concluded, "I have the Katherina gene."

"And because Dawn and I enjoy being stripped naked and whipped," I said, "we have the Franziska gene."

"Right," Lyndsay responded to all three of us, "I doubt it could ever pass muster in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, but the way I see it, it's inherited. More women in your family inherit the Franziska gene. So far my research team has found ten women with the Franziska gene and only five women with the Katherina gene."

Lyndsay had a wealth of fascinating information about the women in my family. In the 1800's, I had an ancestor named Caroline. Caroline was an educated, white woman who had a crush on a wealthy landowner named Mary Bennett. She volunteered to be sold at a public slave auction so she could legally become Mary Bennet's property.

"Holy crap," Dawn exclaimed, "you could buy and sell white people back then?"

"Well," Lyndsay said as she set down her legal pad, "technically speaking, I don't think it was legal, but the Bennett family had so much power and influence in South Carolina back then, Mary Bennett was able to keep the local population from challenging her legal right to own a white slave."

"Wow," I said, marveling at the level of commitment it must have taken for Caroline to voluntarily surrender her freedom like that.

"And then in the 1920's, we have an ancestor of yours named Gwen," Lyndsay said, with a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Gwen?" I asked.

My namesake wrote dozens of letters about her relationship with a bisexual actress named Louise. Louise bobbed her hair and wore slacks at a time in American history when women were expected to have long hair and wear skirts. And if this behavior weren't scandalous enough, Louise had a habit of stripping Gwen naked, tying her up with ropes, experimenting with different types of knots, different bondage positions, different types of rope and different locales, both indoors and outdoors.

"I can see how that would cause a scandal if anyone found out," my mother said, "And if they did it outdoors, I imagine they got caught a lot."

"They did," Lyndsay conceded, "Officially the story was that Gwen was learning how to be an escape artist, however after being tied up hundreds of times, Gwen never once escaped from any of the bondage positions Louise came up with. And Gwen was often punished for failing to escape."

"Was she spanked?" Dawn asked, seeming way too enthusiastic about our ancestor being punished for failing to escape from rope bondage.

"Quite often," Lyndsay replied, "Although there were other punishments as well, usually involving different ways of hurting her nipples."

"Oh my God," my mother exclaimed emphatically, "we should do that!"

"What?" I asked, not at all certain what my mother was referring to.

"I could take you and Dawn out into the woods," my mother explained, "I know a perfect spot out in Campo Verde, near the lake! I could strip you both naked and tie you up out there. If you can escape, you get a reward! If you can't get free, you get punished!"

My face flushed hot with panic and there was a pounding in my ears as I tried to talk my mother out of it.

"The woods, near the lake?" I said, "Mom, I know that area! On any given day you can find campers, hikers, birdwatchers, boaters, and anglers! Couldn't we try your idea here at home?"

"No," my mother said resolutely, "the thrill of knowing some stranger might come along and see you all naked and helpless is exactly what makes this idea so exciting! It has to be done out there in the woods! Even if nobody sees you, the danger of being discovered and the anxiety you girls feel is what makes this idea so delicious!"

I tried to talk my mom out of it, but she was so thrilled as the prospect of Dawn and me being naked and embarrassed in front of a total stranger that she wouldn't budge. And then my traitorous girlfriend decided to take my mom's side and at that point I knew I was doomed. I couldn't possibly win an argument against both Lyndsay and my mom. Eventually, I surrendered and agreed to go along with my mom's plan.

* * *

About a week later, we put my mom's plan into action. We took my mom's SUV and she drove the four of us from Fairhaven to Campo Verde. It wasn't all that long of a drive, but when my mother parked her SUV out in the woods, we were miles away from the nearest paved road, gas station or general store. We weren't in the public view anymore. And as soon as I stepped out of the vehicle, Lyndsay ordered me to strip naked.

"Now?" I asked my girlfriend.

"Right now," she said firmly, "There are rules to follow, and one of the first ones is that you and Dawn need to strip naked the moment we arrive at our destination."

Lyndsay and my mother both gave me an expectant look and I knew better than to argue. And although I didn't say anything out loud, the thought of being out in the woods without a single stitch of clothing, somehow triggered my libido. It had something to do with being outdoors. It made me feel more vulnerable and exposed.

By the time I began to unbutton my blouse, Lyndsay and my mom were both staring at me. When I had removed my blouse and my bra, Lyndsay took them both and tossed them into the back of my mom's SUV.

My shoes were next and then I squirmed awkwardly out of my skintight jeans. Lyndsay took those from me, and they soon ended up in the back of the SUV as well.

Within a few seconds I had divested myself of most of my clothes, however, Lyndsay acted as if she was somehow disappointed with the speed at which I undressed. My socks and my tiny thong panties were the last items to go, and then I was standing there in the woods, stark naked.

"You look adorable," Lyndsay said, "It's a shame I can't keep you like this all the time."

Being utterly naked and exposed instantly caused me to feel more submissive and vulnerable. During the drive out to Campo Verde, I had felt pretty much like Lyndsay, my mom and I were equals. Once I was naked, I instantly felt as if my girlfriend and my mother vastly outranked me.

Dawn shed her clothes in approximately half the time it took me to strip. And once we were both naked, she came to stand beside me and put her arm around my waist.

"You look adorable, too," Lyndsay said to my cousin, "Are you ready to be tied up?"

My mother pulled out enough rope to tie up about a dozen people and held it up where Dawn and I could see it.

"Will this be enough?" she asked, and I gave her an incredulous look.

"If you want to tie up the entire U.S. women's soccer team," I replied, "Seriously, Mom! Nobody needs that much rope!"

My mother didn't have much experience with ropes or rope bondage, so she overcompensated when she went to buy supplies. It's similar to what she did when she was elected leader of our neighborhood watch and she bought enough surveillance equipment to monitor every street corner and front lawn within three miles of our house.

Dawn stood next to me and put her arm around my waist while my mother struggled to figure out how much rope she actually needed. She ended up tossing a lot of it back into the SUV, and then told me to stand between two trees.

I was barefoot and there were acorns, dead leaves, and other debris on the ground, so I moved cautiously as I walked over to the spot between the two trees my mother had chosen. Every step I took, it seemed as if I was stepping on something painful or gross.

The ground was covered in wild grasses, weeds, hellebores, and the occasional tree root. I only had to walk about fifty or sixty feet, but it felt like I had to walk a mile. Seriously, when you're walking barefoot and naked through such scraggly, unkempt wilderness, it makes you feel vulnerable and helpless and frightened.

I was close to hyperventilating. I felt like this was a bad idea. I felt certain that I should never have agreed to this, yet there I was, doing it anyway.

My heart pounded like a wild thing in my chest as I stood between the two trees. I had argued against this plan and I was frightened by all the possible consequences, but I was still excited. As Lyndsay and my mother tied my wrists to the trunks of two trees, a shameless wave of desire flooded my entire body, hardening my nipples and causing my sex to throb with hungry spasms. Then my legs were stretched far apart, so that my ankles could be tied to the opposing trees. This only served to excite my libido even more.

It was embarrassing standing there naked and with my body betraying my feelings of arousal. With my mother standing just a few feet away, my nipples became blatantly erect and my pubic lips became swollen and moist.

Attention was diverted away from me for several minutes as my naked cousin was tied in a similar manner to two other trees. They were saplings with trunks no more than four inches thick, but the ropes were strong, and Lyndsay showed my mother how to make the knots tight and secure. Soon Dawn was bound spread-eagle with her arms and legs stretched far apart and no amount of struggling would allow my teenage cousin to escape.

"It's impossible," Dawn insisted after several minutes of squirming and straining her teenage muscles against the ropes.

"We only just got here," my mother insisted, "You need to spend more than four or five minutes on this project. Keep trying."

Dawn and I both strained against the ropes that held us. The trees we were bound to were some of the youngest and smallest in the forest, but those young trees were still mightier than the muscles in my arms and legs. I could disturb the tall grass around my ankles a little bit with what little motions I could make with my bare feet, but that was about the extent of what I could accomplish.

"Remember," Lyndsay said, "if you can escape from these ropes, you get a reward."

Lyndsay then ambled forward and proceeded to kiss me passionately. Her mouth made love to my mouth, her tongue rubbed suggestively against my tongue and she rubbed her wonderful body up against mine as we kissed. Then one of Lyndsay's hands slipped between us and she cupped my breasts and toyed with my nipple.

I moaned into Lyndsay's mouth as we kissed and I felt acute embarrassment that my mother was watching this, but mixed in with the humiliation was a deep sense of arousal. I was experiencing sublime nakedness, luxuriant humiliation, helplessness, and sweet shame. I knew it wasn't normal, but I was feverish with arousal at the way I was being abused.

By the time Lyndsay was finished kissing me and feeling me up I was indecently aroused. I looked at my girlfriend longingly, pleading with my eyes, desperate for her to finish what she had started, but she just stood there with her folded across her chest and an amused smirk on her face.

"Mom, are you just gonna let her do that to me?" I asked, desperately thinking that maybe my mother might intercede on my behalf.

"Hey, this is between you and your girlfriend," my mother insisted emphatically, "Of course, if you were to get free from those ropes, she wouldn't have you at a disadvantage, now would she?"

Ugh! My own mother was mocking me! Of course, no matter how hard I tried to get free, nothing changed. I could still move my fingers, but I couldn't reach any of the knots.

So, I couldn't untie the knots, and I wasn't strong enough to break the ropes. And I couldn't just squirm free, the ropes were tied too expertly and securely for me to just slip free. And to make matters worse, there were insects in the forest. Small insects flew around my naked body and when I failed to shoo them away, they seemed to sense that I was helpless. I was reduced to whimpering and gasping when creepy things with wings buzzed around my head or landed on my breasts. For some reason, the bothersome insects ignored the more innocent parts of my anatomy and preferred to perch on my nipples. I screamed when I felt tiny insectoid feet crawling across my naked skin, but Lyndsay and my mother insisted that such unpleasant sensations were all part of motivating me to become a better escape artist.

The more I struggled to get free, the more I was forced to acknowledge my helplessness and my vulnerability. And just when I thought my situation couldn't get any worse, three figures stepped out of the woods. I could hear the sounds of dead leaves crunching underneath their feet as they walked closer and when they got close enough for me to focus on their faces, I could see that all three of them were young and female.

I estimated their ages to be somewhere between eighteen and twenty-two, just the right ages to be in college. Oh, why couldn't they be sitting in a classroom right now? Why did they have to be out in the woods where my mother and my girlfriend had stripped me naked and tied me up?

All three of them had backpacks strapped to their backs and hiking staffs in their hands. They were dressed fairly typically for hikers, and I immediately guessed that's what they were.

The one in front was tall and skinny with a boyish haircut and was wearing a black t-shirt with the words "Embrasser les filles" emblazoned across the front.

Lyndsay had taken me to an Embrasser les filles concert a few months ago. They were a lesbian band, and most of their songs had a strong lesbian theme. Most of their fans were lesbians, and I instantly assumed that the skinny lady with the boyish haircut was a lesbian as well.

"What the hell is this?" the tall, skinny woman asked as she approached. Her two friends backed her up. I noted that they both looked much more girlish than the woman in front. One had long, blonde hair, the other had caramel-colored skin and long, dark hair that was tied back in a neat ponytail.

"They're in training," Lyndsay said with a degree of calm that I felt was unwarranted, "They're descendants of a great escape artist, and they're trying to follow in her footsteps."

There was stifled laughter and the boyish one said, "Escape artist training, yeah, right."

The blonde one took a few steps towards me, leaned forward on her hiking staff and asked, "Is there any truth at all to that story?"

I squirmed uncomfortably as it felt like everyone in the world was ogling my helpless nudity. A cool breeze chose that moment to blow past and brush across my naked buttocks and exposed pubic lips. The ropes clutching my ankles and wrists seemed even tighter than before, while the female hikers drank in my feminine nudity with intense eyes.

I entertained the idea of lying to the blonde woman and getting her to untie me, but then I looked into her captivating, green eyes and I felt overwhelmed. Something in her eyes spoke of authority, confidence and intelligence and I felt certain that I could never lie to her and get away with it.

"It was my mother's idea, but I agreed to it," I told the blonde, "My great, great aunt went through training like this back in the 1920's."

"She trained, naked?" the one with the boyish haircut asked.

"Oh yeah," I answered, "I think it was supposed to motivate her to work harder. Being naked was embarrassing and if she could get free, she'd be able to put her clothes back on."

There was more laughter and the dark-skinned woman asked, "So, being naked is supposed to incentivize you to work harder?"

"Something like that, yeah," I replied as I squirmed. I felt my face heat up with embarrassment as they assessed my naked body from head to toe and wished they'd go away and stop looking at me. My loins were shaved, and my legs were bound far apart, leaving my pubic lips indecently exposed. I was feeling more and more naked by the second as these ladies looked me over.

"Well, I don't believe in spoiling other people's fun," the boyish one said, "And it seems as if nobody is being hurt or abused, so I guess we'll just leave you to it then."

The three of them were about to continue down a hiking path and go deeper into the forest when Lyndsay called out and said, "Would you like to touch her?"

All three of them stopped in mid-stride and looked back at Lyndsay, but it was the blonde woman who said, "Wait! What?"

"Well, you're not freaking out," Lyndsay responded, "And her great, great aunt was trained using all sorts of aversive stimulus to motivate her to do better at escaping. And it seems to me that allowing total strangers to fondle her naked body would count as aversive stimulus."

That took all three of the hikers by surprise and they needed to have a brief discussion for how to respond. The dark-skinned woman was concerned that fondling naked girls who were tied up and helpless would be too much like rape, but her two friends insisted that Dawn and I had already consented to this sort of abuse. They made the argument that what was being done to me was no worse than what strict coaches did when they trained athletes for the Olympics. Sometimes training was painful and difficult, but you have to go through suffering sometimes if you want to be the best.

"Okay, I'm in," the dark-skinned lady finally said and all three women ambled over to Dawn and me.

I found myself feeling highly exposed and vulnerable. A powerful urge to flee passed through me, which of course was impossible. My wrists and ankles were tied far too tight. I was utterly immobilized. I wasn't going anywhere.