Chapter Eight
It was Christmas. Polly usually came home for the holidays but had agreed to spend the first two nights with Rita. At the last minute, however, plans changed and she travelled home after all. She took a taxi from the station, to find her parents out when she arrived at the house. All was in darkness.
Feeling tired, she decided to retire to bed early. The central heating was on a high setting and Polly woke hot and damp. After tossing and turning for a few minutes, she decided to get herself a glass of milk. Not bothering to slip on her dressing gown, she stole quietly down the back stairs. No one would see her at the back of the house.
Her parents, if they were at home, would be in the lounge, a large room at the front of the house. Her short nightgown allowed the flow of air to cool her thighs as she crept down the dark staircase. There was no need to switch on the kitchen light. The one in the fridge was enough for her to see to fill her glass with cool milk.
A faint cry coming from another room made her pause in her movement. She cocked her head to listen. Nothing! It must have been an owl, she thought. After pushing the door of the fridge closed, Polly glanced through into the dining room. She was stopped in her tracks, dumb-struck. At the far end of it were a pair of multi-paned glass doors leading into the drawing-room beyond.
It was a spacious room, with French windows in the far wall, now heavily curtained. Through these doors had come the muffled sounds she'd heard. Polly could see through into the lounge. The lighting was subdued, and the sounds were muffled. But the action was clear enough. Sitting round the room were people in cloaks, wearing hoods attached to the back of the collar. Some were black and others red. Polly could only see the people on the opposite wall, so she had no idea how many were there.
Tip-toeing silently into the dining room, she got a clearer view. There were four or five couples. On the low coffee table, placed in the centre of the room, stood a woman in a long multi-coloured, almost transparent chiffon gown. Her figure could be clearly seen in profile through the fine silk; wrists were tied above her head to the large sturdy chandelier directly above her, lifting the spiky breasts high, nipples jutting against the silk.
The woman's head was dropped onto her chest, loose hair hanging over her shoulders, in an attitude of contrition. Before her stood a man, carefully weighing a multi-thonged whip in his right hand. He was testing it's balance. He was speaking sternly to the woman. Though muffled, Polly recognised her father's voice. When he turned sideways, Polly was staggered to se that he was naked beneath the cloak. His familiar thick penis was half-filled, swaying before him.
He was shouting. 'Mary, you're nothing but a filthy whore! We shall whip the devil out of your lecherous body!' Polly watched in horror as her father raised his arm, coiling his body back.
'No!' the woman screamed, twisting her body to try to escape the blow. But, with a twist of his waist he brought the vicious whip hard across the buttocks of the helpless woman. There came the crack of leather thongs biting deep into the soft flesh of the cheeks. Muffled sobbing sounds accompanied the jerk of the torso. A second blow followed immediately, stinging into the tops of the cheeks even before they had recovered from the first slash. A painful cry came from the twisting body.
'You must be punished, else you won't truly repent of your carnal sins.'
A third slash cut into the flesh. Polly could see the long weals forming on the pale skin. Like angry red stripes along fine mounds of swollen flesh. Polly put her glass of milk on the kitchen table and stepped cautiously into the dining room to get a clearer view. Not too close in case she could be seen, although very little light penetrated through the glass panes into the dining room.
'Don't hurt me, Albert! Please! I promise not to do it again.'
Although faint, to Polly's amazement, she recognised her mother's voice. She was clearly being punished for something she'd done. One of the silent men then stood. As he did so, his cloak fell open. His waist was encircled by a bright yellow sash above his dark mat of hair and rearing phallus. He crossed to the suspended body to remove the silk gown with one swift move. It fluttered to the floor, draped over the edge of the table.
'No mercy!' His voice was stern and hard.
The pale curves of her mother's slender body reflected the glow of the lamps. Her jutting nipples were clearly aroused, pointing to the ceiling. The warm glow emphasised the red weals crossing her buttocks. Another of the men went to a switch beside the window and touched it. The chandelier started to lower from its pulleys. Polly had often wonered what that switch was for, but had never found out. Now she knew!
When Polly's mother was slumped on her knees in the centre of the table, her head thrown back, tears streaming down her cheeks, two other men, each holding a short cane, came to either side of her and pulled her thighs apart.
Polly's father put a hand between her trembling thighs.