Originally published in "The Discerning Gentleman's Weekly"
Volume IX, number 20
Issue dated April 8th 1896
*
I wonder, my friend, have you ever been bound?
It is a marvellously liberating experience, with much to recommend it. Oh yes, I can well predict how you may be gazing at this page askance, wondering if these lines can possibly be written by the same upstanding Gentleman who composed the previous entries, but I can assure you that they are.
And I am most earnest in my claim, I can well assure you. To be bound is a wonderful thing, because it lifts the souls and calms the mind. It removes from the conscience any sense that you may be responsible for your own actions, for when you are held fast by the most secure of bonds, you are capable of undertaking no actions at all of your own volition. Things can only be done to you, rather than by you, and you are not answerable for that.
No, once I was in her lair and secured in my bonds, it was all because of her. That beautiful, enigmatic, quite addictive Young Lady and her commanding and controlling ways.
I do not suppose that you imagined for one moment I would not have succumbed to the temptation and obeyed her command to attend her residence upon the Wednesday of the following week? No, of course not. You know too much about me and my foolish ways by now. You know how weak I am, and how easily commanded by the beauty of the flesh and the dominion of the mind.
So for all of my black moods, for all of my wrestling with what was left of my morality, and for all of the pain and suffering my unspoken depression and upset inflicted upon poor Annabel and my colleagues at the bank, I knew in my heart of hearts that there was never the slightest doubt as to what I should do when Wednesday evening came.
I had to see more of the Young Lady. I had to attend for the punishment I was aware that I fully deserved. It was a compulsion, and when it came down to the matter of it, I knew that I had no choice but to obey.
On this occasion it was the Colonel's house I was required to avoid when travelling to Maple Street, so I ensured the cab I took from the bank brought me to the far end of the street, enabling me to walk to the fateful number twenty-two without needing to pass the house of my good friend and take the slightest risk, however small, of discovery.
Even as I ascended the steps to her doorway, a voice inside of my mind was insisting to me that I still had the opportunity turn and flee, that even with all that had happened thus far I did not need to go inside and to see her. But the voice was a quiet one, quieter still now each time I have seen her.
The door was ajar, just as it had been upon my last visit there. I pushed it open with my free hand -- the left was clutching a thick sheaf of bank papers, and correspondence between ourselves and her solicitors, all confirming that she was indeed entitled to the inheritance to which she had made claim. She was very soon to be a Lady of some not inconsiderable wealth, but I thought nothing of that as I opened the door and stepped into the again dimly-lit hallway.
As upon my previous visit, she stood in the shadows at the end of the hallway, by the doorway past which I had so thoroughly shamed myself. Even that did not come instantly to mind on this occasion, however -- for the appearance of the Young Lady was quite the most mesmerising thing about the place.
Her hair was on this particular occasion tied tightly back, which leant her a slightly more mature aspect. Her shoulders were shockingly naked, as she wore only a very tight black leather corset, which left very little indeed to the imagination in regards to her dΓ©colletage. It accentuated her perfect, feminine shape, but was not half so eye-catching as the skirt she wore.
For it was quite unlike any other garment I had ever seen a Lady, or a female of any kind, wear. It was a black leather skirt, tight to her hips and so indecently short as to be of little practical use in preserving her modesty at all -- why, I swear to you, as God's honest truth, it came down to at the very best two inches below the knee. Two inches!
To complement this she wore a pair of black boots new to my eyes, but similar to the pair I had so worshipped on a previous occasion. This particular pair had more sharply pointed toes, a higher heel at the back and came slightly less high up her leg, leaving a great expanse of quite indecently exposed flesh between their tops and the hem of her skirt.
I am not sure that I said or did anything for a full minute after entering that house. I simply stared. I could not even swear to the fact that I remembered to breathe or not.
"Close the door, pet," she commanded, smiling the wicked smile of the devouring Goddess. "It is a little chilly to be leaving the house open to the elements, do you not think?"
"Y... yes, my Lady."
I pushed the door firmly closed, sealing myself within the house and abandoning my fate to whatever she might have in mind for me this evening.
"And how has my clever little boy been progressing with his work? You have brought good news for your Lady, I trust?"
The enquiry was spoken most politely, but the signs upon her face, the slightly raised eyebrow, and the look in her eye all told me all-too-clearly that unless I had brought good tidings, my suffering would be all the more severe.
Note, reader, how I had already long accepted that there would be some degree of suffering to be had whatever I might say to her!
"I... er.."
Her look faded from smiling to stern, and I remembered just in time the sheaf of papers I held in my hand. I waved them rather, I must confess, ineffectually around in front of me.
"There is indeed good news, my Lady," I said, desperate to please her. My instincts had taken complete command of the ship that was my body, and would take no argument from my more rational senses. "The, er... The arrangements with your solicitors have proven to be most satisfactory. There is no doubt that you are the entitled party... It will just take the bank a few weeks to... um... assemble the assets..."
Perhaps when that was done, she would let me alone?
Oh God, what if she did let me alone?
"A few weeks?" She frowned deeply. "I had expected a somewhat shorter period... Nonetheless, I know how long it takes you silly boys to achieve anything. I suppose I ought to be grateful it is not months!"
I allowed the arm holding the papers to fall, and bowed my head.
"I am sorry, my Lady..."
"Never mind, pet. Just leave the papers on the side table there. I think the little boy can stop playing at being a grown-up banker now. It is time for you to assume the role to which you are so much more naturally inclined."
With a thick lump of anticipation and dread clogging my throat, I discarded the papers as commanded.
"You know what you must do for me, pet," she instructed.
"Oh my Lady, please..."
"Now pet, do not disappoint me..."