It was fully a week before Mr Blackwood presented himself at Morton Lodge. He excused his absence, which he explained was due to his being called away to town on urgent business. Mr and Mrs Hannard accepted this explanation as those with no reason to suspect otherwise would, but Katherine suspected that his failure to present himself sooner was due more to their unfinished business than to his more mundane business.
Indeed, while the week of separation had allowed Katherine to more or less recover physically from the exhaustion that had attended her particular exertions, emotionally she had grown in suffering as her imaginings had developed as to how Mr Blackwood might enforce her promise that she would do anything. In her more rational moods, she realised that whatever he might ask of her, it could not be as bad as the anticipation of it, and she persuaded herself that this anticipation was deliberately introduced as part of his game.
It was with a mix of relief and anxiety therefore, that Katherine accepted Mr Blackwood's invitation to join him in a walk to Morton Hall. The walk passed pleasantly as they strolled in the sunshine, discussing the weather, the wildflowers and any other cheery subjects that came to mind. Once at Morton Hall, however, Mr Blackwood lost some of his loquacity and Katherine's anxiety began to return. An observer would have noticed that their pace increased and neither looked around as much as they had before entering the grounds. Indeed were it not for the gardener standing and doffing his cap to them, it is unlikely that they would have noticed his presence at all.
"Good afternoon Thomas," Mr Blackwood greeted the young man. A short conversation followed on the subject of what to plant on the West side of the house, the conclusion of which was missed by Katherine as her thoughts returned to the debt she would soon be paying. As Thomas returned to the beds he was attending, Mr Blackwood led Katherine into the house and upstairs. They entered a room which, despite the brightness of the day, was dim, due to the heavy curtains which were drawn across the window.
"You remember what you told me before I left you last week?" asked Mr Blackwood.
Katherine nodded. "I remember."
"And you intend to honour your promise?"
"Of course." Katherine intended her reply to sound strong, defiant, but she felt sure that Mr Blackwood had noticed her voice quaver slightly. Certainly he smiled as he heard the words.
"Good." He sat in a chair, his hands resting easily in his lap, his eyes on her, a half smile on his face that unsettled her more than she had expected. "You may remove your clothes."
The calmness in his voice did nothing to calm Katherine's nerves. She could feel her heart thudding in her chest as she fumbled at the button of her dress. Her hands were clumsy which added to the sensation of being in a dream, made all the stranger by Mr Blackwood's calm attention. As she pulled the dress off one shoulder, though, revealing one lovely breast, she thought she discerned a slightly sharper than usual intake of breath from her observer, and a shift in position that suggested his hands were not merely resting in his lap but shielding from view his involuntary response to his game. As Katherine let the dress slip to the floor, she saw Mr Blackwood's half smile turn into a more lustful look of concentration. She bent down to remove her shoes, but Mr Blackwood stopped her.
"No. Leave them on. I like you just like that."
Katherine stood before Mr Blackwood, naked apart from her shoes. She deliberately held her arms by her side, allowing him to see her fully, refusing to allow him the victory of seeing her try to cover her bare flesh.
"Turn around—slowly." She did as she was asked, relishing the appreciative sounds that escaped Mr Blackwood's lips. "Come here. Stand in front of me."
Her breasts swayed slightly as she stepped forward, and she felt Mr Blackwood's eyes burning them as he admired their movement. Even naked before him, she knew she still retained some degree of power over him, and her nipples grew hard in the few steps she took while he stared. He glanced lower for a second, then into her eyes. "I think you may be enjoying yourself a little too much," he remarked, reaching one hand out. Katherine flinched slightly as his fingers plucked playfully at her dark thatch, then forced herself to relax. His fingers continued their unhurried exploration, running up and down her pink lips, feeling them start to swell and separate before one finger pushed its way into the soft entrance, feeling the telltale wetness that Katherine would have preferred to keep to herself on this occasion. As this invading finger probed into the sensitive flesh, curling back on itself to work the sensitive front wall of her passage, sending warm sensations deep into her core, Katherine was unable to suppress a sigh of pleasure. Immediately Mr Blackwood removed the delightfully invasive digit.
"Show me how you touch yourself when you're alone," he instructed. Katherine hesitated. "Unless you want to back out of your promise." It was not simply the promise, but the hunger of her loins that forced Katherine to obey. Her hand took over where Mr Blackwood's had abandoned her. Two fingers plunged deep inside her, reawakening the fire that had been ignited a moment before. She felt her fingers being grasped by the wet muscle and squeezed herself even tighter around them to increase the sensation as she slid them in and out, slowly at first, building the warm tense feeling inside her as she looked Mr Blackwood in the eye. His breathing increased in unison with hers. She remembered the previous week when these sensations were an unwelcome and involuntary effect of his toy, but now all she could think of was bringing herself to an explosive climax.
More! She needed more. A third finger joined the two already inside her, and she ground her palm against her inflamed button. She closed her eyes and reached her free hand out to steady herself as her legs weakened and she bent over, using the new position to increase the pressure, increase the pleasure that her hand was giving her. Flashes of light danced on the inside of her eyelids and she felt her body trembling. Her moans became louder and more urgent as she felt herself approaching her peak.
Suddenly her hand stopped moving. Something was stopping it. Katherine opened her eyes, staring wildly around. Mr Blackwood was gripping her wrist. She tried to grind herself against her unexpectedly motionless hand, but it was pulled clear of its target.
"Not yet," she was told. "I haven't had nearly enough fun with you yet." Katherine felt her hard-won build up of pleasure draining away in a massive anticlimax. Her eyes settled for a moment on the hand she had used to steady herself and she felt a minor victory when she saw that she had been holding Mr Blackwood's thigh, and that where her nails had dug in, small spots of blood were staining his breeches.
She had no time to see anything else, for Mr Blackwood led her to the curtained window and swiftly bound each wrist to a cord attached to the wall at the side of it. Secured as she was, were it not for the curtain, her nakedness would be on full display to anyone who happened to glance at the window. Her shelter against exposure was not to last however, for not only did Mr Blackwood draw the curtains, he reached over her naked shoulder and threw the window open, exposing her to the warm afternoon sun.