Chapter 14.
The welcome relief of a vehicle arriving outside the gate saw Tess shuffling towards the noise of an engine, before even identifying it as being Ally's van.
The sight of the man who'd now become her world, casually walking in through the first gate reduced Tess to tears in an instant.
The dried blood on Tess's face changed his calm demeanour into one of a more enhanced and enthusiastic greeting, where he pre-empted her falling to the ground before she reached him if he didn't rush to her assistance.
The strong embrace of his man-shield clinging around her, released her emotions, allowing them to flood from within, knowing him to be the only person right now she could trust.
Ally tried to look down at her and gain eye contact but she pushed her face so deep into his chest that it muffled her sobbing.
"What happened?" he asked.
Turning her neck to the side and un-burying her head from his Pec muscles, Tess replied, "She lashed out at me and knocked me to the floor."
Assuming the obvious that Ingrid had something to do with this, Ally released his grip on Tess and rolled her away from him slightly, hinting that he wanted her to step aside so that he could deal with this accusation promptly.
His obligatory question of the whereabouts of the of the key became immediately apparent as soon as his hand felt the impression of it bulging from one of Tess's rear pockets, which were so tightly formed around her that she would struggle to conceal a bank note in there, let alone a key of such size.
The old ammunition store remained firmly locked as Tess had left it, with Ingrid holding on to the bars of the gates from inside, due to the restriction of her ankles, not allowing her to walk around.
Ingrid could sense Ally's rage as he approached from across the courtyard with his crooked finger pointing down at her from a height.
"GET ON THE FLOOR!" he shouted.
Ingrid stood still, not understanding why he would want to bellow out such an order.
"Lay on the floor. Now!" he repeated.
Ingrid remained standing, biding her time before carrying out his request, knowing that he still had to unlock the gates if he intended any form of physical threat towards her.
With the key in hand, he ordered her to the ground once more, to which she ignored and still remained standing through the bars in front of him.
Glancing momentarily towards the other outhouse, inspired him with a distasteful thought.
"Get on the ground and step over your wrist cuffs. Now!" he said calmly but firmly, "Or I'm going to get that shit bucket from in there and throw it over you through these bars." Satisfied with her attention he continued to build on his threat. "And when you've licked yourself clean because it's the only food you'll be getting, I might think about throwing you another bucket of shit to eat."
Ingrid understood that she wasn't going to win this if she refused, so she reluctantly knelt down and rolled sideways into a sitting position.
"Now start stepping over those cuffs and get them behind your back where they belong." He ordered.
Without receiving any backchat, Ally watched her pull her right knee into her chest and struggle with her foot, trying to breach the threshold of the rigid resin cuffs holding her wrists together in front of her. He didn't comment when a huge rip instantly appeared in the warn down denim jeans at the knee where Ingrid had bent her leg to such an extent.
Having her ankles cuffed so close together because of the padlock shortening the chain, proved difficult, so remembering back to how she'd stepped over the cuffs from behind her originally, she unfastened the laces of her gym shoes and removed them from her feet first.
The bare skin bulging through the rip in the cloth, gave him a clear view of the damage Ingrid had inflicted upon her own knees by crawling from the main building to the old ammunition store, as challenged, in his absence.
He left Ingrid to strain at the difficult task of drawing her sock covered feet over her cuffs and summoned Tess to follow him into the main building so that he could attend to the cut on her forehead.
Pleased with what she'd just witnessed, Tess walked behind Ally into the privacy, away from Ingrid's envious on looking eyes.
"What happened?" Ally asked.
"She got pissed off when she lost that challenge that you set us before you went out and lashed out at me." Tess explained.
"So how did you get her to unlock you from inside those gates without you unlocking her ankles first?"
Tess hesitated before answering. "Well. I kind of went to unlock her ankles but then I didn't." She looked at Ally to sense his current mood. Finding an intriguing look across his face, she decided to confess. "Instead I snapped the keys off in the locks because I though she deserved it."
Ally laughed. "Brilliant." He said. "Well done."
Luckily, the wound on Tess's forehead turned out to only be tiny but it had blead down her face long enough to look much worse, so he left it open, without a plaster and stepped away.
"I have to go out again." he announced, sizing up a length of white cotton rope as he spoke to Tess behind him. "This was only meant to be a passing visit to say hello.
"What's the rope for?" she cautiously enquired.
"It's to stop that devious cow from stepping back over her cuffs whilst I'm out." He assured her.
Armed with the key and length of rope, he walked out, in the direction of the old ammunition store to find Ingrid sitting alone, as requested, with her hands now behind her back. Entering through the gates, he knelt before her and fastened her shoelaces as a gesture of ridicule, playing on her inability to do it herself. He then unlocked the padlock which currently shortened the chain of her ankle cuffs, allowing her feet a little more movement.
"I didn't mean to hurt her." Ingrid pleaded for leniency. "She tricked me."
"Kneel down." Ally replied, seemingly ignoring her cry of innocence.
Ingrid carefully bent both legs together and knelt on her grazed knees in front of him.
"She snapped the fucking keys off in these locks." Ingrid told him, running her fingers around one of her ankle cuffs to find the damaged lock and prove it. "I'm sorry if I overreacted and hurt her but it was a bit of an accident."
"Don't worry about her. She's fine." he said, "But I have to go out again and she's scared. Hence the rope."
Ally now bent behind her out of view but Ingrid could feel the rope being treaded through the tethering ring, which rattled around the rigid section of her cuffs between her wrists. He proceeded to fasten the rope around the middle of her leg cuff chain then back up through the middle of her handcuffs again. Not quite content, he passed the two ends of rope, through the belt loops of her jeans and around either side of her slight waist, to the front where he tied them off tightly in a double knot, below her naval.
"Ouch." She winced unnecessarily, through fear rather than through pain.
"This is just to stop you stepping back over your cuffs." He told her. If it gets too uncomfortable then you can lay on your front with your feet behind you. I won't be gone for long."