Tina and I moved to the city a couple of years after we got married.
Our new next door neighbours, William and Margaret, were very similar to ourselves, in as much as they too had only been married a short time, although they had lived together for a few years before tying the knot.
Tina and Margaret hit it off immediately and we soon became regular visitors to each others houses for drinks, meals, barbecues and suchlike.
It wasn't long before it became apparent that it was Margaret who wore the trousers in their house, metaphorically speaking, of course!
I noticed that William very rarely spoke out of turn in her presence and almost always agreed with whatever she said.
It was he who prepared the meals in their house and he did most of the housework too!
I thought this was a little strange.
Margaret was a very sexy and most attractive blonde who attracted men like bees round a honey pot.
She had a most sophisticated manner and always seemed in complete control of whatever she was doing.
At parties and barbecues she was always surrounded by handsome men, all hoping to be her next conquest.
It hadn't escaped my attention that recently, my own beautiful young wife, Tina, could usually be found at Margaret's side, enjoying the attention, and flirting quite openly.
She clearly enjoyed the ribald conversations and smiled shyly and demurely at the more suggestive jokes.
On these occasions William and I were usually kept busy cooking the steaks or pouring the drinks and generally making sure everybody was being looked after.
It was made quite clear to us, by Margaret, that it was our duty to do this and not to, "get in the way," as she so succinctly put it.
Although I found Margaret to be great company, I have to confess that I wasn't one of those men who fawned over her, hoping to get a date.
In fact, I suppose you could say that I was a little bit afraid of her.
The truth is, that, although, in my opinion, I am reasonably good looking, I would have been highly embarrassed if she were ever to suspect that I was not exactly well endowed.
It was a condition that had been causing me increasing concern as time went on.
I knew that I was failing to satisfy the growing sexual demands that Tina, bless her, was trying hard to suppress.
I suppose, being such a close friend of Margaret's, she was more aware of my shortcomings as a husband and lover.
Aged thirty two, I was eight years older than my very attractive wife who didn't hide the fact that she was obviously very impressed by Margaret's complete control over her husband.
William and Margaret were both the same age as me which made Tina the youngest in our little group.
It intrigued me to watch how blatantly Margaret would have nights out on her own, with or without "the girls."
Recently, Tina had been her companion on many of her jaunts and I was becoming a little concerned about what they had been getting up to and who they were meeting on their "nights out."
On returning home, Tina never said where they had been and when pressed, she would accuse me of not trusting her.
I couldn't stand the pangs of jealousy which I, increasingly, had to endure.
William, a really nice guy, just seemed to accept the fact that his wife could do whatever she wanted, whether he liked it or not.
I suppose that I suspected that William knew that his wife was unfaithful, but it didn't seem to upset him. What was obvious, was that William, adored his philandering wife and nothing was going to change that.
Oh well, it was really none of my business, or was it?
I was becoming increasingly suspicious that Margaret was grooming Tina to become just like her.
Then it happened.
Tina phoned me at the office to say that she was going shopping with Margaret and that they would be staying out and having supper at a little Italian restaurant that was a favourite of Margaret's.
She said that she had left a ham salad for me on the kitchen table and before I could ask her anything, she hung up.
Margaret and Tina had been going out quite a lot lately and I was beginning to suspect that Tina rather enjoyed their little "nights out."
Supper, alone, was pretty depressing, especially as my imagination started to take over and I began to ask myself why Margaret wanted Tina to herself that evening.
By 10pm, I was beginning to worry that something was wrong.
There was no way I could contact her.
