Lady Sally's airship powered away from Essen. It was the first occasion Captain Wyndham had tested her acceleration, and he was not disappointed. She easily reached a cruising speed of 80 mph and sped away, leaving the smoke and grime coated Ruhr receding in the distance.
They were many miles away before the embarrassed man from the Ministry was discovered and untied from the mast.
"I must take my frustrations out on my slaves," announced Lady Sally. "I fear I've rather neglected them today. Set the course for Vienna, my next stop."
Captain Wyndham looked anxious, "Have you seen the weather forecast, your ladyship? Thunderstorms and lightning are forecast!"
Victoria looked terrified, "Please madam don't go through lightning."
"Really, just because you had an unfortunate experience with lightning." Lady Sally explained to the captain, "I tied her onto a tree with iron chains once, and whilst I retired to the summer house for a cup of tea, there was a freak storm, so the poor dear got struck by lightning. She got a bit of a shock."
"It singed my pubic hairs off," added Victoria.
"Madam, I would strongly advise against taking
The Corseted Domme
through a thunderstorm. It's very risky."
Captain Wyndham recalled recent history of airship travel, and the cases of dirigibles brought down by lightning strikes with no survivors: the German Zeppelin,
von Cockenberg
, crashed into the North Sea in '02; the
USS General Dick
, crashed into the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco in '04; the British
R-101,
exploded during a test flight above Windsor in '05, and the Italian airship,
Il Phallusini
, caught fire in mid-flight in '07 after being struck by lightning, with all crew and passengers burnt to a frazzle.
To be honest, the captain had to admit airship travel was not particularly safe; in fact, with the hydrogen bags on board, they were pretty much floating explosions. Although the duralumin frame of
The Corseted Domme
didn't conduct electricity, and was safer than other metal-framed airships, it was nevertheless a hazardous business taking an airship through a storm.
But Lady Sally was having none of it, "Don't be such a wimp, captain. Besides, I have an appointment for tea in Vienna. Let it not be said Lady Sally Rudston-Chichester would ever be late for tea!"
With that she left the control room to go and punish her submissive gentlemen, taking Victoria with her. Talk of lightning had given her an inspired idea, and she went via her private quarters to get changed and pick up one of the devices from the chest secreted there.
Lady Sally had the men assembled in her playroom. She had changed into one of her corsets, a fetching, turquoise, satin one with whale bone stays, which left her breasts exposed. She decided to give the men a treat as she had spent much of the day occupied with her business in the Ruhr, and the unfortunate incident with the man from the Ministry of War.
She carried a teak wooden box with brass fittings. This was the first of the devices she had brought on her travels from the Rudston Hall workshop. She would test it on Victoria first; as her maid was used to being the guinea pig for any new toys she acquired.
The group of men gathered around the object, gazing upon it with curiosity, which on Lady Sally opening the lid and pulling down its drop-sided front, turned to alarm. The box contained an object like a metal rattle with wires attaching it to a battery cell contained within the box. It was an electro-vibrator. Devices of this kind had been on the market for a while, ostensibly as a cure for female 'hysteria' but, in reality, to give women a rip-roaring orgasm. Lady Sally's ingenuity in developing the basic model was in the variety of attachments she had made for it. These were designed to stroke or probe different parts of the male anatomy and inflict a new and exciting style of discomfort on them.