Discipline of the Private House (39 page)

The Chatelaine was the first to recover from the shock of seeing the guards. She stepped forwards to greet them, but remained sufficiently distant from the leader that she had to raise her voice to speak to her. Nicole knew that this was to be the Chatelaine's moment of triumph; she wanted everyone to hear.

'Julia,' the Chatelaine said, 'I assume you have come to make your report?'

The chief of the guards paused before replying. Nicole knew - everyone knew - that she and the former Supreme Mistress had been close friends. The announcement would be difficult to make.

'Yes,' Julia said, her voice strong but curt. 'The former Supreme Mistress has failed willingly to submit for five days to the disciplinary regime of the Chateau. She has conceded that she can no longer be the Supreme Mistress and that her fate shall be at the discretion of the Chatelaine. She has been removed to her cell in the dungeon of the Chateau.'

Julia took a deep breath. 'No doubt you would all like to know the point at which her resolve gave way,' she said, looking around at the councillors with undisguised disdain. 'She was being put through obedience training,' Julia said with a sneer in her voice. 'Obedience training for dogs.' There was a catch in her voice now; Nicole hoped she would stop before she broke down in tears.

Nicole glanced around at the councillors; several of them were looking away in embarrassment; a few had tears in their eyes.

'She took the house-training.' Julia ploughed on, her voice loud and angry. 'She took the pointless, repetitive, cruel whippings. But when she was required to beg for the insertion of a tail - a tail that would have been difficult for a horse to accommodate . . . Well, it's over now.'

Nicole heard a quiet voice beside her. It was Olena, who looked shocked and puzzled. 'No,' she was saying, over and over again. 'No, it's not possible. Jem wouldn't give up. Not Jem.'

Julia took three steps into the centre of the room. Her booted feet crashed on the wooden floor. 'As interim Mistress of the Private House,' she declared, 'I hereby accept the chair of this meeting of the High Council.'

'By whose authority?' a male voice queried. Nicole recognised Robert's voice.

'For goodness' sake,' Julia almost screamed at him in frustration. 'We will have to appoint a new Supreme Mistress or Master. That decision will need to be carefully made, after some time for thought and discussion. I'm sure you don't need reminding that there is no mechanism for appointing a new leader of the Private House. In the past the process has been, shall we say, unofficial. Therefore we need an interim leader - to chair this meeting, to set up the system for appointing a new leader, and to ensure the smooth running of the Private House until the new leader is in place. I'm the chief of the guards; it makes sense for me to be the interim leader. Do you want to dispute that, or would you rather be humiliated with a show of hands, which will indicate clearly that your fellow councillors are entirely happy with me?'

Robert emerged from the throng of councillors to stand in front of Julia. His face was red with indignation.

'I'm not suggesting that we should have a different interim leader,' he shouted. 'I'm saying that we don't need an interim leader at all.' He turned to face the crowded room. 'We are the High Council. We can be in session within seconds. We don't need an interim leader. We can choose our new Supreme Mistress today.'

'No, Robert,' Julia said. 'You're going too fast. We all know that there are precious few constitutional rules in the Private House, but one clear tenet is that in the temporary absence of the Supreme Master or Mistress the chief of the guards has the authority to govern. It is my duty to do so.'

Robert waved his arms in exasperation. 'That may be so,' he roared, 'but it's irrelevant. This is not a temporary absence. The former Supreme Mistress is now a slave in the dungeons of the Chateau. Permanently. We need a new leader now. I propose my mistress, the Chatelaine. Who will second her?'

As the salon was,overwhelmed by a wave of shouts and urgent conversation, Nicole saw Julia standing in the

centre of the room, alone and very still.

* * *

The councillors, gathered in hectic groups to debate the gravity of the situation, had forgotten about the slaves and servants. Even Olena, naked and displaying the stripes of her recent punishment, found that she was able to move from group to group without being noticed.

She was fascinated by the politicking. She could not understand how Jem could have failed to win the wager; it was, after all, Jem who had explained to her the pleasures to be found in accepting shame and punishment. And Jem had been entirely correct: since she had embraced her shame, and nurtured embarrassment and humiliation, Olena had started to enjoy her life - for the first time ever, it seemed.

None of the councillors, however, as far as Olena could tell as she overheard their urgent conversations, had any doubt that Jem was now no more than a slave of the Chateau. Nearly all of them spoke of her with affection; they regretted the passing of her rule. But, as they repeated again and again, as if to absolve each other of blame, the former Supreme Mistress had, after all, chosen to make the foolhardy wager with the Chatelaine, and her downfall was her own fault.

None of the councillors could understand why Julia refused to allow herself to be nominated as the new Supreme Mistress. They talked of little else, as she was the preferred candidate of - well, of all the councillors, as far as Olena could tell.

In the end, when Robert had managed to bring the discussions to a close and restore some order to the proceedings, it emerged that the Chatelaine was the only candidate: nominated by Robert and seconded by a councillor named Terence Headman, whom Olena gathered had once been the Supreme Master of the mysterious organisation known as the Private House.

There is, then,' Robert announced, 'no need for a vote. I declare that the Chatelaine is the Supreme Mistress of the Private House.'

Robert paused, his hands aloft, as if expecting the room to ring with applause and cheers. Instead there was an awkward silence, broken at last by the Chatelaine's laughter.

'Well, Robert,' she said. 'It would seem that your enthusiasm has taken everyone by surprise. However -'

The Chatelaine stopped in mid-sentence; she had seen that the tall double doors were opening.

Olena's heart leaped. She stifled an inappropriate giggle. She had recognised instantly the figure standing in the doorway. The councillors, who must have been accustomed to seeing Jem Darke in her ornate guard's uniform, seemed unable to believe the evidence of their own eyes.

'Don't be too hasty,' drawled Jem.

Julia punched the air with her fist. 'I propose Jem,' she shouted in a snarling voice as the figure walked into the salon.

'Seconded!' The unison shout came from all corners of the room.

'It's too late!' Robert yelled, but his voice was drowned in the sea of excited shouts and questions.

It seemed to Olena that the shouting went on for hours. Why did they need to talk so much, she wondered; it was all so simple.

At last the nominations were approved. The Chatelaine was proposed by Robert and seconded by Headman; Jem was proposed by Julia and seconded by so many people that Julia was obliged to cut the list to three - a tall, thin man named Sebastian, a short, red-haired woman named Rhoda, and the Chatelaine.

The vote was a formality. The Chatelaine's candidacy received two votes - Robert's and Headman's. Everyone else, including the Chatelaine herself, voted for Jem.

After the cheering subsided, Robert was still shouting that the vote was invalid, and that the whore-slave had reneged on her agreement with his mistress. The Chatelaine walked over to him and slapped his face. 'Shut up, Robert,' she said. He lookecj at her in amazement, and burst into tears.

'Jem has submitted willingly to every single requirement that the Chateau has imposed on her,' Julia announced to the councillors. 'Including every element of the obedience training that I and my guards witnessed today. She has kept her side of the wager. And therefore the attempt to replace her as Supreme Mistress is without foundation.'

Olena heard these words with a smile. She had never believed that Jem could fail.

'I went through the charade of pretending that Jem had forfeited the leadership,' Julia continued, 'as I thought it would be interesting to discover which councillors would be prepared to rush to replace her. Would the Chatelaine please come forward.'

The Chatelaine stepped from the crowd. There was silence in the room as she made her way to stand before Jem. The two women stood face to face for a moment, and then the Chatelaine dropped to her knees.

'Mistress,' she said, 'I hope I can persuade you that my error was simply to want you too much. The prospect of making you my slave blinded me to the ambitions of my deputy. I can only pledge myself to you again, throw myself on your mercy, and offer to take the place in your House that I wanted for you here in my Chateau - take me as your slave.'

Olena heard a collective gasp from the councillors.

Jem reached out her hand to touch the Chatelaine's face. 'Now that's a very tempting proposition,' she said. 'And I would accept, but for the fact that there is no one who can run the Chateau with your energy and efficiency. Therefore you will be my slave only for one day each month; you will come to the main House and you will present yourself naked at my feet. I'll make sure that your visits are varied and entertaining, Chatelaine. And painful.'

'Thank you, Mistress,' the Chatelaine said. 'May I plead on behalf of my impetuous deputy, Robert? His crime was only that he loved me too much; his ambition was all for me, and not for himself.'

Jem helped the Chatelaine to her feet and kissed her. 'You may plead, Chatelaine,' she said, 'but to no effect. You are too forgiving. Both Robert and Terence are banished from the Private House.'

Another gasp came from every part of the salon. Olena presumed that banishment was an unusual and severe punishment; as she considered it, she realised that the worst thing that could happen to her would be to have to abandon the company and discipline of these people, who understood her wickedness so well.

The Chatelaine has recently acquired two visitors,' Jem went on. The man named Barat will be permitted to remain here. His training is to be at the Chatelaine's discretion. I owe a special debt to Olena, however, and I will take her with me to the main House. To the victor, the spoils,' she added, with a smile to the Chatelaine. T will also take with me, for a short time, the trainers Max and Ilsa. Not for myself, you understand; I have had enough of their brand of instruction. However, I think that Olena would make an excellent puppy, and I'll hand her over to Max and Ilsa for a week or so, as the next stage in what promises to be Olena's long and interesting education. Olena, are you happy with that?'

Jem searched for Olena in the crowd. Olena shyly raised her hand. She was too nervous to shout, but she nodded and smiled. Was she happy? She was overjoyed. She hoped that Jem would come to watch her being trained; she hoped that she could be a difficult, naughty puppy, so that Max and Ilsa would have to use their whips frequently.

T have one final announcement,' Jem called out. T would not be surprised if some of you still had doubts about whether I was able to submit to the entirety of the obedience training course. I hope this dispels those doubts.'

She turned round and leaned forwards. The short, stiff skirt at the back of her tunic lifted into the air, to reveal her pert bottom, angrily red and marked with a myriad stripes. From between her buttocks sprouted a magnificent tail, its luxuriant fur matching exactly the red-brown of her hair.

She turned to acknowledge the applause of her councillors. Thank
_A
you,' she said. T thought it was so pretty that I'd keep it. It's held in place with two really big

plugs, you know,' she added, with a mischievous smile.

* * *

'It's just as well that I was able to submit to that ridiculous puppy training business,' Jem said as she undid the last buckle of Julia's tunic and pulled it from her friend's body. There. That's better. Now I can play with your nipples. But perhaps I'd better chain your hands first. You do wriggle so.'

Jem stretched on the bed and watched Julia as she sauntered to the bondage cupboard. She had been back at the main House for only a day, and already the events at the Chateau seemed like a dream. She knew that her few days at the Chatelaine's mercy had changed her a little, however; she no longer felt languid and bored. Perhaps, she thought, she needed to submit to a severe regime of discipline every once in a while. She had certainly discovered a capacity for enjoying punishments and degradations that she had previously only suspected.

'Why?' Julia asked as she returned to Jem with an assortment of silver chains.

Jem sorted through the chains, and found what she was looking for: two lengths of chain, joined in their middles. She clipped two of the ends to the cuffs around Julia's wrists, and the other two to the cuffs at Julia's ankles. Then she pulled the central join up to the back of Julia's neck, and clipped it to Julia's collar. Now Julia could take only short steps, and could move her hands only a little way to the front of her body.

'Very pretty,' Jem said. 'Why what?'