'Thank heavens they've given us a break from the gags,' Barbara sighed.
'Absolutely.' I agreed.
Barbara's gag, a black nylon scarf hung loosely about her neck, the white cloth which served as the mouth packing was draped over it. My own gag, a white nylon scarf with matching packing, was in a similar position to Barbara's. I knew that both gags would be replaced before long, Paula did not want us to get too comfortable.
Barbara nodded down at the scarf. 'At least this is better than that tape they put over our mouths, that really hurts when it comes off'.
I nodded in agreement. 'Be thankful for small blessings I suppose?'
Barbara smiled and I again thought about what an attractive woman she was. Early forties but looked younger. She was slim and trim. Shoulder length dark hair, brown eyes, good facial structure. I hoped that I looked half as good in fifteen years time.
She sat with good posture, although the white cotton rope's which bound her to the chair took some small credit in that. She wore a high necked, dark top, a grey skirt just above the knee, opaque black tights and black loafers. Her arms were secured to the side of the chair, tightly bound at the wrists and just below each shoulder. Three turns of rope about her middle further moored her to the chair. Her legs were bound just below her black nylon clad knees and about her ankles.
I sat in a chair next to her. I was bound identically.
'Well Angela, since we have the bonus of not being gagged at present,' Barbara said. 'Do you want to tell me again about how you ended up being a hostage here with me?'
I looked down at my legs clad in dark stockings, ending in high-heeled shoes of black suede and the white ropes tightly binding them. I then looked at Barbara.
'My best friend Sabrina is Paula's sister. Sabrina is rich. Paula has been cut out of the family fortune and thought it would be a good idea to kidnap Sabrina's and extort some money from Mummy and Daddy.'
'So you're being held for ransom? How come?'
I tossed back my hair.
'I was unlucky enough to be house sitting for Sabrina when Paula pounced. She wanted Sabrina but got me instead. Sabrina's blonde, I'm blonde and about the same height and weight. Paula's mistake. She's apparently asked six figures for me.' I then shrugged. 'Now it's a question of Sabrina paying for me to be released.'
'Do you think that she will?'
'It's possible.' Inside I indeed hoped it was, it was scary to contemplate alternatives. I changed the subject.
'What about you, Barbara?'
'I'm a Lawyer for my sins,' Barbara sighed. 'Paula came to me asking if I'd act for her in setting up these Cayman Islands shelf companies, she said she wanted to use them to protect her tax position. I found out that it was to launder ill gotten financial gains. I was going to contact the Police but Paula had me kidnapped. I was at my office, everyone else had left for the day. I decided to call a contact in the Fraud Squad but when I picked up the phone somebody pressed a pad soaked with chloroform over my nose and mouth. I passed out of course. When I woke up I was tied up and gagged in here. Then Paula brought you in,'
'I see.' I told her. 'Any idea where we are?'
'I have indeed, this small grey room with the high window is the pantry of my holiday home in a secluded spot in a valley six miles from Tenby, South Wales.'
I felt my hopes rise. 'Would anybody realise that you might be here when they find out you're missing?'
Barbara shook her head and her dark hair fell back off her shoulders.
'Nobody; this place is my little secret. I bought it for cash three years ago; it's my private sanctuary, I come here to escape things. Now I've been kidnapped, and being held prisoner here with you doesn't make the latter seem like such a good thing now--I'm really sorry, Angela.'
'Don't be,' I told her. 'We are hardly here by choice and being kidnapped was probably not on either of our plans for this year,'
Barbara sighed again and nodded. She pulled against her bonds.
'I always wondered how people who are tied up on the TV always manage to escape? I'm tied up so securely I can hardly twitch.'
'When somebody ties you up, you stay tied up until somebody lets you go.'
'You could be right.' She managed to smile again.
We then heard the click of a key releasing the lock on the pantry door. We both turned in the direction of the sound. The door opened and in stepped Carlos, Paula's very tall and very strong associate. He had earlier in the day given us our breakfast and allowed us to use the facilities. He was clad in all black. Black leather jacket, black shirt, black jeans and black motor cycle boots. He had dusky Latin looks and may have been quite handsome under different circumstances.
'We have to go out, so your gags must go back on'. He told us.
'I've told you before.' Barbara ventured. 'Nobody could hear us out here.'
'Paula does not wish to take the chance.' Carlos replied stepping behind my chair.
I felt his hands behind my neck. He loosened the knot on the gag and pulled it clear. One of his large hands appeared in front of my eyes holding the wadded cloth. 'Open.' I dropped my lower jaw and an instant later my mouth was being packed with the cloth. Once my mouth was packed the folded white scarf passed below my eyes and was put in place over it and tied firmly in position.
With my gag secure, Carlos turned his attention to Barbara. He stepped behind her chair and unknotted the black scarf from about her neck and retrieved the packing.
'Open.' He ordered Barbara.
Barbara narrowed her eyes slightly and opened her mouth. As always, she made a small sound as the wadded cloth was packed into her mouth. The scarf was now a tight black band in Carlos' hands as he lowered it in front of her face and drew it over her mouth. He made a tight knot behind her head under her hair. Barbara shook her head in a small movement with the discomfort felt by the gag.
Now Barbara and I were gagged again, denied the luxury of conversation.
Carlos now stood in front of us.
'A small word of warning. Those gags are secure and will keep both of you silent. However, I know that gags such as you are wearing now can be worked off with some effort. Do not attempt to. If you do, I shall be forced to use the tape again--lots of it! Do you understand?'
I looked at Barbara over my gag and we made eye contact. We turned our faces back to Carlos and nodded.
'Good!' He said and then turned and left the room, locking the door behind him. Barbara and I once again had the room to ourselves.
We looked at each other, forced into silence. Gagged once more. The packings in our respective mouths were large and under the cheap nylon scarves bound about them our cheeks bulged slightly. I tried to say something witty through my gag to Barbara but it was hardly worth the effort. Barbara shrugged her shoulders and through that gesture I gathered that she was suggesting that all we could do was wait it out.
Of course that was the only thing we could do. I looked up at the small window and the grey patch of sky beyond the glass. There were a lot of 'What' questions inside my head. What time was it? What day of the week was it? What was Sabrina doing regarding my freedom? What was Paula going to do with us?
All Barbara and I could do was wait and see.
Paula paced the floor; a cigarette drifting bluish smoke was trapped between her fingers. I had to admit she looked good, tall and trim as she paced and about turned with an almost military precision.
Paula had changed the way she wore her hair. Her dark blonde hair with the hints of red in it was now worn down and without the black make-up her features seemed softer. She was wearing a roll necked, light blue jumper, black and white animal print mini skirt, black tights and knee-high boots of soft black leather with 3" block heels.
She was obviously deep in thought. Carlos sat off to one side, thumbing through a magazine about Water Sports. He was silent, but by choice. Barbara and I were silent due to the virtue that we were both gagged.
Barbara and I had been liberated from the pantry to the lounge. We now resided on the voluminous sofa which was the centre piece of the room. Our wrists were bound behind our backs and our respective sets of black stockinged ankles were crossed and secured tightly with three turns of white rope.
After dinner we had been given a change of gags. The nylon scarves and cloth packing had been replaced by single strips of transparent plaster. I was familiar with these. Paula kept a stock of the plasters in a shoulder bag, and they were her preferred method of silencing her prisoners. I had first hand experience of how effective Paula's method was.
Paula had first smoothed a plaster across Barbara's lips and then had repeated the process on me. I cast a glance sideways at Barbara: her lips were pursed together under the clear plaster; it was a strange effect, she was effectively gagged yet did not look so.
Paula continued to pace the carpet, the cigarette trailing smoke. She then nodded to herself and turned to address Carlos.
'Any ideas, Carlos?' she said.
He looked up from his reading. 'We continue to wait?'
'I only have so much patience,' she said; her voice bore traces of an American accent from her years spent there.
'Still nothing?' he asked Paula.
She shook her head.
'I was so foolish to think she was Sabrina.' She gestured towards me with her cigarette. 'Sabrina was supposed to be there!'
I made a sound behind the plaster indicating it was not my fault that she was a bad planner. It was also obvious to me that Sabrina had not yet written any cheques on my behalf.
'We'll have to go back.' Paula then said. 'Get things right this time.'
'It's risky going back to London.'
Paula inhaled deeply from her cigarette and then blew out the smoke smiling.
'That's the fun, and nobody will be expecting it--especially my darling sister.'
What was the plan? To kidnap Sabrina?
Carlos waved a thumb in our direction, the bound and gagged hostages.
'It means leaving them for a time.'
'Not a problem, we shouldn't need more than twenty four hours, we'll wrap them up tightly and leave them. That reminds me...'
I noticed that Barbara had leaned forward slightly to listen to Paula discussing her plans. Paula noticed this and turned to smile at Barbara.
'Yes, Ms Lawyer, I do plan to hang onto you for a while longer. I need you as a hostage, too, and I think you have heard enough for now'.
Barbara gave a small grunt behind the plaster and leaned back.
'Carlos, chair-tie Angela and Barbara in here for tonight, we'll make final arrangements in the morning.' Carlos nodded and stood up.
'Also a change of clothes for them.' Paula gestured to Barbara and me. I looked down at my creased blouse and skirt and the runs in my stockings. I certainly felt like a change of clothes, my first in what was probably four days.
Paula dragged a straight backed wooden chair into the centre of the room, Carlos did likewise with another chair. They placed the chairs back to back. Carlos approached us and dropped to one knee and freed Barbara's ankles and then my own. Then gripping an arm each, he pulled us to our feet. Carlos worked his magic way with the ropes again. For a man with such heavy fingers he could certainly tie some intricate knots. Taking into account his reading material, he might have been a Sailor once.
In about five minutes, Barbara, both chairs, and I had been secured into a single unit.
Our wrists were bound behind us, trapped against the solid back of the chair. A half dozen tight turns of rope had been looped about our chests and the chairs, another three turns were about our waists. Our knees were bound together as were our ankles made fast to the front rungs of the chair.
I saw Paula gathering up the materials used for Barbara's and my gags.
'I'll gag them for the night,' she told Carlos. 'You may want to get things ready for the morning.'
'Right.' He replied and left the room.
Paula was then in front of me. I felt her long fingers on my face. She tugged the plaster off my mouth. I started to move my lips to try and get some feeling back into them. I stupidly opened my mouth at the same time. Paula jammed the cloth packing straight inside my mouth and with the folded nylon scarf cleaved my lips, trapping it. She made the knot tight behind my head, trapping a few strands of hair. She then got a length of torn sheeting and folded it over until it became a long, wide rectangle. This was then pulled over my mouth and tightly tied in position over the packing and the cleaving scarf.
She gave me a vicious little grin and gathered up her materials and walked about the chairs and her captives to pay her full attention to Barbara.
I heard the plaster come off Barbara's mouth.
'Ow! You bitch! That hur-ummmmph!'
The chairs creaked as Barbara put up a small amount of resistance as Paula triple gagged her. Of course forced to sit in the other direction I missed the episode but knew that Barbara had received exactly the same treatment as myself.
'There!' Paula giggled. 'What good is a lawyer who can't argue a case?'
Paula circled the chair and seem satisfied that we were secure for the night.
'Well it looks like it's good night then?'
She then turned and made to leave the room. I had to admit her behind looked wonderfully trim in the animal print skirt and her black nylon sheathed legs poured into the knee-high boots looked terrific.
I heard a light switch click sending the room into darkness. Barbara and I were then alone in the dark.
The chairs again creaked as Barbara pulled against her bonds.
'Mmmmph! Mmmmm'. I heard her say. I gave a similar reply.
Barbara made a muffled sound of pure frustration and then was silent. As best we could, bound and gagged, we settled down for the night.
I was uncomfortable in my gag and bonds but was somehow getting used to them, which was just as well. Sleep would come with exhaustion and that was possibly some time away. I had too many concerns. My own safety, my family, my job, Sabrina and of course my co-hostage Barbara.
Angela Wright, that was me. Twenty six years old. Blonde, blue eyed, not quite Vogue cover material but not bad either. A University graduate working as a glorified secretary. Single at present. Likes reading, films, cats, most types of music and going on long holidays to warm places. Best friend Sabrina. The latter was a prime factor relating to my current perilous predicament.
Suddenly silent tears welled up in my eyes.