Free On A Short Leash by Lindsay Ross Page B

land.
    Did she want to escape?
    She was relieved they hadn’t assaulted her the moment they were out of sight of the beach and were in open water. There was no one to witness anything that happened now. She guessed Maurice would have had his hands all over her but for the presence of the others.
    Although they had drunk some beer, they were far from drunk yet there was more menace in the fact that they seemed controlled and purposeful.
    She wanted to please Andy and if she could keep her nerve, she might be able to bank more credit in her account with him. There were so many potential rivals in the college and she desperately wanted to be his favourite.
    Chrissie had not seen any sign of an island when she’d looked out to sea from the beach but now she could see land ahead.
    The boat was tied up alongside a couple of bobbing rowing boats and adjacent to a rickety landing stage and she was escorted onto a shingle beach
    below a large white cottage with outbuildings which appeared to be their destination.
    Part of Chrissie’s mind registered how tranquil and picturesque the place looked at the same time as she felt all her fears returning. The men led her through a white gate and up a path towards the brightly painted front door and she noticed a well-stocked and well tended garden on both sides. Her mounting sense of dread was contradicted by the ordinariness of her surroundings, a strange dissonance between what her eyes could see and what she was feeling, something like a dreamer sensing everything is not all that it seems, without any tangible evidence, a pre-echo of some misfortune or disaster.
    As she entered the house and was led into the kitchen, Chrissie was greeted by a middle-aged woman who offered to pour her lemonade from a jug which also contained ice and slices of lemon.
    The friendly face and the welcoming drink added to the circumstantial evidence that all was well but did nothing to change Chrissie’s state of mind.
    ‘Dominika is here, Sir,’ the woman addressed Roy. ‘She’s gone through.’
    ‘Thank you, Mary. This is Chrissie, by the way.’
    Mary held out her hand and Chrissie took it. ‘Hello, Chrissie. You are very beautiful.’
    Chrissie noticed they used each other’s names readily enough which might suggest there was nothing suspect about their activities and Mary was about as matronly and reassuring as it was possible to be. But who was Dominika? The name sounded Russian.
    The three men took Chrissie through the house and out to what she thought must be one of the large outbuildings she had seen from outside. Mary followed behind.The place they entered was a vast space and in different parts there were sets like those used on stage or for films with lighting rigs and a gantry above them. It wasn’t the kind of building you expected to find attached to a typically English cottage with roses round the door but what better disguise?
    There were other men and woman standing around and Chrissie was embarrassed to be the only one naked although most seemed busy with their own work. Two people were looking at something on a clipboard, cameramen were moving cameras into different positions, and an electrician was up on a scaffolding tower fixing something.
    Mary had disappeared for a few minutes but returned with some diaphanous material which she handed to Chrissie.
    When she spread it out, Chrissie realised it was a harem girl’s skirt.
    ‘Slip it on, Chrissie,’ Mary told her.
    Chrissie found the skirt was floaty and feminine but it was also more or less transparent so that the triangle of her pubic hair was only thinly veiled. She knew it would be possible to see everything even though her pubic curls were fair. She was still bare-breasted and wore nothing on her feet.
    Mary took Chrissie to one of the sets with palm trees painted on the backdrop and a long couch with cushions in the foreground.
    There were steps up to the set and Mary asked Chrissie to mount them and to recline on the