'Slave!' It took a couple of seconds for Alex to realise that Susan was addressing her! 'Put that box there!' Alex placed it about a metre behind and slightly to one side of the chair. 'Not there! Move it a few centimetres to the left!' Alex grudgingly complied.

'Anything else?' Alex thought the best thing to do was to look rather disinterestedly at Susan.

'Yes!' Susan turned, looked at Alex and waved her whip menacingly. 'You must always call me Madam!'

'OK!' Alex thought that to disobey immediately, may well be what Susan wanted.

'OK! What?' Susan waved the whip again.

'OK! Susan!' There was a degree of laughter from the others, who were now standing and sitting in a circle around the oak chair with the interesting attachments.

'It's actually OK! Madam! Not your honour! Not mother-in-law! Not Susan! Repeat after me!' Susan pointed the whip at Alex. 'OK! Madam!'

'OK! Susan!' Alex was smirking and Susan thought she saw a knowing and almost invisible wink!

'You must sit here in the dock!' Susan tapped the chair a couple of times with the whip.

'What if I say no?' Alex stuck her tongue out. 'And anyway I can run faster in these shoes than you can in your silly boots!'

'So childish! Martin! David! Alistair!' The whip thrashed through the air. 'Please put Alex in the dock!'

The three men moved forward, but Alex decided that she was beaten and sat immediately in the oak chair.

'Now! Slave!' Susan was circling the chair with the whip held menacingly high. 'Generally, you've been a very good daughter-in-law! You bring my grandson, Jake, to see me at regular intervals. You behave well when I ask you to dinner. You try hard to raise Jake to the best of your ability. You do a lot of good. But!' She thrashed the whip hard down on the arm of the chair.

'What have I done wrong?' She paused before continuing. 'Madam!'

'You have dressed like a bag lady!' Susan thrashed the chair again. 'Polyester jumpers! Acrylic unmatched bras and knickers! Dreary one-piece black swimming costumes! Widow's weeds! Shapeless dresses! Skirts of an indeterminate length! Shall I go on!' The audience was enjoying the diatribe and clapped each phrase.

'No! No!' Alex was throwing her head around in a display of repentance. 'Come over and clear out my wardrobe! Never will I wear a white bra with black knickers. Never! Never! Please forgive me!'

'My friends, the jury!' Susan addressed the others. 'Shall I let her go? Has she shown enough remorse to mend her ways?'

'Yes! Yes!' The audience was virtually as one.

***

'Who's next?' Susan was pointing at the various women in the circle with her whip. 'Josie! Jane! Lissie! Daisy! Suzy! Tamsin! Who shall I choose? Do I have a volunteer?' She hadn't expected one but Daisy came forward and sat in the chair.

'What have I done wrong?' Daisy deliberately said the same as Alex. 'Madam!'

'You're almost as innocent as the colour of your corset!' Susan moved to the front of the chair and pointed. 'You look almost virginal! But that's a fake as we all know you've had three children. Immaculate conception! I don't think so! But basically you've been a good girl! There's only one bone I have to pick with you?'

Daisy seemed unbothered. 'What's that? What crime have I committed?' Susan scowled at her. 'Madam!'

'I believe you know my daughter-in-law!'

'Yes! Madam!' Daisy was having difficult not laughing.

'And you were less than honest to her about how some years ago, you lured me into a lewd mud-wrestling contest in a dingy East End club.' The audience started to laugh loudly. 'Is that correct?'

'I didn't tell her! Your Madamship!' She had a broad grin on her face.

'Is that because you lost?'

***

Lizzie was now sitting in the chair. 'What have I done wrong. Madam!' She used the words of Alex and Daisy.

Susan walked around the chair several times, flexing the whip and striking it lightly on her boots. Lizzie stared impassively forward ignoring her.

'Nothing!' Lizzie made to get up. 'Not yet! I have a present for you!' Susan walked to the box, took the key chain over her head, unlocked and opened the lid and then produced another set of cuffs, identical to those Alex was wearing. 'These are for you!' She handed them to Lizzie.

'Thank you!' Lizzie stood up and was starting to try them on her wrists.

'Not for you to wear!' She turned to the audience. 'You are to put them on the wrists of any man you choose, so that his hands are held behind him. But please not Alistair! And do it before we eat!' She now addressed the men. 'So you all had better be nice to Lizzie!'

***

'It's now Josie's turn!' Susan approached her, but instead of pulling her towards the chair, she took Winston's hand. The others started to clap as he walked meekly to the chair and sat down with his legs crossed.

'I've known Josie for many years!' She started to walk around the chair as she spoke. 'We used to work together in this house with Julian and her innermost secrets that I know are probably matched by things she knows about me. A dangerous and possibly destructive linkage. So I have called her gorgeous husband instead.' She beckoned him. 'Why don't you stand up? And take you jacket off!'

He stood and placed his jacket carefully on the chair. 'I don't think I should go any further!'

Susan looked up at him. Despite her heels, she was still ten centimetres shorter than Winston. 'You are a big boy, aren't you?' She pointed to his feet. 'You know what they say if a man has feet that size, then he's big elsewhere!' She held him close and put her arms around his waist. 'The body feels good for a man of your age!'

'I aim to please!' Winston smiled down at her.

Susan then undid a shirt button and put her hand inside. 'I could find out if you are a truly big boy, but I won't!'

'Well I won't tell you!' He removed Susan's hand.

'I don't need to know anyway!' Susan walked away from him to behind the chair!

'Why not?' Winston straightened his shirt and put the jacket back on.

'Josie has already told me!' Susan kept a perfectly straight face.

***

'Who shall we try next?' Susan called Alex, who came alongside with a certain clanking of chains.

'Shall we ask Tamsin to confess her sins?'

'No!' Tamsin was pouring another drink for Martin and Suzy. 'Can't you see I'm busy! You said I was to see everyone had a drink!'

'It's all right, Tamsin!' Lizzie spoke. 'The waitresses can manage that!. Madam says it's your turn!' She took the two bottles from Tamsin and handed them to Celia. 'Off you go!' She gave Tamsin a friendly pat on her bottom, as she walked slowly to the chair!

'I understand that you have a long list of sins to confess!' Susan was tapping the whip on the chair. 'Shall we start with substances and drugs!'

'Cocaine! Canabis! Ecstacy! Prozac! Valium! Amphetamines! Viagra! Fags!' She stopped. 'Is that enough? Oh! I was once so desperate, I smoked Mum's washing line!' Alistair was laughing as he'd heard most except the washing line before.

'And drinks!'

'Everything from absinthe downwards. I once counted that I'd drunk about thirty different spirits!'

'Anything else!' Susan tapped the whip again.

'Well!' She looked at her father. 'I did sell my body for sex a couple of times over the Internet! I'm sorry, Dad!'

Alistair got up and strode forward. 'No matter now! I hope that you've finally mended your ways! Except for the smoking!' He put his arm round his daughter.

'Perhaps you should punish me!' Tasmin got up abruptly from the chair, kicked off her shoes and bent over holding on to her ankles with her bottom in the air. 'Go on then! Susan's got a whip! How many strokes do you think I deserve?'

'Lots!' Alistair was very apprehensive, despite the fact he now had the whip in his hand. 'But I can't! Perhaps I should have done earlier in your life!'

'Why not half a dozen symbolic taps?' Tamsin was still bent over.

'Should I?' He addressed the jury and got a lot of inconsequential murmurs in reply. 'You're a great deal of help! Would you do that to Alex, if she strayed Susan?'

'Yes!' Susan replied. 'But then she would never do anything to deserve it!'

'That's not much use either, Susan! If I may say so!' But Alistair had made a decision. 'So my dear Tamsin! You are going to get the first caning from one of your parents in your life! Your mother wouldn't have approved! And I don't! But it is important that you realise the pain you caused us both!' He raised the whip high and brought it down in such a manner that all Tamsin felt was a slight tap. It was little more of a blow than the pat Lizzie had given her. He repeated it a further five times!

***

'Sit! Jane!' Susan could be seen smiling behind the mask. 'This is going to be a pleasure!'

'What have I done wrong?' Jane sat, crossed her legs and smiled, as she followed the same dialog. 'I can't call you Madam! It's bad enough to have to call you Your Honour!'

'It's fair! I have the title and you earn the money!' Susan knew that Jane was one of the top-earning QC's.

'But then you already have enough money to do anything and indulge yourself in any way you want!'

'So do you!' Susan put the whip under Jane's chin. 'How many of your clients can afford to spend about five hundred euros on a corset for a party?'

'Most!' Jane was unrepentant. 'I don't do Legal Aid!' She tried to waft the whip away, but Susan persisted in keeping it in place.

'You are always trying to annoy me!' Susan put the whip on Jane's shoulder. 'Take today, you are winding me up over the rule about sleeping with the person you came with! Will you? Won't you?'

'You don't know do you?' She grinned at Susan. 'And that annoys you! Good! Perhaps, like the others you should let the innocent me go free!'

'Perhaps!' She motioned to Alex, who knew that Susan wanted another restraint. 'Stand up and put your hands behind you!'

'Like this!' Jane complied and offered no resistance as Susan applied the cuffs. 'This is fun! I won't be able to eat and drink by myself. I'm going to be a complete nuisance!'

***

'It must be me! As I'm the only one left!' Suzy walked forward with a series of long fit strides waving to everybody. They cheered and clapped back! She sat in the chair.

'Not yet!' Susan asked Suzy to stand up and she removed the cushion of the chair. 'The list of crimes is so long, that you must be guilty of one, so you don't deserve comfort.

Suzy looked at the chair and put her hand through a large hole in the seat. 'What's this?'

'Woodworm!' Susan sat her in the chair. 'I think we had better strap you in, so you don't fall through!' Suzy made to get up, but Alex had come forward and quickly her arms and legs were strapped to the chair. The restraining was completed by buckling a large strap around the back of the chair, just under her bust. 'Are you comfortable?'

Suzy waved her head around. 'Have you got anything for my head? I can still wave it around.'

Susan flicked her fingers and Alex came forward. 'You'll find a head rest for Suzy in the cupboard.'

Alex deliberately shuffled out with her short steps and perhaps thirty seconds later she returned with an odd-shaped piece of wood, with a padded and locking ring at one end. Susan took it, opened the ring and fitted in the back of the chair, securing it with a couple of small bolts. She then closed the padded ring around Suzy's neck, adding a padlock to keep her head secure.

'How does that feel, now?'

'Very comfortable!' Her voice was muffled as the ring stopped her opening her mouth fully. 'So what have I done wrong?'

'Look at these for a start!' Susan pointed to Suzy's chipped, broken and unpainted nails. 'They're awful! And against the rules of this gathering! You also were told that there was to be no bare nipples before the loyal toast! You turned up on a tandem! And you were driving! And this underwear!' Susan looked at the label. 'It's old and it comes from M & S!'

'So what!' Suzy was defiant despite her position. 'And so what to all of that!'

'I can't have all this!' Susan produced a black pashmina or shawl from within the infamous box and wrapped it around the chair. 'First you will have the pleasure, so that later the pain will be all so unbearable!'

'This is like granny all wrapped up for the telly!'

'Martin!' She waved him forward. 'Take this!' She handed him an enormous vibrator. 'Do you know how to use one?' He nodded and the audience laughed. 'Now get under the wrap and play woodworm!'

***

'Now for the pain!' Martin and the pashmina had gone and Susan had started to unpick Suzy's exceedingly long hair. 'We all know that you have long hair. But how long? It is a secret you only share with Martin! How long is it?'

'Don't you dare?' She pulled at her bonds. 'You mustn't undo it! Stop!'

'No!' A plait unfolded to about the middle of her back. 'It's very long. When was it last cut?'

'When I was about ten!' Suzy was getting rather frantic. 'I told you not to!'

Susan had now fully undone the hair and it stretched to just below the seat of the chair. 'It's fascinating!' She rubbed it gently on her face. 'So soft! No grey either! Perhaps I should plait it first.' Slowly she created a long single plait, which she finished with a pink ribbon she took from the box. 'That wasn't so bad was it!'

'No!' Suzy's face still looked pained. 'Please let me go!'

Susan walked calmly to the box and produced a set of hair clippers. She switched them on. 'Not before I shave you bald.' The others gasped. 'You behave at my parties!'

Suzy despite the restraint at her throat, screamed long and very loudly.

Copyright 2004 by Ewart Higgins