The Moorish style hunting pavilion, erected in memory of the 1867 Paris Universal Exhibition, stood on the very borders of the park, at the bottom of an immense lawn, between spinneys of oaks and maples. Beatrice had caught sight of it one day, by chance, between the trees, from the Venus temple rotunda that closes the main perspective of the house, beyond the main basin. She had waited till nightfall before venturing there. Now, edged on by the dark pleasures of curiosity and fear, she moved with her eyes half closed and her throat tight, along the curved path. Around her, the deeper shadows of bushes stood out of the darkness and, sometimes, shivering all together, waved and leant forward towards her. She covered the last few yards with her shoes in her hand trying to prevent the gravel from crunching, and, with a beating heart, entered the building.

A long gallery, devoid of windows, took up the space. Ten niches, cut out of the stone, faced each other. Between each of them, the walls were decorated with weapons and trophies of all kinds. A posthumous tribute to Lord Ashley’s eccentricity, all this added up to a surrealist jumble of bearskins, mouflon heads, stuffed eagles, antelope horns, reindeer antlers and elephant tusks. An exquisite fragrance of leather, Virgina tobacco and gun grease pervaded the place.

At the far end of the gallery, brightened up by a fire that crackled in a large fireplace, Lady Alexandra sat in a high-backed Maharajah’s throne. A Bengal tiger-skin lay under her feet. Haughty, superb, inaccessible, she was simply – but divinely – clad in a black satin muslin corset. While emphasizing both the slimness of her waist and the curve of her hips, this garment also highlighted her magnificent and provocative naked bosom. A dark-haired wig and heavy make-up enhanced the severity of her features. Through the bluish wreathes rising from an endless cigarette holder, a mischevious look shone from her green eyes.

- Come closer!

- But, Madam…

- Silence and obey! Here, you shall soon learn that I am no longer Madam, but Mistress and that you are my slave.

The order cracked liked a whip in an icy silence and, upon hearing the front door slam shut behind her, Beatrice suddenly understood she was trapped. A tall man now guarded it. He was almost entirely naked. His face was hidden by a mask and he wore an indented black leather thong, with a circular aperture in its center, displaying and emphasizing uncommonly large male organs. An enigmatic smile drifted over his lips. The maid thought she recognized the smile of George, Lady Alexandra’s butler. Her henchman also. Unless it was the smile of the devilish Harry, that Prince of Darkness.

On the left hand side of the gallery, where torches threw long, irregular shadows on the arcaded ceiling, nine entirely naked young girls were lined up in a row in the niches. The tenth niche was empty. All were as young as Beatrice. Between each pair of legs, the glow from the fire lit up their nether locks, and the pink, erect tips of their breasts.

Several girls were mounted on leather dildoes affixed to the wall, and writhed wildly on them, having been ordered to stimulate themselves until they climaxed. Beatrice watched the line of wriggling bodies. The girls’ hands were tied above their heads, as were their feet below. They had but little space to move on the dildoes and ground away on them, trying to roll their hips as best they could, their eyes drenched in tears.

Another girl, who was moaning gently, had each of her nipples clamped. The clamps carried small brass bells, which shivered as she breathed. Gradually, they had become heavy, pulling at her and, weighing down her breasts, making her painfully aware of them. Lower, between her spread legs, other bells had been attached to her labia. They rubbed her thighs, biting into her flesh.

The last girl had leather cuffs on her wrists and ankles. Each cuff was fitted with a ring. The girl’s wrists had been suspended to a hook above her head and her legs had been brought up in front of her, so that her ankles were hanging from the same hook. Her head had been forced between her calves and a leather strap held her legs fast against her torso. Thus folded in two, she displayed, right below her flushed face, her naked and swollen sex, emerging from the golden corolla of her pelvis, her pink lips and the little brown carnation between her buttocks.

The masked man was now pacing up and down the row of young women with a satisfied look on his face, obviously taking pleasure in tormenting them. In turn, he spread their legs and caressed their thighs. Then, with his thumb and forefinger, he sank into the damp and silky fleeces, feeling their tender inside lips, and forcing them wide open to reach the fragile nodule of flesh. Then, he fondled it, coming and going patiently, until the girls lifted their hips and panting, convulsed, their sex opening and closing like a small mouth avid for pleasure, finally gave in, their back arched, with a terrible shiver.

In the opposite niches, facing the girls, was a row of ten men, also naked. Each of them very handsome, in his own style, they offered the common vision of their gagged mouths and erect sexes, taught and motionless, their tip glowing, pointing horizontally out of the fleeces that darkened their crotches. The sight of the young women facing was tantalizing, and they arched their hips towards the girls, exasperated, urging to be relieved of the desire that made them so hard.

Some had their limbs spreadeagled, wrists and ankles chained to the wall, their cocks erect despite the weights that had been hung from their balls. Others had their hands tied behind their neck and mockingly or to add to their ordeal, a large pink bow had been tied around their sexes. Others, threaded onto leather dildoes, but differently from the women, had their hands attached behind their back and tried desperately to escape to lessen their suffering.

A little further, a man knelt, his hands tied behind his back. A young peasant girl paddled his buttocks regularly, while at the same time slowly stimulating his cock. When the latter grew limp under the effect of pain, the blows stopped for a moment while the hand caressed it again to make it harden. Suffering this endless torture, the man expressed through his mute pain all the distress in the world, torn between the will to fight and the desire to submit.

The presence of Lady Alexandra excited them further. She had stood up and now, parading before them, added to their agitation by the fleeting touch of her gorgeous body. She stroked back a lock of hair, clearing a forehead, or looked deep into a pair of eyes, letting her fingers caress a smooth chest, twisted a nipple, stroked the curve of a buttock, scratched a leg with the tip of her nails. Silently calling to see their pleasure satisfied, they writhed and pushed forwards to get closer to her. But she didn’t stay, and, abandoning one to torment another, she refrained carefully from affording them release.

On a sign from her, the masked man placed Beatrice at the end of the row of men and made her kneel with her hands on the ground to honour the first one with her mouth. He eagerly thrust his erect member into it. The maid began sucking with application. She kept her eyes closed, sniffing the delicious fragrance of the pubic hair, and enjoying the salty taste of the skin, while the penis kept bumping against the back of her throat, between her aching lips. She felt that her head was being held firmly from behind and she groaned in rhythm with the man’s movements. His pressure was strong, almost brutal, as if he were suddenly released. The pace increased and she felt him come inside her in a final thrust.

Beatrice was then placed before the second man and went to work on the long, thick cock that craned towards her, ignoring her muffled protests, as if she were gagged by the coming and going of the member deep in her throat. Her face was now aching, her mouth distorted and her cheeks had become scarlet. The same ordeal was repeated with the third man, then with the next and so on until the tenth.

Once the girl had reached the end of the row, Lady Alexandra ordered her to come and kiss her feet as a sign of submission. Then, while Beatrice knelt before her, she permitted the masked man to take the maid from behind, rewarding him for his services.

Beatrice was then tied up until daybreak in the empty niche on the women’s side. Her limbs were tightly bound and widely spread to prevent her from attempting to pleasure herself. To prolong her ordeal and keep her painfully awake, her loins pressed up against the cold, rough stone behind her, a thin gold chain was attached in a triangular pattern from her nipples to the ring on her dog’s collar.