Masters And Lovers 1-4 novel Chapter 35

Charlotte

My head bangs and with every movement, every vibration, every swerve, the throbbing pulses through from some epicentre, I think where I banged my skull as I fell. My knees too, feel stiff and heated. As I try to shift into a more comfortable position, pain stabs up from one ankle.

I can barely move. I’m lying on my side, one cheek flat down.

My baby…

Something soft, maybe a towel, sandy and hairy, presses against my face, smelling of seaweed and wet dog. I keep having to blink as with every jog of the car, grains of sand dislodge against my eyes.

From somewhere, I hear classic small-dog yapping. Excitement?

Or worry?

Scruffy…

My mouth is taped, very securely, the adhesive pulling and tearing at the softer skin of my lips as I try to work my jaw. My feet are bound; my wrists too, behind my back and too tightly. My hands went numb long ago and my fingers feel bloated.

My Master ties, binds or restrains me regularly, but it never feels like this.

If I don’t get some blood to my fingers soon…

My knees hurt.

Breathing’s not easy. A warm trickle from one nostril pools and crisps on my skin, and my cheek presses into something warm and fluid.

It’s not quite dark. Light spills through odd chinks in the bodywork, outlining blankets, dog leads and one of those long-handle-things that launches a tennis ball.

My mother?

Kirstie?

I heard them before. Kirstie’s yell of fury, cut short. Scrabbling. The impact of something against the car. My mother’s scream of fear, also cut short. Running feet and another scream.

Then just the sound of the engine, the rumble of tyres, Scruffy’s barking.

And later, the screech of brakes, the swing of the car, throwing me sidelong, jarring my head again against metal…

Ben’s cursing and the clunk of a car door…

What happened?

Something…

The smooth vibration of a cruising vehicle changes to the jolt and tumble of uneven ground, the engine grinding down to a lower gear. Rocked one way and the other, I can’t avoid the impact of my knees and head against bodywork.

Curling up as best I can, I try to shelter my belly from the worst.

*****

The car jerks to a stop and the engine dies. A door thuds and footsteps crunch closer.

The sound of yapping again.

“Quiet, Scruffy!” The yapping stops. “Good Boy.”

Keys rattle and scrape, the lock clunks. The trunk cracks open and light spills in.

And silhouetted against the sunshine spearing my eyes, I see the face of my Enemy.

“I promised you I was going to put a stop to this. And I’m going to,” says Ben. “What a catch. The adulteress, the whore and that mother-fucker and his bastard to boot. Klempner’ll take care of him. And I even got that slut, Kirstie. She’ll not be making any more trouble. I’d say that makes it a full house.”