Even Ponygirls Sometimes Get The Blues

Chapter 24. Return to Rabbit Island

(Even Ponygirls Sometimes Get the Blues, by Aurelius)

The story so far:

(Ch. 20) Kate's escape from the Breeding Shed

(Ch. 21) Cavallo's operation,

(Ch. 22) In the dungeon. Jessica faces the guillotine

(Ch. 23) On board the Slave to Fortune.

The last full day at sea on the voyage back to Rabbit Island was as informal as the previous one: more deck scrubbing and metal polishing for Jessica and her naked shipmates, while Riccardo reprised his role as the Hosemaster . It was obvious that he got a kick out of accidentally spraying the deck slaves with water as they scrubbed. They couldn't really complain. It was better than being whipped. They did however tire of Riccardo's constant threats to give any slacker a high-pressure enema.

Lunch was served on the deck... literally. Jessica, Kate, Rachel and Karen were told to kneel side-by-side. Cormack bound their wrists behind their backs with a one continuous length of heavy rope tying and linking them. Chopped-up cubes of sandwiches and leftovers from the previous night's supper were piled neatly in front of each of them. Riccardo's earlier insistence that the deck should be clean enough to eat off now made perfect sense.

A few yards in front of them a lunch table had been set. Jessica gazed on enviously as Linsey knelt at Markham's feet, being hand fed by him like a favourite pet - which of course she was. Jessica received nothing but a couple of derisory glances from Master Alex. She was annoyed at herself for expecting more.

The late afternoon body baths were especially anticipated today, since it was announced that the men were drawing lots to decide which one of them would also receive the treatment. Everyone except Markham and Alex were in the draw, including the crew. As they scrubbed the top deck the washer slaves exchanged snatched comments on who they hoped would 'win'. Such talk was quickly curtailed by the Hosemaster, hovering close by, with yet more of his tiresome enema threats.

The time came. Ranulph Markham had prepared some playing cards, one to be picked by each man. The one who chooses the Joker gets the sponge bath, he announced. It was one of those rare occasions when the men were more nervous than their slaves.

Each man pulled a card from the fanned selection Markham offered. They obeyed his instruction not to show their card until all had picked, nonetheless a few sighed with obvious relief as they snuck a look at their card.

One by one they each gleefully revealed their cards to the others until only Riccardo and Vince remained. Vince displayed the two of clubs, "I'm jealous of you Riccardo, really I am." He wasn't sure if his sarcasm was genuine. Nor were the others.

Riccardo looked quizzically at Ranulph Markham. "I get down on my hands and knees and they wash me?"

"Exactly! No more, no less. Look, the buckets of warm water are ready. You don't want a cold bath do you?"

Riccardo warily removed his polo shirt, shorts and underwear, fastidiously hanging them on the back of a deck chair. He wasn't shy about showing his toned naked body in front of other men, although yesterday, when wearing the chastity device on his penis, it might have been very different. But then, seeing the four luscious naked females waiting, sponges at the ready, he wondered whether that devilish perspex cylinder might have served a purpose after all. He was already becoming aroused and tried to hide his erection from the other men.

The washer girls were kneeling in a circle and Riccardo tentatively took up the all-fours position within. Alex deputised as the Hosemaster, giving Riccardo a taste of his own medicine with a high-powered jet of water onto his balls. Jessica held up a sponge for Alex to soak. He aimed the hose at it, giving tacit approval to Jessica's next task.

"No way!" Riccardo said, as Jessica offered the soaking sponge to his lips.

"It'll stop you swallowing the soap, Sir. That's what you told us yesterday." Jessica's smile was as broad as he had ever seen on his erstwhile ponygirl. "Please sir, I'm only obeying instructions."

Riccardo decided to get it over with, allowing Jessica to push the sponge in his mouth, figuring that the sooner they start the sooner it would be over.

Kate eagerly scooted around to take position behind him, giving the impression that she'd fight the others for that place if she had to. She set about her task with the same vigour she used on the decks and felt Riccardo's erection forming in the palms of her hands.

By contrast Jessica washed Riccardo's handsome face with loving care. She was almost in tears, confused at how she could feel such tenderness towards a man who must have whipped her buttocks a thousand times at least. Then she noticed a change in Riccardo's eyes, something close to panic, surprised that she would have affected him so.

Then Jessica looked across Riccardo's soapy back and saw that Kate was working almost too hard, like when she was removing a stubborn splatter of gull shit from the deck. Riccardo could, and should, have stood up, but with Rachel and Karen at his sides pressing down on his back as they washed his chest, that wasn't so easy. By then he had passed the point when a man no longer thinks with his brain. And Kate knew it! Running her two hands and a soapy sponge up and down his hard cock, she had just one objective and nobody seemed inclined to stop her.

Riccardo closed his eyes, wordless guttural growls coming from his sponge-filled mouth while Kate's loving hands massaged his ejaculating cock, not ceasing in her attention until it lay flaccid and spent in her hands.

The watching men whooped and applauded - congratulating Riccardo and the deck slaves alike. It had gone just as Markham expected, perhaps even better.

After a well-aimed rinse-down from Alex, Riccardo hooked the sponge out of his mouth, stood up and reached for a large towel. A wag of his finger told Kate that her punishment would come later. Somehow it seemed more of a promise than a threat.

"That was... interesting. Quite pleasant really," Riccardo commented, almost managing to look his friends in the eyes. He seemed dazed, almost shell-shocked. "Embarrassing, but really quite pleasant."

"We're not done yet," Markham announced to the men. "Check to see if there is anything written on your card."

Vince looked puzzled as he read his card. "A day of chastity?"

Markham solemnly handed him Riccardo's former chastity device. "If you need a hand fitting it, I'm sure Riccardo can help out."

Vince held it up, dangling it from pinched fingers. "Jesus, I'm not sure Riccardo's size will fit me. What if I break it and Riccardo can't wear it anymore? Looks like he could have used it just now."

"The time starts immediately," Markham informed him. Vince shrugged, and went to his room to fit the device. How bad could a night of abstinence be? He'd done it often, although had been looking forward to more fun with Karen, or perhaps Rachel if Cormack was willing to swap.

Cormack looked puzzled as he read out his card. "It says 'duet'? I can't sing!"

Markham explained: "No singing required. I'm sure you've noticed that we have an odd number of slaves on board. So, for the duets show we need somebody to make up the numbers. You'll be fully tied to one of the slaves all evening."

"Can I choose?" asked Cormack glancing towards Rachel. She looked modestly downwards to the deck, unable to suppress her coy smile.

EVENING DUETS

"Jessica can go with Linsey," Markham directed, as he organised the evening's activity. "Cormack, would you be so kind as to secure them as we discussed earlier?"

Cormack smiled. "My pleasure!" He took Jessica by her arm to the cleared floorspace where Linsey was already sat. With her wrists tied behind her Jessica wasn't planning to resist this hulk of a man. "Sit down, face to face with Linsey," he instructed her. She obeyed, not even daring to display the surly, resentful expression she often used with Master Alex or the Rabbit Island crew.

"Touching!" Cormack rebuked them. His boat shoe tapped Jessica's coccyx. She slid her buttocks forward until she was sat with her breasts squashed into Linsey's. Cormack smiled upon seeing the melding of breasts. "Now wrap your legs around each other." He bent down to tie Jessica's ankles to Linsey's wrists, then repeated the action with Linsey's ankles to Jessica's wrists.

Linsey was soon tickling Jessica's conveniently-placed feet, hoping for a reaction from her, and trying to establish eye contact, while Jessica was still adjusting to her unfamiliar position. Jessica leant backwards a little in a vain attempt to establish some personal space. But Cormack wasn't quite done. The two pairs of ringed nipples rubbing against each other were too tempting. He snapped small padlocks onto their touching nipple rings. Now if Jessica leant back Linsey came with her. To have reins attached to her nipples was normal, or sometimes chains, or perhaps bells, but never another woman locked onto them. Not even the most adept finger could compete with another woman's nipples pressing into hers.

Linsey began her wordless seduction. Although they were equals in bondage Jessica felt she was the victim, with Linsey her captor and seducer. Her sex remained untouched and untouchable despite Linsey's attempts to wriggle her body into even closer contact. When Linsey kissed her Jessica's mouth opened as slowly as her eyes closed. The kiss was long and deep, an unequal contest with Jessica's tongue disabled by the T-bar. She became oblivious to everything else around her as Linsey's sensual, exotic and fragrant body held her in thrall.

Kate and Karen were then fixed into their duet, Kate on top of a doggie-style Karen. The strap-on dildo of which Kate had been on the receiving end the previous evening was now strapped around her own loins, then thrust up to its hilt into Karen's sex. Their bodies were tied together to ensure they stayed that way. Kate tried to apologise for her actions but her ballgag meant she could only moan and dribble onto her trapped friend like a lusty dog.

Cormack accepted his duet with Rachel with surprisingly good grace, crouching over her all-fours position and allowing his hands and ankles to be tied to hers. His bulk seemed to swallow her up beneath him. For the sake of male decorum, and to cool his lust Cormack stayed dressed in a polo shirt, shorts and boat shoes. Rachel wore nothing but a blindfold, and expression of intense concentration rather than fear. He kissed her neck, nibbling it, rubbing her ear with his nose, then simulated a thrust of his hips into her.

At the dining table, Markham set the table for contract bridge. This evening was his final attempt to pass the finer aspects of the game to Alex, who was showing great promise.

Riccardo was understandably distracted by Kate and Karen's involuntary sex act. Seeing the harness straps around Kate's waist and dissecting her butt cheeks had ignited his fire. He began to think that the male chastity device worn by pony drivers on La Plata wasn't such a bad idea after all. He took his place occupying the seat with his back to the duets show.

Vince, forced to wear the chastity device for the night, began to appreciate its advantages. With no prospect of achieving a hard-on, and hence an orgasm, he could enjoy the duet show for as long as he cared to.

"You don't want to play?" Alex asked Vince.

"Not with you guys," Vince replied, nodding in the direction of the duets.

"I'll play!" Cormack called out immediately from his kneeling position. He rose to his feet with Rachel still attached to him. "I'm still tied to the girl as required. Don't worry, she's blindfolded so she won't be able to help me."

The men shrugged. Cormack had a point. He curled an arm around Rachel's belly, holding her like a ragdoll, tight against him, as he took his seat at the card table. She was sat on his lap, her wrists and ankles still tied to his. Instead of bondage making her immobile it had been used so she no long had control of her body. Rachel's hands shadowed Cormack's each and every move, flinging forward as he laid cards on the table, then back to her chest as he reviewed cards.

Cormack developed an annoying habit of flicking his cards back and forth over her nipples while waiting for others to play. He liked the way they grew in response, and the way Rachel whimpered, trapped between shame and desire. Alex was envious of the pair, but was resigned that he didn't have the size and weight advantage to replicate Cormack's feat.

Markham noticed Alex's lingering glance at Jessica and Linsey. "I think my slave's found a new friend!"

"It's such a friendly position, I'm not surprised," Alex chuckled.

Cormack only lasted a few rubbers (of bridge!) before excusing himself for a bathroom break. The men's habit while on board was to use the improvised urinal on the rear patio deck - a large fuel funnel with a length of tube dropping into the sea through a drain hole.

Rachel gasped as Cormack pulled her arms behind her back so he could unzip his fly. The only tension between them was sexual and mutual. He pushed her belly hard against the gunwale, bending her forward so her head was over the water. She felt something large rubbing against her inner thighs. "I thought you were just going to the bathroom," she gasped.

"I'd like to, but a man can't piss with a hard-on! Open up and hold still, it isn't easy without using my hands."

She felt the wet tip of his insistent penis push against her perineum, exciting her even further. After adjusting the shape of his body it plunged fully into her, lifting her as far as she could go with her ankles still tied to his. She felt an exquisite stretch of her legs and a fullness inside she had never known before. Bound so intimately to this hunk, she hoped some magical curse would make it impossible to untie the ropes that bound them. Persuaded by his kisses, it didn't feel like sex or rape, but as if she was possessed and enfolded by him.

Forgetting herself, Rachel signified her orgasm with a yell, uninhibited by the darkness of her blindfold, and the exhilarating sea breeze.

GOOD COMPANIONS

Markham and Alex looked across to the two duets on the polished wood floor. Unlike Cormack, these weren't going anywhere.

Karen, still on all-fours, and on top of her Kate, her reluctant rapist, appeared exhausted. At first Karen had protested and complained about the movement of the dildo as Kate tried to get comfortable, but soon the inevitable happened as their combined body heat increased. Karen directed Kate's thrusts, reasoning she would feel better, more relaxed, after an orgasm rather than maintaining her state of enforced arousal. The dribble from Kate's ballgagged mouth above her ran down her both sides of her face.

Meanwhile Jessica and Linsey continued their delicate never-ending foreplay, bodies pressed together but unable to gain the friction below the waist they both craved.

"Exquisite, aren't they?" Markham commented, as if looking at fine porcelain.

Alex agreed, although he might have used a coarser expression. The blindfolded Jessica was unknowingly testing his self-control.

"My companion slave with your future companion slave. What a pair they make!"

Alex became a little irritated, and replied in barely a whisper. "Shhh! I already said I can't have a companion slave with the life I lead. I travel too much. And if I do take a companion slave it won't be Jessica."

Markham raised his eyebrows. "What's wrong? She's pretty. Nice temperament. And I think she likes you. A ponygirl not good enough for you?"

Alex chuckled, knowing that ponygirls were definitely good enough for him, but he wasn't enjoying the gentle probing. "I assure you that isn't the reason. It's more complicated that than. Something I'd rather not talk about. At least not yet."

"Suit yourself old boy! But that former companion slave on the island..."

"Carol?"

"Yes, Carol. She can help train her. So how is Carol doing these days? How terrible to lose her companion master at such a young age! Does she ever talk about her days as a companion slave?"

Alex shook his head. "No, she doesn't like to talk about it. Do you know what happened?"

Markham leant forward, speaking in barely a whisper. "When her master was killed in that terrible car wreck, she was given the choice whether to live or die. A bereaved companion slave will never be sold, nor can they ever be with another master. Many of them choose to die. It's an inevitable consequence of their conditioning. After several days in her bedroom looking at a deadly concoction of pills Carol finally accepted an offer. Like many of those who choose to live, she opted for a complete change of environment, swapping New Hampshire for your sunny island on the other side of the world."

"We're glad to have her, she's a very talented beautician, not that our bunnies need much help. She seems to like the pace of our island life." said Alex. "You're right about one thing, to my knowledge she's never been with a man in the time I've known her. She is a free woman, but sometimes she feels the urge to be disciplined, or punished for some arbitrary offence. Her favourite, or perhaps it's the one she hates most, is the four hole stock."

He was referring to the iron bar with four circular fixtures in a row used for pinning a slave in the lowliest of positions: kneeling with her face rubbing on the floor. Her arms are in front of her, her wrists are pulled between her knees and secured into the two central circles, flanked on either side by her secured ankles. With her upturned ass, bare back and accessible vagina and anus, there is no end to the torments that could be inflicted on her.

Alex continued: "I put her in one a few weeks ago. Vibrated her clit to several orgasms, whipped her buttocks 'til she bled and then left her to stew for a few hours. She was a picture of misery when I returned to release her, and yet, later in the evening she was happier than ever. 'That'll keep me going for a few weeks', she said to me."

"Stop changing the subject, Alex. You have the perfect opportunity to get yourself a beautiful, properly trained companion slave. If the time isn't right now, just keep her on the Island as a ponygirl for five or ten years, until you're in a position to take her. What's all this nonsense about wiping her memory and releasing her in a year? You owe her nothing!"

Alex glanced over to Jessica and Linsey. Their tender kisses couldn't disguise the fact that they were listening, or at least trying to. He coughed. "Time now to change the subject. In fact I think it's time to change our subjects too. Jessica and Linsey have been at it for long enough. You don't happen to have a four hole stock do you?"

LAND AHOY !

"Land ahoy!" came the shout from the top deck.

Jessica turned over in her bed, burying her face in the sheet to avoid facing the morning sunshine and the fact that she would be stepping on Rabbit Island again in a few hours. Her thoughts turned to the previous night and talk of companion slaves. Being so initimately tied to one, and tasting her kisses, while listening to the men talking about companion slaves had disturbed her. She had come to regard Master Alex as the sole barometer of her self-worth. His comment to Markham about freeing her in a year was lost in the fog of her sense of rejection. At that moment, perhaps through a lack of vision, she wanted desperately to be a companion slave. She wanted to be his companion slave, to have the kind of relationship that Ranulph Markham and Linsey enjoyed.

Her wrists were still sore from last night's exertions. The delicious frustrations of being tied face to face, belly to belly with Linsey, being aroused by her kisses yet unable to do anything about the hot tingle building up in her body was followed by the four hole stocks. Following Alex's comment about putting Carol in one, Markham suggested they try his new design, smooth stainless steel instead of the usual heavy iron. As luck would have it there were two of them on the ship's toy chest.

Jessica and Linsey were fitted into the four hole stocks and positioned side-by-side. Alex started his assault with a Hitachi vibrator, while Ranulph Markham continued his attack on a bottle of 1985 Claret. Jessica was still blindfolded but she knew well the sensation of Alex's firm hands on her buttocks. He pinched and pulled her labia, saying to Markham, "I love these lips." (Yes, he had drunk more than usual.)

"You could at least give her a kiss!" Markham teased from the comfort of his dining chair. He'd noticed that Alex was less inhibited than usual. Alex's fingers let go of Jessica's flesh and a few moments later, crouching down awkwardly behind her, he kissed her. Just one simple kiss, but as Kate might say, 'a kiss down below is worth a hundred on the face.'

More than a hundred, Jessica thought, as she lay in bed recalling the exquisite orgasm Alex and a Hitachi vibrator gave her. She looked at the handcuffs that held her arms at the top of the bed, cursing that she could not reach down to give that sweet memory an accompanying touch. The strange thing was that she didn't remember cuffing her own wrists to the bed before she went to sleep. Perhaps someone else had done it, such as Kate, in revenge for the con trick she had pulled the previous night? She turned over expecting to look at Kate in the opposite bunk, but it was empty and, judging by the made up covers, had not been slept in. Then Jessica remembered. In the middle of the night, disturbed and unsettled by a strange dream, she had fixed the cuffs on herself, seeking their security and protection.

BUNNY CHAINS

Jessica fell asleep again, before being roused a half-hour later. Just like the previous mornings, breakfast was taken while sitting on the deck. Every sip and mouthful of the orange juice, coffee and croissants was savoured while they gazed at Rabbit Island's large gently rounded hump looming ever larger. It looked so lush and green, it being at the tail end of the rainy season. Compared to the horrors of La Plata, with its appropriate grey jagged peaks, this island was paradise. But they weren't quite ready for it. Jessica and Kate thought they had found paradise on the Slave to Fortune.

Vince appeared on deck carrying a canvas bag. "Vacation's over!" he announced with obvious relish. He emptied the contents of the bag onto the deck. Four female hearts sank upon seeing its contents, and Vince noticed.

"You've been spoilt these last few days, but now it's back to Rabbit Island ways. He picked up to first collar and chain and read the inscription on the collar, "bunny Kate!"

"But I'm a pussygirl, and a nurse," she protested.

"I know you are, babe, but you still get a bunny chain."

Kate sighed with resignation and held her hands together behind her. Vince put the collar on first, buckling and padlocking it at the front, then placed her wrists in the handcuffs fixed to a chromed chain dangling from the back of the collar. Kate gave a perfunctory tug of her wrists and a glance over her shoulder. It all felt so familiar, making her feel she was back on Rabbit Island already.

"Bunny Jessica! Step forward. And before you say it... yes I know you're a ponygirl!"

Jessica smiled. She felt the one-inch diameter collar draw tight around her neck. She lifted her chin proudly to allow Vince to buckle and lock her. Ponygirls learned to enjoy being dressed by men, even if the dressing was only a harness and bridle. She took her place alongside Kate, even though they had not been asked to line up in any fashion.

Kate looked at the engraved tag fixed onto the side of Jessica's collar "It's got your name on it, Jessi."

Jessica gave a sardonic chuckle. "Oh, isn't that sweet of them? Our welcome back gift is made-to-measure bunny chains!"

"They're quite a good fit actually," said Kate, "not so bad at all."

"You're right," Vince interjected, as he dispatched Karen with a playful slap on the behind. "The collar is made to your exact size, only one buckle hole so it has a neat tail, the handcuffs close only to your own wrist size, and the back chain is at the correct length for each of you. Very pretty you all look too!"

Jessica sneered and wrinkled her nose at Vince, Karen muttered an obscenity, while Kate accepted the compliment with a smile.

Rachel puffed with frustration and sank dejected to the deck. She seemed more distressed by the return of chains than anybody. Three days on board the Slave to Fortune as the lustful object of Cormack's attentions had left more than just physical marks. She couldn't remember feeling anything as good as his big muscular body pressing against her. The bunny chains signified that those times were over. She looked enviously at Kate, who was squinting, perhaps smiling, in the sunshine without a care in the world. Things were okay for Kate, she had an interesting job as the island's nurse, and would no doubt continue to enjoy the lustful attentions of Riccardo. But for Rachel there was only life as a beach bunny to look forward to, while Cormack was working on the other side of the world.

DOCKED

The four slaves were left on deck, unmolested and generally ignored while the owner, crew and guests busied themselves with packing and other preparations prior to docking.

One thing Jessica had never got used was a slave's utter lack of possessions, not the slightest trinket or keepsake. Even a typical family dog has more stuff. Perhaps that was why the new bunny chains, with her name neatly engraved on the collar, gave her such mixed feelings. They were hers in a sense, even if the leather collar and steel cuffs encircled and restrained her. She thought about her ponyboots - surely having made the journey to La Plata and back again, they were considered hers? And there were her harnesses - two complete sets. Would they be waiting for her on Rabbit Island? The prospect of being strapped up again in her working harness was not such an unpleasant thought, far preferable to breaking in a new harness.

"Katie, do you have any possessions with you?" she asked.

Kate gave Jessica a puzzled look, and nodded down at her clean-shaven sex. "I keep my credit cards down there. Seldom carry much cash these days."

"Very funny! I mean, do you think that those new chains or, for example, your little nurse's apron are possessions?"

"That's a good question, Jessi. They're not really possessions, are they? More like equipment assigned to us. I know it's stupid, but it's nice to be wearing a collar with my name on it. More personal I suppose. I can tell these are good quality too. Soft leather, custom fitted cuffs. Not too tight or too loose." She stretched her arms out behind her to the extent of the collar's connecting chain. "Yep, in slave terms, I'd say we've arrived!"

Jessica laughed, and looked towards the approaching jetty. "We have now."

Riccardo and Vince returned briefly to the top deck to drop the large cushioning fenders over the left-hand side of the boat. Both men were in good spirits, evidently pleased to be returning to the island. "Well, look at that! They've extended the jetty," Riccardo commented as they headed for opposite ends of the ship.

Vince expertly threw the line from the bow onto the adjacent bollard on the jetty. The noise of the ship's engine, a constant companion for the last few days, fell silent and gradually the stern eased in toward the jetty. Riccardo dropped the eye of the line over the bollard, pulled it taut, and quickly tied it off with a figure of eight.

"Not a soul. The place looks deserted," observed Kate.

"No ponygirls to meet us," Jessica observed sadly, expecting hopefully to see her friends again. Usually when a boat docks, at least one pair of ponygirls, with trailer attached, would be waiting to take goods, luggage or visitors up to the Lodge. The ponygirls had a ceremonial function too. Just as a bagpiper might greet your arrival in Scotland so the sight of a well turned-out ponygirl provided a fitting welcome to Rabbit Island. It was one errand that Jessica, as a ponygirl, looked forward to - a chance to see who and what was disembarking, a rare chance for a ponygirl to be the first to know something, instead of the last.

They disembarked as a group, and walked up to the lodge on foot, taking the wooden staircase cut into the rocky cliff-face instead of the long gradual incline of the trail. The cliff wasn't large, the height of a four-story building, but after lounging around on boats and prison cells for the last couple of weeks the slaves were all puffing for breath (with Kate complaining of exhaustion) by the time they reached the top. Jessica did well to cover her slight lack of breath. As a ponygirl she could be whipped for showing such weakness.

Perhaps they were complacent, but Jessica and company half-expected the Slave to Fortune party would continue in the Lodge's main hall, or perhaps in somebody's bedroom. Instead they were marched straight to the cellblock. Alex, Ranulph Markham and the ship's crew had peeled off without Jessica noticing. It was left to Vince and Riccardo to lock them up.

The cellblock smelt of paint, and the brightly coloured walls indicated that somebody had been busy very recently. An improvement - Jessica thought - cool pastel shades replaced the previously stark white walls. When the solid gloss white painted cell door opened she could see that the cells had also benefited from a makeover.

The door slammed shut behind her, and Jessica was once again just another Rabbit Island prisoner. She sat on the bed which ran fully crossways against the wall opposite the door. Then she noticed the small window above the bed. She stood on the soft mattress to peer out. It overlooked the cobbled courtyard where ponygirls were harnessed to their carts and where, on the heavy wooden A-frames their subsequent punishments were delivered. It was deserted which made her feel strangely sad. Better to be out there than stuck in a cell, she felt.

She liked the small woven rug on the floor. It reminded her of a prayer mat, and its purpose was not so different. She was to spend a lot of time kneeling on it. It seemed to beckon her, so eschewing the comfort of the bed she knelt down on the rug, knees wide, her back bolt upright and chin raised. The downward tug of her cuffed wrists on her thick leather collar demanded a good posture. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, improvising a self-styled meditation. It was good to be 'home', away from the terrors of La Plata, but she suspected things might be different on Rabbit Island now.

Those differences soon became apparent.

End of chapter 24

coming soon... the hi-tech cells, chain gangs, rude food.

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