Slaves of Elysium (5 page)

‘It's all right, miss,' she said, trying to calm her.

The
Galatea's
engines cut as Devereaux abandoned his position at the upper helm. Before he could reach them Ash appeared.

‘I saw her in the saloon earlier but I didn't realise she'd picked up a bottle,' he said apologetically.

‘Can you help me get her back to her cabin?' Jeni asked, and Ash stooped to gather Rebecca up in his sturdy arms when her eyes focused, and with a wild access of strength her palm swung back and she smacked him hard across the cheek.

‘Get your filthy black hands off me!' she shrieked.

Ash's face set like stone. Jeni gaped in dismay. ‘Mr Ash is only trying to help you, miss.'

But Rebecca was beyond reason. All her fear and hatred poured out in a wild rambling torrent of abuse directed at Ash. ‘You got us into this... your kind isn't fit... too stupid... all your fault...'

Then Devereaux was at Rebecca's side, restraining her, trying to smother her poisonous words. Ash backed away, and between Devereaux and Jeni they got Rebecca back to her cabin and onto her bed. Mumbling drunkenly, she curled up under the sheets, slipping into a troubled sleep.

Devereaux, drawn and haggard, ran his fingers through his hair. ‘I suppose I don't blame her,' he said. ‘This situation is getting hard to take. I guess we're all pretty close to the edge.'

‘I'd better watch her,' Jeni said. ‘I don't think she should be left alone.'

‘Please, if you would. I'll spell you later. Hell, now I've got to find some way of apologising to Brad.'

Left alone Jeni tidied the cabin, and then sat by Rebecca. Seeing her like this at her worst should have generated deep contempt within her, but instead she felt only a weary sort of pity. What was she doing working for this woman? Did she really need what she could give her so badly? Perhaps it was too late to change now.

 

A couple of hours later Devereaux came down and took over the watch. He looked desperately tired. Jeni went through to the galley, made some sandwiches and took them up to Ash, who was now conning the boat from the fly bridge.

Evidently Ash had not heard her coming, for as she reached the top of the steps she saw him slumped forward over the dash, head clasped in one hand while the other that grasped the wheel was trembling. She heard him muttering distractedly through gritted teeth. Exhaustion, the unnatural fog and the unchanging sun were finally taking their toll, even on his nerves.

Silently Jeni returned to the main deck, waited a minute, and then started up once more, ensuring she trod heavily on the steps. By the time she reached the top Ash was sitting erect at the wheel, looking alert and composed once more.

‘Thanks,' he said as she put the plate down beside him.

‘You look a little tired,' she said. ‘Perhaps we should stop again and all get some proper sleep.'

‘I can keep going for a while longer.'

Jeni took a deep breath. ‘I'm sure Miss Rebecca didn't mean all that earlier.' She was not apologising for Rebecca's sake, but in the hope it might make Ash feel better. ‘She was sick and drunk. And she's frightened of this strange situation.'

Ash smiled wearily. ‘You're too kind-hearted for your own good,' he said. ‘But except for the crazier bits, we both know she meant every word. The booze just loosened her tongue, that's all. But don't worry; I'll get over it. I've heard worse, believe me.'

Jeni admired his attitude, but felt moved to ask, ‘Don't you feel any anger towards her?'

Ash shrugged. ‘A little, I admit. I think she's a spoilt young bitch who maybe could have done with a few spankings when she was younger to teach her some manners. But would it do any good now? I really don't know. I'm not likely to be in any position to try the experiment.'

Jeni was silent for a while, chewing her lip. There was something else she had to ask. ‘When you and Mr Devereaux were talking earlier,' she ventured carefully, ‘I heard you mention the Bermuda Triangle. Do you think all this is something to do with it?'

Ash hesitated before replying. ‘A week ago I'd have said it was just a myth. Now I don't know.' His shoulders sagged. ‘But whatever the answer, I don't see how we could have done anything else but keep on going like we are.'

‘How much fuel have we got left?'

‘At steady cruising speed, about enough for another eighteen hours. We should hit the US coast before then.' He glanced over his shoulder at the motionless and unnatural sun. ‘Assuming we've been going in the right direction, of course.'

 

Jeni took a spell at the bow lookout again, though she had long since given up expecting to see anything. In fact she began to hope they would strike something solid. At least it would prove there was still something else left in the world besides sea and fog and a sun that never rose or set.

A slight rise in the engine note told her that Ash had increased the
Galatea's
speed. He was risking a collision and gambling against the increased rate of fuel consumption in the hope of getting somewhere before it was too late.

Her sense of dislocation from time and the real world worsened. Had they been trapped in this void for days, months, forever? How much longer could they last under such conditions? The worse strain was not physical but mental. You could fight a tangible obstacle, but the motionless sun and the unchanging shroud that enclosed them were slowly but inexorably sapping their reason.

After what her watch said was another two hours, but felt like an age, Ash cut the engines.

‘Can you tell Mark he's got to take a turn at the wheel,' he called down to her. ‘I don't think I can go on much longer.'

Desperately weary and distracted, Jeni made her way down to Rebecca's cabin, and smelt the heavy scent of spirits in the air as she opened the cabin door. Devereaux was sprawled across the bed beside Rebecca, who was now awake and giggling foolishly. Both had glasses in their hands and several bottles were lined up on the bedside locker.

Devereaux had joined Rebecca in her escape from reality and responsibility.

‘Oh!' Jeni exclaimed. ‘What have you done?'

‘Jeni, Jeni, Jeni...' Devereaux said, with fear and artificially induced levity struggling for ascendancy behind his wild eyes and crooked smile. ‘Come and join the party!'

‘Mr Ash asked if you could take over from him at the wheel,' Jeni said miserably. ‘Perhaps I'd better tell him you're not well.'

‘Tell Brad what you like,' Devereaux retorted with a bitter laugh. ‘He can steer us straight to hell for all I care. Maybe we're there already? Don't you see, it doesn't matter now? We're all fucked. Nothing matters now.' He drained his glass and reached for another bottle.

Rebecca focused on Jeni with amused contempt playing about her lips. ‘Look at her,' she said scornfully, ‘shocked by the sight of us. She'd never do anything so daring as to get drunk. Well, shall I tell you a secret about prim and proper Jeni?'

Jeni suddenly went cold. ‘No, miss, please don't.'

‘The other day I gave her a beating on her bare bottom and she took it like a lamb. I think Jeni's a closet masochist.'

Devereaux was goggling at Jeni with renewed interest, and she tried to edge away, feeling behind her for the door handle.

‘Stay right there,' Rebecca ordered, and even slurred by drink it had that commanding edge Jeni could never resist, so she stood stock still, biting her lip.

‘Well, Jeni, did I beat you?' Rebecca demanded, and Jeni nodded despondently.

‘And did you enjoy it?'

Feeling detached and light-headed, Jeni nodded again.

‘Is your bottom still red, Jeni?

‘I... don't know, miss.'

‘Well show us so we can see for ourselves.'

‘Miss?'

‘Do it!' Rebecca thundered, and as though in a dream Jeni tugged down her shorts and white cotton panties, which slipped down her legs to crumple about her ankles. For a moment she instinctively tried to cover her pubes, then her hands dropped dejectedly to her sides.

Devereaux grinned in a lopsided manner at her exposure, his glassy eyes resting on her fluffy golden pubic delta.

‘Turn round and bend over,' Rebecca commanded. ‘Show Mark you bottom.'

Heart thudding, Jeni obeyed, shuffling round and bending forward to clasp her shins.

‘Oh dear, it's not red any more,' Rebecca observed.

‘Soon fix that,' Devereaux chuckled, with drunken childlike glee. ‘Kneel on the bed, Jeni.'

Like a marionette helplessly obeying its puppeteer, Jeni kicked off her shorts and panties, and then awkwardly obeyed and knelt on all fours and hung her head, burning with shame and humiliation, even as her heart raced and bare skin tingled. What was she doing? All she need do was say no, get up and leave. But she remained mute and obedient. Another step into the land of dark joys and forbidden pleasures, whose lure she could not resist.

Devereaux slid off the bed and stood unsteadily behind her. She felt his hand caress her bottom, testing the pliancy of her flesh and the weight of her buttocks.

‘Spread you legs wider,' Rebecca ordered. ‘You've nothing to hide now, you little slut.'

Jeni shuffled her knees apart. Devereaux's fingers slipped into the valley dividing the full hemispheres and ran down to tickle her pouting pubic mound. Jeni shuddered, feeling the warm slickness of arousal between her nether lips.

Do it, do it, she screamed within her head.

Devereaux drew back his hand and smacked her right buttock crisply, leaving the stark imprint of his hand on her flesh.

Rebecca laughed. ‘That's better, that's how her sort should be marked,' she said with vicious delight.

Another smack landed, on the left buttock this time. The stinging shock surged though Jeni, then there was a further blow across the lower curves of both cheeks, setting them jumping and shivering. Then another and another, faster and harder. Devereaux was smacking wildly, forehand and backhand, rocking her to and fro on the yielding mattress.

‘That's right, bitch!' he was shouting. ‘You like that, don't you?'

Jeni felt her bottom glowing with heat and her stomach screwing itself up in knots of feral pleasure. Whimpers and moans bubbled from between her lips, but not one single word of protest or plea to cease the chastisement of her defenceless posterior.

Then Devereaux grasped her hair and forced her face down into the sheets, leaving her burning bottom raised high. She felt him kneel on the bed between her spread legs, his thighs pressing against the naked backs of hers. There was the sound of a zipper, and then Jeni felt the head of his erect penis spring out against her bottom. He clasped her hips. The hard/soft plum of flesh probed her wet cleft that pouted brazenly from between her spread thighs, parting the soft outer lips, finding the secret mouth of her vaginal passage.

Jeni yelped as he thrust into her with brutal force, sheathing his manhood inside her, grunting and grinding against her sore bottom. He pulled back only to drive into her once again, his weight pushing her deeper into the bedding so she had to twist her face to one side to breathe. She saw Rebecca laughing at the sight of her maid being mounted by her lover. They were using her like a sex toy, mocking her helpless desires. She should feel soiled and disgusted, but instead the burning pain of the spanking was merging with the primitive pleasure of coupling and transmuting into something she had never known before. This was what she had always wanted but never had the courage to admit.

Her expression must have mirrored her rising pleasure, for Rebecca suddenly frowned and shook her head, as though trying to collect her befuddled thoughts. She saw Devereaux's face contorting with the imminence of ejaculation and her face clouded angrily. She threw aside her glass and lunged at Devereaux, clawing him off Jeni.

‘What about me?' she shrieked petulantly. ‘I need it more. Get off her!'

Under the impact of Rebecca's frenzied assault Devereaux jerked backwards, his penis disengaging from Jeni's wet love hole with an audible plop. The pair tumbled off the bed to the cabin floor, leaving her empty and unfulfilled. Devereaux's hips jerked in helpless reflex and sperm splashed fitfully over Rebecca's shirtfront.

‘No!' Rebecca sobbed, pounding and slapping a glassy-eyed Devereaux. ‘That should have been mine!' She twisted round at Jeni with murderous eyes. ‘Get out, get out!'

Jeni scrambled for the door and scrabbled out into the corridor on hands and knees, slamming it shut behind her. She sank down against the wall, trembling with wild emotion, feeling horribly cheated. Rebecca had to meanly steal that special moment from her. She cupped her hands over the cleft of her engorged pubis, but her own fingers could not fill the empty void within, nor bring about the release of the terrible pressure within her loins.

Miserably she crawled away along the corridor, away from the muffled sounds of drunken recrimination issuing from Rebecca's cabin. Only when she reached the saloon did she climb to her feet, wiping tears from her eyes.