Master’s house was more of a country cottage than a mansion. As the car drew to a halt, Anna could not see much of it, as it had got quite dark and anyway, she was totally confused and angry.

It was clear to Master that she would be awkward to control if he let her have any freedom, so before freeing her from the seat belt, he fastened her legs together with a luggage strap he kept in the boot (trunk) of his car.  The uniform jacket had slipped off her shoulders, so he put it back on himself, lifted her out of the passenger seat and slung her over his shoulder with her head to his back, her handcuffed arms hanging behind him.  It was only a short walk from the garage to his door, so she wuld not freeze, but he felt her shivering, whether from cold or uncontrollable anger he did not know..

He held her firmly as he found his keys, although now she was beginning to wriggle. Once inside, he put her down on a couch. He curtained the windows and switched on the lights.
"Let’s have a look at you. I can’t see anything seriously wrong. If I take out that gag, will you be reasonable?"  he said. Violent struggling was his answer.
"Very well! It that’s how you feel, you can wait until I can make you a little more comfortable. First though, a drink." he said. He left and went into the next room. He heard a thump and a muffled cry, so returning, he found that she had rolled off the couch and was writhing on the stone floor.
"I can’t leave you for a minute, can I?" he exclaimed,irritably, although inside he was half amused and half pitying, seeing the beautiful girl lying helpless on the floor.  Shaking his head, he lifted her to her feet  and said, "What am I to do with you?" He picked her up again, again over his shoulder, dumped her on his bed, uncoupled her handcuffs and fastened them again over her head to the foot of the bed, covered her with a sheet and left her alternately moaning and squealing through the gag. ‘I wonder how long it will be before the effect of that drug wears off?" he thought. ‘At least, she can’t get into much trouble now, can she?" He made himself a drink, picked up the late copy of the "Daily Enquirer" and a book and took them into the bedroom. He sat down in a easy chair, placed his drink on a little table by the side of the chair, loosened his tie and settled down to read, apparently ignoring Anna’s cries and struggles.
This seemed to enrage her more, judging by her wild kicking with her bound feet and the creaking of the wooden foot-rail of the bed, but Master appeared to take no notice at all. He knew that it would be only a matter of time before she wore herself out and would fall asleep. He read the paper without seeing anything about Anna, but observed that the Judge was reported to have been instrumental in the capture of several criminals that had previously been known as respected citizens. His own part was not mentioned at all, apart from noting that one of the county sheriffs had been slightly injured.
He noticed that Anna seemed to be less violent after an hour and after he had read the first chapter of his book, he looked over at her. She was quiet, but her eyes were open. He deliberately looked down at his book again without a word and started to re-read the chapter. He had no idea what any of it was about, even though he had been waiting for some time for it to be delivered from the Australian publishers.
Half an hour later, he studied her again. He decided she was asleep. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was quiet and uniform. Carefully, he loosened the strap holding the ball behind her teeth and gently eased it out. Her mouth slowly closed and she moaned in her sleep without waking.  Still without waking her, he replaced the metal handcuffs with leather straps and lowered her arms to rest more comfortably on her body. He very gently fastened a piece of chain round an ankle with a little padlock, the other end to the frame of the bed with another, then covered her with the sheet and a blanket and went to bed himself in another bedroom.
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He was woken in the morning as the sun got up, by some cries and movement in the next room. She was calling to him."Master, Master, are you there?" behind him  He pulled on a pair of shorts to go to her. She was smiling, shame-faced at him. "I’m sorry for last night" she said." I was crazy, wasn’t I?" "But please, can I go to the toilet?"
He unfastened her feet and she padded awkwardly into the bathroom behind him as he showed her the way.
He told her when she re-appeared, "Now, until I get new orders, you will have to stay here. I have no clothes for you. You will need these." He brought out a new pair of ankle cuffs joined by chains about eighteen inches longand fastened them on her. "And these." The cuffs he put on her wrists were also not very restrictive, being joined by a fairly long chain.  "The Judge said that you are to be kept in chains to comply with the Court order.
You won’t want to go outside, anyway, dressed like that."   He added," You look nice, though, I must say!"
"She looked down, but said,"Thank you, sir." and after a moment, "I’ll be warm enough, but what if somebody calls?"
"It’s all right, I’ll be home here, too. I’m on sick leave till Monday.
Now,
what about breakfast?"

"You don’t expect me to fry anything for you, dressed like this do you?" she protested. "it would be too painful if the fat were to fly about!"
"Well, wear this!" he said and fastened a big apron round her neck. She made bacon and egg for them both and after the meal, he took the apron from her and locked it away in a drawer.
He told her, "If anyone should call,don’t let them see there is anyone at home. I shall be away for an hour or so. Don’t get into trouble whilst I’m out. " She had nothing to say, but as he turned, put out her tongue at him, not realising that he could see her in a mirror. He said nothing and she thought she had got away with it and smiled to herself as he shut and locked the front door.
Anna was left alone, with nothing to do but wander round his little house, looking at various framed photographs. One was interesting to her. It showed Master with what appeared to be members of his family, probably at a family party, but amongst the people in the back row of the group, she recognised the judge. ‘That’s odd!’, she thought,’I wonder if he is related to Master.’
She went on to look at other things and thought no more aboout it, finding a book to read in one of the several book-cases in every room of the house.
She had read a chapter of the novel, where the heroine had been captured and tied up, when she heard the front door being unlocked and went to see Master returning, carrying a number of parcels.
"Put these away for me, would you?" he asked. He indicated a bag of stores.
She did as he had asked.
"Now, as I said, I think that collar is not suitable for someone as pretty as you are," he said as she returned to the main room of the house from the kitchen. " so I bought a new one, with bracelets and anklets to match.
Come
over here!"

She went to him. "Although, thinking about your disrepectful behaviour as I went out, I’m not sure you deserve anything. Still, I think I’ll change it for my own pleasure. I’ll arrange something else for your punishment. Stand still!" He unfastened the ankle bracelets and put the new ones on her. They were bright steel, with coloured stones mounted in them and a chain between them, again about eighteen inches long, as the previous ones had been.  There was a distinct ‘snap’ as he applied them.  He took her hands and did the same to them and finally, he undid the collar he disliked so much and put a thin steel one round her neck.
He smiled as he said, "This collar is permanent. There is no key to unlock it. If I ever want to remove it, I’ll have to cut it off. Look at yourself in the mirror." She did as he said. The collar was close-fitting and was set with coloured stones. It had a small circular locket attached to the front and a ring at the back. The bracelets matched the collar, but when she looked closely at them, she could see a tiny keyhole in each. They were not tight, but too small to allow them to be pulled over her wrists. Rings were mounted in them and attached to each was a thin, strong chain.
"Now, for your disrespect, this is to teach you that I always mean what I say." he said, sternly. He took the ends of the chains, crossed them and passed them over her shoulders, fastening them to the ring at the back of her collar. She had the full use of her hands, but could not bring them lower than her waist, nor bring them behind her.
"Bend over my knee!" he ordered, sitting down on an upright wooden chair.
She stood still, reluctantly, kmowing that the next few minutes were not going to be very comfortable.
"What are going to do? You can’t mean...." she hesitated.
"Now!" he said. "Immediately!" and took her by loose ends of the chains hanging from the collar and forced her over his knees.
He spanked her unmercifully until she wept and her bottom was a nice pink colour all over, then lifted her up, wiped her face and kissed her. She did not resist, but after a moment, kissed him back. Then, impudently, she put out her tongue at him again.
"Have a care, I’m not too tired to do that again!" he warned her.
She smiled, "I’ll be very careful, sir." she said.
"You can have these if you’re good, now, " he said and showed her a pair of sandals with moderately high heels." but that’s all I’m allowed to give you to wear until next Sunday. Judge’s orders. Not that I mind, I love to look at you. I’m glad he made that order. "
She was not able to put the shoes on herself because of the chains, so he did it for her. He was delighted at the result. She looked even more beautiful, still more so when she smiled at him and thanked him.
"Now, what shall we do for the rest of the day?" he asked. "I know, you ought to write out your claim to your insurance company for all the things you lost in the fire and you must also write out a report for the judge, telling him everything that has happened to you this week. If he is pleased with it, he might be persuaded to allow your imprisonment to be shortened. It’s only Thursday, after all. he just might have you released on Saturday."
"Whilst you are doing that, I have several things I must do. First there is my report. Then the garden at the back of the house needs some  attention."
She looked at him. "If the judge releases me, where can I go? Bella is, as
far as I know, still in jail and I have nothing at all - no money, no
credit
cards, nothing. I expect my job will have been filled now - they won’t want
me now I’ve been convicted of a crime. I work for a team of lawyers and
they
have always told me that even the slightest stain on anyone’s character
meant they don’t want them. What am I going to do?" Her face crumpled up as
though she would burst into tears at any moment
"Don’t worry, so!" he told her and took her in his arms. "You won’t have to leave immediately, even if he does release you, and I’m not sure he will, anyway. You can stay here until you find somewhere else. So don’t worry.  Everything will work out O.K., you’ll see."
She did not try to move away. His arms were comforting, and she looked at him and smiled. "You made me feel better already. I feel I’ve known you much longer than these last few days. O.K., I’ll do what you say. I’ll get on with it right away. But it’ll be hard with these chains on my wrists, writing at this table. Can you loosen them a bit for me?"
"I might, if you ask me properly." he said with a frown.
"Please!" she said.
"Please what?" he replied
"Please Master, may I have my chains loosened?" she asked again, smiling.
"There is a fee to be  paid!" he told her and turned to the door to go out to his garden.
She thought,’a fee?’ and then realised what he meant.
"Come back, please, Master. I know how to pay, although I have no money!" she said. As he turned, she moved as quickly as the ankle chains allowed, to stand close to him with her lips pursed.
He kissed her first tentatively and when she responded, he kissed her fiercely. He said, "I’d better get out in the garden before I do something we’ll both regret."
She clung to him, but he disengaged himself and left her, her wrists still held by the chains.
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The judge was pleased by the events of the day. The Press had not got wind of Anna’s situation. They had been complimentary about the capture of the criminals and the seizure of a large amount of stolen property. Even the paper which was opposed to him was not able to find out anything  to complain about. He felt that his position was fairly secure and at the election, due in a few weeks, he would stand an excellent chance of joining the local government in a very influential position.
He loooked over the various documents on his desk. Amongst them was a copy of the Will that had been excercising his mind lately. He read amongst the various provisions to other relatives:
‘A tenth of the residue of my estate, I leave to my brother’s child, Henry, to be paid to him only if my great-grandsom master is married or has reached his fiftieth birthday. Half of the remaining nine-tenths, I leave to my grandson, again to be paid to him on his wedding day, or on his fiftieth birthday, whichever is sooner. If my grandson marries a lady with musical talent, as shown by a public performance, then the other half is to be paid to her, otherwias it is to be devoted to educating children in music at a number of local schools, the choice  of which I leave to my grandson.’
‘The old girl had it nicely sewn up;’ he thought,’ well, I’ve done the best that I can. I’ll have to leave the rest to nature!’ "Commander, will you send all the documents relating to the affair of Anna Corbington’s house and the events leading to the capture of the three villians to me here!" he said. After the man had gone out, he carefully sorted out all those papers which included Anna’s name and put them in the shredder.Then he said, over the phone, "None of the papers you sent are related to Anna Corbington. Do you have any paper-work on her? Are you sure there’s nothing in your records?"
"No," came the reply. "You have everything we have on her."
"That’s most surprising." the judge answered."Do you know where she is now?"
"No, sir, she was left in the charge of Masterson and he’s on leave, you remember."
"Oh yes, I’ll have a word with him when I see him... Well, about the...." and they went on to discuss other business. Later, the judge went carefully through the rest of the documents whilst eating some greasy sandwiches, ensuring that all the places which could lead to an investigation were heavily contaminated  and  would be totally unreadable when they were returned the next day. He did not know then who he would blame for the damage.
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Anna sat down to write as Master had told her. Her thoughts, though, were
not on the work. She got as far as writing the date on the first piece of
paper, but then threw down the pan and got up. She walked backwards and
forwards and then thought, ‘No, I can’t do this!’ Regardless of her nudity,
she went out into the back garden to find Master, shirtless, digging
furiously as if there were gold several feet underground. She could not
run;
the chains on her feet kept her to a fast walk, but she hurried over the
rough ground to where he was working