Raven hit her on the side of her jaw very hard. Her head snapped back and she went limp, falling against the top of the bed with a little thud.
He got off the bed, went into the other room and found some cord. He came back again, stripped off the sheet, turned her over on her face and tied her hands behind her. He turned her again and gagged her with her stockings that hung over the bedrail. Then he fastened her ankles securely to each of the bedposts. By the time he had finished she had recovered from the blow. Her eyes pleaded, but he didn’t look at her.
He went out and came back after a few minutes with a small bottle containing some colourless fluid. He sat down beside her on the bed. “After tonight you’ll do anything that I tell you without hesitation. I ain’t got time to persuade you. I like a dame to obey. You’ll obey after this.”
He took the cork out of the bottle and, bending over her shrinking body, poured the fluid on to her nightdress, low down.
She jerked as the cold fluid ran down her body. A strong smell of turpentine filled the room. Raven got up and replaced the cork. “It’ll take a couple of weeks to get over this,” he said with a little grin. “But I can wait.
I shan’t have to do it again.”
She lay very still, a puzzled look in her eyes. She couldn’t understand why he had done this. She felt nothing, only the cold wetness on her skin. She could understand pain, she could understand beating, but this defeated her.
He made sure that her bonds were tight, testing the knots carefully. He adjusted the gag and then he straightened.
The puzzled look in her eyes suddenly gave way to fear. The fluid began to penetrate. She twisted this way and that as the horrible burning sensation began to grow.
Raven nodded. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he said, turning out the light, and went away, leaving her writhing in the heavy darkness.