Dark Shadows
for air and for a second stared at her nakedness.
    Her arms, by her side, shot up to cover her breasts and her newly trimmed pubic area, but they were quickly wrenched away and held behind her back in a tight grip.
    Parker punched her inner thighs and pulled them open like gates.
    Mercy freed her feet from the shift as she desperately tried to keep her balance. Breathless with fear and humiliation, she stared into Du Pont’s victorious smirking face. She wanted to die. If only death would take me swiftly, she thought, for I couldn’t live with the memory of this torture.
    The madam was handed a black cotton glove, which she put on her right hand. She used her bare hand to push the material all the way to the tips of her fingers and then wriggled them about in front of Mercy’s face. The cotton index finger was twice as long as the other four. Mercy stared at it, realizing that it had something other than just Du Pont’s finger inside it. Her eyes followed the gloved hand moving towards her lower body. She moaned pitifully, knowing instinctively what was to follow. “Please – please don’t do this,” she begged.
    “Shut your trap, girl,” Du Pont said.
    Outrage and complete despair led Mercy to lose all semblance of control. This woman was going to examine her. She was going to poke inside her hole and violate her most private parts! She couldn’t allow this to happen. It would be the end of her. Her bruised body, swollen lips, and grazed wrists and ankles she could abide, but this – no, not this! She had taken as much as she would take. She wanted answers and wanted them now. She wanted to go home!
    She suddenly heard her own voice shout out, “Why are we here?”
    The madam’s gloved hand sat in mid-air, stopped in its tracks by Mercy’s defiance.
    Mercy swiped the gloved hand away with eyes that shone with hatred. “What do you want with us? Let us go. We want to go home! You can’t just abduct us like this! You stay away from me with that hand or I’ll bleedin’ bite it off your arm, you ugly old tart!”
    Mercy was panting, breathless after her outburst, but she continued to stare into the face of her torturer. She thrust her head forward. “Don’t you dare touch me down there. Don’t you dare. I swear I’ll kill you!”
    The madam nodded, looking past Mercy.
    From behind her, Mercy felt hands encircling her throat. She was then kicked on the backs of her knees, which made her legs buckle instantly. Her body lay twisted on the ground. The madam bent down and stared into Mercy’s terrified eyes. Du Pont’s double chin and layered neck were even more evident. Her cheeks hung like flaps swinging about her face, and her ugly scowl took any semblance of womanly softness away from her altogether. Mercy looked past the madam and saw the arrival of her two abductors.
    The madam’s guttural-throated growl resonated around the room. “Where the bloody ’ell have you been?” she screamed at the two men. “I said eight o’clock, ya couple of lazy good-for-nothin’ gits! Well, what have you got to say for yourselves?”
    Sam gave her a shallow bow and took off his cap as a mark of respect. Eddie said, “Sorry, madam. We just slept a bit longer than planned. It was a hellish journey. London’s gone stark raving mad, digging holes everywhere. We tried to make up time. It won’t happen again.”
    “It bloody better not. You know I hate being kept waiting. You get paid to do my bidding, not to take advantage of my kindness. You should both know that by now.”
    “Sorry, madam. I’m really sorry,” Sam told her meekly.
    “Well, now that you’ve finally showed up, I need your help. I’m going to have to make an example of this one,” Du Pont said, pointing to Mercy lying naked on the floor. “She’s a good catch, I’ll grant you that, but she’s a fighter … and a cheeky bitch into the bargain.
    “Sam, hold her feet nice and tight. Eddie, take hold of her wrists above her head and squeeze

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