The thematic illustration above is scanned from one of the first mainstream novels I ever began collecting, for its cover, in the 1970s, but it is clearly of an earlier vintage. I remember the story was about a young woman kidnapped and held in an old shed near a beach, tape-bound hand and foot, her eyes taped, her mouth also taped except when she is spoon-fed by her captor. In a rare touch, her ears are plugged as well. The plot returns continually to her as the novel develops, and I must have had it in mind when writing the story below. I do not remember the book’s title. This scan comes from Carl McGuire’s annotated collection, ‘Out of the Trunk, Part II,’ in Bondage Life, No. 14, June 1983, p. 65. Apparently the original work, by an artist named Mario Ciello, was commissioned by Avon Publications and eventually advertised for sale by Vintage Paperbacks. McGuire speculates whether the painting ever found use as a book cover. I can tell him somewhat belatedly that indeed it did! (Incidentally, many paperback book covers and clippings from comics and Italian-language photo-story magazines that I collected found their way by a circuitous route to Harmony Communications and were evidently used in their 1980s issues, but not in the present case). The second illustration (immediately below) comes from a scan made by that wonderful French site IN DiDs by Filou from a comic book series called ‘miss Bondia,’ May 1999 featuring a lovely heroine named Doris. The third illustration, at the foot of the story, comes from a British vidcap (I think) scanned from Slave Labor Productions.

‘What does it feel like to be tied up?’

‘Mmmm?’ Jan, absorbed in her work, gave no heed to the question.

‘I said ... Oh, never mind,’ and Peggy returned thoughtfully to the manuscript she was editing.

A few minutes later, Jan put down the pages she was reading and looked towards Peggy sitting at the desk opposite.

‘I’m sorry, Peg. What were you saying?’

‘It’s nothing. Just that in this story I’m copy-editing there’s a short scene about the rescue of a kidnap victim, a beautiful heiress as usual, and I wondered what it would feel like if itreally happened to me. I asked the same question when we were having morning tea yesterday, while you were out interviewing a client, and Bill has been teasing me ever since.’

‘Oh don’t worry about him,’ said Jan, ‘Bill’s O.K. as a general rousabout, but he worries sometimes about all the women in this place who can pound a word processor better than him. He’s a bit of a male chauvinist, but he means no harm.’

Peggy was new to the almost all-woman section of the publishing department and was only beginning to feel her ‘sea legs’ in the ocean of words they dealt with every day. Rona and her assistant Jan were helping her settle in with charm and tact and Peggy felt almost like an old hand already.

‘As for that plot question, it’s not really very comfortable to be tied up,’ Jan went on, ‘But it depends who you’re with. If you’re with someone you can trust and are doing it just for an experiment it’s alright. But don’t let Bill try to talk you into anything.’

‘Oh it’s nothing like that,’ said Peggy coloring, ‘I was only trying to live the story.’

*

It was Friday afternoon. Peggy worked a couple of hours later than usual after the others left for their homes at five, and it was not until eight o’clock that she returned to her apartment. She had made tentative arrangements to meet Jan and the others, including Bill, at a small club around ten o’clock, so there was time enough to shower and freshen up.

She dressed in sheer creamy underclothes: bra, pants, suspender belt and stockings and French lace slip. A plain white silk blouse, the third button undone revealingly, clung sensuously to her body, set off by a narrow black velvet ribbon at her throat. Black high-heeled shoes completed her outfit. The blouse was thin, so she laid out a long silk scarf of fine wispy material to be worn as a light wrap.

Time passed. She read a magazine. The hall clock chimed 10:30. It was time to start moving. Peggy synchronized her watch by the clock, snatched up her handbag, and dropped her scarf in her haste. As she stooped to retrieve it, the door-bell chimed. Peggy was not expecting anyone to call, but it was a welcome surprise and she left the flimsy wrap on the hall table and ran to the door.

Upon opening it, Peggy was frozen to the spot in astonishment. Before her stood two men, the face of one distorted by a black stocking mask pulled over his head while a wide-brimmed hat kept the face of the other in shadow.

‘Are you Peggy Blake?’ asked the taller of the two. Stunned, the young woman could only nod assent.

‘That’s the girl all right,’ said the other man, ‘She fits the description. Height, figure, hair. A honey-haired beauty.’ He snickered.

‘O.K.’ said the first man, ‘Step back there.’ Peggy obeyed and the two intruders came into the room. ‘You do what we tell you and you won’t be hurt,’ the same man continued, ‘Turn around.’

As she obeyed, Peggy tried to get a closer look at them. She could not believe that this was real, and when her arms were drawn behind her so that her wrists were together she suspected that it was a joke being played on her, probably instigated by Bill. She could not recognize either of the men through their masks, but they could well have been friends of Bill she had not met. When she felt wide tape being wound smoothly and tightly about her wrists, fastening them neatly crossed together, her suspicions were almost confirmed.

The man standing close behind her spoke. ‘Do you have a head cold or any trouble that might block your nose?’

‘No,’ she said, and could have bitten her tongue off as soon as she said it. Firmly, she was gripped by the shoulders and turned around. ‘Head back, lips together. That’s right.’

A three inch wide strip of brown colored medical tape was strapped tightly over and across her lips and mouth. Peggy’s nostrils flared with the unaccustomed need to breathe exclusively through her nose and she shook her head from side to side in a very feminine reaction.

With no further word the men ushered her out of the door, and one of them snatched up the scarf as he passed the table where Peggy had dropped it. There was a short walk along the empty corridor to the elevator, then down to the parking bay in the basement. Nobody was there to see them as Peggy was walked across to a large black car and bundled into the back seat with one of the men beside her.

The other man drove. But before they had pulled out of the building the silk scarf was wrapped tightly around the girl's head and face, smothering her. She could not see and she could hardly breathe.

*

Straining at the tape which held her only hurt her wrists and mouth, and after the first few attempts to get free she stopped. By the time the car pulled up at its destination, Peggy was nearly unconscious. She was helped out of the car and guided up steps into a building of some kind. Beneath her feet she felt carpet. They walked her several paces more, then she was thrown roughly onto a bed and her ankles neatly taped together. The silk scarf was now unwound from her eyes and face and she could breathe more easily. Her captors were still masked.

With an effort, Peggy managed to sit up on the bed and balanced there looking from one to the other of the two men. She shook her head and made a faint noise through her closed lips.

‘The girl’s going to be troublesome,’ said the shorter man.

‘That’s easily handled,’ replied the tall one, ‘Get some ropes and those ear-plugs.’

A length of rope was tied securely around Peggy’s already taped ankles and made fast to the iron bed-end. Next, a longer piece of cord was looped around her body just under her armpits and around her chest above her breasts, knotted at the center of her back, and its end fastened to the head of the bed after she had been made to lie down. Peggy might have been able to turn from one side to the other but her movements were considerably restricted.

A frightening thing happened next. Rubber plugs were inserted tightly into her ears, and a long strip of tape was smoothed across her eyes from temple to temple and from forehead to cheek bones. Peggy could not see, hear, speak or move.

*

Having her arms and legs tied and her mouth taped was bad enough, but it was terrifying to be deprived of sight and sound as well. Peggy rolled miserably from side to side and tugged frantically at her bonds for the first few minutes, ignoring in her panic the pain caused by the tape at her wrists. The plugs in her ears prevented all sound aside from her own heavy breathing and the pounding of the blood in her temples. Even the noises she could make in her throat were distant and muffled to her ears.

At length she stopped s truggling and lay quivering, straining to hear any sound at all. Tears pooled in her eyes under the tape. At least they had not smoothed the sticky material too tightly over her eyelids.

She jumped with alarm when someone touched her, so frayed were her nerves, then she lay still as hands worked about her. The plugs were removed from her ears but her eyes remained taped.

Her lips stayed sealed.

The ropes holding Peggy to the bed were undone and she was sat up and lifted onto a wooden chair with her wrists and ankles still taped. Then the ropes were used on her again, this time to secure her around the waist to the chair-back, at her ankles to one leg of the chair and finally around her body below her breasts so that she sat straight to attention against the back-rest.

There was a pause, then came a voice, muffled as though the speaker was still wearing a mask over his face.

‘We're going to ask you some questions and if you know what’s good for you you’ll answer them. This stuff is coming off your mouth but if you try to scream we’ll shut you up again pretty quick. You understand?’

Peggy nodded. Anything to get the horrible tape off her mouth and face. Fingers worked at the corner of the tape and slowly and painfully it was stripped from her skin. Peggy winced as the last half-inch was brusquely snatched away. Her mouth and lips were raw and stinging.

‘O.K.,’ said the voice, ‘Now we want you to tell us everything you know about the layout of the offices you work in, especially about the places where things are stored.’

Peggy tried to cooperate, but being new to the job she was unable to answer for these horrible people what appeared to be crucial questions.

‘She’s not telling us what we want to know,’ said the voice of the other man.

‘Let’s apply a little pressure.’

The first man assented, but he added, ‘Maybe we oughta let her see what we can do to her if she doesn’t play ball.’

‘Good idea, but we’d better make her quiet again.’

A piece of cloth soft to the touch was brought against Peggy’s face and drawn quickly between her teeth. It was wound around the back of her neck between her teeth a second time and knotted beneath her hair. Peggy realized that it was her own scarf. The tape was removed from her eyes. It stung, and the tears which rolled down both her cheeks were absorbed by the silk stretched taut across them.

She was sitting trussed to the chair in the center of a small shabby room. The only furniture it boasted was the single bed to which she had been tied, the chair in which she now sat helpless, and an old table. The two men–the same ones who had spirited her away an hour earlier–still wore their masks.

One of the men ostentatiously lit up a cigarette. This action was followed by that of the other man, who moved behind her and with one hand clamped her lower face and jaw, while with the other he pulled the silk blouse away from her left shoulder.

The man with the cigarette advanced upon her and his meaning was unmistakable. Peggy strained and squirmed frantically in the hands of the man restraining her. The cords holding her body to the chair cut painfully into the soft flesh of her arms. A pitiful squeal escaped Peggy’s throat as the cigarette paused within half an inch of her milky skin.

‘You understand now?’

She nodded as best she could with her face held still in the hands of the other man. The cigarette handler continued.

‘Now it’s up to you. We can apply some heat, and loosen the gag, tighten the gag and supply more heat, until you either tell us or pass out. If you pass out, we’ll wait and start over again when you come to.’

Peggy noticed that there was a steady background of traffic noise. The house must be situated at a major thoroughfare, which explained why her ears had been plugged–to make her feel there was no hope whatsoever of getting help. She reasoned that if she could stall her captors she might be able to find some way to make her plight known to the outside world. When asked again whether she would cooperate fully, she nodded her head vigorously. The cigarette was stubbed out and the silk cloth unwound from her mouth. It stuck for a moment against the smooth skin of her cheeks because of the traces left by the tape.

In the next half-hour, Peggy told all she knew about the layout of the building and the offices, and when she spoke of the filing cabinets and the drawers in which photographs and illustrations were stored, the men appeared satisfied.

The long silk scarf was replaced in her mouth, but this time with more care. With two winds, two strips of soft cloth filled her mouth between her teeth, and an additional turn secured the material over her mouth and jaw as well. There was just sufficient remaining of the ends for a knot to be made at the back of her head. The ear plugs were not replaced however, and neither was the blindfolding tape, for which she was thankful.

When the gag was secured, the men left the room. The shorter of the two, however, returned almost at once carrying another chair like the one in which Peggy sat, and placed it at the opposite end of the table from her. Another coil of cord similar to that with which Peggy was bound was tossed casually onto the table.

Peggy’s eyes widened, and in answer to her unspoken question the fellow said, ‘You’re going to have company soon–one of your bosses. Jan is her name isn’t it? We’re telling her that if she doesn’t want any harm to come to you she’s to meet us at the offices and let us in. We’ll bring her back here to keep the alarm from being sounded till morning.’

He left.

Peggy pulled uselessly at the bonds that held her. She was too weak to do much because of her earlier struggles, and she found that it was impossible to work the tightly tied gag out of her mouth.

What would Jan do? Peggy knew she would cooperate with the men, for her sake. They obviously were bent on stealing the plans of something from the little company. Peggy remembered that a special project was in the air for a bumper edition of one of their best selling magazines, and she guessed that these men were working for a rival who wanted to see their endeavor flop.

And they would be successful too unless she could escape somehow and warn her friends in time. In a little while they would have Jan too, and having already used her present plight to coerce Jan’s acquiescence to their plans, they could use both young women as hostages for further bargaining.

‘Oh God, I must get out of this,’ Peggy thought.

*

But escape was out of the question. How could she, with her wrists taped as they were? Peggy’s arms were not only fixed behind her back but were jammed tightly between her body and the chair. She had no way of getting at the ropes which held her and in the end her struggles succeeded only in toppling the chair onto its side, a moment made more frightening by her inability to do anything to break her fall. The world of the small room turned dizzily over. Fortunately, the chair back absorbed the blow and Peggy was only partially winded.

Lying on her side was even more uncomfortable and made movement about the room less possible. She realized with a pang of regret for her action that had she remained upright she might gradually have bounced the chair across the room to the window and attempted to call for help from there. The gag muffled her cries but she might have been able to attract attention. Now however that chance was lost because she had panicked. Peggy closed her eyes and sobbed in frustration.

Peggy lay still for what must have been an hour, when the sound of the front door opening filtered to her through the house. There was a momentary flood of traffic noises from the busy night-time street outside, then they were muffled once more by the closure of the door; just as Peggy’s mouth was muffled by the fine silk. The footfalls of the people approaching along the hall were damped down by the thick carpet.

Peggy looked up as the door swung open. The two men stood there framed in the doorway. Between them drooped a slender figure, her hands and arms bound tightly behind her back, her head entirely covered by a thick black silk bag with drawstrings tight about her neck. She must hardly be able to breathe through that, thought Peggy, especially if she’s wearing a gag underneath it.

The chair to which Peggy was tied was stood upright by one of the men, while the other ‘made the prisoner comfortable’ as he remarked cruelly, lashing the new girl tightly into the second chair.

Then the black hood was removed and a rich mane of auburn hair fell free, framing Jan’s white sweat-streaked face. Her eyes were closed against the glare of the single naked light globe that lit the room. Her lips were covered by clinging flesh-colored tape.

Jan wore a smart light blue skirt and matching jacket with a white chiffon scarf tucked in front at her throat. Her stockings were black, sheer and seamed and were matched nicely with black high-heeled shoes and wide belt. She must have been wearing those clothes at ‘The ‘Fifties Club’ before the urgent telephone call brought her to a frightening rendezvous with the kidnappers.

*

The two young women were left alone with a parting admonition from one of their captors that it was up to them to get out of their predicament. No one would find them for days otherwise. Peggy’s usefulness to them was over and Jan, in terror for Peggy’s life, had told the men all they wanted to know. The two prisoners were neatly secured for all the time the two criminals would need to return to the scene of the crime and complete rifling the office.

For hours, Peggy and Jan strained at their bonds. It was a long time before Jan had recovered from her ordeal sufficiently to think of the two of them mutually freeing each other.

The bright morning sun was spreading through the edges of the window curtain when Jan’s fingers succeeded in freeing Peggy’s wrists. Peggy in turn managed to unfasten the knots of the cord binding Jan’s hands. Step by step, the two young women freed each other in turn. Alone, it would have been impossible. By midday, Peggy’s mouth was finally untied. Shakily, they dialed for a cab.

END