Illustration by Noir
DEDICATION
Christmas Wrappings is a change of pace, a return to ‘vintage Brian Sands´ before I began writing adventure stories. It is also a Christmas 2002 dedication to two good friends who have helped inspire my present work. The first is the talented artist Noir, who generously illustrated a revised and extended version of Holiday [see detail above and elsewhere in this site]. The second is the writer Cordelia White, a muse whose acute judgement is very helpful in my own writing, not to mention her liking for panty gags (in her fiction). She has also said nice things about me [see her latest story, Title Deeds]. My warm wishes to them, also to Jeb, his ‘stable´ of writers, and all readers to whom we have given enjoyment, for a safe and caring Christmas and New Year and a creative and fulfilling year ahead.
- Brian Sands
December 2002.
CHRISTMAS WRAPPINGS
‘What will it be, Kitten? Robbery, burglary or kidnap?´
Mignon considered the alternatives.
They were sitting across from each other over a coffee table in Meg´s city apartment. It was early evening and the pink glow of a bayside sunset was reflected in the glass of the large picture window. Meg wore a dark one-piece jumpsuit in a shiny satin material. Mignon was clad more simply in a pair of dress jeans and a wide collared silk blouse with long puff sleeves that came to her wrists. Beneath them she wore a body stocking, satin panties, and panty hose.
Mignon looked uneasily across the room at the heap of impedimenta Meg had placed there. It included rope of various thickness and length, dispensers of tape, silk scarves and pieces of cloth in satin, silk and velvet. They lay on the plush carpet against the wainscoting, radiating varied hues in the evening light and competing with the Christmas decorations festooned across the wall above them. The glint of several pairs of handcuffs caught her eyes.
‘I - I don´t know, Meg. Do you really think this is a good idea, to reconstruct that frightening time we had last month?´
‘It´s not exactly a reconstruction. It´s good to be as prepared as much as we can after that experience.´
‘Is just tying each other up going to prepare us adequately? You know what happened when it was for real. Neither of us could get free.´
‘That´s not entirely true. I had very nearly sawed through that rope around my waist by the time the FBI arrived. Given more time, I would have got us both loose. Anyway, I found this book in a second-hand stall.´
Meg rose and walked gracefully to a bookshelf that stood against the wall opposite the ropes and other equipment. Mignon could not help but admire the svelte satin-clad figure of the older woman, who now turned towards her with a large soft-cover book in her hands. Meg walked back, cleared the coffee cups in a neat line to one side of the table, and laid the book down.
‘The SAS Urban Survival Handbook,´ Mignon read aloud. ‘That´s a military how-to isn´t it?´
‘Not quite. See the "urban" in the title? It has lots of good advice for ordinary people like us.´
‘But how does it relate to what we went through?´
‘I wouldn´t have thought it did, till I flipped through and read the table of contents. Look, Cutie, there´s a whole chapter section on how to get out of bonds.´
Mignon turned to the Contents page. ‘Being Tied. Gags.´ She shivered with a mixture of apprehension and anticipation.
‘Good stuff though,´ said Meg warmly. ‘I suggest we use this as a guide and check out the advice. There´s nothing like putting these things to a practical test.´
Mignon nodded slowly. ‘I - I guess I´d better go first. As the victim I mean. I don´t think I´d be very good at tying someone up. But you do it well!´
‘I think so,´ said Meg with a smile. ‘How about you use the bathroom while I do some thinking and get things ready?´
*
When Mignon returned to the living room, Meg was sitting in one of the easy chairs concentrating over a page of the book that lay open on the coffee table. She held a coil of thin cotton rope casually in one hand.
Meg raised her head and winked. ‘I think we´ll start with point one and work through, Sweetie.´
Mignon knelt beside the coffee table, coiling her lithe body by Meg´s knees. ‘"Tied up/Gagged,"´ she read aloud. ‘Point one, "‘Relax´ as you are being tied to a chair. Slump down, keeping the small of your back away from the chair. When you straighten up, there may be enough slack in your bonds for you to escape." We weren´t tied to chairs.´
‘Yep. That comes later. It´s one of the other points if you read further,´ said Meg. ‘But let´s go step by step like the book says. Later we can put those steps together.´
‘Okay, how do you want me?´
Meg turned to a chair by the dining table. It had a tall narrow back with a frame divided by wooden slats. She picked it up and set it down in the middle of the room then stood next to it, swinging the rope idly in her hands as Mignon prepared to sit.
‘Now, Kitten, if I wanted to truss you up really nice and tight I´d do the opposite of those moves. I wouldn´t allow you to slump in the chair. I´d have you sit with your back well and truly against it. And we´ll do that so we´ll know the difference. But first, do like the book says. Slump down in the chair and slide your butt forwards. I´ll pretend I don´t notice.´
‘But you would notice, in real life.´
‘You betcha!"
Mignon took up her place in the chair and Meg set to work. The younger woman felt ill at ease at how she was supposed to sit. She was an elegant person who always kept her back straight and her shapely legs demurely crossed. Now, for the sake of the demonstration, she had to sag forwards in what she considered an unladylike position.
‘Okay, Meg dear, go ahead!´
‘Hands behind your back, my beauty,´ grated Meg in a fair imitation of a villainous character. Mignon obeyed, feigning reluctance.
‘Keep still, or it will be the worse for you,´
Mignon froze obediently, her wrists crossed behind her around the chair´s back. Meg set to work, her lips pursed in concentration.
‘Do you remember the book´s advice, Kitten?´
‘K- Keep my hands a little apart?´
‘Good girl! But don´t make it too obvious. Of course ...´
‘Of course, you wouldn´t give me that chance, I know.´
‘Not in what we laughingly call "real life," no.´
Meg secured several turns of thin cord about Mignon´s slender wrists. She did not cinch them, not did she tie her friend´s wrists in a crisscross. But she made the double knot appreciably firm.
Mignon wriggled. ‘It´s tight!´
‘What do you expect. You´re being bound by someone who doesn´t want you to go anywhere.´
‘I keep forgetting,´ replied Mignon sweetly, looking up at her captor with wide misty eyes.
Meg took up another piece of cord. ‘Okay, what´s next Sweetie?´ She began to loop the cord over Mignon´s breasts.
‘Um, take a deep breath and expand my chest?´
‘Excellent!´
Meg set to work winding the cord around and around Mignon´s torso, crisscrossing her neat, pointed breasts and fastening the cord at the back of the chair over her arms. Mignon was now bound at her wrists with her body wrapped in several turns of cord and fixed to the chair.
Meg knelt at her friend´s feet, another length of cord in her hands. ‘Okay, what´s next, Hon?´
‘This one´s easy to remember. It´s the same advice for my hands.´
‘Yep. Keep your knees and ankles a little apart.´
Mignon did so as Meg bound first her ankles and then her legs above the knees. Once again, Meg took care not to cinch either of the ties.
Meg came to her feet and looked down fondly at her friend. ‘Final steps, dear.´
‘My gag?´
‘Yes indeed.´ Meg walked across to the heap of equipment and returned with a piece of cloth in her hands. ‘I´ll do the straightforward kind you´d expect from someone without much experience. I think you´ll be comfortable.´
‘And the advice this time?´
‘You didn´t get to read all of it properly because I was talking?´
‘Not really.´
‘Okay.´
Meg glanced at the book and read aloud. ‘"If gagged, try to catch the gag in your teeth so it is not forced all the way back into your mouth."´
‘Oh, that means tying a cloth or something between my teeth, doesn´t it?´
‘Right on, Kitten. That´s what´s called a ...´
‘Cleave gag,´ they said in unison.
Mignon grinned. ‘Go ahead then.´
‘Right, Love. This piece of linen from a bed sheet is clean and soft.´
‘But tight?´
‘Uh huh.´
Mignon opened her mouth obediently and accepted the folded material. It was drawn in between her teeth and then tied firmly but not too tightly at the back of her neck.
‘Did you remember to catch your teeth on it, and push with your tongue? I don´t think you did, did you?´
Mignon shook her head.
‘Silly girl. You´ll just have to get out of it yourself then. I´m not helping you.´
Mignon made a face and began to work on her gag. It was harder than it might have been if she had paid more attention, but soon she succeeded in slipping the unyielding cloth out of her mouth. There it stuck, its folds catching on the dimpled valley between her lower lip and her chin.
‘How´s that? I know I probably look ridiculous, but I can call for help.´
Meg clapped her hands. ‘Excellent, dear. Now all you have to do is get yourself out of those bonds.´
‘That should be easy ... I was slouched forwards so now ... if I sit up straight and pull my tummy in ... there!´
Most of the ropes slipped down Mignon´s slim body to her waist.
‘And your wrists?´ asked Meg.
‘Hmm. If I relax my hands I should be able to wriggle one of them out ... while the other´s relaxed I mean.´
I was more difficult than she had imagined, but at last Mignon succeeded in slipping one hand free of the wrist bonds, and then everything followed.
‘I know you told me once that the secret lies in how well one´s wrists are tied,´ said Mignon as she undid all the other ropes that Meg had used on her.
‘That´s right, Sweetie. Though a good trussing up doesn´t go astray either,´ replied Meg cheerfully.
*
‘Okay, what´s next?´ asked Mignon as she stood and walked around the room to get the stiffness out of her legs.
‘Let´s see.´
Meg bent over the page of the handbook.
‘"If on the ground with your hands tied behind you, try to work your hands under your butt,"´ she paraphrased, ‘Then you can get at the knots with your teeth.´
‘Or pull my gag off,´ Mignon added. ‘Sounds easy enough. But I guess you´d have to be fit enough to manage it in the first place.´
‘Aha, well you do a lot of Yoga, don´t you. And then again, there are ways of preventing that.´
‘I´m sure I´m going to find out.´
‘In due time. But for now...´ Meg took up a piece or rope. ‘The usual, hands behind your back please.´
Mignon turned and presented her arms to Meg, who gathered her wrists in one hand and began to tie them together.
‘I´ll make this tight on you, Kitten, so you´ll have to get your hands in front if you want to be free.´
When Mignon´s wrists were firmly tied together, Meg helped her friend kneel, then lowered her all the way to the floor facedown. Mignon looked up over her shoulder as Meg studiously bound her ankles together.
‘Do I get to be gagged again?´
‘There´s no need, Sweetie, because we´re trying out this method of escape. But I must admit it would make the situation more complete, and more logical, if I did gag you. A burglar wouldn´t want to take a risk on you calling for help, and being heard´
‘It would be more natural, wouldn´t it? Okay,´ said Mignon with a theatrical sigh, ‘How will you do it this time?´
Meg crossed back to the heap of equipment and returned with a white linen handkerchief and a long black silk scarf.
‘Head up! That´s right, dear.´ Mignon gagged faintly as Meg´s long slender fingers stuffed the handkerchief firmly into her mouth.
Meg paused. ‘Yes, I think I´ll make this one a lot harder. You´ll just have to work your hands in front to get the gag off, for the escape to be any good.´
She folded the scarf to half its length. Then she looped it over Mignon´s head and pressed it between her teeth. Mignon retched softly again as the gag was tied securely at the back of her neck. The cloth between her teeth made it difficult to push out the wadded handkerchief.
‘Right ... ‘ Meg stood and flicked open the lid of a small pocket-watch that she wore as a pendant around her neck. ‘Ready ... Set ... Go!´
Mignon began to struggle bravely. At first she attempted to free her hands in the conventional way, twisting and turning her wrists, relaxing her fingers and trying to slip one wrist out from the loops as she had done before. But she was too securely bound for that technique to do much good. Then she worked her mouth and jaw, fighting the gag, but that was also to no avail.
‘Your kidnapper has you to rights now, dear,´ observed Meg lightly. ‘So what are you to do?´
Mignon looked up at Meg, her face flushed, and said something indistinctly through the gag. Her breathing was heavy from her exertions and because she had to take in air mostly through her nose.
‘If you were being watched you´d have no hope,´ said Meg. ‘But let´s pretend that now your captor has left the room.
Mignon sat up with an effort, pushing herself erect with her hands against the floor.
Meg chuckled. ‘Think how difficult that would be if your arms were trussed to your body! But, good girl, that´s the way.´
Mignon was edging her bound hands under her buttocks.
‘A little difficult, my dear? The price you have to pay for having such sweet curves. I´ve always said you have a butt to rival Goldie Hawne, though I doubt whether that beautiful actress ever had to perform the contortions you´re doing now.´
Mignon had succeeded in slipping her bound arms to the back of her knees and was resting, her breath coming in laboured gusts through her nose.
‘You´re nearly there, dear´ said Meg encouragingly.
Mignon rocked back and forward a couple of times. Then, when she had sufficient momentum, she rolled onto her shoulders into the Yoga position called the plough. From there, she bent her knees and worked her bound wrists up and over her feet.
‘Excellent. What are you going to do now, Sweetie? Is it the gag or your wrists next? ... Of course, you have to get the gag off first so you can use your teeth to undo the knots of your wrist bonds. But the gag is tied at the back of your neck. How can you reach the knot there?´
Bending her head forward, Mignon stretched her bound hands behind her neck and plucked at the knot, teasing the silk threads of the taut scarf with her long fingernails. But the knot was too tight and compact and refused to unravel. The young woman then turned her attention to the cloth in her mouth. Her efforts there were rewarded, and within a minute she managed to pull the thick silken strip from between her teeth. She expelled the gag with a grimace, and coughed a couple of times, wiping a thread of drool with the already sodden handkerchief.
When Mignon had freed her ankles and climbed to her feet, Meg applauded. ‘Well done Kitten. That calls for a drink.´
‘Cold water first,´ said Mignon. ‘The gag dried my mouth out.´
*
‘Ready for the next one, Sweetie?´
‘Sure. What does the book say?´
Meg consulted the survival manual. ‘"Rub a blindfold against a shoulder or any convenient edge,"´ she read aloud.
‘I could do that for a gag too, couldn´t I?´
‘Yes, you could. Good thinking. It doesn´t say that here, but it´s common sense isn´t it?´
‘All right. How do you want me this time?´
‘I think a chair. And I´ll tie you tight.´
‘For realism?´
‘Sure, Sweetie. For real.´
In a few moments, Mignon´e wrists were bound securely together behind the chair. She gasped as Meg added more ropes to her torso, starting from her waist and working upwards to her shoulders. More rope passed across her lap and the chair´s seat, then her legs were wrapped in a crisscross, working downwards from her thighs to her ankles.
Mignon tested her bonds. ‘I- I can´t move!´
‘That´s the idea, Cutie. We´re testing for blindfolds, not bonds. So, let´s see.´ Meg picked up the book and read the instructions again. ‘"Rub a blindfold against a shoulder or any convenient edge to push it up - don´t try to lower it, your nose will get in the way.´" Sounds reasonable. And that would go for a gag too, as you said.
‘I don´t think I can get out of these ropes, Meg.´
‘No need to, Honey. If you get the gag off, you can call for help. And if you get the blindfold off too you can at least look around and try to find something to cut the ropes on. Even edging your chair across the room is not impossible. On the other hand, a blindfold is very disorienting, and frightening.´
‘I think it will be, for me!´
‘Maybe, but the rule then I guess is that you just sit - tight, aha - and wait for someone to come and rescue you.´
Meg walked to the pile of ropes and cloth and chose two oblong strips of red velvet. She walked back to her prisoner, who was straining prettily against her cords, and folded one of the pieces of velvet into a thick narrow band.
‘A straight forward gag this time, once again, Love, the sort that someone would tie on you quickly because they want to take the loot and run. But I´ll make it tight,´ Meg added at the look of relief in Mignon´s face. ‘Open wide.´
Mignon grunted faintly as the thick material was pushed into her mouth between her teeth and the ends tied at the back of her neck over her hair.
‘You won´t be able to close your mouth properly, Sweetheart, but I think you have a chance of getting it off, a small chance. Of course,´ Meg went on as she folded the second strip of velvet, ‘you´re tied to the chair and not free to move about on the floor to hook the gag or blindfold on something. We might try that later.´
Mignon nodded and grunted in assent.
‘Good.´ Meg brought the newly folded bandage over Mignon´s head and tied it firmly over her friend´s eyes. She then stepped back and looked with satisfaction at her handiwork. ‘Okay, Sweetie. Start when you´re ready.´
Mignon began to wiggle and strain against her ropes, twisting her head from side to side and whimpering softly in her throat. It was soon evident that she could not bend the lower part of her face to her shoulder to rub the gag against it, no matter how hard she tried. Her blindfold was even more out of reach. Eventually Mignon gave up and, with a despairing sigh, let her head tilt back against the chair.
‘Well,´ said Meg in a little surprise, ‘That certainly didn´t work! Can you get the gag out some other way, dear?´
‘Nggg,´ replied Mignon. She shook her head to emphasise what she could not say through the cloth filling her mouth.
‘Oh well, back to the drawing board I guess. Let´s get you out of this, give you a short break, then we´ll try it again without the chair.´
*
‘On the floor this time, Kitten. The change of dress suits you.´
‘Thank you.´
During the refreshment break, as Meg liked to call it, Mignon had taken the opportunity to freshen up in the bathroom. Her struggles against the ropes, gags and blindfold had left her feeling stale and sweaty. Now she was cool and glowing. She had slipped into a sleeveless dress of fine red cotton with a skirt that fell to mid-calf.
‘I´ll make it easier, Love´ said Meg gaily. ‘You´ll be bound hand and foot this time and not trussed up. So you should be able to move around and find ways of hooking the gag on something, or abrading the ropes.´
‘That sounds easy.´
‘Don´t count your chickens, dear. Now, hands behind, as usual.´
Mignon obeyed and soon her wrists were tightly tied together once more. She sat on a chair and Meg knelt at her feet and bound her ankles with several winds of cord.
‘I´m still doing this the way a hurrying burglar might do it,´ she explained. ‘No frills. He - or she - just wants to secure you so that you won´t raise the alarm immediately. So, neatly bound hand and foot. In real life, if we were tied up like this, we´d probably get out of the ropes in less than half an hour - helping each other. But let´s see how you handle it on your own.´
Meg walked to the pile of rope and cloth that lay on the floor and knelt in front of it.
‘Now, how shall I gag you this time? Different sorts of tape are popular ... I´ll be careful to take it off without hurting you. Unless of course you get it off yourself.´
‘But - But how will I be able to hook that on something?´
‘You can still manage, I think. It might be harder than hooking a cloth gag, but it´s much the same thing.´
Meg cut off a length of the tape. ‘Now, close your mouth and purse your pretty lips.´
Mignon made a wry face and obeyed. Meg carefully strapped it across Mignon´s lips and mouth. It was a very wide piece of brown medical adhesive, heavy-textured, and it adhered instantly to the young woman´s skin. Almost immediately, Mignon worked her mouth and jaw against it, but the stuff had already set in place. Mignon succeeded only in hurting her lips and she soon stopped struggling.
‘I can see that´s pretty secure, so we´re all ready to begin. Start when you like, dear.´
Once again Mignon experimented with her bondage. At first she sought for the knots with her slender, flexible fingers. But Meg had neatly tucked the knots away, one close in to the wrists and the other doubled knot at the back of her hands. The latter was the key knot and was totally out of reach. Meg had taken care to tie the cord tight enough so that twisting her wrists within the loops was difficult, in fact painful, when Mignon tried it. With her hands bound in this way, Mignon could do very little at first about her bound ankles.
But the next thing she tried to do was to dislodge the tape gag, for she was breathing hard through her nose and needing relief from the seal with each tortured breath.
Meg watched Mignon very carefully, ready to come to her aid if the ropes or the gag started to really distress her friend. She held back, but advised concernedly, ‘Take it slowly, Kitten. You know what can happen if you panic while bound and gagged. Better to keep your head about you. Breathe slowly and deeply, through your nose, and relax in those bonds. The burglar´s left and any immediate danger is over. Now you just need to rest, gather your strength, and try again. Try to think what you can find to hook that tape on.´
‘Mmmph!´ replied Mignon.
She responded to Meg´s gentle words and allowed her head to rest on the floor and her arms to relax.
‘That´s the spirit, Sweetie. Take your time. You know, it´s pretty daunting to be bound and gagged, and that makes it so much more important to do things slowly and not to give in to panic.´
Mignon nodded and grunted again, but tears were pooling in her eyes. She rubbed her face against the carpet in an attempt to catch the edge of the tape on it so that it could be peeled off. But the sticky stuff was melded to her cheeks and refused to weaken, even at the edges.
The young woman raised her head and looked around the room. Then she began to inch her way across the floor, heading for the liquor cabinet which had gold-painted handles that stood out from the wood veneer.
‘Good girl! That´s the way!´
When she reached the foot of the cabinet, Mignon rested, her breasts rising and falling prettily, their outlines prominent under the silky dress.
After resting for about a minute, during which Meg sat watching her friend in undisguised admiration, Mignon pushed herself upright with her hands. When she was sitting in a fairly stable position, she edged herself over against the cabinet, turned herself to one side, and began with great care to press her cheek against the raised handle. It took several tries but at last Mignon succeeded in catching a corner of the tape under the sharp point of the handle. She worked at it slowly. Beads of sweat broke out on her temples and forehead, betraying the young woman´s apparent calm. At last the tape was successfully snagged on the corner of the handle. Gradually it peeled off until it hung by one narrow end from the young woman´s face. Mignon grunted and shook her head from side to side, finally getting one end of the tape to adhere to the cabinet so that with a sharp twist her face was free.
‘Oh my!´ she gasped. ‘I could hardly breathe with that stuff sealing my lips.´
‘You know you were perfectly safe, Kitten. I would have jumped to your rescue if you really got into serious trouble.´
‘I know. That gave me the strength to go on and prove that I can get out of some of these fixes by myself.´
‘That´s a challenge if ever I heard one! So what are you going to do now to get your hands free?´
Mignon bit her lip and became quiet. Then, carefully, she moved herself upright and knelt, sitting on her feet. This brought Mignon´s hands in contact with her ankles and, with one head turned over a shoulder, her hair like a silky waterfall cascading over her face, she began to work with nimble fingers on the knots that held her there.
It did not take long for the ankle ties to fall away, upon which Mignon scrambled a little stiffly to her feet. The beautiful young woman stood facing her friend with an impish grin curling the sweet bow of her lips.
‘Now all I have to do is to walk into the kitchen, find a knife, and I´m free!´
‘Bravo.´ Meg clapped her hands delightedly. ‘But we shan´t do that, Sweetie. It would waste a good piece of rope, and that soft cotton type is hard to find, and expensive. Turn round. I´ll give you a break. Then we´ll do a really serious tie-up, the two of us together this time. And we´ll see how hard it is - or easy, we don´t know - to help each other get untied.´
*
‘I know what you plan, but how can we both be tied up at the same time?´ asked Mignon when she had taken five and a long drink of water. ‘One of us has to tie the other.´
‘And that can be as secure as possible,´ added Meg with a serious smile.
‘Me, again?´
‘Sure. That is, unless you want a turn as the captor.´
‘Oh no, no. I like being your prisoner. I´m used to it and it would feel funny to be tying you up instead.´
‘I´m glad you feel that way. How about you change into something else? I´ll bind you hand and foot like before, but then I´ll truss you up so tight that you´ll scarcely be able to move.´
‘You´d better do a good job. I think my ability at getting out of rope is beginning to improve.´
‘It does show some promise, I agree. But you won´t be able to do anything about it when I´ve finished with you, I guarantee it.
Mignon gave another theatrical sigh. ‘Okay. I won´t be a minute.´
When Mignon came out of the bedroom she was neat and pretty in a pair of light trousers that clung to her thighs and the perky hills of her buttocks, and a freshly ironed white cotton shirt. A small pink neckerchief graced her throat.
Meg stood expectantly, a long piece of thin cord in her hands. Mignon walked to her friend and turned, presenting her arms behind her without waiting to be asked. Gathering Mignon´s arms together. Meg began to twist the rope around them above the elbows. When several loops had been made, she pulled on the cord firmly and tied it off in a secure reef knot. Mignon´s arms were now pulled well back, making her stand to attention, her bosom lifted sweetly against the crisp cotton of the shirt. The material was so fine that the imprint of her lacy bra showed through.
There was still plenty of cord, and Meg continued the binding, threading it between Mignon´s arms up under her right armpit, across her shoulders and down around her left shoulder under the left arm. Then it went around above the elbow ties and on to circle the girl´s body just below her breasts. It was still long enough to be continued for another journey around Mignon´s slender body. Meg jerked it all tight and looped the cord under and around the elbow bonds again and straight up the centre of Mignon´s back, under the single across-the-shoulder cord and back to the elbow ties where its ends were finally cinched in place.
Mignon´s arms were now tied back so tightly that her elbows were almost touching. Her friend took a shorter piece of cord and with quick practiced movements tied Mignon´s wrists in an intricate set of loops. Coupling Mignon´s wrists together, she wound the cord around them above the cuffs of her blouse: two turns and a single knot made tight then doubled, two more winds in the same direction (horizontal, at right angles to Mignon´s arms) and a second doubled knot. There was sufficient left in the cord for it to be cinched between Mignon´s wrists and tied off in another double knot between the prisoner´s forearms and completely out of reach of her fingers.
But Meg was not finished with the body trussing. Taking another length of cord, she wound it twice around Mignon´s midriff and over her forearms above where her wrists were bound. Then the cord was cleverly cinched between body and arms so that now Mignon´s hands were pressed tight against her butt. The girl could not move her arms at all!
Meg ran a finger over the contours of the younger woman´s breasts. Mignon shivered deliciously.
‘This is a new way of tying some very secure knots, Sweetheart. I read about it in a book by an English aficionado.´
‘Aficionado?´
‘A man called John Willie. We´ll have a little fun later, Kitten. My Christmas present to myself - and to you.´ They were statements, not requests.
‘I- I can´t do anything to stop you.´
‘That´s the spirit!´
‘Oh my!´ exclaimed Mignon as she flexed her hands. ‘I can´t move my wrists at all! This is tighter than you usually tie me.´
‘I know. I´m making absolutely certain that you can´t get out of these ropes on your own, Sweetie. We´ll have to help each other, there´s no two ways about it.´
Mignon looked over her shoulder at her friend, apprehension on her pretty face. ‘I don´t suppose I can beg my way out of this?´
‘No way, dear. You´re my prisoner. We have to finish this experiment. It´s the last scenario in that urban survival handbook. Now, sit down.´
Meg escorted Mignon to a chair and, when her friend had lowered herself gingerly into it, she knelt and set to work tying her ankles together, making sure the cords were under her jeans and not over them.
‘Standard tie-up now, ankles, knees, thighs. I thought of hog-tying you, but you do need a little freedom of movement - we both do - so we can help each other.´
‘I can´t do much as it is,´ said Mignon in a slightly shaky voice. This is tighter and fiercer than you have ever tied me!´
‘You getting frightened?´
‘N- No, just very uncomfortable. My hands are starting to go numb.´
‘It shouldn´t take more than twenty minutes to get each other out of our ropes.´
‘I´m not so sure.´
Meg straightened up. ‘I´ll put the gag on you now, and a blindfold, then I´ll fix up myself.´
‘How are you going to manage that?´
‘Lots of rope, dear, and a neat pair of handcuffs.´
‘B- But ...´
‘The way we´ll do it, we´ll have to roll over back to back - try to work off our blindfolds and gags the way the book said - and I untie your wrists. Then you find the handcuff keys - they´ll be on the floor by the wall - and undo me. Then the rest should be easy.´
‘I really hope you know what you´re doing, Meg. I feel so helpless that I´m not sure how much I can do ... gggk.´ Mignon´s voice cut off sharply as Meg inserted a thick silk gag between her jaws.
While she had been talking, Meg had gone to the pile of materials by the wall and selected several scarves of various textures, some in heavy silk and others in a fine translucent weave. It was one of the heavier silks that stifled Mignon´s response.
Meg had folded the scarf into a two-inch bandage and made a broad knot in its centre. She had then placed a scarf of finer silk over the knot, still folded into a neat square pad. And it was the combination of knot and silk pad that was expertly inserted into Mignon´s mouth behind her teeth, rolled over her lower teeth, forcing her jaws wide open.
Mignon kept her head still and sat in resignation as the ends of the heavy scarf were drawn to the back of her neck and tied in a very tight double knot under her long hair. Meg looked at her handiwork for a few moments, taking Mignon by the chin in strong fingers and turning the girl´s head from side to side, considering the gag from all angles. She then took up one of the scarves of more flimsy silk, folded it into a bandage about three inches wide, and bound it across Mignon´s lower face just below her nose so that she could breathe through it without obstruction. When it was tied off, just above the first knot behind her neck, the soft material clung around the planes of Mignon´s face. It was so tight that the young woman´s cheeks bulged above it.
‘Now what would a burglar do, I wonder?´ said Meg with a knowing grin. ‘Ah yes. It´s a great opportunity. He might not rape you because he might not leave himself enough time to get away. But he - or she - would most certainly ...´
‘Nggggkh!´ The gag was there to stay. It held her mouth wide open and made it impossible to form words.
Mignon´s protests were only symbolic as Meg unbuttoned her shirt and released the front clasp of her bra. Her muffled pleas - or perhaps they were giggles - were of course ignored. She could only grunt softly through the silk. In a short time Mignon was blushing furiously as she looked down at the sweet decolletage now revealed.
Meg considered her blushing captive critically. ‘He wouldn´t stop there, I´m sure.´
‘Nggg hgggg!´
‘What a lovely Christmas parcel.´ Meg paused, then continued, ‘Okay, back to business,´
Meg took up two more scarves and efficiently blindfolded Mignon, placing a flimsy pad over Mignon´s eyes and tying it in place with a heavier scarf.
‘I don´t think much light will get through. I´m putting you on the floor now. You can test your bonds and start to figure out what strategy you´re going to use to get out of it. But don´t begin till I give you the signal. I have to truss myself up now.´
But before she started on herself, Meg took time out to cradle Mignon in her arms from behind as she lowered her to the floor. When Mignon was breathing hard through her nose and had stopped trying to speak through the gag at the sweet and gentle indignities that followed, Meg lowered her the rest of the way to the floor and arranged Mignon on her side with her legs bent back a little.
*
Mignon lay on the deep carpet listening to Meg moving about the room. She had mixed feelings. It was true that she had never been bound up as tight as this before, even on their first experiment when she was driven around in the trunk of Meg´s car. And the ropes were tight. She knew that on her own she had no hope at all of getting free. In real life - the sort of real life that the Urban Survival Handbook hinted at - she would have to wait patiently for someone to find her and rescue her. And she would be on tenterhooks wondering whether a male policeman or paramedic would be first on the scene to witness the embarrassing disarray of her clothes.
But of course she was alone with Meg. That made her feel better. She knew she was safe with her friend. There was no way she would allow herself to be tied up by a stranger, or even an acquaintance she did not know well.
All the same, the situation was beginning to worry Mignon, but for different reasons. She trusted Meg. She listened to her friend moving about, then she heard her grunting, and imagined Meg tying herself up, probably doing her legs first.
But there would be many minutes while both of them lay trussed up on the floor, gagged and blindfolded, when neither of them could help the other if an emergency arose. What would happen if an electrical fire started in the kitchen, or if one of them began to feel sick? She knew that sometimes if one was bound really tight it could bring on fainting. What could she do if she began to choke on her gag, or if she heard Meg retching?
Mignon broke out in a cold sweat and a shiver coursed through her body. It was all too dangerous. But the die had been cast. She was completely trussed up on the floor, scarcely able to move, unable to make more than a faint grunting whimper through her gag, and becoming ever more disoriented by the blindfold as the minutes passed.
Mignon´s arms hurt and her shoulders were on fire from being pulled so far back. Pins and needles shot up and down her forearms and through he fingers and the soft palms of her hands. Her mouth was already becoming dry. The initial drooling was over and the silk that filled the front of her mouth was slick with saliva that made it itch against the corners of her mouth, pulled back in a tight rictus. The front of her mouth was wet, but the open space behind the gag was dry, and drying out her palate. Choking was now a real possibility. That´s why they call it a gag, she thought, not for the first time. It had come to her on the many occasions when she and Mignon played their game of ‘Mignon the captive.´
She raised her head and listened. ‘Glggg?´
‘It´s all right, Cutie,´ said Meg´s voice reassuringly. ‘I´ve finished with my legs and have the webbing all around my body ready to slip my arms in. I´m just going to put in the gag, put on the blindfold, truss my arms, and apply the handcuffs.´
‘Glgg, glgg!´
But Meg ignored Mignon´s frantic attempts to call out. To Mignon her cries sounded loud, but she knew that to someone else, even if they were fairly close by, the sounds would be muffled and so muted as to be unintelligible. With a weak whimper, Mignon lowered her head to the floor and lay still, breathing softly and carefully through her nose.
A grunt followed by a retching sound told Mignon that Meg was applying her gag. There was a long pause followed by a series of muffled grunts that grew fainter in volume. Mignon wondered whether she sounded like that to Meg. But then she had a softer voice and a smaller mouth. Meg had often remarked how easy it was to keep her quiet. It was one of the favourite parts of their games.
The sound of the handcuffs clicking along their ratchets gave Mignon a start. Oh god, now Meg´s bound and gagged like me. She listened hard for any signs of Meg struggling. There were none. Meg was probably relaxing and nursing her energies, testing her bonds too.
*
After several slow minutes during which Mignon´s arms grew more painful and her hands more numb, the young woman heard Meg moving about. Meg was grunting, but Mignon could not tell whether it was in pain or in her efforts to move. It galvanized Mignon into action however, but she could only make slow, careful movements.
What to do? Mignon lowered her head in thought. Try to follow the book´s advice. She had done it before with some success during their experiments earlier that evening.
First, could she rub the gag off on something? She tried the carpet. It was deep and soft and the silk was tied so stringently around her mouth and jaw that it failed to be gripped by the pile.
But Mignon noticed that her blindfold felt a bit loose. Changing the angle of her movements, she began rubbing her face back and forth across the carpet. Gradually the bandage with its under-padding of fine silk began to slip down over her nose. This made breathing more difficult and spurred Mignon on in her efforts. Eventually the blindfold slipped from her eyes and after several more tries she had it partially covering her chin and her gagged face.
A sudden flickering of light scared her badly. Fire in the apartment? Mignon strained at her bonds and lifted her head, then subsided in relief. It was only a fireworks display going on somewhere out over the water, light from the starbursts and rocket trails refracting through the large windows. She began to hear too the distant muted sounds of the explosions, only Christmas celebrations.
In that same moment, Mignon saw Meg. The older woman was lying on her side several yards from where Mignon lay. She had somehow slipped her arms inside a network of broad four-inch leather straps that now trussed her from shoulders to waist and under which her arms were pinned. One broad strap was across Meg´s body above her ample breasts. Another strap likewise passed beneath her breasts. A third strap went around her midriff, and a fourth encircled her hips. Similarly, Meg´s legs were strapped tightly together above and below her knees, around her thighs, and - Mignon guessed - at her ankles. Her legs were partially hidden, folded behind her.
Mignon wondered whether Meg had managed the necessary contortions more easily because she was now wearing only her bra and panties, both in black satin and lace. She found herself admiring Meg´s fine body, her eyes focussing on her friend´s rounded hips and flat midriff before taking in the full extent of Meg´s self bindings.
For in her mouth Meg held a huge red ball gag. It looked like a Christmas decoration. And she was still blindfolded and obviously quite unable to get off either the blindfold or the gag. The blindfold was a broad strip of soft leather cut to follow the contours of the victim´s face, temples and nose. Mignon assumed that Meg´s wrists were cuffed behind her back.
My god, she´s more helpless than I am! I have to do something. We can´t spend all of Christmas like this. The cleaning woman has a week off until New Year.
What was the first step in getting them both free? Mignon knew that one thing she would like more than anything was to have the gag out of her mouth. But then, it had also been a huge relief to be able to slip the blindfold.
Mignon began to wriggle inch by inch across the floor towards Meg. When she was close beside her friend, she looked up at the wall clock. That short journey across the carpet had lasted ten minutes. She nuzzled her face against Meg´s. The older woman responded, lifted her head a little and grunted. Mignon saw with alarm that Meg´s face was very dark and strained. She wondered whether she looked the same way, stifled under her gag.
Her first impulse was to try to relieve Meg of the blindfold and gag, but she could not do that by lying face to face with her. Instead, she had to work her way slowly around Meg´s head to the other side. When she got there and could see Meg´s arms cuffed behind her, sweat was running down Mignon´s brows into her eyes and dripping off her nose. She was amazed to see that Meg was not only cuffed at the wrists but that she had also managed somehow to cuff her arms together above the elbows. And the wrist cuffs were rigid, not the sort linked by an inch or two of chain like the elbow cuffs. Meg was also in a half hog tie. Her feet were not up close to her hands, only about halfway there, but the obvious strain on her arms and shoulders made sure that she was unable to move.
With her own face still bandaged up by the gag, Mignon could not use her teeth to help Meg with the blindfold. So she continued to inch her way along until her face was opposite Meg´s bound knees. This meant that when with a great effort she rolled onto her side, her hands were roughly in line with the back of Meg´s neck.
Mignon´s fingers fumbled awkwardly with the straps of her friend´s blindfold. Her hands were now almost entirely numb and she had to calculate what she was doing by the pressure she could just feel against the buckle. It took a long time, but at last the strap slipped out of its buckle and Mignon guessed that perhaps the blindfold was falling away from Meg´s face. With her own face down somewhere close to Meg´s butt and turned away, she had no idea what her friend was doing. Meg´s head bumped against the backs of Mignon´s hands and the younger woman heard an urgent grunt.
Once more Mignon set to work with fingers that no longer seemed to have any strength left in them. Another buckle, this time for the ball gag, slipped elusively from her numb grasp time after time. Mignon began to cry softly. But she kept on trying, fumbling and pushing at the buckle until Meg´s gag seemed to loosen a little. Mignon did not know how she did it.
There was a moment´s activity from Meg behind her, then Mignon heard a loud ‘oof´ followed by a fit of coughing which told her that Meg was at last free of the gag.
‘Oh my god,´ gasped Meg. ‘I overdid things. I just had to try out both pairs of cuffs, didn´t I? But when at last I got them on, I simply couldn´t move at all. Sweetie, my idea was to get over to you so we could both free each other´s mouths and plan our next moves. Now I´m cramping all over and desperately need to have these things off. Please, Sweetheart, the keys are over by that wall. Can you somehow manage to get them? I can´t do anything.´
Mignon was in fact facing in the right direction and, when she knew where to look, she saw the glint of the handcuff keys over by the wainscoting, not far from the pile of assorted rope and cloth. Having already inch-wormed her way across to Meg and then round behind her, Mignon was more than halfway on the new journey for the keys. But it still took an interminable time to reach them. She really began to sob now as she found that her hands were almost totally useless.
Meg saw her plight. ‘Don´t worry, Kitten. Just try to take the keys somehow in the palms of your hands and bring them back here. I might be able to unlock the cuffs myself.´
The return journey took longer. By the time Mignon had again arranged herself back to back and ‘upside down´ in relation to Meg, she was shaking like a leaf. Sweat and tears poured in equal measure down her face to be absorbed by the silk that still clung around her mouth and jaws. She did not feel Meg take the keys from her hands.
‘Good girl. I´ll soon have us both free.´
Mignon let her head fall to the floor and lay in a half faint, her heart pounding with fear and exertion, and from the constriction of the ropes around her chest. It took Meg a very long time to insert the key in the lock of the wrist cuffs and then to follow that by extricating her forearms from the leather straps at hips and waist so that she could reach the elbow cuffs. Mignon did not notice her friend watching her searchingly, because she was almost unconscious.
The next thing Mignon knew was that she was lying cradled in Meg´s arms, her head in her friend´s lap. Mignon´s own arms burned with the restoring of circulation. The gag was not yet out of her mouth. Meg was working at the knots at the back of her neck. When all the ropes were off and her mouth free, Mignon lay curled in Meg´s embrace.
*
An hour later, showered and refreshed, wearing matching nightdresses (Meg´s was black, Mignon´s was blue), the two friends reclined on the sofa, glasses of red wine in their hands, and watched the sunlight spread out over the bay, harbinger of a glorious Christmas morning.
‘I don´t think I want to go through that again,´ said Mignon softly.
‘No,´ agreed Meg, ‘I told you I overdid it, but that was a white lie. I didn´t miscalculate.´
‘Didn´t miscalculate? I don´t understand.´
‘Well, it was a Christmas present. My present to you.´
‘I still don´t understand.´
Meg gave Mignon a warm hug and slipped a hand under the layer of silk and lace that clung translucently to Mignon´s small firm breasts. Mignon shivered in sweet anticipation.
‘Tonight my gift was to help you grow in resourcefulness and self-confidence. You managed to keep your head when the situation looked absolutely hopeless. You followed as best as you could the tips set down by that urban survival handbook. And what you could do enabled us to help each other. In many ways, you were in control of the situation, almost as much as I. You got the blindfold and the gag off me - I was almost choking to death on that huge ball - and you managed to fetch the keys. Then I used the keys to unlock the cuffs. But it was more than that. You might have thought it wasn´t easy, but I was always in a position to help you. There was a spare key tucked in my panties!´
‘I see,´ said Mignon slowly. ‘We did help each other. But, all the same, you were prepared for an emergency.´
‘Silly girl,´ continued Meg. ‘You gave me your trust. That´s not to be taken lightly.´
An hour later as they lay contentedly in each other´s arms, Meg asked, ‘Are you ready for another experiment? From now till New Year?´
‘Of course,´ Mignon replied sleepily.
‘What will it be, Kitten? Robbery, burglary or kidnap?´
Mignon considered the alternatives.
END
The SAS Urban Survival Handbook, p. 257.
Brian Sands December 2002
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