Pantry

"Helen told me you like boobs and skirts, so boobs and a skirt you have got. Like them?"

Anna spun around so that her tiered skirt flared, and her breasts bounced in their bra. She wasn't a long-legged natural strawberry blonde like my previous girlfriend Tracy, but Anna in a skirt with obvious breasts was very attractive.

"Yes, Anna," I replied. "I'd be dead if I didn't appreciate them. Last night and this morning I did feel like death. Now? I think I'm coming back to life, slowly."

"Not too much life too soon, Mike. You still look dreadful and unlike your normal self. Just sit there for a while, please?"

"Have you given me a choice, Anna? Where can I go, handcuffed and strapped into a dress?"

Anna put a cup of coffee down beside me. She pulled up a kitchen chair and sat facing me, our knees almost touching.

"Mike, I am going to be serious. When I found you on the road last night you were in a dreadful state. Your clothes were torn and covered in vomit. But your mental state really worried me. You did everything I asked you to do without questioning anything. You were like a zombie. If I had told you to jump off a cliff you might have done it. At first I thought you were just very drunk. By the time you had climbed into the back of my truck it was obvious you had been drugged, possibly with a date rape thing, and a lot of it.

I brought you here and cleaned you up. I thought that standing you under a shower would help. It didn't, apart from cleaning you up. I didn't dare leave you because you had no idea what you were doing, where you were, and you were trying to fly. I told you, firmly, to stay still and dashed in here to find the handcuffs and chain. You let me chain you up, and when I told you to lie down; you did -- for a short while. I wanted to get something else for you to lie on instead of that tiny blanket that was going in the recycling, but I daren't leave you. You kept trying to climb on the bench unless I told you to lie down.

You aren't yourself. You've let me dress you up, keep you restrained, and you haven't really objected. Yet you don't know where you are, or much about me. You should be worried. You aren't. You just accept whatever I do to you. If I was your wife, your fiancée, or even your girlfriend, you wouldn't let me do so much to you. But I'm none of these things. I'm your sister's friend, that's all."

"Anna," I interrupted, "you could be right, about the drugs and my state. But you have been more than my sister's friend. You have rescued me and are sorting me out. I appreciate that. Although I don't know much about you, I do know that Helen has a high opinion of you. Thank you."

"Shut up, Mike."

I shut up.

"See?" Anna said, "It still works. You're still affected by the drugs and have to do what I say. I'll help you to drink your coffee."

Anna moved her chair beside mine and held the mug so I could sip it. I was very aware of her breast close to my cheek. When the mug was empty Anna put it down. She kissed my cheek before moving her chair back to face me.

"Mike, when I went to get the clothes I rang Helen. I told her that you are here and that you weren't well. At least your sister knows that I am looking after you."

"Did you tell her you had me in handcuffs?"

"No. Just that you were in no fit state to go anywhere. She sends you her love, and if you want collecting, she'll come for you. I told her that you wouldn't be fit to leave until at least tomorrow..."

"...tomorrow! I can't stay your prisoner until tomorrow. For a start, what if I want the toilet?"

"Toilet? You'd have to ask me nicely, and we'll sort you out, Mike. I have no idea how long it will take for the drugs to wear off, but now you are talking coherently, the handcuffs could come off soon, as long as you promise not to take advantage of the situation."

"I promise, Anna. I'm grateful to you but I would like to be able to use my hands, please."

"I'll try a couple of things first to see if you are still drugged, Mike. If I told you to put your head under my skirt, and kiss my panties, would you?"

I laughed.

"Anna, asking hypothetical questions wouldn't be a fair test. As for that one? For all you know I might like the idea of finding out whether your hair between your legs matches the hair on your head."

"Oh. I hadn't thought of that. Do you really want to...? No. I'll try again. If I told you to kiss my feet?"

"Same answer, Anna. You have very nice feet."

"Kiss the floor?"

"That might do."

"OK. Mike? Kiss the floor!"

That was a definite order. I felt a real compulsion to obey. I shuffled forward out of the armchair but restrained as I was I would find it difficult to get my face down to the floor. I was nearly at the edge of the chair and leaning forward when Anna shouted at me.

"Stop! Mike! Sit back in that chair!"

I sat back, relieved.

"See what I mean, Mike? You're still not in control of yourself. But I think I'll be safe even if your hands are free. Please stand up."

I stood up. Anna untied the back fastening of the denim dress and lowered the zip. She let the dress fall to the floor. She unbuckled the belt of the playsuit, pulled the front zip down and eased it off my shoulders. She went to a drawer and took out a small key to unfasten the handcuffs. She knelt and pulled the playsuit down and off my legs. Finally she picked the denim dress up and put it on me normally.

I wriggled my hands and arms as Anna put the handcuffs back in the drawer and took the playsuit into the pantry, putting it on top of the washing machine. As she came back she paused to pour me another cup of coffee. She gestured at me to sit down. I did, arranging the skirt of the denim dress as I sat.

"That looks as if you had practised sitting in a skirt, Mike. Have you?"

"No, Anna, but many years ago I was a choir boy, wearing a long red robe which had to be handled like a floor length dress. I suppose it was an instinctive memory of then."

"You handled that skirt better than I do. I'm not used to wearing skirts and dresses."

"I like you in a skirt, but why were you dressed as Rosie?"

"Rosie? It's a marketing idea for the fruit from the local fruit farmers. We're part of an informal cooperative that makes jams and preserves. So far we've been selling as supermarkets' own brands but we wanted to sell better quality products directly, hence Rosie's Pantry, and me as Rosie."

"Anna, you need to think again. There already IS a Rosie's Pantry trade name. You'd be in trouble from the first day."

"There is?"

"Check on line. Search for Rosie's Pantry."

Anna walked over to an open laptop plugged into the mains and Ethernet and typed for a few seconds.

"Shit! You're right, Mike. We can't be Rosie's pantry. Oh well, I never did like that stupid blonde wig anyway. It was a relic from Wayne..."

"...Wayne?"

"Of course. You don't know. Wayne was my abusive boyfriend. I was stupid. I let him run my life and turn me into a slave for him to boss around. He didn't like my red hair so bought me the blonde wig. I had to wear it all the time."

"I like Anna's red hair..."

"I know. Helen told me that you do. Could you fetch that blonde wig from the pantry, please?"

It wasn't an order but a polite request. I stood up. I noticed that there was a galvanised metal door at one end of the kitchen. It looked industrial and out of place. Why was it there? My brain wasn't functioning well enough to do more than notice that the door was unusual. I walked through the corridor into the pantry. Each end of the corridor had ancient wooden doors. For the first time today my legs felt as if they belonged to me although slightly wobbly. I brought the wig back.

"Put it on, Mike."

That was an order. I looked at the wig, turned it in my hands and fitted it to my head. It felt odd with the blonde hair at the sides of my face, almost as if I was wearing blinkers.

"No. It doesn't suit you. Take it off."

Another order from Anna. I took the wig off and put it down on a work surface.

"Apart from wearing that wig and the Rosie dress, Wayne made me wear the handcuffs and chain. We were living in a one bedroom cottage on my parents' farm. I was attached to the rail on the front of the cooker. I could move around the kitchen but nowhere else. Wayne used to sit in the kitchen doorway, just out of my reach, and tell me what to do. Sometimes he would show me off to his scarily tattooed brother. I was dressed as Rosie or wearing nothing but a tiny French Maid apron to demonstrate just how much control Wayne had over me -- and I let him, stupid bitch that I was."

"He must have been a bastard," I said.

"He was but I thought I loved him and he loved me. I think he loved having his own sex doll to manipulate. I was trying to retain some part of me. When dressed as Rosie I insisted on wearing a panty girdle. I told him it was to make the dress sit right but I wasn't wearing it just now. Did you notice?"

"No. I wasn't in a state to notice much except that you looked very weird with the wig and plastered make up."

"Do I need a girdle?" Anna insisted. She stood with her hands on her hips.

"No, Anna, you don't. But until today I'd never seen you in a dress or skirt."

"Wearing that girdle Wayne couldn't rape me. Until I took off the outfit I was as protected as if I was wearing a chastity belt."

"What happened, Anna?" I asked.

"I was beginning to rebel. Once he left the spare handcuff key in the kitchen drawer by mistake. I noticed, and when he was out of the house I removed it and hid it in the oven. He looked for it where he had left it, but because I was still chained to the cooker he assumed he had left it somewhere else. Whenever he went out I'd release myself. I had plenty of time to be chained up again because he was driving a noisy old car. I could hear it coming down the farm track to the cottage. He couldn't drive a manual shift like my truck, only an automatic. I was preparing to run away, probably to your sister Helen who was helping me, when Wayne crashed into a Police car when drunk."

"Oops!"

"Oops indeed. He made things much worse for himself by resisting arrest, assaulting a woman Police officer, smashing things in the Police cell and so on. They took his DNA when they charged him. That was really unfortunate for him. The DNA came back with a match for a three-year old rape case in another county, then four earlier ones even further away. All had been rape with violence leaving the women badly beaten. Wayne was remanded in custody and by the time of his trial there were another six rapes that he might have done. He was sentenced for the five rapes and is inside for twelve years before parole is considered. But he could be tried for the other six. If he were to be convicted for those the sentence would be consecutive. But he had gone from here and I was free from him. Helen helped me get my act back together but I needed professional counselling as well."

"I'm not surprised you needed counselling."

"Wayne was arrested two and a half years ago. That arrest freed me from his abuse. Whether I would have escaped from his control without that? I don't know and it scares me to think about him.

This building and farm had belonged to my great uncle. He left it to my mother who offered it to me. I think my parents wanted Wayne and his family well away from them. This is a safe place but I wouldn't move here with Wayne in case he made it my prison. Once Wayne was out of my life I wanted to come here and forget the abuse I'd suffered in the cottage. Once here with the door barred no one can get in to me. It was only six months ago that I could bear to touch that wig, the handcuffs or the dresses. I kept them to remind me not to be so trusting again.

But now Mike is in my work kitchen. I'd handcuffed you, bundled you up in old female clothes, and I can still give you orders you have to obey. It's a total reversal of what I was like with Wayne. I am tempted to humiliate you just so I can get revenge, but I won't. You're NOT Wayne. You couldn't be. You're Helen's brother and a nice bloke. But..."

"But what?"

"I'd just like to give you an order to see..."

"Anna. If it isn't unreasonable, why not?"

"You're sure?"

"Anna. I trust you."

"That makes it harder for me. I know you do, and would whether you were drugged or not. How about an easy start? Kneel in front of me, put your arms around my waist, and rest your head against me."

I was out of my chair in seconds and kneeling in front of Anna. As my arms went around her waist she continued talking.

"You don't have to if you don't want to..."

She was too late. My head was resting against her. She dropped a hand to the top of my head and stroked my hair.

"Mike, I don't know what this is doing for you, but it is helping me. Instead of being the slave of a brutal slob I have a man kneeling in front of me doing what I want him to do. I have control, not just of you, but of myself. That matters. Once the drugs have worn off you will be yourself again. It's taken me months to trust myself to be independent."

"Anna, I don't think you need the drug's effect for me to be here hugging you. I know I have my arms around a very attractive redhead and her breasts are just above my head. I'm enjoying this."

"What would you do if you had free will...?"

I stood up, picked Anna up bodily, walked across to the armchair and sat down with her on my lap. Her head was against my shoulder. I kissed her full on the lips. Her arms swung around my head as we continued to kiss.

"This," I said as our lips parted for a few seconds.

Anna lifted one of my hands to her breast. Why? But I could take an obvious invitation. I stroked and squeezed gently. She snuggled closer to me.

"This? I like this," Anna said. "But there's one thing more I'd like to do to banish my fear of Wayne."

"And that is?"

"Dress as Rosie again."

"Rosie? Why?"

"This morning I'd used Wayne's handcuffs on you. For the first time I hadn't shuddered when seeing and touching them. I needed something to stop you harming yourself, and the handcuffs and chain were just a useful set of items. You were a mess and I had to get you undressed and into the shower. I stripped too, because I had to prop you up. I could tell you were in a bad way. You had a naked woman pressed against you in that shower, and didn't react at all."

"I didn't?"

"No. Not even when I washed between your legs. You were just raving about wanting to fly."

"I'm reacting now, Anna."

Anna looked down at the bump in the denim dress.

"I can see you are. That's a compliment to me, isn't it?"

"Of course I'll react. I have an armful of delightful woman who is pressing her breast against me."

"Thank you, Mike."

Anna kissed me briefly.

"But back to Rosie. When I was Wayne's slave sometimes he wanted me to be dressed like Rosie, a 1950s housewife. While I was Rosie he stayed with verbal abuse. Over time his demands became more bizarre. At first the dress, stockings and apron were enough. Later he wanted me to be blonde, with that wig, and plastered in cheap cosmetics, as I was this morning. Finally he wanted me to be gagged under a mask of a simpering face. He called me 'Mary'. Why? I don't know. He didn't tell me anything about 'Mary' but he wanted to humiliate me as 'Mary'."

"Perhaps Mary was someone who humiliated him?"

"You could be right. The worst times for me were the few occasions when he dressed as 'Mary' himself. He would tie me up and thrash me with a carpet beater until I was bleeding."

"Ouch. If I'd known..."

"I know. Helen threatened to send you round to sort Wayne out. I was afraid what Wayne's reaction might be afterwards because he would have retaliated on me. I didn't have enough of myself left to get out of the way of his abuse. But... Enough about Wayne for a while. How are you feeling, Mike? Better?"

"I'm not sure. I'm slightly embarrassed to be wearing this dress but that's unimportant. I'm not queasy anymore and my headache is subsiding. I think the drug is still in my system. I must have been given a massive amount for it to be working twelve hours later."

"If I had known at first that you were drugged, not just drunk, I would have taken you to hospital even though it's fifty miles away. You might have died. You would have died if I hadn't stopped in time because I, or someone else, would have run you over. Whoever did this to you was insane."

"And I'll never know who. I can't remember a thing after my first drink in the pub, and then I was on my own."

"Maybe it was that first drink. Was there anyone around or near you?"

"I don't think so. The pub was virtually empty except for four people playing darts. I went to the toilet..."

"...Leaving your drink?"

"Shit! Yes, Anna. I left the drink. I was only gone a couple of minutes but a group of young people had arrived just before I went."

"Know any of them?"

"No. I don't think I had ever seen any of them before. They looked like students. That's all I know."

"OK, Mike. You're safe now, and recovering. Helen knows that you are here, and that I'm looking after you. She trusts me."

"So do I, Anna."

"Too much, Mike. What would you like to do now?"

"Not much. I'm still weak and washed out, but I would like to get back into my jeans. This dress doesn't do a thing for me, and it's almost too long to walk in. Who did it belong to? A giantess?"

"No giantess. One of my friends bought it in a sale. She thought she could shorten it, but it's too complex at the hem, so she gave it to me for patching my jeans. The playsuit was hers too, but only slightly too large."

We agreed that I could try to stitch up my jeans while Anna finished labelling the jars of jam. I found my house key in a pocket but no money. There should have been several pound coins. They were gone, fallen out or stolen. They didn't matter.

As we worked we talked about each other. I didn't have a girlfriend because I'd been too busy establishing my software consultancy company that now works almost exclusively for local companies. My speciality is upgrading software that looks after CCTV systems. I can change passive CCTV to motion sensitive, improve definition of recording and low light capability just by modifying the software.

Anna's parents had inherited this small neglected fruit farm from her great uncle. They had offered to let Anna live here, perhaps because they didn't want Wayne near them, as he was in the cottage. They hadn't expressed it, but their dislike of Wayne and his family was obvious. Initially Anna had been infatuated with the charming bastard. His behaviour had changed into a control freak once he and Anna were alone. Anna hadn't told Wayne about her parents' offer, her first definite sign of rebellion against him.

After Wayne, Anna had moved here and had been running the fruit farm with some Polish women who had been working for her great-uncle. With the cooperative the local farmers had started making jam themselves. At first they had sold it at farmers' markets. They still did but also had contracts with a couple of supermarket chains for cheap own-brand jams and preserves.

Rosie's Pantry, or Rosie's Country Jams, was to be their first venture at producing higher quality products as well as the basic lines. They hadn't started their marketing but had done market research. There was a niche they could fill with their product in reasonable quantities without overextending themselves.

Anna also told me more about some of the things Wayne had done to her. I wished I could get at him and repay him for the abuse Anna had endured. But he was in a high security jail.

Eventually my jeans were wearable if obviously distressed. I must have torn them on one or more barbed wire fences. Patched as they were they were decent enough until I got home. I was pleased to shed that denim dress. Anna wanted to try being Rosie again, and possibly the full works as Mary including the mask, just to exorcise her demons. I wasn't sure it was a good idea, but if Anna wanted to do it, it was her choice.