‘Good.’
She clicked off without a goodbye. Poppy had to sit on the wall and catch her breath. Trouble. What had Emma said? Had she kept her word and covered for her?
She thought of calling Bruno and telling him that his secret was out, but she had an irrational fear, now, that perhaps the club’s owners were having her phone tapped, and she didn’t dare.
By the time she arrived at the seedy little alley where the side door was hidden, Poppy’s legs would hardly carry her.
One of the bouncers responded to her faint-hearted knocking, and took her upstairs without a word, clearly expecting her.
Inside the office, Allyson sat on her side of the desk, reading the newspaper, it seemed. Poppy didn’t see Emma at first until suddenly she noticed her, standing in shadows with her nose in the corner. She w
as wearing a pair of leather hotpants and a corset, pretty odd attire for this time of the morning, Poppy thought.
Allyson put down her paper and glared.
Poppy cowered.
‘One day on the job and already you’re here in front of me,’ said Allyson with a sigh. ‘Please don’t tell me I’ve made a mistake, Poppy. I don’t like mistakes.’
‘I didn’t mean any— I’m sorry.’
‘All right. Sit down. Emma’s told me all about last night.’
‘Has she?’
‘Yes, and it was very good of her to come and help you out with your first punter. Pity he turned out to be the wrong sort. I can forgive you, in your inexperience, for not realising sooner, but Emma should really know better.’
‘She was only trying to help me.’ Poppy whispered.
‘I appreciate that, but she was indiscreet and she has to be punished. And you, my dear, can take a lesson from witnessing her punishment. And, for future reference, you don’t tell anyone anything about this place. Got that? You can lie, you can evade, you can tell them what you like, as long as it isn’t the truth. I thought one of the other girls would have made that clear, but they obviously had their eye off the ball last night.’
Allyson got up and leant over the desk, taking Poppy’s chin between her finger and thumb.
‘You do understand me, don’t you?’
Poppy nodded, a restricted little shiver of a nod.
‘Right. Now watch and learn what happens to silly girls who can’t keep their mouths shut.’
Allyson opened her desk drawer, and shunted everything that lay on the surface down into it, until only the polished veneer remained. Then she took out a rolled-up padded mat, which she laid out flat on the desktop.
‘Here, slut,’ she said, patting it, and Emma came out of her corner and climbed up on to the mat on all fours. While Allyson and Poppy watched, she laid her head down against the padding and pushed out her backside. The leather shorts were so brief that they exposed a large portion of her bottom, the edges of the cane welts peeking out, now a purplish pink colour.
‘You’ve been disgracing yourself this week,’ said Allyson softly, running a frighteningly manicured magenta nail along one of the welts. ‘Mr Sands had to cane you for saying too much, and now you’re in the same position again, only two days later. I think we should keep you in a ball gag, my dear, don’t you?’
‘If you wish, ma’am.’
‘Yes, I do wish.’
She opened the lower drawer again and took out a length of black elastic with a bright red rubber ball in the middle of it. Poppy watched, half-enthralled and half-horrified, as Allyson tied it around Emma’s head, pushing the ball between her teeth.
‘You can wear that for work tonight and your customer will know you’ve been a naughty blabbermouth. And I hope he’ll spank you all the harder for it.’
Emma said nothing. Well, how could she?
Allyson returned to her rear and reached underneath to loosen the leather hotpants. When she pulled them down over Emma’s bum, Poppy saw that she was naked underneath. Her pale bottom wore nothing but the silvery purple streaks left by the cane.
‘Hmm, how are these feeling, I wonder?’ Allyson asked, squeezing and pinching the welts with cruel satisfaction. Emma couldn’t answer verbally, but she twisted this way and that, gasping through her gag. Presumably they still hurt, then. Poppy grimaced in sympathy.