Olivia's heart leapt. At the end of the passage was the outer door, and to the right of it a room whose own door was closed. Let into this door was a small grill. The light from it sent an orange glow into the passage. Vita peeped carefully through, and then turned back ashen-faced. Olivia squeezed her legs together, wishing she had used the pot before they set out. They were so close now; the tension was almost too much to bear.
'You have been rude and disobedient,' a man's voice said firmly from within the room. 'And now I have to punish you. Bend over.'
'Please, no... spare me.'
Olivia stared at Vita with wide disbelieving eyes. She could hardly believe her ears.
'You need discipline,' the male voice continued. 'Take off your clothes - immediately!'
A whip or cane landed with a dull smack followed by a shriek. Clothes rustled off and a hoarse laugh came through the grill. Olivia recognised the voice begging for mercy instantly. She joined Vita and squinted into the room.
'A dozen at least,' the man said joyfully, swishing the implement again over the bare haunches of the bespectacled Mistress.
Olivia and Vita drew back into the shadows. They couldn't risk opening the outer door yet; the Mistress would expect an arriving or departing customer, and they couldn't risk being recognised by her. 'What now?' Olivia whispered, still shocked at the sight of the Mistress hiring herself out for a caning.
Vita shrugged and whispered back, 'We wait.'
They stood like naughty schoolgirls outside a governor's office, listening to the smack of cane on flesh, awaiting their own punishment. Olivia couldn't resist seeing what was going on inside. Neither could Vita. They peered around each corner of the grill and breathed as quietly as humanly possible.
'No!' shrieked the Mistress, tearing at the bonds which tied her wrists to the back of a chair. An expensive cigar smouldered in a nearby ashtray. A velvet frock-coat draped over a desk, half covering a ledger. Beside it was a pocketbook stuffed with notes. Whoever was beating her was very rich. The Mistress obviously had no intentions of retiring in the convent brothel.
'Keep still!' the stranger roared. His impatience sounded genuine.
The open legs of the Mistress went rigid as the cane stashed into her bottom. She let out a muffled cry and started sobbing. He hit her thighs and she screamed with agony. A dozen or so more strokes fell on her buttocks sending her into wild spasms. The man half-turned and the girls ducked from sight.
When they ventured to spy again his trousers were precisely folded atop his frock coat and his shirttails were tucked around his rotund paunch. He seized his plaything's hips and pulled her backwards onto his unimpressive erection with no further ado.
'This wasn't in the bargain,' the Mistress complained.
'Be quiet and keep still,' came the reply, accentuated with a cuff around the back of the head.
The girls watched in disbelief as the stranger sank into the Mistress until his groin nestled against her rump and his paunch rested on her buttocks. The Mistress grunted and gripped the chair, knuckles turning white as he commenced riding her.
'A splendid piece of work,' he complimented, slapping her flanks.
The Mistress muttered something incomprehensible and tugged at the ropes again. He slapped her flank and pulled back to the edge of her labia. Another slap and he filled her with a single plunge. To the sounds of flesh striking flesh and the Mistress squealing like a stuck pig Olivia turned away and clamped a hand over her mouth to suppress the giggle that threatened to give them away.
'Now for your mouth!' she heard, and then Vita joined her and together they smothered each other's laughter.
'No! You filthy...!'
After a few minutes of mumbled curses and wet sucking sounds they heard the man grunt abruptly. There was another quiet spell when only heavy breathing could be heard, and then the man spoke in a considerably more genial tone. 'Five guineas, I believe you said.'
'Yes sir - thank you sir,' Olivia and Vita heard a very humble Mistress reply. There was a swish of expensive sounding material, and then the man came out of the room wearing his frock coat and top hat and carrying his gold-topped cane.
'I'll let myself out,' he called over his shoulder.
Olivia and Vita pulled their hats down over their eyes and stood in the shadows as if they had just arrived there and were about to leave the brothel also.
'Just leaving, gentlemen?' the man asked conveniently.
They both nodded. Vita held up her key but the man had already inserted his in the lock. Olivia trembled with excitement. There was a blast of cold air and a little flurry of snow as the outer door finally opened.
'You appear to have no form of transport, gentleman,' said the man as he locked the door from the outside; too slowly for Olivia's liking. 'Would you care for a lift somewhere?'
Olivia and Vita shook their heads and kept their brims low.
As the vehicle slithered and rattled its way out onto the icy highway Olivia and Vita clung to the rear luggage rack. Their hands burned from the cold as they clung on and the biting wind froze their faces, but their eyes and their broad grins sparkled in the crisp moonlit night. Inviting orange lights from a town or village twinkled in the distance.
Olivia looked back, but they were already into another valley and the terrible castle was out of sight and out of her life forever. Now she could only consider the road ahead - wherever that may lead...