Torture Forgery

We agreed, if Danny hadn't fired us by then. Hilary emailed the customers and sold all the tickets for November within an hour. The venue would make a profit of nine hundred pounds each time. Alice and I would be on duty for each event together with a dozen or so volunteers each time. We had to show the volunteers how every device worked. Alice was confining or restraining me for several hours a day for the demonstrations. For me, the gaoler's daughter was the worst. It was a triangular metal frame, hinged at the top, that clamped my head looking downwards and restrained my wrists and ankles. I was bent into a C-shape and unable to straighten myself.

Each evening Alice massaged my muscles that had been contorted awkwardly, before stroking my naked body gently until I was almost purring under her touch. She straddled me and gently rode me until I was spent and went to sleep with Alice on top of me. Her attentions were almost worth the indignities she had made me suffer in the day.

The Halloween evening was a great success. The twelve couples restrained each other with help from Alice, me, and our trained volunteers. The men suffered more than the woman, and were often mercilessly teased when they couldn't resist. A few couples declined the cream tea afterwards because they had sexually aroused each other so much that they couldn't wait to get home. The security staff later told us that one of the couples hadn't waited even that long and had made love in their car before leaving.

That evening, since I had been an instructor, not a victim, Alice and I were able to be much more energetic in bed. She rode me; I rode her; and in the morning she rode me again.

Hilary reported that the feedback had been universally positive and many wanted to rebook but all vacancies in November had been taken some time ago. The event might have to be a permanent feature of the estate's offer -- if Danny approved. He was paying a visit in a fortnight's time and specifically asked to see Alice and Simon. We weren't sure about what Danny wanted. Would we be fired for authenticating only the genuine old items and taking everything else out the museum? We had also made a separate exhibit of the Victorian fairground items and either used or stored the modern replicas. The museum and all the exhibits now complied with best curatorial practice but we had ignored Danny's instructions to authenticate everything as genuinely old. Would we be unemployed curators?

By the time Danny came we had held more afternoon events that had been well received. Alice and I felt we had achieved something that might look good on our resumes if we needed to find other jobs.

Danny's first words to us were not reassuring.

"What am I to do with you two?" He said. "You have ignored my specific instructions and changed everything around without telling me. The value I placed on the fairground items has been significantly reduced by identifying them as made in the 19th century, not earlier as I said they should be."

"They are actually worth more now we have identified them as made by a known artist," I said. "You have the UK's largest collection of his work and many of his best pieces. They are worth more now than when you bought them, not worth as much as if they had been medieval originals, it's true - but that would have been a lie. They have value as what they actually are."

"OK, Simon. I have seen the exhibition in the stables and I am impressed. You two have produced a scholarly and informative display of his work and I am told that will be featured in two history magazines next month. That will be great publicity and the events have been generating a large increase in income. But the estate was to be run as a tax-loss for me. You two have turned it into a profitable enterprise. What should I do now?"

"That's very easy, Danny," Alice said. "Pay us two more and you turn the estate from profitable to a loss-maker."

Danny laughed at her.

"I couldn't pay you that much. You would need a tax-loss scheme of your own. You don't realise how much difference you have made to the visitor numbers. What I will offer you depends on two things from you. The first is to open the exhibition upstairs in the stable block for an additional entrance fee when it is not being used for an event. The second is to run the events on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons from January to March and again from September to November. Could you do that?"

I looked at Alice. She nodded slightly.

"Probably," I said "It depends what you are offering, Danny."

"What I would offer is that both of you get the same salary as Hilary, the events officer, on a pensionable permanent contract, and a house in the grounds for yourselves instead of your flat."

"The same as Hilary -- each?" Alice asked.

"Yes, Alice, each."

"Then I accept," Alice said.

"So do I," I said. "But we will need as few days off shortly, Danny."

"A few days off?"

"Yes, Danny, probably in December."

"Why?"

"So Alice and I can get married, if she'll have me?"

"She will." Alice answered firmly.

"Congratulations," Danny said. "Your new contracts will be in your hands today and they are backdated one month. You can move into the house whenever you want."

"Thank you." We said together.

"And now I'll leave the newly engaged couple together to find out what they have just committed themselves to..."

Danny stood up and left the room. Alice jumped on my lap and started kissing me furiously. Being married to Alice will be bliss.

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