At the back of the house known as Lady A's was a stable block which had been converted into dungeons when Alfred Gascoine, Ninth Duke of Loughmore had bought the place and turned it into the notorious brothel it now was. He was currently sitting back in one of the Ottoman sofas provided for guests while the girl of their choice underwent an invigorating bout of sex torture. There were four girls at present being worked on in the stalls which were still divided by the half-walls they had been before, the fronts of the stalls, however, were now occupied by comfortable chairs and tables for drinks.

A girl bent down and placed a glass of wine on the table beside Alfred and without taking his eyes off the scene being enacted in front of him he reached up and fumbled a breast out of her low-cut bodice and began to knead it and twist at the ripely engorged nipple. She obediently sank to her knees beside him to allow him to continue enjoying her without any distraction.

Against the wall of the stable Elise Ingemeyer was being put through her paces by the Duke of Arinswell. Elise was Alfred's long time and long suffering mistress whose masochistic appetites were greatly appreciated by the habitués of Lady A's, but currently even she was clearly fighting hard to restrain her screams and groans.

She had been laid, naked, on her back on a table, her wrists had been tied together under it and her legs raised and spread - her ankles fastened to ropes hanging from hooks in the ceiling that were positioned slightly behind her head. From where the gentlemen sat, all they could see of her was the backs of her thighs bent back up her body, her buttocks, her anus and her vulva. And all three areas were taking the full force of a stock whip.

A girl in attendance was counting the lashes and had reached forty. The forty-first was a particularly venomous stroke that allowed the tip of the tail to dig itself directly into the woman's cunt. There was appreciative applause as the gentlemen watched Elise's body lurch upwards against its restraints. The forty-second lash followed the same path and Elise finally gave in to a wail as the tail smacked home between her plump lips.

"Excellent, Edward!" Alfred called. "You've been practising!"

The duke smiled grimly and fired in a third lash that precisely followed the previous two and fetched frantic writhings and cries from Elise, then he coiled the whip and strolled back towards his friends.

"I have indeed, Alfred," he said, picking up a glass and draining it as Alfred dismissed the girl from his side. "I've got some uncommonly fine whipping stock on the estate just at present and I'm looking forward to showing them at the Gathering. All I need to know is when you are planning to hold it."

There was a murmur of agreement from around the table and from some of the adjoining stalls as well. For a moment the whips fell silent and the only sounds were the gasps and sighs of the girls as their torments ceased temporarily. Alfred swirled his wine in his glass and enjoyed being the centre of attention. He had avoided setting a date for as long as possible to allow his trainer as much time as he could give him to train up a heavy horse which he was going to enter in the trials during the Gathering. Elise had been sent up to London to keep his friends busy but even her stamina was coming towards its limits now. Lady Abigail had told him when he arrived the previous day that the poor woman had hardly had a day without a bitterly harsh flogging.

"I suggest we convene on the 30^th, which gives us all a fortnight to put the finishing touches to our training -"

"And allows the welts to fade," Robert Dalrymple finished for him.

Alfred smiled and nodded in agreement. Diaries were pulled from pockets and notes were made before the whips began to fall again with renewed vigour and the stable once more resounded to cries of pain and orgasm according to the natures of the different girls.

The duke went back to work on Elise who added her warbling cries of distress to the others.

"And what of our wager, your Grace?" Robert asked.

The peasant girl, Meg, had been sent to Alfred by Robert - originally for her to fight against any two or three girls Alfred cared to put in a ring with her. If she won it would acquit him of a gambling debt he owed Alfred. But on seeing the girl, Alfred had seen her true potential and had taken her into his employ and she was the girl he was going to enter in the heavy horse class at the Gathering. However, he was anxious not to give his plans away.

"I have her kept under lock and key," he said carefully. "And I fully agree that she is worth putting up against a combination of other girls - in what combination and with what handicaps, we can decide on nearer the time. I am quite happy to continue our double or quits wager, Robert."

Robert smile happily. In fact Alfred planned to pay him for Meg and cancel the debt once the Gathering got underway and it was too late for anyone to try and nobble his trainer or the horse herself and manipulate the odds.

"I've found a couple of quite tough doxies recently and I'd be happy to contribute them," he told Alfred.

"Good! It looks as though we can go as hard as we like with the sluts and not risk running short," Alfred replied. "I believe we may count on roughly thirty females attending - not counting ponies and heavy horses."

Robert raised his eyebrows. That was a goodly total and the four days looked like being an orgy well worth being present at. His thoughts were interrupted by Elise's flogging coming to an end. At seventy lashes she gave out a shriek and lay still for a few moments before stirring sluggishly again.

Alfred smiled as he saw a small flow of thick fluid ooze from between her reddened and flogged labia. He knew her well enough to know that after thirty or forty lashes more, she would spurt her juices a couple of feet. But the Duke of Arinswell wanted to move on and received another round of applause when he went to another table and took up a needle and some thin silver wire. Carefully he threaded the wire through the eye of the needle and pulled it through until the wooden button at the other end was lodged against the needle.

He returned to the doubled over form of Elise and took a firm grip on her left sex lip, pulling it up and away from her right one. Alfred looked on in approval, Elise needed this sort of treatment. She would scream and cry whilst she underwent it but would emerge from it smiling and proud. She never orgasmed under the slower procedures like she did under the whip, but they were just as necessary for her.