by Van © 2025
		Chapter 6

Day Three of the Fabulous Mother/Daughter Vacation at Grey Mansion dawned.  Technically, it was the second full day as the first day had included The Great Arrival, but nobody cared.  Why?  Because if there had been a vague yet tangible undercurrent of tension at breakfast on day two (maybe), it was even worse on day three (maybe).

Friendly greetings were exchanged as the vacationers gathered in the kitchen; however, the daughters didn't engage in their usual snappy banter, nor did they publicly make plans for the day's recreational activities, not among themselves, anyway... or not very much, anyway.  On the other hand, the mothers didn't engage in their usual snappy banter, nor did they publicly make plans for the day's recreational activities, not among themselves, anyway... or not very much, anyway.  That said, mother/daughter conversation happened quite freely, both within and between families; however, daughter-daughter and mother-mother conversations were infrequent and/or a little strained... maybe... a little.

After breakfast the usual gym exercise, swimming, sunbathing, hiking, book-reading, and power-napping ensued; however, shortly before lunch, Robyn and Roslyn (Birdie and Rosie) held a clandestine confab about a quarter of a mile down one of the mansion's forest hiking trails.  Nicole (Nikki) was excluded from the meeting.

By mid-afternoon things had returned to normal... not that things had ever been all that abnormal.

After dining on stuffed pork-loin, perfectly prepared crisp green beans, and roasted potatoes... everybody decided (by incredible coincidence) to turn in early.  They waited until the sun had fully set, then exchanged goodnight wishes (including hugs and air-kisses) and retired to their respective bedrooms.

Cook retired to her cottage and all was quiet at Grey Mansion.

Around 9 PM at The Pumpkin Palace...

---

Eppi and Enid, resplendent in their tank-top-and-panties and frilly-blue-babydoll-nightie, respectively, padded down the hallway to Faith's bedroom and let themselves in without knocking.

Faith was waiting, resplendent in her blue-with-white-wave-pattern-happi-coat.  "Excellent!" she said with a broad smile.  "We can get started.  Strip."

The brunettes exchanged mildly amused looks but made no move to divest themselves of their chosen sleepwear.

"Aren't we getting a little ahead of ourselves?" Eppi purred, then pointed towards the nightstand.  "Where are your cards?"

"Yeah," Enid agreed.

"Not needed," Faith responded, smiling (evilly) and shaking her head (which caused her long blond hair to sway).  She pointed at Enid.  "The only player who hasn't yet been the bindee is you," she said (accused), "so strip."

"There's still the issue of which one of us will be the binder," Eppi observed, "you or me."

"No, I'm changing the rules," Faith decreed.

"Oh, are you now?" Eppi chuckled (nervously).

"I'm claiming right of privilege as the aggrieved party," Faith said.

Enid frowned.  "What does that mean?"

"You guys were waaaaay too mean to me last night," Faith observed (pouted), "so tonight I get to do whatever I want to do... to you... and that's you, plural."

Eppi rolled her big brown eyes.  "Spoiled brat much?" she purred.

"Yeah," Enid agreed (nervously).

"Strip!" Faith reiterated.  "Both of you!"

Eppi and Enid exchanged another look (this time somewhat less amused), then focused on the blonde.

"Both of us?" the brunettes said simultaneously.

"Both of you," Faith confirmed.

"She's not an out-of-control psychopath," Eppi whispered to Enid.

"No, she's not," Enid conceded, "and we were pretty mean."

"A ditz, maybe," Eppi continued, "even for a blonde... but she's not a psychopath."

The Brunettes heaved simultaneous sighs, then proceeded to follow Faith's imperious command.  Enid removed her blue negligée ensemble, folded it neatly, and placed it on the seat of a convenient chair.  Meanwhile, Eppi pulled her tank-top over her head, peeled down her panties, then folded and placed her former pajamas-of-choice on the same chair.

Eppi and Enid were now nude (and a little nervous).

While that was happening, Faith had padded to her chest of drawers, pulled open the bottom drawer, and was busy pulling out neatly coiled bundles of conditioned hemp rope.

Staring at the growing armload of rope bundles with concern, Eppi leaned close to Enid and whispered in her closest ear.  "So, we're really gonna let her do this?  Whatever 'this' is?"

Enid shrugged her bare shoulders.  "It's my turn to be bindee anyway," she noted, then smiled at her fellow brunette.  "As for you... you were mean to her last night, and it wasn't even your turn."

Eppi glared at her fellow nudist.  "I like that," she scoffed.  "What was I supposed to do, let you have all the fun?"

"No conspiring!" Faith barked as she prepared the first coil of rope for use.  The smiling blonde then set to work.

Starting with Eppi, Faith bound both brunettes in tight box-ties of the spiteful or bitchy variety.  That is, their arms were folded behind their backs, their forearms raised something like forty-five degrees past the horizontal (almost in reverse prayers), and their crossed wrists lashed against their spines.  Neat, tight bands of rope pinned their arms against their sides, framed their breasts, and yoked their shoulders in proper box-tie fashion.

Once the final knot was tied, the brunettes wiggled and squirmed, testing their bondage.  (Faith had previously mentioned that her mother's journal specified that "Courtesy Struggles" were a fundamental requirement of The Game.)

"Save it 'til I've finished," Faith purred, padded back to the chest of drawers, and returned with her wide roll of Microfoam™ tape, shiny steel bandage scissors, and two rolled up pair of the white cotton anklets she usually wore with her trail-running shoes.

Eppi and Enid watched (apprehensively) as Faith dropped the tape, scissors, and one of the rolled pair of anklets into the pocket of her happi-coat, then lifted the fuzzy ball still in her right hand (the other rolled pair of anklets) and smiled at Eppi.

"Don't worry," Faith purred.  These have been laundered several times and are thoroughly broken-in.  Very soft."

"Faith!" Eppi whined, "there's no need to—Mrrrmpfh!"

Not to anybody's great surprise, Faith had stuffed the rolled anklets into Eppi's mouth!  "Spit that out," the evilly smiling blonde warned, "and I'll show you what it feels like to get something shaved that you don't want to get shaved."

Eppi blinked her big brown eyes, made no effort to expel the giant cotton ball crammed in her mouth, as ordered, and watched as Enid received a ball of fuzzy mouth-stuffing of her very own.

Then, the box-tied and mouth-plugged captives received tight, smooth tape-gags that covered her lower faces from ear-to-ear and from just under their noses to just above their chins.  Spitting out the rolled anklets was no longer an option.

Next, Faith backed Eppi against the left lower bedpost and lashed her in place.  She didn't use a lot of rope, but when she took a step back and smiled (evilly), Eppi was post-tied from the neck down with her back, bound arms, butt, and the backs of her legs bound against the elaborately turned wood, all the way down to her ankles.  Everything was tight and well-cinched, with the exception of the neck-ropes.  They were arguably loose, although they were cinched with multiple turns of hemp.

"Wait here," Faith said to Eppi as she threaded together the remaining bundles of rope on the bed, dropped the resulting bandolier over her shoulder, then used the single remaining coil to give Enid a rope collar and leash.

'Wait here.'  Hilarious.  Eppi squirmed, testing her rope bonds, and watching as Faith took hold of Enid's leash and led (dragged) her fellow brunette towards the bedroom door.

Eppi and Enid had time to exchange one last worried and tape-gagged look as Faith opened her bedroom door, led (dragged) Enid across the threshold... paused to smile (gloat) at Eppi... then closed and locked said door.  Click!

Alone in The Pumpkin Palace, Eppi squirmed and fought her bonds in earnest.  What the hell is Faith doing? she wondered.  Dragging Enid around the mansion after dark?  What if they run into a maternal unit?  There'll be all hell to pay!  Maybe she is an unbalanced ditzy blonde!

Eppi stopped struggling—it was pointless—and settled in to wait for Faith and Enid to return.  Whatever Pumpkin was up to, she'd no doubt explain herself in a classic gloating monologue.

Around 9 PM at The Master (Mistress) Bedroom...

---

By remarkable coincidence (although nobody knew it at the time), at the same time their daughters barged into Faith's bedroom without knocking, Birdie and Rosie were barging into Nikki's magnificent bedroom without seeking or waiting for formal permission.  However, rather than wearing sleepwear or the robes they'd worn last night, the elder brunettes were dressed for action!  Both were barefoot, Birdie was wearing a pair of black spandex bicycle-style running shorts and a dusky-blue tank-top, while Rosie was in a pair of dark-gray, capri-pants-style tights and a mulberry-red, sleeve-less, French-cut leotard with a plunging neckline.

Nikki was reclined on her gigantic bed wearing the blue-gray silk robe she'd worn the previous evening.  She looked up from the same large book she'd been reading last night when her fellow gamesters had appeared and smiled, but it was more a reflexive greeting that genuine delight.  She could tell something was happening—something not a part of her carefully laid plans for the evening!

Without saying a word Birdie and Rosie padded to the bed, dragged Nikki from its soft, comfy surface, and then, working in concert, stripped the robe from their hostess' magnificent body!  They then used the robe's long, narrow silk sash to bind Nikki's crossed wrists behind her back!

"What are you doing?" Nikki demanded as this was happening.  "Hey!  Stop!  You're ruining the game!  Stop!"  She struggled and fought her captors, of course, but apparently was so totally discombobulated that she might as well have been pulling her punches.  In any case, the brunettes' damsel-handling skills proved up to the task of defeating Nikki's resistance.

"Shut it!" Birdie ordered.

"Yeah, shut it," Rosie chimed in.

The brunettes released their "victim," took a couple of barefoot steps back, and smiled (gloated).

More or less in the middle of the bedroom, naked and wrist-bound, Nikki squirmed, twisted at the waist, danced on her bare feet, and tugged on her silky bonds.  (It was very entertaining.)

"Ooooh!" Nikki complained as she tugged on her bound wrists.

"I told you to shut it!"  Birdie barked, then climbed onto the foot of the bed, settled into a half-lotus, and resumed smiling at the naked and bound blonde.

Smiling wickedly (or more overtly wickedly than her fellow brunette, anyway) Rosie remained close to Nikki, apparently prepared to apprehend the bound blonde if she tried to make a break for it.

"Enough with all your one-sided hanky-panky," Birdie decreed.  "Tonight, we get to do depraved things to you for a change."

"It's only fair," Rosie agreed.

Tugging more weakly on her bound wrists, Nikki stared sullenly at Birdie... shifted her pouting gaze to Rosie... then back to Birdie.  "What are you going do to me?" she demanded quietly.

"As if you weren't hoping something like this would happen," Rosie chuckled.

"Eventually," Birdie chuckled.

Nikki continued tugging on her wrists and pouting, but didn't otherwise respond.

"Anyway..." Birdie purred.  "Last night, after you tied me to that chair and abandoned me so you could traipse back down to the dungeons to retrieve Rosie, I had time to conduct a detailed survey of your bedroom... and I noticed something."  She pointed up to the ceiling which, in true Gothic Revival style, was an elaborate array of hammer-beams, braces, ribs, hammer-posts, etc., etc., including a complicated pattern of deep shadows.  "You're got something very interesting hiding up there among all that elaborate woodwork."

"I don't know what you're referring to," Nikki huffed.

Rosie was also looking up.  "Oh," she smiled, "you're right!  Now I see it too, although it's mostly obscured behind the glare of those four little spotlights."  She lowered her grinning gaze to Nikki.  "How do you control it?  With the bedside remote?"  She shifted her smile to Birdie.  "I bet she controls it with the bedside remote."

"As I've already stated," Nikki responded, "I don't know what you're—Eeep!"  Rosie had given her a very business like smack on her right butt-cheek!  "Rosie!" she whined.

"Don't make me give you a spanking," Rosie purred.  (She'd dialed up the sinister aspect of her trademark lopsided smile to eleven.)

"Yes," Nikki confessed, lowering her gaze to the carpet, pouting, and shuffling her bare feet.  "There's a menu on the remote."

Birdie scooted up the bed, grabbed the remote in question from the nightstand, then returned to her former semi-lotus at the foot of the bed and began tapping and gliding her way through the touchscreen displays.

"Here it is!" Birdie announced in triumph, then grinned at her fellow brunette conspirator.  "It's labeled 'Old Man Lacing Bar.'"  Her smile widened.  "But then... what else would it be?"

"Very John Willie," Rosie purred.  "A quote from his Gwendoline and The Missing Princess story unless I'm mistaken."

"It is," Birdie nodded, then stabbed a virtual button on the touchscreen, a quiet motor hummed from somewhere overhead, and a long, slender steel cable began lowering from high up among the complex rafters—Brrrrrrr—and attached to it, in the manner of a trapeze, was a horizontal bar about three feet in length with a black leather suspension-style cuff dangling from either end!  She stabbed the remote again when the bar and cuffs reached shoulder height and they jerked to a stop, rattling and swaying.  She then climbed off Nikki's bed.

The vengeful rebels' intentions were obvious, and the Mistress of Grey Mansion would have none of it!  She struggled vigorously as her wrists were untied, but was unable to prevent Birdie and Rosie from manhandling her right wrist into one of the cuffs and buckling it tight... nor could she prevent her handlers from capturing and securing her left wrist.

"Ohhh..." Nikki complained, tugging on the cuffs and causing the bar to shake and the suspending cable to sway and shiver with a melodic thrum.

"Yes, yes," Nikki chuckled as she returned to the bed and retrieved the remote.  "We're being very beastly."  She stabbed the remote's screen—Brrrrrrr—the cable retracted onto its unseen drum far overhead... and continued retracting, pulling Nikki's arms relentlessly upwards and her body into a full stretch—Brrrrrt!—then stopped when her heels were off the floor and she was up on her toes!

"You absolute bitches!" Nikki huffed as she struggled and tugged on the cuffs.  They were suspension cuffs, meaning her wrists were able to take her weight without too much difficulty, but it would be better if her feet were flat on the plush carpet.

Birdie and Rosie exchanged gloating smiles, then turned and padded to the chest of drawers, opened the bottom drawer, and returned to their blond hostess/captive with a single coil of conditioned hemp rope and one of the black leather panel-gags (with red silicon-rubber tongue-trapping and bite-protecting gobstopper) from Nikki's extensive collection.

"Let me go!" the blond beauty demanded, but—"Mrrrrrf!"—could do nothing to prevent the brunette mutineers from plugging her protesting mouth and buckling the gag's strap tight against the nape of her neck.  "Mrrrpfh!"

While this was happening The Blonde Bindee had tried to kick her captors, but they quickly put a stop to such resistance by kneeling, pulling her legs together, and taking multiple loose turns of conditioned hemp around her ankles.  Then, they used the coil's remaining length to cinch between her ankles, taking a great many wrapping turns before tying the final knot.  It was a collaborative effort, and as a result Nikki was still up on her toes, but noe her bare feet were permanently bound about four-inches apart.  Any additional kicking Nikki might attempt would be two-legged, very awkward, and easily evaded.

"Mrrrrrf!" Nikki complained, staring daggers at her gloating playmates.

Birdie smiled at Rosie.  "You realize what the presence of 'Old Man Lacing Bar' implies, don't you?" she inquired.

Rosie smiled back.  "The presence of corsets, of course," she answered with a sinister smirk, "and given Blondie's devotion to Maestro Willie, some of them are bound to be... 'interesting.'"

"Exactly," Birdie purred, then turned and padded to the bedside table, picked up Nikki's plastic pump-bottle of moisturizing lotion, and tossed it to Rosie... who caught it with deft ease.  "I'm going to see what I can find in the closet," Birdie stated, then padded into the walk-in closet in question.

Rosie locked eyes with their naked, ankle-bound, gagged, and AOH-bound/semi-suspended hostess, pumped a generous dollop of lotion onto her left palm, set the bottle on the carpet, then rubbed her hands together.  "I'm going to make a very thorough and proper job of this," she announced, "and if you haven't yet figured out why we tied your ankles slightly apart..."  She slid her slippery, lotion-covered hand between Nikki's legs and began moisturizing her pussy!  "It was for ease of access."  Rosie continued massaging Nikki's upper-thighs, lady-bits, and lower tummy.

"Nrrrk!" Nikki complained, shivering and wiggling in her bonds.  "Mrrrrrm!"

Replenishing the lotion on her hands as required—Pump-pump-pump!—Rosie proceeded to moisturize all of Nikki's smooth, toned, well-tanned skin... with the exceptions of her eyes (of course), where the gag-strap and panel covered her lower face, and where the neat, tight band of rope strands covered her ankles.  Nikki's magnificent breasts received meticulous attention... as did her rump, flat tummy, thighs, calves, back, shoulders, and arms... and then, even though it was already glistening and shining like the rest of her, her pussy received a second coating and additional massage.

Nikki shivered and tugged on her cuffs.  The evening's festivities were taking a very different tack from what she'd had planned, and it was... horrible?  Truth be told, Nikki had mixed feelings.

Meanwhile, padding down the Dark & Spooky Corridors of Grey Mansion...

---

Enid had thought that creeping down the hallway from her guest bedroom, linking up with Eppi, then continuing on to The Pumpkin Palace had been spooky enough, but being naked, box-tied, tape-gagged (with rolled-up-anklets-stuffing), and being dragged at the end of a rope collar and leash elevated the Hammer Horror Movie ambiance to a whole new level!  That was the brunette prisoner's opinion, anyway, and the added possibility (however remote) of bumping into her mother (or Faith or Eppi's mother) out for an evening stroll wasn't making her feel any better.

They passed windows on a regular basis, so a modicum of pale moonlight was lighting their way (when the drifting clouds didn't interfere) but that only added to the spookiness factor.  Faith's blue happi-coat now appeared to be indigo, and its white wave pattern was a ghostly gray.  At least the corridors in the living areas were reasonably wide, so there was little chance of blundering into the furnishings, making noise, and thereby rousing curious mothers from their bedrooms, all of which were in an entirely different wing of the Mansion anyway, so things were... "safe"... creepy but safe.

Silent as a pair of phantoms, one minimally clothed and the other naked, bound, and gagged, Faith and Enid padded along... until then arrived at a nondescript door, which Faith opened.  They passed through and Enid found they'd left the living area for what she strongly suspected was a servants' service corridor.  It was significantly narrower, windowless, and without furnishings of any kind, and the only available light was coming from widely spaced nightlights down near the baseboards, all of which shone with a pale, eerie, green glow.  Her eyes were already dark-adapted so Enid found she could continue padding in Faith's wake without difficulty.

They continued down the corridor... then climbed a narrow staircase to another service corridor... then made several turns and arrived at yet another staircase, this one of the spiral variety.  Having no real choice in the matter, Enid dutifully followed her captor up the wedge-shaped steps... and they arrived at a circular room with a wooden floor and a decidedly tall, complicated, and unusual ceiling.  Light (what there was of it) shone through tall, narrow windows evenly spaced around the periphery, as well as periodic and much smaller windows set among the rafters overhead.

"In case it isn't obvious," Faith said quietly as she pointed upwards with her free hand, "this is the base of one of the mansions' many spires," she explained, and that..."  She pointed to a vertical pole off to one side.  "...is for you."

Enid blinked curiously at the pole in question.  It was round, about four inches in diameter, could just as easily be described as a rail or a very tall fence-post, and was solidly embedded in the wooden floor and strongly attached to a joist overhead.  This was evident even in the dim light, and the puzzling thing about the pole was that it appeared to serve no structural purpose... as far as Enid could tell.

Then, without further preamble, Faith backed Enid against the pole, released her bandolier of conditioned hemp rope coils, and prepared the first for use.

Over the course of the next several minutes Faith lashed Enid to the pole, expending her entire store of rope in the process; however, instead of neatly stacking, hitching, and cinching Enid's bonds in a proper Kinbaku/Shibari or Western-rigging manner, she repeatedly wound the doubled ropes in a spiral manner around Enid and the pole in an arguably haphazard manner, from her chest and shoulders all the way down to her bare feet.  Even more curiously, each time Faith came to the end of a coil, she tied a tight bow!  Yes!  A bow, and not a properly compacted knot!  Also, she used a cow-hitch or lark's-head to anchor the next coil to Enid's bonds, then continued wrapping.

The final result was a naked, box-tied, and tape-gagged Enid, pole-tied by yards of doubled rope from her shoulders to her ankles, all of which was tight enough to lightly dimple her skin, but none of which was cinched.  That said, the ropes were tightly wrapped around the pole at the top and very bottom, providing solid anchors to Enid's bondage, but otherwise they simply diagonally encircled her naked body and the pole.  None of the many easily untied bows were anywhere near Enid's fluttering and groping fingers, so she was undeniably and securely bound in place; however, it was a radical style departure from the gamesters' previous bondage efforts.

Arms crossed under her silk-draped boobs, Faith smiled (gloated) and watched Enid's Courtesy Struggle.  Quite obviously, the vengeful blonde was finding it very entertaining.  "I discovered this place while exploring the mansion as a little kid," she explained.  "My first thought was that the pole was here so you could shimmy up to inspect the rafters, but that doesn't really make sense.  Why not knock together a simple ladder and mount it on the wall?"

Enid was multi-tasking, squirming in her bonds and listening to her captor.  She had to agree.  The pole was a mystery... a rigid mystery to which she was now sloppily but tightly and inescapably bound.

Faith's smile turned slightly coy.  "Then, I found Mother's gaming journal from her Cambridge years.  I don't know if she has ever had an opportunity to use this thing, but it's a bondage pole, something to tie somebody to, way up here in the attic."  She padded forward and began playing with Enid's nipples.  "Just think, there could be a full blown dinner party with a hundred guests going on downstairs... and no one would even suspect you were up here, naked, bound, and gagged."  She released Enid's nipples (which were now erect, of course) and took a barefoot step backwards.  "It also explains the steel rings I've found screwed into various support posts and rafters in some of the other attic spaces."

Enid continued squirming and struggling.  Haphazard or not, it was obvious her bonds were tight, as well as adequately secured to the pole to preclude any loosening or shifting.  Her bonds might not be neat, tidy, and fashionable, but they were inescapable... as far as she could tell... at least so far.

"Anyway," Faith continued, "tonight's game is... a treasure hunt!  You're the treasure, of course, and Eppi will be the solitary seeker.  I'm about to slog back downstairs and explain the rules to her."

Enid continued her futile struggles.

"You don't need to know the rules, of course," Faith purred, "as your role in the game will be entirely... shall we say... passive?"  With that, Faith blew the evening's naked bound, and gagged "prize" a farewell kiss, spun on her bare heels, padded to the spiral stairs... and was soon gone.

Enid ceased squirming and heaved a tape-gagged sigh.  Eppi was supposed to search the entire mansion until she found her?  ...and she had no doubt Faith would make her do it while still naked, box-tied, and tape-gagged!  She'd have to open every door and search every room and closet on every floor of the whole structure!  That would take... hours!  And being quick on the draw, Enid realized that that was why Faith had tied her to the pole using easily untied bows, so Eppi could relieve her from her post (so to speak) while still herself being box-tied.

The naked, bound, tape-gagged, and pole-tied prisoner settled in for what was almost certainly going to be a very—long—wait.

Smiling wickedly, Faith padded down the spiral stairs until she reached the service corridor below... then padded away into the darkness.  She knew the mansion like the back of her hand, of course, so would be returning to The Pumpkin Palace by her most economical route.  Mistress Nicole's beautiful, flaxen-haired, happi-coat-clad daughter confidently strode through the eerie green semi-darkness.

A few seconds later, well behind Faith's back, a female figure emerged from the deep shadows!

She was clad from head to toe entirely in black, including sneaker-boots (with black laces), tights (with black knee-pads), a long-sleeve leotard (with black elbow-pads), a "utility belt" with multiple small pouches, a pair of gloves, and a skintight hood that covered her entire head.  Any visible metal hardware was flat black.  Also, she was wearing goggles with dark lenses that had to be night vision devices.  Otherwise she'd have been totally blind.  The costume was skintight and lacked only a pair of feline ears to make her a credible Catwoman cosplayer.

Oh-by-the-way, she was very obviously a she... a fit, athletic, graceful, and curvaceous she with a narrow waist, shapely hips, and boobs!

Whoever she was, the female specter watched Faith's increasingly vague shape pad away down the hallway... until the blonde made a right turn and disappeared completely.  (Clearly, the mysterious woman's goggles were of the night vision variety.)

Then, with fluid, totally silent grace, the phantom turned and started up the spiral staircase.