Pain | CLAUDIA'S MARRIAGE | bride bdsm stories

It was almost a year after Claudia had returned from those gruelling months of state service when Marcellus came to her room as she was preparing to join her friends for the evening. He found her seated at her table, a slavegirl brushing out the long lustrous hair, regrown even thicker and more luxuriant than before she had sacrificed it as a munition of war.

It was unusual but not unheard of for him to call like this. They usually met in the Governor's court or at banquets and games, and a visit to her rooms meant he had something important to say. She stopped the girl at her brushing and sent her away, sensing the matter might be for her ears only. Slaves were usually faithful and honest but, being female, it was asking too much for them to be discreet as well.

When they were alone, Marcellus gave her his news without wasting time.

"I have given you in marriage," he told her, "you are to be wed 'in manes', in the old way. I think it best for one of your strong spirit."

Her shock at the manner of her giving took precedence over even her curiosity as to whom she would be given.

"In manes!" she gasped, "That style of marriage went out with the old republic. I would be bought and sold as property, with no rights of my own, and no hope of achieving them for the rest of my life."

"It may have gone out in decadent Rome," her brother agreed, "but here in Pityus it is alive and widely practised. I did consider that I might give you in a free marriage, but you are a strong and wilful woman. A marriage cannot work if both parties are striving to dominate, and it would not be suitable for the man to be ruled. I think it best that you know from the start that you are the

one who must, in the event of a divergence of views, accommodate yourself to the other. Much pain will be saved for all that way. Besides," he added, "it was noticeable that you had been remade by your service. The need to give total submission has softened but not crushed you, and I have no doubt that a marriage

'in manes' will do the same."

Only now did she ask the one crucial question.

"Who is then to rule me?" she asked.

"My good friend Aurelius," came the reply. "He is a widower but still fit and vigorous, a good officer, and one used to rule - with a silk thread where he finds loyalty and respect, with a rod of iron where discipline must be enforced.

I'm sure he'll bring the same qualities to your marriage."

"Aurelius is old enough to be my father," she exclaimed, though the surprise in her voice was not much touched with dismay or repulsion. She had met her proposed husband several times in the course of her normal social life, and had been impressed by him as a man who knew his own mind, and would not tolerate any lack of respect or discipline from troops or women, but would exercise his authority with fairness, even if it was likely to be a very strict justice.

Maybe something inside her agreed with the rightness of Marcellus's choice for a woman like her.

"In fact," she went on, "his daughter Selena is one of my best friends, and barely a year younger than myself."

"Then you are practically one of the family already," her brother replied, relieved that he had not provoked a storm of protest at his choice, though he knew his sister had been brought up to honour family duty, and had learnt even more about duty during her stay in this their adopted country.

"We have agreed that you should become his without delay, so be prepared to be wed in three days time." He escaped quickly, while all remained calm.

Ten minutes after he had left, Claudia had another visitor. It was Selena, her new step-daughter to be. Selena was a girl of nineteen, rising twenty. There was a feline grace in all her movements, tigerish. Her whole personality gave a suggestion of some jungle cat.

"Darling," the younger girl burst out immediately, "I came as soon as I heard, before the news was generally known. What a joke that we shall both be under my father's rule. He is very strict you know, when he's roused to take action. You'll find yourself sore and sorry if you defy him."

"Is there no woman in your family to take over the disciplining of the young women of the household for him?" Claudia asked.

"Oh no," declared Selena. "I think that's why he's keen to take a bride.

Apart from the obvious that is. You're very desirable, you know. There are not many men in Pityus, or women come to that, who haven't cast covetous eyes on you from time to time."

There was something in Selena's voice that seemed to indicate that she could be counted among the covetors.

"Then who is to have the management of me on my wedding eve?" Claudia asked, puzzled. "I must submit to being married 'in manes', and they are sure to insist that I go through with every detail of the old custom, including those concerning the bride's reception by the senior female, and the other ordeals that I believe everyone here must undergo."

"And you will defer to their wishes, I'm certain," Selena responded. "Your sense of duty would not let you try and avoid it, nor would you wish to, for you know it is what makes you truly a wife. As to who, why me!" she said, triumphantly. "As soon as he gave me the news, I begged father to let me have the management of you. At first he thought I would not be strict enough to honour custom, and wanted to ask some wiry dowager from a suitably noble family, but I convinced him. It did not take too much doing, once I reminded him of some of the events of my past." She added that with another of her secret feral smiles. "Now he is satisfied that you will come to his bed as strictly prepared as any woman has ever been here, in this city of strict preparations."

Claudia shuddered. Although she liked Selena, and had been quite close to her at times, she had always sensed an under lying streak of cruelty beneath the beautiful sleek exterior. Soon she would find out just how deep that streak ran.

"Yes, it is to me that Marcellus will deliver you on your wedding eve,"

Selena exulted, "and I shall send you to sacrifice your hymen to Ishtar, bleeding as freely as any woman before you. You'll get no mercy from me, so

reconcile yourself to the torment of my hands. Oh, Claudia, how I'm going to enjoy having you in those hands, if only for one evening. I shall make you scream and writhe, gag on your pain and plead for it to cease, then make you endure more. I shan't let you go until you've broken and, knowing you, that will be a long long cunt-cringing clit-stiffening labia-wetting time. You'll be praying to be allowed to go to the rupturing impalement of Ishtar's service as sweet solace after what I shall do to you."

Though Claudia tried to maintain an air of sophisticated indifference, her belly trembled. Indeed, it displayed all those lascivious symptoms Selena had promised herself, though in her case they were to be the result of satisfied desire and rampant lust, while, for her intended victim, though some of those elements were present at some level, no doubt, fear was the spur for much of her reaction, so closely are the two linked in the female nature.

There was barely time to prepare herself though, truth to tell, she had little need to gather a special trousseau. Marcellus had indulged her in her wardrobe from his winnings on Zinnia's painful victory, and she would go to her husband as well dressed as any young lady of fashion in the city. Though her husband to be was not well known to her, and much her senior, she had little reservations about him. She had met him several times in Marcellus's company and liked what she saw. He was a tall strong man, who would rule her firmly but fairly. In her inner soul she recognised that that was what she needed.

She was much more troubled by what Selena might put her through. She knew the girl was not making idle threats when she had said she would be taken to breaking point, but she would not shrink from it. Perhaps she needed to experience this, though it would be an added trial that it would be at the hands of a girl even younger than herself. So it was with trepidation that she waited for her wedding eve to come.

Marcellus found her dressed with the simplicity demanded by the occasion.

It was a deceptive simplicity which the knowing female eye would recognise as the result of much elegant and expensive dressmaker's art. Bathed and perfumed, her hair was burnished until it shone and put into an elaborate braid on top of her head, and even her body hair was neatly trimmed.

Her brother looked at her with pride. She was devoid of jewellery, not even a necklace, for she had to demonstrate humility and modesty. Marcellus replaced the missing necklace with a leather collar, to which was attached a short length of light chain.

"Come, Sister," he said, deep affection in his voice. "I must take you to be accepted by your husband's female examiner."

Together they walked the

short distance from the Governor's Palace to Aurelius's own impressive town house nearby, she with her hands clasped demurely before her, her eyes cast down, a little to his right and one pace behind, keeping the chain by which she was led in a slack loop at all times.

At the house they were met by the Major-domo.

"I come to deliver the Lady Claudia to be examined for health, virtue and fortitude," Marcellus announced, using the ritual phrase demanded by the rites.

The flunkey bowed and led them to where Selena awaited them.

Once more Marcellus repeated the formula, with embellishments.

"I bring you the Lady Claudia, daughter of Maximus Travinus, and sister to me, Marcellus Travinus, whose health, virtue and fortitude I guarantee, and invite you to make trial of yourself," he recited.

"Greetings Marcellus Travina," Selena replied, in the matching response,

"On behalf of my father, Aurelius Pontus, we will test her worth and, if she is worthy, she shall sacrifice her hymen to Ishtar this night and be ready for her bridegroom."

Marcellus bowed, and handed over his sister's leading chain. The Major-domo closed the doors, and the women were left alone together.

Selena sighed as the door closed on the men.

"Now it begins," she said, her feline look overtly showing in her face. "I have thought of nothing else these last three days. It is a fantasy come true, the fantasy I formed the first day I saw you, of having your naked body at my mercy, to test you as I wish."

"Oh yes," she assured Claudia, seeing the doubt flit across her victim's features, "oh yes, I may do whatever I wish. I have spoken with father, and asked him if he wished you tested to the limit, or if he had doubts about your

endurance. Marcellus was there and father asked him if you needed to be spared the worst. Your brother bridled at the suggestion, saying that you Travina had the blood of heroes in your veins, and he would back you to endure any trial with fortitude and honour. Father nodded, as if he had the same assessment of you, and told me I might put you to any ordeal I chose, saying you were no tender bride of sixteen years, but a grown woman who had already completed one session in the service of the state and emerged unscathed and with your dignity intact."

Despite herself, Claudia groaned. She needed no convincing that this girl was capable of causing her untold misery, and that she must prolong it, not taking the easy way out by pleading for mercy as soon as hurt, but going the whole distance of her endurance to satisfy family honour, her old family and her new husband's too, who had expressed such confidence in her worth.

Aloud she replied, as the custom required, "I shall submit myself to your will."

17 - HEALTH, VIRTUE AND FORTITUDE

"Good," Selena responded, her voice a purr of anticipation, "Ordinarily there would be witnesses to your trial, the women of both our families but, since we are the only two, we shall play the game out together. Strip now, and make yourself ready."

Claudia steeled herself, loosened the cord that acted as a girdle for the tunic, and drew the garment off. For some reason she felt more shame and humiliation at having to strip in front of this young woman alone than if she was baring herself before a score of mixed female relatives. The latter would have been a semi-public, but neutral, ritual. This was too personal for her comfort. Selena's interest in her was more than just that conferred by reason of her family status. There was a palpable thread of sexuality, mixed with cruelty, linking the two women.

Claudia removed the rest of her clothing quickly, until she stood barefoot and naked on the cool marble of the floor. Then Selena commenced her inspection, walking slowly round her, staring intently at her naked body.

"You're very beautiful," she said. "Of course, I've watched you often enough at the baths, but this is different, having you to myself, fully exposed to my gaze and touch, and mine alone. I could watch you all day, but we've work to do. I have to ascertain if you are healthy and intact."

She stepped close to the waiting woman and took her head in her hands, opening the jaw to examine the teeth, lifting each eyelid, and making her roll her eyes from side to side. She pulled on the delicate pink shells of the ears, peering closely into their depths, and ran her fingers through the thick hair, tugging painfully on several strands.

She moved behind her victim and, coming closer still, pressed her own clothed body against the rear of Claudia's nakedness, enjoying the feel of firm pert buttocks pressing into her own flat belly.

She reached out and cupped a breast in each hand, passing her thumbs over the jutting nipples.

"Lovely," she said, "like small melons topped with cherries." She squeezed savagely on the surging nipples, digging sharpened thumb nails deep into each hardened teat.

Claudia bore it all without flinching, standing quite still while the hands moved down to press the in-sink over her hips with the heel of each hand, dig suddenly deep into the gentle swell of the belly, drawing a gasp of surprise, roam teasingly in the thicket of pubic curls.

She tensed herself for what she saw as an inevitable next step, the invasion of her vulva, but the fingers came no nearer, staying in the luxuriant growth at the base of her belly. Perhaps Selena, like a child with a treat to eat, was saving the best morsel until last, saving this tasty dish, her genitals, putting them to one side for now, like a cherry left on the rim of a platter.

"Such luscious flesh," Selena murmured, "you are a picture of health, but we must explore further than just skin deep. Place your feet apart, and bend until your fingers are on your toes. Do not rise until I tell you."

It was an additional humiliation to bend in this fashion before her, but Claudia bit her lip and complied. She had declared she would submit and she would keep her word. At once she felt Selena's hand moving over her buttocks, squeezing and testing the flesh there, before passing down the deep cleft that divided them, seeking out the wrinkled whorl of her anus. The fingers stopped at the opening, at first circling it gently, then one of them forcing the sphincter. She squirmed, but held her position as, first one joined it, then a third. The three fingers bunched in a cone that worked in and out, stretching and testing, then all withdrew.

"Up on the slab," came the order, and she stood and scrambled in an undignified manner onto the marble table in the centre of the room.

"Hands and knees!" and she took up the position, feeling the humiliation of it even more acutely than when Selena had had her bending on straight legs.

Her buttocks were even more exposed and spread now, especially when the younger woman slapped her on the inside of her thighs, making her part her knees even wider and open herself up even more freely.

Before the probing fingers returned to the now pouting anus, they dipped themselves in oil from a a dish set ready nearby. Now Selena thrust more brutally, then joined her remaining finger and her thumb to the driving wedge.

Inexorably the bunched fingers penetrated the protesting sphincter.

"Relax," Selena said, "you'll only make it worse for yourself if you clench. I must inspect you here for health, so I will have my hand in you sooner or later. It's up to you how quickly it is over, and at what cost in pain and grief to yourself. For me I would like it to last forever. You have lovely bowels darling."

Though it stung her pride to have to allow this humiliating invasion of a part of her she had been used to regarding as untouchable, Claudia willed her reluctant anus to relax and permit the fist to slowly penetrate the tight entrance until, with a sudden rush, after the slow struggle up to that point, the whole hand suddenly disappeared, right up to the wrist.

Claudia's sharp intake of breath and Selena's sigh of contentment blended in the stillness of the room, then Claudia began to writhe. Her mouth opened and she uttered a series of urgent unhappy noises.

Inside her belly terrible sensations had broken loose. She felt as if her guts had been nailed to a plank, and her body suspended from them. Selena had opened her fist within her bowel and groped around until she had found the individual organs within the peritoneum, gripping and twisting on the delicate glands and sacs that filled the abdominal cavity. Claudia mewled with pain and the appalling nature of the assault that seemed to attack her in the very heart of her being. For a moment the fingers relaxed their grip, sliding less deep into her rectum, but it was only to search out and seize her womb itself, squeezing that vital organ unmercifully until only her last vestiges of pride and family honour kept Claudia from howling outright at the atrocious treatment.

As it was, her mewling had become like the cries of a strangled cat.

Suddenly it was over, though not without one last sharp cry, for Selena, rather than withdrawing gently and letting the distended and distorted intestines adapt, had pulled her fist and arm free in one swift movement, causing fresh devastation in the tormented bowel and nearly causing her victim to loose all control of her voice and functions. As it was Claudia remained kneeling, but panting violently as she tried to overcome her distress.

"It would seem you are healthy enough in there," Selena announced, without emotion, as if she had merely had her open her mouth for her teeth to be inspected. "How about the other side. Turn on your back, and draw up your knees."

Relieved that her anus seemed free from further assault, but fearful of what might come next, Claudia turned onto her back and drew up her knees to expose her shrinking vulva. Selena parted the plump labia, below the thick mat of curls on the lower belly.

"Great Gods!" she exclaimed, "you are still sealed!"

"Well, yes," the bride to be replied, "since I have neither husband or lover, there seemed no reason to have the state seal and infibulature removed.

It has been there ever since my service."

"It will have to stay then," Selena replied, "though I regret not being able to make a proper inspection. I've no doubt I would get almost as much pleasure out of being buried in your soft warm vagina as I did in your hot wet guts. You were delicious, Claudia. You've no idea how much I enjoyed it."

Claudia forbore to remark on her own lack of pleasure in the experience, or the bitch-like quality Selena displayed in her open gloating over her treatment of her social companion and future step mother. There ware still the tests of fortitude to come, and she suspected Selena would make them trying enough, without getting her back up any more than she could help.

For the first demonstration of her fortitude, Claudia was made to stand with her hands clasped behind her head, thrusting out her full firm breasts with their thick dark stubs of nipples crowning their smooth rounds. At first Selena used her strong fingers to grasp and twist each nipple in turn but, although she dug her sharpened thumb nails cruelly into the peaks again, Claudia set her jaw and resisted the pressure, standing firm despite the pain and drag on the tender flesh.

Selena changed tactics. She turned to a small side table and selected a pair of bronze pincers, more examples of the jewellers art than the blacksmiths, but serviceable tools nevertheless, and more than sufficient to crush delicate female flesh. Armed with these, Selena took a fresh grip on the inflamed and swollen nipples, gripping each at its base and squeezing on the handles of the tool until the jaws bit in deep. They almost met through the soft tissue, while the nipple itself became swollen and distorted into a dark blood engorged mulberry coloured excrescence.

Now Selena could reduce Claudia's defences, drawing mewling cries of pain from her riven lips and eventually forcing her down onto her knees. No woman of flesh and blood could have stood out indefinitely against that sort of attack on her nipples.

She repeated the treatment on each one, letting her victim rise again after each attack, then placed the grips in a bowl of water simmering over a small charcoal brazier. Claudia blenched when she saw the steaming grips approaching her. Now scalding heat would be added to their crushing pressure, but she held her ground, thrusting out her breast without flinching as the pincers approached. She could not suppress a cry though, as she felt the heat on her already tortured teats, and Selena forced her to her knees again, once for each breast.

"You're certainly tough," Selena conceded, when she took the grips away and Claudia struggled up off her knees to resume the position she had been ordered to maintain. "Let's see just how far it goes."

She waved towards the wall opposite to that through which Claudia had entered the room. There a door faced the one she had come in by, set rather higher in the wall, with four steps leading up to it.

"Go and stand on the top step, facing me, and put your hands behind your neck again."

Claudia obeyed, standing now nearly three feet above the floor level.

Selena came to join her, putting her hand between the closed thighs to rub against the furry vulva. "Bend your knees and open your thighs," she directed, and, once more, Claudia obeyed without protest.

The pose exposed and opened her vulva completely, and brought it down to the level of Selena's waist, where she could work on it to the greatest advantage. She began to stroke with her fingers, teasing the clitoris as it responded and began to emerge from the protective folds of its hood. When she had the little stem erect and clear, she used her bronze pincers again, pressing back on either side of the small red stub to make it protrude further, then applying the cruel metal jaws either side of it as low as she could force them.

Claudia braced herself for the agony to come, but Selena held her hand, drawing out the fearful anticipation, looking deep into the older girl's eyes, seeking the fear in their depths.

This time, when she squeezed, Claudia could only whine and writhe, her control almost gone. For a very long minute, Selena twisted and squeezed,

dragging down on the agonised gland, until Claudia admitted defeat by stepping down one tread of the stair to relieve the pain in her Venus pearl.

Selena grinned evilly, and placed the bronze tool in the bowl of boiling water.

"You've got guts, i grant you that," she said, as Claudia dragged herself back up the step she had conceded, and stood upright again, her hands behind her neck. "Now for the ultimate trial. Will you face this, or plead for mercy?"

She plucked the pincers from the hot liquid and advanced.

"Present yourself," she ordered, challengingly, "you know what comes now."

Without hesitation, Claudia bent and opened her knees, exposing her vulva again and bringing her clitoris into position for this supreme test.

As the scalding metal touched and gripped her most intimate flesh, her head went back, the sinews corded in her neck, and a thin high screech came from somewhere deep in her throat. She held back the fragment of scream desperately, but a portion of it forced its way past her larynx and through her teeth, which were clenched behind stretched lips in the grotesque parody of a smile.

But she would not concede her position.

Only when Selena twisted the poor tortured organ viciously, then tugged violently downwards, did Claudia cry out freely, and stumble down the steps to try and ease the pressure on her sexual bud.

Even Selena was impressed.

"I have to hand it to you," she admitted with grudging admiration. "That could not have been easy. Not many women could have stood there, while the pincers scalded their cherries. Now all we have left is your ritual flogging.

I'm going to enjoy this."

Claudia knew what was expected of her. Even if it had not been explained to her in gory detail by her gloating young examiner and torturer, there was a fresco painted all around the room showing a young woman submitting to the ritual flogging of the traditional Roman bride, her hands bound and held, another woman wielding a long venomous rod that fell across her back from shoulders to hips. It was a favourite scene for those rooms set aside for ceremonial purposes in the better Roman houses.

Naked, aching and sore already, Claudia prepared herself for the rod by going to stand as instructed. Selena bound her wrists with cord and hung them over a hook set in the wall for just such a purpose.

"Now for the final chapter," Selena crowed. "Which will come first, do you think, your blood or your screams? I intend you should go to father's bed with a proper bloody back, like in the old days, when Rome was great."

In the event she bled before she screamed. The rod was long and vicious, capable of laying a woman's soft skin open with one blow if applied with full force, and Selena did not hold back. She lashed Claudia from each side in turn, crossing over after every half dozen cuts, laying on thick welts from shoulder down to opposite hip. Claudia was truly whipped to the blood, before she judged that she had done enough for honour to be satisfied, and could let her tortured feelings express themselves is shrieks and cries.

18 - MAIDEN SACRIFICE AND THE MARRIAGE BED

Selena, too, seemed to think that honour had been satisfied, and rewarded Claudia with release from her bonds, a cup of wine, and a few minutes rest.

But her ordeal was but part way through. In ten minutes the doors of the house opened to send her out onto the street, to find her way to Ishtar's temple and there sacrifice her hymen to the Goddess.

She was naked, save for a curious ritual covering. On her head she wore a kind of broad brimmed hat, thin gauze material stretched over a wide hoop of willow, a cup in the centre serving to fit it to her head. From the rim, a curtain of the same thin gauzy stuff fell to her feet, enclosing her in a transparent tube, through which she could see her way, and through which she could be seen - though a little obscured, her nakedness was obvious. Besides, all would know that she was naked and helpless under the covering, for it was embroidered with Ishtar's symbols, proclaiming her a beaten bride going to offer up her virginity.

She was bound too, her wrists tied behind her with a golden cord that was taken round her waist, to keep her hands quite helpless. But she was in no danger except from the knowing glances of the people on the streets. Ordinarily no woman would walk those streets alone, especially at night. Noblewomen would be escorted by guards. Women of lesser degree would go with friends, or escorted by menfolk. The lowest simply had to take their chances, for it was not uncommon for a lone woman to be suddenly up-ended by a lustful male, and find herself on her back on the cobbles, her bare thighs waving either side of a pumping male pelvis, the street people standing by, encouraging him with ribald comments.

It was different, though, for a bride on her way to give up her maidenhead. If a man, through ignorance or drunken lust, should seek to force himself between her thighs, those same street people would leap on him, and hold him down, while one of the women present would cut off his genitals and send them to Ishtar, to placate the Goddess and deflect the ill fortune such an insult to the all-powerful female deity would bring down on the city.

She was received at the doors of the temple by one of the duty priestesses. There was no need to state her errand, her dress and condition said it all, and she was taken to the back room, where those who served the Goddess prepared their bodies to be offered up to the male devotees on the other side of the partition. There she was relieved of her bonds and covering and told to climb up onto a marble table to be examined. To some extent the cold stone eased her wealed back, but she still winced as the thick and stiffening welts made contact.

She drew up her legs and opened her knees for her vulva to be examined.

The Priestess clicked her tongue as she discovered the silver wire, with its lead seal intact.

"I see your virtue is doubly sealed," she remarked, as she called for clippers to cut the wire. "Well, the Goddess will welcome both sacrifices."

It was a painful process.

In all these months her flesh had grown close about the infibulation, since the holes had not been eased, as those in her nose had by regular rotation. And the wire was bent and kinked, both from the sewing itself and the various impacts it had been subject to since, from deliberate cruel strokes of rod or whip to accidental touches, all of which meant it could not be drawn through the vaginal lips without causing great pain. Of course, the pain could have been reduced, or avoided altogether, if the wire had been clipped into small pieces, drawn individually from each piercing, but that was not Ishtar's way. The Goddess demanded the seal intact, and each withdrawal called for a longer and longer length of ragged wire to be drawn through the tenderest of flesh.

When it was done, Claudia was panting and sweating anew. The attendants wiped her vulva with a mixture of honey, wine and vinegar, which stanched the bleeding, and wiped clean the blood and the accumulated secretions trapped in her vaginal entrance, but set her to whining and writhing again as the mixture bit into the open wounds.

Now all was ready for her to make the sacrifice, the rending of her virgin flesh. She was set on a frame, and taken to be measured against the mock orifice used to position newcomers to the Goddess's service. As the step was adjusted to bring her buttocks up, so that her anus touched the butt plug fixed to the gauge, the bar was lowered, so that she bent even further, bringing her pursed vulva right back between her widely parted highs.

As she waited, bent and openly presented, she could hear the woman now in use gasping and blowing beside her. There was obviously some gross male using her brutally, and Claudia shuddered as it came home to her that she would be the next to be crying out in that dread recess.

Now she was ready, and her predecessor's cries became urgent, though with pain, not passion, as her assailant approached a shattering climax that flooded her womb with hot juices. Suddenly the woman's body slumped, her head dropped, she was finished, the cock withdrawn, and her attendants pulled her trolley rapidly out of the recess. The woman was so spent that she did not even react to the anal seal being wrenched from its seating in her behind.

As the one trolley left, Claudia's was thrust into the opening. It paused momentarily, as the attendant guided the nose of the rectal plug, until it touched the wrinkled bud of Claudia's anus. She could feel it penetrating an

inch or so, but the oiled and tapered nose did not as yet stress her sphincter.

The woman removed her hand, and signalled to the helpers, and they thrust the trolley home with a thud.

Claudia gasped as her buttocks slapped against the wall of the image. It was still hot and sweat wetted from the woman who had gone before her, and the plug that both positioned and protected her rectal opening sank deep into her bowel.

As she writhed on her frame, trying to ease the discomfort of her position, she could feel the jewel encrusted cloth that covered the Goddess's lap.

But not for long!

In an instant it lifted and she could feel cold air on her bare buttocks and exposed vulva, as some unknown male looked down to see his prize. A hand wandered over her bare flesh for an instant, as if assessing its quality, then something hard but yielding pressed against her labia. Fingers touched her vulva, pulling the lips apart, and she sensed the man's surprised reaction as he discovered he had drawn a virgin vagina in which to slake his lust.

Claudia trembled as she awaited her fate. Would he be generous, gentle in recognition of his good fortune and her inexperience, or would he be spurred to take her brutally? She guessed the answer before it came. The glans pressing against her vulva had hardened and kicked with the discovery of her secret and lust was the winner. With one great fierce thrust, he burst though the carefully guarded membrane of her hymen, leaving it in bloody tatters, and sunk his awesome weapon deep into her maiden sheath.

She could not contain the shock, the pain, the knowledge of something gone, and lost forever. As the mighty organ impaled her, she gave a great shriek of loss and pain, then set her teeth in her lip to endure what must come next.

For a moment he lay still, savouring his triumph, then desire could not be resisted, and he began to pump her with heavy measured strokes. His member would have been hard to bear under any circumstances, but she was not only devoid of lubricant, save her own maiden blood and a trace of the oil from the anointing of her wounds, but the intrusive plug in her rectum competed for space with the raping penis, divided from it as it was only by the thin membrane of the vaginal wall.

It was a loveless and painful coupling and, by its end, her moans and gasps rivalled those of the women whose place she had taken a few minutes before.

At last it was over. She cried out at the man's last brutal thrusts that accompanied the gouts of sticky semen that flooded her sheath and laved her unprotected womb with perilous juices, then quietened as he withdrew. Her watchful attendants knew the signs, they had officiated at thousands of similar deflowerings. They hauled her out, forcing another shocked cry from her as the plug was wrenched from her anus, and the next woman was shoved into the breach without ceremony, so that the Goddess could continue her rut uninterrupted.

Out of sympathy, they let her lie on he frame for a few minutes, tear stained and sobbing, gathering her strength and getting over the shock of her loss. But it could not be prolonged indefinitely. The next woman in was another

'volunteer', a seven year wife whose reactions could not be predicted like those of the regular priestesses, and it was necessary to have the trolley cleared -

it would be required in a hurry if some unforeseen catastrophe overtook the present incumbent.

Claudia was helped to her feet, and given back her veil. She was also given back her gold cord, knotted again around her waist and securing her hands behind her. But this time, where it passed between her legs and was drawn up tightly behind, it held in place a square napkin of white silk which bore the Goddess's emblems and was folded to make a pad some ten inches long by two wide.

The creases were carefully placed to ensure the inevitable stains, which were the evidence of her previous virginity and her subsequent defloration, should show clearly and symmetrically when the cloth was laid out before her bridegroom.

Now she was set to retrace her steps back to her future home, where Selena would have care of her until the time came for Marcellus to formally hand her over to Aurelius in exchange for the nummus unus, the traditional silver penny that cemented her sale.

Though she tried to walk with dignity, her gait was a pained shuffle. She walked wide-legged in a duck waddle. Her vulva had been sore enough from Selena's fierce attentions before she went to the temple. There she had suffered the painful extraction of the infibulatory wire, and then the brutal rupture of her hymen and the massive invasion of a prick she hoped was exceptional, or at least larger than Aurelius's, the only male weapon she would have to take for the next seven years at least.

The combined effect left her feeling as if she had one large raw wound between her legs, encompassing vagina, rectum and belly.

The crowd parted respectfully to let her pass, though there were sniggers, and murmurings. She was grateful to reach the shelter of the house, and a surprisingly kindly Selena. The girl had had her moment, the chance to use a friend as she wished, with utmost love dressed in utmost cruelty. Now she was back to her normal social self.

She hurried Claudia to her own room and relieved her of her veil, though she provided her with no clothes, and would not remove the cord from between her legs, or around her wrists.

"You have been tested and opened," she explained, "and found satisfactory, but your condition must be maintained until father takes possession of you, and you will stay a prisoner in my care until Marcellus comes to collect his piece of silver."

Nor would she allow the napkin to be removed, even for natural functions.

"This is the certificate of your value," she told her, "and must stay in place, until you present it to father in your marriage bed. If you need to relieve yourself in any way, I or the maid will help you, drawing the cloth aside while you empty your bladder or purge your bowels."

"But I shall stink, when I go to your father's bed," Claudia complained in horror. "I shall smell like a goat or rotten fish."

"Indeed you will, all brides do in the old rite. It is to humble you, so you must make the best of it. In the meantime there is no reason why the rest of you should not be cleaned and refreshed."

She sent for her maid and between them they cleaned Claudia up, brushed and set her hair, which had fallen into a haystack during the ordeals she had endured, and brought her food and wine. Her hands were still not released, and she could do nothing for herself. She sipped from a cup held to her lips and ate from the hand of another. When it came for time for bed, she shared Selena's, but with her wrists still tied behind her back. It was not comfortable but, after the draining pain and shock she had suffered, she drifted off in minutes, and woke late, stiff and sore, but her strength restored.

Selena let her rest, but the afternoon brought the women who were to attend the wedding, wives and daughters of the five for male witnesses who would certify that Claudia had been properly bought and sold, delivered and paid for.

That was the heart of the rite. For hours she had to behave politely while they chattered and commented on her wounds and stripes, remarking how stained the cloth between her legs had become. The man must have been a Hercules to have torn her so. Did she feel him in her belly, was he quick or slow? She tried to answer with accuracy and indifference, but it was hard to be unmoved when describing one's own rape and torture. She could not refuse them, though, since polite convention demanded that she reveal all.

As evening came on it was announced that the men had arrived, and the preparations began in earnest. She was washed and brushed, all but her vulva, her lips reddened, her nipples rouged, her eyes touched with Kohl. When she was as perfect as they could make her, she was given an elaborate cloak that went over her shoulders and bound arms, clasped at the neck, but opening as she moved.

Selena fastened a silken cord to her nose ring and led her to the corridor outside the hall where the ceremony would take place. There they were met by Marcellus. Told that the bride was ready, he took over the nasal halter and led Claudia into the room, followed by all her women friends.

Aurelius waited for them at the far end, surrounded by the rest of the men. Walking stiffly still, and wide-legged, for she was still very sore, she followed her brother up to her future husband.

"I present to you the Lady Claudia," Marcellus announced formally.

"Has she been tested and prepared?" Aurelius replied, equally formally.

"Is she healthy and virtuous?"

"She is healthy and virtuous," Marcellus declared, unclasping the cloak and taking it from her. "She carries the certificate of the Goddess herself."

Aurelius continued the litany.

"What price do you ask for her?"

"A silver penny, though she is worth her weight in gold."

"Here is your penny," handing it over.

"Here is your woman," and Marcellus passed the lead to Aurelius who pulled on it lightly, indicating that Claudia should leave her brother's side and come to stand by him.

The men applauded, and came to congratulate Aurelius on his purchase, the women clustered round the naked bride, and kissed her. She was a married woman!

Refreshments were brought, and all the guests served. It was sometime before good manners allowed the groom to take his bride away, and she spent the hours naked and bound, a piece of newly purchased property, awaiting her new owner's first use while her friends chattered round her. At last Aurelius took her off to bed, still with stern formality, though her departure was marked by shrill cries from the women, ribald remarks from the men.

She had been taught what to do. She knelt and made her submission, bowing her head and acknowledging him as her master. He untied the cord, releasing her wrists.

"Show me your proofs," he ordered, and she took out the sodden napkin from between her thighs and spread it on the bed for his inspection. He nodded, to show he found the blood and semen stained cloth sufficient evidence, then brusquely commanded her onto her back on the bed. She had hoped for some care, or at least, preparation, but he took her roughly, as she was, stink and all. It was the quick and brutal coupling of a man establishing his mastery of his woman. When he was done he sent her to wash and, gratefully, she cleansed her sore crotch of all the foulnesses she had accumulated there these last twenty-our hours, then felt clean again for the first time since Selena had started work on her the evening before.

When she returned she knelt again, as a new bride must do before her master, but he called her into the bed.

"We have done our duty by the old Roman law," he said, "and you are truly my wife in manes, in my hands. Now let us see if we cannot become friends as well."

He took her in his arms, and kissed her almost tenderly and, exhausted and weary from the pain, the humiliation, the suffering of the last twenty-four hours, she felt a sudden weakness overwhelm her at this unexpected tenderness, and fell asleep, safely held against his chest.

She woke in the night to find he had turned to her and his stiff erection was pressing into her from the rear. She steeled herself for more violation of her sore vagina, but he was only adjusting himself along her back, his hardened prick safely lodged in her cleft. She found it disturbing, but strangely comforting, and went back to sleep, his arms cradling her from behind.

In the morning he was a different man, soft and tender with her, coaxing her very gently with kisses she found welcome after the impersonal ravishings she had endured. There came soft touches of his tongue on her stiffening nipples, the careful exploration of her tender vulva, his finger tips stroking softly on the rapidly responding bud of her clitoris. He did not rush her, letting her melt and come to him, awakening her womanhood slowly but surely. She was amazed to felt desire welling in her. Could this be the same stern Roman General who had all but raped her bruised and bleeding body the night before?

Her passion blossomed under his hands and tongue. She thrust herself against him, murmuring words of submission and want.

Only then did he enter her, pausing as she gasped at the renewed soreness in her vagina, then pressing in gently as she accepted the renewed pain and urged him to continue. He began with long slow strokes that increased in depth and force as her response rose. Soon she was crying out, but with need, not pain. Small throaty screams rose in intensity until her body bucked and she shrieked her release. Afterwards she lay still in his arms as they talked of their life together, and each ones needs and duties.

When he left her to go about his military duties, she slept again. When Marcellus came to call near evening, she was dressed and installed on a couch, listening to a slave girl playing her dulcimer.

Marcellus approached her warily.

"How are you Sister?" he asked, cautiously.

"Wounded, bleeding and sore," she replied with feeling. "But content. Oh Marcellus, I have so much to thank you for!"

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