Chapter Twelve
One evening when we entered his bedroom he told me to pause as I was in the act of undressing. “I think now is the time to introduce you to a more severe test of your devotion. Come with me.”
He took a candle and left the room. I followed him along the corridor and downstairs, to a lower ground floor which I had not previously penetrated. Down the end of another corridor he produced a key and opened a door.
“Enter,” he said.
It was a kind of dungeon, a room without windows. To my surprise, a fire burned in the grate; evidently he had prepared in advance for my visit. I looked around with trepidation. On the walls hung a large selection of implements of restraint and correction: leather cuffs and belts, gags, blindfolds, and a range of whips, paddles and canes. At variou
