Fighting Slave of Gor

22 THE HOUSE GUESTS OF THE LADY FLORENCE; THE VENGEANCE OF THE LADY FLORENCE; I AM GIVEN A SLAVE TO SPORT KITH

"I do not know how I can ever thank you, Lady Florence," breathed the Lady Melpomene.

"It is nothing," said the Lady Florence, "for we are sharers of a Home Stone and are, too, fast friends."

"How I regret our former differences," said the Lady Melpomene, clasping in her two hands those of the Lady Florence.

The Lady Florence nodded, her features visible behind the light house veil, suitable for an informal dinner with friends. The Lady Melpomene, too, wore such a veil. Both were richly robed.

I stood with Kenneth behind a curtain. Through the curtain we could hear and see what took place within the lofty hall in the house of the Lady Florence, she of Vonda. The hall was lovely, too, as well as lofty, with its mosaics and tiles, its hangings and slim pillars. In the hall was an open circle of small tables, at which a handful of guests, on cushions and mats, reclined. There were four men and two women at these tables, other than the Lady Florence, the hostess, and her guest of the past several days, the Lady Melpomene. The tables were covered with cloths of glistening white and a service of gold. Before each guests there were tiny slices of tospit and larma, small pastries, and, in a tiny golden cup, with a small golden spoon, the clustered, black, tiny eggs of the white grunt. The first wine, a light white wine, was being deferentially served by Pamela and Bonnie. Both girls were beautiful, in flowing, classic white. Their arms, of course, were bare, as is common with slave girls. On the throat of each was a lustrously polished silver collar, and on the left wrist of each, locked, with a chain loop, should one desire to secure them, a matching bracelet. Both girls, of course, were barefoot.

"When these papers are signed," said the Lady Melpomene, happily, lifting some papers from the table in front of her, "I shall be free of my debts."

There was polite applause, the striking of the left shoulder, from those at the tables, including the Lady Florence.

"And all this I awe to my dear friend," said the Lady Melpomene, "the Lady Florence!"

There was again light applause, but this time, the Lady Florence, being the object of the commendation, merely bowed her head graciously.

"I lift my wine to the Lady Florence of Vonda!" said the Lady Melpomene.

"We lift our wine to the Lady Florence of Vonda," said the guests.

All then drank, save the Lady Florence, who, smiling, did not lift her cup. Free women, drinking, commonly lift their veil, or veils, with the left hand. Low-caste free women, if veiled, usually do the same. Sometimes, however, particularly if in public, they will drink through their veil, or veils. Sometimes, of course, free women will drink unveiled, even with guests. Much depends on how well the individuals are known, and who is present. In their homes, of course, with only members of their families present, or servants and slaves, most free women do not veil themselves, even those of high caste.

"I thank you, citizens of Vonda and others, friends, all," said the Lady Florence. "And now I, in turn, lift my cup."

All lifted their cups, save the Lady Melpomene.

"I lift my cup," said the Lady Florence, "to the beautiful Lady Melpomene of Vonda, who is beautiful enough even to wear the collar of a slave!"

There was laughter at this bold toast, and the Lady Melpomene, reddening, smiling, put down her head. "Please, Lady Florence," she chided. "There are those here who are not of Vonda." She looked across the tables, across the space between them, to where three men sat, one of Venna, and two of Ar. "What will your guests think?" she asked.

"Fear not, Lady Melpomene," said one of the men, one of Ar, who raised his cup. "I am sure that the toast of the Lady Florence is true in all particulars."

There was again laughter, and all drank, save the Lady Melpomene, who, embarrassed, smiling, was the object of the toast.

Pamela and Bonnie, heads down, silent effacing themselves, as is proper with slaves, again filled the small golden cups. It was again a serving of the first wine. In a Gorean supper in a house of wealth, in the course of the supper, with varied courses, eight to ten wines might be served, each suitably and congruously matched with respect to texture and bouquet not only to one another but to the accompanying portions of food.

I looked about, through the curtain, at the guests of the Lady Florence, other than the Lady Melpomene. The fellow from Venna, clad in white and gold, was Philebus, a bounty creditor. He was known to the merchants of several cities. Such men buy bills at discount and then set themselves to collect, as they can, their face value. They are tenacious in their trade. I did not know the business of the two men from Ar. They were Tenalion, and his man, Ronald. 'The fourth man was Brandon. He was from Vonda. He was a prefect in that city. His certifications on certain documents would be important. The two ladies, both of Vonda, were Leta and Perimene, both friends of the Ladies Florence and Melpomene. As free citizens of Vonda they could witness legal transactions.

"The Lady Melpomene is richly garbed," I noted to Kenneth, who stood beside me.

"The garments are those of the Lady Florence," he said.

"I see," I said.

"Even the perfume she wears is that of the Lady Florence," said Kenneth.

"I see," I said.

As we spoke some five musicians entered the room and took their places to one side. There was a czehar player, two flutists, a kalika player, and a player on the kaska, a small hand drum.

Between the tables there was a large, tiled scarlet circle, some twelve feet in width, with an iron ring at its center. "What is the entertainment you have planned for us, Lady Florence?" inquired the Lady Melpomene.

"It is to be a surprise," said the Lady Florence.

"I can hardly wait," said the Lady Melpomene.

"You are so secretive, Florence," laughed the Lady Leta, as though chiding the Lady Florence. Yet from her laugh I through it not unlikely that she knew well what was in store.

Philebus, across the tiled circle, cleared his throat. "Let us conduct our business," he said. "We may then proceed to the amusements of the evening."

"A splendid idea!" said the Lady Florence.

"A splendid idea!" said the Lady Melpomene.

"Before you Lady Melpomene of Vonda," said Philebus, "lie several papers, detailing the consolidation of your debts. These papers are certified by the bank of Bemus in Venna, and are witnessed by the signatures of two citizens of that city. Do you acknowledge that the tallies are correct and that the debts are yours?"

"I do," said the Lady Melpomene.

"I now," said he, "by my purchased rights, charge you with these debts and demand payment."

"And, thanks to my friend, the Lady Florence, she of Vonda," said the Lady Melpomene, "you shall have your payments, and now. The Lady Florence has graciously agreed to lend me the full amount of the due notes and at no interest."

This seemed to me incredibly generous of the Lady Florence. Kenneth, near me, behind the curtain, was smiling.

"I herewith publicly sign," said the Lady Melpomene, "this loan note, made out to the Lady Florence of Vonda, for the full sum of one thousand, four hundred and twenty tares of gold."

"And I," said the Lady Florence, "herewith publicly sign this draft, marked in the same amount, drawn on the bank of Reginald in Vonda, and properly certified, made out to Philebus of Venna."

She handed the draft to the Lady Melpomene. The Lady Melpomene handed her back the loan note. Philebus of Venna went to the table of the Lady Melpomene and took the draft. He looked at it, and was satisfied, and placed it in his pouch. The loan note was carried by the Lady Florence herself to the prefect and to the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene. These, with their signatures, and the prefect with a stamp also, certified and witnessed the loan note. Pamela and Bonnie, incidentally, the two enslaved Gorean beauties in attendance on the tables, did not fetch or carry the documents about. This had been done by Philebus of Venna and the Lady Florence. Slaves, generally, are not permitted to touch legal documents. They are slaves.

"You are now my full and only creditor, Lady Florence," said the Lady Melpomene. "I trust that you will be merciful, and kind, to me."

"You will be treated precisely as you deserve," the Lady Florence assured her.

"Let us all, together rejoicing," called out the Lady Melpomene, "prepare to lift our cups to our lovely and generous hostess, she with whom I share a Home Stone, my dearest friend, the Lady Florence of Vonda!" The Lady Melpomene reached for her cup.

"Do not touch that cup, Slut," said the Lady Florence.

"Florence!" cried the Lady Melpomene.

"Have you paid for the wine?" asked the Lady Florence. "Can you pay for it?"

"I do not understand," stammered the Lady Melpomene.

The Lady Florence reached to the tiny cup of wine, and seized it up, and hurled its contents against the Lady Melpomene. It struck against her veil and the upper portions of her garments.

"What are you doing?" demanded the Lady Melpomene angrily.

"What perfume are you wearing?" demanded the Lady Florence.

"Yours, as you know!" said the Lady Melpomene, coldly. "That from the shop of Turbus Veminius in Venna." I recalled the perfume which I had fetched for the Mistress, when I had been waylaid by the henchmen of the Lady Melpomene. I supposed it was the same perfume, replaced.

"Not mine," said the Lady Florence. "I use it only as a slave perfume. I use it to souse my stable sluts before I throw them chained to the men." That was not true. The Lady Florence did not permit her stable sluts perfume, even slave perfume. On the other hand the smell of their sweat and fear, and the precipitated odors of their hot love oils, indicative of their helpless arousal, were more than sufficient to excite the brutes who took them in their arms.

"Whose garments do you wear?" asked the Lady Florence.

The Lady Melpomene sprang to her feet. "I will not remain here to be insulted," she said, furiously. She drew up her robes, to her ankles, and in fury, with a sob, fled toward the door. But there she was met by two large fellows, who barred her way. "Durbar! Hesiusl" she said. "Take me home." I recognized the pair. They were the fellows who had, long ago, captured me in an alley in Venna and carried me, bound in a slave sack, to the house of the Lady Melpomene, where she had used me for her pleasure. I had been returned similarly helpless to my Mistress, with a note. After that my Mistress had sent me to the stables.

The two men now each held an arm of the Lady Melpomene. "Take me home!" she cried.

"We are now in the fee of the Lady Florence," said one of the men, he whom I took it was named Durbar.

They then turned the Lady Melpomene about and, she stumbling, they forced her back to a place between the tables. The three of them then stood on the red tiles. The two men, each one holding an arm, held the Lady Melpomene so that she must face the Lady Florence.

"What is the meaning of this?" cried the Lady Melpomene.

"Whose garments do you wear?" demanded the Lady Florence.

The Lady Melpomene struggled, but helplessly. "Yours! Yours!" she then cried, held.

"Remove them," said the Lady Florence, coldly. The two men released the arms of the Lady Melpomene and stood back some feet and to the side.

"Never," said the Lady Melpomene.

"The slippers first," said the Lady Florence.

The Lady Melpomene stepped from the slippers. "She bares her feet before free persons," said the Lady Florence. The Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene laughed.

"Now throw back the hood and remove your veil," said the Lady Florence, harshly.

"Never!" cried the Lady Melpomene. The veil bore the stain from the wine which had been thrown upon it.

"You will do these things or they will be done for you," said the Lady Florence, indicating Durbar and Hesius.

The Lady Melpomene, angrily, threw back her hood, and then, pin by pin, lowered her veil. Her hair, as I recalled, was long and dark. Her cheekbones were high, her eyes dark. She was a very lovely woman.

"She face strips herself before free persons," said the Lady Florence.

"Why are you doing this to me?" cried out the Lady Melpomene. There was again laughter from the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene.

"Remove your clothing now, all of it," said the Lady Florence, coldly.

With a sob the Lady Melpomene suddenly fled from. the hall, to the anteroom beyond it. The Lady Florence indicated to Durbar and Hesius that they were not to pursue her. We heard the Lady Melpomene in the outer room, pounding on a door. It was apparently barred from the other side and whoever guarded it, probably Borto, one of the men of the Lady Florence, had been instructed not to open it in answer to her entreaties.

"Let me out! Let me out!" cried the Lady Melpomene.

"Come back, Lady Melpomene," called the Lady Florence, "and hurry, lest we become displeased."

The Lady Melpomene hurried back to the tables, sobbing, and fell on her knees at the low table of the Lady Florence. She extended her hands to the Lady Florence. She tried to touch the Lady Florence but the Lady Florence drew back. "What are you doing to me?" begged the Lady Melpomene.

"Go, stand there on the tiles, where you were before," said the Lady Florence, pointing.

With a sob the Lady Melpomene rose to her feet and went to stand where she had stood before.

"Now remove your clothing, all of it," said the Lady Florence, "or it will be done for you."

Trembling, garment by garment, the Lady Melpomene removed her clothing. Then she stood on the scarlet tiles, naked, near the iron ring.

"That is the sum of your resources," said the Lady Florence. "That is what you have, nothing."

"Please, Florence," moaned the Lady Melpomene.

"Am I not your single and full creditor?" asked the Lady Florence.

"Yes," whispered the Lady Melpomene.

Then, grandly, loftily, the Lady Florence lifted up the loan note from the table before her.

"I demand payment," said the Lady Florence. "I demand that you now pay me the sum of one thousand, four hundred and twenty taros of gold."

"I cannot pay you now," said the Lady Melpomene. "You know that."

The Lady Florence turned to look upon Brandon, who was a prefect in Vonda. He jotted down something on a paper before him.

"You cannot do this!" cried out the Lady Melpomene.

"Such notes as that I hold," said the Lady Florence, "are due, as you must know, upon the demand of the creditor."

"Yes, yes!" cried the Lady Melpomene, clenching her small fists. "But I did not dream you would desire to achieve so hasty a closure on your note."

"Such is my prerogative," said the Lady Florence, imperiously.

"You must give me time to recoup my fortunes!" cried the Lady Melpomene.

"I do not choose to do so," said the Lady Florence.

"Is it your intention to bring about my total ruin?" asked the Lady Melpomene.

"My intentions go far beyond your ruin," said the Lady Florence.

"I do not understand," said the Lady Melpomene.

"A demand for payment has been made, Lady Melpomene," said Brandon, a prefect of Vonda. "Can you pay?"

"You have lured me here," cried out the Lady Melpomene to the Lady Florence, "away from Vonda, beyond the shelter of her walls!"

"The walls of Vonda," said the prefect sternly, "would no longer afford you protection, for your debt, in its plenitude, is now owed to one who is a citizen of Vonda."

The Lady Melpomene shuddered. "I have been tricked," she said.

"Can you pay?" pressed the prefect.

"No," she cried in misery, "no!"

"Kneel, Lady Melpomene, free woman of Vonda," said the prefect.

"Please, no!" she wept.

"Would you rather this be done on the platform of public shame in the great square of Vonda, where you might bring shame upon the Home Stone?" inquired the prefect.

"No, no," sobbed the Lady Melpomene.

"Kneel," said the prefect.

"What is to be my sentence?" she cried.

"Kneel," said he.

She knelt, trembling, fearfully, before him.

"I pronounce you Slave," he said.

"No," she cried, "no!" But it had been done.

"Let her be collared," he said.

The girl put her head down, sobbing.

The Lady Florence cried out with pleasure and clapped her hands together in triumph. The Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene, too clapped their hands and laughed with pleasure. Then, for a moment they struck their left shoulders in Gorean applause, congratulating the Lady Florence on her triumph over her long-term enemy.

"On your hands and knees, Slave Girl," said Tenalion of Ar, who had risen to his feet. From the box beside him he had taken a collar, with a chain loop, and a length of chain.

"May I present our friend Tenalion in a new light to you?" inquired the Lady Florence of the naked, shuddering slave near the ring. "I was somewhat obscure, as seemed fitting, concerning his business to you. He is, of course, a slaver, as is his man, Ronald."

There was a decisive click as Tenalion locked the collar on the slender, lovely throat of the new slave. It fitted, snugly. Slavers can tell a woman's collar size at a glance. She sobbed, head down, on her hands and knees, at the ring. She was now collared. Tenalion crouched beside her. It interested me that Tenalion, a slaver of Ar, was in the vicinity of Vonda. I was curious as to what the reason for that might be. It was doubtless only a coincidence, I assumed. The chain loop depended from the girl's collar. Her breasts, now those of a slave, given her posture, depended beautifully from her body. Tenalion snapped the lock at the end of the length of chain he carried about the chain loop on the girl's collar. Such women, thriftless, then indigent, on my old world, Earth, I supposed, might be supported indefinitely at public expense. Tenalion then snapped the lock-loop at the other end of the length of chain about the iron ring in the tiles. The former Lady Melpomene of Vonda, now a nameless slave, collapsed to her belly, sobbing, on the scarlet tiles, chained by the neck to a slave ring. Goreans do not see fit to reward improvidence.

"Bring a slave whip!" cried the Lady Florence, leaping to her feet.

Pamela hurried from the room.

Brandon, though a prefect in Vonda, rose to his feet and carried papers to the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene. They were, after all, free women. They affixed the seal of their witnessing signatures to the documents. He then returned to his place and himself signed the papers.

Pamela hurried back, pressing into the hands of the Lady Florence a long-handled, five-bladed Gorean slave whip.

She seized the whip with two hands and turned to look at Brandon.

I heard the stamp of Brandon strike on the papers before him. He looked up at the Lady Florence, and smiled. "The papers are in perfect order," he said.

"I have waited long for this moment!" cried the Lady Florence. "We have been rivals, and enemies, for years!" she said to the prone slave. "How I have despised you in your pride and pretensions, how I hated you, how I held you in contempt! And now you are fully mine, helpless and at my mercy!"

The girl sobbed.

"I name you Melpomene!" cried the Lady Florence.

The girl shook with uncontrollable sobs.

"Kneel to the whip, Melpomene!" she ordered her.

Melpomene then, sobbing, knelt, her legs close together, her wrists held crossed under her, as though bound, her head down, touching the floor, the bow of her back exposed, a slave girl awaiting punishment.

"Triumph! Joy!" cried the Lady Florence. Then, holding the whip with two hands, she lashed savagely down at the slave. She struck her again and again, as though in maddened fury. The struck girl, crying out with misery could not hold the position.

"Do you dare to obstruct a blow of the whip!" cried the Lady Florence to the girl who lay now terrified and supine, in pain, wild, her hands trying to fend the leather away, at her feet.

"No, no!" cried the girl.

"No, what!" cried the Lady Florence.

"No, Mistress!" cried the girl.

"On your belly," said Tenalion to the slave. "Hold to the slave ring with both hands"

The girl obeyed. The Lady Florence then again, wildly, angrily, laid the leather to the lovely back of her former rival. I smiled to myself. Tenalion, though doubtless a strict master, was merciful. He was helping the girl to endure her first beating. Usually, of course, a girl is tied or chained for her beatings. Sometimes, however, she is not secured but merely ordered to hold the ring. After the first two or three strokes it is sometimes difficult to pry her fingers from the iron. The most merciful thing, is my opinion, however, is always to tie or chain the girl. The beating can then be straightforward and efficient. The Lady Florence was now gasping. Holding the whip clenched in her hands, standing over the slave, gasping for breath, she stopped.

"Do you beg to be whipped?" she asked.

"No, Mistress!" wept the girl on her belly at the ring.

"Beg!" cried the Lady Florence.

"I beg to be whipped, Mistress," she wept.

"Very well," cried the Lady Florence, and then, again, she struck at the girl. Then, after a few blows, five blows, she stepped back, and threw aside the whip. The girl lay at her feet, sobbing, shuddering, her hands white on the ring, her back richly striped with the blows of the whip. The Mistress returned to her place, exhausted. The Lady Florence was not strong. She had only a woman's strength. I observed the back of the girl. It was red, and covered with an intricate pattern of deeper reds, as stripes, but it was not bleeding, nor was it cut. The Gorean slave whip is made to punish a girl, and terribly, but it is not made to permanently mark or scar her. A girl with a scarred back brings a lower price in the markets. Melpomene sobbed in pain and disbelief at the ring. She had not known what it could be to be beaten. I had no doubt she would now be docile, helpless and obedient, a true slave girl. Yet I could not help smiling to myself. I wondered what would have been her reaction had she been beaten not by a mere woman, but by a man, with a man's strength.

"On your knees, Melpomene," snapped the Lady Florence.

"Yes, Mistress," wept the girl.

"Feed and water the slave," said the Lady Florence to Bonnie.

"Yes, Mistress," said Bonnie. She brought forth a pan of crusts and one of water, which she placed before Melpomene, on the floor.

"You see what an indulgent Mistress I am, Melpomene," said the Lady Florence. "I permit a slave to eat before our supper is finished"

"Yes, Mistress," whispered Melpomene.

"From whom do you receive your food and water?" inquired the Lady Florence.

"From you, Mistress," said Melpomene. The chain dangled from her collar, down, between her thighs, to the ring.

"Eat," said the Lady Florence.

"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene. She reached for one of the crusts.

"Melpomene!" said the Lady Florence.

"Mistress?" asked the girl, frightened

"Do not use your hands," she said.

"Yes, Mistress," said the girl. She then bent forward and, the palms of her hands on the tiles, began to eat from the pan. Too, as she ate, she lapped at the water.

"Pamela, Bonnie," called the Lady Florence, "we are now ready for the second course of our supper."

"Yes, Mistress," they said, and hurried to fetch the second course.

"It is a small dish," said the Lady Florence, "the white meat of roast vulos, prepared in a sauce of spiced Sa-Tarna and Ta wine."

The guests expressed a murmur of pleasure and anticipation. "It will be wonderful," said the Lady Leta.

The Lady Florence turned to the musicians, who were sitting to one side. "You may play," she said.

"Yes, Lady Florence," said the czehar player, their leader.

I looked at the girl at the ring, head down, feeding as a she-sleen.

"Why have I been brought here?" I asked Kenneth.

"Be patient," said Kenneth.

"Yes, Master," I said.

The dinner proceeded in a leisurely fashion through seven of its courses. There was light banter and charming conversation. The playing of the musicians was pleasant, and unobtrusive.

When the tiny plates and cups of the seventh course had been cleared away the Lady Florence looked over to the chained slave, kneeling at her ring. She had finished her own meager provender even to, at the Mistress' command, licking the pans. They had then been taken away by Bonnie.

"It is time for you to entertain us, my dear," said the Lady Florence to the slave.

The girl looked at her, frightened.

"Surely you do not think slaves are kept about only to be pampered and fed?" she inquired.

"No, Mistress," said the girl.

"I had intended to rent a dancing slave in Vonda," said the Lady Florence to her guests, "a decorous girl in blue silk and a golden collar, who might by the loveliness and grace of her movements please us, but it slipped my mind. I am so forgetful! I am afraid we must make do with poor Melpomene."

The Lady Leta laughed.

"Pamela," said the Lady Florence, "bring dancing silks for our slave."

"Oh, Mistress," said Pamela, smiling, "this is a house of refinement. We do not have such scandalous garments here."

"Ali, poor Melpomene," said the Mistress. Then she snapped to Melpomene, "On your feet, Slave!"

Swiftly Melpomene leaped to her feet, tears in her eyes. The chain fell to the ring from the chain loop on her collar.

"Tenalion, my dear," said the Lady Florence, "would you please relieve our lovely Melpomene of the impediment of her chain?"

"Certainly, Lady Florence," said Tenalion. He had been considering Lady Florence, doubtless surmising the configuration of her body beneath the ornate robes.

In a moment Tenalion had taken the chain from Melpomene, unlocking it first from the iron ring in the floor and, secondly, from her collar loop. The order of these events was not arbitrary. It was the opposite, too, of course, of the order in which she had been originally secured, where the chain had been first placed on her collar loop and only then locked about the ring in the floor. Commonly, in a Gorean tethering or chaining situation, of this sort, where neither fastening has as yet been effected, that bond which is on, or near, a woman's body is the first to be placed; similarly, of course, it is the last to be removed. In many situations, of course, there is only one fastening to be effected, that on the woman. It is not unusual for a master, for example, to keep a chain attached to the slave ring at the foot of his couch. It only needs, thus, when he wishes, to be put on the woman. Tenalion coiled the chain, and returned to his place. He put the chain in the box, which reposed near him. Melpomene then, now unchained, but naked, and wearing her collar, stood on the red tiles near the slave ring.

The Lady Florence looked to the leader of the musicians.

"Surely you are not going to dance a naked slave in mixed company?" laughed the Lady Leta.

"Is this a rude house?" laughed the Lady Perimene.

"Scandalous!" laughed the Lady Leta.

"Oh," cried the Lady Florence, in mock dismay, "I wished to obtain a dancing slave from Vonda, but it slipped my mind, so silly am I, and we have now on hand only poor Melpomene."

"She will have to do," said the Lady Leta.

"She seems a poor slave," said the Lady Perimene."

"Many slaves are like that at first," said Tenalion, soberly, "but with diet and exercise, and training, and discipline, they become wonders."

"I see," shuddered the Lady Perimene.

"To be sure," said the Lady Florence, "to dance a naked slave in mixed company seems scarcely to comport with the dignity of a refined house, but remember, too, I am a hostess, and we have men present, and we all know what beasts they are." The women laughed. "Yes," said the Lady Leta. "And so," said the Lady Florence, smiling, "as a good hostess I am under the obligation, surely, of providing a little something for the men."

"Of course!" agreed the Lady Leta.

"The beasts!" laughed the Lady Perimene.

The men laughed, and Melpomene reddened, totally.

The Lady Florence again turned to the musicians.

"Mistress," cried Melpomene, suddenly, in misery, "I do not know how to dance!"

"What!" cried the Lady Florence, as though in astonishment.

"I was a free woman," wept Melpomene. "I have been locked in a collar but this night. I know nothing of the lovely and sensuous dances of the female slave."

"Bring a slave,whip," said the Lady Florence to Pamela, who swiftly brought it to her, from where she had earlier cast it aside.

I saw Tenalion smile. To be sure, many of the dances of female slaves are lovely and sensuous; others, of course, are piteous and orgasmic. In all fairness, though, one must note that there is a large variety of slave dances on Gor, and that there is some variation from city to city. The institution of female slavery on Gor is doubtless thousands of years old; accordingly it is natural that there should be great complexity and refinement in such a delicious art form as slave dance. There are even, it might be mentioned, hate dances and rebellion dances, but most dances, as might be expected, are display dances, or need dances, or love and submission dances; even the hate and rebellion dances, of course, conclude, inevitably, with the ultimate surrender of the girl to her master as a love slave.

"I do not know how to dance, Mistress," whimpered Melpomene. "Please do not whip me."

The Lady Florence stood up.

"I will dance! I will dance!" cried the girl.

The Lady Florence sat down, smiling. "And as you dance, Melpomene," she said, "do not neglect to dance your beauty to the men, and dance it as the slut and slave you are."

"Yes, Mistress!" she wept.

The Lady Florence then signaled to the musicians. There was a swirl of music and a beating on the drum, and then a pause, and then began, with the czehar prominent, the strains of a slow Gorean melody. And Melpomene, the collared slave, danced, entertaining the guests of her Mistress, the Lady Florence of Vonda.

"It is natural in a woman," said Kenneth.

"I think so," I said.

Though doubtless Melpomene was untrained and lacked the thousand previsions and controls, the brilliancies and techniques, of the trained dancer, she was not unattractive on the tiles. She strove to please and dance well. I have little doubt but what the disposition to, and the fundamentals of, slave dance are instinctual in a woman. No other explanation seems compatible with the readiness with which they can acquire such dance. Many of the expressions, the gestures and movements of the body, of course, are clearly reminiscent of those of need and desire, of love and submission. I have little doubt but what these dispositions and talents have been naturally and sexually selected for in the course of evolution, such women being more often spared and sought.

The musicians now played more swiftly.

"Earlier, I suspect," said Kenneth, "she has danced so only in the privacy of her chambers, naked, before her mirror."

"Perhaps," I said.

"What a slave she is!" called the Lady Leta.

"It is for the men," laughed the Lady Florence.

"Surely I must avert my eyes!" laughed the Lady Leta.

"I, too!" laughed the Lady Perimene.

"Dance, you slut, dance!" cried the Lady Florence.

"Yes, Mistress!" wept Melpomene. "Yes, Mistress!"

Neither of the other two women, I noted, had averted their eyes.

"To the men!" ordered the Lady Florence. "To the men!"

Sobbing, the slave then danced her beauty to Brandon, a prefect of Vonda. He threw back his head, laughing at the humiliation wrought upon her, once a proud free woman. She spun from him and, crying, danced before Philebus, bounty creditor of Venna. He grinned and lifted before her eyes the bank draft, drawn on the bank of Reginald in Vonda, certified, and signed by the Lady Florence, for one thousand, four hundred and twenty tarns of gold. His trip had been quite successful, and he had now, too, the pleasure of seeing she who had been the elusive debtor now dancing as a naked slave before him. She then spun about and danced before Tenalion and Ronald, his man. She, a slave, I noted, danced most helplessly and lasciviously before them. They were strong men, and slavers. Too, Tenalion had put the collar on her.

"Continue to dance here," said Tenalion, indicating a place before his small table.

"Yes, Master," she said, commanded.

Then, as she danced before him, he took forth a small pad and, with a marking stick, jotted notes upon it. He was doubtless appraising her, and considering how she might be improved.

After a time, he said, "You may now dance elsewhere"

"Yes, Master," she said.

But a moment after this the Lady Florence stood up and signaled to the musicians to discontinue, for the time, the music.

Melpomene then, of course, knelt, head down, facing her Mistress.

"How do you like my little dancer?" she asked.

"Excellent, for a raw slave," said Tenalion. "Obviously she has slave fire in her belly."

"Do you hear that, Girl," said the Lady Florence to Melpomene, "you have slave fire in your belly."

"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene, head down, shamed.

"I knew it!" said the Lady Florence.

"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene, sobbing.

"How right that you wear a collar, Slave Girl," sneered the Lady Florence.

"Yes, Mistress," sobbed Melpomene.

The Lady Florence regarded her new female slave. "Have you been shamed sufficiently, Melpomene?" she asked.

"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene.

"No, you have not been," said the Lady Florence. "It is no dishonor for you, a slave, to dance before free persons. Rather have I accorded you a privilege in permitting you to do so."

"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene.

"Now I think that I shall truly shame you," she said.

"Mistress?" asked Melpomene.

"Now you shall dance," she said, "before a male slave!"

"Oh, no, Mistress," begged Melpomene, "please, please do not so shame me!"

The two women, the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene, clapped their hands with pleasure. Brandon and Philebus laughed. Tenalion and Ronald, his man, smiled.

"Please, no, Mistress," begged Melpomene, extending her hands to her Mistress. She could not believe what was being done to her. There can be no greater degradation for a slave girl than to be made to serve a slave.

"Be silent, Girl," snapped the Lady Florence.

"Yes, Mistress," wept Melpomene.

"Kenneth!" called the Mistress. "Jason!"

"Precede me," said Kenneth, holding back the curtain.

"Yes, Master," I said.

I strode into the room. I was stripped to the waist. I wore the half tunic of a stable slave.

I heard the women, the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene, draw in their breath.

"You!" breathed Melpomene, putting her hand before her mouth.

I stood a few feet from her, my arms folded. I looked down upon her. She seemed very small and vulnerable, so white, so soft, in a steel collar, kneeling on the tiles.

I looked to the men. We measured one another, as men do. I did not flinch before their gaze, though I was slave and they were free. I had stood against men such as Gort, of the stables of Miles, and Kaibar, of the stables of Shandu, in the pit of leather and blood… Brandon, a prefect of Vonda, and Philebus, the bounty creditor of Venna, seemed troubled. Inwardly I smiled. I could tear either of them to pieces, should it please me. I did not think Brandon would care to speak to me, unless he had guardsmen at his back. I did not think Philebus would care to pursue me for my debts. More respect I entertained for Tenalion and his cohort, he called Ronald. They were slavers. They would know the martial arts. They would be, secretly, armed. It was possible they could slay me before I could get my hands on them. Such men, though mostly they deal with collared wenches, must know the handling of the larger and more dangerous animals, the Kajiri. I saw that they did not fear me. They saw, too, however, that I did not fear them.

"Look at his body," breathed the Lady Leta.

"Where have you been keeping him, my dear?" inquired the Lady Perimene.

"He is a fighting slave, is he not?" inquired Brandon.

"I understand," said the Lady Florence, "that he has been upon occasion used in the stable bouts." Indeed, I was champion of the local stables, those within a perimeter of some fifty pasangs. Even Gort, of the stables of Miles, and Kaibar, of the stables of Shandu, had been unable to best me.

"This is Jason," said the Lady Florence, introducing me to her guests. "He is one of my less important stable slaves. He is, however, apparently not totally unattractive to certain sorts of low women."

The Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene laughed.

"According to my reports," continued the Lady Florence, "some of my stable sluts are half mad with passion for him."

"Imagine what it would be," said Tenalion, "if he were free, and they were his."

"I do not think I would mind being a slut in your stables, my dear Florence," said the Lady Perimene, "if I were to find myself at the mercy of such beasts."

"I deny him women, of course," she laughed.

"That could be dangerous, Lady Florence," said Tenalion, "unless he is kept closely chained."

"Except occasionally, of course," she laughed. She looked at Melpomene who, kneeling, in her collar, shuddered.

"Why do you limit his rations of love flesh?" asked Tenalion.

"It is my will," said the Lady Florence angrily, defensively.

"I see," said Tenalion. He smiled. He looked at the Lady Florence as though he had stripped her.

"Oh, I let him have a snack of love flesh upon occasion," she said, "if it suits my whim." My face was expressionless. I had not had a woman since I had had Telitsia in the training barn, the morning before she had been sold. "Indeed," laughed the Lady Florence, "I might let him have one tonight."

There was laughter.

"Jason," said the Lady Florence, "may I introduce one of my slaves to you, a new one. I call her Melpomene."

"Yes, Mistress," I said. I regarded Melpomene. She was visibly trembling.

"Do you remember Jason, Melpomene?" asked the Lady Florence, sweetly.

"Yes, Mistress," whispered Melpomene.

"Do you think she would make a suitable snack of love flesh for a fighting slave, Jason?" asked the Lady Florence.

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"To his feet, Girl," snapped the Lady Florence. "Lick and kiss them!"

Melpomene fled to me. I felt her lips on my feet, and her small tongue.

There was laughter from the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene.

"Now beg to dance for him," said the Lady Florence.

Melpomene lifted her head. There were tears in her eyes. I saw the collar on her throat, with its chain loop. "I beg to dance for you, Master," she said.

I glanced to the Lady Florence. Then I said, "You may do so."

Melpomene rose to her feet and backed away a few feet from me, and lifted her hands over her head, the wrists back to back. Her knees were flexed.

The Lady Florence regarded the slave, who, not moving, and afraid to meet her eyes, now held, trembling, one of the lovely attitudes of a dancing slave. Then, slowly, not hurrying, the Lady Florence returned to her place, behind the small table. She knelt there, making herself comfortable, and adjusting her robes.

There was silence in the room.

The Lady Florence then signaled to the musicians, and they began to play.

And Melpomene danced before me.

"If you are not pleased with her, Jason," said the Lady Florence, "let me know, and I will have her slain before morning."

Melpomene turned white, for her very life had then been placed in my hands.

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"Please find me pleasing," begged Melpomene. "Please, Master!"

My face was expressionless. I stood regarding her, arms folded. I looked at her. I remembered her well from that night in Venna, in her house, when I had lain chained at her mercy, subject to her pleasure and abuse.

"Please find me pleasing, Master," she begged, dancing naked before me.

"I will not find you pleasing unless you are pleasing," I told her. It was true.

She moaned. The music began to swirl and flame. Piteously, and more piteously, she danced her beauty before me.

"Do you find her of interest, Jason?" asked the Lady Florence.

"The slave is not without interest," I said.

Suddenly a look of joy came into the eyes of Melpomene, as she sensed that she might be spared, and then, as suddenly, a look of astonishment, as though she could not understand what was occurring within her, and then, suddenly, a look of heat and passion.

"See the flanks move," said Tenalion to Ronald.

"Note the belly," said Ronald.

"Excellent," said Tenalion.

"Slut! Slut!" cried the Lady Florence.

The music became ever more wild and primitive.

"Slave!" cried the Lady Leta.

"Slave!" cried the Lady Perimene.

I smiled. There danced now before me an aroused slave girl, eager to please her Master.

The music suddenly stopped and Melpomene fell to her knees, putting her head to my feet.

"Has her dance pleased you, Jason?" asked the Lady Florence.

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"Beast," she said.

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"Pamela," cried the Lady Florence, "bring love furs!"

"Yes, Mistress," she said.

"Tenalion," said the Lady Florence. "May I trouble you to shackle my little Melpomene by the ring?"

"Of course, Lady Florence," said Tenalion. He smiled. The Lady Florence and Melpomene were of quite similar height and weight. The Lady Florence might have been an eighth of a port taller.

Melpomene rose to her feet and stood by the ring, head down, while Pamela spread the love furs on the tiles between the tables. While she stood there Tenalion snapped an ankle ring on her left ankle. It had a chain loop. He then took the length of chain he had used before and snapped one end of it about the chain loop on her ankle ring. The other end of it he snapped about the slave ring set in the tiles. The lovely slave then stood there, shackled in place.

"You remember, Jason," said the Lady Florence, "when after your victory over Kaibar, of the stables of Shandu, I ordered that you not be given a woman."

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"But I told Kenneth," she said, "that I would later find a slut for you, and that I had a slut in mind."

"I remember, Mistress," I said.

"This is the slut," said the Lady Florence, indicating Melpomene.

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

Melpomene stood at the edge of the love furs. She looked down at them.

"To the furs, Slave," I told her.

Melpomene looked up at me, frightened.

With the back of my hand I struck her to the furs.

She looked up at me from the furs where she half lay, half knelt. There was blood at her mouth.

"When you are ordered to the furs, move swiftly," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

The two women, the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene, gasped with pleasure. I sensed that they wished that it had been they, and not Melpomene, who had been struck to the furs for their raping.

"I see that you well know how to handle a slave girl, Jason," she said.

I shrugged. I looked at the Mistress. I thought that she herself might make some man an excellent slave.

"Melpomene," said the Lady Florence to her new slave, who was now kneeling on the love furs, "when you were a free woman and dared to steal my silk slave for your pleasure, did you kiss him?"

"Of course not, Mistress," she said. "I was a free woman. I would not put my lips to the body of a slave."

"Recline on the love furs, Jason," said the Lady Florence. I did so, dropping aside the half tunic I wore. The Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene drew in their breath with pleasure.

"Melpomene," said the Lady Florence, "you understand that you are now no longer a free woman but only a slut of a slave."

"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene, quickly.

"Furthermore, you understand that Jason is no longer a silk slave, but only a stable slave, a lowly stable slave."

"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene.

"Kiss his body," said the Lady Florence, "every inch of it."

"Yes, Mistress," sobbed Melpomene.

"Begin at the extremities," said the Lady Florence.

"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene.

The Mistress then clapped her hands. "Pamela, Bonnie," she said, "begin now to serve the eighth course of our supper."

"Yes, Mistress," they said.

In time my body had been covered with the kisses and tears of the new slave.

It was then that the Mistress, pausing in her meal, looked at me and said, "Congratulations on your victory over Kaibar, of the stables of Shandu."

"Thank you, Mistress," I said.

"You have had various other victories, too, I gather," she said.

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"I have heard that, some two weeks ago, you became the local champion."

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"That was by defeating Gort, of the stables of Miles, was it not?" she asked.

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"I heard of that," she said. "Miles is one of my rejected suitors," she said. "Your victory over his champion gave me great pleasure."

"Thank you, Mistress," I said.

"Enjoy her," said the Mistress, indicating Melpomene, the shackled slut at my side.

"Thank you, Mistress," I said. I took Melpomene and threw her to her back beneath me, on the furs. The Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene cried out with pleasure.

I looked down into the eyes of Melpomene. She looked up at me, and then she lifted her lips softly, delicately, to mine. "Enjoy me, Master," she whispered.

"The collar is becoming on you, Melpomene," I said to her.

"Thank you, Master," she whispered.,

Many times, while the guests had supped and conversed, I had forced Melpomene to yield to me, and as a slave. Often, as I caressed the helpless, squirming slut, the guests paid us little attention. They continued to enjoy their supper, served by Pamela and Bonnie, and engaged one another in conversation. Often they discussed politics. The carryings on of slaves were of little interest to them. But sometimes the Lady Lets or the Lady Perimene would pause to observe the helpless passion of the slave girl and laugh at her, or insult her for her weakness. But she only kissed and clutched at me all the more. "Slave!" once chided the Mistress. "Yes, Slave, Mistress!" cried Melpomene, joyfully. "Slave!" "Scandalous!" once said the Lady Leta. "She has no choice," said the Lady Perimene. "She must obey, and yield like that. She is a slave girl." "Look at her," said the Lady Leta. "Do you think she wants a choice?" "No," said the Lady Perimene, "she does not want a choice. Choiceless, she wishes to yield fully and totally." "That would be her choice," said the Lady Leta, "to have no choice." "Would it not, too, be your choice?" asked the Lady Perimene. The Lady Leta was silent. "How else could one yield totally to a male?" asked the Lady Perimene. Later in the evening, however, the moans and cries of the helpless slave must have become somewhat obtrusive. "Must we gag the little slut to keep her quiet?" demanded the Lady Florence, angrily. I then, from time to time, placed my hand over the mouth of the slave, that her whimperings, her moans and cries not disturb the free persons. The last time, however, I let her scream the submission of her slavery to me. "I am your slave, Master," she screamed. "I am your slave, Master!"

The guests then rose to their feet. I crouched beside Melpomene. She lay on her back, on the love furs. She was panting; her nipples were delicately rigid; her skin, from the dilation of capillaries, was a patchwork of red and white. The collar was obdurate on her throat. She reached to touch my hand. I permitted it, though she was a slave.

The Lady Florence came about the small tables to stand near the love furs, over her new slave girl.

"You are a slave, Melpomene," she said.

"I am not discontent, Mistress," said Melpomene.

The Mistress suddenly, viciously, with her small, slippered foot, kicked the supine girl. Melpomene cried out with pain.

"Kneel," I told Melpomene.

Swiftly then she knelt before the Mistress, head dawn. I saw then that the Mistress was mollified. I did not think then she would order Melpomene slain within the Ehn.

"Your vengeance on the slut was exquisite," said the Lady Leta.

"It was perfect," said the Lady Perimene.

"Thank you," said the Lady Florence, regarding her former enemy, now her naked slave, at her feet.

"Will you keep her as a personal serving slave?" asked the Lady Leta. "That might be amusing."

"She is too sexual to be a serving slave," said the Lady Florence.

Melpomene, head down, smiled.

"Will you keep her as one of your collared stable sluts?" asked the Lady Perimene.

The Lady Florence glanced at me. I had donned again my half tunic.

"No," she said. "I will not send her to the stables." I found that disappointing. Melpomene, I thought, would make a superb stable slut. Just the sight of her about the stables would drive the male slaves wild with desire, let alone the occasional opportunity to get their hands on her.

"No," said the Lady Florence. "I will have her sold in Ar. That is why I have invited Tenalion to my house this evening. He has a cage for her waiting in his wagon." She looked to Tenalion. "You may take her, Tenalion," she said.

Tanalion rose to his feet and went to the girl. "On your hands and knees, head down, Slave," he said.

Immediately the girl assumed this posture.

He removed his chain from the slave ring and also from the chain loop on her ankle ring. He then attached that end of the chain which had been attached to the chain loop on. the ankle ring to the chain loop on her collar, that it mght serve, if he wished, as a leash for her. He then threw the chain back between her legs. He then removed the ankle ring from her and threw it to Ronald, his man, who placed it in the box which resided near what had been Tenalion's place, behind his small table.

"Do you think she is good slave meat?" asked the Lady Florence.

"She is raw, and untrained, and needs diet and exercise, and discipline," he said, "but I think that, in time, she will prove superb slave meat." He then looked evenly at the Lady Florence. I conjectured that Tenalion thought it likely that the Lady Florence, too, under similar circumstances and conditions, might prove superb slave meat. I supposed that the cage on his wagon was large enough for two.

"I thank you for your supper and for the evening," said Brandon, a prefect of Vonda. "I must now rejoin my men and return to the city."

"I, too, extend my thanks to you for our business, and for the supper and evening," said Philebus, bounty creditor of Venna. He looked down at the naked slave, on her hands and knees, the chain depending from her collar, trailing back between her legs. "I had not thought to collect so readily or in so full an amount my bills."

The two men, then, with felicitations and pleasantries exchanged with the Mistress, withdrew from the room. The door to the anteroom, I noted, was no longer barred. No longer was there a need that it be shut.

The Lady Florence looked down at the stripped, humbled Melpomene. "Get this slut from my sight," she said. "Put her in a cage. Take her to Ar. Sell her. Auction her naked from a block."

Tenalion smiled. "She is a piece of property," he said, "an item of merchandise. I am not a raiding slaver. I am a business slaver. I cannot simply remove her from your premises."

"She is worthless," said the Lady Florence. "I give her to you."

"She is not worthless," said Tenalion, appraising the lines of the slave.

"Give me then," said she, "a tarsk bit, the tenth of a copper tarsk. It is more than she is worth."

"I am an honest man," said Tenalion. "Permit me to give you a competitive price for her, compatible with the month's markets."

"What is she worth?" asked the Lady Florence, curious.

Tenalion placed in her hand a silver tarsk.

"So much?" asked the Lady Florence.

"Yes," said Tenalion. "She is beautiful, and in her belly is slave fire. Men will pay high for such a slut."

The hand of the Lady Florence closed on the silver tarsk. Melpomene now belonged to Tenalion of Ar.

"I have sold you, Melpomene," said the Lady Florence to the girl. "You are a sold slave!"

"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene. "Master," she said.

"Yes," said Tenalion.

"May I speak?" she asked.

"Yes," said Tenalion.

"For what was I sold?" she asked, head down.

"A silver tarsk," said Tenalion.

"Ah," breathed Melpomene.

"See that you prove worthy of having been sold for a silver tarsk." said Tenalion.

"Yes, Master," said Melpomene.

"Doubtless, Tenalion," said the Lady Florence, "you will soon have her branded." She spoke lightly, but I could see that she was interested in the question.

The eyes of the Lady Leta and of the Lady Perimene shone above their veils.

"I will have her branded in my camp before sundown of the day after tomorrow," said Tenalion.

"I see," said the Lady Florence.

"Have no fear, Lady Florence," he said, "her thigh will soon know, and well and deeply, the kiss of the burning iron. Soon she will be a properly and fully marked slave."

"Good," said the Lady Florence. Then she added, "Do not permit her to escape."

"Slaves do not escape from Tenalion of Ar," be said. He looked at her evenly.

She shuddered. "I see," she said.

I smiled to myself. Even if the security of Tenalion were not perfect, as is that of most slavers, making escape impossible, where would a naked woman in a collar go. If she should escape one master, surely she would soon fall to another. They have been made slaves, and they will remain slaves.

"Your vengeance on your enemy, Lady Florence," said the Lady Leta, looking down at Melpomene, "is surely now complete and perfect:"

"Yes," said the Lady Perimene, regarding the collared slave, "you have reduced her to slavery, you have shamed and humiliated her, you have made her entertain your guests, you have made her dance for a stable slave, and then lie for him, and have now sold her."

"Yes," said the Lady Florence, "surely now my vengeance is complete and perfect, but if this is so, then why do I feel somehow dissatisfied?"

"I can explain that to you, Lady Florence," said Tenalion, "if you wish to listen."

She regarded him, puzzled.

"Girl," he said to the slave.

"Yes, Master," she said, quickly, frightened that she had been abruptly spoken to. Had she not been fully pleasing?

"Are you pleased that you are a slave?" he asked her.

There was a silence. Then the girl whispered, "Yes, Master, I am pleased that I am a slave."

The women, the Lady Leta, the Lady Perimene, the Lady Florence, gasped in astonishment.

"That is why you are dissatisfied, my dear Lady Florence," said Tenalion.

"I do not understand," said the Lady Florence.

"You have liberated the slave in her," said Tenalion. "She is now free to be the slave that she is, fully."

"I do not understand," said the Lady Florence.

"She will come to know emotions, and degradations and joys of which you, a free woman, cannot even dream. You have returned her birthright to her."

"Her birthright?" asked the Lady Florence.

"Woman is born to the collar, and love," said Tenalion. "You have put her in a collar. And she must now, helplessly, seek the other."

"Good night, Tenalion," she said, angrily. "I wish you well."

"And good night, too, to you, Lady Florence," he said. "And I, too, wish you well."

Then he spoke to the slave. His voice was quite different when he spoke to the slave from what it had been when he had spoken to the free woman. After all, he was then addressing himself to one who was only a bond girl. "Go to the back entrance, Melpomene," he said. "My wagon is there. Beg the driver to lock you in the slave cage."

"Yes, Master," she said. Suddenly she put her lips, and then the side of her head to the side of my knee. I felt her kiss, and then her tears.

"Slave!" cried the Lady Florence.

"Yes, Slave, Mistress," said Melpomene. Then, head down, she crawled from the hall on her hands and knees. She had not been given permission to rise. The chain, fastened to her collar, dragged behind her.

"I wish to thank you for a lovely evening," said the Lady Leta.

"It was marvelous, simply exquisite," said the Lady Perimene.

Tenalion and Ronald, his man, took their leave. Ronald, in one hand, carried the slaver's case, with its chains, and rings, and bracelets and collars, with him.

The two women, the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene, too, took their leave.

As they left, I heard the Lady Perimene say to the Lady Leta, "But who would not be a slave in the arms of such a brute?"

The Lady Florence signaled that the musicians might leave. Pamela and Bonnie knelt at one side of the room, waiting for permission to clear.

"I should get the slave back to the stables," said Kenneth. "It is late."

"Of course," said the Lady Florence.

I turned away.

"Oh, Jason," she said.

I turned about.

"You did well tonight," she said. "I am very pleased."

"Thank you, Mistress," I said. Again I turned away.

"Oh, Jason," she said.

"Yes, Mistress," I said, turning again to face her.

"It is nothing," she said. "Nothing." She looked at me. She seemed angry. "Go," she said. "Get out!"

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"You may clear," I heard her tell Pamela and Bonnie.

I glanced about once before leaving the room. I saw Pamela and Bonnie attending to the tables. The Mistress stood alone in the room. Suddenly, angrily, she picked up a plate and flung it across the room. Pamela and Bonnie kept their heads down, pretending not to notice. Angrily the Mistress left the room.

"Come along, Jason," said Kenneth. "Yes, Master," I said.