copper tarsk,' said the girl kneeling before me, 'I will be whipped.' 'Get away!' said Miss Henderson.
'Your slave requires discipline,' said the girl kneeling before me. 'She isnot my slave,' I said. 'It seems she would make a good slave,' said the girl. I drew out a copper tarsk and prepared to place it in the girl's coin box. Swiftly the girl, before I could put the coin in the box, lay on her back, on the stones of the street before me. 'You must use me first,' she said. 'and then put the coin in only if I please you.'
'Do not give away our money,' said Miss Henderson. 'It is my money,' I said. 'Do not squander our meager resources,' she said. 'They are my resources, not yours,' I pointed out. 'I will do wht I please with them.' 'Of course, Jason,' she said irritatedly.'I will not use you,' I told the girl, 'but I wil give youthe coin.' I made as though to place the coin in the box, which now, as she lay back on her elbows, hung beside her left breast, sweeling against the thin slave cloth.
Quickly she scarmbed back, and rose to her feet. 'I am worth the tarsk bit,' she said. 'An my master is a proud man. He does not send us into the streets to beg.' 'But you may be whipped,' I said. 'I will get the money elsewhere,' she said. 'And if I were you, I would whip the slave beside you.'
'Get out of here!' cried Miss Henderson. The girl thenfled with a sound of her bell and the jangling of the coins in the box. 'Disgusting! Disgusting! said Miss Henderson. 'Terrible! Disgusting!'
'Some men,' I said, 'buy such girls and send them out into the streets.They keep them in kennels and send them out in the afternoon. It is how they earn their living.
'Terrible! Disgusting!' said Miss Henderson.
'You were saying,' she said, 'that I have no money, and that I have no Home Stone. Too, there is no practical trade of which I am the Mistress.' 'There is one trade which is available to all women,' I said. 'Do not jest, Jason,' she said. 'It is not amusing.'That of cook,' I said.'Very funny,' she said.
'How do you expect to earn your keep?' I asked. 'Nothing, absolutely nothing,' she said. 'I did not ask to be purchased.' 'I see that you are scarcely likely to prove to be an economic asset,' I said.
'You could always, I suppose put a bell and coin box about my neck and send me into the streets.' she said. 'It is a thought,' I admitted.She made an angry noise and we continued on toward the river front.
'Have you a job?' she asked. 'No,' I said. 'You must get one,' she said.
'I expect that would be advisble,' I said. I supposed I might work as an oarsman or a dock worker. I was strong. It no longer seems a good way to make money by challenging my fellows in the taverns. One might respond with a knife or sword. Tonight my life had been saved by a dissolute fellow, a man called Callimachus, perhaps from Port Cos, farther west on the river, a derelict. Had it not been for him, I would doubtless have been slain by the pirate, Kliomenes.
'We will need money,' she said. I said nothing. 'You may call me Beverly,' she said. 'What about Veminia?' I asked.The veminium is a small lovely Gorean flower, softly petaled and blue. 'That is a slave name,' she said. 'That is what I was called in the house of Oneander of Ar.'
'Most Goreans,' I said, 'would regard 'Beverly' as a slave name.'What of 'Jason'?' she asked angrily. 'I am sorry to disappoint you,' I said, 'but that is a not uncommon name on Gor, particularly as I understand it, west on the river, and on the islands of Cos and Tyros.'
'Oh,' she said. 'Unlike Beverly,' I said. 'I see,' she said acidly. 'Beverly,' I added. 'The name Beverly may be worn as a free name, as well as a slave name,' she said. 'I sahll wear it as a free name.' 'Very well,' I said.
'We shall have to make careful arrangments to gover our shring common lodgings,' she said. 'Of course,' I said 'I shall bathe first,' she said. 'There is asmall copper tub,' I said. 'And each of us shall do his share of the cooking, the cleaning, and the housework,' she said. 'Each wil have full responsiblity for his own portions of these labors.' 'I am to work the day,' I said, 'and the, do half the work of the room or lodgings?' 'Do not expect me to perform menial labors for you,' she said.
'I am a free woman. I shall take care o fmy things. And you shall take care of yours.' 'I see,' I said. 'I trust your room is not in this dismal structure,' she said, looking up at a swinging lantern hanging over and inn's threshold. 'Yes,' I said. 'We shall have to do better than this,' she said. I looked down at her. I considered tearing the sheet from her. I wondered what she would look like with a bell and coin box on her neck. Then I reminded myself that she was a free woman, and that she was from the planet Earth, my old planet. She was not a Gorean girl, but something nobler and finer, an Earth woman.
'You did not even pay a full silver tarsk for me,' she said looking up at me angrily. 'there were girls who were sold for as much as two or three silver tarsks.' 'They were very beautiful woman,' I said, 'and some were of high caste., two were exquisitely trained pleasure slaves.' 'Surely I was worth more than any of them,' she said petulently. 'Are you angry?' I asked. 'Yes,' she said, 'I am worth much more than 98 copper tarks. 'I am not ussre you are worth 98 copper tarks,' I said. She cried out with anger.
'If youhad been worth a silver tarsk in a Gorean market,' I told her, 'you would have brought a silver tarsk in a Gorean market.' 'You are hateful!' she said. 'You are not a silver-arsk girl,' I told her. 'Hateful!' she said. 'I do not think you are worth two copper tarsks,' I said. 'Beast!' she said, 'Beast!' Remember,' I told her, 'you have no Home Stne.' 'What are you telling me,' she asked, 'that I keep a civil tongue in my head?' 'It would not hurt,' I told her. 'Oh yes!' she said, 'I know! I have no Home Stone! You might just tear the sheet from me.
'You might just throw me down in the threshold on the stones under the lantern and rape me and re- enslave me!' I could,' I said angrily. 'You would not dare,' she said. 'Do not tempt me,' I said in fury. 'You are too weak to treat me as a woman and a slave!' she said.
I seized her by the upper arms under the sheet, and shook her violently. 'Oh,' she cired, 'please, Master be gentle!' 'The word 'Master' comes easily from your lips,' I said.
Quickly she pulled the sheet back about her. She looked down. 'Forgive me,' I said. 'I'm sorry. I behaved like a cad.' 'Am I in danger, Jason?' she asked. 'No,' I said, 'of course not.' She looked up. 'I am a woman of Earth,' she said, 'not a Gorean girl.' 'I am well aware of that,' I said. 'I am really very sorry.'
'I know that you will not treat me with power and strength,' she said. 'Forgive me,' I said. 'I had become angry.'
'You are a man of Earth,' she said, 'and are decent and kind. You are tender and gentle. You are accomodating and wish to be pleasing. Remeber that women have nothing to fear from men such as you. Keep that clearly in mind.'
'Forgive me,' I said. 'I am very sorry.' 'In the future,' she said, 'keep your hands off of me.»
'I'm sorry,' I said. 'I am a person,' she said. 'Of course,' I said, 'I'm sorry.'I am not a I'm sorry,' 'I am not a pleasure toy,' she said. 'I'm sorry,' I said. 'I'm sorry.' How greviously I had insulted Miss Henderson.
'Tonight,' she said, 'when I was being displayed before Gorean buyers, did you see me move in certain ways and cry out in certain ways?' 'Yes,' I admitted.
'Put such things from your mind,' she said. 'The auctioneer, the beast, caught me off guard. His action took me by surpise. He did not permit me to be myself. I am stronger than that, as you will learn. It was like another girl, a slave girl who moved like that, and cried out like that.
Have no fear. The delicious pleasures which may have been suggested by her movements or cries will not be yours.' 'I see,' I said. 'I am not a licking and kissing pleasure girl, one who can scarcely control herself and fears the whip.' 'I see,' I said.
'I shall endeavor to see that I am fully worthy of your respect and of my own respect as a free woman,'I understand,' I said. 'Let us go inside now,' she said. 'The room must be properly partitioned.' 'Are you not grateful that I rescued you from bondage.' I asked. 'I am extremely grateful,' she said. 'You have no idea how wonderful it is to be free. It is just what every woman wants.' 'You have not much expressed your gratitude,' I said. 'And how do you, a man, suggest that I express it?' sah asked acidly. I looked down reddening.
'I am not a slave Jason,' she said. 'I am a free woman.' 'I understand,' I said. 'Is that why you bought me,' she asked, 'that I a weak silly woman, overhelmed with gratitude would grant you my favors!'
I did not raise my head. 'Favors which you were too weak to obtaqin in any other way?' she asked. 'I'm sorry,' I said.'But do not think that I am not grateful' she said. 'I shall teach you how to be a true man, solicitous and tender, and that sort of thing. 'I see,' I said. 'Do not touch me!' she said.
I drew back. 'Permit me to kiss you,' I said. She was so beautiful. 'No,' she said, 'I am not a pleasure object.' 'I'm sorry,' I said. Again I had insulted Miss Henderson. It seemed I could do nothing right with her. 'But I am grateful,' she said. 'You may give ma a small kiss, a quick kiss.'
I touched her cheek with my lips, kissing her. 'It is enought!' she said. My hands had tightened on her arms under the sheet. 'You are very strong Jason,' she said. I had lifted her to her toes and holding her, pressed her
