back against the door to the inn. She looked at me frightened. I saw her lovely cherry lips, the amll fine white teeth behind them. I consideered administering to her the kiss of the master to the female slave. 'No!' she said.
I held her, my own hands trembling, power in my body. 'I am a woman of Earth,' she said. 'You are a man of Earth!' I held her.
'Do not rape me, Jason,' she said. 'I'm sorry,' i said. I put her down. 'Beg my forgiveness!' she said. 'I'm sorry,' I said. 'I'm sorry!'
'Never look at me again like that, with such lust and power,' she said. 'I am a woman of Earth!' Forgive me,' I said.'I see it wil not be easy to teach you to be a true man,' she said. I shurgged angrily. 'But I think you will learn Jason,' she said, 'you are a man of Earth.'Perhaps,' I said.
'We must now go inside,' she said. 'The room must be properly partitions.' 'Please let me kiss you,' I said. 'It has been a trying day for me,' she said. 'I am weary. Surely you must understand.' 'Please,' I said. 'After what happened a moment ago,' she said, 'I do not think I will permit you to kiss me again for a very long time, if ever.'
'Perhaps you will permit me to kiss you from time to time,' I suggesed, 'just o keep me performing peoperly.' 'Perhaps,' she said angrily. 'We shall see.'
'Please Beverly,' I said. 'No,' she said. 'Please,' I said. 'I am weary,' she said. 'And I have a headache.' 'Let us remain here but a moment longer,' I said.
'It is growing chilly here,' she said. 'And I do not feel well,' 'Please,' I said. 'Do not be insensitive, Jason,' she said. 'I have told you that I have a headache.' 'I did not mean to be insensitive,' I said. 'Forgive me.' I wondered what she would like like naked, tied at a slave ring, being lashed.
'We must go in now,' she said, 'In the morning you must rise early. You must buy me clothing and go to the market. You must then find work. 'Yes Beverly,' I said. I held the door open for her and she preceded me inside. The innkeeper looked up from behind his counter, puzzled that a woman such as she was not heeling me.
I indicated the stairs and she preceded me up the stairs. 'We shall certainly have to find better lodgings then these, and soon,' she said.'Yes Beverly,' I said.The stairs were dark, save for small, trembling yellow pools of light, cast from flickering tharlarion-oil lamps.I considered her ankle as she ascended the stairs before me. It had not looked bad in the shackle at the market. Too, I recalled the moment in the taxi cab long ago, before I had lost consciousness. She had been lying on the back seat of the cab, her legs drawn up. I had seen her ankle then, too. I recalled thinking then too, that it would have looked well in slave steel.
11. Peggy
'I will use the one in that alcove,' I said to Tasdron, flinging down a tarsk bit on the stained counter. 'She is yours,' said Tasdron, wiping a paga goblet with a large soft cloth.
I strode across the floor of the tavern of Tasdron and entered the alcove. The blond girl knelt there, nude, against the back wall of smooth, rounded red tiles. I turned about and buckled shut the heavy curtains of the alcove and then again faced her.
Her wrists, by several narrow loops of red leather on each wrist, were tied to iron rings on each side of her body, a little below the level of her shoulder. The former customer had left her tired n this fashion, not bothering to release her. I was just was well pleased. I wished to interrogate her. She knels on red furs. The light was from a tiny tharlarion-oil lamp in the alcove. Tasdron's collar was on her throat.
'Master?' she asked, pressing back against the rounded-red tiles.
'Do you recall me?' I asked. 'Do you recall I was the fellow who challenged in this tavern, and who was threatened by Kliomenes, the pirate, the fellow who was saved, happily, by one called Callimachus.
'Yes Master,' she said, 'I was here. I remember. He is Callimachus of Port Cos.'He was once of the Warriors?' I asked.'It is thought so,' she said. 'So it is said among the girls.' 'Have you seen me before?' I asked.
'It does seem possible, Master,' she said. 'I am only a slave.' 'It seemed to me before,' I said, 'that you reacted to me as though you might once have seen me, as though I might be somehow familiar to you.' 'It is true,' sahe said. 'It seemed to me that, somehow, I had seenyou before. Ye I do not see how, actually, that could be. I am only a miserable slave.'
'Were you always a slave?' I asked. 'No, Master,' she said. 'I was once free.' 'On Gor?' I asked. 'No, Master,' she said. She smiled. 'I am afraid that women such as I are slaves on Gor.'
'Where were you free?' I asked. 'On a far world,' she said. 'Where slaves are not enslaved?' I asked. 'Yes, Master,' she smiled.
'What is your name?' I asked. 'Peggy,' she said. 'if it pleases Master,' 'That is an Earth-girl name,' I said. 'Ar you from the planet Earth?' 'yes Master,' she said, 'but please do not whip me. It is not my fault that Earth is my planet of origin. I will try to be pleasing to you.' 'Earth girls make excellent slaves,' I said. 'Thank you Master,' she said. 'Do y ou speak the Earth language, English?' I asked. 'Yes, Master,' she said.'I too speak English,' I said. 'Let us converse in that tongue.' 'Yes, Master,' she said. 'What was your earth name?' I asked. 'Peggy,' she said, 'Peggy Baxter.'
'Where did you work?' I asked. 'In a city calledNew York,' she said, 'as a hat-check girl at a restaurant.' 'Yes!' I said, 'That's it!' Master?' she asked, frightened. 'I had thought I had seen you,' I said. 'It was there.' 'There?' she asked.
'You wore black, low-cut shoes with high heels, without strap or ties,' I said.
'Pumps,' she said. 'You wore black-net stockings or pantyhose,' I said.'You wore ablack miniskirt and a long-sleeved, smooth white silk blouse, open at the throat. You had a black ribbon for your hair.
'Panty hose,' she said, 'But they were taken from me.' I noeeded. Gorean men seldom permit a slave shielding for her warm intimacies.
'Apparently, I was not the only one who say you there,' I said. 'Some other or others,' I said,'must have seen you as well, and adjudged you worthy to be brought to Gor as a slave girl.'Yes, Master,' she said.'I commend their judgement and taste,' I said. 'Thank you Master,' she said.
'How is it that you were originally captured on Earth?' I asked.'After work late,' she said, 'I left the restaurant. A cab was nearby. I thought myself fortunate. I entered the cab. It was a specially designed capture vehicle. I found myself helplessly sealed within it. Gas entered my mobile prison. I lost consciousness. I did not recover consciousness until I found myself chained in a girl-dungeon on Gor. I awakened to the whip and the hands of a brute upon me. I swiftly learned I was a slave.'
'I think that I myself and a friend,' I said, 'were captured by the same cab, the same devices.' I recalled that the cab driver in the garage had said that he had anohter pickup to make that night. His next pickup, doubtless, had been the lovely, long-legged Miss Baxter.'Did you get off work at two A.M.' I asked. 'Yes,' she said, 'How did you know?'
'I heard the pickup of someone referred to who got off work at two A.M.,' I said. 'Doubtless it was I,' she said shuddering. 'I think so,' I said.
'Master speaks English fluently,' she said apprehensively. Her hands twisted in the straps.
'Were you brought to the House of Andronicus, in Vonda?' I asked.'Yes,' she said, 'where I was given rudimentary slave training and learned a smattering ofGorean.
I was sold in vonda to a taverner in Tancred's Landing. Tasdron saw me there and fancied me. He brought me here, where I now wearhis collar.' She looked at me. 'Is Master a slaver?' she asked. 'No,' I said. 'How is it that Master speaks English?' she asked. 'It is my native tongue,' I said. 'I was brought to Gor, rather accidentally, as a slave. I became free.' 'Master is cruel to tease a miserable slave,' said the girl.
'How am I teasing you?' I asked puzzled. She laughed. 'Do not expect me to believe that Master is a man of Earth,' she said. 'I am not a fool.' 'I am from the planet Earth,' I said. 'You are cruel to a miserable slave,' she said. 'Why do you not believe I am from Earth?' I asked puzzled.
'You are not pathetic and weak.' she said. 'And your eyes, they look at me and see me as a female slave.'
I smiled. Indeed she was beautiful.'The men of Gor,' she said, 'are strong. They are not weak and divided
