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15. The House Has Been Ransacked; Miss Henderson Has Been Bound as a Slave I Do Not Abuse Her
The door was ajar. I had returned early from the wharves. There had been little work. I as apprehensive that the door was adjar. 'Lola!' I called stepping withing the threshold. 'Lola!' I heard a tiny sound a pathetic, tiny whimpers, muffled, almost inaudible, from a few feet away. I ran to the slave kennel on the left. Lola was withing, naked, sitting, bound hand and foot. She was tighly gagged. Only the tiniest, muffled sounds could escape her.
The key was nearby. I opened the kennel. I pulled and lifted her out. I fumbled with the knots on the gag. I loosened them and pulled the binding down about her neck. I pulled the deep heavy wadding from her mouth.'The Mistress,' she said, She is upstairs.'I looked about. The house was in a shambles. Goods were cast about. My pouch, left home, had been emptied out upon the floor.'Who did this?' I asked. 'A man,' she said. 'A large man. He wore a mask, purple.
'Is he in the house?' I asked. 'No,' she gasped.
I unied her hands. I glanced at the knots on her ankles. I did not think that she, with her woman's strength, could well undo them. I loosened them.
'What did he want?' I asked her. 'I do know know Masters' she said.
I hurried upstairs. Miss Henderson was in the master bedroom. She was on the great couch. She looked at me, pathetically. There were bruises on her body. She was tied as a slave. She tried to speak, but she had been well gagged.My things in the bedroom had been gone through and thrown about.
I looked at Miss Henderson. Her small legs, by the ankles, had been tired cruelly apart. Her wrists too were tied widely apart. Small rings on either side of the couch, at the head and foot, anchored the binding fiber, permitted this tie. It is not an uncommon tie for slaves. There were tears in her eyes. She made tiny muffled noises. I could scarcely hear them, though I stood at the foot of the couch.
Lola, her slave tunic now drawn on, stood in the threshold of the master bedroom.'The Mistress was not circumspect,' she said, 'She opened the door. The man thrust in. He turned her about and held her a knife at her throat. 'Do not run or cry out, he said, 'or your Mistress dies. Bring cloths an binding fiber' I obeyed. 'Strip' he ordered me. I obeyed. 'Lie on your stomachs, side by side' he told us. We obeyed. then while he knelt across the body of the Mistress that she might not flee, he bound me, hand and foot and gagged me. Then at his leisure, garment by garment, with his knife, seeming to enjoy have her progressively revealed to him, he stripped the Mistress. He then, though she was free, trussed and gagged her identically as he had me. He then stood up and regarded us. We lay before him, though I was a slave and she free, side by side, identically helpless. I was put in the slave kennel and the kennel was locked. She he carried upstairs.'
I looked at Miss Henderson with irritation. What a fool she was to have so thoughtlessly opened the door. She struggled in the binding fibeer. Her eyes begged me to relesase her. She made tiny noises, helpless, pathetic, almost inaudible.
'Shall I free her Master?' asked Lola. 'No,' I said angrily.
I then went to Miss Henderson's bedrom. It top was a shambles. 'The kitchen, I assume, was searched.' I said to Lola returning to the master bedroom. 'Yes,' she said. 'What did he take?' I asked. 'As far as I know,' she said, 'he took nothing.' 'Go to the kitchen Lola,' I said. 'Set things in order.' 'Yes, Master,' she said.
I shut the door behind her. I had little doubt for what it was that the visitor had sought. Miss Henderson whimpered.
'What a fool you are to have opened the door, not knowing the nature of identity of your guest,' I said.Anger as well as tears welled up in her eyes. 'Yet,' I said, regarding her,'You are a pretty little fool.' She twisted angrily in the binding fiber.
I knelt upon the couch and turning her head to the side, untied the knots at the back of her neck. Then, turing her head to face me, I pulled the wet, heavy packing of the gag from her mouth.
'Your gag was quite effective,' I told her. ' as was Lola's. He who gagged you is apparently no strange to the control of prisoners.'
'Afteer he had brought me upstairs, and tied me, as you find me,' she said, 'he removed the gag temporarily.' 'Yes?' I said. 'He struck me until I begged to be raped,' she said 'He made me beg to be raped!' And what happened,' I asked, smiling, 'after you had begged to be raped.'He laughed and then raped me,' she said in fury.'Of course,' I said. 'Had you not asked him to do so?
'He looked upon me as though I might be a slave,' she said, 'and he treated me, thoughtlessly and casually, as though I might be a slave. He even called me Slave!'
'Gorean men are expert in such matter,' I said. 'Perhaps he knows something about you that I do not know.' 'Look!' she said. 'He tied me as a slave!'
'You loook well,' I told her, 'tied as a slave.'
She squirmed in the binding fiber angrily, helplessly. 'Please unbind me,' she said.
I looked at her. 'The topaz is gone,' she said. 'Speak softly,' I said, 'Lola is a slave. She need know nothing of the topaz.' 'I was terrified,' she said, 'and so I told him, immediately where it was.' She looked at me angrily. 'And then, in spite of my cooperation, he called me slave and in amusement subjected me to his will.
'Where did you tell him it was?' I asked. 'In your pouch, downstairs,' she said, 'where you keep it.'
'It has not been in the pouch for days,' I said. 'Where is it?' ahs asked. 'Elsewhere,' I said. 'Yes,' she said angrily. She looked up at me.
'It is fortunate,' I said, 'that he, rightly or wrongly, took you as a slave. Else he might have returned to cut your throat. Thinking you a slave he would prsume you ignorant of the location of an item of such value.' I smiled. 'You could then be left alive, perhaps to please him again as an interesting and complete pleasure object, should you fall again into his clutches.'
'He then, finishing with me, regagged me,' she said. 'And effectively,' I said. 'yes,' she said angrily.
'If he had found the topaz immediately,' I said, 'why did you think he would continue searching the house?' For valuables,' she said. 'But I did not understand his anger, his frustration.' 'He had not, actually, found the topaz,' I said.
'I did not understand,' she said. 'It had not occurred to me that you would have removed it from your pouch without telling me.' I shrugged. 'In that,' she said, 'Not tkaing me into your confidence, you treated me as a slave, did you not, Jason?'
'I may have saved your life,' I said. 'Slave girls have value — as articles of property.' 'I see, ' she said angrily. 'Besides,' I said, 'obviously you were willing to reveal the location of the topaz with alarcity,as I had feared.
It is important that it not reach Policrates. If it does, the major forces of the pirates of the eastern Vosk would achieve unification, at least for a time, with those of the western Vosk.This is to be prevented, if at all possible. If you did not know the location of the topaz it seemed obvious to me that you could not reveal its location, unless by some chance inadvertance. Doubtless the fewer that know of its ocation the better.
'Do you think I am a slave, Jason?' she asked.
'I assumed that any who might search for the topaz would be likely to regard you in such terms. You are the type of woman, sexually stimulating and curvacious, desirable, whom Gorean men, rightly or wrongly, look upon in terms of the parameters of bondage, in terms of such things as their potential for yielding incredible gratification and service. Too, do not forget that your left thigh bears a certain lovely brand, that of many Gorean kajirae.
'Do you think I am a slave, Jason?' she asked. 'Why do you ask?' I asked. 'You have not untied me,' she said. 'You have let me bound as a slave. I did not speak.
'I lie before you, bound as a slave,' she said. 'Use me if you wish,' I am tired, helplessly, I cannot resist you. Take me as a slave if you wish!' I did not speak.
'Untie me,' she begged. 'No,' I said. 'Why not?' she asked. 'You look well tied as a slave,' I told her. 'Perhaps that is because I am a slave,' she said. 'Perhaps,' I said. 'You are punishing me aren't you?' she said. 'Yes,' I said. 'And as a slave,' she said. 'Yes,' I said. 'You do regard me as a slave,' she said. 'You are a woman of Earth,' I said. 'How can you be a slave?' 'I am a woman of Earth,' she said, 'How can I not be a slave?' I rose from the couch and
