'I am a virgin!' I cried.
'Excellent,' he said. 'Then, before the night is done you will be opened by Speusippus of Turia for the uses of men.'
I then, on my belly, sobbing, began to crawl toward him.
'Stop,' he said.
I stopped, puzzled. My body was still on the floor. I had not yet even come to the edge of those stinking furs.
'You are a free woman,' he said, 'and you have much to learn. We will begin with simple things.'
'Master?' I asked.
'Lie at my feet,' he said, 'and lick, and kiss and suck at them. When you have managed to learn to do that properly, I will give you further instructions.' 'Yes,' I wept.
'Yes, what?' he asked.
'Yes-Masterl' I sobbed.
'You did not do badly, Lady Sheila,' he said. 'If I did not know better, I would have thought that you had had some training. Perhaps it is natural in a woman. Get in.' He held open the lid of the large trunk.
I crawled into the large, deep trunk, and lay down in it, on my side, with my legs drawn up.
'Did I please Master?' I asked.
'You speak like a slave,' he sneered.
'Forgive me, Master,' I said. Interesting enough, and I hardly understood this, and it seemed almost incredible, I did, clearly, want him to find me pleasing. 'Are you hungry?' be asked.
'Yes, Master,' I said. For my supper I had received only one piece of meat. It had been thrown to me, as though I might have been a dog.
He went somewhere in the room and returned with a piece of dried meat. He dropped it into the trunk, near my face. I seized it in my hands.
'Thank you, Master,' I said.
He was looking down into the trunk. I looked up at him.
'If I had not been pleasing,' I asked, 'would you have given me this?' 'No,' be said.
I then realized that it was truly in the best interest of a female captive, or slave, to be pleasing. If she was not pleasing, and perhaps even quite pleasing, she might not be fed. By superb performances a girl might, I thought, encourage a master to believe that she was worth feeding, and, perhaps, even feeding well. 'What are you going to do with me?' I asked.
'What I please,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' I said.
'In the morning we are going south,' he said.
'Not to Ar!' I said.
'No,' he said. 'We will be turning west.'
He looked down at me, huddled in the trunk. I bit a little at the meat.
I was ravenously hungry.
'Were you given permission to feed?' he asked.
'Forgive me, Master,' I said. I hoped he would not take the food from me. 'What do you know?' he said. 'You are only a stupid free woman.' 'Yes, Master,' I said.
'You may feed,' he said.
'Thank you, Master,' I said. I bit hungrily at the meat.
'You eat like a starving slave,' He said.
'Forgive me, Master,' I said. I then took smaller bites, bites perhaps somewhat more conformable to the dignity of a free woman, a lady and a Tatrix. Still, when one is naked and in a trunk, and half starved, it is difficult to eat with dignity. For most practical purposes, as he had treated me, even though technically I might be the Tatrix of Corcyrus, I was a half-starved slave. 'I never thought to have the Tatrix of Corcyrus naked and in my trunk,' he said. 'Can I breathe in here, Master?' I asked.
'There are air holes,' he said. 'You are not the first woman who has been in this trunk. To be sure, this is the first time it has ever held a Tatrix.' 'There is a blanket in here,' I said. 'Thank you, Master.'
'That is to keep the prettiness of its occupants from being bruised,' he said. 'The sweat and stink on it is from female slaves. It will serve for you as well, Lady Sheila. As it floored this trunk, serving as their kennel, so, too, it floors it now, when it serves as yours.'
'As Master wishes,' I said.
Do you remember in my trial,' be asked, 'the matter of he hair, how it was discovered that I might inadvertently have sold sonic slave hair as that of free women?'
'Yes, Master,' I said.
'In the morning,' he said, 'I am going to obtain some hair from a free woman.' 'Master?' I asked.
'In the morning,' be said, 'you are going to be shorn.'
'Master knows my secret,' I said. 'He has power over me. He may do with me what he wishes.'
'And I shall,' be said.
'Yes, Master,' I said.
'Sleep tight in your kennel, Lady Sheila, lofty Tatrix of Corcyrus,' he said. 'It is where you are going to be spending quite a few nights.'
I looked up at him.
'Pleasant dreams,' said he, 'Slut.' Then he shut the heavy lid of the trunk. In another moment I heard the turning of keys in two heavy locks. Then he walked away.
With the trunk shut I could see the air holes. Some of them, tiny perforations, I could see through. I saw him extinguish the lamp. I then heard him lie down on the sleeping furs. I then lay back in the trunk, my legs pulled up. He bad called me 'Slut.' Was it my fault if I had responded well to his instructions, if I had done what I was toldl I wondered if I had done too well. Next time he would surely want at least that, and probably a good deal more. I smiled to myself. He had seemed surprised. I, too, had been surprised. My tongue, and lips and fingers, after a few Ehn, astounding me, had been ready and eager, and quick, subtle and delicate. I was grateful for his instruction, and I sought to improve upon iL Interestingly, I found that I was pleased to touch him. To be sure, I was crude and unrefined. I was uninformed in subtleties of technique and I had too simple a sense of pacings and rhythms, of when to make Iiiin, and me, wait, of when to be languorous, of when to be merciless. I was unaware, even, of the fuller possibilities of sound, of speaking to him, and of vocalizing my emotions and sensations in a variety of ways, adding a whole additional dimension to the totality of the experience. To be sure, some masters, at least at some times, desire to be served, in so far as the girl can, in absolute silence. 'What has a slave to say?' they sometimes ask. Forced to perform, humiliatingly, under the ban of silence, enforcing as it does the male's total domination of her, can he very thrilling for a woman. Also, it helps her to keep clearly in mind that it is a mere animal who is serving.
Also, I was unaware, more seriously, of many of the aesthetic and psychological aspects of what could be done. I did not make the most of the visual dimension, for example. Too, more naively, in my almost exclusive concern with touching, a common error, incidentally, with new slaves, I neglected by expressions and attitudes, to acknowledge and confess the deeper realities of our relationship, that I was, in the final analysis, his obedient captive. I was probably insufficiently alert, too, to the deeper ranges of his desires, of what he wanted, fully, from a woman. The master is to be served, of course, by the total slave. On the other hand, within my limitations, and within the ranges within which I was operating, I seemed to have an almost instinctual sense for what I was doing. I seemed to have a natural sense of timing and a capacity to anticipate, on many occasions, probably from subtle body cues, what fie might desire, or what might please him. I discovered that I had talents I did not know I had, and I found myself thrilled to apply them. Though it was I, in the, final analysis, who was in his total power, yet I found, to my gratification and astonishment, that I could turn him into a twisting, writhing slave under my touch. Then, angrily, he would seize me and throw me beneath him, making me helpless. I was then well reminded who, ultimately, was in command. I lay in the trunk, my legs pulled up.
He had called me a 'slut.' I did not really mind this. Indeed, something in me relished it. I remembered how I had behaved in the furs. The expression was, perhaps, I thought, with a shudder, quite appropriate.
Certainly, he had not permitted me to relate to him, in the least, in the inhibitory modalities of dignity and
