'There she goes,' said the woman. 'She is being taken into one of the tunnel alcoves now,' There are small exits from the larger room, on the other side of the open space, that lead to various tunnels, off of which may be found cells and alcoves. From such tunnels the establishment, of course, derives its name. 'Yes,' I said. We watched the fellow crouch down and enter one of the small openings, the sack now, with its helpless, squirming occupant, dragging behind him. One cannot, on the whole, stand upright in the tunnels. Sometimes one must actually crawl.
The musicians had now stopped playing.
'Are you interested in free females?' she asked.
'Not particularly,' I said.
'Let us show you one,' she said. 'Esne,' she called. 'Bring Lady Labiena.' In a few moments one of the hostesses had emerged from a side door leading a lovely woman, barefoot, in a wrap-around tunic, on a neck chain. She was brought to my table where, unbidden, she knelt.
'She is attractive, is she not?' asked my hostess.
'Yes,' I said.
'She is a captive free woman,' said my hostess. 'We are keeping her for a friend.'
'I see,' I said.
'Open your tunic,' said my hostess.
The woman parted her tunic, and held it to the sides.
'She is pretty, isn't she?' asked my hostess.
'Yes,' I said. 'Widen your knees,' I told the woman. She did so, continuing to hold her tunic open.
'Are you sure she is free?' I asked.
'Yes,' said my hostess.
I regarded the woman. 'It seems she might as well be a slave,' I said. The woman threw me a look of gratitude.
'No, she is free,' said my hostess, 'though now, to be (pg 315) sure, she doubtless has some notion of what a slave's life might be like.'
'One can have no adequate notion of that,' I said, 'Until one has been truly enslaved.
'True,' said my hostess.
'What is your life like here?' I asked the woman.
'I wear a neck chain,' she said.
'I see,' I said.
'You may lower your hands, but do not close your tunic,' said my hostess. 'In what manner does she serve here, in this house?' I asked. To be sure she was barefoot, and was naked but for a tunic, and had a chain on her neck. These things suggested some answers to my question.'
'Much as a slave, but with little of their skill,' said my hostess.
'They will not tell me their secrets,' said the woman.
'They have been ordered not to,' said my hostess, 'our orders countermanding any which she might give them.'
'But they are pleased not to tell me!' she wept.
'Of course,' said my hostess. 'They are slaves, and you are merely free. Too, often the secrets of slaves are perhaps best kept between themselves and their masters.'
'We will not even give her training,' said the hostess who had brought her in. 'That has cost me many beatings,' said the free woman.
'Why not train her?' I asked.
'Training would be inappropriate for her, as she is a free woman,' said my hostess. 'Too, it might scandalize and horrify her. We would certainly not want that. Too, it is not likely that it would even be fully meaningful to her, as she is free, and would thus not be able to fully understand it as it is meant to be understood, in the helpless depths of an owned belly.'
'Is she being held for ransom?' I asked.
'No,' said my hostess. 'But that was your hope, in the beginning, wasn't it, Lady Labiena?'
'No,' said the woman, putting her head down.
'But when it was learned that she had been captured,' said my hostess, 'she was cast off by her family, and sworn from the Home Stone.'
'My life as a free person was unsatisfactory to me,' said the woman.
'Watch your tongue, prisoner,' said the female holding her neck chain. 'It seems now,' I said, 'that you are neither fully a free person nor a slave.' 'It amuses them,' she said, 'to keep me as a free person in their power, for their customers.'
'Occasionally such women are available in these places,' I said.
'You do not know what I have done here,' she said, looking up, 'what I have been made to do!'
'I can speculate,' I assured her.
'But much of what she has done here,' said the woman holding her neck chain, 'has been simply servile. For example, we enjoy having her naked, on all fours, on a chain, scrubbing floors.'
'But surely she has been put upon occasion to the uses of your customers,' I said.
'Of course,' said the woman holding the neck chain, 'haven't you, Lady Labiena.' 'Yes,' said the kneeling woman, her knees wide, her tunic parted.
I regarded her.
'But I have learned things here,' she said, 'that I never dreamed of as a free woman. I have been able to sense here the ecstasies of bondage, the ecstasies of a life obligatorily sensual, a life under strict discipline, a life where I must obey, a life where I will, and must, surrender myself totally and, subject to penalties, and even death, if I am displeasing, live thenceforth solely for service and love.'
'You sing the joys of a love slave, surely,' I said, 'not the woes of a woman who must crawl beneath the whip of a hated master.'
'Do you not think a love slave crawls fearfully beneath the whip of her master?' she asked. 'The love slave is still a slave, you see,' I said, 'and perhaps more a slave than any other.'
'Yes,' whispered the woman.
'She is held in her bondage by the strongest of all bonds,' I said, 'that of love.'
'Yes,' she said.
'It is stronger than the chain on your neck,' I said.
'I know,' she said.
'It must then be very strong,' laughed the woman who held her chain. She gave it a tug, jerking it against the side of the woman's neck.
'It is,' I said.
'They give me to anyone here,' said the woman. 'Some are hideous, some smell, in the fetid breath of some I almost choke and die, and yet I must serve them, unquestioningly, although a free woman, according to whatever their dictates and whims.'
I regarded the woman.
'I want a private master,' she said. 'I want my own master.'
'It is a natural desire on the part of a female.' I said.
Then she looked up, suddenly, piteously, at the woman who was holding her neck chain. 'I want a collar,' she said to her. 'You know that. I have begged for it. Why will you not give me a collar? You have made me, in effect, a slave. Now I am good for nothing else. I have learned too much! Why deny me the mark, the collar? Why do you so shame me? Put me in a collar, that what I now know I am may be proclaimed to the world! I want to be sold! I want to find a master! I am ready to serve, and fully!'
'Be silent,' said the woman who held her chain. 'That is no way for a free woman to speak. Put your head to the floor, pull your tunic up over your head!' Frightened, the woman did as she was told. The woman who had her in her keeping then called to another of the hostesses. 'Three strokes,' she told her. That woman then, with her whip, struck Lady Labiena three times.
'Replace your tunic and kneel straightly,' said her keeper.
Lady Labiena, tears running down her cheeks, complied. 'We have told you, Lady Labiena,' said my hostess.
