Part 57 (1/2)

”I think so,” I said. ”Presumably he is an experienced slaver.”

”Do you think he had any doubts about you?” she asked.

”No,” I said, reddening. ”I do not think he had any doubts whatsoever about me.”

”I could have been whipped,” she said, wonderingly.

”Are you able to stand?” I asked.

”Yes,” she said.

”You should have been switched,” said a male voice, to the Lady Constanzia.

We both, startled, looked up, from our knees.

The Lady Constanzia gasped. Then, swiftly, she thrust down her head.

It was the fellow in the scarlet tunic, with the scarlet cloak, whom I had originally noted in the vicinity of the bal.u.s.trade, where we had been looking upon the mountains.

”Lift your head, slave,” said he to the Lady Constanzia. She did so.

She kept her head up, but, after an instant, was careful not to meet his eyes. In her first glance she had grasped, with the immediate understanding a woman has of such things, the nature of his scrutiny. She knelt very straight, frightened. She was being considered, as a female. He did not hurry. And he even walked about her. Then he was again before her. ”A beautiful face,” he commented to me. ”Good slave curves. Excellent hair.”

”Yes, Master,” I said.

”You should have been switched,” he said to the Lady Constanzia.

”Yes, Master,” she said.

I was startled. That was the first time I had heard her use the word 'Master' to a man.

”Why weren't you?” he asked.

”I do not know, Master,” she said. He looked at me.

”I do not know, Master,” I said.

”You were very fortunate,” he said to the Lady Constanzia.

”Yes Master,” she said.

”I, myself, would not have been so lenient,” he said.

”Yes, Master,” she said, swallowing hard. He was such as would think nothing of beating her.

”Has she been whip-trained?” he asked me.

”No,” I said.

”She must indeed be quite new to her collar,” he said.

”Yes, Master,” I said. He must then, I surmised, have been reasonably close, in the crowd, during the incident with the free woman.

”She nearly drank from the first basin,” he said.

”Yes, Master,” I admitted. He had been watching us then.

”It seems,” he said, regretfully, ”she is stupid.”

”No Master,” I said. ”It is only that she has much to learn about her collar.”

”She is not totally stupid?” he asked.

”No Master,” I said.

”She has some intelligence then?” he asked, interested.

”Yes, Master,” I said. ”She is actually quite intelligent.”

”Excellent,” he said, pleased.

Then he looked at me, and snapped his fingers. ”Collar,” he said, Instantly I, trained, leaped to my feet and stood quite close to him, uncomfortably close, and held my hands a little behind my body. I lifted my chin. He crooked a finger under my collar and pulled me closer to him, holding me in place. I could feel his finger against my neck, on the left side, between the steel of the collar and the flesh. I could also feel the collar drawn tighter against the back of my neck.

”It is a state collar,” he said. ”Your name is 'Janice'.”

”Yes, Master,” I whispered.

He released me, and I knelt.

He then regarded the Lady Constanzia. He snapped his fingers and said, ”Collar!”

She rose uncertainly to her feet, and approached him. She had, of course, had my example from which to profit. She, to my surprise, however, stood closer to him than I would have expected, and more close to him than I had, originally. It seemed she was improving on my example. Was she then, in such matters, to be my teacher? She lifted her chin delicately. In response to the ”collar command,” the slave approaches the male, that he need not inconvenience himself by coming toward her. She then lifts her chin and places her hands behind her. It is thus that a girl renders herself vulnerable for the reading of her collar. In this case, of course, the Lady Constanzia's hands were already behind her, her small, lovely wrists closely linked together, well pinioned, in the steel of slave bracelets.

Still he put his finger under her collar, and, as she gasped, he pulled her even closer to him, indeed, quite close to him, ”slave close,” as the expression is. She could not move back, because of his hold on her. I was alarmed. She was a free woman! I could well conjecture her dismay, her discomfort, her fear, her wild sensations-she, a free female, being held so close to him, she half stripped, he fully dressed, so powerful, so masculine!

”'Tuta',” he read. ”It is a good name for you, slave.”

”Thank you, Master,” she whispered.

”It is not a state collar,” he said to me, ”but, as she is in your custody, one gathers that she must be in the keeping of the state, for some reason, perhaps pending her sale.”

I was silent.

He released the Lady Constanzia' s collar. ”Remain where you are,” he said.

”Yes, Master,” she said.

”Slave lips,” he said to her.

She looked at him, wildly, in consternation.