"Incidentally," I said to Miss Henderson, "move your things out of the master bedroom." "It is my bedroom!" she said.

"No," I said,"I am taking it. It is larger. And it has a porch, and a view of the garden and sky. I am renting the house. I am making it mine."No!" she said. "Too," I said, "it has the great couch, the one with the slave ring at its foot.

"I see," said Miss Henderson looking angrily at Lola. Lola did not raise her head, but knelt there, her knees close together, in the brief slave tunic. "I see," said Miss Henderson and rose to her feet, hurrying angrily upstairs.

I finished my black wine, enjoying it. When I had finished, I permitted Lola to clear the table and address herself to the work in the kitchen.

After a time, I went upstairs. Miss Henderson had cleared the room. I looked at the heavy iron slave ring, about eight inches in diameter, set in the stone of the great couch. I then went into Miss Henderson's room. She was sitting on the couch. "You did not knock," she said. "I need not knock to enter the room of my kept woman," I said. I then took my things from the room and put them into the master bedroom. I looked over the balustrade to the sky beyong. It was lovely. As I again started downstairs, I met Miss Henderson on the lasnding. She too was going downstairns.

"You seem angry," I said. "Not I," she said."Why are you goind downstairs" I asked. "To supervise the slave," she said. "Such girls are lazy and will do no work if they are not closly watched.

I stepped aside and let her precede me down the stairs. She was a free woman, and a woman of earth. She was not a slave, who must heel her Master.

"Come here Lola," I said.

It was not in the early evening. Miss Henderson and I, with small cups of a Turian liqueur before us, lounged in the living room. A tharlarion-oil lamp lit the room."Stand her," I told Lola. "Yes Master," she said.

"Surely you are not angry," I said to Miss Hendrerson, "that I bought her?" I faced Lola away from me. I put my hands on her ankle. "Look at this ankle," I said. Lola trembled. "And these calves and thighs," I said, "and the luscious, central curves of her, and these breasts and shoulders." I put my hand under her chin lifting it up. "And this neck in my collar," I said, "and this head and face and this hair. Surely you can see that she was an excellent buy. "Yes," said Miss Henderson angrily, "she was an excellent buy."

"When you have finished your work tonight, Lola," I said, "go up upstairs to the master bedroom. Take your clothes off and kneel there, by the slave ring, and await my pleasure."Yes, Master," she said, and went then hurriedly to the kitchen.

"Just like that?" asked Miss Henderson. "Of course, " I said. "She is a slave."It must be pleasant to have such absolute power over a woman," she said. "Yes," I said.

In time, Miss Henderson and I had finished the liqueur. Lola cleaned the glasses and put them away. Then head down, quietly, when she had finished, she slipped past and made her way upstairs to the master bedroom.

"Do you find her more beautiful than I," asked Miss Henderson. "She is quite beautiful," I said. "But I do not think that she is more beautiful then you. You are quite beautiful, you know."Yes it is she whom you kneel at your slave ring not I," said Miss Henderson.

I gritted my teeth, forcing the thought of Miss Henderson kneeling naked at my feet at my slave ring, awating my pleasure, from my mind. It was all I could do to control myself She was the most incredibly attractive female I had ever known."You are a free women," I said. "Perhaps, I would make a good slave," she said."I doubt it," I said, "You are a woman of Earth."

"Gorean men say that we make excellent slaves," she said. "It is only necesaary that we understand clearly that we are slaves, and are put under discipline. We then blossom in our slavery, beautifully, as much or perhaps even more so than Gorean girls."

"I have given you respect," I said. "I have given you freedom. I have given you money. I have relieved you of work. I have denied you nothing. Yet you remain dissatisfied."You have denied me one thing," said she. "What is that?" I asked."A collar," she said.

"Go to your room," I said."Of course," she said, "Let me not keep you from your slut." She rose from the table and lifting the hem of her robes, went to the stairs."She is doubtless already naked, and at your ring," she said. "She had better be," I said, "unless she wishes to be whipped."

Angrily Miss Henderson ascended the stairs."Miss Henderson, remeber that your door is to be left unbolted," I said."I know," she said."That my door be bolted is not permitted. A keeper must always have acces to his kept woman."She then entered her room, the smaller room whichk previously, had been mine.She closed the door firmly, decisively, angrily. I listened carefully. She did not bolt it.

I then, not hurrying, went upstairs. I entered my room and closed the door behind me, bolting it.I looked down at Lola. She knelt naked at the ring.

She looked up at me and smiled, "I await your pleasure Master," she said.

"Spread the furs," I said, " and light the ravishment lamp."I removed my tunic, throwing it aside.In a few moments, Lola lay on the furs a the foot of the couch on her belly, her hands at her sides, the backs of her hands to the furs, the palms of her hands vulnerably up, exposed.

I crouched beside her and took the nearby chain and collar. I fastened the chain to the slave ring and then closed the heavy collar about her neck, over the other collar.She was then chained by the neck to my slave ring. I took her body in my hands and turned her to her back. Her weight was light for my strength.She looked up at me, breathlessly, "I am yours, Master," she whispered. "that is known to me, " I said."Yes, yes Master," she whispered, lifting her lips to mine.

end of pagge 136

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.