Moving through the door behind Killen showed Tain a large, round lobby area in front of a short counter to the right. Tandro had already reached the counter, and in only a couple of minutes he had the key to accommodations in his hand. The stairs leading upward were to the left of the counter, but for anyone coming in the front door the stairs would be straight ahead. And oddly enough, the only doors to be seen in the lobby area were the ones leading to the stable and the one that opened directly on the street.

It didn’t take long to reach the second floor of the hostel, and a minute later they were at the door with the number to match the one on the key Tandro held. Inside that door was a round communal living area, with two doorways that probably led to bedrooms.

“I ordered food for us and the slaves, but I want my slave to lie down until the food gets here,” Tandro stopped to say to Killen once everyone was inside and the door to the hall closed. “Do you have a preference about which bedchamber you want to use?”

“No, no preference, but I do have a different request,” Killen answered without looking at anyone but Tandro. “Would you mind lending me that paddle for a while? Until I can buy one of my own, of course.”

Tandro’s amusement was clear as he agreed at once, but Tain’s reaction was entirely different.

He wouldn’t dare use that thing on me, she thought with swirling emotions, watching Tandro open one side of his saddlebags and begin to dig around. He wouldn’t dare! Or he’d better not dare…

“This isn’t bad,” Killen said as Tain followed him into the bedroom on the right and he closed the door behind her. “That bed would be a bit cramped for two if the two wanted to sleep, but slaves are probably expected to do their sleeping on that pallet.”

He gestured to the pallet he meant with the paddle he held, but Tain didn’t follow the gesture with her gaze. She’d already seen the small, thin pallet that looked like it had been partially stuffed with rags or straw, so a second look wasn’t necessary. The bed Killen had referred to stood against the righthand wall, with two wide windows in the wall to the left of the bed and opposite the door. The windows weren’t curtained or closed, but a wide overhang outside kept the pouring rain from coming in and making the whole place damp.

There were also a couple of chairs in the room, lamps already lit on two of the walls, and three tables. One of the tables looked large enough to eat at, but one of the smaller ones was square and sturdy enough to take Killen’s saddlebags without a problem.

“Looks like we got inside just in time,” Killen said as he put his saddlebags on the square table while studying the pouring rain through the open windows. “And it’s definitely cooling down some, so I’m glad I wasn’t given a reason to curse the storm. And now I want to know what’s bothering you.”

Tain looked up from distraction to see that Killen had turned from the windows to study her instead of the rain, his expression open and sober. But he still held that paddle, a circumstance that gave Tain very little interest in wanting to exchange conversation with him.

“What’s bothering me is how long it’s taking to get home,” she answered after a short hesitation, not quite looking at Killen. “Do you have any idea how long this … chore of yours will take to complete?”

“That all depends on the man I’m here to see,” Killen responded at once without moving his stare to something else. “The sooner he agrees to talk to me, the sooner we’ll be free to leave. But how quickly we can leave isn’t the bother I was talking about. Something else is disturbing you, and I’d like to know what it is.”

“You don’t consider having to play slave enough of a problem?” Tain countered, making sure her expression didn’t give her away. The man was probably just guessing; it wasn’t possible for him to suspect what the real problem was. “There are so many different angles and sides to the situation that it’s a miracle I’m not rolling around on the floor foaming at the mouth. Being disturbed isn’t even important enough to think about.”

“That sounds very logical and reasonable, but for some reason I don’t buy it,” Killen said, taking a step closer to where she stood, appalling Tain with his continuing doubt. “There’s something beyond being a slave that’s twisting you around, but I won’t force you to tell me what it is. I want you to volunteer the information, if for no other reason than to show you know you can trust me.”

“How can I tell you about something that isn’t there?” Tain returned, working hard to sound faintly exasperated as well as confused. “What you’re talking about isn’t a matter of trust, it’s a matter of letting your imagination run away with you.”

“I don’t believe the impression I have is nothing but my imagination,” Killen said, now sounding annoyed. “I think you’re holding back on something I’ll find important and relevant, so here’s a choice for you: either you talk to me, or we’ll get on with that punishment I promised you this morning.”

“So that’s it,” Tain said with the suggestion of a sneer, grabbing onto the ploy as soon as she thought of it. “You decided you need an excuse to hurt me again, and this … problem thing is what you came up with. You’ll need to justify what you’ve done once we do get home, and trying to solve a ‘problem’ before it becomes real trouble will be your justification.”

“You seem to be missing a very important point here,” Killen said, actually sighing. “I don’t have to justify anything I do to you because I own you. You’re a slave, and men on this world treat slaves any way they care to. If you stop to think about it, treating you as anything but a slave is what will get me into hot water. Not paddling you for disobedience could end up as a black mark against me, and I really dislike the thought of black marks.”

He looked much too pleased with that line of argument, and Tain couldn’t disagree no matter how much she wanted to. When you traveled as a native of a world, you were required to act like a native under all conditions and circumstances. The main problem was, Tain would never have accepted an assignment that required her to act like a slave. Her personality was too aggressive for her to be really believable in the role, a point no one had ever tried to argue.

But now she was supposed to be a slave, and might have managed the role if her owner had been anyone but Killen. He was trying to make her be a slave instead of just acting like one, a truth he didn’t seem prepared to admit. He really expected her to tell him exactly what he wanted to know, but that wasn’t going to happen. She was vulnerable enough as she was; there was no way she would add to the state by giving Killen what he needed to reach her deep down.

“I’m not hearing any more argument,” Killen pointed out when Tain had stood silent for a long moment. “Does that mean you’re starting to see things my way?”

“Actually, I’ve been wondering why I’m wasting my breath,” Tain said, deliberately looking away from him after no more than a short glance. “You’re going to do exactly as you please no matter what I say, so you might as well get on with it.”

This time it was Killen who hesitated, and then he moved closer to her to stroke her hair.

“Listen to me, girl,” he said, the words soft and as gentle as his touch on her hair. “If you acted like this with any other man of this world, you’d be whipped instead of just paddled. I’ve given you all the freedom I can get away with, but you insist on seeing the effort as not good enough. Do you want me to make you into a real slave? I can do it, you know, and it won’t be very hard at all. Tell me what’s bothering you, and then I’ll be able to help you to settle down into this role as comfortably as possible.”

Tain stayed silent, but fighting the urge to speak to the man was more a battle than a struggle. His soft coaxing reached her the way shouting never would have, but she couldn’t tell him why the current situation was so intolerable. Exchanging unhappiness for misery wasn’t a trade anyone would see as useful, and that would be the only result of her speaking out. And as far as being made into a real slave went, there wasn’t a chance in hell she would ever let that happen.