After the Bighorn Chapter 17 The Trial of Chelsea Frick

 

After the Bighorn, Chapter Seventeen.

The Trial of Chelsea Frick.

(illustration; Meeting at Frick House by TroyDM)

Narrative of Patrick Masters.

“I pronounce Chelsea Frick guilty of stealing two mostly untrained slavegirls, kajirae, from the family by facilitating their escape with intent to pick them up and add them to her own property. This scheme cost the Family two trained and experienced slaves and cost time and effort by not only members of the family, but by an outsider, to whom we already owe a debt of gratitude. Does the prisoner have anything to say before sentence is passed?”

Wyandotte Frick was stern and angry. It was late at night, following the events of day that had seen the disappearance of two female slaves, the release of two sleen, carnivores from Gor. Zack Frick and I had used these dangerous beasts to track the two escapees and capture them. If the sleen had escaped….  Well, that did not bear thinking about.

Chelsea Frick stood stunned before us. We were in Wyandotte’s office, so recently the office of Chelsea’s murdered father, but now, like everything else in this mansion, the property of Wyandotte Frick, the new Head of the Frick Family. He was paterfamilias, judge, and Ubar of this group of earth-born humans who trafficked with Gor.

Chelsea was wearing only her thin white summer nightdress. Her feet were bare. Beside her, standing on either flank were two, older grimmer women, clad in grey. Mrs Crandell, the housekeeper that Wyandotte Frick had brought with him when he arrived to take over the Family, the House, and the Leadership; and Mrs Magruder, the outgoing housekeeper who had served Willard Frick, Chelsea’s Father, foully murdered in London. (Steel Worlds Inc, Chapter 27 , Emma of Gor https://emmaofgor.blogspot.com/2022/08/steel-world-inc-chapter-twenty-seven.html).

While waiting for Chelsea Frick to answer, I thought back on the long day Zach Frick, Chelsea’s distant cousin and I had tracking the errant kajirae then returning them to the mansion. Luckily, they had become lost, and missed their rendezvous, else they would have been far away by now. We had not told these foolish slaves that Chelsea had never had any intention that they should escape, only that they be stolen and added to her own service; exchanging one servitude on Gor for another, to a Free Woman, here on Earth. To be owned by a Free Woman is the hardest kind of slavery. For while a slave must strive mightily to please a Gorean Master, who is uncompromising in his demands, it is impossible, it is said to please a Free Woman. Free Women hate and fear slave girls for the sensualness, the hold they have on the minds of Gorean Men.

On their return to the Mansion, the recovered kajirae were defeated, dispirited, hungry and tired. They had not eaten since their evening bowl of gruel the previous day, they had been running and hiding all night. Now, captured they were being herded by sleen, fearsome, six-legged creatures from the planet Gor.  We had tied ropes around their necks and drove them in front of us. Zack reminded them of the possible fates awaiting escaped slaves. “You could be fed to sleen, maybe even these sleen here, or have your feet cut off. Shipped to the mines of one of a dozen Gorean cities. Or maybe the Ubar will be merciful, and just have you slain, or maybe whipped every day for a year.”

With such cheerful pronouncements, Zach encouraged the girls back towards their fate. Did they not realize that once the collar had been locked around their throats that they were forever slaves?

The shorter of the two, the busty Nineteen (named after her position in the original processing lineup), finally stumbled and fell just at the edge of the cornfield. Zach dismounted, but even the slave whip could not encourage her on. She shuddered as the sleen sniffed at her, and even licked her body, but the girl just could not go on.

Zack picked her up, and mounting, threw her across the saddle in front of him. Even while holding the leash of one of the sleen, he still found himself able to fondle the body of the exhausted girl.

Gamely, Seventeen, the other girl struggled on. She would not give up. Arrogant, proud, and yes, foolish, but still I found her courage in defeat admirable in a way. She would walk to her punishment, whatever it was.

Twice under the hot afternoon sun, she fell to her hands and knees in the cornfield. I jerked her to her feet by the neck rope and forced her on. If, in her pride, she would walk, then walk she must. The third time she fell, she was retching, her stomach rebelling against its emptiness, trying to rid itself of the built-up bile. She had eaten nothing all day and had walked through the night, and now was walking to a terrible fate under the hot sun. I could see that her naked body was already becoming sunburned. How the whip would scorch that red skin!

I smiled as I used the end of the rope looped around Seventeen’s neck to encourage the proud slave to greater speed towards the mansion.

***

“Are you sure it was Chelsea?” had asked Wyandotte when he returned from the County Fair later that evening. He had had a long day, repairing the relations of the Frick Family with its immediate neighbors. In the days of greater power under Willard, the neighbors had been ignored; now the Fricks needed all the allies they could find.

“It was her car that I saw speeding away from the rendezvous that had been set with the runaway slaves when Patrick Masters and I rode up with the sleen. Another couple of minutes and she would have been away with our property.”

“You just saw the car though? Just the car, and not Chelsea?

“No I didn’t see who was driving, but Chelsea does not allow anyone else to drive that car.”

J Augustus Frick IV, the old family lawyer spoke up.

“I was at the house when Chelsea, drove up in that same car about forty-five minutes later. That is about how long it would take to drive by the back roads from Frick House to the place where the girls were captured.”

“She was angry. She slammed the door and ran up to her room. As far as I know, she has been there ever since. She did not come down for dinner. Mrs Magruder took a tray of food up for her. I hear Chelsea ate half and then hurled the tray against the wall.”

Zack spoke again.

“I questioned the training kajirae that oversaw the training cellar. Neither Kailieka nor Jade had anything to say about the escape. They had no light to shed on things. I had them punished for letting slaves escape under their noses. They are spending the night without supper in the slave kennels. They are hooded, and cannot hear or see anything. They await your judgement.”

“The escapees, Nineteen and Seventeen were questioned separately while the other was in a slave hood. They said a free lady had arranged everything, with a map, a key, instructions and a vial of powder to dose the other members of their kennel.”

“They were going to leave half their sister-slaves behind? So much for loyalty amongst slaves!”, exclaimed Wyandotte.

“They both claim they were following instructions.”

“They should have followed orders instead, and remained in their kennels and not run away.” Wyandotte was not about to cut the would be escapees any slack.

“And they told you that their accomplice was “Chelsea?”

“They did not know her name. But I showed her a picture I had on my phone of the three of them, Chelsea, Felicity Emery, and the Bannon girl. Each separately picked Chelsea out of the three.”

Wyandotte rubbed his forehead. He too, had had a long day.

“Zack, go to the kitchen, get me a plate of food. Then make sure that all, and I mean all, the kajirae are locked up. I don’t want any of those creatures getting wind of any of this. Then make sure that all the men are in their barracks or at their stations. I don’t want anyone in the main part of the house, except us and those we can trust.

“Augustus, get Mrs Crandall and Mrs Magruder. Have them have Chelsea Frick here in half an hour. I want this settled tonight.”

And so, here we were, Chelsea standing in front of Wyandotte, who was sitting in judgment.

When confronted with the charges, Chelsea had completly denied everything. Denied even knowing about the captives that had been stored in the training cellars awaiting the arrival of the silver ship which was to take them to Gor.

Step by step, that experienced litigator, Augustus Frick drove her back.

He produced statements from Bruno and Niles, the chief keepers, that she had been in the cellars numerous times, assessing the captives, even looking at their files.

Chelsea denied that she had paid any particular interest in the two that escaped.

Augustus Frick produced statements from the two slaves that Chelsea Frick had spoken to each of them several times.

Chelsea claimed that slaves could not give testimony against any Free Person.

Augustus Frick quoted Gorean Law that slave testimony had to be taken under torture, then had Zack Frick confirm that the slave whip had been used during his interrogation.

Chelsea claimed that the two of them must have made it up.

Zack told Wyandotte that the two escapees had been questioned separately while the other was in a slave hood that prevented her seeing or hearing what was said.

It was then that Chelsea made a break for the door. Mrs Magruder, who had known her since she was a child; had grabbed her harshly by the upper arms and forced in back towards the desk.

“Stop! You’re hurting me. Make her stop, make her let me go.”

“Show some dignity you little thief”, hissed Mrs Magruder.” Your father would be ashamed of you, he always valued courage.”

At these words, Chelsea was silent. She was held up by Mrs Magruder and Mrs Crandell as judgement was pronounced.

“Chelsea Savannah Frick, I pronounce you guilty. I pronounce Chelsea Frick guilty of stealing two mostly untrained slavegirls, kajirae, from the family by facilitating their escape with intent to pick them up and add them to her own property. This scheme cost the Family two trained and experienced slaves and cost time and effort by not only members of the family, but by an outsider, to whom we already owe a debt of gratitude. This adds to the burden on the family at a perilous time when we have been excluded from the Council of the Families of North America and are under assault in the civil courts. Does the prisoner have anything to say before sentence is passed?”

“You owed me! You owed me two slave girls, you took away the two girls my father gave me, Fliss and Fleur. They were mine, and you took them away. My father gave them to me. To me. You can’t take them away! So I took two girls for my own. You owed me two girls.”

The hysterical girl stopped for breath. Wyandotte intervened.

“The girls were property of this House. I inherited them. I can do what I want with them. I have other uses for them. They will be given to loyal men to cement their loyalty in this time. They were mine. I took them.”

Chelsea was incandescent with rage.

“They were mine; my father gave them to me, you aren’t half  the man he was.”

She broke down crying.

“You have cost the House of Frick the two experienced kajirae that we had to add to the shipment to make up the promised numbers. Recovering these two untrained slaves does not and cannot make up for that loss.”

Wyandotte’s tone turned dark and harsh

“So here is your sentence. You will partially repay us, the Frick family with yourself. While I doubt you will ever make a satisfactory slave, it will be partial recompense.”

“First you will be whipped as a Free Woman, as a punishment. Then you will be collared, and marked, and added to our pool of slaves.  This is my judgement.”

“NOOO!!!  I beg you, not that, anything but that, anything that I can do to repay the family. But not that, NOOO!!”

Wyandotte sat in the chair. He considered. He looked up.

“A week ago, I suggested to you that a Companionship with Elliott Emery could win him to our side and help regain our seat on the Council of the North American Families. You turned me down.”

“But he is old!”

“It is too bad you declined him. Too late now, as a slave you would have no value as a Companion.”

“I will be his Companion, anything but the collar. I can do that for a year.”

“A year is no longer enough. The companionship must last at least two years; preferably three. It will take us that long to repair our position.”

“But a Companionship only lasts one year.”

“Then you must make sure he renews it. That is up to you. For three years you must be a compliant, happy, supportive Companion, the kind that makes sure he wants to renew.  If he renews the Companionship, then after two years you will no longer be under suspended sentence of Slavery. If the Companionship is renewed for a third year, and if it lasts the full three years, then your Trust Fund, your dowry will be returned to you. But you must be good for every day of those three years. Elliott Emory will not be easy to fool, So you must be a good Companion, every moment of every day.”

“Yes Ubar, it will be as you say.” Chelsea Frick sagged, defeated and scared.

Wyandotte nodded and turned to Mrs Crandall.

“Strip her, and secure her by the fireplace.”

Then turning to Zach Frick. “Thirty times with the slave whip.”

Then he turned to Mrs Crandall again. “Then take her up to bed, she can recover in her room. Tell the slaves and anyone else that she is recovering from sunstroke. I have had a long day, and I am going to bed.”

Wyandotte left the room. He had turned the embarrassing escape of two slaves into an alliance with one of the other Families and neutralized Chelsea Frick for three years.

I got up to leave as well, but Augustus Frick stopped me and pointed me to an armchair by the fire. “By Frick custom there must be two witnesses to the punishment of a Free Woman.”

So, I watched the two housekeepers remove Chelsea’s white nightgown and using shackles, secure her hands over her head. I was not averse to watching the proud beauty humbled and punished. Stripped of her clothing, she looked as I had imagined. I only regretted that she was going to escape the collar. I had irrationally wanted to own her, to have her kneeling beside Juli as my property.

Chelsea’s punishment was long and thorough. She would not forget it. When he was done, young Zach Frick quietly left the room. The sobbing Chelsea was released from the shackles and the two housekeepers led her from the room.

Only Augustus Frick and I remained. He poured two brandies, handing me one. We sat in by the fire, in matching leather armchairs.

“Something happens to a Free Woman when she is punished like that,” he said. When she is stripped and had the slave whip used on her. It strips her of more than her clothes. She is stripped of her illusion of power, her illusion of immunity, of invulnerability.

“She learns that her position as a Free Woman is something that is granted to her, and that men can strip it away.

“She learns that her body can be disposed of by men. She learned her vulnerability. She will never forget that. Even once her pain heals, the marks fade, she will remember that. She will remember that she was whipped naked in front of men.

Augustus Frick paused and sipped his brandy. He looked into the fire and continued.

“On the one hand, she will work and scheme incessantly to avoid that ever happening again. She will try to amass position, money, power. I predict that Chelsea Frick Emery will endure the full three years of her Companionship. She will smile and nod and do whatever she must to make Elliott Emery happy. When the Companionship expires after three years and two renewals, she will have him convinced it is his idea to end things. She will last the full three years because she wants that Trust Fund. She wants and needs the money to try to armor herself against an uncertain world. She will try to gain as much as she can, make her own allies amongst the Emerys. She will become dangerous, well as dangerous as a woman can be.”

He stopped, we sat in silence. Finally, he began again.

“That is one side of a Free Woman whipped, cautiousness and a desire for protection afforded by money and standing. And yet, sometimes she will do reckless things. She will seek security, but sometimes in risky ways. Remember, she has been stripped naked before men, felt the power of men. She will subconsciously remember that she was under the power of men. There will be times she will risk much to gain much. She will tell herself that it is only the thought of gain and security that impels her to take such and such a risk. But the risk itself, deep down, also calls to her. The risk she may again find herself in the power of men has its attractions, the risk of being stripped and shackled will pull at her subconscious. She may do something extremely foolish.”

“So, my friend, you may still have her collared at your feet, naked and vulnerable.
I started, shocked that he observed that.

“Don’t worry, you hide it well.” He smiled.

“But I am an old man. I can see your desire for Chelsea in a collar. Be patient, it may yet happen. Just don’t you do anything foolish.”

Then he left. I finished my brandy, alone with my thoughts.