After The Bighorn, Chapter Fifteen

 

After the Bighorn Chapter 15

Juli’s Narrative.

It was Friday now, and I was just leaving the exercise studio where I still worked part-time. Patrick had insisted that I not quit without any notice, so After the Bighorn when I was enslaved, he had me return to work. Now I still work there on a contract basis, because my Master wanted me to scout the instructors and students for suitable candidates for the collar.

I felt so two-faced about that, but he is my Master, so what can I do? Besides, I am happy and content in my collar, so who is to say that the women Master Patrick selects will not feel the same. The whip, and the constant reminder that they are slaves will help make them accept and be happy in their roles. Master Woodrow Frick from the Lazy F ranch assures me that tens of thousands of years of evolution have imprinted on us our roles as man and woman, and Mr John Norman’s tales tell us the same. Master Woodrow lived on Gor for years and even became a Warrior so he has lived out these stories.

I had showered after teaching a class when Geena, one of the other instructors, came into our change room. I was just putting on a skirt that went down to my knees, although it had a slit up to the thigh, when she said hello.  I stopped to talk to her; we have been friends for two or three years.

“You have certainly changed how you dress since you moved in with Patrick after your May vacation in Montana. Is it worth landing a man and living with him if you must dress so, so, so provocatively all the time.”

“I love to dress this way for Patrick. I feel like a real woman.”  It was hard to say Master Patrick’s name without the Master in front, but I am still not allowed to openly proclaim myself his slave.

“You used to have such lovely clothes, Juliet. Such lovely material, and a good respectable cut. I just worry about you, that is all. Your rectitude was an example to us all.”

“I am satisfied with my life now, Geena. It is all good. I am very happy.”

“Okay darling. You know you can come and talk at any time, if you need to.”

I put on a halter top and leaned in and hugged Geena.

“I know you are concerned, but really Geena, I am very happy.”

Geena hugged me and as she straightened up, she fingered my collar.

“Does it have anything to do with this, is it some kinky thing you and Patrick are into?”

“Nothing kinky at all, what I have with Patrick is the most natural thing in the world.”

“Well, okay. Call me sometime, we will go out for drinks.”

Geena is a dear. I wonder what Master Patrick will decide about her.

It was noon when I took the cable car from the studio to Master Patrick’s office in the Hathaway Building. Despite being built in the 1870s it is a lovely old place, all up to date without being obtrusively so. There were only female security guards at the desk when I arrived. I assumed the male guards had seniority and were off for lunch. They pretended not to see me for quite a while before one agreed to escort me up the stairs to Master Patrick’s office on the top, the fifth floor. She was in good shape; she did not huff and puff as we climbed. She was young, younger than the one who usually worked the desk. I did not think that Master Patrick would have her seized; he told me once that he would not grab too many from his immediate vicinity: it would be suspicious.

In a change, I was immediately escorted to my Master’s office. Even though he is away in Pittsburgh, the office is being used. Gerry Reiss, my Master’s great friend, is using it while he coordinates the San Francisco end of the Frick-VanRijn patent lawsuit.  Master Gerry knows I am a slave, my Master displayed me as such before him. It was a revelation to him how exciting a woman, naked and collared can be. I was that woman. Master Patrick told him that while he is away, I am his to use. On Tuesday, he had me chained up naked while he worked. I was put to slave use. But it has now been three days, my slave fires are excited, yet Master Gerry has not touched me since that day. I suspect he may be ashamed of his natural instincts, and his societal conditioning has overcome them. Perhaps I will need to beg for slave use, but maybe I can wait as my Master will be home for the weekend. Men are so cruel to the needs of a slave girl.

The receptionist knocked on the door and waited until Master Gerry gave permission to enter. I was then escorted in. Master Gerry Reiss handed me the mail that had come for Master Patrick, and I began sorting it into the usual three piles: business, personal, and junk. I worked at my task, while Master Gerry worked away at Master Patrick’s desk. He did not look at me, he seemed to look everywhere else but at me. When I was done, I knelt beside the coffee table in the office.

For an hour, Master Gerry did not say anything. There was a quick knock at the door, then Ms Jane Bennet breezed in. She had not waited for permission to enter, which was bad manners. I knew that even when I was free. She looked at me and smiled. There was some chat with Master Gerry, then she left. I found the courage to speak without permission.

“May I get you some coffee, Master.”

“Yes, Juliet.”

Juliet was my Free Woman name. He knew I was Juli the slave now. I made fresh coffee and prepared it the way he liked it. I knew how he liked his coffee from when I was free and was friends with Master Gerry and his wife.

I knelt by the desk, holding up the coffee cup.

“Your coffee, Master.”

“Thank you, Juliet, you don’t need to call me that you know.”

“I am sorry Master, but I am Juli now, and Master Patrick has instructed me that I must.”

“Very well, just go sit over there and be quiet.”

I could see he was torn between his instincts and his conditioning. He did not strip and use me, but he did not send me away either.

Twice that afternoon Ms Bennet entered the office interrupting Master Gerry. The last time she did not knock at all, just barged in.

“Ms Bennet, you do not enter an office without knocking AND waiting for a response. Do you do that when Mr Masters is here”

“No, but I figured that you and I were friends, Gerry and I…”

“That’s Mr Reiss, we are not friends, we work at the same place. I am your boss on this project. You are not acting in a professional manner. I shall recommend to Mr Masters that you be removed from this project.”

“No, Mr Reiss, please no. I don’t want to be off the project. I will do anything to make up for it.”

Even then the sly minx was eyeing him and licking her lips.

“No Miss Bennet, there have to be consequences. Your behavior was right over the line.”

“Maybe I could do something?”

“No.”

She was almost crying now. It was then I figured out two things. The first was that she had hoped to find Master Gerry and I ‘doing something’ that she thought she could use for blackmail. The second was that Master Gerry had been suppressing his instincts and that Ms Bennet was about to find out it is unwise to push a man too far when his Masterly instincts are being aroused.

Ms Bennet was not acting coy now. She was in real fear of losing her position on the case or even her job.

“Don’t tell Mr Masters, do anything, spank me, punish me yourself.”

“Mr Masters shall be informed, it will be as he decides.”

Ms Bennet left the room crying. Master Gerry then put me to use. I was pleased; I also knew that I had made a bad enemy in Ms Bennet by witnessing her humiliation.

Kajira Nineteen’s Narrative

Seventeen and I were lost. It was very dark in the country and we had missed our landmarks. We were alone at night in the countryside trying to escape and we were very lost.

Yesterday, the Free Lady had come up to Seventeen when she was working emptying the waste buckets from our kennel, and whispered that our escape must be tonight.

“The hounds are being sent away tonight for a hunt tomorrow. If I am to help you leave this place and avoid being sent to Gor, then it must be tonight. This vial of powder must be mixed with the gruel of you kennel mates tonight, then you must use this key to escape the kennel. Go up the stairs and into the ballroom. There will be instructions there for a rendezvous.” Then she walked away before anyone could notice her talking to a slave.

Seventeen talked to me in a quiet corner. She hid the vial in her person, as drug smugglers do, while I hid the key in the same way. That night, Seventeen volunteered to collect the bowls of gruel for our kennel. It was Eighteen’s turn, but she had been worn out by the trainers Bruno and Niles. She was becoming quite a favorite of theirs. Twenty made some nasty comment about Eighteen being a slut, but we knew it was just because she was jealous. Twenty, like Seventeen and I was white silk, she had not been opened for the use of men, and her virginity would be auctioned off by her owner on Gor. Or so we were assured. Twenty, who had known of Gor before our kidnapping, was becoming impatient to be a real kajira, a Gorean Slavegirl. It was ironic then, that she was the slowest in her Gorean lessons. She had to stay with the slow group, learning words, while the rest of us, were giving lessons in pleasing men.

Seventeen and I crouched by the oak tree. At least we thought it was an oak tree. We were lost. Somehow, we had missed our way. We heard an owl hoot. We heard noises in the woods. We did not know if the animal would hurt us or was afraid of us. What if it were pursuit from our captors? We had to get away! We went over again the instructions for our escape and rendezvous. We needed to be at the apple orchard on the old back road by 6. But we had become lost crossing the cornfield and missed the landmark which would set us on the right path through the wood. Once through the wood, there was an old dead tree, still standing, that would put us on the right path through the meadow to the apple orchard where the Free Lady would pick us up. But we had to be there by six.

We crouched at the edge of the woods. There was no old tree. No real meadow either, more of a swamp. So we had lost our way in the woods and taken the wrong path. Light was beginning to show in the east. At least we knew which direction east was.

I was comforted by one thing, Seventeen and I had not given in to blaming each other for getting lost. That is easy when things go wrong. I felt very close to her, even though she was from The Ohio State University, while I was from the University of Michigan. That was unimportant now. We needed to escape. Over the past few days, I had felt myself slipping into thinking that being a slave would not be that bad. I had been happy to get compliments for my skills in pleasing men with my mouth and hands. I was becoming comfortable on my knees; feeling it was my natural place. I had to get out. I knew that Seventeen felt the same.

“Seventeen?”

“Yes/”

“What is your real name. We are almost out of here. We can share our real names.”

“We are not out yet, it would be bad luck to act as though we are free, when we are not.”

“I guess you are right. Once we are free though.”

“Once our collars are off, and we have clothes on.”

“Deal”

“Deal.”

By the increasing light we made our way back through the woods to the cornfield. Seventeen found out that we had veered too far from the path in the dark. We searched along the edge, until we found our proper path through the woods. Our feet hurt and even so our progress was slow. Bare feet and the woods do not go together. The path was overgrown and branches scrapped and scratched our naked bodies. Why could not the Free Lady have left us clothes if she was helping us to escape. Why just us? Why just the two of us, not the whole twenty? What was she getting out of this?

We pushed forward. She was the only one who had offered to help us, it was trust her or stay and be shipped off to slavery on another planet. It was the Gorean language that we were being taught that had made me accept the existence of Gor. It had earth roots, I was sure, but it was not an Earth language.

I giggled.

“What’s so funny?”

“We worked so hard to learn Gorean, now we won’t even get to use it?”

Seventeen just looked at me for a moment, then she too began to laugh. We were a little hysterical.

Seventeen was leading when we came out at the meadow. This time we were right by an old dead oak tree. There was a blaze cut into the wood, pointing across a meadow. It was full light now. Neither of us took the first step into the open.

“We’re naked.”

I took a deep breath. “Yes, we are. But we have been naked for over ten days. Across the meadow, out in the open, naked, is the only way to the meeting place.”

Seventeen took my hand and we set out into the open, naked under the sun.

The sun was well up by now, I was very afraid of being late to the meeting place. Eventually we reached the apple orchard. We went through it and reached the road.

There was no one there.

“I think we are late. The sun is really well up. We may have missed her.”

I was more positive.

“She will wait; I am sure of it. Look at all the trouble she went to for us to escape.”

“Not so much trouble. Just some sleeping powder for the gruel, and the key. We had all the trouble, stumbling through the corn field and the woods in the night. We were the ones who had to shove the vial and the key up ourselves to hide them.”

“Maybe she can only be away for a short time before she is missed.”

“You’re right. I think we should wait here to see if she can come back later. It is our best bet, at least for a short time.”

“We could try to flag down a car.”

“There hasn’t been a lot of traffic down the road. And they might not stop.”

“Why wouldn’t they stop?”

Seventeen was relentlessly practical.

“They might be afraid of a couple of naked women jumping out at them.”

“A woman might stop to help another woman.”

“Unless she thinks it is a trap. Someone with bad intent hiding and waiting to leap out once she stops.”

“True, and the same might go for a man. Or the man might have bad intent. I am not as trusting of men as I was ten days ago.”

“Or the neighbors or law enforcement might be under the influence of the people at the mansion.”

“We’ll wait then. Wait for the Free Lady to rescue us.”

We waited in the Apple Orchard. Two naked Eves. Who would come, our rescuer, or a snake?

Patrick Masters’s Narrative.

Saturday morning and I came down late for breakfast. I had not returned to San Francisco this weekend. I had asked Gerry Weiss to make sure that Juli’s food hopper was refilled. His report on Jane Bennet had confirmed that I was right to bring Dana Winter to Pittsburgh. She is much more reliable than Bennet.

I was eating breakfast with Zach Frick. J Augustus Frick had come over for a quick consultation. Wyandotte Frick had gone with Woodrow Frick to a country fair meeting taking the dogs with them. He was trying to repair some relations with the neighbors of the Frick estate. In the days of the Frick power, those relationships had fallen into disrepair, but Willard Frick was dead, and Wyandotte was of a more conciliatory disposition. Mrs Crandell, the housekeeper, informed us that Chelsea Frick had been out earlier and was now breakfasting in her room.

There was a knock at the door.  Bruno, the head of the employees came in. He looked upset.

“Two of the kajirae in the cellar have escaped.”

Zack interjected, “How is that possible?”

“We don’t know. Their kennel was locked. The doors were locked. The trapdoor to the ballroom was not secured. The other two in the kennel were questioned. They claim they were asleep. We used the whip, but their story didn’t change. I believe them. They may have been drugged.”

“Get the dogs from the kennel, we still have their clothes?”

“We do. But Mr Wyandotte has taken the dogs to the County Fair. There is another complication. Niles just received notification that the Silver Ship will be landing at the embarkation point tonight. The truck will have to leave in the next half hour to make the connection to Gor.”

J. Augustus began issuing orders.

“Have Niles load the remaining eighteen on the truck. Talk to Mrs Crandell, there are a couple of house slaves I am sure she can spare. I hate sending fully trained girls to Gor, our consignees will only pay us for untrained girls, we are going to take a loss. Don’t send the girls who were training the captives. I don’t see why their failure to detect this escape should be rewarded by a trip to Gor.”

Bruno turned to follow orders. The shipment must not miss the rendezvous with the Silver Ship. August Frick told Zach and I to follow him. We descended to the cellars and went through the holding area. Girls were being loaded on the truck. Some were crying, some were excited. Kailieka and Jade, the slaves training the captives were secured to the wall with chains; they would be dealt with later. We went into a room with labelled bags of clothes.

Zack grabbed two bags then we followed after Augustus.

We descended a tunnel that I found led to the kennels where the dogs slept. Augustus opened a door.

“The dogs have all been taken to the County Fair,” reminded Zach.

There was a musky, feral smell coming from the darkened cages.

“There are other trackers than dogs.” Augustus was grim.

I could not see into the cages; I knew it was not to dogs that Augustus held forth the two bundles of clothes.

“Find”

“Capture”

There were whines from the cages. Whatever was in there was in a hurry to be on the hunt.

Augustus turned to Zach, and pointed to a lever beside the cages.

“Release the sleen.”