Tales of Drysdale House (11C)

 

11C Overwhelming Hannah Quigley.

I tried to feed Hannah Quigley more of the slave gruel that constituted the evening meal that Lena had brought the captive of Vansittart. Hannah shook her head and burst into tears. In a way I blamed myself. When I was talking to her about her slave-rape by Jackson, I had been too kind and considerate. Hannah, while still technically free, was a captive, and overly kind treatment of a captive would remove the strength a captive needed to survive. I gave orders,

“Back on your knees, Hannah. Behave yourself while your are still a captive.”

Startled, she looked at me with apprehension. She immediately dropped to her knees, spreading them open automatically. She sniffed back her dripping nose, and wiped her eyes with the back of her left hand.

“I am sorry, sir. So sorry. I know that you will try to get me out of here, but it is so hard; so overwhelming. It is all so overwhelming.”

She steadied herself, straightening her back; which put her more of the classic position, with chest thrust out. I nodded approvingly.

“So did you manage to get some sleep after that? Some rest at least.”

“No sir, no. More terrible things happened. Later Mr Montgomery, the second in command to Captain Cathcart came in the middle of the night. He was very angry. He had planned to, uh, uh, use Lena, that slave of Mr VanRijn, because Mr VanRijn was sick. But he said Mr Vansittart had taken her instead.”

I interrupted.

“What do you mean? ‘use her’? How did he mean to use her?”

“Don’t make me say it, sir. Please, I beg you.”

“Tell me what you mean.”

She looked up. Her eyes were pleading. I was stony-faced. She finally started speaking.

“I mean put her to use, sir. Sexually sir. He meant to fuck her, fuck her hard, he said. But he couldn’t sir, because of Mr Vansittart taking her sir.”

“You mean, Vansittart meant to use Lena sexually as slave, don’t you Hannah?”

“Yes sir. When Mr Vansittart came here in the middle of the night, he said that one slut in a collar is as good as another.”

I just looked at her. She shriveled a little, then straightened her back. She took a deep breath, gathering her strength.

“He meant to use me as a slave, sir. Even though I am a free woman, as you said, sir. I am not a slave; I am free!” But that meant nothing to him, sir. He had me remove my red underwear, sir.”

“You removed your underwear, rather than have it ripped from you, as it would be ripped from a free woman?” My voice was stern.

“I removed my underwear, sir, because if he ripped it from me, I would not be able to  put them back on afterward, sir. If I could put my clothes back on of my own free will, well, that is something a slave could not do!

Then Mr Montgomery tied my hands together with one of the leather straps and tied them to that ring over there.”

She pointed to a ring set into the stone floor. With her hands tied there she would be tied lying on the floor, vulnerable. She continued, her voice low.

“He was so strong, sir, and I was so helpless, so vulnerable. Everything was so overwhelming. Then he used me, used me like a slave-girl, like that girl Lena.”

She was blushing. Even in the low light of the dungeons of Dragonwyck it was clear.

“It must have been terrible.”

Her blushes were even more evident now.

“It was so awful; my body betrayed me. The physical sensation of his strength and being tied up made my body betray me. My body yielded to his strength and might. I was overwhelmed and yielded.”

“And then he left?”

Hannah Quigley looked down. For a while she said nothing. Then she began again,

“No sir, not right away. He looked at me, looked at me like I was a slave-girl, like I was that Lena girl. Then he started writing something in a little book that he keeps. Then sir well, in a little while after that he overwhelmed me again sir. My body betrayed me again. It was so humiliating that my body it that!”

“You came? You yielded to him; yielded in ecstasy?”

“Yes, sir. To my shame. My body betrayed me. I am a free woman, not one of those submissive New Feminists.

“Then he untied me and left. I cleaned myself up and yes, of my own free will, I put on the red underwear that was all I had.”

I looked at her sternly. Any kindness or gentleness would lead to a breakdown. A captive has to be strong in her captivity.

“Even though the wisp of silk that kisses and caresses your private places is all you have, you put on slutty lingerie, clothes more suitable to the collared Lena than for a free woman?”

“Yes sir! Yes I did. Because it is better than nothing, I am not a slave!”

“So then you slept, after having strong orgasms when you were overwhelmed?”

“No sir. My sleep was troubled by the predicament I was in and by what had happened to me. I had dreams, bad dreams, triggered by what had happened with Mr Jackson and Mr Montgomery, and by being whipped by Mr Vansittart and being in a collar chained to a wall.”

I was interested now. What kind of dreams does a captive have, when she is chained to a wall after being whipped and used by strong men?

Hannah was silent for a moment. I took more gruel from the bowl and with my fingers stuffed it in her mouth. She swallowed the tasteless paste. Then she leaned towards my fingers and slowly and lovingly licked them clean. I pushed my fingers into her mouth, and she licked and sucked them clean. I repeated the feeding, she repeated the actions with my fingers. Finally the bowl was nearly empty and I put it down on the stone floor. I wiped my fingers on her left breast. Hannah did not protest.

“Now tell me about your dreams.”

“I dreamed I was at an oasis, in the desert. There were low black tests around the water hole; there were palm trees scattered around. I was nearly naked, there was a collar around my neck, just like the one I have now. I had a little bit of clothing around my loins, like I do now. The difference was I had a brand on my thigh. A branded slave! When a man called me, I would run to him and kneel in front of him. I would beg to serve him, serve him as Lena serves Mr VanRijn. I would kiss his feet and beg for his touch. He would have me stand in front of him, with my legs apart and my hands clasped behind my head. I would beg to be picked over all the slaves in the camp. I was in a camp with a lot of slaves. I was in competition with them.

I would wake up discontented and upset. Upset at my reaction, upset at my dreams.

I had the same dream over and over again. Sometimes I would be put to use; sometimes I would be denied. It was never my decision.

I hated it.”

Hannah was clearly upset. I was stern.

“Lick out the bowl,Hannah.”

“Sir, please not sir.”

“Lick out the bowl!”

Sadly, Hannah picked up the bowl to obey.

“No, Hannah. Put down the bowl, and lick the bowl while you are on your knees, with your head in the bowl.  Lick it.”

It was necessary to be stern with captives, lest they break down in a puddle of tears.

“Lick it, Hannah, lick it like a beast.”

She looked at me resentfully. Slowly she obeyed. On her knees, bent over she licked the bowl clean.

I stood up and stretched. I started towards the door. Hannah reached out her arms.

“Please sir, don’t leave me. Don’t leave me. I am afraid.”

“I must leave now, Hannah. I will return to get you before I leave; when I have completed by business with VanRijn.”

“Please stay, sir. Please hold me, comfort me.”

“Are you begging for use? Like a slave? Like in your dreams?”

“Not like a slave, sir. No, hold me respectfully, like a free woman.

I did not answer her pleas. She stretched out as close to me as she could. Hannah was lying on the floor, hands outstretched towards my boots. I walked away and out through the door. I closed the door and secured the bolts. I slipped into the corridor and sought out the hidden passages that had been constructed so that the servants could serve the VanRijns and their guests without being seen.

In a passage off the great hall, I found a servant’s bunk and using my small pack as a pillow I prepared for sleep.

*

As I drifted off to sleep, I turned my mind to a few things.

The first was if the VanRijns had contacts with the Steel Worlds. I decided I did not think so. I thought that the enslavement of Lena the mushroom forager and the captivity of Hannah Quigley did not so much point to a connection to the Steel Worlds but were the result of a thousand generations of evolution. Strong men tended to want to dominate and own their women as I owned my beloved Juli. Our connection was stronger and deeper since I had put a collar on her.

Perhaps I did not want to believe there was a connection because that would mean my mentors the Fricks had great problems. If VanRijn was backed by someone with a connection to the Steel Worlds then the Fricks would have been in trouble. Perhaps the connection was with one of the North American Families, but I doubted it. If there was a connection it would be with the English party, and the English were, as I had heard, firmly crushed after their murder of Willard Frick. No, I decided, VanRijn wanted to own indentured women because his ancestors had held slaves and it was a natural thing for a powerful man to want to do.

That settled, I turned my mind to the problem of Hannah Quigley. I had promised Barbara Quigley that I would do my best to bring her sister back safely. Wyandotte Frick had commanded that no action be taken against the Quigleys, at least for the next year. So both my promise and my loyalty demanded I return Hannah to Pittsburgh as free woman and unharmed. One the other hand, she had responded to being in a collar, she had responded to being put on her knees, her body had responded overwhelmingly to being taken with her hands secured when she was collared. Perhaps in San Francisco, Hannah would be given a choice: a cold life as a free woman, or to proclaim La Kajira.

I decided that, pending more information, I would proceed as if there was no connection between VanRijn and the Steel Worlds. I would, pending more analysis of her actions and responses, treat Hannah Quigley as a free woman.

In my dreams though, I dreamed I ravished Hannah Quigley as I would have ravished a slave-girl. Overwhelmed, she respond as a kajira.