“You shouldn’t have. She must have known what to expect. She knew the law and the consequences if she stowed away, just like the rest of them.”
“Yeah, I guess so. Yet they still keep coming.” He met Drake’s eye. “You don’t have to follow the Company line with me, Rafael. It’s not like we haven’t talked about this before. I know you don’t like what the sorry bitches go through any more than I do. It’s a hard introduction to a hard life, and we both know it.” When Drake did not reply he glanced at the girl. “I wonder what goes on in their heads. It’s hard to figure why they do it, and so many are the higher class ones with much more to lose than most.”
“Yet they often turn out to be the best,” Drake said. “I reckon they love it the way a drinker loves alcohol or an opium smoker the pipe. And in the same way, the more they get, the more they want.” Was that true of this one too? She looked to be asleep on her feet, unresponsive to the last dabs of the towel he gave to the smooth curves of her bottom. The Chief was right; she did have one hell of an ass, and tits to match, and there were those deep-blue eyes and full lips too. He turned away. “I’ve seen a good few in my time, but never one who acted quite as crazy as this one. She was babbling some nonsense at first, and acted like she recognised me, though I’d never seen her before. She kept calling me ‘Todd’ for some reason. I had to smack her ass to shut her up.” Drake remembered the pleasant sting on his palm as he had slapped the girl’s firm backside. “You’re right about her being a beauty though.”
Riley grinned. “You thinking of changing your rule about the girls, then? There’s nothing in the book says you can’t enjoy them.”
“There’s nothing that says I have to either. They have enough to put up with when they’re on duty. Besides, I like a break when I’m on board. It means I savour it more when I’m not.”
“Are you still hiring them? Still looking for that perfect girl, eh?”
Drake gave him a wry grin. “You know there’s no such thing. Not in my case anyway. Hiring’s easier. I get to have them when I want and I don’t have to house and feed them when I don’t. And since I’m paying for them, I can be sure I’m getting exactly what I ask for. There’ve been no more vibrations, I assume?”
“Not a one. Everything okay at your end?”
“Routine and normal. I guess I’d better get this one settled. I’m officer of the watch in an hour. Come on, girl, move your ass.” He smacked her right buttock. Ann mewed like a kitten and weakly raised her head. Her knees buckled and she slumped forwards.
“Damn,” Drake said, and closed his hands around her waist before she hit the floor. “Give me another towel, Alex. It looks like I’ll have to carry her.”
*
No less confused than when she had first arrived in this madhouse and even more afraid, Pam plodded along a metal corridor with the woman who had woken her from her exhausted sleep following close behind.
“Wait.” The order was accompanied by the woman jamming the short, bamboo stick she carried between Pam’s bare buttocks. She stopped with a squeak of outrage, though she was not entirely surprised after the other humiliations she had suffered. The stick’s pressure eased as the woman swung open the door in front of them. “Go on.”
“Please, where are you taking me?” Pam asked. “Won’t you give me some clothes?”
“Shut up.” The woman gave the same reply she had to all her other anxious questions.
“You can’t just ignore me,” Pam complained. “I have a right to….” The woman slammed her against the wall and held her there while her free hand clamped around Pam’s left breast. A thumb and forefinger pinched its nipple until her eyes were watering.
“Listen, you cow, I’ve done twenty years and I’ve got a perfect record.” The woman’s accent revealed she was English. “Three more and I can apply to be free of this lousy Company, and you’re not going to mess it up. All you need to know is you do as you’re told. I have caning rights and if you don’t start right now I’ll use them, you hear?”
The welts on Pam’s back and buttocks were buzzing painfully from the pressure of the wall. The woman had already added another one earlier and she did not want to feel the sting of the little cane across her bottom again. Belly fluttering, she nodded. Her tormentor let her go and pushed her through the doorway.
The passage beyond was wider, its walls painted, and the floor was cold under Pam’s bare feet. The others had been warm, probably from the heat rising from the engine room below them. That had to be what that infernal place was. Though she had had little time to think since she had awoken, Pam was almost sure she was on a ship. How she had got there remained a mystery, and how she could possibly get back made her gut churn and heart race every time she tried to think about it. Maybe she was really lying unconscious or comatose on the plane. Even that would be better than to be really experiencing the beating and bullying she had suffered. In desperation Pam closed her eyes, fervently hoping that when she opened them she would be looking into Todd’s concerned face. He had been quite attractive really, and maybe not as much of a sexist pig as she had been ready to believe.
“Hurry.” The terse command and a sharp tap of the stick on Pam’s rump made her open her eyes. Her heart sank. She was still in the passage, as she had known she would be. She could not escape the horrible feeling that she was not dreaming and that this unsympathetic world of callous, casual cruelty truly had become her reality.
“I don’t know what makes you mad bitches do it,” the Englishwoman said. “You’ve got everything and you throw it all away as if it’s nothing. I’ve struggled for years and even now, only if – and it’s a big if – I’m lucky I might get a taste of what you gave away without a thought. You’re not just mad, you’re bloody stupid.”
Unnerved as well as puzzled, Pam wanted to ask what she meant but her previous experiences told her she would be better silent. They turned a corner, passed two doors and a tap of the stick halted her at a third with the words First Officer stencilled on it. The Englishwoman knocked gently.
“Come in.”
Drake, who looked in every way identical to Todd, slipped the cap on his fountain pen as they entered, laid it on his desk and sat back in his chair.
“Hello, Ann. I’ve got the paperwork prepared.”
Pam stared. Directly before her was a large, rectangular window but she could see nothing beyond it. It was dark outside and all that was visible was her own reflection in the glass, reminding her she was entirely naked before a man who was a complete stranger. She put a hand over her sex and crossed a forearm over her out-thrust breasts. Despite her embarrassment the need to know where she was made her want to go to the window and try to see out. The sudden smack of the cane on her buttocks quashed the feeling with a fiery sting.
“Stand in front of the desk,” the Englishwoman barked, “and get your hands at your sides.” Apart from two brief pieces of material slung from a cord around her hips, barely covering her before and behind, she was as naked as Pam but clearly nowhere near as self-conscious about it.
The heat of Pam’s blush flamed on her cheeks as she obeyed and looked at Drake with a mixture of wariness and resentment.
“That’s all, Christine.” When the Englishwoman had gone he looked Pam up and down. “You’ve cleaned up well. You look very pretty.”
Pam had no recollection of being bathed but it must have happened, for she had been clean when she had been awoken. One bite from the Englishwoman’s cane had been enough to make her submit to having her face made-up and her hair brushed and pinned, when all she had wanted were answers to the questions crowding her mind. Neither had the indignities ended there.
Drake pushed the printed paper he had been writing on across the desk and pointed to an inkpad that lay beside it. “Right thumb print on the right bottom corner.”
“W…what is it?” Pam dared to ask.
“Your provisional acceptance papers, of course.” His mouth tightened as he stood, picked up a rod like the one he had
used in the Chief’s office and moved around the desk towards her. “I don’t know what this innocent act is all about, or what you expect to gain from it, but it’s trying my patience. And it’s going to stop now. You know it makes no difference if you’ve changed your mind, so get your print on the paper.” When she still hesitated he smacked the rod on the desktop. “Now!”
Pam jumped at the crack. Awed by his broad figure towering so close and terrified by the thought of him carrying out his earlier threat to strap her down and beat her, she jabbed her thumb onto the inkpad and pressed it to the printed sheet.
“That’s better.” Drake let the rod lie, took the paper and the passport he had found in what he thought was her bag, paper-clipped them together and slipped them into a brown folder on his desk. His hand seizing hers made Pam catch her breath but he only wiped the ink from her thumb with a damp cloth and released her. The skin of her wrist felt oddly warm where he had gripped it. The same feeling tingled through Pam’s jaw as his finger tilted her chin until she was looking into his eyes. A shiver of gooseflesh ran over her skin, spread across her shoulders and down to her breasts. To her alarm her nipples stiffened.
“I expect you’re afraid,” he said.
Dumbly, she nodded.
“Well, it’ll all be over soon and then you can start to learn the routine and settle in. It might seem strange at first but you’ll pick it up quickly enough.”
Even though she had no grasp of their meaning, his words were the first that had held even a hint of sympathy for her since she had been somehow plucked from the airplane. Pam felt a stirring of gratitude. It vanished as soon as he spoke again.
“They’ve done a good job on you. I like to see a neat little pussy like yours without any hair hiding it.”
An image of being held down by three near-naked girls while the Englishwoman waxed her sex and armpits filled Pam with instant indignation.
“Oh, do you?” she said hotly. “They had no right to….” She did not expect him to slide his hand between her thighs. Stunned, Pam stared open-mouthed into Drake’s eyes as his fingertips smoothed over the bare, pouting lips of her newly depilated sex. A second later she leapt away with heat flaring in her sheath and a startling cascade of juices bathing its quivering walls. Her head whirled. Only Rick’s touch had ever had such an immediate and intense effect before. Remembering him stabbed her heart as it always did, but Pam had no time to spare for past hurts. She had enough in the here and now. She shuddered, panting. “You m… mustn’t do that. It’s….”
“Not right,” Drake finished. “Nothing is, according to you. Come back here.” When she hesitated he curled his hand around the rod. To Pam’s relief he let go when she obeyed. She squeaked in anger and outrage when he immediately smoothed his fingers over her sex-lips again, and was thankful as well as surprised when he did no more. As his hand withdrew it brushed the apex of her sex. Pam looked down and gave a little mew of astonishment. The tip of her clitoris was standing out amid the flesh that should have concealed it. Her cheeks flamed, then flamed again as she saw her deep-red and erect nipples.
Drake laughed. “Now that’s what I expect from one of That Kind, not this coy, modest act you’ve been putting on. No one’s going to buy it anyway. Not after you stowed away.”
“But I keep telling you I didn’t stow away.”
“Then I guess you just appeared out of thin air?”
“Yes. No. Oh, hell! I was on a plane….”
His upraised hand stopped her. “There are no plains in the Atlantic Ocean, girl, as you know very well.”
“The Atlantic? Then I’m where I was, except… not where I was, or maybe when I was?” It was a difficult idea to grasp, let alone put into words.
Drake was not listening. He took out a large pocket watch. “Time we moved along. The passengers will be gathering in the saloon before dinner.”
“Oh, why won’t anyone listen? Doesn’t anyone have any respect for anyone else here?”
Drake’s glance at her seemed surprised. “Sure, but not for you. That’s something else you sacrificed the right to when you gave up your freedom.”
“Freedom?” Pam’s belly felt instantly and horribly hollow. “Please, for one minute pretend I have no idea what’s happening and tell me what it is I’ve done to make everyone mad at me.”
“No one’s mad at you, but a lot will despise you.” Drake sighed. “Okay, I’ll play along this once, but only once. You stowed away. That’s an international offence with a mandatory punishment. You automatically become the property of the Company whose vessel you illegally boarded, in this case the Empire Star Line. That’s why I’ve signed you on as a stewardess third class on the crew of the Empire’s Triumph.”
“P… property?” The hollow feeling intensified. “What the hell are you saying?”
“What I’m saying, as you already know, is that you belong to the Company. You’re a bonded slave girl.”
“Oh, my God!”
It took every shred of control and willpower Pam could summon to stop her from passing out. She was still reeling when Drake took her forward from his office to a part of the vessel where the corridors were carpeted and their walls painted in tasteful pastel shades. Questions crowded her mind but the lieutenant’s patience was exhausted, and in her shock and near-panic Pam forgot them as quickly as they arose. A slave! The word ran round and round in her head as Drake guided her along passageways and through a double door. The room beyond was more brightly lit than anywhere Pam had seen so far. And it was full of people! Senses still swamped by what she had learned, she took in little of her surroundings but could still cringe inwardly as heads began to turn in her direction.
Big, rectangular windows at either side of the room showed it extended the width of the vessel. Between two of the windows on one side was a small stage with tables arranged in semi-circles in front of it. On the stage was a tall, chromed-metal post and beside it another shiny metal object shaped like half a barrel and mounted on two pairs of legs of different lengths and set at different angles. Drake made for the stage but his glance at the bar that occupied most of the other side of the saloon made him head in that direction instead. Horribly conscious of her nudity and especially her newly depilated sex, Pam felt her cheeks grow hot. There must be thirty men and women in the room and they were all looking at her. The buzz of her wealed back and buttocks reminded her that they too were clearly visible and Pam cringed once more at the knowledge everyone could see the evidence of her abuse and humiliation. She had an awful certainty that none of them would care.
They approached a man in a uniform similar to Drake’s but wearing gold-tasselled epaulettes on his shoulders and three gold stars in his lapels. As they reached him a slim, blonde-haired young woman glided along the bar and slipped her arm through his.
“Oh, is this the stowaway? How fascinating.” She extended the long, black cigarette holder in her free hand and deliberately flicked hot ash from her cigarette onto Pam’s left breast. The American girl hissed and rubbed at the discomfort. The blonde pushed her hand away. “Keep still, darling, while I look at you.”
Her gaze travelled slowly over Pam’s nakedness. Uncomfortable under the blatant scrutiny, she could still feel surprise at how the young woman was dressed. Her long, ivory-coloured gown of knitted silk clung to her like a second skin, revealing every curve and hollow of her slender figure. What most astonished Pam, however, was that it only covered the blonde’s left breast, leaving the right one completely bare except for a jewelled, gold clip covering her nipple. Equally astonishing was the fact that she was not the only female in the room dressed that way, and that none of them seemed at all self-conscious about it. Pam looked up from the small, firm swell of the young woman’s breast and found herself staring into two large, green eyes.
“My, she’s a beauty.” The pink tip of the blonde’s tongue ran slowly over her glossy red lips and her smile bared two pointed eyeteeth. To Pam, they looked sharper than usual, almost felin
e, like the smile itself. Leaning closer, the young woman took a long sniff. “I think she’s excited too. Did it thrill you, darling, hiding from everyone until you saw your chance to sneak on board? I’ll bet it was exciting finding a little corner to cram yourself into and huddling there all hot and shivery between the legs, knowing you were bound to get caught.” She laughed and her eyes shone. “And all the time thinking about what was going to happen when you were.”
Pam lowered her gaze with her cheeks flaming. She too had caught the scent of feminine musk that clung in the air around her. Her sex and inner thighs were damp from the startling effects of Drake’s brief exploration. She heard him clear his throat.
“Excuse me, Miss Peake, I have duties to perform. With your permission, Commodore.”
“But I’d like to talk to her.” The blonde turned to the Commodore, smiling sweetly but insincerely. “Latimer, darling, you don’t mind if I bend the rules a tiny bit, do you?”
The man’s look of annoyance gave way to a faint smile. He nodded to Drake. “I think we can make an exception for Miss Peake, Lieutenant, providing it doesn’t become a habit.”
“Thank you, darling. Be a treasure, Mister Drake, and bring her along to my stateroom, would you?”
Drake cleared his throat again. “I don’t think that’s what Commodore Traske meant when he gave you permission to speak to the slave.”
Pam shuddered at the word and gave him a resentful glance. His mouth was a thin, disapproving line.
“Permission?” The blonde smiled, catlike once more. “I didn’t ask for that, Lieutenant, only the merest favour. And since I own half the Company don’t you think that technically half of the girl belongs to me already?”
“Maybe so, Ma’am,” he said stiffly, “but we have rules and regulations we must follow.”
“Never mind, Drake,” the Commodore said, though he looked displeased. “Carry on. We’re always glad to accommodate Miss Peake.”
The blonde laughed, eyes flashing mischievously. “Oh, I shall hold you to that one day, darling. And thank you. Come along, Mister Drake. I won’t keep her long.” Her gaze travelled the length of Pam’s nudity. “Just long enough.”
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