"Negotiate?" Her eyes grew wide. Her voice dropped down to a whisper. "No one has ever asked me what I think – about anything." She cleared her throat. "Do your slaves get punished, too?"
Now he really looked uncomfortable. "Well, yes, but only if they break a rule that they've agreed to."
"How do you punish them?"
"Lydia, are you sure you want to talk about this?"
"Only if you wish to, sir. Forgive me." She had overstepped her bounds. Hell, she had obliterated them. She had no business asking him these questions. She tried to slip from his lap. His warm, soft, comforting lap.
He tightened his grip then relaxed. "No, Lydia, I'm sorry. Please don't go. Unless you want to."
Another choice. Her tongue was paralyzed. Finally, she decided that truth was the best idea. "No, I don't really want to. It's nice here," she confided.
"So you want to know about punishments." He cleared his voice. "Every couple is different. Some use punishments that aren't physical, like not being allowed to get on the computer, or leave the house, or having privileges removed. Some use physical punishments, like spanking."
"Or whipping?" She swore she felt his cock twitch beneath her thighs.
"Yesss... Like whipping." His voice held a note of reluctance, as though he didn't like the close relationship between what people on his planet did and what people on hers did. "But never as bad as what you went through."
"Do most men have more than one slave? I mean wife?"
"Most relationships are two people – a man and a woman, or two men, or two women. But sometimes there are more. You come from a house with a lot of slaves, don't you?"
She nodded. "Most men try to have at least two slaves, and wealthy men often have five or more. One is usually the First Slave and she's the one who has his children, his boys. It's often a love match. Masters who can afford it will buy more young women as we're auctioned around our 18th birthday. But we all hope to find a master who loves us and will buy us from our first master and make us his First Slave. Most older masters are willing to sell if it's for love and they approve of the man."
"And then you'd have children together?"
She nodded. "If the new master has enough money, he can arrange to have just boys. If not, they take their chances."
"Why wouldn't you want to have girls?"
She looked at him, realizing how little he knew about her planet. "Because if we have girls, they're taken away to go to school when they're about five, and when they turn eighteen they're sold. Most mothers never see their daughters again."
He caught his breath and she felt his disbelief. This she could understand, because no mother ever gave her daughter up willingly. Masters and slaves would pull together every penny they had to have a boy so that they didn't have to go through the heartbreak.
He was silent for a while. Eventually he cleared his throat. "So, um, doesn't this mean there are a lot more men than women here? Families try to have only boys, and those boys want more than one woman. I'd think there would be a shortage of women."
She shrugged again. "There always seem to be enough at the auctions." It was a question she'd wondered about herself many times, but asking questions wasn't healthy. She'd tried to work it out with her basic math skills a few times, but the answer always came up so dramatically wrong she had to be making a mistake somewhere.
"So, do you ever see your parents?"
She stiffened. "No. I don't remember them at all." This time she did slip from his lap to stand up.
"Lydia, I'm sorry! That was a stupid question."
Another apology. She shook her head to clear away the whole conversation. "Are there more books you'd like me to get, Master?"
She saw sadness in his eyes. Eventually he nodded. "Yeah. There's a list."
The Past is Not What You Were Taught
She spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon fetching and returning books. In between she knelt on the floor, not really sure what had happened earlier and why she'd reacted like she had, but unable to shake the moroseness that had fallen over her. She heard him struggle with the Br'ini pronunciations, and though she herself wasn't very good, she often whispered the answer to him under her breath, wishing she could be up there helping him.
James had had the foresight to order extra meat, bread and some fruit with breakfast, and they improvised a make-do lunch right there. She longed to get some fresh air, but he was a man on a mission right now. She still didn't know exactly what he was looking for.
She was tired; the hotel floor had not been very restful, and so eventually she shifted so she could lean against a leg of the table. She felt her eyes closing and for once she didn't fight it. He'd call her if he needed her.
The next thing she knew he was gently pulling on her shoulder. She shook her head and looked up.
"You've been out for about forty-five minutes, and it looked like you were going to fall over. I'm almost done with this book; should we get some fresh air soon?"
"That would be nice, sir." She smiled.
"You want to put these books away in the meantime?"
She lurched to her feet, stiff from the cold floor. He heaved an oversized book into her arms so big that she had to hug it to herself to avoid dropping the tome. She looked at the numbers on the spine and made her way into the dim stacks. She found the right place, but the book was too big to go back on the shelf there. There must be a place for oversize books. She wandered deeper into the stacks, the light getting dimmer. She reached the back of the archives where the last shelf sat against a brick wall, and finding no obvious place for the heavy book, leaned in the corner between the brick wall and the end of a shelf to rest for a moment.
The shelves shifted to the left. Lydia let out a little screech. She heaved the heavy book onto a bare spot on the shelf and looked closely at the metal structure. It had been pushed a few inches to the side, and behind it, she saw a vertical seam in the bricks.
She gave a second experimental shove to the shelf and it obligingly slid further to the left. Now she could see a second vertical seam. One more shove and the shelf had been moved completely to the side, revealing a horizontal seam about six feet up, joining the two vertical seams.
A door?
She searched for a knob or handle, and started pushing at individual bricks until one gave way at her pressure. Silently the door swung away from her into the wall, revealing a large dark opening.
She should go back. This was none of her business, especially in this place filled with forbidden objects. She should shut the door; she should let James know about it, she should–
She took a single step inside the opening. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust in the dim light, but when they did her eyes went wide.
More books.
Lots of books.
As far as the dim light traveled into the room, there were books.
She took another step forward and shrieked. Light flooded the room, illuminating every corner. She looked wildly around for someone else, but realized she must have triggered the lights by stepping into the room. Once her heart had stopped doing flip-flops in her chest, she looked around at the shelves. And her heart stopped again.
Every book within sight was written in Eluiim.
She started down the row nearest her. Big books, little books, books with gilt titles like the ones in Master's office, plain books. In all kinds of subjects – science, math, people, histories of Midros, and books with stories that were made up.
All written in Eluiim. Just like ones written in Br'ini.
In all her life, she'd read only a handful of books. When she was a child, she'd read a children's book about manners and behavior, and of course there were basic math and science books. When she was older, there were books on how to please men, and instruction books on cooking and cleaning and all kinds of jobs suited for women, but all those books together would fill up about one shelf.
"Lydia?"
She whirled around and barely managed t
o keep from screeching. James stood in the doorway, but he wasn't looking at her. He was gazing at the books, looking as amazed as she herself must have been.
"What is this?" he asked, his eyes finally coming to rest on her.
"I have no idea." She shook her head. "I just saw the door, and I opened it, and the lights came on, and ...this!" She swept her hand around.
He peered at the nearest shelf. "This isn't Br'ini, is it? Is it Eluiim?"
She nodded. "Every book so far is in Eluiim. There are books here that no woman would ever be allowed to read."
"And yet..." He'd picked one up and turned the book to show her the title. Advanced Mathematics - Physics and Calculus, by Raina Jercomb. He turned the book over and showed her a picture of the author, leaving no doubt.
This textbook had been written by a woman.
James immediately had his suspicions about the origins of this room. There was no doubt in his mind that women on Midros had once been as educated as men, and certainly had a lot more freedoms than now. He kept his thoughts to himself; he didn't think it was always a kindness to show a caged animal that it had once been free. Lydia was smart and would make the connection herself.
They wandered up and down the stacks, her wonder growing with each step. He didn't know any Eluiim – Raym had told him there was very little written that might be useful to his research in that language, so he hadn't bothered to study it. If his suspicions were correct, his answer might be right here.
"Lydia," he ventured. She had pulled a book out of the stacks and was gazing at the elaborate map inside the front cover. She finally looked up.
"I'm sorry! Yes, sir?"
"Lydia, are any of these books about medicine, or healing, or old cures for diseases?"
"Um, not here. Let me look." They wandered for a while longer before she began to zero in on a section. Her eyes were alight with fascination. She almost glowed in her obvious joy.
She was looking at the end of one row when James caught sight of a familiar-looking book. "This is the same one I've been reading in Br'ini!" he noted. She glanced over.
"No, sir, actually the one you were reading was about medicinal herbs. This one is about medicinal wild plants." She went back to her perusing.
James stopped and stared. His mouth dropped open. She must have had the same thought, because she turned back to him slowly, white as a sheet.
"Oh, no..." She fell to her knees, her arms outstretched in front, her breath suddenly heaving in obvious panic. "Oh, Master, no, please..."
"You can read Br'ini." His words were little more than a whisper, but she let out a wail.
"Nooo! Master, please don't turn me in, please, oh gods, please don't turn me in they'll kill me, oh please..." She was sobbing.
It took less than a second for him to drop to the floor at her side, pulling her into his arms.
"Shh, no, don't worry, I'm not, they won't, don't worry." He held her tight and rocked her back and forth until he felt her relax.
In the silence James heard a noise. It was the sound of the lift doors opening, way out in the other room. She must have heard it as well because her face went white once more. He stood up, lifting her to her feet as he did.
"Come on." He grabbed her hand. "I think we need to get out of here."
"Yes, sir," she agreed in a wobbly voice. They hastened out of the room, turning out the light as they went and moving the thankfully silent bookshelf back into place. He turned to her and wiped the tears from her face and placed a quick kiss on her forehead. "Your secret is safe with me, okay?"
She nodded and mouthed, "Thank you."
"James!" He heard Raym's voice call out.
"Back here!" he yelled in response. "We're coming up!" He led her by the hand back to the front of the archives. Raym was bent over the medicinal herbs book but at their approach, he looked up. "Well, well, well," he drawled. "You two finding a little action in the stacks? Your slave looks... a little worse for wear."
James turned to Lydia and realized she looked like she'd been crying. He surreptitiously moved his grip from her hand to her wrist and improvised. "No, unfortunately. She said something inappropriate to me so I just finished spanking her."
"Good for you! I knew you'd catch on and come to appreciate our ways."
"Hey, Raym, just in case inspiration does strike me," James winked, "is there any chance we'll be overseen? Any cameras down here? I'm not really into exhibitionism."
Raym laughed. "Nah. No one is ever down here. The more recent stuff is all computerized, and anything recent on paper is over at the government building. This stuff is ancient history. Actually, my friends and I sometimes come here when we need someplace private to do things that are, well, noisy."
"So why are you here?" James wanted to change the subject. "Did you ever get any action?" He cringed at the callousness of his question.
"That creep you smashed in the nose was still there last evening, and he didn't want me around. I'll go back tonight. Meantime I thought I'd stop in to see if you found anything interesting."
"Nah." James ran a hand through his dark curly hair. "I'm starting to think your people never looked at nature like it could be useful, instead of something to conquer. And there's nothing here at all that's over a hundred years old. Surely you had books before then?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lydia slip back to her kneeling on the floor, tear-stained face now bowed submissively, and his cock gave yet another little jump.
"Maybe there was a fire, or something? I don't really know. Anyhow, do you need me? I'll stay if you do." He smiled at James but the tone of his voice said he'd rather drink ground glass.
"No. I'm fine. Shouldn't you be checking in at the office or something today?"
"Yeah. I'm headed there now. See you..."
"Tomorrow. When I'm done here, I'm going to go enjoy my slave, since I spent so much money on her."
Raym winked and this time the smile was real. "See you tomorrow, then." He turned and re-entered the lift and was gone.
James let out a sigh. Lydia looked up.
"Master, are you all right?"
He shook his head and smiled wanly. "I'm not very good at deception. I'm a scientist. 'The truth; always the truth.' That's our motto."
"Scientists have mottos?" She looked adoringly confused and he laughed.
"No. Maybe they should, though. And a cape. Like a superhero."
The confusion on her face deepened. "A what, sir?"
He laughed again. "Never mind. Come up here."
She rose gracefully from her knees and approached his outstretched arm. He pulled her in tight and leaned down. "I think Raym is telling the truth about surveillance in this room," he whispered, "but let's not tempt anything by discussing our secrets out loud, okay?" She nodded against his chest. She was warm and soft, and her brown hair was like silk when he stroked it, and she smelled faintly of some unfamiliar flower.
"Let's go someplace we can talk. Are there any large parks or nature preserves around here where we can walk for a while?"
After a moment, she nodded and looked up. "There are woods a little way out of town. We'd have to take the el-tram but it just takes a few minutes. I've only been there once and I remember it was really nice." She smiled shyly at him and he realized again how much it lit up her face.
He looked over her dress. "Though that's about the most beautiful dress I've ever seen, it isn't really practical for walking in the woods, is it?"
She made a noise of distress. "I'm afraid all I have is the kind of clothes that would tempt a man. Not very sturdy."
He remembered a clothing store in the hotel. "I'm going to take you shopping. Arm?" He held out his elbow but she stared at him in shock. He chuckled, picked up her unresisting hand, tucked it safely between his elbow and chest and tugged her towards the lift.
A Walk in the Woods
He was going to buy her clothes? Lydia was speechless as they ascended to the surface. He had to pull her out of the lift, and then
they made the short walk to the lobby doors. The clothing store was up the stairs on the way back to his room.
Thirty minutes later, she emerged from the store, still dazed. She was dressed much more practically, in a long-sleeved, opaque black shirt that dipped down her front in soft folds and gave a glimpse of her breasts. A matching black and white print skirt, almost to her knees and longer than she could ever remember wearing, swirled around her legs.
James came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I still can't believe they didn't have any decent shoes."
She looked down at the black shoes with laces that enclosed her feet. They were much more sturdy than the slip-ons she usually wore. "Sir, these will be fine. It's not very difficult ground."
He reached for her hand again and they headed for the front door. I could get used to this, she thought as they descended the stairs, then shook her head. This isn't my place. This is fun, but I need to remember who and what I am.
The walk to the el-tram was brief. The elevated transport rose high above them, and could take them almost anywhere they wanted to go in the city, or out of it. James passed his credits card over the sensor in the open-air lift and they rose up to the level of the tracks. When the tram arrived, he confused her by insisting she precede him through the door. "It's a superhero thing," he whispered as he guided her towards empty seats. He pointed at one and she nodded, moving to stand behind it and wait for him to sit. He stared at her, then glanced around the cabin. Every filled seat had a woman standing behind. She saw him do a double take when he noticed an extremely pregnant woman standing behind her master, who was relaxed back in his seat, chatting with another man facing him. There were plenty of empty seats, but no woman sat.
He turned to her. "Women stand while men sit? Even someone who's about to have a baby?" His voice carried to a few men around who looked at him strangely.
"Master, yes, it's okay, please, sir." The last thing she wanted was to make a scene. Slaves who were involved in scenes, no matter who was at fault, rarely came out ahead. He seemed to understand because he nodded slowly and sat down facing away from her.
Memories of Surrender (Midrosian Chronicles Book 1) Page 6