"Take pity on me, Jason," she said, head down.
I pulled up her head by the hair and crouched beside her. "Oh!" she said. I slapped her twice.
"Does a slave dare to address her master by his name?"
"No!" she said, tears in her eyes.
"No, what?" I asked.
"No, Master!" she said. I released her hair. I stood up.
"I fear," she said, "that I will never be able to make the transition between a free woman and a slave."
I laughed at her, and she looked up, angrily.
"There is in actuality no transition for you to make," I told her.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because you are a woman," I told her. "On your feet, female."
She stood up, enraged, her hands bound behind her. "Turn about," I told her.
She did so.
"Do you not feel the leash will be necessary?" she asked. "Am I not to be led to the market on a strap, like a tethered she-tarsk?"
"I shall use the leash after dark," I told her. The use of leashes differs among masters. Some masters use leashes for little more than tethering a girl. Others, of course, use them liberally as leading devices. They are often used with a proud, rebellious or recalcitrant girl, sometimes to publicly humiliate her. After being led on a leash it is not unusual for a girl to beg her master to be permitted to heel him, following him deferentially in her proper place. Leashes are generally used in cities, or in crowds. A loose slave can be a nuisance. They may be useful, too, of course, in broken or wooded areas, where a fleeing girl might attempt to find cover, or in dangerous places, where she might be stolen. A leash, it might be mentioned, aside from its convenience in controlling a slave, particularly the choke leash, is an extremely useful training device. Many trainers, the leash loop about their left wrist, hold the leash in their left hand and their training whip in their right. Girls, too, can be taught to use the leash to enhance their seductiveness, appearing to draw away, then approaching, using it about their body, kissing it, taking it in their mouth, fingering it, and so on. A test for slave potential used by some slavers is to leash a new girl and see if she, in her apparent rebellion and defiance, actually, subtly, perhaps in the beginning unconsciously, uses the leash to enhance her desirability and beauty. This indicates that she, in her heart, is not displeased to wear the leash of the master. Indeed, the leash, not uncommonly, can cause a woman to sexually blossom. This is presumably a function of such things as its actual restraint, which is quite real; its message to her that she is an animal, a slave; and its making clear to her, by a device, such as a bracelet, a brand or collar, what is the order of nature, who it is who controls her and who it is whom she must obey, who is the slave and who the master. A leash, even apart from questions of training, of course, can have a powerful emotional impact on a girl. It is a very useful way of convincing a girl that she is a slave; similarly it can always serve as an effective reminder. Some girls do not seem to believe they are slaves until they have been leashed. But after that, and after having been put through "leash paces," there is seldom any doubt in their mind. Some girls beg to be leashed, sometimes crawling to their masters, their leash held between their small, fine teeth. Most masters use the leash at one time or another. A Gorean saying has it that a leashed slave is a hot slave.
"So you will use the leash after dark," she said.
"Yes," I said. "Apparently you have no intention of permitting me to escape from you," she said.
"No," I said.
"Let me negotiate for my freedom," she said.
"Begin moving," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
31 WE CONTINUE OUR WAY SOUTHWARD
It was the heat of the afternoon. The sun was high. "On your back," I told her. She lay down, and I took her. Then I put her on her stomach, and untied her hands from behind her back. Then I put her on her back and retied her hands, wrists crossed, before her body, holding them in place, at her belly, with a loop of strap. "On your feet," I told her, "and face again southwards."
"Why have you tied my hands in this fashion?" she asked, her back to me.
"Because you are beautiful," I said.
"I see," she said.
"Begin moving," I told her.
"Yes, Master," she said.
32 I DO NOT LISTEN TO THE ENTREATIES OF THE LADY FLORENCE
"I did not think you would have the nerve to leash me," she said.
We lay together on the soft dirt and leaves, in a small clump of trees in a meadow. I was on my back, looking up at the moons through the branches of the trees. The stars were fine and beautiful, bright in the black sky. She pressed herself against me. I had again tied her hands behind her back. She was tethered by the neck beside me, by the strap which had earlier served as her leash. The tether was fastened to a tree which I could reach out and touch. The knot was under her chin.
"How is it that you have dared to put me on a leash?" she asked.
"I do not understand," I said.
"I am still free, truly, you know," she said.
"Yes," I said, "legally."
"I am furious," she said, "that you have leashed me." She kissed me.
"Why?" I asked.
"I am free," she said, "and it is so degrading. It is like I am a slave girl."
"I see," I said.
"I suppose it was necessary to leash me," she said, "as a matter of prisoner security."
"I do not think it was necessary," I said, "but it was convenient."
"Convenient!" she cried. "You leashed me because it was convenient!" She struggled up to one elbow beside me, the tether on her throat
"Yes," I said, "but, too, there was another reason."
"What was that?" she asked.
"Because you are pretty in a leash, Lady Florence," I said.
She looked at me, not speaking.
Shortly after dark, while we were still trekking, I had put her to her back, untied her hands, then put her on her stomach, tying her hands again behind her back. I had then put her on her back again and unwrapped the long strap from her throat. I had then, holding the coiled strap about two feet from her throat, jerked it twice, that she could feel the pull against the back of her neck. She had looked up at me. "Not bad," I said. She had gasped. Then, loosening the coils. giving her some slack, I had pulled her to her feet. She had looked at me, her eves wide. "I am leashed," she had whispered, disbelievingly. Then I had turned about and pulled her after me. In a moment she was hurrying behind me, hands bound, on the leash. Twice, that she might rest, we had stopped. Each time she had knelt quite close to me. The second time she had looked up at me, piteously, the tether on her throat, and kissed me on the thigh. It is interesting, the effect that a device such as a leash can have on a woman. The common Gorean leash, incidentally, unlike the simple strap I was using, has a lock snap and closes either about a collar or a collar ring. It might be mentioned that there are also such devices as wrist leashes and ankle leashes.
"What are you thinking?" I asked her.
"I was thinking," she said, "that you were once my silk slave."
I did not speak.
"If you were a gentleman," she said, "and I more fully free, I might beg to attempt to earn my freedom, by the performance of intimate services for you."
"Any such services which you might perform," I said, "are already mine to command."
"That is true," she said.
"I command them," I said.
"That I might earn my freedom?" she asked.
"No," I said, "that you might, through practice, improve your skills as a slave."
"I am not a slave," she said.
"You will behave as one," I said.
She looked at me, angrily.
"Come here," I said. I held the leash.
"You hold my leash. I obey," she said.