"Because you like him?" she asked.
"Yes," she said.
"And I think he likes you, too," said Teela.
"Do you, Mistressr" begged Emily, eagerly.
"Yes," said Teela, "but remember that you are to him only as a slave." "Yes, Mistress," she said.
"Surely he saw you naked when he bought you," said Teela.
"Yes, Mistress," said Emily, her head down. Men do not buy clothed women. "Then you have nothing to hide," said Teela. "Similarly, as a slave, your body is public."
"Yes, Mistress," said Emily.
"Put aside all concern with your own self-image," said Teela. "Your only concern now is the pleasing of your master."
"Yes, Mistress," said Emily.
"Please him well," smiled Teela.
"I shall try, Mistress," said Emily.
"Tiffany," said Teela.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"Do you enjoy the house?" she asked.
"Yes, Mistress!" I said. Though I had been here only two days, some forty Ahn, I reveled in its contrast with the mills.
It was clean, and spacious and quiet, and had lovely grounds, surrounded by a high, white wall, in which was an ornate, barred gate. Here I was well rested and well fed. My duties were light, usually those of a maid, dusting and cleaning, making beds, tidying rooms, and such. Sometimes, too, I helped in the kitchen. I did not have to wear the mill uniform, bearing the sign for the enterprises of Mintar, but wore, instead, usually, a light, white house tunic, similar to that often worn by tower slaves. I even had access to a bath. Similarly my kennel was comfortable and, for a kennel, spacious. I could not stand erect in it but there was more than enough room to stretch out and roll about. The gate in the kennel was a small one. It was barred, and set in the barred side of the kennel facing the corridor. It is common to have one side of a kennel open, except for the bars. The girl is always, you see, to be available to the eyes of the master.
He may look upon her whenever he chooses, day or night.
The small gate is also common in slave kennels. The girl, commonly, accordingly, enters and leaves the kennel on all fours. She is, after all, an animal. Too, it is useful in various leashing and chaining arrangements. In this house, as in most, the girl is kept naked in the kennel. I did not mind the tiny gate of the kennel, however, or my observability and nudity within it. I much preferred its semi-privacy to the locked dormitory at the mill. Too, its comforter, blankets and pillow were a welcome change from the flat, straw-filled mat and thin blanket on the cement floor of the dormitory.
"Do you want to go back to the mill?" asked Teela.
"No, Mistress!" I said.
"It would be well for both of you, you, too, Emily," said Teela, "to remember that you are both on trial here. You have not been brought here to weave cloth on a loom. And you have not been brought here simply to dust and make beds. Your slavery in this house involves more extended services."
"Yes, Mistress," we said. We had no doubt as to what these more extended services were. About our upper left arms were golden, snakelike armlets. About our left ankles were tied slave bells. Our bodies could scarcely feel the lightness of the slave silk on them.
"You must now decide," said Teela, "whether you wish to serve the pleasures of men, and fully, or you wish to return to the mill. In a sense, you must decide, really, what you are, and how you wish to live. I commend to your attention the noble alternative, to be chosen by all truly free women, of returning to the mill, of returning to the back-breaking, repetitious labor of the loom. The alternative, of course, is so dreadful I scarcely dare mention it. It is to serve men, to belong to them, to be at their beck and call, to be their willing, obedient, eager, shameless, helpless slave."
Emily and I regarded one another.
"Sluts choose the collar and the helpless service of men," she said. "Women who are truly noble and free choose the mill." She looked at me. "Tiffany?" she asked.
"I choose the service of men," I said.
"Then you are a slave and a slut," she said.
"Yes, Mistress," I said, This admission seemed to me very liberating. "Emily?" asked Teela.
"I, too, choose the service of men," she said, "especially that of Aemilianus I" "You, too, then, are a slave and a slut," said Teela.
"Yes, Mistress," said Emily.
"But that you would shamelessly choose to be pleasure slaves over noble mill girls does not mean that masters must see fit to accord you such a slavery. It is up to you to prove to them that you have the aptitude, the talent, the dispositions, the desires and reflexes to be even considered for such a slavery."
"Yes, Mistress," we said.
"I am going to send you forth now on the floor," said Teela. I heard the slave bells on my ankle jangle. The sound, sensuous and barbaric, startled me. "If you are not both found sufficiently pleasing," she said, "both of you, and certainly you, Tiffany, will be back in the mill by tomorrow night."
"Yes, Mistress," we said. I found myself wishing that Aemilianus had found me as fetching as he apparently had Emily. I thought my tulal was likely to be harder than hers.
"Mistress!" said Emily.
"Yes?" asked Teela.
"Tiffany and I are self-confessed sluts and slaves. You have forced us to face this truth about ourselves, and admit it."
"Yes?" said Teela.
"what of you?" asked Emily. "You are lovely, and beautiful, and in a collar. What are you?"
"A bold question," said Teela.
"Forgive me, Mistress," said Emily.
"I, too, of course, am only a slave and a slut," said Teela.
"And I love it!" Then she kissed us both. Then she drew back from us. "You will be slaves out there before free men," she said "Too, there will be no free women present. Revel in your womanhood and manifest it shamelessly!"
"Yes, Mistress!" we said.
"Go forth, Slaves," she said "Yes, Mistress!" we said and, with a jangle of slave bells, hurried to join the other girls on the floor.
"Your knees," I whispered to Emily, "open them."
"Thank you, Tiffany," said Emily, spreading her knees.
"Tile knees of the pleasure slave, when she is in a kneeling position, are to be kept open before the master, and, indeed, before all free men. Emily, in the same room with Aemilianus, was still struggling with her modesty. In the mill, of course, Aemilianus had had her open her knees before him.
We knelt side by side at one side of the room. What little serving was being done was now being attended to by the other girls. How beautiful they were. And how natural, and perfect, and right and fitting it seemed that they, in their slightness and beauty, were serving men. I knelt there, with Emily, to one side, my knees open, in pleasure silk, a collar locked on my neck, a barbaric, golden, coiling ornament on my upper left arm, slave bells tied on my left ankle. I knelt there, ready to serve. How strange it was, I thought. How far I had come! How far away, now, seemed the perfume counter in the department store on Long Island, the photographer's studio, my apartment. I remembered that pretty, mercenary, greedy little clerk at the perfume counter. She was no longer free. She had now been made a collared slave girl. She had once been Miss Tiffany Collins. She was now an animal, and nameless in her own right, but masters had seen fit to put the name "Tiffany" on her.
"Tiffany," whispered Emily.
"Yes," I whispered.
"Isn't Aemilianus handsome?" she whispered.
"Yes," I said.
"I want to crawl to him," she whispered, "and beg to serve his pleasure." "Do not break position," I warned her.
"No," she whispered.
"Perhaps he will let you serve him later," I said.
"I hope so," she whispered. "I hope so!"
"You like him," I observed.
"I think that I am his love slave," she whispered.
"It is too early for you to know something like that," I said. I did not know, of course, whether it was or not. Sometimes these things can be told at a glance.