They cringed. Each of them uncertain of her Thespian skill. Their eyes widened as Amrah was joined on the pedestal by a muscular male with the inevitable whip. It was a short whip for close range. He was grinning broadly at his proudly eager subject.
It was well done. The white girls exchanged glances of admiration as Amrah demonstrated what NOT to do when being auctioned. She pouted, she sulked. She drooped and sagged, she turned her back, or covered her breasts with shielding hands. She crossed her legs and held them tightly shut. In desperate panic, she fell to her knees and embraced the legs of the smiling auctioneer in a frantic but mute appeal. He thrashed her bowed shoulders with his whip in blow after viciously reprimanding blow until she sobbed in anguish and slowly resumed her required pose as a girl only too anxious to be sold. If the audience had possessed their hands they would have clapped. The whip was simulated. It?s scarlet lines were dye.
"It gives you an idea." Burdett explained blandly. "But I?ll give you a tip. There?s those chaps who?ll buy you just to have a girl around the whip. It?s them that buys the fighters and the sulks…!" For a moment he focused on the white slaves before continuing. "You?ll find yourself looking down at a lot of fellers, most of?em ordinary decent chaps, and won?t they please help and call the cops…" He paused for effect. "Don?t do it! It?s the one thing you just don?t do!!"
Soberly, they filed back to their cage.
It became a busy time for Amrah. She washed them, she did their hair, she laved them with heavy and cloying perfumes. She gave them good advice. "You see a man you like, you smile at him special. Maybe he buy you." For good measure she added a bit of bitter wisdom: "Ain?t always the big guys have big cocks. Sometimes is little men. Is hard to tell…"
In the morning, in a final grooming, their lips were painted red, their hands were freed, they were given their single swathe of white. The first male face Corey saw on entering the auction room was that of Reid Hunter.
For a girl whose body is about to be sold from it, the auction Block can be the loneliest place in the world. On it, she stands between her vanished past and a frightening future. If slavery was not real to her before, it is real now!
Amrah was the first.
The three white girls stood, under guard, to one side as the auction got under way. Their free hands clutched their scrap of covering, their faces were discreetly veiled. Corey supposed they had been segregated for a purpose, probably to pique male interest. It had been tacitly understood between all nine girls that they constituted the piece de resistance of the coffle. It was a doubtful honour.
Amrah was knocked down to a nondescript character in a business suit for two hundred and forty thousand American dollars. She had worked hard for the partners and given of her best upon the block. When she stood to have her hands bound behind her back for safe delivery she smiled at Corey in glowing confidence of a bright future. The American girl wryly hoped her purchaser was well endowed.
The veiled girls exchanged startled glances. Amrah?s price seemed a lot of money. It made the whole operation in which they were helplessly enmeshed plausible. But it was frightening. Such huge sums paid for a girl meant she could surely kiss good-bye to any hope of freedom. For such a one it would be iron bars and shackled feet forever.
The other five dusky beauties went to the block and did what they must. Burdett?s instruction had been a practical guide. They sold for sums of money that spelt big business. Only two of them wept as they were bound and delivered. Josie came next.
The atmosphere changed. An electric current touched all present. White flesh on black velvet! It was potent. Amphala was robbed Josie of inhibitions, she flaunted her nakedness with skill, and was purchased by a desert cloaked Arab for more than seven hundred thousand dollars. None present seemed surprised.
Audrey and Corey were shivering. But it was not their turn. The Management was well aware of the value of intermissions and delay. There was also a free show! Whilst drinks were dispensed a space of floor was cleared. To it was brought a naked and terrified cafe-au-lait maiden who, a minute later, hung suspended by her wrists, her toes a foot above the floor.
It was a leisurely affair, as between gentlemen. There was no hurry. The frightened girl hung, kicking and twisting in distress, while drinks were sipped and her physical attributes discussed. After awhile the auctioneer read out her crimes. At the previous auction she had rebelled… She had broken all the rules…! Her punishing would make a pleasant interlude before the main event.
The auctioneer whipped her. He did so with skill and with finesse. No nuance of eroticism was ignored. His arm was heavy but controlled, there would be no cut skin on costly merchandise. After the defenceless damsel had screamed a few times under his lash, he thoughtfully gagged her that the ears of men who mattered be not offended. The gag was neat and cruel and very, very effective. After it was strapped tight it was her body alone whose writhings became the more eloquent for silence.
Corey writhed inwardly. If she had thought of rebellion she would discard it now. To hang naked to be whipped before male eyes…! It was more that she would risk for doubtful benefit. She watched, in a compelling fascination, as the girl was made to open her legs for the thong, to raise a foot that its sole be beaten, and to twist correctly for her breasts to invite their stripes. The suspended slave was petrified with fear. She had disobeyed before, she would not err again! The whip etched its lattice work of scarlet upon her skin, but stopped short of imposing one blow upon another. She had been well punished but was still contorting vigorously in silence when the last stroke fell.
They bid on her as she was. Wide eyed and gagged, she hung suspended from her tether, passive and limp, her head bowed as she turned slowly in short circles to bestow upon her prospective purchasers as total an exposure of her nakedness as might have been contrived.
Corey was puzzled and uneasy. The bidding for this whipped girl was so frantic and determined that a single thought became obvious. Why not whip them all! If whipped skin so aroused possessive lust it was surprising it was not more frequently employed…! And she and Audrey still remained to be sold…!
The sum for which the whipped girl was finally sold sent a stir of excitement round the room. She was lowered and led away by the same tether from which she had hung. Her purchaser generously returned her gag. For the moment it was most unlikely she would scream.
Audrey Cotswold fetched one million six hundred thousand in U.S. currency. During the bidding her features became serene, almost scornful. She was purchased by Reid Hunter. As she was bound and led away by a servant her eyes found Corey?s in triumph. She had been ransomed.
In mounting the steps to the block, Corey Gibson found a strange peace. She was a pawn in this game men played for a prize of girls. She was helpless to infuence her fate. Desperately, her gaze scanned the room for sight of Seth Burdett. He was not there. In resignation, she focused on Reid Hunter. He smiled and winked. Corey?s heart raced. If Reid Hunter was bidding sums like this he must be acting for Assef Aslam…! Purchased by Aslam she would still be slave! It was a strange and defeating circle for a girl to make. Bitterly, she recognized that no matter who purchased her she could not win. Audrey would now return to her privileged status. But her own enslavement would pick up where it had left off on Aslam?s hijacked plane.
It was not until the bidding approached the first million that she spied Abdul Nour. It was the moment when Corey must expose herself and stand nude for final appraisals. She copied Amrah, and it was while she initially stood with widespread arms and dropped the strip of white that her challenging survey of avid male faces picked him out. The guerilla Leader sat unobtrusively among the rest, regarding her loveliness with lewd appreciation. He also winked. From him it was obscene.