It interested me to her her speak. She spoke as might hae a slave. Did she not know she was from Earth?
"I cannot dance," she ssid. "And I do not know the love songs of slaves."I said nothing."They have not taught me to dance," she said. "nor have I been permitted to learn the desiresongs of heated slaves." I said nothing.
"They have not taught me to dance," she whimpered, "not have I been permitted to learn the desire songs of heated slaves." I said nothing.
"What does Master want of me?" she askedpiterously. I did not respond to her.
"I acknowledge you as the coruier of Ragnar Voskjard," she said. "I acknowleed you as aa great and important man. An I acknowledge myself as only a miserable slave. It is a great honor for me that you hve selected me out, from the others, to be sent to your chambers this night to serve you." She looked toward me, piteously, though she could see nothing in the dark confines of the blindfold. "I will try to be worthy of your choice," she said. "I will try to please you." Again I did not respond to her.
"I am frightend!" she said. "Obviously I must not be pleasing toyou. Then whip me, and call for another girl!" I did not move. "But you are not ata this moment whipping me," she said, "nor calling for another girl. Now I am truly frightened for I know that somehow, now, you must find me pleasing, or of interest. But I am terrified that man such as you might find me pleasing or of interest. What will he do to me? Oh, please, Master, speak to me! Let me tell, if only by the tone of your voice, what are you intentions with respect to me! Oh, I am so helpless! I am so helpless!"
I regarded her and the sttel collar on her throat, placed there by my own hand. "I am so helpless," she wept. Then she tossed her head and smiled. "You have me at something of a disadvantge, Master," she laughed, "for whereas you may see. I am blindfolded and where you are free, I am kneeling, collared, nude and bound." Her lower lip sudden trembled. "Please speak to me Master," she begged.
She was very beautiful. She squirmed in the loops of yellow cord holding her wrists behind her back. "I understand," she said, "why I must be blindfolded, that you have doubtless here, in the privacy of your own chambers removed you mask. I am not to be permitted to see the face of the courier or Ragnor Voskjard, no more than others, even though I am a lowly slave. Who knows through what sales or changings of hands a girl who is mere property such as I might pass? You cannot reisk that I might, somedsay, somewhere, if only by inadvertence, perhaps by a startled cry or gesture, or a too-eager licking at your feet, compromise your secret."
I was interested that she had spoken, and naturally, of the licking of feet. That sort of thing is common in a slave girl. Did she not know she was from Earth?.
"But you cannot even spek to me, Master?" she begged. "Ah!" she said, "that you do not speak to me must also be intended to conceal your identity! You would not wish me to be able to recognize even your voice!" She trembled. "Or is it rather," she asked, "that I am so low a slve that you do not concern yourself even to speak to me?"
I smiled.Whereas the frightened, deferential slave had not recognized me sitting regally with Policartes and Kliomenes in the feasting hallk in the robes and mask of the courier of Ragnar Voskjart, I did not doubt but what she might quickly recognize my voice.
"I have it Master," She said happily. "I fyou do not speak to help protect your identity, touch me once upon the elft shoulder. If you do not speak because you regard me as only a contemptible slave, unworthy to be spoken to, touch me once upon the left arm." She lifted her body, tensing to see where she might be touched. "Please Master!" she begged. But I did not move.
"She then knelt back on her heels. "I see Master," she said miserably. "Not even that is to be made known to me." She shuddered. "Do you not know how terrifying it is to be in a room, blindfolded, with one who does ot speak to you? Ah, perahps you do!" She smled. "You well know how to treat a slave, Master," she said.
I was interested to note that she spoke of herself, naturally, as a slave. "But yet," she said, "you are permitting me to speak. You have not struck me to silence, nor put a block of wood in my mouth, or gagged me. I may gather then, that a least until I feel your blow, or the lash of your whip, that you wish to hear me speak. But why would this be? What could I, a mere slave, have to say that might interest you? She pulled at the cord loops. She seemed genuinely puzzled.
"How am I different from other girls?" she asked herself, aloud, thinking. " Of course!" she said suddenly delightedly. "Now I have it, I am the only Earth girl in the holding! They told you I was from Earth didn't they? You are not familiar with EArth girls. That ingrigued you! They must have told you. You did not take me in your hands and force open my mouth to look for bits of metal in my teeth. I do not think my accent betrayed me, for there are many barbarian accents on Gor, and I speak Gorean excellently!"
I smiled, the vain little thing but it was true that she did speak a liquid, fluent Gorean. Her linguistic skills in this respect, and I have unusual aptitude in such matters, approached my own.
"That my masters call me Beverly," she said "would not in itself tell you that I was from Earth. Not unoften Gorean girls, particularly if they are to be consigned to a low slavery, are given such names. Perhaps then you might have seen the tiny scaring on my left arm. It is called a 'vaccination mark'.
"But, on the whole," she said, "I think it most likely that you were merely told that I was from Earth. This then you found of interest. You decided then that it was to be I who would come to your chambers this evening. Did you wish merely to see, being lower, were juicier puddings than our Gorean sisters, or beyond this, as a matter of curiosity, did you wish to learn something of our nature?"
It amused me that Miss Henderson had used the graphic Gorean expression that she had, an expression almost always applied to a slave, a hot and helpless lay. From my own experience, I did not think Earth girls were juicier puddings, so to speak, than Gorean girls, nor really, that Gorean girls tended to be juicier puddings than Earth girls. It is true of course that the slae tends to be a far juicier pudding so to speak than the free woman of either world. Some Earth girls are marvelous in the furs, and some Gorean girls are. Much depends on the individual girl. This is to be expected, of course, for all Gorean girls as far as I know have ultimately an Earth origina. I think it is true, however, that an Earth girl may sometimes have an extra dimension of lovely, yielding slavishness in her, which is perhaps natural, considering the sexual desert from which she has been rescued. She can remember her loneliness and frustration, how she, a slave, languished in a world where she could find no masters. Such women, in time, find themselves overwhelmed in gratitude for the collar. For the first time, in spite of the world from which they come, they are forced to become true women. Thus they find fulfillment and joy. To the Gorean free woman the joys of the slave girl, though they may be despised and disparaged, are at least culturally not unknown, and are the envy of such free women. To the Earth woman, on the other hands, who finds herself in the collar of a Gorean master, such joys come as a revelation. Only in her wildest and most secret dreams had she dared even to suspect their existence. Then she finds herself a slave girl.
"I think," said Miss Henderson, "that it is your intention to try me, to try me out, to sample an Earth girl, to see if we might be of interest, but as of yet, in spite of my helplessness before you, you have not done so. Further you have permitted me to speak. I gather thus tht you will use me when it pleses you and in the meantime that I, though only a slave, am to speak before you." She smiled. "I shall do so Master."
It was natural for her to think that I, whom she believed to be Gorean, would be interested to hear of her world, and of the nature of the female slaves taken from it. Earth slave girls are controversial on Gor, though I think they are not more accepted than formerly. Some man have a taste for Earth females. Other men will not even own them. A not uncommon task for an Earth female on Gor is to attempt to seure the affetions of a Gorean master who regards her as nothing and despises her.