managed to escape?" I asked.
“The looters, perhaps," she said. "But she wears a collar"
I nodded. Lola was attractive. By now she was doubtless on someone's chain. Lovely female slaves do not remain long at large.
"Did you know she sometimes cried your name aloud in her sleep?" asked the Lady Gina.
"No," I said.
"Yet you failed her as a master," she said.
"That is true," I said.
"It was long ago," she said.
“True," I said.
"You seem much different now," she said.
I shrugged. "Perhaps," I said.
"Jason," she whispered.
"Yes," I said.
"You freed my legs," she said.
"Yes," I said, "but it was a mistake."
"Why?" she asked.
"You do not have the feelings of a normal woman," I said. "It is doubtless nothing that you can help." I then bent to reshackle her. Quickly she drew her legs back. "What is wrong?" I asked her.
"Please do not reshackle me, just yet," she said.
"Why?" I asked.
"I want to be a woman," she whispered.
“Truly?" I asked.
"Yes, truly," she sobbed.
"Then," I said, "you must be prepared, holding nothing back, to yield to your deepest and most profound feelings."
"But then," she said, "I would be only a submitted slave, overwhelmed and mastered."
I took her in my arms. She was tense, and frightened. "You're trembling," I said.
"I am only a woman, and a prisoner," she said.
"Do not forget it," I told her.
"No, Jason," she said.
"You do not seem large and strong," I said.
"I am not large and strong," she said.
"Your body is soft," I said, "and feels good in my hands" I jerked her by the arms to a sitting position, and looked at her.
"Could a man find me desirable?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "Escape me!" She struggled, futilely.
"I cannot escape you," she said. "You know that!"
I threw her then down to her back in the straw.
"Do not be rough with me, Jason," she said.
"You will now be treated as men please," I told her.
"Yes, Jason," she said.
"Accustom yourself to obedience and submission," I said.
"Yes, Jason," she said.
"Will it be necessary to whip you?" I asked.
"No, Jason," she said.
"Prepare now to yield to your deepest and most profound feelings," I said.
"I will try," she said. "Oh!" she cried, my hands in her hair.
"You will not merely try," I told her. "You will yield to them."
"Yes," she said.
"Yes, what?" I asked.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"You yielded welt, Lady Gina," I said.
"I would never have believed I could have such feelings," she said. "I did not know such feelings could exist."
"Surely you have seen writhing, screaming slave girls?" I asked.
"Yes," she said, "but not until moments ago did I have more than an inkling of what they might be feeling." She smiled. "It is no wonder the luscious little sluts are so fond of their collars."
“There can be progress in such matters," I said. "Perhaps no woman has yet truly sounded the depths of slave joy.”
"Yes," she said, "the joy of being owned by a man, of being in his power, completely, of being fully his, and of totally loving and serving him."
"Perhaps," I said.
She kissed me. "You handle a woman well, Jason," she said. "You put me through my paces well."
"Any captor or Master," I said, "can put you through your paces.”
"It is true," she said, and kissed me. She put her head on my belly. "I have seen women such as myself on the block," she said. "We do not bring high prices."
"Perhaps," I said.
"If I were sent to the kitchens, or the mills or laundries," she said, "I would be under the will of my task master, would I not?"
"Yes," I said.
"Perhaps I might, under his whip, pulling his plow, please a peasant," she said, "or perhaps I might keep the but of a dock worker, preparing his food and, when he wished, warming his mat."
"Perhaps," I said.
"Did I please you?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Do you think I could please other men?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"I know that I am not as desirable as most women," she said.
"You are desirable," I said. "And to some men you will be
Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child