“I refuse to be your toy.  Surely you have enough.”  He turned back and folded his hands to glare at me before looking and gesturing at the servants in the house.  He momentarily forgot about his nakedness.  “What is one more or less to you?  It means nothing.”

“You have no choice or say.  Need I remind you that you are bought and paid for?”  Justin was watching the both of us in puzzlement, “Mistress, who is he?”

“He’s my new slave.  Take him to the bathing chamber and see that he gets cleaned up.  And change his bandages and give him the standard white loincloth to wear.”

Justin’s eyes got bigger in shock. “He’s to be a pleasure slave?   And where will he be sleeping?”

“I haven’t decided yet but he needs to stay in the house and rest.  He can stay with you in your room for now.  You have an extra bed in there.”  I could tell Justin was a bit upset but he didn’t say anything so I tilted his chin up to look at him, my thumb caressing his cheek softly.  “He’s not replacing you.”

He eyed Reed suspiciously, and said in a soft trembling voice, “He’s not?”

             “Of course not.” I said firmly, and he smiled weakly at my reassurance.

 Reed frowned at us.  “You can have her.  I don’t want to be a slave, much less a pleasure slave.”

I sighed, ignoring him for the moment, feeling the exhaustion from my trip starting to take seep into my bones, “Take him away, and get him settled in, then return to me.  And find someone to bathe him and attend to his injuries.”  I did not look at them as I started walking to my room; I heard a ‘Yes Mistress’ and fading footsteps.   Finally lying down on my bed I was able to relax and think about the events of the day.

She’d been speaking to some of the royal ladies in court in between taking orders for silk gowns and accessories, urging reform and asking for leniency for the prisoners and better treatment of personal slaves.  Some merely laughed at her and called her a sentimental fool; others said that if she didn’t watch it all her slaves will rebel and run away, yet a few had offered their sympathies to her cause. 

Maybe there was hope, but what worried her was Madame Fonskie, she had a reputation for cruelty and she lived to destroy the slaves that caught her fancy.  A few were reported missing, some rumored to have bled to death, one made blind for saying another more beautiful, and on and on. She’s recently taken an interest in the orphanage that Justin came from, and Marie wondered if she could buy the place just to keep the kids out of her claws.  But Madame Fonskie was a cousin to Queen Correllina, hence her power, wealth, and connections.  It made things a bit tricky, and if Marie were not careful, she’d be one of her victims as well.  After all, Madame Fonskie cared not whether her slaves were male or female.

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