At His Throat, a Promise (41 page)

The sound of the metal created a sense of foreboding so strong that Ellis"s stomach began to cramp up.

Finally, they had done the full tour, skipping by the dining room, though Ellis could hear Jude"s soft, accented voice as he lectured.

“I"m going back to the lesson,” Maya announced. “You can go back to your room or come with me.”

Why would she want to return to the lesson when she"d been given a day off? Even the best slave took time to himself when it was granted.

Figuring he"d better follow her example, Ellis said, “I"ll come with you.”

She turned and walked away, and Ellis followed.

Jude looked up from the lesson and smiled. “Have a seat, you two.”

Maya sat beside Michaela, and the only spot left was next to Fen. Ellis took it, sitting gingerly as he tried not to make a noise.

“Ellis, did you not think to bring your notebook?” Jude asked in a quiet voice, as if just between the two of them, even though the other slaves could clearly hear.

Heart quickening, Ellis"s mind helpfully produced the image of 353

AT HIS THROAT, A PROMISE

a notebook sitting on a desk in his side of the room. He hadn"t even thought to bring it—he hadn"t known he"d be returning.

Ellis opened his mouth to excuse himself, but a kick to his ankle stopped him. Maya was watching him with eager eyes; the table was too wide in the centre for it to have been her foot. It must have been Fen.

He shook his head.

Jude sighed. “Fen, lend him a leaf of paper. Now, as I was saying, it"s not necessarily a matter of whether your client is guilty or innocent, but rather if you think you can win.” Fen handed him a sheet of paper ripped from his notebook and then a pen.

He was about to write Jude"s words on the page when he noticed something was written already. In cursive so messy it was almost illegible was the word
Shhhh.

Feeling Fen"s eyes on him, he nodded. Fen began to write once more, eyes only for Jude. Ellis scratched out the word and started taking notes. He"d take the advice and remain silent.

By the time he"d filled one side of the page and most of the other, Ellis was almost panicking. He couldn"t just stop writing—

that would be too obvious. He didn"t want to ask for another sheet—that would bring too much attention to the mistake he"d made before.

Luckily the lesson ended before the problem came to pass. Ellis hadn"t felt so uncertain since he"d walked into the Lounge that day he"d met Harte and William.

“Ellis, stay a moment.”

The slaves filed out as Ellis knelt beside the master. Jude put a hand on his head, over his hair, like he would a pet. Ellis quite preferred the way William would cup his cheek or card his fingers 354

AT HIS THROAT, A PROMISE

through his hair.

He really had to stop thinking like that. William was gone and this was all he had. He tried to bring himself to feel grateful for the touch. He almost made it.

“I know this must be overwhelming for you. But you must try to adapt. Fen will be able to help you with that. He is my oldest slave, due for freedom in only a few months. He has been with me since the beginning. One thing I suggest—do not get attached. The girls have done so, to one another, and I fear that is my fault. I will not make that mistake again. You are here for me alone. Do you understand?”

Ellis nodded and Jude patted him a couple times before tucking a finger under his chin and lifting his head up. Ellis was careful not to meet the master"s eyes, staring at his chin, instead.

“As it is the weekend, you are expected to take some time now and work on your studies. You will be called for dinner when it is ready. I do not eat with my slaves. In fact, I rarely spend the evening meal here at all. I will not make use of you tonight, and I will be away tomorrow as I am every Sunday. Please spend your time wisely. Do not disappoint me; it will get back to me. I will see you on Monday.”

Watching the master leave, Ellis realised he wasn"t going to see as much of him as he had William. That was probably a good thing, though. Closeness brought… complications.

He found his way back to his bedroom easily. There were a lot of rooms, but thankfully the hallways weren"t meandering, just straight all the way down. The girls" room was across from Ellis and Fen"s, and their door was shut tightly. Very faints sounds of laughter came from within. The doors held sound out very well if that was all he could hear.

355

AT HIS THROAT, A PROMISE

Slipping into his room, Ellis saw it was empty. He could hear the shower in the adjoining bathroom running and a slight scent of citrus was in the air.

He sat at his desk and wondered whether it would be smart to copy out his notes into his notebook or just stuff the loose leaf into one of the pockets. For some reason, the decision was harder than it should have been. He put it aside in his mind and explored the desk. There were legal pads and notebooks along with supplies enough to last him three years and then some.

On a bookshelf between the beds sat books ranging from the driest of procedural law to theory texts on law and morality. Law was the only subject. He pulled out one of the thinner volumes and sat back down at his desk.

The bathroom door opened, but he didn"t look.
Don’t get
attached.
Though Ellis doubted he would—there surely wasn"t enough room in the human heart for more—he wanted to follow Jude"s instructions whether they were necessary or not.

“Not another quiet one,” Fen said, snickering as he flopped onto the bed. Ellis looked at him curiously and then turned away when he saw the slave was nude.

“You don"t have to worry. I won"t touch you.” Ellis nodded.

“Master sure likes the pretty type, doesn"t he? You"d think three were enough. Hell, you"d think one was enough. It"s not like he fucks us
that
often. In fact, I"m pretty sure the beating to fucking ratio is like ten to one these days.”

“He beats you?” Ellis asked, curiosity peaked. He needed to know this.

Fen shrugged. He was wiping a towel over his front, giving special attention to his groin, where the hair was darker than that 356

AT HIS THROAT, A PROMISE

on his head, coarse and curly, surrounding a thick but quiescent cock. “Yeah, but I probably deserve it.” He jerked a thumb at himself. “Insolent. How about you?”

Ellis smiled—that was the very word he"d attributed to Fen earlier. “Talkative,” he said, the irony evident only to him.

Fen laughed. “Told you that, did he? He doesn"t mean it, just says it so you"ll know he prefers slaves to be fucked and not heard.”

“How… how does he punish you?”

Fen frowned. “How have you been punished?” Ellis thought back. “I"ve been whipped, tied up, spanked, starved a little… and my ma—my sponsor ignored me once.” The memory still made him feel ill.

“What I wouldn"t do to get a master who thought
that
was a punishment,” Fen quipped. But he seemed to notice that Ellis had actually been affected most by that, for he tilted his head to the side, dark eyes narrowing. “Master prefers a more natural approach. Fists, feet, cock, whatever he can hit you with, hurt you with, or shove inside you. As long as it hurts. He doesn"t believe in making a production out of punishment like some masters. You piss him off, you know it, he hurts you, you apologise, and you fucking well try not to do it again.”

Though accustomed to physical punishment, Ellis was alarmed by this information. A beating with
fists
? The closest he"d come to getting hit in the face was a slap—most recently by Jack Archer, but before that, maybe only once or twice in his entire life. He really didn"t like the thought of that.

Wait. If the ratio for Fen was ten to one, did that mean the master had sex with him less than every ten days? Because Ellis was sure even a horrible slave couldn"t mess up
every
day, and Fen 357

AT HIS THROAT, A PROMISE

didn"t seem all that bad.

“Almost every day,” Fen said quietly, intruding on his thoughts. “A slap or a hard push to the ground or a brutal fucking.

That"s all punishment. Actually, all fucking from him is brutal, but when you"re being punished, you"ll
know
.”

“How do you… take it?”

“Up the ass,” Fen said, deliberately misunderstanding. He laughed. “You do what you have to do, right, kid? It"s not bad enough to get him in trouble with the law, and I"ve never been to the hospital or anything. I"m not trying to scare you. You"ll definitely be better than me. The girls only get slapped around twice a week or so. Though from the whining and moaning you"d think it was way worse. He doesn"t fuck them as punishment, lucky bitches.”

“Why not?”

Fen shrugged. “Who knows? Sanctity of the female body or some shit like that.”

“Oh,” Ellis said in a small voice. What about the sanctity of
his
body, he wondered.

Ellis questioned Fen for almost an hour as the slave remained fully nude on his bed, answering everything with almost too much detail. He stopped when a strange, low alarm gave three chimes.

Looking around, he saw a speaker above the door.

“Dinner,” Fen explained. He stood and donned a rather shabby white—off-white, really—shift and stretched. “We eat with the servants, though we"re not supposed to talk. I usually stick around after the girls leave and chat with them. They"re decent people, and their loyalty is to themselves, not the master or each other, like those sluts.”

It was evident that there was no love lost between Fen, 358

AT HIS THROAT, A PROMISE

Michaela and Maya. Maya had been a little rude to Ellis, but he"d figured that was just because she"d gotten the same spiel from Jude about no fraternising.

But when she pulled his cock cage out and tapped it on the wooden table in the servants" kitchen in front of everyone, he knew her cruelty ran deeper.

“So,
Ellis
,” Michaela said, folding her arms on the table and leaning forward. “Why exactly would you need such a contraption?”

Ellis didn"t answer. He knew he didn"t have to speak to them.

“Well, he
is
awfully young,” Maya said, tapping the metal harder until all eyes were on her. “Maybe he has trouble controlling himself.”

Fen raised an eyebrow, and the three male servants in the room winced upon realising what the toy was. The cook, a woman who reminded Ellis of Nell, smiled sympathetically at him and shook her head at the female slaves.

“That"s enough out of you harpies,” the cook said sharply. “I know for a fact Mr. Mitchell wouldn"t want you talking to the new kid like that.”

Maya glowered and Michaela hissed through her teeth, but the cock cage was put away and dinner was finished in silence.

When the girls stood to leave, Maya said, “Aren"t you going back to your room, little boy?”

Fen answered for him. “Ellis wants seconds, don"t you?” Ellis nodded for no other reason than to avoid having to walk down the hallway next to those two. They turned and left.

“Thanks,” Ellis said to the cook.

“They used to be such sweet girls,” she said. The male servants rolled their eyes, though, and Ellis suspected they were only nice 359

AT HIS THROAT, A PROMISE

to the cook to get something in return.

“I"m Jin, by the way,” said the cook with a gentle smile. “And this is Justin, Medley, and Stephan.”

Ellis nodded at everyone. He felt much more at ease with the girls gone.

Jin began to pile more food onto his plate, and he protested. “I didn"t actually want seconds. Fen was just saving me.”

“Nonsense,” Jin said smartly, heaping another scoop of mashed potatoes before dousing it with thick gravy. “You"re skin and bones. I don"t know what your last cook fed you, but it certainly wasn"t enough.

Ellis had already eaten more than he usually did—that amount of food would make him sick. Nell would have known that. “Nell was a great cook,” Ellis said defensively, fighting off a wave of homesickness. “She always tried to get me to eat more.” The ladle dropped and spattered all over the table, gravy landing on his cheek. Ellis moved to help clean up the mess, but Jin stopped him.

“Nell?” she said. “You"re William"s?”

If only
. “He was my sponsor,” Ellis explained, frowning. How would Jin know that?

“Mercy,” she said, sitting back. One of the male servants—

Stephan, he thought—cleaned up the gravy with easy efficiency.

“Nell"s my niece. She"s told me all about you. Right, Ellis. I should have realised. Quiet as a mouse, she said, and such a beauty. I should have known right away.” Shocked, Ellis said nothing. Could he… maybe… get a message to Harte or William through Jin?

As soon as he had the thought, he quashed it. He was here because he"d
chosen
to be, not because he"d been kidnapped or 360

AT HIS THROAT, A PROMISE

coerced. He had to make the best of this and come out a better slave, a better person.

“I have to go,” Ellis said. Without waiting for a response, he left. Once in his room, he got into the shower right away. At the last moment, he realised he didn"t have his own shower things, and he wasn"t comfortable using Fen"s. He scrubbed at himself as best he could with his bare hands, figuring he"d have another shower in the morning. After all, it didn"t really matter if Jude wasn"t going to be there.

When he came out in his night sheath, Fen was sitting on Ellis"s bed.

“You"re really fucked up, huh?”

“Can you move? I"d like to get to bed.”

“There"s lots of room,” Fen said, pulling back the covers. He was sitting near the bottom, so Ellis got in and didn"t stretch out his legs.

“I got this back for you from the twat twins.” Fend held up his cock cage. Ellis didn"t take it, so he put it in the nightstand. “Why do you wear it?”

Ellis shrugged and turned away, facing the wall. Fen sighed and eventually got up. There was only the sound of pages turning for a few hours as Ellis contemplated his new life and the connection to his old one, through Jin. It was harder this way. A complete break would have been much better. Now news of him was going to reach Nell, who would tell Harte, if not William.