The Claiming (19 page)

Alain paled slightly, glancing toward the door, as if he could see through it and beyond to the room above stairs. “I explained….”

“You explained nothing!” Blane said furiously. “You told her to go. She has been conditioned to obey her master without question, or understanding, and no matter how frightened. She is not from Orleans, doesn’t really understand our way of life here, has no education beyond what was considered essential for the role for which she was designed.”

Alain’s face hardened with anger. “She is no fool. You do not give her credit.”

Blane stared at his brother for a long moment. “I think I gave you too much. If she means so little to you that you can consider using her like she’s some—chess piece in a game of wills between you and that worm out there, give her to me.”

***

Jana stared at the strange man warily as he closed the door carefully behind him. He seemed uncomfortable and more than a little embarrassed and she relaxed fractionally, deciding he wasn’t quite as frightening as she had first thought when she’d looked at his stern features.

She still wasn’t quite certain why she had been told to take him to her room. It had occurred to her that she might be expected to perform, but Alain had been so furious before about the possibility of her sharing herself that she couldn’t quite decide what he’d meant. Did he consider it in a different light now that he had had sex with her? Or, maybe, it was because he now knew that she was a courtesan, and that was why it was all right now?

“If you will lie down on the bed, Mistress?”

That seemed to answer that question. Obviously, she was supposed to perform. She didn’t know quite why it was, but somehow it hurt that Alain had decided, after all, that he would share her. Even when she had felt that she resented his possessiveness toward her, it had still comforted her to think she would only be expected to belong to him, for his use only. “Should I take my clothes off?” she asked hesitantly.

To her surprise, the elderly gentleman blushed bright red. “No! That won’t be necessary. Just the … the pantaloons. I can work beneath your skirts.”

Jana stared at him for several moments in stunned surprise, never having encountered a request quite like that before, but she reached beneath her skirts and shed the pantaloons, crawled up onto the bed, and lay down.

Doctor Jenk moved to the side of the bed and sat down. Lifting her skirts fractionally, he gazed at the window set in the wall on the far side of her bedroom, and worked his arm beneath her skirts. After several moments, she felt his hand touch her bare abdomen. Despite her best efforts to remain docile, she jumped.

He jerked his arm out. “I’m afraid you’ll have to lift your … bend your knees … and … uh … part your thighs.”

Jana complied. After a moment, he repeated the process of before, lifting her skirt fractionally, then working his arm upward. This time his groping hand touched her inner thigh then slid downward. Jana sucked in her breath, slamming her eyes shut as she felt his fingers probing her. The doctor stood up, placed the palm of his free hand on her belly and pushed one finger of his other hand up inside of her.

Jana squeezed her eyes more tightly. He seemed to be searching for something. His touch was very impersonal, but he was wheezing and gasping as men seemed to when in the heat of passion. He gazed skyward while he groped, never once looking at her face. Finally, apparently satisfied, he withdrew his hand and moved to the washstand. Jana watched him as he washed his hands and dried them, then turned toward the door.

“You may dress now,” he muttered as he left the room, carefully closing the door behind him.

Jana sat up, staring at the closed door. After a moment, she climbed off of the bed and moved to the washstand to bathe herself, scrubbing hard to remove the feel of him from her flesh. For some reason she didn’t quite understand, her chest felt tight and achy.

When she had pulled her pantaloons on once more, she stood indecisively in the middle of the room for several moments and finally climbed back into bed.

***

It was late afternoon when Jana left her room. She had heard angry voices for a time, but they had eventually faded away. She had wondered for a while if Marty would take her away this time, but apparently Alain was still inclined to keep her and Marty had not yet come up with a way to get her back. Some time later she had heard the sound of footsteps moving along the upper hallway. Her heart had skipped several beats while she held her breath, listening. They had paused for a time outside her door, but finally went away again.

Growing tired of staring at the ceiling, Jana curled onto her side, pulled the covers over her and stared at the wall for a while, allowing her thoughts to drift where they would.

After a time, one of the maids had come into the room carrying a tray. Jana had closed her eyes as the door opened, pretending to be asleep. The maid had left the tray on the table beside the bed and gone away again.

Jana studied the food but decided she wasn’t hungry and went back to staring at the wall, watching the shadows drift slowly down it as the sun made its way up the sky and then began to travel down once more. When she realized that the house had grown silent, she sat up, listening. Apparently, the servants had finished cleaning and gone on to other tasks outside. She heard nothing to indicate whether Blane and Alain were still in the house, but they were rarely in the house during the day.

Finally, she decided that she would go down to the creek. It was cool there, in the deep woods, and quiet. Perhaps, once she was there, she would be able to think and then she would understand why she felt so unhappy.

She was relieved when she managed to leave the house undetected, and hurried across the open lawn until she reached the trees she knew would shield her from sight. She had more than half feared that she would discover that Blane, or someone else, had gone down to the clearing near the creek, but discovered when she arrived that her fears had been unfounded. She sat down on the fallen tree near the water’s edge, studying the play of sunlight on the rippling water.

Never having spent a great deal of time trying to understand the behavior of others, she found it impossible to fathom Alain. Understanding Marty had been fairly simple. When he smiled, he was pleased with her and she did not have to worry that he would punish her. When he was angry, he screamed and cursed and jumped up and down and she knew any moment that he would beat her. Once he’d done so, however, his mood always seemed to improve. Afterwards, he would always say that he was sorry and that he wished she would not make him hurt her.

There had been nothing at all to understand about her clients. She had been instructed by Marty of what was expected beforehand. She had done as she was told. They had taken their pleasure and left.

She finally realized that what she should have done to begin with was to ask Blane what she must do to please Alain. Surely he would know.

Of course, she had thought that learning the customs and behavior of Orleans would please him. Blane had said he would expect it of her and she had assumed that that meant that was what she must do to please him. Now she realized that she must have mistaken the matter. Or, maybe, that was only part of it and she should have asked for further instructions after Alain had come?

A twig snapped nearby and Jana whirled toward the sound, more than half expecting that Alain had followed her as he had before. Instead, it was Marty who stepped from the brush.

Jana scrambled to her feet, feeling the blood drain from her head in such a dizzying rush she thought for several moments that she would faint. “Marty!” she gasped, terrified, wondering which way to run, wondering if she could outrun him.

Chapter Ten

Marty grinned. “I thought if I stayed around awhile I’d get the chance for a little chat.”

Jana found, for several moments, that she could not seem to think. “I’ll scream if you come near me! Alain will come.”

He chuckled, leaning back against a tree. “I don’t think so. I saw him leave about an hour ago, right after his brother.”

Jana studied him, wondering if he was lying. “Someone would come.”

Marty shrugged. “I only came to talk.”

She didn’t believe him, but she was fairly certain she couldn’t run fast enough to elude him. She rose, climbing off the fallen tree on the side opposite him, so that she had at least that much of a barrier to protect her. “Why?”

“I thought if we talked, I could make you see reason.”

“Go back with you, you mean?”

Marty shrugged. “We could make other arrangements. If you don’t want to work for me at The House, I could sell you to someone else.”

Jana paled. “No!”

“I didn’t mean as a courtesan. I could arrange to have you conditioned as some other sort of menial … perhaps a nanny? I couldn’t help but notice the other day that you seemed fond of the rug rats.”

Jana studied him, unnerved to realize he had been watching her, but unwilling to allow him to see the effect his words had on her. “You wouldn’t do that. You would not get nearly the credits you paid for me.”

Again, he shrugged. “Better some than none. It’s not like I’d be losing money, after all. I did make back some of your price, and I could get enough if I sold you to even make a little profit. It all depends, naturally, on what you decided you wanted to do.”

Jana didn’t believe him. Whatever he said now, Marty was never satisfied only with a little profit. He would either return her to the House, or he would sell her as a courtesan to another house. She shook her head. “I want to stay with Alain.”

For a moment, Jana thought he would loose his temper. It took an effort, but after wrestling with himself, he managed a faint smile. “Why? You will be expected to service him. If you’re willing to service one, why not more than one?”

Jana frowned. “Because….” She realized she didn’t know how to answer the question. She didn’t know why she was glad to serve Alain but wanted no one else. It was true that he was the only man who had ever given her pleasure, but she didn’t think that was the only reason. In fact, she was certain it wasn’t. She had not known he could give her pleasure when she had decided she wanted to belong to him. She had just realized when he had said that she was his and he would share her with no one else that she wanted to belong to him.

Marty started laughing, at first with an effort, and finally with genuine amusement.

Jana stared at him, feeling anger slowly replacing her fear.

“That is so hilarious!” he said, wiping his eyes, trying to get his laughter under control.

“I don’t see why,” she said stiffly.

“You … you … think you’re in love with him!” he stammered, bending double as laughter got the better of him again.

The word was incomprehensible to Jana. “Love? What is this word?” Jana asked suspiciously.

“Exactly!” Marty said, laughing harder. “So much for modern science!”

“I don’t understand,” Jana said, her anger mounting.
Marty sobered. “You’re not really human, you know. You’re a genetically engineered, biological organism … a drone … a slave. You have no family, no past, no future. Unlike human beings, you have not been taught to feel love. A person, a human, has to be loved by someone before they can learn how to love. You were bred in a lab, by scientists. You have been conditioned to feel none of the ‘human’ emotions, only to react to them!

But you feel it, don’t you? That fluttering in your heart when he’s near you? Fear and excitement all at the same time? Feel like you need to cry your eyes out when he doesn’t seem to care for you? That’s why you were out here, isn’t it? You decided he didn’t care about you and you came out her to try to figure out why you felt like you were going to die from the pain of it all? Oh, woe is me?” He giggled. “No. Don’t tell me. I can see it on your face!”

Jana glared at him. “I am human.”

Marty shook his head. “You breathe, you bleed, you’ll age, eventually, you’ll die, but you’re not human … not like the rest of us.” He settled back against the tree trunk, studying her. “You’ve got no clue of what this place is really like, do you?”

“I do. Everyone believes I am from Orleans. I behave exactly like everyone else.”

“But you don’t know what’s going to happen if you stay, if you continue to service Alain.”

Jana looked at him distrustingly. “What?”
“You’ve been genetically engineered to be infertile, so you might just get lucky, but I’m thinking Alain likes his new toy and he’s going to be using it, you, regularly and sooner or later his seed is going to take root. You will cease to have your woman’s cycle and your belly will begin to swell up, because there will be an infant growing inside of you. Humans, real humans, are like parasites. They attach themselves to your insides and suck their nourishment right out of their mother. You probably don’t know what the word ‘mother’ means either.”

She did—sort of. She just didn’t entirely understand it. As for the rest, she had figured it out from what she had been told, but she supposed she had not really accepted it in the sense that she had understood it could apply to her. The thought terrified her, and yet others did it. Val-risa had seemed pleased that she had an infant growing inside of her.

“Then, after carrying this thing around for almost a year, comes the hard part. Giving birth. From what I understand, it is far more painful than losing your virginity, and they are not allowed neuro-blockers here. You’d have no choice but to endure it.”

He stood away from the tree and took a couple of steps toward her. “You’d be better off to come back with me. I made you an offer. I’ll stand by it.”

Jana took a step back, glancing around to find a clear path of escape.

He stopped. “Have you even been listening to me? You don’t belong here! You can not adapt … certainly not to the ways of this world.”

“I can,” Jana said stubbornly.

Marty lost his sense of humor. “You stupid whore! Stupid, stupid whore! You really think he’ll keep you for his companion now that he knows you’re a high priced whore? These people here are archaic! They think a woman who has had sex with more than one man is … is beneath them! Not fit to be kept as a companion!”