Marc came by the next morning with apologies for the inconvenience while Anne was cleaning the apartment. She quickly knelt in a corner out of the way, darting occasional glances at the young man until they caught her at it.
The engine trouble was no one's fault, Francesca said. She accepted his invitation to tea for herself and Anne that afternoon after classes, at the apartment he shared with his mother Adele. She called Anne over and let Marc play with her breasts for a minute before he left.
A few minutes ahead of the appointed time Francesca retrieved Anne from the cellar. She rubbed smudges of dirt off her with a rag and led her outside where a large car belonging to Adele's employer picked them up. Anne sat alone and forgotten in the back seat while Francesca chatted in front with the chauffeur. At least she did not have to follow on foot, her collar attached to the back with a chain; twice she had been hitched like that to a cart at her last owner's, and again after the plowing. She reminded herself it was good for her; it left her subdued and obedient for days afterwards.
Adele was the live-in housekeeper at a training school in the city, a smaller version of the St. Agnes academy where Anne received her instruction. It was run by the aristocratic Madame Messier (no one dared to call her by her given name in her presence) and it went by no title other than hers. Madame Messier's offered a similar curriculum to the academy's in less extensive but more opulent facilities.
On their arrival at the elegant old building, Adele welcomed them nervously and said Madame had expressed a desire to meet her guests; tea would be offered not in her own apartment but in the residential quarters of the proprietress. Francesca looked thoughtful at this.
As they were shown into the salon, Madame greeted Francesca and Anne made a deep curtsey to her. She seemed to Anne a more stylish version of Gudrun, one of the trainers at the academy: a slender woman of middle age and formal bearing dressed in a dark gray, almost black suit. Anne was afraid of her at first, but attracted to her air of command.
The host and guests settled into comfortable chairs and Anne knelt close to her owner, not daring to make a sound. Attentive servants offered tea and pastries, swiftly refilling cups as they emptied. Mme. Messier gave an order. Engraved silver bowls of water and feed were placed before Anne who sampled them carefully, after looking up at Francesca for permission and on her best behavior.
Madame was proud of her well-appointed facilities and happy to describe them. To the possessions of masters who could afford the best she provided individualized training as well as auction and boarding services. She offered to show Francesca around her establishment; she had designed it herself. Francesca was invited to leave Anne behind with a servant, but she chose to include her charge in the tour.
Anne walked in front, her leash firmly held by her mistress, as they proceeded down corridors of polished stone. They inspected the sleeping cells, the gymnasium, the refectory where they watched half a dozen bound girls learn to drink water from bowls on the floor ("Novices, their first day here, just arrived from a collector in Cairo"), and other areas where the inmates were taught or chastised or sold.
They paused to look into a chamber where a brunette, naked except for irons, was suspended by her wrists. A young red-haired trainer, nude like her, attached a pair of clamps to her nipples before working her over with a riding crop.
"We are teaching her to associate punishment and pleasure," Madame explained. "In a month she will beg us to whip her every day. Then we shall neglect her. That is the hardest lesson; when she has learned to accept it, we will return her to her owner."
"The hardest lesson." Anne had to agree. She remembered the nights and weekends when her first owner was too busy to see her, dining with clients or "trying out" a girl in another city; and the desolation she felt from being confined to her apartment with her hands bound, sometimes for days. A black woman came by to refill her bowls, but otherwise she knelt by herself learning to be "unfree". She cried for hours at first but in time she submitted to Paul's decision and respected him for it.
Occasionally men who knew the secret of her unlocked door came by and used her; she treasured those brief moments of companionship.
Mme. Messier noticed Anne's stripes; she said nothing to her guests but called Adele over for whispered instructions. Adele left, returning a few minutes later. She spoke with Madame, who invited them to watch a scourging. Anne's eyes widened with alarm at the memory of her own, but Francesca said they would be pleased; the experience would be a useful reminder to her girl.
They went through a door at one end of the gym and down a flight of metal stairs; this part of the building was meant for business, not for show. In a sub-basement they passed through another door, a heavier one, into a small room with a rope suspended from the ceiling. Mme. Messier's trainer and occasional executioner greeted them; Naomi was a stocky woman of about thirty with short dark hair.
On a wall behind her was a display; twenty or more hanks of hair, all different colors, each tied with a black ribbon. Some were paired with a nest of curly dark hairs beneath them, and beside each a girl's name and a date. Below the collection, a peg on which a garrote hung.
Anne recognized the model; it was made of braided leather strips around a core of steel wire, one of Edward's most popular designs. A young man newly arrived in town last year, skilled in leatherworking but without funds or a home, she took him in and persuaded her firm to set him up in business.
He used her as a model for his garottes now and then. That was exciting, she remembered. He would tighten it just enough to persuade her he might really do it this time; potential customers loved that. So did she.
Naomi shook hands with Francesca; then, holding Anne's chin up with one hand she lifted the collar and examined her neck while the others looked on. Anne grew nervous but also a little wet. She felt her nipples respond and saw them watching her; they had noticed. Her body always betrayed her at these times, she could not hide her responses.
Madame and Francesca stood back along a wall with Anne kneeling between them to await the proceedings. Someone began to stroke her hair; she looked up to find Mme. Messier staring down at her and smiling. Anne smiled back as she was trained and Madame continued to pet her. She liked the older woman.
