Music washed over Karen, as soft and soothing as the caresses of her master, the Maestro. She had been bound, she had been beaten by him, and now she knelt by him as he reclined on the couch, his eyes closed in appreciation of the peace which the music brought.
One hand rested on Karen's neck, fingers curled beneath her chin to hold her head up, keep her back erect. On her haunches she felt like an obedient pet, waiting for the Maestro to acknowledge her, to offer some small sign of affection or approval.
Out of the corner of her eye, not turning until Maestro said she could, Karen was aware of his other hand moving to his lap, then drawing the loose kaftan he wore up his legs. Then there was a gentle pressure on her neck, he tilted her head and she saw his strong thighs bared, his fingers slipping between them. She gazed down with love, with veneration, until the fingers curled beneath her chin slowly raised her head to gaze into the eyes of the Maestro. There was the hint of a smile in those eyes, a gentle curve to the lips and the slightest suggestion of a nod, at which she lowered her head, kissed his thighs, buried her face in his lap.
The loving way Maestro caressed her neck could as easily bring tears to her eyes as any pain he has caused her, after the way he had used her she could only love him all the more for the kindness he now showed.
*
He was rumoured to be a hard task-master, he was a perfectionist and demanded nothing less than perfection from those in his charge. As he walked across the stage Karen was struck by his athletic grace, he was tall and heavily built but he moved with an ease which belied his bulk. It was when he stepped up onto the conductor's podium, though, when he tossed back his head and that mane of long blonde hair, when he raised his arms as if to embrace them all, it was then that she felt in awe of the power which he exuded.
'Scheherezade, the Entrance of the Kalendar Prince,' he announced, his voice deep and sonorous, reverberating richly about the concert hall, and brought his arms down, the baton held lightly in his right hand.
As Karen drew the bow across the violin strings she felt as if it was stroking her heart, drawing music from her soul, her whole body quivered to hear the orchestra swell, to feel herself under the control of the man before her.
Her eyes flicked incessantly from the score to the Maestro, from the ink-black of the musical notation to the jet of his eyes, and she played with more passion than ever before, uplifted by the music, orchestrated by the Maestro, her body swaying in time with his baton.
There was a sweat on her brow, her cheeks were flushed, she wore a long thin cotton skirt to the rehearsal and beneath it, between her thighs, she could feel herself becoming wet.
This was passion, pure and unadulterated.....surely!
'No! No! No!' said the Maestro, tapping his baton vigorously against the podium. 'I sense no feeling! You play like automata rather than musicians with soul! Now again! From the beginning!'
And so they began again, and again, and each time Karen's soul seemed lifted ever higher until she felt that it was soaring. Sweat was pouring from her, it ran in rivulets between her breasts, across her belly, along her thighs. There was a tingling numbness in her fingertips from the constant vibration of the strings, every muscle quivered and ached, and at the very heart of the sensation, the epicentre of this, was her groin. Though she was wet she was also afire, it felt as if the bow had been stroking there, the fine strands drawn across her swollen labia rather than across the violin.
When the Maestro finally called a halt to the rehearsal, after a punishing three hours, she felt overcome by weariness, as if her body had been used by him, and she slumped in her seat, elbows resting on knees, bow and violin hanging loosely from her hands.
'We will resume tomorrow morning and hope for better,' the Maestro said, stepping down from the podium and crossing the stage. 'And you, First Violinist-' he added.
'Yes Maestro?' said Karen, looking up.
'I will see you in my dressing room when you have packed away your instrument,' he said, and was gone.
Quickly Karen packed bow and violin into the case, snapped it shut and stood. Her bare arms were breaking out in goose bumps, now the sweat was cooling on her, and she shivered as she crossed the stage, then again more violently as she entered the bare corridor behind and walked along to the dressing rooms. The goose bumps were spreading, she was no longer sure of the cause, and she felt a shivering which was almost like a trembling in her legs as she reached the door to the Maestro's dressing room.
She knocked hesitantly, and then again a little harder.
'One moment!' came the answer, and then, maybe a minute later, 'Enter!'
Entering, Karen immediately saw that the Maestro had changed, that gone were the grey slacks and white shirt, the soft black moccasins; now he wore what seemed to be a long kaftan of some fine muslin or cotton, open at the neck and coming down almost to his bared feet. Even more relaxed than his dress, though, was his attitude, sprawled full length on the couch, his baton still in his hand and idly twirling it between his fingers.
Put your instrument case down in the corner and then come over here,' he told her, using lazy gestures of the baton to direct her, first to her right where she set down the violin case, and then to a spot beside the couch which she stepped forward to take up.
'So, First Violin? Yes?' he said, his eyes slowly moving up her body to meet hers, but before Karen could answer he cut the air with his baton to silence her. 'No! Fiddle, more like! That is what you are! Fiddle!'
Stunned by his harsh tone, by the unexpected words, Karen's mouth fell open and the single word escaped her lips. 'Maestro?'
'You played with passion, I grant you that, you put in effort and labour,' he continued slowly, in his low deep timbre. 'But you played without discipline, too wildly.' The baton was raised, to caution against any protests or interruptions. 'Whores exhibit passion, servants and maids offer effort and labour. Would you consider yourself any of those?' he asked, smiling to offer a pause in which she might now answer.
'No, Maestro,' she managed to respond.
'A lack of discipline gives a slipshod interpretation,' he went on, 'and if the interpretation is slipshod, Fiddle, it means that you are not paying attention to me. I do not merely conduct the orchestra, I orchestrate you, make you dance to my tune. Is that sinking in, Fiddle?'
'Yes, Maestro,' said Karen, lowering her eyes a little, feeling her cheeks burn with shame each time he called her by that derogatory name.
'Good,' he said, and now permitted a slight smile to break, lines forming at the corners of his deep dark eyes, his lips curling and parting to show the strong even teeth. 'And we have passion, at least. I witnessed that. And guess that we have the evidence of that still.'