XXXVIII.
How long they had been at sea was no longer even a matter of conjecture. Life indeed went on, but time seemed to pass by Jenn and Matt and their compatriots, without affecting them. Timelessness notwithstanding, the ship rested a while, at anchor, when, one morning, it finally reached Bombay. Many, perhaps most, of the guests had gone ashore when, after breakfasting, Jenn was fetched by a handler. He said nothing to her, other than to specify her required attire. That far into their journey, there was rarely call for the handlers to speak unless it was to give special instructions, whether from guests or trainers β or in taking liberties of their own. Wearing only her leather tack and high heeled sandals, she was, intriguingly, draped in a light cloak before being led toward the ship's stern. As they approached a rather more decorative door than the others around, they were met by a trainer under whom Jenn had worked many times. The handler was dismissed, then the trainer turned to Jenn and began to speak.
"The people who run this ship," he began, sounding as if he were launching into a rich and old story, "officers and sailors β the operations crew, as it were β besides getting paid exceedingly well, get, from time to time, perks." There was, Jenn thought, a trace of β was it envy or just irony? β in his voice. Filling his hand with her bottom cheek, he gave her a squeeze as he turned back to the door and gave a sharp rap with his other hand. "You are today's perk." It was almost an afterthought. The door opened with a flourish, but the man on the other side was already turning away as Jenn was led into the poshly appointed lounge. The quiet hum of relaxed ambience in which a few officers sat at small tables drinking and chatting didn't change as she paused inside the threshold with her handler. No one paid her the slightest attention.
The trainer removed her cloak then led her to a piece of furniture that looked as much like a vaulting horse as anything else. She was told to lay her abdomen across it. It was slightly more than waist height so that when the handler spread her feet apart to fasten her ankles to the legs of the affair, she ended up on tiptoes. Her arms were pulled taut and her hands fastened to the front legs of the strange piece. The result was that she was stretched across the padded top of a table/horse affair, supported from her hips to her lower sternum, with her breasts hanging down against the front surface. The trainer straightened up, after checking that her limbs were well secured, and quickly cinched a wide strap tightly across her lower back. He lifted Jenn's chin, and, looking her straight in the eyes with a look so completely unreadable that Jenn found it disconcerting, he said, "Well, my dear, this will be the end of your training. Once you're through this, you're done."
"Whatever do you mean?" Jenn asked, surprising herself with her boldness, a sense of foreboding trickling down her exposed spine. Had their year passed already? Were they going to be sent home? An incomprehension splashed across her face, leaking from her eyes.
But the trainer just chuckled and winked. Letting go of her chin, he added, "Oh, you'll find out." He moved casually behind her, and, grabbing her pudendum with a suddenness that drew a small gasp, he said quietly, "I'll be going now." His finger ran lightly up and down her slit. "Be good." Jenn detected some sort of implied warning. "Be very good." She felt a mild let-down sensation as he briefly inserted his finger knuckle-deep into her vagina. "I'm sure you will." Suddenly, she was alone β trussed and exposed. The people around her ignoring her and the quiet affluence of the parlour made her feel more naked than ever. Once again she waited. Her fate was not her own.
What would happen would happen. She tried not to appear anxious. She tried not to be anxious, deliberately refraining from looking around, she closed her eyes and let her head drop. Her mind wandered away to nowhere, but was brought back by the sound of more people entering the room β moving about. Amidst the milling, hands idly touched and stroked her. Slowly she raised her head once more, and opened her eyes to the buzz of conversation, rising and falling about her like windblown branches. The room was filling up with officers, drinks in hands, gathering into small knots that swirled past Jenn's field of vision with hardly a glance. The light smacks on her buttocks, and fingers trailing along her flank were almost incidental. She felt somehow invisible; until, finally, someone cupped her chin and, lifting her head, looked into her face, saying absently, "Not bad, not bad at all." His thumb moved up to press into the corner of Jenn's mouth. She responded immediately by sucking it and running her tongue around and down its length. She moaned softly, the personal attention igniting her lusty craving. She wasn't frightened, or even apprehensive, only impatient.
"Richard," a jesting voice called, "hasn't anyone ever told you: never look a gift horse in the mouth?"
Rubbing his thumb over her bottom teeth, he turned and said, "Just checking." He pulled his hand away, adding, "Good responses," and smacked her cheek.