The Connoisseur

Chapter 26: Master and Slave

It was a simple matter to have Jane's affairs put in order. It turned out that she had no close friends or family, and only a few acquaintances. I smiled to myself. How perfectly she fit the profile of the girls we'd targeted.

I arranged to have her rent paid, her lease broken, and her few (though expensive) possessions sold or donated to charity, and had my agents circulate a story that she'd decided to move abroad. No one questioned it.

I closed Jane's bank accounts — she was remarkably careless with her passwords — and found that she had, indeed, been cheating me, although not as badly or for as long as I'd feared. I settled that difference, and set the rest aside in an investment account. Should any of our previously trained slave girls ever have need, I would be in a position to provide them with a tidy pension indeed.

Jane and her new Master must have ultimately been pleased with one another; I never heard from either of them again.

As for Sarah and me, if ever a man and a woman were more blissfully happy with one another than we were, I have not heard of it — not even in the myths and fairytales that my Sarah loved so dearly. We read to each other every night.

Two weeks after that fateful day when I'd nearly lost her, my beloved Sarah and I held a private ceremony in the training room. I covered the floor with rose petals, and in the gold and dancing light of a thousand candles, she knelt before me. I locked my collar around her neck, binding us together, Master and slave, forever.

That night, I bound Sarah in ribbons of blue satin, the twilight blue of her deep and lovely eyes, and took her to my bed. I did not fuck her; we made love, again and again, and again after that.

In the morning we woke together, my Sarah in my arms, and together we found a way to be happier still.

Though that collaring ceremony in the candle-lit training room connected us more intimately than any other ever could, I wanted us bound in the eyes of the world, too. A very ... open-minded and understanding minister friend performed our wedding and made us man and wife in the eyes of government and society. He had to be open-minded; the bride's gown, a translucent miracle of gossamer and jewels, looked like it had come from some erotic Frank Frazetta fairytale illustration.

Two guests attended; Alice and her Master. It was the first time I'd met the man in person. He was much older than I expected, but I liked him at once. Kindred spirits, as it were. We clasped hands and resolved to meet for a drink some day soon, although alas, that never happened.

Alice served as Sarah's Matron of Honor, and I felt sure that unlike most members of a bride's wedding party, she would find occasion to wear her "outfit" again. She was naked, save for a set of silver cuffs and collar I'd had made for the occasion. I gave them to her master as a gift, to his very obvious delight.

For our honeymoon, Sarah and I traveled the world. We added generously to our library and to the ... very special collection we kept in the training room. We had a good time indeed going through all the packages we'd shipped back and rediscovering what we'd bought when we finally returned home six months later.

Sarah published her first book that year, and the second the year after.

The year after that, Alice's Master died of a sudden heart attack. The poor girl was devastated. Alice was his only heir; he'd left her a wealthy woman indeed. Sarah and I helped her through her grief as best we could. Time passed, and Alice began slowly to heal.

Poor Alice resolved never to bind herself to another Master, and she had no interest in a "vanilla" relationship (a most unfortunate phrase, since truly, natural vanilla is one of the world's great under-appreciated flavors). Instead, Alice traveled, and used her wealth to do good in the world. I was proud of her.

And when she needed ... comfort? She turned to us, and when the times were right, Sarah and I were only too happy to welcome her into our bedroom ... and into the training room. After all, she had skills to maintain! She made a wonderful, if occasional, addition to our little family.

Alice moved most of her belongings into our home, and when she wasn't traveling, she stayed with us — Sarah's beloved sister in slavery, an always-welcome guest. That proved fortunate, for Alice was there to help us when Sarah gave birth to our first child!