When Mistress Jarvinia inspected her two slaves, she seemed pleased and satisfied with my efforts at punishing them for her.
"Ah, Odilia," she exclaimed, "You claimed that you lacked the ability to punish a slave-girl, and yet, even were I a blind woman I would be able to feel the heat coming up from these girls' backsides!"
"I strive to please you, Mistress," I replied timidly.
Mistress Jarvinia favored me with a wicked smile and added, "Of course, have I not punished your own buttocks and thighs in a very like manner many times over?"
I felt a flood of shame and anxiety flood over me at her question and answered her in the affirmative. She had indeed left my thighs and buttocks in a riot of scalding pain on many occasions. Did she intend to inflict such pain upon me again, or did she merely intend to shame me with memories of previous humiliations?
Having answered her question, I hung my head and waited with trepidation for her next words.
"I'll be calling upon Odilia to punish my slaves again," Mistress Jarvinia informed my mistress, "However next time I am intent on watching her efforts. The stricken and fearful looks upon the faces of Ava and Godiva are delicious. I should like to watch, and see her perform the next time those looks blossom on the faces of my slaves."
"Of course," Lady Svetlana replied deferentially, "Any time you desire our presence, you need merely to send us a request."
Officially Mistress Jarvinia's status was beneath that of Lady Svetlana, however Mistress Jarvinia had a reputation for being very adept at casting curses. There were frightening stories of men and women who had offended Mistress Jarvinia, who had suffered horrible torments and then died in very fearsome ways. No one in the kingdom wished to offend Mistress Jarvinia. Even Queen Eleanor treated Old Mistress Jarvinia with respect.
The two armed men in the service of Mistress Jarvinia arrived and offered to escort us back to Lady Svetlana's manor house. Lady Svetlana bound a leather collar around my throat before we left and then attached a leash to my collar. I thought that we would depart without delay, however, Mistress Jarvinia surprised me by planting her mouth over mine and kissing me, while holding my face between her surprisingly strong hands.
I had been a slave in Mistress Jarvinia's home for a great deal of months, and she had never kissed me once during that entire time. I found it curious that she would choose to kiss me now. I was also surprised by the fierceness and burning passion of her kiss. It was a kiss that seemed to stretch on for minutes and left me breathless and panting when her mouth finally broke contact with mine.
Mistress Jarvinia utterly refused to explain her actions. She merely wished Lady Svetlana and me a safe journey home. Lady Svetlana then tugged upon my leash, and bewildered I began to walk behind her.
* * * * * * * * * *
At some point as we were traveling through the woods, we encountered several women who had captured a runaway slave. All told there were five women. They had been washing clothes in the nearby river when a naked princess had attempted to cross the river and make her way into the neighboring kingdom.
The washerwomen had grabbed the naked princess from the water and dragged her back to Queen Eleanor's side of the river. They proclaimed that they intended to return her to her rightful owner, however, they insisted on punishing her first.
The washerwomen had forced the runaway princess to lie across the trunk of a fallen tree, and they were taking turns paddling the poor girl's naked buttocks with their washing bats. I had never taken notice of it before, however washing bats and spanking paddles were designed to be very much similar. A washing bat had a wooden handle and a thin, flat sturdy piece of wood for beating laundry against a rock. The main difference between a paddle and a washing bat is that the washing bat was designed for beating laundry. The paddle was designed for beating the bare buttocks of a penitent slave.
The poor naked slave-girl was miserable and sobbing, and her buttocks were already beginning to turn a painful shade of red. In addition to the stinging pain of her reddened buttocks, I surmised that the bark of the fallen tree would feel rough and unforgiving on the princess's naked thighs, breasts and nipples.
I felt compassion for the poor, punished princess, but I also felt a furtive, guilty heat in my loins. I had a dark, feverish desire to take the runaway princess's place across the trunk of that tree and suffer the same cruel fate that the poor, whimpering girl was suffering.
The armed men and Lady Svetlana stopped and spoke with the washerwomen, leaving me to linger near the punished princess and to gaze upon her suffering for an extensive period. I stamped my feet uneasily and rubbed my naked thighs against each other as the wet throbbing in my sex became more vexing and more insistent. It was strange and bewildering, however, I craved the sort of abuse and punishment that the poor sobbing princess was suffering just now.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Life in Lady Svetlana's manor house soon fell into a predictable routine. Every morning I would be taken to Lucinda's bedchamber to see to her sexual demands. Every night I would be taken to Lady Svetlana's bedchamber and make certain that her sexual desires were tended to. During the interim, I would either serve in Becca's kitchens, or I would be sent to Lord Stephanus's manor house to be exercised.
There was a royal decree that every slave in the village was to be exercised on a regular basis. Lord Stephanus embraced the spirit of this decree and offered up a large tract of his land and six of his servants to help make certain that slaves were exercised daily.
Whenever I was sent to Lord Stephanus's manor house, there were always more than a dozen naked slaves being made by his servants to run swiftly down well-worn paths, to wrestle against other slaves and other demanding physical tasks. There was a small lake on his property and there were times when slaves would be ordered to swim from one end of the lake and back again until they were physically exhausted.
Such forced exercise assures that the slaves in the Village shall always have exquisite buttocks, firm thighs and admirable bodies overall and when I would be made to run vigorously down the paths of Lord Stephanus's manor, panting, my throat burning and my naked body covered in a fine sheen of sweat, his servants would chase after me, leather strap in hand, urging me to arch my back, keep my head up and to run faster, ever faster.
Naked slaves who failed to sprint across the footpath with satisfactory liveliness and urgency would soon find their naked buttocks stinging with a well-aimed blow of a leather strap. The foreboding threat of those stinging blows motivated many of us to be unerringly fleet-footed, and we would sprint ahead to outpace our tormentors.