Betrayed (Hidden Worlds Book 1) Read online

My ploy worked; he seemed temporarily distracted by the compliment. "Oh, aye, it is a bonny town. The work of my Fa and his before him mostly." He opened one of the tall standing cabinets and took out a fine embroidered shirt. "Not that it excuses you standing out plain as the nose on a face." He dragged the shirt over his massive bronzed chest and shoulders. "Well, there's no great chance they'll be seeing you anyway. If we thought that we'd keep ye below. They think you dead, and with your head down and covered in the maidens' garb, you'll not be much notice. How long are they to be here?"

  "Here, Lord? Around New Wales? Or on the mission?"

  "On the planet."

  I shrugged. "I was told three weeks, Lord. But it seems there was a lot they didn't tell me, so…" I spread my hands apart in a confused gesture, hoping it hid my temporary distraction. Yes, now that I knew about the monitoring station I realized that there was a great deal I had not been told.

  He nodded in agreement. "Aye, it does seem so. Well, no help for it now. your here and we have great use for you. So behave like a modest lass and that'll keep ye safe until the danger's gone. Ye'll be starting below tomorrow, though you'll also be spending time with Suze. Ye'll be needing to learn what a proper lass knows and no one better to teach it than Suze."

  I swallowed hard , thinking of Suze's teaching techniques. I opened my mouth to ask him exactly what I would be doing "below"—knowing full well he meant on the ship—when the sound of excited voices in the outer chamber interrupted us.

  "That'll be Suze with the girls, Jen. Don't be forgetting that ye can't be saying much in front of them. Now put a smile on your pretty face. It'll be a pleasant little supper. They're fine lassies and will be good friends for ye, if ye just let them."

  Nervously I wondered if my comments from earlier in the day—that I came from a place where men allowed women to cut their hair as they please—had already been reported. But before I could wonder about that and if it would have "consequences," his next statement raised my hackles all over again.

  "Though now that your marking is done, if you're needing a spanking and they see your bum it's no never mind."

  My jaw dropped. It would take a long while to become accustomed to this. Hopefully, I never would. He considered the possibility that I might be punished again—soon—as likely as that of my needing a meal.

  But, as usual, he was completely indifferent to my outrage, though I am sure something must have shown in my face. He simply turned and walked to the door of his bedchamber. Not knowing what else to do, I followed. In the main chamber of his apartment stood Suze with the three girls, Rohan's sisters Cheri and Marlou, and Raisa whose exact relationship was still unclear. From my slightly hidden position behind Rohan's massive body and inside the door frame, I caught a glimpse of Raisa, the one of the three girls who had so far been the most openly hostile to me.

  I saw her face as she looked around the chamber eagerly—and then saw her expression wash with glee. It did not take a genius to figure out what was going on: she had looked for me and had not seen me. Obviously, she assumed I was not there; from her resentful comments this morning, I assumed she'd been thinking about it all day.

  Glad that I could enjoy one small spiteful pleasure, I stepped out of Rohan's bedchamber. The girls' eyes widened at the site, and Raisa's expression became positively bitter. "So she's here then? She's no princess," the girl snapped.

  Immediately, Rohan stiffened. "What's gotten into ye, lass? Have ye no manners at all? Are ye questioning who's at my dinner table?" I saw Matron Suze and both of his sisters turn to look at her with true shock. This comment clearly went well beyond normal "sass" that a girl might be corrected for. All three of them appeared genuinely horrified, Han as well.

  Immediately Raisa put her head down, but I could see she'd gone pale. "No, Lord," she whispered. "I'm sorry."

  The silence in the room grew and both of Rohan's two sisters now also looked very nervous—and increasingly furious. I could only guess that both of his sisters now believed that the dinner treat for all of them was in jeopardy. "You're needing a punishment from me, Raisa—and then ye can just go back to your rooms and have a baby's dinner."

  "No Lord." Raisa's voice now sounded genuinely frantic. I realized that she must have been extraordinarily distressed to see me that she said something so unwise. I wondered again at exactly what her relationship was with Rohan—and why she was so threatened by me.

  "Fetch the linden, girl." Rohan's voice was rock hard and his blue eyes glittered. Unlike before when he had punished me and had seemed mostly impatient and exasperated now I sensed he was truly angry. He tensed and I could see the muscles in his forearms ripple. I remembered what Suze had said earlier when she was talking to me in the garden; that Rohan's philosophy was that a "lass" was told once and then any other lessons came from a spanking.

  He certainly was living up to that hard reputation now. I'd seen him in the bedchamber moments before, and he had seemed relaxed and happy. From his brief comment I guessed that it was going to be a "pleasant little supper," that he was truly looking forward to the evening. Yet, at the first sign of disobedience he was going to punish severely. He had not even spoken to his sisters to greet them.

  Raisa's head shot up, her pale face a mask of unhappiness, but she did not speak. She walked towards a cabinet and opened it. Inside, along with a fearsome assortment of weapons, hung a strap and the dreaded polished rod that I now knew was called a linden. Every step dragging, she retrieved the limber wand and brought it to Rohan.

  I was amazed at the turn of events and reflected again on what I had just been considering in the bedchamber moments earlier. While I felt that the three whippings I had already received that day were more than sufficient to make me think very clearly before I engaged in defiance or "sass," it was almost as if such punishments were so routine in the girl's lives that they were just as ill-behaved as teens on Earth who were never punished.

  The very first thing that Rohan had learned earlier in the day from the tale-bearing Marlou was that Raisa had already had one spanking today from Suze. And from what I'd seen the discipline delivered by Suze was severe to say the least. And yet, while she must have known that Rohan was every bit as fearsome as Suze, probably more so, Raisa's first act upon entering the suite for a much-anticipated treat was to cause him to punish her by making a useless spiteful comment. It made no sense to me at all.

  But the time for contemplation was past as Raisa handed the rod to Rohan and sniffed miserably. In spite of it all, I was beginning to understand the horrid interest the girls felt when one of the others was being punished. I had experienced nothing but shock and horror the first time I had witnessed a punishment, when we'd seen the two girls strapped for cheating at the school, but now that I had experienced it myself and knew that, while painful, it was certainly not something that would kill you, I found myself almost eagerly fascinated by what was now going to happen to Raisa.

  Rohan had waited patiently, almost motionless, for the girl to bring the linden, but once she handed it to him, he sprang into action, jerking her along so forcefully by a sudden grip on her arm that she almost stumbled. Although I felt that she had almost courted the punishment, I could see now that she was not looking forward to it. Fat tears coursed down her cheeks.

  Rohan put his huge body onto a hard stool and spread his legs. "Prepare yourself," he snapped, and with no argument Raisa slowly pushed her trousers down and off, then picked them up and folded them into a neat square and laid them on the table. I remembered that these girls wore the closed variety while I was still clad in the open-variety that allowed a girl to be punished simply by separating the fabric.

  "Come here," Rohan ordered.

  From my vantage point, somewhat to the front of the action, I watched as Raisa walked to Rohan's side. The tunic she wore, I realized, was shorter than the one I wore. I seemed perfectly cut to reach just barely below the navel.

  "Legs apart," he ordered.

  Her shaved sex
was completely bare as she stood next to Rohan's leg, her tear-streaked face downcast, her lower lip out in a sad pout, and as she shuffled her feet apart, her body opened so that I could see not only the plump outer lips, but the delicate pinkish inner lips even peeping forth a little. My stomach rolled as I remembered that I was similarly bare. If I had to stand before Rohan and wait for a correction, the others would see as much of me as I was seeing of Raisa.

  I waited, holding my breath, but unlike the other punishments I'd seen, in which the unfortunate girl was simply tossed over a lap, it seemed that there was to be a conversation. "Do you have something to say for yourself, lass?" Rohan asked harshly.

  "Aye. I'm sorry I was lacking in manners, Lord." The girl fidgeted nervously, and I simply sensed that in spite of the fact that the girls were bared in such a way for punishments regularly, she was still struggling with an immense temptation not to cover herself between her legs. I noticed though, that she did not even attempt to beg or excuse herself. It was as if she knew what would happen was now inevitable, and long experience had taught that pleading was useless.

  "And are ye aware now that Jen Marin is a guest o' mine and as a guest is due your respect?"

  "Aye, Lord."

  With no further words, Han drew Raisa between his legs—I realized immediately this was something new—and tossed her over one hard thigh, pinning the back of her legs with his other leg. Because he was on a fairly low stool, the girl's upper body rested almost entirely on the floor. Her bottom was incredibly high on his thigh.

  Rohan raised the limber stick—it flashed and cracked—and Raisa howled. I saw at once that the linden had earned its reputation as the ultimate threat. This was far more severe and the immediate reaction far more intense than anything I'd seen before, either with a hand-spanking or even the paddle or strap punishments I'd witnessed.

  From my view in front of her, I could not see what the damage was to her exposed bottom cheeks, but from the way she raised her head, mouth open, I was sure that a dark streak was probably already visible. The illustration in the physician's clinic at the girls' school, "Brides Caught in Mischief," had featured one "bride" receiving such a punishment with a similar rod. The girl's backside had been scored with dark red lines.

  I also understood why Rohan had pinned Raisa's legs. As the stick flashed and cracked again and again, her struggles became frantic. She pushed desperately against the floor, and Rohan was forced to wrap a huge arm around her waist to hold her.

  I remembered the girls at the school who had endured a good part of a stout strapping almost without a fuss—though by the end they were kicking fairly hard. This was nothing like that. Raisa was doing her absolute best to escape from the cutting hissing rod—and because of the hard leg and the tightly pinning arm, getting nowhere.

  I glanced to the side, trying to assess the reaction of Rohan's two sisters. As I had seen before, both looked simultaneously fascinated and worried. Again, I wondered if it were not at times customary to punish everyone when one was punished—just to make a point.

  Finally—after Raisa's shrieks had begun to be truly deafening and I found myself wondering if passers-by on the street three stories below could hear her—Rohan dropped his hand and placed it squarely against the girl's high bottom. Although I did not have a full view, even the crests of her cheeks, which I could see, were striped and scarlet. Again, I blanched in amazement that Raisa had dared to open her mouth with a rude comment about me only moments after entering Rohan's chamber. I was sufficiently cowed never to speak again.

  "So lass, are ye ready to mind your tongue for the rest of the night?"

  "Aye, Lord, aye. Please no more. Please don't send me back." As she spoke, she wagged from side to side with the pain.

  "Yer wanting to stay?"

  "Oh, aye."

  I shook my head. If I had just been punished as Raisa had, all I would have been able to think about was to get myself off and lick my wounds in private. But from her tone it was obvious that the most severe part of the punishment, from her perspective, might yet be coming—being sent back to her room.

  Rohan did not speak. Idly, he rubbed the girl's bottom with his large palm. "Well, it's well spanked you are, lass, and I'm thinking you'll not be sitting for your supper. But if ye can stand at the wall like a mindful lass and watch your tongue, ye can stay. Now off with ye." Rather abruptly and quite roughly he released his leg and lifted her off his knee.

  Stiffly, Raisa walked to a corner—she seemed to know which one—and my stomach jumped into my throat as she pressed herself into it. The shorter tunic left her punished bottom completely bare. She stood, still sniffling audibly, showing her bottom to the room. Her cheeks were streaked with dark lines, and small purple dots were everywhere. As the others I had seen had done, she shuffled her toes together, her heels out, and poked her bottom out. I realized another reason the punishment called for the horrible bent forward and "toe in" position: between Raisa's legs her sex was exposed and slightly open. Obviously "showing" that was also part of the punishment.

  Rohan looked at his sisters severely, still seated on the chair, legs still widespread. "Any of ye others thinking they'll have a problem with manners this e'en?"

  "No, sir… No, Han," they answered in chorus.

  "And you, Mistress Jen?'

  After what I'd just seen, what could I possibly say? I put my head down. "No, Lord."

  "Aye. I hope not." Rohan got up and replaced the linden in the closet, shutting the door with a thud. "For I'd not be wishing to tire my arm."

  In spite of what had just occurred, the dinner was pleasant. I was caught off-guard again by the contrasts in this society. At times so primitive, yet other aspects were so completely familiar. Shortly after Raisa's punishment was over, several women clad in dark tunics and trousers, came in bearing large platters of food and containers of beverage. They were quickly joined by a team of musicians both of whom carried violins.

  A sideboard against one wall was quickly set up as a buffet, and an elegant dinner spread open. The musicians began to play. I recognized music from Earth—some Mozart, some Bach—other tunes I knew but whose composer I could not name, as well as music I knew I had never heard before and I could only surmise had been written on this planet. We served ourselves from the covered dishes onto beautifully painted dinner wear, poured what proved to be, after only one sip, a very fine wine, and sat at the table.

  The manners of Rohan, his sisters, and Matron Suze were impeccable. The only difference between this and any dinner party I had attended on Earth was that in the corner of the room stood a weeping, rocking young woman displaying a cherry red, scored backside and a shaved sex. I sensed that showing the punished cheeks while the serving people prepared the meal was part of the punishment. It seemed ineffective, though, as from my observation neither the serving women nor the musicians paid her any more attention than they would accord to a piece of furniture.

  Finally, Raisa was allowed to join us. As predicted though, she did not seat herself at the table. In fact, after filling her plate, she quietly and modestly asked, "Lord, I ask permission to eat standing up." It seemed like a formula, and I guessed this might be a routine when a meal followed shortly after a spanking. She seemed utterly oblivious to the fact that she was naked from the waist down.

  He looked at her thoughtfully, and I wondered if an order to sit might be a further punishment. I could certainly understand that! But after a moment, he responded gruffly, "Yes, lass, ye may stand."

  Suze obviously felt no compunction against inserting her own comment. "And it's thanking him you should be, because if it were up to me you'd be sitting on the bare the rest of the night." Her voice lowered ominously. "On the bare and maybe something else."

  "The bare" obviously referred to a naked punished bottom, but what else would you sit on? Whatever it was, the threat was quite effective. All three girls redoubled the efforts at their meal.

  The food was quite delicious and I reali
zed that after several days of being fed through the tube in my veins, I was ravenous. The meats were tender and fragrant; the sauces elegantly seasoned; the vegetables perfectly prepared. Was it just my imagination, or did food taste better on Gamma Rigel than it did on Earth?

  After the meal, it was game time. Suze and Rohan got out a chess board—identical to one on Earth—and the girls got out a board game which looked expensive and elaborate. Raisa, who'd been allowed to put her trousers on again, now dared to sit, though I noticed for the rest of the night she tried to rest somewhat on the side of her hip.

  The game was simple, and involved guessing who had murdered a person in a certain room of a castle with a certain weapon. It seemed very violent and gory, obviously a product of this vicious society; the weapons included a hatchet, a rope, a bottle of poison, and a sword. Hand-painted cards that gave the answer were hidden at the beginning of the game in an envelope. One moved across the beautifully rendered board as if you were moving through rooms of the castle, by rolling carved dice.

  I was invited to play and although part of me wished to sit off aloof and resentful, I had also, through the dinner, quietly considered my options. Christy's revelations really were staggering—there was a permanent installation of Earth people here who would have transportation back to Earth. I still had no clue whether or not Christy and I had a prayer of reaching them. Christy had been vague on whether the monitoring station was even on this continent, but I knew our best chance for getting an opportunity to escape, should we wish to take it, was to appear to have "accepted" our fate.

  So I played the game, ignored Raisa, who was still shooting me dagger glances as boldly as she dared, and actually found myself laughing with the other girls. Until the end that is, when Cheri, who had lost, accused Marlou, who had won, of "peeking" when she'd hidden the cards at the beginning.

  Suze and Rohan had finished their game somewhat earlier. I'd noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that Suze had beaten Rohan without much trouble. This puzzled me. It seemed that a society that subjected women to such dreadful treatment could never tolerate a woman defeating a man in a game of intellect, but Rohan had done nothing but laugh the defeat off with a "Some day, some day" and Suze had responded with, "Yes, Lord. The day of my funeral." They'd both chuckled at that, and I realized that they'd had the conversation before. Suze must win always or nearly always and Rohan was completely indifferent. Stranger and stranger.