Chapter 15: The High Life

Next morning Hugo rose early without disturbing Helen, realising that she had had a hard evening and night of it. He quickly ate and went into his study.

Helen woke and was surprised to find his side of the bed empty; she had expected to be used at least night and morning, so this brief respite was welcome.

'He'll probably want me during his siesta, ' she thought.

Helen met Dina when she went down for breakfast and was relieved to see a little, dark complexioned, old woman, sixty at least, whose face was like a dried prune. She had been Mr. Hugo's housekeeper, she told Helen proudly, for many years, ever since he arrived on Csadia.

"Mr. Hugo trusts me completely," she added, her manner making it quite clear to Helen that Dina regarded her as a temporary toy to be played with for a while and then tossed out.

Breakfast at Hugo's was no more elaborate than at Karl's, though it was at eight o'clock rather than five. It seemed to Helen that if this was what the boss of the whole planet ate, then food really was scarce, especially luxury food.

After breakfast, Helen was in Hugo's sleepingroom when Dina came in and said, "Come with me."

Helen decided that she had better get the rules set out straight away.

"You should knock before coming in to a room," she reprimanded the old woman.

"Sorry, I'm sure," was the unconvincing reply, "If your ladyness will care to follow me I will show her to her private suite, which is now ready for her. The other servants can bring her luggage later," Dina continued, extremely sarcastically.

Helen turned away and continued to brush her hair. "I'll be staying in here," she said.

"That you won't," said Dina, "Not if I know Mr. Hugo."

Helen seized on this and said, "So moving me out is your idea, is it? I'll only move if Hugo asks me to, and not because you want me to."

"Suit yourself," said Dina, shrugging her shoulders and going out of the room.

There was no siesta that day and in the evening, Hugo appeared from his study at about six o'clock wearing a suit and said to Helen, "I've to go to another party tonight, so I won't be here all evening."

"Can't I come with you, please? Pretty, pretty, please?" whined Helen.

"Not if you ask like that," was Hugo's brusque reply, "I had thought of taking you, but I didn't think you would like it. Bernard and Kate are a quiet couple and there will be no exhibitions and no public sex, not much alcohol and no hard drugs. A real party animal like you, used to giving exhibitions, would be bored stiff."

"Oh, no," said Helen, "I would love to have a quiet evening meeting your friends."

"Okay, then, but don't say you weren't warned. In your room, the one you refused this morning, you will find some clothes which are more suitable than overalls. Go and dress, we will be leaving soon."

In spite of his agreement, Hugo knew full well that Helen only wanted to go to show to the world that she had grabbed Hugo for her own; well she would have to learn better, and quickly.

When Helen came downstairs, a little put out that Dina had told Hugo about their tiff that morning, and even more put out that she had been assigned the smallest sleepingroom in the house, Hugo was waiting with a bright shiny silvery collar which he put round her neck.

"There, that looks nice, don't you think?" he asked.

Helen checked in the mirror and realised she hadn't seen any of the other women on Csadia wearing any form of jewellery, not even eyebrow rings.

"Yes, I like it," she said, quite genuinely thinking it set her colouring off nicely and went well with the turquoise tunic and leggings she had chosen to wear.

"Good," said Hugo and clipped a leash on to it, "Come on, we'll be late," he continued, tugging at the leash and then clipping it to his belt.

"What's this?" asked Helen.

"We are going outside and I always take my women leashed," came the reply which astounded Helen.

Seeing her perplexity, Hugo said, "Do I have to remind you that Karl bought you and I only borrowed you? If I lose you, either by escape or by theft, Karl will want me to pay for you; that's why the outside doors won't open for you. I'm not taking that chance. Just because I treat you like any other human being doesn't alter the fact that every woman on Csadia is the property of a man."

"What about Kate and Martha? They aren't anyone's property, surely?" she ventured.

"Arguing like this with Karl would have had what result?" asked Hugo, sneakily.

"A beating," replied Helen, "but you aren't like that."

"We'll see about that later. I don't want to be late; now come on, if you are coming."

They went out to the aircar and Hugo set it off on autopilot, explaining that it would only take a quarter of an hour to Kate and Bernard's place. He also explained that it was really a meeting to decide about some changes in the organisation of the planet. The vehicles were in a terrible state and it had been decided to upgrade the vehicle maintenance task to a post which would report to Hugo, just as Bernard and Jason did.

Then he said, "We're nearly there now. While we are there you do not speak unless you are spoken to. Understand? Because if you don't like it I can leave you locked in the aircar. There will be other house women there; you can sit with them, but keep quiet. Oh, and to answer your argumentative question, Kate and Martha are technically owned; actually I own Martha and Bernard owns Kate. Just because we trust them and let them work on their own jobs without interference, it doesn't mean that they are any more independent legally than you are. If I were to decide that Martha should strip and dance on the table and suck every man in the room tonight, she would do it. Incidentally most men are also owned by someone. Jason owns Karl, for instance; just as Karl owns Frank. Less than twenty of us aren't owned, but it doesn't usually matter until one of us dies. Then all hell breaks loose as the sharks gather to snap up all the dead man's property."

Inside Kate and Bernard's house there was a different layout. It was all one big open room with a gallery all the way round. Helen realised that they had all the same areas for sitting, eating, cleansing, and sleepingrooms as Karl or Hugo, but they just didn't have any walls between them. It made for a nice open atmosphere, but Helen thought that it lacked privacy so that what ever you did, even if you went to the cleansingroom, everyone could see and hear what was happening.

As they went in there were five or six other people talking in the middle of the room, including Martha, and Hugo went straight over to her and said firmly, "Strip, kneel and suck my cock, Martha."

Everyone else looked amazed, but Martha slipped off her dress and underwear, dropped to her knees and reached for Hugo's cock. Taking it out of his trousers, she took it into her mouth and worked hard on pleasing Hugo with little flutters of the tongue and an obvious effort to swallow the end of it, and stroking and scratching his balls. Most people looked away but some, like Helen, were watching fascinated.