Chapter 26: Bedding

A few moments later, Tamsin was surprised when Charles came into her bedroom in the Admiral's suite.

"What are you doing here? My father will be livid if he catches you," she whined.

"No he won't. He knows I'm here," said Charles with a firmness he had not shown her before, "Put an abaya on and come with me."

"Where are we going?"

"You are moving in to my quarters, now," said her fiancé.

"Who says?" she countered.

"I do, and your father does."

"Don't I get a say in that?" she demanded.

"No. Now stop arguing and come on."

"Why did my father say I could move in with you?"

"Because we are to marry soon. Neither he nor I want your daughter to be a bastard in English eyes."

"But you haven't proposed," she said, and burst into tears.

Charles's response to this was to drop an abaya over her head and pick her up bodily. Thirty seconds later they were in his quarters and the abaya was whipped off.

"There," he said, "This is your new home. The wedding won't be for a few days yet, but you can sleep here until then. Not that you'll get much sleep tonight."

Tamsin's tears redoubled and Charles was hard put to understand her as she sobbed out, "I don't want to marry you."

"Tough," he replied, "It is all arranged. Now dry your tears and we'll go to bed. I can't wait to sample the skills you learned in the Golden Palace, though it seems obedience to your Master was not one of them."

Tamsin stopped crying suddenly and stared up at him.

"You mean it, don't you? You are my new Master, and you're going to marry me in the Kobekistani way?" she asked.

"Yes. It isn't a Western love match if that's what you mean."

Tamsin scrambled off the bed and knelt in obeisance before him, her forehead pressed firmly to the floor.

"Master," she breathed, "you must tell me your rules."

Whish ... THWACK!

The dog whip descended unexpectedly on to her left buttock, parallel to her arse crack, as her new Master stood before her. Tamsin screamed in shock and pain before biting her lip to stifle her reaction.

Whish ... THWACK!

The other arse cheek received similar treatment.

"There is nothing I must do as far as you are concerned. Is that clear, woman?" asked Charles in a deceptively quiet voice.

"Yes, Master," sobbed Tamsin.

"When I want your opinion on something, I'll get it in the local way. I'll beat it out of you. Is that also clear?"

"Yes, Master."

"So what is the next thing you are going to do?"

"Master?" Tamsin was puzzled by his question.

"It's a simple question; what is the next thing you are going to do?"

Tamsin thought and then decided to take the safest option, "Whatever the Master pleases."

"Damn right, whatever I please. When did you last get fucked?"

Tamsin guessed wrong this time, "Master, His Magnificence was kind enough to use me three nights before I returned here."

Whish ... THWACK!

Charles had leant forwards and the tip of the whip curled under her arse, biting hard and painfully into her upper thigh.

"That was for lying to me. I know your father has had you at least twice since then. When did you last get fucked?"

"This morning," Tamsin sobbed, "My father used me this morning."

"Tonight I will retire at eight. Be ready and come to me at one minute past," said Charles as he swept out of the room.

Tamsin's day was wretched. The two concubines suddenly found that they spoke no English, and that Tamsin's Arabic was equally incomprehensible, although she understood every word they said. She bathed and prepared herself and at precisely one minute past eight she entered her new Master's bedroom.

Charles wasn't there, and did not appear all night, while she waited in the obeisance position for hour after hour. At eight the next morning the eunuch indicated that she could go to her own room for a bath and breakfast. Over breakfast she learned that her new Master, her fiancé, her husband to be, had spent the night with one of his concubines.