A Jewel in the Dirt - 2. New home, new faces, new rules

Dante knelt on the wooden porch, as tense as a bowstring.

Mistress Alice stepped aside and he was already afraid she would simply leave him there alone, but she yelled, no less impressive than Ma before: "Mikey!" Then she turned to Dante: "Get up. Besides, you can look at me."

He had just opened his mouth when she yelled for Mikey again, and when he stood, a teenager came running. He was wearing black shorts and a white t-shirt, was barefoot and so covered with spots that the daily shave had to be a torture. Dante had pity.

"Miss Alice?"

"You have permission to enter my room," said Mistress Alice seriously; it sounded like a ritual formula. "Prepare the slave room and a basket of things he needs in the bathroom."

"Yes, Miss Alice." Mikey bowed and scurried away.

"Dante..." She seemed to taste his name and he looked her in the face. It was less round than Ma's, but there was a certain resemblance. She was almost unhealthily pale and her eyes glittered in a strange crystal blue. She was also surprisingly tall for a woman, only slightly shorter than Dante- who wasn't the tallest either-, but with a father like Blaise that was to be expected. Without the clearly angry expression she would have been extremely pretty.
"I am your mistress," she finally said, and that too sounded like a ritual learned by heart. "You will address Ma and my sisters as Miss and their name. Besides me you will obey Ma and Seth, the overseer of the house. You will leave the house only when you are asked to. In the basement and on the ground floor you can move freely, on the upper floor you will not enter any room without being asked to do so. Understand?"

"Understood, mistress." He nodded.

"Do you own any clothes?"

"Only what I wear."

"What about your collar?"

"Standard tracking, accurate to within five meters."

"No shock functions?"

"No, mistress."

"What about that silly rock?" She reached for his collar and frowned at the sapphire set in it.

"A clause in my contract, mistress," Dante replied cautiously. "My mother is a Sapphire and has decreed that each of my collars must hold a sapphire."

Mistress Alice snorted disparagingly. "Whims of the rich. Well, who cares..." She grabbed him by the chin and turned his face to the side, stroked her thumb over the small scar on his left cheek and grimaced a little more. "You stink."

"Sorry, mistress." Not that he could really help it.

She turned away and he followed her through a dusky, gloomy entrance hall to a sprawling staircase. On the upper floor the sunlight fell through the windows into a large open space full of toys. They made their way around to a sort of side wing and entered through an open door into a large bright room that seemed to be her living room, office and bedroom altogether.
"Mikey?"

"Yes, Miss, almost done," it sounded from the left of another door.

Dante had stopped right by the entrance and tried not to look around too curiously. He had never served a mistress so directly, so closely, and wanted to know who he was dealing with. Mistress Alice possessed an enormous number of books, he noticed at first. On her desk next to one of the windows were both a computer and a laptop, books piled up there and a large cup stood on a small wooden tray.

"Miss Alice," someone behind Dante suddenly said, and he flinched. Another slave stood there, dressed the same way like Mikey, but more in his mid-twenties, like Dante. He was holding a pile of towels in his hand and on top of it was a basket with shampoo and a razor and the like.

"Thank you, TJ," said Mistress Alice, and TJ bowed as he pressed the items into Dante's hand, clearly unimpressed.

Mikey emerged from the other room, bowed as well and then the two of them disappeared, closing the door.

"That's your room over there, that's the bathroom," Mistress Alice said, pointing to the respective doors. "Put your things down."

"Yes, Mistress," he said quietly and did as commanded while she opened the door and audibly annoyed called out again for Mikey. His feet ached, even though the wooden floor was pleasantly smooth, but the dull throb was forgotten as he entered his room.
First of all: he had a room all to himself. It was tiny, but it was still his. Without a second bed for a roommate. On one side was a simple closet, between the bed and the barred window was a bedside table, nothing more, but it was enough. He put the things for the bathroom on the bed covered with light blue sheets and his backpack on the floor, then he went back to his mistress.

"Mikey will show you the house," she said simply, pointing to the boy who was standing in the doorway.

"Yes, Mistress," Dante said, indicating a bow before following Mikey into the hall and closing the door behind him.

They examined each other.

Dante knew he didn't make the best first impression, but so bad that it would have justified the brief contemptuous look on Mikey's face, it wasn't.

Apart from the acne, Mikey seemed prone to chubbiness - so there was plenty to eat and maybe even regular sweet rewards - and his dark blond hair stood out strangely in all directions. Besides his collar he wore a slave bracelet on his left arm, its plain black was decorated with silver ornaments.
"I’m Mikey," he said and Dante nodded.

"Dante."

"Up here you are only allowed to enter the rooms of your mistress," Mikey said seriously and started to move. "In this closet"- he patted one in passing- "you'll find towels and bedding. Ignore the toys and preferably the children, too, or you'll get into a lot of trouble very quickly." They stepped through the minefield of toys and then went down to the ground floor.

This was the beginning of the tour through the big farmhouse and Dante was amazed. He had lived in a world of luxury, but the furnishings of the house seemed to represent a completely different class of luxury.
Rustic, heavy, dark, comfortable. Unique pieces, paintings, handicrafts. There were no marble floors and gold-plated statuettes, no diamond-studded knick-knacks and polished chrome. He knew of extensive apartments, but the house was... huge.
The kitchen equipment could have been found in a star restaurant. There was a large empty room that was furnished differently depending on the occasion. The dining room had a long table for the family and a kneeling table for the house slaves - so they ate together. The basement was full of storage rooms and small rooms for the work slaves. There was a laundry room, a big common bathroom and a large lounge. He was honestly overwhelmed and yet he had not seen the outside area at all.

"Where is everybody?" he wanted to know when they arrived back in the entrance hall - they hadn't met anyone.

"Daniel is in town with Miss Sarah. Blaise is bringing the truck into town. Miss Britney and Ethan are taking care of the children. Frank is working. I don't know what the others are doing," Mikey replied, shrugging. He hesitated and Dante raised an eyebrow questioningly. "I don't know if I can give you some fresh clothes, but it would be better if you took a shower anyway. A-and I don't know if you are allowed or not, but we house slaves usually prepare the food all together."

"How about I just ask my mistress for it?" Dante suggested, as if it wasn't the most obvious thing to do.

Mikey's nose twitched. "Miss Alice hates to be disturbed at work."

"I’m her personal slave."

"Your risk." Mikey shrugged. "Whatever she says, you'll find me in the kitchen." He walked away and Dante sighed.

For a moment he remained indecisive, then he went up to Mistress Alice's room and entered directly after a knock. Bold - but after all, there was his own sleeping place as well.

She looked up with a gloomy expression. "What is it?"

"I would like to ask if I may take a shower in the slave quarters and then help with the preparations for lunch, Mistress."

Astonished, she blinked at him. "You are a house slave." That didn't really help him. "Of course. Go on," she then added, rolling her eyes.

"Thank you, mistress." He bowed with the impression that Mistress Alice was best not to tangle with.

The water was only lukewarm, shampoo and shower gel smelled pleasantly of nothing, but he finally felt clean again after days of sponge bath. He would shave in peace tomorrow. The towel was a little scratchy and he was deeply reluctant to put back on his horrible panties, but he didn't have any other underwear and he didn't want to walk around without. His feet had also thanked him for the cleaning and when he took a look in the mirror, he could even smile at himself. Under his dull-green eyes were deep dark circles and his almost black hair stuck wet to his head, but with a smile even the dark stubble was more attractive than unkempt. He went to the kitchen, hoping that there would be something to eat very soon, because the croissant a while ago couldn't count as proper late breakfast and the hot dog with fries from yesterday hadn't been a real dinner either.

In the kitchen he met Mikey and TJ, as well as an already strongly greying man, who looked a bit ridiculous in the probably usual shorts and t-shirt.

"Ah, you are Dante. What can you do?" he asked without beating about the bush.

"Serve," Dante replied promptly. "Among other things, I was a butler."

"Show me." The man took a stack of plates from a cupboard and pointed to them. Without hesitation, Dante stepped closer, skillfully placed four plates on his left arm and took a fifth in his right hand.

The man nodded. "Then from now on you will do exactly that. Serve. Can you cook?"

"Basics." Dante put the plates back down.

In the background Mikey and TJ were busy peeling potatoes.

The man nodded again. "I’m Seth, the overseer of the house. As long as Miss Alice does not need you and Mistress Carolyn does not give you a task, you will get tasks from me."

Dante nodded. "Yes, Seth." Seth seemed serious, stern, but surely, he was fair. At least that's what Dante hoped for.

"If you have any questions that you cannot or don’t want to ask Miss Alice, I am here for you."

"Thank you."

For lunch, Dante had learned, the family members helped themselves from pots and bowls directly at the table. He placed a bowl of cooked carrot slices on a trivet and then stood next to Mikey against the wall, hands behind his back.

Seth had already struck a heavy gong and the children- Maisie, her little brother Jack and her cousin Jessy (he couldn't tell which girl was who) - stormed up first, followed by a slave and a woman, both in their mid-thirties. While the slave stood beside Dante without a word or greeting, the woman verbosely rebuked the children. It had to be Britney, who with her small roundish stature and the dark wild curls united both parents expressively.

Miss Carolyn and Mistress Alice appeared next and almost simultaneously Miss Sarah, who rubbed her round baby belly with a tired face, and Daniel, her personal slave and father of her soon to be three children. He lovingly led her to her seat and then joined the others on the wall. In the kitchen they had mainly talked about Sarah and her difficult pregnancy. She was tall and blond like Mistress Alice, but had the angular face and broad shoulders of Blaise.

Said one burst in in the same moment and gave Miss Carolyn a kiss on the crown before falling heavily onto a chair. "Met the Braddocks," he said, nodding indefinitely into the round. "They want to come over before the corn harvest."

"Hmm." Miss Carolyn did, apparently unenthusiastically. "Where is my son?"

"I'm here, Ma," it answered almost immediately from the doorway, in a deep but humble voice. A younger copy of Blaise entered, and the way he held himself, Dante expected to see a slave collar, but the young man's neck was covered only in dirty sweat. He bowed his head to his mother before sitting down.

Miss Carolyn flicked- the sign that the slaves were allowed to sit- or rather kneel- too.

Unpleasantly, Seth assigned Dante a place to kneel with his back to the big table.

"Alice, the grace," Miss Carolyn said to Dante's next big surprise, and the six slaves reached out their hands to each other.

Mistress Alice cleared her throat. "We thank the Great Mother for the earth on which we grow our crops and keep our animals. We thank the Great Mother for every day we do not have to suffer hunger. We thank the Great Mother for being able to sit together at the table here and now."

Mistress Alice's direct order had prevented Dante from clearing the dishes with the others, so he followed her into her room.

"Undress," she said, before he even closed the door.

He took a deep breath, turned to her and then pulled the shirt over his head. He had thought he had already lost most of his shame, but when he took off his sweatpants and her eyes fell on his panties and she raised an eyebrow in surprise, his cheeks became hot. And when he also took off the panties and threw them on the pile of clothes, she snorted in amusement.

"A pink cage? Is this another one of the rich people's whims?"

"No." He lowered his eyes, his hands clasped behind his back. "If you ask for my medical file, you'll read there that I'm considered impotent. Mistress."

For a long moment, it was silent.

"Are you?"

"I don't know, mistress."

"How can you not know?"

Anger flashed inside him and he barely held back a snort. "I have worn a cage since I was 11 years old. As I'm unresponsive to artificial stimulants, I was judged unfit for bedroom duty. So far only two mistresses have tried it. An ancient skeleton and a fat ugly one. It should come as no surprise that nothing happened." He couldn't prevent him from sounding a little bitter, and Mistress Alice laughed quietly, but quickly turned back to serious.

"I remember why I think cages are counterproductive for teenagers. A healthy development of the male body looks different." She gave a strange snort, and he looked up. She turned the key to his cage between her fingers and then nodded. "I will take the cage from you. Permanently. But that doesn't mean I'm throwing it away - it will be part of your punishments."

"Yes, mistress. Thank you, mistress." He nodded hurriedly and was strangely emotional when she said gently:

"Give your body a chance to recover and then get to know yourself." Her fingers also moved very carefully.

"What... what if I cannot serve in the bedroom, mistress?" he wanted to know a little worried and she shook her head.

"I don't require that kind of service from you."

"Oh."

"Disappointed?"

"No! No, I mean..." Under her strange gaze, measuring and at the same time disinterested, he lost his words. She had not wanted a slave at all, he recalled.

"Tomorrow we'll go in town and get you some decent clothes. Can you live without underwear until then or do you want to put this embarrassment back on?"

"I renounce, mistress." No sooner had he said that than she already turned away and carelessly threw the cage with the key on her desk.

"Get dressed and then go to Seth and make yourself useful."