A Jewel in the Dirt - 6. Some Answers Are Not What You Expect

Dante hated Tom for the pain he was in. He hated him for the blood on his pillow. He hated him for the butt plug.

And Dante hated himself for a moment for his disgusted-and somehow scared- hesitation before shoving the thing up his ass. It was a sickening feeling, and left him in a certain bad mood that seemed to startle Frank at breakfast- promptly Dante felt guilty. His mood didn't improve, however, when they ran into Tom outside, who in an unguarded moment groped him scrutinizingly on the butt and then grinned benevolently. And his very general feeling definitely didn't get any better when Frank told him to climb on the tractor to ride with him today- this vehicle vibrated even worse than the crane truck.

"Today it's the Horners' turn. Well, their wood.", Frank explained, still sounding a little put off by Dante's mood.

"Where do they live?" Dante wanted to know. His mental map was still pretty white.

"Next door to us." was the laconic answer. Dante must have grimaced a little, because Frank hastily explained, using a few buttons as reference points: "We're here. The Braddocks are on the other side of the main road. The Washingtons on our corn side and the Horners on the pasture side."

Dante nodded and then they rolled on in silence.

The silence out here was overwhelming. It was never quiet in Denser's Port, even in the dead of night, but here... Over the sound of the tractor and crane truck behind them, Dante could still hear the bleating of the sheep- and nothing else. He was a city kid, and this completely different world of sounds was both fascinating and frightening; if his other senses - and he himself in general - weren't already fully occupied with other things, he probably wouldn't have been able to sleep at night.

At the Horners' farm, a few work slaves were scurrying around, and as they approached a barn, Dante could see two men inside, arguing loudly over the open hood of a whatever that vehicle was. Some of the gruff cursing reached Dante's ears, but when he saw that the two were free men, he stifled a grin.

At that moment, a younger man joined them, raised his hand briefly in Frank’s direction in greeting, and then, looking at the other two, shook his head in resignation. By outward resemblance, the three were related.

But something unsettled Dante. Yesterday, while working at the Braddocks', they had run into their twins- two boys, somewhere between teenager and man. They hadn't been wearing collars either, and as the tractor approached the trees, Dante dared to ask: "Why are there so many free men around here?"

Frank seemed more than puzzled by the question. "Yeah, well, why not?" he asked back.

"Eyes on the road." Dante said, because Frank was eyeing him strangely, and then added: "There are no free men in the upper class." Or rather, upper-class boys were raised to refuse when offered freedom out of a sense of honor and loyalty.

Frank chewed on his lower lip for a moment. "That's weird."

"Why? I mean, could you explain how this works here?"

"When a family reaches a certain status, the firstborn son of a generation is free. Every other boy of that generation is sent at twelve to another household to be educated and returns to his birth-matriarch at twenty-five. By thirty he has worked himself free." Frank explained it as if it were a basic matter of course, but Dante shook his head.

"That's against the law, Frank. Nobody can just work themselves free like that. No man is born free."

"No?" A mixture of wonder, doubt, and discomfort.

"No. A slave must be thirty years old, have lived with the same mistress for the last five years, need the consent of his mistress and the goodwill of two other women, and the absolution of a high priestess on top of that, not to mention first and foremost the approval from the Slave Authorities, before he can be given his freedom," Dante explained. When a slave asked for freedom and was granted it - great. If he was set free as a reward and was able to come to terms with it - also very good. But if the freedom was too much, too demanding, because many men had hardly any education or knowledge suitable for everyday life, or were simply put out on the street by their mistress... well then you could be sure that the state was soon richer by one new slave.

"So, that... that I'm free is wrong?" Frank sounded shaken as he touched his bare neck with one hand.

Dante was overcome with the uneasy feeling that he had definitely asked the wrong question. "Well... according to the law, all boys are the property of their mother from birth on," he said carefully. "Only women are born free." It was probably fortunate for both of them that they reached the first woodpile a few thinking moments later.

~

The rest of the day was spent explaining wood to Dante. He had heard at some point that different types of wood looked different, but all the different characteristics and therefore uses far exceeded what he had ever wanted to know about it. He learned what bark mulch was and what it was used for, and had to listen to a lot of snarky remarks from Tom about his lack of knowledge about nature.

"You probably think cows are purple, too, like the chocolate, don't you?" scoffed Tom at one point, and Dante raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, you know what chocolate is?"

In the tiny moment that Frank was out of sight, he got punched in the kidneys for that, but the fact that Tom was mostly silent after that was worth it.

It wasn't over yet, though, because as they prepared for dinner, Ethan smugly described in far too much detail how he had spent his afternoon- namely, in bed with Britney. He firmly believed he could do more for society than raise a girl who wasn't his. He wanted to father a daughter and Dante wisely refrained from commenting on it.

Mikey, however, saw his face and was highly amused that Dante would never find his way into Alice's bed.

TJ, who looked like he'd been biting into a lemon the entire time, finally snapped at him to shut up, but was too late, because Dante was already coolly asking:

"Why doesn't someone just explain to me what that's about, hmm?"

Mikey, terribly spot-y and barely sixteen, grinned broadly as if he'd eaten wisdom with spoons. "You'll see."

"If you keep yelling like that, you'll see what you get for it," TJ grumbled sullenly.

It probably would have turned into a full-blown argument if Seth hadn't walked in just then and urged them to hurry. As if that would make the vegetables cook faster.

~

Dante was just setting down a stack of dirty plates in the kitchen when Miss Carolyn's nagging voice echoed through the house.

"Dante! Alice!"

"Uh... what did you do?", Seth wanted to know anxiously.

"Nothing.", Dante hurried to say and started moving. Had he done something wrong? Apparently so, because when he arrived in the living room, he was greeted by a slap in the face.

"Ma!" protested Mistress Alice immediately, but Miss Carolyn paid no attention at all to her daughter, while Dante flinched, dumbfounded.

"What kind of crazy stuff do I have to hear? My son, my baby, is supposed to wear a slave collar?"

Dante blinked. Oh. "No, Miss Carolyn, this is a misunderstanding-" he began, sending up a quick prayer to heaven that this misunderstanding would not end bitterly, but Miss Carolyn hissed angrily in between:

"Misunderstanding, huh? So you're going to lecture me?"

"Ma, why don't you let him explain what happened first? Why should Frank be wearing a collar?" Mistress Alice objected calmly, but with a frown. "Well, Dante?"

A tiny bit relieved, he turned to his mistress. "I asked why there were so many free men here," he said, trying to remain calm; Miss Carolyn was scaring him a little. "Frank's explanation was followed by a counter-question about why I was so surprised, and my explanation-"

"Tsk! We've handled it that way here for generations." Again, he was interrupted by Miss Carolyn. "And I'm certainly not going to let someone like you tell me that my family is on the same level as you."

Dante made an offended grimace. "So says the honorable law of the Great Mother!"

The response was another slap in the face. "Alice, teach your pretty boy some manners. If I hear him putting nonsense into my son's head again..."

"Yes, Ma." Mistress Alice sighed and Dante swallowed- with wounded pride and now furious- an inappropriate and incendiary remark. And then he was highly confused again when his mistress slapped her own hand once Miss Carolyn was out of sight. "Since you obviously don't know how to behave with free men, I hope for your sake you know how to treat a woman," she then complained loudly. "Upstairs, come on! I want a bath!"

What the fuck is going on here? he asked himself as his mistress finally made her way into the large bathroom with the huge bathtub still filling up. Following her instructions, he had added bath additives and fetched fluffy towels, and now he knelt beside the tub in nervous tension.

She pushed the door shut, turned the key and sighed. "Great Mother..."

"Mistress?"

She lowered herself to the edge of the tub and rubbed her eyes. "You've made Frank terribly insecure."

"I'm sorry about that, I just-"

"I know." She smiled weakly. "I know the handling here is illegal, every woman knows that. Whereby federal law and state law here perform a dance difficult to understand and the result... is very gray. Most men believe what we tell them, they never get out of the comfort zone here. But these days, with the internet and smartphones... You can be sure that the next government will change the old laws." Her smile faded and Dante had a big 'why?’ in his head, but he didn't dare say it. He had no idea where he stood with Mistress Alice- she had only pretended to slap him, but she certainly wouldn't be lax in punishing a real limit crossing. "But who am I to change that?" she continued, sounding surprisingly bitter. "Just the third-born daughter."

Dante could have replied with some nice phrases, religious slogans which had been drilled into him, but he refrained; he couldn't imagine a woman like his mistress finding comfort in that.

"Be careful what you tell the others about your life in the big city," she finally said, turning off the water and beginning to undress.

"Mistress, I-" Dante wanted to leave her alone for her bath, but she clicked her tongue and he sank back into his kneeling position as her clothes fell before him. Modestly, he kept his eyes on her feet.

"Haven't you ever seen a naked woman?" she asked with good-natured mockery, sighing as she sank into the warm water.

"Yes, I have," he said, now getting up to gather her things and place them neatly on a stool. "But you're certainly worlds prettier."

She laughed softly, the bath foam crackling.

Then, as he turned to resume his position, he did venture a glance- her breasts poked out of the foam, and without bra and clothes they were smaller than they appeared, but it suited her slender figure well. With a fine smile she looked at him and he blushed again, uncomfortably suddenly all too aware of his cage.

"Will you tell me why you are listed as impotent?" she wanted to know after a moment of silence.

"Do you really care, Mistress?" he asked back doubtfully.

"Of course, I do. Otherwise, I wouldn't have asked."

"Well then..." And so he talked.

About his very first mistress, with whom he was supposed to learn how to serve, and who sold him after only a few months because her favorite slave was a little too interested in the boy.

About his second mistress, an ancient rattle-thin matriarch who had a reputation as an outstanding teacher and with whom he actually learned a lot for two years. Until she herself developed a certain interest in the late changing boy's body and called him to her one evening. Dante remembered very well - despite all the attempts at suppression - how much he had feared punishment. Until then, he had only been given a very superficial explanation of how things worked between a man and a woman, and so everything in his mind revolved around a very special punishment when she took the cage from him and touched him intensely. He was afraid that her bony fingers would hurt him at any moment, and that didn't change when she tried again a few weeks later.

He told about a later mistress who had slapped him every time he looked at her daughter for more than two seconds- unfortunately, he had had a crush on the girl.

And he told of his penultimate mistress, who was wider than tall and no longer the youngest. She had taken a liking to him and bought him solely for that reason- and then cursed loudly when she read the 'probably impotent'. Since he didn't respond to artificial stimulants- despite the entry in the file, she had tried it- she pulled out all the stops and did so for weeks. To no avail. In the end she had done everything she could to get a medically confirmed 'impotent' stamped in his file and had subsequently sold him with a pink cage.

Mistress Alice apparently found the story very amusing and Dante squirmed under her giggles. "Tomorrow," she then said, sliding across the tub until her face was very close to Dante's, "I'll take the cage off you. And then"- with a wet finger she nudged his nose, making him flinch- "you'll be a good boy and never have one put on you again."

He nodded. "Yes, Mistress." He cleared his throat. "I'll try, Mistress."

She grinned. "You already know you're going to get yourself in trouble, hmm?"

As emotionless as possible, he shrugged. "I already told you I have my pride."

With a strange smile, she sighed.

A little later she demanded a towel and had already got out when he handed it to her. He couldn't stop his gaze from wandering over her, and his cheeks grew warm- and his cage tight. Now at least he had something to think about when he went to bed without a cage, although it tingled uncomfortably in the back of his head that she was very aware of that.

~

On day three of his sentence, it began to rain shortly after he went back to work with Frank and Tom after lunch. They retreated to the big work barn to take care of various things until Frank looked at the clock shortly after three and sighed. Before Dante could ask what was wrong, he stepped up to the window and began to chafe at the rain.

Tom leaned against the crane truck parked inside here with his arms folded and a strange smile, and since Frank didn't finish after two minutes but really got into it, Dante did the same and leaned against a work table with his arms crossed. There was something terribly childish about the odd tantrum, precisely because it was about something as silly as rain, and after a while Dante understood why Tom was smiling like that.

"What?", Frank finally growled at the two as he turned back to them.

"You're cute." Dante blurted out what he had been thinking, and the annoyance drained from Frank's face, replaced by surprise and punctuated with a delicate blush.

"And yet Blaise is right when he says you're not made of sugar." Tom saved the moment, which threatened to become embarrassing. He nodded at Frank. "Go in, I'm sure he's waiting."

"I don't want to go to town. It's raining." Frank pouted and Tom stepped toward him to ruffle through his curls.

"I know." It was a very affectionate, sort of brotherly gesture and surprised Dante a little.

Frank gave an unwilling grunt and then slipped out- Tom watched him go until he reached the house, then turned to Dante, a strange expression on his face.

"What's wrong with Frank, by the way?" Dante then asked, before the mood could tip.

Tom shrugged oddly sad, but just when Dante thought he was not going to get an answer, Tom began to speak. "A car accident. I wasn't here back then, so I only know stories and... well, the outcome." He hesitated. "It was a car accident. Miss Alice's twin brother Anthony died in it, and Frank was in a coma for about a year. He had to relearn a lot of things after that- talking, walking... and his brain took quite a bit of damage."

Dante frowned. "He doesn't seem like he's dumb."

"Oh, he's not." Tom shook his head defensively. "He's smart, and sometimes has genius-clever ideas, but... he's practically still the ten-year-old from before the accident." For a moment, agony flitted across Tom's face. "I guess it wasn't very supportive, either, having two toddlers running around here in the rage and defiance stage during his intense puberty phase. But oh well, what can you do." He shrugged. Sad as it was, it explained a lot.

Dante forced a smile. "You like him."

Tom nodded seriously. "I love him like a little brother, so if you-"

With a shake of his head, Dante fended off the threat and was almost surprised that Tom left it at that.

Side by side they walked into the back of the barn and a certain nervousness crept back into Dante's stomach. "While we're having such a peaceful chat..." -Tom snorted- "Why is everyone making fun of the fact that my mistress won't take me to her bed? I mean, what's so funny about that?"

Tom snorted again, but this time amused. "You're her personal slave. In this country, their job is to make their mistress happy all around."

Dante rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and?" He'd had the same idea, but that didn't explain the joke.

"You'll see..." Tom said with a grin, however, and Dante sighed resentfully. The little bit of hope that maybe he and Tom could actually spend the rest of the afternoon peacefully vanished into thin air, however, when Tom pushed him against a workbench in the far corner of the barn. He put up a fight, but Tom pitilessly shoved his knee into his privates, causing him to practically fall into the work slave's arms as he doubled over with an involuntary whimper. Seconds later, Tom's hand was inside Dante's pants, playfully tugging at the plug.

"Stop that!" Dante angrily hissed, trying to push Tom off of him, but Tom only reinforced his strange half-hug and pressed his mouth down on Dante's neck as if he were a mythical vampire. Dante gasped as Tom plopped the plug out of him and immediately pushed it back in, and he shuddered as the strange sucking turned into small, nibbling kisses. "Tom, stop it!" he whispered, and Tom whispered back:

"But why?" His breath on Dante's ear and the plug hitting that very special spot teamed up to make Dante tremble and feel his body hyperaware all the way down to his toes. "Sweetie, if I ask Blaise for it, he'll take the cage off me," Tom continued to whisper, licking Dante's earlobe, "and then... hmm..."

"No!" With all his might, Dante pushed the other slave away from him, who grinned teasingly and licked his lips.

"No?"

"Don't you dare touch me!" Dante spat, while the prospect of what Tom had implied made him nauseous. He'd rather stay a virgin for the rest of his life than let a guy like Tom rape him.

But for the moment, Tom calmed down and instead showed him- albeit with some arrogance- the machine that could be programmed to produce such nice things as the butt plug.

~

Dante's mood improved abruptly when Mistress Alice took the cage from him before he joined the preparations for dinner. Mikey was also in a decidedly good mood, but held back on his jokes because Seth wasn't in such high spirits. Then, as TJ handed Dante some of the silverware, Dante paused.

"Have you forgotten how to count?"

"We have a guest," TJ returned, and Dante looked at him questioningly, but got no further explanation.

Or rather, it partially explained itself as Dante served the ladies their food and between Mistress Alice and Frank sat a young man with a blond braid who- presumably it shouldn't have surprised Dante by now- was free and eyeing Dante intently.

"Valentine," Miss Carolyn said softly as the slaves also knelt at their table, "will you please give the grace?"

"Of course."

Dante extended his hands to Daniel and Seth and closed his eyes; Valentine cleared his throat.

"We thank the Great Mother for every life she brings to earth. We thank the Great Mother for our health and strength. And we thank the Great Mother for the love she provides us."

At his tone, Dante frowned a little confused and when he opened his eyes and reached for his cutlery, Mikey grinned cheekily and Seth gave him a strange smile.

During the meal, Valentine talked with enthusiasm about the botanical garden he had visited, and Sarah, who practically never said anything, asked with a wistful sigh:

"Ma, can't we have some more flowers in the garden?"

"If you'll take care of it," Miss Carolyn scowled back, and the subject swung over to the corn harvest and stayed there until the meal was finished.

Dante didn't like corn, in any form, and wasn't really listening; however, he couldn't help but overhear Valentine- as Dante and the others were cleaning up the dirty dishes- asking:

"Are you behaving?"

"Of course, Val." Mikey replied, somewhere between proud and offended.

"There's nothing wrong with him for now," Seth added seriously.

Dante grabbed the dirty plates and trotted into the kitchen. Ethan grinned wryly at him, and since Dante wasn't in the mood for another stupid conversation, he immediately turned back around to fetch the rest. He paused in the hallway, though, because he heard giggling.

Halfway around the corner, Mistress Alice was leaning against the wall, pulling Valentine in for a sensual kiss.

"I missed you." He purred, and she giggled again.

"Me too..."

Smiling, Dante went back to the dining room, gathered up the dirty napkins, took the stained seat cushion from Jack, and met a still-grinning Mikey in the kitchen- but the grin faded at Dante's smile.

"Don't pay him any mind," Daniel said from the dishwasher, looking up briefly as Dante shook out the napkins over the sink. "When his big brother's here, he always acts like that."

"Well, well..." Seth cautioned, but Dante grinned at Mikey.

"You don't look anything like him."

Mikey drew a pout. "So what? But he's the one who warms your mistress' bed."
"So what?" Dante echoed with a shrug. When he thought about it, it was a duty he wouldn't fight for. He'd heard too many times that it was incredibly difficult to satisfy a woman all around. "Less work." He couldn't imagine sex being really fun that way anymore.

Daniel, TJ and even Seth laughed quietly, while Mikey's face distorted.

"Besides, a happy mistress is a good mistress," Dante then added, and Seth nodded.

"As for Miss Alice, that is indeed true."