Sara noticed a somewhat older woman crying, clutching a small girl and a baby. Her skin was black as tar and she must have originated somewhere south of the desert. The children must have had a light skinned father as their skin was more like wet sand.
"Oh," said the slavetrader. "This one is from the Sudan. She was the concubine of a merchant in town. He died and his widow decided to put her back on the market again."
"The children...", started Sara, looking at the wailing girl.
"Oh the girl will be sold separate so if you do not want her no worries. She is 7 and she can work in a kitchen or clean though. In a few years her master can take her. The baby is free. She would die if she was separated from her mother and that would be a sin. But you can sell her on later."
Sara walked over to the woman. She saw big black eyes look up at her. Breasts like melons. A small curly head tugged in rags clutched to her chest. "Who are you?"
"I am Fatma. I used to be the girl of the owner of the pottery. These are his two daughters."
"Why are they selling their sisters?"
"The wife said they are worthless girls and not his children but they are. He slept with me for 8 years. Please do not take my children. I can wash for you, cook, take care of your babies, whatever you need but do not take mine from me. I ran his house for years. Look how healthy my babies are. My girl can help. I can be a wetnurse too."
Tears ran down the woman's face. Her whole body shaking. Sara had the feeling she could not breath, had to puke.
Sara looked the slavetrader in the eyes not hiding her ice. "I will buy the three of them together so she can help raise the children of the Bey. I am not going to wait for the auction as the Bey is waiting for me. I will pay you the price you can fetch for a virgin to send to him but that offer stands only for one minute. Do you want to displease our ruler?"
The merchant looked at her and said: "My lady how can I let the Bey pay for a mere old slave and her brood when I gave him beautiful Christian virgins like you as a present. Please accept these cheap slaves as a gift."
He bowed deeply drawing the attention of the other buyers. "I am so honoured to have my slaves working for the Bey."
"You bastard", Sara thought. "You had your dirty finger in my cunt to check if you could use me to work your way into the palace. Gifting me, a free person, as a slave to the Bey. You had no right to give me and now you want to use me and this poor woman to get every eye on you and sell your other slaves for higher prices. I am glad you do not have my coins today.... Well my lord's coins."
---
It was late in the evening when Sara was called to the Bey.
She had made sure the new slave Fatma and her babies were bathed and fed. Sara had been smiling for hours. Fatma was so happy in her new home. She had told the woman she was supposed to be helping raise the royal kids. That their lord was known not to be attracted to dark women so the grieving woman did not have to worry about being called to his bed (and no one would be jealous of her because of that). And she had promised the girls a place in the palace school. Yes who knows Fatma might even help the First wife as a wetnurse when the new baby would be born.
She was sure the Bey would be proud of her. Not only had she acquired someone who would not cause a problem but also someone who would be grateful to the Bey for keeping her family together and best of all it had cost him nothing. She longed to tell him and see his smile light up his eyes.
The eunuch had been telling everyone in the palace how Sara had not done what the Bey had told her to do but instead had come home with a whole family.
One of the harem guards brought her to the sitting room of the Bey. A waterpipe and tea were placed next to cushions on the floor but the Bey and his senior eunuch were standing in the middle of the room. The eunuch was stroking his long whip. Sara realised the Bey was fuming. Why was he mad?
She bowed. Something was terribly wrong. The eunuch briskly walked towards her and pressed her body down on her knees. His whip making a wailing sound in the air.
"You have willingly disobeyed your Lord and Master, slave," he hissed.
"Forgive me but I do not know what I supposedly done wrong," she trembled on the floor. She noticed the Bey was circling her like a lion ready to strike,
"He told you to buy a slave and you bring in a couple of female children."
"But they were all free. And the mother can be a wet nurse. She is grateful for a safe place for her family."
"Hold your tongue woman in the present of your lord. I told him what you did."
She grabbed hold of the robe of the Bey. "Please ya Sidi, the woman was so glad. Please do not send her or her children away. Please if you are angry punish me."
"Punish you?" the eunuch hissed. "I will whip your back till you are a bloody wreck. That will teach you to obey next time." He grabbed her by her hair and lifted her back up to tear away her simple dress. Then he flung her back on the ground.
In all of that Sara had noticed the face of the Bey. It was clouded by emotions.
"Please my Lord. Forgive me. I thought I did a good thing."
"I am your lord and master and when I tell you to do something you do not go and do something else and rejoice over that in public. But I do not want that beautiful marble skin permanently damaged Hyacint. I will teach this slave submission to my will in another way."
She felt how he walked around her and suddenly she felt how he lifted her buttocks in the air. A hustle of fabric followed and then something hard was pushed against the sphincter of her anus. A sharp pain followed.
"See Hyacint this will make her submit and cause so much pain she will never openly revolt again but it will not damage her and even bring pleasure."
The eunuch laughed; " Ride her arse lord. That will teach her. She seems to have forgotten she is just a pleasure slave."
Sara tried to keep him out best she could but the pressure was too high. Piercing pain.
She started to cry more hysterical now.
"I thought you were my friend", she wailed.
"Your friend?" said the Bey. "Bloody hell woman you are my slave. I own you. I am your master. Now open up that arse or do you want me to tear you another hole?"
She felt the bulbous head of his rod enter her. Filling her like she had never felt before. It hurt like hell.
"Submit woman. The more you cry, the more upset you are, the more it will hurt. Submit yourself."
He was now all the way inside her. She uttered piercing cries.
"You insolent cunt. There is no one in the realm who can willingly discard my orders."
He started to move and that was even worse. The suddenly in the middle of his punishing he switched to French as if it were curses. The language the eunuch did not speak.
"Be very still my sweet. Surrender and it will be good."
What??? Was this whole rape thing not what it was?
"Yeah you slave. This is what you are!. Come on Hyacint let me fuck this one in private. You can leave. You will probably hear her on the other side of the palace."
The eunuch retreated and left the room. A look on his face as if he was missing out on something. News. Something to gossip. The Bey who was taking that Dutch girl in the arse.
The Bey grabbed Sara around her middle and lifted her torso against his chest. Still buried deep inside her. She was sobbing desperately now.
"Hush my sweet. He is gone. Now you keep crying out as if I am pounding your arse bloody."
She did not understand. What? What did he mean?
"Cry out", the Bey whispered and moved himself inside her. She squeaked.
"Let him think I am making this utterly painful. If I say cry you pretend I am shoving myself in you."
"Now wail again!"
He sat utterly still. His arms around her, pressing her to his chest.
"My sweet, pretend it is us sitting in my bath. You have sat so many times on my lap. Feel how safe you are when I am holding you."
"Yes," she thought, "but I never had your rod up my arse."
He must have thought that too as he proceeded: "Feel how much I want you. How hard you make me. You are my sweet Sara. Even when you are crying like this I want to come inside you."
"Feel how safe you are in my arms."
His hands caressed her breast and her belly. Now one of his hands had found her secret lips and was softly stroking them.
"Many women like this. It only requires a woman to surrender. It does not hurt when you use a lot of oil and make her open up by using a finger. When proceeding slowly. Do you feel how your muscles relax now?"
And indeed it seemed as if her insides had gotten used to being so stuffed. His hand was now circling her nub. She sighed. A finger slipped inside her channel.
He slowly bend them down again back to her original kneeling position and started slowly to move inside her. She had surrendered completely by then.
The movement inside her combined with his stroking felt different. It no longer screamed pain although it still burned when he pulled back. But it also seemed as if she was in a senses overload. There was a strange feeling of pleasure mixed with feeling overly stuffed, completely submitting to a man. A muffled moan escaped her lips.
"Yes my sweet yes! Cry out for me". She felt him stiffen and then groan. His warm load shot up inside her.
They just stayed there. His body holding hers. Her breathing slowing. His warm body all around her, waiting for his penis to soften so he could withdraw it without that much pain.
She was shivering. Her face still wet with tears. She did not understand. What was it he was doing to her? Was he so angry with her or was he telling her he wanted her? Was this rape or was that last part normal sexual intercourse between a master and his haremwomen?
She could not speak. Could not move. Still feeling tremors.
------
He stood and picked her up in his arms. A naked woman, a face red from crying, a pucker still open and red and raw. He walked to the door and shouted to his guards to open up.
Outside de chief eunuch and some other servants curiously waited. He passed them by.
"Put her in the couching book. I will be inside her cunt as well. She will never forget this day and never stray again."
Sara felt herself carried. What was he planning? Was he planning to have her again? To breed her and therefor wanted her written down in the book?
The Bey walked on until he reached a faraway room that Sara realised was his master bedroom. He laid her down on his bedding face down. Then came back with a rag and a bowl of water.
"Kneel again in the position of the frog."
The wet rag was used to clean her. Hia hand soft and suiting.
"You are quite raw and there is some blood but no major tearing. It will heal in a few days."
Then he walked away again and came back with ointment he use to rub into her sphincter, to coat her anus. It helped against the burn.
"Come now get under the blanket."
She felt a cotton sheet and some woven blankets cover her. After a few moments he came back to his bed and got inside. She felt he was wearing some cotton shirt probably because the nights were getting quite cold even in the Mediterranean winter. She was lifted bodily in an embrace, resting on his chest. She could hear his heart beating. His familiar smell all around her.
She could not hold it in anymore. "Why? Why did you hurt me like that? What was it you thought I did wrong? I only tried to get you the best deal from the slavetrader."
She realised this was a risk saying things like that. But her head was spinning and her arse was burning. What could be worse than being forcefully taken? What else did she have to lose?
"I know my sweet. But you should not have acted like this. You knowingly disobeyed the orders of the Bey of Tunis and rejoiced in the result. If you had been a general and caused a big victory it might have been different but you are a lowly Christian harem slave who was only bedded once. And to make things worse you were so proud of what you had done that the whole court was talking about it."
"I cannot let that go without punishment. The eunuchs were ready to put you to the whipping pole and strip the skin of your back. I could not let that happen. See you so hurt. So maimed. But to maintain order, to have them obey, to prevent revolts I had to take immediate terrible action. No one disobeys the Bey. No one rejoices in being disobedient. So I decided to bugger you. It would hurt immensely. You would cry out. Those old dried up raisins would gloat but you would not be permanently damaged. And your arse would have been mine one day anyways."
So that was why it seemed in the end they were staging a show? The servants had to be convinced this woman of the mighty Bey had to submit to his rule? While he had tried to keep the pain to a minimum when that was possible when they were alone.
His hands were slowly caressing her. Wrapping themselves around the small of her back. His mouth kissing her neck while her face was pressed against his shoulder.
Was he now trying to explain this had been the best of two evils? Was he trying to comfort her? Her mind was racing. What could she have done differently?
"Lord what could I have done? I thought you would have been pleased with three free slaves. The mother a perfect nurse who knows the language, with breast full of milk, dark so none of your ladies would feel threatened and still by having lived here for years speaking the local language."
"Are you now trying to convince me my sweet one? I know you did great. But you did it the wrong way. "
"Wat should I have done?"
"You could have told the trader the Bey might be interested in his wares and offer him a small amount to get her out of the sale. So you could contact me and if I was not interested he could have sold her next week. I would have told you your suggestion was good. You would have gone back to him and he would feel obliged to give them to me. The difference? That I would be in charge and you my obeying aid. I would have praised you and you could have rejoiced."
"Now you forced me to show my power. To show my authority over Tunis and over this quivering woman. Remember sweet. I am the ruler. All is politics."
It was quiet for a while. Only his breathing and heartbeat and some of the noises of the palace. Suddenly he spoke again.
"I wish I could have done it without causing you pain. But it was great to feel you shudder on my dick. If you were not so raw I wished we could do it again right this moment."
In the dark room his voice was soft, barely a whisper. "I had planned to let you forget your fear for me. To see you surrender ...." His arms seemed to hold her even more tightly and then he slowly rolled them over so they were like two spoons. "Try to sleep my sweet."
The bed was soft under her body. His warm cotton wrapped body against hers. The days horrors of the slave market and getting raped having drained all her strength. And to top all that now the knowledge of this man's words. From friend to lord and master to what? A twisted way to be good to her? She was utterly alone in a strange land, a slave to this man. Was he a friend or just another foe?
What do you think? Is he trying to protect her or is he just playing with her? Should she try to seduce him or try to stay as low key as possible? Is he a nice man or just a slave master?