reappeared, each bearing a small tray, Rodriguez and Brenner rose up from the table and went to the foot of the stairs leading upward, not far from the desk of the zard. The women were there, at the foot of the stairs, to the right of the zard’s desk, as one would face it. Rodriguez brought the letter, opened, with him, and looked at the blonde. She shook her head, wildly. She turned white. The articles on her small tray trembled. He must hide the letter!
“I am not an errand boy,” Rodriguez said to her.
The blonde cried out with misery and, putting down the tray on the floor, flung herself on her knees, sobbing, her head to the floor, before the zard.
He picked up the letter, opened, which Rodriguez had dropped on his desk. He perused it.
His expression did not change, and it is difficult for those of Rodriguez’ and Brenner’s species to read most expressions of zards. We might mention, however, that the tiny ridge of plates on the back of its head and neck did not erect, nor did the mouth open, emitting a loud, hissing noise. His forward right appendage, however, reached out, grasping the heavy quirt.
“No, no, please!” wept the blonde, her head down.
Rodriguez put his hand on the clawed hand of the zard, and shook his head.
The blonde looked up, frightened, at the zard, and then at Rodriguez.
“I expect you will be watched rather carefully now, for some time,” speculated Rodriguez. “Perhaps you will not be allowed to wear silk on the floor for some time, and your body may be examined, before you are permitted on the floor, to make certain you are not concealing any such messages. I would not wish, if I were you, incidentally, to be caught attempting such a childish, stupid trick again.”
“No, sir,” wept the blonde.
“I do not know what might be done to you.”
“No, sir,” she wept.
“Rejoice that you are not a slave,” said Rodriguez.
“Yes, sir!” she said.
“But that can come later,” said Rodriguez.
“No, no!” wept the blonde.
“Such is certain to become your eventual fate,” said Rodriguez.
“No! No!” she wept.
“I will let you know in the morning,” said Rodriguez, “if she is satisfactory.”
The zard inclined his head.
“I will try to be as pleasing as I can be to you,” said the blonde.
“I am confident of it,” said Rodriguez.
“Do not complain of me in the morning, I beg of you,” said the blonde.
“We shall see how you perform,” said Rodriguez.
“What do you want of me? What must I do?” she wept.
“Pick up the tray,” said Rodriguez.
Sobbing the blond picked up the tray. She then stood before Rodriguez. The articles on the tray trembled slightly. She did not meet Rodriguez’ eyes. Although she was tall, Rodriguez was considerably taller.
“Do you fear you will be “pawed,”” asked Rodriguez.
She kept her head down, and did not respond.
“Before I am through with you,” said Rodriguez, “you will beg to be merely “pawed,” and brutally.”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
“Get your ass upstairs,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” she said.
She then preceded Rodriguez up the stairs. She looked nice ascending the stairs.
Brenner then looked at the brunette. She was standing, holding the small tray, on which were a coffee, a desert, a small custard, and a tiny glass of some liqueur. Their eyes met. Then she looked down. Brenner recalled how she had been angry with him earlier in the day. He had not been pleased by that. “Get your ass upstairs,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” she said.
He then followed her upstairs. The blonde had turned left. The brunette turned to the right, and led the way to a room near the end of the hall.
Chapter 5
Brenner sipped his coffee.
He looked down at the brunette. She was kneeling beside the small table on which she had placed the tray, behind which Brenner sat.
“Remain as you are,” said Brenner.
She looked well there, in the silk.
He put the cup down on the tray and leaned forward, reaching to his right. He put his hand fully in the glossy dark hair of the brunette, grasping it, and drew her head a little forward, toward him. Then he released her hair and she knelt back again. She had knelt on the right without having been told to do so. She had been trained to do so, of course, just she had been trained to set a table in the zardian fashion, and such. Most zards, you see, like most in Brenner’s species as well, and as he was, were right-handed. In this fashion