Hounds and Lightning

Chapter Three

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Her first morning wasn't as horrifying as she had feared. Becca spent most of the day mending clothing, and resizing a few small wrap around dresses for herself. She had been told that since Lilly had been able to convince Teresa that she was much too young to sell for sex, she wouldn't be getting any of the nicer "costumes" the girls sometimes wore. This was perfectly fine with Becca, after mending seams in only two of those "costumes" she decided they were more trouble than they were worth.

Lilly had come to her room with a large wicker basket full of cloth.

"This is for you to mend." she said thumping the basket down. "You can get food anytime you're hungry down stairs, just go sit with everyone else." she leaned in over Becca, her full chest threatening to escape her gown "listen; I talked to Teresa, well, yelled actually. Either way, I got her to agree that you were too young to sell."

Becca looked up at her too stunned to speak, a huge grin split her face she moved to throw her arms around Lilly in thanks, but Lilly held up a hand to stop her. "I've bought you a year, maybe two. You won't be safe from this forever. Teresa paid a very high price for you and she intends to get her investment back. When she decides you're old enough, and I can no longer delay her, she will sell your virginity to the highest bidder. She owns you; there is nothing I can do to stop this. Do you understand?"

Becca let that sink in before she nodded.

"Thank you for what you've done. I appreciate it. I owe you a lot Lilly; I'll pay it back one day."

Becca remembered her promise to Lily this morning as she finished her last seam. She looked up at the sun and found that it was well after noon. She hoisted her basket up on her hip and made her way through the courtyard where she had been sewing out in the sunlight back through the kitchen, and into the attached laundry room. The women who worked in there looked upset when they saw her, but told her to leave the basket and they'd sort everything out. Then they started asking questions about her, how old he was, why she was there, Becca had assumed they were slaves like herself, but they told her everyone who worked for Teresa was an employee, with the exception of a few slaves she had bought from known abusive owners, and let work off their debt in the beds, none of them had ever been near as young or as expensive as Becca.

More confused than ever, Becca wandered out of the laundry room when the women went back to gossiping amongst themselves. Not really paying attention to where she was going, Becca was shocked when she collided with something that was a combination of hard, soft, and furry. Growling and the sound of teeth snapping informed her that it was a dog, the color and size indicated wolfhound. Not interested in getting bit, she snaked a hand under its jaw holding it closed and dug her fingers into its throat kicking its long legs out from under it she tumbled down with it. Distantly, she heard someone yelling but didn't pay it any attention. She snarled at the hound, and clenched her fingers tighter maintaining eye contact until the hound whined and tried to wiggle away. Becca released it allowing it to back away. The hound tucked its tail and slunk behind the man she assumed was its owner. He was obviously older than her, but she wasn't very good at guessing ages. He was very attractive, with tanned skin, dark brown hair and greenish hazel eyes.

"You might consider leashing him, if he's going to get all snarly when he's tripped over. He's too big of a dog to be getting snarly with ladies, especially in a place like this." She said tartly

His face went from wide eyed shock to an amused smirk.  

"I bet you get snarly when you're tripped over too, it's hardly his fault you weren't paying any attention to where you were going. Incidentally, he wouldn't have hurt you. He's very well trained. As are you I might add, that was a neat trick; do you pull that with all the strange dogs you meet?"  His voice was warm and inviting, his tone both sarcastic and impressed