Bondmaiden

by B. A. Bradbury

  The notion that such a person would ask Lia’s permission for anything was so strange that words seemed to fail her. So she nodded lamely, and Velda asked her to get undressed. As though in a dream, kindness being something alien and disorientating to her, Lia stood up and removed her things, then Velda drew her close and touched between her thighs, the way Holmann did, though she did it more gently and more considerately than the brutish overseer.

  ‘You’re still a virgin,’ Velda mused. ‘That’s good, Lia. Innocence is a precious thing, and shouldn’t be wasted on the first handsome face that comes along.’ She stood up and walked around Lia slowly, looking her up and down. ‘Your buttocks are heavily marked, I see.’

  ‘Yes, mistress.’

  ‘Are you beaten often?’

  ‘Yes, mistress, they do it all the time.’ As soon as the words were out Lia regretted them. It might be construed as criticism of her overseer, and if Holmann found out she would be in serious trouble. She shivered at the thought of what he might do. ‘But I expect I deserve it, mistress,’ she added hastily in an attempt to rectify the mistake.

  ‘Possibly,’ Velda said, though she sounded unconvinced. ‘And all these scratches on your breasts. I can’t imagine how you might have acquired those.’

  Lia explained about the rose thorn bandage, and Velda’s delicate eyebrows arched in surprise… or horror, Lia wasn’t sure which. ‘And did you deserve that too?’ the woman asked.

  ‘Yes, mistress, I dropped a plateful of eels,’ Lia explained, ‘so Dagna had no choice but to punish me as she saw fit, I suppose.’

  Velda frowned and patted her arm comfortingly. ‘Would you like to learn how to be a lady, Lia?’ she suddenly asked, taking the girl by complete surprise. ‘Would you like to learn how to behave like one, how to carry yourself correctly? If you can learn you could improve your lot in life. You might become a lady’s companion, even.’

  Lia had never considered such a thing; had never even dreamed it might be possible. And yet the moment Velda made the offer she knew it was what she wanted more than anything in the world. If she was a lady’s companion she would no longer be a serf, and if she wasn’t a serf she might be able to help Helma and her father.

  ‘Oh yes, mistress!’ she beamed breathlessly, excitedly, her head spinning with sudden, unexpected hope. ‘Yes please!’

  And that was how it all started. They sat together on the edge of the bed, and Velda told her they’d begin with anatomical terms, delicately touching Lia’s breasts. ‘So what are these called?’

  ‘Breasts… mistress,’ Lia said gingerly.

  ‘That’s right, breasts. And these?’

  ‘Nipples, mistress.’

  ‘Correct. You’re doing very well, Lia. And what’s this?’

  ‘My belly button, mistress.’

  Velda chuckled. ‘Well, that’s what children call it, certainly. The proper name is navel. Lay back now and part your knees, and I’ll teach you some more.’

  Lia did as instructed, blushing furiously, and Velda proceeded to touch parts of her anatomy and then say the proper name, the one a lady would use. Lia had to concentrate hard, for the words were difficult. Her slit was really her vulva, she learned, the opening inside was her vagina, and her lips were called her labia.

  ‘And this is your clitoris,’ Velda said, tickling Lia’s nubbin. ‘It’s very sensitive, but you probably know that already.’

  She continued to stroke it, watching Lia’s face, and when she stopped it was much to the breathless girl’s disappointment. She rolled Lia over and the lesson continued. The two cheeks she sat on were her buttocks, Velda said, though bottom was acceptable. Backside was most definitely not, however, and neither was arse. Her bottom-hole was her anus, and the passage inside was her rectum.

  ‘Good,’ Velda said. ‘Now let’s run through them again, to help you remember.’

  And so they did; and Velda turned it into a game by touching each part in a different way. She squeezed Lia’s breasts, pinched her nipples and stroked her navel. She rubbed her vulva, nipped her labia, patted her buttocks and prodded her anus, while Lia bit her lip and made no sound, for she was trying to act in a ladylike fashion and felt sure a lady would behave with dignity, although she struggled with this when Velda pressed a finger into her rectum, sinking it as far as it would go.

  ‘I see you’re a good girl who doesn’t make a lot of unnecessary fuss,’ Velda encouraged. ‘I’m glad about that, my dear. Things that can’t be helped must be accepted with fortitude, mustn’t they?’

  The straightened finger still impaled Lia, flexing and working in and out. After a while a second finger joined it, which hurt a little, making Lia wince, but she bore it in silence, thinking that was how one endured things with fortitude.

  Then Velda rolled her over and examined her vagina. ‘This is how I know you’re a virgin,’ she said. ‘The membrane I’m feeling now is called your hymen. That’s the last new word to remember, for today at least. So that’s it; I think we’re done. I haven’t forgotten anything, have I?’

  She began to stroke Lia’s clitoris like before, only this time she didn’t stop and soon Lia was panting and her hips were moving in unison with the exquisite caress.

  ‘I see you like this,’ Velda purred. ‘Does someone else do something similar for you?’

  ‘The overseer… did it once, mistress,’ she gasped. ‘And there’s a guard, too. He wakes me up this way… so I can do my chores.’ Though Lia didn’t want to lie to Velda she didn’t mention Durwin’s name, for it might mean trouble for him.

  ‘The guard wakes you up by tickling your clitoris?’ Velda said, wryly amused.

  ‘Yes, mistress, and… and by feeling my breasts.’

  ‘Maybe I should arrange for him to wake me up, too,’ Velda murmured, seemingly to herself.

  Lia felt something strange deep inside, as if she was dissolving slowly, but in the most wonderful way. Her gasps soon turned to a sobs of pleasure, and the movement of her hips became a languid dance of delight.

  ‘Do you know what it is you’re feeling now, Lia?’ Velda asked, but the girl shook her head, unable to speak. ‘It’s called an orgasm. I know I said no more new words, but I think this is one you’ll be happy to learn. It’s also called a climax, and it’s building in you now. You’re very close, in fact. I wasn’t going to do this, but you’ve been really good and I think you deserve it.’

  She fell silent, and Lia abandoned herself to the waves of bliss washing through her body. Something seemed to explode inside and she squealed, pushing up with her hips. Velda crooned to her, telling her she was a sweet, clever girl, as slowly the feelings subsided, leaving Lia spent, and limp, and utterly contented.

  Chapter Nine

  Something strange and disturbing took place on her return to the kitchen. Everyone, Holmann included, behaved oddly around her. It was almost as if they were frightened of her, though that made no sense at all. Even Tilda and Durwin looked awkward, unsure whether to talk to her or not, and when Holmann and Dagna disappeared for a while Lia asked Durwin what was going on.

  ‘We’ve all been warned off,’ he said awkwardly, not looking her in the eye. ‘Maggot brought a message from the queen. No one is to hurt you or even touch you. Holmann’s not allowed to punish you, and you’re to be given light duties only. Oh, and Tilda’s got to do the morning chores in your place.’

  Lia just stared at him, barely able to take this in. ‘But why?’ she asked plaintively. ‘What does it mean?’

  Durwin licked his lips nervously and turned away. For a second she thought he wasn’t going to answer, but then he shook his head and turned back to face her. Their eyes met and they were just Durwin and Lia again, who found comfort in each other’s arms at night.

  ‘Maggot didn’t tell us,’ he said, ‘but everybody knows. It’s happened once before, with Alda, Princess Magdalena’s bo
ndmaiden. You’ll be moving up to the royal apartments soon, Lia. You’re wanted for special duties.’

  The summons wasn’t long coming – the very next day, in fact. Lia collected her things and followed Maggot as before, and as before he led her to Velda’s bedchamber.

  ‘Ah, my dear,’ the lady welcomed as Maggot made his bowing exit, ‘I imagine you’re a little confused as to why you’re here. It’s all my doing, I’m afraid. I suggested to Queen Gudrun that you would make better progress with your training to become a lady’s companion if you stayed here, with me. The queen agreed, and you know the rest. Shall we make an immediate start on your second lesson?’

  ‘Y-yes, mistress,’ Lia said warily. Velda’s words hadn’t really explained anything, for she could hardly believe that so exalted a person as the queen would take an interest in her, a lowly servant. But here she was, with no choice but to do what Velda told her to do. And the first thing Velda told her to do, predictably, was take off her clothes.

  ‘Now then,’ Velda continued, as soon as Lia stood naked and meek before her, ‘you’ve probably guessed there’s a new word to learn. And that word is cunnilingus…’

  Cunnilingus, Lia soon discovered, was the most wonderful thing.

  At first, when Velda put her head between Lia’s thighs and began licking her, Lia was startled, even afraid, and tried to close her knees. But the woman raised her head and told her firmly to lie still and not to resist, then her tongue and lips went back to work. And so Lia lay there quietly, and slowly such feelings of pleasure stole through her that she no longer cared if it was proper for a lady to be doing this to a serf. She suspected Father Adalard, if he knew, would declare it to be a most terrible sin, but – and she risked her very soul by admitting it even to herself – she didn’t care about that, either.

  Velda paused again some time later to rebuke Lia gently. ‘No, don’t close your eyes,’ she said. ‘Watch everything I do. Watch my tongue most especially, and try to remember how it feels when I do certain things, such as this…’

  She dipped her head and flicked the tip of her tongue lightly but rapidly over Lia’s vulva. ‘And this…’ She took Lia’s labia between her lips and sucked. ‘And this…’

  Velda tongued Lia’s clitoris vigorously, and sucked on it too, till Lia thought she would faint from pleasure.

  ‘You must try to remember everything I do and how it makes you feel,’ Velda said, pausing in her endeavours. ‘I’ll be testing you later, and shan’t be pleased if I find you haven’t been paying attention.’

  And so Lia watched, knowing she would be punished if she didn’t concentrate. Though she certainly didn’t want that, still she found it very hard indeed to keep her eyes open and remember things, as Velda demanded, when all she wanted to do was lie back and let such wonderful feelings take her soaring up into the clouds, like the white doves the town released on Saint Ivar’s day.

  Velda persevered, and in no time at all Lia was writhing and sobbing as the orgasm took her. Velda praised her afterwards, like before, and fingering her gently until she was quiet and still once more.

  ‘That was very sweetly done, my dear,’ she murmured. ‘Are you ready for your next test now?’ Lia nodded dreamily. ‘Good…’ the woman purred. ‘Well the test is, you must do the same to me as I have just done to you.’

  Lia gasped in shock, but it was evident that Velda was perfectly serious, for she took off her beautiful blue gown, beneath which she wore a white silk under-tunic and silk hose that came just above the knee. And when she was utterly naked, wearing nothing but her necklace, she lay back on the bed and parted her thighs. Lia gasped a second time then, for Velda had no hair at all between her legs, so that her vulva pouted, pink and bare as a baby’s.

  ‘Come, child,’ she crooned, stroking a languorous hand over her smooth, shapely hips and thighs. ‘Let us discover how much you can remember.’

  Astonished still, yet strangely excited at the same time, Lia knelt between Velda’s legs and bent her head to the task. Soon she was licking and sucking for all she was worth, determined to give a good account of herself; and though fear of punishment was certainly part of what drove her, there was also a desire to make the lady as deliciously happy as the lady herself had made Lia feel just a brief time before. And to judge from Velda’s soft moaning sighs and wriggling hips, Lia was managing to do precisely that. As the lady tossed and heaved and warbled in her climax most enthusiastically, her young pupil could believe she had been successful.

  ‘Lia,’ Velda gasped, ‘my dear girl, you pass the test! What a clever little tongue you have, to be sure.’

  She lay awhile until her breathing returned to normal, then rose and put on her clothes. ‘Come,’ she said, ‘there’s someone I want you to meet… none other than Princess Elfrida, youngest daughter of King Ulric and Queen Gudrun. You are to be the princess’s bondmaiden. Come.’

  And so, with Lia naked still and trembling, shocked by this latest revelation, she followed Velda out of her chamber, past a guard whose eyes nearly popped out of his head at the sight before him, into the royal apartments.

  Princess Elfrida was golden-haired, slender, about Lia’s age, and lovelier even than the gilt angels in the nave of the great chapel. She lay on her bed playing with a black and white puppy, and didn’t seem at all pleased to see them.

  ‘Who is this person?’ she asked, frowning so intensely she suddenly wasn’t pretty any more.

  ‘This is Lia, princess,’ Velda said. ‘She is to be your bondmaiden.’

  ‘Well I don’t want her!’ Elfrida said sulkily. ‘Take her away! Why can’t I have Maggot back?’

  ‘All this has been explained, princess,’ Velda said patiently. ‘Maggot is no longer a boy and you are no longer a girl. It isn’t proper for him to attend you any longer. A princess of your age must have a bondmaiden, and you are to have Lia, as Princess Magdalena has Alda. Your mother the queen has declared as much.’

  ‘Well tell mama I won’t, you hear me? And I would never have her in any case.’ She stared scornfully at Lia. The puppy yapped and wagged its tail, and furiously she pushed it off the bed, where it landed with a yelp and promptly scampered away.

  ‘Lia is working hard to become a suitable companion and bondmaiden to a princess,’ Velda went on patiently, ‘and I think the princess in question should at least give her a chance to prove herself. I’m sure that when you’ve enjoyed her newfound talents for cunnilingus you’ll change your mind.’

  For the first time Princess Elfrida looked interested. The frown disappeared and she regarded Lia thoughtfully. ‘Is she better than you?’ she asked.

  ‘I cannot keep servicing you, princess,’ Velda said. ‘I am bondmaiden to the queen, and my place is at her side. I’ve been neglecting my duties dreadfully of late, caring for you, but it can’t go on. Lia is to be your bondmaiden and you must give her a chance. Your mother has decreed it, and I wish it. Won’t you at least do that?’

  Lia barely heard the end of the exchange for she was still reeling at the news that Velda wasn’t nobly born, but was a servant herself. She was bondmaiden to the second highest personage in the land, true, but a servant still.

  ‘Very well,’ Elfrida was saying, ‘I shall give her a chance, as you suggest. But if she doesn’t please me I shall have Maggot back whether you or mother or anyone else likes it or not.’

  She bounced back on the bed as she spoke and drew up her skirts. She was wearing a pale gold satin robe with nothing at all underneath. Lia saw that her sex was bald, presumably shaved, just like Velda’s. She spread her slender legs wide and beckoned to Lia.

  ‘Come on then, girl,’ she said imperiously. ‘Let’s see if you’re as good as Velda claims. Lick me until I tell you to stop.’

  Lia glanced anxiously at Velda, who nodded and smiled encouragingly. ‘Go to Princess Elfrida now, Lia,’ she quietly urged. ‘Do for her what you did for
me. Show her what young women from Three Elms village are made of.’

  Once again Lia was taken aback, for they hadn’t spoken of Lia’s past, so how could Velda know where she was from? The only explanation was that she’d enquired into Lia’s background, which was a sensible precaution, probably, in view of her new appointment as bondmaiden to a princess.

  Feeling not half so confident of her abilities as Velda seemed to be, Lia moved forward and knelt in front of Elfrida. She lowered her head and began licking and sucking all over again. She was nervous at first, but soon grew more confident as Elfrida began to squirm and gasp, clearly enjoying her efforts. Lia concentrated on the princess’s clitoris, and in a remarkably short time Elfrida was climaxing, but that was not it over, for the princess kept her there by holding fast to her hair, and after she’d rested for a minute or two she ordered Lia to do it again, and in fact it took three orgasms before she seemed truly satisfied.

  ‘Very well,’ she eventually conceded, stretching like a cat and smiling dreamily, ‘I will keep you for now. You can sleep here, on the floor next to my bed. I might want more attention from you in the night if I’m not feeling sleepy.’

  ‘Not tonight,’ Velda said firmly. ‘Lia isn’t fully trained, nor has she been adequately groomed. I’ll bring her to you in a week’s time, by when she’ll be fit to enter your service.’

  Elfrida’s frown returned and she thumped the mattress in frustration. ‘First you tell me I must keep her, then you say I cannot. It really is too much! You are doing everything in your power to annoy me, Velda, and now I shall beat you for it. Fetch the whip.’

  Velda shook her head slowly. ‘Not the whip, princess,’ she said. ‘It will cut my flesh, and you know how the queen detests marks on her servants. If you truly must punish me you will have to use your hand. If that is not sufficiently severe then you may use the drub. Those are the only options your mother will countenance.’