Chapter 4 - The Choosing.

There were many slaves on the Van Cleef estate who met the age, height and weight requirements set forth by Gretchen for her stable of pony girls. The management company had instituted a form of eugenics from the outset to selectively breed the former prisoners, now slaves. Their objective in doing so was to perpetuate a strong, healthy, work force. This was accomplished and it had the side effect of developing a race of tall, blonde men and women. After six generations of the program the slave population of the estate was comprised mostly of women between five- feet- ten inches and six feet in height and men well over six feet tall.

Anne Cameron was notified by her supervisor that she was ordered to report to the main stables at seven a.m. the following morning. Anne fit the pony girl candidate criteria in all respects. She was just shy of six feet in height, weighed one hundred forty-five pounds and was twenty-two years of age. She was employed as a caretaker for children under five in the estate nursery. Anne had been privy to the rumors which were circulating throughout the estate concerning the activities taking place at the main stables. A corral was being built, new buildings were being erected which, rumor had it, contained many stalls. The harness maker was interviewing young men to see if they were qualified to become apprentices. The head carpenter, who also was the carriage maker, was doing the same. The logical conclusion formed by the people of the estate was that their mistress, Gretchen Van Cleef, intended to raise horses. Her cousin, Anse de Gier, who was a widely respected horse trainer in Europe, would arrive on Tambura in the near future. What Anne Cameron and the other young women ordered to report to the main stable could not figure out was what they had to do with all of this activity. Anne decided to ask her lifelong friend, Jock, what he made out of all this. Jock was a strapping youth, six feet four inches tall, sandy-haired, who possessed a gentle temperament. He was very much in love with Anne, but they had not yet received permission from the estate management to mate, much to their frustration. This unfortunate situation did not, however, prevent them from engaging in sex play, which they did frequently. Anne sent a message to Jock via her coworker, Margaret Abbot, to meet with her that evening after dinner. No need to designate a meeting place, since they both knew their rendezvous well, a dense bower of tropical vegetation on the bank of the wide river which split the estate in half.

"What do you make of it, Jock? What do you think she wants with all of us girls?"

"It sure is a pisser, Annie. I can’t figure it out. Maybe her ladyship wants to put you lassies between the shafts of her carriage, eh?"

"Oh Jock! Don’t be daft. Girls pulling a carriage? We wouldn’t know how."

"That would be something, though, wouldn’t it, Annie? Do you fancy feeling a whip on that precious ass of yours, eh?"

Jock was prescient, though not yet himself believing his foreknowledge. The two young people soon gave up speculating about the next day’s happenings and began to explore each other’s bodies. Anne possessed large, conical breasts which Jock was privileged to feast on. Anne placed a nipple between his anxious lips and he began to suck like a babe nursing at its mother’s teat. The nipple quickly stiffened and Anne removed it and replaced it with its twin, then alternated first one teat and then the other. As delightful as this foreplay was, the two lovers were unable to consummate their love with the sex act. Anne wore a metal crotch screen between her thighs, which prevented access to her outer labia, hence no penetration. All single girls and women were fitted for and had such devices installed upon reaching puberty. This practice, put into place by the overseers generations ago, was necessary to maintain the selective breeding program. Anne and Jock had found ways to gratify each other sexually. Anne’s breasts were extremely sensitive as were her inner thighs. Jock ran his tongue over the smooth white skin of the inner thighs as close to Anne’s labial lips as the screen would permit. He discovered that kissing her legs and feet would bring Anne to a frenzy of passion climaxed by a copious orgasm. When he sensed she was approaching climax, he would return to her upper thighs and press his tongue against the screen to savor the ejaculation liquid. To reciprocate, Anne’s long fingers would gently caress Jock’s testicles and then move to his incredibly hard penis, stroking it until Jock reached his orgasm. In this way the two young lovers assuaged their passions. All unwed females were examined monthly by an estate nurse for evidence of sexual intercourse. The chastity screen was removed and the nurse inserted her fingers into the vagina to determine if the maiden head was still intact. If the maiden head was discovered to be ruptured, the female was quarantined until she menstruated. If it turned out that she was pregnant she was forced to divulge the name of the father and a determination was made as to the genetic desirability of the future offspring. If the decision was that the child was genetically desirable, it was permitted to live and to become part of the community. If not, it was disposed of. The mother of such a child was, for the rest of her life, assigned to hard labor as a field hand and not permitted to mate again. The child, if it survived, was raised in a public nursery, the very one in which Anne was employed as a caretaker. The father of the child was also assigned to a life of hard labor; clearing swamp land, dragging ore carts in the mines, much of the time left to the tender mercies of whip-wielding foremen. Such a fate insured that no man other than the actual father would foolishly consent to being named falsely the father of the child. Of course, there was always the possibility that the mother, in order to protect the identity of the real father, would falsely accuse an innocent dupe. It was said, but never verified, that this had happened more than once.

Anne was a member of the second group of twenty-five slaves to be inspected by Gretchen. She had never seen her mistress up close and, naturally, was quite curious. The estate slaves, of course, had dreamt up many stories relating to their beautiful young mistress and Anne had heard her share of such accounts. It was said that Gretchen had ordered young slave bucks be brought to the mansion, bedded them for the night and then had them killed. It was also said that she had no use for male company, but seduced young virgins in the manner of those women of the Greek island of Lesbos. Neither of the stories was true, but Gretchen did nothing to discourage the circulation of the libels. She thought it better to be perceived by the slaves as a creature of mystery, thus maintaining an absence of any familiarity whatsoever, paying homage to the old adage, "Familiarity breeds contempt." The girls had been bathed, their chastity screens removed and now they waited nervously for their mistress’ appearance. Nude, they knelt in a straight line in a large room of the main stables. Gretchen appeared in the entrance way and an overseer quickly clapped her hands, a signal for the girls to put their foreheads to the floor.

"My nose tells me that you have had them bathed this time," Anne heard a rich, vibrant voice say to the overseer. "Good. Rise!" This command followed by the smack of a riding crop striking a leather riding boot. The girls scrambled to their feet, at the same time locking their fingers behind their heads. Anne’s eyes were focused straight ahead, so, of course, she wouldn’t see Gretchen’s face until Gretchen actually stood before her, examining her. But, as Gretchen moved down the line slowly approaching Anne, the enticing fragrance of her expensive perfume preceded her. Anne had never in her entire life been exposed to such an intoxicating aroma. The perfume only added to the already compelling mystique Anne’s imagination had concocted of her mistress, Gretchen Van Cleef. What was a mere ten minutes waiting for her mistress to face her seemed like forever to Anne. At last the much anticipated moment arrived. Anne knew better than to make eye contact and this did not present too much of a problem for her, since she was several inches taller than Gretchen. During the inspection when Gretchen was not looking directly into her face, Anne was able to move her eyes and get a good look at her mistress. She saw a beautiful young woman with dark blonde hair, (dishwater blonde, her father called it) striking blue/green eyes accented by dark eye brows, high cheek bones and a small, almost pug nose. She wore fawn riding breeches, which showed her curvaceous hips to advantage, brown, turned down boots and an embroidered long sleeved silk blouse with a blue silk scarf tucked in at the neck She carried a red leather riding whip, looped at the end. Gretchen examined Anne’s body visually and then stepped back to scan her from head to toe. "My God! What a magnificent female," she thought to herself. This one just might be the pony queen of my stable. Anne was nervous and as a result her forehead showed a slight sweat, which didn’t escape the mistress’ attention. Gretchen took Anne’s right nipple between her thumb and forefinger and tugged it gently. Anne involuntarily sucked in her now concave stomach resulting in the rib cage expanding and her large blue-veined breasts being thrust forward. "Oh my!" thought Gretchen, "she’s passionate." Still teasing the stiff nipple, Gretchen probed Anne’s vulva with the looped end of the crop. Anne’s face flushed, her breathing quickened and Gretchen knew that if the sex play continued for even a minute more the slave would climax. She stopped abruptly and swatted Anse’s expansive buttocks smartly with the whip. "You will do, my beauty, you will do very well, indeed," said Gretchen and on sudden impulse she put her arm around the gorgeous slave’s neck, pulled her face down to her waiting mouth and kissed her on the lips. It wasn’t lost on the other slaves that Anne was the only one favored with the mistress’ kiss and the consensus of opinion was that Anne would occupy a special place in the yet unknown scheme of things.