The Pennington Affair

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

the Usual Suspects Copyright Mr. Simon Barber

It was just after the lunch hour and two very well dressed, very proper vixen sisters were standing across from an ornate building. One that had no guard upon its gate, yet one that no fur had entered since their arrival nearly an hour ago. A sign in gold announced in four languages that this was the Kau Hon Consulate, and that all were welcome to enter. “Cindy” Missy Blanch Pennington, the elder of the grey vixens said gently. “You are absolutely certain that you wish to do this” she asked her youngest sister. “Lucy was to come with me. This was to be her place. For she, like myself, is better suited for such. Being older as you well know.”

“Sister. Emily absolutely dotes upon Lucy. To lose her so very soon after our home. Our family, our lives. That would be more than she could accept. At this time certainly. In a year, perhaps two. After she has adjusted to this new world, then yes. I would stand aside to allow Lucy to take my place. In full truth my dear sister, what we are about to do frightens me to my core. Yet this choice is what I must make, for I cannot at this time care for Emily as Lucy is able. Were there any other way I would leap for it. Yet you and Lucy are absolutely correct. Without lady Allworthy there is no other path. Even were she here, what promise is there that she would even speak to us. It is to father that she owes her favor. Not to ourselves. I feel she would aid us, but must accept that were we in the old South that we would be turned away by any but family. Lady Allworthy is not family, her needs are not our needs. We cannot hope for more than that, and have not the funds to survive until her return.”

Missy Blanch turned her head away from her sisters eyes, almost unable to accept what she and her youngest sister were about to do. “Cindy” she continued as she turned her eyes back to her younger sister. “Myself, there may be enough. Enough for the three of you to travel to Europe. Find employment, as ladies in waiting or secretaries to Ladies. My life will be hard yes. Perhaps Hell upon this Earth. Yet it is my responsibility as eldest to insure my sisters safety. Their future. Please do not come with me. Why, even should you, the chance that we will remain together is not possible.”

“Two thousand dollars, for yourself alone” Cindy laughed. “I read the offers. Two thousand for you, two for Lucy. Due to your ages. They do prefer the younger you know. Three for Emily, which even the signing of such papers would drive her mad. We all know the stories, how our great grandparents treated the blackfurs. Alone she could never manage. Four for myself, the youngest, sweetest meat. And meat we shall be, no mistake about that. Six thousand dollars will insure that they may survive at least a year in Europe. Time to have their papers forwarded from Richmond. With their papers they will be able to find proper husbands. In time they will forget us, or at least lose the pain. I do wish that Lady Allworthy had been available, I am almost certain that she would have tried to assist us. She is such a wonderful woman after all. Still she can not possible be back for three days. We have not the money for even one more. It must be the two of us, or all.”

Missy closed her eyes, accepting what must be. When the American Coast Guard had arrived they had been stripped of everything. Home, property, servants, papers. Most importantly the papers the girls needed to travel to Richmond alone. Their parents had been dragged away in chains for the courts, themselves left on a dock in Dutch Harbor to live or die, the hated Yankees had cared not either way. Only by luck had she managed to salvage a small amount of money. Barely enough for passage to Spontoon where she prayed to find Lady Allworthy. Certainly she would be able to help them. Not enough for more than one night in the cheapest of hotels. Pennington was a proud name, a name now without a country. For they had been born outside of any national borders, no consulate would even speak to them. She and Lucy had tried all day yesterday. Only this place had offered any hope, and that hope had been quite blunt in what it was. Her decision to try for Lady Allworthy had placed them in this position, and By God she would not let her sisters down if she could find any way to find funds. A whispered possibility had at first shocked, then horrified her. Looking upon her sisters, she had allowed the whisper to take root. That her yuongest sister would join her was heartbreaking, but Cindy was right. Emily’s mind was always filled with fantasy. A life such as this would destroy her in hours.

She and Lucy had worked hard to manage this deal. Two Kau Hon passports, tickets to Europe upon first class accommodations, by aircraft. As Cindy had said though, no more than six thousand dollars placed in the local Lloyds bank. They were simply of too small a value to hope for more. Their training improper for the life ahead of them. For this not one, but two of them would have to sell themselves. Oh not as ladies of the night, no such dishonorable position faced them. They would become slaves. Their freedom lost, their rights lost. They would be branded by their owner, treated as property, disposable. A female had been brought before them, that they could see what awaited them. The words No and Please would be forbidden them. As would be Justice and Mercy. Exactly like the darkfurs her great-grandparents had owned. No longer even to have their own names, they would be given new names. Ones not of their choice. By signing these contracts they would legally become base slaves, with no recourse to even the local legal system. For this was of their own free will, they would not be forced to even enter the grounds a second time.

“Then let us end this, before Emily discovers the truth. Or Lucy realizes that you are taking her place. Or I lose my nerve and in shame leave you to this yourself.” She took her younger sisters paw into her own and, heads held high the two entered Kau Hon’s consulate grounds.

Behind them a certain fur lowered his head in shame. He was tasked today to insure no fur was forced into that place. He had overheard both conversations, the one that morning, now this one. He had contacted a certain ferret and his wife. Both had admitted that their paws were tied behind their backs. As long as any Consulate broke no Spontoon law outside their gates, nothing could be done. Nor could Amelia or her dorm be returned to Spontoon in less than three days. It was simply impossible, for at the moment not even their instructors were certain of their position. Only that they were alive. Still a certain leased freighter had been sent in a certain direction, and a violently painted purple and blood red aircraft waited hungrily to launch. What could be done was being done. It was little enough, it left the elderly wolf crying. For it was not enough.

That this event would cause changes in Spontoon’s response to such stranded visitors, this would make no difference. For those changes would be in the future, this was today. Great changes, needed changes. But much too little, much too late.

The sisters entered the same office that Missy Blanche and Lucy had stood in just that morning. The same ornately dressed rat sat at his desk, looking up only as the sound of their skirts ceased. Blatantly turning on a wire recorder he stated the day, time and his name. It would record every sound made in this room until he turned it off. No fool, he would present a copy of the wire to the local government as soon as these two were processed. A long swim in certain waters he had no intention of taking, as many of those before him had done. “You have decided” he asked, actually curious this time.

“We have Sir. For the previously agreed passports, specified travel and funds to our other sisters as set out in your written offer, we will graciously sign your papers.”

The rat stood, his legs shaking. A long time devotee to the martial arts he was surprised by his reactions. The older, the younger. Prizes beyond prizes. Gifts such as the Penningtons were rare beyond rare, and to surrender themselves freely. The fools had no idea as to their true worth. Even after he had pleased himself with these two, they would be worth in the least fully twenty five thousand English pounds each. He was going to be a very rich fur, and very, very soon. Nodding to the two ladies before him, and he realized that they were truly ladies. Not simply born to some cheap title, he indicated two of the waiting chairs. “Until you sign, you are free to leave at any moment, for any reason” he reminded them. This was for the record, he had no real intention of allowing these prizes to escape. “After, you are nothing. Property to be used, bartered, loaned, sold or discarded as your owner decides. As is the woman you met earlier. You do understand? You do understand that the moment you sign this contract, that you are chattel. You are nothing. That there is no possibility of returning to your former life. I must know that you understand this.”  

“We are aware” Cindy agreed, though her voice quivered slightly.

“Then for this recording, will you please state your names , ages and nation of birth.”

Missy Blanch had no difficulty following instructions, Cindy though stumbled, apologized, then managed the second time. “This is an important step” she explained in apology. “Please understand that I am quite nervous.”

“It is understandable” the rat agreed. “It is rare that a Lady sells herself for her family. Even rarer that two do so. I will admit to you both that I could never do this.” He then repeated the agreed terms of this sale, ending by calling in two members of his staff to witness the recording, and to photograph the proceedings. Nothing was to be left to chance. A prize such as this would never come his way again. If only all four had decided, but two was the absolute best he could hope for. Today. He would take what the dark gods granted him and thank them tonight, over the new slaves naked bodies. Perhaps the other two could be enticed tomorrow, or the next day.

Walking to a locked cabinet he opened it, quietly picking up two parchments that he returned with, to place one in each of the vixens paws. “Please. Read carefully. If you sign, it may be the last thing you read in your lives. It will certainly be the last thing you sign of your own free will. No matter your future. For once signed, no one may return to you the freedom you have freely sold. And know this, I am pleasant with you now because you are free women, and because you are true Ladies. Once you sign...”

He walked away, looking at a painting on his wall. It was one he rarely looked at, though it was behind his head every day. It was a waterfall painting, with cranes. “Once you sign you are nothing, and I will treat you as nothing. You will be stripped of your finery in this room. You will be taken away to be chained and processed. You will be branded, you will spend one night as my pleasure. As my toys. I will explore your bodies, all of it. With very good luck you may leave this place already mothers. Tomorrow morning you will be flown, in cages like animals, to my country. There you will be sold to the highest bidder in not quite three weeks. I will not think of you again, I will do nothing to help you. I will not care if you are with pup or not. No one in this world will ever do anything to help you. You will die as slaves. In ten, fifteen years. Worn out, broken. Used. If your owner is one of the rare few, you may live longer, or less. Your bodies at best will be thrown in the city trash pile, to be fed upon by wild animals. You will be forgotten by this world, forever. Understand this Lady Penningtons, for this is your last free choice in this life. Or leave now.”

He didn’t know why he had spoken the truth so, he had never cared before. He had given only the very basic warnings. But these two, they were Ladies, and seeing them destroy themselves for the sake of their sisters humiliated him. Humiliated him, and worse. For he knew that he would take his pain out on both of them. But a scent in the room told him that at least one of the vixens was excited by his words. Extremely excited. He had at least one, and having her, he had the other. For one would not abandon the other, such shame would be too great. But which, he wondered, was the prey, which was the bait.

He waited for their answer in silence. A silence abruptly broken by the scraping of steel pens across parchment, the click of a movie camera running, an occasional click of a shutter. Finally a rustle of starched linen, then nothing. Nothing but that building scent, a sharp, sweet scent for one such as he. One of the two wanted this, but which? Turning around he found both vixens holding out their signed papers. Almost regrettable he accepted them, taking them back to the desk where he had found them. They would be sealed in bamboo pods, then chained to the girls necks when they were shipped tomorrow morning. Their ownership papers, to be signed by the one who bought them. When, or if they felt like doing so. Most the rat knew, were never signed. Too many times such documentation had proven the ending of one.

“Please sit” he said gently. “Have Pebble bring tea please. Then notify me when the runner returns with his receipt.” He then sat at his desk, staring at his property. They truly were his property now. He could, he knew, do absolutely anything he desired to them right now. Still something in him held off. Let them see their sisters names on the receipt. Let them know that what they had bought had been delivered. Let the bate simmer, to boil with his certain touch. He had never waited like this before. Somehow though, it felt right to do so.

Tea was delivered by a female rat in chains and nothing else. He watched in delight as the two, after looking at her, drank with such care, such poise. Pebble was their future now. Nothing on the planet could save them from that. Nothing. Time passed as molasses until his runner returned, two slips of paper in his paws. “Give them to the Ladies” he ordered. Almost instantly those papers were in Cindy’s paws. “As promised” she said to her older sister, offering the papers. “Six thousand United States dollars, two for your body, four for mine. Two fully legal Kau Hon passports in their names, first class tickets to France on the Friday Pan Am flight.” She stood, giving a proper curtsey to the rat who now owned her. “You have been honest to a fault. We are yours.”

“Then please undress. Your time of freedom is forever over.” He could have had their clothing cut from them, or ripped from them. But watching as the two vixens carefully undressed, the blush of shame in both’s faces. The exposure of fur he was certain that no male had ever seen. It was different. It was better. It was priceless. He picked up his phone, pressing a button. “They are ready to be processed. Gently. These are prizes beyond prizes. Everything must be as the gentle spring wind. Firm, unyielding, certain yet gentle.”

A look of lust filled his features as the last of the clothing was laid upon the chairs, both Penningtons facing him now. He now knew which had been the bait, which had been prey. “You will be delight upon delight for me tonight. I will make full use of your bodies. All parts of your bodies will be mine to explore, and I will. You may deny me nothing, or the other will be whipped until she bleeds. Any disobedience by one will be punished upon the other. You understand this.”

“We do... Master” Missy Blanche answered, her voice very soft, now filled with humiliation.

Behind them doors opened and three burly bulldogs entered. They carried with them delicate bronze chains and locks. “You” the rat continued, looking at Missy Blanche. “Your name is now Chestnut. You will answer to nothing else for the rest of your life. This you understand?”

“Yes Master. My name is Chestnut.” She grunted as her paws were pulled firmly behind her, feeling for the first time the cold burn of metal about her wrists. Feeling her chest pushed out as her arms were locked behind her.

“And you” he continued, turning to look into the now frightened eyes of Cindy Pennington. “Your name is Silk. Answer to anything else, I will let you watch as she is whipped until she bleeds.”

“Silk. Yes Master” Cindy managed to get out. But the tears in her eyes fell anyway. She too felt the bite of cold metal. The movement of her body in response to those chains.

“Sir” one of the hounds asked, his duty to Chestnut complete. “Your orders?”

“Standard shave pattern. Then the cream, that they never need be shaved again. It is a bother and no slave is allowed a blade. When it has been absorbed completely, the raven brand. Finest detail. Where they no longer have fur to hid it. And care with them, I will want the finest chains applied to them before I see them tonight. The full set. Those clothes, burn them.” He stood again, walking around his desk to study the now naked, chained vixens. “You are still Ladies. That cannot be taken from you. But you are nothing else.” Then, before they were taken away, he... explored.

Pain was the new life of Chestnut and Silk. Pain from the brands, pain from piercings, pain from the weight of chains that they had never felt in their lives. Pain from weight pulling upon wounds still raw. In two short hours they had been reduced to this. From sitting sipping tea to this, and they could never hope for escape. Never hope for less. Even should someone somehow free them, they were slaves. No marriage, no rights. For the Penningon’s were a law abiding Roman Catholic family, and the churches ruling on slaves was both ancient, and very clear. Well known to both of them. They were nothing, nothing but what their owner desired them to be. Though they retained their souls, in all other ways they were nothing but property.

Pebbles, the female rat who was chained as they were, but obviously long ago soon arrived. “You will now learn the positions of obedience” she announced, her voice the same Chinese sing-song as the rat above. That she was his sister they would never know. That she had lost a child’s game of chance, and with it her own freedom would stun them. For the vixens though, their lives became filled with more pain, and there was even worse training to come. 

A little later on Meeting Island, a certain Kau Hon rat entered a certain office. Looking up a hedgehog groaned. “They sold themselves” he stated, not asked. For he was well in the loop, and his job was to insure that anyone whom Kau Hon claimed had done so completely of their own free will, that any contract had been completely filled. Slavers attacking villages at night, that was another offices problem. But he got to watch the crabs anyway. If only this thing before him would make a mistake. Any mistake. But Spontoon needed a Kau Hon consulate, and this one was very good at turning in bounty hunter slavers. Still he didn’t have to like the rat. No, he didn’t have to like him at all.

Opening the case he had brought with him the rat produced a wire recording, and a roll of 16mm film. Then two large photographs, copies of the contracts signed by the Pennington sisters. “Everything as agreed. I went beyond normal protocol, I did not wish this purchase” he lied, his words though extremely convincing. Even to the hedgehog who hated him. “It saddens me to watch to true Ladies sell themselves. You could do nothing?”

“Deport them? Where. No. Committee’s were still meeting when they entered your offices. They would not wait. They would not listen to the whispers. Committee’s, a waste of time in such cases. There must be a better way, and soon. You take enough who come hunting you. These two...” The hedgehog pulled those photographs to him, reading the standard sale contract. “They had such beautiful paw writing” he noted.

“And still do. They are worth fifty thousand English pounds on the block to my pocket. They have made me rich beyond my dreams. I would not permit harm to them. Their owner though” he shook his head as though he really cared. “What will be will be. Their sisters have been paid. The film shows no one was near them when they signed, the wire speaks that they did so freely. You will not interfere with their transport?”

“I am fully aware of the agreement. If you get them off Spontoon within twenty-four hours of signing these papers, they are yours. Now please leave.” He watched in disgust as the rat left. If he would only make one mistake. But unlike his predecessors, this one followed the law, the agreements to the letter. He had even released that Frenchwoman when her transportation was late, but the fool poodle went right back in and re-signed within an hour. Idiots, why were there such idiots in this world.

“It is my pleasure now” the rat noted as he entered his bedroom. Chestnut and Silk were in the proscribed position. A bit rough, but better than any others had managed their first times. “I shall take Silk first. Chestnut, you shall assist me with the taking. Each time, each way. As Silk will assist when I take you. Each time I take you. I will have a long, and very enjoyable night.”

Though the rats night was filled with wondrous pleasure, the two vixens were near shattered by the experience. In the morning they would be in separate cages, bamboo tubes holding their ownership papers chained to their necks their only clothing. They would be loaded upon an airship headed for Kau Hon long before sunrise. Long before their twenty-four hours were over. Long before any Spontoon authority would have the right to act, they would be many miles away from Spontoons shores and any possible hope of rescue. That at the same moment whispers were being given to their sisters, whispers in the hope that they would follow them. Whispers both slowly began to believe. This would horrify both.

Two days later Amelia Allworthy came out of Songmarks main gates to find Lucy and Emily Pennington, their faces ruined by tears, awaiting her.