Read Online A Gentlemen's Agreement by Ashley Zacharias - Free Book Online

Lord
Snow. He nodded in approval. She mounted the small dais again. “Gentlemen, if I
can have your attention please. Our entertainment is drawing to a close. I hope
that you enjoyed yourselves.” There were some nods. “I mean, I really, really
hope that you enjoyed yourselves.” She looked toward the canapé buffet with
longing and earned some quiet laughter.
    “Our first order of business is to
select the slave who pleased you less than the others. Slaves, form a line
along the wall next to me.”
    The slaves rose to their feet and
strolled to the wall to form a line.
    “Apple, step forward.” She did.
“Gentlemen how many found Apple exceptionally pleasurable? A show of hands,
please.”
    She made a quick count. Eight.
    “Step back and Lime, step
forward.” When she did, Irene asked for a vote. Nine.
    When the gentlemen had voted on
all five slaves, Irene announced the final tally. “Gentlemen, Tamarind has received
only seven votes. Though most of you found her pleasing, she was not quite as
pleasing as the others. Therefore, she will not be eating another bite until
the day after tomorrow.”
    Tamarind began to weep softly.
    “Hey,” one of the gentlemen said
– someone that Irene did not recognize. “She was damned good. As good as any slave that I’ve ever had. She doesn’t deserve
to be punished.”
    “Yeah,” Sir Lawrence said. “There
are only twelve of us and seven of us thought that she was exceptional.”
    Someone else chimed in. “They were
all great. They all deserve to eat.”
    Irene was shocked. She hadn’t
expected the gentlemen to show such compassion for a slave. It was completely
out of character. “I’m sorry, gentlemen, but all the slaves understood the
rules before we started. It wouldn’t be fair to the others if I changed the
rules now, would it? I can’t do it.”
    The grumbling sounded menacing.
    Lord Snow stepped forward and
faced his guests. “Irene is right, gentlemen . She
can’t let Tamarind eat tomorrow.” There were groans of dismay. “But I can,” he
said. “For her exceptional effort, and for the exceptional effort of all these
slaves, Tamarind will not have to watch the others eat breakfast, she will join
them.”
    The guests applauded Lord Snow’s
generosity.
    Tamarind fell to her knees and
kissed her owner’s hand.
    When the hubbub began to subside,
Irene raised her hands. “Thank you, Lord Snow. Now, the last
item of business. Did any of you gentleman find the entertainment
tonight less pleasurable than most of the entertainments that you have
attended?”
    No hands were raised.
    But before Irene could breathe a
sigh of relief, Sir Lawrence spoke up. “That was not quite the question that
you said that you would ask. You said that you would ask if tonight’s
entertainment was more pleasurable than most, not less. It’s my understanding
that you need a majority vote on that question before you will be permitted to
eat tomorrow.”
    “You are right, sir.” The
gentleman is always right when his opinion differs from a slave’s. “So let me
ask you–“
    “Before you call a vote, I would
like to make a point. I think that we can all agree that tonight’s
entertainment was out of the ordinary and we all took much pleasure in it. But our
pleasure was marred just now. I think it was quite clear to all of us that we
wished the rules to be bent in favor of the slave who gave so many of us so
much pleasure and you refused to do it until Lord Snow intervened. I take no
pleasure in being defied by a slave.
    “I will not forget how you stood
around in your lovely dress, untouchable, while these eager naked slaves served
our every desire and then you decided that one of them should starve while you
eat.
    “So I, for one, will vote that you
not be fed tomorrow.”
    There were mutters of agreement
among the guests.
    Irene’s heart fell, but she
mustered her courage and put the question to the assembled gentlemen.
“Gentlemen, how many of you found