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desperately her friend wanted to get away. With Tilda’s arm over her shoulder, the pair headed for the door.
    ‘One more thing,’ Holmann called out, and Lia looked back. ‘Report to my room once Tilda’s bedded down. Since you’re keen to make yourself heard, I’ll see to it you get your wish. We’ll draw some heartfelt utterances from your lips, count on it.’
    ‘Yes, master,’ Lia said meekly, dread churning deep in her tummy.
    ‘You had to cross them, didn’t you?’ Tilda croaked, once Lia had put her to bed. ‘I told you not to. Now you’ll get a beating.’
    ‘I know,’ Lia said, unrepentant, ‘but it can’t be helped. It’s done and there’s no going back.’
    ‘I suppose not,’ Tilda murmured. ‘She’s clever, though. Cleverer than I thought.’
    ‘Dagna?’
    Tilda nodded. ‘She knows just how to work Holmann. We’ll have to watch out for her, for she won’t give up.’
    ‘I suppose not,’ Lia said with a sigh. ‘We’ll have to be cleverer that she is, that’s all.’
    She tucked Tilda in, then on an impulse she bent and kissed her forehead the way Helma used to. Tilda closed her eyes and Lia left the dormitory, heading for Holmann’s room. Tilda’s troubles were over for the moment, but Lia’s were just starting.

Chapter Six
    Dagna opened the door when Lia knocked, and told her to enter. The room was smaller and cosier than Lia had imagined, and certainly a lot warmer than the dormitory. To the left was a fireplace where logs crackled and sparked, providing light as well as heat, so there was no need for candles or rushlights. There was a bed, a small table and two stools, and a big ironbound chest in one corner. Holmann was sitting on the end of the bed, facing her.
    Lia wasn’t surprised to see Dagna, though she’d secretly hoped the woman might have business elsewhere. Lia hated Dagna for what she’d done to Tilda, and it was plain to see Dagna liked Lia no better. But here she was, for good or ill, and Lia had no choice but to stand before the overseer with her hands clasped meekly behind her back and her eyes lowered to the floor.
    ‘So then,’ Holmann said in a solemn, ponderous fashion, ‘do you have anything to say for yourself before we start?’
    ‘I’m sorry, master,’ she mumbled contritely, though it wasn’t true. She was sorry to be awaiting punishment, certainly, but not sorry in the least for speaking up in Tilda’s defence.
    Holmann regarded her gravely. ‘You say that, but I have my doubts. But you will be sorry before we’re through, believe me. This will be a long hard beating, for I won’t put up with insubordination, least of all from a newcomer. Now get undressed.’
    Lia took off her slippers and smock, and Holmann grabbed her wrist and drew her close. His free hand then proceeded to explore her; breasts, belly, and between her legs. He rubbed and mauled, his eyes never leaving her face, his lips quivering wetly. His thumb stroked her little nubbin, and despite her loathing of him she felt that familiar pleasant tingle. She whimpered and her knees parted of their own accord. Holmann chuckled knowingly, a repulsive leer that made her shudder, and his thumb rubbed harder. Her hips rocked in time with his caress and she began to moan. A strange sensation built inside her and she felt sure something momentous was about to happen, though she still couldn’t imagine what it might be.
    It was Dagna who broke the spell. She cleared her throat and Holmann glanced at the woman in a partly annoyed, partly guilty manner. With a sigh he put his hands on Lia’s hips and turned her around. He kneaded her bottom, sinking his fingers and thumbs into her flesh until it made her grimace. Then he spread her cheeks and prodded a fingertip a little way into her anus, which drew from Lia a warble of alarm and made her rise onto her tiptoes. Finally he patted her rump and turned her back to face him.
    ‘I judge you’re fit to receive punishment,’ he said, as