A Stern Lecture…

From my latest Lesbia WIP… edited to prevent spoilers… but not so edited you don’t get a taste for what is coming 🙂

“I think you have fallen neatly into old habits. You find the innocent, the sweet, and you take them for yourself. Is it nice, Ayla, to remember what it once was to be innocent? To see infatuation, lust, perhaps even love in their eyes?”

“Go away,” Ayla said abruptly. “I do not wish to speak with you any longer.”

“Ah, but you are not in control now,” Riva reminded her. “I am not some dripping damsel who will do as you say. I am your instructor. And I am not well pleased with you.”

“A pity for you that I do not care,” Ayla replied calmly. She was not the type to quiver at harsh words or to be cowed by a stern lecture.

“You are used to being mistress of your domain. Here, I am mistress. You have done the most outrageous thing you could have done. Perhaps you think that would lead to your release, perhaps even exile. But it has changed nothing. You are still a captive here. You are still confined to this little room, and…” Riva’s voice dropped into a scolding maternal tone… “you are still a willful, disobedient outcast who never learned how to behave properly in good society.”

A flash of outrage flared in Ayla’s gaze. It was quite understandable. In Lesbia, she had been regarded as elegant and masterful. She had held thousands in thrall. But this woman, Riva, treated her as little more than a delinquent.