Shiri by D.S.

it was clear she didn’t know him. That was for the good.
    He gazed at her a little too long and she looked away, hate again being conquered by fear. She was pretty this shepherd girl. Hers was not perhaps the beauty poets and minstrels of noble courts spoke of. She was not tall with porcelain skin and curves a man could get lost in. But there was something about her, something deeper than skin, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. She dared look up at him again and it was then that he realised what it was; her eyes.
    He smiled. “Well now, you don’t look half so bad when scrubbed up,” he said it as if it surprised him, but once said he hoped it might have a positive effect. It didn’t. She continued to stare with those dark eyes. They had that same look of ill disguised fear and overt hatred. She could speak with those eyes.
    “I mean to release you,” he said it suddenly and this time he finally saw a change in her expression. “I’m not a man who likes this slave business.” He waved his hand as if the statement were of no importance. “You’re free to go your own way whenever you please.” Did she understand? He wasn’t sure.
    Shiri was shocked. Was the Gypto saying what she thought he was saying? “Free?” she said simply, looking suddenly alert and almost upbeat.
    “Yes,” he laughed. “Free.”
    Her look reverted once more. He’s mocking me, laughing at me.
    Josef furrowed his brow at the renewed glare of disgust she gave him; it was even more intense than before. “Well what’s the matter now? Do you not understand?” he said slowly, “You’re free to leave whenever you like. Free!” He imitated a man walking with his fingers. “You’re not my slave. Go home to your family and get away from all this.”
    Shiri’s Egyptian though weak, was not as bad as he seemed to think. She understood more than she could say, and certainly understood much of what he was saying. But still she didn’t answer, sure he was mocking her. He’s the worst one yet. At least the others didn’t give her any false illusions about their intentions. They meant to rape and beat her body, he meant to go further. He means to rape my mind . He wanted to torture her with lies and promises, laugh at her, get her to beg and plead and do his bidding willingly, in the belief that then he would be true to his word and free her. He wanted to give her false hope, only so he could watch and laugh at the pain in her eyes when he wrenched it from her. These Gyptos were each viler and more twisted than the next.
    Josef sighed. “Who could have imagined releasing a slave would be so difficult?” he shook his head. “YOU ... FREE ... GO!” He said it ridiculously slowly, again miming with his hands. “Free … you free … go home.” He pointed to the entrance. “GO!”
    She cast a fierce glance at him, annoyed by his attempts to talk down to her. He must think she was a complete fool, but he was the fool not her. Finally she shouted at him, and in his own foul tongue. “I know, I know what you say, stupid Gypto. No family, no home you kill, I hate stupid Gypto.” She spat on the floor between them to emphasise her point. “You free me now, bad man all around? Hah!” She spat again.
    He raised an eyebrow clearly impressed; few amongst the peasant folk could speak so much as a word of any tongue but their own. He waved his arms in a self-deprecating gesture. “Aye, aye, you have the right of it, of course. I may as well release a lamb before a pack of wolves. Alright then, how about this? You can sleep with me tonight, and then once the troops have departed, I’ll release you.”
    Her lip curved into a knowing snarl, it was as she had thought. He would promise her freedom and talk her into willingly debasing and humiliating herself to satisfy his perverted lusts. Then he’d laugh at her in the morning, call her a stupid whore, and say how easy it had been to trick her. But she was too smart for him, “Hah!