Chapter One

"There you are, Johnny," young Governor Bloom greeted the captain of his personal guard and nearly constant companion. "How does it look out there? Anyone I should pay special attention to?"

As servants in Bloom livery put the finishing touches on their master's attire, Major Depp began his report, not bothering to mention the usual guests that had been turning up for free food and drink at the month-long round of lavish fetes in honor of the new governor's arrival on the island. Orlando wouldn't be interested in speaking with the local gentry, or any of the wealthy merchants; they bored him to tears. Nor would he cast his roving eye on any of their wives, sisters, or daughters for he'd had as many of them as interested him in the four weeks since he'd stepped off the boat. However, there was one person that might warrant the Governor's attention.

"Captain Geoffrey Rush, is here, milord," Johnny said.

"Filthy slaver," Governor Bloom pronounced. He frowned on the practice of keeping slaves, and was especially offended by the manner in which slaves were transported. It was no fit use for something so noble as a sailing ship. Orlando had served aboard ship when he was but a lad, and he looked back on those days with fondness. Many times, as he was sitting at some dull council meeting, or attending another ball, he imagined himself on deck with the salt wind in his hair. That a slaver should enjoy the freedom of the sea was unfair, but Orlando had learned young that life is not always fair. "What is he doing here?"

"He's a local power and I assume he's as fond as anyone of free drink," Johnny said dryly, as he brushed imaginary dust from the shoulders of his master's velvet coat. He admired the Governor's willowy figure in the narrow-waisted jacket and slim trousers tucked into glossy boots. "You don't have to acknowledge him, milord."

"I am well aware of that, Johnny," Governor Bloom said, as he dismissed the house servants. "However, he is famous, so I should meet him. Do you think it might be somewhat diverting to bait him a bit?"

"I would find it vastly entertaining, and you excel at it, milord."

"Cheeky bastard," Orlando said fondly. "Shall we brave the yammering horde?"

"After you, milord," Johnny stepped aside with his usual efficient grace, and followed his master out of the double doors, and into the marble floored hall.

A short walk brought them to the grand ballroom, a riotous scene of swirling color and the sounds of music and laughter, patterns forming and fragmenting across the floor like a broken kaleidoscope. Orlando looked on the glittering show and stifled a yawn. With a small smile, Johnny accompanied his master into the breach. The youthful governor was never announced at his own parties; he simply appeared among the revelers, stunningly turned out, handsome as a fresh sin, moving insouciantly from one locale to another, leaving eddies of excited whispers in his wake. This night began no differently.

The crowd parted for Orlando at the end of the cavernous room, and he continued past the fringes to an arched opening that led to the veranda and the gardens beyond. Johnny sighted the slaver captain on the portico, but Rush not alone. As far from the captain as the chain would allow, stood a man wearing naught but a snug pair of doeskin trousers. Johnny drew breath to suggest that the Governor might wish to return to his other guests, but at that moment the slave was dragged into the light of the torches. Johnny caught his breath at the slave's fairness of face, and then turned to his master. Orlando stood as if lightning-struck, his eyes fastened on the handsome man who resisted the pull of his fetters with all his strength.

"Come here, ye stroppy piece," Rush growled. "You just won't learn, will you? All you're doing is earning some stripes. Now come here or feel the kiss of the lash."

The slaver reeled the captive in by main strength, using the leverage of the metal collar. Though the slave struggled spiritedly, his efforts were futile for manacles, attached to a thick leather belt around his trim waist, restricted his hands. Rush took hold of the man's angular jaw in a cruel grip, fingernails sinking into flesh, applying pressure. "On your knees, yellow-haired dog," Rush growled.

"I'll not do it," the man said softly. "Be warned. I will bite anything you put in my mouth."

"Bravo," Orlando said softly, though he didn't move to interfere; he had no right to come between master and slave. The exotic blonde was Rush's property, to use as Rush saw fit. 'Twas a shame though, that such a beauty should be treated so harshly.

"Bark all you like!" Rush chuckled. "But if you bite again, I can't say what might happen to your pretty friend Miranda. She's doing well as a domestic, but it wouldn't take naught but a word in the right ear to change her status to pleasure slave."

The blonde man dropped his eyes, looking down at the cold stones between his bare feet. Slowly, he sank to his knees, as Rush opened his trousers. The slaver freed his ready rod, and smiled evilly at the chiseled face turned up to him.

"Guess I'll have to put it in for you. You seem a bit encumbered. Open up now."

Closing his eyes, shoulders slumping in defeat, the Dane opened his mouth, and waited. After stroking himself to full erection, Rush slid his cock between the slave's lips with a sigh. The slaver wound his stained fingers in the man's sun-bleached thatch of hair, and thrust his hips forward. The slave gagged instantly, fighting to pull air through his nostrils, as the stiff flesh filled his throat.

"I persuade myself that I am offended," Orlando said so softly that only Johnny heard. "Why should that be?"

"I really couldn't say, milord. After all, the slave does belong to Captain Rush."

"True. Yet, it does not sit well with me, Johnny."

"Give the word, milord, and the blackguard will find himself swallowing my sword," Johnny said eagerly.

Orlando turned a speculative eye on the major. "You sound inordinately pleased at the prospect of trouncing the villain. Can it be that you are a mite offended, as well?"

"I, sir? I would never presume to criticize my betters by word or deed."

"Ah, but Captain Rush is not exactly your better, is he, my handsome one?"

Johnny cursed the blush that rose readily at his master's praise. It was most unseemly to display such emotion in public, and it was terribly revealing. "That is not for me to say, milord," Johnny managed. "What do you wish to do about this?"

Orlando feigned a look of shock. "Whatever do you mean? I intend to do my duty as a host, and make sure my guest is enjoying the party."

"As you will, milord," Johnny inclined his head, and followed Orlando.

"Ah, that's good," Rush groaned, oblivious to the fact that he now had company. "Take all of me. That's it. Swallow it all."

"Captain Rush," Johnny said crisply. "Governor Bloom craves a moment."

Rush's eyes flew open, and his excitement flickered out. He drew breath to berate the intruders, and then the sense of the major's words penetrated the fog of lust. A chilly smile warped the slaver's lips as he turned. "My lord," Rush said unctuously, as he tried to discreetly tuck himself in. "Forgive my preoccupation. I thought I was alone."

"You needn't apologize to me," Orlando said, his gaze flicking to the kneeling slave as he spoke again. "I understand you are a most successful merchant. How is business?"

"Business is good, your lordship. Not only is the African continent swarming with an endless supply of slaves on the hoof, but also all the islands in between, and recent hard times have driven many folk in civilized lands to indentured servitude to keep them from eating their heads off on the Crown's generosity in prison; debt-slaves they are called."

"How very enterprising," Johnny said under his breath.

"And is this one of your debt-slaves?" Orlando asked.

Rush yanked on the chain, bringing the slave to his feet. "He's a bonny one, ay?" the slaver leered. "Have you ever seen eyes like this? Blue as the sky."

"No need extol his virtues," Governor Bloom said, "I've no intention of buying a slave, and besides, this one's attributes are quite evident to the naked eye."

"To be sure, your lordship," Rush said, thinking that this baby governor was as vain and spoiled as the rumors said he was. "This Dane is a rare beauty. Unbroken, but not for long. I intend to train him myself, and then sell him to the highest bidder."

"And what would this training involve, if a layman may ask?" Orlando said.

"Well, sir, it would be a shame to waste a man with such striking looks in aught but the pleasure trade. I'll teach him to take a man's cock, fore or aft, without a whimper. And if he doesn't already know how, I'll teach him buggery on a boy slave. Are you certain you aren't interested, my lord?"

"I did not say I was not interested," the Governor corrected. "I said I had no intention of buying him."

Rush looked at the nobleman suspiciously. He scented a trap, but he could not see it. "Your lordship is pleased to jest with me, but I am not subtle enough," he said.

"Subtle you are not," Orlando agreed. "Major?" The governor leaned back against Johnny's uniformed chest. "Have you given thought to the concerns raised by the citizens and the noble captains of the Royal Fleet ships garrisoned here?"

Johnny had gained and kept his position thanks to more than his pleasant face and graceful carriage. He was quick on the uptake, and quick on his feet. Discerning his master's will by a sixth sense gained in years of service to this bright, mercurial child of privilege, he played in with Orlando's hand. "Aye, milord. I predict the captains and the merchants will be most pleased by the sight of several additional warships rounding the headland."

"The garrison is being reinforced?" Rush could not help asking.

"It is certainly under consideration," Orlando said. "Of course, here at the very edge of the empire, it would some time before those ships arrived, and wrong-doers would have adequate time to… Major, what was the colorful word used by that scalawag we hanged?"

"Your lordship will have to be a bit more specific. We hang a lot of scalawags."

"The last one, of course, you goose. Never mind; I have remembered. Yes, any smugglers would have ample time to scarper, wonderful word, but I imagine an honest businessman like yourself will be glad of a more pronounced military presence in the area."

"To be sure," Rush said, automatically yanking at his slave's bonds to keep the man on his knees. "And the impact on the local economy will be… noticeable."

Orlando chuckled as though he and Rush were cronies in a smoke-filled back room. "Major Depp," he said. "Perhaps we had better inform the local cathouses to take on more staff."

"I think they will have all the staff they can handle, milord," Johnny said, his full lips twitching as he suppressed a smile.

Rush absently cuffed the back of the Dane's head, as he thought furiously. There must be some way to avert this disastrous turn of events. While his slaving operation was perfectly legal, piracy was not, and the looting of cargo ships was just one of the pies Captain Rush had his fingers in. More ships patrolling these waters meant more chances for his ships to be stopped and boarded, more chances he would be revealed as the head of a thriving and far-flung black market. "Your lordship works too hard," Rush said at last.

"Do I?" Orlando looked over his shoulder at Johnny. "I think Captain Rush is the first person to ever say that to me. I certainly hope he's the last."

"Indeed, milord," Johnny murmured.

"Perhaps if I did have some sort of diversion, a hobby, if you will," Orlando mused, letting his eyes drift to the golden slave. "If I had something to occupy me and take my mind from the cares of my office, then maybe I would not spend so much time there worrying about every petty complaint from the shopkeepers and merchant ships' captains."

Geoffrey Rush's eyes followed the line of the governor's gaze. Carefully keeping the resentment from his tone, he held out the end of the Dane's leash and a key. "If I may be so bold," he said. "There could be no activity so diverting and rewarding as the breaking of this slave, and the training of him. Please allow me to offer him as a gift."

"Are you certain? A slave of such exotic beauty must be quite valuable."

"Extremely," Rush ground his teeth. "Your lordship deserves only the best."

"I suppose that's true," Orlando said. "Still, may I, in good conscience, accept so sumptuous a gift? Will folk not think the gift is a bribe?"

"For what, sir?" Rush asked.

Orlando laughed, and Johnny joined in followed by the slaver. "Indeed, Captain," Orlando said. "There is naught an upstanding member of the community need fear from me. Now what was it we were speaking of before I was distracted?"

"I cannot recall, milord," Johnny said.

"Nor I, your worship," Rush said. "Will you take this token of my regard for you as well as my good wishes for a long and prosperous administration?"

"He hardly looks tame," Orlando said. "Are you sure it is safe?"

"I'm sure the major will not allow any harm to come to you," Rush said.

"Then it behooves me to thank you, captain," Orlando said, taking the leash and key and handing them to Johnny. "Major, would you see that my new pet is properly housed? Come, captain; walk with me and give me the inside gossip on my guests."

Major Depp watched his master walk away, marveling anew at the young man's ability to get what he wanted by seeming to spurn it. The slave moved and Johnny's hand went to the hilt of his sword. "Do you speak English?" he asked.

The kneeling man nodded.

"Then rise and come with me." Johnny took the slave to a small room near the kitchen. It was furnished with a cot, a bench and a small table with a basin and pitcher. The small window was merely a hole in the wall that admitted a little light and fresh air.

"What will you do if I remove your bonds?" Johnny asked, holding up the key

The Dane looked up in surprise and quickly lowered his eyes again. "What do you want me to do?" he said.

"Stay here until my master decides," Johnny said, as he released the other man's hands from the shackles on the belt and stepped quickly back.

The slave rubbed at his raw wrists as he sat on the cot. After checking to see that there was water in the pitcher, Johnny left, locking the door behind him. The Dane searched the room, eyeing the tiny window more than once, but it was plain that he would not escape by that route. He drank some water and lay down on the cot, trying to still his thoughts so he could rest. Whatever happened next, he wished to be as ready as possible.

Read Chapter Two of Bailey's Pearls Before Swine