(Skip to the story.) This site is intended for people who are permitted to read fiction in the adult section of their public library. A site content label is available for parents, guardians, and visitors who limit their own reading matter in some fashion.

TWO MASTERS

Excerpt

Dusk Peterson

He stood for a long while in the doorway of the barn where I had taken refuge, simply looking at me. Then he said, in that soft voice he used whenever he was disappointed with my work, "If you no longer wish to serve me, sweetheart, you need only tell me. I will return you to your family."

I could not speak for a moment; then I managed to mumble that he was the one who no longer wanted my service.

He did not seem surprised. I suppose he must have known, from the moment he discovered I was gone, that I had overheard his conversation with Holy Marcus.

He walked forward to where I sat on the hayrick, and my breath caught in my throat. Sir had never hit me, no matter what terrible mistakes I had made in my training, but surely a body-servant who breaks his contract and runs away deserves to be punished? It was not for me to decide my future; if Sir wished to sell my contract to another man, that was his privilege.

This excerpt is part of the Master/Other series. To receive notice of book publications and free online fiction, subscribe to one of Dusk Peterson's e-mail lists or blogs.

[ HOME ] [ Master/Other] [ E-mail ]

This text was originally published at duskpeterson.com as part of the series Master/Other. Copyright © 2010 Dusk Peterson. Some rights reserved. The text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0). You may freely print, post, e-mail, share, or otherwise distribute the text for noncommercial purposes, provided that you include this paragraph. The author's policies on derivative works and fan works are available online (duskpeterson.com/copyright.htm).