Free Sold into Slavery by Claire Thompson

his chubby, beardless face, pudgy fingers and feminine gestures, and suddenly realized what she was seeing. This man was a eunuch!
    Leah, familiar with Muslim and Turkish history, recalled that eunuchs were employed in a sultan’s harem to keep the ladies in line, while harboring no sexual desires of their own, or at least no ability to act on them. She had no idea such a barbaric practice as castration still existed, but then, she’d had no idea harems still existed either.
    The experience of being bathed by this castrated man while the guards stood by was strange in the extreme. When Alex was done, he nodded toward the taller guard.
    “Get out,” the guard ordered Leah. Turning to Alex, he added, “Do a good job. If the steward finds her worthy, she will be presented once again to the Master.” Leah imagined she could actually hear the capital M in the way he said the word.
    What if she was found unworthy? Would they kill her outright? More likely they’d put her to work as a prostitute, in conditions far worse than this luxurious marbled bathroom hinted at.
    Having little choice, Leah stepped out of the tub and stood passively as Alex toweled her dry. The guards then led her to a sink, directing her to stand beside it with her legs shoulder-width apart, her arms extended over her head. Soft cuffs that closed with Velcro were secured around her wrists and clipped to chains hanging from a fixture in the ceiling.
    For a moment Leah was afraid she was in for another beating. But instead of producing a whip, one of the men filled the sink with hot water and dropped a washcloth into it while Alex rubbed a thick, creamy paste under Leah’s arms. She tried to stay very still as he used a razor to scrape away any stubble.
    When he was done, he knelt in front of Leah and began to snip away her pubic curls with a small pair of scissors. He rubbed her mons with a damp cloth and then smoothed more of the shaving cream over her sex. Leah closed her eyes, her face burning with humiliation as the man shaved her pussy while the implacable guards stared down at them. Alex was gentle and careful, still appearing completely disinterested in what he was doing, as if he were peeling a piece of fruit or washing one of the household pets. The objectification was at once unsettling and a relief.
    Apparently satisfied, Alex eventually moved on to her legs, shaving them smooth. His touch was careful and expert, as if he’d done this many times before. When he was finished, the guards led her to a padded stool in front of a mirrored counter and had her sit, Alex following behind.
    On the counter were several large trays filled with all kinds of makeup, including numerous bottles of foundation, blush, lipsticks, eyeliners and mascara, as well as a dozen hairbrushes and combs. Alex selected a round brush and produced a blow dryer from beneath the counter, with which he proceeded to dry Leah’s long, thick hair.
    As he worked, Leah stared into her own large, frightened eyes in the mirror. There were blue smudges of fatigue beneath her eyes and her skin was mottled with sunburn from having spent the morning out in the kennel. Her lips were reddened and chapped and her mouth was pinched with fear.
    She looked away.
    When Alex was done with her hair, he pulled it back into a hairclip and pivoted the stool so she was facing him. He began to apply makeup, something Leah almost never wore. He started with foundation, using a small makeup sponge and moving it in circular sweeps over her throat, cheeks and forehead. He added blush, eyeliner, eye shadow, mascara and lipstick, taking a long time on her eyes. Leah imagined herself being turned into some kind of absurdly over-painted whore.
    But when he spun her back around to release the clip from her hair, Leah was startled at the transformation—the blue smudges were erased, the sunburned smoothed to a dewy glow, her lips a soft, inviting pink. The blue of her eyes was set off by kohl blue eyeliner and