Chapter 1

 

Gerald Sinclair-Lewis, 19th Earl of Lewis is a true scion of an illustrious house. Like most of his forebears, he served in the army and would have made a fine general if the early demise of his father had not warranted his return to head up the family conglomerate.

He had attended Eton and Oxford, obtaining a degree in business before moving to Sandhurst. And his army career had been truly meteoric, his superiors recognising an extraordinary mind, rising to the rank of brigadier before returning home some four years ago.

Right now, he stood on the back lawn of the splendid house that had been in his family for countless generations, the present house being built in the early eighteenth century. Beside him was his butler, Hobson and his wife, who was the housekeeper and before him were arrayed his slaves, each row in military precision except that as slaves, they all stood in the Position of Inspection rather than at attention.

That means with feet exactly a half-metre apart, hands up behind the neck with fingertips just touching, bellies sucked in, every muscle in high tension and eyes fixed firmly on a point in the distance.

Males were ranked to his right; females, the left. They comprised household staff, gardeners, maintenance-slaves and farm workers. He stared at the array and then complimented his slave-master, an ex-warrant-officer who had served him in the army.

"A perfect parade, Sar-Major," he barked and then headed off to inspect his 'troops', starting with the females.

Each of them was handsome, if not exactly beautiful, but all possessed of nigh perfect bodies: athletic, strong and with perfect skin. They were, of course, naked. No slave is permitted even the smallest rag to cover even his or her genitals at any time. They are also nude, which small difference means they have been stripped of all hair below their eyes and he now stopped in front of each one, searching for flaws (and finding none), cupping a firm breast here, stroking a shapely thigh or buttock cheek there; and even placing his lean brown hand over a slave's pudenda to gauge her response. To this point, they had been required to retain the neutral expression required of a slave. Now, though, they were allowed to giggle and even squeal as his expert fingers aroused a clit or some other vaginal nerves.

He didn't stay long with any of them and then moved to the males.

Here his inspections were as detailed as with the females, although this time the male's superb physique was the subject of his investigations. Only the best was ever good enough for this multi-billionaire, second only to the Duke of Westminster in total wealth in England.

These inspections were always scheduled for the first Saturday in every month at eight-sharp in the morning. This time he was alone but his wife, Verity, usually accompanied him, as did his son, Andrew, if he was home. This time Verity and Andrew were in London so the earl was alone.

Very satisfied with his inspection, he again complimented his slave-master on their condition, watched him allocate them to their duties and then returned to his study to look into the papers his staff had prepared for him.

Although he owned outright many enormous enterprises as well as great estates in the metropolis and around the countryside, he, like his father and grandfather before him, scorned a huge headquarters building, preferring to run his affairs from home.

The house really is huge as well as beautiful and is surrounded by among the best gardens in the kingdom. His study is situated in the west wing of the house where his assistants and other staff keep him up to date with the current status of his many businesses which include an air and shipping line, two top-class international hotel chains, a large merchant and a trading bank, a string of retail stores and manufacturing enterprises, to name but a few. His landed estates are of special interest to him as many of his fellow aristocrats have lost much of theirs because of mismanagement and crippling taxes imposed by unthinking governments. He and his forebears had carefully nurtured theirs, however and have added to them whenever possible.

The end result has been a carefully monitored corporate empire whose several parts all report directly to their owner - for he owns them all outright and is totally free of debt.

 

But you may be wondering that he owns slaves?

Slavery was reinstituted towards the middle of the Twenty-first Century in response to an out-of-control crime wave; the perceived uselessness of prisons to correct wrongdoers and their enormous cost. It was Russia and China who proposed the change and it took very little to persuade other governments that institutional criminal slavery was the only answer.

That began in the fourth decade of the century by which time feeding the world's still-growing population had become impossible. But it was noted that Slave Chow, the universal food pellets that made feeding large numbers of slaves easy and cheap, could be produced readily from waste food collected from restaurants and food factories, reject grain and vegetables and a very little reject meat or substandard soya bean. It could be transported easily and stored indefinitely. A handful night and morning, followed by a litre of plain water is all that is required.

Some bright spark in the US government then suggested that youngsters who failed their final high school exams should be converted to slavery. This would remove them from the normal food chain, for Slave Chow used ingredients that are readily available. And of course it would make students work harder to pass while at the same time separating the grain from the chaff, so to speak.

This too was seen as a world-saver and quickly got the nod in the UN.

The only other way in which a slave could be made was by a voluntary sale of one's own body to relieve a debt or to save a family from ruin and hardship.

Criminal slaves are delivered from the various courts all over the UK to State Slave Centres set up in the provincial cities, as are school failures (including dropouts). But if one wanted to get the best price for one's own body, he would go along to one of the private slave dealers and ask for a valuation. He might try a number of them before achieving his price.

These private dealerships derive most of their stock from the SSCs however. There, they are registered, depilated nude but otherwise not trained or treated in any way and are true raw material.

Serious crime of all kinds, and religious terrorism was rampant throughout the world. Slavery was perceived as the best answer but to make it work, it had to be as draconian an institution as had ever existed anywhere. Slaves were to be kept naked, used in all and any hellish tasks and that included sex, especially against the slave's own predilections.

To force him to dig a trench in heavy clay in the middle of a downpour is a perfect example of an appropriate task for a slave. And then to use him for sex afterwards just adds to the mix of his shame and humiliation.

This meant of course, that crime statistics were decimated very early after its institution and while the demand on real food dropped as soon as Slave Chow replaced it for slaves, that soon levelled out as criminals thought twice about their actions and religious terrorists slunk off home and forgot about their wars on free nations.

That was when the bright spark in the US government then suggested that youngsters who failed their high school finals should also be enslaved. This would have a dual-edged result: it would encourage students to work hard to pass but if not, their share of the available food would be replaced by Slave Chow thus freeing up more of the real food.

This suggestion was quickly taken up by the governments of the world and as young people were inducted into the slave population, so the remaining free men and women had more food.

 

Slaves from the courts and from high schools were processed by State Slave Centres but they merely registered the new slave, depilated him nude of all hair below his or her eyes then sold him at public auction on Saturday mornings.

But the private dealers then soon emerged and they took the product from the SSCs, honed their bodies, gave them training in domestic or other arts and also coached them in sexual skills.

You are appalled? Well, you shouldn't be. As already stated it was recognised that to be effective, slavery had to be draconian. A slave must be perceived as less than an animal. And his or her use for sex, particularly in ways that the slave might find repugnant, was seen as ideal and so a hands-on inspection of even the genitals of a slave was perfectly acceptable.

Gerald's father set up a nationwide string of dealerships very early in the piece, directing his support staff to investigate every aspect of the institution and including historical data. He then had his planners devise the very best premises and hired top people to staff them.

The result was a level of service and a quality of product that has still not been surpassed in the United Kingdom. It is no wonder then that Gerald's own slaves are of the highest quality.

His current interest was in developing the slave dealerships to produce tradesmen and women. To this point, his managers, having selected only the best raw material from the SSCs, had had them trained in domestic service and allied skills that could be imparted relatively quickly but he felt that licensed tradesmen particularly (but also other enterprises such as factories or the like) might benefit from an 'owned' tradesman skilled in plumbing, carpentry or electrical skills, for example.

He read and reread the reports he had commissioned and was pleased to see they were positive. He then turned to the assessments of each of his current dealerships and noted in most cases they could be expanded into mini-technical colleges. A slave could not of course become a licensed tradesman but he could do the work under the supervision of such a person.

He called up the manager of his slave dealership company and asked him to come to see him. John Forsyth was there within the hour - such was the respect the earl commanded from his people. Gerald greeted the man affably and asked after his wife and children and then how he perceived the company's future.

John was wary. He liked the earl and he worked hard to carry out his orders and to run the company well, but a summons to Heronswood was rare. Normally he visited his companies and carried out his inspections on site.

"I believe, Gerald, that we are running smoothly and that we retain our position at the top of the tree, so to speak...?"

The earl smiled. "Yes, I know. The figures speak for themselves, but a business that remains static will soon wither and die. If you were looking for ways to improve our operation, where would you go?"

"Well, at the moment, we are limited by space and time to develop more skills in our slaves. If you were willing to enlarge some or all of our dealerships, we could train our slaves in more categories but more importantly, I think, to make them the very best at what they do..."

"And if we were to do that, which categories would you favour?"

"Oh, I think the trades would be the logical direction, especially carpentry and plumbing but maybe electrical skills as well - but I'm not sure how the licensing authorities might view such a move...?"

"What if they were sold as skilled tradesmen but could not be licensed - work under a licensed tradesman, say?"

"Ah, that would be the answer." And now he became quite excited. "Are you actually considering setting up trade schools in our dealerships, Gerald?"

"That's exactly what I am thinking, John. Now, if we were to proceed along that path, how would you go about it?"

"As you know, my skills are in management. I am not a tradesman, but I would suggest we start with the London dealership - it has the capacity to expand and hire three trade teachers qualified in the three trades and appoint each (once we have decided he has the management capacity to run a small department) to create and build the school and then train selected slaves - and here I would suggest we use both sexes. Because they are slaves, we could accelerate their training modules to halve or more their training time and then market them as trained trade-slaves."

"And a time-frame for this...?"

The earl was well aware he was asking a lot of his manager. After all, he had only minutes before, sprung this idea on him but he was already pleased at how quickly the man had grasped his idea and was now building it on the hop.

"If I was to pull out all stops, I think I could have plans on your desk within a month..."

"Good. Go to it, John."