While the afternoon's 'lessons' were being prepared, Beatrice and the Wasir strolled in the gardens outside. It was very pleasant by the riverside, the water cooling the usually hot and humid air, and a handful of labour slaves, mostly male, were creating a new vegetable patch. They worked unsupervised but in heavy ankle-irons, and their wrists manacled with a foot of chain between them. It was interesting to see how they compensated, especially when using a digging spade or fork, for even without the restraints they couldn't have used their bare feet to drive their tools into the earth. Instead they held them high and drove them down with their arms, sometimes leaning right over the handles to bring their weight to bear. The effort winded them enough to leave them doubled up and panting after a few minutes, and generally they were allowed a short rest. If they took too long, however, their shock collars reminded them of their duty. Beatrice didn't ask whether it was an automated system, or whether someone was watching the work by the several cameras that were attached to nearby posts and trees. If the shocks were the stick, the carrot was also attached to a post in the centre of the area being worked. The woman was no beauty and at about fifty her best years were behind her, but as the Wasir explained, she had skill and stamina, and a night with her was a huge advance on the brief visits to the comfort slaves that were the usual reward for days of hard labour.

Someone came to call them indoors, and in one of the larger buildings an area had been divided into four sections with low kerbs, and the floor was covered with cushioned matting. In each partition four pairs of male and female slaves lay with their hands bound behind them with rope. All the men were firmly erect, and their obvious task was to penetrate their partners without being able to use their hands. For the moment they were still, for the exercise hadn't yet begun, although the ungagged few were murmuring softly to one another, probably planning their approach to the task ahead.

The sections were not all the same. Eva showed Beatrice and the Wasir to two comfortable seats on an elevated platform, and explained the less obvious points. In the beginners' section there were no additional handicaps, though like all the participants the females wore locking butt-plugs. Oral entry was allowed only for lubrication purposes; it was an exercise in vaginal penetration. The slaves in the second section had all previously succeeded in the first, so the partnerships had been changed and they all wore panel gags, to prevent them from calling instructions to one another. In the third section an additional handicap had been added; the males were blindfolded, and in the fourth, so were the females. Eva explained that in later classes, ankles would be chained together, and/or the female might be staked out on her back. 'We don't teach all of them all the possible variations', she explained. 'Most owners want to challenge their slaves and watch them struggle. Our role is to make sure they're proficient at the basics. Some get extra training if we think they'll benefit from it; we'll show you later. The girls have all been deprived all morning, so they'll all be very keen to help their partners, whoever they are. One thing we do here is to make sure that, in any given cohort, all slaves are coupled at least once with all the others, of both sexes. These have all been with us for about a fortnight. A few more recent arrivals are here to watch, as you can see.'

Indeed, on the other side of the room there were half a dozen upright posts, all with slaves bound tightly to them. Beatrice's heart fluttered as she saw that one of them was Ulaine, still with her ball and chain attached, but smiling brightly as she recognised her friend. Then it was time for the exercise to start. Eva and her male colleague (he never spoke and Beatrice never learnt his name) each moved into one of the quadrants, armed with a cattle prod and a short whip, while two female slave-teachers occupied the others, similarly equipped. There was no ceremony; Eva simply called "Start!" and the action began.

Beatrice had to admit that it was very entertaining. Some of the newcomers had no idea how to proceed and struggled from the start, the girls lying too flat or the males trying to mount from too high a position on their partners' bodies. The goldfish had been an occasional spectacle in the slave camp and she'd been involved two or three times, enough to know that rear entry was much easier than the missionary position, and the male's body needed to be virtually at right-angles to the female's, allowing him to thrust straight into her from underneath. Fortunately the beginners could see the more experienced pupils over the partitions, which were no more than kerbs. They also had some prompting from the instructors, and in the ten minutes allowed for the penetration phase, three out of the four pairs managed to couple. In the other quadrants the success rate was similar. Only two of the second four pairs managed it, but three of the third, and in the all-gagged-and-blindfolded section, none seemed to have much difficulty at all. Beatrice suspected that some advance planning had taken place. After all, by that stage in their training, all the slaves knew one another in both senses of the word.

There was no clear distinction made between the penetration phase and the next, for the struggling pairs continued with their efforts and all had succeeded by the end. All the bodies became slick with perspiration as the exercise progressed, for the air was hot and humid. That added to the difficulty of the next stage. Cradled by a duvet or on a soft mattress it wasn't usually a problem, but on the flat plasticised surface, with no arms to use, it was hard for the males to get enough purchase to keep thrusting into their partners. In all the groups they were obviously afraid of slipping out, and moved much too cautiously for the instructors' liking. The short whips were used liberally to urge them on, and two or three pairs did lose contact with one another, though they recovered quickly. There was also a tendency to 'walk' across the floor as they struggled, with some of the couples piling up against one another in corners. Three of the males were deemed to have cum too quickly. They were supposed, at this stage in their training, to last for ten to fifteen minutes of vigorous thrusting, though the beginners' group was treated leniently. For the others, repeated premature ejaculations meant a day or two in a spiked cock cage, which could be very unpleasant indeed.

Details like that were only explained to Beatrice in the days and weeks to come. At the time she was just enjoying the spectacle. In the later stages her enjoyment was positively orgasmic, for when the under-the-table slavegirl from lunch appeared, the Wasir waved her across, and for the remaining few minutes Beatrice struggled to retain her composure as the busy tongue pushed her from one climax to another. When the exercise was over and the students were being hosed down, she got to her feet as the Wasir pulled on her lead, but he looked back at her, mildly irritated, when she staggered in a moment of light-headedness.