Talking back would get me nowhere. It was best just to get this over with and see what the master wants. I’ve disappointed him before, and after a bunch of threats and bluster we come down to the fact i am more valuable to him alive and intact than I am dead or damaged. Nothing has changed that. Unless I do something really stupid, we’re at an impasse until I have a period. And with the diet I’m getting, I don’t see THAT happening anytime soon…

So I just ignore Manual’s taunts and make my way up to the back servant’s entrance of the big building. I’ve been through this before. I quietly slip in, leaving Manual behind to go in the front way, and announce myself to the chief slave who current stands imperiously with his baton over the kitchen staff to ensure no one slips a morsel as dinner is prepared. The man’s face reminds me of a weasel and his expression is that of one confronted with a particularly disgusting bug which is also known to have a nasty sting.

He never has known what to do with me.

I shrug and indicate with a head gesture the living part of the house, as if to ask whether I should just go up myself or not.