Meringean Castoffs

The girl hurried to stand and help me cover up. I recognized her. She was the girl who cleaned my room. I’d seen her a few times, passing in the hall, and I’d smiled and said hello, but we hadn’t interacted beyond that. She was right, though. I’d had a nightmare that night and woke up shaking in the dark. Seconds later, I heard someone whisper and felt a hand on my shoulder. “Hush, My Prince. Be at peace. It was a dream. Go back to sleep. You are safe.” When the terrifying hotel owner’s shrieking woke me again, I was sleeping on my side with my arms around a warm body, her back against my chest. My hand was on her breast, and I could feel her naked foot on top of mine. She wore a gown of some kind, but it was very light. “You will pay for ten nights to compensate me for abusing my maid!” I didn’t know what kind of scam this was, or if it was a common practice with foreign visitors, but I wasn’t going to fall for it. No, I wasn’t a citizen of this backcountry settlement, and I’d be damned if I was going to let them scam me. It was hard for me to believe that the girl was part of this scheme. Her smile had been so genuine. Every sign was that she actually liked me. I knew the signs. She could have been setting me up, but there was some part of her that was honestly friendly toward me. No, I wasn’t going to be scammed like this. There was a consulate here that would represent me if I went to jail. The country was known for being safe for visitors, and this wasn’t normal. And I had other resources to call on if needed. The girl positioned herself beside the bed, halfway between me and my accuser. My gosh! Her night tunic was nearly transparent. At least the way the sunlight came through the window and shone through the thin material. Did she know how much I could see? Probably not! “Matron, he did not molest me. I comforted him in his sleep.” “I bet you did, you shameless whore! Is that what’s happening here? You whore yourself out to my guests at night and steal my rightful portion? He will pay me for ten nights, and you will be dealt with!” I didn’t like where this was going. I hadn’t done anything, and the girl hadn’t prostituted herself to me. I was getting angry and tired of this. It was not the way I wanted to be woken up in the morning. I’d be changing hotels, for sure. The girl cried out, “He redeems me as a castoff! My Lord redeems me and takes me away!” OK? What now? I suddenly felt like I was missing some critical, need-to-know information. Excuse me? The hotel owner frowned. “You? That can’t be. He wants to redeem you?” The girl said, “Yes, me. He is a prince, and he loves me. I am beautiful to him, and he wants me.” The woman scowled. “Girl, I’m sorry, but you are not the great beauty you imagine yourself to be. I’ve tried to tell you. You will work here until you are old enough for the state retirement. I’m sorry. You’ve never had a head for what’s really happening. Sir, maybe I do owe you the benefit of the doubt in this.” The girl wasn’t having it. “Tell him the price of redemption. He will pay for me!” The woman sighed, calmer now. “I will redeem you for the price of five nights' lodging.” I don’t know what came over me suddenly. Was the girl delusional? “I will give you two.” “What? You want her? It’s up to you, I suppose. You can have her for five.” “I’ll give you two and no more.” “Two? She is...” I interrupted. “You’ve already called her a whore and admit that she is no great beauty. You think she’s a liar and a thief. And possibly worse. I’ll give you two. And because of the way you have treated me and don’t want me to spread the word among my people, you will take two and apologize to me.” The woman balked. “Oh, this girl? I thought it was another of the maids. A different one. The morning light was bright, and I mistook her for another... a worthless girl. But this is not her. This one is my favorite.” I smirked. “I bet she is. She has said that I will redeem her. I will give you two additional nights of lodging. I will stay three more nights unless I find out I’m not happy here. The girl will clean my room, and you won’t have to pay her wages. Two nights.” The woman said, “And an extra night for her clothes.” I answered, “If they are her clothes, I don’t pay for what already belongs to her.” The woman crossed her arms over her chest, considering how to negotiate further. “The clothes are mine. I loan them to her. You must pay me an extra night for her day dress. The night tunic is extra beyond that.” Without looking at the girl, I said, “Give the woman her night tunic. I’m not buying clothes at inflated prices that I can get in the market for a fraction of the price.” I was impressed when the girl didn’t hesitate. Pulling the thin fabric quickly over her head, she handed it to the woman. I said, “Come back to bed. I need to be comforted after this nightmare exchange with my impolite host. Woman, I’ll thank you to leave me to rest. I will not require a maid from now on. See that my room is not disturbed.” The girl came to the bed, lifted the corner of the sheet, and lay beside me, naked. The hotel owner bowed in my direction, scowling, backed out of the room, and closed the door. The girl waited beside me on her back, smiling shyly. “Hi. My name is Kesi.” “Hi, Kesi. My name is Brad.” “My Lord, how old are you?” “I’m twenty-three. How old are you?” She didn’t answer me directly. “I’ll make you very happy. I promise. I’m not ugly. They say I am because I was cast off, but I’m not. And I’m a virgin. You will be very happy with me. I’m not stupid, either. I can be very useful. You’ll see. I don’t have any clothes, My Prince. You are from the bigger nations. And... very handsome. You don’t think I’m ugly, do you?” She kept the sheet over her body and her arms at her sides so that it was pulled down as a temporary barrier between us. “Kesi. I think you’re beautiful.” “I knew you did. The way you smiled at me. I speak your language. I speak it very well. Men from your region like full breasts, don’t they? Mine are very firm and quite large. And my nipples are sensitive. My bottom is round, and my waist is slim. Like a girl in the paintings from Meringea. You like that, don’t you? I think you are very handsome. My Prince, I’m glad you negotiated for my redemption. The woman was trying to take advantage of you. If you hadn’t been so courageous, I would have helped you. But you were so strong with her. You didn’t need to buy clothes from her. You were right; she was cheating you. You have a spare caftan in your luggage. A very fine one. I can wear that if you want me to. It is for a man or a woman. I looked in your luggage. I didn’t steal anything. I looked in case you needed something mended or laundered. And because I was curious. I’m eighteen. No one could redeem me until I was eighteen. Now I am. You didn’t sleep well until I comforted you. You will sleep well every night now. Do you want to rest?” I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I did want her to stop talking for a minute. What just happened? One thing I knew: Kesi was lying to me. She was a castoff, but she was not eighteen years old. Or if she was, it wasn’t in the sense that she wanted me to believe. “Let’s rest, Kesi. But I think you should explain the customs to me. Tell me about redemption.” Kesi turned on her side to face me, the sheet between us lifting away so that her body touched mine. “Of course, My Prince.” “You like saying that, don’t you?” “I do! My Prince. I like saying it. The customs? About me? Is it different where you are from? I am a castoff. You might call it an orphan, but it’s different. Maybe a homeless orphan? A street child. My parents are gone. Dead or missing. I don’t know. I was raised by relatives who didn’t want me. When I was twelve, they sent me here to the hotel where I worked. This is a small country. My relatives don’t live in this city. I was sent to work here until I was no longer useful.” Yeah, she was lying about that, too. It was a good story, and a necessary one, but the truth was... stranger. I knew the customs at least as well as she did. What she told me was the common explanation for where these castoffs came from. Parents went missing, raised by relatives until she was twelve, and sent to work as a servant. It was always the same. Like part of their common memory. I didn’t know if she believed her own story or not, and I wasn’t going to challenge it yet. Part of the story was always that she was eighteen years old. I could have come five years ago or twenty years from now, and she would still claim to be eighteen. I’d been off-world. I knew what a castoff was. We didn’t know exactly how they got to places like this, remote villages scattered across the planet, but I knew basically what they were. I studied them as best I could before I came here. It had been a long trip. I knew the custom that applied to this situation, but I hadn’t expected to be tossed into it so suddenly. The custom assumed that no one knew the truth. I let Kesi explain. I found it helpful at times to act less informed than I was. “A man may redeem a castoff by paying the matron who holds her… if the castoff is female. A male is never redeemed. If he is cast off, he is on his own. A girl needs a redeemer. As my redeemer, you are my husband.” That wasn’t strictly true. For one thing, there was no such thing as a male castoff. They were all female. This was the first one I’d met. They avoided the larger towns and cities. I could certainly become her redeemer if she wanted me to. I assumed there was no way to force one of them to join you. Not all of them were eager to bond. There was the custom… and then there was the truth. The custom was adequate; the truth was unnecessary. As her redeemer, she would be part of my household staff. A traveling companion or housekeeper. The redeemed castoff could be a spouse, but it wasn’t always that way. I let her continue. “We will need to take me to the offices and get me papers. I don’t have a birth certificate for identification. There is an office where you can establish my status with you. Did you not know all of this? I told the matron you would redeem me because she was making trouble, but you negotiated fiercely. So you must understand it.” The office she referred to enforced the custom. They didn’t know the truth. And the registration they handled wasn’t what the girl truly needed. Because of her biology, she needed a biological registration, not paperwork. “My Prince, I was surprised. I thought you would say that you didn’t want me. Is my Meringean good? I listen carefully when someone travels here. Do you want to be my husband who... loves me... or my protector, like an older brother? I’ll make you very happy, and I’m not stupid.” Yes, an older brother's role was part of the backwater custom. In other parts of the galaxy where the truth was known, I’d be called her Registered Partner. In my mind, this was good fortune. I felt like I liked the girl, and I’d felt attracted to her when I saw her around the hotel. But now she was my companion. It was exciting. And she was a Castoff Unit. I wouldn’t have taken her otherwise. A Castoff Unit wasn’t a homeless orphan. I didn’t need the burden of a homeless orphan where I was going. As unexpected as this was, I kept calm. As calm as a young man could stay with a beautiful, busty girl in his bed, asking if she could be his wife and have him love her as her husband. Actually, in other parts of the galaxy, she couldn’t be a spouse, only a concubine. The difference for me wasn’t important. As far as my family and everyone else here were concerned, she could be my wife. When she talked about being my wife, she wasn’t really talking about taking care of me and my house. She was talking about having sex. She was asking if I was going to have sex with her. Not just once. From now on. And having seen her naked and feeling aroused by my fight with the matron, I was currently as stiff as a rock. I had my body angled such that I wasn’t poking her leg, but she kept shifting closer, and it was inevitable that we’d touch in the next few minutes. “What do you want, Kesi?” I didn’t care that she was telling me the common story. It was close enough. The Castoff Unit had a choice. At least as far as I was concerned. I wouldn’t turn her over to the authorities for what she really was. There were no authorities here who had jurisdiction over Units. This was between us. “I want to love you. You are very handsome. And manly. I didn’t know for sure until you took control of the matron, but when you did, I hoped you would win and be my prince.” I said, “And by prince, you mean... husband?” “Of course! Yes. And then you told me to take off my clothes and prove that I belonged to you! You wouldn’t do that if you didn’t want me as your wife. It was so demanding. Not of me, but of the owner. She had no power over you... Or me, now! I know about making love. Would you like me to touch you now?” Did I want her to touch me? Hell yes! Sort of. Was I really going to do this? Accept her as my companion for life? If I took her and later cast her off again, she wouldn’t live long. This was a surprise, but I had let it go this far, and I was in deep now. If I backed out, I’d cause a lot of damage... to Kesi. My business in this village would be over, and I’d feel terrible about what I’d done for the rest of my life. I didn’t use women and abandon them when I was done with them. Kesi wasn’t a poor orphan girl. She was a Castoff Unit. I wanted her for that reason, if no other. If she became a burden, I could abandon her, but I knew I wouldn’t. I wasn’t that kind of man. My father would disdain me and possibly disinherit me. At the very least, I would take her with me and eventually find her a place in my house or my father’s. That was if I didn’t agree to be her husband. The way I felt right now, in bed beside her, accepting her as a wife seemed inevitable. As a Unit, she couldn’t legally marry, but here, she was just a redeemed orphan. An orphan could marry. I couldn’t keep her in my bed without that bond. Not unless I wanted to be disinherited by my family. But our bond would be deeper than that because of her true nature. But could I go forward? Kesi was very beautiful, and I did like her more and more as the minutes went by, but is marrying a girl you wake up with in your bed in a hotel in a strange country pretty much a guaranteed recipe for disaster? Or the plot for a fiction? Maybe the plot of a salacious fiction was just the thing I needed. That happened a lot, right? The capable young man finds himself in an impossible romantic situation and eventually lives happily ever after? What if I embraced this? I knew what I was going to do, but I had to take a few minutes to settle it in my head. “Kesi, I can help you in any number of ways. Are you sure you want to be my wife?” Her face was very close to mine. She smiled. “My Lord, I’ll make you very happy. I would love it if you are my husband. I don’t mind if you have other wives. I will love you and help you and be very good to you. But if you don’t want me...” I kept my voice even. “Kesi, I want you. I do. It’s just that...” She grinned. “It’s just that young Meringean men are easily confused by other cultures and customs. Brad, did you see me when I was naked? I shave my pussy like a foreign girl. I can say pussy, like a sophisticated wife. And I won’t mind when you call my breasts tits or boobs. I’ll like that. And I will have your beautiful, circumcised cock. I won’t find it unattractive. To me, it will look erect all the time because the foreskin is removed. It isn’t repulsive. My Lord, I will learn any marital customs you want me to. I am certain I will never want to deny you any pleasure we can find. Do you want me to touch you now?”