Beware the Savage Jaw Chapter Five

Chapter Five: Silk handkerchief

“I’m sorry, Sir, I wasn’t aware you had arrived.”

Jonathan Stane was the last of the guests, other than the legendary and mysterious ‘Sleen’ himself, who had yet to appear. But Stane had arrived without any warning. I found him sitting in one of the living rooms, in an antique upholstered leather chair, gazing out at a half open veranda window, at the rain hammering down on the plank decking outside. He was perhaps in his mid-thirties with a shock of very dark hair that he kept short but fashionably messed up with a spot of wax between his fingers. I knew he was a prominent industrialist, because Rowell had told me so, and that he sat somewhere above Moorcroft in the Kur hierarchy, at roughly, but not quite the level of Montague, and well below the Tatrix, who was the most senior Kur conspirator present. 

Beware the Savage Jaw Chapter Four

Chapter Four: The Tatrix

15.05 on the 30^th December 2024:

There were two new guests that had arrived by helicopter and if the trajectory of their flight path had been anything to go by, they had been lucky to have made it here in one piece in these high winds. The guests were a man and a woman. The woman was maybe in her late sixties/early seventies but it was difficult to tell for sure because she had that elegant look seen on ageing movie starlets who had the benefit of collagen, Botox, lift and tuck operations, an on-staff hairdresser and personal trainer. She basically looked good for her age and could best be described as 'handsome' if no longer beautiful. Although she had obviously had some face work done (the tell-tale signs were the way her mouth might move when talking, but her eyes would not crease into laughter lines, suggesting heavy use of Botox) she hadn't succumbed to vanity sufficiently to dye her hair. It remained mostly grey, cut to a shoulder length bob with a long fringe and swept back and to the side. She was dressed in a long black skirt that reached to her ankles, two and a half inch pumps that looked very expensive and a grey charcoal silk blouse and tailored jacket. The clothes looked designer, possibly Italian, and they were matched with tasteful gold jewellery, predominantly bracelets. I noticed however that she wore no jewellery around her neck and she didn't have earrings of any kind. In Gorean terms both those things were significant by their absence. She could easily be the wealthy and well born wife of a rich businessman or senator, but something about the way she moved and regarded us suggested she was not simply a woman who stood in the shadow of her husband. She did however have a wedding ring on her left hand.

Beware the Savage Jaw Chapter Three

Chapter 3: The Sun Dome

14.29 on the 30^th December 2024:

“This feels so good,” said Marcia, the red silk girl, as she swam to the side of the pool and treaded water as she reached for a glass of wine that I had placed discretely at the pool side. It was red wine of course. The white silk girl drank white wine.

Honestly, that was a thing that was expected of them.