Vixen’s Mistress

Hannah was able to stop her crying by the time she made it back to the bakery. She also managed to wipe away any tears to try and hide that she had been crying, but she knew her eyes were probably puffy and still looked like she was on the verge of crying again. It was never good to cry in front of any of her owners. No matter why she was crying they also took it as another member of the family had told her she was going to be punished and then decided to deal out their own punishment.

She was thankful that she managed to sneak her way in and quietly start cleaning off all the ingredients that had dirt on them, hoping that none of them would look out of the ordinary, another thing she had been punished for in the past. When the baker finally did come into the back, he was far too frantic about getting the cake done to notice anything going on with Hannah. That meant she had at least till the misses to get back to hope she calmed down or got frantic enough about the cake to forget about her. Hannah wasn’t sure how long that would be, but every second was like a breath of fresh air.

“Hannah!”

Hannah froze and that sweet fresh air suddenly tasted foul. Any hope of being forgotten about just flew out the window. Not only that, but the misses had called her from the front of the bakery. Hannah wasn’t allowed to be in the front of the bakery under any circumstance. Another call came and Hannah felt like crying again. Her tail curled up for her to hold as some small comfort. They had tricked her into going out there before to worsen a punishment, and she was already so scared of the boys her feet felt like lead weights.

“Hannah, would you please come out here?”

The ears Hannah hadn’t noticed were lying flat on her head suddenly perked up. That wasn’t the misses’ voice. That was Lady Hayward’s. What was she doing here? By the Goddess, she hoped she hadn’t done something to upset the lady as well. She couldn’t imagine what kind of punishment would come from that. But Lady Hayward’s voice was gentle. She even said please. Taking a deep breath and still feeling very scared and confused, Hannah nervously made her way out into the front.

Rayne took a sharp breath in as she watched Hannah step out into the front of the bakery. The fox looked so scared and confused. It was also so clear that she had been crying. She couldn’t imagine what must have been going through her head. Immediately Rayne wanted to do all she could to reassure her. To make her feel better. To replace the fearful expression with… Well Rayne had yet to see Hannah look anything other than scared and timid, so she didn’t know what she would look like with any other expression. Still, Rayne couldn’t help but imagine what Hannah’s smile might look like.

“Y-yes?” Hannah asked, still completely confused. The misses looked angry, but also timid in the presence of Lady Hayward. She had never seen the misses act timid before. Rayne for her part wore a very gentle smile that Hannah found hard to read. She had always struggled with reading emotions on people’s faces, and it was so much harder when it came to humans. They didn’t have tails or ears that were clearly expressive.

Before Rayne could get a word out to hopefully put Hannah at ease, Misses Strawford spoke. “You’re going to be leaving with Lady Hayward, Hannah.”

That did not help any of the confusion Hannah was experiencing. Why would she be going with the lady? Had she actually upset her?

“That’s right,” Rayne said, as she felt her practiced soft gentle smile get slightly bigger. “You’ll be coming back to the Hayward Manor with Eda and I.”

“I… I don’t understand.” She hugged her tail tighter. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Ye—”

“No, Hannah,” Rayne said, cutting Misses Strawford off. “You have done nothing wrong. I purchased you from the Strawfords.” There was a strange mix of emotions that Rayne felt deep inside her. One was disgust at even mentioning that she bought another person, while another was pleasure at knowing what she had done would save Hannah from these horrible people.

The vixen’s eyes went a little wide, which with them being slitted it made her look even cuter to Rayne, as she glanced between the misses and the lady. “N-No. I’m not good enough for you.” It came out faster than she could even process the thought. It was how she honestly felt though. She wasn’t good enough for a nice woman such as Lady Hayward. She was barely good enough for the Strawfords and at times she truly thought she was only suited for the mines.

A tinge of pain washed through Rayne as Hannah tried to sell herself short. Of course she was good enough. How could she not be? She had gone out of her way to help Rayne. She was kind and sweet and just looked like she needed the biggest hug anyone could give her. Hannah was about to say more but Rayne held up a hand and stopped her. “I believe whether you are good enough or not for me to decide, is it not?”

The blush she had lost came back in full swing as her eyes went back down to Rayne’s feet. She was already upsetting her new owner and she hadn’t even left the bakery… “You’re right, I’m sorry, my lady.”

Rayne had to bite the inside of her lip to keep herself from going over to comfort Hannah. She wanted to touch her. To make her know everything was okay, but that wasn’t the appropriate thing to do. That wasn’t something meant to happen between master and slave. “That is quite alright, Hannah. Now gather your things while Misses Strawford gets me a receipt.” With that the lady gave a glance over to the woman to make her hurry up. Technically Rayne needed no receipt for the purchase of Hannah but obtaining one could never hurt. Especially if the Strawfords did anything stupid like trying to contest the purchase and take Hannah back. 

“I don—” Hannah started but cut herself off. She was going to say she had nothing but that wasn’t true she had one thing. One thing the Strawfords had taken from her upon her purchase. “My necklace.” For the first time in a good long while, Hannah’s eyes lit up with joy. “They have my necklace.”

“What?” The misses scoffed from the counter.

That joy in her eyes was already gone. “The necklace you took from me when you purchased me…”

The misses looked at the vixen confused before recognition came over her face. She laughed before saying, “that ugly thing? I sold it the same day.”

The lady watched as Hannah’s entire demeanor suddenly changed. The timid scared fox was gone. What was left in her place was a woman with no emotion on her face that just stared ahead into nothing. The tail she had been holding fell from her arms and hung limply between her legs. Rayne couldn’t take it any longer, she needed to go to Hannah. It wasn’t but two strides till she was by the fox’s side.

Standing next to one another Rayne got a true sense of their height difference. While Rayne herself was taller than most of the men she met, Hannah was clearly shorter than most of the women she had met as well. Not by too much, but still clearly shorter than most human women, which put her at a full head under Rayne. She had to wonder if fox beastkin were shorter by nature or if this was just Hannah on her own. Either way the height difference made the vixen all that much cuter in Rayne’s eyes.

“Was the necklace important to you?” She finally managed to speak and didn’t have time to stop herself from putting a hand on Hannah’s shoulder.

Hannah didn’t react to the touch, but the person that did was Eda. Never had she seen Rayne so casually and publicly step outside of the norms for a woman of her status. Of course behind closed doors Rayne had done it before and the two of them had shared conversations about how these norms were both ridiculous and restricting to connecting between people. Maybe the most shocking part of this entire thing was just how instantly infatuated the lady was with the fox.

“My fiancée gave it to me…”

“Oh.” Now that caught Rayne off guard. She hadn’t expected Hannah to have a lover and she hadn’t expected to feel a strange pit in her stomach at this new information. In a different situation Rayne might have called that pit jealousy but that couldn’t be what it was. Why would she be feeling jealous over Hannah having a lover?

It was then that Misses Strawford walked back up to them and handed over a receipt to Rayne. She pulled away from Hannah and took the offered piece of paper. “Thank you,” Lady Hayward said with as much disdain as she could politely muster. “Come along, Hannah, it’s time to leave this place.”

Almost absentmindedly Hannah nodded and followed in step behind Rayne alongside Eda. Stepping out the front door was a strange experience that brought her fully back into the moment. She was leaving the bakery and though she still felt like she deserved the bakery or worse she internally vowed to never step foot in that bakery again. Little did she know that both Rayne and Eda made the same vow as well.

Despite all that had occurred, Rayne still needed to get the ring fixed so that was where they were off too. They walked in mostly silence except for Eda introducing herself more properly to Hannah. It wasn’t but a few minutes still they were at the silversmith and Rayne started to make her way inside. She stopped herself when she noticed Hannah had stepped to the side to wait for her outside. 

Just as she was about to beckon the fox to follow her in, she caught Eda’s eye. The head house maid shook her head before looking around at the street. It was then that Rayne finally noticed there were already a number of eyes on them. Rayne could only imagine those eyes were on them because Hannah didn’t look anything like the kind of slave that would be following a woman such as herself. She wondered what talk might spread from this and that talk would only be worse if she brought Hannah in with her. So, begrudgingly she let Hannah wait outside but she did ask Eda to stay with her and look after her.

Eda didn’t think there was much need for her to actually look after Hannah. It was highly doubtful someone would attack another person’s property out in the open, and Hannah clearly wasn’t the kind of woman to run off. Still, there wasn’t much need for her to go inside either, so she just kindly waited outside.

Once all arrangements were made it was back to walking all the way back through Guild Row Market till they could get to Rayne’s awaiting carriage. It was second nature for Rayne to just climb into the carriage with Eda right behind her, and she almost didn’t notice the driver closing the door behind them, leaving Hannah outside. “Hold on driver,” she called out and held up a hand to stop him. “Hannah, climb in here with us.”

Both the driver and Hannah shared a look of confusion and gave each other a quick glance as if the other would have the answer. “My lady, a-are you sure you want me to ride in the carriage?” She didn’t really know where she had been expecting to be while on this journey to the Manor, but not inside the carriage.

“Yes, now climb in. I wish to get home well in time for dinner today.”

A little nervously Hannah nodded before she started to climb into the carriage. It appeared the only people not surprised by Rayne’s actions were herself and Eda, but the carriage driver on the other hand looked both surprised and upset by this turn of events. He gave a slightly disgusted look at the back of Hannah’s head but caught a glare from Eda that sent him hurrying away. He had no right to approve or disapprove of the lady’s actions.

Never before had Hannah been in a proper carriage. In the back of a hay cart, or even in the salvers cage cart, sure, but a fancy carriage that was closed in on all four sides no. There also came a realization that she didn’t have the knowledge of where it was appropriate for her to sit. Well, it was obvious with only a little bit of thought that she should sit next to Eda, but that didn’t stop some part of her brain from telling her to sit next to Rayne. Though she didn’t feel like she deserved to be in the presence of the lady, she had been so kind to her, and Hannah wanted to show her thanks. Why her brain was telling her that the best way to show thanks was sitting next to the lady, she had no idea.

“Thank you, my lady,” the vixen said as she took her seat next to Eda.

This was already far from the first time Hannah had referred to Rayne as ‘my lady’ and though this feeling had not come to Rayne till now, she found she wasn’t fully happy with Hannah calling her ‘my lady’. It felt wrong for Hannah to address her as anyone else might. The vixen wasn’t just any person, she was Rayne’s. Now that was a thought that sent immense waves of disgust through her, but oddly at the same time excitement. Not ready to think about those conflicting feelings too deeply, the lady just focused on that she didn’t want Hannah calling her lady. She couldn’t have Hannah address her as a friend even if that was maybe what most of her wanted, so she had to think of something else. Eventually as the carriage started to pull away, she found her answer.

“Mistress,” Rayne said gently, bringing both Hannah and Eda’s attention back up to her. “You will address me as Mistress.”

Hannah nodded as she pulled her tail up and into her lap to nervously pet, and action Rayne found adorable. “Yes, Mistress.”

There was a rush of heat and a feeling that Rayne couldn’t quite place that came over her at Hannah’s words. It was wholly unexpected, but entirely pleasurable.

Heat came back to Hannah’s face for some reason. Maybe it was because her mind more associated the term mistress with something of a more sexual nature. Not that it truly was or that Rayne had any intention of meaning it that way, it was just the thought that popped into Hannah’s head that she couldn’t push out. Of course, Hannah had also heard the terms used before for owner and slave, but it just didn’t feel the same way when it applied to Rayne. Maybe that thought and strange feeling growing in her gut had something to do with how Rayne talked to her as if she was equal but somehow continued to have an air of ‘I own you’ in it. Maybe it was just the strange feeling of being inside a carriage for the first time. Either way for some reason she couldn’t help but glance up on occasion to find Rayne still looking at her. 

Eda could only shake her head at the two women, not that either of them would notice with Rayne openly staring at Hannah and the fox’s continual glances. It was one thing to see how quickly and fully infatuated Rayne was with Hannah, but seeing Hannah’s reaction to the lady was just icing on the cake. Thinking about it more, the head housemaid had to hold in a laugh at the whole situation. Maybe not a funny laugh but a nervous one. There were so many things all this could mean and so many things that could happen because of it. Something she would need to talk to Rayne about later.

Though it was a slightly decent trip to the estate and manor near the edge of the capital, it was spent in silence. The feeling in Hannah’s stomach only grew worse as the carriage bounced around and moved. So much so that she felt queasy at points. Both the other women noticed this, but it was Eda to gentle rubbed Hannah’s back as she curled over just a little bit. Hannah was too busy trying not to throw up in her mistress’s carriage to really think about his being the second sympathetic touch she received today. The second in a very long time.

Through the window after gaining a bit more control of herself Hannah watched as they passed through a massive pair of gates and up a long gravel road. Soon they pulled up in front of the largest home Hannah had ever seen. She was marveling at the size of the manor too much to think about how she was getting out and following Rayne and Eda through the front door. Something she was certain she still wasn’t meant to do.

Just like the outside, the inside was grand beyond grand. It was the true epitome of what high-end nobility wished to be. There were columns of marble, painting larger than Hannah, a staircase that could have seven people walking shoulder to shoulder up it, lush soft carpets that lined nearly every inch of the floor (which Hannah felt bad for stepping on with her dirty feet), and so much more. She was too busy marveling to notice two members of the house staff openly staring at her.

“Eda, would you be so kind as to help Hannah Bathe. I’m sure it’s been a while.” It was only after Rayne said that that she realized that could have sounded offensive. “Not that I believe that would be your fault in any way Hannah.” Thankfully the fox didn’t look offended. “And make sure she gets a good dinner. I dread to think what the Strawfords have been feeding her. If much at all.” The last sentence was more to herself.

“Yes, my lady.” Eda gave a small curtsy to take her leave and ushered Hannah to follow with a hand on her back. “This way, Hannah.”

The fox followed alongside Eda, which she only just realized was probably also inappropriate. She should have been behind Eda, but Eda made no fuss about it. As they were about to pass through into one of the staff doors, Hannah took one last look at her mistress behind her. She found her eyes meeting Raynes for a split second before she looked away shyly with a blush on her face. Those gray eyes were so piercing and normally that would make her feel really uncomfortable, but Rayne’s eyes just made her feel shy.

The service halls were also a wonder themselves since they were easily as nice as the baker’s home. They were also a labyrinth of corridors that Hannah quickly got lost in. Through those halls they did encounter another member of the staff. Though no words were shared it was clear that they weren’t the happiest with Hannah’s presence. Sadly, Hannah was rather used to looks like that from humans ever since she was dragged kicking and screaming into the empire.

Eventually the pair found themselves in the woman staff quarters, which while rather plain, was still far nicer than any of the places Hannah had been as a slave. Eda opened a door at the end of the hall and ushered her inside. Hannah was greeted with a sight she hadn’t seen in years, a bath. She felt like she might cry just at the thought of climbing into it.

With the door closed behind them, Eda went over to the bath and started to fill the decently sized tub. She knew this tub was easily on par with some lesser nobles and even more the faucet had a magical rune on it to heat the water as it came out. That was a luxury Eda wasn’t sure how people lived without.

“Alright dear,” she said, turning back to Hannah. “Let’s get you out of those rags and into the water.” Though Hannah clearly needed no help in getting out of the dress she still went over to help.

The fox froze at Eda’s words. “I can bathe myself!” Hannah said far too fast and forcefully. She couldn’t help it; fear had taken her. If Eda stayed, she would see.

Eda put her hands on her hips. “Hannah, it looks like you haven’t bathed in months. I’m sure even you will need help getting all the knots out of your hair and fur. Even so, Lady Rayne told me to help bathe you, and that is exactly what I will do. So come on, let's get this done so we can both be off and ready for a warm dinner.”

Hannah didn’t know what to say or do. She couldn’t say no to Eda, but she didn’t want anyone to know. She just stood frozen long enough that Eda took matters into her own hands. First she reached for the scratchy collar around Hannah’s neck and took it off. Hannah stared wide eyed at the woman, knowing there were laws about taking off a slave’s collar.

“It’ll be fine to take it off to bathe, dear. And if it’s any consolation, I’m sure you’ll be getting a much nicer and comfier one soon enough.”

Hannah just nodded her response a little overwhelmed at not feeling something she had grown so used to. Then Eda pulled her sack dress over her head. She didn’t go to hide any of her more private areas as many had seen her naked over her years as a slave. She no longer felt any shame by it. There was one spot she did feel shame from on her outer right thigh and she tried her best to cover it with her hand, but her hand wasn’t big enough.

Eda finally got a good look at the fox and just how well she had been taken care of. She was thin as a stick and much of her arms and upper body were covered in bruises and scrapes. Over the top of her left shoulder Eda could even spot rather nasty scars, which she had to imagine Hannah got from her early days as a slave. She couldn’t help but feel for the poor woman, especially when she noticed the small archaic symbol on her skin right where her womb would be. How could people knowingly take away another person’s right to have children Eda didn’t know.

That all being said, looking down she did now see the one part of Hannah’s body that the fox tried to hide. Her hand covered it poorly and Eda could still see the collection of thing scar lines that ran all across the outside of her thigh. Some of them were still fresh. Eda took a slow breath, brought herself to look up and asked about them, but seeing Hannah fighting to hold back tears told her everything she needed to know.

No one had truly seen those scars before. Well, the boys might have when they… but they were far too concerned with what was between her thighs rather than what was on the outside of them. She hated these scars so much. She hated that she had done this to herself, but that only made her want to do it more…

“Alright,” Eda said. “Let’s get you in the bath.” With that she ushered Hannah over to the bath and made no acknowledgment of her thigh. The fox deserved some peace and hopefully this bath would only help in that.

It was an otherworldly experience climbing into a bath for the first time in years. The water was perfectly warm, and someone made her tired and pent up muscles relax in its comfort. She couldn’t help but sigh in relief and Eda chuckled very lightly at her cute reaction.

After letting Hannah sit for a few seconds came bathing her. Her body was easy enough to scrub down and clean, but her hair and fur were an ordeal. The hair was hard because Eda had to stay clear of Hannah’s ears. She knew that beastkin ears were very sensitive and that they didn’t like other people touching them. That and she didn’t know how comfortable it would feel to get water into ears like that. But soon enough her rear length hair was washed and clean, and both agreed that it would be beneficial to cut it. Then it was onto the tail. That was the worst part. The knots were tough to get out and Hannah’s tail instinctively pulled from Eda’s grasp every time the older woman tried to hold it still to work a knot. After a good twenty minutes the tail was done, and Hannah got a good look at her clean tail for the first time in years. She had forgotten how white the tip was.