As I approached master Trevor's house I considered which door I should use. In father's house I was used to using whichever door I pleased, but some humans insisted that their slaves only use the back door. If I tried to enter from the front door I might be punished for my presumption, but they also might not pay it any mind. If I went from the back door I might never find out if I could use the front. I decided to take the risk.
Although this was my home now and possibly for the rest of my life, I had never seen the interior, so I felt like a visitor. In the future I will come and go freely and invisibly so long as I wasn't forbidden, but for now it was best to be as courteous as possible to avoid annoying my masters, especially if I was taking the risk of going to the front door. Knocking on the wrong door could be more easily forgiven than brazenly strolling into the house without paying proper respects.
I put down the bundles of my belongings and knocked on the door as softly as I could while still being confident of being heard, then clasped my hands in front of me and lowered my head slightly while waiting.
"Coming!"
I recognized the voice of mistress Liliana calling out from inside. She plodded over heavily and opened the door. She was beautiful, with clear white skin, long straight black hair, and a slim figure that was only marred by her large pregnant belly. She was dressed in a frilly loose white dress that draped over her belly, somewhat smoothing over her figure.
"Good afternoon, mistress", I greeted her with a bow.
"Vivian! You're here earlier than I expected. I thought you wouldn't come until the evening", she exclaimed. "Please just call me Liliana. I don't like being called 'mistress'. It sounds awful".
"As you please, mistress Liliana", I replied, keeping my face neutral.
"No, I really mean it. I don't want you to call me 'mistress'", Liliana repeated, seeming slightly distressed. I showed her a hint of a smile.
"My apologies, but master Trevor has instructed me to observe the proper forms of address. I'm afraid I'm not allowed to be any less formal than that", I explained. Liliana sighed in resignation.
"I'll have to have a word with him about that later. For now, please come in and let me show you to your room". She tried to pick up one of my bundles, but I stopped her.
"I'm here to help relieve you of your work so that you may rest. What will master think if instead I had you do work for me?" Liliana smiled in acceptance and slowly led the way into the house and up the stairs.
When we arrived at the room I blinked in surprise. It was a normal-sized bedroom, with a single bed, dresser, desk, chair, and what appeared to be a door to a built-in closet. The bed was freshly made. There were a pitcher of water, a mug, a flower vase with freshly-picked flowers, a mirror, and a covered basket of what smelled like fresh pastries on the desk. The windows had flowery pink and white curtains, and there was a dark red and brown rug in the center of the floor. Was all of this really for me?
"Is this my room?" I asked, wondering if perhaps there was some mistake. It was a ridiculous thought considering that this was Liliana's house, but the room itself was ridiculous. This was a room that was prepared for a guest, not a slave.
"I wanted you to feel welcomed", Liliana explained. There was an expression of uncertainty on her face. "Do you not like it?"
Perhaps this kind of warm welcome and comfort was only a cynical ploy meant to ingratiate themselves with me so that I would work harder to please my masters. However, that thought did me no good, so I quickly quashed it. Even if it was a trick, it was in a slave's best interest to show gratitude. If he did then the master would know that his kindness was appreciated and would be encouraged to show more kindness. If he didn't then the master would be discouraged from being kind to his slave and might even be provoked to anger and punish him. Moreover, everything I could sense, whether it was her demeanor, her voice, or her scent, told me that Liliana was being genuine.
"Thank you so much, mistress Liliana. I love it. I've never had such a big room all to myself", I bowed my head to her in sincere gratitude. It occurred to me that the reason why my room in father's house was so small was because there were so many occupants. Father had the master bedroom. Mother as well as father's 3 human children each had a regular-sized bedroom for themselves. That left the 4 of us beast-kin children to share 2 bedrooms among ourselves, which we did by partitioning them into 4 individual rooms.
On the other hand, master Trevor and mistress Liliana were the only 2 occupants of this large house. Although it was smaller than father's house it still had 5 bedrooms. Even if they had 3 children, like father did, I would still have a whole room to myself, so long as they didn't acquire another slave.
"I'm glad you like it", Liliana said, looking relieved. "Don't worry about dinner, since I'm preparing it myself tonight. For now you can unpack and settle in. Tomorrow I will start showing you your work".
Once Liliana left I began exploring my room, starting with the closet. It was small, but I finally had a place where I could hang my dresses. My previous room only had a dresser so I had to keep my dresses carefully folded in a drawer. Here they could be stored properly in a way that did them justice.
After hanging all of my dresses, which weren't many, I stood back to admire the sight. Then I moved on to putting away my other treasures: my books and jewelry. They weren't anything expensive or fancy, but they were precious gifts from my father. A slave had no need for such things, so if a human saw them he might take them away from me. I placed them in the bottom drawer, then covered them with undergarments. It was unlikely That anyone but my masters would enter my room, and even they were not likely to look through my drawers. For now that was security enough, at least until I found a better solution.
My tools and materials for knitting, sewing, and crocheting, as well as my incomplete projects, I placed in the top drawer. With the dresses in the closet I finally had enough space to put those things away instead of leaving them on the top of the dresser, keeping the room tidy. It was normal for slaves to make their own clothes, with the masters merely providing the necessary tools and materials. It was cheaper for the masters this way. In my case I brought tools and materials with me, further saving my master money. I would also be expected to make clothes for my master and his family when ordered.
The rest of the drawers received the rest of the clothes, but with more space to go around I could arrange them more neatly. After that there wasn't anything else to do, so I settled down on the chair in front of my desk, drank the water and ate the pastries. It would have been a shame to let them go stale.
Liliana had always been kind to me and to any other beast-kin I'd seen her with. I always assumed that was because as a shopkeeper of the general store it was good for business to be nice to the slaves who were sent to do their master's shopping. Now I wasn't so sure. Perhaps she really was simply a kind person.
