She was a whore, trained to it, and one who could not or would not see that she was so much more. He reminded himself he’d bought and paid for a woman who would be able to keep up with his increasing sexual needs over the next weeks. That she was more than that somehow had obscured his perspective and his idea of how the weeks would unfold. But if he’d thought he could change her, he was learning that he was wrong. Upon her return from the village, Gunna had told him of Isabel’s behavior, told him about her abrupt departure and the incident with the woman and child. He remembered the way Isabel walked around Duntulm—head down, never engaging or speaking to anyone who crossed her path. Avoiding others, staying in her place. Never presuming to sit amongst the respectable, but only among those who served them. Watching her service him once more, emptying his seed into her mouth, had given him no satisfaction. Though watching her touch herself would have excited him to another bout of pleasure at another time, it had left him unsatisfied and uninterested.
