She didn't.Instead, Stephanie wiped her lips after she was finished with her second burger and sat quietly in her chair, sipping at her water."Are you...finished, slave?" Jeffery asked through his voice distorter."Yes, master," she replied quietly.Stephanie felt her lead being unleashed from her chair after he had pulled it away from the table. With a gentle pull, Jeffery helped his sister up and guided her to the stairs. With a little effort, Stephanie negotiated the stairway well.The stranger. Defend the town, get a house. Nice deal.I wonder if I can get the same deal.Oh, who am I kidding. Aside from the facts that I was about five feettall and weighed somewhere close to 100 pounds, I couldn't move out ofSky Tower because it had what I needed to live: the neuronal gelrecycler, which ran off Sky Tower's power, and the neuronal nutritionflakes, which only The Mistress could provide. I was stuck there. Iwasn't about to leave and take up residence in Parkside, or even take aday trip. I stepped out delicately, a hopeful attempt not to show James that I wasn’t wearing any panties. Pete’s hand was quickly on the small of my back, guiding me past the queue of girls in short dresses and killer heels who all moaned that I was pushing the queue, till Pete turned and told the bouncers in a loud voice ‘If they moan about the boss and his bird then they can go somewhere else!’That always did it. Molly walked past us in quite a hurry followed by James holding a pair of knickers.. ”And that was the end of the first day of talks. Our armies faced each other over a mile apart. Hot heads on both sides advocated a pre-emptive attack. Cooler heads prevailed. It had taken careful, mistrustful negotiations to even arrange that first meeting; but the ice was broken and we were to resume tomorrow. Would he use this as a ruse for an attack? I sensed he would not but I had been wrong about people before.That night I went into my tent, and left by the back, went through another tent.