“Our kind is promoting and cultivating this reputation for a very long time. However as much as you can be a good domestic you can be a bad one. The...talents my species cultivated over the millennia can also be used for other purposes. Those who leave our poor kingdom to seek employment as domestics elsewhere are known at home as the Ranthik. However those who use their skills for other purposes are called the Bunthik. When a Laurin is exposed as being part of the Bunthik he or she is executed. Having, for the first time, someone whoknew the secret pain I carried eased that pain. Over time sheencouraged me to dress again in girls clothing we accumulated gradually.We both knew I could never be a passable woman, that no amount ofcorseting or cosmetics or even surgery could make me look like anythingbut a man. But just the chance to dress without ridicule or censure wasa balm to my spirit. We learned that seeing the man-in-a-dressreflected back from any mirror depressed me, so Bonnie. Is custom to whip new girl."There seemed little left to say. The twin delinquents did as they were told. On their backs on the floor, they watched the pulley raise their irons. To meshed gears the weight of metal meant nothing. Four feet went with the iron, rising up and up, followed by legs and thighs. Somewhere there was a winch and motor. They could hear it. But for Taruma there was only the ropes and the button on the wall. After two pert bottoms had left the floor she pressed the button. ‘Deborah… Veronica… Starr.’ He could only stare, mouth suddenly dry, an understanding dawning slowly through a thick grey fog. ‘After class we would go out for ginseng coolers and all that crap. I would step outside the coffee house and score some smack. One day Dee, Debbie, found out.’ ‘That was the night you came home saying that someone tried to rob you,’ her husband said. She nodded. ‘I wasn’t lying either. But it was Debbie trying to steal my high.’ She grinned ruefully. ‘I never saw her.