Ruby-Red Riding Hood

Once upon a time in a far-away kingdom, there was a young woman whom everyone called Ruby-Red, and who always wore a riding-hood of that color. For she was a third daughter in a land where the eldest daughters always wore a scrap of blue clothing, the second daughters always wore a bit of green cloth, and the third daughters always wore something red.

Now one fine fall day Ruby-Red took the path through the forest to her grandmother’s cottage, carrying a basket that held seedy-cakes and dried apricots. She walked and skipped and tried to feel happy, but happiness evaded her. Instead she felt both fearful and eager, because her basket held not only seedy-cakes and dried apricots, but a slave collar as well. For today was Ruby-Red’s twentieth birthday, and third daughters in that kingdom all were chained and collared on the day they turned twenty. Then they were sold to a slave dealer to be auctioned off, lest their parents suffer from the need to pay too many dowries for too many daughters. But never by her father or her mother would a third daughter be chained and collared, lest she come to think ill of her parents. Instead it always was a grandparent, or an aunt or uncle, or perhaps an elder cousin who would perform that task.

Ruby-Red stopped and shivered as she imagined what would happen, once she reached her grandmother’s cottage. She imagined the sleeves of her dress being cut short, and her shoes and stockings being pulled off. She imagined the shackles being secured about her ankles, the fetters being closed upon her wrists, and the slave collar being locked around her neck. She imagined being taken to the maiden-barn and standing nude on the round auction stone. She imagined rich men looking her up and down, and making bids for her purchase. And she imagined her new master leading her away, to tie her tightly upon his great bed… Ruby-Red felt her nipples stiffen, under her dress, and she felt a flush of warmth run through her, despite the cool fall air.

“My fate was sealed when I was born,” Ruby-Red told herself aloud. “Now the only thing to do is to meet it with a smile.”

Ruby-Red started walking again, but had not gone far when a huge and shaggy wolf stepped onto the path. He looked at her, and growled at her, and Ruby-Red stopped once more.

“Let me devour you, Ruby-Red,” the wolf said in his growling wolf-voice. “For I am hungry, and being devoured will at least spare you from the fate that awaits you at your grandmother’s cottage. For I can see by your red hood that you are a third daughter, and I can smell that today is your twentieth birthday.”

“Please no, Goodsir Wolf,” Ruby-Red answered. “I cannot say that I relish the fate that awaits me at my grandmother’s cottage, after I give her the seedy-cakes and dried apricots in my basket, yet even more do I dislike the thought of being devoured.”

“Yet I am right here,” the wolf answered as he took a step forward, “and your grandmother’s cottage is far down the path. It seems after all that you will not come to stand on the round auction stone in the maiden-barn.”

Ruby-Red could not answer. She couldn’t even move as the yellow eyes of the wolf stared at her and as his mouth opened to reveal white fangs. But then a man stepped onto the path behind the wolf: A strong-looking man with a fierce black beard, dressed as a traveler who had prospered in his travels, and armed with a stout walking-staff of ash-wood.

“Begone, you shaggy cur!” the man shouted. “Go devour a rabbit, or a half-grown fawn if you must, but do not touch any daughter of men or I will hit you with my stick!”

The wolf grumbled something and started to slink away. Then he suddenly lunged at Ruby-Red, only to be knocked off his feet by a lusty swing of the walking-staff. Scrambling off the path, the wolf ran away howling.

“Thank you very much!” Ruby-Red said. “And even though I have never seen you before, may I guess that you are Goodsir Blackbeard?”

“Indeed I am,” Blackbeard answered. “And even though I have never seen you before, may I guess that you are Ruby-Red, carrying a basket for your grandmother? Keep walking down the path, and you will arrive at her cottage in no time at all. I doubt friend wolf will return, but I will keep watch, just the same.”

“Thank you again, very much!” Ruby-Red said. “Yet I do not relish the fate that awaits me at my grandmother’s cottage, after I give her the seedy-cakes and dried apricots in my basket.”

“I might have a cure for that,” Blackbeard said as he grinned in his beard. “Tell your grandmother firmly that you do not wish to be sold, and then perhaps your wish will come true.”

“Thank you very much for a third time, Goodsir Blackbeard!” Ruby-Red said. “I will think hard upon your words.”

And Ruby-Red did think hard, as she walked slowly down the path toward her grandmother’s cottage. She still shivered at what would happen when she passed through the cottage door, and she did not look forward to walking barefoot all the way to the maiden-barn. Yet if she wished to not be sold, and her wish came true, then her parents would be cheated of her sale price.

“I dislike the thought of cheating my parents even less than the thought of being devoured by a wolf,” Ruby-Red told herself aloud, “and I have dawdled long enough. Now I must hurry on to my grandmother’s cottage, and try to meet my fate there with a smile.”

So Ruby-Red did hurry on. In a minute she caught a glimpse of the cottage, and in another minute she caught a glimpse of a cart behind the cottage. A sturdy pony waited patiently to pull the cart away, when its owner returned, and sitting in the cart itself were two young women. One wore a skirt with red pleats and the other wore a red bodice, and so Ruby-Red knew that they both must be third daughters like herself. But they both had lost their shoes and their stockings, they both wore collars and chains, and they both were gagged with scarves made of cloth-of-silence.

Ruby-Red felt a sudden urge to walk past the cottage door and join the two women in the slave dealer’s cart. It would be pleasant to ride to the maiden-barn, she thought, much more so than walking all the way there, especially if she had to do so barefoot.

“But what if I follow Goodsir Blackbeard’s advice after all?” Ruby-Red asked herself aloud. “What if I tell grandmother that I do not wish to be sold? Then I might not travel to the maiden-barn at all. And even if I do travel there, it won’t do any good to anyone to go about it the wrong way around.” So Ruby-Red walked up to the cottage door and knocked.

“Come in, come in,” came her grandmother’s voice. “Lift the latch and step inside, dear.”

So Ruby-Red lifted the latch and stepped inside the cottage. “I’ve brought you seedy-cakes and dried apricots, Grandmother,” she said, “and my basket holds something else as well. For I know that today is my twentieth birthday.”

“Put them all on the table, dear,” Grandmother said. “Set them beside the things already laid out for you. For today is indeed your twentieth birthday. You are a young woman now, and no longer a child.”

So Ruby-Red put the seedy-cakes and dried apricots on the table. Then she brought the slave collar out of the basket, setting it beside the chains and things that had already been laid out.

“My goodness, Grandmother,” Ruby-Red said, “what heavy chains you have here.”

“The better to shackle your ankles, my dear,” Grandmother answered.

“And what stout iron cuffs you have here.”

“The better to fetter your wrists, my dear.”

“And what a fine scarf of cloth-of-silence you have here.”

“The better to gag you with, my dear.”

“And what a shiny brass key you have here,” Ruby-Red said as she picked it up to look at it more closely.

“The better to lock that slave collar around your neck, my dear,” Grandmother answered. “You are a third daughter, and it is your duty to submit to the fate you were born to, with as much grace and good humor as you can muster. Four gold coins, you said you’d pay?”

“Yes, Grandmother,” Ruby-Red said. “But what if I…”

Then Ruby-Red flushed, realizing how close Goodsir Blackbeard had come to tricking her. For he was sitting on a stool in the corner, and Grandmother’s last words had been spoken to him. He would pay four gold coins for her – but if she had said that she wished not to be sold, he would claim her as a freely-given gift, and then neither her grandmother nor her parents would receive anything in return for her being sent to the maiden-barn.

Goodsir Blackbeard set down four gold coins. He grinned in his beard, all good cheer despite the failure of his trick. “And now, my Ruby-Red, the newest jewel on my chain, my first command to you is to cheer up! If ever you feel sad or frightened, you can tell yourself this: ‘I might have been devoured by a wolf.’”

Ruby-Red laughed. It was true! Whatever would happen to her now – being collared and chained and gagged here in her grandmother’s cottage, being sold nude from the round auction stone in the maiden-barn, being tightly tied on her new master’s bed and obeying whatever commands he might choose to give her – none of that would be worse than being devoured by a wolf.

“Very good!” Master Blackbeard said. “Now pull off your shoes and stockings.”

Ruby-Red smiled as she pulled off her shoes and stockings, so that she stood barefoot on the cottage floor.

“Now stand straight, with your arms held out to your sides.”

Ruby-Red smiled as she stood and held out her arms, so that Master Blackbeard could cut short the sleeves of her dress.

“Now bring your arms down and stand still.”

Ruby-Red smiled and obeyed, so that Master Blackbeard could shackle her ankles and fetter her wrists.

“Now hold your chin up and stand very still.”

Ruby-Red smiled as she held up her chin and stood as still as possible, so that Master Blackbeard could lock the slave collar around her neck. His hands then caressed her body, and she could feel her nipples stiffen under what remained of her dress, just as they had stiffened earlier that day. Her smile turned into a big grin.

“Very good,” Master Blackbeard repeated. “Now open up.”

“M…” said Ruby-Red as the twisted cloth-of-silence went between her teeth. Master Blackbeard tied the gag in place, and Ruby-Red could no long speak. She could no longer make even the tiniest sound. But she could look up at Master Blackbeard and smile at him through her gag.

“Very good,” Master Blackbeard said for a third time as he led Ruby-Red from the cottage.

Ruby-Red kept smiling as Master Blackbeard took her to his cart. The fate she had been born now had come to pass, and while entering her grandmother’s cottage with a slave collar in basket had been frightening, leaving that cottage as a collared slavegirl did not frighten her at all. Certainly it was much better than being devoured by a wolf!

Master Blackbeard picked Ruby-Red up and set her in place beside her new slave-sisters. For chained as she was, Ruby-Red would have had to struggle greatly to climb into the cart on her own.

“Garnet, Poppy, this is Ruby-Red,” Master Blackbeard said. “Ruby-Red, this is Garnet, and this is Poppy.”

Ruby-Red in her riding-hood exchanged nods with Garnet in her red-pleated skirt and Poppy in her red bodice. None of the women could speak, of course, because of the cloth-of-silence that gagged all three of them. However Master Blackbeard could chuckle, and he did so as he set his pony into motion, walking beside to lead it as it pulled the cart away from the cottage.

As she rode in the cart with the two other women, Ruby-Red felt aware of being a new-made slavegirl. She felt the slave collar locked around her neck. She felt the absence of her shoes and stockings, and she was glad not to walk barefoot all the way to the maiden-barn. She felt the weight of the shackles on her ankles and the fetters on her wrists, and heard the clink of the iron chains that connected them. She felt the cloth-of-silence that gagged her, keeping her from making any noise at all – not even a giggle.

Ruby-Red could giggle inside however, and she did so while sharing looks of amusement with Garnet and Poppy. And so all three of new-collared third daughters were silent and cheerful during their ride, all the way to the maiden-barn. There, along with the other two, Ruby-Red would stand nude on the round auction stone, and be bid upon, and sold.

But that would happen on another day, and so is another story.

Ruby-Red Riding-Hood