As she had every morning, Mary woke a little before dawn to the sound of the farmhouse rooster crowing. With a sigh, she climbed out of bed, careful not to disturb her husband, Henry, snoring away beside her. He’d been out late and she wanted to let him get his rest.

“ugh...” She groaned as she headed down the stairs to the kitchen, her legs creaking. Just one of the many problems getting old. Made running the farm more difficult, but they’d managed to find ways to make do. She got the coffee going and cooked up a plate of bacon and eggs for herself, plus another for her husband when he woke up. After she’d ate, she returned to the stove and got to work on a larger pot with some oatmeal, flavored with just a bit of salt and a small drop of molasses.

Taking the steaming pot off the stove, Mary stepped out of the farmhouse into the crisp Autumn air. She crossed the yard to the big old barn which, back in when Henry’s grandfather had owned it, had held horses to pull the old steel plow. It no longer held horses, though what they used it for now was really not so different.

“Good morning girls!” Mary said in a cheerful singsong as she entered. She was greeted with muffled grunts from the  eight young women inside. They certainly had plenty to complain about. For a start, each was being kept in a small, wire dog kennel just big enough to accommodate her and if that wasn’t enough each had a full set of leather cuffs around her wrists and ankles, plus a leather hood obscuring her face. Apart from that, they wore nothing else, which was something of a hardship as the weather turned, the barn having not heat apart from what the eight bodies inside it produced.

Mary got an old metal funnel from where it was hung on the wall, then went to the cages, one at a time.  The morning ritual of letting each girl out of her cage, removing the hood, feeding her and getting her ready for the day by unchaining her hands and locking them again in front of her took time, but Mary didn’t hurry. It wouldn’t take much for one of them to overpower her, if they got the chance. The trick then was to never give them that chance, but to make sure she had complete control at all times.

She was extra careful with the last two girls. Henry had picked them up only last night and they hadn’t yet figured how things worked here. Before letting them out of the cage, she went back to the wall and got a heavy leather flogger and made sure the hooded captives knew she had it, and was prepared to use it on them, should they give her any trouble. Aside from some vocal, if illegible grunts through their ring gags, they didn’t.

“Ok girls!” She said, when she had all of them fed, hands shackled in front, hoods off and lined up in the barn. “Most of you know the drill, work hard if you want to get fed and you don’t want to feel this!” She swished the flogger through the air, causing the nearest girl to flinch back with a muffled whimper. Save for the two new captives, all of them had felt it plenty during their time on the farm. One of the new captives felt it then, when she refused to shuffle after the rest of the girls out into the open, cold air. She yelped as the leather strands impacted on her naked bottom, jumping in place and hurried out. Her friend got the picture and rushed to follow.

Mary followed along at a more sedate pace, giving orders putting the girls to work laboring around the farm. Aside from keeping an eye on them, making sure they didn’t slack off or try and run, she could stroll about and enjoy the beginning’s of a nice clear day.

For years, Mary and her husband had struggled to make ends meet on the old family farm. They worked hard, day in and day out, but never saw much reward for it. The problem, they decided, was one of labor. They were getting too old to keep it up and their kids were all grown up now and moved away. The big industrial farms hired up all the skilled labor at prices they couldn’t match. So Henry had figured out another way of getting the labor they needed, going around finding people who wouldn’t be missed; hitchhiker’s runaways, that sort of thing, keeping them locked up in the barn except when they were put to work.

It annoyed Mary how her husband only ever seemed to catch women, and young, pretty ones at that. He’d explained they would be easier for the old couple of handle, compared to young, fit men, much as she might have liked to have one or two of them around the place. Of course, she knew he eyed the naked girls every chance he got, though fortunately at his age looking was about all he could do.

Having an all female labor force also made things simpler when it came time to dispose of them. The couple had worked a system, getting a few girls in the spring and grabbing new ones when the opportunity arose throughout the year. Then in the fall, after the harvest was finished, getting rid of them via an old friend of Henry’s who paid cash for good looking girls and could guarantee they would be shipped overseas where they would never be found. The extra cash helped keep the small farm in the black.

“No lazing about!” Mary said, swinging the flogger at one member of her labor force. The captive girl yelped into her gag and got busy. Mary quickly scanned the rest who were likewise working extra hard to try and avoid a flogging. She nodded. “Another week or so to get the harvest in.” She thought, “six days if the new girls learn quickly.” And then it would be time for them to take a one way trip to the far east, not that they knew what awaited them as they continued to labor.