“Lads, this is going to be a fun ride!” He reached down to undo the buttons on his britches and I squeezed my eyes shut.
I tried to be still as one of them grabbed hold of my breasts, forcing me back onto the bar so that I was completely exposed to them all. Angry tears ran down my cheeks, as I contorted and twisted my body, trying to get away but they were too many and a second later, I was bent over the bar, my skirts pulled up and my knickers down.I pulled to the side, clenching my fist and trying to rend my arm from the grasp of the one soldier holding me tight.
In the low light, they smiled, drooled, stared. Then, as I finally twisted away, at least turning my face so I couldn’t see them, they fell silent. I glanced over my shoulder to find glazed eyes, wide as moons, focused on my bare rear end. In that moment their lewd comments ceased, the pub falling silent.
“Fuck me to hell, look at that—” The one who had me over the bar pulled his hands from my buttocks like they’d been burnt.
I felt the others fall back all at once. They scattered from me like cockroaches fleeing the light.
“Fuck me to hell,” another said, making the sign of the cross over his chest.
The youngest-looking among them looked like he might vomit at any moment. All six moved in unison, backing away.
“She’ll get us all killed. It’ll be our necks, I tell you!”
I slumped as they stared, aware that I was half-naked in the filthy pub, the tears streaming freely down my cheeks as I sobbed into my trembling palms.
“It will be her word against ours. Stick together men, we found her on the side of the road, dress already torn. Go tell that barmaid…if she whispers a word, her fate will be worse than what we promised her if she didn’t find us a fresh pussy for the night.”
It took me mere moments to collect myself, straightening my torn skirt back around my legs as best I could, wondering what was going on.
One instant, they were heated with desire to take me against my will. Then the moment they saw me, I had repulsed them.
It made no sense. Six drunken men were suddenly looking very sober and very pale.
I gathered up my torn blouse, pressing it to my bare chest as I ran for the door, out into the cover of night, where I might be able to hide my shame.
“No, wait! Grab her!” The captain’s voice chased me out, and I sped my pace, heading for the shadows on the other side of the town square. “Don’t you fools know what she’s worth?”
Worth?
What did that mean? What was I worth to them? A few minutes of fun, a break from their own hands, a toy to pass around between them until I was unable to walk? When they saw me, really saw me, they’d been repulsed. Sickened. Believing I’d get them all killed with whatever disease I carried.
Bors must have been repulsed, too. After his lust faded, his need for release sated, he’d found an excuse to ride away, desperate to be released from what was clearly just a cunning man’s conquest of yet another virgin. He’d gone back to battle and war, and we wouldn’t see him again in Weschail.
He’d used me. Toyed with me. Asked me to marry him in jest. I was a game.
As the tears burned down my cheeks, I could almost hear his laughter in the wind.
I truly was now a whore with no home.
Bors
It had been one hell of a long ride.
Marauding patrols of Clan Johnston soldiers moved along the border. War wasn’t upon us yet, but the tension was palpable. Clan Mackay didn’t have their strength in arms, that much was true.
We were valued as prized warriors, stationed in the castle as king’s guards, and known for our prowess in skirmishes, but our numbers did not match the forces of the other clans.
For years, many among us had warned the clan leaders against their policy of paying our neighbors for protection, urging them to train units of our own fighting men for the task. But folly had prevailed and Clan Johnston had realized our weakness.
If they caught me crossing the border, I’d be tortured for information and killed as a spy, and Clan Mackay would have no choice but to let it go. Slow and careful was the only move available to me, and much as I wished for haste I took my time and slipped past their patrols.
I found my priest friend in Gowerton, and he welcomed me into his sanctuary, but I knew I couldn’t stay long. I’d already taken a day longer to get there than I’d intended, and knew that Angelica and Sara would be worried.