Beloved Pilgrim (17 page)

"What is this place?" she protested, but she
could not hear her own voice, no less could Ranulf have heard her.
He pulled her through the throng to a table in the back. As her
eyes adjusted, she recognized the mercenary band. "You!" she
exclaimed.

"Yes, us! Aren't you happy to see us? Welcome
to the Settaducati!" Ranulf shouted in her ear. He gestured for
Thomas to move over on the bench, and then shoved her next to the
silent man. Ranulf slid in next to her, reviving her fears of close
body contact. She wished she had worn her gambeson.

Ruggiero was across from her again. His dark
face and beard now sported a smile. It somehow looked more sinister
than the man's former scowl. "So you brought the lad, Ranulf. I
suppose you thought it was time the little saint got his cherry
popped." The Italian raised his cup of wine in salute.

Elisabeth went pale. "My cherry? What
cherry?"

The Italian laughed. "You know, your
virginity."

"What makes you think I am a virgin?" Her
head held high she protested, "I am no virgin!" She caught her
breath. Did they know she was a woman? Men don't have cherries.

"All right, all right, so you are no virgin."
Ranulf winked at Ruggiero. "So tonight will be your second time. Or
fortieth. What does it matter? I am paying for it."

Elisabeth stared at him disbelieving. "You
are paying for me to sleep with a whore?"

"Sleep, fuck, play dice with, whatever you
want."

Elisabeth paled. "But I can't!"

Ruggiero commented, "You just said you had,
so you must be able to."

Elisabeth went scarlet this time. "I mean I
pledged my chastity! For the pilgrimage. I must keep myself
pure."

The two men erupted into guffaws, and even
Thomas smiled humorously.

Ranulf shrugged. "Have it your way. That was
a damned silly pledge, if you ask me. You are going to the Holy
Land to be killed and have your guts fed to the carrion birds and
worse. What harm is there in a little fucking beforehand?" He
looked up and called, "Giuliana! A cup and wine here!"

Elisabeth scowled at him.

"Little prig," Ruggiero muttered.

Ruggiero jerked as if shoved aside and a
woman appeared squeezed in beside him and Ragnar, whose own
attention was on a slip of a girl he had on his lap and was
tickling, making her scream with laughter. Elisabeth found herself
staring at the serving-woman who leaned forward to pour wine from a
pitcher. There before her eyes and barely obscured by the woman's
tight bodice were two magnificent breasts the like of which
Elisabeth had never seen before on anyone other than some old
peasant woman and these were taut, full and not hanging to her
waist. Her jaw dropped.

Ranulf laughed. "This is Giuliana and her
face is several inches above where you are looking."

Ragnar finally noticed the newcomer and
leaning in front of Giuliana said to Ranulf, "It looks like your
suspicion of our fey young friend was groundless, my friend."

"Indeed," the leader chortled. "In that case,
we needs must settle your own guess, my pale-eyed friend."

Elisabeth could not turn her face away from
the delicious prospect, though she had to look up now as the
breasts were raised on the standing woman. "What guess?"

A rich contralto with a musical lilt replied
from somewhere above the breasts. "That you have never been with a
woman, signore," it smiled, its German heavily accented.

Elisabeth's eyes went up, traveling from
those Alps and their deep valley to a white throat and thence to a
pair of lips so red and rich that they could only be matched by the
dark, lustrous eyes that sized Elisabeth up.

Ruggiero spoke to the woman in Italian. She
shook her head and replied in a peevish voice.

Ranulf reached to his belt and fumbled in a
drawstring pouch. He produced a gorgeous gold ring with a small but
brilliant red stone. "Not even for this?"

Giuliana's eyes were now as riveted on the
gem as Elisabeth's had been on her breasts, where they again
rested. "But I do not like to be their first. They come all over
you and then they weep. They fall in love and fight the men you
take to your bed." Nevertheless she asked, "Is it real?"

"See for yourself," Ranulf grinned and handed
the ring to her.

The woman examined it, leaning to a candle,
and then bit the stone. "Jesu Christe!" she swore.

"I told you," Ranulf retorted. "Now how about
it?"

Giuliana eyed Elisabeth. "You promise not to
get your spunk all over me?"

Elisabeth nodded dumbly. What little
consciousness that remained told her she had no spunk to spill, so
it was no lie.

"And do you promise not to fall in love and
think you own me?" the woman persisted.

In Elisabeth's ears it was an angel chorus,
but something seemed to be expected, so she nodded again.

"I promise," she breathed.

"What did he say?" Giuliana demanded. "I
couldn't hear him."

Ranulf grinned. "He said he wants to fuck
you."

"I should think that is obvious," Ruggiero
remarked. "And suck and bugger and lick your feet and whatever else
you will allow."

"All right," the woman said dubiously. "But
later. I have a customer who gets in first."

Ranulf reached out and deftly plucked the
ring from her hand. "The whole night. Or nothing."

She frowned. Looking over the heads at the
nearby tables she studied a man who seemed to be starting to fall
asleep. "Well, all right then. My customer appears to be about to
pass out anyway. Come along, lover boy. Let's get this over
with."

"The whole night!" Ranulf repeated, pulling
back his hand with the ring clutched in it as she reached for it
again.

She rolled her eyes and shrugged. "All right.
The whole night. But he won't last that long."

Ranulf winked. "Then you will have the night
off. And get paid." He handed her the ring.

Elisabeth's eyes followed the woman's
retreating form.

"Where did you get that ring?" Ruggiero
asked.

"I stole it off a bishop," Ranulf answered,
eliciting nothing but a nod from the Italian. "Well, what are you
waiting for. She's over there waiting for you." This was addressed
to Elisabeth.

Feeling the man's rough poke in her ribs,
Elisabeth, her mouth still open, stood and looked, first at Ranulf
and then at the woman who stood at the back door of the place.
Giuliana shook her head, then laughed and ran one palm
provocatively over her own breasts. A burst of obscene noises and
comments greeted the gesture. Elisabeth felt as if she were
tethered to the woman by an invisible thread. She advanced, bumping
into the table as if she thought she could pass through it. "Oh for
Thor's sake," Ragnar swore and stood. He came around the table and
took Elisabeth's shoulder, guiding her through the spaces between
tables until she stood in front of the woman. "Here, before he
comes in his britches. Take him."

Elisabeth let the woman take her arm and
propel her out the door into a courtyard. It was damp and full of
refuse, but if Elisabeth had to recount her evening's experiences,
she would describe it as a garden of fragrant flowers. Giuliana
guided her to a stairway up to a gallery, then across the creaking
and irregular floorboards to a door.

"In here," she directed.

Elisabeth stared into her face and shook her
head. The woman sighed and shoved her in. She shut the door behind
her.

"Do you want a light?" the woman's voice
sounded in the darkness.

Blind, Elisabeth asked, "A light? What
for?"

A deep musical chuckle told her where the
whore was. "So you can see me, you dimwit."

"Oh." Elisabeth was starting to realize where
she was and what was happening. "But I can't . . . "

A flint sparked and the scraps of linen in a
tinderbox caught and flamed. Giuliana tipped a lantern so the wick
caught. She blew out the flame in the tinderbox. She replaced the
horn cover on the lamp so a dull golden glow lit the space between
her and Elisabeth. She set the lamp on a table and looked at her
young knight. With her hands on her hips she said, "Can't what?
Can't get it up? That's my job." She came to Elisabeth and pressed
her magnificent breasts against the front of her tunic. Elisabeth
closed her eyes and moaned. The woman reached down to put a hand on
Elisabeth's groin. Elisabeth felt her mound cupped and moaned
again.

"Oh!" Giuliana exclaimed. She felt more
searchingly. "You are a woman! Do they know? I will get them good
if this is a jest to make a fool of me."

Elisabeth stepped back. "No, no, they don't
know. And please, I beg you, don't tell anyone. It's a secret."

Giuliana smiled gently. "Clearly." She looked
Elisabeth up and down. "Well, what do you want to do?"

Elisabeth looked about the dim room. She
could just make out a bed with the covers cast about. There was
little else. The single window was shuttered and only a thin sliver
of light showed where it was sagging on its hinges. "Can we just
stay here? All night? So they think I . . . you know . . . ?"

Giuliana gave her a wicked grin. "We can do
better than that. You can't fuck me, but we can still have some
fun. In fact, for once it will be fun for me."

She came forward and pressed her breasts
against Elisabeth's again. She reached up with her arms and,
putting them around Elisabeth's neck, pulled her stunned face down
to hers. She put her lips on Elisabeth's and took in a deep,
sighing breath. "Mmmm," she murmured and slid her tongue into
Elisabeth's mouth.

"But . . . but . . . it's a sin!" the young
knight protested.

The woman stepped back and put her hands on
her hips. "Who says?"

"Well . . . the Church."

"They are all buggering each other when they
aren't in here slobbering over my girls. And does it really say
making love is a sin? In the holy books, I mean?" The woman cocked
her head.

"Th-thou shalt not commit adultery, that is
what it says." Elisabeth's brain was too foggy to think further
than that.

Giuliana stepped forward again and reached a
hand to toy with Elisabeth's cropped tresses. "I thought adultery
is when you sleep with someone who is married already."

Elisabeth gaped. "Well, yes, but . . . " She
supposed she ought to tell the woman that we was in fact married,
but for some reason was reluctant say it.

The woman leaned in with her face to nibble
on Elisabeth's throat. In between nibbles she said, "I always
thought they just didn't want a lot of little fatherless bastards
running about begging. And we can hardly produce any bastards, can
we?"

"I guess not." Elisabeth raised her arms and
put one palm on each breast. They were firm to the touch. She
kneaded and moaned. Her thumbs found the nipples and discovered
they were as hard as little nuts. "Touch me there again," she heard
herself entreat.

"Let's get these clothes off you first," the
whore said. She expertly untied laces, raised the cloth, pushed
down other cloth, and all the while her hands stroked the flesh
through and then under it all. By the time she was naked, Elisabeth
was trembling all over.

"I want to see you," she begged.

Giuliana smiled languidly. "Then take off my
clothes."

Elisabeth reached around the woman to untie
the laces that closed the bodice down the back. This made her crush
the woman's breasts and she grinned. "You really like this?" she
asked. "With another woman, I mean."

"I like it, si, much more than with a man. A
woman will seek to please me."

"And men do not?" She pulled the bodice
forward so that it slipped over the woman's shoulders. The breasts
were now covered with only a thin linen shift. She took one in her
hand and flicked the nipple.

Giuliana groaned with delight. "Some do. Some
men know that giving pleasure makes the whole thing better. But
they don't have women's bodies, so they don't know what we like.
Have you never made love before?"

Elisabeth had loosened the tie that held up
Giuliana's skirt and let the garment fall to the floor. "Love? No,
I have never made love.," she answered bitterly. Elisabeth undid
the drawstring of the woman's shift and drew the neckline over her
shoulders to expose her breasts. She sighed as she saw them. She
leaned to take a nipple in her mouth, licking and sucking.

Elisabeth learned delights that night that
she could never have imagined. Giuliana's hands on her breasts made
them seem to swell with pleasure. After the woman had lowered
herself where they lay on the bed and started to tickle between her
lips within her mound's soft downy hair she felt as if someone had
touched her in her in a most sensitive place with cold steel. Her
orgasm came slowly, reaching inside her more sharply and strongly
than she ever had through her own tentative explorations. She found
herself crying out, sobbing, and moaning. She writhed on the bed,
then lay gasping.

"Let me do that to you!" she pleaded.
Spreading Giuliana's lips and taking in the rich aroma of her sex,
Elisabeth dipped her tongue in a salty-sweet woman's brew. She
tried to remember the technique the woman had used on her. Whether
she did it as well or not, the woman responded. As her cries and
moans became louder, Elisabeth begged, "Say, 'Fuck me, Elias!'" The
woman smiled and complied. Elisabeth hoped the mercenaries were
listening.

Settling into each other's arms, the two
women took turns resting their heads on the other's shoulder.
Elisabeth discovered she was thinking how this soft, warm cuddling
was almost-almost-as wonderful as what they had done first. The
comfortable laziness was far from chaste however, as they reached
to stroke some special spot on the other and the more active
lovemaking recommenced.

At the sound of a cockcrow, Elisabeth sat up,
unsure at first where she was. Then she felt and smelled Giuliana
next to her. Leaning over she put one arm around her and pressed
her breasts against the warm smooth back. Her hand rested on a
breast. She heard Giuliana sigh. "What is your real name, Elias?"
the woman crooned.