Authors: Natasha Knight
“Lady,” one of the men bowed as the pair approached her.
Gemma glanced from one to the other and back again. She gripped the blade tighter and with her other hand, reached for Morning Glory’s reins.
“Pretty lady,” the other man said as the two kept walking closer.
“What do you want?” she asked, straightening her spine, knowing the men only meant her harm. “If you’re here to rob me, I have nothing.”
One of the men went to the other side of her horse while the other one stood just two feet from her. She couldn’t back up as the creek was behind her, but she also knew she shouldn’t try to. Instinct told her she couldn’t let them see that she was afraid.
“Why would we rob a pretty little lady like you?” he asked, not yet seeing the blade she held low in her hand. “We saw you stop here and wanted to offer our assistance. It is unusual for a lady such as yourself to be out in the woods on her own. It…” he turned to his companion who had one hand inside her saddle bag. “It is unsafe,” he finished.
Glancing at the handful of coins, he pocketed them and eyed the bow and quiver of arrows. “Nice,” he said, picking out an arrow and touching his finger to the tip.
“They belong to my father who is only a few moments behind me,” she began. “I went ahead to let my horse drink. He and his men will be here in a moment. I’d suggest you leave before he finds you talking to me,” she said, her voice determined. She wasn’t even sure if what she felt was more anger than fear. These men were thieves. They likely wandered the land to prey on travelers.
The man before her laughed and took a step closer. “We’ve been watching you for the last quarter of an hour. You ride alone, dear lady.”
The other man replaced the arrow and walked to the other side of the horse to search that bag.
“Nothing,” he said, then turned to her, looking her over. “She’s pretty.”
The other man’s lecherous eyes drifted over her body, pausing at her breasts which were thrust outward from the corset she wore. She straightened her back even more in defiance as she narrowed her eyes at him. These men would do her harm. Gemma lifted her blade and held it up to the man.
“Give me back my father’s money and leave me,” she challenged, her eyes bright, adrenaline coursing through her system.
They looked at her, and for a moment, she thought she’d won. But in the next, one of the men began to laugh hysterically, doubling over as he did so. His friend stared at her, his mouth turning up into an evil grin.
“Excuse my brother,” he said. “He’s never been the brightest.”
“No, I could see right away you got the brains in your family,” she taunted, knowing it was not wise but unable to stop herself. She gestured with her knife that he should step back, now feeling the vulnerability of her position.
The one who’d been laughing straightened, his face now completely serious as he glared at her. The change between hysterical laughter to this was more than a little frightening. Her body began to tremble suddenly under that man’s evil, crazed look. His eyes still on her, he put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. A few moments later, a tired-looking horse came trotting up to them.
“Looks like you get your own horse for a change, brother,” he said, still looking at her as he did. He mounted his horse.
Gemma made to run, but the one who was still standing caught her easily. She turned and thrust the blade at him, but regretted it immediately when he grabbed her wrist and twisted it from her hands, bringing it to her face.
“Don’t mess up her face yet,” his brother said, catching his arm. “Give her here, we’ll teach her some manners when we get home.”
“No!” she yelled, struggling to free herself as the one brother lifted her to the other one. He trapped her in front of him on his horse, his hold incredibly strong, too strong for her to free herself. “Let me go!” she yelled, biting at his finger when it came close enough to her mouth.
“That hurt, whore,” he said, wrapping his hand around her throat and pressing his face to the side of hers. “Don’t worry, you’ll pay for it.”
He pulled her wrists together and held them out for his brother to bind them. She struggled, but between the two of them, was powerless as one brother tied her wrists to the saddle of the other brother’s horse.
“Now there is something very pretty,” the man behind her said, glimpsing the stones on her bracer when the sleeve of her shift fell back.
“I don’t want any trouble! Please. Keep the money. Just let me go!” she found herself begging now as she watched the other man drop her knife into Morning Glory’s saddle bag and mount the horse. They ignored her and rode out onto a different path than the one she had been traveling. Thoughts of her sister warred with images of what these men would do to her, and Gemma cursed herself for leaving Sir William like she had. She was powerless now. They would rape her, and she knew if they stopped there, she’d be lucky.
They rode for an hour toward the east, and Gemma watched where they took her, listening for any sign of other riders, of Sir William, but heard nothing.
Their approach to a village brought her hope, but upon entering it, that hope was gone. It was deserted. All but one of the few remaining structures were broken down, and no one was in sight.
“We’ll put her in the pillory. I’m hungry,” the one behind her said.
The structure came into her view as they approached the far end of the abandoned village. Gemma’s heart raced, and her whole body beginning to tremble. They were going to lock her in a pillory. She’d be at their mercy, they could do what they pleased, and she’d not be able to defend herself.
They brought the horses to a stop, and the brothers dismounted, the one behind her releasing her from the saddle and pulling her down unceremoniously. They both walked over to the pillory, the one dragging her with him.
“Let me go!” she yelled, managing to kick the one holding onto her.
He turned to glare at her. “Don’t make me mess up that pretty face! Be careful!” he warned.
She glared back but didn’t move to strike him again.
“Hold her while I get this bracer off her,” the other one said.
His brother complied, holding her tightly by the arms as the one unbound her wrists then slowly stripped her of the bracer she’d only just received that morning. Gemma now added guilt to her list of worries as she remembered Sir William giving her the gift just a few hours ago. She’d been so stupid to run off.
“Very nice,” he said, examining the jewels.
The other man pulled her over to the pillory and pushed her head down into the center space while holding her hands behind her back.
“Make it easy on yourself, whore,” he threatened. “Or I’ll be whipping you later.”
She responded with another tug at her wrists, and he pushed on the back of her head roughly to hold her until his brother could help. Within a matter of moments, she was trapped, and the men stood back and smiled. She glared at them, feeling both the utter humiliation and the helplessness of her predicament, her wrists and head trapped, her body bent forward, trapped.
“Not so much fight in you now, is there?” the one asked.
“Let’s eat,” the brother said. “We can play with her afterwards. She’s not going anywhere.”
The brothers turned to go, and Gemma watched them. It was all she could do as tears of utter hopelessness threatened. How was she going to get out of this?
* * *
Sir William watched the two men make their way into one of the old structures in the village. He then turned to look at Gemma. Anger, frustration, and relief at finding her battled within him. She had brought this on herself and had, once again, taken time from their mission. Her sister’s life depended on him, and now she had found herself her own trouble. Trouble he would have to extricate her from.
He dismounted. He needed to rescue her, but he also wanted to make sure these two men wouldn’t be doing this to anyone else again.
Drawing his sword, he walked to where Gemma would surely see him, and she did, immediately. He could see the hope in her eyes even from the distance between them. Putting his finger to his lips to ensure she remained silent, he went to the door behind which the men had disappeared and kicked it open.
“What the—” one of the brother’s turned.
The other threw the knife he was holding at Sir William, who managed to duck out of the way so it struck the frame of the door behind him. He reached for it without taking his eyes of the men and pulled it free from the wall.
“Gentlemen,” Sir William spoke. “I believe you have taken something that belongs to me,” he said walking inside.
“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” one of them said, drawing his sword and walking toward Sir William.
“You sure you want to fight?” he asked the man.
“Oh yes, I’m quite sure,” the man answered.
Sir William smiled and raised his sword to touch it to the other man’s. In the next instant, the three of them were outside, and the fight began, two against one.
* * *
Gemma watched in horror as the three burst out of the house and onto the street before her. All three had swords drawn, and the two men were coming at Sir William. They weren’t as incompetent as she had imagined them to be, and she found herself screaming warnings more than once as the three lunged and struck, the sound of metal on metal clashing in the still air.
The two men challenged Sir William, but he could hold his own. Gemma realized how well-trained he was when at one point both brothers were lunging and giving him almost no room to strike but only left him defending, she watched him throw a small dagger he held and catch one of the brothers square in the chest.
“No!” the brother called out as the one who had been hit stumbled backwards, dropping his sword and clutching the dagger lodged inside his chest. She watched as he fell backwards and his brother dropped to his knees next to him. He pulled the dagger out, but from where Gemma stood trapped, she knew it wouldn’t matter. The damage was done.
Sir William held his sword to the neck of the man on his knees. Gemma couldn’t hear the words they spoke, but once the body of his brother lay still, the man rose to his feet. Sir William made him drag the dead man’s body to his horse, and there he had him haul it over the animal’s back. The man then mounted their tired-looking beast, and with one swift strike from the flat of Sir William’s sword, the horse took off fast into the woods.
Once all trace of them had disappeared, Sir William turned to Gemma.
“Oh, Sir William! I’m so happy to see you,” she began. “How did you find me?” she asked, watching his face as he approached her. His unsmiling face.
Without a word, he set his sword down against a nearby post and came to inspect her hands, her wrists, her neck.
“If you’ll lift it off, I can move again. This is the worst thing… what are you doing?” she asked when he went behind her.
“You could have been killed,” he said, his voice tightly controlled. “And have you considered what you have cost your sister?”
She gasped when in the next instant, he raised the back of both her dress and her shift high and tucked them inside the neck of her corset.
“What are you doing?” she asked again, her voice quiet, unable to turn her head to see. She now stood trapped in the pillory, that alone humiliating enough, but with her back bared—her bottom bared—she felt absolutely undone.
“Do you have any idea what your stubborn actions could have cost?” he asked.
She heard the sound of him releasing his sword belt.
“Sir William!” she yelled, her skin prickling with the realization of what he was about to do. “No, please!”
She hadn’t even processed the sound before leather burned its mark on the flesh of her bottom, the lash wrapping painfully around her hip. Gemma screamed with the stroke, trying to free herself but unable to.
“What will it take?” he began, striking again.
“Please!” she begged when the next one seared her bottom.
“For you to learn,” he continued, ignoring her cries altogether as he lashed her again and again. The next two lashed against her sit spots. Although the leather just touched her sex, the sting of it was so painful on so sensitive a spot that she felt as though she would pass out.
But she did not as he laid another six out, these on the backs of her thighs.
Gemma screamed with each stroke, and it was her only outlet since she was unable to move, trapped as she was. Her voice came out strange, uneven as she gave herself over to her punishment.
“What will it take for you to learn to obey?” These next six were the worst of all and Gemma’s body sagged forward. Each stroke came fast on the heels of the last, so she had not a moment’s reprieve.
“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry. Please stop, Sir William! Please stop!”
“Six more.”
“No! Please no!”
He paused for a moment and came up close behind her. His face touched hers as his hand gripped one buttock hard. She flinched and gasped, clenching her bottom tight.
“Do you have any idea how those men would have used you?” he asked, his voice a menacing whisper. “Do you know what they would have done to a girl like you?” He now gripped both buttocks, pulling them apart, his fingers finding her sex.
“Please don’t!” She stilled, tears streaming from her eyes.
“Do you know what they would have done to you here?” he asked, his breath again on her neck, her ear. His fingers touched the opening of her sex, then his thumb and forefinger found her nub. He rubbed.
She gasped, her eyes going wide, her body perfectly still. This sensation was new and very different to what he’d just subjected her to.
“Or here?” he asked, and just as she began to relax into him, he released her clit and his fingers traveled up the cleft between her buttocks to her bottom hole.
At that, her breath stopped. His fingers were slick with her juices, and she felt the pressure against that most private entrance.
“Think of all the ways they could have had you,” he said as he circled her anus with his thick finger, pressing against it. “All while you were trapped here, naked, bound, at their mercy.”