"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 woma
n 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.
"Elisabeth," she whispered.
"Grazie, Elisabeta," the woman said.
She turned her head to be kissed. Elisabeth did as she was expected.
They both started when a fist hammered on the door. "Elias! That's enough. Time to get mounted." It was Ranulf's voice, interrupted then with guffaws.
Ruggiero's voice jested, "Don't tell him to mount. In fact, he probably already is in the saddle." More laughter.
Elisabeth called out, consciously deepening her voice. "Can't you wait? I will be out in a minute."
Three male voices made lewd sounds.
"All right, but hurry. Conrad wants to get back on the road."
"Already?" Elisabeth groaned.
After a short time, the door to the room swung in. Elisabeth, fully clothed, stood with a mostly naked Giuliana in her arms locked in a deep kiss.
The four men out on the rickety gallery stared. The whore had her hands clasped on Elisabeth's buttocks. "Come back, my lord, I beg you. I have never been fucked like that before. I want it again and again."
Elisabeth gratefully smiled into the woman's twinkling eyes. "I already did that. All night." She bent in for a last long kiss. "Arrivederci, bella," she said gently, then turned to the mercenaries. "Well, what are we waiting for?"
The men took the steps two at a time. Passing through another door into an alley, Ranulf and Ragnar put their arms around Elisabeth's shoulders, Ruggiero and Thomas throwing theirs over each other’s. "Hail the conquering hero!" Thomas began to sing.
Elisabeth stopped dead. She stared at Thomas. "You have an incredible voice!"
Thomas dipped his chin in acknowledgement and switched to a song about a man who seduces every nun in a convent. Ranulf, Ruggiero and Ragnar beamed at Elisabeth. They patted her on the back, made rude noises, and did not even try to hide their admiration.
Ranulf said in Elisabeth's ear, "Now be honest, what did you pay her to say that?"
Elisabeth smirked. "I paid her nothing. I had nothing in my purse."
Ranulf raised his eyebrows. "Well, I shall ask you to give me some tips sometime. I've known Giuliana for years. She never said anything like that to me."
Elisabeth beamed. "I will be glad to share my secrets," and thought how she would hold her best secrets back. They would be of no use to him.
Back at their inn Albrecht ran up to Elisabeth. "Where were you? What happened to you?"
"I'll tell you later. Have you gotten the horses ready?" Elisabeth just walked into the inn to retrieve her things.
Beginning the long tedious ride south through Italy, a journey that would take some weeks, Albrecht noticed that his lordly companion seemed troubled. He waited for her to share what concerned her, but when she did not, he took the initiative. "My lord, you and frowned ever since we left Bologna. I wish you would tell me what happened there, when you disappeared."
Elisabeth frowned. "It's just that I am not sure."
"Not sure what happened? Were you drunk? He pursued.
"Yes, well no. I mean..." She sighed. Leaning to speak in a low tone, she explained, "Ranulf took me to a brothel."
Albrecht stared back at her puzzled. Then his face cleared, and he said, "Oh. You mean, he took you to a whore." Her exasperated look and nod made him bark out a laugh.
"It's not funny, Elisabeth protested.
"It's not supposed to be funny," he jested, then thought better of it. With ill-concealed curiosity he asked, "So, what happened?"
She swallowed hard, looked about anxiously and went on. "What is supposed to happen with a whore."
His eyebrows shot up. "Well done! But, um, how?"
She glared at him. "None of your business. But there is something I can't help but wonder about. I mean, I really liked it. Really, really liked it," she emphasized.
"And that is bad... how?" he pursued.
She looked up and around as if searching for words. "Why did I like it? Is it because what Reinhardt did to me turned me against men?"
Albrecht shook his head. "Didn't you tell me that Magdalena told you that it is about whom you desire, not whom you don't desire. A preference, I mean."
Elisabeth gave him a speculative look. "That maybe I just prefer women, just as you and Elias prefer men?"
He nodded. "Mayhap twins can share that, um, proclivity, as well as all the other things."
She tilted her head to one side to consider his words. "I wonder... I mean, why not? So it may not be that Reinhardt turned me into a sodomite, but that I am one naturally." She looked up sharply at his laugh. "What's so funny?"
He looked contrite. "I am sorry. It's just that I don't think women are called sodomites." He took on an uncertain expression. "Or are they?"
She grinned wickedly, "Well, whom do you want to ask about that? Black Beast? Alain?"
His disgusted face made her laugh. "We may never know. Whatever I am, I am content."
Through the winner months they rode south, marveling at the much more moderate weather along the east coast of Italy. The fields went fallow this time of year, but there was ample green in the shrubs and trees. Though it occasionally rained, Elisabeth found that she was rarely cold. She enjoyed the sight of the white-washed cottages and simple stone churches, the busy people singing while they worked, and the young children that ran alongside the pilgrim procession calling out greetings she could not understand.
Black Beast put out one arm long and thick as a tree trunk so that Elisabeth could squeeze in along the rail of the ship. Albrecht was right behind her, and there he remained.
The San Marco was as crowded as the crew's movements would permit. Their horses and other goods were coming along on another vessel, or so they were promised.
"Do you get sea sick?" Black Beast asked her.
"I-I don't know. I have never been on a ship." Elisabeth looked out over the water in the harbor at Brindisi. The San Marco weighed anchor and pointed her prow towards the open Adriatic as Elisabeth struggled to her place.
"You better stay here then. It's a mixed bag being at the rail. If you aren't going to throw up, it's probably better to give the place to someone who is. Otherwise that person will just throw up all over you," the big man said in a matter-of-fact voice.
She looked at him, disbelieving. Straining to look about her she asked, "This voyage will take how long?"
He looked down at her. "Longer than you can imagine."
As a commotion began behind them that drowned even the pandemonium of the boarding, she raised her voice to scream to him, "And we will have to stand the whole way?"
He chuckled, though even he could not have heard the sound. He leaned and shouted in her ear, "They must have room for the crew to work. Just wait. You will see."
The men pressing in behind her shoved her violently against the rail. She was glad Albrecht was the man whose body covered her own. Slowly as she was buffeted and pushed this way and that, she saw that the heads over her shoulder were moving into sections here and there. Albrecht clung to her side so they would not be separated. Black Beast stood rooted where he wanted to be, knowing no one would be able to move him. They lost sight temporarily of Alain and Gerhardt.
&nb
sp; Elisabeth was fortunate to have been shepherded to a spot where her back was to the forecastle. She suddenly realized that there would be no privy, no privacy in which to relieve herself. She wasn't even sure how the passengers would get to the rail to do so, no less have the means to do the even more private thing. Panic took her, but she was pressed in on all sides so could not act on that panic.
She turned to Albrecht, or where she thought he was, and found herself looking straight into the eyes of Ranulf, the mercenary captain. He grinned broadly. "We meet again, do we, stud?"
To her horror he turned to the man on his other side, someone she knew only by sight, and said, "You know Giuliana at the Settaducati? This fellow spent the night with her and she could hardly stand afterwards."
The man's eyes widened. He looked at Elisabeth with admiration. "I am honored to make your acquaintance, pilgrim. May I know your name?"
She cleared her throat. "Elias von Winterkirche, and our mutual companion here exaggerates."
"I am Jehan de Liege, and the woman has never even agreed to consider my gold."
Ranulf puffed out his chest. "I paid," he boasted.
Elisabeth felt a tap on her shoulder from her other side. "You know that man, Elias?" Black Beast muttered unpleasantly.
Turning her head she saw Albrecht next to her trying not to smile. Black Beast leaned in from in front of them. He had a surprising amount of space between him and his immediate neighbors. "I met him and his men in Mölk."
"What is this about the whore?"
Elisabeth searched for an answer, then fell back on a skewed sort of honor. "A knight of the cross does not speak of such things."
Ranulf leaned across her. "He doesn't have to. All of Bologna will know by now, and probably the whole Po Valley."
Going pale, Elisabeth wondered just what the whole Po Valley had heard. She realized two things, however: she trusted Giuliana. It didn't matter. She didn't think she would ever leave the Holy Land. She looked around sheepishly at Black Beast, expecting condemnation, but instead a sort of admiration played on his face.
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