‘I can’t,’ Elfrida said petulantly. ‘Mother has threatened me with a convent if I lose my maidenhead. It’s so unfair! You can jump on whomever you like whenever you like, whereas I have to wait till she finds me a suitable husband.’
‘Poor little princess,’ Baran mocked. ‘Don’t you feel sorry for her, Lia, missing out on all of this?’
Lia remained silent, fearing that any answer risked offending one or other of them, but Baran now seemed distracted by her swaying breasts anyway and sucked and chewed her nipples in turn. He was still thumbing her clitoris diligently, and a warm glow began to fill her belly, and though having received no instruction to do so she put her hands on his shoulders to help intensify the movement of her hips and groin. Their eyes met and he gave her a knowing smile.
‘Ah,’ he murmured softly, almost affectionately, ‘it starts, does it?’
‘Yes, my lord,’ she gasped, blushing furiously.
‘In that case, pretty Lia, let’s see if we can’t make you squeal.’
He began to move his hips beneath her and his thumb flicked faster. Lia too picked up the pace, and soon the pair were writhing in a passionate embrace, Prince Baran grunting, Lia sobbing, for the glow inside her permeated her limbs until she thought she must surely die of pleasure.
The climax ripped through her at the same instant he thrust hard up into her, and she did indeed squeal and hug him tight, prince or no. And then she slowly subsided, moving on him still but languorously now as Baran nuzzled his face into her throat, sighing contentedly and lightly kissing just below her ear.
‘Well,’ Elfrida said with mock wistfulness once the pair had become still at last, ‘that’s another heart broken, I expect. How can these poor creatures fail to fall for such a handsome, gallant man?’
‘You’re right,’ he said, ‘they’re always falling in love with me, the silly chits. Three have killed themselves over me; did you know that? I know it’s pathetic, but what can you do?’
He eased Lia to her feet and looked around for Karl and his clothes. It was true, Lia thought; the prince was handsome and a most skilful and accomplished lover, but she knew she could never fall in love with anyone so full of himself despite what Elfrida might think. Vanity and pride are not attractive qualities, even in a prince.
Baran left soon after with his man in tow, and Lia was jerked back to reality by Elfrida’s caustic tongue.
‘Don’t go getting any airs and graces, missy,’ she snapped. ‘You may have been fucked by a prince, but it doesn’t change a thing. You’re a bondmaiden and don’t ever forget it. Now get over here and finish what you started – and you’d better make me squeal if you don’t want a taste of the lash!’
That night, as Lia lay curled up on the floor in the cramped alcove off Elfrida’s bedchamber, she felt more lonely and forsaken than she had in her whole life. She missed Helma dreadfully, who seemed so far away she was more like a dream now than a real flesh-and-blood sister. She missed Durwin too, for she hadn’t seen him since her deflowering, and there had been no time afterwards for even a single word of affection as Velda had sent him straight back to the kitchen. His expression was one of sadness as he left them, and Lia knew he felt guilty about hurting her. It wasn’t his fault, of course, as he’d had no more say in what happened than she had. They were both puppets, dancing to Velda’s tune.
Alone with her sorrow, Lia sought consolation by stroking between her legs, though she feared it must surely be a sin to obtain pleasure in such a way, but to her guilty delight the pleasurable sensations stirred. She stroked faster, teasing her clitoris while inserting first one then two fingers. She closed her eyes and pretended it was Durwin touching her, but Durwin’s face turned into Velda’s, and Velda’s into Prince Baran’s, until she didn’t know who she wanted it to be. And then it didn’t matter, for she was wailing softly and shuddering on the floor as the orgasm swept over her.
As she sank back panting she heard a faint sound, and opened her eyes to find Elfrida standing over her. ‘Enjoy that, did you?’ the princess said tartly. ‘And just who gave you permission to masturbate, may I ask? It certainly wasn’t me, your mistress, was it?’
Having no answer, Lia shook her head fearfully and shamefully. Elfrida grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet, dragging her trembling bondmaiden through into her own chamber where she told her to wait. Elfrida went out and returned shortly with two men: her brother’s bondman Karl and a guard Lia recognised but whose name she didn’t know.
‘Sit there, you two,’ the princess ordered haughtily, pointing to a couch that stood against one wall. ‘There’s something I want you to see.’
The guard cleared his throat nervously. ‘I shouldn’t be away from my post, my lady, begging your pardon,’ he bumbled. ‘I’ll get in terrible deep trouble if the sergeant catches me here.’
‘You’ll get in worse trouble if you disobey me!’ Elfrida snapped. ‘Sit, I command it!’
The guard sat down hurriedly.
‘That’s better. And you,’ she waved her hand dismissively, ‘Karl, am I to have a problem with you, too?’
‘Not I, my lady,’ he said with a faint smile. ‘I am yours to command, as ever.’
He bowed and sat, and Elfrida then turned to Lia and fixed her with a cold stare. ‘Let these men see you for the whore you are,’ she demanded.
‘M-my lady?’
‘Strip off your nightgown, you fool. Remove it and show yourself to these honest fellows.’
With hands that trembled with shame Lia did so, standing naked and humiliated before them, unsure where to put her hands, knowing she would provoke Elfrida’s fury if she made any futile attempts to cover herself.
‘Show yourself, I said,’ the princess snapped. ‘What, you dare disobey me?’
Lia was close to tears, not understanding what it was her mistress wished her to do. Elfrida pushed her, propelling her towards the men.
‘Show them your tits!’ Elfrida growled, and Lia leaned forward.
‘Now your cunt,’ Elfrida said, and Lia straightened, placing her feet a little further apart, but sensing it might not be enough to satisfy the irate princess she spread her sex lips with her fingers.
‘You men,’ Elfrida said, ‘penetrate her.’
‘My lady?’ the guard said uncertainly.
‘Penetrate her!’ the princess snapped, sticking out her forefinger and jabbing it at each of them in turn. ‘I can’t say it any plainer than that, can I? Penetrate her!’
The guard reached forward and did just that, tentatively at first, then growing in confidence when the princess gave him a nod of approval. Lia endured the probing in silence, her cheeks aflame. For several minutes the bizarre tableau held, then Elfrida clapped her hands. ‘Karl, your turn now.’
The bondman was more confident right from the outset, using two fingers instead of one and frigging Lia rapidly. He even brought his other hand into play, pinching her clitoris, to Elfrida’s obvious delight.
‘Good,’ she said after a while of ogling the lurid activity. ‘Now I think I’ll let you fuck her. Lia, get down on your hands and knees like the filthy bitch you are. You men, sort out between you who gets her mouth and who gets the other end.’
Lia got down as ordered while the men held a brief, whispered discussion, but very quickly it was Karl who knelt in front of her and the guard who shuffled behind.
‘You… what’s your name?’ Elfrida asked him.
‘Gunther, my lady.’
‘Well, Gunther, I leave it up to you which passage to use. They’ve both been well poked of late, so should be equally receptive. And you, Karl, take no nonsense from her. When you climax she is to drink down every last drop, you understand me?’
‘Perfectly, my lady,’ he grinned. ‘Do you wish us to begin?’
Elfrida nodded smugly as she settled on the couch they’d vacated. ‘I do.
Yes, indeed I do.’
And so they did. Karl took his cock from his breeches and Lia, miserably accepting her fate, opened her mouth to receive it. As she did so she felt the guard’s cock clumsily nudge and prod its way into her vagina. He began to move rapidly and Elfrida told him to slow down. ‘This isn’t a race,’ she said petulantly. ‘There’s no prize for squirting first, so take your time and make her suffer her shame.’
So the two oafs fucked her in silence, gradually reaching a rhythm that suited them both, and even Elfrida held her tongue. In fact it was someone else entirely who broke the silence a few minutes later. ‘Princess!’ Velda called as she came hurrying into the bedchamber, ‘you must…’ She stopped dead at the sight in front of her, but only for a moment. ‘Princess, put on one of your cloaks. Something’s terribly wrong.’
‘Velda,’ Elfrida snapped, ‘how dare—?’
‘There’s no time to argue,’ Velda cut in. ‘Get a cloak, I say. Guard, return to your station immediately. Karl, your place is with your master. Go to him, quickly!’
‘What is it, mistress Velda?’ Gunther asked as he hurriedly straightened his clothing, looking hugely ungainly now all rising passions had been so rudely dampened. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘My chamber overlooks the main gate,’ she said as she helped the princess into a cloak. ‘I heard a cry and looked out. The sentries aren’t at their post, and figures are moving as shadows. I fear our enemies are within the walls.’
‘Saint Ivar preserve us!’ Gunter cried as he hurried out. ‘I must raise the alarm!’
Karl went too, presumably to Prince Baran’s chamber. Velda hustled a bewildered and suddenly rather frightened and pathetic princess out of the room, with Lia tagging along behind.
‘My mother and sister!’ Elfrida exclaimed. ‘What of them?’
‘I woke the queen and warned her,’ Velda said. ‘She ordered me to get you to safety if I could, and said she would warn the king and Magdalena. Hurry, princess!’
They ran to the main stairway and started down, and at that moment a frightful commotion broke out. From above came a loud clanging – Gunther, Lia assumed, sounding the alarm bell on the battlements – whilst from below came the sounds of fighting, the harsh clash of iron on iron, and the fearful sounds of men shouting and screaming in agony and throes of death.
‘Back!’ Velda cried. ‘Back! I fear we are trapped!’
Later, Lia was to wonder what came over her in those terrifying moments, and how she did what she did. She could but conclude that Gunther’s prayer had been heard, and Saint Ivar himself reached down from heaven and touched her. Surely nothing else could explain how she knew exactly where to go and what to do.
‘Follow me!’ she cried, with such force and conviction that the other two trailed after her, putting their trust in a lowly bondmaiden at a time of deadly peril.
Chapter Thirteen
Lia led them to the back stairs, the ones used by servants, and down they went with her leading the way. The sounds of fighting were fainter on this side, thankfully, but they went cautiously nonetheless, and they hadn’t gone far when they had a fright, for they heard someone hurrying down after them, heavy boots clumping on the steps; but then they stopped with an anguished wail from above.
‘The king is slain! They’ve murdered our king!’
The words struck Lia like a thunderbolt, shocking and terrible. Elfrida shrieked in distress and Velda put her arms about her and held her tight. ‘Courage, princess,’ she urged. ‘Courage!’
Having delivered the dreadful news the bearer of it went back up, whereas, fearful and staying close together, the three females continued on down. When they reached the kitchen Lia felt safer, though the danger was as great there as elsewhere. There wasn’t a soul in sight, and she presumed Holmann and the others were hiding. She half expected to find them in the dormitory, but when they got there they found it empty too, as was the laundry.
‘Put these on,’ Lia said, grabbing smocks and leather slippers and handing them to the other two. ‘Put everything else in here, even your rings.’ She indicated one of the wooden tubs in which Kerta did the washing, and without a word of protest, almost as though in a trance, they did as she told them. Lia then found a smock and slippers for herself and put them on. ‘Let down your hair,’ she said. ‘Just take out the pins and shake it loose. Leave it untidy, the messier the better.’
She helped Velda while Velda helped Elfrida, and when done they looked like nothing more than common folk, which was exactly the result she was after, and now she could explain her plan to them.
‘You’re servants,’ she whispered hurriedly. ‘You look like servants, now I’ll show you how to move like one.’ She took a few steps, head down, shoulders hunched as if expecting a blow. ‘Look no one in the eye. If anyone speaks to you flinch and shake your head as though you have no mind of your own. And carry something at all times; a pile of laundry, a jug of water, anything. No one pays attention to a servant about her chores. With luck we can pass through the gates and get to the town.’
‘Thank you, Lia, it’s a good plan,’ Velda said, seeming to recover her wits at last.
‘But my mother and sister,’ Elfrida bleated. ‘Baran, too. What will become of them?’
‘Lia is right,’ Velda said. ‘We have to get you to the town, and even out to the countryside if we can. If our soldiers are triumphant we can return with nothing lost. But if the enemy prevails…’
She didn’t finish her sentence for Elfrida sobbed and her eyes filled with tears. Lia could guess the fate of the royal family if the enemy – whoever they were – prevailed.
She found them some water jugs to carry, and the three fugitives made their way out to the ward. There were numerous bodies around, but no one alive of any persuasion. Lia led them across the ward, angling to the left rather than heading directly for the gate. They reached the wall and went cautiously forward, staying in the shadows of the lean-to huts.
‘Wait,’ Velda hissed. ‘Look…’
There were men at the castle gate, lots of men, each wearing a yellow surcoat with a diagonal black band over their mail and plate armour.
‘Osburg,’ Velda groaned. ‘Those are Torkel of Osburg’s colours. May the saints preserve us, and may God protect Attland.’
A small group of folk, a dozen or so of them, shuffled towards the gate, huddling close together for mutual support and comfort. They were dressed as travelling players, and Lia supposed they’d been caught up in the raid by sheer bad luck. One of them, an old man with a long grey beard, spoke to the soldiers with much bowing and wringing of hands, obviously pleading that they be allowed to leave. The soldiers relented finally, though not before the group had been searched and robbed of their valuables. And not all got out, for two females, younger and more comely than the rest, were taken into a hut by half a dozen of the soldiers for reasons that were plain enough.
‘We’ll never get through,’ Velda said in an anguished whisper. ‘Even if these disguises fool them they won’t let us pass. They’ll keep us for their own depraved use, like those two poor souls.’
‘I fear you’re right,’ Lia said grimly, ‘but we’re not finished yet. There’s another way. Come on.’
She led them back away from the gate, staying close to the wall as before. They hadn’t gone far when a man came running out of one of the huts with two Osburg soldiers in close pursuit. Lia and the other two shrank into the shadows and watched in horror as they caught him and clubbed him to the ground, kicking and beating him senseless. From inside the hut came a medley of sounds: a woman screaming, children crying, and men shouting and laughing. The two Osburg men went back in and Lia and her companions, shaking with fear, crept past.
A beacon now burned at the top of the keep, and by the light of its flames they could see yellow and black banners flying there. ‘The castle has fallen,’ Velda said hollowly. �
�All is lost.’
Elfrida sobbed again.
‘Perhaps not all,’ Lia countered. ‘There’s still a chance to get the princess to safety.’
She led them to the postern gate, hoping to find so insignificant an entrance unguarded, but there were men there too. Only two of them, true, but two were more than sufficient to handle three unarmed females.
‘We have to try; it’s our only hope,’ Velda whispered as they crouched in the shadows watching the guards. ‘I’ll distract them. While they’re busy with me you two slip out of the gate and get to the town, where you must hide.’
‘But what will happen to you?’ Lia asked in dismay.
‘If my disguise holds there’s a good chance they’ll keep me for themselves. If it doesn’t, and we have to assume the worst, then they’ll take me to whoever is in charge. When they realise who I am they’ll press me for information about the princess and anything else I know, but I’ll try to hold out as long as I can. When they do realise the two of you have escaped they’ll come after you, so you have to get well away from the castle, and leave the town just as soon as you can find a way to do so. More Osburg men will come, I fear, and nowhere will be safe. Get as far from here as possible. But don’t go home, Lia; that’s the first place they’ll look. If they break me I won’t be able to keep any secrets from them, including Three Elms village.’
‘Where shall we go, then?’ Lia asked plaintively.
‘I don’t know; and I shouldn’t, so I can’t tell them. You’ll have to decide. Try to do what they wouldn’t expect. You’re clever; you’ll think of something.’
Lia didn’t feel clever. She seemed to have used up all her cleverness just getting them this far, and now there wasn’t a single idea in her head.
‘Princess,’ Velda said, ‘you must follow Lia’s lead once you’re out of here. She knows the town and the country beyond as you do not. Do you understand me, Elfrida? Listen to Lia and obey her instructions.’
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