Chapter 4: An Encounter

"Leave? B-bought me?" I was confused and scared and I just didn't know what to feel. And here I was thinking he rescued me, he just bought himself a slave.

"Yes, now get on." He looked irritated and angry.

"Wait a moment, I can't leave, this is my home. If only you'd give me a month, I will get you your money back. I can sew a hundred dresses and I can increase my prices so the..."

"Quiet!" He snapped and I shut my mouth. "I've had a long journey searching for a wife and now I've found you, I have to get back to my business. Now come on." His wife?! My face felt hot immediately. I would be his wife? Just like that? Wait a moment, I didn't know this man and... marriage?! Yes, he was a fine looking young man with an impressive height and beautiful blue eyes and long dark brown hair he binded, but he was a stranger and certainly not from Durnca; I couldn't leave my home like that.

Getting impatient, he made to grab me but I avoided his hand.

"Hold on, Sire, I am pledged to another; I can't be your wife." He stared at me for a moment as if he didn't believe me.

"I can send for my betrothed if you don't believe me." I tried to walk away but he grabbed me.

"I don't have time for your lies, Lady. I am certain you are not betrothed to anyone, else your father wouldn't so mindlessly give you away like that. Also, you have no betrothal necklace on." I cursed under my breath. If only I had accepted Albert's necklace, I wouldn't...

I shrugged away from his grasp.

"I am a free woman, I belong to no one." I said, throwing my chin up in defiance. He got more angry and drew his sword, pointing it at me.

"You belong to me and that should be the last thing I hear you say unless I say otherwise. Now, get on the damned horse!" I gulped my fear and let him give me a boost up the horse. He got on behind me and kicked the animal, leading us out of Durnca and away from my life.

It was a ghostride as I didn't say a word; he didn't say anything either, just kept the horse straight ahead as we went farther away from Durnca. He seemed to be thinking hard about something as his breathing was laboured and his body felt rigid against mine.

We remained that way until we got to a small town and we stopped at an inn. He interacted with the hostess and we were given a room on the first floor. Sharing a room with a stranger?Just how did I go from being a free independent woman to a...

"Go in." He said to me under his breath. He was holding the door open for me. I went into the room, it was wide with a big bed, a screen door and a bathtub; it must have cost a lot of coins to rent for a night.

"I've asked that water be sent up along with food, you should take a bath and eat." He was saying to me as I realized he wasn't entering the room. We won't be sharing the room after all?

"I have something urgent to attend to so I will be gone for a short while." Then he narrowed his eyes at me. "This town's people aren't as nice as your drunken friends, so don't try to do anything reckless like running away." I didn't say anything, just stared back at him. His eyes lingered on me for a moment, then he was gone, shutting the door behind him.

"I need to escape from this madness." I said to myself immediately, looking around the room. It had one big window but we were on the first floor of the Inn, jumping out the window may be a bad decision.

I went over to the window, opened it and looked down, it wasn't that far down and they were bushes below, they could break my fall and reduce the bruises. Yes, I'm going to run away.

"My lady?" I heard a girl's voice accompanied by a knock on the door. I had to act fast!

I climbed on the window, threw one leg out, then the next and I went falling into the bushes. Besides a few pricks from thorns, I was fine.

I looked up at the window, half expecting the stranger to be looking down at me with a glare; no one was there.

It was night so there were hardly anyone around. I didn't also have money with me, so how do I rent a horse that would take me back to Durnca?

First I needed to get away from that area just incase the stranger comes back; I wouldn't want him to find me. I walked alone in the night, hugging myself as the air grew chilly. A horse... I needed a horse. I came across a tavern with it's lights on and noise coming from the inside and I walked towards it. Going in, I saw it was full with men, drinking and making merry.

They all stopped what they were doing and the tavern grew quiet as they saw me; they were all giving me strange looks.

"Whatcha want missy?" A young mean looking girl who was in the middle of serving drinks before I walked in asked me, frowning deeply.

"I..." The whole room was still silent as they looked eager to hear what I would say.

"I need a horse back to Durnca. I don't have any money on my person but I will pay once I get to Durnca." I said into the silence and for a minute, no one said anything, then all of a sudden all the men began shouting, offering me their horses.

"Drunks." I said under my breath but I didn't even hear myself over all that noise. I turned around and left, not giving up on my search for a horse yet.

I had barely gone a distance from the tavern when I heard a horse approaching. Scared it might be the stranger, I dived behind a house and hid. The horse stopped and I heard someone jump down and footsteps approached me.

I held my hands together as my eyes were tightly closed, praying it wouldn't be the stranger and he wouldn't harm me with his sword.

"Say, you're going to Durnca?" I heard an unfamiliar voice and I opened my eyes, looking back at a man dressed in plain riding clothes and a straw hat, smiling at me. His mustache was rough and teeth were brown with too much alcohol.

"I travel to Durnca tonight, you can join me lady." I jumped out from my hiding place, joyful.

"Oh, yes please." The man gave me a small sinister laugh, but I didn't think much of it, I needed to go back home to pa and Hailey.

He helped me up his horse and he got on behind me, getting the animal to move.

I felt a bit safer as we left the little town, going deeper along the narrow part through the woods that led to Durnca. I knew it would take until the sun was up to get back to Durnca and I was already tired as I was not used to horse riding, yet I had to be alert and agile; I may have escaped one stranger but I was traveling with another and he looked even more scary than the fine gentleman.

"So, little lady, how are ya paying for my services?" The man asked and for some reason, he took one hand off the reins of the horse and placed it on my lap. I gently pushed it away, trying not to be rude.

"I have some money back home and I could spare a chicken. You will be paid well, so you don't have to worry." I said hastily, hoping he would not change his mind.

"Well..." He hand came onto my lap again. "I have an idea of how you can pay me without losing your money or your chicken." He snickered. "And you will enjoy yourself pretty well, I tell you." His hand started climbing up my body and as soon as he grabbed my breast, I screamed, kicking until I fell off the horse. The man came down behind me and held me tight, putting a hand over my mouth.

"Now, don't go attracting bandits. I told you you will like it, I always please my women." His free hand grabbed my breast again and even as I struggled, I couldn't get free from him. He licked my neck, leaving a long trail of saliva and he buried his tongue in my ear. Tears filled my eyes as I kept struggling to get away from him.

Is this it? Will I lose my maiden head to a dirty drunk in the middle of nowhere? I had rejected Albert for my papa's sake and even that same papa gambled and lost me to drunks who sold me to a total stranger and now I was going to be raped by an even worse stranger.

I couldn't let it happen; being the gentleman's wife was better than being a drunk's bitch. Even if it meant losing my happiness, I was better off married to the gentleman. But no man would have me for a wife if my maiden head was gone.

I put all my strength into wriggling and kicking to get away from the man and I successfully kicked him where it hurt. He released his grip on me for a second but that was enough for me to get free and run back in the direction of the town, screaming for help.

Unfortunately, I felt a pair of hands grab me and I fell on the ground with the man's weight on top of me. He turned me around and tore my dress, revealing my bodice as he grabbed the helm of my dress and was about to pull it up when I saw a glint of a sword at his neck.

"Step away." The voice was low and dangerous but it was familiar and how happy I was to hear it. It was the gentleman, wearing only his trousers and his hair glistened with water. In the moonlight, he was a magnificent sight to behold; his bare chest made my body ache in strange places and the muscles on his arms, they...

What was I thinking?! I was just nearly raped and I'm harbouring lewd thoughts about another man?

The rapist jerked away from me suddenly and ran away to his horse, jumping on the beast and speeding away into the night.

I was left alone with the gentleman.