Love and Sacrifice: Book Two of the Prophecy Series

by Tove Foss Ford

  “I can ask Hake to have the papers drawn up in time for you to sign the sale on your farm as Varnia Bayard,” Menders assured her.

  “Oh – and I have a name for the new farm as well. It would go with the land.”

  Menders hid a smile and nodded.

  “I’d like to call it Kindness Farm,” Vania said firmly.

  Simeridon, Artreya

  25

  Fool’s Gold

  F

  inally Kaymar was up and about again, and able to go back to his duties. Katrin had never been so grateful, because Hemmett had religiously stuck to his rostered duty times and would not accompany her after his regular hours. At every opportunity he left for several days in Samorsa.

  Borsen had discovered a tailor who would take him on as an unpaid worker, and was happy as a lark between his art classes and learning the secrets of Artreyan tailoring. So Katrin was largely left alone. If it hadn’t been for Kaymar’s recovery, she would have spent very little time anywhere but at her classes. Now she could go with her new friends to the Three Elks, as she had when Hemmett would still go there after his regular hours. Kaymar made no attempt to join in the group, but sat nearby, thankfully without a gun in plain sight.

  Without Menders escorting her, Ermand Godson was once again courting her. Kaymar didn’t comment.

  Ermand had come over to her as she sat with some of her other friends at the Three Elks and apologized for the scene in philosophy class on the day “inferior races” were discussed.

  “I really felt badly about it, dear Miss Emila,” he said very charmingly. “I could tell that you were very upset and trying to defend your friends. Unfortunately, people can be so intolerant.”

  “It was very upsetting, hearing that people really believe other people should be murdered.”

  ` “Yes, I know. Now, please tell me – how can it be that you have a brother who is a Thrun? I’ve seen the boy you’ve mentioned. He used to come to philosophy class with you. There is absolutely no resemblance.”

  “He’s the son of my father’s first wife,” Katrin lied glibly. “His mother’s side of the family was almost entirely Thrun, and our father is one-quarter.”

  “So that’s where you get the exotic shape of your eyes,” Ermand said, gazing at her intently. “Just a touch of Thrun? How delightful. May I sit down?”

  She slid over on the bench. He settled himself next to her, and talked to her for a long time until he said he had another class to go to.

  The next day, when Hemmett was acting as bodyguard, Ermand seemed distressed when he sat next to her at the tavern.

  “May I ask who the man escorting you yesterday is?” he said rather peevishly.

  “Who?”

  “The very good-looking man you left class with, blond and blue, sharp dresser?”

  “Oh! He’s my cousin and he also acts as my bodyguard,” Katrin said with relief. Ermand looked enormously relieved as well.

  “Two bodyguards! Your Pappa must be enormously rich,” he laughed.

  “It’s necessary,” Katrin said and left it at that. Again, he sat next to her and was very charming and funny, keeping the entire table laughing while Hemmett sat at the next table looking bored, polishing his gun and rolling his eyes back in his head.

  This became a pattern, and as time went by, Ermand began to escort her from one class to another. He always sat next to her at the Three Elks and in philosophy class as well. He defended her when she presented an argument in class.

  Hemmett acted as if Ermand didn’t exist. Katrin ignored him. He refused to join in whenever she was with her friends, even though she asked him to. From time to time he would say ‘your servant’ sarcastically. She’d apologized and was tired of it all.

  After a few weeks, she was quite sure Ermand was in love with her. She got very giddy when he came up to her; her heart turned over when he smiled at her. He was so fascinating! He finally stole a kiss when Hemmett was looking the other way and she thought she was going to faint.

  “Couldn’t you just give him the slip some day and come and spend some time with me?” he would ask plaintively whenever Hemmett got up at the end of his duty shift, looking pointedly at his watch. Katrin would have to go with him and then would be stuck at home for all the evening hours, when she could have stayed with her friends.

  She’d tried to get Menders to change Hemmett’s shift, and Menders had compromised with two hours, which gave her a little more time. Hemmett had agreed to it, but refused to stay later, so she always had to leave just as things were getting to be fun.

  One night she’d had enough. When Hemmett stood and looked at his watch, she went over to him.

  “Please, can we stay a little longer?” she asked. “I really want to talk to some of these people.”

  “Can’t do it,” Hemmett answered cooly. “I’m finished for the day. Get Kaymar to bring you back.”

  “It’s his off duty day. Please, Hemmett?”

  “I’m sorry, no.”

  Katrin wanted to slap him. It was so unfair! He could go wherever he wanted and do whatever he wanted but she had to do what he said!

  She stormed back to the table to say good-bye and to get her jacket, which was hanging on the back of her chair.

  “Oh no! Can’t he be reasonable?” Ermand protested, holding onto her wrist.

  “I’m sorry, I have to go,” Katrin sighed. Suddenly he looked wicked, leaned over and whispered something to the young man next to him. The young man nodded, got up and wandered around behind Hemmett, who was tapping his foot impatiently and looking around the tavern.

  “When I say run, run,” Ermand whispered. Just then his friend smashed his beer tankard on the floor behind Hemmett.

  “Run!” Ermand yelled, as Hemmett wheeled, his pistol drawn. Ermand grabbed Katrin’s wrist, she snatched her jacket, and they dashed out the side door nearby and down the alley while the tavern erupted into shouting and laughing behind them.

  ***

  Two hours later, Katrin sat up in Ermand’s bed, feeling ill. She was fighting tears, but refused to let them fall. After all, she’d made the decision to accept his offer to go to bed with him, after much fevered kissing and caressing, which had felt wonderful. So why had that stopped? Why had it all became so painful?

  Worse, Ermand was treating her as if she’d done something wrong. She’d asked him was why she was feeling a lot of pain as he thumped away on top of her, not even looking at her, but at the wall behind the bed. She felt bruised and as if her insides had been damaged.

  “It must be something wrong with you. No-one else has ever complained,” he replied rudely, getting up and walking across the room to get a dressing gown, kicking the mess of papers and other trash on the floor out of his way as he went. She’d been shocked by the condition of his rooms, which were obviously never cleaned. The bed smelled sour. Suddenly all she wanted was to get out of it and away.

  She wondered if her legs would hold her. She’d been so relieved when he’d finally finished thrashing on top of her. She moved her legs a few times, then slid over to the edge of the bed and stood up. She saw to her dismay that she’d left a streak of blood on the sour sheets.

  “Oh for the Gods’ sake,” Ermand said as he saw it. “Why didn’t you just not do it if you were in the middle of a cycle?”

  “I’m not,” Katrin said heatedly. “It was the first time I’ve done this, you idiot!”

  He looked at her, his jaw dropped. She rapidly gathered her undergarments and began to drag them on. She struggled with her corset and then asked him to help her.

  “I don’t know how the stupid thing works. Artreyan girls don’t wear corsets like that because they aren’t great frigid cows,” Ermand replied meanly. “Too bad you don’t have one of your bodyguards or your nancyboy Thrun brother here to take care of it.”

  Katrin tried not to sniffle, laced her corset in front and wrenched it around, then tried to pull it snug. She finally tied it as best she could and pulled her shi
ft on over it, followed by her dress. She wanted desperately to wash. She could feel her blood and the mess he’d left soiling her drawers, but it didn’t look like there was anything like a washstand in the place. She began pulling on her stockings, wrestling her dress out of the way. It was harder to put them on after the dress, but she hadn’t wanted to be nude in front of him for another second.

  “Aren’t you getting dressed?” she asked. He was still standing around in the dressing gown, which made him look like a plucked chicken wearing a dress. For all his posturing and believing he was a very fine fellow, his body was soft and flabby. It was obvious he’d never done a tap of work in his life. She didn’t expect everyone to be built like Hemmett, Menders or Kaymar, but there was something unwholesome about the way the flesh hung on Ermand Godson. Well look around, he couldn’t even be bothered to clean up his own home. The most exercise he got was flapping his jaw.

  “Why should I get dressed?” he sneered.

  “I’ll need someone to go with me. I don’t know my way around this part of town,” she said, horrified.

  He shrugged. “I have an appointment later and I don’t particularly feel like squiring you around. The problem with you is that you’re spoiled. You have all those men constantly following you, like dogs, dancing to your every whim. Well, I’m not a gun for hire. Mordanians are so obnoxious!”

  “So why did you want me to come here?” Katrin gasped, hands on hips.

  “I thought with all that Thrun talk you might be good in bed, something different. If I’d known you didn’t have any responses and were numb below the waist, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

  “I’ve never even done this! I didn’t know what to do!” Katrin protested.

  “You’re making me tired,” he pretended to yawn. “Run along to Pappa now, I have things to do.” He deliberately turned away. Katrin thrust her feet into her shoes and pulled on her jacket before she got out of the messy rooms as fast as she could.

  On the street she looked up and down frantically. They’d turned so many corners and gone down so many alleys that she had no idea where she was.

  A woman with a basket of flowers came by.

  “Have a pretty nosegay, young lady… why dearie, whatever is the matter?” The sharp faced flower seller looked closely at Katrin, who was wiping at her eyes with the backs of her hands.

  “I don’t know how to get home,” Katrin said. “I don’t know this area.”

  “Where do you need to go, love? Feller trouble, is it? Don’t shed so many tears for ‘im, ‘e’s not worth it.”

  Katrin told her the district the house was in.

  “You’re a ways from there,” the woman mused, shaking her head. “Go down four blocks, take a right and then a left right after that. You’ll be out on The Avenue then. You can ask directions from there. Be careful, love, this ain’t the nicest neighborhood and it’s darker’n a stack o’ black cats tonight.” The woman turned and went on, obviously deciding Katrin didn’t need flowers.

  Four blocks, then a right, then an immediate left, Katrin thought, rushing in the direction the woman had indicated, watching for the end of the block.

  Someone reached out of an alley, grabbed her and dragged her off the street. A hand was over her mouth so she couldn’t scream. Another hand held both wrists, so she couldn’t get her knife. She’d stopped carrying her gun some weeks ago, when Ermand had seen it and been shocked and disgusted that she would carry a weapon at all.

  She struggled and kicked, but her captor was much larger. Her strength gave out quickly. She was already exhausted from struggling against Ermand’s souless lovemaking. She tried to catch her breath, hoping it would help her battle on.

  “That’s exactly what could have happened and it wouldn’t have been me!” Hemmett’s furious voice hissed in her ear. He spun her to face him and then shook her in a frenzy of rage.

  “You stupid, stupid girl!” he ranted. “You could have been killed! How dare you do something like this when I’m responsible and guarding you? How can you treat me this way, Katrin, after all those hours I’ve sat there watching while you waste your time with those stupid people? Am I just your servant now? I hope he was worth it, Katrin! I really hope he was worth risking your damn life for! You’re going to have a hells of a time explaining this stunt to Menders!”

  “’Ere! Calm yourself, young feller!”

  Hemmett released her. Katrin looked round to see the silhouette of the flower seller at the entrance to the alley.

  “It’s all right,” she gasped as the woman walked toward them. “He’s not the one who hurt me. He’s my brother.”

  “Looked like you was tryin’ to rattle her bones, young sir. Bad way to be treating a little sister what’s been hurt,” the flower seller scolded. “Now, you walk along, get her to home. And hold your temper!”

  Hemmett’s breath rasped loudly and his hand was shaking as he grabbed Katrin’s arm. He nodded curtly to the flower seller and started to walk along, fast, so Katrin had to struggle to keep up.

  She finally gasped for him to stop and grabbed a lamp post, clutching at a painful stitch in her side.

  “Please, Bumpy,” she said when she could draw breath. Hemmett looked at her. It was obvious he was still beside himself. He whistled down a cab and put her in it unceremoniously, climbed in after her and gave the driver the address of the house.

  “Wasn’t he gentleman enough to take you home after rutting with you?” Hemmett growled, glaring out the window.

  “Please,” Katrin whispered. He fell silent, though she could see he was clenching his fists so hard his fingernails were cutting into his palms. When his face was illuminated by a street lamp, she could see traces of tears around his eyes.

  They pulled up befor the house. Hemmett lifted her down from the cab and pushed her before him into the house.

  Menders jumped to his feet in the lounge and stood there looking at her. Incredible relief had crossed his face when they came in, but then he became expressionless.

  “I found her wandering down one of the streets in the student quarter,” Hemmett said, his voice harsh with rage.

  “Katrin, did you go with this man willingly?” Menders asked, his voice quiet in the room.

  “Yes,” Katrin whispered.

  “All right. Hemmett, track Kaymar and Ifor down, tell them that she’s home and all right. I understand your anger and sympathize completely, but if you ever manhandle Katrin again, as I just saw you do, you’ll answer to me.”

  Hemmett nodded crisply and went back through the door. Katrin sank down on a chair and shuddered with relief that he was gone.

  “Uncle, I’ll leave you now. I’m glad you’re all right, Katrin.” Borsen’s soft voice made her look up in surprise. He’d been sitting with Menders but in her humiliation, she hadn’t noticed him. “I’ll let Auntie know she’s back safe.”

  “Thank you, Borsen,” Menders said, his eyes still on Katrin.

  A few moments later Eiren rushed into the room, put her arms around Katrin for a moment and kissed her.

  “Thank the gods, darling,” she whispered, stroking Katrin’s hair. “We were so worried.” Then she was gone, stopping to kiss Menders on her way back to their room, leaving Katrin alone with him.

  Katrin heard Menders walk across the room and back and then sigh. He was looking out the window.

  “Hemmett is coming back with Kaymar and Ifor, so we’ll wait for a few minutes,” he said. “Would you like some water?”

  Katrin nodded mutely. He fetched her a glass, giving it to her as the door opened and the three men came in. Katrin could tell they were all furious. They nodded briskly as they acknowledged her and Menders and then went to their respective rooms. Finally, she and Menders were alone.

  “Now – are you all right?”

  “Yes,” Katrin whispered.

  “Do you need to see Franz?” Katrin shook her head.

  Menders settled into a chair and sighed.

  “Katrin, Hemm
ett was terrified. He thought you’d been abducted. You and this man left absolutely no trace because of the way you went. No-one saw you go. It wasn’t until he beat this Godson’s address out of someone that he even began to get close. I have seen Hemmett in many moods but never terrified to the point of weeping. This behavior is so beneath you, my dear.”

  “It was… it was impulse, Menders, and I’m sorry that I did it. If I could relive it, I would never do it,” Katrin said.

  “I realize that. All I have to do is look at you to know you have not had a transcendent love experience,” Menders said gently. “But Katrin… you treated Hemmett like a stray dog you were trying to get away from. He doesn’t deserve that, no matter how strained things are between you.”

  “I… Menders, please believe me. It wasn’t my idea and it wasn’t intended to hurt Hemmett. I didn’t want to leave to come home but I was getting ready to go. Ermand had a friend of his make a distraction and said ‘run’… and I did. I didn’t plan to do this and I’ll explain that to Hemmett.”

  “That’s good enough for me. Just rest a few minutes now and then I can recommend a hot bath.” He managed a smile, though she could tell he was still angry and had been very frightened.

  She sat back and sipped the water, trying to clear her head, but there was far too much coursing through it. The bruised feeling was easing, but she was still very sore.

  “Menders – is it supposed to hurt?” she asked in a very small voice.

  He looked at her as he used to when she was small and hurt and there wasn’t much he could do about it.

  “It can,” he said slowly, “for the woman, the first time, if care isn’t taken. If the man is considerate, takes his time and makes sure the woman is responding, it shouldn’t be painful at all.”

  “I know about that, but this is more like being bruised way up inside me.”

  “Ah. I’ll bluntly tell you that’s the handiwork of a man who is either an idiot or completely inconsiderate,” Menders sighed. “I’m sorry, little princess, but it will pass. Now tell me, did he use a preventive?”