An Unlikely Savior

by Camille Oster

  “That was coupling,” he said still buried inside her.

  “That was…” she couldn’t even describe it. It was the best thing she had ever experienced. It spelled for a very bright and exciting future until her true situation dawned on her again. They didn’t have a future. At least she would die having experienced that, she thought.

  He pulled out of her and lay next to her in the tight space, pulling her into his arms. “Quiet now. Sleep for a while,” he said. To her surprise, she had no trouble drifting off to asleep.

  Tomas had no idea how long he’d slept, it was hard to judge in the dark space in which they lay. The street and the house seemed to be quiet and the shard of light from the window was gone. Virginie continued sleeping; her form snuggled into him and her hand resting on his abdomen.

  He had to find some way to save her. She was much too precious to die in some horrible way by sadistic and cruel Jacobins, and the blood thirsty mob. It was no longer a question of finding a ship here that would take her; they needed to escape this town. They needed to go somewhere a little less caught up in the fervor of the revolution. The problem was that it seemed to have spread to every part of the country. But there were ships all along the coast and maybe they just had to keep trying. He had a good amount of gold in his purse, pilfered from the Jacobian leader’s house. Someone would be happy to take it. Tomas also knew that there were people who didn’t believe in the revolution, or who thought that things had plain turned septic.

  They couldn’t stay here, they would starve in this hole and they would likely be betrayed if they left. People were angry and hungry, and would happily betray them just like the former Captain had.

  The only option they had was to make a run for it. He gently placed Virginie’s arm away from him so he could reach up and find the catch that kept the floor boards in place. He let his fingers search along the dark edges of the floorboard until he found it. It made a clicking noise when he released it.

  “Virgnie,” he said quietly patting her gentle on her soft cheek. “Wake up. It’s time.” She moaned and drew herself closer to him. She did not want to wake up. There were better things he could think of doing at the moment as well, as he felt her body seek warmth and comfort, but that would not help their situation. They needed to run and the best time to do it was when the streets were empty. Hopefully the soldiers would be few, with many of them having retired to their own beds that night.

  “We have to run now,” he said a little louder. He felt the tension fill her and he knew she was awake now.

  “It is safe?” It was a question he couldn’t readily answer.

  “It is night time, and we need to get out of town,” he said quietly as he moved the floorboards gentle and quietly out of the way. He stepped out of the hole and onto the cellar floor. Virginie followed and he then replaced the floorboards just as carefully. He didn’t want to give the hiding place away to anyone who didn’t know it was there. They could need it again, or someone else could.

  Every noise seemed to be amplified in the quiet space. The floorboards creaked as he walked toward the high window. It was very dusty and he had to smear some of it away with his hand to see out onto the street. There was no traffic outside and he heard no soldiers.

  “Let’s go now,” he said. “We will walk quickly and quietly to the edge of town and ignore anyone we see. Unless there are soldiers, then we must run. If I tell you to run, you must do so, and not look back. Do you understand?” She nodded. He could see the movement of her head, if not the features of her face in the dark of the cellar.

  “Take my jacket,” he said shrugging it off his shoulders. She’d lost her shawl and would be cold without it. It left him in just his linen shirt, but he was too on edge to worry about the cold, or even feel it.

  Virginie stepped toward him and embraced him. He wanted to forget his plan and just stay there, but he couldn’t because the soldiers would be back in the morning and they might not be as lucky then.

  “We have to go now,” he said and stepped away. He walked toward the stairs and she followed. He stopped just at the first step and turned to her. Things might go badly for them, there were no guarantees. He leant down and kissed her, in case it was the last time. He felt her soft lips yielding to him. She tasted absolutely wonderful. If there ever was a heaven in was in her arms at that moment. He couldn’t afford to think about that now.

  He pulled out of the kiss and steadied his resolve. He had to be cool and calculating if he was to get her out of this scrape. They walked up the steps as quietly as they could. The door creaked when they opened it, but no one came running. Tomas made sure he had his blade handy should he need it.

  The outer door was heavy and required some force to get it open. The street was quiet outside. It was very early in the morning, which was the ideal time. He closed the door behind him. If he closed it all the way, it would lock and their hiding hole would be lost to them, but if he left it open, he would put their savior at risk by leaving them and their property open for anyone. It may also inform the soldiers of who had helped them. He pushed the door closed the last bit and felt the click of the lock on the other side of the door. They were not going to come back, they were leaving. If they ran into trouble, it would be unlikely that they would make it back here anyway. He decided that he had to protect the old man who had helped them, and who may in the future help others.

  He turned down the street and Virginie followed. They walked quietly and didn’t make much noise. The main problem at this point was that he didn’t know for sure where they were. They had run in such a panic before, he had lost his sense of place by the time they found this street.

  They came to a small square that was quiet. Only the moonlight was guiding them along. He used the position of the moon to guide him as they reached the other side of the square and exited into another street.

  Tomas froze as he heard footsteps coming toward them. He pushed Virginie into a dark alley and waited for the single person who was walking toward them, whistling as he went. The man was making no attempts to hide himself or his presence. Tomas’ heart rate increase as the man came closer and he wrapped his fingers around his blade should he need it. But the man walked past, Tomas could see the man’s shadow cross them, but he kept walking not noticing the two people hiding in the shadows.

  When the man was far enough away, they resumed their escape. They kept walking briskly along the street.

  “I see them. Over there,” someone called. Tomas cursed. The soldiers had been lying in wait. He had made a serious mistake. The street erupted in noise and he started to run holding Virginie’s hand tightly to make sure she was keeping up.

  “They’re coming, Tomas,” she pleaded. The fear in her voice making it tremble. They ran down an alley and came out on another street. He could hear soldiers behind them again. They were gaining on them. He kept running and the walls of the buildings gave way to a bridge. Soldiers came around the corner on the other side of the bridge. They now had soldiers in front of them and behind them. They were cornered and they both knew it.

  Virginie realized that they were surrounded. They were caught. They had nowhere left to go. Tomas pushed her behind his back as he stood at the centre of bridge. She felt his warmth and strength because she knew that their freedom was not going to last and she might not get to be near him once the soldiers took them away. She would be able to bear much more of what lay ahead of her if she could just be near him.

  She wondered if she could plead with the soldiers to let him go. It was her they were after, maybe she could convince them to let Tomas leave. She could tell them that she’d just asked him to guide her and that he didn’t know who she was. She knew the likelihood of them accepting that was low, but it was the only chance she had.

  “We’ve been waiting for you to come out of your little hiding place,” one of the soldiers said smugly, slowly coming up the bridge toward them. “Knew it was only a matter of time. And what have we got here?”
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  Tomas didn’t answer. Virginie could feel the tension increasing in him.

  “Two little rabbits running,” the soldier continued. He was unshaven and his uniform was slovenly. “Nowhere to run now, rabbits.”

  Maybe there was a hope, Virginie thought, that the soldiers would just question them and let them go if they stuck to the idea that they were married and were just mere travellers, but she knew she was clutching as straws.

  Tomas turned to her and picked her up in his arms. She had no idea what he was doing. Suddenly she was flying through darkness. She had no comprehension of what was happening, but she was falling. There were moments of sheer panic that seemed to stretch out an eternity. There was a burning sensation and it took her a moment to realize it was cold, incredible burning cold and strange sound of bubbles around her. She was in water, black, cold water.

  She panicked in the cold water as the shock receded. She didn’t know how to swim. She flailed her arms trying to reach air, but the heavy woollen dress weighed her down and restricted her legs, she had little control against the current of the water. She was going to drown. She felt sheer panic and the increasing burning in her chest as her body screamed for air.

  Virginie’s mind was focusing on the single thought, that she needed to find the surface, but all around her was blackness. She couldn’t see the surface; she didn’t even know which direction it was in. The current was moving her around like a small doll.

  Then she felt arms around her. She fought them, not knowing what or who they were. Suddenly her head was free from the water and she could breath. She took a huge breath, but there was still water in her mouth and she ended up coughing violently.

  The arms held her tightly as she fought to grab hold of whoever was holding her. It felt like they were holding her down, when all she wanted was to get out of the water.

  Someone was calling her name. She was still trying to find something to grab onto, but something in her wanted to focus on the voice. She knew that voice.

  “You need to relax,” the voice urged. “I have you.” Tomas. She realized he was there and she searched for him. It took her a moment to realize it was him holding her. She still felt panic, but she let his voice sooth her.

  “I will keep you above water if you stop fighting.” She tried to do as he said, but it felt wrong. Something in her mind told her that she needed to trust him and to do what he said. She did trust him more than anything else in the world and forced herself to relax. It felt wrong, like she was letting herself drift under the water, but he held her. The water came up to her face and she felt the panic rise again, but she didn’t quite go under.

  She focused on Tomas’ powerful body behind her, trying to navigate the water. She would let him do what he wanted. If it killed her, then that was just how it was.

  Once she relaxed, the iciness of the water sank in. It robbed her of any heat and she was losing feeling in her limbs. She felt something beneath her legs. Pebbles scraped her skin. She reached out again and felt the bank of the river. She held on with whatever strength she had left, hauling herself out of the water.

  Her legs weren’t working right, but Tomas dragged her out of the water onto the bank.

  “We’ve lost them,” he said. “But they will be searching for us. We have to keep moving or we will freeze.”

  Moving was not what Virginie wanted to do. Everything hurt and she didn’t think she could stand let alone move.

  “Get up,” Tomas ordered. “We have to keep moving, or we will die.”

  Virginie tried to comply, but her limbs wouldn’t follow direction. Tomas grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up.

  “I can’t carry you, you have to walk. You need to move or you will freeze to death.”

  Virginie started to move her legs along and slowly got more traction. Movement came back and she started to support herself. There was nothing but black darkness around them. There were well away from the town and there were no buildings around, just vegetation and trees from what she could make out.

  “We need to run. We need to move away from the river.” They were running now. The cold was robbing them of body warmth. Virginie managed to start running awkwardly, but she couldn’t feel her body. Her dress was clinging to her like an ice-cold blanket, weighing down each step.

  “Don’t stop. Keep moving.” Every step was excruciatingly painful, but she had no choice. She knew instinctively that she would die if she stopped and not from the soldiers. She would be lucky if the soldiers found her alive. No, it was the cold that would kill her. It felt like death icy fingers grasping around her and it scared her.

  Chapter 9

  Virginie ran past the point of what she thought her body could take. She just kept going, one step at a time, ignoring the screaming pain as she could follow Tomas. Her lungs were burning, as were her legs.

  “There,” Tomas finally said. “Over there.” They changed direction and ran to where he was pointing. Virginie didn’t challenge, she just followed. He was pointing at smoke in the distance. It gently floated in the dark sky like a ghost.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a lime kiln.”

  “A what?” Virginie said through her chattering teeth. Her throat was burning with cold and exertion, too dry to speak properly.

  “A lime kiln. Or charcoal. Doesn’t matter. It is an oven that constantly burns. We need to go there.”

  Virginie had no idea what he was talking about, but she would follow him all the same. The smoke seemed a very long way away, but Tomas kept running. Virginie didn’t think she could make it that far, but she had no choice but to force her body forward. She couldn’t think of how tired she felt or how it felt like her throat was being ripped to pieces by the exercise, the cold air and her violently ragged breathing.

  She kept running, but to her despair, the smoke didn’t seem to get closer. There was hope, but she couldn’t seem to reach it. Her body was beyond weak now, she had nothing left. She didn’t know where she got the strength, but she put one foot in front of the other and refused to think about anything else. The smoke did seem to get closer and the knowledge gave her the strength to continue.

  She was completely exhausted when she got to the kiln. At this point, she was ready to stop, kiln or not. She couldn’t physically run any further. The kiln was a large hole in the ground with an unearthly glow coming out. It looked like a pit of hell coming out of the ground, the eerie glow surrounded by complete darkness. She could feel the heat of it when she got close. Her legs were unstable and she was about to collapse.

  “Not yet,” Tomas said. “Come.”

  He walked around the kiln to the other side. “Down here,” he said and walked down out of sight. Virginie took tentative steps to follow him. There was a deep depression at the other side of the hole, large enough for people to stand in. Tomas was standing down there and Virginie tried to find a path down.

  There was glowing embers at the bottom of the depression and the wall of the kiln was exposed.

  “We must warm and dry our clothes,” Tomas said and started to take off his sodden clothes. Virginie followed suit, but she couldn’t get her numb fingers to undo the tie of her dress. When he was naked, Tomas helped her lift the dress over her head. He used some wood to secure their clothes to the wall of the kiln. Steam rose off them as they made contact with the kiln wall. Virginie stood close to the wall feeling the heat caress her skin. She tried to soak as much heat up as she could. The wall was too hot to touch, but she could stand close to it. The heat was painful to her cold skin and limbs, but she forced herself to stay there. She knew she needed this help and that the burn she was feeling was just the coldness of her body, she wasn’t actually singeing. Getting warm was more important than comfort.

  Once their clothes were all pressed against the kiln wall causing steam to rise off them, Tomas put his arms around her. Virginie place her hands on his bare skin, it was cold to the touch, or maybe it was just her fingers that were icy an
d unfeeling. He was fully naked and she saw all of him. His body was so very beautiful. Sleek muscles and solid strength. His chest was broad and she placed her head on it, listening to his steady heartbeat. She had even seen the private part of him. He had seen every part of her too and she felt no embarrassment about it.

  She could also feel his skin against hers without the impediment of clothes. It was the only place she wanted to be at that very moment.

  “I shouldn’t have touched you,” he said quietly. She looked up at him. His eyes were clouded over from what she could see from the light of the embers below them. “It wasn’t my right.”

  “I wanted to you to,” she said. It was true, she had no regrets. She probably should be lamenting the action she had urged on, but she didn’t. Her virtue was a gift and she had given it to him. She knew it belonged to her future husband, some distant man who was probably older than her and who she felt no affinity with. But what they had done had felt like it was something that needed to happen. If fact, she wanted him to kiss her even now.

  “It is my duty to deliver you unsullied. Your whole future depends on it and I have failed.”

  “You can’t say that you’ve failed. We are alive and have survived the most dire of circumstances.” She held him a little tighter and he let her. His arms were still around her as they warmed up. He looked away from her and sniffed.

  “Travellers use these ovens in the winter. They sleep around the edge at the top of the kiln, but the smoke is noxious. You have to take care not to sleep downwind or you won’t wake up. It is also not unheard off that people have rolled over in their sleep and fallen in. Not a good fate.”

  Virginie listened to his gruesome description. His skin was warming under her hands. She urged what heat she had into him.

  “Will we sleep here?”

  “No,” he said. “It is not inconceivable that the soldiers will check here. They must know that we will seek heat.”