by Randi Darren
Getting out of the coach, he nearly stumbled.
She’d affected him far more than he’d ever like to admit. And she seemed determined to get him as riled up as possible.
Leading her quickly by the hand into the manse, she said not a word. It wasn’t until he’d gotten her in the middle of his bedroom that he heard anything out of her.
“My, it’s certainly far more charming than I’d expected,” Valeria said. “With how often people spoke of your escapades in Brit, I half expected mirrors.”
Her eyes quickly scanned the room before settling on the bed. She dropped her coat on the ground as she made her way over to it.
“Ah, just what I was hoping to find,” she murmured, sitting on the edge of it.
“What a coincidence, I found what I was looking for too,” Alex said, coming around the other side and gesturing to Valeria and the bed. “And just where I’d hoped to find it.”
Valeria turned to follow him with her head.
Slowly moving to the head of the bed, he smiled at her. Trying to stall for time and keep her interested, he slid atop the bed and, after a moment, patted the spot directly in front of him.
Every movement he'd taken so far was to put her back to the door and drag it all out.
Giving him a predatory smile, she shifted forward to the middle of the bed.
Carla had returned in her brigandine by this point. Somehow managing to do it in a record time.
In fact, she’d already started to creep up behind the woman without making a noise. The ex-bandit was indeed stealthy when she chose to be.
Then she shot forward with a steel battle mace that passed in front of Valeria’s face and then came up under her chin.
Valeria’s eyes flashed in alarm, and then something else as Carla pulled her up off the bed and onto her tip-toes.
Her cheeks turned a faint pink, her hands coming up to pull at the cold steel pressing against her throat.
Alex could hear her choking, her feet scrabbling at the floor.
“Good work, Two. Try not to hurt her. Just in case. Don’t let her move, though.”
“Not-a-problem. This isn’t the first time I’ve done something like this,” Carla said.
Every time Valeria moved in any way, Carla pulled up on the mace, bringing a quick end to anything other than standing still.
Getting up off the bed, Alex quickly went and checked Valeria’s jacket. There wasn’t anything in it.
Coming back in front of Valeria, he eyed her dress.
For her part, Valeria watched him. Her eyes were hard and her fingers tight on the mace. He doubted she'd be able to do anything if Carla decided for her to go nighty-night, but she seemed poised to try.
The dress was practically form fitting, and definitely hugged Valeria rather tightly, but Alex figured she probably had enough room to hide something in her ample bust.
As he looked her over, he noticed her nipples had grown hard. Poking out through her dress as she watched him eying her.
Either she’s cold, or she’s really into this situation and thinks it’s sex play.
“There’s really only a couple places to hide something. Keep her steady,” Alex said.
Carla grunted and pulled on her mace, taking Valeria up to the point where only the tips of her feet were on the ground. “You hear that? Hands up here with me or I pull hard enough to break your jaw till you pass out. Then I have to spend the night digging your grave. So do me a favor and let him do what he wants.”
Valeria grunted out something and Alex tuned it out, her eyes still watching him.
Reaching up to her shoulders, he unfastened her dress and slid it down to her waist.
Her large breasts poured out of the top, her nipples very clearly erect in the lamp light.
Inspecting the cups of the dress, he didn’t find anything.
Carefully, he slid his fingers under each breast and still found nothing.
Only leaves a few places. God, I hope there’s something there.
Otherwise, this night went to a strange place and Carla really will be digging a grave, probably.
Pulling at the dress, Alex guided it past Valeria’s hips and down to the ground.
There was nothing strapped to her thighs, nor any underwear.
Reaching up between Valeria’s knees, Alex gently felt around, looking for anything hidden in there.
He heard a soft, guttural moan from Valeria at his touch, her knees spreading apart despite her inability to stand upright.
Is she a sexual masochist? She’s into me using her like this?
Last chance. Let’s hope we're in a very strange world and we find something.
Alex pushed his hand up between her thighs and into her privates.
They were warm and quite moist. His touch seemingly prompted a shiver and another moan from Valeria.
Carefully, he slipped two fingers up into her slit without warning.
Valeria froze, caught by surprise. He imagined she hadn’t expected him to actually push in.
Her legs came together around his wrist quickly and her body started to squirm to one side.
Carla cut that off immediately by pulling upward, practically dragging the smaller woman into the air.
Pulling her back to the front, Carla steadied the other woman.
Alex started to wiggle his fingers into her again.
Then he felt something.
It was extremely firm and had no business being in a woman’s nethers.
Pressing his fingers to it from inside her, he got a hold of it and pulled.
Held between his two fingers was a very thin push dagger, no longer than two inches in length. The edges of the blade were covered by a thin sheath of wood tied in place with thread.
Holy shit. Is this what she was doing while we were waiting? She thought she’d be searched and so she put it here?
That’s insane and impressive at the same time.
Valeria was squirming now, her fingers flexing around the mace and her feet trying to find any purchase at all.
Each and every movement was restricted by the much more muscular Carla, preventing Valeria from doing much.
“Guess I got my answer. She wasn’t that into me,” Alex said ruefully.
“Alright, Two. Let’s see what she knows. I’m going to find Rudolph and see about converting a dungeon. You got her for the moment?”
“Oh sure,” Carla growled out, wrangling Valeria around with the mace. “Don’t mind me. I’m just having a dance with her, I guess.”
Alex managed to track Rudolph down rather quickly and explained everything to him.
The man caught on and set to work.
It only took him the better part of half an hour to not only create a dungeon, but one that’d do perfectly for Alex's needs.
He’d converted an entire wing of a wine cellar that saw little use. Now it would be able to hold and house six prisoners without a concern.
He’d even converted the doors to have smaller inset doors at the tops and bottoms, respectively for watching prisoner and trading things back and forth.
Far more flexible than I thought, that Rudolph.
Carla shoved Valeria into the impromptu cell and followed her in, her mace held loosely but ready in her hand.
“Go ahead and try somethin’ little girl. I’ll knock your head open faster than you think it could be,” Carla threatened.
Valeria stumbled up against the back stone wall and pressed a hand to her neck.
She stood in a peasant smock and little else. Her green dress and jacket had been set aside.
A red discoloration had appeared across her throat where Carla had been holding her.
Keeping a hand to her neck, she looked from Carla to Alex.
“Suppose this is the part where you rape me, let your guards have a go, then kill me after you get what you want?” she said, a bitter smile crossing her face.
“Amazingly, no. Though you’re the second person to suggest that,” Alex
said, sitting down on the clean, simple cot that’d been brought into the room.
All in all, it was a near-identical setup to the one back in Brit.
Though a bit cooler and far more dungeon-y than the other.
“And who was the first?” Valeria asked.
Alex smiled and pointed at Carla. “She was. Apparently, she was a bandit of some renown. She works for me now; don’t you, Two?”
“Hush or I’ll break your head open first.”
“Uh huh. Anyways, enough about Two; what about you? Tell me about yourself.”
“What’s there to know?” Valeria asked warily, moving towards the corner of the room furthest from Alex and Carla.
“Your name, for one. Is it actually Valeria?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. And are you actually a noble?”
“I was.”
“Ah. Family fall on hard times then?”
“Does that matter?”
“A little. Your manners, vocabulary, and the way you carry yourself speak to an educated background. Though your forwardness at the table was certainly at odds to that.”
“Yes… I was given an education, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“And how did you end up playing the would-be pillow assassin?”
Valeria didn’t answer that. She got down into a ball into the corner, laying her forearms across her knees and balling up.
“Alright. We’ll skip that for now. How about who you’re working for?”
Again, Valeria said nothing.
“Could you at least tell me what your plans were? I can only assume you meant to kill me, based on what I found. Only you can answer that, though.”
Valeria laid her head against the stone wall and watched him, unspeaking.
“I see. Alright, well. We can try again tomorrow. You’ll not be leaving this cell, obviously. I’m also invoking my right as a count to have you tried for your crimes on my person, by my person,” Alex said, standing up. “I’ll be holding you in custody until such a time as we return to Brit and I can formally prosecute you.”
“What?” Valeria asked, her eyes narrowing, her head coming up off the wall.
“I’m going to try you. Hold a fair court, and then probably hang you. Will be a month or two at least, though.
“If you suddenly decide you want to talk to me, feel free to let the guard know. I’ll come ‘round and we can chat.
“Oh, another topic we could chat about is your accommodations. I have an interesting view on such things.”
Alex waved at her, and then left.
Carla followed him out, closing the solid wooden banded door behind her and locking it.
Alex motioned for the guard and Carla to follow him to the end of the cell block, where Rudolph was waiting.
Addressing the guard, Alex pointed a finger at the man and looked at Rudolph
“I’m trusting my prisoners to you. I’ll need one guard during the day, and another guard at night.
“I’ll have their oaths, and yours Rudolph, on the following. You will not speak to the prisoners. You will not touch the prisoners. You will not let the prisoners touch you, and you will not open the door under any circumstances whatsoever.
“If you need to look into the cell, you open the watch door. That’s it. The only thing that goes in to her is when you give her food and water. Do you understand?”
“Yes, my lord. What about the waste?” asked the guard.
“That comes out through the bottom door at the end of the day. A servant will collect it. The door never opens.
“Now swear that.”
“I swear it on my oath, my lord,” said the first guard.
“I do so swear,” Rudolph said.
Satisfied, Alex nodded and left the dungeon.
He needed sleep and to vent some demons. Valeria had keyed him up way too much.
Part of him regretted that he hadn’t gotten a crack at her.
She really had been right in his strike zone.
***
“My lord,” Walter said, getting Alex’s attention. “I was able to put together a ball of sorts for ourselves. I’ve only invited those I feel would be worthwhile to you, our county, or our political cause.
“It’s more a series of interviews and meetings than a ball, but you’re the only bachelor, and everyone else will be entertained, wined, and dined while they wait their turn.”
Alex sighed and only nodded his head.
Interviews? For marriage? Such a strange thing.
It’d been a few days since he’d captured Valeria. No one had said or done anything about her from an ownership point of view. It meant she’d been cut loose and disavowed.
Effectively, she was his prisoner under a death sentence. No one was coming for her.
I could use that against her. I should visit her.
“Is that not to your liking?” Walter asked, his tone much softer.
“It’s very much to my liking. I just don’t like that we’re being forced into this.
“Good work, Walter. Put the list on my desk. I’m going to go for a walk,” Alex said.
Walter gave him a sad smile and bobbed his head once.
Leaving his study, he set off for the dungeon. Carla fell in behind him without a word.
She hadn’t seemed as tense lately, at times almost managing to be friendly with him.
“Gonna fuck her?” Carla asked.
“No. But I’m finally going to offer her a few deals.”
“Will fucking her be part of it?”
“Maybe. Why, are you jealous? Would you like me to make you a deal that involves you bending over my desk again? Do you long for the feel of—”
“Close that foul moth of yours before you attract flies with it.”
Alex put on his neutral face for Carla and kept on moving.
She’s adapting fairly well. Harder to maintain the power with her. The control is difficult. Probably due to her being present so often around me.
Need to start thinking of a few offers to throw her.
Like maybe hiring another personal bodyguard so she gets days off? Or gets more than a couple hours of sleep every day.
We’ll do that.
The guard at the door to the dungeon opened it without a word for Alex.
Stepping inside, he found another guard standing in the corner.
“My lord,” said the guard.
“She say or do anything?”
“No, my lord. Quiet as a church mouse.”
Alex nodded his head. He hadn’t expected anything different.
Moving over to Valeria’s door, he looked to the guard.
“Open it up. Two, you go in first and make sure she’s nice and calm.”
Carla wrinkled her nose but pulled her mace clear from its ring on her hip. She unfastened the small shield she kept on the other hip and belted it around her forearm.
The guard unlocked and opened the door for Carla, who stepped in with her shield up and mace ready.
“Sit down in the bed,” Carla commanded. “Good, now stay there.”
Alex took that as his cue and entered the cell, pulling the door shut behind him.
Valeria looked none the worse for wear, though considerably dirtier, with her hair a wild and tangled mess.
“Come to finally rape me then?” Valeria asked, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging her legs.
“No. Besides, you look filthy. If I wanted to hump dirt I could go outside.
“No, I’ve come for something else today. I want to make you a deal,” Alex said, coming closer to her.
Valeria shook her head and rested her chin on her knees.
“I know. You probably can’t speak about your previous employer. And that’s alright. Whoever it was gave you up to your fate. No one has contacted me about your release. Even though I had Rudolph put word out that we’d captured someone on the property.
“I mean, if you think about it, we gave your employer a very easy
opportunity to claim you. Pay a fine, maybe, and collect you.
“They did not.”
Valeria’s mouth became a flat line, her eyes glittering dangerously as she glared up at him.
“That more or less makes you mine to do with as I please. I’m, as of yet, undecided on what to do with you.
“So, while I make my choice, I figured it might be fun to make a deal or two with you.”
Valeria’s brow twitched before she schooled her face to neutrality.
She was a trained assassin that relied on her acting and ability to get in close. One that probably studied politics and people.
He could use her.
He just had to figure out how to break her, first.
“What kind of deal?” she asked after a pause.
And there’s our starting point.
Alex smiled, and began to explain the oath of secrecy, the rules of the game, and all the ways things could go.
Chapter 9
“And I can say no? No repercussions?” Valeria asked again.
She seemed quite hung up on that point.
Alex nodded his head, barely keeping a handle on his calm. “None.”
Valeria chewed on that for a while, again. They’d been down here with her for quite some time now.
Carla sighed, her patience wearing thing.
“It’s alright, Two,” Alex said soothingly. He moved over to stand beside her and lightly patted her back.
In a much lower tone, he whispered for her ear alone.
“You’re doing very well, Two. Very good. I appreciate all that you do. Let’s talk about a reward after this, alright? Maybe a day off. A special meal. Something special just for you. Ok?”
Carla glanced at him, her eyes angry.
“I promise. I mean it. You’re doing good, Two,” Alex said, gently rubbing the spot between her her shoulders. “You’ve done so well that you’re owed something nice.”
“Yeah?” she asked after a beat.
“Yeah. So, calm down. Let me deal with her, and we’ll go get you something. On me. Ok? No deal or anything like that.”
“Ok… thank you,” Carla murmured, the anger in her eyes dying out.
Turning to Valeria, he smiled.
“Do forgive Two. She’s doing her job and is very good at it,” Alex said, not stopping in his petting of the ex-bandit.