“Look what we have here. What do you think?” Munro asked him. “Would you care for this wench?”
The man eyed her as if she were covered in honey.
Oh lud! Shefumbled to lace her tunic closed.
Munro was watching her reaction and he began to laugh. “Give us your name, lass.”
“Rot in hell!” she spat.
He only laughed more but his eyes…his eyes bespoke murder before he turned and walked away. “I believe you will serve as a grand incentive for my men.”
"I am Glenna Canmore," she said. "I am the king's daughter."
He was still as a rock, then he laughed loud and hard. "Aye. The king's daughter...a horsethief. A lying horsethief." He picked up his goblet of wine and drank, leaving his words to do their work.
"IamGlenna Canmore."
"You aren't even a good liar. The king has no daughter, or son." He set down his the goblet and said, “Lock her in the pit cell.”
The man set his hands on her shoulders.
“And do not stop for your own pleasure, Jock. I will check on her.”
His man angrily pulled her from the chamber, shoving her down narrow hallway with his hands on her buttocks, stopping to squeeze and fondle her, and she stumbled away and hit the wall. He pinned her with his body, pressing his hips against her. “I can give you this. Munro will never know.” He forced his fetid mouth on her and bit at her lips. “I can ride hard and long, wench.”
She wanted to fight. She want to knee him. She wanted to wretch. He would no more believe who she was than Munro had so she pressed her chest to his and said breathily, “Wait. He will catch us.” Like a hungry tavern maid, she licked her lips provocatively.
He bought it and seemed to think she had a point and dragged her by the arms once again into another room, aninterior room most likely toward the rear of the manor, with four rounded stone walls dotted with lit candle pricks.
She thought he would ravish her and looked for some kind of weapon as she backed away from him and the hungry look in his dark eyes. Her leg hit something and she looked behind her.
Then she saw an open trap door in the ground. She looked down into a small and narrow black hole and panic hit her.The pit cell. She turned back to him. “Please. Wait. Do not put me in there…please.”
He paused thoughtfully, as if he might actually give in. His hand went between his legs, massaging suggestively the weight of his genitals. “I will give you this when I come back…later.” He grabbed her by the hair. “You can suckle me…hard.”
Sucklehim? Oh God… He meant…. And before she could quite comprehend, he shoved her down inside the pit and slammed the trap door.
Damp dirt crumbled down from above her into her hair and face.
“Come back!” she shouted, panicked. “Come back!”
Overhead she heard the bolt slide closed and the distant, muted sound of his footsteps.
Glenna blinked,trying to make her eyes adjust. The pit was dark as a rook’s feathers. She touched the walls, which were jagged stone and hard clay-like soil. Raising her arms, or even her elbows, was not possible. She had perhaps only a hand’s breadth on each side from her shoulders to the walls. It was as if she were being buried alive.
A sob escaped her and she sucked in a quivering breath. The air was small and tasted and smelled of dank dirt. She could kneel but her shoulder caught on the wall the space was so narrow, but it was slightly wider on the lower half. Like a blind woman her hands slowly swept over the ground, where therewere deep-angled divots as if left from the shovel used to dig the pit.
Standing took some work in the small space and she tried to quell the fear that overwhelmed her. Above her was the trap door. She jumped upward trying to hit it, but her fist barely tapped the surface of the wood.
With every breath she took the air changed. A great and powerful fear raced through her, soaked deep into her very bones, and she felt a panic so intense she could only scream and scream and scream, until the shaking stopped and her voice was raspy and almost gone, then she collapsed into a knot on the dirt, knees wedged to her chest, toes against the opposite wall.
She lay her head on her knees and she tried to breathe calmly, breathe slow breaths. The air was getting hotter yet she was shivering as if she were exposed in the dead of winter.
Footsteps sounded, soft thuds coming closer. If the guard was coming back could she get away? Mere minutes had passed…or was it hours? She pushed up the walls, the only way she could actually stand and the trap’s bolt shot.
The door opened, blinding her from the change of light. Munro stood above her. She could feel his aura of evil before his face appeared.
“Well, my dear, how do you find your new home? Looks to be a perfect fit,” he said, laughing. “I have brought you company.” He stepped back.
