There I stared from a nook made from slabs of stone, an observer of the act. We had been walking for some ways, trying to find a place where the endless fields of green could hide the atrocities of lesser men. I pray they do not make me a dead man's wife nuzzled snug in an unmarked grave... it's all the same to them, I suppose.
They were trying to find a place less conspicuous than the endless fields of green that would give away their disturbances of the ground. Storm clouds rolled across the sky, ready to pour out. The rain would be used as a benefit for them.
These fiends found a place near a grove, whose land seemed to do just fine for the peeling back of God's green earth.
Hands given by God, made to bury another who was given. I suppose those hands are giving back, completing a mad circle like an ouroboros.
Hours had passed, and the pit was fit. The biggest of the brutes threw over his back a man wrapped in rags—whom I loved. He tossed his remains into the fit pit, big enough for the act... and the pondering of my fate.
"Demons," I thought. Vile, petty beasts of lustful, base desires. If only I was born a man, I thought, then I could challenge them at least, and live and die with dignity and pride.
Tears of anger boiled in my eyes as I looked upon my captors. What I wouldn't give to see them hoisted up and mutilated.
"I will have you by the flame tonight," the big, stinking one said, rubbing his belly, slurring his words as he waddled his way towards me.
I, repulsed by his presence, curled up and turned my face, closing my eyes in dread.
In that moment, I felt as if I was free-falling.
My life as a young noblewoman turned on its head.
My betrothed—dead in a hole. And these brutes, ready to do unquestionable things to me. I couldn't imagine things getting any worse.
"What makes you think you get her first?" the short, balding fellow with the unusually hideous deformity—making his nose look more like a snout—said, as he snorted.
"I say we pull straws. We each get to have our way with her, from biggest to smallest," he said. "Do what you like as long as you don't mess up her face. Women this beautiful catch a respectable price at the shore."
The third one, wrapped in a dirty black cloth, couldn't hide his accent. He wasn't from these lands like the other two.
The hideous-nosed one slapped me on the shoulder and winced as he grabbed a pouch, which had seen better days, and guzzled the contents within. He belched in my face as I turned, grimacing away from him.
This one had at least a plan for my sexual mutilation.
Only a creature such as men can be creative and civil with their vile natures. I guess I should be lucky that it's creative and civil... and not creative and evil.
"Do you hear that, missy? We're gonna pull straws to see which one gets ya first. You wouldn't have any suggestions on which one should have that warm and moist gash of yours first, now would you? Come on then, speak up," the big one said, chuckling out in disgusting glee as he began poking me with a stick he found nearby.
I have to find a way out of this or suffer their indignities, I thought.
Then, in a knowing voice, I uttered the words of my house—something my lord father would say to me. Something that, from that moment on, always gave me strength.
"A life for money..."
I slightly changed it for the effect I felt it would have on these lesser men.
The true words were: "A life for power."
"Stop poking her, Roof, you idiot," my masked captor said. "What is this 'life for money' you speak of, woman?"
Roof, the big, stinking fellow, just couldn't help tormenting me. In that moment, he didn't stop his poking.
"Come on, speak up," he said between giggles.
"She is just trying to fool us. Rudy will pull out your teeth for lying, you see. He did me—he did me!"
"Russ, shut up!"
"Roof, bring her here."
The big brute pulled me by the cloth of my arm and dragged me to the open grave, right to the feet of Ruby.
Rudy then grabbed me by the meat of my neck with his mud-covered hand and pushed my face into the hole, bringing me to stare at the man half-submerged in mud, his face protruding through the rags, his eyes still open—staring coldly into mine.
"Why shouldn't we just bury you along with this fucking guy? Who is he to you anyway?" Rudy said, jerking my head, lashing it about as he placed my late husband's dagger near my cheek. "Don't you lie to me. I will know. Now out with it—it's the truth, or you go straight in the hole!"
I cried out."He is my savior!!" I said loudly and believably.
"He was tasked by my lord father to rescue me. He did, and he was taking me back when you three ambushed us."
"I am Lord Orwil's only daughter—Justine Orwil. If you take me back, I'm sure you will get—"
"The Lord's reward," Russ interrupted.
"Reward?" Roof said, dumbfounded.
"Now hold on, boys. Let's not get too bewitched—especially without details."
This one named Ruby wasn't as dimwitted as his comrades. I must be tactful now.
"I was returning from my family's summer home in Austria and was ambushed by bandits. This man is Sir Garfield. He was sent with a detachment, but the detachment got wiped out in the... ransom negotiation, and the only one left was him—and me."
"Sir Garfield, outnumbered but not out-skilled, slew all of my abductors and freed me."
I left key things out to smooth over the story. His gallant display of disregard for my life made it easier—not harder—to lie to Ruby. Sir Garfield was indeed my husband, I suppose. Apologies for speaking ill of the dead, but... we did get ambushed. And I must say—I did not know the man. After all, it was a betrothment. And he's been out crusading most of our lives.
I began to force myself to cry and become truly hysterical.
"My God, it was a sight to behold. Tied up, made to ride a horse on my belly from behind a saddle like I'm some hunter's meaty catch... a truly painful and demeaning experience."
"Then—it was amazing. He came from seemingly out of thin air, first impaling the man riding the horse I was on through the back of the head with a spear, then grabbing me and pulling me to his horse with one hand. While the other four men gave chase..."
"He ended up defeating four men and took me away," I said.
My eyes were puffy from forced tears, my throat hoarse from the hysterical whining. I hope they don't kill me just because I'm annoying, I thought. But I must sell it—the act.
"I'm sure if my father got me back safe, he'd be happy to reward—"
"You're sure... we are to set you free on a... you're sure?" Ruby said.
"No, no, no, no, no, little girl. We will need a guarantee that you will not speak on what was done today."
Russ interjected, "That is, if you don't want us putting the rest of your body in this hole—you got that, you fucking wench?"
"Of course. Surely, you have my word."
"Now, how much is this reward?" Ruby asked, still holding me down face-first in the pit. I tried to think of a number—not too crazy, but high enough to keep their attention.
"I heard Sir Garfield speak of 1,075 gold pieces he was going to be paid."
"Do you hear that, boys?" Ruby said, turning back to the other two."1,075 gold pieces—that's enough to open our own inn!"
"Fuck an inn?" Russ said in protest. "Let's open a brothel—that way, we can have sex all day and night," he said as he picked his teeth with a small jagged piece of metal that conveniently got chipped off the blade used to stab my husband in his last moments.
"OK, that settles it." Ruby pulled me back up and, with one motion, tossed me back into the stone slab corner.
I landed on my shoulder with a thud. The pain from my landing was a relief from being dead—for the moment.
"You will sleep in that corner tonight. You two—finish up the hole. I'll get the fire started. Tomorrow, we'll make for the Orwil encampment—it should be close by."
I bought myself a few hours, if not a day or two. So I did what I was told and sat in that corner—quiet, cold, and hungry—as I watched Russ and Roof finish burying my husband and Ruby gather wood for a fire nearby.
We were ordained since birth to be married. I remember the first time we met. He took me on a horseback ride through his family's forest estate in western Spain. It was thrilling and romantic. Now I wish we never left that forest years ago. If we never left, we would have made a good couple—the two of us, making a life for ourselves in the middle of a forest together.
Things were so much easier back then.
I suppose all this is God's will...