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The kiss was gentle and kind. It promised a world of pleasure but demanded nothing from Dayne in return. Becca was the most patient of lovers. She did not want to rush Dayne with her own desires. The dark haired woman's physical or emotional recovery was Becca's primary concern.

"We should be able to leave soon," Dayne ventured when they broke for a breath.

"You are healing, that's true. But your body's been through so much. I want to give you a few more days of rest. A day or two more won't hurt you none," Becca smiled as her fingers traced the fading bruises on Dayne's tanned face.

"I'm just worried about you," Dayne could not stop a tear from escaping. "You're taking such chances to come out here everyday. All you need is for your father or Milos to follow you and…,"

"My father is a drunken bastard," Becca stated flatly. "If he somehow managed to follow me out here then he would probably break his own foolish neck trying to get back home. Dayne, I'm fine. Nothing is gonna happen to me," Becca stole another kiss. "You're gonna heal and then we'll be on our way."

Dayne nodded as Becca continued to kiss her tears dry. But, Dayne's heart ached with worry for her beautiful, blonde friend.

"I'd die if anything bad happened to you," Dayne let her tears run free and pulled Becca close. "You are all that I have left in this world. You are my only treasure, my only hope."

"Sssh, I'm okay, sssh, now. And, remember, I'm very careful. It's only a couple of days more before we'll both be away from here." Becca let out a little chuckle, "Unless, I don't get home to make breakfast and you don't start gather your kindling. Then there'll be Waur to pay for bein' lazy girls."

With that, Becca kissed Dayne one last time and hurried into the woods. There was a beaten path straight to Becca's father's back door. Becca did not linger long enough along the route home to notice the fresh boot prints sunken deep into the mud. She did, however, stop to retrieve the previously captured rabbit hidden in a box under the stairs.

She snuck soundlessly into the kitchen by the back door. The house was deathly quiet. Becca guessed everybody must still be sleeping. She killed then started to clean the rabbit she brought in with her.

"Where you been at, girl?" His voice, slightly slurred, boomed from behind her.

"I was getting breakfast," Becca tried to stay calm and kept her back to her father as she spoke.

"A rabbit, is it what ya got there? Mind tellin' me how you gotta rabbit to jump into your sack?" Her father belched loudly on the last word.

"I set a box trap and waited from dawn 'til just a few moments ago. I used grease from the griddle to draw him. Go on, feel him if you don't believe me," she turned and thrust the partially skinned backside under her father's nose. It was then she saw Milos and his two brothers sitting at the dining table in the next room. "Not good," Becca thought to herself. "This is definitely not a good start to the day."

"We do not believe you, Becca!" The voice of the Magistrate echoed from the doorway. "I, myself, saw you running back here from the woods just a few moments ago. Your rabbit friend has been awaiting your return for hours now in the box under the steps. So, tell us, where've you been at, girl? What crimes have you been up to in the woods?"

Milos and his brothers pounced on her before she could think of a lie. They dragged her into the room with the dining table and held her fast. Their fierce grips dug deep into her skin even with a cloth barrier of protection. Becca knew there would be bruises from their hold but she wasn't sure if she could limit her wounds to those alone.

"I went for a walk…," Milos slapped her before she could finish the sentence.

Sobbing drew her attention to the upper level of the house. She could see her mother and three sisters frightened, huddled, and crying as they peered down at her.

"Mother, please, help me…," another slap rattled her teeth and silenced Becca.

"Don't be bringing that fine woman into your sick web of lies, Becca," the Magistrate advised from the corner of the room. "You wouldn't want her hurt in our pursuit of justice."

Becca remained silent under the threat to her mother.

"Look, I told them what you been doin' out there! You been whorin' 'round town for a time now. So just go an' confess an' be done with it," her father demanded. "Let me be done with ya once and for all."

"Whore? What?" Becca's eyes went wide with his words. "Why would you lie like that about me?"

Grabbing her hair, Offan shook her roughly, "I told them ya serviced the Elosian soldiers. That ya no virgin! Not no more, ya ain't. There'll be no future proceeds for me from the like of ya kind. I'll be getting' no gold for ya to be married off. So, confess. CONFESS!"

Offan's fist smashed her square in the nose. Becca saw stars and light as she tried to stay conscious. Her body hung in mid air with the support of Milos' brothers.

"Dayne, you were right. It wasn't safe at all to wait," she thought as the Magistrate approached.

"We will get the truth from you. Have no doubts about it. Justice always triumphs in the end. Why not make the interrogation process easier on yourself? Confess your crimes, to me, now. Tell me the name or names of your men. Just give me their ranks if you didn't get all the names. Don't make me resort to so many unpleasant options I have available," The soft tone of the Magistrate did not disguise his disgust for her.

"If you are interested in justice then wouldn't you rather know the name of my rapist?" Becca spit a mouthful of blood at her father as she quietly accused him of the acts which haunted her dreams.

Offan lunged forward. He grabbed Becca by the throat and began to squeeze as he had done so many nights when she tried to scream about the pain he inflicted on her.

"Shut ya big, dirty mouth, whore!" Offan shouted.

Milos and the Magistrate managed to pull Offan away from Becca before he could do any serious damage.

"Behavior like that will get you nowhere in the interrogation, sir!" The Magistrate was clearly furious. "Boys, take her to the square. Place her in the cage for public display while she considers her choices."

"And, …what, …may I ask, are my choices?" Becca coughed against a dry throat demanding to know her fate.

"If you refuse to name your lovers, you will be sold off to the Elosians with the proceeds going to your father. Of course, the court will take a percentage to cover the costs of daily business. However, if you reveal your lovers' names, you will be forgiven your crime," the Magistrate smiled coldly. "Then you will be sold to the Elosians and your lovers will be executed or fined or both."

"You should've let him strangle me. It would have saved us both some time," Becca muttered as the angry men dragged her into the daylight to the town square and to a future beyond her worst nightmare.

Through blurred vision, Becca watched as the Widow Mavis approached the cage. Becca tried to count the number of meals she had prepared for the older woman. She tried to remember each night she had kept the fire burning in the hearth while Mavis slept off a fever. She tried to estimate the total buckets of water fetched day after day. It quickly approached an infinite number of neighborly acts over the years. The Widow drew closer and rummaged in the bag Becca had sewn for her last harvest.

Mavis produced an overripe tomato with a toothless grin before shouting, "WHORE!"

Rotting redness splashed all over the beaten, tethered prisoner. The filthy word shouted was worse than the foul projectile thrown, Becca decided. She did her best to wipe the juice off her cheek with her shirt sleeve. Chains stretching from once around her left wrist to twice around her throat to twice around her right wrist then back around the left and finally fastening to the cage floor limited her efforts. Becca held back any bitter comment. She learned earlier at the end of the guard's club that rebuttals to the Villagers' sentiments would not be tolerated.

Her friends and neighbors had eagerly raced to the cage when the Magistrate announced her crimes. They found all manner of sour food to hurl at her as they called for their form of justice. The Magistrate announced her sentenced and the mob howled for Becca's blood. Nobody, not even her own mother, spoke on her behalf. That's when she decided to try to beg them to listen to her side of the charges. Her dissent was not tolerated. The guards were brutally efficient with their feet and clubs in driving that point home. Becca gave up after the first few blows but the beating continued until she passed out. She woke in time to witness the good widow's betrayal.

Becca leaned her head back against the bars to rest. Her body did, indeed, ache from the beating. But, it was her heart that was truly broken. Dayne was lost to her. She would never see her lover again. How could she heal her heart without her only love. She drifted off with an unquenchable grief burning in her chest.

Hooves click clacking into the square woke her from the blackness of her despair. The Elosians had come. She was all finished, then. Becca knew her life was ending as the General trotted over to inspect the contents of the cage. His eyes traveled top to bottom then bottom to top before he reigned his horse over to the Magistrate and the gathering elders.

"How many?" General Felix snorted.

"Seven in the cells and the one in the cage, sir," the Magistrate stuttered slightly on his fear.

"Men?"

"Four of them, three women, and the one in the cage, sir."

"Why is that one separate?"

"She's from the Village. The others were gathered from the surrounding farms."

"The others are half blooded then?"

"Of course," the Magistrate appeared confused by the question.

The General raised his voice. "You think you'll get more for the blonde because she looks like your kind?!"

"Well, usually, the Village girls do get us a bit more, General," the Magistrate was sweating.

"She's a CRIMINAL! Otherwise, you fine folks wouldn't be putting her out with the trash. Isn't that right?" There was nodding among the elders. "What's her crime?"

"She's a whore."

The General spit at the Magistrate, "Then I get her for free!"

"What?" The Magistrate was speechless.

"If one of your own kind had her then you'd make him marry her. So, she must have been had by an Elosian for some price or other," the General smirked. "We've already paid for her."

"Bu…,t…," the Magistrate tried to form a thought.

"If you argue with me then I'll be forced to explain my logic with real live Village virgins and soldiers as examples. Do you want me to explain? Or should I just take the whore off your hands?" The General's horse snorted at the Magistrate.

"Take her, please, just take her," the Magistrate spoke in a hoarse, broken whisper.

"Good choice," General Felix winked. "Linemen, gather the slaves and lets get back to camp!"

Becca smirked at the distraught Magistrate as the soldiers pulled her from the cage. They left the chains in place and tied her in line with the other prisoners with a short rope.

"At least, he's not gaining anything from sending me away. That's some small consolation," she thought to herself.

"I always knew you were worthless," Becca recognized her father's voice calling as she was lead away for her home for the last time.

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