Sapphire - Book 2 (2 page)

She stopped in the doorway, glancing at the
patrons in the dimly lit pub. The Bucket of Blood was a favorite
gathering place for sailors and fishermen since it was so close to
port. And with Rye being one of the Cinque Ports, she knew she’d
find many honorable men here who had vowed to protect the channel
for their king. Men of the sea filled the tables and wooden benches
and stood at the drink board that served as a counter. The
innkeeper handed them ale, wine, brandy, and drinks of many kinds
in large tankards made of metal or wood with a large curved handle
on the side. Women of the night clung to the men, wearing their
low-cut-bodice gowns, working the room, and trying to earn a
living.

The large burly man guarding the door, the
bouncer, held out his hand and growled in a low voice. “

“Ye know the charge. A hay-p’ny for each o’
ye. Now pay up.”

Like most pubs, there was a petty charge at
the door to cover any damages of broken bottles or benches should a
patron get rough. And in a place like this, chaos was always
evident.

Sapphire slipped two halfpennies to the boy,
and Dugald handed them over to the bouncer. The man held out his
board of wet wood and one at a time bounced the coins atop it to
make sure they were real and not made of lead. Satisfied, he nodded
and grunted.

“Go ahead,” he said, stepping to the side,
enabling them to enter.

She followed Dugald forward into the room,
stepping carefully atop the dirty rushes spewed across the floor
that looked and smelled as if they hadn’t been changed in years.
She wondered what rancid scraps of food or how much spittle lay
hidden beneath them.

Sapphire felt nervous, yet excited at the
same time. She knew ’twas far from proper to being sneaking out of
the castle and coming here in disguise, but she just had to feel
alive outside the clutches of her doomed fate. She’d convinced the
stable boy to help her sneak away and to bring her to the pub that
also served as an inn. He’d even supplied the commoner’s gown she
now donned to protect her identity.

Dugald fancied the innkeeper’s daughter,
Erin, so when Sapphire offered to pay his entry fee, he’d been more
than happy to help her. She’d been here half a dozen times in the
past two months, always staying in the shadows and just watching,
and letting Dugald talk to the girl who was his own age of six and
ten years. While Sapphire was only a few years older than them,
she’d always had the nurturing aspect of a mother. And while she
wasn’t the eldest of her siblings, she’d still acted the part of
mother to each of her three sisters through the years.

She enjoyed getting away from the castle and
out amongst people who were more interesting in her opinion. She
needed this in her life right now. And so Dugald kept Sapphire’s
secret and she kept his.

Sapphire wandered over to the side of the
room and slipped into the shadows, trying not to be noticed. She
surveyed everyone having a good time, and only wished she could
join in on the merrymaking. A minstrel played a lute in the corner
with a bard singing out the stories of his travels. Men played
cards and gambled coins atop the trestle tables. And they all
drank. There was laughing, lots of laughing, as the girls teased
the men and the men grabbed them for a kiss or just pinched their
bottoms. She watched the lovers disappear one after another up the
stairs to the second level, sneaking away to have a tryst. They
were coupling, and though the girls did it for coin, at least they
seemed to enjoy it, as they always had smiles on their faces. So
did the men.

She felt an emptiness gnawing deep inside
her heart, wanting to know enjoyment and pleasure from coupling
with a man. But Sapphire’s marriage to the baron had proved to be
uneventful and unfulfilling in every way. Somewhere along the way
in the past few months, she’d started to lose her dream of being
happily married to her true love and having a large family, and
this bothered her more than anything. She wasn’t one to give up her
dreams easily, even when times got rough.

She wondered what it would have been like if
her original betrothed, Roe Sexton had not died overseas. Mayhap
she could have enjoyed being married and making love then. And
mayhap she could have had children, the thing that meant the most
to her in all the world.

“There she is.” Dugald’s green eyes lit up
as he spied Erin wiping a rag over the counter at the back of the
room. Sapphire felt a certain sadness inside her soul, pitying
herself, but yet was happy for the young boy. He had been a good
friend to her ever since she arrived in Rye. And just in the past
few months she’d witnessed his growth spurt, and now he was even
taller than her. He had beautiful red hair and his face was covered
in freckles. He was a nice boy, and any young girl should be happy
to be in his presence.

“Go to her.” Sapphire smiled, knowing Dugald
wanted to be with Erin yet felt it his duty to stay and protect the
lady of the castle. Never before had he left her out of his sight
on these visits, but tonight would be different. The boy deserved
some time alone with the girl. Everyone deserved some tiny bit of
happiness once in a while. Dugald was more than a boy, as he was a
man now. She would give him the opportunity he needed. And
hopefully, at least he would have the chance of finding true love,
even if she would never know it in this lifetime.

“I’ll be fine, Dugald. Go.” She turned him
gently toward the girl. “Just take your time with her, don’t
hurry.”

“But m’lady –”

Sapphire hushed him with a finger to her
lips. “Please, Dugald, don’t call me that here.” Her eyes scanned
the room to make sure no one heard him. “Tonight I’m just another
commoner,” she reminded him softly.

“Of course, I forgot, my la-” Dugald stopped
himself from using her title and Sapphire smiled.

“I’ll be waiting for you out in the stable.
I’ll go check on our horses,” she told him.

Dugald nodded his head and disappeared into
the crowd. Sapphire pulled her cloak closer around her as she felt
some of the patrons’ eyes upon her. There was no one here for her,
she sadly realized. No one that was any different than what she’d
left back at the castle. These men were all looking for a whore to
satisfy their itch. And satisfied they’d be, and she was happy for
each and every one. But she knew not a one of them would ever be
able to tell her anything about true love.

“Wench, come give me a kiss.”

She saw one of the dockmen well in his cups
looking in her direction, and she knew ’twas time for her to leave.
The men hadn’t bothered her before now because she’d always been
with Dugald. But tonight was different. She was alone and fair game
for any sex-starved man that saw her as a cure to his problem. And
though she wanted to feel the ecstasy of making love, it would not
be here and with one of these men.

She was headed for the door when one of the
drunken patrons grabbed her by the sleeve and spun her around.

“Where are ye goin’ so fast?” the man
asked.

Her eyes frantically scanned the room for
Dugald. She saw him disappearing out the back with Erin on his arm.
It was too late for her to call out to him to help her. Besides, he
would never hear her in this madness.

“Let go of me, you swine.”

She tried to shake the man’s grip from her
sleeve when one of his friends came up and grabbed her from behind.
His hands snaked around her hips as he pulled her closer.

“Stop it!” she screamed, jumping away from
him, but the men only laughed.

“Tryin’ ta play hard to get, whore? Well,
how bout three on one? I think the French have a name for this
game.”

Just then another filthy man with blackened
teeth and rotten breath stepped in front of her and started to undo
the tie on his hose. Her heart beat furiously and her eyes opened
wide, and once again the other two men decided to grab her by the
wrists, not enabling her to move. She knew now she was wrong in
allowing Dugald to leave her side in a place like this. If only she
had her sapphire dagger that her mother had given her as a child.
If so, she could protect herself the way her sister Ruby had done,
by killing a man in self-defense. She hadn’t even her regular
dagger or eating knife at her waist, as she’d changed in such a
hurry, she’d forgotten them back in the stable at Rye.

The door swung open at that moment and a
group of boisterous, noisy knights entered, cheering and shouting
and sounding very drunk.

“Go on in, Sirs,” said the bouncer. “No
charge fer the nobility, as always.”

“We beat those damned French at Poitiers,”
one called out, handing the bouncer a handful of coins anyway. The
man greedily shoved them into a pouch at his side without bothering
to bounce them on his board.

“Ground them into the dust, we did,” shouted
another knight to the crowd. “You should have seen it, as we were
drastically outnumbered, and still managed to come out victorious
in the end.”

“Let’s hear it for the longbow,” shouted an
archer who’d entered with them, his hand raised in the air with a
longbow held high for all to see. The crowd cheered and shouted
their praises.

“Hold on,” said another, raising his hand to
silence the crowd and regain their attention. “The best part is
that the Black Prince captured their king and his son and is
holding them for ransom. King John the Good is not faring so good
any more, I should say.”

That sent everyone in the room into a joyous
frenzy, and they whistled and shouted. Much back-slapping and
playful shoving followed as the knights congratulated each other.
Several of them tossed coins atop a table and emptied their pouches
to display jewelry - some of the great bounty they’d plundered when
they’d defeated their enemy across the channel.

A tall, dark, handsome knight wearing a torn
and dirtied tunic beyond recognition over a covering of chain mail,
stopped just inside the doorway. He was one of the victorious
warriors who’d just helped win the battle at Poitiers for King
Edward III. He looked weary, yet still held an air of importance
about him. He had a mustache and beard and long black hair that
lifted with the autumn breeze as his blue eyes swept the room and
settled upon her. He was a very handsome man indeed.

She pulled once more against the hold of the
men detaining her, trying to free herself and make it to the
stable. “Let me go,” she shouted.

“Release her,” ordered the dark knight
standing in the doorway. It was only two words, but words that had
her captors obeying. The men took their filthy hands off of her and
went back to their prospective whores who awaited them in every
corner.

She looked up to her mysterious savior,
their eyes interlocking, and she smiled and nodded slightly to show
her thanks.

“Welcome back, milord.” The innkeeper rushed
to the door with a tankard of ale in his hand. He handed it to the
knight and half bowed before him. “We thought ye been killed
campaigning in France. Ye’ve been gone a long time and we all
thought –”

“Well I’m back now, so stop with the idle
chatter. I want a room and a whore for the night. Do you have what
I need?”

“Aye, milord. The room at the top of the
stairs is free,” said the innkeeper with a nod of his head toward
the stairway. “And ye know yer always apt ta pick any of m’girls
that ye take a fancy to.”

His eyes scanned the room and Sapphire just
stood and stared, mesmerized by his domineering presence. He was
rugged and handsome. Exciting in a raw sort of way. Yet he held a
regal air of nobility. He was a warrior and a protector of her
country. He was a brave man who risked his life for others and was
well respected. And he also just protected her from her attackers.
Why couldn't she be married to someone like this instead of what
she’d gotten?

He walked over to her, several whores
rushing up to try to gain his attention in the process. He ignored
them, his eyes still fastened upon her. Sapphire felt a flush of
heat surge through her body when she realized he was staring at
her. She lowered her gaze and looked to the ground.

He stopped right in front of her, and she
had no chance to even think of what to do, as he reached up, and
with a flip of his hand he pulled the hood from her head, causing
her long brown hair to spill forth in the process. She gasped and
her hand flew to her hood to try to once again mask her identity,
but he grabbed her wrist and looked her in the eye.

“I’ll take her,” he said in a low voice,
still holding on to her. The whores grumbled their disappointment
and hurried over to the other men who’d just returned from war. The
knight started for the stairs, pulling her along with him before
she could even react.

“I’m not available, my lord,” she told him,
using her free hand to pick up the end of her cloak so she wouldn’t
trip, moving so quickly through the crowd.

“I pay twice as much as anyone here,” he
said without even looking back at her. He made his way up the
stairs with her in tow, his tankard of ale gripped tightly in his
other hand.

“Nay! You don’t understand,” she said
frantically, meaning to explain, all the while watching her path as
she climbed the stairs quickly after him.

“ Nay,
you
don’t understand,” he
answered reaching the top of the staircase and kicking open the
door to the bedchamber and all but dragging her inside. He pulled
her to him then and kissed her, sending her head spinning from the
surprise and yet the excitement of his action. Then he released her
so quickly, she stumbled backward, tripping on her cloak and
landing on the bed made from a single stuffed straw pallet, lying
directly on the floor. With the air knocked from her lungs, she
found herself trying to regain her breath so she could speak.