Page 47 of The Dragon Ring
Hairy-Nose was not brave. He abandoned his friend and started to back away across the room. “We didn’t mean no ’arm. Didn’t know she were yours, milord. Gotta forgive a man for tryin’.”
Ratty was crying, nursing his finger stumps to his chest.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the fingers. They looked alien and horrible, as though they’d never been attached to a human body.
“Get out,” Merlin snarled at the two men, the sword pointing directly at Hairy-Nose, who was pretty near crying himself. “And you, take your fingers with you.”
A dog had crawled out from under one of the tables and already snatched up one of the fingers, but Ratty, sniveling terribly, went down on one knee, and while still trying to keep one eye on Merlin, gathered up the other three in his good hand.
Hairy-Nose didn’t wait for him. The door slammed shut behind him. Ratty struggled back to his feet and followed his friend.
Merlin lowered his sword.
I raised my eyes from the pool of dark blood in the straw. “You cut his fingers off.” I was so taken aback I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
He nodded. “Would you have preferred it if I let him stick his knife in you? And then his cock?”
Of course not. But I didn’t say so. I was outraged that he’d inflicted such an over-the-top punishment.
He picked up Morgan’s discarded tankard cloth and, wiping the sword clean of blood, frowned at me. “What were you doing down here on your own anyway? I came to your room, but you weren’t there. You’re lucky I got here in time.”
“Well, if you hadn’t been so long in the baths this wouldn’t have happened,” I spat back, riled. “Have you brought me to a brothel?” My voice rose in indignation.
He sheathed his sword and gave a noncommittal shrug. “Sort of. As much as any inn is. They cater mostly to men, so of course they have a bit of extra comfort at their disposal.”
I was furious. “But those awful men thought I was one of the women on offer!”
He was annoyed too, but with me. “Well, who could blame them when they found you in the taproom?”
“Oh, so there’s a law stopping women getting drinks in taprooms, is there?”
He shook his head. “Of course not. It’s just that well-born ladies don’t do it. Only the sort that are free with their favors.”
“Do I look like that?” I stormed indignantly.
I’d gone out of my way to look as different as possible to the blowsy Tegan and Maeve– particularly Tegan. I put my hands on my hips and glared at Merlin. “How was I supposed to know all this? In my time I can go in any pub– any inn I like and there’s no problem. Women go out all the time by themselves. No one gives a damn what we do.”
Actually, now I came to think about it, women in the twenty-first century weren’t all that much safer than I was back in the fifth. There were rapes and attacks and dangers on as many sides as there were here, especially in cities. You only had to look at the papers to know that. Something Merlin would not have done on his brief excursions to my world, I was sure.
He pulled a face. “I’m sorry. I should have realized you don’t know our ways yet. Next time you’re somewhere new, ask me what you should be doing. That’ll be best.”
“Next time, don’t go off with a whore, then,” I snapped back.
His eyes widened. “I didn’t. I went for a bath and a massage.”
A euphemism, of course. A massage, my foot.
I glared hard at him. “Well, I didn’t get amassagewith my two buckets of tepid water.”
A smile hovered on his lips. It was contagious. I found I was smiling back. He began to laugh, and I joined in.
“You got two buckets of tepid water?”
I was laughing so much now it was hard to answer. It was from delayed shock as well as mirth. All I could do for a moment was nod. Then I managed, “And a toothless old woman I couldn’t understand. A smelly, toothless old woman.” And that set me off again.
Which was how Arthur found us, leaning on a table, hysterically laughing together.
He came in with a bunch of his men, Theodoric conspicuous by his absence. Probably still enjoying hismassage.
