Page 21 of The Tempest
Astria was no better off than she had been when Bloody Maude first captured her. She’d been kept in ropes or in locked chambers the entire time, her freedom stripped along with her dignity. Upon meeting the man she was to marry, she’d turned him against her as well by throwing her fist into his eye.
He’d tried to be kind at first. His words were chivalrous and his intentions seemed honorable. But she was so frightened, so angry, that she immediately tried to fight him. Even when she charged at him after he’d spanked her, all he’d done was push her to the ground. He never hurt her or struck her. Other than the spanking, which she had to admit she rightfully deserved, he’d not lifted a hand against her.
She’d gotten a good look at him. He was a very big man, tall and muscular, with a crown of light brown hair with a hint of red to it, and perhaps the most handsome face she’d ever seen. Shockingly so. He also had enormous hands, which she had gotten a taste of when he had spanked her. But Maude had called him off, as the woman had strangely been both her captor andher protector for the past several months, and Astria’s bindings had been returned before the escort resumed their forward momentum.
And now she found herself in a quaint little village.
She still didn’t know where she was, but the collection of cottages and businesses she found herself in seemed rather bucolic and quiet. It was surrounded by dense forests and the roads seemed to be perpetually muddy, but she got quite a sense of peace from it. Peace that was so rare in her life. The sense of it was almost like a shout in the dark, startling and eye-opening.
There was great tranquility here, far from stormy seas.
Someone had taken her to an outbuilding behind a tavern with the nameBlack Cockcarved above the door. The outbuilding contained foodstuffs—cheese, butter, and earthenware containers with things like pickled onions and fruit. She could smell it. It was an outbuilding made of stone, and very cold, as it was meant to preserve things. Astria ended up on the floor, leaning against a cold wall and pondering what had happened since the day she’d been captured. Dirty, hungry, and scared, she was at the bottom.
This was what her life had come to.
Astria had spent months being tied up, tossed around, confined, and laughed at. Oddly enough, she’d never been starved or beaten, except when she’d initiated violence, so in that sense, her captivity hadn’t been horrific. But it had been wearing. Everything about it was wearing on her—spiritually, mentally, and physically. She refused to eat half of the time and could see how bony her wrists had become. She hadn’t seen her reflection,trulyseen it, since she was captured, so she could only imagine what she looked like.
An animal.
The reality of that was heartbreaking to her. Astria had always been someone who took pride in her appearance. Herhair had always been neatly styled, and, against the physic’s wishes, she liked to bathe frequently because she didn’t like the smell of body odor. Everyone had it, of course, and it was considered quite normal, but she’d never been fond of the smell, most especially on her.
She couldn’t remember when she last took a bath.
It was difficult not to feel sorry for herself. Five months of captivity meant five months of struggling to survive. Everything in her world now was a struggle simply to breathe, but she knew that she would continue to live like this if she didn’t stop behaving like a wildcat. If she wanted a bath and food and at least a comb, then it was probably time that she stop her wild battles and realize the gravity of her situation. An uncooperative prisoner might eventually find herself dropped over the side of the ship, hands bound, so she could sink to a watery grave. She’d heard someone threaten her with that once.
But a cooperative prisoner would live to fight another day.
The problem was that surrender was so contrary to her nature.
As she sat there, shivering, it occurred to her that there was food just a few feet away and she was starving. Literally starving. She couldn’t remember when she’d eaten last. They had her arms bound with rope, but it wasn’t particularly tight because Bloody Maude didn’t like it when it was cutting off her circulation, so the result was rope that was barely binding her.
It was rope that was easy to get off.
She had become good at that, too, over the months. There had been a few opportunities for her to shrug off her bindings, but Maude and her men had never been the wiser about it. Therefore, she shifted on her bottom and bent her legs up against her chest, trying to get her arms underneath her bottom so they were in front of her and not behind her. She had to work at it a few times before she was able to bring her arms forward.Once they were in front of her, it was simply a matter of sliding out of the ropes.
Free of her confinement, she quickly stood up and went to the shelves that contained the food. The first thing she came across was a half a wheel of white cheese and she immediately tore off a hunk of it, shoving it in her mouth. But there were many other things in this cold storage, and she began pulling the cloth off bowls. She found fruit that she put in her mouth after she finished swallowing the cheese, and on another shelf, she found part of a meat pie.
With so much to choose from, she just started grabbing things. When her hands were full, she sat down on the ground and began to stuff her face. It didn’t even occur to her that she was eating like an animal, and a starving one at that, because she was so hungry that nothing else seemed to matter. Manners didn’t matter. Decorum or etiquette didn’t matter. All that mattered at that moment was getting that cheese and fruit and meat pie into her belly.
She’d never tasted anything so delicious.
Once she’d managed to devour everything, she stood up to go in for another round. On the far end of the shelves, there seemed to be some kind of bread or cake of some kind. It was sweet and had oats in it as well as raisins, and she shoveled that into her mouth. There was something else behind it that was covered in a cloth, and when she took the cloth off, she could see that it was some kind of a honey cake because she touched it and her fingers came away sticky. Thrilled, she grabbed the entire thing and begin eating it like a barbarian. No forks, no knives, just her hands and teeth to make short work of the honey cake. She had a mouthful of it when the door to the cold storage abruptly opened.
The big man she’d slugged in the eye was standing there.
Astria wasn’t sure what to do at that point. Her mouth was full and she knew if she didn’t chew, she would probably choke, so she resumed chewing at a slower pace, but set the rest of the cake down and balled her fists, preparing for a fight.
Here we go again.
But the big man threw his hands up.
“Easy, lass,” he said calmly. “I’ve not come for a brawl.”
Astria was feeling nervous and cornered. “What do you want?”
“Tae talk tae ye.”
“Why?”
