Page 53 of The Swordmaster's Daughter

Chapter fourteen

Sisters of the Sword

TheSisters of the Sword were gathered around Lucinda. Annie was covering her blonde hair with a cap before slipping off her gown and stripping down to breeches. Lizzie was plaiting her hair in an attempt to tame her wild red locks while Maud handed out weapons and leather jerkins in preparation for the lesson ahead. Maud had not changed her style of hair, still favoring the braided coils pinned to the side of her head like ears, but she no longer had the aura of a frightened rabbit which gave heart to Lucinda that her teaching was having some effect. Moll was already in breeches, as usual. She lolled about, inspecting her knife and carefully laying it aside.

“Someone new is coming today,” Lucinda said.

”Is she one of us?” Maud said quietly, not needing to spell out what she meant by “us“.

“Sadly, yes, and I must swear you all to secrecy. Her identity and the reason she is here must never be revealed or there could be consequences for us all.”

“What is so special about her?” Annie said, revealing the shrewdness behind her soft and pretty facade.

“She is the niece of a Lord with most high connections.”

“So the spawn of Satan is spreading his filth in higher quarters,” Lizzie said with a toss of her thick red plait. “Quite a step up from the likes of us.”

“We would never, ever tell,” Annie promised.

”Is this something to do with last week when that handsome Scotsman burst in on our group?” Moll asked, always quick on the uptake. “He was in quite a state searching for your grandmother.”

“I will leave it up to her to explain as much as she feels the need to. Her name is Rosalind, and she is possessed of the sweetest nature.”

“Do not fear,” Moll continued, “whoever she is, we will treat her like one of us ladies.” She did a flourish with her hands to take in her own and all the other Sisters’ breeches which set them all laughing. Lucinda had planned to discuss other more serious matters but that could wait until later. Why spoil the jovial mood?

She need not have concerned herself with their reaction to a newcomer. The Sisters of the Sword took Rosalind under their collective wing. Moll and Annie toned down their language at first, but it was not long before they reverted to form. You can take a girl out of the rough parts of London, but you cannot take the rough parts out of the girl. She would not want them to change anyway. Given Rosalind’s sheltered upbringing she had every right to be offended, but she was soon laughing at the others’ antics. Seeing her laugh was a miracle in itself, given what she had recently suffered, and, to an onlooker, they would all appear to be old friends.

During their first break in the lesson Rosalind ventured to ask a question. “Do you mind if I ask how it is to wear men’s breeches?”

“They have their advantage and disadvantage,” Moll said.

“Like using the privy,” Annie concurred. “That takes forever, for you must undo all the points to get the breeches down, instead of simply lifting your skirts. And I am so much more practiced at lifting my skirts,” she said with a cackle and a wink. Once the laughter died down the discussion continued.

“I much prefer the freedom they afford especially when you are doing something that requires quick leg movement such as fencing,” Moll said. “I like them so much I wear breeches all the time.”

“You wear them outside where people can see you?” Rosalind said. “I would not have the boldness. Do you find people mistake you for a man?”

Moll shrugged. “They did that before. I have had it all my life, so I thought I might as well go with it, then I can do all the things a man can do and go to all the places a man can go.”

“Are you not afraid to go out amongst men?”

“Not anymore.”

“Because you dress as one?” Rosalind persisted.

“More because Lucinda has taught us how to defend ourselves and how to fight.”

It was exactly the response Maud, Lizzy and Rosalind needed to hear.

They returned with great enthusiasm to some free fencing. Moll and Annie were now good enough to pit against each other with training rapiers while Lucinda kept Maud and Rosalind with herself, taking turns as instructor against student. This gave them some time to rest and learn by watching as well as doing. After the next break the lesson moved on from fencing with rapiers to hand-to-hand combat, a sequence of instruction which had become their regular routine. The newer girls observed while she grappled with Annie, Moll, and Lizzie, having them attack her from various angles and try to take her down to the floor.

“Ooh!” Rosalind gasped after a particularly loud thud when Moll hit the floor and rolled on to her back. “That must have hurt!”

“Not really,” Moll said from where she lay on her back, knees bent, legs sprawled apart. “Lu has taught us all how to fall so we come to no harm.”

All of a sudden Lizzie pointed at Moll and squealed. “My oath! What is that between your legs?”

“A twat,” Moll shot back.

---