"Oh dear," she sighed, "I did say I would tell you, didn't I? Well, you now know that I was taken by a large party of about twenty Bandits. They took me on a three-day hard ride north, which I ascertained from the morning and evening sun. Our own ride these last few days reminded me much of it and replaced those old memories with ones a lot more pleasant," she smiled, "I was taken to that Inner Stronghold, they called it, the one you've just taken by force. There, the chieftain took me violently the very first night I arrived and," Jarolyn spoke very quietly as the children slept in their cots, "although the chieftain had sex with many girls, only very young girls, he did not mark me as his and gradually he became less brutal, so much so I came to accept his overtures, relaxed enough that I fell pregnant…."
"With Tomi?" Tomas asked.
"Aye. I suppose I've given my true feelings away by my son's name. The names of the children of chieftains, who have the pick of the whores—"
"Whores?"
"To Bandits, all girls or women were simply called whores. We were there to be raped at will and shared with other Bandits, sometimes for favours but often because they simply didn't care for the girls. Many were murdered on a whim, there was no law. There were no organised families, but … for the first two years that bandit chief refused to share me, although he took his fair share of his men's girls for his own pleasures. He cared nothing about what name I called my child. My boy's name, Tomi, made me feel that I might have a hope of freedom, a home one day and family."
"So the scar came later?"
"Yes, it is ugly and unromantic, isn't it?"
"It is a badge that was imposed upon you, my lady, to further enslave and control you. You are a slave no longer, Jarolyn, it cannot be taken away, but you are still beautiful, so wear it as a badge of your independence, simply a symbol of what you had to endure to survive as you now are in control of your own destiny."
"And is my destiny and the children who are with me, part of your destiny, Tomas?"
"My Lady, and I hope you will be my own lady in truth, I have loved you from knowing you as a delightful child back when I was a child myself and from then on I've only grown to love you more as you grew into womanhood. Now, you've taken responsibility for and love not only your son but three children who had no mothers, because you cared even whilst within that monstrous hell you lived in. You have continually demonstrated that you care for them before caring for yourself these last few days and even now show concern for their futures and wish to ensure that they share your future. I love you even more, I only wish that I was more worthy of you, Your Highness."
"That title was only a part of me while my adopted mother the Queen loved me and cared for me. When my father died we both missed him terribly and my mother and I grew even closer as I was entering womanhood and needed a mother's love and advice. Since then I have been … not even an ordinary woman but a whore—"
"A slave," I interrupted and continued calmly, "you had no choice in your circumstances and how you were used or treated, you needed to survive; if you hadn't adapted you wouldn't be alive for me to love you now, my lady, my Jarolyn, my love."
"Tomas, you have to understand what I am saying. To start with, yes, rape was painful and demeaning. I hated him and resisted, was severely beaten and I hated everything that was happening to me. I kept asking the chieftain about my ransom but he stalled. saying negotiations were complicated, including pardons for crimes, restoring confiscated estates, trade agreements … but then I started to endure his impositions and later, with my relative independence in the whorehouse it became a job which I took pride in doing well, mostly. The weakness of man gave me back a little of the strength and power I had lost. As for my scar, you may not want to know what happened shortly after I got this."
"I assure you I do. No secrets are worth having in any honest relationship."
"True. Well, Bandit chieftains do not last long, between two and five years, from information I've gathered. I belonged to my first chieftain for almost two years and was heavily pregnant when he was challenged, for the third or fourth time that I knew about, and he lost his life, which meant I then belonged to another. The first chieftain never marked me. I think he knew I was the step-daughter of the Queen and might be valuable one day to bargain with.
"The new chieftain decided I was his property and wanted to destroy the baby of the first chieftain inside me, so he beat me until I was unconscious and, while I was out of it, he cut me, left me beaten, half dead and bleeding. I woke in the dead of night. One of my eyes was closed up completely and my hair was drenched in blood from my cut face. I was doubled up in pain from the kicking but I heard the drunken chieftain snoring. By the light of the fireplace embers I could see he was naked abed with two whores asleep beside him. His dagger was on the table where he left it. One of the whores had very long hair; I tied the chieftain's hands behind his back with her hair. Both were so drunk, so deeply asleep that they didn't know what was happening. I used the whores' woollen stockings to tie his feet, the whores' feet and gag the chieftain. Still he didn't wake."
"What about guards?" I asked.
"Probably drunk. This was not the Palace, Tomas, they were a disorganised rabble. The new chieftain and his followers had broken into the treasure house and divvied up the treasure and drank all the old chieftain's wine."
"What did you do?"
"I gelded him with his own knife. Ha! That woke him up! He was angry but terrified as I showed him his bleeding ball sack and his blood-stained dagger. His movements to free his hands woke the girl whose hair tied up his hands. She started to scream. I not too gently poked her with the point of the dagger and told her to be quiet or I would cut off her nose. She went very quiet."
"Would you have?"
"No! She was a slave like me!"
"What about the other girl?"
"She woke earlier, when I first lit the candles, her hands and feet already hog-tied together, she whimpered, and watched my every move with big eyes but stayed quiet. Both girls were very young. I turned my attention to the new chieftain. He was trying to say something through the stocking gag. I assumed he was asking me 'why?' I answered, 'you cut me, I cut you. We're even. I want my freedom, you want your cock. Want to trade, yes? Promise to set me free, give me passage home and you keep your cock. Do you agree?' He nodded, so I cut off the gag. The first thing the stupid man said was, 'I'm going to kill you!' So I slit his throat, which stopped his scream but that started the two girls screaming. No-one in the Stronghold came to his or the girls' rescue. So I left the chamber and searched for someone to help me. Of course there were no doctors but the first house I knocked on was the whorehouse and they were used to treating beatings dished out on women and they looked after me."
"Were there recriminations?" I wanted to know.
"Ha! They didn't know what to do with me. They were leaderless for a day or two before they came back. I had caught a fever and from my sickbed in the whorehouse I told the next chieftain that if he wanted to abuse me, he could but he would only ever fall sleep once. I think my fever made me laugh out loud at him. He looked afraid and so much like the chieftain I had killed, so I laughed even louder and he fled. They left me alone and the whorehouse adopted me. Tomi survived and was born healthily a couple of months later and, when I healed up I willingly worked as a whore to earn my keep. I had a reputation and chieftains and wannabe chieftains came and went from my bed, paying for the privilege. It gave me power, provided me with precarious protection and I could charge my customers a premium. It gave me savings so I could buy food long after everyone was starving from your Lord's siege. I took on the orphan babies, because I alone could afford to feed them. I never thought I'd ever be freed but always knew that I could survive."
She looked up from our held hands and looked into my eyes.
"When I saw you, Tomas, I felt shame for the first time in four or five years and I hid myself from you. I am sorry, but you should know who I was, I am not a princess. I am a whore who enjoys her work, it provided me with an income, it had become my profession."
I smiled. "I am an orphan, Jarolyn, somehow very recently adopted as grandson to a Lord. Would you adopt me as your only bed companion? I am not sure whether or for how long I can pay you, but here at least you have the freedom to make your choice."
"Once, a long time ago, you chose me, Tomas. Now that it is my turn to choose, I choose you alone above all others."
***
The Manor Steward came to the inn an hour after our new little family had broken fast and were playing together in the courtyard. I was enjoying tickling the giggling baby Doadi. The Steward examined the inn's hall first, then stepped into the rear courtyard and approached us.
He bowed to both of us and the children, "My Lord, My Lady, I am Jonas, the Alderlea Manor Steward. May we retire to your chambers, Sire, that we may speak freely?"
"Aye, of course," I replied, knowing discretion was necessary. The children were gathered up and within two minutes we were in our chamber.
"Forgive me, my Lord," he whispered to me once the door was securely shut, then turned to Jarolyn, "your Royal Highness, but your identities must remain secret, the Queen's Regent has spies everywhere. If she learns of your attachment with Lord Alderlea she may track you here or onto the manor. We suggest you travel today to the smaller manor of Dhaniz, where you will be comfortable and safe."
"I know Dhaniz, I was born and lived there all my childhood years," I said, remembering the Orphanage where I was well cared for even though I was never adopted, though other children came and went.
"Of course you were, Sire, you lived in the 'orphanage' before you were indentured as a squire by —"
"Sir Dhaniz!" I exclaimed, "So, to disguise our identity we now have to pretend to be Lord and Lady Dhaniz?"
"No need to pretend, Sire, the title of Lord of the Manor of Dhaniz is an honorific title granted to the male heir of Lord Alderlea, it was inherited from the family of Lord Alderlea's mother, so your Knight was indeed Lord Dhaniz, although he preferred to use his knightly title because he earned it and not simply handed the title by birthright."
"As it seems I have. So, Sir Dhaniz was Lord Alderlea's eldest son?"
"His only son, Sire, and you are Sir Dhaniz's only son. The Dhaniz Manor House is a small but comfortable residence that your grandfather has used as his home ever since his son died. It is loyally staffed and maintained and they are now expecting you. We can take your cart part of the way, but most of the road is a rocky track that the cart cannot use."
Within the hour we were on the road, escorted by a dozen men-at-arms who met us half a league outside the town. Although well armed with an assortment of weapons, they were a smiling happy band who Jonas introduced as tenants and farmers on the comfortably prosperous Alderlea estate, not actual men-at-arms. Very soon the babies were off the cart and riding with the cheerful riders in more interesting and pleasurable comfort being fussed over than in the uncomfortable cart. At roughly every league or two along the road, pairs of smiling Alderlea men, posted to ensure the road was clear, also joined the happy band.Very soon the cart was handed over to one of the younger riders to take back to the inn.