AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I can hear the other women giggling at my distress.
I’m often told I am really quite graceful, but stumbling around in this heavy veil is not showcasing that attribute. I’m glad the other girls can’t see me blushing under the veil.
“Right, through here,” one of the women says, and then I’m suddenly in a different room, with lush carpet under my feet. I can feel it even through the fancy slippers they put me in.
“Line up straight,” the turd says in my ear, and I glance under the bottom of the veil to line my feet up with the girl next to me. I wonder if their veils are so thick.
Maybe they’re used to this?
The turd goes on about something with pomp and flourish to whomever is waiting for us. I breathe slowly in through my nose. Whatever this is, whatever it will be, surely it will be better than being owned as one man’s slave. He wouldn’t pay me, just lock me away, after all.
Beggars can’t be choosers.
I square my shoulders with that resolve. No matter how fat, loud, or gross the man who will take my virginity is, I will serve as I’ve been told to. Mother and Jamie are depending on it.
The turd takes my veil off...
... and I am facing... ELVES.
Nothing in my wildest imagination has prepared me for elves. I can’t believe there is a deity so vindictive that he or she would make me lay with an elf – not after what happened to my father.
A sharp breath does nothing to calm my anger, instead merely fans the flames.
ELVES?
I want to scream. I’m afraid I might.
The elves, all noble, if I had to guess by their clothing, point and murmur at all of us, discussing amongst themselves. I suppose they are divvying who gets who and how much they will enjoy it, as men do.
I look over them, feeling my blood boil. Then my eyes lock onto the most handsome being I have ever seen in all my life.
He is like one of those statues in the town square – stately, chiseled, with broad shoulders, strong arms, and a tapered waist. I can’t see the rest of him because his legs are under a table, but I imagine he is entirely made of lean muscle.
His hair is long and black. His eyes... are on me.
His gray eyes bore into mine, transmitting a storm of some unnamed emotion. My angry breath catches. I wonder how long I was staring at him before he caught me.
He seems to stare into my soul, uncovering my deepest, darkest secrets.
It’s unnerving.
The turd begins introducing us one at a time. The ten women to my right curtsy prettily when he calls out their names. I do the same, though perhaps without as much demure submission. It burns my soul to bow to elves.
One of the noble elves points at the first girl, Lisette, a raven-haired beauty with a soft smile. “You, girl, what can you do?”
“Oh, our girls are quite well-trained in many entertainments,” the turd says, as though it was him the elf called on and not Lisette.
The elves do not take their eyes off us, but the one who spoke does ask the turd, in a bored tone, “What entertainments would these be?”
The turd looks at Lisette expectantly.
Lisette curtsies again. “I sing, my Lord. I also play the pianoforte...”
What in the name of all that was holy was a ‘pianoforte’?
The next girl, Carmela, a chestnut-haired buxom girl curtsies next, somehow managing to make her bosom jiggle as much as possible. “I paint, my Lords. I also compose sonnets. I’m sure Lisette could put a nice tune to them.”
Ah. Carmela and Lisette must be friends. They smile at each other subtly, looking a bit smug.
