Jessica’s attention was brought back suddenly to the noise below. She could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. She recognized his laughter immediately, but there was someone else with him, a woman. Gods! How could she have been so stupid not to think of this?
They stopped outside the door. Her ears, sharpened by the tension, could make out every sound they made. The false laugh of his whore. One of his hands fumbling at the door handle. The other hand fumbling under the whore’s clothes. Then they stumbled in laughing and pawing at each other, illuminated by a shaft of light from the hallway. Jessica still behind the door was shielded in the shadow. As they began to kiss again Jessica moved. In one fluid action she had kicked the door closed and brought the hilt of her dagger down on the girls head with a vicious thump. The girl slumped to the floor and the man looked around confused by the sudden darkness and Jessica’s unexpected action. He squinted at the shadow that seemed to be moving towards him. Then felt a sudden pain in his groin as Jessica slammed her booted foot between his legs. He doubled up with pain and she brought her knee up slamming it into his forehead. The man collapsed in a heap beside the unconscious whore.
The room was silent again. Slowly sounds started to filter back to her. The rush of blood to her ears. The sound of her own breath rushing to fill her lungs.
After a few deep gulps of air Jessica found herself again. The shock of her own actions had stunned her for a moment. This was not exactly how she had planned it in her head, but it would do. She shook her head to clear it and listened more carefully for any sign that she might have been heard. The noise of the night slowly came back to her and she could hear the revelers slowly drifting away to their beds or some dark and private corner. For the present she was safe. Looking down at the two more immediate problems at her feet she put her plan into action.
First she removed the man’s sword and belt and searched him for any other weapons that may have been hidden on him. She took off the girls dress and tore it up into strips to bind and gag her. Grabbing her under the arms she dragged her to the far side of the bed and rolled her up in one of the blankets laying her face down.
Jessica turned her attention back to her main prey. Dragging him to the foot of the bed she sat him up and tied his arms and hands to the posters with the remains of the girls dress. His head flopped down when she had finished. She stood back to examine him. He looked to her like a scarecrow in a soldiers uniform.
Jessica went to the side of the bed and lit the oil lamp. The shutters on the windows secured she turned up the wick and let its yellow light flicker. It had been a long time since real light filled this place. She squinted letting her eyes adjust.
Then she returned to the end of the bed and knelt down beside her unconscious prey. Grabbing him by the hair she tilted his head back letting the light of the lantern reveal his face. Clean-shaven with graying hair at the temples and dressed in a rich dark uniform. Just like the proper officer gentleman. "I know what you really are." She whispered.
Groggily the man opened his eyes and tried to focus. Squinting at the image in front of him. A young woman not more then fifteen or sixteen, pale skinned face and hands, dark curls of hair sticking out from under the cowl she wore and every other inch of her covered in dark cloth or leather. In one hand she held a dagger, point towards his face.
“Who are you?” The man asked in a dry rasping voice. Jessica quickly stood up and drove the toe of her boot under his rib cage. If he had not been tied to the end of the bed he would have doubled up immediately. The best he could do was to bring his knees up to his chest and gasp until he got his breath back.
Jessica watched him as she paced back and forth trying to catch her breath and calm her annoyance. He wasn’t reacting the way she had planed.
When he could breathe once more he looked up at her again. "Have you any idea who I am?" he asked between rasping breaths.
