Incognito

23

The mia peeked out from underneath the blanket. The night was noisy and cold but the moon shines bright enough that she can see. Ducking inside, she kisses Prosper on the head. This morning had given Mia a scare but Rita promised that once the excitement calmed and the coughing ceased she would be out of harm. Somehow Mia just couldn't bear leaving her. But she needed food.

She crept thunderously through the forest. Branches snapped as she leaped off a muddy pile to land in another. Every way she trekked she found herself face to face with thorns. She felt like she woke the whole forest when with a shriek she fell off a log and landed face first in the mud. She only managed to brace herself at the last second. 

After a half-hour of losing herself in the woods, the mia cut through vines and stumbled through an evergreen onto the road. With a sign, she sat on the damp wagon rut and spread out her soiled skirts. They really were too larger, but a thief was not a picky chooser. Grumbling she began to hack at the bottom with her kitchen knife.

A far-off cry startled the mia awake. She never remembered slipping into sleep, but there she was in a highly dangerous spot. A shout sounded again and before she knew it she was walking toward it. 

Around a bend in the road, three big men were beating up a traveler as his little boy hid among the goods in the wagon. Mia was filled with rage as the man was stripped of the clothes off his back. Fingering her own skirts Mia could not help but wonder if the woman they once belonged to was alive.

"Please, please don't," the man cried in anguish.

Darcy had said he would stop this. He said he would talk to Richard. Delirious with anger, the mia stalked to the nearest man.

In a deep voice, she growled, "Unhand him!"

To her utter astonishment, the man's hand slackened and he deposited the man into the dirt which he was formed.

Pushing her knife deeper so the end pricked his back she demanded, "Who ordered you to do such a despicable thing?"

The second man threw back his hood. Richard grins at her. "I believe I give orders around here."

The assailant walked away from the knife as Richard strode forward.

"Hello, Angelica. Or do you prefer mia now?"

Richard gripped Mia's wrist and to her horror, the blade fell from her fingers. With a gasp, she dipped to catch it but Richard yanked her forward. His fingers probed her waist.

"I remember you much curvier. Oh well, you are still beautiful and a woman. All my needs are met."

 "Hello Richard, I remember you were respectful last we met." 

He guffawed and wiped away the glop of spit from er words off his beard. "Ornery, I see." Richard tilted her jaw upward.

Involuntarily the mia shivered. The two big men stood behind Richard with the half-dead Sojourner dangling lifelessly between them.

"Let him go." The mia looked into Richard's dark eyes. Light was beginning to kiss the clouds as she pleaded. "Let them go."

Richard flicked his wrist and the men dumped the man. He crawled to his wagon and began to ride his horses away before the gang changed their mind.

"Your brother says his greetings." Richard slid an arm low around her waist.

"What do you want, Richard?"

Richard stroked her jaw. "What do I want with the most wanted woman in the kingdom? The only wanted woman in the kingdom? The duke's reward. I could buy much with ten thousand rubies."