Free Droit De Seigneur by Carolyn Faulkner Page B

leaned over to Piers and commented, “This place suffers from the lack of women, Sir Piers. Where is your Josette?”
    He told the King that he had sent for her, but she hadn’t arrived. In truth, he hadn’t thought much of Josette since he’d become involved with Amber, except to request her presence, and it was probably a good thing he had or he was going to end up becoming entirely too wrapped up in her. Amber might make a good mistress, but Josette would be the proper wife he needed.
    “What about that wench I saw you with earlier?” William’s elbow was wont to find its home in Piers’ ribs. “Amber, was it? She’s quite the comely wench, and it looked like you’d done quite a good job on her bottom.”
    “She’s become somewhat of a healer around these parts. All of my men swear by her.
    And, despite what you might think and what you’ve seen, I understand she’s quite virtuous.” The King looked taken aback, and quite disappointed, at that pronouncement. “A healer, you say? And virtuous, at that? Mayhap you shouldn’t wait for your Josette, Sir Piers, but take an English wife, instead!”
    This had the whole hall laughing, just when Amber entered the room carrying a basket full of bread. She’d been pressed into service in the kitchens, where it was utter chaos, because it was one of the most dilapidated parts of the castle and they were trying to not only feed an army of men, but to feed the King himself, which demanded a boatload of the best quality foods available, and armies of servants to serve them.
    Several of the girls were filling the men’s cups, for the umpteenth time already this evening, with mead, some, like her, were distributing the food. She knew most of the people she was serving, and the majority of them were nice to her, or at the very least, polite.
    The only one who gave her trouble was the one she expected to do so: Troy. Every time she came near him, he reached out and did what he always did to her – he grabbed her breasts, or pinched her bottom, or both, and she was just about ready to break out that little blade she always wore and relieve him of one or more of his digits to make him think twice about doing so the next time she came around with a roll or a ladle of stew.
    This time, he turned around on the bench and put one hand on her breast, and reached up between her legs with the other.
    Despite what Sir Piers had said, most of the men appreciated what Amber had done for them, helping them with their ailments, and they did not appreciate Troy making an ass of himself annoying her. A lot of them leapt to her aid, but unfortunately, in the fracas, Troy located the band on her thigh where she now kept her knife, slipped it out, and had it at her neck before she could prevent him from doing so.
    Troy dragged her into the middle of the hall, knocking down the acrobatic tumblers and stepping on midgets, pulling her up before Sir Piers and the King, poking the tip of the blade against her neck while they watched. “Here’s your precious whore, Sir Piers.” Piers watched, his entire body tense as a single drop of Amber’s red blood dripped down the short blade. He’d faced enemies in battle before, but he’d not expected they’d come from within his own ranks to threaten his own. He could see how terribly frightened she was, and anger welled up inside him such as he had never known.
    No one threatened that which was his and lived, and she was more his than most.
    “I’m going to kill her right now, right in front of you, so that no one will get her precious virginity. Not any of those mewling guttersnipes, and especially not you!” Troy looked directly at Piers as he raised the blade to plunge it into Amber’s neck.

Chapter Six
    Several things happened at once: the soldiers behind where Troy had Amber in his clutches stormed towards him, en masse, ever present weapons of all sorts raised. But they were much too slow, in comparison to both Sir Piers and Amber, and