This chapter may be a little dark, so I apologise in advance. Nothing bad or horrible is, or will, happen to Lucia so don't get the wrong idea from this chapter. This is going to be a romantic and light hearted story eventually, but I don't think you can make the situation Lucia is in currently, any brighter. Enjoy…
It was cold, dark and windy outside the old rundown barn and cold dark and damp inside. In other words, the surroundings matched Lucia's mood. The person in question currently had her hands tied the leg of a large oaken table that stood awkwardly in the centre of the large floor.
The floor made of cold cement and covered thinly with hay and dust, managed to make her legs itch uncomfortably while the bonds of the rope made her wrists ache with restricted blood flow.
Since a story can be told easier if the reader can imagine the surroundings of the tale, let me then explain where exactly Lucia is. The barn had been a few years before, a substitute of a house for a destitute farmer.
He had lost all the animals, property and land he had in his possession from a bout of bad luck while gambling. It was only while collecting the few remaining items he could still call his own, he realized the one thing he hadn't gambled away was the barn at the very far end of his former land.
Long story short, he moved in and during the next few years, became very well acquainted with the very addictive and skilled deceiver formally known as alcohol.
After the alcohol had finally seduced away the man's soul from his body, the farm had laid barren and unkempt until one night, a group of men with souls as empty as the discarded bottles laying waste, decided to stop in for the night.
One thing led to another and soon enough, the barn had become the unofficial stop over for the 'stocking sellers'.
The barn itself was quite large but had numerous panels and section missing from its roof and foundations. It was only one level with no loft and no furniture, but over time a bed, a table and a small area for a fire had been added.
Lucia was desperately trying to loosen the ropes around her wrists slightly by tugging harshly at them. But this was to no avail; it only resulted in her skin becoming red and painfully raw.
Letting out a sigh of dejection, Lucia leaned her body against the table leg and looked around the room. So far no one was around.
Acervus had left only an hour after they had settled in the barn, mumbling something about getting the right time and number for Lucia's sale. The other three men were outside, setting the horses up for the night, leaving Lucia alone with her thoughts…not such a good idea.
Acervus had promised before he left that when he came back in an hour or so, he'd go through the rules and expectations Lucia was meant to follow during the auction.
This only served as ammunition for her mind, letting it conjure up vile images of her standing up on a platform, her body being greedily assessed by every depraved man in the room. The thought made her skin shiver in disgust.
A weary yawn escaped Lucia's lips. Looking up to the roof of the barn, she saw that a panel was missing directly above her head, enabling her to see straight into the dark night sky.
Her thoughts were captivated as she watched hazy clouds, prodded along by the strong wind, slowly glide across the star filled night. A storm was approaching and from the headache she felt coming on, it would arrive soon.
In her tiredness, Lucia watched with calm solemnity as the three men who had been previously occupied outside, now walked into the barn, each laughing and teasing the other with a loudness that grated Lucia's ears.
One of the men walked straight over to the small but growing fire lying in the centre of the room. Pulling out a few small logs from a leather satchel he was carrying at his side, he proceeded to throw them carefully into the crackling flames.
The second man walked to the other end of the room where four sleeping pallets were laid out. Roughing the closest one up with his hands first, he threw himself quite ungracefully onto it hard surface.
Pulling the blanket over his bulky form, he turned with his back facing Lucia and somehow, although Lucia thought it was humanly impossible, fell asleep almost instantly with a procession of boar like snores following close behind.
It was while watching the second man that the third man came and stood by Lucia without her noticing.
"It's almost unhuman the way he snores, once his head touches a pillow, there's no way to stop him". Lucia barely gasped but the look in her eyes showed the man that he had surprised the young woman. Lucia's shock soon turned to distaste as the man settled himself on the floor beside her.
She remembered him from earlier on as being the one who was the first to wake in the carriage and whose wit had earned him a glare from her. Looking carefully and sceptically at the man who was only twenty five at most, Lucia ruefully admitted that he wasn't that bad looking for such a soulless man.
"Ah my girl, tomorrow it will all be over and I can finally return home for some rest. Being on the road really takes it out on a man, you know". Lucia openly stared at him. She searched his face for any signs that he was joking but there were none.
"No sorry, I don't know…being a hostage and all", Lucia replied dryly, casting him a contemptuous look as she did.
The man chose to ignore her look and shook his head in a mock sorrowful way before remarking, "For someone in your position, you seem to show no fear. Not once have you begged or cried for us to release you. Instead you spout your cunning little mouth off like you want it silenced forever. If I were you, I'd be trembling within my soul for what's awaiting you tomorrow."
Lucia breathed out an elaborate curt sigh, similar to a sigh of a person who cannot believe the ignorance of someone they are talking to.
"As the saying goes, you have nothing to fear but fear itself"
The man only raised a scornful eyebrow. "I wouldn't be so sure little lady; there are some things that exist that defy human understanding…." He paused slightly
"There are people out there so vulgar and so putrid in soul that they seem to be the devil himself in living form. All I'm saying is that the person who buys you might not be a creature worth calling human…." Once again, and to Lucia's frustration, he paused again before continuing.
"You might be fortunate to get one who only wants you to look after the house, clean or look after his children or wife, but there are times when…lets just say, fate might not be so kind".
Lucia raised her shoulders in an inquiring way. "Is there a point to your lecture? There's nothing I can do about is there? Since we're on the subject of human morals...don't you think it's a bit hypocritical to be accusing someone else of having such a putrid soul when you yourself, have no right to even be called a man?"
The man looked purely and utterly insulted. He opened his mouth and closed it in repeated succession. He reminded Lucia of a gaping fish that had unsuspectingly been pulled out of his safe watery haven and dangled in the suffocating oxygen.
"Look here young one", the man said in an eerily calm voice, "I may be a wretched excuse for a man but at least I'm free". Lucia's chest tightened at the way the man said free; he pulled it out temptingly, savouring each syllable.
"At least", Lucia said, mimicking his last words, "I don't have an appendage named after me". She knew she was being petty but what else could she do?
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked truly puzzled, narrowing his eyes at her suspiciously.
"It means you're a Di…" It was at this point that Lucia felt a cold hand come across her cheek.
Lucia's face had turned with the direction of the man's palm, and now, turning to face the man eye to eye, she smiled devilishly.
"Ah, so you finally understood. Do you know that denial can lead to very serious emotional issues later on? Once you accept it, you'll become a much better person for it, let me tell you"
Lucia knew she was pushing him; the way his pupils were dilated and his nostrils were flaring, told her that with just one more push… he'd be sent right over the edge. She didn't care anymore; tomorrow she'd be bought by some fifty something year old man, with a penchant for young lasses who weren't all that willing.
She was nineteen, never been kissed or until now never, the outside of Matternach, but tomorrow her fate would be sealed as someone with no name or no future. It had taken until now to realize the intensity of her situation. Her flimsy plan of name fraud wouldn't and couldn't save her now. A young woman travelling alone and without money, no matter what her station, was prone to much worse than the actions of an overeager gentleman who paid a pretty penny to own her.
Lucia watched the man's fury grow and knew she had to take the opportunity.
"Can you smell that?" she asked, sniffing with her nose to emphasise her words.
"I think it smells like a sleaze bag…yes, I'm pretty sure it is or could it be scum? Either way, you're sitting too close to me … move"
Lucia watched the man in fear induced anticipation. She was fascinated with the way his face seemed to contort into one big round mass of puffed pinkness. His eyes had become slit like, his nose flaring as if it was trying to fly and his top lip raised itself slightly to create badly attempted sneer. Yep, she had pushed him over the edge…
She boldly held his gaze as she saw his right fist raise itself, but before he could unite it with Lucia's body; he was quickly jerked back by the man who had been attending the fire. He had looked over to see his friend raise his fist to the young woman and had run as fast as humanly possible to stop him.
Pulling him by the back of the shirt, the angry man had fallen quite clumsily on his back, grumbling as he tried to pull himself up of the floor. Standing and dusting himself off, he sent his friend a death worthy glare. Ignoring the glare, Lucia's unlikely rescuer shook his head disbelievingly.
"What do you think you're doing? Acervus would kill all three of us if he came back and she was all bruised and broken. She needs to be in the best selling condition for tomorrow"
Lucia's almost-attacker ran a tired hand over his face and grumbled a frustrated growl of agreement. With one last glare directed at Lucia, who was smugly smiling back, he walked stiffly to where the other man was unconsciously snoring away.
"Didn't they teach you not to mess with the merchandise", Lucia snidely called out to the man's retreating form, earning her a glare from the two men present.
Lucia was fast asleep when Acervus finally came back. That wasn't really surprising considering that it was around one in the morning. Walking in from the windy darkness outside, Acervus looked to Lucia's sleeping form.
A storm was about to start and a few raindrops were already pattering against the flimsy exterior of the barn. Looking up, he noticed with distain, that rain was directly falling onto the young girl through the missing panel on the roof. Grumbling as he walked over and squatted to his knees, Acervus untied Lucia's restraints and bundled her sedate form into his arms.
Looking around the room for somewhere to put her, he soon spotted a lone wooden horse post near a corner. Placing her at the foot of the post, Acervus retied her bonds and walked away with a skip in his step, everything was in order for the sale later that day. Lucia would be item number 4 and it was rumoured that the sale would have more than double the buyers than the last market. Acervus could already smell the money.