So I'm going to stick this story up for M because it will include mature and sometimes triggering themes. If anyone wants a warning on individual chapters then just ask and I will do so but unless someone asks I won't make a habit of it.

Thanks for reading and please do review.

The first thing Olivia felt was a pounding in her skull that intermittently sent daggers to stab at the back of eyes. She groaned and hung head forward on her chest, squinting her eyes open slightly against what little light there was. Casey was a Lady, daughter to a man of importance in the county and therefore was kept in the tower, in habitable surroundings. Olivia had no such title. From what she could see the far end of the dungeons continued under the moat and the walls seemed slightly damp. Metal baskets on the walls contained the only light, flickering flames that shinned on the metal blades that were lined on one table. Shackles and chains hung from the walls and ceiling and a wooden rack dominated one side of the room. Olivia only let herself glance around, not allowing her eyes to linger too long on rusted metal or dark stains. Thinking too much about what the room contained would not help her face the men in front her.

'Looks like someone has finally decided to join us.' The Sheriff said, a grin splitting his face.

Olivia had seen him before, but only from afar, mainly as she was riding away. He was thinner than his clothes let people believe, thick cloaks hiding a body that barely had an inch of fat on it. He was sat on a chair in front of her, their knees just touching. As she came slowly to she felt the rope rubbing on her wrists and ankles, even wrapped around her torso. Apart from turning her head and flexing her fingers she couldn't move at all.

There were two guards in the room, but for their faces of stone they might as well have been statues. The Black Cloak stood just behind his father but his helmet prevented anyone from knowing what he felt and his grey eyes gave nothing away.

'I've been wanting to meet you for a long time Olivia,' the Sheriff said drawing her attention back to him. She'd never been bothered about her name before but the sound of it on his lips made her shudder with revulsion.

'You've been rather a thorn in my side.' He reached out a traced a finger down her jaw line, the back of the chair preventing her from jerking her head away. 'You've cost me a lot of money and being a frugal man I want it back.' The sickly smile was still on his face though his eyes were cold and betrayed his anger.

'I don't have it.' She said her voice rough.

He leaned back and placed his palms flat on his knees, 'I thought you might say that. Do you really expect me to believe that you don't have a pound of what you stole?'

'Not a penny,' Olivia replied smirking slightly with a false bravado, 'I gave it all away.'

He sat silent for a time before asking again, 'Where is the money?'

'No idea.'

Where are the others?'

'Couldn't tell you.'

'Where do you live?'

'Nowhere.'

He laughed at her last answer and if she was expecting her denials to anger him, it only made his smile grow bigger.

'You see Olivia, you will give me the answers to all those questions and more; I promise you. I admire you for choosing the hard way, although I admit I expected nothing less, would have been disappointed with anything less. I'm looking forward to hearing you sing, everyone does in the end.'

She said nothing, didn't even let her eyes move, for fear that it would betray the cold sweat that had sprung up on her forehead.

'I am sad that I won't be here to see all of it, but I'm a busy man you see; peasants to maim, people to kill, you know the like.' Nobody smiled at his attempt at a joke. 'But it's okay, my son here will do a good enough job for me. He's been wanting to meet you for as long as I have.' He rose to his feet and walked towards the dungeons steps. 'I hope we see each other soon Olivia, remember I'm not a patient man.'

They'd moved that night, Elliot hobbling on rough crutches, while the rest of them carried their various belongings on their backs. Their camp wasn't safe, Olivia knew they were there. The hollow in the hill was left with no sign that anyone used to live there. Casey had never been to their new camp before, they so rarely used it. Near the middle of the forest, nearly half a day's walk in the trees, the river formed a waterfall. The sides of the gorge cut in the rock were covered in trees that shielded the water following below. Thorn bushes prevented anyone from getting too close to the edge and you only knew that the waterfall was there because of the sound of it pounding on the rocks. Behind the torrent of water there was a cave and it was in here that Munch laid their beds. The spray made it slightly damp and it was always cold but it was hidden. They were the only ones who knew the path through the thorns and down to the pool, hand over hand down the rock face and while this made it the safest place to be it was also the hardest to escape from. The rock closed up again about a hundred meters down, and the only way out was to swim underwater through the hole the river cut. Their new home was a slim rectangle in the forest floor, a waterfall at one end, a rock face at the other and lined on all sides by trees.

Casey sat apart from the others as they gathered around the newly lit fire. She stared into the clear water of the river, knees at her chest with still only her now tattered and soiled nightgown for cover. The sun had risen as they were walking but it did nothing to remove the goose bumps on her arms.

'It's not your fault Casey.' Elliot said as with some difficultly he lowered himself to the dirt beside her. She hadn't heard him approach so sunken in her guilt.

She felt tears sting behind her eyes but refused to let them fall and turned her head towards him, letting her silence act as a rebuttal.

'Liv knew what she doing, what she was risking. We'll get her back, don't worry.' Elliot couldn't tell if he actually believed his last statement or if he simply couldn't bear to contemplate the alternative.

'If I hadn't stalled so long on the wall, got myself captured in the first place,' Casey started her voice choked turning back towards the river, 'if I hadn't persuaded you all to stay.' Her throat felt too tight to continue and she lowered her chin to her chest, unable to stop the tears rolling down her checks.

'Casey look at me,' she refused still staring at her lap, 'Casey,' he gently lifting her face to his and saying in a slow gentle voice, 'It is not your fault. Do you understand, not your fault. It wouldn't have mattered how long you stayed on the wall, how hard you fought against capture it was the Black Cloak's plan from the start.' Her eyes, still wet showed her confusion, her mind not understanding what he meant.

'Casey, you were bait. It was never you the Black Cloak wanted. God, I'd bet my other leg the whole tax raid was a set up from the start. What happened was no one's fault, least of all yours and I'm know that we will get her back.'

'You know?' she replied in a small voice so unlike her, as his statement that she was only bait played in her head.

'As much as I know that Munch will bore us all to sleep tonight with tales of how God's angels are working for the French treasury.' She smiled and though the guilt wasn't entirely gone, she let herself believe, at least a little, what Elliot had said.

'It's going to be okay,' he said laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. 'God, Casey your freezing,' Elliot exclaimed drawing his hand back, 'come on you need to come sit by the fire' he said as she let him draw her away from the water, 'enough mopping for today.'

The Black Cloak stepped forward when his father was gone and Olivia worked hard at trying to control her breathing. He stared at her for a moment before motioning to the guards. Olivia felt rough hands grasp her arms as the ropes that surrounded her were cut. They dragged her out of the chair and back to the far wall, she knew there was no point in resisting. With cold hands they secured her wrists and ankles to metal shackles attached to the wall till she stood spread eagle against the cold damp stone.

The guards turned without a word and Olivia marvelled for a second that the Black Cloak could command without uttering a sound or sometimes without even moving. She watched as he walked over to a table at the other side of the room, the one with the knives and tried not to let her mind get ahead of her. The only sound was her ragged breathing and the slow measured steps of the Black Cloak.

Her breath caught in the back of her throat as he turned with a small serrated blade in one hand, the metal catching the flames from the wall. She tried not to let her fear show but she knew that the beads of sweat on her upper lip, and her eyes, not able to move from the metal, betrayed her.

He still made no sound as he walked slowly back over to her and she started to think that the rumours about his tongue might be true. He stopped close enough to touch and paused there for a second, knowing that sometimes the anticipation was worse than the pain itself. He reached out just like his father and ran one gloved hand down her face, Olivia staying still to show that the move didn't bother her. Though now close enough to see, the eyes that stared back from beneath his helmet gave nothing away. He trailed his hand down her jaw to her collar bone, fisting in the green tunic he felt there. Raising the blade Olivia tensed waiting for the sting of the cold metal but it never came. Instead the sound of tearing cloth filled the room.

He was slowly running the knife through her clothes. First down the length of her torso then down each arm pulling it from her chest. Descending to one knee he raised the metal and cut through the cloth of her breeches till he was able to pull the material free. He worked methodically, his touch strangely gentle and stepped back when he was done.

Olivia tried not to let the blood rush to her cheeks but she felt her face burn all the same. She wasn't ashamed of her body, wasn't exactly modest living as she did so close to three men, but stripping naked to bathe in the river wasn't the same as this. The cold made her nipples stand erect and though she tried to calm her breathing her chest was heaving from gasps that bordered on panic. Her bronze skin was bleached in the darkness and she felt that the wall really was damp, droplets running down her back.

The Black Cloak still didn't make a sound just ran his eyes over every inch of her skin. He turned and this time with some pace walked back to the table placing the knife back in line. Olivia watched as he hunched his shoulders before standing upright and lifting his hands to his helmet.

The sight that met her eyes drove all the fear from her body from shock. He turned and she was able to see what no one but a chosen few had ever seen. A square jaw framed long lips and a grey eyes sat above cheek bones that looked as if they had been chiselled by an artist; blond hair falling almost straight, over her shoulders. Olivia stood, mouthing hanging open as she learnt that the Black Cloak wasn't the Sheriff's son but his daughter.