Chapter Five
I think that I must have lost consciousness at some point because I woke up and found myself back in the room with Edith, cuddled into her as if I was a baby. My body ached both on the surface and inwardly and I remembered the sheriff's cock piercing my pussy and taking away my maidenhood vividly. My swollen folds seemed to pulse with heat and pain still and tears spilt from my jade-green eyes as I remembered surrendering to him as he had wielded the whip so ferociously. I clung to Edith and felt her arms tighten around me as tears wracked my slim body until I fell asleep once more, exhaustion and despair claiming me for a victim.
I woke up once more to find that the room was lightening quickly and that Edith's soft blue eyes were staring straight at from me from just a few inches away. She smiled as she saw my own eyes open and then she leant forward and kissed me, squirming the tip of her tongue between my lips even as I tried to pull away and tell her that I had betrayed both of us. She broke the kiss off as she sensed my reluctance then her finger stilled my lips and she whispered, "I know." I relaxed into her next kiss then and it was only when she kissed her way down my body, laving her tongue over my breasts and then into the swollen lips of my quim that I wondered just what she knew. Did she realise that I had told the sheriff where the relic and money were? Or was it just that I had lost my innocence? Probably the latter I conceded, knowing that the bloodstains on my inner thighs and puffy pussy folds were enough of a clue to the fact that my maidenhead had been torn from me. I had to tell her about surrendering though, I thought as my body responded to her sweet and agile tongue but, as she slithered round and straddled my body, I knew that it could wait. A few precious minutes of pleasure and lust were necessary before I broke the bad news.
I teased my tongue over her soft pinkness, delighting in the taste of her body and the subtle sensation of her flesh quivering against me. Her lips sucked hard on my clitoris and I felt it swell in response, eager to explode once more into pleasure. I delved deep into her quim, poking my tongue up as far as I could then twirling it round and round before I licked along the wet length of her labia until I found the pulsing nerve centre of her body. We both sucked and nibbled away at each other's clits, eager to get the other one to come as sweet sensations slithered through our skin. I tried to hold back as the stirrings of ecstasy began in my groin and swept up through my nerves and up into my brain but it was to no avail and I squealed out my pleasure into her muffling folds as pure dribbles of lust eased out of my quim. A few seconds later and Edith responded in kind; her body bucked and writhed against me and her sweet essence seeped out into my mouth and then we lay quiescent and sated, mouths full of the taste of each other's soft flesh for what seemed like an eternity before I plucked up the courage to tell her what I had done.
Instead of bitter recriminations at my weakness though, Edith was full of compassion and understanding and I found myself crying as she kissed my wet cheeks. We cuddled in together, breasts squashing pleasantly against each other, legs entwined so that we could rub the soft lips of our quims sensuously together. The twin wooden crucifixes dangling round our necks clicked together occasionally as we moved slowly, skins warm with desire as we shared what could be our last time together. An idea surfaced somewhere in the thoughts clouding my brain and I whispered it into Edith's ear as a few stray strands of sunlight slipped in through the arrow slit window in the corner of the room. Hopefully, there was time before de Courcy arrived to give ourselves a faint chance of escape later...
Outside it was cold but bright; one of those autumnal days which looked like summer yet the wind cut into your flesh like a knife. Fortunately for both of us, we had been given a simple shift to cover ourselves with along with a thick robe of wool before we had been dragged downstairs and taken out to the stables. De Courcy already knew from my confession the previous day that the relic and gold were still in the abbey although I had not told him everything, holding back the exact location behind the altar until we got there and pretending to believe his promises that Edith and I would be free to go once he had the treasure in his grasp. His dark blue eyes had sparkled greedily at the thought of gaining even more money from the sad demise of my abbey and I had had to fight against the hate in my heart showing too clearly.
"The king will be very grateful to receive the gold," he had stated though the flickering smile on his thin lips had betrayed him. Henry was not going to see a penny of the money as it was all going to go into the sheriff's bottomless pockets.
Seated in front of de Courcy on his powerful steed and with Edith similarly placed in front of Jecks, we clattered through the cobbled streets of the town and then onto the muddy road that led out to the abbey. It was oddly deserted and I wondered what had happened to all the trade that had flowed between the town and the abbey. The grain harvested from our fields and the animals being led to market, the salt we had gathered in our salt pans and the fish from our ponds...It was only a few days and yet it all seemed to have vanished as if it had never been. Even the abbey when we came in sight of it already looked abandoned and neglected. The gates had been left open and anything movable had vanished from the outbuildings while all the livestock had been taken away too. Silence reigned supreme apart from the soft whistling of the cold wind as it scoured round the sandstone buildings and into our faces, chilling my cheeks to the bone.
"So where is it then?" snapped de Courcy in my ear.
"In the church as I told you," I replied quickly so he told Jecks to bring Edith along before he dismounted and helped me down as if he was a gentleman.
It seemed really odd to enter the church and find it absolutely empty and totally silent. As we moved towards the front of the nave, I thought back to all the times I had walked down the long aisle and seen the nuns clustered together at the front with our farm workers and local villagers behind them; all ready to worship God and receive His blessings in return. Not that any blessings had been flowing my way recently, I mused as we neared the altar.
"Come on then, Lady Eleanor. Where is this hiding place?" snapped the sheriff, glancing round impatiently to see if he could spot anything.
"You promise to let Edith and I go?"
"I already have!"
"Promise me here in this church with your hand on the Bible!" I stated as he grasped my arm and whirled me round to face him.
"Of course, I will," the sheriff replied and in that simple answer, I knew that my reading of his intentions was correct. There had been no hesitation at all and to me that meant that he had already decided that the two of us were going to die, probably not in the church but certainly shortly afterwards. Perhaps he would leave our bodies down the well or bury them somewhere in the extensive grounds but there was no way that he was going to leave us alive to accuse him of stealing the money and the precious relic. "In return for my promise though, I want the pair of you naked just to prevent any tricks!"
"What? Here in the house of God?"
"I believe that your novice friend over there is used to it," the sheriff murmured slyly and Edith blushed as we all remembered how she had been pushed over the table and shafted by each of the sheriff's soldiers a few days earlier.
I pretended to consider his request although I knew that we really had no choice. If I refused then he and his henchman could strip us both anyway. I nodded and then acceded to his wish, telling Edith to remove her clothing as I unclasped the woollen cloak around me and let it drop down to the floor, pooling like a wine-dark sea around my feet. I lifted my shift off over my head and felt the chill strike my naked flesh whilst my little wooden cross bounced gently between my breasts before it rested against my fast-beating heart.
"What a lovely view, Jecks. Enjoy yourself with the young lady there whilst the abbess shows me exactly where the secret hiding place of the relic and the gold is."
I scowled at the sheriff and went to protest but he just laughed at me and pushed me forwards until my thighs banged into the altar table.
