There's an extensive area of woods fairly close to the village that I live in. I happened to be walking through them, just minding my own business. Poaching? Not me. The fact that I had a pocket full of short cords that were useful for making snares was totally irrelevant. There're lots of other uses for short cords, after all.
I was approaching the local river where there were a number of warrens and rabbit runs. Purely coincidental, I assure you. Let me tell you that I was somewhat surprised to hear the clash of swords. I had two choices. Depart with some haste or sneak along and see what was happening. Being a natural snoop I sneaked up to see what was what.
The first thing that I found out of place was a very nice travelling coach by the side of the trail. It had been pulled off the main road and parked. The horses were still hitched but wore nose-bags. A couple of riding horses were also tethered next to the coach. Obviously the people were taking a meal break and taking care of the horses at the same time. Very thoughtful of them.
The clash of swords had stopped and the silence was somewhat unnerving. I eased around so that I could see the other side of the coach and there were two men on the ground next to the coach, both in livery and swords.
Approaching the two men I checked them out. One was certainly dead while the other was awake but wounded. I'd thoughtfully kicked their swords out of their reach as I approached, the wisdom of this being proved as the wounded man groped for it.
I showed the man my knife, quite a good one, and he settled right down. A quick check and I determined that he'd taken a hard blow to the head, which explained the blood all over him, but apart from that he was fine. I don't think he even had a concussion.
"You see to be fine, mate, except for a bang on the head, and that's not too bad," I told him. "Your friend, on the other hand is dead."
"Dead?"
"That's right. It often happens when a sword is run through your heart. Well, when I say often not more than once for any single person. What was the fight about?"
"Fight? What fight? We weren't fighting. It was just a practice bout. I copped a thump on the head and don't remember anything else."
"Really? Good luck selling that to the authorities."
He gave me a horrified look and I suspected that his story was true. My guess was a friendly bout but when he took the clout to the head he reacted without knowing what he was doing. Too late for his mate though.
I helped him to his feet and he lurched over to the dead man and checked him. He looked over at the swords and then looked at me. I could practically hear his line of thought. Kill me and blame it all on me with him the hero.
"Try it," I said, smiling and holding up my knife. "Take one step towards those swords and I'll nail you before you can take another."
"What do I do? They'll hang me for this."
"Probably," I agreed.
He took another look around, taking in me, the corpse, the coach, and the horses. He backed away from me, moving towards the horses. Then he turned and grabbed one.
"I'm not staying for that to happen," he snapped. "I've always wanted to go to the colonies. Now seems like a good time."
With that he was up onto the horse and heading away. I let him go. It wasn't my horse. I thoughtfully considered the remaining horse. If one of the coach's outriders had run off who was to know if both of them didn't? I loaded the dead man and the swords onto the other horse, led it down the trail for a bit, and tethered it in a clearing I knew of. The corpse I deposited in a nearby gully, pushing dirt down to cover him. Hey, I didn't kill him. I was just tidying up.
Back at the coach I noticed that there wasn't much blood and I thoughtfully scattered some dust over it. Unless you looked carefully you'd never know that anything had happened. The question now was where were the people who'd been in the coach? It would be rude to just take the coach and leave them stranded. (Plus I had nowhere to sell a coach. A horse, yes. A coach, no.)
There was a track leading away from the main trail, heading towards the river. Maybe I should wander down and tell the people down there that I'd found a coach and let them know they were silly to leave it where it was, unattended. I strolled down the track.
After a short stroll I could hear voices and laughter. Feminine voices and laughter. Things were looking up. Maybe I could get in some harmless flirtation.
Coming around a bend I found that the track had reached a fairly wide area in the river. The water was a lot shallower here and it was a natural ford, not that many people used it. Still, it explained why the three young women had decided to take a dip. Average age would be twenty, was my guess, with only a year or two in variation between them.
Looking around I identified three sets of clothing. Comparing the differences between them I decided that they belonged to a young Lady, her maid, and a bodyguard. Understandable that she'd have a female bodyguard. She couldn't really have the two outriders standing watch in this sort of situation. The female guard would have been wiser to have been standing watch instead of joining them in the water.
Quietly observing them I tried to determine who was who. The woman with auburn hair I pegged as the bodyguard. She had an athletic build and I'd say some decent muscles. Nice breasts and shapely hips, too, which is always a plus. The other two girls were both brunettes, and I was struggling to say which was the lady and which the maid. Where their figures were concerned they certainly gave the guard a run for her money, but I figured that they weren't quite as fit. After a while I decided that the maid was the girl with the bouncing breasts. She seemed to defer to the third girl a lot, which suggested that the third girl was the Lady.
I moved down to the river's edge and waited. Soon enough I was seen, followed by a scream as the maid promptly tried to cover her charms with her hands. (Not very successfully, in her case. Not with those lovely breasts.) The other two turned to see what the maid's problem was and the Lady screamed in turn and both tried to hide their charms.
"Go away," seemed to be the unifying cry.
"Don't be silly. Why should I?" I asked.
"Because if you don't we'll scream and our outriders will hear us and come. They have very sharp swords and they'll be delighted to skewer you and drop your body in the river for the fish."
"Outriders? Ah, you mean for that coach I saw parked back there?" I jerked my thumb over my shoulder.
"Yes," said the woman I'd pegged as the guard, speaking very sweetly. "If you saw the coach then you undoubtedly saw our guards, those two big men with the big swords who are very protective of us."
"Hmm. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but all I saw was a coach and pair, with the horses happily nibbling on their nose-bags. If I was of a thieving nature I could have stolen the lot. Luckily for you I'm honest."
The girls were giving each other confused looks. The guard said something decisive and the other two relaxed. I guess she was assuring them that they'd be ok even without the outriders. I considered the guard again.
"Let me guess. You're the driver as well as an extra guard, aren't you?"
"How did you know I was an extra guard?"
"Don't know. There's just something about you that says you're dangerous."
"Are you going to go away or not? We want to come out."
"Not," I said, "but don't let me stop you from coming out. Come along."
"Not happening. Go away."
I sighed. "Your lack of trust in my good nature is most disheartening," I said mournfully. "Obviously a lesson needs to be learned."
I stepped into the river, walking towards them. They looked shocked, not believing that I was doing this.
"What do you think you're doing? You stay away from us," the guard yelled at me.
I ignored her protests moving steadily closer. I was slightly puzzled about why they didn't try to run or take up defensive postures. The three of them simply stood there, covering themselves as best they could with their hands.
"Turn around," I told the guard when I reached her. She was shaking her head, refusing, and looking around hoping for inspiration to strike. It didn't.
"Turn around," I repeated, and she did so, actually seeming to be a little relieved that she was no longer facing me.
"Hands behind your back," I told her, to be met by a firm refusal. I sighed.
"Listen, love," I said softly, letting her see the sharp knife I carried. "Put your hands behind your back or I'll start cutting off locks of hair. I'll cut them only on one side so your hair will look rather odd, but it's your choice."
It turned out that she knew some interesting language, but she put her hands behind her back. I whipped out one of those small cords (that were not for rabbit snares) and quickly and efficiently tied her thumbs together. It's interesting to note that tying someone's thumbs is just as effective as tying their wrists together, or even more so, and is a lot easier to do.
"Now let's move closer to your companions," I said softly. "Ah, if the pair of you would care to turn so you're facing away from me and put your hands behind your backs?"
They did so and as far as I was concerned that was strange. I mean, why didn't they just run out of the river in the other direction? Or run past on either side of me? I couldn't chase them and keep my first prize. Still, I wasn't going to make a fuss about their silly decisions. I simply tied two more pairs of thumbs together and I now had the three of them effectively immobilised.
"Alright, girls. I want you to move back over to the river bank," I told them and all three sidled past me, keeping their backs to me at all times.
I followed along behind them, stopping them once they were all on the bank. I now moved around to stand in front of them, much to their embarrassment. They were delightfully naked and with their hands behind them they could do nothing to cover their charms.
I smiled at their blushing faces, letting them see that I was certainly looking them over. I gave a helpless little shrug and asked the burning question?
