Larin

Larkin felt sick as nine hopeful eyes went to her. She knew she must decide quickly, Wynter would soon lose patience. She looked between Sarah and Mathilde. Sarah, her long time friend, and Mathilde. Also her friend, but not as sweet and bubbly as Sarah. She took a breath and decided. "Mathilde," she said quickly. It wasn't a hard decision. He had already said Sarah would go to someone good. Mathilde would not, they would try to break her. She could save her from that fate.

Wynter looked shocked, then he smiled ruefully. "Such a big heart little love. Very well. Take the tall one and see her clothed in a servants uniform. Prepare the rest for the journey."

He led Larkin out of the room and back up to the room he had taken her from. He was grinning at her as if amused. "Wait here for a while little love, there will be someone along shortly with some clothes for you. I have a few more things I must see to..." he trailed off, considering her for a moment. "If I said I wish to tie you up to wait for me little love?"

"I would ask you where so that I could hurry there for you," she answered breathlessly.

"And if I said I would punish you as soon as I returned?"

"I would steal myself to not disappoint you by crying out too loudly."

"Does it bother you to think that your childhood friend might be learning to please you, as the servant girl did, right this moment?"

Larkin blushed furiously. "If it pleases you my Wynter, I will learn to like it for you."

"Do you love me, little love?"

"I imagine I must, My Wynter. I wish to please you, I hate to see you upset or disappointed, I hate being without you, I dream of you, I adore the way your arms feel around me. I imagine that must be what love is?"

"And the boy, Cotton? Did you love him?"

"I thought I did, but I did not know him. I never craved his arms or his lips. I was happy to see him, but it was never a physical ache to be without him."

"Do you say these things because you think it is what I want to hear?"

"No My Wynter. I would not lie to you."

"Remove the robe."

She removed it quickly, going to a knee as she did. He circled her, chuckling. "Oh, little love, I wish I had more time right now."

"I will be ready for your return, My Wynter," she said quickly, pressing her head to the ground, waiting.

He left, his step light.

Larkin was there, waiting for him in the exact same spot when he returned. As soon as he opened the door, she went up to her knee again and glanced at him. She stood when he approached and helped him out of his coat as he watched her.

"I told them to hold off on your clothes for today. They will bring them in the morning. I wished you in your skin for the rest of today."

"As it pleases you My Wynter," she said breathlessly. He sat in a chair and she immediately climbed into his lap and kissed him, deeply and passionately. In moments, he lifted her and carried her to the bed. He hardly took the time to remove his clothes as she helped before bearing her back down to the bed and making love to her. He was gentle and slow and full of passion and she wrapped her legs around him, encouraging him with cries of pleasure and kisses.

He stayed next to her in the bed the rest of the evening and night.

In the morning, he kissed her shoulder before getting up. "My Wynter?" she asked, trying to rub sleep from her eyes.

"I must go little love. I will return in four days. Stay here, behave for me. Your friend is still being trained, you will not see her until I return."

"And I cannot come with you?" she asked fearfully.

"Not for this little love," he answered with a smile. "But when I get back... I have so many wonderful days planned for you. Pulling exquisite cries from your pretty lips, watching your ass redden and heat under my hand. Mmm. Behave for me little love. I will return for you soon."

He left with another kiss and a grin and Larkin watched him go, wide eyed. Soon after, the older servant was coming in with her arms full of clothes for Larkin. She motioned her close and helped Larkin into a dress that looked like it was more for a lady and not a slave. Larkin stared at the girl in the mirror, hardly recognizing her.

"Thank you ma'am, do you have a name or title I should call you?"

"Oh, you can call me Yvette, child. Mm, could still be tighter in the waist. I will take the others in a bit more," she said, gathering the other dresses up in her arms.

"Yvette? Am I allowed to look around, or should I stay in this room? He said behave, but not if I could take a walk?"

"I see no reason you can not walk, child, but stay inside."

"Of course, thank you. Would it be possible to see my friend who is still here?"

"I am fairly certain he told you she is still in training. You will not seek her out and if I find you have I will confine you to this room!"

"Oh, no, I would not seek her out! Or speak to her. I was just curious as to her training and what it entailed. I wanted to peek in on her. That's all. I am sorry if I was not clear. Should I return here for meals or find my way to the kitchens?"

"I will bring them here child."

"Thank you Yvette."

Yvette left and Larkin quickly looked around. She found warmer clothes in his drawers and rolled them quickly, using one of his belts to secure them under her skirts to her knee. She left, walking as casually as she could when there were people near, and purposeful when there was no one. She found her way down closer to the rooms they had been brought in and the servants all ignored her as they bustled about. She slipped out to the side door and peeked out. Two guards were standing and talking just a dozen feet away. She closed the door and found a way around to the opposite side of the stable. There was no door out it seemed, but there was a small study with a window. She peeked out to an open orchard and the back of the stable.

The window opened silently as she held her breath and she shimmied out. She knew now was the dangerous part. The part she couldn't lie her way out of . She slipped into the back door of the stable and prayed there would be no stable hands or soldiers inside. She could hear someone whistling around the far side, but they were not in sight. She went to the closest stall and slipped a bridle on the horse. She didn't bother with a saddle, she didn't have that sort of time. She had to convince the animal to lower its head and come through the human sized door in the back, but she finally did. She had to lead it to a fence to mount her, but as soon as she did, she veered right into the forest and took off at a hard trot.

How long until someone looked for her? Until they noticed the horse was missing? Until they started looking for her? Her biggest hope was that they would assume she was returning home, heading north and not due west. Look on the roads and not the woods. She paused at a stream, letting the horse drink and pulled on the warmer clothes. The pants under her dress and the jacket over. She was trotting again in under two minutes. She kept the steady pace up, winding through the woods until nightfall.

It was easy enough to lead the horse to a patch where she could chomp on grass. Larkin found some wild onions and shared with the horse. She slept lightly with the reigns wrapped around her wrist. She traveled hard for three days and tried not to think about how angry Wynter would be when he returned. They had probably caught up to him and told him by now.

The fourth day brought her out of the forest and onto a road. She wasn't sure where it led, but she stayed inside the edge of the forest, just in case as she followed the road.

She was glad she did when she saw two horsemen on the road moving towards her. She dismounted and led her horse into the woods and hid as she watched the two pass. They were Wynters men.

So he wasn't just looking North. He was probably sending soldiers down every road. She knew if he caught her again he would kill her. She was not going to let herself be caught again, not if she had to open her own veins. She could not pretend another minute with that hateful, hurtful monster.

She mounted again and kept riding, eventually coming to the town they must have been coming back from. She didn't go into it, but she did slip to an empty house and find some boys clothes to wear. She took a loaf of bread and a few apples, silently asking the families forgiveness and wishing she had something to leave them.

She removed the bulky and cumbersome dress and pulled the boys clothes on. She put Wynters clothes and the dress in a roll and belted it around her waist. She had nothing else to tie them to and both could bring her coin once she got far enough away. She saved the apples for the horse and ate the bread slowly over the next few days. She ate wild onions, tubers, berries and even more apples when she came up on an orchard of them.

She did not get complacent or feel she was out of danger, not even when she knew she was no longer in Miovia. She stayed to the woods and off any main roads and road at a steady, fast clip that wouldn't wear the horse out.

When she came to another town, she stayed back and watched. The houses were different, their roofs thatched, not tiled, and much steeper. The people dressed differently as well. The women had odd hats that were as steep as the roofs and gathered in the back and they all wore muted colors like gray and brown and black. Only the hats were bright. The men wore pants that were so full they were almost like skirts, but they gathered tight at the ankle above their boots. They had colorful vests instead of hats. It was so... foreign.

She slipped past the village in the night and kept going. The next four villages were the same and she avoided them as well. It wasn't until she reached a huge coastal city that she finally thought she might be able to stop for a night or two, sell the clothes, the horse, buy passage on a boat.