Note by the author: I'm currently exploring genres. That does not mean I necessarily find this type of scenario the most exciting. However, I find the idea of a woman's virginity being treated as valued so highly that it is a key to power interesting, and wanted to try it.
*****
"He took my sisters virginity!" it sounded loudly, in the ancient courtroom.
He pointed his finger at the man at the other side of the room, accusingly.
She sat in the middle of the room, stoic, letting the attendees make their case as she waited silently for the verdict of the judge.
****
Their families had been fighting over the power over Valtorra for years. Her family had everything: the money, their seat in the Signoria, the hegemony over the banks, strong allies. And with her impeding marriage to the duke of Sirento, one of the most powerful influenced in the North, they would be invincible. They would secure their power and no other family would get a chance at challenging the position of the Bellici's for decades to come.
This, of course, was not to the liking of the Rezzi's, who had been competing with the Bellici's ever since these had come to the city. She, Viala, as the young and beautiful only daughter of the family was, through her ability to establish a good alliance through marriage, their most powerful asset now.
And that realisation was how the Rezzi's came up with their plan. Their whole society was built on the virtue of a woman and a woman being pure and staying untouched, except by her husband when she was wed. That was needed for a marriage to work. How else would you know that she was faithful and that she would bare his children, and no other?
If they took her virginity, she would be soiled. She would have lost her most prized possession. She would be worthless. And the men coming up with the plot would have some fun from it as well. Viala was the most captivating girl in Valtorra, elegant and beautiful.
***
One day, Viala was walking in the large garden of the palazzo of her family with her handmaiden, when she was called away by a servant telling her visitors had come for her, unspecified who.
She walked to the road and saw the carriage. "What is it?" she asked, as she approached. Nobody answered and she came closer, peered in the carriage, trying to see who had asked for her. Next thing she knew she was pulled in the carriage and was knocked out, vaguely feeling the carriage drive away, as everything went black before her eyes.
***
She awoke when the carriage stopped. "Where am I?" she asked, coming back to her senses.
Two men sitting with her in the carriage, whom she did not know, grabbed her by her upper arms and pushed her outside. She saw a flash of a tuscan landscape, before the was pushed though the gate of a landhouse, into a richly decorated vestibule.
In front of her, waiting in the room, stood Giuliano, the strong son of the Rezzi's, aged 25. His father had died , leaving him at the head of his family. In the room, were six other men, all members of mighty families of Valtorra. Apparently the Rezzi's had succeeded in gaining support, and rallying others in their plot against the Bellici's.
An anxious feeling crept up her spine. She had been kidnapped, that much she knew. But by nobles? People she knew? What could they possibly want with her?
"What do you want?" She asked loudly, looking proudly around the room, feigning confidence. "Let me go immediately."
"Well, we can't do that, I'm afraid, lady Viala," Giuliano said. "We went through substantial trouble to get you here"
"Why?" she asked. "If you want to do business, you should talk to my brother. I know nothing of our affairs"
"Oh, but you do," he said, sardonically, slowly walking towards her. "They do business with you" looking her up and down cruelly. "When you've married Sirento, you'll have increased the Bellici's competitiveness at least twofold"
"You're the pride of the family, untouched. But you'll be worth nothing, after I've taken your virginity."
He took her by the arms and pulled her to his chest. Horrified, she arched away from him as far as she could, hands up defensively balled up against her chest, looking sideways, revealing her beautiful, bare neck. "Please," she said, shaken. "Don't do this. You can't do this."
