Page 13 of Finding Her Heart
Bess spoke again. her voice rising, cracking, "Do you know what they did to your brother? Do you know what they did to me?"
"You did do something wrong. You hid under your bed. You walked right into trouble, paying no attention to what was right in front of your nose. Stupid is as stupid does," Mama said in her ear.
Annabell had no defense.
She sat down where she’d stood. Her mouth opened and closed without giving answers. Thoughts lodged in her throat with all the grief and pain in the room and settled into despair.
She had been so stupid.
"There is no excuse for stupid,"Mama agreed.
These were evil men. They had come from outside, and now they would do what evil men did, and none of them had any means of protecting themselves from the inevitable. There was nothing to do. No way to keep the truth from settling on top of herself.
*
Loud crashing and banging got everyone's attention. A group of startled sheep, looking up as one at the gaping hole of the trapdoor. The raiders kept it open. They heard male voices often enough to know men were up there. No one wanted to be noticed by them. As it was, every shadow passing the hole pulled moans out of all of them like a vacuum, helpless to resist the fear.
"All right, Boss wants his fresh pretty, and I want my taste of left-over cherry," one of them said. The light shaded their faces. Annabell saw nothing but the shapes of threatening men.
"He said grab three," another shouted, too loud, too boisterous. Their actions were clownish and cruel exaggeration.
"Just three and get pretty, he said," a different voice insisted. More than one unseen man, greedy with mean appetites, they carried the same lecherous accent. Annabell shrank back, and so did everyone else. They knew this was bad.
A child said, "Where's my mama? Is she coming back?"
Someone hushed the high voice, but the men heard it and thought it was hilarious. They burst into laughter and more ugly, foul language. A jeering face leaned over the hole above them and repeated in a high falsetto, "Where's my mama? Is she coming back?"
Smacked back by a staff, another face appeared. "I want three lovely ladies. You choose or I choose, and I'm choosing the last of the untouched ones."
A ripple went through the surrounding women. Untouched ones? Did he mean the girls? As far as Annabell could tell there were no unmarried women around her. This, this she could do. Stepping forward before she could stop herself, she stepped into the square of light and looked up.
"You ain't pretty. And you look too old to be untouched. Get someone else."
Her throbbing face agreed with him. She had no idea what she looked like. But the blow that caught her must have left an impressive rainbow of colors.
She thought she heard someone say, "Woe."
Another face appeared to look at her—the one who had made fun of the child. Face red with drink, creased and dirty from lack of washing. "Well, if her face wasn't swelled up, this one looks like she might fit the order! Bacsh, are you even looking at her tits?"
"Maybe she will be better looking tomorrow, but Boss has been harping on pretty. And I haven't seen so much pretty since we scored in that Widow's House in Riley. Remember that? Even the cheap ones were fine. Get back, you. I want someone else. Hurry up."
"Take me. If you give me a cold rag, the swelling will go down," she told them. The idea of one of the young girls, the children in the group, having to go up that step ladder was unconscionable. She didn't know who was still down here, but she couldn't let that happen.
"Eager, are you? Want some fresh meat? You want meat, I got meat," red face boasted.
"Bitch, I said get back. Alright, I'm coming down."
"We are coming," a woman screamed out. "Here. Here, we have three." There was a scuffle behind Annabell as the villagers behind her tried to decide who would go. Arguing. Crying.
Bess was shoved out from the group. Dragged by two others, Annabell's sister-by-marriage cried and begged and tried to climb over the top of the others to avoid having to go up those stairs. But whatever her ordeal, the woman was known for her soft beauty, and she had not lost it. Her lips were almost red in a pale, tear-stained face, and her eyes shone. "You'll go before my daughter does, Bess. I'm sorry, but you'll go."
It was ugly. These raiders made them turn on each other, reduced them to survival in the worst kind of way. They wounded the village deeper with just with blade and gun.
"Where has that beauty been? Oh, look at that pretty skin!" Red face reached down, lifting Bess out, while the other assessed the other two like a farmer taking the measurements of a new pig.
Fighting like a wildcat, Bess started screaming and trying to get away. Red face shook her once that did something that cut off her scream abruptly. Annabell could hear them talking as they dragged them away.
They were picking women like fish in a barrel at a children's party. "They will be back, won't they, what are we going to do?"
