Chapter 20: Betrayal

The little family headed south.

They had been travelling for about six hours and were about an hour from the waystation before the border when they got into trouble. They didn’t have an entourage only the coachman and one guard.

They were not expecting trouble at all when the six highwaymen surrounded the coach. Two men came out of the brush on the side of the road and shot the coachman and guard before they could draw their weapons, it was a shock to the passengers.

The boss, Red, told them to get out of the coach. Tah was holding Nianna when he reluctantly got out of the coach. One of the men, Ray, helped Prue out.

“Give me the child,” Red growled at Tah and put his arms out for her.

“Not bloody likely,” said Tah. “Why do you want her?”

“Just give her to me,” Red said again angrily.

A second man, JT, came up behind Tah and smashed his gun into the side of his head. Red ripped the screaming Nianna out of Tah’s arms as he fell and clamped her against his shoulder.

Prue screamed out Tah’s name and struggled in Ray’s arms as she realised Tah was hurt. He was the one trying to hold onto Prue when Tah crumpled to the ground.

“Put a bullet in him,” Red yelled at JT, as he was trying to hold onto the now struggling and screaming, hysterical child.

“Not bloody likely, Red. I’m not killing a Prince of Nordland,” JT said adamantly as realised who it was he had just hit.

Red looked at the young man in disgust. He aimed his pistol to shoot the prone man in the head. Prue and Nianna went ballistic. Nianna twisted in Red’s grip and grabbed his face. She sunk her sharp little teeth into Red’s cheek and gouged at his face.

As the pain exploded in Red’s face, he threw her away from himself as he screamed in agony. Nianna hit the ground hard and lay still beside the now bleeding Tah. JT had hit him hard enough to bust the skin near the base of his skull.

Prue struggled frantically in Ray’s arms as she screamed out Tah’s and then Nianna’s names. Ray managed to get a hand across her nose and mouth. He blocked off her breathing as he held her tightly against his body.

He swore when Prue tried gouging his arms as she screamed into his hand. To try and stop her hurting him, Ray took her to the ground and pinned her under him. He held on until she went limp in his arms.

The second man, JT, looked down in horror, at Nianna’s little body that now lay pale and still at his feet. “Shit, you killed her, Boss.”

“Fuck, I hate kids. Bloody shit in the void, I’m gunna need stitches,” Red groused as his cheek throbbed. Blood was pouring down his face where her sharp teeth had ripped into his flesh.

Nianna had also scratched the lower eyelid of his left eye making it water profusely. “What about her?” he demanded from Ray as he blinked and wiped at his stinging eye while trying not to get his own blood into it.

“Unconscious, Boss, I didn’t kill her,” he said in disgust looking at the still body of the little girl in the snow. He could feel the woman breathing under him. He had released her nose as soon as he felt her go limp in his arms.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Red screamed as he stomped around for a bit, as he wiped his bloody face. Turning back around, he ground out, “Stick her on a horse. He’ll have to be happy with the bitch. He can always fuck her until she whelps again,” The Boss ground out, disgusted with the whole affair.

“What about the little girl, Boss? Can I at least put her in the coach?” JT asked with concern. The sight of her little body on the dirty mushed up snow, deeply affected the young man.

“Do what you like with her. She is no bloody good to me dead. Shove him in there as well,” Red replied, still pissed-off and dabbing at his stinging face.

Ray removed Prue’s coat and then put it back on her, so it trapped her arms. He then wrapped a rope around her arms and the thick woollen scarf around her head and face to keep her quiet and hard to identify.

Red took Prue from Ray and held her while Ray got on his horse. He then handed her up in front of him. Two of the other men went to pick up Tah and put him in the coach after going through his pockets.

JT carefully picked Nianna up and cuddled her little body into his, while the other men handled Tah. He suddenly realised she was breathing. He looked at his Boss about to say something but held his tongue when he heard Tah groan her name.

JT put her in the coach and wrapped the little blanket around her to keep her warm, as it was bloody cold. He rearranged Tah on the floor of the coach so he could protect the little girl in his arms.

Even though he was out of it, Tah instinctively held her. The man then threw the bigger blankets over them both, tucking it under Tah’s arm so Nianna was kept warm. He then sealed up the coach to keep them as warm as he could.

JT was only sixteen and hadn’t been in the crew long. He wasn’t big on killing people. Robbing was okay and knocking a bloke out, was more acceptable to him than actually killing the man.

“Come on JT we are running out of daylight,” the Boss yelled at JT as he closed the coach door. JT mounted up and followed his partners in crime to the meeting place.

“They didn’t have much money or jewellery on them, Boss. Whoever heard of Toff’s travelling without a heap of both,” one of the other men said in disgust. He had been busily going through their possessions, while The Boss was busy with getting the kid.

“Hey Boss, do we get to have some fun with her before we hand her over?” The one called Ripper asked looking at Prue in Ray’s arms. He licked his lips in anticipation.

Ray gripped Prue a little tighter. She was nice and warm in his lap, and he wouldn’t mind cuddling up with her lovely titties either. He’d managed a good feel while he was getting her coat off her arms. His cock was hard beside her arse cheek, which kept rubbing against him as the horse moved.

Ray felt possessive of her and didn’t like the idea of sharing her either. Ripper, in particular, didn’t have a lot of respect for women. He was nuts as far as Ray was concerned. He wondered how he could keep Prue away from the others. He didn’t want to hand her over to the Toff who had hired them either.

“No, you lot are to keep your filthy hands to yourselves. The customer told me that she had to be unharmed and unmolested if we wanted to get paid. He’s paying enough for you lot to find a nice whore to keep you warm for a while. Probably be a lot less trouble as well,” Red told them, discussed with the whole affair.

He’d never killed a kid before and wasn’t happy. His eye still watered and his cheek stung something fierce. Even the snow didn’t help numb the pain.

They rode back towards the west for an hour to a hut just inside of the forest.

Ray reluctantly handed Prue down to JT and then got off his horse.

They took her inside and put her on the bed. Ray took up first guard duty without being asked. He made sure she was comfortable as he could make her and wrapped his own blanket around her. He left her with her arms in the coat but took the rope off.

It was a long cold night, and a fierce storm blew up, smothering the little cabin with snow. The frigid air managed to leak in, in spite of the roaring fire they kept going through the night. Ray ended up lying in bed with Prue when she started shivering and moaning.

Ray was getting worried that she hadn’t come around properly. She had been unconscious for several hours. Thoughts of molesting her had changed to those of protecting her. Her moans of pain and anguish were infecting everyone, except Ripper.

“Hey Ray, it’s my turn to cuddle her for a while,” Ripper said as the crew went to settle down for the night. He was looking at the woman as if she was a tasty meal.

The Boss said with emotion, “Ripper, find your own blanket. Ray is looking after her.” The Boss knew Ray was probably the one man in the group other than JT who still had some respect for a woman, but he too was worried by her unresponsiveness.

Red guessed she was suffering some kind of shock. A woman can react badly to seeing their kids being killed. His own mum had lain in bed for a week crying or just looking at the wall when his little sister got trampled by a horse.

He still couldn’t believe the kid had reacted like she did when they had hit the Prince. She had been like a feral animal. Clawing and biting him as she did, she wouldn’t have even been two years of age.

Red felt his cheek. It was still leaking blood; it was hot, swollen and very painful. His eyelid had swollen during the ride, so he could barely see out of his left eye. He hoped the Toff turned up early so he could get to a doc.

None of the men in the cabin were happy people. Prue’s distress had wrapped around all of them during the night. Her occasional moans and sobs woke them often. In the morning, three of them headed outside to escape the depressing atmosphere, and to watch for the customer. They would rather be cold than in the cabin.

Red was not a happy man when his customer finally turned up nearer to lunch time. The pain in his face had him in some distress.

The man jumped out of the coach, “Where are they?” he demanded. He seemed very excited at the prospect of getting his hands on the woman and child.

“The woman’s inside. The kid didn’t make it,” Red said tightly.

“What? What the fuck happened to my daughter?” the Toff asked in a tight voice. The excitement now turned to anger. He signalled, and the coachman and the two guards were now pointing guns at Red and the three men who were outside with him.

Red knew he was in serious trouble. The guy hadn’t said the kid was his. “She fell and died,” Red said in a flat voice.

The man pointed the gun he’d had under his coat at Red. He spat at him, “You fucking useless bastards, it was a simple job. Kill the bastard with them and bring me my daughter and her mother.”

“You only did half the bloody job. You will only be paid for what you achieved, bring me her mother now. She had better not be harmed,” he spat at the highwayman.

The Boss looked at the weapon pointing at him. He yelled out to the cabin, “Ray, bring the woman out.”

Reluctantly, Ray bundled Prue up in his arms. He had managed to get a little warm tea down her earlier, but she had just lay curled up under her coat. He had tried to apologise to her, saying the Boss didn’t mean to hurt her little girl, but all that achieved was more silent tears.