Chapter 4

It had been weeks since the city had seen rain and various patrons were coming into the Hidden Keep get a drink and cool off somewhere out of the heat, away from the sun.

Brianna was sitting at her customary table in the back of the room. Her mood was black, and even though she had become a normal fixture in the tavern over the season, it was like there was a wall around her today. Everyone who looked her direction suddenly looked away and gave her a wide berth.

"What is WRONG with that IDIOT? Why does he let all those women hang off him? Why doesn't he put his foot down and stop it? I bet he secretly enjoys it and that's why he does it! I know he'll say he's smiling at everyone, but he's smiling longer at them. Can't he see what they are trying to do? Men shouldn't be born this stupid! He must really be working hard at it. The idiot," thought Brianna darkly.

The current target of her ire was Aric and the four main tavern women Isobel, Trisha, Madelyn, and Candice as they moved around the tavern.

While the other women here had never really become friends with Brianna, those four at least accepted her when they saw her. They just viewed her as another potential rival for Aric, and the city was full of those, so they left it at that.

But all Brianna was thinking about today were ways to kill those four women and where to hide the bodies.

Whenever Aric would look her direction, she would either look down or offer a small weak smile and quickly look away.

Once he even came over, sat down and asked if everything was ok. She said it was, that she was just thinking over some training issues and needed to check on her guild pay and that everything would be ok later.

Truthfully she had not had any real money issues since she had tried to not spend much of her pay since she was thirteen. And up till the last few seasons she lived in guild housing, for which they took their cut for the necessities out of the pay for her jobs before she was paid, so she had amassed a tidy sum.

That and the fact she was normally not willing to part with much money, and slept outside since it rarely got that cold here in the southern area. She said that because she was just trying to get him away from the table before he saw how mad she was at him.

As she sat staring in her cup, she was aware of Gemma working her way around the room greeting various patrons. Once she was at Brianna's table, she pulled up a chair and sat down with her back to the tavern counter.

"Well my dear, how are we doing this afternoon?" asked Gemma.

Brianna looked up, but seemed exasperated.

"I'm doing fine, and you?" she asked, hoping the other lady would get the hint and leave her to her mood.

"I'm doing well and thank you for asking. So have you told Aric that you love him yet?" asked a smiling Gemma suddenly.

"WHAT?" Brianna shrieked out loud

It was loud enough most patrons turned to look, and even Aric looked up from the bar.

Brianna waved at him and lowered her head blushing fiercely. It looked almost as if all the blood in her body was in her face. Aric smiled and nodded, noting Gemma was at the table, so he went back to cleaning dishes and serving drinks and meals.

"Yep you have it bad. So what are you going to do about it?" asked a smiling Gemma.

"How do you know I even like him that way? Look he's just someone I'm teaching swords to, and besides he's just a regular run of the mill man. See how he plays up to the women around here to build up his ego," said Brianna bristling.

"Poppycock, he's just being his usual friendly self to everyone around him. But let me tell you how I know you're already in love with him," said Gemma

"After that first night you came here, you then came in at first every day, not that I don't mind the business, but that suddenly changed to only the days he worked. I know you also spoke with several of the ladies in the city, and a few men, about where he lived within the first week you were here," said Gemma.

"I owed him for the meal he provided me with. I didn't want to owe anyone because I've always paid my own way. But after I found him, I saw he was such a poor excuse for a swordsman that I had to help him so he didn't get himself killed somehow," said Brianna stiffly.

"You don't say," said Gemma with a smile. "Well then, I would venture to guess later you would find out what days he plans to work while you two were training, since not even we know when he'll be here, and then suddenly you only start to come in on only those days. And why now look, you're spending even more of your time with him.

"And then there is the fact that you are pretty much glowering over here. Anyone looking this way can see it, but you try to hide it if you see Aric looking your way.

"Every time one of my girls touches him it's all you can do to not to break off a section from my table here with your bare hands. I still may have to have it checked for loose boards. One doesn't often hear oak groan like it was doing in your hands.

"I can tell by watching you that you would be happier if he found a way to spend all of his time only talking to you, rather than being the object of their affections.

"I'm even willing to place a quick bet, that while you have been sitting here, you have even plotted a way or two on how to kill them and make it look like they've all had some form of an accident, haven't you?" asked the still smiling Gemma.

At that question Brianna quickly looked down and away, and if she thought her face couldn't get any redder she would have been wrong.

"Ah ha!" smiled Gemma

"Then there is the point that you're still here in the city. You're a member of the Sisters of the Sacred Blade, aren't you?" said Gemma and smiled wider still as Brianna jump and looked at her.

Gemma continued "Yes I knew who you were the moment I saw you and your weapons. You are on your trip of discovery aren't you? The trip where young members decide what they want to do with their life after they have completed their training.

"I've always heard that the young ladies are sent on that trip so that they don't experience regret later in life. When did you leave? Twenty one? Twenty two? But aren't your trips supposed to last about two seasons at best? I believe from what gathered in town about you, you've been here about what, six to eight months longer than the deadline to return normally is?

"I know that you don't have a real set time to return, but when you first got here you were chomping at the bit to go back, anyone could see it, but now you've not given it a second thought have you?" asked Gemma.

Brianna sat back and was stunned as she realized it had been awhile since she had actually given the guild returns policy a second thought.

Gemma continued "Then there is Aric. When he got here he often smiled, but there was always a sadness one always felt around him.

"But now he seems happier. All the women here wanted to be the one he picked to spend most of his time with, now it seems that he is spending a lot of it with you, and the other girls have all decided that they didn't want to lose out to you. So what you see is them now trying to make up for lost time.

"He was always so kind to everyone before, but now after these changes lately over the last season it seems he has stepped it up a notch, and if I thought he couldn't attract other women anymore if he tried, I would have been wrong. They all sense the change and want to get in on the ground floor now that he's over whatever his problem was," smiled Gemma.

Brianna seemed to blanch at the mention of even more women trying harder for Aric. She never considered more than just the main four she knew about working hard for Aric's attention. She thought the other women were just flirty.

Gemma said "But this is the first time you've really experience these feelings isn't it? You've been avoided men all your life haven't you?"

Brianna slowly nodded.

Gemma said "To be honest, while it may have seemed harder, that may have been a better approach than you realize. Let me tell you why."

Gemma turned and looked around.

"Hmm, let's see. Let's just take a few of the girls from just in here as examples of why most of the women in the city all feel they have a stake in Aric.

"See the tall brunette there, Trisha. She was beaten and was in the process of being raped in the middle of the city one night. The men were preparing to do it when Aric was out and came across her as it was happening.

"He punished the six men who were abusing her and two of them will have a limp for life to remind them of what they did. I heard he prevented the rest from leaving till the constable came. And then he carried Trisha in his arms all the way to a healer after taking off his own shirt and using it to cover her with it. She claims he's very fit!

"He paid for her care and for a room with a bar on the door from inside for her to use while she was recovering. He even helped her find a job with me to get back on her feet. And for almost a season he walked her home every day and never once complained about doing it. He showed up and waited till she was ready and took her home or brought her here in the mornings.

"After she was starting to get over her fear of men she offered herself to him as some form of strange repayment for saving her, he managed to refuse in a way that let her keep her pride and dignity, all while insuring she understood that she was still desirable and had done nothing wrong. He did it in a way that didn't make her think he didn't find her attractive or she was a bad person for what happened.

"For the longest time she saw him only as her big and strong protector, and just his mere presence made her feel safe. It's what it took to bring her out of her shell that the almost rape put her in, and she's never forgotten that nor his kindness since that night," smiled Gemma.

"See the petite blonde over there. That's Madelyn. Her husband got a divorce and left her for another woman he had been seeing that no one knew about. She has two children and had a home at the time that wasn't paid off.

"Aric found her on her first day trying to sell herself on the street to pay for food for her and her children. Aric made her think he was going to take her up to a room he had, but wanted to eat first. After buying her dinner he managed to draw out from her what the problem was, because he told her she didn't look like she belong on a corner.

"Once he had the whole story, he gave her enough money for the whole night as if they had spent it together. He walked her home, just kissed her on top of her head, and then told her to take care of her kids that this kind of life only leads to one conclusion.

"The next day the banker paid her a visit to tell her, her house was paid off and gave her the deed. She's sure it was Aric who paid it off, and while he never actually denied it, he always manages to change the subject to something else.

"In the last two seasons she still has yet to get a straight answer, so she pretty much quit asking. But the next morning after she met him, someone had left a box on her doorstop with some money and a note in it for the kids to go and get a few sets of new clothes. She now works here for the day to day need of her and her kids.

"See the other pretty, but shorter, dark haired one over there? That's Isobel and she was a traveling musician. But while she was sleeping at an inn in the rougher part of the city, to get some culture as she called it, and someone robbed her. They took all her money and her instrument.

"As she was standing out on a corner, because she had been put out of the inn, she was crying because she didn't know what to do and didn't know any one in the city. Aric came along and asked her how he could help. She told him her story and he took her back into the inn and paid for her for a week, including meals.

"Then about two days later he returned with her instrument and most of her money. It was only later that she found out that Aric bought it back himself from the pawn shop and he replaced her money out of his own pocket. But at the time she was just happy to have it back.

"Since she didn't have any place to be, and she was looking for a job he told her about this tavern. Business picked up with all the pretty girls working here, but she could sing as I'm sure you've heard before, and that only helped out even more. So I was happy to get her.

"Then lastly there is Candice, she's the youngest of us all at nineteen. Her parents were traveling to visit relatives in the next town and were attacked and killed by bandits. So she was now left alone to raise her little brother and sister.

"Aric found out what happened from a patron in this bar, and went out and captured the bandits that weren't killed and took the money they had stolen, but because there was no way to find any of the original owners, he brought the money back to Candice as compensation for her parents death.

"He helped Candice use it to pay off the house and get some items for the family, and save the rest. Once I heard about Candice I of course offered her a job. She was seventeen when all of this happened, but she's done a fantastic job since day one.

"And I've never had any complaints when he brought those girls by, because having nothing but pretty girls around has done wonders for my business" said Gemma with a smile.

Brianna had no idea that Aric worked so hard to help these women.

She looked up at Aric, and if by some silent signal he looked up and smiled at her, then looked back down to the short beer he was pouring from the tap.

"And he has never taken any of them up on their offer to sleep with them?" whispered Brianna leaning close to Gemma.

"Honey if he had, trust me you and everyone else in the city would know about it. Those girls have been trying for the better part of two seasons to get him to take them up on their offer," said Gemma with a wink of her eye.

"And he even helped me, but I really don't believe he thinks much about what he did. Please don't tell him we talked about what I'm going to tell you. No one here has ever heard this entire story before, just parts of it, and I'd like to keep it that way," said Gemma sadly. "But I think it might help me finally heal a little bit to actually tell someone all of it though. Something about you tells me I can trust you with it."

"When I was younger, 17 almost 18 really, I was extremely selfish, prideful, and stupid. I had the love of a good man who I in turned loved very much, but I threw it away because I let the vanity of my looks go to my head.

"I got all excited when a few nobles started paying attention to me and flattering me for my looks one day while I was out in the marketplace. If I had let it go at that, and walked away from them, this story might have a happy ending, but I kept talking to them, and even met them later at an inn, but that time was just for flattery and wine.

"I even met them from time to time after that and let them buy me expensive gifts, that I always rationalized was ok to take, and then later to give them what they wanted from me in return.

"As stupid as it sounds I fooled myself into believing I was hurting no one by doing this, my husband would never know and because we would never have been able to afford these things anyway it was ok. I even got them to pay off the balance of our house mortgage.

"When my husband asked about that, I mislead him into believing I tricked them into paying it off by flirting with them, but in reality I had already started sleeping with one of them almost immediately for all the gifts I was getting.

"The height of my selfishness came when I left my husband and moved out of our home and into the home of one of the nobles. But I couldn't leave well enough and I rubbed his nose it.

"I was irrationally angry at him because he didn't want me to leave and I wanted to experience a lifestyle that he could never provide for me. I wasn't smart enough to realize he knew all along what I was doing and still trying to give me a chances to come back to him if I would just quit.

"But by then everyone he worked with and most of the city knew what I was and what I was doing to him. But he kept giving me chances that I kept foolishly throwing away.

"And by then I was even going as far as to use my lovers, and yes I did say lovers so you don't need to look so shocked, I told you I was at the height of my stupidity and selfishness. As I was saying, I used them to try force him to wait for me.

"I was aware they threatened his life, but as long as I could ensure another woman wouldn't get to him until he accepted my new lifestyle, I was happy with how everything was working out.

"But I allowed myself to foolishly believe those nobles when they said the only reason he was acting this way was because he didn't want me to experience life and that he only wanted to keep me tied to the house forever, well away from everyone.

"That this was no way to live my life, that I should experience more of life than that. I was stupid enough to believe that my husband, the man who loved me more than life, and tried countless times to forgive me for my stupidity, only wanted to keep me tied down.

"And like the foolish idiot I had become, I believed everything they fed me.

"It wasn't till a little over two seasons later my eyes were opened and learned the truth. But like the saying, it was a day late and a coin short. And it came in the form of me being replaced by a slightly younger woman.