The Pride of Galloway, Ch 3
by Coffee Mug
Kayley opened the door of the cellar. Outside, up the stairs and beyond the two shadows who stood at the doorway, the drifting snow glittered in the moonlight. It had been snowing for two days and the drifts were high enough to bury a man in. Or a woman. Their servants had spent the afternoon clearing the pathways between the manor and the outlying buildings. She stepped aside for the two hooded figures to enter and then led them back to the rear of the cellar, behind the ale and salted bacon and jars of fruit. One of the hooded figures was leading the other by the arm, and as they moved away from the bitter cold of the cellar door they pulled down their hoods. It was Rikka and Gabriela. It was one day short of two months since Kayley had beaten Gabriela before their audience, and so it was the final night that Gabriela was at the mercy of Kayley and Rikka, as per their Kayley’s agreement with Lady Murrell.
Kayley and Rikka had brought her to the cellar repeatedly since the fight. In the beginning, after their first nights together, when Kayley had told her of the Lady’s gift of these nights with Gabriela in payment for the entertainment they had provided for her and for her friends, Rikka had been the aggressor. On Rikka’s suggestion they had brought Gabriela to the private rooms Kayley had moved into. There they had slowly stripped her, groped her, made her to kiss and suck and service each of them. And then Kayley had spent the next day thinking of nothing else but getting Gabriela back in their room and under her authority again. Soon she had learned of the room they were headed to now and, after a bit of trading favors with the manor’s older staff, she and Rikka had started bringing Gabriela here for more intense sessions. More aggressive, with more shrieking and crying out in the night.
In the far corner Kayley inserted a key into what looked like a cracked brick and a hidden door slowly swung open. Inside this secret room of about a hundred feet square were several lit candles, a worn bed in the corner, and a blonde beauty sitting cross-legged on the bed. She had long curly hair and blue eyes, and as they entered the smile that came onto her face lit the entire room with its zest for life. She rose from the bed and revealed her very busty figure. She was the shortest woman in the room by two inches but had the largest chest and yet a flat stomach despite it. Her face had just enough plump to it to remove any trace of a haughty appearance, and her eyes seemed to take in everything about her. The two other women had by now removed their hoods and coats. Her name was Natala but she went by Nat. She had just turned 18 and she was discovering that she had a taste for the wilder things of life. The things forbidden the youngest daughter of the sheriff. Nat had paid a good sum of money to Kayley for the evening, which Kayley had not of course informed Gabriela.
The English blonde and Colombian brunette stood staring at each other. The former was roughly two inches shorter and a bit lighter in weight. They both wore pants and heavy shirts, well made for the cold. They were breathing harder, sticking out their chests and raising their chins up and each mirrored the smallest movements of the other, a shake of the hair or twitch of the hand. “I had been hoping she would be a bit prettier,” Nat said. “Although you didn’t lie about her tits.”
Gabriela leapt at the younger, shorter woman and slapped her across the face. It was sharp in the room and the sound hung there, Nat rocked back on her heels, her head spun halfway around and her mouth hanging open, her eyes blinking. And then they were at each other. They collided in the center of the room and immediately went to the ground. They rolled back and forth, pulling hair with all they had, growling and snarling as they rolled over each other like two enraged wildcats. Their breasts and hips and thighs pressed together. Gabriela got on top and banged Nat’s head on the hard floor and the blonde lay stunned under her. But then she recovered before the other young woman could take advantage and reaching up she grabbed her breasts through the heavy shirt and squeezed. Gabriela shrieked in pain and pulled at the hands and Nat rolled her off. Gabriela landed on her side, facing away, and Nat pounced on her. She pressed her face down on the floor and lying atop her began punching her in the small of her back. Gabriela writhed under her and took it. Then at last she threw back her elbow, catching Nat in the forehead and stunning her. They separated now and turned to face each other. Hair hung down over faces twisted by feminine rage. They slowly rose and circled more slowly, bent at the waist, having now had some taste of what the other woman could bring. Kayley and Rikka were forced to skirt along the wall to avoid them in the small space.
Gabriela reached out and grabbed Nat’s blonde hair but Nat had other plans. Driving her legs hard, she slammed into Gabriela and put her back into the wall. Gabriela hit the wall hard but somehow kept her hold on the blonde hair. Nat took the pain of the hairpulling and began punching Gabriela in the stomach and side, holding her against the wall with her other hand. Short grunts with each blow. The brunette tried to catch the fist and then failing that she put her hand against the blonde’s face and shoved her away. Gabriela charged into her and they fell to the ground again. They were face to face, stretched out, rolling over each other, pulling hair and slapping mindlessly and with little effect. But soon enough Gabriela had gotten behind Nat and she wrapped her legs around the younger girl’s waist and clamped on hard. And then she clamped with even greater enthusiasm onto the blonde’s enormous breasts. At first she was squeezing them through the heavy winter shirt but then she pulled the shirt up and reaching under began mauling her so that you could clearly see her fingers digging deep into the mounds of feminine flesh. Nat pulled at the hands on her breasts and then at the legs locked around her waist but she could get no movement on either. It seemed to Kayley that the face of the Latina beauty had come back to life as she tortured the blonde, and the pain she was causing was etched clearly on the face of her victim. But then, summoning it from deep within herself, Nat found the strength to climb to her knees and then, suddenly clinging to the legs tight around her less her opponent rescue herself, she flung herself back to the floor. Gabriela was caught under her and her arms and legs went limp, her eyes unfocused. Nat climbed to her feet and stood over her, gasping for air and rubbing her sore breasts, before coming at her again.
But the Colombian beauty was not as badly hurt as she seemed. When the blonde came close enough, she came back to life and kicked her in the stomach as she bent over her, reaching for her hair. But her energy was fleeting, and she couldn’t follow up on her advantage. She slowly got to her feet and slapped Nat across the face, but there was little force behind it. Nat was starting to turn away and Gabriela seized hold of her shirt by the rear of the neck, pulling back so that the material choked her. Nat coughed and reached behind her and Gabriela spun her in a circle like that and then let go and Nat collided with the wall. The two of them stumbled toward each other and when they came together Gabriela slapped her across the face and Nat punched her imposing bosom. Gabriela hit her back in the stomach and breasts and then another slap to the face. Nat started to trip and Gabriela dove for her, trying to take advantage, but the younger woman moved with surprising speed and accuracy and spun as she came at her. Gabriela ended up on her knees, clutching at Nat’s thighs. Nat pulled her hair with one hand and hit her in the head with the other, but to little effect. They struggled like that and then fell back to the ground. There they rolled back and forth, one on top and then the other, and they pulled hair, slapped faces. At times they lay gasping, faces pressed together, arms wrapped around each other, until they could resummon the strength to continue fighting.
At last they rolled apart and slowly climbed to their feet. Both of their shirts were ripped open and they tossed them away as they circled each other. Their shoes had come loose and they kicked them aside and stood barefoot. Their faces and torsos, their flat stomach and proud and firm breasts, all were red with exertion and the abuse they had received. Their hair was as wild as their catfighting had been. There was some unknowable rage hanging in the room that Kayley could feel deep inside herself, one that seemed to come from their beauty and youth and the energy with which they attempted to nullify each other. The lines of their hips and their thighs as they circled, the rise and fall of their buxom chests, it was as if some invisible chain bound them together. Never did their eyes veer away from the other woman’s, her challenger and antagonist, the hatred and raw female energy and beauty of the other.
Nat threw a jab into Gabriela’s exposed breasts and the brunette responded in kind. Then she slapped her across the face. The blonde was stunned but then she launched herself forward, her hands out in front of her. She clamped onto Gabriela’s large breasts and drove her back to the wall. Nat’s arms were straight out in front of her and she was driving with her feet, still holding onto the breasts and crushing them into her ribs. Her fingers could be seen digging into the mounds. Gabriela pulled at the hands and then finally she threw her palms up into the blonde’s elbows with all her strength and knocked the hands loose. The two women scrambled and fell to the floor. Gabriela was pulling hair with both hands and causing her some pain, but then Nat got hold of one of her breasts again and began mauling her. She pinched and twisted the flesh and soon enough Gabriela was wailing in pain and then Nat was sitting atop her. Like a woman possessed she dug her fingers in, pulling at them, and Gabriela was screaming with what little air she had left and stamping her feet on the floor. Then she somehow struck Nat in the back with her knee enough to knock her loose and the women rolled away from each other and came to their feet again.
They came within striking distance again. No skill, no defense. They began slapping each other across the face, exchanging blows. Hard and flat were the strikes and the grunts and moans of the two women. Their bare feet braced against the hard floor with each smack given and received. Gabriela was beginning to turn and stumble and Nat poured it on. She hit her over and over again now, slapping her in the face and then when she put up her hands to defend herself she attacked her bust and stomach, then returning to her face when Gabriela lowered her arms. Gabriela made one last push, throwing a wild looping punch. Nat ducked under it and drove her fist into her stomach, doubling her up, and then like a madwoman she seized her by the hair on the back of her head and pulled with all her strength. Gabriela landed on her back, staring up at the ceiling and the blonde standing over her as neither was there. Smiling now, Nat lowered herself onto the brunette beauty. She sat across her face and kneeled on her arms, pinning her, and then she began punishing her magnificent torso, striking her in the breasts and stomach over and over until there was no movement from the woman under her. Only then did the blonde stop. She sat astride the other woman, gasping for hair, her face radiant for all its raw redness and the hair plastered to her forehead, her own punished bosom rising and falling as much as that of she who was under her. And pushing the hair back from her face and tucking it behind her ear, she looked at Kayley and Rikka and smiled.
And then the rest of the night began. Nat rose and pulled Gabriela to the bed with her. Nat kissed her, forcefully, and when Gabriela pulled away with a fierce look on her face, Nat said, “You can admit that you lost and accept what’s coming like a woman or you can cry about it and run away like a little girl.” And they stared at each other, sitting on the bed, and then Gabriela kissed her back, slowly. They sat next to each other, and Gabriela was kissing her on the cheeks and then the neck and then she slid down and kissed her on the collarbone and the top of her chest and then at last she went to her knees in front of the bed and kneeling before her she began kissing and licking her nipples, now rock hard at the tips of her enormous breasts. Nat moaned and began rocking, her head tilted back and eyes closed, and blindly she cupped Gabriela’s head in her hands, digging her fingers into the hair she had pulled on so desperately during their fight. For her part Gabriela held the sides of the breasts up with her hands. Then Nat—without too much force—pushed her down to the floor on her back and stood over her. She slid down her pants and sat on her face. Moaning “kiss it, kiss it” repeatedly, she pulled Gabriela’s face into her crotch by her hair. She pushed herself against the other woman’s face, harder and faster, and then she let go over the hair and held Gabriela’s hands to her own breasts, making the beaten woman fondle her while she ground her pussy on her.
After Nat was finished with her she pulled Gabriela over to Kayley and Rikka, who had been sitting along the far wall transfixed by all they had seen. She made Gabriela kiss and fondle Rikka while she herself pulled Kayley over to the bed. There Kayley disrobed and they began kissing, cupping each other’s breasts and holding on to each other bodily, by the hips or the waist. Kayley looked over the blonde’s shoulder and watched Rikka squeezing and pulling at Gabriela’s breasts as she kissed her roughly. And then she gave all her attention to the beauty in front of her and the hours slid away.
Two days later, Kayley closed her bedroom door behind her and tossed her jacket on her bed. It had been a long day, and a rather unpleasant one as well. She poured herself a glass of wine and sat down at her desk. There was pen and paper near at hand and she gathered it as if she would begin writing but she knew that there was little to write and no one to send it to. In the morning, after breakfast, she had been summoned by Lord Murrell to his bedchambers. She had expected he would want to fuck her, and she was looking forward to it and hoping that strengthen her influence over him. But, he had wanted to talk with her and what he had to say was not very promising. Lady Victoria had left for her homeland that morning, before dawn, without informing Kayley that she was leaving. That itself was enough to make Kayley nervous about her standing in the house; combined with the Lord’s disinterest in her personally, she had been seriously considering making a dash for the bag of money and forged papers she had secreted under a rock at the edge of the estate. Lord Murrell had really had little to say to her, just some things about wanting his dinner served in his rooms rather than the dining hall while the Lady was away and that he preferred the servants stay clear of the rooms he was in unless absolutely necessary. And then he had dismissed her.
Behind all of this was the smell of Diana, Kayley was sure. In the two months since she had appeared in town, the two women had not had any meaningful interaction at all. Only at the dinners Diana had joined the Murrells for had they even acknowledged each other, and that had been the occasional glare across the room, Diana making clear that she was watching her. And she had disappeared from town for weeks at a time, to where Kayley had been unable to learn. She had little money to bribe anyone for information, and, she had been learning, the two other means available to her held little interest. She was more interested in having the power of an information network than in the dirty business of creating a network of people who—by deception or manipulation—felt obliged to share with her. Yet, she had not left, either. She had told herself that her relationship with Rikka, on the one hand, and her other kind of relationship with Gabriela, on the other, had been her motivation to stay. But that was not true. She simply had nowhere else to go. And she had no one to write letters to, she thought to herself, and she tossed the blank pages into the fire.
“Throwing away more secrets?”
Kayley knew the voice before she looked up. Whitney was closing her bedroom door behind her. She wore long pants and a long-sleeved blouse that was unbuttoned enough to show off her well-formed, if not buxom, chest. The strength of her arms and legs showed clearly through the clothes, which were her own. “Taking off a bit early, are we? I keep telling you, the little hand has to be straight down before you can go looking for your afterhours customers.”
Whitney walked forward calmly. The beauty of her face was in her strong, chiseled jaw and the steel grey of her eyes. She was now standing in the middle of Kayley’s own bedroom, hands perched on her hips and one leg pointed outward a bit, somehow suggesting possession. The light from the chandelier overhead lit her face. Kayley was thinking mostly of how much she would enjoy knocking a bit of that shine off of her and how she thought she was about to get her chance. Whitney’s light brown hair had been held back in a ponytail and she shook it free before speaking. “I know who you really are. And I’m going to show you who I am,” she said, and with that pulled her shirt overhead and tossing it aside stood topless. Her small nipples were as hard as they could be despite the heat from the fire nearby.
“You’re someone who is going to get knocked all the way down to the bottom where she belongs if you don’t turn around and walk out of here,” Kayley said, now rising from her desk and bracing her hands upon it. Leaning forward, deliberately, she revealed the deep shadow of her own cleavage, greater than what Whitney could have shown.
“You thought you had Gabriela and me scared. Thought we didn’t dare show our real faces to the new Missus in town. You prat.”
“What are you on about?”
The smile had swelled across Whitney’s face now, but her eyes were not smiling and they had not broken with Kayley’s since she entered the room. She was not lying about not being scared of her, Kayley knew. “Diana told me what you’re up to.”
“Told you what?” Kaley asked, but the answer hardly even mattered.
“She told the Lady too. She hasn’t left at all. She’s back in her rooms now, waiting for me to bring you to her to join in the fun.” Whitney nodded when she saw the confusion on her face. “That’s right. We’ve already had a bit of a taste of your dessert, Rikka. She’s lovely. And the Lord and Lady allowed me to bring you in. I’ve taken your little friend and now I’m taking your spot. But first I’m going to make you pay for everything you’ve done.”
With that Whitney set her feet firmly on the ground, clearly indicating she was done talking. Kayley tore off her shirt and shook out her dark brown hair and strode purposefully around the desk. Both women kicked off their shoes and stood barefoot. The lines of their thighs and hips in their tight pants showed their pride, their strength and femininity. She was an inch or so shorter than her opponent, with more feminine curves and much larger in the chest. The two women met in the middle of the room and began fighting, both young and beautiful and both of them equal in wanting to ensure that the other did not take away what all she had, her place in the world. Whitney punched her across the face and Kayley punched her just as hard in return. Whitney staggered back under the force of the blow and Kayley came in close, throwing punches into Whitney’s abdomen and breasts. The fit girl grunted but she gripped Kayley by the back of her head and threw her knee up. It hit her hard in the gut and she slumped forward, leaning her forward against Whitney’s upper chest as the strength momentarily left her. And as she was vulnerable Whitney still holding her by the head pivoted and flung her with all her strength. Kayley landed on her side, prone. Whitney dashed forward and kicked her foot at her face, looking to destroy her. But Kayley got her hands up in time and caught the foot and jerked it upward as she came to her knees. Whitney’s leg went flying up into the air and her body crashing to the floor.
Kayley dove at her but Whitney was ready and kicking upward caught her squarely in the breasts. Kayley immediately clutched at her chest and staggered away, somehow keeping her feet. Whitney rose behind her and following her threw a straight punch that hit her in the center of her back. Kayley lurched forward and forced herself to turn around just in time for the next punch to hit her in the center of her chest, between her breasts. Snarling, her face twisted, Whitney came at her as she staggered back. The strength of her arms and back showed as she looked to finish the curvier woman off and then to savage her. But as she came near, Kayley spun and kicked her full force in the front of her Venus mound with the ball of her foot. Whitney was frozen, her hands clutching the bottom of her abdomen and her face now all terror rather than strength. The kick had saved Kayley but it took all her energy and she leaned against her desk, watching as Whitney slowly fell to her hands and knees. She could hear her grunting and near-sobbing in pain but by the time she was ready to take advantage Whitney was recovering and coming to her feet. Some distant part of Kayley’s mind noted the tremendous conditioning the other woman must have had to be ready again after taking such a blow.
They both the two of them were slower now but somehow both of them were still eager to resume fighting, in their hatred of each other. They stood before each other, their torsos covered in a layer of sweat and the grime from their time on the floor, their feet square to each other and braced for what they were about to endure. Kayley hit her squarely across the face with a right hand and Whitney hit her back with a right and a left and then they stood like that for an instant, staring into each other’s eyes, and then at the ding of some unknown bell they began throwing. The wet thuds of fists striking against faces, breasts, and stomachs as they two women tore into each other. At last they fell exhausted into each other. They turned in a circle, each with her chin on the other’s shoulder and her cheek pressed to the other’s. And they threw slow weak punches into the other’s stomach, grunting with the effort. And then when that was over they tugged at each other’s hair with what strength they had left, still turning in a struggle, pushing against each other. Then Whitney let go of her hair and threw an uppercut in Kayley’s breasts. Then she threw another, scoring again. The pain ripped through Kayley and in response she growled and bit down on Whitney’s shoulder. The fit girl came to life, trying to shake herself free, but the busty girl clamped onto her and bit harder. Then letting go of the bite she seized her by the back of her neck she drove her into the far wall. Whitney hit her shoulder against the wall and slid down. As she went down Kayley popped her in the face with a fist, too weak to finish her but enough to send her onto her back. She fell there, lying on her back against the wall, staring up with eyes that might not have been seeing Kayley as she stood over her.
Kayley looked down at her, thinking to catch her breath before pinning her down and finishing her off. And yet somehow the lean beauty was rolling onto her side and bracing herself to stand. So instead Kayley grabbed her, holding her head by the hair with one hand, tilting her face up. The two of them locked eyes with each other, both gasping for air, breasts rising and falling, both ready to take it as far as need be.
“You should have let it go,” Kayley said, ready to pound her face in.
“Naw,” was all Whitney answered, and then she drove her fist into Kayley’s crotch. The blow was not square but it hit hard, and while Kayley was stunned Whitney came to her feet, butting her in the chest with her forehead and then the two of them were on the ground again. They grappled there and then Whitney got atop her. She slowly mounted her, Kayley resisting her as best she could but eventually she was sitting atop her large chest. Kayley writhed under her, twisting as far as she could to one side and the other. Whitney got one arm under her leg but Kayley kept the other free. The girl sitting on her punched down and she blocked as well as she could with her free hand over her face. Then when Whitney adjusted her weight to try again to pin the free arm Kayley reached up and seized hold of her breast. With all she had left she pinched the breast, digging in her fingers. Whitney thrashed with the unexpected sharp pain and in that instant Kayley bucked up and she was out from under her. But she was not free. As she tried to scramble free, facing away on her hands and knees, Whitney turned and sat on her ass and kicked her in the side. Kayley fell and trying to rise she was kicked again. She lay panting and luckily Whitney was checking her breast for blood. She found only scratches but she was enraged and her rage gave her strength.
“You’re going to pay,” she hissed.
She pulled Kayley up by the hair of the back of her head and, jerking back so that Kayley was looking straight up at the ceiling and pinning one arm behind her back, she drove her across the room and into the wall. Kayley struck bust first and Whitney held her there by the hair, pushing her face against the hard wood, and punched her in the small of her back. Then she yanked her back and before flung her across the room to the far wall in the same way they were standing still in one instant. Whitney and Kayley’s faces only inches apart, Whitney behind her, rage and energy on the former and desperation and pain on the latter, anticipation of the further pain she was about to receive when she was run into the wall again. The enormous bust of the latter standing out proudly but also battered, the tight lines of the abdomen and the flanks of the former. Both of them gasping for air, the bruising on their skin and the bite marks on the shoulder of the former. And then Whitney was driving her across the room. This time she let go and Kayley crashed chest and face into the wall and then slid down to the floor. Whitney stood in the center of the room, controlling it, and waited for her to rise.
“Diana will betray you too,” Kayley said, gasping, as she pulled herself to her feet by the wall.
“As long as I get to beat you down, I don’t care,” Whitney answered.
Sweating, panting, their hair stuck to their faces and shoulders, bruised, defiant, strong, enraged and energetic, the two women came together for the last time. Kayley started to throw a haymaker but Whitney popped her in the face with a jab and then slugged her with a right and left to the gut. Kayley staggered back and she tried to throw another wild punch but again she was too slow and Whitney hit her with another jab and then a right cross that sent her stumbling. She bounced off the wall and stumbling landed across her desk, facing her opponent. Confidently Whitney came at her, but when she got within range Kayley rocked onto her back and kicked out with both legs. But this time Whitney was expecting it and she caught both bare feet and tossed them aside. Kayley slid off the desk from the force of it and as she was getting to her feet, her hands braced on the desk and her face turning up, Whitney slugged her across the face and sent her sprawling to the floor.
“Is that it?” Whitney asked as she came at her again.
Whitney again pulled Kayley to her feet and hit her. But this time Kayley stayed on her feet and she came back and hit her across the face in return. Whitney took it but before she could throw another punch Kayley hit her again and then backhanded her and Whitney stumbled back. Some new look had come into Kayley’s eyes as if she were seeing into the soul of the other woman. She came forward and this time Whitney was able to hit her in the face and then in the stomach. This doubled Kayley up but when Whitney went to grip her by the back Kayley regained herself too quickly. She rammed into Whitney gripping her arms around her torso and driving her back, each foot slapping hard against the floor. Both women groaned with the effort and Kayley kept driving even as Whitney drove elbows down into her back. And then Whitney collided with the bed that stood in the far corner and flopped back onto it. She sank into the mattress, moaning as she realized the danger she was in. She pushed against Kayley as the buxom woman mounted her but there was little she could do. Kayley held her down with a forearm across punched her in the stomach over and over. And the strength with which Whitney could push against her faded. Kayley kept punching and then when Whitney had stopped thrashing under her she rose and pulled Whitney up by the hair and by main strength she flung her to the floor.
“You wanted this,” Kayley said, and as Whitney tried to rise she kicked her in the back, putting her face down on the floor. Kayley stood over her, staring at her bare back, the strength of her showing even now in the tight lines from her hips to her shoulders. “This is what it is, working for Diana.” So saying she kicked her in the ass, putting her back down on the floor again. “Fighting and scratching. Until you realize you can only fight for yourself.”
Whitney was by now up to one hand and Kayley kicked her again, coming up under her arm and striking her in the right breast with the top of her bare foot. Whitney moaned in pain, her eyes closing again, and now Kayley pulled her to her feet by her hair and one arm. She punched her in the stomach and breasts repeatedly, holding her by the hair, and then spinning flung her across the room. Whitney was still on her feet, teetering, and somehow she raised her hands up in front of her. She even threw something like a jab as Kayley drew near, but the buxom woman dodged it easily and clocked her across the face. Whitney turned away and fell against the wall, and Kayley punched her again and again in the back and then spun her around by the shoulder so that she was leaning against the wall, breathing in jerking heaves, her arms down at her sides. Summoning the last of her strength Kayley hit her in the face, the breasts, the stomach over and over until at last she slid down to the floor, finished.
When Whitney regained herself she lay on the floor. Bruises covered her face and torso, blood had dried under her nose and around her mouth and on her knuckles. At last she pushed herself to her hands and knees and then bracing against the wall to her feet. She crossed the room to the desk and the exertion made her heartrate jump and by the time she was sitting in the chair she was panting for air. She was still sitting there behind the desk when the door opened and Diana entered. She was wearing a black dress that could not hide her powerful and curvaceous body and her hair was pulled into a tight ponytail. Whitney felt sorry for the woman on whom Diana would train her anger, and then too late she remembered that that woman was she. Still, she made no effort to move from the chair and she doubted that she could have even if she wanted. Diana still had not looked in her direction, instead taking in the room and then sitting on the edge of the bed with the air of a woman who could not be touched.
“You failed to bring her to us,” Diana said.
“I did.”
“It would seem that you had a very spirited encounter with her, though.”
“I did.”
“We have her, of course. She tried to slip away after she bested you, but she wasn’t in much better shape than you are now.” Whitney made no response, and now Diana turned toward her. “She is quite capable, in the end, and I have decided that this should not be a permanent mark against you. Your failing to master her.” Still Whitney made no response. “I plan to leave this wretched town soon. I could have work for you, still, if you are interested. And some training, too.”
Whitney stared at her and then said, “I don’t think that I am.”
The stillness sat between them for some time. “I don’t think that they will be want to continue employing you here. I fear that all this has been a bit more than they were expecting when they began working against our interests.”
“I don’t think I want to continue here, either.” It felt as if the entire world were pulling the darkness down over her mind as she spoke.
“Where will you go, then?”
“Someplace else.”
Diana nodded once and rose. “Very well. To show that I’m not completely heartless, I’ll see to it that you can spend the night here in this room. In the morning there will be a purse of coin for you, a horse, some new clothes. It will be a rather small purse,” she added, and then she left the room.
Whitney said in the chair thinking of nothing at all and then she fell asleep. At some point in the middle of the night she made her way to the bed. And then in the morning she rode her new horse out of town and met Gabriela at the crossroads and then the two them headed away from Galloway, eastward, toward the rising sun.
