The Forest

Fenn groped blindly after her as she led him through the night. They were almost to the edge of the woods that surrounded Ughelor and its villages. "Where are we going, ma'am?" he asked. The question died in the oppressing weight of the darkness. She continued on without answer, glancing backward occasionally so that he could see her eyes again. They soon arrived at a green that would have seemed like any other patch of forest to Fenn, but was well known to Rachel. She remembered how she had set up stones carved with horrible symbols in a circle all around it, the last time she had come here. That night two lords from across the sea had died naked, with smiles on their faces and her name on their lips.

"Here," she said in a little voice, and looked afraid. "Did I ruin your sleep?"

Fenn shut his mouth. The question confused him. "No," he said.

Fool boy, laughed Rachel behind her mask of Lila. "I need to tell you something," she said.

He nodded.

"Or," she said, biting her lip. "Maybe I should ask. What do you think of my husband?"

The young man was wary. His employer wasn't the kind of man who sent his wife out to pry secrets from his employees, but he couldn't understand why else she might have brought him here. Except - yes, he could. There was another part of him that already believed and knew why they had come to this hidden place. "He's... an alright man," he said, guarding himself.

"You can be honest," said Rachel, shining brighter by far than the real Lila had on her wedding day.

Fenn frowned. Each word from her weakened the thin walls of his virtue. "Well, who loves the man who pays their bills?" he said. There was a scratching sound in his throat.

She looked aside, feigning shame. "You're more charitable than I am. He's... I hate my husband. I know Father James would say a woman shouldn't hate her husband, but I do."

"Does he... hurt you?" asked Fenn.

Rachel shook her head. For a moment she imagined the old butcher thrusting into his young bride with a piggish look on his face. Lila had never known the like of a man like Cador. "He's just so dreadful. Boring. Stupid. And lazy, too. I hate to see you all working so hard while he eats what you plant in his field."

Fenn glowered. It was a sentiment that every poor churl knew, but he was careful not to endorse it too quickly. "I suppose he is," he said.

"Not like you," she said.

He looked at her properly now. "What do you mean?"

Rachel let the fur wrapped around her slide through the fingers, falling onto the forest floor like snow from a tree branch. Beneath the hide she was naked, gorgeously naked, and she displayed herself for him. "He's the only man whose bed I've ever known," she said. "This isn't a bed, but..."

Fenn looked down at the forest floor, unable to comprehend what was happening to him. When he finally allowed himself to look at her body a smile grew wide on his face. Then, trying to cleave to good manners, he coughed into his hand. "Ma'am," he said.

She crossed the feet between them faster than he could blink, and her naked body was against him. Lila's body. He'd seen it in his dreams long before Rachel had ever taken interest in him. Her hands landed on his chest and she fell against him. "I've wanted you for so long, Fenn," she breathed in Lila's voice. A faint hint of the sympathetic bond between her and the girl herself remained, and through it she could feel her try to wake up from her dream. Only a fraction of the sensation running through Rachel's body would be transmitted to Lila.

The farm hand looked down at Lila's breasts pressed against his chest and licked his lips. "I want to fuck you," he said.

So chivalrous. Rachel almost laughed. "Then do it," she commanded.