No, but...

The woman in the apron laughed heartily, almost sending herself into tears. This didn't make the two scared girls feel any safer. After a few minutes of gutteral chuckling, the short keeper looked back at the cowering naked women and said, "Don't worry, ladies, I'm not here to sell you off to anyone, accept maybe the people who you work for."

"What do you mean? Did the Brandts send you to find us?" Morgala asked, her voice betraying a mixture of hope and dread of facing her employer and coworkes like this. Thurkla, on the other hand, went about as pale as her green skin could get.

"I don't know what you're talking about, miss. I'm here about the carriage that this one lost." She pointed to Thurkla, who could only stare back in abject fear. "Her boss isn't keen on employees losing company equipment and going on pleasure trips on company time."

"B-but... I was... I mean, we..." Thurkla stuttered, stumbling over her words as she sniffled and cried. The thought of what was going to happen to her sent her spiraling and she couldn't even form a sentence.

"But we were robbed!" Morgala ventured, remembering not only the plan but also the truth of what had happened over the past two days. "It's not her fault." Unable to stand up, the elf simply stiffened her back to look more confident and authoritative, wanting to defend the woman she might just love.

The woman in the hat had to hold back a chuckle at the sight of her naked and bound captive trying so hard to look scary. "Yeah, I can tell. But it's not up to me. I just do what I'm paid to do, and right now that's taking you and her to the big boss." She was about to turn around before she pulled out Morgala's wooden friend. "Oh, by the way, here's your... toy." She tossed it into the back of the stagecoach. "Make sure you don't leave it here. I won't give it back if you do." As she giggled to herself and went back to the front of the coach, Morgala noticed some skin peeking out from behind their captor's apron. A little too much skin.

She wasn't naked under there, was she?

Of course, she didn't have time to ponder this before Thurkla erupted into a hysterical wailing, crying buckets onto the floor. "I'm ruined. I'm gonna get fired for sure; now what am I gonna do?"

Morgala inchwormed her way across the floor, careful to avoid splinters on her butt, and patted her girlfriend on the tummy comfortingly. "It's gonna be okay. Maybe they'll understand."

"They won't. My boss is one of the strictest people I've met. One time I was ten minutes late to a stop, and the next day she made me do all of my deliveries wearing nothing but a ball gag. I can't imagine what she's going to do now."

Morgala couldn't imagine Hilda doing something like that (to someone else at least; she might do it to herself) and had to silently count her blessings that she had such a gracious employer. Still, she continued to rub her naked friend as Thurkla laid her head to rest on her thighs, sobbing the whole time. It was going to be okay, though, right?