The Lost Prince Ch. 02

His soldiers had their rifles ready, and the villagers somehow looked even more desperate than they had been before.

"I had thought myself to be clear," said Pieter. "This girl was not to be harmed. She was willing to do whatever chores you asked of her as a good citizen should, but there was no need to hurt her. Why was this done?"

"That is no girl," said the boy who had not wanted to sleep with me. "She is some monster from that camp."

"Let go of your peasant superstitions" said Pieter. "There are no monsters."

"She is a whore," said Boris standing by his friends. "You brought a whore into our home."

His other friends stood silently. They didn't appreciate the attention that he was drawing upon them.

"And who knows whores better than those who cavort with them?" said Pieter. "I remember you, Boris. You and your friends are terrors with the poor and slow girls out here. Did you and your friends molest my young charge?"

"She gave herself eventually," he said. "They all do that in the end."

Pieter looked at me with an odd smirk as if he deeply amused by me. I looked at the ground, and pretended that I could go back to being invisible.

"Then why did you punch her?"

"You know why," said Boris.

What happened next was so sudden that I hadn't even taken my eyes off the ground before it happened. Pieter pulled out his pistol and shot all of Boris' friends. Many of the villages wailed for those young men had been their sons and brothers. The others cowered in fear. Pieter's soldiers had their rifles ready, but fortunately no one made any move to attack. The authority that Party Members like Pieter had out in these rural areas was absolute.

Boris looked to be the most horrified of all despite the fact that he had been spared.

Pieter holstered his gun, and brushed at his moustache while a cloud of gun smoke rose over his face like weather over a distant mountain. "I want you to live, Boris. I want you to worry about this girl, because there might be another girl out there that you don't want hurt. Would she want you to treat young Valentina this way knowing that someone else might be doing the same to her? Please, think about that. If I come out this way again there will be no more tolerance your behavior."

We left shortly after. The aftermath of the situation had made everyone grim and quiet except for Pieter. He whistled a delightful song once we were in the wagon again.

"I'm sorry," I said once we were miles away. "I should not have caused trouble."

He laughed, and then cupped my face again to examine my bruise. "It's not so bad. A girl like you will take a great lesson from all this. Shame about Boris' friends. I wondered if they would take advantage of you. So you were willing?"

"You knew that it would happen, didn't you?"

"I said that you should 'help' them in any way you could. It was a possibility. Do you feel guilty?"

"I was..."

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if you thought I was a whore now."

"No," he said. "You must have stood up to them in some way. Most of their other victims are not so strong. I'm actually proud of you."

Then the most remarkable thing of that day happened: Pieter kissed me. The other soldiers said nothing, and Pieter didn't give their thoughts any mind. He just looked at me. His blue eyes were bright in the morning glow. I tried to decide if they reminded me of cold ice or pretty flowers.