Manon and Belle Pt. 08

"Belle, Melissa, get their hoods and gags on, and don't forget to put the spare hex keys in their mouths before the gags. And shorten Beth's chains, so that she can't move her hands much and has to shuffle. She's a violent rebellious slave, so we can't take chances."

Beth grinned at Manon, who stroked her face and arm gently .

"And for the love of god, don't swallow the keys. If you do, you will be the ones searching the Hotel sewers to find them later," Manon said, making all three girls laugh. They stopped abruptly, looking worried when Manon gave them a stern look, not laughing.

They didn't see her grin at Belle as she turned away from them. Belle was fussing at Beth's chains as Manon watched her, shortening them, and as Manon watched she saw Beth smile and shiver as Belle whispered something to her, stroking her fingers over the nipple on one of Beth's heavy breasts.

"Belle dear, this isn't the time. Don't try my patience," Manon said, fighting hard to suppress a smile.

Almost on the dot of noon, there was a knock at the door and Eric arrived, "your carriage and your wagon await my lady," he said bowing. "With apologies, we must use the service lift, it wouldn't do to trail slaves like this through the lobby."

He was already leading the way, and Melissa was carefully leading the blindfolded girls. Beth was in front, Fi in the middle and Claire last. Fi and Claire were both holding the shoulder of the girl in front, and they moved slowly along behind Beth who was shuffling awkwardly.

Manon turned to Belle, and kissed her fiercely, "be safe love."

"You too miss," Belle said and followed Manon out along the corridor.

The lift turned out to be large enough to take all of them, and the doors opened on to a loading dock. Manon saw Melissa scowl at the man holding the harness of the lead horse of the team of four that were hitched to the wagon. Her brother presumably, Manon thought. They looked vaguely similar and had the same colouring and curly hair.

Melissa ignored him after that, and carefully fed the three blindfolded girls into the cage, then closed the door and turned the large key in the heavy lock.

She looked up at Manon, holding the key. "Keep it you stupid girl, you are in charge of the wagon."

Speaking up, Manon almost shouted, "you three sit down, with your backs to the bars. Belle, there are clamps, secure their collars to the bars quickly."

Belle was in fact quick, as the clamps were purpose made for this, and soon all three girls had their necks pinned tight to the travelling cage's bars by their collars, keeping them in a sitting position with their legs out in front of them. Belle pulled the tarpaulin over the cage and then followed Manon into the carriage.

As the carriage set off, Manon looked back through the window, to see Melissa saying something to the man who'd been holding the horses. Whatever she said it made him flush angrily and turn away, and Melissa spat her contempt on his shadow as he went.

The drive to Dumain et Fils was much slower this time. The wagon was slower and less manoeuvrable than the coach, and besides it wouldn't do to damage valuable livestock by battering and bruising them unnecessarily.

About 10 minutes away from Dumain et Fils, as they followed the road through the flat dusty landscape on the edge of the city, Manon saw that a train of half a dozen heavy cargo wagons had pulled over to let them pass.

If anyone was being especially observant, they'd have noticed as Manon did that the waggoners were all fit and strong looking men and women, and that despite their size the wagons clearly weren't heavy, as they weren't leaving the usual deep ruts in the road.

Manon grinned when she saw an older man driving one of the wagons, who despite a good disguise was clearly Sir James, with madame Grey sat beside him, puffing on a long clay pipe.

She also saw a longboat, with maybe eight or ten people in it, slowly being rowed up the river beyond. It had a small tatty sail up, but was pushing against the current, slowly towing a cargo raft behind it, stacked with barrels and boxes.

Manon thought that was probably to block the river exit from Dumain, but couldn't be sure, there might be some other innocent explanation, but it seemed like a lot of people for the job if it was innocent.

The carriage slowed and they passed through the gates into the courtyard of Dumain et fils. The coachman politely helped Manon and then Belle down, before resuming his seat and slowly turning the carriage to one side as the wagon pulled up in it's place. Manon noticed that a long rifle was strapped to the underside of the driver's seat, and silently wished the man well, as he was going to be quite vulnerable in the Courtyard when things got interesting.

Melissa brought the wagon to a stop, pushing the wheel brake on with her foot. Both Pierre and Cecile Dumain had been waiting for them at the door into the showroom and stepped down to greet Manon warmly.

"So my lady, your note said you had decided to sell your new girls?" Pierre asked.

"I have," Manon said, thnking that Cecile being nice was even more sinister than she usually found her. "I'm supposed to be enjoying myself, embarking on a tour of Europe and indulging myself. Instead I find myself dealing with the most unpleasant and surly slaves I've ever known. I really can't be bothered with it," Manon said.

"Well, may we see them?" Cecile asked. Manon looked at Melissa who was standing by the wagon, having tied the reins off to the driving seat. "Girl, get on with it," Manon said.

"The hotel's barely adequate slave, even after I've corrected her," Manon said.

"Indeed," Pierre murmured, as he watched closely as Melissa drew the tarpaulin back. "Well they look fine enough, but I'm sure you understand, we will have to inspect them closely?"

"Of course," Manon replied. "I wondered if you might have some more suitable ready trained girls? Perhaps as part exchange?"

"Well, we can certainly show you some possibilities, perhaps you could inspect them at the same time?" Cecile said. Something about her manner gave Manon the creeps, not that she hadn't the last time. This was different though, and it made Manon wary.

Three of the guards had come over, and pushed Melissa aside as she was trying to unlock the cage, sending her sprawling to the gravel. "Really girl?" Manon said impatiently. The guards were undoing the clamps holding their collars to the cage, and pulling leashes off their belts, attached them to the girl's collars.

They held them up, pulling Fi and Claire up on to their toes cruelly, but the third guard couldn't do that to Beth as he was almost hilariously shorter than her.

"Girl, if you hope to avoid another thrashing, fetch my cakes from the carriage, Belle the oaf has yet again forgotten them," Manon said.

Cecile smiled thinly at Manon, and said "shall we?" leading Manon and Belle into the showroom. Melissa followed behind Belle and the guards trailed behind, as Beth could only move slowly.

Manon immediately noticed that the showroom was different, there were two guards standing on either side, where before there had been none visible in the public areas inside.

Manon gave a discreet hand signal behind her back, holding her fingers in a way that warned Belle that was something was wrong. Belle responded by roughly pushing Melissa in front of her, and opened a bit more distance between herself and Manon, thus taking her nearer to the three guards and their leashed slaves.

All continued quietly, and Cecile led them through the door at the back of the showroom and on to the holding area, to the somewhat mixed relief of Manon. It was good, because she could see Poppy and Jen, still much as she'd seen them yesterday It was bad because there were four guards in the room, all well armed.

"Our office is here my lady, we can inspect your girls, and discuss your requirements more easily there?" Cecile said.

Manon just nodded and followed her. The guards stopped the three girls outside the office, which was well lit and furnished although with no external windows. Belle stayed outside the office with the other slaves, pulling Melissa roughly to a halt and grabbing hold of her arm.

"May we?" Cecile asked, nodding in the direction of the three girls. "Of course, though I realise I've forgotten the key to the Arkwright chains."

"No matter madame, they are the ones we sold you, so we can find a master key that will work," Pierre said, as he stood in the doorway. He watched as the three guards undid the hood on each girl and pulled their gags and hoods off before turning back into the office.

"Splendid, I see you are no amateur with a cane my lady?" he said. "Ah, they are not branded my lady."

"Well no, I haven't got around to that yet," Manon said crossly.

"I am sure you understand my lady that will affect the price? If we cannot verify their status, then we face the risk of extra costs?" Manon nodded at him impatiently, "Indeed, but it makes no difference to me, I'd have had to pay out to get them done anyway, so if I get less for them I am no worse off."

"Well that hardly matters anyway, does it mon frere," Cecile said. "They are ours?" she asked.

"Most certainly, exactly as described," he answered.

"Well not quite yet," Manon said, "We haven't agreed a price."

Cecile just laughed at her nastily. "Oh but we have. These girls were bought and paid for by one of our customers long ago, so thank you for returning them."

Manon blinked slowly, "I'm sorry I don't understand," though she was rather sure she did.

"You don't have to my lady. We have no intention of paying you for stock our client has already paid for. So selling you and your companion is a nice little bonus for my brother an d I. Someone will take you and your lovely companion, I'm sure. Shame about the hotel girl, she'll have to go as well, but we'll pay them compensation."

"Go? What on earth do you mean?" Manon spluttered, getting angry. The anger was genuine, the spluttering and the rising panic wasn't but gave her a great excuse to loosen her jacket and blouse, as though she was nervous, and giving her easier access to her weapons.

"Oh you can't be that stupid surely. Take them away and strip them, and string this one up, I'll whip her personally until she breaks," Cecile said to the guards outside, who started to close in.

Manon had heard enough of this, if there was any intelligence to be had it wasn't going to be got like this. She spun on her heel and swung the head of her cane into Cecile's gut, before cracking it down over the back of her head.

Her brother just gaped at her for a moment, and backed away, trying to pull a small pocket pistol out of his elegant but very obstructive jacket pocket. The gun was getting caught on the lace trim. Manon pulled her split skirt open and pulled the smaller of her two pistols out, shooting him in the head.

Looking up she saw Belle had felled one guard already, and was just finishing wrecking the second one. The third was struggling to bring a heavy pistol to bear, so Manon stepped closer and shot him in the face.

"Down," Manon shouted at Melissa, who was standing gaping in shock. Fiona she saw was already working on undoing Belle's ankle chains, and Claire was at her wrists, so neither key had been swallowed, and neither girl had frozen.

"Belle, get to Poppy and Jen. You lot, follow her as soon as you can." Two heavy set guards were closing on Manon, both wielding heavy clubs of some sort, and looked surprised when instead of cowering or running as they probably imagined, she actually stepped in closer.

She tripped the first guard with her cane and was going to shoot him as he fell, but the second guard swung wildly at her, knocking the pistol from her grasp. Annoyed with herself, Manon side stepped, stamping hard on the first guard's groin as he lay flat.

The second guard was very rude to Manon them, intriguingly though in German, not French, and swung at her again. Had it connected, Manon would have been done, but she was able to dodge to one side, before hitting her three times in quick succession. The last blow crushed her windpipe, and she fell to the floor, desperately and in vain trying to draw breath.

Guard one was showing some signs of recovery, so she hit him hard across the head, knocking him unconscious at least, but was annoyed when with a loud crack her stick broke.

Belle was duelling another guard, who had a heavy cutlass of all things. Another was on the floor bleeding out. Mr Cutlass probably thought he was doing well, as Belle had backed up against the bars of the pen behind her, but he got too eager. The next thing he knew, if he knew anything, Belle had cut him open from his navel to his neck, and he fell to the floor, showering blood everywhere.

"Cakes Melissa!" Manon shouted, and the girl obediently threw her the box. Led by Belle, the others had reached the pen with Jen and Poppy in it, who worryingly hadn't reacted in anyway. From all the other pens came screams and wails from the women locked in them.

Fiona got the pen unlocked with keys from one of the fallen guards, and Belle herded all her girls into the pen with Jen and Poppy, "help them, release them if you can," Manon heard her shout.

Manon was busy though, very busy as she'd made it to the door that led up to the showroom, past the guardrooms she'd seen on her first visit. One guard had already entered but a throwing knife took care of him.

The door was being pushed wider and she could see several men crowding the doorway trying to push in, at least two of whom were carrying pistols. Two more were behind, maybe more, Manon didn't have time to count them. She reached into the cake box, discarding with a slight pang the almond slices, and picked up the first thing that came to hand.

This turned out to be one of her mini grenades, so twisting the end to shatter the glass fuse inside it, she threw it in the face of the first man. He fired at Manon with the pistol he'd levelled at her, but the shot went wide, grazing her head above her ear.

The pain was excruciating and Manon's vision was partially obscured by a sheet of blood that fell down one side of her face, but she had to ignore it.

The man in front instinctively pulled back as the grenade came towards him, as Manon hurled herself flat. She was much closer than she ought to be, and there was a loud bang and a lot of metallic pinging noises as the shrapnel wrapped around the grenade's explosive core spread out. She felt at least two bits of it dig into her back, but shrugged that off too.

She didn't wait to see the effect on the men in the doorway, she just threw the next bomb she found in the box, which from the yellow smoke that started to spread in the room beyond where it had landed, she could see was a smoke bomb. One with a powerful emetic.

Satisfied that no one was going to come that way easily for a few minutes until after the smoke cleared, Manon painfully pulled herself up and turned back to help Belle.

She immediately pulled the heavy Webley free from her leg, and sighted at the two guards on the far side of the room. They both had heavy coach guns, a bit like a blunderbuss with a longer barrel. They were trying to aim at Belle, who fortunately, in this respect only, was closely engaged with two more of them.

Since they couldn't get a clear shot, they were hesitating, but Manon solved that problem for them as she fired all five shots she had, throwing them both back on to the floor. Since she couldn't actually see very well, Manon snorted to herself, as she knew she'd been lucky to hit both of them.

She started to run towards Belle, moving painfully slowly as she was dizzy and feeling sick. Belle was hard pressed by the two guards, but suddenly Beth reared up from the floor.

One of them, a heavy set man men had brutally lashed out at Melissa, who was trying to get out of his way as he ran at Belle. Beth pulled one her heavy chains which was still attached to her wrist, tight across the man's throat, and shook him violently like she was a dog with a rat.

She threw what was by then was clearly a corpse across the pen, before bending down to pick Melissa up and hold her, crouching over her and the other girls, sheltering them while looking over her shoulder at the fighting.

That was all the distraction Belle needed, and she neatly disarmed her opponent, almost literally as her heavy knives dug into the woman's shoulders, before she kicked her backwards.

Manon knew that move well, she'd taught it to Belle originally. The woman was as good as dead already, as it would have severed all the major blood vessels serving her arms and hands, besides cutting most if not all of the tendons.

Manon stood, shakily reloading the Webley and getting her breath back, while Belle reloaded her own pistol which had been lying on the floor. Both of them were scanning the room constantly, but no more trouble appeared, and the sounds of distant fighting that had reached them slowly faded away.

Manon was feeling even more sick and dizzy, and so gratefully sank down to sit on the floor.

A little while later, the rather distinct gravelly voice of Sir James called out, "Coming in. Please don't shoot me, again." The release of tension and the joke, as Manon had once shot Sir James, albeit saving his life in the process, made both Manon and Belle laugh.

Sir James, followed by numerous well armed men and women rushed in and fanned out. Manon wasn't paying attention by then, as she was studying the still unconscious forms of Jen and Poppy. "Medic, to me" Sir James bellowed, and very quickly thereafter field medics appeared, and started to work on both girls, while one attended to Manon.

"The Dumains?" Sir James asked.

"He's dead, in the office, she's on the floor. I don't think I killed her," Manon said.

He stomped over, "only him here!" Manon heard him shout.

Manon saw Eric appear, looking villainous in a sailor's garb carrying a large revolver at his side, with of all people Travers at his side. Well that's who Manon thought it was, she was feeling really groggy and not sure of herself.

Madame Grey stalked past, giving Manon a dirty look. Her people were busy collecting up all the books, records and files in the office they could find.

"What did I do?" Manon asked, bewildered. "Ah," Sir James said laughing quietly, "she was first into the room, where your nasty smoke was still lingering. So breakfast came up for a return visit, several times."

"I can hear you, you old goat!" an aggrieved voice shouted out from the office.

"I'd best go and apologise," Manon said.

"Perhaps a bit later, when tempers have cooled?" Sir James said. "And when you can actually walk?"