“Don’t you worry, friend; I’ll make sure to take very good care of you later.” Marion then retied Luke’s pants and stood back up, making sure to flip her hair as she did. When she looked back at Luke, the look on his face was priceless. Marion knew that she now had Luke and nothing the Cecilia could do, short of killing her, could change that. This thought caused Marion to smile warmly at Luke as she moved to get her shirt that Luke had thrown off. After Marion had made herself presentable, she looked back at Luke and his cock was now behaving for the most part. This was good news for neither Marion or Luke were ready to reveal her return to Cecilia just yet. Finally, Luke stood up, gave Marion a quick kiss, moved back around to where he had left the firewood that he was gathering, picked it up, and returned to camp.
CHAPTER VII
When Luke finally returned to camp, Cecilia gave him an earful about being late. The problem for Cecilia now was that Luke didn’t give a shit about her.
“What the hell are you bitching about this time, Cecilia. I am not the one who sleeps half the morning away. After all it has been light for three hours and you are just now waking up.”
Cecilia was taken back. This was the first time that Luke had forcefully stood up to her. She would now have to take drastic action. She walked up to him and slapped him as hard as she could.
“Don’t you ever talk back to me; peasant!” she snapped. She then moved to slap him again. As her hand started to come up, something stopped her hand. Now very pissed, Cecilia turned to see what had stopped her. She was stunned to see Marion standing there.
“Lay another hand on my man again and I will kill you” Marion stated calmly. “I don’t care that you are my sister or that you have more support among the guards back home.”
“YOUR man? Ha. You must be joking?” However, looking into Marion’s face told Cecilia that she wasn’t joking at all. “Like he would actually want to be with someone as dumb as you.” Marion’s expression still hadn’t changed so Cecilia spun around to look at Luke and caught him smiling. “What are you so happy about.”
“Oh, just enjoying the sight of my girlfriend ripping you a new one.”
“WHAT!!!” Cecilia shrieked “How could you? Why would you? I am the one who you need to be with. After all she ran away.”
“I will make this easy for you to understand, Cecilia. Marion is a delight to be around, while you are a pain in my ass. Marion always asks intelligent questions and provides stimulating conversation; while with you, well let’s just say that I have had better conversations with corpses. She is very willing to learn and equally willing to admit when she made a mistake; you on the other hand seem to have no interest in learning and are not willing to admit that you could make a mistake never mind that you did. And finally, while I do admit that you are a beautiful woman, Marion is a goddess. Also, your beauty is only skin deep while hers goes all the way to her bones. Do not think for an instant that I have no idea of what you were planning to do once I got you home. I have known since you started trying to seduce me that you would do everything possible to force me into telling you everything that you wanted to know even through you are not capable of handling the information that I have access to” Said Luke with a smug grin.
Cecilia just stood there stunned. Nobody had ever talked back to her before and now here were two people that not only talked back to her, but one of them was her younger sister and the other one Cecilia just classified as a large but dumb peasant. Apparently, he wasn’t as dumb as Cecilia thought, but that didn’t matter. What neither Luke or Marion knew was that Cecilia was actually very good with a knife and that she had helped set up the ambush with William. She had wanted her father, John, and especially Marion killed so that she could rule alone over her family’s land. Granted she would have to marry William, but she had planned to arrange for William’s father to die of an accident shortly after the wedding. Then within a year, kill William in some way so that she would control both family’s lands. Now the entire plan had come completely unraveled. William was dead and Marion was alive. Furthermore, Marion had managed to gain the favor of the man that had “rescued” them from the ambush and now she had even won him over completely. Cecilia knew that it was too early to try and kill them for they would be expecting her to try something so she just backed down from the argument that they had been having. Just to rub salt into Cecilia’s wounds, Marion went over and stood next to Luke who then put his arm around Marion. Cecilia would know have to be very careful indeed. Cecilia stomped back to the carriage and sat down. Luke went to tend the fire, and Marion went to get her horse. After Marion got back, she went up to Luke and kissed him. This made Cecilia fume even more, for her life long campaign to keep Marion subdued and meek was also coming undone. Marion was quickly gaining self-confidence and strength and if Cecilia didn’t do something quickly, she wouldn’t have any change at all of getting Luke to cooperate even under torture.
After Marion got done making out with Luke, she whispered to him “We need to talk alone and quickly.” Luke nodded his agreement for he figured what Marion needed to talk about after all a blind idiot could have figured it out just from feeling the tension between Marion and Cecilia. After Luke had finished making breakfast and everyone had eaten, the three of them got back on the road. Cecilia drove the carriage while Luke and Marion rode their own mounts. Luke had also put all his gear on one of the spare horses. He covered it with some cloth to hide it, and while it was weird looking at least nobody would see his modern gear. By late afternoon the group was at the gates of Nottingham. Luke intended to stop here and sell all the extra stuff. Marion fully agreed with this for it would be much easier traveling without the carriage. To their surprise, Cecilia also agreed for she had enough of ridding in that damn thing and the roads would get worse the closer they got to York. She still had to get home before she could make her move. When they first got into town, Luke insisted that before they sell anything that the three of them explore the town to find out what all goods and services were available. Doing that took the rest of the day. Finally, they agreed on an inn that was reasonably priced and had decent food. They had rented two rooms, and after eating, decided to retire for the evening. It had been a very long day. Included in the room price was a small bundle of firewood and a set of blankets.
Luke took all his gear up into his room after all this stuff was irreplaceable and held immeasurable amounts of knowledge. He started a fire and then checked out the room looking for listening holes or false walls before revealing his modern gear. After a bad experience with a high school girlfriend, Luke always thoroughly checked out every new room that he slept in. Looking at the bed, Luke decided that he would more likely be more comfortable on the floor so he set up his mattress pad and sleeping beg. Before he laid down, he stripped. This was the first time that he had been completely naked since before he had left home on his hunting trip and it felt so good to finally be without clothes, especially those itchy medieval things. To wind down, Luke fired up his computer to listen to some music and look at some pictures of his family. He made sure that he had his earbuds secure so that no one else would hear the music. Finally, he started getting tired and put his computer away. Just as he was shutting his eyes, there was a soft knock at the door.