SWNOVELS Chapter Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
The Watcher
Once we are outside the main gates and have taken a few steps Solai stops and grabs my arm spinning me around to face him. He lifted my hood slightly, so I can see him and the wide grin on his face. “Bella you handled that well. I thought the guard was going to combust his face was so red.”
I smile at him. “I hate bullies, there is only one way to deal with them and that is to stand up to them, they soon backdown without support.”
“Ha, so you have some memory, it’s not much but it is a start.” Small steps Bella.”
He lowers my hood making sure it covers my face. Taking my arm leads me down one street after another. The din of people growing louder. The closer we come to others the scent of the warm morning intermixed with the smell of body odor, food cooking and manure intensifies. Solai moves to walk in front of me whispering for me to stay close.
I keep sight of Solai’s green stocking legs in view, so we don’t become separated.
“This is the Piazza del Duomo. It gets very busy. If we should get separated just stand by the wall and I will find you.” I nod, not sure if he saw it or not.
There are people everywhere, we become jostled and pushed as people pass with their buys, bundles of cloth, carpets and goods. I try to hang onto the back of Solai’s shirt but with a push and shove I lose myself within the crowds.
Looking around I have lost sight of him and can’t see him anywhere within the crowds. Shoving my way in the direction he was going and keeping my hood down I continued to push through the crowds making my way across the piazza towards a building behind tables of wares. It is best for me to do as Solai had suggested and stand by the wall.
Suddenly someone bumps into me hard enough to cause me to fall backwards, landing on my butt with my hood falling back off my head. My elbows hit the hard ground jarring my arms and my shoulders.
“Ouch!”
“Signora are you alright?” Came the burly voice of a man standing beside me.
Quickly pulling my hood back over my head I move to sit.
The hands of the man that has spoken roughly grabs me by the arms yanking me to my feet. I wonder if he grabs his mother like this.
“Fine.” I mumble angered at his rough grasping. I try to pull away, but he continues to hold me in his grip. Instead of letting me go he tightens his hold and pulls me towards an alcove at the wall where I am supposed to wait for Solai.
“Let go you bastard.” I yell, but he is relentless tugging me along beside him. Shoving me in front of him into a wide alcove he is still holding my arm in a vice grip. “Let go! You piece of shite or I will scream.”
“Scream Senora. No one will hear you, and frankly no one will care.” The man laughed with a deep gravelly voice as he spins me around shoving my back against the wall. He smells of alcohol and a stench as if he hasn’t had a wash in a long while. He’s twice my size and a good two hands taller than me. His face holds several scars with one running down his cheek across his lips.
His free hand gropes me as he slammed his body against mine dragging his tongue up from my chin to my cheek. “Urk…you filthy bastard.” I spit at him attempting to move out of his way. He takes hold of my shoulders slamming my back into the wall, my head bounding off the stone.
Something in me snaps and without thinking I bring my knee up hard between his thighs at the same time slamming a fist up under his chin. He groans bending to grab the apex of his thighs with both hands. I grasp his matted hair and slam his face into my upcoming knee. I will feel the pain of that later. Raising my foot push him away. Staggering his head hits the rendered wall behind him.
He recovers enough takes a step forward growling at me his eyes turning to angry slits as if he wants to murder me. I turned my body slightly, raise my hands up in a defensive stance Bringing my foot up sideways quick as a start, slam it into his chest. Thanking the stars there’s enough material in the dress to get my foot up high enough.
He flew backwards smacking the wall again before sinking to the ground moaning and groaning. Just for good measure I kick him in the face. “Touch me you bastard and that’s what it gets you.” Running towards the end of the alcove pulling my hood further over my face, I find Solai watching, his mouth opens his face pale with shock.
“Santa Madre Bella. You fight like a man; you are better than most gendarmes I have seen.” He finally closes his mouth grabbing me by the arm and hurriedly pulling me away back into the crowd. After a few moments Solai pulls me to the wall of buildings.
“I will need a hot bath after that dirty piece of filth ran his fucking tongue over my face.” I hissed.
“Come we will walk along the buildings it will be easier and safer this way and keep your voice low, you talk like a common foreigner, it will draw attention to us.”
“Shut up.”
A dark cloaked figure’s attention had been caught from where he was hidden in a close corner. His eyes had been drawn to a dirty clothed ruffian dragging a woman to an alcove. A brave move, he had thought by the back-street scum in the middle of market day. The female was not dressed as a barmaid or anyone from the poorer community. He didn’t expect anyone close by to do anything about it, still it was a brave move on the man’s part just the same.
He caught the females face when she had landed on her arse, beautiful girl. That is why he had continued to watch them.
He was going to intervene, that was, until he saw the woman defend herself. As luck would have it the alcove was wide, giving him a view to what was happening. His eyes went wide when the female attacked her assailant.
Her offensive was carried out with speed, precision and strength for one so delicate. She had used moves that would shame most Soldati.
Leaving the man on the floor to make her escape another was waiting for her, but this one seemed to be a friend and not another attacker. Did he know this man? He seemed familiar for some reason. For now, he would just follow them.
He wondered if this might be the woman his employer was looking for. Ordered to keep his eyes out for an unusual woman wearing a half pendant He couldn’t see if she wore such a thing she was though, a different type of woman, beautiful and a good fighter in a one-on-one situation. It had taken her only seconds to bring a man twice her body weight down to a crumpled mess on the floor. He knew of no woman that could do that.
A woman such as her would be a prize especially for Cesare Borgia, and if Cesare didn’t want her. If she wasn’t the female he was looking for then he would have her for himself. He loved a woman that had fire in her belly and fight him, especially in the bedroom. He Reached down adjusting his package between his legs, what he had witnessed had turned him on. Slipping from the shadows and keeping his distance he never let the pair out of sight.
There was no way he was letting this Bella go. He thought with amusement of being able to have a little fun with her before he handed her over to Cesare, groaning at having to readjust himself once again.