“You’re a snake Haedis!  You don’t deserve to be King’s Marshall,” Merinda spat at him from across the room.  She tried desperately to recover some of her dignity by pulling the covers as close to her chin as possible.  She could still smell his rancid breath all over her.  It made her want to retch violently. 

“You have no idea what you’re saying,” he replied calmly as he fastened his trousers.  “You know what I could do to you, not to mention your family, should you displease me,” he said with a vile grin.  “Your family should consider themselves lucky that I have not destroyed them just for hiding you from the tax count.  For seventeen years your father avoided taxes on you.  That’s a death sentence right there,” he stated with a low growl.  “For their sake, they should be grateful you were so sweet and ripe for the taking.  A little more of that and your father might even get to keep his head.”  She cowered from his threat knowing full well he would make good on it if he so desired.  He pulled on his vest and belted on his sword and dagger. 

He walked with a measured patience toward the door.  He wanted her to fear him, to loathe him, for in that he maintained his power over her.  He glanced back over his shoulder as he reached for the door.  His glare conveying all the evil hatred the man had for the people he was bound by duty to protect.  He had no love for them or his position in the kingdom but while he was Marshall and forced to ‘protect’ the king’s subjects, he would use them to satisfy his every lust.  He laughed hideously down the hall as he finally left her room. 

Merinda was left in a crumpled heap in the middle of the bed, destroyed and ashamed.  How could she face her family now that she was defiled by that monster?  How could she look her beloved in the eye knowing she was no longer pure?   She remained wrapped in the covers wanting desperately to run to the lake to wash away every remembrance of his wretched touch.  She cried in the darkness of her despair.  There was nothing she could have done to prevent what had happened.  Had she not cooperated he would have destroyed everything and everyone dear to her heart.  But for her cooperation, she would now spend a lifetime in solitude.   Defiled and broken, she would no longer be of any worth to the people she had known all her life. 

Merinda opened her eyes to the dim glow of the single candle on the bed stand.  She knew what she must do.  She would not allow Haedis to use her against her family ever again.  She rose slowly from the tainted bed, every movement a painful reminder of the torture she’d just endured for the sake of her family.  Her body ached in so many places that she stopped trying to figure out what hurt the most.

The cool air touched her bare skin but she did not feel it.  She approached her bureau with a fierce determination.  In the top drawer was the salvation she sought.  Merinda pulled the slender dirk from her drawer gazing at the sheen of the blade in the candlelight.  It had been a gift from her beloved to keep under her pillow as a ward against danger.  She had laughed at him for his unnecessary concern for her person.  Had she only known what fate awaited her she might not have been so dismissive of the lovely gift. 

Now, it would take her into the next life where perhaps she would become pure again and no longer able to hear that loathsome creature breathing in her ear as he grunted like a frenzied animal.  Perhaps she would no longer smell his sickening breath that caused her stomach to revolt.  Perhaps she would find peace within herself that she did what was necessary to protect her beloved, her family, and the town from his violent rage. 

The lifeblood ran from her vein with reckless speed.  It was so easy.  The blade so sharp she hadn’t even felt it.  Worn and spent from her despair, she had not the energy to open her other wrist but as she felt the life drain to the floor in a steady stream she did not think it necessary.

“Think, odd thing to think of such a word at a time like this,” she muttered.  She slid from the edge of the bed to the floor where she lay naked and lifeless in a small pool of her own blood.  It should have been his blood drawn with such a lovely gift, was the final thought that passed through her mind as her life faded into the abyss of nothingness.