"we've passed Coventry, Cambridge , luton, and here we are now. London.

the old smoke."

Said sir lautner birkenhead , he sat astride a stallion attached to a carriage, riding along the rigid steep on the hills, down to it's valley, it marks arrival to London riding down to the valley, which they were almost done with.

"Are we in London now sir.?"

Jill asked, inside the carriage.

"Yes we are, we are in blighty's fascination. Lautner said.

The old narrow roads takes me back to when we bloody backs got honoured by King James Stuart, after a bloody war."

"You are too mere to be called once a bloody back." Jill insinuated, for she knew how honoured the bloody backs were, after the tripple decade warfare, they were given lands, money and significant positions in British military, none could be just a carriage rider.

"I get your point young woman, Lautner said,

am just an unsung hero."

Jill scoffed and shook her head mildly she didn't believe lautner's word.

They had a period of silence, before a sensational ancient song, broke out of lautner's lips. "I feel hounored, riding along the old narrow roads of London, he sang.

I take a road once taken by nobilites, what a fortunate soul I am." He sang as though his heart melted in glee.

Jill's ears blurred over his voice, who loves to be honoured by the jacobites?. She said inaudibly, it didn't take long for her attention to shift from hearing lautner's song to something else.

Her thoughts went about the letter Breton calunot sent her. The worst part of the letter, where Breton wrote.

"You will embark on this journey with me, for your infidelity will make you seek another man when am gone."

_______________________(story)

She was an infidel .Jill. many a times she sneaks away at midnight from home and from Breton, to a man's house she was probably having an affair with.

The city has eyes, so someway and somehow it reaches bretons ears, it marvels Breton and makes him wonder how many men she goes to, whenever he leaves for work in the castle, or whenever he is summoned for war.

Considering she goes to other men when he himself is around, what about when he is not.

Breton made several attempts to cub her infidelity to the most minimal rate, several times he called priests to exorcise her, to trust out of her and into abyss those demons of lust, asmodeus, abbadon and it's league of dark angels.

He chains her to a bunk before leaving for work every morning to stop her from leaving home without his concert.

But subsequent exhibition of infidel acts proved those theories about her being possessed by demons of lust, wrong.

Jill couldn't stop that act of sneaking out and sleeping with other men, for she loved the fun she gets from those men, which she rarely or barely gets from Breton calunot.

It jaundiced bretons feelings towards her, but he never told her to pack her bags and leave, it wouldn't hurt Jill leaving him nor make her homeless and wretched, rather it'd make her as free as a bird, to expose her undies the more to strangers.

____________________(continue...)

"I want to be free, I want real love" Jill thought, she shook her head sitting in the carriage with her hands on her jaw, and listening to an unsavoury song from a coarse voice, the bump and thuddy and squeaky sounds coming from the wheels bristle on a rugged path synchronized with lautners music.

It created cacophony, withal a dull atmosphere.

**************( 45 minutes later)..

They arrived burckingham and already half way towards the path leading to the royal castle,

The taste for singing had already faded out of lautners lips , he was exhausted.

Jill slept off before their arrival at burckingham, after minutes of ruminating about matters concerning her past and her present life.

She was probably unaware they have arrived burckingham and already looking to take a path leading towards the castle, about five miles away.

Then they rode amidst the confines of trees, and it flanked the left and the right of the road they rode on, it was quiet, brooding, and full of hysteria you can't imagine the specific sudden danger that may occur, anything could possibly happen.

Lautner heard rustlings and scufflings coming from inside the woods, to him it sounded sinister, an accost by predators or bandits were his fears, he kept his heads up, his ears wide and concentration too.

Astride a stallion he sat, looking side by side, having experienced an event as deadly as a war, never removed fear as one of his feelings, he was afraid.

He looked around and at his further left, he saw a burnt wood, and an orange tree with kink branches.

Some people must have camped here Lautner thought, induced by the evidences he saw.

A little rustle came from behind, Lautner shifted his head towards his back, he looked to see if there was someone stalking the carriage from behind. He never cared to wake Jill up to help him spy around, he thought not to involve her in a blood cuddling situation.

She would only panic rather than help out, a person startled by the cracking sound of a piece of wood, will probably be a dead-weight in this sort of situation. Lautner thought.

He changed his view to his front, to see four blubbery men, pot bellied and tartared looking. They ascending out from the woods, with their hands strapped over the handle of a mattock, it signified danger, they had sinister motives for wielding such a perilous weapon.

Lautner and the carriage were two miles towards kissing the front Bailey of burckingham castle, if given a chance he just needed to elude them in some way and they'd be safe.

The four men filled the path where lautners carriage was going to pass through, causing a road block.

Lautner stroked his bridle, the stallion halted, bringing the whole carriage to a stop.

"Who may you all be.?" Lautner inquired.

The four blubbery men exchanged looks within themselves, taking a while, they all smiled.

"We aren't here to exchange identities, one of them spoke, he was in front of the rest, making him look more like he was their leader.

Just hand over all you got, and we will be on our way, leaving you and your life intact." He added.

"Is that a threat.?" Lautner asked.

"Not yet,

but failure to comprehend, will make it a threat."

Lautner cackled, it was expressive of disdain,

"Am sorry I dont bargain with scally-wags." He said.

"He is calling us worthless, Edgar." One of them said with a squeaky tone. to Edgar who stood in front of them all.

"Don't feel offended Matt, we will know who is more worthless, a scally-wag or a corpse." Edgar's appearance contoured into that of an angry man. The mow, the tight spout, and a perfectly stroked frown-line explained how angry he had become.

Edgar swung his mattock in a swirly motion, showing off how skilled he was in handling them, must have butchered a lot of his adversaries with it, he was about to add Lautner to the list.

Tension rose, it sent lautners stallion marching and neighing uncontrollably, it's senses told it, danger was feasible.

The neighs, and bickering forced Jill out of sleep, inside the carriage, she woke up, a little confused about the location, she knew she was in a carriage. But.

" why aren't we moving." She asked.

Unresistedly, she fell to the tempt of looking outside for she heard people arguing, Jill sled open the curtains by her side, and put her head out to see what was happening outside.

She saw four blubbery men making up grounds towards Lautner, weilding mattocks.

"Argghhh.!" She shrieked, and it drove an attention towards her, one of the bandits saw her before she sled her head-back into the carriage, breathing out loud, with her eyes bulged and mouth widely open. "why did I scream" she asked herself covering her lips in awe.

She knew one of the men saw her, and he'd be coming for her.

*****Outside the carriage******

It was almost going to be said, the bandits closed in on lautner,

He was half beleaguered.

His fists molded over the bridle on his stallion, he had a plan that seemed audacious, and also had two results which are mutually exclusive to the eachother, if his plan works for him, he lives, if it doesn't, he dies.

"You are our last hope boy, don't let me down" he spoke to the stallion, It produced thick sizzling sound from it's nose, as a reply to Lautner.

Lautner flogged the bridle thrice in a manner and a speed that is called quick successions.

The stallion bolted ahead, seeming unintrested in not trampling over the bandits with it's foot.

The bandits sled into halves, as the stallion forged its course towards their direction, two bandits flanked the left path, with Edgar and Matt the right side, they all brought out their swords and cut loose the ropes attached to the carriage as the carriage forged through their midst,

the stallion took off with only Lautner on it and ropes bellowing wildly in the air, Lautner rode on to get help.

The carriage crawled to a few meters before squelching right in front of the bandits.

Jill was in the carriage alone, shivering and griping her biceps with both hands, all but what they would do to her was her fear.

She startled when the curtains slithered abruptly, unveiling Edgar standing before the carriage, and his hands closed on the curtains.

The rest gathered around to see what the carriage had to give.

"Mhmmm what a meaty mouthful.!" Edgar exclaimed.

He grinned at Jill, exposing his tooth which were in shambles, they had in their midsts, remnants of bush meats begging to be let free by a tooth-pick.

The bandits chucked Jill out of the carriage, one by one they slip off her adornments, and rings in which her wedding ring was one of them, Bangles and earrings, she stood effortlessly like a lamb,

Edgar strapped his hands about her waist, Jill flinched when she felt a hand creep on her waist, her heart pulsated louder than a wooden drum, and feelings of fright impounded in her.

"I have given you all I have got, Jill said. what else do you want?." She winced.

Edgar screeched a laughter that sounded coarse, he glanced around quickly at all his men.

"Maybe for a fellow lady, you have given everything.

But adornments aren't the only thing a lady can give a man."

Jill wrestled in his arms to break free, probably, she got an idea of what they meant, by adornments aren't the only thing a lady can give to a man.

Edgar strengthened his grip, and the rest joined effort to aid, taking her into the woods.

******In burckingham*******

At a tower in the Bailey in burckingham stood a charming young man, Grendel Gardner, he was a castle regulator,

his job was to sound the bells fixed on the castle towers during an emergency, and to also regulate activities in the castle.

he had done about that on one of the towers close to the first Bailey and was about leaving , before he spotted by accident, four men about to drag a lady into the woods.

Grendel was uncertain about what was happening, is she defenceless, or is she being persecuted for using socerey, or maybe she is one of the unnaturals. Considering the rampancy in the killing of such people.

Every week in britian, a homicide is committed this year (1677), due to hormophobia, the fear of the the unnatural humans, socerers, necromacers majorly.

Grendel took a few minutes to observe the picturing, he saw a carriage without a horse, four men with mattocks, if they were about to persecute an unatural he or she wouldn't be dragged into the woods, it wouldn't be done in a secluded place.

Since the law legalizes the killing of an unatural in britian.

the only story it told was, the lady is in trouble.

Grendel had a unique knack for getting over the castles walls, he unstrapped his belt, and jumped off the tower.

He hung on a clothesline with his belt, mid-air, his body dangled, and he waited Patiently until he had control over his body. He stopped dangling.

With the belt tied unto the clothesline, Grendel rode along it until he reached the end that was attached to the Bailey.

He jumped onto the Bailey and climbed down from it with a rope.

He ran towards Jill and the bandits immediately.

____________________

Grendel got there in a jiffy, Jill was almost dragged into the woods, she wrestled with the bandits, that delayed taking her into the woods on time.

But it drained all of her strength, wrestling,

she was now left with none to spare, and left to the bandits to do with her whatever they will.

"Foolish bandits, trying to rob a weak lady.

What carwodice!" Grendel said to the bandits, who weren't looking his way, but were onto dragging a lady to the woods.

They all turned towards Grendel after hearing his voice.

Now they had something to worry about, and wouldn't have a double mind eliminating it.

Edgar who had Jill in his arms, left her.

He walked up to Grendel standing before them, but was utterly away.

"Go home boy, he said.

You don't want us to descend on you." He added.

"I recommend you go back to your dirty home, the woods.

Unless you want me to take it out on you." Grendel said.

Grendels words didn't seem mature as his appearance seemed, but it never had an effect on it being so insulting to Edgar.

Edgar wiped his lips with his hands, and looked down towards the ground, it looked as though he tried to compound the insult, inwardly he never tried but burned with rage.

"The woods as our home is desirable, than be thrown into jail by your stupid king." Edgar said.

Grendel scoffed disdainfully.

"You know. ___Grendel pointed at Edgar __

People perish due to lack of knowledge, ___he kept moving back and forth as he talked___

We all know very well that, banditry could precipitate a man's death.

Still, some prats, choose to do it.

They choose to make a pratfall of living in woods, and being a pariah in their own native land, what a shame."

"You have have crossed the line son." Edgar said.

"Please help me mister, they are trying to kidnap me." Jill pleaded , sitting sideways in her gown on bare ground, she was free for Grendel had the bandits attention taken away from her for the time being.

They all gathered before Grendel, smacking their weapons against their other hand, a sign they were all annoyed, and wouldn't hesitate in hurting Grendel a lot.