To Buy A Wife

Chapter 2

"Is this all of it?" asked the hunched man who sat across from Hudson. In the dank hut, only the lantern and a small banked fire allowed Hudson to make out the older man's features. A bald and sun-speckled head told him that the Elder had spent some time outside this hut; only the girth spilling over the sides of his chair spoke of how long ago that was.

The Elder fingered the gold coins that were Hudson's life savings. Correction, gold that had been his, now it belonged to the Elders. Damn leeches.

The bald man's squinty eyes finally broke off his visual fondle of the gold and met Hudson's. He nodded, not trusting himself to speak. If he opened his mouth, he might just tell this fat, greedy man what he thought of his "blood price."

"Well," the skin below the man's neck jiggled as he talked, "I guess I'll let you slide some and consider this enough for the fee."

He hoped so, since what the man held amounted to over fifteen years of hard work and some crafty maneuvering.

"But I have a problem." The Elder opened one of the ledgers that were stacked high to the side. Finding the page, he traveled his stubby finger down the columns. "I can't seem to find the entry of your marriage to the prisoner..."

Both the Elder and Hudson knew damn well the prisoner was unmarried. So he waited with a tightening of his stomach for the rest of the sentence.

"Impregnating an unmarried woman carries its own fee." The man looked up, his eyes almost swallowed by the plumpness of his face. "I assume you are going to rectify that today. But...of course, there is also the marriage fee."

Hudson gripped the sides of his chair to keep his hands from drawing his sword and putting it through the Elder's turkey-like neck.

"But I understand that times are tough and gold is hard to come by. I see here," he closed and opened another ledger, "that you own a farm. I think it would be fair to offer a lien against the land as payment."

Hudson felt his upper lip twitch. The irony wasn't lost on him that there was a lien against his land for not having a wife, and now a lien was placed for having a wife. It wasn't worth it. The farm had been in the family for over four generations. Yet, if he didn't marry, he'd be endangering his home just the same. Still there had to be another way. One that didn't cost so much.

The door to the hut opened. Two young men in short robes escorted the woman prisoner into the hut. Hudson couldn't help himself. The woman drew his gaze like lightening to a parched forest. This was the closest he'd been to a woman who wasn't a relative, and never one this young.

Her face was unlined and smooth like fallen snow he'd seen in the mountains. Her hair was still wild and fell in long unruly strands down her shoulders. He'd never seen hair that color. The silky mass reminded him of the story his mother use to tell him of a white dove and virgin bride. The thought of a virgin bride, hell any type of bride, heated his blood, and other parts of his anatomy.

The dead-blue of her eyes hadn't changed though, and he wondered if she even possessed the sense of sight. Didn't matter, he'd made his decision when he'd let her keep that pretty little head of hers.

The Elder across from him cleared his throat. "So are we in agreement as to the total fees and the lien?"

He didn't take his gaze off the woman. And why should he? He had his fill of ugly men, and her ethereal beauty had a way of making the weight of his debt feel lighter. Her gown was thin and dirty, and if he looked hard enough he could see the shadowed circles on each breast. He swallowed. Don't do it. Show some respect. But he was just a man and let his gaze travel lower. Her dignity was saved by her clasped hands and chained wrists.