The High Price of Medicine

Dierdre did not go near the Surly Frog for six days following her night with Gabhan. He had kept his word and given her the medicine. Roddy already looked better. Yet Dierdre could not get past the feeling of having been shattered like a bunch of dry twigs crunched under foot. She had informed her mother and they mourned her loss together. No enforceable laws had been broken by Gabhan, despite Dierdre being underage. And if they complained to the lawgivers, all that would result was that they would not be able to get more medicine for Roddy.

Jarienday arrived on the seventh day, a monthly three day celebration of liquor. The Surly Frog would be packed with patrons getting drunk. Dierdre helped out on Jariendays and got paid in tips. Her family needed the money, so she mustered her nerve and went as she always did. The mood in the common room had altered from what she usually found and it showed from the way the males all looked at her.

She spied Jack Sims, the taverner, wiping the bar off. "Is my mother around?"

"Richenda's gone home, Dierdre. She got some business, if you catch my drift." Jack's gaze roved Dierdre's body in a speculative way that he had never done before.

Dierdre realized then that everyone was staring at her as if she were fresh meat on a hook. A whiff of fresh panic touched her. For the first time in her life, the Surly Frog felt unsafe. She turned to leave and found Old Tony standing in her path.

"I hear ya finally got yer skirts lifted�" Old Tony leered.

Dierdre paused, wincing. She had not expected it to get around so fast. A sudden defiance seized her. "So what if I did?"

"Ya takin' it out in coin or trade, little bitch?" His gaze raked her.

The way that he looked at her made her feel dirty. Tony used to bounce her on his knee and tease her, but that was before her breasts developed.

"Coin," Dierdre snarled at him. "Two nobles."

"I'll give ya one." Tony winked at his companions. "We been makin' bets for weeks 'bout who'd get it into ya first."

"One and thirty," Dierdre drew herself straight.

"Done." Tony fished in his pocket for the coins, counted them out and shoved them down her blouse, making a big show of pinching her nipples. Then he grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out the door. He led her into the alley behind the tavern, pressed her against the wall between the trash crates, and pulled her skirts up.

Dierdre swallowed. She did not know these myn any longer. Everything had changed with her body.

"Been waitin' a long time fer ya to get old enough fer this. Yer almost as pretty as yer ma."

He reeked of sour sweat and liquor.

Tony was bigger than Gabhan and hurt worse entering her. He grunted and shoved until he got his business done. Then he turned and saw that some of the others dogs had followed them out. Tony laughed. "Dierdre's takin' customers. She's nice and tight."

He swaggered away and another came forward to shove coins down her blouse. The succession of males whom she had once trusted and viewed as protective uncles seemed endless as one after another of them did their business and paid her for it.

Dierdre swallowed back a sense of betrayal and let them get on with it.

GODWAR CENTRAL

The High Price of Medicine