Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 13

The next morning the three of them all woke at about the same time. Luke was amazed that he had slept in and Cecilia was amazed that she had woken up early and was so rested. Watching Marion trying to walk, Cecilia fell off the bed she was laughing so hard. To rub salt into Marion's wounds, Luke was chuckling a bit as well and all Marion could do was blush. She was too sore, at the moment, to do anything else. They all took turns with the chamber pot and after Marion and Luke had washed each other up a bit, got dressed and went to get something to eat. In the dining area Luke was greeted like a mighty warrior; while Marion was getting jealous looks from every woman in the room. Everyone had heard them and every woman warited to be her or have a man like she did. This actually cheered Marion up quite well. She actually was enjoying the looks that she was getting, after all it just proved that she had something that none of them could even dream of. The innkeeper meanwhile had given the lovebirds free food. This annoyed Luke but he yielded after the Innkeeper explained that she was not only very happy for them, but their love making had lured extra people in for supper the night before. It had actually been standing room only and the only fighting had been when someone else made too much noise. She had made more money off Luke and Marion's love making then she had made in the previous month. Marion's reaction to this got laughs from everyone in the room because she flushed the deepest red that anyone had ever seen. Cecilia had also noticed that she had been getting some jealous looks; but hers were equally from men and women. It didn't take her long to figure out that they were jealous of her front row, well bed seat, to last night's entertainment. Of course, it didn't hurt that all three of them smelled like hot sex. Eventually they got done eating breakfast and returned to their room to pack up. Within an hour they were on the road to York.

The three of them traveled quickly for Cecilia had given up on killing Marion on the road. Now she figured that she would use Marion to keep Luke around. Of course, that didn't mean that Marion could be free, oh no. The first thing that Cecilia planed on doing when she got home was to trump up some charges against Marion to have her thrown in the dungeon. With Marion still alive, Cecilia could use her to force Luke's cooperation.

While traveling, Luke had noticed the change in Cecilia's behavior.

At first, he had hoped that she might be starting to change, but a couple of comments, that she made, put this theory to rest, after all how often do leopards change their spots.

Marion through was

overjoyed at her sister's change in demeaner for she had always wanted a loving sister growing up and now, apparently, she had one.

As they rode Cecilla and Marion talked and joked as if they were the best of friends. Luke started to just ignore them and Instead focused on keeping a look out for traps.

The rest of their trip back to Cecilia and Marion's land was uneventful. Cecilia's charm through wasn't fooling Luke and he began to mentally prepare himself to do whatever he had to do, including abandoning Marion, in order to keep his knowledge from getting into the wrong hands. As they passed back into their family lands, the ladies immediately noticed a change. A blind person could have seen it. Houses were burnt and the people that lived in the area were starting to show signs of starvation. It was so bad that even Luke felt sickened by the sights. Cecilia and Marion were pale as ghost as they threw up everything in their stomachs. Eventually, Marion found one of the people that she trusted. It was an older wornan, Lucy, who had lost her husband years before. Lucy had been Marion's nanny, back when Marion was younger and they had retained a close friendship. When Marion first seen Lucy, Marion actually had to look very hard to make sure for Lucy had changed so much since Marion had last seen her, and that was just a week before Marion had left for London.

"Lucy what happened?"

"It was Richard. As soon as the three of you left for London, he moved in and took over. The guards that remained loyal are rumored to be in Richard's dungeon; that is if they have not been killed by torture yet. Where is your father anyway?" Lucy was so depressed and dirty that it broke Marion's heart, for she loved this woman. Lucy was the mother that Marion had never known.

"Father was killed in an ambush, John, Cecilla's fiancé was killed too. The ambush was led by none other than William." Lucy hissed at hearing this.

"I am so sorry, Marion. Now the big question, who is the giant behind you?"

"Oh sorry. Lucy this is Luke. Luke this is Lucy. She took care of me when I was younger. Lucy, Luke is the stranger that rescued Cecilia and I from the ambush. He killed Willian with his bare hands and he has been keeping us safe ever since. Also, we have fallen in love."

"Oh really."

"What, I am not allowed to fall in love?" Lucy smiled at this. Marion had always had a bit of fire in her soul.

"Back to serious issues Marion, you three need to get out of here

before you are discovered. Word has it that Richard has put a bounty on your and Cecilia's heads."

"Not to fear Lucy, the only head that is going to be collected will be Richard's" growled Luke.

Lucy now felt a spike of fear go through her. She had never heard a human sound like this. This Luke sounded much more like a wild animal. More to her surprise, the look on Marion's face had hardened as well. Obviously these two knew something that Lucy didn't.

"Lucy, I need all the information and rumors that you have on this Richard bastard." Said Luke.

Over the next hour the woman told Luke everything that she knew about Richard. Richard was an older Earl that lived next to their land and had been eyeing Marion's family land for years. Richard was one of those who get everything that he wanted, mostly because he was very quick to resort to very dirty and underhand tactics to get them. In the thirty years since Richard had gained his Earldom, he had tripled his land holdings. In the process, he had killed off whole villages and had put such a tax burden on the peasants living on his land that many of them were in a constant state of half starvation. This is what he had started doing in Cecilia and Marion's lands, but here he taxed the peasants at such a high rate that many of them would be dead by the end of the year. If a peasant couldn't pay the tax then one of several things might happen to them: they might be tortured, killed, if there were good looking women in the family then they would be taken to serve Richard or him men, young boys would be taken to be turned into soldiers. To put it simply, Richard viewed everyone below him as an expendable plaything and everyone including the king was below him, in his mind. By now, Cecilia had realized that she would have to put a hold on getting revenge on Marion. There was no way that Cecilia would live long enough to make up the charges against Marion, never mind pump Luke for information.

Luke listened carefully to everything that the women told him and asked pointed questions if he thought that they might have missed something. Finally, Luke asked Lucy:

"Where can I find Richard?"

"Why he now lives in the castle" said Lucy while she pointed at the castle that had once been Marion and Cecilia's home. Luke gave Lucy some money and one of their extra horses and told her to get lost and if he failed to get rid of Richard, never come back. Luke had figured out, listening to all the stories that the only way to get

rid of Richard was to kill him. So that's what Luke set out to do.