The rest of the day was a blur. The soldiers came and took her father away. If anyone saw her, or cared that she was there, they didn’t make a sign. And then Anna was alone again. She hadn’t heard anything they were saying, or the things her father screamed as they dragged him out. She didn’t know where he was being taken, or what they would do to him. She didn’t know whether she was finally free or if someone else would come to enslave her. She simply went back to her bed, lay down, and sobbed wildly, without knowing what she was crying for, until she slept again.
“Wake up, beautiful one,” said a voice in the darkness. Anna knew the voice, but couldn’t believe it.
“Noor?”
“Yes, I’m here,” came the horsemaid’s laugh.
“Why didn’t you come back?”
“I was afraid.” This came hard for the horsemaid. Anna could hear it in her voice. “Yes, I admit. I left you because I was afraid. Your father would have killed me.”
“I know,” said Anna. “I was afraid he had.”
“I should not have run,” said the horsemaid slowly. “I should have stayed. But then perhaps he would have killed us both.”
“He killed my brother,” said Anna, and the words finally brought it to the front. Her father had killed her brother. The weight of it hit her like a stone, and she gasped.
“Then you are rid of them both,” said Noor softly. “You can finally come away with me.”
“No, I can’t,” said Anna. “Because you won’t have me.”
“Why would I not have you?”
“I’m with child.”
“Then we shall raise it together.”
“No, with his child.” Anna was devastated admitting this. “I should die. God will strike me down for the sin of it.”
Noor was silent, and Anna was afraid she had already run away again. “What does it matter whose child it is?” she said finally.
“But God, the church, my mother… I am nothing but sin!”
“The sin is to blame yourself, blame the child, for things over which you had no control,” said Noor softly, and then Anna felt her lips brushing against Anna’s cheek. “We will love the child for who we are, not who your father is.”
“I’m afraid,” said Anna.
“I am too,” confessed Noor, her lips brushing further down, the breath of her words playing softly against Anna’s shoulder. Anna could feel the horsemaid ease into bed beside her, and then her strong arms wrapped around Anna and held her close. “But I love you too much, and I can’t run away again. If your father returned now, if we heard him walking up the stairs to us, I would rise up and stand and face him. We could both rise up and face him.”
“He hurt me too much, he owns me, I couldn’t face him,” said Anna sadly. “If he came in right now, I would do anything he said if he promised not to hurt you, beloved.”
Noor’s hands stroked Anna’s skin lightly, running down over her swollen stomach to rest between her legs. “I would die before he hurt you again,” she said. “Because you cannot be his. I have claimed you, and you are Anna No-Horse.” She slipped her finger up into Anna’s passage, and unlike any other penetration this was nothing but love. “Your child is mine too. This minute, I have blessed her.”
“Father said it would be his son…”
“No, it will be a beautiful daughter, like her mother. And I will teach her to ride, and we three will ride the world together.” The caress inside Anna was like a benediction, but it also aroused her, and she turned her head and kissed Noor squarely on the mouth. Her own hands stroked the horsemaid’s firm breasts, ran down and slipped over her taut buttocks. The two were side by side, facing and stroking and kissing, and when Anna’s climax rushed through her, Noor slipped down and began suckling slowly at her swollen breasts while still gently stroking her insides. Anna felt the baby kick as the climax ended.
Sergei Ivanovich was to be shot the next day. The town knew what he had done, and though the church preached forgiveness, they didn’t preach it terribly hard in this case. Noor had gone to town for food, since Anna and her new baby couldn’t leave the house. The two girls had decided to wait a while after the birth, which was hard on mother and child, before joining Noor’s family on the steppe.
“I should see him before he dies,” said Anna, slowly. “He is my father.”
“He’s a monster,” said Noor with a hateful glare in the direction of the jail. “I can’t let you see him.”
But in the end, Anna went. She brought the baby and went to the square an hour before the time set. There was already a crowd, but those who knew her made way for her, but they kept an eye on her as if they expected her to rush forward and fling herself at his feet.
He was a bedraggled figure, looking older than Anna remembered, and she found that she no longer feared him. The months he had been away, the months with Noor, and her new baby, had removed any connection she felt with him. She didn’t wave, didn’t call his attention to her, just watched silently as he was blindfolded. He mumbled something when asked for his last words, then the saber fell, the shots rang out, and he dropped.
“See,” she said quietly to her daughter, and Noor’s. “There’s nothing he can do to hurt you now.”
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