Lsn 3 Vignette: Powerful Enemies

Novel: Volusia

Author:  Percy Goodfellow

Chapter: Vignette 3:  Powerful Enemies

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Template:

1. Backstory: 6%
2. Character Development: 12%
3. Scene Setting: 12%
4. Exposition that moves the story: 31%
5. Dialogue that moves the story:  35%
6. Foreshadowing:  2%
7. Symbolism: 2%

Checklist: Checklist: Use this checklist to be sure you have included all of the vital aspects:
Have you introduced a new supporting character and created a Character Sketch Profile/Prose Synopsis?
What is your dramatic premise?
What are your themes?
What evidences the premise and themes?
Are these a premise and themes you feel passionately about? Why?
What are the values and traits that define the CC's character?
Are these emotionally charged?
Are they dramatic?
Is the story generating emotion, tension and heat?
Is the reader or audience getting a sense for where the story is heading? How?
Are you foreshadowing the crisises that loom on the horizon?
Are the reader and audience beginning to see change in the CC?
Have you linked your Character Sketch Profile/Prose Synopsis item to your vignette item?

WC 2311


Volusia had been stewing about her relationship with Lord Kolteck for a long while.  She had born him two children and believed it was time he took her as a wife.  Not necessarily a first wife, she reasoned, but a wife none the less… A status the would legitimize her children and ease the strain of her situation inside her family.

So on the eve of his departure, when he came to her filled with amorous intentions, she showed the Great Lord her displeasure and by her very tone made demands that he considered inappropriate for someone of her station.  Her whole attitude caught him already in a fractious state of mind and her demands abraded his sense of honor.  Was not proposing matrimony a sacrament that was his alone to confer? Her effrontery gave darkness to an already bad mood. 

“I’ll give my name to whoever I damn please,” he declared, tapping his finger on her forehead,  “and when I do it'll be to a woman suited to my affections.“ 

His rebuke stung her and she was mortified.  To be honest she was suited to his affections and he was inclined to make her a wife, however, the timing at that moment was bad.  Her indignation and insistent demands made him mad, and her sharp words dashed the whole mood of his expectations for a fond and warm farewell. 

“Who the hell do you think you are anyway?” He declared in a loud voice.  “It’ll be a rainy night on the Rim before I take a wife with your sharp tongue and sullen temper.”  With that he took his leave and set out for the capitol and a showdown with his father.
....

While her mother never said “I told you so” and her father never criticized, having two young children out of wedlock did not sit well.  However, the situation was more strained than impossible and Volusia and her mother worked well together.  Tania was the local medicine woman and her renown was widely acclaimed.  Volusia assisted her and often went about acting in her mother’s 'stead.  Most of the young women in the village actually preferred Volusia as a midwife and she always seemed to be present for the most difficult of cases. 

It had been two years since the night that Prince Koltar had walked out and he had gone on to become a great warrior.  His successes on the field of battle would make him a figure, sung about around the campfires, for generations to come.  In his absence, Volusia, had put the matter behind her and any love she might have once felt faded into an ambivalent sort of apathy.  She was however, a very attractive woman and her beauty was not lost on the towns folk, particularly, Lord Marcutti. 

He was a law onto himself as the Province Chief and as the months passed convinced himself that Prince Koltar had lost all interest in his "local entertainment."  Now most  with average intelligence would not jump to such conclusions.  Arguments are not unusual among lovers and in themselves do not herald the end to a relationship.  On the contrary a long  absence often heightens the attraction.  However, Marcutti was smitten with fanciful thoughts and his whole sense of reason was not functioning very clearly.

He was a brute and frustration only ever revealed one path to the objects of desire. Further he had been too long in office and the power had given his self-esteem more credit that it was worth. As a consequence, things that most people take for granted became warped and turned about in his mind.  His pastime of having sex with women he found attractive became a growing compulsion and soon became fixiated on Volusia. He became convinced that having been long without a man she would find his affections welcome and all he had to do was provide a suitable opportunity.  Acting on this supposition he waited until Tania was off to the next village and faked an illness.  In a great and pretended anguish he summoned Volusia to his Office.

“What is the nature of your malady?" she asked, when they were alone together.

Marcutti smiled wickedly and replied.

I have this stiffness he expalined, rubbing his crotch.  It becomes unbearable at times, especially when I see you about.  At this very moment the swelling is all but unbearable…

Volusia was caught unaware and her jaw dropped.

Perhaps you can examine the my symptom and offer a cure?"

He opened his kilt and exposed himself to plain view.  He was aroused and began to brandish it back and forth.

While surprised by the unexpectedness of the situation Volusia was not a blushingadolescent, and had experienced on occasion, the behavior of dirty old men.  Somehow she had expected more from Lord Marcutti, but she had heard the rumors along with everyone else and should have been better prepared for how he operated.

“Go jump in the river, My lord…” she said in a tone of disgust.  "That's the best remedy I can offer,"  and slung her bag of tools, medicines and accrutraments over her shoulder.

Playing hard to get are you? he retorted.  He took Volusia by the shoulder and pushed her towards the cot next to the wall. 

“You don’t seem to know who I am,” he said in a low voice, “and its time we were introduced."

She stiffened paralyzed with loathing and dread.

He saw her startled look and read it as a chance to act. 

"Get your ass down on the pallet," He said making the sign.

He stepped to act on the advantage his surprise have offered. Instead, rather than the submission he anticipated, she kicked him squarely in the crotch.  The wind went out replaced by a sucking intake of breath and then he yowled, holding himself in pain.

“Don't ever try that again," she spat and stormed out of the Keep, onto the street and out the fortress gate.

When Lord Marcetti recovered he was in a dark frame of mind,.  He decided to let his emotions cool while he leisurely plotted a suitable response.  It wasn’t long coming to mind and the following day he summoned Volgar, the Sheriff and explained the plan he had in mind.

“Sheriff, I have a crime to report... an attempted theft,  but one I must share with you in the strictest confidence.”

Volgar had not realized he was such an important and trusted subordinate.

“Please, go on My Lord… as Sheriff I often with thievery.” 

“Yesterday,” said Marcutti putting his arm around the Sherif'fs shoulder, "the healer woman, Volusia, came to treat a strain I had... in my Knee.

"Yes?"

"As I hobbled into my office, I caught her stealing a gold coin from my desk.  I confronted her and she dropped it like a hot rock.  When I explained that stealing was a against the law her response was to rebuke me. 

"If you accuse me of that,” she said, “ I’ll claim that you tried to force yourself upon me…for you are a notorious womanizer and the people will believe me "

“ Men of importance must suffer the envy of others.  I too have been accused and suffer such lies and so I understand.  Plus, knowing you personally, have never attached any truth to them much less had cause to investigate."

Tthank you Sheriff, for that reassurance," the Lord continued, "and yet such gossip persists and it disparages my reputation and heavens forbid if my wife should ever get wind of it."

"So she threatened to accuse you falsely..?"

"Indeed, her exact words were…” Rumors will begin to circulate even more loudly then they already do… and when Prince Kolter returns,  who do you think he is going to believe?"

"It's not an accusation I would want to explain."

"You can imagine the position it puts me in?"

"It is shocking that she would threaten such a thing.”

The sheriff tried to keep a straight face believing none of what the Governor was saying but sensing an opportunity he could exploit later. 

“Yes, indeed it is, and as the Head of this Providence I can’t just let a blatant act of thievery pass unchallenged now can I?"

"Indeed not,"

"So what I have in mind is a punishment that will serve several purposes."

"And these are…?"

"First I want to make a quiet and unofficial example of her…Something that will let people know that I am not to be trifled with… something they can discuss in whispers but dare not speak out loud."

"...to make sure it's a ploy that no scheming woman would ever think to try again."

"Exactly!  I intend to teach that bitch a lesson she won’t soon forget!"

"I see."

"Plus, t’s time my son was introduced to the fairer sex…."

"I don't follow."

"I'm thinking that tonight you could subdue Volusia… tame her, if you will ,and when she is properly contrite I will drop by with Molder."

The Sheriff stroked his jaw…Volusia was a desirable woman and this was an opportunity to satisfy a vague curiosity that had long circulated in the back of his mind.  It was a desire he often considered in an imaginative sort of way that ordinarily he would never think to act upon.  Now all  the sanctions were being set aside and he found himself with a clear license for exploring with impunity, a base and prurient desire.  Not only this but mix a little pleasure with some business.

"You can count on me, My Lord. Enforcing the law is what I'm paid to do."
…

Volusia returned home in a dark mood.  How dare he attempt to force himself…Whatever made him think he could get away with raping me in his office?

The more she thought about it the more indignant she became.  I wonder if he'll let the matter lie or if he plans to get even?  The more she thought the more she became convinced that nothing was settled and this was simply a first step by Marcetti in getting what he wanted.  The thought occurred to her it might have been better to just give him what he wanted and get on with her life.  Then, the vision of rutting with that pompous ass filled her with such aversion that she congratulated herself on doing the right thing…

However, a rash act has it’s consequences and she resolved to prepare herself for the worst.  She roused her son and daughter and gathered their belongings and got everything into a state of readiness, in the even they had to flee.  There was a trap door in the floor and a tunnel that led out to the barn behind the house.  Then she told Moogy and Tupa what the plan was and that they might have to leave on short notice.  That night she bolted the windows and barred the door.

The next day she heard nothing but after dark there came a knocking.  Going to the window she peeked out and to her relief saw Sheriff Volgar standing there.  She breathed a sigh of relief and lifted the beam and opened the door.  As it cracked open the Sheriff burst inside and twisted her arm.  With a rude and emphatic insistence he forced her back into the bedroom and onto the bed.

“We can do this the hard way or the east way,” he whispered, his hand tight over her mouth.  “If your scream I’ll break your jaw…Do you understand?”

Volusia, nodded, wide eyed.  He raised her skirt and tugged down her under wear.

“Do you understand what I intend to do?“ he inquired.

She nodded again, in the affirmative…

Volgar opened his britches and with his knees spread her thighs…

As she opened to his advances, Volusia considered using the blade between the bed board and the mattress. 

No, she decided.  Better give him what he wants than attempt that.

She resigned herself and felt him goading about in search of opening.  As Vulgar was so disposed,  Moogy came suddenly into the room and appeared by the bed…

“What are you doing to my mother?” he asked anxiously.

Vulgar reached out without warning, taking the boy by the neck.  Mooky’s eyes bulged.

Volusia reacted instinctively…She brought the blade up under the Sheriff’s armpit and buried it deep in his chest.  Volgar’s heart burst and he collapsed his full weight on top of her, lurching and thrashing in spasms. She rolled him off covered in blood.  After a few moments he became still.

“What did you do to him Mother…?”

“Gave him what he deserved….Go get your sister…. We have little time.”

As planned they went through the escape door and out to the stable.  As they emerged Volusia saw a horse tethered behind the house…It was the Sheriffs‘…How convenient, she though throwing the bags across the withers and cinching them down…she lifted Tupa up behind the horn and swung into the saddle.  Reaching down she grabbed Mooky’s wrist and swung him up behind her.

The moved cautiously out into the street, keeping to the shadows.  The route led them out of town, towards the Outlands of the Rim.  A wind was blowing off the desert raising a fine dust….Past the outskirts she put the steed into a cantor and they rode North without stopping.  Two days later the horse died and they pushed the carcass into a crevasse.