Bianca and the stranger.

The stranger rode up to the door of the inn, and got off his tired looking horse like a man who had been in the saddle for many days. His clothes were dusty over the dried mud, his boots scuffed and torn. His cloak was ragged and threadbare and his face and arms sunburnt.

He stretched and threw the one point of his cloak over his shoulder. The only thing about him that didn’t seem old and used up was his sword. It sat on his left hip as if it was a part of him, the scabbard oiled and the handle well used.

He threw the reins of his horse to the stable lad and ducked into the low doorway of the inn. The inn-keeper prided himself on knowing people and he wasn’t at all sure whether the stranger would be spending a lot of money. In fact he doubted that the stranger had any money.

The stranger put his pack on the counter and opened the drawstring. He put his hand into it and pulled out a leather purse. He tipped the purse into his hand and the innkeeper’s eyes widened as he saw the cascade of gold coins spilling out. His demeanor changed from neutral to positively warm and friendly.

He led the stranger to a seat near the window, made sure he was comfortable and fetched the stranger’s drink himself. He rushed into the kitchen and told his wife to prepare a plate of meat and cheese with some freshly baked bread and gravy, and this he took out to the stranger’s table.

The stranger asked about a room and a hot bath and the innkeeper was quick to assure him that he would have the best. He called the stable lads and chased them upstairs with pails of hot water for the bath in the best room in the house. Then he noticed that the stranger had a large amount of small cuts on his hands and arms. He offered some of the ointment that his wife made for small injuries and the stranger thanked him as he got up and walked tiredly up the stairs.

Just then a coach arrived with six game gentlemen who wanted ale and quickly! After having seen to their needs, he went back to the kitchen and found his eldest daughter helping his wife with supper. He took an unopened jar of his wife’s ointment and told Bianca to go upstairs and offer to rub some of the ointment into the stranger’s injuries. He told her to take particular care with the sunburn on the stranger’s face and arms as well.

Bianca took the jar and left the kitchen. Her father watched her go and noticed for the first time that his daughter was turning into a beautiful young woman. Her dark red hair spilled over her shoulders in great waves and her young maidenly breasts pushed against the material of her dress in a very unmaidenly fashion. As she swayed up the stairs he looked at her pert behind and was reminded of his wife when he saw her the first time. He made a mental note that Bianca should be looked after very carefully in the future. His inn was frequented by a lot of men traveling on their own, and not all of them were gentlemen.

Bianca knocked softly at the stranger’s door, but received no reply. She pushed against it gently and it swung open. She peered around the doorjamb and saw that the stranger was sleeping on the bed. Thinking that she would put the ointment down on the table next to him and leave him a little note, she closed the door gently behind her and walked around to the stranger’s side.

She froze as she realised that the stranger had fallen asleep without any clothes or even undergarments on. Bianca was not an innocent. A young girl sees too many things when she grows up in a busy wayside inn, but she had never seen a naked man before. Of course she had seen her little brothers as they swam naked in the stream, and once she had inadvertently walked in on her father as he was busy with his ablutions, but this stranger was something way beyond her experience.

She noticed the long smooth swordsman’s muscles in his legs and arms. She noticed the callus on his sword hand and she noticed the scars all over his body. He looked peaceful and innocent as he lay on his bed sleeping, all at odds with the scars on his body.

Bianca reached out a small hand and touched the stranger. He didn’t move. She noticed that some of the little cuts on his hand were bleeding and she opened the ointment and soothed some of it onto the cuts. The swordsman sighed. Bianca stopped, heart hammering against her ribs. Then she carefully took some more of the ointment and bent over the man, soothing some of the healing balm into his sunburnt face. She covered both his arms with ointment and then stood back to look at him. She noticed that there was one part of him that was still red and swollen. For a minute she wasn’t sure of what to do, but then she took some more ointment and gently began rubbing it onto the swollen part of the man. It felt strange and hot in her hand, not like the other parts of him at all. It was hard and stiff and veins ran up and down the sides of it.

She wondered what the stranger had done to get his water maker in such a state. It wasn’t in a place that usually got into the sun. It didn’t look at all like the ones on her brothers. Theirs were small and white and floppy and the stranger’s water maker didn’t look like that at all. Finally she decided that it must have been hurt from being in the saddle for a long time.

All the while, as these thoughts went through her head, she was rubbing ointment into the stiff, red water maker between the man’s legs. Suddenly he gave a great groan, his body spasmed and a huge goat of sticky white liquid shot out of his water maker and over her hand and his belly.

Bianca jumped back, staring at the man in fascination. He was breathing heavily, but obviously still fats asleep. Slowly her eyes dropped down to his water maker and she realised that the ointment must have released some of the badness that had made it so hard. It was soft and floppy and lying against his skin like a small animal. Some of the white sticky liquid was still dripping out of him, so she took a cloth, dipped it in the bath water and wiped his water maker and his belly clean. Then she tiptoed out of the room, wondering what on earth had caused the man’s strange swelling.

-0-

The stranger opened his eyes as the door closed behind her. In his mind’s eye he could see the swelling of her breasts and the way her hand had enclosed him. The young lady was obviously quite keen for some bedsports… She would come and visit him again. He was sure of it.