Reign of Deceit

Chapter 18

Joan did not lay her eyes on the kind priest again. When the nurse came in to discharge her on the evening of the next day, she looked on in uttermost confusion.

"Where is he? The one who saved me."

The lady gave her a gentle smile. "He had to leave. By my guess, he should be back in the monastery as we speak."

She frowned. "The monastery?" She had thought he was a priest just like her father. Even if their piece of clothing were different, she didn't think he lived in a monastery. The nurse took off the bandage on the girl's head, watching her every expression.

"Is there a reason you want to see him?"

Joan shook her head immediately. "Not at all. I as just curious. I haven't seen him since dawn."

She missed his company. It had been a long time she had a friend like that who made her laugh. The last person had been her former master.

"Oh." The nurse continued diligently with her work and when she was done replacing the bandage, she got off the bed with a smile. "All done! Now, remember you must not let water touch the bandages or there will be a huge chance of the wounds reopening and becoming exposed to infections. You wouldn't like that, trust me. The finally, remember to stay off the streets. There may not be anyone to help you next time."

Joan nodded diligently. Of course, her going back into the streets would depend on how long the money she had would take her. She thanked the nurse with a smile before leaving. As she passed by the noisy reception hall filled with people with different injuries and even pregnant women, her brows furrowed. She suddenly remembered something and turned to the nurse who was seeing her out.

"Is the medical care here free?" She never recalled paying a dime; unless her good Samaritan had helped her settle the bills.

She smiled, "Yes, it is. The hospital is owned by the church. Most of the doctors here are priests from the monastery."

Joan nodded, looking at the busy hall. There were a handful of nurses already attending to the crying babies and the groaning men.

"How many people come here on average?"

She shrugged. "On an average busy day, we get over a hundred patients in one day. Most of them are people like you, saved from the brutal hands of bullies on the streets."

There were many more like her? Her brows furrowed again as her eyes landed on a man with a huge cut on his arms. Blood dripped down from his arms relentlessly. "Why isn't anyone attending to him?"

The nurse sighed. "We have limited hands here. The other nurses are busy. Alright. Away with you! I have to attend to other patients." She scurried off before the young girl could ask any more questions. Joan looked on for a while before making her way out of the hospital. It was only when she stepped outside that she realized she didn't even know the way back to the inn where she stayed. She looked up and down the road. Down the road, were another group of priests, wearing the same brown, long sultan the man who had saved her had worn. Her frown changed to a smile. perhaps, the monastery was close. She walked down the road, jogging happily till she came in front of the huge black gate with a sign on it that read, 'Saint Anthony's Monastery.'

This was it!

Just then, the door opened and let out another set of priests but it closed immediately. Her smile changed to a frown. She didn't even manage to sneak a peek inside.

"Hey, little girl! What are you doing there? Shush!" One of the priests chased her away.

Joan frowned before leaving. Perhaps, it was because she wasn't wearing a uniform like them or like the nurses she had seen at the hospital. After deliberating for a few more minutes, she turned and began to think of a way to return to the inn.

***

After hours of missing the road and getting lost more than twice, Joan finally found herself back on the familiar streets she had lived in for a few days since her arrival at Fulda. She excitedly ran towards the inn, stopping when she recalled Maria might be around somewhere, doing her business as usual. However, after searching in the crowds for two minutes, there was no sight of the girl. Partly defeated and partly happy, she returned to the inn, ignoring the innkeeper's rude glare and going up the wooden stairs to her room.

Searching through the pockets of her pants, she found her key still tucked in intact. She heaved a big sigh of relief at the sight of it. It was the rule of the inn to always turn in your key before leaving each day but she had left very early the day before, even before the innkeeper awoke so, she had kept her key. Slotting the key into the keyhole, a sigh of relief escaped her lips at the thought that she would finally have a nice sleep just before the innkeeper come knocking on her door for dinner.

She was just about to kick off her shoes after pushing the creaking door open when a weird sound from her bed halted her abruptly. On the very bed she had slept for the past few days was a nude woman, her sizable, pointed breasts exposed to the rays of the evening sun that made them beautiful. She was panting and making weird sounds. Atop her, was a man, completely nude as she was, and joined to her on the hips. He kept doing a to and fro movement, riding her like he was riding a horse, while groaning in a deep voice. He bent his torso towards her, capturing her fair breasts in his mouth while squeezing the other in his hand. His action made her yelp, followed by louder guttural sounds from both of them.

They seemed so engrossed in their act that they hadn't even noticed the door had opened!

With her face all red, she ran out of the room, all the way down the creaking stairs, not forgetting to close the door after her to avoiding giving others an embarrassing show to watch. Of course, she knew what they were doing. It was her first time witnessing a scene as such, but one time, she had heard the same sounds from her master's bedroom one night. It was the night after Mary finally came home after being away for two days after their huge fight. The sounds had lasted for such a long time and being attentive to the only sound in the still of the night, she couldn't sleep.

"Were you both fighting last night?" She had summoned the courage to ask her master the next morning after serving him his usual cup of tea. Her mistress had left the house, plus, her master was a kind man so she dared to ask him.

His expression was blank for a few seconds before he had burst out laughing. Joan had wondered if she said something funny. Recalling their conversation at that moment, she realized she had indeed said something funny. From what she had seen, it was a friendly kind of fight.

"We were making babies." He had simply replied.

It hadn't sat well with her. "Is that how babies are made?" Was that how she was made too?

He had nodded, probably unable to explain everything to her because of her age.

"Then, does that mean Mistress is carrying a baby now?"

He had laughed again, this time, partly in confusion. "It doesn't work that way either. it is an intimate action between couples. It is also a way of making babies, but it doesn't always make babies."

That part of his explanation was the part even she did not understand till that moment.