The Maiden Of Tanchico

He sighed and gave her a disapproving look. “Looking for you,” he said. “It’s not safe for...your sort to be out about about right now...Are you responsible?” He asked and his eyes were searching and aware as they looked at her face.

"Absolutely not," Lorelei said without hesitation. She looked at Armand praying he would believe her. "Do you really think I could scale up that tower?"

Normally she did not make deflections and he knew full well her body was fit. Very fit and he shook his head in disappointment. She would never change he decided. He loved her dearly but she would never change and never stop stealing and hurting people who got in her way. She would know immediately that he did not believe her. That and he changed the way he squatted. He was going to do something she thought, what she did not know but something.

Lorelei could see clearly the look of disappointment in Armand's eyes and knew that he did not believe her. She felt her heart start to beat a little harder in her chest. Her first instinct was to run, but she did not move. The tension between them was thick as she watched him and waited to see what he might do.

His shoulders had been stiff but they untensed and he looked down as if looking at her hurt him. He felt her move her arm to his shoulder as if to comfort him then he struck like a viper. Black flecks and silver spots filled her vision as her senses returned and even still she tried to pull away and she elbowed him in the cheek and knocked his hat off. If she were on her feet this would be so easy to evade him but on her knees like this...he had grabbed her and even as she flailed she felt her center of gravity shift and he bodily slammed her onto the hard stones of the market. Blood seeped from her mouth and she felt his weight upon her. His right shoulder was painfully in the middle of her back and nothing she said stopped him from putting a cold, iron shackle on her wrist and clasping it closed.

“I’m not falling for you lies this time Lorelei...Regardless of how I feel about you innocent people are being hurt because of you,” he said in a series of grunts. He was on her but she fought like a tiger underneath him to get free. It took almost all his strength to pry her arm from under her and angle it back. He listened to her words. “I’m sorry...Lorelei,” he said as her other wrist was clasped with the other shackle.

Lorelei hesitated but then slowly began to reach out a hand towards him. However before she could touch him he struck her. He hit her so hard across the face that her eyes watered and a mark was left. He tried to grab her but she fought back and her elbow slammed into his cheek. She tried to get to her feet, but he wouldn't let her. He managed to force her onto her stomach onto the ground. She could taste blood in her mouth, but she continued to struggle against him. She was far stronger than she looked and she put up a hell of a fight against him. However, in the end he overpowered her and her hands were in cold, iron shackles. She couldn't even look at Armand. She was trembling beneath him.

"You have no proof. No one will believe a woman could have done this."

Armand was puffing hard to get air into his lungs, she had fought him hard. “Oh Lorelei...you do not know,” he said almost mournfully. “A man named Severin fingered you this morning that’s why I went out looking for you...If you had told me the truth...all the lies...all the people that are dead and suffering because of what you did,” he tried to say above her pleads and her snarls about having no proof. She still denied it and he slapped her, hard across the face then took her up in his arms and shook her.

“Don’t you get it...he had the proof on him, said you’d been living with him for years and he knew nothing about your activities. He returned the painting Lorelei...you can’t lie your way out of this now...I’m so so sorry,” he said. This was hurting him deeply and despite everything he still loved her. But there was nothing for it now.

Lorelei continued to deny having any involvement with the theft. She was nearly hysterical as Armand began to tell her that Severin had ratted her out. When Armand slapped her again she tasted more blood in her mouth. The entire world seemed to be spinning around her. She felt sick to her stomach. After everything she had done for him over the years he did this to her! She was trembling with anger and fear. She wanted to find him and cut out his still beating heart and crush it in her hands while he watched. She wanted to tell Armand everything, but she knew it would be of no use. Nothing mattered now. There was no escaping. She would be hanged while Severin lived like a king.

She didn't look at Armand...she couldn't. Tears were in her eyes. She head him, but she said nothing in response.

With the others she was put into a prison coach that was escorted to Le Force Prison in Paris. Several people in the coach knew that they were only here because of her and they murmured threatening promises to her when they could get at her. Le Force prison was known by many to be a terrible place where the guards raped and torchered prisons for sport. She did not see Armand as she was led into the Prison. She was stripped, searched, given a gray smock to wear and tossed into a very small cell with only a small hole near the ceiling for light. The bed was small, lumpy and itched badly to sleep on and she had a small bucket in the corner to relieve herself in. The guards taunted her about what they were going to do to her and even to her body after she was hung. Her first meal consisted of cold, lumpy porridge and water.

Lorelei no longer fought to try and get away. She didn't speak either as she was put into the prison coach. She heard some of the men whispering as she was put inside, while others just glared angrily at her. In all of her years of committing terrible crimes she had never bee caught (until today), but she had heard what Le Force was like. She glanced around for Amand but did not see him. She wasn't sure she wanted to either. She stripped from her nice clothes and anything valuable was taken and she was given a gray smock to wear instead. She was practically tossed into the tiny cell. She just sat down in a corner and stared at the wall ahead of her and ignored the taunts from the guards. Her anger over Severin still remained, but fear and the reality of her situation was really starting to sink in. She had been afraid only a few times in her life, but this was the first time she had ever actually been terrified.

She sat there for hours without moving until she heard a guard approach. A bowl of cold porridge was given to her. She was hungry, but it was so unappetizing that she just pushed it aside.

ooc;new thread