The Lord The Lady and The Land

Chapter 24 The Prize

Hermione woke up in a carriage with Geoffrey sitting opposite her. She let out a gasp. He nervously held up his hands in an effort to calm her down.

She dashed for the door to escape but he lunged out and held her down with his body. He called out and ordered the driver to go faster and then slowly returned to his seat, watching her.
She felt her pocket for her wand, but it was gone.

“What are you going to do to me?” Hermione asked.
Geoffrey didn’t say anything, but she already knew from the way he leered at her.

“What did you do to Harry?” Hermione posed.

“Nothing my dear, we just knocked him out. He will have a bad headache but that is all,” Geoffrey said simply looking out the window.

They arrived at a grand house that had high walls and what looked to have a great many watchdogs. Hermione was escorted from the coach by three guards, in her bare feet through the snow to the door of a massive estate. She was lead up a few flights of stairs and down a hallway to a very beautiful bedroom.

An old portly maid came in and helped Hermione get undressed. The old woman told Hermione to get into bed and go to sleep as she settled herself into a huge chair and started doing her needle point, adding;
“ I am to watch over you tonight, little girl; to make sure all your needs are met; like food, drink and if you feel ill.”

“And to make sure I don’t escape?” Hermione asked.

“Oh the dogs and guards will do that. There is nothing around for miles dear,” the maid informed her.

So Hermione lay down and went to sleep thinking,
‘Geoffrey knows Harry and I aren’t married other wise he would be in here having his way with me,’ and felt if she could get some sleep, she could think of a way to get out of this situation, without her wand.

Hermione woke the next morning and dressed herself. She listened at the door, which of course, was locked from the outside. She paced back and forth for a while wondering what was going to happen to her. Geoffrey was a high noble lord and in favor with the Queen. Hermione knew she could be whipped or jailed for lying to him.

Geoffrey came in and smuggly announced, as he walked around the room,
“You will get ready for me, you will be washed, powdered and perfumed.
You will do what I say, when I say,” he stopped in front of her, putting a finger under her chin, making Hermione look up in to his face,
“and you will not lay there like a corpse under me or I will have you until you have satisfied me to the fullest, even if it take days or weeks,”
he looked at her dress then turned and he left the room.

A maid came in with some tea sausage toast and eggs,
“Good morning my lady here is your breakfast,” setting it down.

Hermione had a whiff of the food and ran to the bathroom.

“My lady, are you feeling ill?” the maid asked following her to the bathroom.

“Yes, I’m with child and still feel sick at the smell of food.” taking a towel to her face to avoid the smell and stop the feeling of nausea in her.
She waved her hand at the tray of food and said, “Take the sausages and eggs away, but leave the toast and tea please.”

“Yes madam.” the maid answered.

Hermione sat down and slowly drank the tea and nibbled on the toast.
She was wondering when the assault on her person was going to begin and what she could do to stop it.
Her mind was blank and she couldn’t physically fight him. She would endanger her baby.
She looked around for anything as a weapon, but then what. She could knock him out or wound him and the guards
and dogs would still be a problem.

Hours went by but no one came to see her, except the maid who brought her lunch.
Perhaps he changed his mind or Harry had come for her, if only he knew where she was.

The sun was setting as she looked out the window and the maid came in with dinner and Lord Strode followed her in.

“My lord,” Hermione said coldly bowing.

“Come my lady, we shall dine together,” The lord told her.

He poured wine into both their goblets, drinking his down in a few gulps and refilling his goblet again.

Hermione sipped her wine slowly and ate slowly, attempting to think of something to say. Finally she couldn’t stand the silence and not knowing.
“My Lord, why are you keeping me here? With me in my condition?” Hermione asked calmly.

“My lady, to put it simply, I wish to have you in my bed. I thought I made that clear this morning,”
the nobleman said after he chewed his food longer than it was necessary.

‘He’s nervous,’ Hermione thought, cutting her meat into small pieces,‘ that could be very good or very bad, when a person is nervous,
they tend to be rash.

“Why do you want me? You don’t really know me,” Hermione reasoned eating a little faster and getting nervous.

“That is true. I don’t know you well, so why don’t tell me about yourself,” Lord Strode said.
Hermione gulped down her food quickly to answer him.

“My lord it takes time to get to know someone,” Hermione commented.

“Well speak quickly and tell me all there is to know about you my dear, or I will know you without your saying a word,” he said in a demanding tone getting up from the table and walking around behind Hermione.

“I’m in love with Lord Harry Potter and I am carrying his child. I’m going to school to become a healer.”
She said quickly as though giving him the information, would interest him, but it did not.

“I knew that already,” he snapped. Hermione looked at him and he didn’t look like the man she met weeks ago.

Geoffrey caressed her loose hair and followed it to her shoulders touching them with the tips of his fingers gently.

“I was born on a farm that had a curse on it that was just broken last night. I am a commoner with no noble blood in me,
but that of my baby. I lost one son and I carried a daughter in me. I’m not a fine lady like your wife my lord,”
and she pushed her dinner plate away from her not wanting to eat anymore.

“Ssshhhh. It is time for your bath my lady,” Geoffrey stated and a maid came in.

“Be ready in an hour or I will take you as you are. And you will be punished for your lack of cooperation,” and he slammed the door when he left.

“Oh dear you’ve upset the master. Don’t speak of his wife, it is a bad thing for him to remember. He misses her so,”
the maid said as she hurried Hermione in to the bathroom and helped her into the tub.

Hermione scrubbed herself clean got out of the tub as she thought of what to do.
The maid powdered and perfume her then helped Hermione into a white dress that must have been his wife’s as well
as the satin slippers that matched.

She kept her hair down and brushed it her self to help calm her nerves.

The sun had set and the room become dark. The maid came in and lit the hearth and the candles around the room.

This was all too familiar Hermione thought. This was life’s little joke to keep Harry and her apart.
She decided she would do anything to get back to Harry even give herself to another man if she had to,
‘That all he wants, is to have me,’ she thought.


The room got darker still as she looked at the stars as if they had the answers.
Just last night Hermione saw her whole family dancing and fly to the sky.
The curse was finally over and now she was free to live where ever she wanted,
and all she sought was to be home on her farm with Harry.

There was a noise behind her that made her drift back to the room she was in, a man’s footstep at the door.
She didn’t need to turn around Lord Geoffrey had entered the room and was coming up behind her.

He kissed her shoulder and murmured,
“You smell wonderful. Come my lady and let us talk a while and then I shall love you like no man has.”

Hermione whispered to the stars “ Forgive me Harry but I will do what I must to get back to you quickly and without harming our child.”

She turned and reached for the hand that was offered to her to rise up off the sill. Lord Strode wrapped her hand around his arm
as they walked out of the bedroom and into the hallway and down a wide staircase.

They entered the ballroom with a large crowd of people were there. He brought her to the middle of the room and bowed.
The music began and she dipped in a confused curtsey.
Everyone was smiling at her as they danced a folk dance. It took a few moments for her to see that the man she was dancing
with was showing off his prize, his conquest.
He was being bold. It wouldn’t take long for word to get back to Harry where she was, but would he get here before Geoffrey had her in his bed.

They danced for while and mingled with his guests. His hand always on her waist her
arm or hand in his hand, except when he went to get her a drink of wine to help her relax.

Many guests commented how well he looked and happy he seemed now that he had found Hermione.

“A tragic story,” one of the older lady’s said to Hermione, “His wife’s death was; having to come home to his wife still warm but dead and her body was going to be burnt like all the others as soon as they carried the other dead bodies from the mansion. But the nobleman wouldn’t hear of it so he buried her himself with his servants help. She was laid to rest an hour later. There was no time to mourn over her body or think of the child he also lost with her.
He sent the few servants who were still healthy away and stayed in his house for weeks tending the sick ones and then burning their bodies when they died. I think he wanted to die with them. That’s why he stayed ..to die, but death didn’t take him.”

Hermione looked over at Lord Geoffrey, her captor, the man who wanted to love her or have her. She didn’t know how he felt losing a spouse.
She didn’t mourn Draco but she did lose a child, and she knew the emptiness of that.
Geoffrey made his way back to Hermione with a goblet of wine. They danced a few more dances and the guests started to leave after midnight.
Hermione was drained but still very aware of what was coming.

Geoffrey escorted her back to her room. A nightgown and robe were hung on the wardrobe. Hermione slipped out of her dress and took a bath.
She touched her belly which now was beginning to swell. She felt a flutter sensation in her belly. She heard Geoffrey come into the room
as she soaked in the tub.

He pushed open the door to the bathroom. Hermione would have laughed at his expression, if she were dressed, but she was
in a hot tub soaking and washing herself.
Geoffrey’s mouth dropped open as though he had never seen a person taking a bath before and he turned around and apologized for intruding.

“Geoffrey why did you come in here if not to see me bathing?”

“You weren’t in the bedroom, I thought perhaps you were trying to escape out the window in here,” He replied talking over his shoulder.

“And if I fell I would most likely injure myself and kill my child.” she told him almost scolding him with her tone.

Holding a fresh towel the maid walked toward Hermione who is still looking at Geoffrey,
“My lord why don’t you let me have some privacy to dry off and dress.”

In a bold move Geoffrey hesitated and walked to a chair and sat watching the maid help Hermione dry off.

“My lord .. ?” Hermione looked at him sternly and pointed to the door.

Geoffrey only folded his arms in defiance,
“ You will remember that this is my estate. And if I want, I can watch you dry off and dress.. though covering your body now would be pointless.”
He said in a hoarse voice.

Hermione wrapped the towel around her and waved the maid away as she walked over to Geoffrey.
Hermione slightly tilted her head to the side and sneered,
“Geoffrey, you are no gentleman as far as I can see.”

She turned her back on him and walked into the bedroom. Lord Strode followed right behind her.
Hermione pulled the nightgown over her head and tied up the laces and put a robe on and tied the slash within a few seconds
and sat down at the vanity.

“And my dear girl, you are too far from home and out of your element and in my power to speak you mind, but I will forgive you this time,” he said.

He went to a cart where there were bottles of wine, brandy and whiskey. He pour himself a drink and downed it in seconds and then another.

He drank half a glass when he turned to Hermione with fire in his eyes.
He walked over to the bed and standing raising his hand toward Hermione as a signal for her to join him. She got up off the seat
and slowly walked towards him as though she was walking bravely to the gallows.

“Come Hermione I am not giving you a death sentence. I will be giving you love, my dear.” he said smoothly and seductively.

Geoffrey reached out to Hermione as she drew closer to him. He pulled her by the sash to his arms. He stood there his eyes dark with lust.
He untied the slash and stood towering over Hermione. He rolled the robe off her shoulders and it fell to the floor pooling at her feet.

Hermione let out a gasp and then whispered,
“Geoffrey I’m doing this so you will let me go in the morning. I will go to bed with you, but you must promise I may go in the morning
and return to Harry and you will not presume to accost me again.”

“I can’t make that promise Hermione. I’m looking to be sated in bed, it make take a few days,” he told her and gulped down his drink.

“Would you like a drink to make it easier for you?” he asked her politely.

“A little wine may help.” Hermione admitted.

The next second Hermione had a full goblet of wine and Geoffrey was clinking glasses with her,
“ To love, life and madness.”

They sat down on the bed and Geoffrey told Hermione how beautiful she was and talented. He leaned over and kissed her cheek
and nose and then her lips, kissing her tenderly touching her jaw line with his fingertips. Not forcing her mouth open not invading
or demanding just lightly kissing. It warmed her and allowed her to relax.

“I wonder how many hearts you have broken sweet heart?” Geoffrey posed as he broke the kiss.

“None.” Hermione laughed and looked away.

“I’m sure you have broken many of your lovers heart when you left them.”

“I’ve had only one lover …one love and that’s Harry.” looking at him.

“Truly? No other lovers?”

“No,” Hermione said quietly, “ just Harry.”

“Then I should be honored to be your first.”

“Honored?”

“Alright… have some of your wine my sweet captive and so I can seduce you in to crying out my name with pleasure. And when you go back
to Harry with a smile on your face with sweet contentment he will know I had you and have opened the door to other lovers for you.”

“It was sweet contentment you stole me away from Geoffrey, let us see how well you fair.” Hermione said before she really knew what she was saying.

“Oh yes, I love a good challenge,” and he clinked her goblet and drank down most of his whiskey.