And a pretty young woman at that.
“Hi there,” she said with a smile and a wave.
Jak slowly lowered his throwing arm. “Hi.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Who are you planning on rutting with tonight?” a hard-muscled, blond-haired man asked Mildred.
“Excuse me?” she replied.
“Tonight,” he said. “Who are you rutting with?”
“I don’t rut,” Mildred said, doing her best to ignore the man.
“But everyone ruts at night. It’s our reward.”
“Well,” Mildred said, continuing to pick peaches and place them in the basket slung around her hips. “I’m not everyone, and I don’t rut. Understand?”
Another young man, this one tow-headed, came up to the base of the tree Mildred was working at and said, “Is she rutting with you tonight, or is she free?”
“I saw her first,” the blonde said.
“But mebbe she wants me instead.”
Mildred stopped what she was doing and watched the two men fight over her. The scene seemed quite unreal, but although she thought it a pathetic display of machismo, she still found the attention quite flattering.
“I saw her first. So if she’s going to rut with anyone tonight, it’ll be me,” the blonde stated, jabbing himself in the chest with an outstretched thumb. “Unless you want to do something about it.”
“Maybe I will.”
The blonde stepped away from the tree. He was naked from the waist up, all of his muscles well defined from days working in the orchards. He had on a pair of short pants that were ragged and torn, revealing equally sculpted thighs and calves.
The dark haired one was no slouch, either. What he didn’t have in muscle tone, he made up for in mass, outweighing the other by thirty pounds, at least. As a result, they were a good match for each other, and Mildred was curious to see who might walk away the victor.
Everyone else seemed curious, as well, as most of the slaves had stopped picking by now and had become interested in the men’s squabble. It even sounded as if there were bets being placed, with the blonde being the early favorite.
The dark haired man didn’t make a move for several seconds and, thinking there would be no fight, the blonde waved him off and turned back toward Mildred. That’s when the other took the chance to throw a punch that struck the blonde square on the back of the head at the base of the skull. The fair-haired one’s head snapped forward, and he fell to the ground.
As the dark-haired one carefully stepped over the other to catch Mildred’s attention, the blonde on the ground kicked the other’s feet out from under him and in seconds the two men were rolling around on the ground, punching wildly.
The sec men seemed to be enjoying the contest.
Their weapons were lowered and they were cheering on their favorite.
After several minutes the combatants seemed to tire. They were roughed up, with a few scrapes and bruises, but neither of the men was bloody. Finally the dark-haired one slapped his right arm onto the ground three times and the blonde released him. The two men got onto their feet and the dark-haired one walked away to resume his work.
The workers got back to work.
The sec men began exchanging jack.
The blonde walked over toward Mildred, a bit of a proud grin on his face. “So,” he said, “you’ll be rutting with me tonight, then?” It was as much a statement as a question.
Mildred had no intention of having sex with this man, even though it seemed to be the natural way of things on this farm. Still, she had the feeling that simply saying no to the man would probably cause problems. She had to think of something else to tell him, and fast.
“Well, then?”
“I’d like to, honey, but it’s, uh, my time of the month.”
“I don’t mind.”
“But I do,” she said.
There was no anger or disappointment on the man’s face. He simply nodded in acceptance of this fact of life. “Tomorrow, then. Or when you’re first able.”
He was persistent, Mildred thought. “It might take a while,” she said.
“I’ll rut with others in the meantime,” the blonde said. “But when you’re ready, I’ll have you first.”