Screams of the fighting and dying were heard on the northern edge of the village as the last of the resistance was dealt a deathblow. Bodies littered the ground, illuminated by the fires in their last acts of defiance and defense.Behind a hovel, sheltered from prying eyes, three soldiers laughed at the antics of a prisoner they kept surrounded. Pushing her back and forth between them, they tugged at her peasant clothes, pinching her and feeling her up. Their plaything yelped and sobbed at the rough treatment, unable to get away.“What do you wager she’s a virgin?” one asked, tugging hard at mahogany tresses before sending the woman reeling into the second man.“Are you a virgin, sweetling?” he asked, holding her squirming body against his. A bloody, dirt-caked hand latched onto her chin and twisted her head from side to side. “I don’t know, Cor,” he answered. “She’s too pretty to be a virgin. One of these farm boys has got her first, no doubt.”The third grabbed her out of his companion’s grasp, a meaty hand clamping hard on her breast.
