Miriam's Dance with Rogues - Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I deftly swayed my hips and avoided the hand reaching out to grope my butt. Swinging by a table filled with patrons I quickly deposited the tray filled with sweet meats and laughed in response to an offer to sit on a lap while shaking my head.

"More ale missy!" A man seated to my right yelled out. He was clearly inebriated and waved his flagon wildly in the air.

I gave him a grin and a nod before quickly swaying back towards the kitchen carrying used plates and utensils that I had cleared from another table. Quickly depositing the dirty dishes into a tub of soapy water, I grinned apologetically at the beautiful girl who was washing those dishes. The girl was new; we had both started our jobs at The Bear Pit tavern yesterday. For some reason or other, she was confined to the kitchens while I was sent to serve the patrons. She had been crying all day yesterday and looked quite depressed today. I didn't ask why, but it wasn't hard to guess. The Dhorn invasion meant lots of dead people. The girl had probably lost family members and thus had to pick up a job. She was also my roommate. While I was thankful that Nathan, the owner of the tavern, had provided us with rooms to sleep, I had found it difficult to sleep with the constant weeping from the girl last night. Despite my attempts to comfort and befriend her, she had ignored me and continued to sob all night. The girl was undeniably beautiful though. She looked to be about eighteen, with blonde hair that just touched her shoulders, large blue grey eyes that were currently red from crying, a straight patrician nose, small pouting mouth that looked very kissable, she was taller than me by a few inches, but had smaller curves to her figure.

She looked over at me and gave me eye contact for the first time. With those tear stained blue grey eyes watching me and that shy nod. I couldn't help it. Something in me felt an overwhelming compassion for her and I reached out, giving her a hug. I felt her body stiffen then relax as she hugged me back, her soap and water drenched hands soaked the back of my dress as she hugged me. It was probably the first time she had been hugged since her family members died.

"I'll listen if you need someone to talk to." I whispered into her ear.

"Thanks." She murmured.

"ALE!!!!" I heard the drunken patron outside the kitchen yell.

I sighed in exasperation and rolled my eyes as the beautiful girl in front of me giggled.

"I'm Miriam."

"I'm Pr- I'm Aaricia."

I nodded and gave her a second hug before I moved off to pick up the ale. I was slightly curious as to what name she was going to give me at first, but if she wanted to hide her name, that wasn't my business. I stepped back out into the common room with a filled pitcher of ale and immediately felt the disconcerting sensation of many lustful eyes on to me. Even though I had been doing this for a day now, I still hadn't gotten used to the attention that the skimpy dress uniform I had been provided garnered. It was a brown one piece dress that hugged my figure. Small straps hung over my shoulder to hold the dress up. It showed large amounts of cleavage and lots of skin in the back. The bottom of the dress barely went to mid thigh. This resulted in lots of groping and propositions as I moved through the customers. But after hours of serving, I had gotten adept at dodging questing hands. Of course, my short height was an advantage for me. The other woman serving the customers found that her dress barely covered her crotch and garnered a lot more attention than me. However, in her case, from the way she was humping the fingers buried in her pussy, the attention probably wasn't unwanted. It did leave me with a lot more of the work though. I sighed and began pouring more ale for Mr. Drunk patron who began eyeing my ample breasts and leering at me. I turned, failed to avoid the slap that jiggled my ass and almost caused me to trip as I headed back to the kitchen. I had been working at my new job for a day and I already hated it. Maybe I should reconsider the whole thief thing.

Chellah, a plump friendly woman in charge of the kitchens, walked up to me and took flagon while handing me a plate of meat that smelled like roast. "If you plan to be a thief, don't do it in the tavern, sweet. Master Nathan would whip your hide off if he caught you stealing from the patrons. And make sure you join the thieves guild. They don't like rogue thieves."

I looked at her blankly. Oh shit. Did I say "reconsider the whole thief thing" part out loud?

She saw the expression on my face and burst out laughing. "Oh dear. You didn't mean for anyone to hear you eh? Don't worry I won't tell. But you be careful about how loud you talk next time." She chuckled and reached over to tuck a stray strand of black hair back behind my ears.

I tried for an innocent look. "What's the thieves guild Chellah?"

"Why sweetie, they control what's stolen and make sure thieves don't steal too much to keep crime from going crazy and drawing the attention of the law."

Wow. Thievery refined into an exclusive club with rules and everything. "Oh. How can I join the thieves guild?" I asked, no longer adopting the innocent look.

Chella frowned. "I don't think joining the thieves guild would be a good decision sweetie."

Innocent seemed to work much better with her. "Please tell me Chellah? Shouldn't it be my decision?"

"Fine. I suppose there's no stopping you if you're determined. You'd just ask someone else, and they might turn you in to the Dhorn. I'll tell Vico to meet up with you."

I gave her a big smile and a hug which she happily returned. "Where do I go to meet Vico?"

Rubbing my back, she replied, "Vico will find you child. Now go give that plate of beef to the man sitting in front of the fire."

Continued in Chapter 10