Starved Beast

"Please, monsieur! You have no idea!" Her eyes were obsessive like unfocussed flames. Again, she looked despairingly at the oak door and then up at the blackness above. "Father explained that if I were caught by the soldiers that they'd take my clothes and distribute them amongst themselves, and carry me naked throughout Paris in a metal cage, my body for sale to whoever would buy it and for whatever purpose the purchaser desired. Monsieur. They would do to me as they did to my mother and sisters. The place is swarming with brigands. There are so many, and since I did what I did, everybody's searching for me. Nowhere is safe."

"But you can't stay here," I suggested kindly, chasing down memories and finding dead-ends. "It's impossible. There's no food. You are a lady. How will you live?"

She blushed, playing with the cuffs on her dress. Her eyes were searching my face, hard, penetrating, until finally she made herself smile, but it was a hard, melancholy watery smile, the smile of sadn