22/100 The blacksmith's wife [26]

 ‘Protégé?  Is that a fancy word for buggery?   The maybe formal term such men as he use to confer honour to their dirty practices?’

Gabriel’s hand grasped the boy’s embroidered collar, forcing him to quickstep in reverse, tripping over stacks of see-saw rocking, fire-black beams, turning ever pinker as he choked.

I shouted ‘Stop!’ and Gabriel, the devil, let him go so quick he fell back into sooty-puddled horse-shit, ruining shoes and stockings and staining his fancy-skirted coat.

I restrained Gabriel while the boy scrambled  up.  

Ice in his voice (and breeding) ‘Be sure  my Lord shall hear of this!’

This is part 26 of 'The blacksmith's wife'.   The whole is a prompt-led serial  which began on the Friday Prediction, in March  and continued, one hundred words at a time, for forty-one episodes.   One of my aims in this 100 days project is to complete the illustrations for each episode and publish the tale in book form.    The  story can be read in its entirety here.