Captured by Him ~ The fourth novelette from "Different Desire", a Gay Victorian Romance and Erotic novelette collection

pain as he bent down to investigate it further. The opening was small and rectangular. It was probably some kind of air vent, or so Milton assumed. He probably w ould have been able to squeeze through it, if it had not been for the strong iron bars, which efficiently kept vermin out of the root cellar, but at the same time prevented Milton from escaping.
    Milton rose slowly.
    “Damnation!” h e cried out and kicked the door hard. To his surprise , someone answered him on the other side of the door.
    “You take it easy in there, you ponce. I am only here to bring you your dinner, you hear me?” t he man said in a deep voice , and there was a rattling sound of keys. It was not the familiar hoarse voice of Badger, Milton realized and resolutely repressed the unwanted feeling of disappointment. Who cared who brought him dinner? It was not like he missed his kidnapper!
    “Stay away from the door now , ” the other man barked.
    Milton took a couple of steps back. There was no use trying to get back to the improvised bed and pretend to be weak and feeble, since the villain already had heard him kick the door.
    He heard the metal click from the lock , and the door opened.
    One of the largest men Milton had ever seen stepped inside. He seemed to fill up the door frame and had to bend his head a little so that he would not touch the stone ceiling. Barrel-chested and with enormous thick arms , he must have been a former blacksmith, Milton speculated. The man was unshaved and had bushy eyebrows and curly brown hair. He was dressed in the same kind of worn peasant clothes as Badger. Clearly , the profit from being a highwayman was vastly overestimated, or at least , they did not seem to spend their stolen money on proper clothes or invest in razorblades either, Milton thought with distaste.
    The large man placed an oak bowl with some kind of stew and a piece of hard bread on the three - legged stool , and without another word , he turned around to leave.
    “Wait!” Milton commanded. He had noticed that the door behind the villain was still unlocked and slightly ajar. If only he could …
    A reckless plan had started to form in Milton’s mind.
    The other man stopped. “What is it now?”
    Milton managed to walk forward slightly unstead il y, but without the support of the wall. He bent down and pretended to inspect the food.
    “Do you really expect me to eat that?” Milton asked with a disgusted tone, which he did not need to fake. The food really did look rather unappetizing. “What is it? Rat - stew?”
    “It is coney meat, you ungrateful bastard!”
    “That is not even suitable for pigs to eat!” Milton said and scoffed.
    “You should be thankful it is meat at all! Badger said that you needed it, but the rest of us are having turnip and potato stew!” t he other man roared. “If it was up to me, I would never have you mollycoddled like that!”
    “Well , I am not eating it!”
    “That is not my problem,” the barrel-chested man muttered angrily and turned his back against him and headed for the door.
    This is my chance! Milton thought. Rapidly he placed the bowl on the floor without caring that some of the hot stew spilled over his hands. Milton picked up the wooden three-legged stool . It felt robust enough in his hands , and using all his strength , he hit it against the other man’s head with full force.
    The stool broke into two pieces , and the other man grunted.
    But instead of falling to the earthen floor like a tree in the forest so that Milton swiftly could leap over him and escape, the large man slowly turned around. His eyes were filled with rage , and involuntar il y , Milton took a couple of steps backwards, dropping the remains of the three-legged stool from his hand. Milton desperately tried to figure out what to say when the other man easily lifted him up from the ground as if he was a small child.
    “You have to hit harder next time. Like this!” t he other man said and promptly head-butted him, in a hard and highly efficiently manner.
    It felt like being kicked by a vicious horse with steel horseshoes.
    The world around him did not waver or flicker this time when Milton lost consciousness. It was more as if someone very resolutely decided to blow out a candle , and Milton passed out immediately, completely dead to the world.
     
    *
     
    “So, is it just me, or do you have some kind of death wish?”
    Badger’s husky voice greeted Milton when he slowly came back to reality. Despite a