Temperance didn’t know what to expect. She didn’t know if she would be permitted to speak and she didn’t want to cause this man, who so far hadn’t harmed her, to suddenly lash out. It was worse than her time with Yancy. With Yancy, she had at least known what she could or could not do and how he would react, Trevor was new and Temperance would have to learn all over again.
Minutes later, she found herself alone in a bedroom. It was a nice bedroom, with polished dark furniture, a canopy bed, much larger than the tiny mattress she had shared with her sisters, and a vanity that was delicate and quite pretty. The walls were light yellow and the floral rug beneath her feet seemed soft and thick. But, it was a prison. A fancy one, but a prison, just the same.
Temperance went to a set of French doors and swung them open, allowing the cool November air to blow against her skin as she stepped out onto the balcony covered in ivy.
Fields of cotton, wheat, barley, and corn stretched out in all directions and she could smell apples and oranges from the orchard that lay behind the manor. Horses and cattle were grazing to the east and Temperance marveled at how much money a person must have to possess to have a home like this one.
Temperance had never been around many colored people but she could see them working hard. Hanging clothes, working in the fields, and tending to the barns. The armed guards were yelling out now and then--calling out terrible things to the women who would walk past them.
Temperance shivered at the names they used.
A colored woman brought her a tray of food later that day but she didn’t speak a word before leaving the room just as quickly as she had come. Temperance ate alone and then curled up upon her soft bed. She wondered what her husband was doing--how strange to call the man her husband. She hadn’t spoke to him a single time. He had threatened her several times, let her know that he expected to be obeyed without question and that was that.
She supposed she could do worse than a rich husband who ignored her. She just prayed that he would continue to ignore her--but a nagging voice in her mind let her know that was a baseless hope. The man would not spend ten thousand dollars for something he paid no attention to.
It wasn’t until three days later, that Temperance saw the first true sign of her husband’s temper and the evil that lay within him. She had been locked in her room the entire time since arriving; she had not seen him once. She found out on that third day that he had been gone to a nearby city on business.
But that day, Temperance saw him riding back in. She had pulled the chair from her vanity out onto the balcony and was enjoying the sunshine and unseasonably warm weather, or perhaps it was typical for southern Georgia in November, Temperance couldn’t say for sure.
The moment Trevor rode in, two of his guards met him in the yard. Temperance saw them moving their hands animatedly as they spoke to him. Trevor’s face had become a mask of anger that Temperance could see even from a distance.
He had pointed toward the servants quarters and the men rushed off. Temperance watched on with interest, but that interest quickly turned to trepidation when the men came back dragging a boy no older than thirteen or fourteen between them.
A man and woman, Temperance knew must be the boy’s parents, were screaming, but being held back by several more servants and men. The boy was dragged to Trevor and shoved down to his knees.
“Did you steal from me?” Trevor’s voice boomed and echoed off the surrounding buildings. He wasn’t yelling, his voice was simply that commanding.
“No, sir! No, sir! I swears it, sir! I didn’t steal from ya!” the boy sobbed as tears ran down his dark cheeks.
Temperance was standing now and gripping the banisters of her balcony prison. What was Trevor going to do?
“I was told you took food from the cellar. Are you saying my men are lying to me or are you a liar as well as a thief?” Trevor demanded coldly.
The boy whimpered. “Sir… I only took a jar of apples, sir. My baby sister needed it, sir! I was gonna pay ya for it just as soon as ya made it back, sir! I’s got your money!”
Trevor shook his head. “I won’t tolerate a thief.”
“But I got your money! Just let me go get it!”
The man and woman that were being held back began to scream and yell in earnest when Trevor pulled his shiny revolver from the holster high on his hip. Temperance waited for someone to stop Trevor. There were many slaves here, servants Trevor called them, why did they do something?! Why didn’t one of those armed men do something? Surely, they didn’t think it right that a young boy be killed over a jar of fruit that he was willing to pay for!
“Sir… Please!” the boy folded his hands and pleaded. “I’s got your money! I’s got…”
His voice was cut off when Trevor put his gun to the boy’s brow and pulled the trigger.
Temperance’s cries of shock and despair were drowned out by the echo of the bullet ricocheting through the air. The man and woman fell to the ground sobbing as they crawled toward their dead son lying on the ground at Trevor’s feet.
Trevor holstered his weapon and kicked the boy’s father in the side, “Take my horse to the barn, now!” he ordered.
The man quickly sniffed and rose to his feet, taking the horse away without a word. Trevor sneered at the mother and then his gaze turned up toward the balcony where Temperance stood trembling with terror.
He had blood splattered on the white shirt beneath his black suit and his thin lips curved in a smile beneath his mustache and neatly trimmed goatee. He blew her a kiss and Temperance gagged. Slowly, she backed away from the banister and went back in her room, closing the door to shut out the wails of the mother still clinging to her dead son.
Temperance ran to her bed and curled up to her pillow, shaking uncontrollably as she tried to erase the image of that gristly scene from her mind.
God help her. She was married to the devil.
Chapter Ten
Temperance did not go to sleep even hours after darkness had fallen that night. She lay in her bed and stared at the closed door knowing that at any moment it would burst open and Trevor would be there.
Something told her that tonight was the night that he would come and she hadn’t even touched the dinner that the colored servant who always fed her brought to her. Her stomach had still been rolling with the memories and images of that boy begging for his life before that bullet had taken it replaying themselves in her mind.
The colored woman’s hands had been shaking and her face tear streaked when she’d brought the food to Temperance’s room. She and Temperance had shared a sad gaze, both of them lamenting without words that the pain life had dealt them was unfair.
Temperance felt her heart thundering in her chest when footsteps sounded outside her door. She scurried as close to the headboard as she could get, wrapping her arms around her legs, and pulling her knees into her chest.
The sound of a key in the lock echoed in the room just before the door opened and he stepped inside. Temperance watched him in the glow of the kerosene lamp. He closed the door behind him and his face was an unreadable mask.
Temperance knew what was expected of her. She should get from the bed and drop to her knees… if she didn’t he would hurt her.
And so that’s what she did.
Trevor chuckled and a cold smile curved his lips. “That’s a good girl,” he whispered.
Trevor stepped toward her and undid his trousers. When his long hard cock flopped out, Temperance felt her stomach turn, but she did the only thing that she knew to do. She shut down her mind. She had learned during her time with Yancy and his friends that if she didn’t think about what was happening, if she could simply find a way to turn off her thoughts, she could make it through without breaking down.
Temperance closed her eyes when the hot tip pressed against her lips. She opened her mouth, felt his hands grip her red hair painfully and then found herself shoved down on that cock so deeply that she couldn’t breathe at all.
Trevor u
sed his hold on her hair to jerk her head back and forth roughly as his hips pounded against her. Temperance’s throat burned and her jaws ached. She tried to think of something else, anything else. She thought back to her family cabin. She thought back to foggy mornings with her mother and sisters. She thought back to sitting around the fire in the evenings with her family and reading stories from her mama’s bible while the fire crackled peacefully…
Those memories and her false peace were quickly shattered when Trevor jerked her off his arousal and used her hair to yank her to her feet. Temperance was confused because he was still hard and long and hadn’t yet reached his release. What was he doing?
“Time for you fulfill your duties,” Trevor growled as he tugged off his boots and kicked out of his pants.
Temperance frowned and took a step back, “What do you mean?” she whispered, though inside she was sure she knew and it terrified her. Her innocence was all she had left, that was the one non-violated part left of her body and her soul. She couldn’t let Trevor take that from her.
Pain exploded behind her eyes when the back of Trevor’s hand fell sharply upon her cheekbone. Temperance was dazed by the sheer force of the blow and before she had time to regain her senses, Trevor was tossing her down upon the mattress, so roughly that her breath was forced from her lungs and she was left gasping.
Trevor was upon her then. His hands were ripping and tearing at her nightclothes. The sound of fabric being shredded filled the air bedroom and it wasn’t until Trevor’s hand touched the hair between her naked thighs that Temperance found her voice.
She screamed. She yelled. She cried out for him to stop. She begged for someone to help her.
Her pleas went unanswered.
Temperance kicked, swung, slapped, and cried. She threw her body from side to side in an attempt to toss Trevor off her, but the man simply laughed.
He flipped her over so that she was on her stomach and he put his hand on her head, smashing her cheek against the pillow. His legs were pressed against hers, holding her in place.
Temperance desperately tried to shy away when she felt his cock pressing against her most intimate of places. Trevor swung his fist and caught her hard in the kidney. Pain erupted in Temperance’s body and while she was momentarily too stunned to fight, he shoved himself inside of her.
Temperance cried out with the shock of the pain as he burst through the barrier of her innocence and slammed inside of her. She whimpered when he pulled out and then screamed when he once again rammed her so roughly that the bed banged against the wall.
Temperance sobbed with her head smashed against the pillow. Her hands gripped the sheets in a white knuckled grasp that caused the bones and joints to ache.
Trevor leaned down and put his lips against her shoulder just before he bit down hard. Temperance cried out with pain and when she tried to get away, he punched her once again in the kidney.
She stopped fighting then.
Pain was all she knew. His hand in her hair, pulling and tugging, his mouth sucking so roughly on her shoulders and neck that she knew there’d be marks and his teeth leaving bruises on her tender flesh. Trevor’s cock rammed in and out of her abused womanhood and his thighs pinned her legs to the bed and cut off the flow of blood.
Temperance wanted to die. She wished for death. She begged God for it.
It didn’t come.
Suddenly, Trevor let out a grunt and pulled out of her. She felt something wet and warm spreading across her backside and the backs of her thighs.
Temperance didn’t move. She remained on her stomach upon the bed and heard the sounds of Trevor slipping back into his pants and pulling on his boots. He left the room without a sound and closed the door behind him.
Still Temperance lay there. The clock on the wall ticked, but she didn’t hear it. The air grew cool as the fire waned but she did not feel it. Her mind had shut down as her blank eyes stared into nothing.
Time lost all sense of meaning. Just the same as her life had.
***
“Oh dear child…”
It wasn’t the voice that broke through Temperance’s clouded mind, but the sympathy and true caring she could hear inside of it.
It had been so… so long since anyone had spoken to her with either of those things.
“What did that wretched man do to ya?” the voice asked.
Temperance blinked several times, her eyes burning terribly from lack of moisture. She tried to move, but her body was stiff and aching. The light from the window told her that it was at least eight in the morning. Her body was shivering with cold and it ached terribly.
A face was suddenly in her line of vision and Temperance recognized the colored woman who had been bringing in her meals since she had arrived. The woman’s big brown eyes were gentle, kind, and sad. Her black hair was pulled tight into a bun on her head and her face was thin, but beautiful with its flawless chocolate skin.
“H… help me…” Temperance whispered, her voice scratchy and hoarse. Her throat ached from a mixture of thirst, her screams the night before and Trevor’s abuse.
“My name’s Wilma, suga’, and I’ll do everythin’ I can for ya.”
Together Temperance and Wilma managed to get Temperance’s stiff aching body to a sitting position. Temperance gagged when she saw the blood on her thighs and felt the dried fluid from Trevor on her skin.
Wilma wrapped a blanket around Temperance’s bare shoulders. “I’ll go get ya some warm water and we’ll clean you up real nice. Master is gone to town so ya should be undisturbed a while.”
“Thank you…”
Wilma just nodded and left the room.
Temperance sat there awkwardly. She didn’t know how to respond to kindness… It was something she hadn’t known in more than half a year!
Wilma returned and helped clean Temperance’s battered body. The mirror revealed the bite marks on her shoulders and the marks from Trevor’s rough sucking to her neck. Her sides were bruised from his fists and there was a bruise on her cheek from his punch. Her thighs were bruised as well and Temperance could barely walk because of the pain she felt inside her core.
Wilma dressed her in loose day gown and helped her out to the balcony so that she could sit in the sun. “Ya have a rough life ahead of ya, suga. We all do here.”
“Why is he so mean?” Temperance whispered.
“He was just born that way I guess… some men are,” Wilma shrugged her dainty shoulders. “Next time don’t fight him, suga’. A man don’t want his wife fightin’ when he comes to take what he sees as bein’ his.”
“I didn’t choose to be his wife,” Temperance snapped, feeling the smallest spark of her old self still burning inside. “And he’ll not do that to me again. Taking my mouth is one thing, he won’t shove himself inside me again… I won’t let him.”
She wouldn’t have her body become one with that bastard’s a single time more. Temperance wasn’t sure how she’d stop it, but she would… she had to.
Wilma gave her a sad smile. “Ya won’t have a choice, child. We’re all stuck here and at the master’s whim. He’s a powerful man, suga’. He owns the lawmen, he owns the thugs, and he has a soul blacker than the hairs on my head. Ya can’t run from him without him catchin’ ya and trust me, child, if ya think ya have it bad now, you’re in for shock if ya try to run…”
Temperance didn’t say a word. She simply sat there and stared out at the bare fields. Tears rolled down her cheeks and her body trembled. Wilma took this as a sign to leave and Temperance heard the bedroom door close.
Temperance wouldn’t let that bastard take her again. She’d kill him first.
Chapter Eleven
Temperance had spent the day crying, staring into space, and planning the ways she would fight Trevor off should he return. She had kept her fork from her breakfast tray that Wilma had brought to her. The food had gone untouched, just as all her food that day had, but she had taken the fork. If Wilma had noticed the missing utensil
, she hadn’t said so.
Temperance was terrified. Never in her life had she planned on doing any harm to another person, she’d certainly never planned on killing one. But that was exactly what she would do if Trevor would not take no for an answer. He was going to let her leave here and he was going to end this farce of a marriage…
Temperance had to believe that she was strong enough to make that happen. She hadn’t been strong enough to do anything else for herself or her family thus far but she had to do this.
The clock ticked loudly upon the wall as if taunting her every second that she sat perched upon the edge of the bed fully dressed with her fork clutched in her fist. She would have preferred a knife, but there had not been one on her meal tray, as a matter of fact, there had yet to be a knife on any of her meal trays.
Temperance swallowed hard and her tongue darted out across her lips as she stared at that door and waited. Darkness fell outside her window and she didn’t bother lighting a lamp. Instead, she simply depended upon the fire burning in the hearth to illuminate the darkness around her.
Footsteps signaled Trevor’s approach. Temperance nearly lost her resolve and tossed the fork away. If she attacked him and failed in killing him there, was a very good chance that he would kill her, just the same as he had killed that boy just the day before. Then again, maybe death would not be so terrible. It would be a welcome respite from the terror that had become her life.
The door opened and Trevor stepped inside. His blue eyes narrowed in the firelight as his gaze fell upon her. Temperance stood slowly, her knees trembled and shook, and for a moment she was sure she would collapse back upon the bed.
“What are you doing?” he snapped. “You are to be in your nightclothes each night and available for my pleasure. I don’t have time to deal with undressing you.”
Temperance opened her mouth to speak, but no words would come. She snapped it shut against and then slowly took a deep breath. “There won’t be any more pleasure to be had in this room with me.”
Against Her Will Page 5