by Londyn Skye
James read the look in his father’s eyes as they stared each other down in cold silence while everyone else watched on in suspense. It had never been a secret to anyone in the show how James felt about Lily, so many of them suspected that his choice would be an easy one. Feeling the heat of their glares, James turned to face Lily’s entourage and saw hope radiating from every set of eyes that stared back at him as they eagerly waited for him to speak. He then peered over at Lily and caught sight of a pair of innocent multicolored eyes that sparkled with unshed tears, gazing back at him. James knew that the waiting tears in her eyes had nothing to do with the pain in her arm after being manhandled; he was certain her tears had everything to do with the thought of being taken away from a man who treated her like his beloved daughter and being returned to a man who treated her like an animal. As James continued to stare at Lily, he realized that his words had the power to decide the definition of her waiting tears. The answer that he uttered would be the difference between tears of great sorrow and misery or tears of great relief and joy. Even through her brimming tears, James could see the hope in Lily’s eyes as to what his answer would be. He could see the trust that she had bestowed upon him and the confidence that she had in him to prevent her from being cast back into a torturous life. Even through the swell of tears in Lily’s anguished eyes, James could see that she still even managed to look at him with an infinite amount of love. The way she looked at him was so intense that it caused him to quickly snatch his gaze away without a word, leaving the definition of Lily’s tears to await his decision for a moment longer.
“Speak, goddamn it!” Jesse barked at him with great impatience.
After quickly pulling his eyes away from Lily’s, James finally turned his attention back to his father. “Well, it’s like I already told you earlier, Pa. I played the role … with everyone here,” he emphasized, turning to look back at Lily again. “I said what I had to say, did what I had to do to orchestrate all ‘a this. We needed to earn money for the farm, didn’t we?” He bent over and picked up the briefcase full of money. “I’d say this little scheme was far more profitable than any baby breedin’,” he said, pulling out a stack of one hundred-dollar bills and flashing it. “Wouldn’t you agree?” He then thrust the briefcase back toward his father with a sinister smirk on his face.
Jesse snatched the briefcase filled with every dollar that Lily had earned. “My son,” he said proudly. He then turned to glare at William. “I do believe this belongs to me,” he told him, snatching Lily away from his embrace.
As Jesse grabbed hold of Lily’s arm again, she stared briefly into James’s eyes and saw that ice had returned to them. Then, suddenly, the silence in the hallway was pierced by her heart-stopping shrill. It was an agonizing, stomach-wrenching shrill of a woman who had, yet again, been emotionally shattered and betrayed in the most evil of ways by a man that she thought loved her. James had finally defined Lily’s waiting tears, and he was now forced to watch as sorrowful tears of misery began to rain down like a sudden flash flood from her eyes. The way Lily cried was unlike anything anyone there had ever heard or seen. Her body convulsed as the sobs of pain continued to erupt. Her chest heaved, to the point that she nearly hyperventilated. It was like watching a woman cry who was dying an incredibly slow and excruciating death.
Realizing her fate, Lily’s fears caused her to reflexively snatch her arm away from Jesse’s grip. When she momentarily escaped, Jesse backhanded her brutally across the face. The move was swift and powerful, and the result of the force he exerted was instantaneous. Lily found herself on the ground after a moment of seeing black, her eye pulsating and swelling fast. The heads of all her friends turned away quickly when the heartbreaking brutal scene was too much for them to handle.
“Dear God!” William cried, rushing immediately to be by Lily’s side, crouching near her and helping her to sit up. “Have you no soul?!” he screamed, looking up at Jesse, who hovered over the both of them.
Elijah looked down at Lily lying on the floor, and his actions were quick and unexpected. He lunged at Jesse. Before he could grab him, though, one of the deputies caught him with a fist to the jaw.
“Know y’ur goddamn place, you uppity nigga’!” Jesse spat, after turning around and realizing who had just tried to attack him.
Elijah held his jaw after being briefly shaken. He quickly composed himself, looked down at Lily, and met her eyes as she lay there. Even through the swelling and blurred vision, Lily could easily read the expression on Elijah’s face. It caused her mind to instantly replay the heated warnings that he had given her in the past regarding James. Elijah then turned and looked at James in the most menacing of ways before storming out of the building.
Abraham and his wife had retreated just before Elijah. Appalled by the horrific scene they were witnessing, they had covered their sons’ eyes and ushered them out in the opposite direction. Everyone else who remained did not dare to intervene, fearing that they would be met with the same force as Elijah.
Once all was settled, Jesse pried William off of Lily, who was still trying to comfort her. Jesse then picked Lily up off the ground in one quick motion.
“Please let her go!” William continued to beg, rushing to jump in front of Jesse as he began escorting Lily out.
“Move aside, damn it!” Jesse demanded.
“Please! I’ll purchase her from you!” William begged, walking briskly to keep up with them.
“She ain’t for sale!”
“Name your price!”
Jesse stopped and turned toward William. “I said … She! Ain’t! For! Sale!” He had leaned in so close that his tobacco-coated spit particles were pelting William in the face as he spoke.
Still undeterred, though, William suddenly reached deep into his pocket and pulled out a wad full of folded one hundred-dollar bills. “How much do you want for her?!” William suddenly threw a bill at Jesse. “A hundred dollars!” he shouted, then threw several more. “Five hundred?!” He then took every bill in his hand and tossed them into the air. “TEN THOUSAND?! YOU SICK SON OF A BITCH!” he erupted, as a rain shower of money floated to the ground. “Tell me how much money it will take to make you realize that Lily is not an animal?! SHE’S A HUMAN BEING!” William shouted, his hands shaking with rage. “And by far one of the finest I know,” he said, with softness in his voice as he referred to her. But the fire in his voice immediately returned upon addressing Jesse. “And you! Are by far the most despicable!” William snarled, his face etched in the most hateful expression his sons had ever seen.
“Get outta my goddamn way, you old fucker, before I snap you in half!” Jesse growled, grabbing William by the neck and shoving him back hard.
“At least give me a moment to say goodbye to her!” William managed to choke out while holding onto his throat. “Please!” he begged. He reached his hand toward Lily, but Jesse snatched her away from his reach and quickly fled from the building with her. William fell to his knees and began sobbing uncontrollably into his hands, crying like a man who had just witnessed the abduction of his own child.
As his father marched off with Lily in tow, James looked around at the swarm of people left standing in the hallway. Every last one of them had grown to care very deeply for Lily, and he could feel the heat of their angry eyes burning holes into his flesh. He gave a quick, sweeping glare to everyone before he boldly walked off to catch up with his father, without so much as an attempt to explain the irreparable damage he had just caused not only to Lily, but to William as well. On his way out, he glanced down at the heap that William had been reduced to and did not even bother to assist him in getting to his feet. He just kept on walking callously through the minefield of money on the ground, kicking some of it up in the air in the light trail of wind he left behind from his swift departure.
Hundreds of miles away from Winter Garden, by sheer coincidence, the very moment that William’s knees had hit the floor, a bullet had ripped through the shoulder of Griff Buchanon: Lily�
��s favorite security bandit. While sitting in the very place that he always sat enjoying Lily’s homemade heart-shaped pancakes, Griff was now bleeding profusely.
After seeing smoke billowing in the air from the fireplace, a group of men riding on horseback, with torches blazing, all assumed that William was home, along with all the Negroes that he housed there. It was the signal they had eagerly waited for in the hours before flooding onto Werthington Estate and instantly turning the cherished land into a battlefield. Adorned with ghostly white robes and sheathed faces, a crew of over twenty deep ambushed the property, waging a virtual war against William and every Negro who lived there. They intentionally attacked on Christmas night, feeling as if they were delivering the gift of justice to a white man who they felt lived with corrupt morals, and who openly defied the unwritten rules that white society had set forth. In the minds of the ghostly-looking riders, housing a family full of Negroes was one thing, but helping with the uprising of one of them was another matter altogether. Knowing that William was assisting the sort of woman who had the power to use her success as a platform to speak on giving Negroes rights—rights that they never wanted to see come to fruition—was a major infraction that the night-riding terrorists planned to deal with in the most permanent of ways after they galloped with ferocity onto William Werthington’s land.
Back at Winter Garden, where William was still crouched on the floor in tears, another gunshot rang out outside of the theater. It crackled through the air just minutes after James had walked out of the building. The sound penetrated the ears of everyone left in the back hallway, instantaneously commanding their attention. Wilson, Emerson, William, and the entire cast immediately turned in unison toward the piercing sound that lingered in the air like the rumblings of a distant thunder. Soon, they would all learn that the thunderous blast ultimately proved fatal for the victim, whose skull contents were slowly seeping into the dirt below it. Screams from the crowd outside, the whinnying of reacting horses, and carriage wheels being swiftly dragged away were the only sounds everyone heard next. Still, everyone in the hallway stood there frozen, shocked into silence, fearfully speculating about what scene their eyes had to prepare for on the anterior walls of Winter Garden, in the aftermath of the storm-like force of Jesse Adams’ wrath … a devastating storm that had just completely ripped everyone’s world apart.
Slave Code
Article I Section I
Be it enacted that if any slave resists his or her master while being corrected, or for refusing to surrender him or herself contrary to law, and shall happen to be slain in such correction, the master shall be indemnified from any prosecution for such incident, as if such killing never happened.
TO BE CONTINUED IN:
The Prodigy Slave
Book Two
About the Author
Londyn Skye is a comical 43-year-old mother of two, ex-all-American collegiate athlete, million-mile lady trucker phenom, and romance novel junkie! When she was a child, Londyn began creating stories in the fantasy world of her mind as a way to escape life’s troubles. As an adult, she decided to challenge herself to turn her comforting fantasies into a novel. That challenge led her to write The Prodigy Slave Trilogy. Wanting the utmost quality for her readers, she has diligently worked to balance the saga with humor, drama, romance, unpredictable plots, and devious, neurotic characters that are equally as captivating as the erotic love scenes between the fascinating heroes and heroines. She has painstakingly painted her fantasies with words that she hopes will help readers see the images just as beautifully as her unique mind does. Most importantly, she hopes that everyone will feel just as emotionally moved and inspired by the heroes and heroines in her love story.
Connect with Londyn at
www.facebook.com/AuthorLondynSkye