by Nancy Wells
Emily spent the day with the butler. After visiting the seamstress, he took her to the local market. Emily was thrilled like a child, eating sweets, looking at exotic fruits and colorful jewelry. It was the first time she had visited a vibrant place like that. Passing by a shop, Emily looked wistfully at a pink ribbon. She wished she could afford it. The butler was kind enough to buy her sweets; she could not ask him to buy her that too.
“Do you like it, Your Grace?”
Emily blushed and shook her head in negative. She had been caught gawking at the ribbon by the butler. She went ahead and the butler followed her as she visited every shop in the market. Emily did not realize how much time had passed until she felt the chill in the air. It was getting late in the evening. They returned to their carriage and embarked on their journey back to the duke’s house.
Emily was looking out the window, watching with melancholy as birds and crows returned to their nests. Unlike them, she had nowhere to return to. She was alone in the whole world. No one loved her. Her prince had left her to the dark lord from whom he was supposed to save her. This was not how her life was supposed to end. She had seen nothing but suffering all her life. Emily was not happy at the injustice of life. She deserved a happy ending too.
“This is for you, Your Grace.”
Emily looked at the butler. He was holding the pink ribbon in his hand. Her fingers were itching to feel the ribbon in her hands but she could not bring herself to touch it. She could not afford that pretty ribbon.
“I cannot take that, sir. I have nothing to pay you back with.”
Emily had never received kindness from anyone without ulterior motives. She had a right to be skeptical about taking something from a stranger. No one would give her something without wanting something in return.
“It is a gift, child. Kindly, keep it.”
She was moved by the kindness in his voice. He was treating her like his own child. Taking the ribbon from his hands, she looked at him with moisture in her eyes.
“Thank you, sir.”
It was the first time someone had given her a present. Her joy rivaled that of a small child on Christmas morning. Wrapping the ribbon in her braid, she was smiling from ear to ear.
When they reached the house, Emily was in good humor. She had a skip in her step as she entered the house. She had fulfilled the duke’s request and had a great day with the butler. Her smile diminished when the maid met her near the entrance.
“His Grace is angry.” The maid smiled with menace. “He is waiting in his study for you.”
Emily’s heart sank. The duke was not pleased with her. She never wished to cross him but he was a hard man to understand. She did not know what would make him happy and what might upset him. He warned her against lying or deceiving, but she had done none of that. She had been honest with him.
“What did you say to him?” the butler asked the maid, angrily.
“You spent a whole day with the duchess, alone. I only answered his question when he asked about his wife. Who knows what you were doing with her all day.”
Emily started to tremble in fear at the insinuation of her words. She had slandered her character to the duke. Looking in fear at the kind butler, her lips quivered. She was sure the duke would take her life. He had done it before; he would not hesitate to do it again.
“He will kill me,” she said, frightened.
The butler looked at her, concerned. “I will explain to him, Your Grace.” He then looked at the maid and pointed a finger in her direction. “You should be ashamed of yourself. This is your mistress, have some respect for her.”
The maid snickered and went back upstairs. Emily followed the butler as he knocked on the door to the study. When the door opened, she hid behind the butler. The duke’s eyes were red and his hair was disheveled. She had never seen him in such a state before. He was looking at her with a murderous gaze. When the butler opened his mouth, he did not give him chance to explain.
Grabbing the butler by his lapels, the duke slurred in his face, “She is my wife. Stay away from her.”
Pushing the servant against a wall, he put pressure on his throat. Emily screamed when she watched the duke murdering his servant. She pulled at his hands, beseeching him to let the servant go, but he was not listening to her. She could not stand to the side while the only person who had made her feel special was mercilessly murdered at the hands of the duke. Emily punched at his back, screamed and shouted for help.
“Get out of this house!” he screamed at the servant. “All of you leave this instant.”
Pushing the servant to the side, he grabbed her by her hand. All in his household ran out of the main door the moment he screamed. Dragging her inside, he closed the door with force. Elliot was not in his senses. To dull his pain, he had consumed a large amount of alcohol and now he was in a dark place in his head.
“You are a deceiving whore, Sara,” he slurred. “You would advocate for your lover in front of your husband. Have you no shame?”
Emily was frightened of her husband at that moment. This was the man that everyone was so afraid of. He was ruthless and merciless. His heinous crimes were discussed among the villagers in hushed terms. In her frightened state, she missed the fact that he was not speaking to her. He was confronting his dead wife.
“I am innocent, Your Grace. I did nothing wrong.”
Emily was sobbing and begging him but Elliot was not listening to her. In his mind, he was reliving his past life and he had caught his wife red-handed with a servant. When he opened the door and saw her clinging to the butler, his mind had stopped working. In his intoxicated state, Elliot was looking at his first wife, Sara. Elliot had drunk himself to a stupor and had reached a point where he had confused them both into one person. He was taking revenge against Emily for Sara making him fall in love with her and then abandoning him in the end.
He pulled the cloak away from her and ripped her dress from the front. Emily screamed and swatted his hands when he pulled her dress to her waist, but she was not strong enough against his strength. The duke ripped her dress until her skirt was the only part of the gown remaining on her body. When her breasts were exposed, Emily folded her hands around her chest, whimpering and sobbing.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she asked.
Her actions made him angrier. She had the audacity to ask him that question. She was dishonest with him and was acting like nothing was wrong. He grabbed her hands and tied them behind her back with a strip from her torn dress. She struggled but her feeble attempts were nothing more than a mouse struggling against a snake. When her hands were tied behind her back, he turned her around to face him.
“Why?” he screamed.
“Forgive me, Your Grace,” Emily said, sobbing. “I will not defy you again.”
He twisted the tips of her nipples until she cried in pain. He pulled and pinched while Emily sobbed. She was feeling humiliated. He was not giving her a chance to protect her modesty. In the carriage or in his bed, his hands were not as rough as they were now. He was hurting her deliberately. He pushed at her shoulders until her breasts were thrusting out.
“Do not move, Sara,” he warned.
Emily stood still without moving a muscle. She closed her eyes and looked away from him when his hand rose in the air. He slapped her on her breast and she whimpered at the sharp sting. He twisted, pulled and slapped her chest with both hands at the same time, again and again, until she screamed.
“Mercy! Your Grace, mercy!”
Leaving her there, he sat on his chair behind his large desk. He was looking at the print of his hands on her chest with loathing. He did not want to hurt her but she left him no choice. His wife had to feel his pain. He was feeling miserable when he banged a fist on the desk. He looked at her with loathing and beckoned her with one finger.
“Kneel at my feet under the desk.”
Sniffing and crying, she came near his chair. Before she went under the desk, he unbound her hands. Emily kne
lt at his feet under the desk, looking expectantly at his face. Taking out his manhood, he held it near her lips.
“Kiss it.”
Emily saw the length of his member and she gulped. This thing had brought the sharp pain when he had entered her body. If she had seen it that night, she would have never consented to lay with him. The size alone would have made her worried about whether he would fit inside her or not.
Emily touched the tip of his thick rod with her lips. Elliot hissed and she jumped a little, afraid she had hurt him. Opening his thighs further apart, Elliot grabbed the back of her head and brought her lips back to his member.
“I would not interrupt you, Sara. You always enjoyed this. Maybe this will make you stay with me,” he said.
Removing his hand from the back of her head, he leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. She kissed the tip softly and he smiled. She was feeling powerful and in control at that moment. Feeling bold, she took the head into her mouth and sucked lightly. He was holding on to the armrests for dear life. His knuckles were becoming white. He took deep breaths as she twirled her tongue around his shaft. His manhood was huge for her small mouth. She could not take it all the way but she tried her best anyway.
“I am losing control, Sara. Suck harder,” he said, hoarsely.
She sucked harder and faster. Taking his sack in her hands, she massaged it and he moaned loudly. He started to thrust into her mouth while she redoubled her efforts. Holding the back of her head in one hand, he thrust harder and deeper inside her mouth.
“Holy Lord,” Elliot groaned.
Holding her head in place, he ejaculated into her mouth. She swallowed as much as possible but some of his seed came out of her mouth. With his fingers, he collected the seed and held his fingers to her mouth.
“Clean them,” he said.
Taking his fingers one by one in her mouth, she sucked them clean. His salty taste felt strange in her mouth.
Holding her head against his thighs, Elliot brushed her hair with his hands. “Why did you do it, Sara? Was my love worthless to you? How can you prefer a servant to your own husband? I offered my heart to you and you stomped on it. Sara… you broke my heart.”
When he stopped talking and leaned back in his chair, she tried to move her head away from his lap. He put pressure on her head, silently asking her to stay. Despite his behavior, she felt sympathy for him. Under his harsh exterior, she could see glimpses of a broken man who was in love with his wife.
“Sara, I want your guidance. I am in turmoil about the girl. My heart wants to believe her innocence, but logic demands I do not fall for her tricks. She keeps the company of a debauched woman and criminals. She is strange. I want to keep her safe but she hates me. I am in a conundrum. This is their fault. Those damn, spawn of demons, Shane and Russell. They knew my weakness. They pushed me into buying her from her relative. I paid a handsome sum to bring her to my house. She has the face of an angel, but she is following in your footsteps and I am afraid of the aftermath when the dust settles.”
Emily was silently crying at his feet. Her aunt sold her like a sheep to this man. She felt small before him. She was nothing more than a piece of property for him. She meant nothing to him. The maid was right to think that she was a harlot. He had paid to have her in his bed. No one can save her from his intentions. Emily knew she would not survive the night. Her life meant nothing to him. He killed his wife when she was unfaithful to him and now the maid had blamed her for infidelity too.
When she heard him snoring, she removed his hand from her head and silently crawled out from under the desk. She was so frightened. She did not bother with picking up the cloak to cover her chest. Emily left him in the study and went to her own room. Bolting her door shut, she lay in her torn dress and closed her eyes. Why should she bother with decorum when she would not be alive in the morning? Emily was afraid he would enter her room while she was asleep and take her life. He believed she was not faithful to him. He did not listen to his own butler who was an old and familiar member of the house, why would he ever give her a chance to explain her own side of the story.
All night, Emily had nightmares. She was running away from the monster in a thick forest while scary voices chased her. She ran to a clearing where her cottage was stranded in the air, out of her reach. Her aunt was standing in the window, holding money in her hands. Instead of helping her, she was laughing at her screams when the monster emerged from the forest trees into the clearing. She begged for help from her aunt and then screamed to her faceless prince. Her aunt laughed at her while her prince was nowhere in sight. The monster captured her and took her to his castle, made of stone and fire. He threw her in his dungeon and laughed cruelly at her useless attempts to get free.
Chapter 5
Elliot woke up to a punch in his face. Falling from his chair, he looked in confusion at his surroundings. His memory was fuzzy. Last night’s events were a blur to him. In the doorway, his butler was trying unsuccessfully to keep Shane and Russell out of his study. Either he had double vision or the twins were both looking angrily at him. They were both annoying but they never got angry at the same time. Whatever transpired last evening must be awful.
“Where is the girl?” one of them seethed. “What did you do to her?”
Elliot’s memory was coming back to him. For some inexplicable reason, he saw Sara last night. She was begging him to spare the life of her lover. He had made her cry for her unfaithfulness and then let her suck at his manhood. It was their routine. Sara would take punishment and then as a reward, he would let her have his seed in her mouth. Sara liked that.
“What are you talking about?” Elliot groaned, holding a hand to his bleeding nose. “Emily never came home. I have no clue of her whereabouts.”
Elliot did not see his friend jumping at him and tackling him to the floor. His head was hurting from excessive drinking. His sense of hearing was heightened. Even a small noise felt unbearable to him. When the twin jumped at him, he felt like someone had cracked his skull open.
“You bastard!” His friend straddled his stomach and punched him again in his face. “Your breeches are lowered. The servants heard her screaming, and you are telling me you have no inkling of her whereabouts. You assaulted the orphan for the love of God!”
The twin was dragged away by his brother when he wrapped his hands around Elliot’s throat. Elliot was gulping large amounts of air when he was released from the hold of his hands. If his brother had not interrupted him, Elliot would be dead by now.
“Let him go, Russell.”
“Shane, he hurt her,” Russell said, wide-eyed and afraid. “She is hurt.”
“You are losing focus, Brother.” Shane held his brother’s head against his chest. “Stay in the present, please.”
Elliot’s face turned ashen when he remembered the events of last night more vividly. Emily had gone out with a servant without his permission. No one knew her whereabouts until she returned late in the evening. Emily received punishment for Sara’s mistake.
Pushing the twins to the side, he ran upstairs to her room. When no one answered his knocking, he tried the knob but found it locked.
“Emily! Open the door. Emily!”
Rattling the doorknob, he pushed at the door with his shoulders. Getting frightened, he punched and kicked the door but there was no response from the other side.
“Someone get me the damn keys!” he shouted.
Elliot did not realize that the twins were standing behind him, nor did he see the butler who had already gone to his study to fetch the keys. He did not see his entire household gathered at the bottom of the stairs. He was frightened. For all he knew, the girl had taken her own life after the way he treated her. She was uncomfortable while lying naked beside him in the darkness of the night and he had made her stand in his study for a long time. She must be devastated.
Elliot took the keys from the butler and opened the door. He did not let anyone inside the room. Emily was curled into a bal
l with the sheet lying on the floor. Her dress was ripped to her waist. Elliot's gut clenched when he saw the same scars on her back. He had asked her about them but she never replied. In the light of the day, he saw them more clearly. The scars were not made by falling or tripping, someone had struck her. Some of the scars seemed very old while others were not more than a month old.
Taking off his coat, he covered her with it before anyone else could see her body. She was shivering and burning up when he touched her forehead. Picking her up in his arms, she curled against his chest. She was drenched in sweat. He took her out of the room and everyone gave him a wide berth, except Russell. He was staring at the girl with mixed emotions of fear and anger.
“I should have let the gambler take her. He might have shown her more mercy. How can you do this to anyone? Look at her… I knew you were damaged, I never thought you were a monster.”
Elliot was not defending himself. He deserved to be called a monster. He told Emily in the carriage that she should give him a chance because he was not a monster, but he proved himself wrong by acting like a heartless beast.
“I am worse than that, Russell,” Elliot responded and went past his friend. “Call a physician. I am taking her to my room.”
No one stopped him as he took Emily to his room. She was curled in his arms like a child. Placing her with care on his bed, Elliot adjusted a pillow under her head. Pulling a sheet over her, he sat on the bed beside her. She turned and clutched his leg, trembling and mumbling. Taking pity on her, Elliot wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Her trembling stopped. He leaned against the headboard and closed his eyes in defeat.
“Russell is wrong, you are not a monster,” Shane said from the doorway.
“No, he is right.”