Against Her Will

Chapter Eleven

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."

Trevor laughed at her shaky admission. "Of course there will. You are my wife and I will have you when I see fit."

He stepped toward her and Temperance brandished the silver fork as if it were a sword. "Stay back!" she warned.

She wasn't sure what she had expected his initial reaction to her threat would be--she had thought maybe he would laugh at her feeble attempts to protect herself. The rage that contorted his features was certainly not what she had been waiting for.

His blue eyes hardened with temper, his thin lips pulled back in a snarl and he took a step forward. "You ignorant bitch! You would dare threaten me? No one threatens me!"

Trevor lunged forward and Temperance screamed before swinging the fork. She felt it scrape across his flesh and realized with shock that she had slit his cheek wide open. Blood poured from the ripped flesh and his enraged bellow bounced off the walls. The fork fell to the carpeted floor and Temperance stumbled backward when Trevor leapt forward.

His hand closed around her throat and squeezed. Temperance panicked. She couldn't breathe! She swung her fists as hard as she could manage but if Trevor felt the blows to his broad frame he gave no indication.