Against Her Will

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Tanner had no idea what exactly he was going to do. In the eyes of the law and the government he was a dead man until he went before a magistrate and proved that the piece of paper declaring him dead had been a false one. He also knew that Trevor probably had the law enforcement in his back pocket. Trevor had always been good at getting anyone and everyone to see things his way and be on his side.

Tanner had no weapons other than the knife that he had used to kill the man who had been assaulting Temperance the morning he'd woken up here. That was all Tanner had with which to defend himself. While his brother was not a fighting man--he wasn't a brave man--he was a man who had ten men working for him who appeared to be the types of men who were comfortable with killing.

And Tanner didn't want to see his brother dead--at least not by his own hand. He knew Trevor deserved to pay for what he'd done. The treatment of the workers here and the way Temperance had suffered at his hands was unacceptable. Tanner wanted his brother locked away for a good long time but he didn't want to kill the man.

Tanner thought about Temperance as he stood upon the balcony outside his bedroom and stretched out his body which was gaining strength by the day thanks to regular meals and the exercise he managed to get while cooped up. That woman was..... A mystery. And yet he felt a kindred spirit lived inside of her.

It was clear she'd suffered greatly in her life. It was clear that the pain she had in her heart was a heavy and deep one. Yet when Tanner looked in her emerald green eyes he saw life still burning deep down in the recesses of her soul--he saw a strength and a hope there that gave him pause and caused him to want to feel those same things.

How long had it been since Tanner had felt hope?

He'd been a weak man before the war. He had never had the bravery to stand up to Trevor even though Trevor was the younger of the two of them. Their father had beaten Tanner daily--taught him to keep his head down and do what he was told--and Trevor had kept Tanner in that place even after their old man had died of too much drink.

When Trevor had insisted that Tanner needed to go fight in the war Tanner had gone. Not because he necessarily believed in the Confederacy's cause but because Trevor had said to and he hadn't had the strength or courage to say no.

The war had been a terrible place. Endless walking, constant hunger, aches and pains that had no way of being relieved and the stench of death and dying always clogging the nostrils. Prostitutes had followed behind the soldiers offering their services to the lonely men in exchange for whatever meager coin the men could scrape up--Tanner hadn't ever sampled those women. He'd been tempted until he'd seen the effects they were having on the other men.

The prostitutes had carried disease and Tanner had been in no hurry to have a needle inserted inside his manhood to clean out the sickness. He'd heard grown men screaming and sobbing as if they were no more than babes. Tanner had simply let himself grow accustomed to celibacy--it had seemed a much better fate.

Tanner had been injured in battle. It hadn't been a grave injury but one just bad enough that he'd been unable to keep up with his regiment. The Union soldiers had caught him, beat him, tortured him and locked him away in that prison camp.

Three long years he'd been there. Meals had come every few days usually in the form of rotten meats and moldy breads. Tanner had been chained to another man for a time and that man had been very sick. The man had died not long after they'd been locked together and Tanner had been forced to drag around his rotting carcass for months.

There'd been daily beatings, torture and solitary confinement. One of the Union soldiers favorite things to do had been to take him out into the bright sun, chain him to a log and leave him there for days. Or they would lock him in a tiny stone room only three feet by two feet wide with a ceiling only four feet high. Tanner had hated that room and now he panicked at the smallest sign of being enclosed or imprisoned.

Tanner decided that he'd had enough of resting this morning. He was going to get out of the house today and explore the plantation. He was going to see for himself just how bad things had gotten in his absence. When he had been in charge of things for a short time he had ensured that everyone here was well taken care of and he had worked right alongside the workers. According to Temperance, Trevor had done away with every single thing that Tanner had put in place.

Tanner stepped back in his room, pulled on a clean shirt, slid into his boots and headed out the door to check out the home he had left behind so long ago.

***

Temperance was saved by a headache the next morning. Trevor awoke and instead of shoving himself inside her and beating her into submission as was customary each morning, he had groaned and griped about the pain in his head and simply stumbled out of the room. He hadn't even bothered to close or lock the door behind him.

Temperance stood from the bed and closed the door. She picked out a simple gingham dress and after dressing she walked to the door and bit her lip. Did she dare to leave the room today? Technically Trevor had not told her she couldn't leave it today as he did most days and he had left the door wide open when he'd gone from the room....

Cautiously she leaned her head out the door and scanned the hallway. No guards were posted. It seemed that Trevor's drinking the night before had led to a complete lapse in the normally tight watch he kept over her.

Temperance decided to take advantage of it. Sure, she may end up punished for her actions but it seemed that Trevor beat her no matter how she spent her days so she might as well earn the abuse.

Temperance went down the hall and made her way down the grand staircase. She slipped unnoticed into the kitchen and Wilma and Mary stopped what they were doing to run to her and hug her in turn.

Temperance felt her heart lighten. Yes, life had dealt her a hard hand but it had given her good things as well and these women were some of them.

"Child, ya look terrible!" Wilma exclaimed, covering her heart with her hand. Tears filled her brown eyes. "Ya shouldn't have done what ya done to Emerson. Ya should have let him do what he wanted to do to me and ya should have just walked away, child. I don't like seeing ya endure this kind of punishment."

"None of us deserve the punishment we are forced to endure here," Temperance assured her. "We have to stand together against it when we can."

"Why are ya here?" Mary questioned. "Does Trevor know ya left the room?"

"No." Temperance grabbed a biscuit from the counter and dipped it into the freshly churned butter. "But he left the door open and did not tell me I couldn't come out."

"Ya had better not let him catch ya...."

Temperance shrugged. "He could not possibly punish me any more severely than he already does," she countered, her finger gently brushing across the dark bruise on her neck.

"He could kill you," Mary noted.

Temperance let out a sigh and her gaze locked on the wall. "That would probably be a mercy."