Freedom's Horizon: Spirit of Belize (WLW)

Part One: Chapter One

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February 1746, Off the Coast of Modern Day Belize District, South America, Middle Lagoon Naval & Lumber Merchant Outpost

Ines de Leon, ninth Countess of Montijo, rumored to be the fairest in her husband's court and like a trifled, frightened bird, arrived upon the shores of Belize. She was escorted by her husband's left lieutenant and fearful for what her journey here may bring. It was true that in her husband's homeland of England, her reputation was that of the highest caliber despite her actual resistance and terror living there, yet it was all a farce created by him long before she journeyed through the Caribbean Sea to the shores of Belize. By the looks on the faces around her, Ines could have even speculated the rumors were true from an outsider's perspective, yet they only saw what her husband schemed. Beneath her garments, beyond the way in which she carried herself in public, was an entirely different story.

Without clothing, her body totally decimated the idea those who knew of her bore in their mind's eye.

If only they knew just how tattered, thin and frail Ines' figure came across under her garb, perhaps they wouldn't speak so highly of her, nor of the scoundrel she'd come to know as her husband. That said, if they did somehow become knowledgeable of it all, it wasn't as if the daily punishments would cease. Arthur was a tyrant who knew no bounds and even with the fact they hadn't seen one another in nearly a month, she still bore scars of their time together and always would.

He'd sent for her soon after his arrival to Belize, wanting her to see the many things the land had to offer and to have their family begin here in this land unknown to her and uncharted by her husband's navy. However, that was the last thing on her mind as she thought of the many sleepless nights and harsh handed reprimands to come. Perhaps things will be different here where it is harder to hide... Ines swiveled her head as she was led along the port barge to the sandy coast, surveying her surroundings and amazed by how bare it all appeared. Unlike the land of England, it was desolate of large constructions and had little in the way of the smaller. In fact, there was hardly anything aside from soldiers and makeshift buildings in sight. It would be harder for Arthur to touch her without the neighbors knowing and that provided an odd, even if misleading sense of hope in her chest as she bunched the skirt of her sky blue dress in her petite fist.

Ines glanced down at her hand and found her knuckles white, her thin, lightly tanned skin along her slender fingers shining in the Caribbean sun as they shook with each and every plod toward her ultimate turmoil. Ines shook her hands out and tried to focus her gaze ahead as she racked her brain for how she would retain the solace she'd found in being separated from her horrid husband. She absolutely had to make sure she didn't incur his wrath at all costs this time.

After the last incident on the morning of Arthur's departure, Ines could still feel the sting along her cheeks, the sharp bite of a blade along her leg, and shivered as she was reminded of his weapon of choice. She never wanted to see that odd, almost outlandish blade with which he threatened and hurt her waving about or jousting toward her at any point in her future. Near or otherwise. She was twenty-four and had yet to give him the heir he so desperately desired, not that it would have made her happy.

She never saw herself as a motherly person, not when hers had passed during her birth and she knew little to nothing of the devotion it would take to raise a child. Being forced into this loveless marriage with a man from England that was only to fulfill some sort of wood trade agreement only made things harder. It was as if she was a pawn to use at her father's disposal prior to her marriage and now that controller dominating her every move was an entirely different person, but even more authoritarian nonetheless. It also didn't help that her father hadn't previously borne the fortune of finding her a suitor due to her less than stellar reputation in her homeland, which mysteriously hadn't followed her to England. Then again, Ines never understood why her reputation mattered until her father finally married her off to someone unknowledgeable of her social misfortune back home. In England, she was treated entirely differently, being accepted into social circles she never knew existed, yet it all came at a steep price and that was her happiness.