Against Her Will

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Temperance was grabbed roughly by the arm and forced away from her supper when Trevor dragged her out of the slave quarters an hour later. The plantation had been a buzz with talk about Tanner who had finally returned.

Temperance didn't share in their excitement over his arrival. Tanner was clearly a weak man. He might even be dead inside that house already She couldn't see how he would be any help to her or any help in ending Trevor's reign of terror over this plantation.

As Trevor dragged Temperance out into the growing darkness she was confused as to his reasons. Usually Trevor simply took her wherever he found her--he didn't generally bother with moving her anywhere else.

When they approached the house her confusion grew but she knew better than to speak. She was led up to the second floor and to a bedroom. Tanner lay in the bed still seemingly unconscious with a blanket pulled up to his chin.

"You'll stay in here with him. You'll sleep on the floor. He is obviously very sick and needs care. I am too busy to do it myself so the duty falls on my wife." Trevor's grip on her arm tightened and she whimpered with the pain. "I don't need to remind you about my rules, do I?"

"No, Master," Temperance assured him.

"His meals and his care are up to you to see to. This is my brother and I want to see him make a full recovery."

Temperance nodded. She knew that what he wasn't saying was that he would see her punished if Tanner did not make that recovery. Trevor left the room, closing the door behind him and leaving Temperance alone with the unconscious man.

Trevor was a puzzle and one that Temperance simply did not understand. He was a powerful man--a man who loved to control those around him and yet he had bought himself a wife and then instead of showing that wife off he had turned her into a slave. She wondered if those in society knew he was married or if he had simply wanted one more person he could control--one more person he could show his power to.

If that was the case then he had succeeded. Temperance was at his mercy and she knew that. Her every breath was only drawn because Trevor allowed it--he could kill her at any time and have to answer to no one.

Temperance walked to the bed and stared down at the man lying in it. She wondered what color his eyes were and whether they would hold the same evil cold that Trevor's held. According to the other workers here, Tanner had been the opposite of Trevor but Temperance had learned that most men--or at least most that she had met in the last year--were evil deep down.

He was skinny and dirty and he stunk terribly. Temperance laid her wrist against his brow but felt no fever. He simply seemed exhausted and more than half-starved.

Temperance wondered what his story was. She hated the war that had taken so much from the men who served in it. She wondered if this man had been the man who had taken the life of her brothers and father. Men and their wars. The addlebrained fools were always so eager to go put bullets in one another and didn't bother to worry about the damage done to everyone else in the process.

Seeing that there was nothing that could be done for the man tonight, Temperance curled up on the floor and covered herself with a thin blanket. She hated the silence and missed the sounds of the slave quarters. Forcing herself to close her eyes, Temperance turned off her mind and willed sleep to come.

***

Tanner groaned and cursed his mind for disturbing his sleep. The nightmares were getting worse and while he was glad to have waken up before this one got too intense, he still cursed it because he'd been having the best rest he'd had in a long long time.