Against Her Will

Chapter Twenty-Six

It seemed to last for hours and when the man finally pulled out of her, Temperance sagged against the table and felt unconsciousness attempting to overtake her.

Then she saw the item Trevor held in his hand.

Temperance shook her head violently. "Please..." she gasped, barely able to speak through her abused mouth. "Please don't."

Trevor walked to her side and raised the whip. "You should have been a good obedient wife, Temperance. I paid for a good obedient wife. I didn't pay a troublemaker or a whore who would run to my brother's arms!"

"Please, Trevor!"

Temperance lost all knowledge on how to speak or breathe when that whip fell down upon her back. Her skin tore open and blood trickled down her sides. Temperance didn't know what to do.

And so she screamed.

Over and over her voice filled the shack as they whip struck her again and again. Finally her vision began to get hazy. Her body had endured too much pain and was shutting down and Temperance welcomed it.

She hoped she was dying.

Dying sounded nice.

That was her last thought before blackness overtook her as Trevor's whip continued to rain down upon her.

***

Tanner searched the plantation house. He went door to door calling out for Temperance. He had found Mary's dead body in front of the bedroom door and now had the rifle that for some reason Temperance hadn't used clutched in his hands. Dammit, he shouldn't have left her!! Why had he been so foolish? So thoughtless?

He'd kill his brother.

That bastard wouldn't get away with whatever he had done to Temperance.

Tanner raced back out onto the porch. Daylight was breaking over the horizon and the barn was now nothing but a smoldering pile of ash and rubble. Tanner found Felix in the crowd.

He ran to the old man and shook his arm, "Have you seen Temperance? Or Trevor? Or those men?" he demanded.

"No..." Felix wiped ash and sweat from his brow and his eyes widened at the blood soaking Tanner's shirt. "Sir, you're hurt! You needs to go see Miss Wilma. She'll doctor you up."

"This is an emergency!" Tanner snapped. 'Trevor killed Mary and now he has Temperance. I have to find her and this property is too damned big with too many damned buildings!"

"Mary's dead?" Felix's brown eyes filled with tears.

Tanner nodded. "I'm sorry for your loss, Felix," he whispered, kicking himself for breaking the news of the man's granddaughters death to him in such a way. "But I have to find Temperance...."

"Sir!" A young girl, only around ten years old came running through the crowd of ash covered workers.

"What is it?" Tanner asked with annoyance. He didn't want to be bothered with children just now. He had to find Temperance.

"Wilma sent me. She has Miss Temperance in her servants quarters..."

Tanner didn't wait to hear the rest.

He took off as fast as his legs and his wounded side would allow toward Wilma's living quarters. He burst through the door without knocking and his legs instantly gave out the moment he saw Temperance.

Tanner fell to his knees and shoved his hand through his hair as his eyes burned. She was lying unconscious upon her stomach on a cot in the floor. She was naked and covered only from the waist down by a blanket.

Her back.....

Tanner felt his stomach turn. Wilma looked up from Temperance's bloody and torn back and paused with a medicine soaked rag in her hand. "Hello there, sir."

"What the hell..." Tanner's voice broke so he cleared his throat. "What did he do to her?"

"Whipped her," Wilma replied sadly, going back to laying strips of that medicine soaked fabric over the bloody tears in Temperance's flesh. The woman's back was a mess. Every inch was ripped and split and bleeding....

"Is she gonna be okay?" Tanner whispered.

Wilma didn't look up but Tanner saw her chin tremble. "I don't know, sir. I ain't never seen nobody whipped this bad before and they also..." She stopped suddenly and bit her lip.

Tanner frowned. "What did they also do?" he ground out.

"They.." Wilma sighed. "They forced her, sir. We found her lying outside in a ditch and they forced the woman to lay with them so roughly that she's ripped wide open--her backside and all, sir."

Tanner's stomach clenched violently. "They.. tore her to pieces?" he hissed through tight lips.

Wilma sniffed and a tear slipped down her cheek. "Yes sir. I don't know if she'll wake up or not.. As much pain a she'll be in it might be a blessin' if she doesn't."

Tanner crawled forward on his hands and knees and stopped beside the cot. He raised a trembling hand and smoothed some of Temperance's limp red hair from her pale face.

"I'm sorry, Temp," he whispered sadly. He pressed a gentle kiss to her freckled shoulder and squeezed his eyes shut tight as he fought back tears. He had failed her. He hadn't kept the promise that he made to keep her safe. "You gotta wake up, sweetheart. You gotta come back to all of us, okay?"

"Sir, can I get ya anythin'?" Wilma asked tearfully.

Tanner shook his head, laid his hand tenderly upon Temperance's cheek, kissed her closed eyelid and then stood slowly, "Wilma, do you know where my brother went?"

"No.." Wilma shook her head. "He jut left her for dead, child, I don't know where he is now."

Tanner picked the discarded rifle up from the floor and growled. "Take care of her, Wilma. I've got some killing to go take care of."