Time & Tide - Original Wattpad Version

Chapter Thirty-One: In Which Jessie Makes a Bargain

I nodded, horrified by the realization that I knew where this was headed.

"There is much room for growth for a desperate young man willing to smuggle whatever he is told to, especially when he has friends in high enough places to recommend him for a captaincy."

"Like a judge," I spat.

"Of course. And if I wanted a favor or two of my own in return, like say, a wife--"

"A fuck you can own, you mean, come on, call it like it is--"

"He sold you to me to pay for his wedding, and then he fucked you first, the selfish brat! And when you would not sign, he blackmailed me! The disloyal little cur!"

My stomach plummeted to my feet. "Blackmail?"

"He vowed to tell my little tales, of all the wives before, if I did not release him from all of his business obligations and leave you be." Lewis face was puce now, humiliated and furious. "He even worked to suppress the gossip that you had jilted me, though you know the ton - plug one hole and another crack appears in the dam."

"So? So what?" I challenged. "Who cares?"

Lews gave in to the urge and fisted my sleeve in his hand, jerking me close. "Now no one will give me their daughters to wed."

"Fuck a prostitute, then," I growled back through clenched teeth, glaring defiant up in his face.

"Oh no," he said, mock mournfully, "Those little bints tell the Runners when you smack 'em around, you see. I can't keep 'em, so I can't break 'em They're no fun."

"You're sick!"

"Uncivilized!" he snarled, shaking me once, jarring me. Then he grinned. "I like that, you know. I like spirit I can break. I cannot wait to have the revenge upon you that I want, but I think I will be satisfied with another, as well. I am not going to tell them where you are," he said, and it was with such a grin that I knew immediately that he knew that I had deliberately gone into hiding. "Frank is frantic. Margaret writes you heartfelt apology letters that she cannot deliver."

Apologies. The word crashed against my heart like a frozen tidal wave. Margaret is trying to apologize? No, no, you can't trust Mr. Lewis. Margaret made her choice and she... she meant it. She was angry, but she meant it. She had to. Because if she hadn't, if I just left and didn't let her... oh god, no, no...

"I've never begged you for anything," I whispered, reaching up and grabbing his wrist in my left hand. "I'm begging now. Just stop this. Here and now. Before the cops get here. Just go away and leave me be."

"Oh, no, Miss Franklin," he hissed, leaning close, breath heavy with beer and tobacco. "The time in which I might have felt charitable towards you has long since passed."

He jerked at me hard, throwing off my desperate grip, and reversed it. An unexpected hard thump to the back of my head scrambled my wits long enough for Mr. Lewis to shout, "Oh, dear, she's fainted! I'll bring her to some shade!" loud enough for everyone else around us to buy it.

Stars crackled at the side of my vision, my stomach heaving, my legs buckling. He renched me back into a copse of trees, the fucking asshole and I tried to kick but my stupid little slippers only hurt my own heels when the connected with his top boots.

He grinned again, and then clapped a beefy hand over my mouth, hauling me along the path in the opposite direction, until we disappeared from view into the crowd milling along the paths.

And not a single fucking person cried out or raised an alarm. They all goddamn bought it. Assholes. Or maybe they were all as scared of crazy Judge Lewis as I was. Either way, somebody would point Thomas and the police in our direction, I was sure. And if not that, the cops would know where Mr. Lewis lived. If that was where we were going. If Mr. Lewis didn't have them in his pockets too. Shit.