The Nightingale symbolizes love, and longing.
The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom
And his language shall be spoken in judgment
Blessed is he who suffers temptation
Since he, with approval, shall receive the crown of life
Lord, fire divine, have mercy
Oh how holy
How serene
How kind
How pleasant
Oh, lily of chastity!
Lord, fire by divine, have mercy
Oh how sacred
Oh, How serene
How bevolent
How lovely
Oh! Lily of chastity
"Are you sure this is going to be a good deal?" Jasper asked, Peter – long time friend and pseudo brother – sent him an evil smirk, one that used to suggest he had peeked in Ms. McAndersons window or stolen some of mama's jam.
"I'm positive, you know that Frank's always good on deals like this!" He gently kicked the side of his white horse to get the thing started, leaving the home behind, Jasper followed closely on his black, slightly bigger horse.
"I know that Frank's been arrested more than once for deals just like this, he doesn't know how to sell the girls without touching them first." Jasper grumbled.
They rode through the town slowly, moving at a bare crawl.
It was illegal to BUY the girl it was illegal to KIDNAP the girl. You had to get her on fair ground. Frank's crew liked to do night rides and take them in their sleep, not go while the whole town was being sacked.
Which proved to be a much smarter thing to do, for then they hardly fought back; fair grounds would simply meant that you got them once the battle was over and you had one, not stolen her right under her Fathers nose.
Jasper sighed at what his father was going to say about this one. Jasper, luckly was born in a town where woman were treated with some kind of respect (if they weren't working in the brothel, that is) and Jaspers mama had grown up in the same town. Therefore, his father didn't NEED to a buy a wife, neither did Peter, Charlotte came willingly.
Jasper did not have such luck. Every woman he met in this town was either evil as a snake or working in a brothel.
And marrying one of them did not make for the good Christian man he was. Outwardly.
His mother had been bothering him for years, because there was nothing that Emilie Whitlock wanted more in the world, than grandchildren. She had already picked out their names, started knitting their winter clothes, and bought them toys, and they weren't even born yet.
Charlotte; didn't have much hope for child bearing. She had been in an accident when she was a child where she was put through constant pain that emanated from her body, they had tried and tried, and nothing worked.
But Emilie wasn't put out, for she had one more son, Jasper.
So after two years of being constantly ridiculed by his mother and poked at by charlotte, he decided to give in, but he wasn't doing it the conventional way. To hell with all that.
Frank Berlind was a dealer, he dealed out whiskey, horses and woman. He was the man who gave Jasper his first cigarette, his first drink and helped him loose his virginity.
He was the man who had come to Jaspers door not six days ago and told him of a little deal he had:
"Jasper! Old pal! How ya' doin'" Frank asked, laying his ever aging body down upon Jaspers old floral couch that his mother gave him, the thing was growing dusty.
"What are you doin' Frank?" He asked. He sat in the chair he made across the room, the old wood of the rocking chair groaned against his weight, he pushed his lanky legs ahead of him.
Frank had dawned a whiskey bottle out of jacket and took a swig and offered it to Jasper, who took it readily.
"Gettin' old, you?" He joked, the mans white hair flopped against his forehead at his laugh, his belly jiggled a little. After a deeps swig of the amber liquor Jasper answered.
"Just about the same, sold a hundred dollars worth of meat to the Swanson's today."
Frank raised a white brow," What kinda meat you sellin'"
"Cow. About all I got until James makes good on that deal for me and my chickens can get some eggs."
"How's your parents?" Frank asked. "Ah, Pop, he's fine. Got him some money off of some of those tall horses he got from the east. Him and Ma are going to get some good wood and make themselves a new bed frame." He said.
Frank and Jeremiah Whitlock had been best friends since, well, ever.
"And that brother of yers?" Frank asked, getting the bottle back.
"Ah, Him and Charlotte got into it and instead of sleeping on the couch he came over my house and scrounged around for a few days, then he went back. Thank god." Jasper said, they chuckled about that for a few moments.
After a few moments of silence Jasper looked back up to Frank with suspicious eyes. "Why you here Frank?" Jasper asked.
"I got a good deal for ya'" Frank said, leaning forward his forearms resting on his knees his belly almost breaking free of his button up shirt.
"What are you talking about?"
"I made a ….. good profit. We were as far east, I think it was we were out on the road for months I didn't know where we were going to end up. We ended in this little town, almost no one there spoke English but a few of them, we sacked the thing in hours. I got one good girl, people are trying to give me hundreds for her, she's a singer, she's been singing in her cell for days. She's pale as milk with hair dark as chocolate, beautiful eyes, maybe nineteen years old, and she a virgin."
This drew Jaspers attention. "So, what's that got to do with me?" Jasper asked.
Frank slapped his knee. "Don't be so dense my boy! I see those good horses you got out back! You give me a good horse, mine's on it's last leg, I'll give you the girl, you're the only one I know that'll take care of her and not treat her like dirt. I've been trying to get her to come out of the cage, she wont do it."
Even though Frank sold woman, he tried to treat them right when they were in his care and sell them to the right people, this wasn't the first offer that he'd given Jasper.
"Alright, you let me see her, one week from now, I'll bring one of my good horses, any color you want! And we'll see from then." He said.
From then, They'd gone out back, looked at some of the big horses, the strong ones, Frank picked out a strong pure white one.
Jasper looked behind him at the horse that was tied to his and hoped he was making a good deal.
"Don't look so worried man, Frank's good on this! And I already to Charolette the good news! We're holding a weddin' I told her to keep her mouth shut to ma' until we know it's a good deal."
Jasper nodded in approval at this, his brow pensive.
"I hope she'll like me." He admitted. His voice soft and shy, Peter threw him a baffled look.
"Come on man! She'll love you!" He said.
Out of the two brothers, Jasper was the shier one. Peter, more similar to his mother, stocky blond with bright green eyes. The one was always in trouble for peeking in windows and snatching liquor from the stand.
For going out in the middle of the night and scaring the cows, getting caught with a girl in the barn, falling asleep in church.
Jasper was the more dependable of the two, more like his father, tall, muscular blond, cerulean eyes. He had rarely gotten in trouble as a child or teenager, once for being really late for curfew and the other for going to church hungover when he moved out.
But Peter had always been just a tiny bit worse, he had to borrow money from his brother when he first moved out, after his younger brother. He'd only now just really started to get stable on his feet, selling potato's and carrots, pigs and meat like Jasper.
Peter had decided to ride along to see the girl before they bought her.
They rode in silence again, the hooves on the horses feet clapped against the ground, and soon crunched over grass.
After a mile and a half, with the sun beating down on their skin turning parts of it red and causing beads of sweat to run down tanned temples.
They came upon a shack that was above ground with a little wooden door that led to an underground shelter where Frank kept the girls.
They rode up and tied their horses off before shuffling their bodies up the three wooden steps to Franks home.
Their boots hitting the wood with a hard click. A big dog shuffled around the house, she'd obviously just had pups and was looking a bit skinny. They heard Frank's heavy body maneuvering around the house, the dog waggled it's tail and licked Peter's hand.
Frank pulled open the door after a few moments and Jasper took in his appearance.
Haggard white beard, white hair, white eye brows on tanned heavily wrinkled skin, a crooked smile on his face, Frank looked old, well, older than he usually did.
"Jasper! Ah, Peter! My boys! Let's go underground and check out this lady." He shut the door behind him and wiggled down the stairs with the female dog following close behind.
"How was the ride?" Frank made small talk.
"It was good, shorter than I thought it would be, the horse is fine. I checked it out just this morning, cleaned her up." he said.
Frank sent him a greatful smile, "Thanks man, I don't know if this old body can do horse cleanup anymore." He said.
Jasper's brow crinkled in worry, "Well you let us know if you need anything Frank, you know our family is always here for ya' and just stop buy when your horse needs a real good clean; I'll get it done for ya'" He said.
Frank led them to the little door, he opened it with a little help from Peter.
The smell that came out wasn't bad, just musty and kinda dusty.
He led the down the stone steps into an open room. It was dark, with only a small sliver of light shining down but he could see a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling from a small white piece of twine.
In the far corner of the room was big jug of water that had a light brown tent to it and a baggie of corn.
It was obvious that's what he'd been feeding her.
He heard a rattle from the back end of the room where the dog had pranced back too, there was a large black cage in the back. And curled in the corner, was a small body.
He noticed how the dog had walked around the edge of the cage to nudge her nose at the small girl and sniff her.
The girl yanked away from the side and scrambled to the other end and the dog started to go to that side.
She was completely in white, from what he could tell – she almost stood out in the room.
Frank had been right, her skin was pale as cream, he thought that if he even looked at it hard enough it would bruise, she looked like she had never seen the light of the sun.
The next thing he noticed was that her hair was as dark as chocolate. It was long, touching the floor as she sat curled in a ball, but it was thick with curls that loose ringlets around her face, some of it wavy. It was obvious it needed to be cleaned a bit.
Her dainty feet were covered in beaded soft shoes and her small fingers were locked in her hair. As if to hold it on her head.
She did not show her face.
Frank walked slowly to the cage, shifting his old body around until he got a good grip on the lock and yanked the thing, it burst open to show another hatched where he stuck a gold key that had been tied to his belt loop.
The old cage cringed open and the door fell to the ground.
She scampered even deeper into the cage, her feet making quick work of the ground.
Frank reached in the deep cage, his hold not quite reaching so he stooped a bit. He caught ahold of her thin wrist and began to pull, her body came but she fought her way out. Her legs kicking with surprising strength that rattled the cage getting him once, he grunted loudly and yanked her harder. Her hands flew out of her hair to grip the sides of the cage.
She wasn't coming out without a fight, a fight that frank was losing.
With a loud screech she shot another kick at Frank this time catching him in his bad shoulder.
Jasper pushed forward then, Frank moved back watching curiously with Peter, who had an all-knowing smirk on his face.
Jasper stooped his tall frame into the cage and grasped one ankle with one hand and began to pull.
She began to come, her fingers slipping off the bars which she gripped tighter, she began to swing that dreadful leg again catching him in the shoulder before he grabbed that one too.
He pulled once, her fingers slipped a bit.
He pulled twice her fingers slipped, she let out another screech her back hitting the cage, her white dress riding further up her thighs. Her hair splayed across the ground. He got a good look at her face.
She had a heart shaped face, her cheeks were flushed red, her brows were artfully shaped and as dark as her hair. Her eyes squeezed shut. Her swan like neck arched backwards as she tried to pull herself away by sheer force.
He gave her one final pull and out she went, flying out of cage. Her had both of her legs in his hands he wrapped them around his hips and lifted her up to his chest. Holding her still as she began to struggle, her hips rocking widely and feet kicking around his body.
Her eyes had flown open and his body had frozen solid.
Her eyes belonged on an angel.
Light brown, accented with slashes of gold and light green. Something happened to him that hadn't happened in a while.
He'd grown hard. His cock became engorged with blood, thick in his black trousers.
She went completely limp in his arms, weighing right next to nothing. He took in the rest of her.
She was dressed in a long white skirt, it slit up the side of her leg and showed lots of pale untouched skin.
The top was completely separated from the bottom it was tight across her bosom showing the white puffed skin.
Beaded jewelry covered her arms ankles.
He tipped his head to the side, "Frank, you said this place you got her from, no one spoke English?" He said.
"Naw' some strange language."
"I think she Romany. A Romany Gypsy." He said.
She grew even more still in his arms.
He looked at Frank with serious eyes, "I'll take her." He said.
Frank began to stutter, "You-You have not even checked her out fully."
He looked to Frank again, "No, she's perfect."
He spoke softly, hefting her up even higher so that her head rested on his broad shoulder and he got a good whiff of her scent. It was light and heavy at the same time, deep and sensual. Good God, she was perfect.
She was just a tiny thing, her head would probably only go up to his heart.
He cradled her as they all walked silently out of the musty room.
She relaxed against him a bit, most likely plotting her way out. He smirked at that thought. As Frank went to go appraise the horse Peter walked up in front of him.
"Well let her down, let's see her." He said.
Jasper let her down just a bit, until her itty bitty feet touched the floor. He was right; her head only came up to about just under his pectoral.
Her hair was thick and curly and went to her upper thighs. His hands stayed locked on her hips, nice soft hips that he was sure would help her carry his sons.
Peter reached forward as if to touch her face and she jerked back. His hand snapped forward to grab her chin and she yanked forward her teeth clamped on his finger.
"OUCH! Dammit!" He snapped his hand back and cradled it.
Jasper chuckled a bit as Frank undid the rope from his new horse. He walked it up to them and Jasper lifted her back up to his chest.
"Does she speak English?" He asked Frank.
Frank rolled his aged eyes, "of course she does; curses like a sailor too!"
"What's her name? Did she say?" He asked.
"She said it was Isabella." Frank said, and held out his hand.
"Thanks for doing business with me Jasper." He said, Jasper smirked, "No problem Frank, be sure to stop at Ma and Pop's house on your way out of town, Ma's made her sweet honey biscuits at home with her peach preserves." He said.
Frank's eyes lit up, "You bet Jasper, you get that girl home." He said.
Jasper hauled her up onto the tall horse and followed suit, strapping her to his chest with one tanned arm and reaching into his sack and pulling out a smaller pack filled with soft honey biscuits, he handed her one and watched as she devoured it with quick nibbles. He kicked the side of the horse and got them going at a quick pace.
He watched her out of the corner of his eye as he bounced up and down and her color went paler and paler and paler, until she was a strange shade of green, that's when he stopped, and she leaned off the side of the horse and acid and honey biscuit flew out of her stomach with urgency.
He pulled his pouch of water off the side of the horse and handed it to her when she was done and watched her take gulps, swish and spit it out quickly.
Peter rode up on the other side, pity for the girl all over his usual smiling face. She was crying softly into the hair of the horse, gibberish coming out of her mouth, he gently held her to his chest and whispered in her ear:
"Don't worry Isabella, I'll take care of you, I promise."
I do not own Twilight
The next update is scheduled for: May 10th 2012 if at least 10 reviews are submitted.
Also, What do you think, I really love detailed reviews.
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