Chapter
1
Free at Last?
Time: 10:34 pm
Date: April 22, 1819
Mood: Horrified
Situation: Hiding from Johnathon Ravenwood
Dear Diary,
To
be completely honest, I had always thought that writing in a journal
or something of that sort was completely pointless. But now in what
could possibly be my last night alive/free, I want to write what
happened to me so that if I do end up dead, there will be a record of
it so they can punish the man responsible for it.
My name is
Catherine Ash Ravenwood, Johnathon Ravenwood is my uncle. He took me
in when I was only four years old because my parents had been
murdered by a petty theif. He took very good care of me. His wife,
Susanna, was like a sister, she was always there when you needed her.
But two years back she died of an unknown illness, and John went
insane. He became a drunk and started abusing me, saying how it was
my fault she died, how if she hadn't had to take care of me she never
would have gotten sick in the first place. The beatings slowly got
worse, and more violent.
Tonight he came home from the pub more
drunk than he normaly was, so I expected the beating to be very bad,
but instead of beating me, he tried something new, he tried to rape
me. But I did something he didn't expect, this time I fought back. I
grabbed the nearest thing I could and hit him over the head with it.
The force of the blow combined with his drunkeness made him fall
backwards and hit his head on the floor knocking him unconcious. I
took this chance and ran into my room grabbing a bag and throwing a
few pairs of undergarments, a dress, a pair of pants, and a shirt. I
slipped on a pair of my boots (I was dressed in a pair of black
pants, a white shirt, with my long coat over it all) and ran out of
my room into John's study, I grabbed a pen and a blank journal, and
as I started on my way out I saw a pair of scissors, I decided what
to do right then. I picked up the scissors and chopped off most of my
long, bronze-ish colored hair and put my hat back on my head. With
everything I needed I ran as fast as I could out of the house and
down the street to the docks.
Now I know you're probably
wondering why a women had boy's clothes, I love ships and sailing and
the ocean, so I needed to be able to dress like a boy so that the
sailors would let me help them with whatever they needed (of course I
was never able to leave and sail away, but I learned all there was to
know about working on a ship).
I think I should explain where I
am right now. I am currently stowing away on a merchant ship that is
to set sail in the morning. But I am sure that Johnathon has risen
the alarm, making up some story about how I attacked him and tried to
kill him. So at the moment there are most likely soldiers running
around the streets looking for the fugative girl, I just hope that
they don't feel the need to check ships or anything of the sort. I
don't think they would find that neccisary though, because John never
knew that I went to the docks (in truth he never even knew that I
left the house). So I'm pretty sure that I'll be safe... that is
until the sailors on this ship find out there's a stow-away on board
their ship.
I'll write as soon as I can! And tell you of the
adventures, disasters, andhopefully accomplishments that I'll
face/make in the future that is soon to come. I'm going to end it
here, I believe what I've written will be sufficient enough, thatif I
do get caught, to prove that I am innocent enough. I'm going to start
using the name that I used at the docks, Ather Ashwood, I think it's
quite clever how it's all a part of my real name.
Until
next time then,
Ather Ashwood