"Tally, wake up." I opened my eyes, trying hard to focus my blurred vision. Finally I managed, rubbing away the sleep and sitting up. Tawny stood above me, her face swollen. I frowned, putting out a hand but she pulled away, like I had a disease.
"What happened, Haze?" I asked, sympathetically. Tawny shook her head.
"I can't be seen with you any more, Tally. I'm to be sold to a family in England." She said, sadly, avoiding my gaze. I was struck dumb for the first time in my life. Tawny laid a silky white dress on my bed, turning to leave. I, however, jumped from my bed, pulling her back to me.
"Why?" I demanded, holding her. Tawny didn't answer but a tear slipped down her cheek. That was when I realised why. She was being forced away because of me. I threw my arms around her neck, unsure of what to do but Tawny again pulled back, wincing in pain. I looked at her, letting her sit on the bed.
"What did they do to you?" I asked. With a deep breath, Tawny picked up the skirts of her servants dress, showing me large and painful looking bruises up her strong legs. I gasped, putting a hand to my mouth.
"And they whipped me again." She whispered, wrapping her arms about herself in a protective fashion. I closed my eyes, stopping tears. I sat by myself after Tawny left, pondering my options. I sat there all day, ignoring everything around me. I needed time alone. Time to think.
As I watched the sun go down a burning anger surged through me. I stood up and stormed down the stairs into James' study, where he sat drinking his liquor. I ran at him, slapping him repeatedly.
"You bastard!" I had screamed over and over until he had grabbed my hands and forced me away from him. He let me go uncertainly and using his hesitation I launched myself at him again. The liquor was thrown to the carpeted floor and smashed by my bare feet. I jumped back. James, however, used my move and grabbed hold of me, back handing me hard before dropping me to the floor, letting the glass cut into my skin.
"Mabel!" He shouted, waiting for Mabel to rush in. When she did, she almost tripped over me as I lay crying. James pointed at me.
"She tripped over and smashed this. Clean her up and then clean this." He ordered. Mabel nodded, picking me up off the floor and carrying me back to my room. She put me down gently on the bed and I couldn't help but wonder where Tawny had disappeared to.
"You have been in the wars, haven't you?" Mabel said quietly. She knew that I had not tripped. She knew James' temper was short and would nearly always get the better off him. Many times she had been on the receiving end, whether the punishment had been a slap or the whip.
"What do you think of Sir Frederick then, Miss Tally?" Mabel asked me as she pulled pieces of glass from my hands and arms. I looked at her, frowning.
"You knew? Why did you not tell me?" I asked, the hurt I was feeling betrayed by my shaking voice. Mabel shook her head.
"I did want to, Miss Tally, I really did. But the mistress…" She said, wrapping my arm in a bandage from her apron. I nodded. I knew how conniving Anna was. She was like a snake in the grass. I often saw her as a leak below the water line on a ship. It was not as noticeable as a large hole in the side of the ship but, in time, could be just a grave.
"I do not want to get married, Mabel, not ever." I said, sadly. Mabel laughed.
"Oh, one day, sweetie, one day you will meet some one you will want to keep with you for the rest of your life." I shook my head. Mabel nodded, tipping my chin up to look at her.
"We have two arms and two legs, two eyes and two ears, but we only have one heart. You see, the other is given to someone else and left for us to find, my child." She said, her voice soft and musical. I frowned.
"But if I am married to Sir Frederick how will I ever find that one or spend my life with him?" I asked in despair. Mabel smiled.
"Oh, you will, sweetie. I don't know how or when but you will, trust me." She said, stroking my hair. I nodded. Mabel's words had always been, and still are, a comfort to me. Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
"Come in!" I called. A young maid walked in, bowing before speaking to me.
"Your brother wishes to see you in his study, Miss." She said, leaving almost immediately. I looked from Mabel to the door, unsure of why James would want to see me. But still I went down to him. I walked in and my world collapsed around me. My head was spinning. James stood holding Tawny against the wall, holding the whip in his hand. The colour drained from my face as he raised the whip.
"This is what happens, Tally, when you cross me." He hissed at me, raising the whip higher. In a split second I had looked from Tawny to the whip, from the whip to James and from James to the wall. On James' wall were two swords. They were James prized possessions and I rushed to them, pulling one down. I pointed it at him. James lowered the whip as I poked him in the back with the tip of the sword. Slowly he turned to me.
"What are you going to do?" He asked. I struggled to hold the sword up, my hand shaking. He sneered at me.
"You aren't going t use that, Tally. You are weak and worthless. You can't save her." He said, raising the whip. And that was it. Tawny's eyes widened in fear as the whip cracked to brought down. I did all I could. I thrust the sword forward, hearing his cry of pain and the sound of the metal ripping through his flesh. He stood for a minute as if registering the sword in his back. And then he fell. James dropped to the floor, blood soaking through his rich garments. The door burst open and I jumped away from the body, dropping the sword in the pool of blood.
"I didn't mean to." I said slowly as Mabel walked towards us. Tawny looked at me and Mabel then to James, her face etched with fear. Mabel knelt down beside James, putting her fingers by his neck, searching for a pulse. I bit my finger nails anxiously. I had never meant to kill him; I just never wanted him to kill Tawny. Mabel looked up at me, her eyes dark.
"He's dead." She whispered. The world suddenly spun, the floor dropping form beneath me. All I felt was gravity and the imposing darkness dropping upon me like a layer of black snow.
"He's dead…"
