Chapter 11
Warning: There are two sensitive words in this chapter
Tavington was the first to wake as it was nearing sunrise. The British Army soldiers were trained to be early risers as it was necessary to prepare themselves for a full day of battle.
He realizes that he still had his arm around Awinita, who was resting her head on his chest. He begins to recollect on the love-making last night; it was rough at first, but she had surprised him when she suckled on his cock. He didn't recall any of the other women he slept with made him cum like that.
"William?" he hears her soft voice and he responds. She then lifts her head up to look at him and lets him rise up from the blanket they slept on all through the night. They didn't mind sleeping on the hard earth as the cot was a bit small for two.
Awinita helps Tavington dress in his uniform and he does the same for her. She then retrieves his sabre, but looks at it like some sort of treasure. He lets her remove it from its sheath to look at the blade. She admires the work it was put into and even checks the balance of it on her finger.
"Who taught you that?" Tavington asks and she puts it back in its sheath.
"My family and a few friends. They taught me to hunt with guns, but I was good at tracking and drawing out game," she answers as she gives him his sabre. Tavington was amazed; he was learning something new about the woman he was infatuated with every day.
Before he could speak, they hear a pair of feet stop outside the tent. "Colonel? Sir?" they hear Bordon and Tavington steps out. "Sir, the horse groom, Elijah, he hasn't been accounted for when we called up this morning."
Awinita felt her insides grow cold; Elijah was missing? "How very unusual," she hears Tavington answer and adds, "I'll have someone search for him, he couldn't have gone far." He returns inside and notices the look on his lover's face. "You heard that, didn't you?" he asks and she nods. "I am putting my trust in you on this; you can track down a runaway, can you?" he asks.
She looks at him in surprise and replies, "I find it strange for Elijah to run away. You remember the day when..." she trails as she recollects the memory of a few Red Coats, including Dickinson roughly handling her and Elijah when they were retrieving water from the river.
"Yes, I do," he said and walks over to one corner of the tent. He reveals a musket and shows it to her, "You know how to use this?" he asks and she nods before taking it. Having a musket in her hand did feel good to her as it felt like it had been ages. She prepares it in smooth fashion, delighting the colonel.
"I would like to know what Elijah's movements were before we settled last night," she insists and Tavington shows her the way. They come upon another dark skinned groom, it was one of the servants who manhandled her on the first day.
"This is Kobe," Tavington said, but Awinita could see the irritation in the man's eyes. "Kobe, show where you last saw Elijah," the colonel orders and he obeys. It was either out of obedience or fear, but Kobe shows Awinita a heavy wooded area far from the camp.
"We go in to do manly business," Kobe tells her in a thick African accent and she knew what he meant.
"What time of day did you last see him?" she asks.
"Before dark, before the colonel and the Dragoons came back," he answers and she looks into the woods; she did imagine it being difficult to walk through when it was completely dark.
She thanks Kobe and goes back to Tavington to tell him what she was told. The colonel takes a look at Kobe, she did suspect he didn't trust the groom as he did attempt to hurt her when they were in his tent.
She then asks for the colonel to grant her permission to scout for the missing Elijah. He looks into her eyes; she did seem to know what to do, but there was the possibility of her running away. "I won't run," she said after a pause.
"Very well, but if you are not back before sunset, I'll go after you myself," he replies in a somewhat threatening tone. Awinita prepares for the scouting as it usually took a long time for her and her brothers to locate game while hunting.
She returns to the patch of woods Kobe had shown her. She locates a spot where the men did their business, which disgusted her as it still reeked and it did attract flies, and sees a set of footprints leading deep into the woods. She follows them, the leaves of the trees had blocked the sun, but she could see.
She was wondering what caused Elijah to walk away from the spot and notices a new set of prints, horse prints. Then, she sees that much of the ground had an impact, as if a body had fallen.
Resuming her walk, she notices that the one set of footprints were in a run and the horse's was in a gallop, what happened here? Awinita takes in the sounds of the forest; the leaves rustled in the wind, but also hears the sound of rushing water.
She runs towards the sound of water and comes upon a steep slope that lead to a rushing river. The river was not rough at one spot further up and she looks down to see spots of blood on some rocks.
She takes the musket in hand and prepares it with bullets and gunpowder. She follows the blood, only to stop when the blood appeared to have been washed away. "Damn!" she curses out loud. The sounds of the water were not loud, so Awinita looks around, there was still the threat of the one who hunted Elijah. She was sure they were nearby.
Then, she hears the sound of a horse neighing and takes aim, but doesn't fire. Across the river, she saw a shape; even though there was a cover of trees, she did see the creature rear its front legs.
"Shut up you damn beast!" she heard a voice, although it was low and it did come from behind a boulder on the other side. Awinita turns to run just as the first bullet ricocheted off a rock on her side of the river. She manages to find protection by hiding behind a log.
The horse was now screaming, but she hears a man's voice call out, "COME ON OUT YOU TRESPASSER!"
"I'm not a trespasser!" she calls back, "I'm trying to find someone!"
"You're with them Red Coats?! Like that damned negro?!" she hears him shout and that makes her stomach twist. Another shot was fired and Awinita knew she had to fire back. She locates some pebbles and throws them at the cluster of boulders. The man comes out to shoot, but Awinita quickly spots him.
He was an old man with white hair and was wearing unkempt clothes. He did appear unsteady when he took another shot, but he missed. Awinita sees him retreat behind the boulder and makes her move. She runs atop another boulder on her side; it was much bigger and taller, giving her enough to see the man trying to reset his gun.
She fires the musket, hitting the man in the shoulder and he goes down. "STOP!" she freezes when she heard that voice; it was Tavington on his horse and some of the Dragoons were behind him.
She goes down to her knees and sets the musket down; her heart was pounding against her chest and she felt light-headed. "Awinita?" she hears the colonel and looks to see him offer his hand to help her down from the boulder.
He helps her onto his horse and she points to the other side of the river. Tavington commands his horse to cross, the water was not treacherous and they made it to the other side.
They find the man, moaning in pain and cradling his wounded arm. "You damn darkie," he mutters when a few of the Dragoons came to his side.
"Awinita, what happened?" Tavington whispers into her ear. She tells him what the man had said before the exchange of gunfire. The colonel dismounts and walks up to the man; he couldn't keep his head up.
"Is he drunk?" she asks, wondering if he had alcohol earlier.
"I can smell it on his breath," one of the Dragoons beside the man replies. The pain in Awinita's head subsides and she notices drag marks on the ground. She commands Tavington's horse to walk and she follows the marks to a partially buried pit, but she gasps when she sees the upper half of Elijah's body.
"Oh good Lord," another Dragoon said, having followed her and seeing the corpse. Elijah's head had caved in as if someone took a hatchet to his skull; his eyes were wide open, showing fear. There was little blood, but Awinita suspected the man killed Elijah while trying to wade through the water.
"I ain't telling you nothing, you damn Red Coats," the man said and he was forced to his feet. Tavington orders his men to take the homicidal colonial back to camp; he was going to ask him some serious questions once the alcohol wore off.
Tavington then walks over to the pit, gazing at Elijah's body. Deep down, the colonel felt this man didn't deserve to die such a horrific death. "We'll give him a proper burial," he said to Awinita, but she didn't seem to hear him.
Instead, she dismounts and walks over to the horse that was with the man. She could tell the horse was a mare and the animal slowly walks over to the woman. The mare had a bay colored coat with no markings and the two did seem to recognize each other.
"What's wrong?" she hears Tavington's voice behind her and she looks at him, tears in her eyes.
"This is...this is..." she sputters some words and her legs were shaking now. He grabs her in time as she collapses, the horse hits one of her hooves on the ground, she was upset for some reason.
"Take this horse along," Tavington orders and one Dragoon on his mount takes the mare's strap on her bridle. The colonel hoists Awinita into his arms and carries her to his horse. With some help, they both mount and rode off back to camp, while a few remained behind to dig a more deeper, but proper grave for the deceased Elijah.
From the author: I'm sure no apology can cover the anxiety for those waiting for an update. I have no excuse, but I am hoping that some of you readers still want to see the outcome of this story.
Anyway, I hope I didn't upset anyone with the words 'darkie' and 'negro' being mentioned, but the story is set in 18th century South Carolina, which weren't considered 'bad' words if you will at the time. A lot of 'bad' words were spoken in those days. However, there is no excuse in the killing of an innocent man such as Elijah. Just don't bash at me for writing something that happened over two hundred years ago. I'll see you soon!