Chapter 14
Awinita found herself back at the river where she met the hostile colonial, Jacob Fairegood. She urges Lady to cross the calm part of the river. Once they were on dry ground, they come upon a mound of disturbed earth. Awinita didn't have to make a second guess as to what it was.
"I am sorry Elijah," she spoke in a whisper, "You didn't deserve to die alone and afraid." She was hoping he didn't suffer for too long as she did recall seeing his caved in skull while he was in the pit.
She looks around the forest, taking in the sounds of birds and the wind whistling through the trees. She urges Lady to walk deep into the woods, which was thinning out, and they come upon a stone path. They stared out at a cleared, flat pasture with tall green grass, but Awinita turns Lady up the path as she spotted a big Colonial house with a barn next to it.
She was familiar with these kinds of homesteads; in fact, it did remind her of home. She wondered how her family was doing and how they were handling without her. The Martin children did look to her as an older sister and she did miss them.
Awinita ushers Lady to a stop in front of the big house; the exterior was painted white with black shutters, but had no porch, just a stoop. The front door was wide open and Awinita takes the musket in hand before entering inside. It was awful quiet inside, but it did look like it had been occupied at some point.
She enters the parlor and stops in her tracks when she spots a torn up British flag in the fireplace, but the fire had died out before it finished consuming the flag. She notices scratch marks on the wooden floor and follows them to the dining room. The table had plates with food, but much of it had been left uneaten. Some of the chairs had toppled over and some shattered glass had scattered on the floor.
Something went wrong here Awinita thought and she follows the scratch marks to the back door. She sees foot prints in the moist earth, which lead to the barn. She counted at least ten prints; either a large family lived at this house or a big group of radicals forced the occupants out here.
Lady lets out a loud neigh and Awinita spots her by the barn door. She then picks up the scent of decaying flesh and she hears a swarm of flies, but she opens the door. In the middle of the barn floor was a pile of corpses, a woman and three children, all boys, but above them hung a man with a rope around his neck.
She covers her nose, but the scent of death was strong in this barn. She spots a note pinned to the man's shirt "Loyalist Pigs". The stalls in the barn were empty; the murderous group of radicals must've taken the animals that resided here.
Awinita climbs up the rafters to bring down the man; she didn't want him to hang from there any longer. She finds the end of the rope and with all her strength, she gently lowers the man's body down to the ground, next to his family.
She takes a moment to lay them out before placing cloths over their bodies. The youngest boy looked to be at least 10 years of age, the eldest had to be Gabriel's age with brown hair and some facial hair was starting to sprout on her chin. The father had brown hair and a brown beard, with gray specks.
After she covers the family with some cloth, Awinita shuts the barn door and climbs on to Lady's back. She urges the mare into a run; she wanted to go back to camp and inform Tavington and his men of what she found.
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The sun was starting to set when Awinita returned to the camp, but Tavington had not come back from inspecting the ambush site. She tries her best to locate someone who would trust her in going back with her to the farm where she found the family.
"Looking for your master?" Kobe asks when he notices her distress.
"What do you mean?" she replies and he scoffs at her.
"The Butcher," Kobe spoke in his thick African accent, "He's your master, like a dog to a human."
"Don't say such things," she pleads; she felt her anger beginning to boil, and she didn't want to let it out.
"It's true; a dog missing its master," the groom replies and Awinita started to walk away from him, but Kobe follows close behind. "You are a dog," he whispers over and over, taunting her.
"Enough!" she shouts and turns around to scratch him across the face. He lets out a cry of pain as her nails came into contact with his skin. He covers his right eye as blood begins to seep through his fingers; did she scratch him that bad?
Kobe removes his hand and shows his right eyelid; she did avoid his eye, but he looked real angry. "You bitch!" he yells out and was about to strike her, when a horse comes up from behind and they hear the cocking of a gun.
"What is going on?!" they hear the voice of Colonel Tavington. Awinita never felt so relived to see him, although she wondered what he would think of what she did to Kobe. The groom, however, doesn't say a word, but the colonel looks at the scratch marks.
"What happened?" Tavington asks, but Kobe backs away, not saying a word. The colonel looks to Awinita, she was shaking, and looking at her nails that had blood. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, I am, but there's something I have to show you," she replies and ushers him to have his men come along with them. Awinita, riding on Lady, leads the Dragoons through the woods to the stone path and the open pasture. They take the path up to the house and the barn, where Awinita showed them the corpses of the family.
"The same group of radicals who Mr. Fairgoode was with must've done this," she whispers to Tavington, who accepts her theory, and has his men dig up some graves for the family.
Tavington and a few other Dragoons tour the house; it did look in fine condition as there was barely dust anywhere and the furniture, including the beds were well kept. "We will set camp here; we do need a place such as this," the colonel tells Bordon, who nods in agreement, and he goes back to the camp with some Dragoons to spread the word. He takes Awinita to one of the bedrooms, shutting the door before placing both his hands on her shoulders, and pulls her in for a kiss.
She welcomes it and places one hand on the back of his head to help her deepen the kiss. After departing lips, Tavington holds her in his arms and asks, "Are you all right?"
She didn't respond and the colonel felt a tinge of irritation. "Please, tell me what happened with Kobe," he insists and Awinita looks up at him.
"When I came back to look for you, Kobe mocked me in saying I was your dog who was missing its master," she starts and she senses the anger rising within him. "He did call me your whore before I left to scout this area."
Tavington moves one hand from her shoulders to the back of her head, gently caressing her ebony black hair, and kisses her, again. The anger inside of him, however, manifested into a hatred towards Kobe the new groom. He wanted to teach him a lesson on his horrid manners toward Awinita.
"You should try and get some rest," he ushers her, "I will be back later," he adds and leaves the bedroom. Awinita suspected he was enraged by Kobe's bullying and wanted to hurt him, but she doesn't go after Tavington. She also wanted Kobe to be punished.
She explores the room; it had to belong to the husband and wife as the bed was big to fit two people, and she admired the wooden bed post that had pineapple carved finials. The bed mattress itself was comfy and Awinita lies down on it; it felt like she hadn't slept in a real bed in weeks.
She kicks off her shoes and falls asleep within moments. She knew she had to wait for Tavington to return and she wanted to make love to him in a real bed, instead of the hard, cold earth.
Outside, Tavington waits for the arrival of the other troops with their horses. It didn't take long for him to spot Kobe among the servants that came along. The colonel welcomes the soldiers before walking over to the groom, who stood still when he spots him. "Come with me, I would like to have a word with you," he commands and Kobe doesn't protest as Tavington takes him into the barn.
From the author: Trying to give this story as much attention as possible, but have been occupied with other stories. I'm sure everyone understands. Will update whenever I can.