Chapter 11

Jeremiah led Vicki to the hallway and down the stairs to the drawing room. There standing so regally in her expensive gown of Colonial make stood a woman that Vicki had grown to love as her mother. She wanted to rush into her arms and hold her and tell her how much she loved her.

Instead she was reminded she was not Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, she was Naomi Collins and apparently was the widow Collins. Which meant that Joshua had died in this time line. "Dear Elizabeth, as you have seen fit not to full fill our contract and marry me to make me the head of the family. I have here with me a noble woman of noble birth. Mistress Katherine Harridge, my fiancé."

Naomi studied the wide innocent eyes of the woman that stood before her and sighed deeply. "You know Jeremiah, I do not love you nor could I ever love you. If Mistress Harridge is the innocent fiancé you claim her to be then I will turn the fortune and the head of the family's position over to you and we can exchange residences and titles."

This woman was as strong and in command as her own mother had been when she was handling the family business and Roger. Vicki dropped a deep curtsy to the woman and spoke softly. "My lady Collins. I am honored to meet you." Jeremiah was pleased to see her fall into place so quickly to assume the position he now had laid at her feet.

"When will the banns be posted of your marriage date Jeremiah?"

Vicki stood back, and watched the play between the two, as they seemed to dance a deadly game of cat and mouse. Vicki was curious to see which would fall to the game first. Though secretly she prayed it would be Naomi, she did slide a coveted gaze to the tall commanding figure of Jeremiah, standing poised with his arm negligently draped over the mantle.

He was so like Quentin from her time she almost felt an affinity for him. Then he put that cold calculated smirk on his lips that was when she quashed those feelings. Feeling her body tittered a bit back and forth she was afraid she was going to pass out. "My dear Naomi, there will be no banns we plan to wed this very night and I have brought you and Millicent along with Abigail to be witness to this holy alliance."

With a quick look of sympathy to Vicki; Naomi spoke more harshly than she intended, "Unholy alliance from were I stand Jeremiah." This cutting remark caused him to chuckled with disdain.

"Oh come now dear sister, you would not begrudge me the same happiness you professed to have shared with my brother a bigger cold fish I cannot imagine than he."

Naomi snapped her gaze to his figure and she snarled, "Watch your tongue he is barely in his grave a month and you are here to belittle and besmirch our love?"

Jeremiah had the decency to look somewhat abashed for a moment. "Forgive me dear sister, I do cross the line somewhat at times and you of all know this."

He moved to snag Vicki's elbow and lead her to one of the fireside chairs and seat her. "Abigail should be back shortly with the good reverend and we can get this over with. I will give you a month to move here."

Naomi smiled a humorless smile and fixed that steely-eyed gaze on him. "Have you forgotten the second part of that codicil to Joshua's will brother?"

Naomi swept across the room and she herself sat on the edge of the other fireside chair. "The part where I become head of the family after I have produced an heir?"

Naomi nodded and looked down at her hands folded in her lap. "Exactly."

Jeremiah smiled and shrugged. "Then I will propose this to you Naomi, we all will live in Collinwood and when my wife becomes with child and an heir is born, I will then allow you time to collect your things and you can move to this house and take up residence."

Naomi glanced to Vicki as she sat looking pale and confused and was it possible she saw in her gaze a hint of fear. Feeling sorry for the girl that was no more than a child her self she nodded. "I agree to allow you and your wife to take up residence in Collinwood."

Jeremiah almost gloated with her capitulation and for once was glad he had found someone that Naomi seemed to wish to protect. Vicki folded her hands neatly in her lap and tucked her chin. She had to think, she had to try and figure out how she ended up here in this timeline, was this residual left over from her last adventure to Nicolai's timeline? She was still feeling the affects of being knocked unconscious earlier. That was a mystery that still needed to be answered.

The door to the old house opened and the irritating giggle of Millicent could be heard as she entered the front door followed by Abigail and then by Lamar Trask. "Ahh the good Reverend Trask joins us at last."

Jeremiah shifted a hand to the inner pocket of his great coat and pulled out a parchment handing it over to Trask. "The marriage license."

Trask looked from Naomi with a covetous look then took the parchment and glanced to it and smiled. Finally, his gaze shifted and he looked upon the girl he was to know as Kathrin Harridge. "Ahh the future Mrs. Collins I presume?"

Vicki only stared at him in fear and could only afford him a nod. Trask studied the lovely young woman before him and he was immediately struck by her innocent purity when she looked up at him in wide eyes fear.

"Well shall we proceed?" He moved to take up a position by the fireplace and then indicated where everyone was to stand. Abigail moved forward and handed him the family bible so that the names could be recorded after the ceremony. Vicki stood next to Jeremiah and looked around nervously then noted he held out his hand.

With fingers that trembled she laid her now cold hand in his and then turned to look at the reverend. His words were well rehearsed and practiced to sound sincere but somehow Vicki found that hard to believe. The Lamar Trask she had known had been cold and narcissistic to the extreme he truly believed his own lies.

A man that had believed he was the savior of the time from all things wicked and evil and that Lamar Trask had singled her out to be his project to prove he was a great witch hunter and would use her as his stepping stone to make a name for himself. A stepping-stone that ended with her being convicted of witch craft and hanged as a witch.

At least in this time she felt she would not be the focal of his bigotry and hatred of her. The monotone voice moved though his sermon and soon she felt a heavy single cut emerald being slid onto her ring finger that did more than just weight her hand. Standing in shock that she was now married to this pompous ass sent a hard knot of sickness to her stomach.

Trask accepted the envelope with a sly grin to Jeremiah at the finish of recording the names in the family bible and then offered a quick drink along with congratulations and was hustled to the door. Naomi edged her way to Vicki's side.

Taking her fingertips she lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. There Vicki saw the same loving look her mother had given her each time she had done the same exact thing. "Child I hope you know what you have just done." Vicki looked with a hint of fear in her gaze and the words came unbidden from her tongue as she whispered. "So do I mother."

Naomi blinked in surprise and said softly, "What did you call me?"

Vicki sighed and looked down. "My apologies it is you remind me so much of my own mother that for a moment I forgot she is not here."

Naomi smiled and it made Vicki feel loved and welcomed in this hostile environment for the first time since she awoke in the room upstairs. "I hope you feel you can come to me anytime my dear and if you wish to think of me as your mother I would not be offended nor find it objectionable."

She gathered Vicki into her arms and whispered in her ear. "I am here for you if you need me."

Vicki returned the hug and did not wish to let go. Jeremiah entered the room in time to witness this exchange and a more calculated look entered into his gaze as he watched Naomi and Vicki together. "Well now shall we prepare ourselves for departure back to Collinwood?"

Naomi sighed and released her hug from Vicki. Turning she peered over to her brother in law. "At least allow me some time to have rooms prepared for your return Jeremiah. Surely you wish to consummate your marriage in this house before rushing your exhausted bride off to another strange location."

Jeremiah was quick to retort but curbed his tongue to do so. "Perhaps you are right Naomi. I shall in deed consummate my marriage in the master's marriage bed in this house and you may expect us on the morrow around mid morning. So do have rooms prepared for our arrival."

Millicent had blithely stood by and sighed deeply. She was supposed to have been the one to marry Jeremiah but instead this lovely young woman won his affections. Now she was in a petulant mood and wanted to be teary eyed listening to Jeremiah and Naomi.

The two maids from earlier made their quiet appearance at the door and awaited their instructions. Seeing them arrive Jeremiah smiled, "My dears take my new bride to my bedchamber and prepare her for my arrival please."

He bowed to them and watched them flank Vicki then guide her away from the comfort of Naomi and Millicent. With a backwards glance over her shoulders she allowed them to lead her up the stairs and down the hallway away from Josette's room to another larger room. This night had just begun and for the life of her she was not sure how it was going to end but one thing was for sure, it was not how she had expected it.

Naomi, Millicent, and Abigail all made their way with the help of the servants to the awaiting carriage and were immediately sent on their way. With brooding intent, Jeremiah moved back up the front of the house and entered securing the door behind him he moved to the drawing room to the liquor cabinet and poured himself another stiff drink.

He had a very lovely and delightful new bride awaiting his pleasure upstairs. Something held him from going up the stairs and claiming what was rightfully his as he sat in front of the fireplace and slowly began to get drunk. With each passing hour his thoughts grew ore befuddled and his anger was now growing within him. He sat back and studied the color of his brandy and sighed. A small part of him was loathed to go up and force his husbandly intentions on the young woman that now lay in his bed.

He had to wonder at her arrival when he had heard her in the hallway. Thinking she was a thief he had unintentionally knocked her into the wall knocking her out. He was totally astounded to see her in the right light and how much she looked like the woman in the portrait.

He had been given a second chance and perhaps this time he would not kill this one and she would give him what he wanted and needed. He could hear their father's voice in the back of his mind. How he always compared him to Joshua and how Jeremiah had always come up wanting in some fashion or another and not an equal but a bitter disappointment. Though Jeremiah had been named for his father he was nothing like the strict disciplinarian that had ruled with an iron fist and made Joshua over in his image.

Perhaps he was the reason that Jeremiah now held little regard for mankind and his heart had harden to the likes of what he perceived were soft and milk toast types that seemed to grate on his nerves. What did drive him were his greed and his need to be perceived someone of import and nobility.

He knew that Kathrin Harridge had come from such a background it is she annoyed him with her whining ways when she first arrived. What had made her more dangerous than most women he had encountered and taken what they offered was she had backbone and was intelligent enough to know what he was planning?

Had she not baited him with her taunts she would be alive today. All she had to do was marry him and give him a child. He would have gladly sent her on her way to live out the rest of her life in veritable comfort. At least that is what her father had expected when he saw a wealthy suitor in the offing.

The old man had been on his last farthing and now he was about to loose his home and his family to the poorhouse. That is what made him so susceptible to the offer Jeremiah had made to him. Fifteen hundred pounds was a lot of money and would pay off a lot of his debts and with the promise of an additional stipend for the rest of his life of five hundred pounds ten shillings he could keep the rest of his family fed and in a home.

That was nothing compared to what Jeremiah would inherit upon being married. He had wanted the youngest daughter of the five the old man had. She was barely eighteen and would be easy to handle and not question his desires or needs. But the old man was not for that, no he had to offer the oldest daughter, the very attractive but too smart for her own good Katharine.

Jeremiah stood and flung his glass into the fireplace. "Why did she have to persist in her manner?" He muttered and then glanced to the stairs and his gaze drifted up to the upstairs. "Well its time my dear your husband is on his way prepare yourself."

His words were loud and slurred shouting up the stairs and staggered towards the stairway. Half falling, have dragging his inebriated body up the stairs he staggered to his bedchambers door and threw it open. Vicki sat up pulling the blanket up to her chin to stare at him with wide-eyed fear.

He grinned and then staggered to the bed and looked down on the purity of her innocence as he started to with difficulty remove his clothing. As he got his boots off and then slid his pants off he fell into the bed in a drunken snore and much to Vicki's relief. Pushing him up into the bed, she covered his body and then slipped quietly down the hallway to Josette's room and went to bed and tried to sleep.

The room had such a loathsome feel to it that she found all she could do was toss and turn. With daylight beginning its crawl of pink, gold, and soft peach hues of color across the sky, she drifted in an uneasy sleep to awaken to the feel of someone watching her.

Opening her eyes she sat up with a start. Standing by her bed was she! Vicki was looking at the representative of the picture that hung over the fireplace. She was also peering up at her own image. "Victoria Winters Collins, you have been brought here to right the wrong and to make a change for what must be or the Collins family of the future here will not be alive or a part of Collinwood. Please I beg of you to right the wrongs and set the course of history back to its rightful flow."

With those words uttered the figure disappeared leaving the room with an unearthly chill. Vicki stood from the bed and looked around the room. "I will do what I can Katharine. I promise you I will do what I can." Speaking to the empty room her door flew open and a half drunk half angry Jeremiah stood in his nightshirt.

"Woman you left my bed, it now time to serve your husband!" With those words uttered he advanced on her swept her into his arms and carried her down the hallway to his room. Throwing her down on his bed, he fell on top of her ripping away her gown and placing hot kisses over her face, neck and breasts.

His hands worked awkwardly to undress her to get to what he felt now belonged to him. Vicki struggled against his hold and found his strength far out weighed her own and soon found he had accomplished what he expected. He had taken her virginity in this body and claimed his husbandly rights.

Once again sated he fell away and into a drunken sleep leaving Vicki feeling spoiled and ashamed at such savagery that had just been inflicted on her and her body. Making sure he was sleeping soundly she escaped to the nearest bathing room and washed her body silently crying over the humiliation she had just been subjected to by a man that was suppose to be her husband. Feeling the cold water sooth her battered body she once again went to Josette's room, locking the doors and moving to fall into the bed to sleep a fitful sleep of unrest and fear.

Daylight had finally warmed the room, Vicki awoke feeling bruised and sore and to the very loud pounding on her door and the angry voice of her husband demanding she unlock the door and allow him entry. Moving to the door with the blanket wrapped around her body she got to the door. She heard him throw his body to the door attempting to break the door open.

Unlocking the door, she fell back and waited, watching expectantly and the door was thrown open and a fully clothes Jeremiah stood towering in the doorway his glassy eyed look taking in every part of her body. "You need to get dress wife, we are moving to the big house today." He pushed past her and looked the room over and smiled. "I rather enjoy being married do you not also my dear?"

He studied her as she stood before him. "I find marriage life not as enjoyable as you husband.' She clipped off the words as quickly as he had and immediately felt the sting of the back handed slap he delivered for her impertinence.

"You will learn to temper your tongue in my presence wife for I do believe in being a ruler with an iron fist and it would be a pity to mar such beauty. Now get dress and join me in the drawing room there are a few ground rules I wish to go over with you before we take up residence in Collinwood."

With another look of wanton lust in his gaze he left her in the room standing in her slight gown shivering and wondering what the hell she had gotten herself involved in with this group of the Collins family. Dressing as quickly as she could she made her way down to the drawing room where she stood on the steps observing her husband sitting in the chair and had already begun to drink from the liquor cabinet. Not saying a word she moved into the room and stood before him, head bowed, watching the floor and awaiting his wisdom on what he expected.

Dispassionately he studied her standing before him. He noticed a cut to her lip from where he had backhanded her. "Now, sit." He nodded to the chair next to him and with sullen silence she moved to the chair and sat. Assuming a bent head and quiet attitude of subservience she waited.

He studied his glass and then smiled. "Very good you are a quick study." She did not respond she kept her hands folded in her lap and watched the floor. He wondered if she was expecting it to leap up and dance a jig for her with the intensity she used in her perusal.

"When we arrive at Collinwood, I am sure my dear sister in law will have rooms prepared for the both of us. You will be put in one room, which will be your room as long as you obey my demands and wishes. I will be given a room I am sure close to your room. I will expect you to be in my bed for your nightly duties as my wife, you will not tell Naomi anything that is discussed between us, And neither will you discuss anything with that silly chit, Millicent. You will keep our business to our bedchambers. I will not expect you at my beck and call twenty-four hours of the day seven days of the week. You will have time to explore your own interests as long as they do not interfere with my interests. Is that understood?"

He studied her bent head and rather liked this version of Katharine more than that other shrew he had been given. He noted the slight nod of her head and was immediately annoyed. "I said do you understand, look at me Katherine."

Vicki lifted her chin and jutted it forward in a stubborn streak of her own design and nodded but said so softly, "Yes, I understand perfectly well husband. Will there be anything else?"

She started to rise and he was immediately annoyed. "Did I give you permission to stand?" She shook her head and reseated herself. "For now that will do. As we get further along with my plans if I think of anything else I will let you know. Now go gather your cloak, the carriage awaits."

Vicki stood slowly and started towards the stairs and felt her arm caught by Jeremiah. He pulled her back against him, tipped her head back and dropped a passionate deep kiss on her. Vicki was startled by his attack on her fine sensibilities and she gasped he forced his tongue into her mouth to plunder it with his kiss then as quickly he released her and pushed her away.

Turning his back on her she watched him with a look of utter and complete dislike. Turning she hurried away from him rushing up the stairs to Josette's room to gather her cloak and collect herself from this newest assault.

Pressing her fingertips to her face she let out a slow jagged breath and spoke to the room. "I hope you know what you are asking of me Katharine. I promise to help but his wanton desires are out of control and I do not know how long I will be able to keep my temper or my tongue under control." With those words she turned and slowly made her way back down the stairs going into what she did not know but only praying she could stay alive long enough to do what was needed so she could go back to her husband.