Several hours later, Ben and Gabriel Martin, along with the few men who'd managed to escape Tavington's trap with them, cautiously returned to the scene of the ambush. They'd hidden for many hours after fleeing from the Green Dragoons, and only crept out of their hiding place once they were sure that Tavington's men had ceased looking to round up stragglers.
As they warily emerged from the woods, they heard a loud buzzing sound coming from the edge of the clearing. The sound grew louder as they approached the source of the sound.
"Over here, "Gabriel called, pointing.
The group had come up behind where the corpses of Sam Sawyer and Harry Groves were still bound to the trees. Their heads lolled to one side with congealed blood still on their faces and back of their heads. Blood was also smeared on the tree trunks, and the soles of their boots showed from behind. Swarms of flies surrounded them, which proved to be the source of the buzzing.
The men hurried over at the sight of this, each wondering which of their comrades had met such a brutal end.
"Oh, dear God!" Gabriel exclaimed when he saw the battered, ruined faces of the men, then glanced down to see their mutilated crotches. Their severed penises were long gone, carried away by small animals.
His father wasn't fazed by the sight, as he'd seen and done worse when he'd served in the last war.
Gabriel's eyes bulged in horror at the sight. He ran suddenly to a set of nearby bushes, where he bent down and began to vomit, hurling the contents of his stomach in violent heaving waves. After he was finished, he remained on his knees for a good, long while, too overcome by what he'd just seen to stand.
"Are you all, right, son?" Ben asked, as he put a gentle hand on his son's shoulder.
"Why?" Gabriel demanded, still feeling nauseated. "Why did they do such a thing? And why to these two and not the others?"
"I don't know, son," Ben said sorrowfully. "But I can tell you one thing. We're going to get the rest of our men back from the British. There's no telling what will happen to them there if we leave them."
"How?" Gabriel was puzzled.
"I'll do the same thing to them that they did to us here today," Ben explained. "I'll create a ruse to get them to do what we want."
Walking away from the corpses, Ben said to the other men, "Go dig a couple of graves so we can bury these men properly."
After the men had left to carry out his wishes, Ben led Gabriel back to where their horses waited and sat down next to a tree. Waiting until Gabriel had joined him, he said, "Do you remember all the things we got in the last raid that belonged to General Cornwallis?"
"Yes," Gabriel affirmed. "But what does that have to do with getting our men back."
"Wait a moment and I'll tell you," Ben said, with a hint of impatience creeping into his voice. "There were quite a few British uniforms in that shipment and not all of them belonged to Cornwallis."
Pausing a moment to take a sip of water from his canteen, he continued, "I figure we can stuff several of those uniforms with straw, then tie them to trees in that big meadow approaching Fort Carolina. It's far enough away that it won't be easy to tell there aren't real men tied to those trees, but close enough that Cornwallis will be able to see uniformed figures with his spyglass. I'll simply go there under a flag of truce and tell them that we have the same number of his men as prisoners as he has of ours, and that I'm there to make a trade."
"Sounds like a good idea," Gabriel said. "It might just work."
"I know it will work," Ben said confidently. "And I'll offer to give his uniforms, diaries, and his dogs back to sweeten the deal."
"When do we leave?" the younger man asked.
"As soon as we give Sam and Harry a proper Christian burial," his father told him. "We won't go to the fort tonight, but we'll camp a bit closer to it than here, so we can get there during the morning. Remember that Isaac Shelby sent word that he needs as many men as possible to hunt down Patrick Ferguson, so we need to make haste to him as soon as our men are freed. It's our duty to help them."
"That it is," Gabriel agreed. "But after we've done that, I want to head back this way and deal with Tavington."
"We will, son, I promise you," Ben Martin vowed. "I intend to make him answer for his actions, sooner or later."
"We're all done digging the graves, sir," Occam told Ben about twenty minutes later, wiping the dirt off on his breeches as he spoke. "We lined the graves with some fresh leaves and you can say a few words over the graves any time you're ready."
"Thank you," Ben told him gratefully.
He and Gabriel followed the tall black man to where he and Jedidiah Moore had dug two holes in a clearing by a group of pine trees. He and Occam had pulled the dead men's breeches back up and fastened them before carefully laying them into the holes and had covered each of their faces with handkerchiefs.
Taking his place at the head of the graves, Ben said a few words before Occam and Jed filled in the graves.
"Dear Lord, accept the souls of these two men who fought for their country's right to God-given freedom," Ben prayed. "Let their deaths not be in vain."
A short time later, after the graves were complete, the men covered them with as many rocks and stones as they could find, then placed a stick at the head of each grave. Satisfied that they could find the graves again, if need be, the reduced number of partisans left, riding in the general direction of Fort Carolina.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
It was late afternoon by the time William Tavington and his men arrived back at the fort with the prisoners. Thankfully, Charlotte was nowhere in sight as the men put the captured partisans into the prisoner enclosure. Tavington wasn't sure if Benjamin Martin had told his men about his former sister-in-law's marriage, but even if he'd done so, he knew that most of Martin's men would not necessarily know Charlotte on sight. After making sure the prisoners were secure, he handed off his horse to a waiting groom at the stable, then hurried off to find Charlotte. He intended to make sure she was not seen by the prisoners while they were at the fort, as a necessary precaution to protect her, even if she was not known on sight as his wife by Martin's men.
Tavington was relieved to find Charlotte a few minutes later having tea with Mary Bordon and some of the other officers' wives in the room where the women usually gathered to socialize. All the women looked up expectantly as he entered the room, as they'd been able to hear his spurs jingling as he walked down the hall.
Charlotte's face lit up immediately upon seeing her husband. "Oh, William, I didn't expect you back this soon!"
"We concluded our business more quickly than I'd anticipated," he said smoothly, as he bent to kiss her hand. Turning to the other women, he said, "I'm afraid I must beg your forgiveness, but I must deprive you of my wife's company for now, as I have some urgent matters I must discuss with her." After a pause, he added, "Mrs Bordon, if you would kindly accompany us, as what I have to say will be relevant to you as well."
Looking distinctly alarmed, Mary Bordon quickly followed the Tavingtons out into the hallway. Colonel Tavington led the two women to a long sofa situated at the far end of the hallway and gestured for them to sit.
"Is my husband all right?" Mary blurted out after she'd seated herself on the sofa.
"Oh, yes, he's fine," Tavington assured her. "As is your brother." Seating himself next to Charlotte, he continued. "But I do have a serious matter to discuss with you both. We captured several prisoners in this operation from Benjamin Martin's militia. It would be best for you both to remain out of sight of these men as long as they're at the fort."
At that moment, both James Bordon and James Wilkins appeared from the doorway that led to the outside. Mary Bordon perked up immediately at the sight of her husband and brother.
"I was explaining to the ladies that it's important that they avoid being seen by the prisoners while they are at the fort." Rising from the sofa, he said, "I'll leave the two of you to fill in the details for Mrs Bordon, while I do the same with Mrs Tavington elsewhere. I'll expect you both by the prisoner holding area in about an hour so we can question the prisoners."
"Yes, sir," they replied.
Now quite curious, Charlotte followed her husband back to their quarters but did not speak until they were behind closed doors.
"What's going on?" Charlotte asked as she seated herself on the sofa.
"Something happened when we captured the prisoners," Tavington began. "I did not speak of it openly in front of Mrs Bordon, as that's her husband's place to tell her."
He removed his helmet and placed it on a table before joining her on the sofa. Taking Charlotte's hands in his own, he said, "We captured the two bastards who violated Mrs Bordon and killed her husband."
"Oh, so they're out in the prisoner enclosure," Charlotte reasoned. "I understand now why you'd want us to stay out of their sight."
Tavington sighed loudly at his wife's naïve misunderstanding. "No, my love," he said softly. "You misunderstand. Captains Bordon and Wilkins took their revenge on these pitiful excuses for men and in a most brutal fashion, I might add. I will not bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that neither of them will be assaulting any woman or killing any of my men in the future."
"Thank you for sparing me that," Charlotte said, gulping at the mere thought of what must have been done to these men. "I'm sure they deserved what happened to them, but I think I'm better off not knowing. At least Mary will be able to rest easier knowing they'll never hurt her again."
"Yes, my sweet," Tavington agreed. "And the other prisoners witnessed their execution, so I find it best that none of the fort's women be seen by the prisoners. I will be recommending to Lord Cornwallis that he temporarily make that area of the fort off-limits to all fort women."
"A good idea," Charlotte replied. "I, for one, have no desire to venture to that area."
"Even if we'd not captured those two partisans, I'd not want you down there among any of Benjamin Martin's men," Tavington told her. "I don't know if he told anyone beyond his family about your marriage to me, but even if he did, I'm sure that quite a few of them would not know you on mere sight, in any instance. And I'm quite sure that the two who violated Mrs Bordon are not the only ones among his group who would treat a Loyalist woman in such a fashion and that such men would find the wife of "The Butcher" a most attractive target."
"To answer your question about Ben, I don't think he would have told anyone other than his family about my marriage to you," Charlotte said slowly. "He is too prideful of a man to let it be known that he lost the woman he had long hoped to marry to his worst enemy. He would most definitely consider that to be too shameful of a thing to be generally known among his men."
Tavington chuckled appreciatively at his wife's words. "Well, as I've always said, may the better man win!"
"Oh, that you most definitely are, my love," Charlotte assured him, leaning forward to give him a quick peck on the cheek. "In more ways than one."
"And later on this evening, I intend to show you just how much better I am," Tavington purred seductively.
"Why not now?" Charlotte asked, boldly reaching to caress his manhood through his breeches, which immediately sprang to attention, ready for action.
"Why not, indeed," Tavington breathed as he took Charlotte into his arms. "Bordon and Wilkins can wait for awhile."
"I was hoping you'd say that," Charlotte murmured with a throaty laugh, as she began to unbutton his breeches.
"So eager," he rumbled, moving in to capture her mouth with his own. His questing tongue expertly stroked the inside of her mouth, as his hands moved to caress her breasts.
"This will have to be a quick one," he said a couple of moments later as he bent her forward over his desk in a corner of the room. "It will just be a foretaste of what I have planned for later tonight."
"I can hardly bear to wait," Charlotte answered.
"Just a moment," Tavington said a moment later as he quickly snatched up a bottle of ink and a couple of pens and moved them to another table. "I'm sure you remember what happened the last time we used this desk and I forgot to move the ink."
"Yes, I most certainly do," Charlotte said. "Ink all over one of my better petticoats and my shift! I ended up having to cut them both up to use for dust cloths!"
"Ah, but it was worth it," Tavington reasoned. "As I remember, that was one of our better couplings."
"Let's see if you can do even better this time," Charlotte said, lifting her petticoats up to reveal her backside to him as an invitation to get on with it.
"Patience, my dear," he purred, leaning over her to kiss the side of her neck as he guided his erection to the proper place. After using his other hand to make sure she was ready, he pushed forward and slipped inside smoothly.
"Mmm." she murmured in a sultry voice as she felt him fill her and begin to move. "Welcome home, Will."
"There's no place I'd rather be," he growled as he began thrusting enthusiastically in her. "Hold tight to the desk, as this is going to be a rough ride."
He immediately began to pick up the pace as Charlotte braced herself on the desk. She pushed back in unison with him to meet him thrust for thrust. A stack of papers on the side of the desk slipped off, with papers skittering across the floor in every direction, but neither Tavington nor Charlotte took any notice.
As Tavington neared his climax, the desk squeaked and groaned in protest. As he continued to rock back and forth into his wife, she began emitting a low guttural moan, which spurred Tavington on.
Within a couple of moments, he came with a satisfied grunt as he released his seed deep within her. They remained in that position for a long interval afterward, each savouring the moment.
Tavington reluctantly straightened up a short time later, then walked over to the dresser where he soaked a handkerchief from the water pitcher sitting there to clean himself off. Looking over at his wife as she rearranged her petticoats, he observed, "You've become insatiable since you've been with child."
"That happened to me with my first child, too," Charlotte informed him.
"I'm delighted with it," he told her, smiling devilishly. "Perhaps I need to keep you pregnant all the time. I'm predicting that we're going to end up with a houseful of children before we're done."
"God willing," Charlotte agreed.
Checking himself in the mirror after he'd buttoned up to make sure his hair was in place, Tavington said, "As much as I hate to go, I must meet with Captains Bordon and Wilkins. We're going to go down to the prisoner compound to see if we can…persuade…one of the partisans to reveal the location of Martin's base. I don't expect they'll tell me, but I must try."
"I'll be waiting for you," Charlotte promised.
"I don't imagine I'll be too long," he estimated. "We'll start back where we left off when I return."
/]/]/]/]/]/]/]/]/
Historical note: Isaac Shelby was a leader of one of the "Overmountain Boys" militias. After receiving an ultimatum from British Major Patrick Ferguson to cease their activities against the British or else he'd come and lay waste to their land, Shelby and others gathered together men from several different partisan groups to hunt down Ferguson. This culminated in the battle at King's Mountain on October 7, 1780, where Ferguson was killed.