Many thanks to Susan, Esther, and Janeen for their suggestions and input into this chapter.
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Just before Charlotte's carriage went around the final bend where the trees lining the road would end, just outside of Pembroke, one of the dragoons came out of the woods and signalled for Lucius to stop.
"You'll have to go the rest of the way in by yourselves," the first dragoon told Lucius. Pointing to a narrow trail that was barely visible from where they sat, he continued, "Mistress Tavington told me that this trail will lead to the vantage point where we'll be watching the tailor shop. We'll move quickly and should be there by the time you arrive at the shop."
"Yes, sir, I understand," the young slave acknowledged. Pointing below his seat, he said, "I have me a weapon here just in case I need it."
"Don't pull it out, unless it's absolutely necessary to use it," the dragoon warned. "And don't let anyone see it until you do."
"Yes, sir," Lucius replied again.
Riding back to where Charlotte sat looking out of the carriage window, he repeated what he'd told Lucius.
"Very well, then, soldier,' Charlotte said crisply. "I'll look for you once we arrive."
Lucius waited until the two dragoons had disappeared onto the trail into the woods skirting the small town before proceeding on. He glanced around carefully as he guided the carriage into the village, relieved to see few people about in the streets. The young man fervently hoped and prayed that Miss Charlotte could do her business quickly and get out of town in just the same way.
He let out the breath he'd been holding once he stopped the carriage in front of the tailor shop. A couple of women were standing outside doing their laundry at the other end of the street as he helped Charlotte Tavington down from the carriage, as well as several children playing in various locations nearby. Two old men playing checkers sat outside the new mercantile that had been built by a family who had recently moved into town.
Charlotte, too, looked around after alighting from the carriage. She glanced up into the woods and saw the two dragoons already in position, half-hidden where they stood behind trees. As she surveyed the small town going about its ordinary daily business, Charlotte relaxed.
Turning to Lucius, she said, "I should be in here for about two hours, and it would be terribly boring for you to have to sit out here waiting for me. Why don't you take the carriage and go visit Bessie, as I'd suggested before?"
Bessie was the maid to an old widow on the outskirts of town and the woman Lucius had been courting for the better part of six months.
"Maybe I'd best wait out here," he replied, uncertain.
"You've not been to see her in awhile," Charlotte pressed. "I know that when a woman is being courted, she needs plenty of attention. She might think that you're not interested any more and might take up with another man if you're not careful. You can't afford to take your relationship for granted."
"I hadn't thought of that," Lucius said, suddenly alarmed. "Are you sure it will be all right?"
"Perfectly all right," Charlotte said, smiling. "Go have a nice visit with Bessie, and come back in a little while."
"Thank you, Miss Charlotte!" Lucius said, quickly scrambling back into the driver seat. The young man waited until she'd entered the small tailor shop before slowly driving off to see Bessie. He looked up into the woods, satisfied that Miss Charlotte would be in good hands with the two dragoons watching the shop.
As Lucius headed toward Bessie's on the road on the opposite side of town from which they'd arrived, he passed two horsemen accompanying a farm wagon driven by a man with two women on either side of him and several children in the back. He didn't give the group much thought as he passed them, his mind intent on Bessie.
A short time later, the young man pulled the carriage up at a neat two-storey house near the road. After securing the horse, he walked around back, where he found Bessie hanging the wash on the line.
"Lucius!" she called out as she saw him come around the house. She quickly pinned the garment she held in her hands to the line, then abandoned her task to go greet the handsome young man. "What you are you doing here! I ain't seen you in weeks!"
"Ain't you glad to see me?" he asked in mock offense. "I brought Miss Charlotte to town to have some new clothes made and she said I could come visit you for a little while."
"Oooh, and you picked just the right time to visit, too!" Bessie said, grinning. "Mistress Hammond has gone to spend the day with her sister out in the country. She won't be back until late this evening!" Giving him a saucy grin, she said, "And you know what that means, don't you?"
"I sure do," he said, returning her grin with one of his own. "Race you to the barn!"
The couple reached the barn in record time, then scrambled up the ladder to the hayloft.
"I've been thinking about doing this since the last time we were together," she murmured, as they both sank down in the hay together and promptly forgot about the rest of the world.
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Dragoon Sergeant Timothy Dobbins and Corporal Charles Peterson had reached the agreed-upon observation post shortly before Mistress Tavington's carriage arrived at the tailor shop. They'd tied their horses to trees well back and down a hill from where they stood, not wanting the horses' periodic snorting to attract attention from people passing by.
They'd watched the young slave help Mistress Tavington down from the carriage, but were surprised when he drove off in it no sooner had the woman entered the shop.
"Where's he going?" Peterson asked Dobbins. "I thought he was going to wait outside for her."
"I don't have a clue," Dobbins replied. "But I saw her gesturing in the direction he's going. Maybe she's sent him on some sort of errand."
"Who knows?" Peterson said, shrugging. "She should have mentioned it to us."
"Should have, but didn't," Dobbins shot back. "And I, for one, am not going to question what the Colonel's wife does."
"Better that way," Peterson agreed. "I don't want to get in trouble with the Colonel for displeasing his wife and I'm sure you don't, either."
"You and I should be enough to guard her," Dobbins decided. "And I don't think anything bad is going to happen, anyway. Town's as quiet as a graveyard."
"That's a fact," Peterson agreed. "I didn't see but a couple of men and they both had to be 75, at least."
The two dragoons fell silent for a few moments, soon yawning from the tiresome duty. They eventually chatted about inconsequential things to make the time pass more quickly. After about twenty minutes, Dobbins suddenly jerked his head up."
"The horses!" he exclaimed.
"I don't hear anything," Peterson said, confused.
"That's just it; we should be hearing their snorting," Dobbins explained.
Both men rushed back to where they'd tethered their mounts to find them gone, nowhere to be seen.
"Bloody hell!" Dobbins swore. "I know we secured them properly!"
"I wonder how they managed to get loose, then?" Peterson pondered, trying to figure it out.
As if to answer his question, the two dragoons heard the laughter of several children, far in the distance.
"Damned urchins!" Dobbins exclaimed. "I'll bet they took our horses!"
There was nothing for it, so the men took off into the woods, heading in the direction from which they last heard the children's laughter. The laughter became fainter, then disappeared as the men ran deeper into the forest.
After a long interval, both men stopped to catch their breath and to orient themselves.
Pointing to a tall oak tree, Peterson asked, "Didn't we just pass that tree a little while ago?"
"Damned if I know," Dobbins said, breathing heavily. "They all look alike to me."
"God's teeth, man, we're lost!" Peterson swore. "The Colonel will skin us alive for losing our horses."
Pointing off to the right, where there was a small clearing, Dobbins said, "I think we've got bigger problems than the Colonel at the moment."
Peterson looked in the direction indicated to see a large black bear by a tree.
"Now what?" he asked the Sergeant. "I don't know anything about bears. I'm city raised, from New York."
"I can't help you there," Dobbins said, shrugging. "I'm from Philadelphia, myself."
"I don't think it's seen us," Peterson ventured hopefully. "Maybe if we keep quiet, it won't notice us and will just go away."
"If we're lucky," Dobbins put in, not expecting to have any sort of good luck at this juncture in time.
Unfortunately, the bear seemed in no hurry to leave, as it relaxed in the clearing. Dobbins and Peterson grew increasingly nervous as time went by and they continued to wait for the large creature to move along.
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"Mrs Selton, I should have two sets of jumps ready for you in two days' time," the staysmaker promised Charlotte as she was getting ready to leave. "But my wife says the gowns will take a bit longer, perhaps a week to ten days, to get them all done."
"That's fine, Mr Rowe," she told him. "I'll send one of my servants in to pick up the jumps and then again later when the gowns are complete."
She'd not told the staysmaker that she was pregnant, as she didn't want to disclose her marriage to anyone in Pembroke, nor did she wish to sully her own reputation by letting the man think she was pregnant out of wedlock. She'd merely told him that she'd been having some random "stomach ailments" and that the doctor has recommended she wear jumps rather than stays along with looser gowns until she completely recovered.
As Charlotte stepped outside a few moments later, Mr Rowe locked the shop door behind her as it was now closing time. She was surprised to see that Lucius was not already back waiting for her, but not overly put out as she knew how it was to be young and in love. Sighing, she sat down on the bench outside the shop and settled in to wait. Because her mind was full of thoughts about her new clothes, it did not occur to her to look up into the woods for her dragoon escorts.
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Ezekiel Rollins shifted from foot to foot as the old preacher continued to drone on during Naomi's funeral service as the small group stood in the cemetery. Reverend Oliver was still off riding with Ben Martin, so the old retired preacher who sometimes pitched in to do church business when Reverend Oliver was away was conducting the service.
His hangover was now raging full force and he silently willed the old man to get on with it. He didn't much want to hear the preacher's fancy words about heaven and that Naomi was now in a better place. No amount of fancy words was going to change the fact that Naomi was dead, that she would stay dead, and that he'd never see her again.
As the preacher continued to blather on, Rollins' eyes began to wander and he noticed a finely-dressed blond woman step out of the tailor shop across the street. She was obviously a rich woman and he wondered what she was doing in Pembroke. The woman looked vaguely familiar and he felt as if he should know her, but couldn't quite place her. Whoever she was, she looked too high and mighty for the likes of Pembroke.
He continued to watch her sitting on the bench, completely tuning out the droning preacher, not taking his eyes from her until Mattie poked him in the ribs a few minutes later.
"Zeke!" Mattie exclaimed. "It's time to go!" After a pause, she demanded, "What are you looking at?"
"Over there," he said, indicating with his finger. "That rich woman sitting on the bench. I wonder who she is. She looks familiar, but I can't place her."
Mattie Draper looked to where her brother had pointed and almost did a double-take. Narrowing her eyes, she spat, "I can't believe it's her."
"Who?" he asked. "Do you know her?"
"I'd recognize her anywhere," Mattie muttered, her voice hot with resentment. "She's the Butcher's wife! She was with him that day they came to our farm when Tavington killed Elijah!"
"Is that so?" Rollins said, looking closer at Charlotte, now quite interested. "I think it's high time we taught her a lesson and sent a message to that bastard Tavington."
"You took the words right out of my mouth," Mattie agreed, her mouth set in a hard expression.
Turning to Billings, Rollins demanded, "Well, Billings? Are you with me?"
"What do you want to do, Rollins?" Billings asked, uncertain. "Kidnap her?"
"Naw," Rollins said, now displaying a feral grin. "That would be too much trouble. No, I've got something better planned for that one."
Looking up and down the street, he saw that there was no one who would challenge them. He noted with satisfaction that the old preacher had already returned to the small cabin he inhabited on a lot behind the church.
"Let's go," he said to Billings. "You just follow my lead."
Billings did not reply, but merely trailed behind the smaller man.
Charlotte did not notice the two partisans until they'd almost reached her. Sensing eyes upon her, she turned and looked up to see a short, beady-eyed man glaring down at her with loathing, and a tall, homely man with bad teeth beside him. A slatternly looking woman who greatly resembled the short man, stood a few paces behind the men.
Before she could react, the shorter man spoke, "Well, well, well! Look who we have here! If I ain't wrong, you're the Butcher's wife!"
"How-?" Charlotte was about to ask him how he knew who she was. The two men looked as if they were part of Ben's militia, but she wondered what they were doing in Pembroke as William's intelligence had them riding hard to the north.
"If it ain't Mistress Tavington," Mattie Draper sneered, moving up from behind her brother. "You don't look so high and mighty, now that you don't have your man here to defend you."
"Please, I don't want any trouble," Charlotte said, clearly frightened.
She looked up toward the woods, wondering why the dragoons had not come down to confront the hostile townspeople. To her horror and dismay, however, they were nowhere to be seen. Glancing down toward where Lucius had taken the wagon, she was disheartened to see no sign of him, either.
"Well, you've got trouble, whether you want it or not," Rollins said coldly. "You don't belong here, you traitorous bitch. This here's a Patriot town and we don't want none of your kind in Pembroke." Noticing her looking around wildly for her missing escorts, he told her, "And there ain't no one here who's going to help you now."
Jumping up from the bench, she pleaded, "Dear God, please leave me alone. I mean you no harm."
"Well, ain't that right considerate of you," he mocked, spitting a wad of chewing tobacco on the front of her gown. "Your husband has caused my family considerable harm, so Mattie and me figure it's time that some of the harm was paid back to him." Grinning evilly, he elaborated, "And what better way to cause him harm than to put you in your place."
Mattie moved up quickly next to Charlotte and tore her hat off her head. "I like this hat, Zeke!" she said, showing it to her brother.
"Go ahead and put it on, then," he encouraged. "It'll look much better on you than her, anyway."
Leaning forward, he grabbed Charlotte's reticule right out of her hands, then said, "Let's see how much of an allowance the Butcher gives you." Looking greedily at the coins within, he declared, "Why, there's enough here to feed my sister and her youngins for a year. And here you are, wasting it all on fancy clothes!"
Tossing the bag to his sister, who caught it neatly, he said, "There you go, Mattie!"
Returning his attention to the now visibly quaking Charlotte, he pointed to Billings and informed her, "Billings, here, thought we ought to kidnap you for ransom. But I thought of something better."
Moving closer, he ran a dirty finger along the neckline of her bodice, allowing his index finger to stray inside. Ignoring Charlotte's instinctive shudder at him pawing her, he continued, "I figure the Butcher is proud of his possessions and doesn't like sharing them with others. I know it would rile him up if something were to happen to his most prized possession and you ended up going back to him…well-used. You might even say ruined."
"No!" Charlotte exclaimed, understanding his intentions. She turned back to the tailor's shop and tried to go back inside, but the door was securely locked.
At that moment, several large dogs ran in front of Rollins and Billings, bowling them over, creating a diversion. Charlotte saw her chance and began to run toward a house that was a short distance from the tailor shop. She banged desperately at the door, hoping the inhabitants would give her refuge.
Almost instantly, the door opened to reveal Anne Howard, who looked at her with a jaundiced eye.
"Please!" Charlotte begged. "Those men over there mean to do me harm! I need shelter!"
Anne recognized her immediately. "You're Gabriel's aunt," she hissed in indignation. "And he told me that you rejected his father's proposal to marry that horrible man, Tavington. Really, how could you? He nearly killed me!"
"Please help me!" Charlotte begged again, looking back to see that the two partisans had sorted themselves out and were heading her way.
"You reap what you sow," Anne told her coldly, then banged the door firmly in her face. She turned the key in the lock with an loud click that Charlotte heard clearly on the other side of the door.
Charlotte then picked up her petticoats and ran, hoping she'd find someone elsewhere who would take pity on her and give her shelter. As she ran toward another house in the distance, the Draper children, along with a few other town children, suddenly appeared and began throwing stones at her as she ran.
"Look at 'er run," Daniel Draper said, chortling. "Her man is the one who killed my Daddy, so let's get her good! She's the Butcher's wife!"
All the children had heard of the infamous Butcher and had been told stories about his dastardly deeds, so they immediately obeyed Daniel, throwing stones with gleeful relish.
Charlotte stumbled blindly onward, now covered in bruises from where the stones had hit her, desperate to get away. She looked back to see Rollins and Billings gaining on her, so she did not see a large rock on her path. Tripping over it, Charlotte fell, sprawling into the grass as the two men reached her.
Rollins reached her first, grabbing her arms and roughly hauling her to her feet.
"Now, that wasn't nice at all," he admonished her. "I was talkin' to you and you ran off without sayin' goodbye. That's mighty rude of you, I think. I reckon you need to be taught a lesson." Turning to Billings, while keeping a firm grip on Charlotte's arm, he said, "Don't you agree, Billings?"
"That was awful rude," the big man agreed solemnly.
Doors began to open all along Pembroke's main street, as townspeople were alerted to what was happening by several children. They gawked avidly at the confrontation, but none of them moved to help Charlotte. No one had forgotten what the Butcher had done to the Howards and they figured that Charlotte was simply getting her proper comeuppance for being the Butcher's whore.
"I'm through with bein' nice," Rollins snarled. "It's time for you to pay the piper." Holding her tightly by the arm, he dragged her to a grassy patch between two buildings, with Billings and Mattie following at his heels.
A sawhorse stood close to one building and Rollins shoved her face first against it, bending her from the waist so that her bottom poked into the air.
"Billings, hold her down for a minute," Rollins ordered. "Mattie, lift her petticoats, so I can get into her right and proper."
As they both did what he had bidden them to do, he lazily told Charlotte, "Now, I'm going to do what I do to all bitches who spread their legs for the filthy Redcoats. And I think you deserve a double dose of it from both me and Billings, considering you're the whore of the worst Redcoat of them all. We'll send you back to that bastard Tavington so full of Patriot seed that he won't have nothin' to do with you no more."
Charlotte did not reply, but simply moaned in terror, as she'd been doing since he'd yanked her up from where she'd fallen.
"Oh, Zeke, let me get at her first before you roger her," Mattie said, a wicked smile on her face. "I've got me some personal revenge I want to take on her."
"All right, Mattie," he said, somewhat impatiently. "Don't take too long though - I'm hard as a barge pole here and I can't wait too long."
"It won't take long, I promise," Mattie said. With no further ado, she reached down into her pocket and brought out a large pair of scissors she'd used earlier that day with her sewing. "I'll need you or Billings to hold her head still.
Billings stepped forward and did as Mattie requested. Quick as a fox, she leaned in close and roughly hacked off Charlotte's beautiful blond hair, bringing the scissors to Charlotte's head about a dozen times. When she was done, Mattie stepped back to admire her handiwork. What was left of Charlotte's hair hung in uneven, ragged clumps.
Laughing harshly, she spat, "Let's see how the Butcher likes you now with all your pretty hair gone. For good measure, she opened her scissors again, taking one blade to the overskirt of Charlotte's gown, tearing holes in it, leaving it in ragged strips.
"All right, Zeke," she said, chortling in satisfaction. "She's all yours. And Billings'. And every other man in town who wants a piece of her."
As Rollins moved in and roughly stuck his dirty fingers up inside of her, Charlotte squirmed, unsuccessfully trying to avoid his repulsive pawing.
"Oh, you're a feisty one," Rollins crowed as she bucked back and forth trying to get away from him. "I'm going to enjoy taking you."
So intent was he and his companions on what he was about to do that they did not hear the rumble of approaching horsemen.
Just as Rollins was about to violate Charlotte, Ben Martin and the rest of the militia stopped in the road near them, attracted by the group of townspeople who were egging Rollins on.
"Rollins!" Martin called out loudly. "What in the hell are you doing? Let her go!"
Martin could see that Rollins was about to rape a woman, but could not determine her identity, considering that she was bent over a sawhorse and all he could see of her was her bare bottom.
Rollins immediately desisted, turning away from the crowd to stuff himself back into his breeches and button himself back up, irritated that his fun had been interrupted.
Martin quickly dismounted to go to the aid of the unfortunate woman. As he helped her to stand and rearrange what was left of her petticoats, he was absolutely horrified when he realized it was Charlotte.
She fell into his arms, shaking and gibbering in fright. "Oh, Ben! Thank God you showed up when you did! It was so horrible! I don't know what else he would have done to me had you not come!"
"Shh, shh," he soothed, rubbing her back as he held her. As angry as he was at her for marrying William Tavington, he would never have wished this upon her. He considered what Rollins had done to be completely reprehensible.
Gabriel stood by helplessly as his father comforted his aunt, speechless and completely stunned.
"Gabriel," Ben said quietly to his son. "Go find a wagon to borrow so we can get your Aunt Charlotte home. I'm afraid there's going to be hell to pay when Tavington finds out what happened."
"And for once, I won't be able to blame him," Gabriel replied heavily.
After Gabriel had hurried off to do his father's bidding, Ben turned to Rollins and Billings. "I'll deal with you two later," he said coldly. "Just get the hell out of my sight for now before I do something I might regret later."
The two men hurried off, with Billings feeling remorseful about his part in the matter, and Rollins only sorry that he did not get to complete the act.
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Historical notes: "God's teeth" was a common expression at the time, used in place of the stronger "God damn".
Staysmaking was a man's profession during the time, as it was thought that women did not have the necessary strength and dexterity to make stays, which necessitated hand working a needle through several layers of thick cloth in order to make the supportive garments.
For Mattie's revenge on Charlotte, I was inspired by what some French people did to Frenchwomen who'd had sexual relationships with members of the German occupation force during World War II. As well as having their hair hacked off as Mattie did to Charlotte, many such unfortunate women were also shaved bald.