The Price for Addie's Silence
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Image by Alexandr Ivanov from Pixabay
I wasn’t sure if the Patron’s Daughter fully understood what had just happened.
She panted heavily, her eyes glazed and her cheeks flushed. Many strands had fallen free from her shining black braid.
Dazed, she wiped her arm across her face, and then looked startled at the milky smears on her sleeve.
The Brute pulled up his pants and turned to me.
Fortunately, I had recovered enough to stand up, composed and waiting in the shadows as if I had been nothing more than a watcher, as if nothing unusual had come my way.
I hoped nobody had noticed.
If the Brute had, he made no hint of that. He pointed to a bowl of water on the shelf behind him.
“Addie, get her cleaned up enough that she’s fit to go home.”
As soon as he spoke, the Patron’s Daughter finally came out of her stupor.
She turned her head, shocked to see me standing there. She had obviously forgotten I was there.
Her face paled and she turned again to take in the Brute. Realization and horrified disbelief crossed her face.
“I will see you next week,” the Brute said. “Same time, and with Addie as your escort.”
The Patron’s Daughter shook her head rapidly.
“No,” she muttered. “Absolutely not.”
The Brute smiled and raised his brows.
“I don’t know what came over me,” she protested with a tremble in her voice.
“If you insist,” the Brute replied. “Just remember that you come with Addie if you want me to receive you.
“I swear I will never come here or see you again!”
The Brute simply shrugged.
“Get yourself cleaned up.”
Within minutes, the astonishing escapade of the night was over, and the Patron’s Daughter and I were making our way through the Ancient Grove in the black of night.
She was still in shock when we left the cabin.
But the daze wore off fast as we made our way through the dark trees. She had to have been humiliated by what had happened, especially because I had seen everything.
She had no idea that I had ridden her ecstasy along with her. I was so relieved I didn’t think to gloat at her expense.
But that didn’t stop the Patron’s Daughter from falling into a blind panic.
We hadn’t gone twenty paces away from the cabin before she took off at a run.
I couldn’t see her because she wore the black cloak that made her invisible at night, but I could hear her crashing through the woods.
“You’re going the wrong way,” I called out. “Unless you want to get lost here, you have to come with me.”
Those were the first words I said to her since we had entered the cabin.
I heard her cry of frustration, and eventually her steps coming closer as she made her way back to me. She had no choice but to follow, but she pinched my arm hard as soon as I was within her reach.
“If you speak a word about tonight,” she hissed. “I will destroy you!”
“Not possible,” I retorted. “If I talk, your ruin would come before you could get back at me.”
“Who would believe a wretched drudge like you?”
“Anybody with eyes. Nasty bruises on your backside that you’re sure to have in a day or two. That will prove the truth I’d be telling.”
“You filthy little grubber, I hate you!”
Her insults didn’t fool me.
There was no mistaking the tremor of fear in the Patron’s Daughter’s voice.
Perhaps a kinder person would have had some pity for her in that moment.
But a lifetime of assaults on my dignity with her daily rides through the fields, her sneering, smirking, taunting, and gloating, as well as the beatings I had taken on her whim, all that made sympathy and concern impossible.
All I knew was that the Patron’s Daughter would never be able to cause me shame or rage ever again. That was the moment I understood the power I now had over my former nemesis.
“Likewise,” I replied calmly.
With one word, I freed myself from hypocrisy and pretense, and relief flooded through me.
“Addie, don’t you dare tell anybody about tonight!”
“What are you going to do to shut me up?”
“What!”
“Don’t pretend to be so stupid. How many times has your father paid for silence? If you want mine, you also have to pay.”
We had just come out of the trees when I said this.
In the dim light, I saw the Patron’s Daughter staring at me, her mouth agape.
I was as shocked as she was, the words out before I knew what I was saying.
Really, the Brute had done me an extraordinary favor when he insisted that the Patron’s Daughter could only come to the cabin with me.
“What did you bring for the Brute?”
“You sneaky, underhanded little trollop. You set me up.”
“That’s impossible,” I retorted. “If I had known you had a yummy for a beating, I would have taken it upon myself years ago.”
“You ugly, repugnant tripe!”
There was no way I was going to tolerate her insults anymore.
“How can you think I’m ugly? Clearly you found the Brute so handsome you rutted on him like a bitch in heat!”
Image by Alexandr Ivanov from Pixabay