3924 words (15 minute read)

Two

Two

“TURN AWAY!” She hollered across the water. Allie wrapped her arms across her chest, pulling her legs in tight. The young man’s lips moved letting odd sounds escape from his throat. He stood up so quickly the metal flasks clanged against one another and he lost his balance, but not eye contact. He fell hard onto his backside, lips still moving. “What is WRONG with you!” Allie cried, throwing her body into the water. She could feel every inch of her skin slide through the frigid surface of the water. The stabbing pain of ice water slid through her until her body hit the rocky riverbed. The instant shock of the water and her shoulder scraping against the slime covered rocks left her paralyzed.

Allie tried to swim toward the surface, forcing the panic from her mind. Her body failed her as she gasped for air beneath the flowing river, limbs refusing to move. The edges of Allie’s vision blurred black when she felt a strong arm wrap around her waist. Sun light hit her face as she struggled to pull the warm air into her lungs. The young man was pulling her numb exposed body to shore. Before letting her go he pulled her back to his chest and forced his closed fist into her bare stomach. His hands were rough as he let them slide across her midsection to steady her. The water she swallowed escaped her lungs and he held her arms as she slid to the ground. Quickly he turned his back on her. She could sense him behind her as he knelt to the ground. He was breathing as hard as she was.

Allie moved her arms across her chest as she pulled her trembling legs to her stomach. Her lungs burned as she coughed. Her entire body shook as her cheeks warmed, from fresh blood flow or embarrassment she was not sure. She tried to hide the fact she was shaking but the jerky motions would not stop as her teeth clattered against one another.

She could hear the young man rummaging through her things. The rustle of him untying the cloth that bound her clothes made her want to pull her limbs closer to her torso. The young slave placed her head in between her knees and her chest trying to steady herself.

Allie could feel his calloused hands through the thin cloth as he placed it around her shoulders. “I didn’t think you would want your clothes wet. I can get those if you want.” He paused. “I swear I didn’t see you, I’m looking the other way if you want to change.” His voice was deeper than she expected, and from the corner of her eye she could see he was taller than most boys her age, only his face looked young. “I’m used to the girl stuff. Wait, no. I mean I was raised by this girl.” She heard him shuffling his feet through the loose dirt and rocks to make noise as he walked away from her. “Woman, now I guess. She and her sister they, I don’t know I lived with them for a long time.” She heard him settle down near the water. Without looking she knew he had sat behind one of the larger trees in the clearing. Allie heard him as he threw stones into the river. “I still live with them, they raised me.”

Allie’s teeth stopped chattering and she wrapped the cloth tighter around body before turning to see if the boy wasn’t looking. “Wait there. I am getting dressed. I wouldn’t be in this situation if you hadn’t been prowling on the south bank. Did those sisters raise you in the mountains away from civilization or something?” Allie took the cloth and dried as much of her body as possible before stepping into her slip and pulling it up over her exposed body, then tugged her blue cotton dress down over her head.

“No.” his voice was hard. “She saved my life. She and her sister kept me well and taught me quite a lot. Like don’t go swimming in a mountain fed river in the spring.”

Allie could hear his voice begin to waver from the chill of his wet clothes. She moved around the tree and handed him the cloth. “Thank you.” She could hear the growing bitterness in her own voice.

“I still have to go back to the other bank.” His voice lost the waver when he looked across to the south bank. “You aren’t going to keel over are you? It wouldn’t do me much good if you died. I would prefer not to save you twice in one day.”

“I’m fine. Why should that matter to you? Next time leave me to drown, one less slave for my master to feed.” Allie felt as if the ground shook beneath her feet she was growing so angry. She knew they had both turned sour and Allie didn’t care to learn where the stranger was from. She wanted him gone. “I still wouldn’t have been in this mess if you weren’t trying to peep.”

The young man stood quickly. She could see his face turning red, it was stony and travel worn. His brown hair was in need of a cut as it fell into his forest like eyes. It was anger she saw in him, it emitted from him in a way that Allie swore the ground had really shook beneath her feet. She took a step back and he let his defenses drop. “Next time do you want me to let you drown?” He corrected his posture and stood at least a head if not more above her, his height disarmed her. Allie usually stood at the height of most men or above them. The boy’s green eyes had grown darker than before as he tried controlling his emotions. “I didn’t think so.”

When he turned to leave, the boy made wading into the water look angry, without appearing awkward. His height only helped him as he swam to the center of the river. He stopped at her rock and retrieved her soap and her comb. He swam back to the north side of the river, walked up out of the water, his dark traveling leathers clinging to him. He held out the items keeping his facial expression tight his eyes now appearing a lighter green. Water dripped from his clothes pooling around his feet. He stood in the puddle thrusting the soap and comb at Allie. She held out her hands taking back her things. Before turning from her he wiped the water from his face slicking his hair back off of his forehead, then returned to the river. The young man swam across the freezing water and emerged on the other side. He looked back, staring at Allie in disbelief, his jaw slack but his eyes still sharp and dark.

Allie stared back across the river at him. Her feet firmly planted and her items held tightly in her hands. He gathered up the flasks and water bags he had discarded then finished filling them. Once he was done he pulled the straps of the containers over his head and turned from the river. His clothes were still dripping with water as he disappeared into the thicket of trees and brush.

Once he was out of sight she grumbled and swore under her breath. “There shouldn’t have been a first time so there won’t be a second time.” She let a few curses go his way before searching the shore line for the good shoes her mother had placed with her dress. Dusting the dirt flecks from her toes she pulled the soft brown leather shoes onto her aching feet. Allie looked back to the opposite shore. The path he had walked was still darkened with water.

Tying her dirty clothes up in the wet cloth she placed the soap within the bag before combing out her hair for the last time. Instead of coiling her hair into her usual loops of braids she settled on a single braid straight down her neck. It was not very neat, but it kept the hair out of her eyes and it got her away from the river. Hair still damp Allie shivered on the walk home her anger dissipating. She moved through the underbrush with care to keep the lace hem of her dress from snagging on the sharp finger like thorns of the low brush. Once she reached the open path she looked up to the sky. The sun was at its peak and she knew her father would be expecting her back in the yard. Moving toward the cabin she held the wet cloth away from her dry dress trying not to inhale what was left of the smell from before. No amount of soap was going to salvage her clothing.

Inside her mother sat in her wicker chair with a large black silk curtain, finishing the last of its hem. Allie placed the bag of dirty laundry in a basket near the front door before replacing the soap and comb to their rightful places in her mother’s hand carved wardrobe.

It was the finest piece of furniture in the entire cabin. Everything else had been made by Fen and the other slaves, but this old wardrobe had come with Sera when the Trent family had bought her. Sera had been born into a prominent merchant family that fell on hard times. They were in such debt that they had to sell their daughters into slavery. Sera and her sisters were each given one nice item from their old home and nothing more. Allie knew her mother would never see her sisters again. It was probably why Sera and Fen had taken care of Allie and Zera when they had been sold to Master Trent as infants. Allie let her fingers slide along the smooth designs in the dark wood.

“I’ve finished, you can take the curtains up to the manor, make sure to get them to Persus he will know where to put them. And by the Gods graces, hold your tongue around him. You get into enough trouble on your own before you open your mouth.” Her mother stood from her chair to fold the curtains before placing them into an empty basket. “Did you hear me? Take these to Persus and find out if there is anything else he needs me to do.”

Allie nodded her head. “I know.” She kept her hand pressed against the ornate cabinet. “Do you miss them?”

She could hear Sera sigh as she sat back down in her chair. “I don’t remember them much. I just know there were three of us. I’ve told you this before.” Sera’s voice sounded old in Allie’s ears.

“I am grateful to have you and Pa, but I have nothing from what I was. Where am I from? Did they want me but couldn’t keep me? Was I left, sold, forgotten?” Somehow the dark wood made her think of the young man with the forest in his eyes. She pulled herself away from the cabinet moving across the one room cabin to the basket of sewing. “Sometimes I just wonder. What were they like?”

Sera reached out and grabbing Allie’s hand. “Sweet child, I do not know. I sometimes wish I did not know what my family had done to me. I am so very blessed by the Gods to have you, Fen, and even Zera. She won’t be Hadlen’s slave forever. One day Zera will be toiling in the trenches like the rest of us.” Sera let go of Allie’s hand. “We only have you on loan and you know that. You’ll get your chance. You will take it and never look back. The moment we can spare you, we will.” Sera smiled up at her daughter. It was always the same distant look they held in their eyes. Neither Fen nor Sera thought Allie would be at the Trent home forever, yet Allie was certain she would be a slave to her master and would not be freed. The only way she would have left Master Trent’s home was if she had been sold off two years prior on her sixteenth birthday for marriage. Allie was certain she would not be married off and kept on to be Fen’s replacement when he could no longer tend the grounds.

Allie knelt at her mother’s feet and placed her hands around Sera’s. “You won’t get rid of me so easily. I have a garden and a family to look after.”

Sera took up Allie’s hands and kissed them softly. “You’d best head to the manor, Persus will want these set up before the guest arrives.” Her mother pulled her hands out of Allies grip once more nodding toward the basket. Sera kept her eyes on the window, as if she were waiting for something to fly in and take Allie from the manor at any moment.

“Thanks Ma, but we both know I’m not going anywhere. And Zera will always be Zera. It’s life here.” Allie could feel the silence as she turned for the basket and left the cabin behind her carrying the sewing before her with both hands. She looked to the sky, waiting for a breeze. When nothing came she jumped from the steps, landing hard on the dirt below.

Allie followed the worn path north until she reached the rotting door, when she placed her hand on the wooden handle she thought of the young man again. She could feel her face heat as she pushed through the door to the property then kicked the molding plank of wood shut behind her. He was infuriating perverted mountain scum. Allie groaned as she lamented she had not thought of that sooner to yell at him. She could still feel his rough hands around her waist. She pulled the basket closer to her and kept moving through the browning back garden to the servant’s kitchen entrance trying to keep him out of her mind.

Before she reached the open kitchen door she felt the heat of the ovens and the kitchen’s large open fireplace. Complex smells mingled in the air outside only making the thought of going into the overheated room nauseating. Breathing deep she took the lopsided wooden steps two at a time. The cooks and elderly slaves inside were screaming at one another about the broiling temperatures of the fires and the disliked portions of the planned menu.

Hoping not to get pulled into their heat induced quarrel, Allie kept her eyes on the warped aged kitchen floor as she wound past the heavy butcher block tables and oven lined walls to the servant’s hallway. Pushing through to the dark hallway she gained composure entering into the back half of the main foyer. The ornate glass doors that led into the dining room were open to the main entry’s door, which was also open. The glass doors led into the formal dining hall reaching through the large space into another row of glass doors that were left open to the back garden. The light wood dining room held a large fireplace on the west end, with a long dark wood dining table in the middle and capped off on the east end by a small stage with an unused piano forte and a small gathering of dusty orchestral instruments. Allie could hear Zera and Hadlen laughing within. On summer days they usually laid on the polished maple floors letting a breeze that the open doors created flow over them. There was no breeze on this spring day.

Allie could hear Zera protest as Hadlen squealed with delight. From the edges of her vision Allie looked in to see Hadlen dipping her fingers in a bucket of water then flicking the droplets from her sausage like fingers at Zera who had paled in anger. Allie quickened her pace and entered into the opposite servants hallway before she was trapped in their games or asked to refill the bucket. Allie was not certain she could look at a bucket again.

At the end of the adjoining hall, past a hidden door behind a tattered wall tapestry was the entry to the indoor slave quarters that had been added many years past. Not long after the poor addition a large preparation room was added to handle extra tasks that needed to be done. The preparation room was the only room in the entire manor without windows. It was surrounded on all sides by cheaply made shelves that rose from floor to ceiling for spare plates, linens, trinkets needing cleaning and anything else that needed storing. The middle of the room was scattered with cheap tables and stools where on a normal day the indoor slaves would be toiling at a new project or letting out the seams on one of Hadlen’s gowns.

Persus, Master Trent’s personal butler sat alone at his large desk surrounded by the stacks of bills from the current renovations. The elderly man sat hunched over the table, he looked unusual in the dark appearing as if he were a salt and peppered balding hawk perched in a low tree. His thin pointed nose inches from the paperwork before him. Persus used only one candle to light the room and he was already sweating streams down his deeply lined face. Allie watched the flames flicker in his wire rimmed glasses before she set down the basket of drapery on a nearby table.

“My mother wanted me to bring these. Is there anything else you need her to do, I can take it down before I go back to the garden.” Allie stood still. She stayed near the door to keep her escape route close, staying just outside of the candle lights edge.

Persus removed his glasses and looked to the door. She knew he could not see her, but Allie felt his dark black eyes on her. “Into the light please.” His voice was cold as he took his hands to his face to wipe the pooling sweat from under his eyes. “Sit while I finish.” The older man nudged one of the stools near him with his foot.

Allie flinched at the sound of the wooden legs scraping against the worn floor. She moved into the light slowly, sitting on the edge of the old stool. She gripped her fingers into the roughly hewn wood beneath her, keeping her eyes on her knees. Allie’s shoulders tensed up to her ears as she leaned forward into the candle light. Persus had been with the Trent family since the Master of the house and his brother were children and in that time became the personal aid to the current Master Trent. Persus was not necessarily cruel but he was not known for being kind. He was efficient and well organized. He tolerated no less from the Trent family’s slaves.

“Allie, I heard you had to leave your duties.” Allie could almost smell the kitchen waste within her nose. She let her face pinch at the memory. “I have no idea what you do to make Hadlen go after you like this but you need to stop. You want to take your Father’s place as grounds keeper don’t you?”

“Yes sir, I would.”

“Don’t you think it would be hard to do if you keep agitating the person who will inherit you when their father dies?” Allie kept still while Persus flipped through his paper work, the dry brittle sheets in his accounting book grating against each other. “Since you are dressed I will have you place the curtains in the largest guest suite.” Allie gripped the seat of the stool more tightly as Persus continued flitting through his book, trying to keep the droplets of sweat from dripping all over its pages. “Then you will change the heavy blankets out of the guest rooms and replace them with the thin summer sheets.”

“I am not a maid, have Neta or Eyrin do it.” Allie’s face shot up as she realized she had spoken those words aloud. She let her eyes go wide as she looked to Persus. Allie knew her knuckles had turned white as she gripped the stool beneath her so tightly her hands began to shake.

A breeze fluttered through the candle, both Allie and Persus looked to the door. It had not opened and another gust blew out the flame. The smoke of the unlit candle filled Allies nose, she could hear the green eyed young man speaking in the back of her mind. She closed her eyes and saw him with two women, one with flame red hair and the other with light brown hair, near gold in the sunlight like Allie’s. The strangers sat in a wagon with a boy who had light piercing blue eyes. As the young man with the forest for eyes drove the open wagon the flame haired woman helped tie the other woman into intricate black leather garb. The green eyed boy was laughing at the women as the red head swore at the lace ties. “You’re next big fella I wouldn’t laugh so much.” The red heads voice was lyrical and mesmerizing. Allie wanted to hear her continue to speak and strained her ears to listen.

“Allie, are you even listening? How do you expect to get ahead here? Do you want stability child?” Persus had relit the candle and looked through the light to Allie, his eyes dark rimmed and red. “Go to work and be quick about it.” She stared through him trying to see the vision again. “Now Allie!”

The young slave jumped from the stool, flexing her hands before taking up her basket near the door. Leaving Persus behind Allie headed through the slave’s hallway to the hidden stairway. “Gods what was that?” her voice shook as she wound up the narrow stair and through one of the upstairs hidden hallways.