CHAINS TO FREEDOM.✔

Chapter Twenty-Four

With only herself in the room and the door closed, Jessica slid to the floor and cried like she had never cried before. She felt so humiliated. Stripped of any dignity she had left. He had bluffed her and done it well. So well in fact it was laughable, but there was no humor in her heart. She had to take herself away from his torment. To take her soul away so he could not affect her. Jessica wanted to protect herself like she had on the ship and later. She needed to watch from afar.

When Louis returned to the kitchen they were all eating their breakfast. Their looks were questioning, searching his face for any aggravation and finding none. They relaxed and resumed what they were doing. Mary dished up a plate of bacon and eggs for him. George moved from the carver chair at the head of the table to one of the benches to allow Louis to take his rightful place. The conversation carried on as normal.

"Aiden will you saddle a horse for me when you've finished your breakfast?"

"Yes, Master any particular one?" Aiden waited for an answer as he forked food into his mouth.

"Champ might be a good ride today." Louis looked toward Mary. "I'd like you to pack me some lunch. I'm not sure when I'll be back."

Mary's head bobbled on her shoulders. "I've got some moist beef there, Master it'll make ye some lovely sandwiches, Sir."

Louis picked up on her anxiety but ignored it. "Aiden I'd like you to ride over to the west paddock sometime today and check the calves. It must be about time we branded." Louis kept up his pretense of normality. "George how is that little dairy heifer coping with her calf?"

"Aye, Master she's a great little mum. Doing a good job, just like our lass Alice will when her time comes." George cocked his head to one side and beamed at Alice.

"Well, I never." Alice put her hands on her hips. "To be compared to a cow. Are you asking for trouble today, George?"

Everyone laughed. They were still laughing when Jessica came through the door with the broken lamp in one of the tin buckets she used for filling the bath tub. Her face was flushed and her eyes swollen from the tears she had shed. Jessica didn't care they saw her like this. They sat here laughing with him, believing he was a wonderful caring man yet they knew nothing of him.

The room fell silent. Their guests stared at Hannah's swollen stomach. Tension bloomed.

She looked at Hannah and her heart ached.

Jessica turned from him.

Hannah placed the platter on the table.

She looked at Jessica and her heart ached.

Hannah turned from him.

The room fell silent. Tension flooded over them and filled their hearts. It grew like a disease, contaminating them all. Louis broke the silence. He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands and ran his fingers through his hair. "Aiden that horse."

"Yes, Master." Aiden pushed himself away from the table, grateful for the excuse to leave the room.

George followed Aiden's lead. "I had best get on with it meself. Need to check on that little calf."

Mary and Alice busied themselves tidying up. Jessica left the bucket beside the back door, fetched the broom and dust pan and returned to the bedroom to finish cleaning up.

Only Louis was left sitting. He leaned forward, rested his elbows on the table top and gripped his forehead in his hands. The urge to go back to sleep overwhelmed him but he needed to get away for a while, to think things through.

The women watched him with some concern. This was not the man they knew as their master. He sat so still barely breathing. They looked at each other realising his casual carefree behaviour had been bravado. When he stood they scurried about the room finding tasks to keep them from looking at him.

Once mounted on the horse Louis positioned his hat on his head. The horse's muscles rippled, its hair shone and sparkled in the sunlight. Prancing backwards and forwards in jagged movements indicating how anxious it was to begin.

Jessica was staring out of his bedroom window when he came around the corner of the house. She hid out of sight behind the curtain and peered through a crack. He had stopped the horse and was bending down, fixing the position of the foothold in his stirrup. The horse continued to move excitedly. The sight of him mounted upon this beautiful animal was breath taking. Jessica was surprised how this picture of him stirred her. If only he was a different kind of man, in a different place, in a different time. She turned from the window and shook her head angrily. He's not, and it's not, she told herself as she returned to her tasks. She vowed that she would show no emotion at all when in anyone's presence. They hadn't liked her intrusion on their silly joke this morning so, care less, she would.

By the time Louis reached Fairy Dell he felt invigorated and refreshed. The water was crystal clear as always. This part of the river was Louis's favourite place on the property. Beautiful and peaceful. Alice had given it the name of Fairy Dell. She said it was a place of magic. The quartz which was scattered through almost every rock twinkled and sparkled as the sun reflected off it. Alice said each sparkle was really a fairy and the small caverns which were created by the large fig's roots clinging to the rock faces were their homes.

Louis came here when he needed to think. He took off his clothes and swam naked in the cold crisp water. While he swam he thought of Jessica. He'd like to bring her here one-day.

Jessica?

Louis had not slept well for thinking about her. The feel of her body against his. He knew he had created today's incident. There had been no reason to stop her opening the curtains or to touch her. He had no right and she had been justified in asking why.

He asked this of himself now, why did he provoke her?

Louis believed his reaction and threat to her the night before was warranted. She had needed something to make her conform and understand he would not put up with her defiance. So why provoke her this morning? She was obviously complying with the rules of the house. When he thought about it honestly, Louis realised it was because he had wanted to touch her again, had wanted her to struggle against him. When she hadn't, he had made an issue of the tea. When Jessica had cried and spoken so earnestly, his heart had gone out to her. Louis would have liked to have said sorry. To take her in his arms and tell her he would never hurt her but the hatred and fear he saw behind her tears had inspired him to answer her the way he had.

By the time Louis had finished swimming he had come to terms with what he wanted and how he would work towards it. Doing what he had done this morning was only pushing her away. He realised Jessica had a temper and if she was always consumed by anger, would always have hatred in her heart. Louis decided to take each day as it came and to treat each of their moments together with rationality.

Jessica spent the rest of the day working at her usual duties. At lunchtime she was very quiet. No one asked her what had happened that morning. When they tried to involve her in their conversations she answered with minimal responses. She lit the fires in the mid-afternoon, prepared Louis's soap and razor on the wash stand and laid out his clothes. She had replaced the broken lamp with another taken from one of the spare bedrooms in the east wing. All was ready for his return. She checked things twice, not wanting any confrontations that evening.

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