CHAINS TO FREEDOM.✔

Chapter Eighty-Seven

Jessica watched as Hannah bathed her baby. He was four months old and had Adam's dark colouring. "Why do you allow him to use you the way he does?"

"He doesn't use me, Miss Jessica." Hannah lifted the baby from the bath and wrapped him in a towel. "I go to him willingly." She looked down at her little boy and smiled as she said, "He is the father of my sons."

"But you would cry, Hannah! I would see you crying."

She slowly lifted her face to look at Jessica. "Yes. At the beginning I did. I was younger then and didn't fully understand. Later my anguish was for you, Miss Jessica. Ad... My Lord has always treated me well. I have never given him cause not to. When I first became pregnant with Samuel, I was afraid he would turn me away." Hannah stopped talking and laid the baby on the bed to dress him. When she was finished, she gave Jessica a curious look and said, "Is this what the father of your child has done to you?"

"He doesn't know." Jessica shrugged and lifted the corner of her mouth in a grimace.

Hannah nodded her understanding. "I didn't tell, Adam either." She looked at Jessica and blushed. "I am sorry, I'm not being disrespectful. He asked me a long time ago to call him Adam." She lifted the baby and smiled again. "I too did not tell him the first time I was with child. He soon discovered it and was kind to me." Hannah shrugged. "I know he is not always agreeable and there are times when I fear him, but I know he will never let me or my children suffer."

"I'm glad to hear this, Hannah." Jessica smiled and took baby Jack from her. "I always worried about you, but then, well...he did what he did to me."

Hannah touched her gently on the arm. "He has always shown regret for that, Miss Jessica. He would not have done what he did but for Lady Loxton. She hates you very much and at the time she influenced him greatly." Hannah paused in thought, and then said, "He was desperately in love with you. Your rejection hurt him deeply and drove him to madness." She looked to the floor, and then back at Jessica. "I know he still loves you."

"No, Hannah." Jessica shook her head vehemently and took a step back. "Please don't tell me this. He is my cousin, and what of you? Does he not love you?"

"Yes." Hannah smiled. "He has love for me and his sons, but it was you he loved first and you he will always love."

"Why must he torment me? Why can he not understand I do not love him?" Jessica looked into Hannah's eyes and whispered, "I have always been afraid of him."

*****

Blackberries grew down by the stream. They formed a hedge that signified the end of the field, which had been tilled and was waiting replanting. Hannah walked behind Jessica as they followed one of the furrows in the ploughed field, their skirts dragging in the rich, damp brown soil.

She carried Jack on her hip. His little bonnet caught the breeze. Hannah clamped her hand on it so it protected his small face from the sun.

Jessica pushed her straw hat back on her head. She stood for a moment and looked across the paddock into the distance, where more fields were. "Van Diemen's Land is very similar to Ireland in many ways. The trees are different of course and it doesn't have the bogs as Ireland has, but I felt it was very similar."

"Do you miss it, Jessica?" Hannah asked as she held out her hand to help Samuel over a mound of earth.

"Yes." Jessica looked from the vista and back at Hannah. "I miss the people very much. They were good to me."

"Tell me about them?"

"Well..." Jessica grinned and stepped into the next furrow so she could walk beside Hannah. "There was Mary. She was the cook at Ashton House."

"Was she a convict too?" Hannah let go of Samuel's hand. He ran on ahead.

"Yes, we were all convicts, except for Master Louis."

"Tell me." Hannah beamed. "I want to hear everything. Tell me about them all."

"Mary was older and quite bossy sometimes, but she had a heart of gold, she stayed with Alice when she had her baby."

"Who is Alice?" Hannah's face lit up so bright that Jessica laughed.

"I'm sorry, Hannah. I'm confusing you." Jessica began once more. She described each person and explained why he or she had been sent to Ashton House. She told of Alice and Aiden, their wedding and child. She had tears in her eyes when she spoke of George and smiled widely as she told how Master Louis had brought Gabrielle to him. When she had finished talking, they had crossed the field and were nearing the blackberry vines. Jessica laid down the blanket she had been carrying and Hannah placed Jack upon it. Samuel sat next to his brother and held the pail while his mother and Jessica picked the berries. As they filled it, his fingers quickly grabbed as many as he could. His mouth and hands were stained from the blackberry juice. He screwed his face up in a cheeky grin when Hannah caught him.

"Will you stay with me, Hannah, when I have my baby?"

"Of course." Hannah placed her arm around Jessica's shoulders. "Of course, I'll stay with you." She wiped a tear from Jessica's cheek. "Is one of the men you spoke of the father of your child?" she asked.

Jessica looked to the ground not knowing if she should tell Hannah the truth.

"Is this Master Louis, the father of your child?"

Figuring Hannah had already guessed Jessica looked up and held her gaze as she whispered, "Yes."

"So, we are not so different, you and I," Hannah said as she smiled and dashed another tear from Jessica's cheek.

"He didn't force me," Jessica gasped. "I need you to know I went willingly to him."

Hannah cupped Jessica's cheek and whispered, "I understand."

"Perhaps Adam is right after all." Jessica put her hand on Hannah's cheek. "We are birds of a feather."

Copyright © 2019 Donna Fieldhouse. All rights reserved.

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