Sweet Love of Mine

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I typed this out using a keyboard and, miraculously, the wretched tablet. If the formatting is unusual, I'm sorry. I will change it once I have a laptop again. If there are mistakes... I'm not that sorry. I'm human.

And unpaid... Nevertheless, enjoy! :)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

''Ye only 'ave yerself to blame, ye know,'' Celeste admonished with a modicum of seriousness in her tone.

Emily flinched as the cool salve was applied to her back where three, bleeding welts now criss-crossed over her sensitive skin. She refrained from commenting, too absorbed in her own misery to care about the concern she detected in the other girl's voice. Emily buried her face against her pillow, shielding her tears and the sounds of her snivelling in the coarse material.

''Tis far easier to obey Mr Byrne,'' Celeste was saying as she tended Emily's back. '' 'ow much of yer back do yer wants ruined? Safer to get on with it, I say.''

Emily wished the girl would stop speaking. She didn't need to be reminded of the lashing she had just received, the indignant stripping of her gown and the sounds of the cruel, whip-like instrument that had inflicted biting pain against her skin. She'd like to forget it ever happened, erase her memory of the sordid recollection, but that could hardly be accomplished if she were to endure the reprimandings of a girl who thought it was her own fault for receiving such illicit punishment.

''If ye don' want to get beat,'' Celeste said, ''yer don' make Mr Byrne upset. Right temper tha' man 'as.''

Emily sighed bitterly. ''You cannot condone the actions of one man because I disobeyed him,'' she snapped, struggling to a sitting position and pulling the sheet across her chest. ''I have done nothing wrong. Nothing. I refuse to live like this, to be part of this, and I promise you, Celeste, I will escape, and when I do I will ensure that this entire establishment burns to the ground!''

Celeste's face blanched and a look of contrition flittered across her eyes before she lowered them to her lap where her fingers were twisting about the bloody cloth she had used to clean Emily's back. Immediately, Emily regretted the harshness of her words, knowing that this was the only life Celeste knew of, that for her there was no other alternative. ''I apologise,'' Emily told her. ''I should not have spoken out of place. I'll not forget the kindness you have shown me and I intend to repay it tenfold once I am at liberty to.''

The other girl stood and went over to the basin of warm water set on the small bench beside the cot. She wrung out the bloodied cloth, absorbed in thought. ''Don' speak of such things,'' Celeste said softly. ''If 'e gets word-''

''I don't care! I'll gladly take a thousand lashings if it meant I could be free. Never will I consent to this.''

Wisely, Celeste chose not to remark on the topic again. She gathered up the few articles and supplies she had brought to tend to Emily's injuries. ''Rest fer an hour,'' she said. ''I'll be back then to ready ye for tonight.''

***

Spending nigh over twelve hours in a carriage with a cantankerous woman prone to bouts of violence and insanity would have made even a saint weigh up the benefits of an effortless homicide. As it stood, Sebastian was quite certain that he would not have a grandmother within the hour if he had to endure it any longer.

''What about that one, there!'' Sophie hollered, clambering over Lyons to peer out the window he was sitting nearest. The man's face winced as Sophie moved with as much decorum as a blustering horse. ''Why aren't we stopping to investigate? Is that not what we are paying you for?'' She pinched his arm viciously.

''Ouch!''

Sebastian peered past them to witness yet another tavern flash past the window. Sophie was insistant that every building they passed harboured the possibility that Emily was ensconced within. ''It's just a tavern,'' Blackwood remarked patiently. ''She won't be there, Sophie.''