CHAINS TO FREEDOM.✔

Chapter Thirty-Three

The Gypsy's were camped on the edge of a creek. They had laboured hard for weeks clearing trees for the squire, whose land they camped on. It was mid-summer. Aiden was eighteen. They would move on in the morning, so they were celebrating. Aiden and one of the other young men had set traps in the woods to catch some game. It was a dark night. The moon was a sliver in the sky.

They talked quietly as they walked through the under growth to where they had set their traps. The first was empty so they disarmed it. Aiden threw it over his shoulder. They would not come back this way and would need the traps for further poaching in the future. By the time they had got to their sixth and final trap he was laden with three traps and two rabbits. This last trap also had a rabbit.

"He is such a wonderful man, Alice," Mary sighed as she sponged Alice's forehead. "Just like my Patrick."

Alice beamed at Mary and looked toward the closed door. "Yes I know. It is so comforting to know I have someone who loves me as much as Aiden does." She looked at the baby boy in her arms. "And you young, Robert, are the reward for having such a love as ours."

Mary nodded in agreement. "Yes children are loves reward."

Aiden saw the guns flash as it exploded in the black of the night. His companion fell to the ground. He clutched at his chest. When Aiden bent over him he could see blood oozing through his fingers. He searched the shadows and could make out the shapes of two men coming toward him. He looked at his friend, he had stopped moving, his last breath of life taken from him.

"And you, Jessica. Has there been a love such as we speak of in your life?" Alice asked, curious.

Jessica looked to the floor. She didn't want to spoil this wonderful moment for Alice with her feelings of emptiness. When she looked back at Alice she smiled. "No it has not been my pleasure yet, but one day I hope to feel as you do today." She reached out her hand and gently touched the baby's head.

A shot rang out. Panic seized Aiden. He stumbled over a rotted log and crawled behind the trunk of the large tree the branch must have once belonged to. The men came closer. He could hear their laboured breathing. Aiden tried to slow his own, in fear they could hear him too.

"I'm sure I saw 'im fall Gov'nur," called one to the other.

"Well he must be here somewhere, keep looking," came the reply.

Aiden scanned his surroundings. To his left the trees became thinner and opened onto flat pasture. To the right they were thicker. One of the men was making his way in that direction. The other has circled around behind Aiden.

To the front of Aiden was the creek and across this was the land they had worked to clear. He had no alternative but to head in that direction and hopefully find cover along the creeks edge.

Mary patted Alice's hand. "Let's finish getting ye cleaned up so Aiden can spend some time with ye and the child."

Jessica took the baby in her arms while Mary helped Alice to her feet. While Alice bathed herself, Mary changed the sheets on the bed and swept the floor. They prepared a warm bath for the baby and once he had been washed Alice settled down on the bed to feed him. At first she was unsure of what to do. With Mary's guidance and the baby's in built knowledge she soon had him feeding happily.

Aiden waited a moment more, took a deep breath then lunged forward through the trees.

"There he is, man! Shoot for God's sake, shoot!" someone yelled. The gun's blast pierced the air.

The coldness of the water ripped through Aiden as he dived into the creek. He swam with the current and hid behind a large rock near the creek's bank. He waited but could hear nothing. Aiden turned to come face to face with a gun's barrel.

The man holding the weapon smiled. "I got 'im gov," he called. Then he brought the gun's butt down hard onto Aiden's head.

Aiden knocked gently on the door of the gatehouse before he entered. The three women beamed as he came through the door. "How is everything?" he asked shyly.

"Fine Aiden, just fine," Mary said. "And now ye are here, Jessica and I shall leave ye all alone to enjoy some time together."

When Aiden came too, he was sitting shirtless and tied to a post. The sun was rising. By the time it had fully lit the earth two men walked through the barn door. The squire approached him and sank a boot into his ribcage. Aiden groaned and struggled to breathe.

"So you'll poach my land you ungrateful heathen!" he yelled and kicked Aiden once more.

"Hall him up, Benson." The squire said to his man.

Aiden was pulled to his feet by the rope which held him.

"Tie his feet to the post, I don't want him to move," said the squire as he reached for his horsewhip.

Pain tore through Aiden as he felt his skin split, the squire's rage escalated with each strike, his frenzy of blows were blindly strewn across Aiden's body.

Aiden held his head down so as to try and protect his eyes from the whip's tip. At the end of his torture his back, arms and, neck were a mass of blood. When he was cut loose from the post, Aiden crumbled to the ground and slipped into unconsciousness.

He looked at his son and the woman whose breast his child suckled. He would sacrifice his life to protect them and never again would he lose his freedom to another.

Copyright © 2019 Donna Fieldhouse. All rights reserved.

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