CHAINS TO FREEDOM.✔

Chapter Thirty-Six

This chapter is for  @Dizzt who has been so patient with me.  It's a long one but I didn't want to cut it up.

Jessica admired the books, which lined the drawing room walls. This room doubled as a library and half of one wall was entirely volumes. She ran her fingers along their spines, reading the titles. She had dusted this room many times now and never before had she been comfortable enough to look at the tomes. She took one from its place on the shelf and rubbed her fingers over its leather exterior. Jessica slowly opened the cover and flicked the pages with her thumb. The fine silky paper fluttered under her touch. She held the hardcover to her face and breathed in its musty smell.

"Do you like to read, Jessica?" Louis asked from where he was leaning against the doorpost, watching her fascination.

Startled by the sound of his voice Jessica jumped, the volume slipped from her fingers landing on its end and flipped on its back. "I am sorry, Master. You startled me," she said as Louis bent, picked it up and turned the book over to read its title.

"The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner," he read out loud. Louis closed the book and looked at Jessica. "This was my favourite story when I was a child. This volume was given to me for my tenth birthday." He smiled at the memory.

"I am so sorry Master." Jessica nervously smiled at him, apprehensive of his feelings to her handling the book. "I did not mean to drop it." Once she was finished speaking she looked to the floor.

Louis sighed. She wasn't looking at him again. In a quiet voice he said. "Look at me, Jessica. Look at me when you speak to me."

She heard the anguish in his voice so she raised her face and met his eyes with hers.

Louis swallowed the lump in his throat. He hadn't expected her to respond to his request. He looked into her eyes and was mesmerized by their beauty. The dark black rims softened and blended into their clear greyness. Louis felt himself being drawn into their mirrored depths, and from somewhere in their far distance the sun shone. Its warmth pierced Louis's soul. He swallowed once more and said, "Have you read this book?"

Jessica's stomach churned and fluttered. His look puzzled her. She dropped her gaze to regain her composure, before she answered him. She kept her head hung but looked up at his mouth from under her brows. "No, Master. It was not recommended to me as suitable reading for a..." She paused. "A female, Sir."

"No," Louis said as he smiled. He was pleased she hadn't looked totally away. He tapped the book on the palm of his hand. "I don't suppose it would have." He paused in thought and then said, "Would you like to read it, Jessica?"

She raised her head and tilted it in surprise. "Yes, yes thank you, Master. I would like to read it," she said a little breathless because of the joy she felt. He was smiling at her. Jessica was taken aback at how his face lit up. His eyes sparkled so much when he was happy. The fleeting thought that perhaps he was the good man, the rest of his convicts said he was, passed through her mind.

"Good," he said as he handed the book to her. Jessica reached out to take it but he kept a grip on it and added, "You can read it to me." Louis watched her face shadow with confusion. He said, "When you have finished your duties at night, you will come here to me and read for one hour."

Energy drained from Jessica's soul. She lowered her head and looked at his feet. How could she have been taken in by him, by his smile, his false sensitivity of her need to read?