by Fiona Faris
“When he returns for a visit, I expect you will do exactly as he asks and not mention the Scot or Christopher.” Alice felt her hands clench and unclench at the mention of “the Scot” as if he didn’t have a name. He was her husband and her uncle still treated him like a stranger.
“Yes, sir.” She spoke without looking up.
“Also, do make sure you have a gift for the man. Finish some embroidery or send your maid to purchase something. Really. I’m surprised he still wants to marry you after all this time. You should be so grateful. You married a Scot and then consummated the marriage! You could have been carrying a bastard child. You should be so lucky you did not find yourself in that predicament.” Her uncle seemed to be in some kind of mood to keep tacking on the list of things she must and must not do. But Alice could not disagree or say anything else.
So she simply nodded and repeated the words, “Yes, sir. Is that all?"
“I will dismiss you when I feel like it, girl. Don’t you forget it.” Her uncle raised his voice, and Alice shrunk back, afraid her last three days might be confined to the cellar. She stayed quiet.
“There is nothing else I wish to say to you at present. Go off and finish packing your things.” He spat the words at her, and Alice nodded and turned to leave.
Outside her uncle’s study, Alice leaned against the wall, and the tears flowed from her eyes. She was grateful to have been able to keep it all inside while she was with him. But anytime they spoke, she left the study more broken than when she entered. She hated having to communicate with him. Even being married to the Earl of Sussex wasn’t going to allow her to be free of him. Alice let out a long and lonely sigh. She made her way back up the stairs and back to her room, where she had more clothing to pack.
Inside her room, she pulled out another suitcase and got to work. She started taking out more of her gowns and did her best to fold them. The fabric was so thick she knew it would take many trunks to be fully packed.
A few moments after beginning to fill the second case, she heard a knock at her door and opened it to find Rebecca holding a tray of food.
“Your uncle has ordered me to bring you some food and to begin growing your appetite. He thinks you need to put on a little bit of weight before the Earl arrives.” Alice moved to the side to allow her to enter. She walked over to the side table and set it down. Alice felt the irritation growing inside of her. How dare her uncle remark so boldly about her weight. She didn’t need to grow her appetite; she only required to grieve without the stress of marrying another man she despised. She rolled her eyes.
“Really miss, you must listen to your uncle. He wants the best for you. Tis why he is marrying you to the Earl. You are going to be a duchess, miss. Isn’t that grand?” She seemed to light up at the mention of Alice’s new life. And though Alice understood her life to be in a better state than the maid’s, she still did not think it was a life to be excited about.
“Rebecca, I would appreciate it if you didn’t speak about this to me. I am exhausted, and I do not wish to go on talking about my life being sold to a man much older and more despicable than I care to marry.”
Rebecca pursed her lips and seemed irritated but said nothing out of place. She sat down at the table while Alice began to eat. She could taste the excess butter in the stew, and she smelled the cheese that melted into the bread. She lost her appetite almost immediately. There was nothing about the food that she wanted, especially after the conversation with her uncle.
She turned to her maid, “You do not need to stay here, Rebecca.” She said, in as kind of a voice as she could muster, given her irritation.
“It was requested by your uncle that I observe you and make sure you eat your fill.” Alice rolled her eyes. Of course, her uncle wanted her watched at all times now. It was getting closer to her impending marriage, so he was likely worried she would try to run off and marry another man. Alice knew there was no changing her fate at that point. She was forced to face it.
“Alright, then,” she said to no one in particular and got to work eating, starting with the broth. She sipped it slowly, and though the butter overwhelmed her, she could sense her body needed it. She took long gulps and followed it with bites of the roll. Thankfully, her maid had also brought some wine, and she took small sips to start her appetite back up.
As she sat eating, Alice tried to push the thoughts of Aithe from her mind. But she was desperately failing. She could not shake the deep guilt she carried with her most days. His life had ended too short, and it was all her own doing. There were times that she was overwhelmed with his scent, the memory of his kind touches, their few shared kisses. It was as if she still felt his presence, out there somewhere, reaching for her. But instead of it serving as a source of comfort, it only served to make her long for a life she would never have.
Chapter Fifteen
Aithe stood in the darkness of the mines. His back ached, his feet were sore, but still, he worked hard, aiming the pickaxe and knocking out the stone. Over and over, he swung, even as his triceps burned and his shoulders begged for rest. It was just as it was with Christopher all over again. Aithe couldn’t shake the thought that this was all a punishment, a forced reliving. He was stuck in the mines once again for failing to follow through on his promise to Christopher. He could not protect Alice, and so he found himself exactly where he had started the journey to her.
While his muscles ached, he found over the last year he had grown far stronger than he thought possible. Every time he swung his tool, he was broadening and lengthening the muscles. Even with his weak and injured leg, he could fight off three men. And he was filled with rage, and this rage fueled him onwards. Every night at the end of their shifts, when the men lay in bed until they snored from exhaustion, Aithe spent time building his muscles. He let the rage overflow into all he did. He did not push it away, but embraced it. He knew the only way to escape the nightmare was to use every bit of energy he had to fuel his escape.
Poor Alice. After living her whole life beneath her Uncle’s hand, waiting for Christopher to return, she found herself forced to marry some other man simply to forward her uncle’s agenda. They had done well in escaping. Their plan had worked, and they had managed to slip from his grasp, but he clearly caught on sooner than they’d hoped. Aithe could beat himself; he was so angry. He should have planned better, should have ridden all the way to Cadney even if it meant that he did not sleep a wink, at least he would have been able to say he had done everything in his power to save her.
But it didn’t matter now, he was in the mine, and Alice… well, Alice was somewhere out there, and he wished he knew where. If only he could reach her, but he knew it best not to contact her. If her uncle found out that he was still alive, he would be dead within hours. Alice would never receive the letter, and he would be unable to do anything else. At least now, without writing to her, he could ensure her uncle believed him dead. Those men had done him a favor by selling him to the laborers camp. He hadn’t seen it as such at the time, but now he was alive, and he would find a way to save Alice and to take her away to a new life as she deserved.
“Aye, get tae work! We dinnae drag ye down here just tae lollygag.” The overseer shouted in Aithe’s ear, sending a pain through his temples. Aithe hated the man. Wished he could spit right in his face. The man was the kind who liked to watch others suffer for pleasure. If he could make a man feel small, it made him feel twice his size.
One day, your reckoning will come, and I hope I am there to witness it.
“Are ye alrigh’, Aithe?” Barney, the man who had helped Aithe become familiar with the camp, asked him in a hushed whisper.
“Aye, lad, simply wishing th’ man would die on th’ spot tis all.” Aithe whispered back. Barney smiled but restrained a chuckle. The two had grown close. Whenever any of the men lost their spirits, either Aithe or Barney was there to revive them. They challenged each other, pushed each other to grow stronger, for neither had accepted that the labor camp was th
eir ultimate fate. In a lot of ways, Barney reminded him of Christopher. And Barney, too, had a lassie to get back home to, which made the two of them very close. Each was willing to die to escape.
The overseer stepped out of the mine and went above to smoke. He did this every hour and was the only way the workers could note the passage of time. When out of earshot, they whispered amongst themselves, telling stories to pass the time or to revive the spirit of a lad who threatened to slip away into lunacy.
“Why dinnae ye tell us about yer lassie, Aithe.” A short, stout man turned to him and whispered the request. Aithe often talked about Alice. It was the way to keep his motivation high and the will to save her intact.
“Who’s this lassie?” A new man asked from the back. Aithe didn’t take kindly to the stranger. He seemed like the type not to be trusted.
“Tis my wife, Alice.” Aithe responded quietly.
“Oh nae, nay another tale about this Alice,” Barney joked and jabbed Aithe in the ribs gently.
“I’m going tae escape th’ mines, and I’m going tae save her. Her uncle is a wicked man, tried tae have me killed, and tried tae marry her off. Fer all I ken, she thinks me dead as well. But I promised Christopher I would save her and I shall.”
The new man laughed at this idea loudly. “Ye cannae save her lad, ye might as well accept that yer going tae die in th’ mines like any ol’ forgettable laborer.”
Aithe bit his tongue to keep from berating the man. There was no use in starting a fight with new workers. They were all bitter. Many of them never recovered from the bitterness of being sold as laborers. That was how men died in the mines, losing their will. Instead, Aithe tucked the anger away to fuel the fire that burned within him.
“Well, I think tis mightae noble of ye, lad,” Barney said. “I hope ye save yer Alice. If any of us can return home, tis ye lad.”
“And what will ye dae if the uncle has married her off?” The short, stout man asked Aithe sincerely.
Aithe had thought about this often. A year had passed. If Alice’s uncle was set to marry her off, it was unlikely she wasn’t remarried already. Still, that did not bother Aithe. He knew Alice wanted to be with him, knew she would do everything in her power to fight against another marriage. If she was married, she was still his wife, first and foremost. He would take her and love her regardless of who she had been with.
“Well, she’s mine first. I will claim her. She is me wife and there is nae a man who exists to take her from me. I dinnae care if she’s been wed tae another. I will get her, and I will take her back home with me.” Aithe punctuated his words with a lift of his pickaxe.
“If I came home an’ me lassie was married off, I might just be grateful and find me a new younger maiden!” The new man shouted and laughed aloud at his own joke.
“Well, ye ken nothin’ of honor then,” Aithe blurted right back to the man. The man then dropped his pickaxe and rushed towards Aithe. He stood in his face breathing his sour breath.
“Dinnae say I ken nothin’ of honor. I was an honorable man before I was taken and thrown intae these mines.”
“Aye lads, settle down, we dinnae want tae call attention tae ourselves. They’ll be havin’ us work longer hours if we dinnae get back tae work.” Barney attempted to come between the men. He separated them with his arms and forced the new man back to where he had been standing. Aithe felt his body fill with heat. He didn't need to know anything about the man to know he wasn’t as honorable as he believed himself to be.
It was at that moment that the overseer returned. Only this time, Aithe caught the faint smell of whiskey on his breath. He saw the man drinking from a flask, one he never carried with him, and an idea suddenly came to him. He needed to keep himself open to any opportunity to escape, and it seemed today might be the only day he would have a chance to do so.
Aithe continued to pretend to focus on his work. He worked the axe over and over just as fiercely as he had at the start of the day. With every five or so clinks, he saw the man take another gulp. When another hour passed, and it came time for the man to smoke again, Aithe saw him stumble and nearly fall. Whatever was going on that day was causing the man to drink, but hopefully, it would work in Aithe’s favor. He called Barney over to him as the overseer stumbled to go back outside the mines.
“Aithe, what is it?” Barney whispered as Aithe pulled him to a corner.
“Our overseer has been drinkin’ whiskey.”
“I notice he sups heavy-handed some days,” Barney agreed.
“Aye, well, todae he seems tae be stumblin’ about more than he’s walkin’ straight. I think todae is our chance, Barney. What dae ye think lad?”
“I want tae see him when he comes back in. If he seems tae be drunk, I shall walk over tae ye, and on the count of three, we run at him full force. If we can knock him down, we can get out of here. Todae is Sunday, and I ken there is only one overseer since the others are all at church and away home.”
“Aye, I reckon we beat him unconscious. We need tae buy ourselves time.” Aithe added as an afterthought.
“We shall.” Barney looked past Aithe at the stream of light that barely made it’s way to the depths of where they stood. He seemed invested in the idea as much as Aithe, and Aithe knew he had his own lassie to get home to as well.
The two went back to their assigned areas of work and pretended to be focused on the stone around them. They mined away, but this time Aithe swung more lightly. He worried he would need to use all of his strength to escape. He was happy to have a lad on his side. It would make the getaway a lot easier to manage.
As Aithe waited for the overseer to return, his breathing quickened. He felt as if his heart was beating faster than necessary. Each small clink was the sound of the overseer returning, and he could barely stand the tension.
Finally, when he thought he would break from nerves, the man stumbled back down, tripping over his feet and nearly colliding into the wall. Aithe couldn’t help but laugh to himself. It would have been much easier if the fool would have knocked himself out. But at the soft chuckle, the man looked up.
“Who is laughin’?” he bellowed. “There’s no room fer laughter down ‘ere!” It was then that Aithe looked at Barney, and Barney held up his fingers: 3, 2, 1, and the two of them ran full force at the man, knocking him down in one quick motion.
“What in th’ bloody ‘ell dae ye think yer doin!” The man screamed out, and Aithe worried what the other prisoners might do. None of them moved but watched as Aithe and Barney struggled to stand. Aithe sent one quick kick to the man’s face while Barney grabbed a nearby shovel. Just as the man stood on his feet and was about to swing at Aithe, Barney knocked him back down with one quick swing of the shovel. He went down like a stone and did not move.
At first, Aithe and Barney stared at each other, as if neither could believe what they had done. They didn’t move, until finally Barney shook Aithe.
“This is our chance, we must go!” He shouted and ran as quickly as he could out of the mine. Aithe followed, stumbling on the stones as he dragged his heavy leg, willing it to move faster. From behind him, he could hear the men discussing amongst themselves what to do until one by one, they all started to follow behind.
The two lads ran as fast as they could towards the small forest near the mine. They knew that beyond the boundary was much open land and wilderness. It would be a good place for them to hide and navigate their way back to a safe location, and they ran as quickly as they could towards a large stone hill, hopeful there would be a cave in which to hide.
It seemed as if they were running for an hour before they finally reached the stone hill. The other men had dispersed, each running in a different direction, unsure of where to go with their newly found freedom.
“We did it!” Aithe screamed at Barney as they collapsed next to a large stone boulder.
“Aye, we did lad, and now, we need tae find our way tae our own homes before they come after us.”
Aithe nodde
d. He could not feel safe until he was back with Alice in Cadney.
The two discussed what they would do. They needed to wait for nightfall, and only then could they navigate their way home. Aithe knew how to use the stars as a map, and Barney’s familiarity with the local land meant they would be able to get somewhere during the evening, even if they had to battle beasts while doing so.
* * *
By nightfall, the men started to feel more secure. They hadn’t heard anything that led them to believe they were being followed or chased. Barney and Aithe worked together to figure out which way each of them had to go. Aithe had decided that the best course of action for him was to go to the estate that belonged to Alice’s uncle. If he was to find out anything about Alice, it would be by going there first. Barney, with Aithe’s help, knew the exact direction to reach his own home and to make his way back to his wife.
