Against Her Will

by Nicole Sturgill

  At least this way Temperance may have someone to share her birthday cake with. She went to the door and opened it, “Hello, sir.”

  The man’s gaze fell on her hard. His eyes swept her up and down. Temperance shifted uneasily. He was an ugly man and very dirty. His cold smile revealed rotten teeth beneath a scraggly brown mustache and his pockmarked face was covered in a patchy beard. He had eyes so dark they were nearly black as they scanned her. He was heavy around the middle beneath his sweat stained and wrinkled clothing.

  “Well hello there, miss. Are your parents home?”

  Despite his looks, his voice sounded nice and polite enough. Temperance had always been taught not to judge a book by its cover and so she offered a friendly smile as she shook her head. “A sickness took my family, sir. You may not want to come in here--it may still linger.”

  The man shrugged and looped his horse’s reins over the porch banister, “If you can provide me with a good meal and a soft place to sit, I’m willing to take my chances. It’s been quite a few days since I’ve had either one.”

  Temperance chewed her lip. Something about this man seemed off -but it might have simply been because she had been here alone for so long. She pointed in the general direction of town, “It’s only a three hour ride to town, sir, and they’ll have a much better selection of food I’m sure.”

  He laid a hand over his soft middle. “Please miss, I don’t mean you any harm at all. I don’t have any money to pay for a meal in town. My name is Yancy Bates and I just got done fighting in that terrible war, miss. I’m on my way home but still have a good three weeks on a horse to get there. Please let me come on in and get a good meal in me and maybe put some food in my rucksack. I’d be more than happy to do any work around here that needs done in return for the food.”

  “What side?” Temperance whispered.

  Yancy frowned, “Pardon?”

  “Which side did you fight for?”

  Yancy’s fingers danced across Robert’s jacket which Temperance had airing out on the porch banister, “The Union, Miss. I fought for the true America.”

  Temperance sighed. She couldn’t deny the man a meal. He might have been someone that had helped her father and brothers at some point and God would not appreciate her not returning such a favor.

  “Come on in then and I’ll cook you something to eat. I was just about to bake a cake.”

  “Oh,” he smiled as he walked toward the steps. “What’s the occasion?”

  “My birthday,” Temperance replied, stepping into the house. “I am sixteen today.”

  The man followed her in and closed the door behind him, “Well, ain’t that something.”

  ***

  Yancy turned out to be a pleasant enough house guest. He had fed the animals for her and brought in some wood from outside while she cooked. After a good meal he had gone out and cleaned the barn and then he had sang her an off key rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ which had made her laugh before they’d eaten the cake she had baked.

  They had found themselves out on the porch talking for hours afterward. Yancy had listened to her carry on about the loss of her father and brothers, the loss of Robert and then the loss of her mother and sisters. He had seemed truly sad for her. Temperance hadn’t realized just how lonely she had been until company had arrived.

  Yancy ended up staying for supper as well and then he looked at the clock, “I should probably head on,” he noted.

  Temperance didn’t want him to leave. She didn’t want to go back to being alone just yet. She rose from her chair, “Why don’t you stay here for the night? You can sleep on the sofa--I have extra pillows and blankets. It’s nearly dark and surely you’d be more comfortable on the sofa than the hard ground. Tomorrow I have to be heading into town since supplies are getting short and you can accompany me… I‘ve been worried about making the trip alone.”

  Yancy nodded, “You‘re right about it sounding more comfortable, miss, and I’d hate to have something happen to you making that trip alone…” he paused, “Are you sure you don’t mind me staying the night? I don’t want to overstay my welcome…”

  “I’m sure.”

  Temperance gave him blankets and a pillow before she bid him goodnight and went into her mother’s old room. She donned her nightdress and slid between the sheets, thankful that she hadn’t spent her birthday alone--the company of a stranger was still better than that horrible silence. Then again he wasn’t a stranger any longer. He was now a friend.

  Life seemed to enjoy throwing her curves these days but she was taking them all in stride just as her mother had always taught her to. And now she’d learned that just because someone looked unpleasant that didn’t mean they truly were unpleasant. Yancy had proved to be a good man.

  Temperance was smiling for the first time in a long time as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

  Hours later, a sudden movement pulled Temperance from her slumber. Opening her eyes and straining to peer through the darkness, Temperance saw dark eyes glittering as they leered at her.

  “Yancy?” she whispered, the words sounding small and insignificant in the oppressive darkness. What was he doing in the room? Was something wrong?

  She heard him let out a chuckle which made her blood run cold. Opening her mouth to speak again, Temperance was quickly silenced when one of his large dirty hands clamped over her lips while the other closed around her throat.

  “You’re going to make me fortune, pretty girl,” he growled as he lowered his face toward hers and sniffed at her hair. He let out a groan, “Damn, you smell good.”

  Tears leaked from the corners of Temperance’s eyes. Her heart cried out with desperation. Why was her friend doing this to her? His face was hard and Temperance realized that she had indeed misjudged him. Her first instincts had been correct. Yancy was a bad man.

  Chapter Five

  Temperance sat curled upon the sofa with her knees pulled into her chest and her chin resting atop them. She’d been in this same spot--this same position--since Yancy had woken her hours earlier. He had forced her to dress and then led her out to the sofa where she had remained.

  Yancy had spent the time since then going through all her mother’s organized cupboards, drawers and chests and tossing things carelessly upon the floor. Her mother had always been a stickler about her home and had certain ways that everything had to be--Temperance knew the woman would be rolling in her grave if she saw the way her belongings and home were being treated.

  “Damn! Y’all ain’t got much of anything of value that I can sell off, do ya?” Yancy demanded, his voice now much more gruff and his grammar terrible proving that the gentleman he had appeared to be before had all been an act to gain her trust. Temperance felt like a fool and wondered what he planned on doing to her. She hoped he wouldn’t kill her….

  “We had to sell most of it while my father and brothers were gone,” she whispered. She could remember the resolve and strength her mother had shown as she had sold off every piece of valuable jewelry, china and decoration they possessed in order to pay of debts and buy food over the last four years.

  Yancy grunted in response and shoved some food into a sack. “Go pack a bag,” he ordered. “Pack up whatever extra clothes you got and I’ll even let ya take a few personal belongings. Just cuz I’m feelin’ so damned charitable today.”

  Temperance bit back her sharp retort and pushed some red hair from her face. “Wh..where are we going?” she stammered.

  “Away. Back to my home.” Yancy grinned. “You’re mine now, girlie.”

  “No, I’m not,” Temperance countered, squaring her shoulders. “I don’t belong to anyone.”

  He clicked his tongue and scratched at his patchy beard, “Ya have spirit and that’ll have to be broken. More fun for me, I guess. You are mine now, girlie. No one is gonna come to save ya. You said yourself you’ve been out here alone for a long time and no one has come to check on ya. No one cares, girlie. You are mine.”

&n
bsp; “No…”Temperance began to argue again but it seemed that Yancy had had enough. He strode forward and slapped her hard across the face with his calloused hand.

  Temperance’s vision swam as her head seemed to explode with pain. It radiated through her cheek, pulsing and bringing hot tears to her eyes. Never in her life had she been struck. Her parents had never laid rough hands on their children and Temperance had never seen such abuse.

  “You won’t back talk me anymore, girlie! I won’t tolerate it and you’ll get hit every time. Now go get your damn things so we can get goin’. I got deadlines to meet.”

  Temperance leapt to her feet and quickly scampered up the ladder to the loft and the room she had once shared with her sisters. Her face was stinging and she suspected his handprint could probably be seen upon it. Yancy was a bad man--an evil one--and Temperance had no idea what he had planned for her.

  He had said she belonged to him and that she would make him lots of money, but how? Was he going to have her working somewhere for him? She had never held a steady job but figured she could do so without too much trouble--and maybe she’d be able to find a way to escape him.

  For now it seemed that doing what he wanted was her best option. She didn’t want to be hit again.

  Temperance packed her single extra dress into a sack and scooped up Robert’s journal, dropping it in as well. She packed away Charlotte’s corn husk doll and Jessica’s favorite hair pin with a copper daisy on it. On top of this she placed her spare nightdress and her knitted shawl. She tied the sack closed with a string and put it over her shoulder before making her way back down the ladder.

  Yancy was waiting by the front door with a sack over his own shoulder. He shook his head. “That dress just won’t do. I’ll have to buy ya some new ones.”

  Temperance looked down at her homemade dress that her mother had crafted out of flour sacks and an old blanket. It was her favorite dress with the tiny flowers that decorated it. “I like my dress.”

  “It’s a damn little girl’s dress and you sure as hell ain’t got no little girl’s body. You’re a woman with a woman’s body and I’m gonna get ya some dresses that show that.”

  A woman? She was technically sixteen now and more a woman than a girl but that didn’t mean she wanted to show that off, and just why would she need to show her figure?

  She had been raised sheltered here on this land. She only went to town a few times a year and her parents had always made sure she was protected from any harshness of reality--until she had read Robert’s journal she hadn’t realized that such harshness was even possible. Now she was wishing she knew more about what was out there because then she might have some idea of how to handle Yancy.

  “Put this on to keep you warm,” Yancy ordered, tossing Robert’s uniform coat at her.

  Temperance happily slipped into it, letting the memory of the kind man wash over her and shield her a bit from her new reality.

  “Let’s go now,” Yancy grumbled as he grabbed her arm roughly and yanked her out the door.

  The sun was just beginning to rise and the sky was turning from black to purple. Temperance was led to Yancy’s waiting horse and he tied the two sacks to the saddle horn. Temperance struggled against him as he tried to put her in the saddle and he smacked her again--this time she tasted blood.

  “You’re going to quit fighting me, girlie,” he snorted and tossed her onto the horses back causing her to have to struggle for balance to keep from falling off the other side. “If you keep fighting me, I’ll be forced to hurt ya bad and I really don’t want to. Bruises tend to bring the price down.”

  Temperance’s heart was crying out desperately as Yancy took her away from the only home she had ever known. She watched it over her shoulder for a time until they started past her family’s graves.

  “Can we stop, please?” she pleaded. “Just for a moment? I want to say goodbye…”

  Yancy laughed harshly. “Girlie, them folks is dead. It don’t matter what you say, they won’t hear a word of it. It’s best to lose any hope ya got right now. Those graves tell ya all you need to know. There ain’t no daddy or brothers gonna save you. There ain’t no momma to give a shit if you’re scared and there sure as hell ain’t no pale, kind soldier gonna fall in love with you. You are mine now and you need to accept that if ya want to spare yourself a bit of pain.”

  Temperance bit her lip to keep from crying and cursed the hopelessness of her situation.

  Chapter Six

  Temperance’s body was hurting from the abuse that two weeks on a horse’s back had put it through. Her thighs were red and chaffed and last night she had noticed a bit of blood as she had relieved herself in the bushes. Her stomach ached from holding herself steady on the beast’s back and while she hadn’t wanted to, she’d been forced to wrap her arms around Yancy’s waist in an effort to keep from falling.

  She had been working hard to stay on Yancy’s good side. Those two smacks were enough to let her know she didn’t want to anger him any further. Honestly, he wasn’t terrible to her as they traveled just so long as she minded him. He made sure she had the softest bed that sleeping on the ground would allow and he always ensured she ate plenty at her mealtimes.

  But Temperance was not foolish. She knew that wherever he was taking her was going to be bad. She may not know the details about what happened between a man and a woman but she knew enough to know that that is what this filthy, smelly man kept talking about when he would make his off the cuff remarks.

  Temperance shivered. She certainly did not want to do what her brothers had told jokes about doing with this man. She would not moan beneath him the way she had heard her mother moaning beneath her father several times in the night.

  He had also mentioned the amount of money she would bring him several times--if he thought that she would be like one of those women who worked in those places if ill repute she’d heard about then he was very very wrong.

  It had been two weeks of riding from daylight to dark and having no idea where Yancy was taking her before a home came into view and Yancy seemed to be heading straight for it.

  It was a larger house than she had imagined it would be. It was a log home with freshly mudded walls and a barn that was in nicer shape than the cabin she had once called home. Temperance’s eyes were drawn to the wide porch when two men with guns on their hips stepped off of it.

  “Yancy, what have you got there?” the taller of the two men asked. He was over six feet and very lean. He had a clean shaven face that was streaked with dirt and there was amusement filling his brown eyes. The other man was shorter and stouter with a round face and tired eyes. He too was dirty and his clothes sweat stained.

  “I got us a new one, boys. This one out to fetch us a real good price,” Yancy replied, hopping down from the horse before pulling Temperance down as well. She shivered as all three men looked her up and down with assessing gazes.

  “It’ll be damn nice to have one here. It’s been a while since we’ve had a pretty woman here,” the shorter man stated. “Selling them negros just ain’t the same.”

  Temperance gasped when the tall man reached out and let his finger graze against her neck. She tried to jump away but Yancy grabbed her and held her tight while all three men laughed. “Damn, Yancy, this one’s purtier than any you’ve brought back before. Teaching her is gonna be fun… real fun.”

  Temperance had no idea what these men planned to teach her but something told her it wasn’t arithmetic.

  “Let me get her settled in her room, boys, and then we’ll talk business,” Yancy stated. He grabbed her sack of belongings and strode up the porch, dragging Temperance behind him. The iron grip he had on her wrist was very painful and she had a feeling he was leaving bruises.

  She was led inside the dusty and unkempt home. The floors were polished wood, though they were scuffed, and they matched the polished beams on the ceiling. She caught a glimpse of a messy kitchen before being led up a narrow staircase.

  A tig
ht hallway led to a door that Yancy opened with one hand as he shoved her inside with the other, “This is your room. Your door will be locked at all times and there is no window. If you are caught attempting to leave your room without permission there will be severe consequences. Do ya understand?”

  Temperance nodded slowly. Yancy grinned, tossed her bag roughly on the floor at her feet and winked. “You get settled in, girlie. Lessons will be starting soon.”

  “Lessons in what?” she asked, causing him to pause in his exiting of the room with his hand on the door.

  “On being a good and obedient wife, girlie.”

  “I’m not marrying anyone…” Temperance countered.

  Yancy’s eyes flashed with anger and for a moment Temperance feared he would strike her again. She quickly lowered her gaze and stared at the floor. “You will marry whoever pays me the most for ya, girlie. We’ll teach ya how to please a man and then we’ll let ya go for a small fortune.”

  Temperance blanched. “Please a man?” she whispered. What did that mean?

  Yancy laughed and the sound was cold and caused a shiver to rush down Temperance’s spine. “We’re gonna teach ya how to please his cock, girlie. We’re gonna break that fighting spirit that I can still see shining in your eyes and we’re gonna teach ya how to take care of his most basic needs. We’ll leave your innocence intact, though. They always pay more for the ones that still have that barrier between their thighs.”

  Temperance heard the door click closed as he left and then she quickly ran to the wash basin she had seen in the corner and lost the contents of her stomach inside.

  She knew what a cock was and she knew what Yancy was saying. Dear God these men were going to make her do things to them… things that she didn’t want to do! Things that she was only meant to do with her husband someday.

  She had to find a way out.

  Temperance wiped her mouth and sat back on her heels as she looked around the room. There was a small metal framed bed with a thin mattress against the wall, a wardrobe that needed sanded down and painted beside it and this wash basin and vanity. Other than those things the tiny room was empty and Yancy had been telling the truth--there was no window to slip out of.