Selma withered before his anger-glazed eyes, shrinking backward on the cot as he approached menacingly. “Casper told me I could come here and lay down. I fainted out there in that hot sun. And I got a splinter as big as a fence post in my foot, and—”
“Just shut up!” he snarled, lunging forward to strike her across her face with his huge hand. “I’m getting sick of your whining. There ain’t nothing wrong with you. Now get out of here and back in them fields or I’ll take skin off your ass, you understand me?”
“Yes, Sergeant, yes. I’m sorry—”
She scrambled from the cot, hurrying toward the door, and April was horrified to see that she was limping on her right foot, leaving a trace of blood from the splinter she had tried to tell Blackmon about.
When the door had closed behind her, Kaid tossed the garments he was carrying into April’s lap. “Put these on. Everybody has a special dress here. Like I told you—”
Suddenly everything within erupted as April screamed out at him. “She was sick, you bastard! You could look at her and see she was sick! And she did have a splinter in her foot. There’s the blood right there on the floor!” She pointed an accusing finger downward. “Tell me, Sergeant, does President Davis know about Tarboro prison? Does he know what goes on here? Selma told me about how the guards rape the women, and—”
“Now you wait a damn minute, you little wildcat!” He jerked her roughly to her feet and the burlap cover fell away. “It ain’t your place to say nothing about what goes on around here. And as for President Davis, a traitorous spy like you ain’t got the right to mention the name of a fine man like that.”
His eyes dropped to her breasts, then lower, scanning her naked body as she cringed in his grasping hands. “Lord…” he whispered hoarsely, as though suddenly struck by a deep, inner pain. “Lord, Lord, I’ve never seen a woman put together like you before.”
“You get your damn, dirty hands off of me, you filthy bastard!” She began to kick at him and struggle as he held her. “Don’t you touch me, damn you—”
A strange, dazed look had taken over his face. He scooped her naked body into his arms, oblivious to the blows she flailed at him, her nails raking down his cheeks, as he strode to the door.
“Please, no!” she begged, anger fading to desperate pleas as she realized once again how futile it was to attempt to fight this hulking brute.
He gazed down at her hungrily. “Got to have you, darlin’. I’ve never seen a woman as pretty as you.”
They reached his cabin, and he kicked the door open, then shut, behind him. He removed his clothing and guided her to the bed. “It’s gonna be good, darlin’. I promise you it’s gonna be good. I’ll be gentle.”
His pulsating manhood unleashed, he grasped it in his hand, shaking it roughly as he crawled on top of her. “You were made for a man like me.”
April felt as though she were suffocating as he lowered his heavy body to hers. She tried to scream for mercy once more but could not breathe.
He grunted and shifted his body. Then suddenly, he gave a little cry of anguish and tore himself away from the bed. She watched, stunned, as he staggered across the room. He threw his bulk into a wooden chair, his weight causing a threatening creak. Burrowing his face in his hands, he lowered his head to the table and became very still.
For a long time Kaid Blackmon sat without moving. Damn it to hell, he thought, miserable, confused. Why hadn’t he been able to take her? Never in all his years pleasuring himself with women had his body failed him. Why had he suddenly been unable to take the most beautiful and desirable woman he had ever seen?
He shook his head and stared at the floor, ashamed. He gave her a sullen glance, then lowered his eyes once more. Maybe he loved her. Maybe, damn it, he cared. He only knew that he could not take anyone that pretty and use her like a common trollop.
He stared at her with red-rimmed eyes as she clutched her blanket tightly under her chin, trembling. With a tight, sad smile, he whispered raggedly, “You ain’t got to be scared of me, April. Not now.”
He struggled to his feet, turning his back as he adjusted his clothing. Then he shuffled from the cabin, shoulders slumped.
Dear God, April thought wildly. He had been about to take her but then he had run from her suddenly. Something must have happened to him. But what?
There was no time to wonder about it. Now was the time to run.
Cursing herself for not acting sooner, she leaped to her feet. In that instant the door opened and Kaid stepped inside and tossed a bundle of prison garb on the table.
“Put these on, April. Can’t have you running around without clothes. I’m going to fix you something to eat, then take you out to the field. You might as well get used to the way things are around here.”
She watched him as he went to a cabinet, and took out hardtack and a cold potato, then poured her a cup of water from a large jug. “This ain’t much, but you’ll get more for supper.” He glanced at her sharply. “I told you to put them clothes on,” he snarled.
She turned her back, let the blanket drop away and struggled to pull the baggy dress over her head. It hung loose all the way from the shoulders with no fit at all. It did not go all the way to her ankles. “This…this is indecent,” she said, eyes misting with humiliation. “It’s too short. I have no undergarments, no pantalettes or chemise.”
“Just shut up!” He pounded the table with his fist. “We don’t have fancy balls and teas around here, and as close as we live, the guards will see you bathing anyway. Just be thankful I’m going to put the word out that they ain’t gonna have you. Now get over here and eat this cold tater and hardtack so I can get you out to the field.”
She obeyed, partly because of the stabbing hunger pains churning within and also because she did not want to rile the man further. He was glaring at her. Moments before, he had been filled with desire. When he had taken her to get Lucky, he had shown tenderness. He was a man of many faces, and because she did not know what triggered each emotion, she found him deeply frightening. He could change moods without notice or any apparent provocation.
“You work from sunup to sundown,” he said as she ate. “You work the fields to grow the food you eat. Keeps you out of trouble, too. Everybody takes turns with the cooking. On Saturdays you get to go to the creek and wash your clothes, but you still take a bath every single night. Always make sure that whore, Selma, gets in the water last. She’s eat up with the clap.”
“Sundays you can rest,” he went on, “if you’ve done your share all week. If you ain’t, then you’ll be put to work doing something, believe me.”
He paused to give her a long, searching look. Then he took a deep breath and said, “Now I let my boys do just about what they want around here. We got a good thing going being assigned to run this prison, and we know it. So we all get along real good, and nobody gives anybody any trouble. The boys can have any woman they want, any time, but when we get a new one, like you, I get firsts for as long as I want it. So they won’t be bothering you. And don’t you tell me one of ’em is if he ain’t, ’cause if I find out you lie about something that could make me kill one of my own men, I’m liable to just go crazy and break that pretty neck of yours. You understand me?”
She turned blazing blue eyes upon him as she slowly rose from the table. She had had enough of his intimidation. She had had enough of the mess her life had become. “No, damn you to hell, Kaid Blackmon, I don’t understand you!” She spat out the words, unwavering before the flush of anger that crept into his face as he towered above her. “One minute you’re kind to me, and the next you’re screaming and threatening to beat me or kill me. One minute you’re tender, and the next you’re a brutal bastard. I’m sick of every damn bit of this. I’m not guilty of what they say I did. I never did anything against the Confederacy, and I hope every damn one of you who think I did will rot in hell!”
She paused for a quick breath then rushed on. “I will play your filthy little games here, but heed
me well, you big, ugly bastard! I’ll stick a knife in your back the first chance I get—and any other man who touches me. And I swear on my mother’s grave that I will find a way out of this hellhole—”
She stopped her tirade as he threw back his head and laughed uproariously. And he kept on laughing, his huge body convulsing as he bent forward from his waist, then backward, in delighted guffaws. “Oh, April, April,” he cried finally, tears of amusement streaming down his cheeks. “I’ve never met a woman like you. I swear! Beautiful, and a spirit to boot. You are a delight!”
He reached out and pulled her into the circle of his arms and gave her a squeeze that made her gasp. “I’m gonna like having you around, darlin’. I really am.
“Now then.” He gave her a pat and released her. “Put your shoes on, and let’s get on out to the field. You and I both know you’re my favorite, but if I keep you out of the fields, it’s going to make the other prisoners hate you right from the start, and that’d be real bad. You got to try to get along with them, you know. Come along now.”
She put on the wooden shoes that pinched her feet, and when she gave a cry of pain, Kaid apologized. “That’s the best we can do. The government more or less forgets us out here, and we have to make do. I took them off a scrawny little Yankee boy I found in the woods and shot awhile back. I just saved ’em figuring sooner or later we’d get a woman with feet small enough to wear ’em. You’re such a tiny thing, I’m surprised you can’t.”
“And just how ‘scrawny’ was the little Yankee boy?” she asked scornfully.
He frowned. “No matter. He was a Yankee. Don’t matter to me if they’re ten years old or a hundred. If he’s a bluebelly, I’ll kill him.”
He clamped his hand around her wrist and all but dragged her from the cabin. The rough wooden shoes pinched painfully as she struggled to keep up with his fast pace. They moved through the stump-littered clearing toward the forest, then down a path leading around a swamp. Fallen trees and thick underwood bordered on both sides, and April thought she had never seen a more dismal place. She cast wary eyes upward to low-hanging tree limbs, sure that a slant-eyed snake lay in wait on every branch.
“When you start planning your escape,” Kaid taunted, “remember there are swamps all around us. Lots of poisonous snakes, quicksand, and wild razorback hogs that’ll cut you to pieces before they start eating you. And you’d never make it down the road we come in on. Somebody’s always watching it. You may not see ’em, but they’re there. So if you want to try to get away, you’re going to have to go through the swamps.”
“Maybe the snakes and the quicksand and the wild hogs would be better than what I have to endure with you, Kaid Blackmon.”
“Now, April,” he chuckled and turned his head to give her an amused look. “I’m not all that bad. You be nice to me, and I’ll be nice to you. That’s the way it works. And don’t you be mad at me about what happened a little while ago. I was just tired, that’s all. I’m going to make it all up to you tonight.”
Too furious to speak, she could only hope that whatever had stopped him from ravishing her would happen again.
They stepped out of the forest, and she saw that they were in another clearing. This one was devoid of stumps. There were, she guessed, at least two or three acres here, lined with neat rows of green plants of all descriptions. The women, dressed in humiliating garb identical to hers, were scattered about the field. Some were using implements like hoes and shovels, while others were on their knees working the soil with their hands. They all stopped what they were doing to stare at her.
A soldier in gray was sitting nearby beneath the cooling shade of an elm tree, and he got lazily to his feet and walked to where they were standing. “This here is Private Ellison,” Kaid told her. “You do what he tells you to do. He’s in charge of the fields.”
April looked at him, saw glazed desire in his eyes as he looked boldly over her body. The dress was thin. She knew her nipples protruded, and she moved quickly to cover her bosom as best she could with her free arm.
The soldier laughed. “Well, we got us a real lady here, ain’t we? Don’t want nobody seeing her bosoms.” He made a smacking sound with his lips. “How’s about a li’l kiss to say hello, sweet lady? And there ain’t no need in you being shy, ’cause in a little while, when it gets real hot, you’ll peel down and work in the raw like the rest of them hussies—”
With a movement so fast April never saw till he struck, Kaid sent Ellison backward with a vicious blow to the chest. Towering over him as he lay sprawled in the dirt, Kaid cried, “You keep your filthy mouth shut to this one, you hear me? She’s a cut above the rest. She’ll be doing her share in the field, but only in the field. She won’t be doing it in your bed or out in the bushes. Now do you understand me, or do I need to rattle that so-called brain of yours a little?”
Ellison’s eyes narrowed to angry slits. “Yeah,” he drawled as he slowly got to his feet. “No need to get all riled up.”
Kaid did not smile, but there was a gentle note in his voice as he said, “Get to work now. I’m gonna go back and let your dog out. I put him in the barn so he wouldn’t wander off. Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on him till he gets used to his surroundings.”
April shook her head, bewildered. He cares about my dog, she thought as she stumbled along behind Private Ellison, and Lucky seems to like him. But why did he lock him in the barn? So he wouldn’t come to my rescue when he heard me screaming? And why is he being nice to him? None of it makes any sense. A man like that, so brutal and callous, caring about a mongrel dog…
“Here. Jewel will show you what to do.”
April turned to look down at a woman kneeling in the dirt. Her face was streaked with grime, as were her hands and arms. Once, April thought, she might have been pretty. Now her skin was baked by the sun, dried and leathery. Her dark hair was dull, lifeless, and pulled haphazardly into a bun on top of her head, damp strands clinging to her perspiration-slicked neck.
She looked up at them with flashing eyes and gave April a look of hate. “What’s the matter? Don’t Miss Hoity-Toity know how to pull weeds? It don’t take no fancy education for this, you know.”
Ellison raised his hand as though to strike her. “Don’t you get sassy, Jewel. I ain’t listening to that smart mouth of yours.”
Jewel did not shrink away but continued to stare at April defiantly, furiously. She smirked. “What’s the matter? Can’t she tell the difference between a weed and a bean plant?” She looked at April. “Are you a Yankee?”
“No, I’m from the South,” she replied quickly, wanting to make friends, for she did not understand the hating way the woman was looking at her. “I’m from Montgomery, Alabama, actually, and it’s a long story how I got here. But I’m not a spy, and—”
“I didn’t ask for the story of your life, bitch. Just get your ass down here and start jerking plants. I’ll bet you lived on a fancy plantation, and your daddy whipped his slaves to work in the fields, and you never had to get those dainty hands of yours dirty.”
“Jewel, I’m warning you!” Ellison took a menacing step forward.
She stared up at him, undaunted. “You don’t scare me, you sonofabitch. And the only reason you brought her over here to work with me is to rub in the fact that Kaid’s got a new sweetie to keep his bed warm for a while. Well, it don’t make any damn difference to me, understand? And if you think I’m going to warm yours for you—”
He swooped down to slap her, but she had seen the blow coming and was ready for it. April gasped and jumped back, but Jewel held herself steady and kept the taunting smirk on her face.
“You’ll do anything I tell you to, you bitch.” Ellison’s face was red with ire. “Now if you want me to strip that worthless hide of yours and tie you up and beat you till you bleed, then you keep running that smart mouth.
“And I’ll tell you something else,” he went on, pointing his finger in her face. “Tonight I’m taking you out to the barn where nobody
can hear you scream, and I’m going to fix you good.”
“Oh, shit, Ellison, you ain’t got what it takes to fix no woman good,” she laughed. “Now get out of here, or I’ll go screaming after Kaid and tell him how you’re acting. I might even tell him you’re trying to feel up his new sweetie. You know what would happen then,” she added with a wink.
He sucked in his breath, straightened. It was obvious her threats had registered. He gave April a rough shove and sent her sprawling down beside Jewel. “Just get to work,” he said between gritted teeth. “I’ll take care of you later. You can believe that, bitch.”
Jewel threw back her head and laughed, long and loud and shrill, but April could tell that it was only an act. She could see the glimmer of unshed tears in the woman’s eyes.
When he was out of hearing range, she told her, “I’m sorry, Jewel. He shouldn’t have hit you like that—”
“Don’t worry about it,” she snapped. Pointing to a yellowish green plant nearby, she said, “That’s a weed. We have to crawl all over this damn field and pull them up. They’ve got stickers on them, and they’ll really prick your fingers. So try to be careful.”
“My name is April Jennings.” She held out her hand and smiled wanly. “I hope we can be friends. It can’t be very pleasant here, and if we get along—”
She gasped as Jewel slapped her hand away, then pointed an accusing finger. “Let’s get something straight. You and me ain’t never gonna be friends, ’cause I ain’t got no friends here, see? I do my job, and I keep my mouth shut, and I leave everybody alone. The only reason that bastard brought you over here to work with me was to goad me, to let me know Kaid’s got somebody else to lay with and won’t be calling me to his bed.
“But that won’t last long,” she rushed on. “It never does, ’cause there ain’t nobody else can satisfy him like I can, ’cause I understand him. He’s a good man. But you and the prissy little sluts like you think he’s just an ugly old creep without a heart. I know different. And if I ever catch you flirting with him or leading him on, I’ll kill you with my bare hands. You understand me?”
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