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The chicken was judging me. It’s beady eyes boring into me as if I were nothing but an evil insolent child. She didn’t know the half of it. The farmhouse had always been my place to escape…especially when I was in trouble. And now, I was in the biggest trouble I’d ever gotten myself into. I’d broken one of my mother’s antique mirrors. It wasn’t just any old mirror of her collection either. No. I had managed to crack in half the grand gold encrusted giant that mounted her amour. The one that she talked to every day and spot cleaned herself with a designated handkerchief.
She loved that mirror more than she loved me. I knew that my punishment would be plenty worse than a that of the mirror. It was only necessary that I hide and give her time to cool off. I was only thirteen after all. I at least wanted to live until I was fifteen.
I picked up a small stone and threw it at the chicken’s head causing it to waddle like a duck for a few steps and eventually find it’s way out of my view. I wasn’t in the mood. Right now all I wanted to do was wander around the backyard until the stable boy found me and turned me in to my mother. That’s how it always went anyway. It would be exceptionally pleasant if he just didn’t find me at all…but he was sneaky. He could be spying on me right this second and I wouldn’t be able to tell.
With that in mind I sat up from the wheelbarrow and dusted the hay from my skirts, making sure my curls were in proper order and my hands were clean before walking out of the barn.
The sky was blanketed in dreary gray clouds, as always. Not that it rained at all. Not over our estate at least. It was just dark. That must have been why people didn’t visit us, or why my father was away. We weren’t very social people. It didn’t suit us. The whole family; my father, my mother, our maids and advisors and I, were perfectly fine keeping to ourselves. Less people were hurt when we just kept away from each other.
I did love them though. Or, I loved my mother. She wasn’t always cruel. Sometimes she’d invite me into her room and brush my hair as she hummed to me. She’d tell me I was beautiful, just like her. It was a compliment above all compliments until the day my father told me she was wrong, that I was even more beautiful than my mother. She was the most beautiful woman in the world. That’s what everyone said.
She had long straight milky blonde hair that spiraled down her back and smooth flawless ivory skin. Her nose had a slight curve at the end but it wasn’t noticeable until you saw her in the light. Her full lips and straight smile were dazzling. She could seduce anyone if she wanted, I knew. But she wouldn’t. She was faithful to her husband. Even though he was nowhere near faithful to her. I knew that my father was a dog. Just the way he looked at me told me that. That hunger in his eyes, and that power. Like he could have me if I wanted. The maids told me it was best if I just stayed away from him completely. But it was hard. He was in such control, not to mention the extravagant gifts he’d bring when he came back home from his travels. I had to listen to my father. He was a hefty man after all. Some what frightening really. His dark bushy brows and furious black eyes…he always looked angry. But, he was old, graying, balding, growing rather plump. If anything were to happen I was sure that I could simply run from him. One would hope.
I looked around me, at the vast sunflower field that covered the distance from the farmhouse to the forest. I’d have to go back through the forest if I ever wanted to get back home. I’d been out for at least an hour. Becka, my own personal maid, would be furious with me if she knew I was outside. I just had to make it through this daisy field without our stable boy, Jeffrey, catching sight of me. It was better to go unseen. I didn’t want to be in any more trouble than I knew I already was.
I carefully hitched my skirt around my waist and lowered myself to the dirt floor, the tall green stems becoming the perfect hiding place for me. The smell of musty manure tunneled through my nostrils and I held my breath as I began to crawl in it, taking a gasp of air every thirty seconds. Keeping clean was far behind me now. I just needed to get home, and quick. I was at least another mile or two from the manor. The good new was that I was only feet away from the end of the sunflower field.
I stood up to walk the rest of the way looking back over my shoulder so that I wouldn’t be seen. It would be terrible if I got caught no—
My face slammed into something soft and I gasped in the scent of manure once again. Jeffrey. I stumbled backwards at his tall frame and the glare in his eyes that pierced me like needles.
“H-hey Jeffrey. What are you doing out so late?” He frowned and the freckles that spotted his plump sunburned cheeks seemed to glow red with fury.
“Why ain’t you inside child?” I searched my mind for a quick answer but nothing came to mind. He knew why I was outside. What was the point of lying? “In trouble again? What’d you do this time?” He looked generally concerned. His glassy brown eyes lost their anger. I’d never seen him like this.
“I…broke mothers’ mirror.” I confessed, gulping and casting my eyes downward. My new shoes were dirty. Becka was going to kill me.
Jeffrey brought his hand up to his chin and rubbed the tiny hairs he had planted there. The gesture almost made me giggle. He was a man. Around 21 or so. Beautiful…but not the smartest man by any means. I could tell now that he was considering something.
“Okay, now listen here. How ‘bout I walk you through the forest and back to the manor and we forget that you were ever out here?” I was confused. Incredibly so. It must have showed on my face because he responded to it immediately after. “Now don’t go thinkin’ that this is gonna happen again or anything. Your father is home.” I understood perfectly well. My father, would be much angrier than Becka to know that I was outside. It was almost forbidden. I was a lady. I stayed inside.
“Okay then.” I said slowly as he turned from me and started walking ahead. I ran up to him, dusting myself off as best as I could and scrubbing my hands together to get most of the manure off. His presence wasn’t the usual one that I cleaned up for. But nothing was wrong with practicing. I was soon to be married, and I knew nothing about men. Only that most of them were evil—as my mother made sure I was aware of—and that some had a lot of money, like my father. Jeffrey wasn’t rich…and he didn’t seem so evil, at least not now.
“So, how was your day?” I asked in my most pleasant tone. He kept quiet and refused to turn to look at me. I coughed to clear my throat and then repeated myself a little louder.
“Oh hush down kid!” He whispered furiously, turning on me with a fearful look in his eyes. His grimy hands gripped my shoulders as he shook me a little. He was listening for something. “Do you hear that?” he asked seconds later. He’d gotten down onto his knees so that he stood a little shorter than me. I shook my head even though I hadn’t really been listening for anything. I was too distracted my the way his hands gripped my shoulders. It wasn’t mean and demanding like I got when I was in trouble. It was protecting. I smiled to myself.
“Why are you giving me that cooky grin? Would you listen like I said?” I nodded and cocked my head to the side. It was silent for a little while, nothing more than me and Jeffrey’s hushed breathing, but then I heard a loud groaning and angry shouting that followed it.
“I hear it.” I answered finally. “What do you think it is?” He shook his head and stood back up, releasing my shoulders and looking down at me.
“It sounds like someone’s gettin’ the crap beat out of ‘em. And the shouting sounded like your father.” He was right. It did. I panicked and gripped his hand.
“You have to get me to the manor then, what are we waiting for?” he pried my hand from his and threw it down at my side. I bit my lip a little embarrassed.
“You go on back to the manor by yourself. I’m gonna go see who needs help.” I frowned and moved away from him hoping to God that he would still keep his promise and forget that I was ever outside.
“Fine. You go on and get yourself in trouble.” I muttered to myself. Suddenly, a his hand gripped mine and he started dragging me the other way towards the noice.
“Mock me why don’t you?” He growled. I tried to pull my hand from his but it was useless. “Now you’re comin’ too and I’m gonna show you to your father.” I pulled more frantically this time bending my knees so that I could put all my weight into it but he snatched me forward and put his hand over my mouth, ducking into a sea of bushes. I took in a deep breath to scream but stopped when he whispered close into my ear.
“Shhh. Shhhh girl.” He spoke calmly as if I were a bucking horse. I only realized why he was so hostile when I heard the groaning and the shouting feet away from us. My eyes widened and I shut up to listen.
“Henry, be careful not to kill the horse before he’s inside!” I heard my father yell. It was the same voice that he used on me when I’d cut my hand once. He’d told me that I’d ruined myself. Jeffrey tensed around me. It must have been the fact that the words kill and horse were in the same sentence. I understood he concern…but mine was for what they were putting inside the animal. I felt queasy just thinking about it.
The groaning got louder and my curiosity grew. Finally I pushed Jeffrey off of me so that I could look for myself. He fell away easily, almost glad to be deprived from the view. At first I couldn’t see anything, they weren’t too close to us, but about fifty feet away and between a few trees, there was a gigantic golden chestnut lying on it’s side. My father paced from side to side in long panicked strides as he cast worried looks over his shoulders and swiped the sweat from his brow. It was only obvious that he was doing something that he shouldn’t be. I only wished that I could tell what.
I wasn’t going to get any closer. That would just be suicide. I squinted instead and noticed another man, Henry had it been? It was a doctor by the look of his mask and he was kneeling on the ground by the horses abdomen, concentrating. The horse must be sick, I explained to myself, not believing a word of it. The words that I had heard before told me already that they were putting something inside the horse. They’d called that something a he.
I brought my trembling hand to my mouth as recognition hit me. A man? They were going to put a grown man in the stomach of a horse? That was ludicrous! It was inhumane! Bile rose in my throat and grabbed for my stomach with my other hand, trying to keep everything down. The screams of horror caged in side of me begged to penetrate the silence and stop this madness! It was bad enough that I was here watching this, if my father knew I was watching, I was dead. Quite literally dead.
Beside me, Jeffrey rose and grabbed my arm once again, dragging me behind him as he bolted towards the manor. I could only look on behind me as the scene got further and further away. The blood that I could smell was nauseating and yet I couldn’t look away, and I couldn’t stop breathing in the putrid air. Even when they were out of view the picture stayed in the impressionable confines of my mind. My father was a monster, and his sin had been so great… God couldn’t possibly forgive him for doing such a thing, and so neither would I. From that day on, I knew I hated my father and all that he was.
But it was a good job. You portrayed the girl's emotios well. The description was done well.
