Page 45 of The Condemned (Echoes from the Past #6)

“I wasn’t always like this, Mary,” Simon said at last. “I was an honest man, doing honest work. I served a fine lord, looking after his horses. My father was the head groom, but once he grew too old to do his duties, the position would pass down to me. My family had worked for Lord Denton’s family for generations.

My grandfather had been a serf, as was his father before him.

My father was a free man, but he continued to serve the family, for a fair wage.

My younger brother worked in the house, and my sister started in the kitchens when she turned twelve. ”

“So, what happened?” Mary asked, curious despite her anger .

“Lord Denton’s wife, who had fulfilled her marital duty and produced three fine sons, ceased to interest him.

He took a mistress in the village, a girl younger than his eldest son.

The poor lass wanted no part of him, but her family didn’t give her much of an option.

Lord Denton owned the village, and everyone in it.

If the girl dared to refuse, her family would suffer, and their only recourse, the minister, would side with his lord. ”

“Did you stand up for her?” Mary asked, hoping she’d misjudged Simon.

“There was naught I could do to help her. Besides, her family benefited nicely from having their daughter warm the master’s bed. They never ate so well, nor had coin to spare on minor luxuries before he took a liking to her.”

“So, how did any of this affect you?”

“Lady Denton, who was a proud woman, didn’t take kindly to being set aside. She’d always been partial to me, but once her lord strayed, she took to coming into the stables, hoping for something more than a spirited gallop.”

“People just can’t keep their hands off you, can they?” Mary said bitterly. “So, did you service her and get caught by her husband?”

“I refused. Told her I was courting a girl from the village and we were to be married that autumn.”

“Did she leave you alone?”

“She was angry and humiliated that a lowly groom would reject her. She told her husband I’d stolen a ring from her, and he turned me over to the constable.

There was no proof. They found nothing on me, but her word was enough to convict me.

I was to be hanged for a crime I didn’t commit.

The day before I was to be executed, Lord Denton petitioned the magistrate to commute my sentence to indentured servitude.

I think Lady Denton had a change of heart and told him the truth of what she’d done. ”

“She told her husband you rejected her advances?” Mary scoffed.

“Of course not. Probably said I was insolent to her and she wanted to see me punished.”

“Why would she change her mind?”

“Likely didn’t want my death on her hands. She wasn’t a cruel woman, just a scorned one.”

“So, that’s how you came to be here in Virginia?”

Simon nodded. “I spent two months aboard a ship, treated no better than vermin. All they fed us was gruel, and we weren’t allowed up on deck, not even for a breath of air.

Do you know what a hold with two dozen men who haven’t washed in months and filled with slop buckets overflowing with shit and vomit smells like, Mary?

I swore to myself if I made it to Virginia alive, I’d do whatever it took to survive.

Whatever. It. Took. I won’t be leaving my service empty-handed. ”

“What Lady Denton did to you was cruel, but John doesn’t deserve to be punished for her actions.”

“I’m not out to punish him. He’s a good man, John.

He’s been kind to me. But I’ve lost everything, Mary.

Even if I had the means to return to England, I’ve nothing to go back to.

My family was shamed. My father and brother lost their employment.

And my beloved likely married someone else.

My life was stolen from me. I just need a helping hand to start a new one, and after what I’ve been to John these past years, he owes me. ”

“He should help you because he wants to, not because you hold exposure over his neck like a sharpened ax,” Mary argued.

“Mary, do you honestly believe John will simply give me a portion of his land, or enough coin to buy a plot of my own? You’re more na?ve than I thought. No one gives you anything in this life. If you want it, you have to take it. ”

“That’s an awfully self-serving view.”

“It’s the self-serving people who prosper in this world. Now, if you won’t give me a well-deserved kiss, then give me a piece of bread. I’m hungry, and all this talking’s given me a mighty thirst. You promised John you’d take good care of me. And believe me, he will ask.”

Mary returned to the table to fix a plate for Simon.

She was angry with him, and wary of his advances, but what he’d said about John resonated in her mind.

Was John a kind master who had romantic feelings for his servant, or was he a predator who took advantage of a man in no position to deny him and used him to satisfy his carnal urges?

Had he done Travesty a kindness by purchasing her contract when no one else wanted it, or had he seen an opportunity to get her cheaply and taken a chance she wouldn’t die?

Had John married Mary because he longed for a family and companionship, or had he simply used the opportunity to hide his own proclivities and possibly produce an heir?

Sadly, she didn’t know John well enough to answer those questions. John was an enigma to her, one she wasn’t sure she cared to solve. She was bound to him for life, and whether he was the soul of kindness or a ruthless manipulator, she had no choice but to do his bidding.