Page 4 of Against Her Will

One of the men sitting across from Sissy inclined his head towards her. “And this one?”

“I believe she’s her maid.”

“What are we doing with her?”

Victor gave the man who dared question him a sharp look. “Keeping her, until she’s no longer of any value to us.” In his experience, despite the bother of yet another mouth to feed, situations like this involving ladies of quality often went much easier if they were allowed to keep a familiar face about them at first.

Chapter Two

Although Cassie awoke several times during the next few days, she was never really clear headed at all, and was only roused so that Sissy could attend to her personal needs and she could eat something. The food was crude and cold – often no more than a scrap of bread and some ale – but she didn’t feel the lack. All she wanted was to get back to sleep.

Sissy, on the other hand, had remained as alert and awake as she could make herself be through the entire trip. She had surmised after an hour or so in the carriage that they weren’t headed towards a doctor, as the strangely accented man had said initially, but she knew well enough to keep her mouth shut and do as she was told. What could she have done to save them against a carriage full of men? Nothing. They were travelling at such a speed that jumping out was out of the question, too, especially for an unconscious Cassie. All that would have happened then was that the two of them would probably have gotten deader much faster.

So she kept to herself and did what she could to keep Cassie comfortable and to not annoy anyone else when they stopped late in the evenings to eat and sleep. She guessed she could have tried to escape then herself – leaving Miss Cassie to whatever face whatever fate had in store for her alone – but she couldn’t imagine that she’d get away with it, and didn’t much want to think about what the consequences might have been for doing so once she was inevitably caught. Besides, where would she go? The only person she knew on the continent was Cassie. And, overall, Sissy was being treated much better by her captors than she had been while she had been by anyone at Two Rivers, including Cassie. There was no comparison. She ate what they ate, and the Count didn’t suffer bad food. He always made sure that a big plate was sent up to her as she watched over her mistress, and even offered on occasion to take her place so that she could go downstairs if she wanted to, although she always declined. He had noticed that she didn’t have the right clothing for the colder climes they were entering, and took it upon himself to find warmer dresses and a finer coat than she’d ever hoped to own for her, cupping her cheek in his hand when tears overflowed down her cheeks at his generosity.

“Watch over her, keep her as calm and quiet as you can, and see to her . . . other needs and I will reward you generously,” he’d said to her at one point, early on in their journey.

As far as she was concerned, Sissy had already been more than adequately rewarded, but she managed to nod slowly at his promise.

No one ever questioned the man – who Sissy gleaned was a count or something – about the woman he claimed was his wife and why she had to be carried up to their bedroom and back down again, but then she figured his title bought him assumed respectability, and when that wasn’t apparent, his money would step in to grease the palm of anyone who might ask a few too many questions.

They travelled forever, it seemed, and no one bothered to communicate anything about their destination to her or Cassie, not that Cassie was conscious often enough – or even conscious enough at any time – to grasp what she might have been told. She was kept quite deliberately drugged until they had been travelling for several weeks, when one morning Sissy noticed that he hadn’t given her the ale laced with whatever drug he was using to keep her subdued – laudanum or some such thing, she was sure – when she’d gotten Cassie up enough to feed her a breakfast slice of bread soaked in milk so that it was easier for her to swallow in her twilight state.

Although she still slept the rest of the time they travelled that day, Sissy could tell it was more of a normal sleep, less dependent on chemicals as she moved quite a bit as she slumbered. The medication he was using had her so deeply in its clutches that her sleep with it was almost that of the dead – in fact, at first, Sissy had routinely put a mirror up to Cassie’s nostrils, just to assure herself that she was still breathing.

When the coach finally turned off what seemed to be the main road, then off its tributary and into a deep forest, Sissy hunkered down for another long day of sheer boredom.

Instead, the trees parted, revealing a gorgeous estate that had to be at least three times the size of Two Rivers. The carriage stopped at the front door and masses of garishly uniformed servants descended and relieved it of all of its baggage, as well as the strange men who had travelled with them. Only she, the Count and Cassie remained as the coachman clucked to the horses and they were moving again, although much more slowly than before.

They made their way around the huge main building, then well back from it, to a cluster of small houses that were much better appointed than the breeding cabins where she’d come from, but just about as small. But they didn’t stop at any of these apparent residences. Instead they were driven to a bigger building at the end of the road, where the Count swung out of the carriage and reached in to offer his hand to Sissy – which had surprised her to no end the first time he’d done it. No white man had ever offered her assistance in anything, much less just alighting from a coach. The Count had been unfailingly courteous to her, much more so than any other white man she had ever met, and she had come to accept the common courtesies that he displayed towards her, which only served to point out how badly she had been treated previously.

When Sissy was safely on the ground, Victor reached in and plucked Cassie from the seat. She was aware enough to put her arms around his neck, and he knew when she didn’t make any other moves that she was still sleeping cozily.

The doors to the building were thrown open for him by two matronly looking women, who, with Sissy, followed him to what seemed to be a medical room of some sort at the back of the facility.

“But, Sir,” one of the matrons exclaimed, “we haven’t had a chance to examine her yet!”

It was then that the Count removed the hood of the warm cape Cassie had been wearing since shortly after they’d departed Paris, causing both of the women to “Ahhhh” loudly as that unique hair spilled down over her shoulders. The cape had served two purposes – keeping her warm as well as hiding that most unique of attributes from any prying – or spying – eyes. He wasn’t the only one in this business, and he knew that his rivals would slit his throat in a second to have what he had finally succeeded in procuring.

“You found one!” the oldest of the two women exclaimed reverently.

“That I did, Matushka,” Victor agreed, at least as devoutly as she had as they all stood and stared at Cassie – except for Sissy, who was looking at them as if they had lost their minds. “And she’s totally untouched, right, Sissy?” he added.

He seemed to be looking to her for some sort of confirmation of Cassie’s purity, which was something Sissy had never considered before, and certainly never been asked, so she hesitated.

Victor turned his full attention to Sissy as he and the other women held their breath. “You would know, right? You’ve probably been with her since she was born.”

“Six, Sir. She was six and I was eleven when Missus Winthrop told me it was my job to take care of her.”

“Has she known a man?”

Sissy could not believe how forward he was being, but the look in his eyes – a cold and calculating one that chilled her to the bone, despite how well he had treated her - let her know that he expected an answer – a correct answer, not necessarily even the right one.

“Not far as I know, Sir. She’s never even had a beau; she keeps turning all them that asks down.”

Everyone heaved a collective sigh as Victor turned back to a still very groggy Cassie, saying, “Yes, I’m not at all surprised. She is not the type of woman that you can give that choice to.” If her answer had been in the affirmative, he would have been severely disappointed, but he would still consider her quite a prize. The path she would take here at the Infirmary would have been a different one, however.

Regardless, he would know whether Sissy spoke the truth in a matter of minutes.

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