“Hold him down.” Reed ordered.
Two men grabbed the man’s arms while others watched.
The man howled as the leather tore his flesh. Blood glistened through tears in the shirt on the man’s back.
Heart heaving, Ann skirted past the men watching.
The whip connected to flesh twice more before she made it to the quiet of the house. The sounds of the whip and tearing flesh remained in the front of her mind as she made her way to her room.
Ann found her mother in the guest chamber she and Papa would share. “Mama.”
“Do ye think the blue or the green? It is only just Christmas Eve, I thought I might save—” Mama crossed the room in three steps. “What happened?”
“Ye cannot make me marry him.”
“Come sit.” Mama pulled Ann into her arms and led the way to a chest at the foot of the large canopied bed.
“He was whipping a helpless man.”
“Who was?”
“Reed.”
Her mother inhaled and sent a comforting hand up and down Ann’s back. “Perhaps ye don’t know the full story.”
“I don’t need to know a full story to understand that Reed Archer just asked two men to hold down a man to be whipped.”
“Calm down, Ann.”
“I will not do it.”
“Shhhh.” Her mama rocked side to side. Ann closed her eyes. Blood spattered the ripped shirt and appeared to land on the backside of her eyelids. She flashed them open. Mama’s left hand clasped her right one as she continued to rock. The blue sapphire of Mama’s wedding ring winked in the sunset. Grandpa’s knife sat warm in Ann’s left hand amidst the sawdust on her skirt.
“Are ye ready for supper?”
“I don’t think I can eat.”
Her mother chuckled. “I’ve never seen ye not able to eat.”
Ann frowned as her traitorous stomach growled. “Ye’re right.”
“I’ll see ye downstairs in ten minutes.”
Ann shivered into her dinner dress. Nothing would stop her mother’s determination to see her wed. At least she had Mattie and Ruby.
Oh, no. She’d left her basket in the barn. The clock on the mantel warned her she didn’t have enough time to retrieve it before supper. She’d have to go right after they finished eating. She had no desire to be there too long after dark. Ann sent a little prayer that her basket would remain intact until she could retrieve it.
2
Gentle laughter reached her before she entered the parlor. The golden peak of sunset retreated through windows growing cooler in the twilight. A cheery fire crackled in the hearth on the opposite wall. Holly berries popped from green leaves covering the mantel.
Ruby and Mattie, heads together, both looked up when she entered the room.
“I declare, Margaret, the decorations exceed the bounty of last year.” All eyes in the room focused on the woman who spoke. She was the tallest woman Ann had ever seen. Her hair, uplifted in ringlets, missed dusting the ceiling by mere inches. Next to her stood a man whose wig did occasionally snag the ceiling swirls.
Mrs. Archer beamed at the praise. “Thank ye, Clementine. We are so glad ye and William could make it for Christmas.”
“Delighted, Sister.” William offered a bow.
“Pray, tell us who are all these people?”
Glad someone else said it, Ann paid close attention. She recognized her friends of course, and Vicar Carson, the middle-sized, middle-of-the-road rector and his wife, Betsy. She knew Mattie’s parents, but a couple of the young men’s names escaped her though she should know who they were. Ann shot a look toward Reed. Of course, she knew Reed. Had he known his former intended would be here?
“The young men with Reed are old school chums. Hugh Pollard.”
The man stepped up to bow.
Mrs. Archer nodded with a smile wreathing her face.
“Jacob Morgan.” Given Mattie’s feelings for the kindhearted Jacob, Ann had never forgotten him for a minute.
“Of course yer son, Griffen.”
Clementine grinned at the young men and then followed Mrs. Archer’s gesture to the corner where Ann stood with her friends. Ruby curtsied, then Mattie. Ann could feel Reed’s gaze on her before her name was called. Anger stiffened her curtsy. She kept her focus on Miss Clementine, rigidly refusing to glance to his side of the room.
Spooner announced dinner just as Mrs. Archer finished her introductions.
Ann found herself seated between the Vicar on her left and Jacob on her right. Jacob dallied long enough with Mattie in the parlor for Clementine to lean across his empty seat.
