02-05-2022, 01:06 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-05-2022, 01:14 PM by Loretta Ward.)
[[CW: references to sexual violence, exploitation.]]
She’d whittled her tavern johns down from 18 to 14. Funny thing: they were hard to lose once they decided they liked her … and there were a few loose screws that seemed to catch she hated them and wanted all the more for that.
One day. One day, soon, she’d be set as she’d ever be and … and do what? Run off to the moors and hope another widowed farmer took pity?
For a time, she had been a maid. And ‘more’. She’d made the best of a possible pregnancy and milked her employer’s precious son to throw some hush money her way. She’d told her family they had debts, which was true … but not the real reason they washed her hands of Lory.
Alice. She missed her so. The cynical part of her wished she’d set her targets higher than love … but she couldn’t blame her. It seemed to have been a blessing in disguise. Imagine only having to grit through one murderous bastard’s bed!
She’d been horrified when it was going down, but like every other horror … Lory had acclimated after some out of sight, out of mind. Lory took more turns tending the traps than at the market these days. She feared one of her ‘benefactors’ making a scene where it could get back to her loved ones. But, that was where Alice was … and she couldn’t bear wait longer.
“Alice!” Lory called over the crowd.
The start of a smile was on her face, but then she got closer and it fell immediately.
Alice did not look well.
She’d whittled her tavern johns down from 18 to 14. Funny thing: they were hard to lose once they decided they liked her … and there were a few loose screws that seemed to catch she hated them and wanted all the more for that.
One day. One day, soon, she’d be set as she’d ever be and … and do what? Run off to the moors and hope another widowed farmer took pity?
For a time, she had been a maid. And ‘more’. She’d made the best of a possible pregnancy and milked her employer’s precious son to throw some hush money her way. She’d told her family they had debts, which was true … but not the real reason they washed her hands of Lory.
Alice. She missed her so. The cynical part of her wished she’d set her targets higher than love … but she couldn’t blame her. It seemed to have been a blessing in disguise. Imagine only having to grit through one murderous bastard’s bed!
She’d been horrified when it was going down, but like every other horror … Lory had acclimated after some out of sight, out of mind. Lory took more turns tending the traps than at the market these days. She feared one of her ‘benefactors’ making a scene where it could get back to her loved ones. But, that was where Alice was … and she couldn’t bear wait longer.
“Alice!” Lory called over the crowd.
The start of a smile was on her face, but then she got closer and it fell immediately.
Alice did not look well.
