Chapter 11: Rescue
When Elizabeth went to market again on Wednesday, William once again asked for his horse to be saddled and rode off after her.
***
When William called for his horse on Friday as soon as he seen that Elizabeth had left he was surprised when Willow arrived telling him his horse was saddled and ready before he had even asked.
As he set out to go and find her, he started to anticipate his time with her. William was starting to find that she was bringing something out in him. He liked talking to her, hell he even liked arguing with her. It was stimulating just being round her. No one managed to get his blood racing the way she did. He was captivated by her. Whether she felt the same way about him was yet to be seen, however she certainly didn’t mind him knowing her true opinion of things.
As anticipated on Friday, William once again showed up on her walk to and from market. As he the other three days, once she got into the village he disappeared although she had a keen sense that he was watching her.
On Tuesday evening Elizabeth had started to worry, not only had she spoken when it had not been her place to, but she had actually raised her voice to him and insulted him. However when he had shown up on Wednesday he was just as smug and arrogant as ever and her fears of being fired had been laid to rest. It appeared all members of the upper-class where the same, they wouldn’t do anything to sully their good name and obviously to rat her out would mean that he had been out with her, and that would not do well for his name, to have been seen socialising with someone of a lower class.
Of course her traitorous mind kept telling her that if he was so much like the other members of high society, namely Master Liam then why had he helped her in the first place. However Elizabeth refused to listen to that part of her brain, she was sure there would be a very selfish reason for him at the core. No aristocrat ever did anything to benefit others without there being something in it for them. So no Elizabeth wouldn’t listen to the little voice in her head that said he was different, none of them were different, Liam had proved that to her.
However whenever Elizabeth was around William she couldn’t seem to control her temper. She was unsure what it was about him that made her want to ring his neck. Everyday so far she had managed into an argument with him, he just made her blood boil, how was it that one man could be so aggravating? Surely he must be the devil incarnate. What annoyed Elizabeth the most about William was that he asked incisive questions, mainly about her!
Friday had been no different, not that she had really expected it to be. Why he kept showing up Elizabeth didn’t know, neither did she have any urge to find out. Although in fairness he certainly managed to make the daily trek anything but dull. Elizabeth would just have to wait and see what would happen tomorrow as it was her last day on the rota. She had a feeling things were going to change.
***
Willow could see the effect Elizabeth was having on Master William. However after what happened last time Willow wasn’t planning on encouraging it either way. She was staying out of it. However she would be there if Elizabeth needed a friend. Although with the way things were going at the moment there didn’t seemed to be any issue with something happening, for as far as Willow could tell Elizabeth didn’t seem to reciprocate the feelings that Master William clearly had for her. Willow vowed to watch from the sidelines as things progressed. Saying that she had made sure everyday so far that Williams horse had been saddled and ready to go by the time Elizabeth set off. With tomorrow being Elizabeth’s last day to market she’d only have to do it once more.
***
On Saturday morning William once again watched Elizabeth leave, then turned and rang the bell, signalling to Willow that he was ready to go and mount Spike. Willow turned up quicker than expected, however when she poked her head around the door William noticed that she have didn’t have the mischievous grin she usual wore. Instead she looked sombre as though afraid he may shout at her. Ushering her into the room, he wanted to find out what had caused her change in mood.
***
Perhaps Elizabeth had been wrong and Master William was not as predictable as she had first thought. The other days when she had set off for market he had been at her side within minutes, today however she was nearly at the market and there was still no sign of him. Not that it bothered her, or at least that’s what she kept telling herself.
When she was within ten minutes walk of the market she heard someone approaching from behind. Expecting it to be Master William she slowly turned to face him.
“Parker?”
***
William felt like a caged animal, pacing his room as he waited for Red to come back and tell him that Spike had finally stopped playing up and was saddled up and ready to go. Why did his horse have to be so free spirited – of course that was one of the things that he loved about him and why he refused to use any of the other horses that the manor owned. Today however he could personally shoot him for delaying him. Glancing at the clock he realised she’d probably already be at market now. Just then Willow knocked on the door letting him know that Spike had finally co-operated and was ready to go. Flying down the stairs William was in the courtyard within seconds.
***
When Elizabeth had turned she had been surprised to see Parker Abrahams walking towards her.
“Parker”
“Why dear Elizabeth, what a surprise it is to see you here.”
“What do you want Parker?”
“Life’s too short Elizabeth, its about making choices.”
“Oh let me guess, your going to tell me all about my choices. If it has anything to do with you I’m not interested.”
“Don’t be like that Elizabeth, we’ve all made mistakes in the past, it’s ok to make mistakes. But now dear Elizabeth it’s time to make a choice. I want to court you, I think your ready for it.”
Elizabeth could barely contain the laugh that bubbled to the surface. “Me court you? – Parker Abrahams I would rather court one of the Hartleys’ cows than you. Why won’t you get that message and finally leave me alone.”
“Suit yourself Elizabeth, you’ll find that my very generous offer was a one time offer. You maybe shouldn’t have been so quick to disregard me.”
Turning around he then walked off back the way he had come. However as Elizabeth turned back around to face the way she was going she didn’t see Parker duck into the bushes on either side of the path. She carried on oblivious to him watching her.
As always when she reached the small part of the path were the gypsies and beggars took up residence she sped up slightly, all the while saying a silent chant in her head that she was fine, nothing was going to happen. She had to admit she definitely felt safer when William was at her side. Today however she was not fine and something did happen.
As she was passing, making sure not to make eye contact with any of them, one of the men, a rather large butch one about twice the size of Elizabeth, took hold of the basket Elizabeth held firmly in her grip. As Elizabeth was trying to pry the basket out of the mans hands she wasn’t paying attention to her surroundings. So she didn’t notice the two men ho grabbed her arms until it was too late. As they dragged a fighting Elizabeth to the side of the road her basket went flying, landing on the dirt track with a thud scattering the bag of coins.
“Let go of me, Please.”
As they held her still she watched with wide petrified eyes as Parker walked up the path towards her and stopped within an inch of her body.
As Elizabeth tried to lash out at him a ripping sound was heard as the bottom of her skirt ripped, as the man who had been holding her still had been standing on her skirt as she tried to kick Parker and it had caused the bottom to tare. Tears started to blind her vision, she looked around at the gypsies surrounding her.
“Somebody, please help me! Somebody please do something!”
However each just looked at her, then looked down at the ground without making any attempt to stop what was going on. Elizabeth felt her will crumble as sobs wracked her body. Parker she could probably fight off but not without her hands, and she certainly had no chance fighting the large men holding her.
“Please Parker, don’t do this, please, please, please!” Her words became a chant willing him to stop.
“Hush sweet Elizabeth.” Placing his finger on her lips Elizabeth went quiet and stared at him with large scared eyes. “Your quite feisty aren’t you –but don’t worry I can think of better uses for your feistiness - much better uses indeed”
Elizabeth started to whimper again and squirm more. Parker put his hand fully over her mouth silencing any noise, while signally to the two men holding her, both tightened their grip on her arms while backing her up against a nearby tree.
“You’re quite a vixen, Elizabeth Summers. Now listen, I asked you nicely did I not? I did everything right, made it clear I wanted to court you all proper like but you’d have none of it. You will be mine Elizabeth one way or another, I tried to do it the decent way but you wouldn’t accept it – you’re too stubborn for your own good. Well if you won’t take it the proper way it’ll have to be the other way. When your bellies got a little bit of me in it and your giving birth to my son you’ll have to agree to be my wife – either that or be a whore.”
He then learned in to kiss the lips that were still wet from her tears as the gypsy folk around them went about their everyday business.
***
William was riding flat out. He was unsure why he was, he knew Elizabeth would already be at market, however he had a feeling in his gut he couldn’t seem to shift. It was this feeling that was causing him to spur Spike on. As he got further along the path the feeling in his stomach started to intensify. As he got closer to the gypsy camp he saw some commotion going on up the path against one of the trees. Probably just another one of the beggars getting slightly violent wanting money he really should intervene. As he rode closer he suddenly saw a flash of golden hair. His temper broke immediately someone was hurting his Elizabeth. Seeing red he urged Spike up to them, then while still moving he jumped off right behind Parker, his fist were clenched at his sides. He was going to do this man some serious bodily harm for having the audacity to go anywhere near his angel, let lone hurt her.
***
Elizabeth screwed her eyes tightly shut so she couldn’t see what Parker was about to do to her. However she could still feel him. She could feel his smelly breath on her face, his sweaty hands groping at the parts of her uncovered flesh, but mot of all she could feel his weight pressed against her. She kept her eyes tightly closed and just kept chanting, “No please don’t, please, please, don’t do this, William will come soon, please don’t.”
Suddenly she felt his weight lifted from her, it was as though she could breath again. She was too scared however to believe that he had just stopped so refused to open her eyes, that was no doubt what he wanted. The pressure on her arms caused by the men holding her alleviated slightly but they still held her firmly up against the tree. However moments later she felt her whole body go limp as their hold of her broke and she sensed them run past her, something must have stopped them. Opening her eyes she saw a shock of white hair standing over a man who lay huddled on the floor. As her knees finally gave way Elizabeth sank down the tree trunk to the floor, where she sat in a crumpled heap.
William looked up from Parkers semi-conscious form just in time to see Elizabeth slump to the ground. Without a second glance at Parker he placed one more swift kick to his ribs before rushing over to her while Parker writhed about on the floor behind them spitting blood form his bust lip and knocked out tooth.
Looking at Elizabeth, William felt his heart break. There she sat unmoving looking glassed eyed at Parkers beaten body. He should have been here, should have been here to stop it. He thought his Elizabeth had looked broken on Monday, but now he realised that he had been wrong because now her heart and soul were broken too, and it created such an ache in his chest. Crouching down beside her he slightly touched her arm.
“Elizabeth? Love its William. Its over pet, your ok.”
She turned to look at him and William realised her eyes didn’t hold the sparkle they usually did and that thought really scared him. As she blinked he was relieved to know at least she knew who he was.
“There see pet, your ok. Now lets get you to your feet, ok?” William found himself speaking as though to a young child she seemed so fragile now.
As she slowly nodded William held onto her arm and gently helped her to her feet.
Elizabeth knew she must look like a wild banshee, her face was wet with tears, her hair had come lose and was flying wildly and the bottom of her skirt was ripped. She knew she looked indecent but she didn’t care. She allowed William to lead her to his horse.
“Come on pet lets get you back to the manor.” He then started to lift her onto Spike.
“No.”
“No?”
“I can’t go back, not yet. I..I have to go to market.” Fresh tears started to fall down her face. “They can never know William – no one at the manor can know.”
Her sobs tore into him. “Ok pet, you get comfy on ol’ Spike here and we’ll go to market.” Helping her up he then stepped over Parker and went and collected her basket from where it lay on the ground, he then collected the coins that were scattered around.
Handing her the basket, he took hold of the reins and walked next to Spike. Giving the girl his horse, he really was going soft for her!
They walked along in silence for a few minutes before Elizabeth said in a very quiet voice the thing that had been going round his head.
“When we get to the village, you’ll have to let me go round without you.”
“I know love” he knew it would do neither of them any good to be seen socialising with the other. “But don’t worry pet, I won’t be very far and I won’t take my eyes off you.”
Elizabeth’s next words were so quiet William had to strain to hear them, “Thank you.”
They carried on in silence until they reached the outskirts of the village. William helped Elizabeth down, she straightened herself out and heading into the village. True to his word William never once lost sight of her.
Together they walked back to the manor. Neither uttering a word, each lost in thought. William was already formulating a plan on how to get Elizabeth off work the next day.
TBC......
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you to everyone who has review... please keep reviewing!!!!! It really is making me write faster. Just want to say a little note to anyone who is worried, Elizabeth is NOT pregnant... I know it should be noted in one of the chapters, and it probably will be eventually but just to put everyones mind at rest she isn't pregnant. I wasn't ignoring the fact that she had had unprotected sex, it just didn't fit in with the plot to have her pregnant. Hope you don't all hate me now!!!!!!!! Please review this chapter!!!!!!