章 4: Into the woods
When Jeannie had a good distance between her and the town she leaned on a tree, pulled up her skirts and looked at her ankle the mark shined red and black on her white flesh. Tears rolled down her cheeks from the pain. She stood there for a while watching the moon.
When she started walking again she began to unbraid her hair to help distract her from the pain. She let the curls roll down her side, over her hips, and ending at her thighs. When she reached the end of the braid she took down the hood of her cloak and threw her hair over her shoulder. She was proud of her hair; she had the longest hair in town because she was able to keep the lice out of it.
"Man in Moon? Why is Pitch not welcome? How did he die and become like he is?" Jeannie watched the moon and when it did nothing she wondered if she was crazy. "Well, I am lost," she smiled, "which means I am almost where I need to be," she barely uttered just as she heard a cry.
Jeannie ran to a tree and looked over to see two men sitting at a fire, a man standing, and a little girl on the ground. The girl was holding her face where a red hand print was already rising. Jeannie listened, unsure of what to do; she had never been in a confrontation.
"You stupid brat, you never burn a man's dinner," The biggest of the sitting men smirked.
"Not why he hit her, she took a swig of his ale," The smallest of the sitting men laughed.
The man who was standing looked at the others, "she deserved it. Sometimes I wonder what kind of slave trade you picked her up from Hairy," he hit the bigger man on the back.
The girl picked herself up off the ground, walked over to the fire, and poked it with a stick. Jeannie could see the beautiful cinnamon coloring to her skin, her long straight brown hair, and her scarred back. The girl was an unwanted daughter of a rich man and a slave, an embarrassment. Jeannie knew what that was like. The girl had tears rolling down her face.
Jeannie went to a closer tree and threw a rock at the girl's foot. She looked at the trees, "I need to pee. Can I go over there?"
"Fine, but if you try to run again, I will beat you nine days from Sunday," Hairy said punching his hand.
When the girl reached the tree Jeannie was behind Jeannie grabbed her and pulled her into her arms. She ran as fast as she could until she felt like she was a safe distance away from the men and she sat the girl down. "Are you alright?" Jeannie asked her looking at her face with loving concern.
The girl looked at her almost confused by the kindness being shown to her, "I am fine. My name is Ivory. I shouldn't leave them, they will beat me," Ivory looked over her shoulder.
"I will not let them. I am Jeannie. I am here to find an adventure and I will send you to my mother. Anna is a good mother and she just came into some money," Jeannie pointed Ivory towards her home and Ivory ran as fast as she could.
Jeannie turned towards the camp where the men were but her knife was pulled out of her sash and her head yanked back by her hair. "I never really liked women with long hair, I always thought it got in the way," Hairy said yanking harder on her hair then cutting it off with her knife. He let it fall to the ground and the hair still on her head fell over her shoulders.
The smallest man grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him, "I like this one better anyway she is mature and she is white."
The violent one grabbed her now short hair and pulled her head back to look at him, "I wonder if I can get her to scream? She has not made a sound from those beautiful lips except to get rid of our slave." He leaned in and kissed her hard.
Hairy pushed him away and yelled, "Why do you get her first Will? I found her, she should be mine!"
The smallest one chimed in and Jeannie was so twisted that she fell to the ground. She landed on her ankle and it hurt so bad she had tears roll down her face. She turned her branded ankle up where she could see it had started to swell because of all the activities on it.
The smallest one looked at her, "look, she belongs to someone. The J cross? That is the James family brand. She is worth her weight in gold if she is married to one of the James men."
"You may be right Albert," Hairy said picking her up over his shoulder and looking at her ankle. "Then again she could be one of those black slave women who only look white."
Jeannie looked at the back of the man holding her and saw the chance to get away, she bit as hard as she could into his shoulder-blade and ran when he dropped her. She stopped when she realized she ran into the camp where she had first seen the men.
Will was right on her tail and he pushed her down using the knife cutting into her shoulder, "How dare you!" he yelled.
Hairy was on his tail and he took the knife and stabbed her in her stomach, "that's for biting me!"
Then when Albert arrived, Hairy handed him the knife, and picked her up. She was growing weaker and the pain caused her to wobble. Albert then stabbed her in her heart, "your heart is what killed you, you tragic excuse for a woman. You deserve this!"
Jeannie fell back into the fire and shook unable to escape the burns. Her eyes glazed over and she called out one last time, "Pitch!"
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