Merry

  Chapter eight

  When we put in at Hangman’s Harbor Captain sent word to Lord Fitch that we had arrived.  Captain made us scrub the decks and make the whole ship shine.  He wanted everything to look perfect—including me, as he had chosen me for some crazy reason to stand by him as he presented the water to Lord Fitch.  I had to clean the grime off my face and look presentable, which normally I would have welcomed, but with the loss of the dirt I felt sure I looked more like my normal, female self—the last thing I wanted right now.  I dawdled around, trying to decide whether or not to make a break for it before Lord Fitch arrived.  Perhaps Caspian had told the captain about me and he wanted to gift his master with both the water and his runaway bride.   Caspian had seemed sincere in his promise that he would not give me away, but I could not be sure.  I had just made my mind up that leaving would be the best move, whether Lord Fitch was going to be here or not, when Phillip came round the corner and grabbed my arm.

  “Captain’s gettin’ mad, you better get over there before he gives you a beatin’,” he said, pulling me out into the open, leaving me standing next to the captain.  It was too late to leave now.

  I felt sick watching Lord Fitch leave his procession at the gangplank.  His face was just as severe as I remembered, but now I knew more of his evil deeds.  Lord Fitch continued toward us, and I stepped back, almost behind the captain.  I glanced at Caspian, standing with the rest of the men to see if his face betrayed anything, but he seemed just like the other men.

  Lord Fitch stopped in front of us.  “You wrote in your letter that you have something for me,” Lord Fitch said.

   “We discovered the Fountain of Youth, and I have brought back some water from it, as you requested,” Captain said.

  He handed Lord Fitch the canteen.  To my mild surprise he held it at his side instead of drinking it immediately.

   “I will give you your final directions on the morrow,” Lord Fitch said.

  Lord Fitch’s gaze turned to me and I shrank back more.  “Where did you acquire this one?” he asked.  “I do not recognise him.”

   “We discovered him hiding on the ship after one of our ports, so I put him to work,” Captain answered.

  Lord Fitch continued staring at me, and then wicked smile of recognition grew across his face.

  “I think I will keep this one,” he said.

  “Sir?” Captain said, confused.

  Before he could answer I sprinted for the rail.  I heard Lord Fitch shouting orders to his men.  I landed hard on the dock, feeling as though I had shattered my knees, and continued my flight, but Lord Fitch’s men cut me off.  They grabbed me when I tried to dive into the water.  I struggled to free myself, but by sheer numbers they beat me.  I still thrashed about when Lord Fitch sauntered down to see me for himself.  His men parted for him.

  “Well, well.  Miss Merry Blame, it’s been a while,” he said.

  “It has been a while, hasn’t it?” I said harshly.  “I could’ve done with longer, though.”

  He struck my face. “I gave you a chance that every woman in this kingdom would have jumped at,” he spat.  “And you ran away.  Why?”

  “Because I believed you to be a cold, cruel man.  But you’re worse.”

  “Careful what you say, my dear.  As you said, I am a cruel man.  Take her to the manor,” he told his men.

  Because I would not stop fighting, they had to tie me up and throw me over a horse in front of one of the riders, where I hung miserably for the ride to the house.  At Lord Fitch’s mansion, I was deposited into an upstairs room containing only a sleeping pallet, a window, a broken mirror, and dresser with a basin of water on it.  I washed my face in the basin and looked at myself in the mirror.  Not as dreadfully skinny as I began all those years ago, I noticed that I had some muscle, and that I had grown into my figure a little more.  My face tomato red with sunburn made me look perpetually embarrassed.  I took my saltwater-stiffened hair out of the ponytail many of the men wore, and saw that my hair grew almost to my shoulders now—I had not taken the time lately to cut it.

  I lay on the cot how long Lord Fitch leave me up here, and what he would choose to do with me.  I feared not death much as the thought of torture and life imprisonment.  I wondered if he would still try to marry me.

  A few maidservants came upstairs that evening to help me bathe and dress in a simple green dress--the same one I had worn the first time I met him.  Was this sentiment?  I let them help me because I guess they would force me if I refused.

  The guard outside door led me downstairs.  Long out of the habit of wearing skirts, I found it quite an ordeal to my way down the staircase.  We came to a room with a table richly set with food for one.  The guard put me opposite the food and shackled my wrist to the back of the chair.  He left.  I sat, my mouth watering as I stared longingly at the food.  Beans, salted pork, and hardtack had been my fare for far too long.  Lord Fitch soon joined me, and I quickly averted my attention.  Instead of eating he sat back in his chair, his fingers steepled and a smug little smirk on his face.

  “Here we are again.  You and me.  Only this time you do not seem so…how shall I put this?  Lively.”  He chuckled.  “This must be a terrible meeting for you; you who went so far and did so much only to fall so short.”

  I said nothing.

   “You lowered yourself so far as to live amongst men in conditions not much better than those of a pigsty, and yet you find yourself right back where you started.  I do not understand why you seem to find this situation so ghastly—here you had the chance to live among the wealthy, in luxury, and in possession of all in my power.  What could possibly possess you to give that up?”

   “I found out how cruel you are, and I didn’t want a part in it.” I answered.

   “Do not give me that!” he shouted, slamming his fist on the table.

  I jumped.

   “All the wealth in the world at your fingertips, and you ran away!  Nobody leaves that to hide on a smelly ship!”

  I swallowed. “What do you want me to say?”

  He sat back suddenly and smiled.  “Nothing.  I do not want you to say a single word.  I have succeeded  I have found you and captured you—you who have eluded me for so long.  This is my victory!”

  A servant opened the door.

  “Sir, we have found an intruder,” he said.

  “Have you apprehended him?” Lord Fitch asked.

  “Yes sir, but he said—”

  “If you have apprehended him then you do not need me,” Lord Fitch said through gritted teeth.  “Leave me!”

  “Yes sir,” the servant complied.

  “Why me?” I asked.  “When you could’ve had any woman in the world, why did you choose me when I was no more than a child?”

  “You were…how shall I put this?  Convenient.”

  “Convenient?”

  “Yes.”  He smiled.  “There is a process I use to gain temporary immortality—or should I say, invincibility.  For it, I require the blood of an innocent.”

  “An…innocent?”

  “Oh yes, I—”

  He was interrupted once more by a servant entering.  “Sir, I really think--”

  “What did I tell you?!” Lord Fitch shouted, rising from his chair.

  The servant shrank back.  “But he—”

  “Get out or one hundred lashes will land on your back!”

  “Yes sir,” he said meekly.

  Lord Fitch took his seat, and turned his attention back to me.

  “I planned to use your blood.  But alas, you seem to have lost your innocence, and I cannot use you anymore.  Tsk, tsk.  What did you do on that nasty ship?”  He gave me no chance to answer.  “Fortunately I have something even better planned for you.  You eluded me for six years, seven months, and three and twenty days.  Now that I have found you, I do not feel inclined to release you in death so soon.  Despite the fact that I will live forever, you will not last quite
as long.  I have seen to remedying that.”

  “What’re you saying?” I asked, rising to the bait when he failed to continue.

  He chuckled.  “Unfortunately, the canteen of water I received from the Fountain of Youth contains only enough for me.  Therefore we shall return to the fountain to procure immortality for you, and you shall live with me forever as my trophy.”

  I felt my face pale.  “No,” I said.

  “Oh, yes.  You see, I do not take kindly to those who defy me.  But you shall forever have life.  Is that not something to be happy for?”

  “If I wanted eternal life I would’ve taken the water when I found it!” I snapped, my panic making me angry.

  Lord Fitch grinned.  “Oh, so I have you to thank for it?  As the legend says, ‘No man may find the fountain.’” he said in amusement.

  I felt sick.

  “I am surprised that you did not take it from the captain.  Maybe you do love me for all the trouble you have caused me.”  He laughed.

  “I didn’t do it for you.  I did it for the men on the ship—the men who you wouldn’t release until they found what you wanted,” I retorted without thinking.

  “Oh, so I have found the young lady’s soft spot!  Perhaps I use them to continue your suffering,” he sneered.  “Oh, and that reminds me!  Your brother and father!  Do you remember them?  They have stayed in my dungeon almost ever since your sudden departure.  I am sure they cannot wait to see you, the reason for all their suffering.”

  “Let me go,” I whimpered.

  “You might have escaped six years ago in death, but instead you chose to humiliate me in front of the entire kingdom.”

  “So this is your revenge?”

  “No,” he said in his booming voice.  He lowered his tone.  “This is sport.”

  I swallowed hard.  “So what’re you gonna do with me after you make me immortal?”

  “Whatever I please,” he said each word with satisfaction.  “And I will leave you to imagine whatever that may be, for the anticipation of your unknown punishment, I believe, will be worse than knowing.”  He gave a short laugh, stood, and left me alone in the room.  I broke down, sobbing.  I did not have to think hard about what he would do; I had been dreaming about all the possibilities almost every night since I found out he was still searching for me.  There, chained to the chair, I stayed until the light in the window grew dim.  The servants escorted me to my room where a slice of bread waited for me.  I ate hungrily and lay curled up on the cot to stave off the hunger pangs.  I fell into an uneasy sleep.

  The next morning the servants took me to the carriage that waited downstairs.  When we arrived at the docks Lord Fitch waited for me.  The ship commissioned to take us back to the island proved none other the one I had served on.  I thought the crew would surely recognize me as Pretty Boy, if Lord Fitch had not already told them my identity.  Fortunately, it did not seem that he had told them, nor did they seem to recognize me.

  “I see you have arrived,”  Lord Fitch said by way of greeting.  “Take her to one of the cabins,” he ordered Drake.

  “Yes sir,” he grumbled.

  With his eyes cast downward he took my arm and led me up the gangplank.  One of the few cabins on board the ship was my destination.  Drake locked me in, and in that small room I sat miserably for hours after the ship left port.