Fall From Grace (Slater #1) (3 page)

He could hear his father in the back of his head and the word whore.  He pushed the image from his mind not wanting to believe that Laura was anything but an innocent angel in a hate filled world of aristocrats and peasants.  Porter sat watching her as she looked off into the distance, her fingers casually pulling at the grass around them. He tucked himself back into his pants and put his shirt on.  As he stood Laura looked up at him, her eyes were unreadable, but there seemed to be something there that was trying to speak to him.  Porter reached out a hand to her and she slowly stood and her was hand warm in his as she placed her breasts back into her bodice.  He turned her and swiftly did the lace ribbons back up to hold her dress tight again.

“Thank you Porter” Laura smiled as she turned back to him.  He smiled, trying not to look into her eyes. 

He wanted to tell her that they couldn’t keep seeing each other, but he didn’t have it in him to break her heart.  He was too much of a coward to speak such words to such a beautiful angel.

“I should go” he said.

He took the risk to look into her eyes and read hurt, before they flashed in steely determination.  Laura nodded and turned on her heel, she headed back towards the wooded path to her home.  Porter wanted to follow her, he wanted to tell her that they could run away, that they could elope, but the cowardice in him screamed louder than all the brash decisions he could make.

Chapter Five

Laura.

Laura had left before she said something she would regret.  She wanted to tell Porter that she was in love with him.  She knew that it was ridiculous, she couldn’t love a man after only officially knowing him for two days, but she had known him for so much longer.  And she was sure of her feelings.  But she knew that he would never see her the same way.  Laura’s father had left her and her mother when Laura was only five years old.  Not many people knew the truth that he was in gaol.  He was a good man, in a bad situation. His family had meant everything to him. 

Laura was playing in the woods behind her home, when a man who she didn’t know approached her. He was the biggest man she had ever seen and wore a big beard that hung down to the middle of his rounded belly.  Laura looked up at him, as he cast a shadow over where she chained flowers together in the sun.

“Hello little one” he said in a whisper barely audible.

Laura had been told not to speak with strangers, so she just smiled politely, expecting her father, who was cutting wood at the side of the house, to come and check on her at any time.  The big man stuck out a fat hand towards Laura, she looked down at it and then up at him. He smiled widely at her, his front teeth were missing and his tongue flicked out to touch his bottom lip.  Laura looked around to see where her father was.  The big man must have realised what she was looking for as he clucked his tongue at her and shook his head.  With a big meaty fist he pushed one finger to her lips.  Laura felt her stomach begin to knot, she didn’t understand what was about to happen, but something inside her told her that this man meant bad news and she shouldn’t go with him. 

He continued to stand with his hand out to her. Laura stood and shook her head slowly. She was too slow to run away, the meaty hand that was held out to her, grabbed around her wrist while the other clamped over her mouth.  She could smell his fingers, the odour made her stomach churn.  Tears began to slip from the corner of her eyes as the man hoisted Laura’s little body to his side.  She felt helpless wondering if she would ever see her family ever again.  The man began to head towards the woods that surrounded her home, Laura wriggled against him, but it did no good, the man held onto her tighter, pinching her stomach against his own.  She began to whimper a muffled sob behind the man’s big hand, she cried out for her father to come, for her mother to come, but it was no good, the big man’s hand held her mouth too tight and her sounds couldn’t be heard.

As they cleared the first part of the woods, the man swung her body like a rag doll in front of him.  He lifted her face so that it was in front of his.

“You scream and I’ll kill yer” he growled a vicious sound that made Laura shake to her core.

Laura nodded, tears wet on her cheeks as suddenly he spun her to face him.  The big man spun Laura around again and held her against his chest as he continued deeper into the woods.  The sunlight that had dappled through the foliage of the canopy soon began to disappear and the woods were dark for the thickness of the trees overhead.  Laura had never been this deep into the woods, even with her father when he came to cut down tree’s they never went where the woods were dark.  Her father and mother told her never to go there. 

She squeezed her eyes tight, fear overwhelmed her and she couldn’t breathe as sobs came harder. The man stopped and roughly threw Laura onto the ground. 

“Shut up” he growled at her.

Laura tried to do as he told her, she tried to hold the tears in, but she couldn’t stop them.  With a meaty hand the big man slapped Laura’s mouth hard, knocking her body onto the leaf matter of the woods.  Laura screamed an ear piercing scream, but as soon as she let the shriek go, she knew she had made a mistake.  The big man lurched forward and took her hair in his hand. He pulled her up by the hair, his face close to hers, his stinking breath hitting her nostrils making her sick.  Between Laura’s leg she felt urine begin to trickle and hit the man’s boot.  He looked down and sneered, dropping her back to the ground again.

“You pissed me fuckin’ boot” he roared “you dirty fuckin’ cunt whore”

He lifted his leg to kick Laura, she curled herself into a ball, waiting for the pain to strike her body, but she heard a thud.  Opening her eyes, she saw the man’s head next to her face, his eyes wide open, his lips twisting in a cruel grimace.  Laura’s eyes widened in fear as she realised the big man’s head wasn’t attached to his body, but before she had time to allow the image to register she felt herself being lifted from the ground.  Laura screamed, kicking out at the person lifting her.

“Laura, sweetness, stop kicking” the familiar voice said.

Laura gave another kick, landing her foot into a softened spot on the body.  The person holding her doubled over and Laura landed on the ground, next to the disembodied head with a thud.  Laura felt another scream building in her.  Her legs shot her off the ground as she leapt over the big man’s body and ran in the direction in which he had taken her.

“Laura” she heard the voice she somehow knew call out to her.  But Laura couldn’t stop; she couldn’t stop until she was in her home and safe.

By the time she saw her home in the distance, her mother was standing at the boundary of the clearing, she was wringing her hands in her apron, her face twisted in fear and concern.

“Laura” her mother screamed.

Laura scrambled forward climbing her mother’s body, nestling her face into her neck, breathing in her mother’s scent, clinging to her, wanting to melt into the body she knew as safe.  She could hear panting behind her and a tender touch on her back.  Laura flinched, not taking her head out of the crook of her mother’s neck.

“My love, my sweetness” she heard, Laura recognised her father’s voice.

Laura lifted her head and looked up into her father’s eyes, his face red and covered in beads of sweat that mixed with tears.  She leaned out of her mother’s arms and wrapped herself around her father’s neck.  His strong arms embraced her, holding Laura tight against his body, making her feel safe.

“I thought I’d lost you, my sweet girl” he cooed into her ear, as he smoothed her hair.

That night her dreams were filled with images of the big man leering at her and his head without a body staring at her, trying to take her. Laura felt her mother sitting on the bed next to her, smoothing her hair, cooing her back to sleep. As she grew the more that Laura thought of the man, the more he seemed familiar, as if she had met him or knew him somehow.  Laura could never place him though and the few times that she had tried to talk to her mother about him, she was cut off and told that he was nobody but the devil himself.

Laura didn’t know that her father had gone to gaol, until she was much older.  Her mother had said that her father should have been hanged, but the judge had gone easy on him because he was defending his child.  But that day he saved Laura’s life and it was the last time she ever saw or heard from her father again.  She had been left with the rumours of the rich people in the town that called her mother a whore, saying that she had gotten pregnant to an unknown traveller.  But Laura knew the truth, her father was a hero and those people’s words couldn’t hurt her. 

As she walked back to her home, after being with Porter again, it hurt her to know that his father would never allow him to be with her, she was just a poor peasant girl, with no father. She was nothing but destined to be a dirty scrubber all her life.  She felt that Porter hadn’t shared his father’s opinion.  But she couldn’t expect him to go against his father’s wishes of going to join the seminary.

Porter’s father was Richard and his mother Hannah.  Richard was the deacon for the local parish and held good standing in the township.  Laura knew that Porter’s activities with her would cause him great embarrassment, so their affair would be in secret, never in the open.  Porter would have to marry within his class.  One which Laura wasn’t a part of.

Chapter Six

The following day, Laura went into the woods, into their clearing in hope to glimpse Porter.  She waited for him to come, but he didn’t arrive at their spot.  Laura swallowed the disappointment that welled in her belly as she headed down the path towards the town for her mother.  She stood at the market purchasing the grains her mother had sent her for when she caught the commotion behind her.  It was a gaggle of girls, their dresses an array of glorious colours and materials.  The girls hair were pulled up in all sorts of do’s that Laura could only imagine doing with hers, their faces even wore rouge and colour on their lips.  She stood watching as they fussed over someone.  As the women moved she caught a glimpse of Porter and his older brother Cole being swarmed by the painted women.

Porter looked up from the woman that hung off his arm and caught Laura’s eye.  The look that passed his eye was unreadable, but she couldn’t tear her gaze away from his.  The girl that was hanging off his arm followed his stare and smirked at Laura.  Suddenly the girl moved forward towards where Laura stood.  Nervously, Laura smoothed her skirts around her thighs, running her fingers down through her dirty blonde hair.  The girl stepped closer to where Laura stood and pity filled her face.

“Oh hello peasant girl” the girl spoke.

Laura smiled and lowered her eyes.  The girl reached into her white purse that hung off the crook of her arm. When Laura looked back up at the girl, she noticed Porter had joined by her side.  His eyes never wavering from Laura’s.

“Hello Porter” Laura spoke to him, smiling lightly.

He smiled a wide smile at her, but when the girl that he stood with snapped her head towards him and back at Laura, she could see the vehemence in the girls face. The girls face began to stain red and her eyes narrowed.

“Do not speak to him” she spat at Laura.

The girl pulled her hand out of her purse and threw some coins into Laura’s face, before she turned on her heel and stomped back towards the other women, towing Porter behind her.  Porter turned to look at Laura again, she refused to meet his eyes, hurt filled her heart as she realised that she was nothing more than a body to keep him warm, a body that he could release with.  She turned away and ran to the path, as the tears filled her eyes began to spill down her cheeks.  She swung the door open, her mother startling as she dropped the grain on the table and flopped herself onto the bed, allowing the heart breaking sobs to take over her whole body.

“Laura, Laura, my love, what’s happened” her mother spoke with concern as she sunk down onto the bed beside her.

Laura didn’t lift her face from her arms as she told her mother the story.  She could feel Gwendoline stiffen beside her.  When Laura did look up at her mother, Gwendoline’s face was red and she saw anger flashing through her eyes.

“Laura my love, I know that I have tried to shelter you from the nastiness of people, but the truth is that to people like the Slater family we are nothing.  I wish and pray that you hadn’t given your body to him; your virginity should have been saved for a man who would hold your heart in his hands with the fragility that you deserve.  Porter isn’t that man, none of the Slater boys are” her mother whispered into her ear as she folded Laura up into her arms and held her tight.

Laura spent the rest of the day in her bed, her tears had dried and her anger had past. Laura didn’t know if she could overcome the heart ache that she felt.  Her mother said that the first love was always hardest to get over.  Laura knew that her mother was angry at Porter; she told her that he had taken advantage of her.  Her mother said that she had a right mind to go and speak with Porter’s father, Richard.  But Laura had begged her mother not to say anything.  Laura already knew that her mother was known as a whore, Laura didn’t want any more shame bought on their family and she knew also that if her mother spoke with Richard, there would never be a chance that Porter would come back for her.