Will turned to his masters. It
was true, they were all standing there. The other female, Lynn , joining the two men and Sophia.
“What?”
Sophia stepped up and slapped
him across the face. “How dare you treat another person that way?”
“She’s not a person, she’s a
whore,” he answered, confused.
Sophia inhaled and exhaled
slowly. “There is much you need to learn about humanity. Return to your
reading.”
He ducked his head, still much
taller than Sophia. “I may?”
Her angry expression softened.
“Yes, I encourage you to do so now that you have learned how. Perhaps the words
will show you what life has failed to.” She stalked past him to the woman still
tied in the room.
Will didn’t stay to watch what
they did with the whore next. If it was like he’d been taught, they would
disfigure her so no one would want her again. Instead, he picked up his book
from where he had left it.
Terrance came into the parlor
and Will dropped his book again, rising in a rush.
“Sit down, William. I came to
apologize. Sophia has rightfully reprimanded me. I should not have put you in
that position.”
Will sat down slowly, feeling
very odd sitting while his master stood. “Why didn’t you deal with her?” Will
asked. “Surely, you know what to do with a whore.”
Terrance sat across from Will.
“She wasn’t a whore, Will. She’s another slave, like you. She’s been treated
like a whore all her life.”
He shook his head. “She would
be much uglier.”
Terrance’s jaw flexed and his
glittering pale blue eyes seemed to light up. “We saved her from that much at least.
We hope to find her an owner in the north.”
Will scoffed. The North was
weak, coddling their slaves. Not for the first time, Will’s respect for his
owners faltered. They coddled him, teaching him to read, giving him leisure
time. However, the one time he had tried to work during the evening, he had
been reprimanded and sent to his room next to the kitchen. It didn’t take him
long to understand why they wanted him out of the way. The sounds had been
incomprehensible to him at thirteen, but now, sixteen, he had a good idea what
went on behind all those doors.
Still, by teaching him, they’d
make him unfit for any other owner. They were ruining him. He could never leave
the service of Blue Moon House.