Indentured Read online

  Indentured

  Jeanie Johnson

  This is a work of fiction. All characters

  are out of the author’s imagination and any

  resemblance to anyone living or dead

  is merely coincidence.

   Copyright 2013

  All rights reserved.

  Jeanie Johnson

  CHAPTER ONE

  “I don’t believe you!” James was laughing at her. “That dapple you ride is fat, and she won’t make it over.”

  Leatrisha wrinkled her small freckled covered nose, and narrowed her eyes at him.

  “Of course she will,” she boasted, as she tossed her head back, causing her black mane of hair, to be caught in the breeze, frazzling about her face in disarray.

  “You will break your neck Lettie,” he warned.

  “If I do, you can carry me home, and give me a proper funeral,” she laughed.

  She sat eyeing the rock wall, she was determined to conquer to prove to James once and for all that nothing daunted her. She could ride with the best, even if she was a girl.

  At the moment, though, she looked nothing like a girl in her fawn colored britches, and blousy white shirt, that kept coming un-tucked and flapped about her waist, giving the illusion of a boy riding the horse. But beneath the shirt there was evidence that she was definitely a girl, with budding breasts, as she went into her sixteenth year.

  Her face was covered with grime, from having ridden down the dusty road, and her long black hair, refused to remain tied back at her neck, as it found a life of its own. She rode bareback, and the sweat of the horse was causing her britches to stick to her, filling her nose with the aroma of horse. She loved that smell.

  “Don’t do it, Lettie,” James frowned. “They’ll blame me, if you get hurt.”

  “I won’t get hurt.” Leatrisha, insisted. “I have done it before.”

  Before James could say another word, Leatrisha slapped the reins against her horse’s neck, and urged it into a canter. The Dapple lifted her feet to make the jump, and Leatrisha’s stomach gave a leap as well, with the feel of the horse rising up beneath her, and she leaned forward to off set the center of gravity, only she leaned too far forward, so when the Dapple touched her feet to the ground again, Leatrisha went flying over her neck, landing in a patch of grass on the other side of the wall.

  “Lettie!” she could hear James, calling, and then his horse was flying over the wall, and he was scrambling down and running towards her. “Are you all right, Lettie?” he cried, as he bent over her.

  Leatrisha, who was sprawled on her stomach, started laughing, as she turned her head to look at him.

  “At least I didn’t break my neck,” she giggled up at James, who had a worried look on his face.

  “You shouldn’t have done that, Lettie! You could have broken your neck!”

  The young lad looked down at his friend. They had grown up together, and he always felt protective of her. He loved her wild ways, but they also frightened him sometimes. He was a year older than Leatrisha, and worked for the farmer who’s property boarded the Crawford estate.

  James pulled her onto her back, as he looked down at her laughing eyes, and as his eyes lowered, he was taken back, because in her fall the buttons on her shirt had popped off, and her young breasts lay exposed to his view. He merely stared down at her, not moving.

  “What are you looking at?” Leatrisha, asked, as she watched James reach his hand out to touch her, and then she knew what he was looking at, when she felt his fingers touch her. She took in her breath, at the feel, and would have pulled away, but she liked how his hand felt on her.

  “You sure you are not hurt,” he said quietly, as his hand brushed grass and dirt off of her bear chest. It was the first time he had seen or touched a girl like that, and his own excitement was starting to take over his senses.

  “Maybe I should make sure you haven’t broken any ribs,” he mumbled, reaching his hands out to examine her.

  “I feel fine,” Leatrisha, mumbled.

  “You feel fine to me too,” he laughed, as he continued to run his fingers over her soft, yielding skin, caressing and pressing against her to make sure nothing was amiss. “Does it hurt when I do this?” he asked. “You sure there are no broken bones?” His hands continued to seek against her skin.

  “No. It feels… Sort of nice, if you want to keep checking,” she said a little shyly.

  “I like the way your skin feels against my hands,” he told her.

  “I suppose a girl isn’t quite built like a boy,” she murmured.

  “Not hardly,” he responded, surprised that she was not shrieking at him or pulling away with modesty.

  “I have never seen a boy. I mean without any clothes on,” she breathed.

  “I’ve never seen a girl without any clothes on, either,” he informed her. “This is the first time I have seen a girl’s bare skin, if you want to know the truth.”

  “Do you think it is fair for you to be looking at me, and touching me, while not letting me see any part of you?” she asked, with a little pout.

  James almost blushed, as he gave her a smile. “You sure you want to see me?” he asked. “ I don’t want to shock you.”

  “How will I know if you don’t show me?” she smiled.

  “Would you let me see more of you too?”

  “I guess, but you have to show yourself first,” she insisted, thinking that he may back out of the deal.

  “Okay, but don’t laugh,” he said, standing up, and starting to unbutton the front of his own britches.

  Leatrisha, widened her eyes, staring up at him, as he let his britches fall to the ground. She never imagined, and she took in her breath.

  “It doesn’t always look like that,” he assured her. “I hope it is not too much of a shock to you.”

  “Why would it do that?” she wanted to know.

  “It’s the way a man is. It just happens sometimes. So are you going to show me more?” he asked.

  “It’s only fair,” she reasoned, as she started unbuttoning her own britches, and wriggling them down over her hips.

  When she had finished, he kicked his britches aside and knelt back down beside her. “If you let me touch you, I will let you touch me,” he offered.

  Leatrisha was curious, so she nodded, and reached out timidly towards him, touching her fingers to him, and marveling at the feel of him. A moment later, she felt his hand cover her, and she caught her breath.

  “Am I hurting you?” he asked.

  “No, I just didn’t expect it to feel the way it does,” she whispered.

  “You touching me is starting something to happen inside me as well,” he told her. “Just don’t stop touching me, Lettie. I really like the feel of your fingers.”

  Leatrisha gave a shiver. She knew very well what they were doing was not proper, and if anyone discovered it, she most likely would be beaten.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this,” she told him softly, but she didn’t pull away.

  James, lowered his head closer. “I just want to see what your skin feels like against my lips,” he whispered, as his mouth lowered closer to one budding breast. “Can I?”

  She nodded, slowly, and then felt his warm mouth cover her, sending more sensations down to where his fingers were touching her, and she marveled at how exciting it felt.

  She could feel him beneath her hand, straining against her fingers, as his breath seemed to quicken at her touch.

  “Am I hurting you?” she asked.

  “It feel good when you do that,” he murmured as his breath caught in his throat.

  “You sure I’m not hurting you?”

  “Yeah. I just don’t want you to stop.”

  “We had better get dressed
,” she told him, suddenly feeling guilty, knowing that what they were doing had not been right, and she jumped to her feet, fumbling with her clothes.

  James seemed disappointed. “Do you want to do this together again sometime?” he asked, not wanting to loose this new experience forever.

  “Maybe,” she smiled. “You had better not tell anyone though. We might get in trouble!”

  “I’m not that dumb,” he assured her. “How about tomorrow? I’ll meet you here.”

  “Fine,” she agreed, as she tied her shirt together since there were no more buttons on it, and put her britches back on.

  James pulled his clothes on, and stood up as well. “Only one more thing,” James whispered. “There was one thing we didn’t do,” he told her.

  “What?” she asked turning towards him.

  “This,” he said, putting his arms around her and covering her mouth with his.

  “Leatrisha!” Leatrisha, jumped back out of James’ arms, at the booming sound of her father’s voice. “What in damnation are you up to?”

  His eyes scanned over Leatrisha’s disheveled appearance. They narrowed, when he saw the shirt tied together, exposing the white skin between her breasts. He had never liked that farmer boy, but controlling his wayward daughter had not been an easy task. She was always taking off dressing like a boy and riding her horse astride, playing with the farmer’s hired help.

  When she was little, it was entertaining, but now he realized she was turning into a young woman, and the way that boy was kissing her so shamelessly, he could tell nothing good would come of it.

  “Up to the house with you, girl! And you, young man, you stay away from my daughter!”

  Leatrisha swung up on Pepper’s back, and swatted the horse into a run. She was in big trouble now, she told herself. She wondered what her father was going to do to punish her.

  The moment she heard the door slamming, and the sound of her father’s heavy step echo across the hall, coming to his study, where she was waiting for him to reprimand her, she started to tremble. She had been yelled at before for her mischievous ways, but this time it was different. She was just thankful he had not come up any sooner to see what she and James had been doing, she told herself, thanking God for his mercy.

  “What do you have to say for yourself?” her father demanded, as he came to face her on the other side of his desk.

  “I have known James all of my life. I was just curious to see what a kiss felt like. It didn’t mean anything,” she insisted.

  “What it meant, young lady, is that James was wanting more than just a kiss. He could have compromised you, and then you would be having to marry him. Is he the one for you, Leatrisha? I think not!

  “When you were young, playing together was not a hazard. But now things have changed. You are going to be ready for a husband in a year, and it is not going to be a snot nosed farmer boy. We are Crawfords. The name means something. We do not marry below our station.

  “Since your mother died, I have allowed you to run wild, and I see the error of my ways. I am sending a wire to your aunt Meredith in London. She will take you in hand, and turn you into a lady before your coming out, and then we will find you a proper husband, not some scallywag, that just wants to put their hands all over you, and then go on their merry way.”

  “James is not a scallywag. He is my friend!” Leatrisha insisted.

  “Well consider your friendship over, because you are leaving first thing in the morning, so you go wash the dirt and grass off of you, and have Polly start packing your clothes!”

  “No!” Leatrisha cried. “You can’t do this!”

  “I can, and I will!” her father informed her, with a stern voice and glare.

  Leatrisha stormed out of his office, and out the back door, jumping back on Pepper’s back, heading in the direction she had just come. She could see James walking his horse slowly back to the farm where he worked, and she called after him.

  James turned in his saddle, to see, Leatrisha cantering towards him.

  “Did you get in a lot of trouble?” he asked, as she pulled her horse up beside him.

  “I came to tell you, we can’t meet tomorrow. We can’t ever meet again. Father is sending me to London in the morning.”

  “Oh, Lettie. I am so sorry. I never should have kissed you. I probably shouldn’t have touched you either.”

  “I wanted to do it as much as you,” she admitted.

  “Will I ever see you again?” he asked, looking sadly at her.

  “I…I don’t know. Father says he is going to have my aunt turn me into a lady and then marry me off to some blue blooded snob. I won’t stand for it though. I will kill myself first!”

  “Don’t be so dramatic! You cannot kill yourself. Let’s run away and get married. We could go to Gretna green, just over the boarder.”

  “I can’t marry you, James. It wouldn’t be right. The Crawfords cannot marry below their station.”

  James stared unbelievingly at her. A life of friendship, and that was her reply to him?

  “I have always loved you, Lettie,” he murmured. “All I have ever thought about is marrying you when we grew up.”

  “You must have known you couldn’t,” she insisted.

  “You let me touch you! Didn’t that mean anything?” he asked.

  “I was curious! So were you! That is all it was, James. I love you as a brother, but I could never marry you. You have never said one word about deciding I was going to become your wife,” she accused.

  “I thought you understood. I thought you liked me as much as I like you.”

  “I do like you, James. But you know my father never would have given his consent, even if I wanted to marry you. That is why he is sending me away in case you compromise me in some way.”

  “What do you call what we were doing?” he asked. “That was pretty much compromising you, if you ask me!”

  “But you promised not to tell, and if you do tell I will deny it and say you are just saying that so you can marry me. You had better not try to force my hand, James!” she threatened.

  “I would never force you, if you didn’t want me.” He looked into her eyes, pleading with his, and then bowed his head. “I see you don’t want me!” he cried. “Good-bye, Lettie!” he choked, and kicked his horse into a gallop.

  Leatrisha sat watching the clouds of dust billow up behind James’ horse, as he galloped down the road and then disappeared from view. A strange sadness fell over her. She knew she would never see James again. She hadn’t meant for their friendship to end this way.

  She could not remember a day that she had not at least seen James. He had always been her companion, but she did not envision herself as a farmer’s wife. She was sure James envisioned himself as the owner of a great estate, since the Crawford estate would revert to him, once he married her, unless her father disowned her. And she was sure her father would do that very thing, if she ever married James. She wondered if James’s ambitions of marrying her, was because he loved her, or because she was the sole heir of a huge estate?

  The problem was, while she did not want to marry James, she also didn’t want to marry some pompous man her father chose for her. Most of all, she did not want to go live with aunt Meredith.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Leatrisha, sat looking out of the soot streaked window of the train, through the dark netting of her hat, that was pulled down over her eyes, as familiar countryside sped by her, taking her farther away from her home. The train passed countryside that she and James had been riding through ever since she had first gotten up on a horse, when James taught her to ride. She thought about how it felt when James was touching her, and while she didn’t think she was in love with James, she did like the way it felt when he was touching her and kissing her.

  She wished she could have stayed to discover more of that new experience of learning about a man, and what it was like to be a woman. She knew it was probably wrong, but how would she ever learn? She certainly didn’
t want to be surprised on her wedding night.

  Thinking of wedding nights, she frowned, when she thought about aunt Meredith teaching her how to be a lady, in order to prepare her for some boring husband that was not below her station. She felt bad about James, with all his plans of marrying her when they grew up.

  She just assumed they would remain friends forever, each marrying someone else, and visiting together. It never occurred to her, that he had thought of her as more than just a friend. She knew she had hurt him, but considering her father would never allow them to marry, she was glad she wasn’t in love with him, or her heart would end up being broken, just like his heart must be broken now, she thought.

  Exercising her independence, she made Polly, her personal maid, that her father had sent with her to accompany her on the long train ride to London, sit in the seat behind her. She had insisted she did not need her maid along, but her father would not relent. He knew the wild streak that ran through her a mile wide, and wanted to make sure she actually got to London.

  Polly was old, and while she was mothering, Leatrisha did not consider her an exciting traveling companion. Polly was always lecturing her about things, in spite of the fact that she was a mere maid. She had been in the family a long time and felt she had earned some of her right to advise Leatrisha, but Leatrisha always took the advice with a grain of salt.

  “Excuse me, but is this seat taken?” she heard a low voice with a strange accent ask, and she glanced up, at a man towering over her. His sandy colored hair waved about his face, coming down in long sideburns, and his full lips had a pleasant smile on them, as he viewed her with his blue eyes.

  She gave her head a little shake, and he sat down. She turned her head back towards the window, feeling too shy to look at the man’s handsome face, knowing that Polly was watching closely from behind. She believed she had never seen a man as nice looking as him before, and it made her feel unsure of herself. He was dressed in expensive clothes, so she was sure he was a gentleman, and she was about as far from a lady as she could be, so she did not feel at ease in the least.