Chapter 3

I learned that the lady was the mistress of Fairborn Hall. Her late husband, Charles Fairborn, had been the eldest son of a wealthy landholder, with diverse commercial interests that were spread up and down the Kirshoon Valley. Since the father still lived, the bulk of his interests would be passed down to the eldest surviving son, upon his death. Having passed without issue, her late husband's estate, consisting of an annual income of 4,000 Pounds, Sterling, devolved to his widow, and would fall to her family for management and maintenance. To that end, her youngest brother, Malcolm, was dispatched to oversee the day to day operation of her holdings.

It was amazing how easily you could find out everything about the gentry. Servants talked among themselves, and few secrets could be kept from their knowledge. Lady Fairborn, Camille Rutledge Fairborn, had once again taken up residence in her own home. For six months after her late husband's drowning, she had been watched over, at first, by her own family, and next, by her in laws. Sufficient time having passed for her to be recovered from her loss, it was deemed acceptable for her to take up residence in her own manor once more. Knowing that she now resided within six miles of where I slept each night had set my nerves on edge once more.

Though there had been no repeat of her earlier visits to the river, I still kept myself well informed of her habits. One week after she was again situated at Fairborn Hall, I was summoned to attend to Squire Appleton, my employer, at his home in Kensing Place. The Squire, a rotund man, somewhere in his mid to late forties, wasted no time, and came straight to the purpose of my summons.

"Stuart, you've given good service in my employ, causing me few problems with your conduct or attention to your tasks. I commend your honesty as well, feeling that you given over full measure in the fare count. The thing of it is, I've had to sell the ferry rights and patents to someone else. Henceforth, you will deliver receipts to Mr. Malcolm Rutledge, in residence at Fairborn Hall. Should you encounter difficulties in your future, I would be happy to assist you in finding some other employment. Thank you for attending to me so promptly, Stuart." I was dismissed by the Squire without any further discourse. Was I chattel to him that he would include me in his sale of the ferry rights? Not once did he ask if I might care to stay on at my job. He took it for granted that I would. Even his offer to help me with future employment was tainted with his own self interest.

It was only another day before I was summoned to Fairborn Hall to meet with my new employer. The servant who came to inform me that I was summoned, rode to and fro on horseback. I was left to my own devices, as to how I might get there and back. I started walking at a brisk pace, and arrived at Fairborn Hall in an hour and a half's time. I was led by a serving girl through the servant's door, and thence, into the great hall. Mr. Rutledge was one the two brothers who had accompanied the lady back to her in laws three months after her husband's death. He was a well set up young man in his early twenties, tall, and with a lighter hair color than his sister. They both shared facial features, enough to be easily thought related. He was seated at a large table with account books and other papers strewn across it's surface.

"Mr. Allen, how good of you to come so quickly. By now you've heard from Mr. Appleton of our acquisition of the ferry patents?" I nodded that I had heard. "Good. Very good. I've studied his books with great care Mr. Allen, and it would appear that you have done well by your previous employer. I've also researched other ferry ventures, and have found that the standard wage is a fifth part of fares collected, not a tenth part as you were being paid. In fairness, and in keeping with what is usual and customary, henceforward, that too shall be your compensation. Have you any questions?"

"I'll be leaving your employ then, sir. Say one month to allow you time to hire another?"

"I don't understand. What would cause you to leave after we've so improved your circumstances. That makes no sense, Mr. Allen, none at all."

"I've had my fill of being a ferryman, sir, and this seems as good a time as any to strike out in search of more favorable placement. I might try the sailor's life for awhile, or see about taking the King's shillings."

"I see. Well, of course, you are free to do as you see fit. I'm disappointed, because it means I'll have to find someone else to serve in your stead. Do you know of anyone likely to have an interest in filling your position?" I told him I didn't, and then took my leave. The same serving girl let me out the side door, off the kitchen. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her, the lady, standing back from the upstairs balustrade, peering covertly after me.

The very next morning I watched her ride up to the river's edge. I stood on the other shore, a river's width away from her. In other distance being measured, social distance, life's station difference, we were separated by a chasm too formidable to bridge or ford. There was no ferry capable of transporting either of us such a far distance. I shoved off from my side, pulling steadily over to hers. Once again, she had gotten down from her mount, and tied him to that same overhanging branch. Because she was now the ferry's owner, I spurned her offered copper. Without any words between us, I pulled us out to the center of the river, and turned back to face her. I waited for her to tell me what she'd come to say.

"Are you running away from me then, Stuart? Was it too much that I bought the source of your employment? I wanted only to have us closer connected than we were. Is my need so terrible and wrong in your eyes that it drives you from me?"

"Milady Camille, it is I who drive myself away. Away from the sorrow that I can bring you, and from the damage to your reputation, that what you seem to seek will likely cause. I cannot be party to an act that would so surely take you down in reputation and respect, and in that fall, so too the feelings you now have for me. If, in my leaving, I can preserve any part of that good disposition of you to me, all the better."

"What of me? You presume to interpret, wrongly, what it is I'm seeking from you. It isn't love for you, or even lust that spurs me on. You are the dessert to a meal well eaten and enjoyed. You have the means, residing within you, that could release me from the last and final ties that bind me to Charles. Leave now, and I am just as bound to him as I ever was before. You spurn to be compensated or made larger by your boon to me. I shall be free. As I touched and licked your wound, taking his pain away from you and into myself, I wanted you to do the same for me. In this way only, can you reduce the sway he once had over my existence. Disconnect him from all the wounds he left behind him. Make him truly dead to me."

"You feel nothing for me then?"

"I do. Deep gratitude, an abiding respect that you took it upon yourself to make real the act that I could merely dream to accomplish. I would give to you willingly what never once I gave to him. As a reward though, not out of feelings or need. Free me from the memory of all his past assaults and there is nothing I possess that I'd refuse to you. Nothing."

"I beg your forgiveness then, that I so misinterpreted your actions. I thought it was some misplaced love of me, because of what I had done."

"No, not love. That could never be. I've known no love with any man, only suffered from the assault of one who claimed me thus by rights of marital contract. His violations now leave me incapable of presenting myself to another of any suitable station"

"Tell what you would have from me then?"

"To take the scars and welts remaining from his forced visitations into yourself, just as I took yours into myself. In this way, while his marks remain, they will have been rendered neutral by the one who rendered Charles neutral, and sent him into the void. I wouldn't ask it of you if I knew of another way to accomplish my end ambition."

"Where would you accomplish such as you seek? Not in such a public place as here?"

"In his own chambers, Stuart. In the room where he whipped me into submission, to make me compliant and tractable to do his bidding."

"If I do this for you, whether or not it causes any of the effect you seek, I would require two things of you. What you ask seems but a trick of your mind that you've settled on as a remedy for your pain."

"Name your terms, Stuart. If they are within my grasp. I will grant them to you."

"Sign over ownership to the ferry patents to me, including the lands that come with them."

"Done, and what else?"

"Give me leave, with your consent and approval, to partake in the same marital rights that you refused to give to your late husband."

"I won't fight you, or turn you away, but no more than that can I represent to you."

"When do you wish to accomplish this?"

"Would tonight be possible? My brother will be absent from the manor, and I can send the servants home as well."

"Two hours after the setting sun? I will be at the servants door. When I leave though, it will be by way of the front door, and you will hold it open for my departure."

"It shall be as you say. In spite of what you may think of me, I feel certain about my need for doing this. I do care about you and your welfare. It pleases me that you will now own the means to your livelihood."