Chapter 4: Thrown out

"Did you know your fiancée has a live-in girl friend?" Tom asked Laura. He'd finished the flooring job but still visited her when he could. Her parents of course, found out and voiced their objections but these were counter-productive and only served to strengthen Laura's resolve to keep seeing Tom.

"No! He can't have. He's too shy to get a girl. He only has me because our fathers arranged it."

"Well it's true. He has. Nice looking kid. Slim, not a lot of meat on her bones and laughs a lot. Nice, mousy shoulder length hair. They sat real close in the pub last night but they didn't stay long and he had his arms around her when they left. Bob at the bar told me they'd been in together once before and she was living with him. She's not local. Talks northern." Tom gave what little information he'd gleaned about the girl.

"Is she sleeping with him? Two-timing me?"

"Sounds as if she is. No more than you're two-timing him." Tom laughed. "But I thought you didn't care for him. You didn't want to marry that peasant?"

"I don't but I have to. It all to do with business and politics."

"I thought it might be. You haven't seen him for about three weeks and yet you're supposed to marry him in a few months. You don't love him, don't want his prick and yet you will wed him. Bet that won't last long."

"It isn't supposed to," snapped Laura, "I'm sure I couldn't stand a lifelong relationship with that oaf."

"So you wed him, take him to the cleaners in the divorce and set up house with me," Tom suggested.

"Unless I find someone better," Laura's mood changed when she felt him open her thighs and enter his prick into her throbbing cunt.

"Where are they?" Laura demanded of Pauline when she stormed into the farmhouse.

"In the shower but..."

Laura marched to the bathroom and stood in the open doorway to the shower room and was confronted by the sight of Jackie kneeling and sucking Mark's prick. "So this is the whore who seeks to woo my future husband away from me." Jackie disentangled herself and stood close to Mark. He wrapped his arms protectively around her. "Very touching," she sneered, "But it won't be for much longer."

"Leave her alone, Laura. I won't be marrying you. You hate my guts and I have no love for you either. If it wasn't for your father you wouldn't come near me." Mark spoke in a slightly louder voice than usual.

"That may be true but I don't think our parents will see it that way. They've made the agreement and they intend that we keep it. Apparently it is a binding contract." That wasn't really true but Laura thought Mark wouldn't know. She had him pegged as retarded as well as shy. Laura didn't want him but was furious at the affection he was showing to Jackie. She was determined that the little whore wouldn't have him either. "Get rid of her!" she snarled as she left the room.

"You sort him out! If I've got to do what my father says, so has your son," she yelled at Roland as she passed through the kitchen, "I gather it is your fault she's here in the first place!"

Furious, Roland slipped his broad leather belt off and stormed noisily up the wooden stairs, Nero followed at his heels. "Don't hurt them!" pleaded Pauline as she followed a few steps behind, but her plea was totally disregarded. Mark and Jackie were hurriedly drying themselves when Roland entered the bathroom and slapped the belt down hard on the counter. The sharp crack caused Nero to growl menacingly. Jackie cringed in fear behind Mark.

"Quiet Nero. Sit here," Mark commanded the dog. Nero responded by obediently slinking down to the floor and sitting beside Jackie's feet, his eyes alert, facing Roland. "Put the belt away dad. You hit either of us with it, you will feel it also. I'm now big enough and strong enough to take you on. Gone are the days when you could order me to lie over the bed and take a strapping and I certainly won't allow you to hurt Jackie."

The statement visibly shocked Rolland. Never before had his son openly defied him. "You're going to marry Laura, not that tart hiding behind you. It's all been arranged. It's time you got rid of the whore you've been playing with for the last few weeks. She was only supposed to be a toy for you to practice on. Once you're married and the Britton's and the Poultney-Davis's families are linked, we'll have access to their money to put this place right. The repairs this house needs will cost thousands and the farm is losing money all the time. Get rid of the bitch now!" He emphasised the words with another slap of the belt on the counter. Jackie sobbed at the words.

"I'm not getting rid of Jackie and I'm not marrying Laura. In a few months time, I will be the full owner of all this estate and I will decide then how best to increase the income from it. You and that solicitor are caretakers for only a short while longer. Now leave us."

"Yeah and if that bloody solicitor had agreed to our selling the land you wouldn't be needing to marry Laura!"

"And we'd have a supermarket on our fields. Uncle wouldn't have wanted that."

"It'll happen anyway. You'll need the money to keep this place up!" Red in the face, Roland thundered his way down the stairs. Pauline looked sad and murmured, "I'm sorry." Nero stood for a moment or two and then sat down again at Jackie's feet. Mark hugged his girlfriend and whispered, "It'll be okay. We'll work something out. I've plans they know nothing of."

Life at Birchtree Farm became very much more difficult after that altercation. James Poultney-Davis phoned Roland and in no uncertain terms insisted Jackie be sent on her way but that was easier to say than to do. Roland did all he could to denigrate and to make things as difficult as he could for her. Fortunately under Mark's protection and with his love she almost enjoyed her time but always in the back of her mind was the thought of where it all would end. Would she marry Mark? Would Roland and Pauline still live with them? Would there be enough money for all of them to live on or would they have to sell the land that Mark wanted so badly to conserve?

That the farm was losing money she had no doubts. On wet days she sorted the accounts and put them all on to the computer. It was during this process that she noticed a number of expensive items that had been bought which didn't seem necessary to the running of the farm. The first item to catch her eye was a brand new 12 bore shotgun and a thousand cartridges. She had no idea of the price of guns but it seemed very expensive and Roland only had one in the gun cabinet that she had seen. It certainly wasn't new. When she checked further there seemed to be other items that to her seemed out of place on this farm. One was for a milk cooler. They didn't have cows. For the moment she decided to keep these things to herself but began to try and trace the items. Phoning the supplier of the cooler, she learned it was delivered to a neighbouring farm, as was another item she checked on. "I guess that's one the reasons we're losing money. Roland is buying stuff on the estate account and selling it on privately. I guess the solicitor wouldn't know what every item was for when he okayed the cheques."

Three weeks later and the situation remained much the same except that both families had named the wedding day and were making the necessary arrangements. Laura and Mark's wishes were totally swept aside. Laura was reluctantly going along with the arrangement but Mark was obdurate in his resistance. However the Britton's were making it very difficult for him by pressurising the banks to call in the loans the farm owed. "I only want a few more months Jackie but it seems that James is calling on his mates at the bank to force me to sell so I will lose the land and perhaps the house as well. If I wed Laura, I'll probably only have to sell the fields they want for the supermarket. I really don't know what to do. Perhaps I'll have to go along with them for mother's sake. I've to go to see the solicitor tomorrow and discus it."

"Ask him about the payments for the new gun and the milk cooler," Jackie said and when Mark questioned her, she replied, "Just ask him."

Jackie lay awake for most of the night wondering about her role if this all came about. "Will he wed Laura? Will I be thrown out? How long would any marriage last?..." The answers were decided for her. Mark left early to see the solicitor, Pauline was outside cleaning out the hen's shed and Roland left with his gun in the crook of his arm as usual. She decided to take a shower only to find that Roland had been waiting for her to be alone in the house. Slipping quietly in through the back door, he made his way upstairs and was even more pleased when he heard the shower running. "The bitch will feel my belt even more on naked wet skin. I'll see the marks it makes as well as hear her squeal." For the first time for a long while a smile appeared on his face. The belt was ready in his hand when he walked in the bathroom and blindly started lashing the defenceless girl. The belt caught her equally on her back and front. Forehand strokes, backhanders, wherever Roland could find he spot to hit, there he landed the belt. Jackie crouched down and covered her head with her arms to try and protect herself but Roland kicked her over and lashed her stomach and thighs. She screamed and yelled but Roland seemed a man possessed and he only renewed his furious blows and unmercifully lambasted her. Nero, alerted by the screams, rushed growling into the room. "Get out," Roland ordered the dog but Nero only moved to Jackie's side snarling at him. Roland lashed at the dog causing a high pitched yelp of pain but instead of backing off, the dog leaped for Roland's throat. It didn't quite achieve its target but the force of its attack knocked Roland backward and allowed Jackie to escape to her bedroom.