The Ring Master's Fair

PART 11

The Ring Master's Fair - Part 11

"Well look what the cat dragged in," a sneering voice said into Lark's ear.

Hot breath warmed her neck, and the familiar voice sent shivers running up and down her spine; but not necessarily the good kind.

"Wh-what do you want?" Lark managed to stutter out.

"Well, I naturally want you to become mine officially. But Rylan would painfully murder me," Atticus chuckled sadly.

"Well I should thank Rylan then."

"But why? Don't you want to be my slave?" he whispered in her ear. "Don't you want to obey me? Let me dominant you?"

"N-no." Lark couldn't withstand the dark thoughts that rapidly came to her mind. Images that made her shiver in both delight and fear.

"It seems that you want me to make you obey me, to make you my slave." His mouth was right on her neck, breath warmed her ear.

My slave. My slave. My slave.

Those words were a haunting echo in her head as flashbacks of all those times she was abused and beaten appeared before her eyes. She could hear the sound of the whip snapping loud and clear in her mind. With each lash she received, more blood was shed, more life was taken away from her. Her heart slowly became more tainted with fear and a lust for revenge.

Revenge...

A sudden bang snapped her out of her dark trance.

"I will never let you dominate me, or let any man for that matter," Lark said in a hard voice.

Atticus was thoroughly surprised by the sudden change in Lark's actions. One minute she was a mess in his hands, seeming to possibly give in. Then the next minute she was holding back and resisting him. It was like something was snapping inside of her.

"Where are you going?" Atticus called to her. "I still own you, even though not officially."

Lark clenched up and Atticus wasn't sure what might happen. He was confused as to why she was acting this way. It had seemed to him that she was close to giving in.

"Torrance, Let's go," Lark called to the boy.

"Awh." Torrance tried to give Lark his pouting face. Even though it usually worked on her, Lark was too angry to give in.

"Torrance, now."

Torrance nodded, understanding enough of what was going on. He grabbed two pastries from the pile on the counter with one hand and clutched Lark's hand with the other.

Lark stalked out of the kitchen with him before she acted rash and did something to Atticus that might or might not regret later.

"Pasterwy?" Torrance asked with his mouth full.

Lark took a look down at him to see the area around his mouth was covered with chocolate from the pastry. She just sighed and shook her head, "I am going to take you to see your grandmother. I have some work I need to get done."

"Grammy Rivy!" he shouted excitedly.

Lark didn't even bother to scold him for talking with his mouth full as they approached the door to the sewing room.

"Riva?" she called out to the elderly maid.

"Over here."

Lark and Torrance followed the sound of Riva's voice. "Grammy," Torrance yelled for his grandmother.

"Oh dear. Has he caused you trouble again?" Riva's hand flew to her mouth when she saw the sight of her only grandson.

"Oh no, not at all. He just got a little carried away with the pastries. I should have cleaned him up before I brought him to you. I am dreadfully sorry, Riva," Lark rambled on.

Riva shook her head and chuckled. "Nonsense, I am grateful enough for you watching Torrance. There is no need to worry."

Lark smiled a little, relieved that she didn't disappoint her. "Torrance, please get away from the spinning needles," she called frantically to the little boy.
"Are you sure you don't want me to watch him for the rest of the afternoon, Riva?"

"Oh no. You need rest it looks like. And you have done enough of watching him for today. I will take care of him from here."

Lark sighed, relieved with the fact that she would have some time to rest and take a look at that book on slavery.

"Now shoo," Riva beamed.

Lark scurried out of the room, eager to get started.

The first thing she did was retrace her steps back to the garden fountain, where she had left the book on slavery. After that, she ran up to her room where she could get some privacy. Lark had to apologize to Chrys multiple times, due to the fact that she wanted Lark to go with her to sneak into the village square; but Lark would surely do that with her later.

When Lark opened the book, She once again remembered the flashbacks from the kitchen earlier. How she felt a taste of a lust for revenge.

Her brain felt heavy as she focused on that feeling of lust. The feeling empowered her to do research using the book.

If slavery was illegal, then why was it happening? Maybe it was so well hidden that the king thought it wasn't happening? Or maybe, the king had turned a blind eye to it completely?

The first page was a replica of the cover. The second page was the same. The third, the fourth, the fifth, the tenth, Lark flipped through the whole book to find every page like that. There wasn't even a single sign of the page she had found earlier.

She threw the book at the wall in frustration. As if she wasn't already angry at Atticus for ruining her mood earlier.

There was suddenly a knock on the door.

"Why are you still up here? Supper has already been served. Are you sick? Do I need to get the doctor?" Rylan poked his head through the crack in the door, rambling on and on.

Lark blushed sheepishly. "I'm just not hungry."

"Lie. Lie. Lie," Rylan shook his head in mock shame. "You are always hungry at this time. Maybe even the hungriest."

"Well not tonight, I guess. Today wasn't the best day." That was the truth, between making Lucinda more mad than ever, learning that slavery was illegal, and the scene with Atticus in the kitchen, today clearly wasn't her day.

"Well anyway, since the both of us missed dinner, I brought up some food from the kitchen so neither of us starve. You can tell me all about what happened that made you lose your appetite for Rois' cooking."

Lark sighed but obeyed. Once she dug into the food, she realized how hungry she truly was. "Well today I found from a book that slavery is illegal....."