To Love and To Hate

Prologue

                                                                          Lanmou Louisiana, 1860

"Universe expands timeless space, Spreading and empty blackness parades. Breathless breaths determined fate, Heartbeats falter as trapped prey"

"Let go of me! LET GO!"

This last was shouted as hard as little 9 year old girl vocals could be. Her arm was currently trapped in the much bigger, stronger, hands of Ms. Claudette Benoit. The little girl was stunning, with blond hair that would have held the most perfect curls had they been attended too. Big blue eyes struggled to shine out of a perfectly cherubic face covered in grime. While her young body was not quite ready for petticoats and bustles, or even the petticoat-less simpler frocks worn by those less fortunate, it would have welcomed a cotton shift whose color was at least recognizable. The angry tears running down her face only served to mush the grime more, creating an abstract painting of shapes. However, none of this swayed Ms. Benoit in the slightest, her grip tightening on the child's arm. 

Ms. Benoit had caught little Mae swiping an apple slice from the kitchens which Ms. Johnson had been cutting for an after dinner apple pie. Ms. Johnson had recently moved to Lanmou from upstate NY, and had brought her dessert making, and Yankee accent, with her. Mae knew that the apple slice was bound to get her into trouble, but she was sorely tempted and couldn't resist.  Her fingers had just closed around the forbidden fruit, while the rest of her was crouched under the table, when she heard the unmistakable swish swish of Madam's petticoats a split second before she felt the hard rap against her knuckles. At almost the exact instant, Mae found her arm gripped, and her feet tumbling under her as she was pulled to her feet; and now she was looking up at Ms. Benoit on the grounds of the grand old estate. 

Mae was sure she knew exactly where she was being led, and out of sheer terror at the idea, dug in her heels into the soft earth at her feet. Dreading the destination, hoping to delay the inevitable, Mae futility tried to delay the inevitable. All of the orphans at A'Lespri, the Lanmou Orphanage for Unwanted Girls in Haine Parish Louisiana, were afraid of one thing; the punishment that awaited Mae. Terror anew lit in her tiny chest as fresh tears welled, and ran, from her watery eyes. Her heels dug furors in the ground, and her screaming sent the birds into a startled flight. 

"Stop that this instant!" This from the lady herself. 

Ms. Claudette Benoit had not envisioned herself as the housemother to an estate full of wards in her care. Claudette once had dreams for marrying and settling down to children of her own. Her parents were respectable members of the Haine Parish, and by rights, she should have. Until Claudette's older sister bucked society's ruthless standards, and ran away with the baker's son. This slight put a stain on the family's name, and effectively reduced Claudette from marriageable to a pariah. So, if she seemed a little stern with her young girls, she was convinced that it could only be expected. Looking at Mae now, tears mixing with the snot and grime coating her face, she was completely unmoved. She knew the children were afraid of her, and she did not care. She knew that even her staff felt uncomfortable around her, and while that might have twinged a little, she did not even mind that, really. She had a job to do, like it or not, and she took it very seriously. These girls needed structure, and discipline, not to be playing in the fields making daisy chains for their hair. 

Claudette glanced up at the huge monstrosity of a house she was supposed to run on very little money. It was definitely showing its wear, and was not the most inviting, but it was all she had in the world. She did her job. Returning her focus on the charge locked in her grip, she tightened her hold. Half dragging the struggling girl behind her, she marched towards the edge of the once manicured lawn towards the cellar doors. Ignoring the plaintive please from the child at her side, she pulled the large keyring from her skirt pocket, inserted it in the rusted lock, and pulled on one side of the double door. 

"NO! Please no! I swear I will be good Ms. Benoit, please!" The sight of the keyring redoubled the girl's efforts and pleas. 

Knowing it was useless, but trying anyway, Mae struggled and pulled and squirmed with all her little might. Her shouts fell on deaf ears as she was maneuvered through the looming maw in the ground, inside the damp darkness. Alone. Locked in. Nothing but spiders to keep her company. The musty earth swallowed her, engulfed her, as the doors slammed shut with a finality Mae didn't quite understand yet. But she soon would. As she huddled on the earthen floor, Mae knew two things with absolute certainty: She may never leave this place, and if she did, she was never going to eat apples again.