Jac

Chapter 1

Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie,

Kissed the girls and made them cry,

When the boys came out to play,

Georgie Porgie ran away.

Behind the oak doors of a tiny cottage sitting atop a large hill, Jaclynne Spriggins stared into the face of a pig.

Daintily crossing her legs, Jac's eyes flicked down to the homemade wooden coffee table separating her from the beast. The hog was reaching, grabbing with fat, grubby hooves for a plate of hastily-made cookies. She watched with feigned interest as he brought the cookie to his snout, continuing to snort out some semblance of words. The cookie crunched under his blunt yellow teeth, and crumbs flew across the room, tiny bits of sawdust.

Her lips curled up in disgust, forming small wrinkles on her nose. She glanced quickly over to the grandfather clock on her right, stifling a disappointed sigh when she realized that it had only been a mere thirty-eight minutes since Lord Porgie had called upon her. A mere thirty-eight minutes since her mother had spotted Lord Porgie from the foyer window and ushered Jac into her room to "change into something more appropriate," incessantly clicking her tongue the whole way up the stairwell.

Jac didn't understand why her previous outfit had been deemed inappropriate anyway. Her work trousers and suspenders-- both of which borrowed from her father's childhood wardrobe-- were entirely suitable to meet this pig of a man. A man who chased after any pretty, rich, young thing with long hair was not deserving of one of her best evening dresses.

Noticing her mother standing just past the doorway, Jac straightened her posture quickly and forced a kind, understanding smile to spread across her face. Knowing it would make her mother ecstatic, Jac even leaned forward slightly, letting her hand brush against Lord Porgie's knee, though it made bile rise in her throat and her skin feel sticky afterward.

Lord Porgie continued his babbling speech, paying no heed to the very obvious fact that Jac had clearly lost interest after the first minute. It wasn't that Jac couldn't hold a proper conversation and that prevented her from paying attention. In fact, she was quite the conversationalist in most situations. However, she found it quite difficult to properly speak to a man over twice her age attempting to court her. She had scoffed at the thought when her mother had suggested it after the first few times Lord Porgie had called upon the Spriggins household, but now the nightmare was becoming a reality.

She wouldn't mind it so much if Lord Porgie weren't a notorious creep, known for sticking his snout up any girl's skirt, no matter their age. It made a shiver run up her spine, thinking of the countless noble girls-- some even younger than herself-- who'd previously been courted by Lord Porgie.

Surprisingly, his affections had been transferred to her-- a poor craftsman's daughter with no money to her name. Jac assumed the "honor" was given to her in particular because she was one of the prettiest girls in the village, despite the fact that her family fell on the lower side of the social ladder.

Before her father disappeared, Jac's family had received a steady income from his homemade tables and chairs and repairs, the silly things he tinkered with for hours on end. Her father's simple hobby provided them with a large part of their income, but they also relied on their small fields that yielded crops they could sell at market.

The previous autumn, Cador Spriggins had traveled to market one cool and breezy Tuesday morning. He never returned. Those crops and a small amount of money Cador had set aside were the only things that helped his wife and daughter survive the winter.