Unbroken

Chapter 11

Grant and I were thrown into a small building that could only be described as a shack. It was barely tall enough for Grant to stand upright in. When the door was closed behind us and the lock clicked into place Grant turned to look at me.

"Reginald?" He said with the same disbelieving expression on his face from earlier.

"It was the first name that came to mind. He was my favorite horse!"

"A horse! You named me after a horse. Really Rose?" He whispered. "I imagine this horse was a gorgeously strong muscled stallion and that's why you thought of me?"

Reginald was actually a squat little pony that I had known for almost my entire life. He was fat and old entirely blind in his right eye, plus he walked with a slight limp. But that old pony had been one of my best friends for as long as I could remember and I absolutely refused to let mother get rid of him just because he was old and decrepit.

"Yes." I replied knowing that the truth would only bruise his ego. Although the thought of Grant being named after my old stumpy pony did raise my spirits.

"Good" he replied with a smile surely imagining a great beautiful horse as his fake namesake.

"We need to do something about those ribs." I looked around but there was next to nothing in the shack. There was bed with greasy sheets sitting in one corner and that was all there was. I tried not to imagine how many people had slept in those sheets over the years. I surprised myself by wishing for a dress with petticoats then I could use the fabric to bind Grants ribs. Right now the greasy sheets were our only option. I tore a long strip of the dirty brown fabric and went over to Grant.
"Take off your shirt." I demanded. He smirked at me and I shivered.

"You could say please you know." He said as he started unbuttoning it. I helped him to ease it over his shoulders. I was surprised by what I saw. I hadn't ever seen a man's bare chest before and his was a sight to see. Grant was surprisingly muscled underneath that loose shirt. I tried not to let him catch me ogling at him. When I looked up he had a delicious smirk on his lips and I felt my face turn bright red. His smirk only widened to show his even teeth that contrasted against his tanned skin. I cleared my throat and mentally shook myself. Then I got to work.

I had to focus on binding his ribs while feeling his eyes on my face the entire time. I knew that if I looked up into his eyes I would definitely regret it. Binding his ribs wasn't an easy task. With a final knot I tied it tight. I took a step back away from him as far as our little shack would allow and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now you know what it's like to wear a corset" I laughed at him and he stopped smirking at me. "How does it feel?"

"Better. Much better thank you."

"Grant, what do think that man meant that we work for him now?"

"They are going to turn us into slaves Rose."

"What if I don't want to be a slave?" I grumbled. That was what I was running from all this time. I was running from the slavery of being the wife of that Duke. Now I had run straight into the open arms of Ruben's famous slave trade.

"It's either learn to be a slave or be killed. I've heard of this man he is said to be merciless. Did you see those girls he had with him?"

I nodded. "Yes I saw them and it was awful." I thought of them kneeling there shackled. I wondered how long they had been like that.

"That's what he is going to do to us." Grant said looking at me to make sure that I understood where he was going. He wanted to make sure that his news sunk in and that I understood. I felt tears well up in my eyes as I thought of those poor girls. They didn't deserve this.