Thursday, July 17, 2014

FRIDAY FREEBITS - FALSELY ACCUSED

FRIDAY FREEBITS
http://mizging.blogspot.com

Another short excerpt from my Books We Love, Historical Romance. Falsely Accused.

Maryanne lay down on the cold hard floor. It was horrible having to listen to hacking, consumptive coughs, and women fornicating in the darkness. Finally she slipped into an exhausted sleep.

“Wake up, we’re leaving.” Libby shook her vigorously.

“What!” She rubbed the sleep from her stinging, watery eyes. “Where to?”

“The docks. This is it, Maryanne, we’re on our way to Sydney Town.”

They were ordered to wash in a trough filled with cold, black water. There was only one piece of coarse, hard soap, and Maryanne quickly washed her hair and body. Fortunately, they were amongst the first, thanks to Libby elbowing and pushing them to the front.

They gave her a drab, brownish/grey gown, made from canvas in the prison sewing shop.

“Keep your other gown,” Libby instructed. “It is good quality, might be handy later on if you get a chance to wash it.”

How humiliating having to lift up her skirt and expose her bare ankles and legs so a ferret-faced turnkey could clamp fetters around her ankles. His vile comments made her cringe inwardly, but Libby’s silent warning forced her to stand still and endure the indignity without complaint. Finally, they were loaded into an open wagon in groups of ten, chained together like rabid dogs.




 

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Love the scene...made me think a little of my own story, FDI. Your writing is awesome, so keep those six coming. I shared on FB, but you need to put those buttons on your blog. :)

Rhobin said...

Your six makes me worry for your characters. Sometimes I think we've come a long way from this type of treatment of prisoners, but justice is always a harsh mistress and not always fair.

Margaret Tanner said...

Hi Ginger and Rhobin,
Thanks for dropping by. Thanks for sharing on FB Ginger. I am working on the buttons.

Cheers

Margaret

Tricia McGill said...

They were surely awful conditions way back then. Great six, Margaret. Another one to be put on the ever growing pile of books waiting to be read.