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