The Taking of House Westwood (The Chronicles of Muurland Book 1) by Trent Evans

Author:Trent Evans [Evans, Trent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Epic Fantasy BDSM
Publisher: Shadow Moon Press
Published: 2023-07-16T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

McClearn Farmstead

Owen paced outside the stables, fingering the ridiculous black habit he wore. He’d seen the traveling mendicants before, of course, and had always found them an odd mixture of both unsettling and sad. Now, he was going to try to impersonate one!

He stopped, his arms crossed over his broad chest, and stared off to the west. The setting sun was turning the fields a striking mixture of pinks, purples and sienna. West was where they were heading, where she was.

Sophie.

Just the thought of her had him pacing again, his flimsy cloth slippers squelching in the dirt of the stable yard. He needed to get her back. Gods knew what that evil witch Lady Westwood was doing to her. He’d gotten a taste of it himself at the hands of the corrupt noble’s soldiers. When they’d dragged him out of the barn, he’d found himself stripped to the waist, tied against one of the poles that supported the roof of the stable block, and beaten savagely. He’d thought he could hear the cries of poor Sophie, but really they could have been his own, interspersed with his snarled oaths and threats of vengeance. The brutes had paused to gag him with a foul smelling cloth, and then whipped him anew. It was only when his back ran with blood, and he slumped in his bonds, did they relent.

He had little memory of the next few days.

Rotating his shoulder still made him wince, the healing scar tissue across his back feeling tight and sore. “I’ll have you back soon, Sophie,” he muttered, staring west into the setting sun once more. “I’ll die before I let her have you a day longer.”

He didn’t know why he had such a thirst for vengeance. The soldiers were just like many others in Muurland: primitive animals, paid to enforce the will of others. While there were some honorable soldiers, there were far too many corrupt ones. It was just the way things were.

But what galled him most was the fact that they’d lashed him at her behest. Lady Westwood. The same woman who could, at that very moment, be doing any number of heinous things to Sophie.

When his father had told Owen he was to work at the McClearn farmstead, there’d been a huge row between father and son. Owen loved the excitement of the city, just as his father did. He wanted a chance to make his own way in the rough, wild environment of Wyndhaven. The danger, intrigue, and murky politics all appealed to him. Anything seemed possible.

If he was honest with himself, he also enjoyed that regular, infamous feature of Wyndhaven life: the monthly slave auctions. He’d once snuck out from home to get a peek at what went on at the docks during those events, and the sights he’d witnessed both disturbed and fascinated him.

It had been completely worth the whipping he’d gotten from his father upon his return home.

Initially, the prospect of two whole years spent toiling at the dirty, drab, boring farmstead depressed him.

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