House of Angels by Freda Lightfoot

Author:Freda Lightfoot
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780749010614
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2011-01-20T22:00:00+00:00

To be branded a liar by your own father for speaking nothing less than the truth was bad enough, but what followed was harsh beyond even Mercy’s imaginings.

Much later she learnt that it was at Josiah’s suggestion she be given a dozen lashes instead of the more usual six. Mercy stared in wide-eyed disbelief as the master reached for the birch. She was held down over a chair by two assistants, her skirts lifted, her drawers pulled down and her bottom bared. She soon realised that, wriggle and protest as she might, there would be no escape. The pain of the first lash was excruciating and she cried out, the thin sharp sticks of the birch cutting deeply into her flesh, and her body jerking violently with each new stroke. Four more of these and Mercy was beyond pain, aware only of a red mist forming before her eyes in which furious faces leered at her then faded away, mouthing words she couldn’t hear. On the eighth stroke she blessedly passed out, and when vinegar and water failed to revive her, Matron judged it best to proceed no further, for fear they might have a dead girl on their hands.

Instead she was thrown back into solitary and left to lie in a pool of her own blood, fading in and out of consciousness for what felt like an eternity.

It was her dear friend Prue who was finally permitted to take her back to the dormitory, although not till the following morning. She bathed Mercy’s wounds and staunched the bleeding with cold water, since she had nothing else. But by then it was too late. The lashes and the dark solitary hole had done their work. Mercy felt completely numb, as if they’d finally broken her spirit and robbed her forever of that vital spark of happiness and faith in the world that had been a natural part of her personality.

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