She waited up for him for several hours until she finally fell asleep. Callie had made him dinner and it was sitting cold on the plate at the table. By the look of it, she had waited for him to eat as well because her plate was untouched as well. Thomas felt a moment of guilt and went to her room to apologize, but found her sleeping. His hand came out to push a tendril of hair from her face and sighed to himself.
Thomas had tried to forget the fact that she was there at home, waiting for him. He had thought it would be an arrangement where needs and wants didn’t ruin it, but he already knew that he wanted to need her. He still remembered the curve of her back as he had taken her dress off. But he knew that there would be no way to leave afterwards and that was what he was worried about. It wasn’t the moments, Thomas sure they would be good, but it was the lifetime afterwards that he worried about.
He went to his own room and thought of the woman he had that night. It hadn’t taken long to find a woman that was willing, but it had been Callie’s face that he had seen when he looked down. To stop the girl from ruining it, he made her instead turn around so he could take her from behind. Even then the girl’s curves weren’t the same and he found himself unsatisfied as he left. It was Callie that he wanted and it would seem that no one else would do.
It took him a while to go to sleep and he thought he heard her getting up and moving around in the far side of the house, but he didn’t get up. It was a strange way to feel and Thomas still wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. He wanted her, but knew that once he slept with a woman, it all went downhill from there. Why couldn’t he just be happy with what he said he wanted? She cooked, she cleaned, but it was the rest of it that he was interested in now.
***
“Good morning Callie.”
She didn’t answer him and instead set down his plate. A few bits of it were burnt, but he didn’t mind. Callie was not smiling that morning and she didn’t ask him for help with anything. Instead she just ignored him and he finally had to ask her what the matter was and why she was so quiet.
“You didn’t come home last night and you smell of a woman and ale.”
He wasn’t going to argue with either point, but he found himself shrugging off. “I suppose so. Sometimes I go out afterwards.”
“Why did you marry me?”
“I needed a wife to help out with the cooking and women chores.”
“Is that all?”
No. “Yes. That is all I need you for. We can be good friends.”
She didn’t like the answer and Callie wished that she had stayed home. At least then she wouldn’t have any falsehoods to believe in. She would have known exactly what she was. “And I am to not say anything about the other women? Is this something normal here?”
He almost laughed at the question, but he knew she was being serious. “Just think of it as one less thing that you have to do.”
Callie looked down and then turned her back to him. It was not what she wanted to hear and it made her feel like she must be hideous to not even arouse her own husband. She fought back tears and questioned what she was thinking coming all the way to Scotland. It would seem that she was worth much of the same there as she was back home, which wasn’t much at all.
Callie felt a hand on her arm and she looked back at him when he said her name in such a way. “I don’t want you to be mad at me Callie.”
She pushed the wetness from her eyes and told him that she wasn’t. “I just expected more is all. I know what it is now.”
Thomas should have liked the idea of her understanding how everything was, but he didn’t. Thomas wanted to be able to change his mind. He stopped her from walking away. “What did you expect?”
Callie found it hard to meet his gaze. “I was hoping for love.”
***
Spurgis was in Ireland, finding his next round of women to sell the dream to. He made Scotland out to be the land of plenty and in need of good women. He didn’t care what they thought or expected, all he cared about was the money in his pockets. It was almost time to go back and he was in the last pub he planned to stop in. It had a few rooms that were rented out on the top and he stayed there sometimes when he had time.
This trip hadn’t gone so well though and he only had a few that were willing to make the trek across to the new country. Spurgis just needed a few more women to go with. He stopped as he made it into the interior and saw a drawing of a woman that he had seen before. It took a minute before he realized that it was the one that he had married off the week before. She was the one that had been a fright when she got off the boat, but then looked like the picture when he had seen her on the docks. Callie Winguard is what the paper said. There was a reward and his eyes went to the amount. Someone wanted the woman badly and Spurgis had just found a way to make some more money.
He looked to the address written on the bottom of the flyer and smiled to himself. After a moment he pulled it from the wall and walked back out the pub without a drink. He had more things on his mind and as he made his way to the man’s house listed on the flyer, he hoped that the girl hadn’t been found yet. Spurgis didn’t care what she was wanted for. All he cared about was how he was going to spend the money once he got it.
After a short knock, the door was answered by an old man with white hair and devilish black eyes answered. Spurgis was taken aback for a moment, but he finally got himself together enough to hold the piece of paper with the drawing of Callie.
“Do you know where she is?”
Spurgis nodded and was pulled into the stately house. He was sure that his luck had finally changed. The man was obviously wealthy and he hoped that he could get the price written. Spurgis was happy to share a drink with the man and tell him what he knew. He even promised to bring her to him, but the man declined, saying that he planned to get her himself.
“Well if you don’t mind me asking, what do you want her for?”
He shrugged and set the drink down. “It is my business why I want her, your job is to make sure she is where you say she is. That is what I am paying for.”
Spurgis nodded that he understood, but he failed to mention the bit about her being married off. If he had told him the why, maybe he would have given him all of the information. Instead he took his money, not as much as advertised and went on about his way. He didn’t think once more about the girl or the guard that he had sold her to. It seemed that everyone wanted Callie.