Chapter 12. Elizabeth dies
'May twenty fifth in the year of our Lord 1751
I stopped writing yesterday, the pains in my belly from not having any food were
too great to continue and I felt so very tired. Now the pains have eased a
little and I can go on a little longer but I shall have to leave out much of
what happened in this past year. It is now clear that something went wrong when
the Parson went to collect his smuggled goods and I have given up all hope of
ever being found alive.'
Gee started crying at what she had just typed. No one else was in the room so
she could cry in peace. She soaked a tissue with her tears and then another
before she felt able to continue typing.
'I feel at this time a great injustice is done to the women of this world. We
are used and abused and yet the male is always deemed as being in the right.
This attitude is typified by this experience of the male justice system.
A month or so after my incarceration in here the Parson came down and tied my
wrists and feet and put a gag in my mouth. "Not a sound from you," he warned as
he pushed the punishment bench through the door, collected the tub of birch rods
and immediately left. Shortly after I heard voices from the adjoining cellar.
One I recognised as Parson's and another, a woman who seemed to be pleading for
mercy. It wasn't long before the voices were replaced by pitiful screams and
wailing. I felt for her especially as the birching went on for far longer than I
would have expected.
Again, after a short interval of time, more voices which I could hear above the
woman's moans. Then a very loud man's voice. "Yer certainly made a good job of
her. P'raps she'll look to me cock a better noo. Methinks it'll be a while afore
I ken tak 'er tho." Parson spoke but I did not catch the words but found out
later her had advised the husband, for that is who the man was, to take her home
and immediately to have his way with her. He advised him to do it several times
a day if possible even while she was still suffering from the beating. He had to
do this to impress on the wife that he was master in house and he would not
tolerate her going elsewhere.
Parson came in to me when they had left. He was still in his robes and
perspiring freely. Shedding his clothes he took me violently while I was still
bound and gagged. He left again and returned with wine and food. I didn't have
to ask what happened for he seemed eager to relate it to me.
"The woman was Barker's wife and she had been found fornicating with a young lad
half her age. When her husband heard he asked me to give her the official
adulterers punishment except he didn't want her walking naked behind a cart. He
wanted me to do it inside a sacred building. This building was used for worship
many years ago and so it was consecrated at that time and so it still is. I
agreed to do it here as her cries wouldn't be heard afar. Barker brought her in
and took her clothes from her and waited in the church for me to expunge her
sin. As she wouldn't be having the humiliation of being walking behind a cart as
it made it way from one boundary to the other, naked and being whipped all the
way, the punishment I had to give must necessarily be more severe. I therefore
birched her from the soles of her feet to her neck on the front side and then
again on the back including, like I did with you Lady Elizabeth, her tender
slit. I doubt she'll stray far again."
"What happened to the lad she was fornicating with?" I asked.
"Why nothing of course. It was wifey's fault. She must have offered him her
body." I felt very sorry for the woman but could say nothing without incurring
punishment of my own. The story and witnessing and punishing a naked woman must
have aroused him because his pizzle was erect again and for the second time in
minutes her had me again.
My woman's curse came about two weeks after my arrival. I didn't really expect
it after all the seed I had taken in my womb but that is sometimes the way of
things. I hoped it would bring a respite from his rough rogering of me but it
wasn't to be. I was told that he would use the 'sailor's hole' and he wasn't
surprised the pirates had used it. Knowing I wasn't a virgin there nevertheless
he did at least get some dripping and smeared it on his pizzle and around my
bottom hole. His entry was still painful as my hole had closed up since leaving
the pirate ship but I believed if I had tried to stop him, it would have led to
another thrashing and then he would have used it harder afterwards. At least I
was experienced enough now to know I wouldn't be split open by it like I was
afeared of on the boat. Once he was entered the pain was bearable and he pounded
away until he spurted his seed deep inside my bowels. "That was good," he
remarked casually, "I must have you that way more often." And so he did and
throughout this past year he has taken me that way many times. The worst part is
afterwards when he makes me suck his pizzle clean.
He occasionally told me of other women he had. Another Elizabeth who he called
Betty, was a widow and he seemed to service her quite regularly. He said she was
forty years old but never had a child and was still very tight. Another was
still married and I wondered how he reconciled his fornicating with her and that
of Barker's wife. Would he thrash her too even though he was the culprit? Of
course it would be the wife's fault!'
My woman's curse stopped about four months ago and I know I am now pregnant.
Perhaps it is as well we die together. I cannot see how he would have kept a
baby and me or how I would have given birth to a child with no one to help.'
On a new page the entry started again is barely legible writing. Gee had to
decipher it word by word with a magnifying glass.
'May twenty seventh or eight in the year of our Lord 1751
This has to be my last entry. I know not what the day really is but I am very
weak and the last candle is almost finished. I have written another note and
will place it on top of the bed giving my name and date in case this journal is
never found. Now I shall lie down and await my final demise with calmness. No
one can save me or my baby now.
Lady Elizabeth Manning, late of Felstead Hall.'
Gee was now crying uncontrollably thinking she was alone in the room. She
wasn't. Roger had come out of his office and seeing her distraught state came up
behind her and clasped her firmly. "It's just so sad," Gee wept, "So sad that a
young girl had to lose her life like that and she is probably still there in
that room. We must find out Rog. We must. There should be a note on her body
giving her name."
Although Roger knew his afternoon's work was shot, he didn't castigate her.
Instead he cradled Gee in his arms and allowed her to cry. Milly came down and
was about to quip about them cuddling when she saw Gee's tear stained face. She
looked to the screen and read the last paragraph. "Gee," she said, "You knew the
girl's fate when you started copying it out. Be brave. I know you came to see
her as someone you knew very well indeed but it did happen over two hundred and
fifty years ago.
"I want to see her Rog."
"And you shall but remember it will not be a young girl that you see. All there
is likely to be are the bones. Whatever picture you have in your mind of a
delicate young girl, what we find will not look like it."
"I know that, but I want to find out if she is still there or if somehow or
other she was able to get away. If she's there, it will end the tale. If not it
may be the beginning although from what she says, I do not believe that
possible."
All three made their way to the cellar and Roger plugged in the quartz halogen
flood light and opened the small door. He went in and the others followed. The
intense light illuminated the box bed and the rags on it. "Do you want to be the
first to look, Gee," he spoke softly. It didn't seem right to speak out loud.
Gee nodded and tentatively pulled back the first layer of dirty fabric, then
another. The note was there with its message in large letters. Under lay the
skeleton of the young girl, lying as it had done for so long.
Roger held the note to the light, blew off the dust and read,
'Here lies Lady Elizabeth Manning, of Felstead Hall. Held here against her will
by the Reverend Christopher Winterton. Died about May 27th 1751 when he did not
return to feed her. May God have Mercy on My Soul.'
