Subj: Grammar Story -- 8
Date: 6/25/00 9:08:05 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Beverly LaCroix

"Whoa, Victoria, slow down," Jeremiah said huskily as he held the trembling governess in his embrace.

"It's -- It's" -- Victoria tried to say, but sobs, and fear prevented her from finishing.

"Let's go in the house before we end up with pneumonia," Jeremiah said to the struggling woman.

"No, I can't go back in there." Victoria said, and wiggled out of his embrace, and ran towards the cemetary.

"Damn! Am I ever going to get dry," Jeremiah said to himself, as he went after Victoria. He couldn't let her go to the cemetary alone, not after what he had witnessed.

Watching from the tower room unseen by Jeremiah was a smiling Angelique. It had been quite a scene between Miss Abigail and the naive young governess. Something niggled at her mind, but didn't come to remembrance, so she enjoyed her small victory of having Miss Winters under suspicion as the witch.

"Victoria," Jeremiah yelled over and over, and he finally saw her by huddled behind Josette's grave. Terror gripped him as he ran as fast as he could to get to her. Anger was taking over as he reached her, and bent down and gripped her by her forearms, he jerked her up, and startled her. She was frightened of him, afraid that he was going to hurt her, and he felt like it at the moment. My god, if she had been here when Angelique had, she would have been dead just like Josette. She would not have died the slow, agonizing death that Josette had been forced to suffer, but it would have been untimely, and Jeremiah had no doubt it would have been agonizing.

Holding her, he bent down to look her in the eyes, and said "what do you think you are doing, girl?"

Before she could speak, something flashed in Jeremiah's mind, and it was of Angelique dancing nude before a male figure, and copulating like animals before the ghost of Josette. Seeing the look of horror on her ghostly face, he had had a glimpse of the male, it was the exact likeness of Barnabas. The memory reinforced Angelique's evil, wicked nature, and her stopping at nothing to inflict her cruelty on anyone who got in her way, dead or alive.

Anger seared through him like a burning liquid, and when there was no answer forthcoming from Victoria, before he could stop himself, he slapped her hard across the face, and at her look of shock, again demanded to know what was wrong with her.

"It's your" -- Victoria started, but again words failed the trembling girl, as she rubbed the side of her face where Jeremiah had hit her.

Pulling her tight to him, he said, "let's go back to Collinwood. I would to get into something dry, if you don't mind, Miss Winters. On the way back, you will tell me what sent you fleeing from the house on such a stormy night. And I warn you, I am not in the mood for young lady's and flights of fancy. So, you had better have a very good reason for this." Jeremiah's tone was cold and hard.

"I cannot go back there, Mr. Collins. Now, release me, and I will be on my way." Victoria responded coldly.

Stopping abruptly, he pulled Victoria inside the stables. Thank god, he thought somewhere finally dry, and not a mausoleum or graveyard.

"Miss Winters, you are trying my patience. You have always trusted me before. So, pull yourself together, and for the last time, tell me what the hell is wrong with you. I will not ask you again. If you insist on behaving as a child, Jeremiah said, putting his hand on the small riding crop on the wall, I will spank you like a child. I am at my wits end. I have not had a very pleasant day, and childish antics, and hysteria by a young unmarried woman is pushing it." Jeremiah finished, through clenced teeth, noting the anger growing in Victoria's eyes. Good, he thought, now maybe we'll get somewhere.

Shocked, as his head was knocked to the side by a blow that he didn't think she was capable of, he lost his temper. Pulling the riding crop off the wall, he reached out and took her by the arm, sat down on a barrell and pulled her over his lap.