The Witch of Eye Read Free

Get away from me. You’re not sorry! You weren’t sorry the last time it happened and you’re not sorry now! Get away from me, Jake!’ Jenna was screaming now, pushing him, pummelling his chest. ‘Get away from me!’
    She was no match for his strength. He overpowered her easily, his arms tightening like iron bands around her, pinning her own arms uselessly against her sides, her hands bunched into limp fists. His eyes narrowed as he realised she was not going to be won over this time. He began to mock her then, as he shoved her roughly towards the straw pallet where they slept on the floor in the far corner, an ugly sardonic smile twisting his face.
    ‘So,’ he said, his voice low and threatening, ‘you think you can get away from me, do you, you teasing little whore? Well, you can’t. You’re my wife and there’s no bastard on earth can change that. But they can’t wait to get their stinking little hands on you. I’ve watched them going out of their minds wanting to grab your tits, pull up your skirts. It’s your fault, you’re like a bitch on heat. You set a man’s prick alight. But I’m going to have you now, bitch, I’m going to show you ... show you how it feels to have a real man screwing you ... not a sickly whelp of a man like the Parson ... you want it, don’t you? You want it, don’t you, bitch!’
    Jenna whimpered hopelessly as he pushed her down onto their mattress then dropped to his knees, roughly shoving her skirt up over her thighs, forcing her legs apart. He was inches taller than she was and as strong as an ox, his powerful body honed by years of labour in the fields. She could only pray that this time he wouldn’t leave her skin raw and bleeding, her mind blank with shame and horror.
    ***
    J enna lay on her back for a long time after Jake had violated her, praying for merciful sleep. His arm lay heavy across her body, pinning her down, and she dared not move for fear of disturbing him. Over the sound of his snoring, she heard a tomcat yowling in the darkness outside the cottage and she pitied the poor queen that would soon have to endure the pain of his selfish penetration. Managing to turn onto her right side so that the weight of her own head on the pillow wouldn’t put unbearable pressure on her swollen left ear, she slowly became aware that, with her damaged ear uppermost, she could hear neither the tomcat’s yowling nor Jake’s snoring with any clarity. It was as though she had pulled the pillow over her head – but she hadn’t.
    Dear God, if Jake had damaged her hearing, what would he do next? Would it always be like this for her, treading on eggshells for fear of annoying him, never knowing when his mercurial temper would flare up? Would she live in terror of her own husband for the rest of her life? And would she have to work her fingers to the bone on her stepfather’s farm each day? She always avoided being alone in the dairy with the dirty old bastard her mother had been so grateful to marry and when there was no alternative but to work alongside him, she tried hard not to mind his drooling leer and his groping hands, if only for her mother’s sake.
    Why did men behave so oddly towards her? In all honesty, she reflected, if her stepfather hadn’t made her so nervous, perhaps she wouldn’t have been so keen to marry Jake, though she had to admit she had thought herself madly in love with him. She should have given herself time to get to know him better, time to discover the jealous temper simmering perilously close to the surface, ready to explode into violence as soon as it was fuelled with drink. How stupid she had been to fall so unquestioningly in love with a beautiful face.
    Nothing was likely to change. If God spared her and she was still alive twenty years hence she would be just like her mother, her back bent with hard work, her face lined with worry. She could see no choice but to go on living with Jake, lying passively under the bulk of him at night,