Rose's Pledge Read Online Free PDF

kind face.
    “Ten and two shillings,” came from the vile man who’d wanted to see Lily’s teeth.
    Frowning, the man beside Rose reached into his pocket and pulled out a fistful of funds. He opened his hand, displaying a heavily calloused palm filled with paper and coin, which she counted silently along with him. Ten and six. He stepped forward. “Ten pounds, three shillings.”
    His competitor spoke again. “Eleven pounds. That’s my final offer.”
    The gentle-voiced man’s shoulders sagged. He glanced at Rose, his disappointment unmistakable. “I was hoping I could get a nice young girl like her for my Susan. She’s been poorly for quite a spell now.” He turned to leave.
    The mere thought of the teeth-inspecting reprobate taking Lily away, having her at his mercy, was more than Rose could accept. She reached out and caught the kind-faced man’s sleeve. “Bid more. Please.”
    He smiled sadly down at her. “I would if I could, miss. Alas, I cannot.”
    Before he finished speaking, Rose had one of her two precious pounds out of her small purse. She pressed it into his hands. “Please.”
    Moments later, to her everlasting gratification, she heard the captain award dear Lily to the gentle-faced man. She breathed a quick prayer of thanks. Her baby sister had been properly placed in a good home.
    “Hie thyself up here, wench.” Captain Durning’s voice lacked even a smidgen of gentleness.
    Consumed by concern for Lily, Rose had forgotten her own turn would come. She refused to budge.
    The two ruffians hooted with laughter and hoisted her onto the platform.
    She swung around to give them a piece of her mind but met only more guffaws and clapping from the onlookers. She’d become a spectacle. The morning’s entertainment. How she wished she had contracted with a different ship’s captain, but it was far too late for remorse. She clamped her jaws together and faced the lying, cheating peddler of flesh who had betrayed her trust.
    As the laughter faded, Durning’s singsong rang out across the crowd. “Now if ye want a full day’s labor for yer money, this spinster here is the one ye’re lookin’ for. The female’s five and twenty. In her prime. She’s run an entire household since she was thirteen. Raised her four sisters and brothers, and ye’ve all seen how at least two of those lasses turned out.” He cocked an eyebrow for emphasis.
    Rose was sorely tempted to announce that she would give no buyer more than eleven pounds’ worth of labor during the next four years—the six that Captain Durning paid her and five for the expense of her passage. She loathed the thought of that cur profiting any more than he already had. But no doubt the captain would lock her in the hold and carry out his threat. Should he cart her off to a different port, there’d be no way of keeping track of Mariah and Lily. How could she endure that? They needed her. Especially Mariah, whether or not the flirt would agree.
    With her mind in such turmoil, it took a moment for Rose to become aware that every man within twenty yards was staring at her. Scores of eyes raked her from head to toe and back again. The prospective buyers nodded and chatted amongst themselves. A few pointed as they discussed her attributes.
    These strangers in this strange land …appraising her worth. Rose had never felt so exposed in her life. Or so helpless.

Chapter 3

    T he wench’s sisters may have virtues enough,” a bystander hollered. “But this one’s got the tongue of a fishwife!”
    Laughter again erupted from the men gawking at Rose. They’d become a merry crowd, and at her expense. She struggled to retain what little dignity remained to her. If honoring a promise to one’s parent and protecting one’s family was termed being a “fishwife,” so be it. She searched around for the two girls.
    Lily stood near her new master, gazing up at Rose with heartfelt sympathy.
    Mariah, however, seemed not in the least offended by the derisive