The Master Returns. (1865)

[SEVERUSMAX]

July, 1865, a small plantation near the San Jacinto River, Texas.

Major Arnold Random has just returned from the surrender of the last Confederate army to his old home, finding it in surprisingly good shape. How could that be? He freed his three slaves before he went off to the war. He knew that most of his old comrades-in-arms came home to ruined houses and farms. Was someone squatting on his farm?

And then he saw her.....Annie. His now twenty-year old former slave. What did she want, to keep his farm? Or was there something else? He remembered how she seemed rather infatuated with him back then, but he assumed that she would find a husband by now. Perhaps he was wrong.

"Annie, do you live here still? I set you free. You don't have to stay," he reminded her.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

Annie

It wasn't that she hadn't believed him, back when he granted them their freedom. After all, he had drawn up the papers that made it legal and told them what those papers meant.

The others had left, just as soon as it was finished. Running North. Heading for the hills but she couldn't. Truth was, she had spent most of her life tending to his small farm, working to keep his house clean while the others tended to outside duties. She knew NO other life and, in all honesty, wanted no other life.

She wanted to be where he was.

When he came home, if he came home.

April, 1865

"Did you hear, girl? The war is over. You had better get gone before the Mister comes back. He might be real angry when he finds you still working his land."

Annie looked up from her work in the garden, pushing the bonnet that shaded her face, back, so that she could look up at the group of kin folk passing by on their way out of Texas.

"He ain't gonna be mad. I think he will be gladdened that someone stayed to care for his property while he was away. Plus, no tellin' if he even made it through the war unscathed. He might even be dead."

The old man stopped at the fence, his dark eyes squinted against the early morning sun.

"Maybe so, maybe no. Even so, I think you had better get while the getting is good. We free now. You can come with us, if you want. Nothing down here for us to worry bout. No good memories to be had here."

The girl shrugged, her slim shoulders hunching slightly.

"Don't make no never you mind, sir. I am going to stay here til he gets back...and see how it works out in the end."

She waved toward the well and the bucket, just to the left of the small garden.

"Y'all go head and get a drink. Am sure the young'uns are fair perishing of thirst."

Soon enough, the group was gone, leaving Annie alone.

Now~July 1865

She heard the clop of horses long before she ever saw him come through the gate. She knew he would see that his small plantation home had been freshly white washed. He would see that the grounds near by had been tended to, with a steady hand. She worried, then, in a way she hadn't in all the long years of his travels.

What if he made her leave?

Where could she go?

Stepping out onto the porch, she waited until his eyes finally chanced to land upon her. His words, that slow soft drawl, tightened her belly.

"Annie, do you live here still? I set you free. You don't have to stay."

Taking her courage in hand she stepped off the porch so that she was looking up at him, her full lips pulled down into a slight frown. He looked so tired!

"I know that, Mister Random, I do... but I couldn't just leave while you was away. What would you have come back to had no one been here to tend to the household?"

She waited then, wide brown eyes focusing on his chest. She couldn't look into his eyes. Never that. He might know her secret, if she did. And she couldn't have that. Let him think she was too dumb to understand freedom. Didn't matter to her, not one jot. She was still here because this was his home...and she wanted to be where he was.

"Any way, you look worn through. Come on off your horse. There's a good thick stew on. I will put your horse away and get him rubbed down, then I will come help you get water for a bath."

She nodded once, briskly. A good woman always tended to the men folk first. That was how she was trained and falling into that habit came as easily as breath. He didn't need to know that she had worried for him, all through the long years of his absence. He didn't need to know that she had prayed every night for his safe return. What he did need to know was that she remembered her place and that he was home.

The rest of it would have to wait.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

It wasn't that she hadn't believed him, back when he granted them their freedom. After all, he had drawn up the papers that made it legal and told them what those papers meant.

The others had left, just as soon as it was finished. Running North. Heading for the hills but she couldn't. Truth was, she had spent most of her life tending to his small farm, working to keep his house clean while the others tended to outside duties. She knew NO other life and, in all honesty, wanted no other life.

She wanted to be where he was.

When he came home, if he came home.

April, 1865

"Did you hear, girl? The war is over. You had better get gone before the Mister comes back. He might be real angry when he finds you still working his land."

Annie looked up from her work in the garden, pushing the bonnet that shaded her face, back, so that she could look up at the group of kin folk passing by on their way out of Texas.

"He ain't gonna be mad. I think he will be gladdened that someone stayed to care for his property while he was away. Plus, no tellin' if he even made it through the war unscathed. He might even be dead."

The old man stopped at the fence, his dark eyes squinted against the early morning sun.

"Maybe so, maybe no. Even so, I think you had better get while the getting is good. We free now. You can come with us, if you want. Nothing down here for us to worry bout. No good memories to be had here."

The girl shrugged, her slim shoulders hunching slightly.

"Don't make no never you mind, sir. I am going to stay here til he gets back...and see how it works out in the end."

She waved toward the well and the bucket, just to the left of the small garden.

"Y'all go head and get a drink. Am sure the young'uns are fair perishing of thirst."

Soon enough, the group was gone, leaving Annie alone.

Now~July 1865

She heard the clop of horses long before she ever saw him come through the gate. She knew he would see that his small plantation home had been freshly white washed. He would see that the grounds near by had been tended to, with a steady hand. She worried, then, in a way she hadn't in all the long years of his travels.

What if he made her leave?

Where could she go?

Stepping out onto the porch, she waited until his eyes finally chanced to land upon her. His words, that slow soft drawl, tightened her belly.

"Annie, do you live here still? I set you free. You don't have to stay."

Taking her courage in hand she stepped off the porch so that she was looking up at him, her full lips pulled down into a slight frown. He looked so tired!

"I know that, Mister Random, I do... but I couldn't just leave while you was away. What would you have come back to had no one been here to tend to the household?"

She waited then, wide brown eyes focusing on his chest. She couldn't look into his eyes. Never that. He might know her secret, if she did. And she couldn't have that. Let him think she was too dumb to understand freedom. Didn't matter to her, not one jot. She was still here because this was his home...and she wanted to be where he was.

"Any way, you look worn through. Come on off your horse. There's a good thick stew on. I will put your horse away and get him rubbed down, then I will come help you get water for a bath."

She nodded once, briskly. A good woman always tended to the men folk first. That was how she was trained and falling into that habit came as easily as breath. He didn't need to know that she had worried for him, all through the long years of his absence. He didn't need to know that she had prayed every night for his safe return. What he did need to know was that she remembered her place and that he was home.

The rest of it would have to wait.

Arnold wasn't a fool. He climbed off the horse and handed the reins over to Annie. So much was familiar about this, but so much else was different. She was a free woman now, regardless of whether he had signed the papers. The law, the Yankee law, had confirmed what he had already approved.

She was here willingly, which brought back the question in the back of his mind. Did Annie still have those feelings for him. He noted that she averted her eyes, not in submission, but in evasion.

It had always been impossible for Arnold to do what other masters did with their slaves, think of them as something less than people. From the first time he knew Annie, before he inherited her from Ma and Pa, he had seen her as a girl. He had played with her, teased her, chased her and been chased by her. He'd looked into her brown eyes and seen a lot of feelings. Amusement. Sadness. Loneliness.

There was no separation on a farm this size between the master's family and the slaves. They all lived together and the children played together as children always did. It wasn't until he was about five that he understood that Annie was any different from him. Even then, he didn't really think that it was that important, because they lived like brother and sister in most ways. True, her father and mother were somewhere else because they'd been separated from her at the point of auction.

To him, however, she was the sister he otherwise wouldn't have had. Except that when he realized that Annie wasn't his blood, he didn't see why he shouldn't consider her for a wife. Ma had to sit him down and explain that one to him at a rather tender age. After all, if men were to marry girls when they grew up, but not their sisters, and Annie was a girl who wasn't his sister.....well, Ma quashed that thought very early. She drove home the idea that you didn't marry a slave, that they were the help, that they were different, inferior, etc.

It was hard to remember those abstract notions when one played hide and seek with another child who was the only other child for miles around. It wasn't easy to think of such things when you climbed trees or fished with the same child. It was definitely tough not to kiss a pretty girl as she grew up and looked so damn nice in her cotton dresses. The fact that her skin was darker didn't really feel like a good reason for distance to her for him, but Ma and Pa said so, and they were always supposed to be correct. He did his best to become more detached, because he was expected to become the master someday, and the master didn't play with the slaves.

Then came the day when Arnold saw Annie naked. He didn't mean to do so. He just happened to catch her swimming by herself, when she probably thought she was alone. He had to tear his eyes away from the beauty of her bare skin, to try to erase that vision from his mind.

The day dawned, some five years ago, when it occurred to Arnold that Annie had some feelings about him. He realized it when he accidentally touched her arm and she didn't pull away. Then he looked into her eyes for a split second and saw something that he couldn't forget. Now, remembering that moment, Arnold knew it. Annie still had feelings for him. Damn it!

He recalled now the way that Annie looked at him when he signed away the legal rights to her body, the same body that he still lusted for....because he understood that she needed a chance to be with a man who could take care of her, not a man to whom she was forbidden fruit, a man who went off to war soon afterward for years at a time. Nothing else was fair to her. Knowing that made him aware that he should free his other slaves, too. He didn't want to risk them being killed in a war that may not appeal to them. He had a choice about fighting and they deserved the same choice.

It wasn't any rhetoric that made him feel like that. It was Annie and seeing her as a young woman, which led to him realizing that the other two were young men. It was the next leap in logic. It was knowing people, not reading pamphlets. He didn't know about equality or race or any of that talk. He just knew that there were three people who deserved better than to be dragged off to war or left in limbo while the master was away for no better reason than that they were his property. So he set them free, so they wouldn't be trapped like prisoners. Being a master was one thing, being an absentee landlord something else. He was a Texan, not a British lord. That wasn't his way. Hell, he even fed his slaves better than the English fed their Irish tenants.

"Thank you, Annie. You've always been sweet to me. But as soon as you feel ready to sit down and talk, I'd like a word with you. Nothing bad. I just want to know what it's been like while I was away for the war. You're a good woman. It can't have been easy, doing all of this for a boy who ran off to war and failed to even provide you a husband first. Now that I'm a man, I know that I failed you there.

"You're a very lovely young woman and could easily marry, yet you sacrificed so much for me. Don't worry. I'm in no hurry for you to leave, in case you don't wish to do so. But if you should find a man to love, you have my full blessing to be with him. Not that you really need it, since you're free. I appreciate what you're doing of your own free will," he did his best not to embrace her, to kiss her, to look into her eyes and do what in any sane world he would have done with her already.

Arnold left a maid behind and returned to a grown woman. A beautiful woman who happened to have brown skin and no money, no social standing. Those were the only differences with her. To him, she was still his Annie, his childhood playmate and his first crush. He tried to let her go for her sake, but she so far hadn't seized the chance. What was he to do about that, other than what he really wanted to do? What could he give her, he whom the very laws of the land forbade to marry her and love her openly?

It was so damned unfair. So close was she, yet so far away. All because Ma and Pa told him so and others like them. Such were his thoughts as he prepared to sit and eat.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

He moved with the lightness she remembered. His body still whip cord tough, but far more manly then he had been before the stupid bloody war that had taken him so far from home. Annie noted it, even as she took the reins from his hands. He spoke then and his words were soft, sure. She couldn't retreat, not while he gave voice to his thoughts. That wasn't what a woman did when men folk spoke.

"Thank you, Annie. You've always been sweet to me. But as soon as you feel ready to sit down and talk, I'd like a word with you. Nothing bad. I just want to know what it's been like while I was away for the war. You're a good woman. It can't have been easy, doing all of this for a boy who ran off to war and failed to even provide you a husband first. Now that I'm a man, I know that I failed you there.

You're a very lovely young woman and could easily marry, yet you sacrificed so much for me. Don't worry. I'm in no hurry for you to leave, in case you don't wish to do so. But if you should find a man to love, you have my full blessing to be with him. Not that you really need it, since you're free. I appreciate what you're doing of your own free will."

She wanted to disagree with his assessment. He hadn't done her a disservice. She hadn't wanted to leave, hadn't wanted to jump the broom with any of the young bucks that had come sniffing around. All she had wanted, all that she had wished for, was to be here when he came home.

"Yes, sir. I will be in momentarily."

With those few murmured syllables, Annie retreated to the barn and set about removing the horse's saddle and bridle. The two pack horses followed behind the war mount, their leads attached to some sort of make shift pommel thing. She turned her attention to them, removing saddle bags and the soft bits from their mouths before turning them out to pasture. After a few long minutes of running a curry comb over the big horse, she smacked his flank with the flat of her hand and turned away, bending to retrieve the saddle bags and other bits and bobs from the barn floor.

'Might as well go ahead and get this over with.'

The thought was nonsensical, but she let herself out of the ramshackle barn and headed for the big house, loaded with all of her master's things. After all, she still needed to refill the buckets for the big cauldron that hung over the open fire. That hot water would be used for his bath.

Bumping the door open with one ample hip, she placed his saddle bags on the bench in the foyer and headed for the kitchen. Her dark eyes darted hither and yon, looking for him. She found him, seated. A bowl of stew before him. That startled her.

Where should she eat now? Was she still allowed to eat from his dishes? Would she have to sleep outside? Or could they share this home she had kept for him without the being a fuss?

"Mister Random? May I sit and eat with you...or would you prefer I eat elsewhere? After all, this is your place. I just stayed on to keep it for you til you got back.'

Annie turned away, her wide, dark eyes filling with tears that she didn't want him to see. She hadn't expected it to be so hard. This being around him, loving him, wanting him. The world would never accept that sort of thing. A slave born woman and a free white man. It would never be acceptable.

Slim mahogany colored fingers reached for her bowl while the empty hand ladled the thick stew into it. The smells were settling and by the time the young woman turned around, she felt that she had some measure of control back. Mister Arnold wouldn't see the pain in her eyes.

She wouldn't let him.

"Sir?"

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Maj. Arnold Random

"Annie, of course, you can sit and eat with me. You deserve to be treated with respect as the woman of the house. Whatever your prior status, you are the only woman living here and you always belonged at the table with me. You've kept this place going when otherwise it would have fallen into decay and ruin. Don't be silly," Arnold looked at Annie, hoping that she didn't see his true feelings in his eyes.

He noticed that she averted her eyes from him as he looked at her. His bulge, meanwhile, would be a lot tougher to hide. He hoped that she didn't notice whenever he bathed.

"Make sure that you give yourself a helping as good as mine. Since we're staying here together and you've more than pitched in so far, you're more than entitled to eat as you need," he tried to be less obvious with his desire as he admired her face and body. Annie was tantalizingly close to him now, but not yet in his arms. Would she ever be?

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

He said the right thing. The only thing and it left her scared, startled. Didn't stop her from filling her bowl. Nor did it stop her from seating herself just to his left and opening the linen napkin she kept for dinner time and placing it upon her lap.

His eyes measured her. She could feel his gaze~ like a kiss, a caress. A heat started in her belly, rising upward to swallow her heart and burnished facial features in a conflagration of doubt, want, need. There was some sort of heat between them. She had no way to measure it. Nothing to compare it to. Didn't matter.

They ate and when his bowl was empty? She stood and moved to refill it. After all, that was her duty, to him.

Long eternities later? They were done with food and she cleared the table, cleaned the bowls and utensils, dried them, put them away. Rote actions. Homely. She felt at peace. Calm. Her mood came through in soft, melodic humming.

Soon enough, there was nothing else to clean. Nothing else to do. So she turned to face him.

"I will prepare your bath now."

Long minutes spent hauling water upstairs, to the tub held in his master bath. She had gotten the pipes fitted for draining which had made it much easier in the winter time, on the rare occasion when she had allowed herself the luxury of a warm bath. She hadn't thought of the price. Had earned the money for the copper pipes by offering her services as a maid to many of the homes that dotted the country side.

These thoughts meandered through her brain while she filled and then emptied, bucket after bucket of steaming water into the big basin. Finally, the water was deep enough and scented with his old bath oil. She returned to the ground floor and placed the bucket next to the fire and allowed her dark eyes to rest on the top of his head.

"Come, Sir. You water is ready. I will scrub your back for you and get you out something comfortable to wear for bed. After a good night's sleep, you will feel much better. Then you can decide what it is that you want me to do."

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Maj. Arnold Random

"Annie, you've always been good to me. I'm glad that you stuck around, however it may have sounded. Surprised, because you had plenty of options, but pleased. Thank you for keeping this place together. It must have been tough. I have a favor to ask of you, when we're done with my bath."

This was it. It was difficult. This was forbidden by all of the rules and conventions that he was raised to believe in his entire life. Oh, yes, he had heard of such things happening, but it was always in the context of secrecy and the man never considered the woman to be anyone important. She was always treated as a whore that was already paid for.

Not so with Annie. She was a lot of wonderful things, not terrible ones. She wasn't a whore. She was a pretty young woman who had been a slave, his slave, but was now free. She was forbidden to him, yet he wanted her, anyway. His parents had taught him that this sort of thing was wicked, but he yearned for her. Part of Arnold's mind still heard his mother's voice, telling him no. Telling him that she was not his equal.

The difference: he didn't care about whether it was right. As long as Annie agreed to it, that was. She was free now. She had a say in this matter, just as he did. He never could have forced himself on her, even back when he was her master and she his slave. That just wasn't his way. In that respect, his father and mother had taught him well. One didn't force those things on women.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

"Annie, you've always been good to me. I'm glad that you stuck around, however it may have sounded. Surprised, because you had plenty of options, but pleased. Thank you for keeping this place together. It must have been tough. I have a favor to ask of you, when we're done with my bath."

She wondered~'A favor?'~but said nothing until he had risen from his chair and made his way up the stairs to the master bath. Once she heard his boots thudding on the floor above her head, she stripped off her outer garment, so that her dress wouldn't get wet.

Beneath the dress she wore only a simple white chemise that fell to just below her knees. As a former slave, she didn't really own undergarments but the slip-like covering kept her somewhat modest. Kicking off her field boots took only a few moments longer and then she began to climb the stairs for the last time. Annie entered his bedroom a few moments later.

"Are you in the tub, Sir?"

An answer in the affirmative led her into the small bathing room. She stopped just inside the door and gazed at him through lowered lashes. Her vice, when she spoke next, was husky.

"I have come to wash your back and your hair."

There were no words as she proceeded to just that. Using a small wooden cup, she got his hair and upper body wet, paying no attention to the water that splashed up and molded the simple cotton chemise to the upper swells of her form. Then she picked up his soap and began working the lather through his hair, nails scraping his scalp in long delicious scratches.

She hummed softly as she worked~first washing, then rinsing, his hair before her hands drifted down to grab a cloth and scrub the muscled expanse of his back. Her white shift clung to her, dark chocolate nipple showing plainly as she got more and more wet from the water. Eventually, anything she could reach was cleaned.

She handed him the wash cloth and turned to leave.

"I will let you finish your bath in peace. Get you out a night shirt, pull your bed covers back. Then when you are comfortable, you can ask your favor while I am dealing with the knots in your hair."

The words were said all in a rush and she didn't wait for an answer. She took two steps and was gone before he could even think of a response. By the time he had finished bathing and dried himself off, Annie was kneeling by the side of his bed, his bristle brush held in one hand. A simple white nightshirt lay across the bed and the covers had been folded back neatly.

She waited.

'A favor?'

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Maj. Arnold Random

"Have you bathed as well, Annie? If not, I'd like a chance to return the favor. You've bathed me for years, but I learned how to bathe myself while in the Army. I'd like to do the same for you, if you please."

Having said that, Arnold nervously waited for Annie's reply. It was a test of whether she really shared his forbidden passion . He knew that it was wrong, but his resistance to temptation was weakened by loneliness and doubts about his upbringing.

Four years ago, he might not have done this....probably wouldn't, but this was four years and a bloody war later. He was done with death for a while. He wanted to taste life, to sample the pleasures of sex with a woman whom he trusted but polite society scorned.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

Breath caught. Hitched in and out. Fear rose. She did not want him to see her nude. She was...muscular. Scarred. She didn't look like the pale alabaster plantation wives. She looked exactly like what she was...a freed slave woman.

But he didn't sound as if he cared. He sounded as unsure as she felt. Maybe he wanted to see her in the all together. Maybe he wanted a chance to touch flesh that wasn't hurting or bleeding or dying.

And after all, it wasn't like he lusted after her, not like when he was younger. Annie still remembered the countless lectures from his mother~ all about keeping herself covered, always covered, so that her dark skin did not entice him into being impure.

This was just him being nice and needing something that affirmed he was alive. The silence had gone on for so long that she found herself unable to speak. She cleared her throat~once and then again. Finally, her voice husky, she said~

"I hadn't bathed yet, Sir. I would be glad of it, if that is what you wish. It is hard to get my back on my own. Should I go fill my wash tub?"

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Maj. Arnold Random

"By all means, go ahead, Annie. I have my reasons. Things have changed....though they are hard to get accustomed to in many ways. I was brought up a certain way, but times are different now. Thank you for your co-operation," he smiled slightly, a bit shy, hoping that he didn't blush too much.

He didn't know how he was going to explain himself or convince Annie to go along with it...let him seduce her. Both of them had been taught rather firmly that this was wrong, and a part of him still believed it (a large part, to be honest), but he couldn't care anymore. He had determined to have Annie, if she would have him. He had almost been killed more than once, and his one regret in life would have been not loving her as he wished. That wouldn't happen again.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

Annie stood up from her position by his feet and retreated downstairs. Something about this situation seemed to scream a warning but she ignored it. His voice when he had spoken, the color that rose to his cheeks? It meant something, she just didn't know what.

Filling the big cauldron above the fire took some time and at least four trips to the water pump outside but soon enough the big iron pot was filled. After much thought, she decided to drag her wash tub into the kitchen. After all, she couldn't tell HIM that she had been using his tub while he was gone! Better to let him think she always bathed downstairs.

When the water in the cauldron began to steam, Annie hurried outside and filled two pails with cold water from the pump. It was the work of a moment to dump the cold water intp her old tub and rummage for her own personal scented bath oil~something the old ladies from the next county~ had gotten for her, last year at planting time as a thank you. She added a few dollops and then proceeded to add the hot water, bucket by bucket, until the water was ready.

Her brain flashed back on his words, his statement~"By all means, go ahead, Annie. I have my reasons. Things have changed....though they are hard to get accustomed to in many ways. I was brought up a certain way, but times are different now. Thank you for your co-operation."~and she felt a small touch of unease.

Didn't matter. With a sigh, she climbed the stairs and looked into his room, her dark eyes fastening on his face.

"Sir, I take my bath in the kitchen. I will be undressed and in the tub when you come down, unless you want me to do it another way??"

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Maj. Arnold Random

Arnold finally made a point of being as gentle as he could when he started washing Annie's back. He suspected that she had used his bath, but he didn't mind. In fact, that thought pleased him. He had left the place alone and she kept it up. She deserved it.

He felt himself thoroughly enjoying the contact between his hand and her back. The scars were quite visible, but he did his best to dwell on the positive, the sensuality of her flesh against his......the scars were a sad reminder of how harsh his parents had been to her. For all of their virtues, they could be cruel at times. When Arnold took over the plantation, he had fired the overseer and put a stop to all of the whippings. It always upset him. He had believed in slavery at the time, as did most of his community, but the floggings were a different matter. He hated them, especially when directed at Annie. He knew that his mother had been especially cruel, due to her desire to prevent any kind of illicit union of the very sort that he craved.

"Annie, things are different now. You're not a slave. You live here, yes, and I own this place, but I don't own you anymore. At least not in that way....as for other ways, well, that is your choice," he declared, allowing his hand to trail closer to the crevice between her buttocks, teasing Annie with the possibilities.

 

[Luna_Wolf72]

Mister Arnold had come down the stairs quickly, his large body moving quietly as he entered the kitchen and knelt beside the tub. Annie could feel her body heating, in embarrassment. She hadn't ever enjoyed being looked at and he was certainly looking.

However, all thought dispersed when he took the rough washcloth and began to scrub her back. She could feel the tension seeping away. He washed her back with soothing, circular motions and she struggled to not make appreciative little moans. She wasn't sure how he would react to that.

She wasn't sure how she should react.

Or even if she SHOULD react.

His hand, diving just beneath the surface of the water, brushed the top of her butt as his words spilled into the shell of her ear.

"Annie, things are different now. You're not a slave. You live here, yes, and I own this place, but I don't own you anymore. At least not in that way....as for other ways, well, that is your choice."

A shudder. She forced her dark eyes to focus on his well loved face and spoke, her voice hesitant, unsure.

"What do you mean, Mister Ransom?"

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

OOC: Sorry for being away so long. Hate to see a thread die because I had to avoid Lit again for a while.