Snap! Harriston coaxed his strap’s hard form to attention. As supreme tension stilled the blood of those forced to witness this spectacle, Fortune’s lithe body became one with a raised wooden stump. Anguish beyond the threshold of any casual human would surely be surpassed; another life to be taken in sanctioned murder.
“Look here you all! I am a man of honor. I have treated you with the best I could give to any servants on any plantation in the South. All I ever asked was for my rules to be obeyed. Is that too much to ask? But Fortune here thinks he is above you all.
“What kind of damned fool makes it bad for the rest of you? Fortune does because he is selfish. I will say this just once. If someone else tests my rules again, any heart I once had will be gone. Whoever breaks the rules sh
