Jon Reskind - The abducted wife

"Ya hear what she said, boys? She hates to cause us any more – trouble," Josh said, wiping his face off in a sneer of irritation. "Well, lady, ya have caused us trouble, and we can't let ya go directly."

Jane stood up from the cot and faced Josh. Her long blonde hair hung down over her thin white dress, accenting her little girl pout and bringing out the soft protuberance of her full well-rounded breasts.

"There's no reason you can't let me leave immediately," she said in indignation. "Besides, there are probably people out looking for me."

Then she took a long step half-way past the large man in front of her, only to be seized and thrown down on the couch by Silas and Buck.

"Let me go, I say, let me out of here," she screamed, her face contorted in fear and frustration.

"Lady, ain't nobody goin' to find you in these hills," Josh snapped impatiently. "And if you wandered from as far as Lakeview Lodge, like you say, they ain't even goin' to be lookin' for you way up here."

Josh moved back to Silas and Buck and stood in a huddle with the other two men for a moment. They were obviously discussing her and Jane's fears now returned that she wouldn't be permitted to leave the shack. The image of the young girl, Peggy, sucking Josh's cock ran through her mind for a fleeting instant, and she trembled when she thought of these men forcing her to do the same thing to them. But her own sense of outrage got the best of her, and she tightened her fists as Josh moved from Silas and Buck and grew close to her.

"We got what ya might call a little operation goin' on out here, and right now we can't take no chances. Ya stay with us for a day or so, and everything'll be all right."

"I can't stay for any amount of time," Jane rose and shouted. "Why are you treating me like this?"

"Damn, Josh," Buck said. "Why don't ya tell her?"

Josh looked across at Buck and Silas. Whatever had happened in their huddle, Jane thought, hadn't solved anything. Something had been going on here in the shack that either couldn't be disclosed or was unclear to all three of the men.

"All right. We's makin' us some moonshine," Josh stated sharply. "And we can't have no interference. You stay with us for a few days, and it'll be OK."

Jane felt a heavy weight in her stomach as she realized what the tall man in front of her was saying. It was no longer a matter of leaving or staying, as she had stumbled onto something far more serious than midnight bawdry. She had grown up near these hills and she knew how 'moonshiners', with their stills and their strange customs feared and hated the inquisitive stranger. There was the constant fear of the 'revenuer', and there was the boredom and frustration that had no outlet except in blind outraged violence.

Jane had been through so much in the past eight hours; the vile assault on her by her husband and the hysteria of being lost in the woods and the vision of the girl's abandoned pleasures had dulled her consciousness to the immediacy of her danger from the men. But now she watched in growing terror as the three men surveyed the entire length of her body until it felt as though every inch of her were exposed and naked. She recalled her own lewd excitement at the obscene performance last night and her heart jumped with a new fear. Had she really desired the same kind of complete debasement that other girl had gone through? She sensed that her body ached to know, despite the rebellion of her mind and the knowledge that those feelings were a breach of promise to her husband and, especially, to her firmly set values that had held her in good stead for so long.

"So you'll just stay here for awhile, ain't that right?" Josh said, standing with a naked fist directed toward her.

"I-I don't know," she said softly, half-expecting a vicious blow if she refused.

"Yeah, she'll stay," Buck said, swaying up alongside Josh and peering down at Jane with a glint of sadistic enjoyment in his eyes. "There ain't nothin' else she can do."

Josh turned back to the men. "We'll just have to take the chance of someone findin' her here, though I don't see much chance of it. Can't let her go back to town before they pick up the stuff, that's for sure."

Silas, standing tall and idiot-like behind Buck, inched forward almost bashfully, turning his face toward Jane limply and lowering his eyes to her young close-set breasts. "Gee, Josh, she sure is pretty," he said, drawing out the syllables.

"Yeah, she is," Josh said. "But you had enough for one night."

"I didn't mean nothin'. I just wanted to touch her," Silas said, moping like a child behind Josh.

"May I have something to eat?" Jane said quickly in an attempt to change the subject.

To her dismay, a sly lewd smile swept over the faces of the three men.

"Honey, you'll get more than enough to eat tonight. When it gets dark and cool, we'll all just set down and have us a big feast together. Course, like everyone else, you'll have to work for your bread," he said with a knowing sneer that sent Silas and Buck into a peal of laughter behind her.

"Please give me something to eat now," Jane pleaded. "I'm sick. I haven't eaten for two days."

"Honey, this ain't no Lakeview Lodge," Josh waved her away and moved to the table. "Oh, give the spoiled little bitch a plate of grits," he said after a long moment as though on second thought. "But not a thing more and I mean that definite. I ain't runnin' no hotel."

It was completely daylight. Buck brought Jane a small dish of cold grits and then remained to guard her while Silas cleaned up the shack and Josh sat drinking in the corner of the room. Jane lay back on the cot, lost in her fear and hunger, and watched Silas move slow-faced about the cabin, picking up empty bottles and butts of thrown cigarettes. Outside, the cool North Carolina morning appeared magnificent in pale greys and yellows over the tops of nearby hills; a light mist drifted off treetops and settled in the meadow and, despite her resolve to protect herself constantly from the men, Jane fell into an exhausted deep sleep that was awakened by Buck standing in front of her.

"You been sleepin' for near two hours. Get outta bed and start helpin' us," he said.

Jane stretched, then suddenly came to life when she saw the dark glaring face of Buck in front of her. It took a moment until she realized where she was and who she was with to bring her to frightened consciousness.

"I have to go. I can't stay here any longer," she said with renewed desperation and raised herself weakly off the bed.

"You ain't goin' nowhere," the sharp voice of Josh reminded her from the other side of the room.

Jane peered at the bulky form of Josh hunched in a chair in the corner. He was a large powerfully built man with a ruddy face that exuded brute viciousness and a kind of animal cunning. She knew there was no hope of appealing to his better instincts for her own survival, yet she still sought a way to reach him.

"It doesn't matter to me what you're doing here," Jane began honestly.

"Yeah, but ya gotta stay," he cut her off immediately and stood looking at her. "We got some liquor that needs packing. A truck's comin' to pick up the stuff, and we can't take no chances with you runnin' around loose before we get it out."

Jane fell back down on the bed despondent. A few minutes later Buck and Silas returned to the cabin, carrying boxes they brought into the back room.

"Get back in there with Buck," Josh commanded after a moment. "He needs help cleanin' them bottles."

Jane stood up, a feeling of total helplessness sweeping over her. She was not only being held in the backwoods shack against her will, but now she was being ordered by the men to help them with their preparation of the shipment of illegal whisky. Josh directed her into a small back room where Buck stood over a pump and several buckets of water boiling on a wood stove. Dirty bottles were stacked on all the available table space and she watched as Buck plunged one empty container after another into the boiling water, setting the bottle on a table beside the sink.