Five hundred
years from now, the necessity of population control and a preference for male
children has resulted in a shortage of women. Down from the Appalachian
Mountains, comes Tory White, an unusually tall and muscular young woman. Unable
to read, she is deceived into signing a lifelong contract as a concubine.
Entirely unsuitable for the position, she soon finds herself slotted for the
‘beds,’ where few girls live beyond a month. Yet, her honest and forthright manner
charms the head of security into saving her and sets her upon a path in which
she becomes the ‘heart’ of the world and the savior of man’s future.
Excerpt
“What has you
looking so pensive this morning?” Link asked as he sat down beside her on the grassy
hill overlooking the lake.
“Love.” She
laughed at his look of concern. She explained the nonsense of the
Summers/Hatchet/Smith affair. When she stopped talking, he still looked
confused.
“People get
married in the mountains?”
“Of course. How
else would they keep the farms going? There’s man’s work, woman’s work, and
children’s work. And you need all three parts to keep a farm running.”
“Why did you
leave there?” he asked. His voice sounded strained as if he was upset that
she’d left the mountains. He could probably hear in her words how much she
missed her old way of life.
“Well, none of
the boys wanted me for their wife. They were willing to take me on their farms,
but not respectfully. So, when Leroy come around looking for a partner to sing
duets in city clubs, Momma said I should go, for there weren’t nothing for me
in the mountains but a future of shame and misery.”
“And you think
this will be better?” he asked in surprise.
“No,” she
laughed. “This ain’t at all what I thought I’d be doing. I was supposed to be
singing for my living, but I ain’t done nothing here but get myself in trouble
every time I turn around. I’ll be so happy when this week is out, and I can
leave here!” She then paused. “Except, I’ll miss you terribly, Link. I ain’t
never met a person ’cept for Gram that I like more.”
She had expected
him to smile, for surely, he understood how big a compliment that was. But he
didn’t smile. In fact, he looked most upset.
“What do you mean
leave?”
“I mean pack my
bags and go,” she said. “I’m sorry to sound so ungrateful, because you’ve been
awfully nice to me. But beyond you, there isn’t one thing I like about this
place. I will be very glad when our contract is up, and Leroy and I can leave.
And just so you don’t think I’m some stupid-headed female, the moment Leroy
hits the other side of that gate and I get my half of the money, I’m going on
my own. Leroy only cares about himself and will sell me out any chance he gets.
I see that now, and he’s not pulling this shit on me a second time.”
Link seemed more
upset than ever. “Tory, only Leroy is leaving in a week. Your contract is for
life.”
“For life? Whose
life? Mine? That can’t be! Who would
hire a musician for life?”
He shook his head
as if trying to make sense of her. “They didn’t hire you as a musician, Tory.
You signed on as a concubine.”
“A what?”
“A concubine.”
She’d never heard
the word before. “Exactly what does a concubine do?”
He stared at her
a moment and then he sighed. “It won’t work. We tape the contract signings to
prove the girls are not under duress when they agree to become a concubine. I
watched you read that contract word for word, myself. You cannot claim you did
not know you were signing on as a concubine.”
She sighed. “Can
I trust you with a secret?”
He nodded and
reached out and took her hand.
“I can’t read.
Girls aren’t taught in the mountains. But Leroy says it’s against the law not
to teach girls, and if I told anyone I couldn’t read, they’d go up in the
mountains and kill everybody for breaking the law. So, I did like he told me,
and looked at each and every block of print for a moment before going on to the
next block.”
“Which is why you
smiled when you finished it,” he said, as if he finally understood something
that had been bothering him.
“It wasn’t easy
to stay focused on such a tedious task. I was so relieved when it was over, and
I had managed to pull it off so we could work here.”
“As a musician?”
“Yeah, for a
month.” She frowned. “I didn’t think he’d lie about the contract because he had
to sign one as well. Did he know mine was different than his?”
“Without a doubt.
He received three hundred dollars for bringing you here. He knew exactly what
you’d be doing for the rest of your life.”
Tory’s frown
deepened. “Will I be doing whatever the other girls do?”
“Yes.” He watched
her expression.
“They’re
concubines?”
He nodded.
“Is that like a
waitress?”
“No.”
She swallowed.
“Will you just tell me what I have stupidly signed up for? Because my stomach
is starting to go sour.”
Link told her
about the three levels of girls. The most pleasing girls were “High Girls” and
they entertained important men. Then there were the Common Girls and they
entertained regular men. Last, there were the “Low Girls,” and they were sent
to the “Beds,” where they were strapped down to a cot, and the worst of men did
whatever they wished to them.
“It’s no life at
all for a Low and a hard life for the Common girls. The only ones that have any
chance of happiness are the High Girls.”
“And who makes
the decision as to what level I’ll be?”
“Miss Dunbery.”
“Well, now I know
why she smiles every time she looks at the calendar.” Tory sighed.
LINKS
About
the Author
Liza
O’Connor
Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with
her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or
snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ,
hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive
with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky
dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid
gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts.
Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing
novels.
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