Sarah's Roses, Book I: Roses of Blue

Chapter XVIII

Chapter XVIII

“Sarah, can you come to my study?

  Uncle Andrew’s voice was strained and that made me a little nervous. He only used that voice when I did something wrong. I mentally went through my recent activities, trying to think of what I could have done wrong. Everything seemed to be pretty clean. With Jeff away at Oxford, it was no fun playing tricks on Mr. Jenning on my own. I hadn’t argued with Aunty in a long time already, and as far as I was concerned, I had behaved in just about everything in a proper and decent manner. There wasn’t anything that I knew of that could get me into trouble.

“I didn’t do anything wrong, Uncle, I promise.” I was on the defensive just in case. “Ask Elsie or Mr. Jenning.”

“Have a seat, Sarah,” My uncle motioned to the chair opposite him. Something wasn’t right, and me not knowing what was the matter made me all the more nervous.

“What is it between you and the slave?”

Uncle Andrew, straight to the point as always. His question caught me completely off guard but I struggled to keep an innocent face. How could he have figured out…or guessed…or discovered?

“What are you talking about?” It took all my strength to keep a nonchalant voice.

“You know what I mean.”

“I’m sure I don’t.” My first lie to Uncle Andrew. Well, it was a half truth, I didn’t really know exactly what he was alluding too.

“Alright, I’ll rephrase the question. Is there anything between you and the slave?”

“What slave?”

“Your slave, Sam Climb.”

“What could there be between us?”

“That is what I am expecting you to tell me!”

“But there isn’t anything to tell,” There, that was my first real lie.

“I’m having trouble believing you on that! I’ve been watching you recently, and I would say that there is some sort of something between the two of you. You are behaving more than friendly to him. Sarah, allow me to remind you, he is just a slave and you are his master. You have to keep a distance between you and him.”

“Uncle, there is nothing between us. I’m telling the honest truth.” Which of course I was not.

He narrowed his gaze and studied me intently, I knew I would have to tell at least some sort of truth or my eyes would give me away.

I drew a long breath, “We’re just close friends, that’s all. There’s not so many people here for me to talk too as it is. Maybe I accidently did do some flirting, but I assure you it was unintentional and all very innocent, I don’t think he even noticed”

“Sarah! You can’t flirt with any man and expect it to remain innocent and safe foreve. Sooner or later they are going to start expecting something from you. Flirting with a slave is totally unacceptable! What if he takes your hints and starts acting on them? Then what? Must I remind you that there is a definite line between masters and slaves and above all else that line must be kept. You cannot flirt with slave men! I would have thought you had more sense than that.”

I looked down, feeling very guilty for the way everything was going.

“What if he should try to take advantage of you? Hmmmm? Has that thought ever crossed your mind?”

The thought of Sammy trying to get take advantage of me was so weird, I had to look down to keep from laughing at the thought. I hated the direction the whole conversation had gone and hated myself for ever having said the word flirting.