a hanging

The gallows swung in the distance the rain poured down and the wind howled around the moorings. The crowd was jeering they sensed the terror which was coming. She was dragged out feet scraping across the cobbles, chewing up the remains of her mangled shoes. This was not justice but murder.

All the boys in the village instantly recognize her brunette locks. Those curls had graced her face since she was an infant. The family was poor they lived in a smallholding at the edge of the village. Whispered tales were told of the father in the tavern, he was a poacher. They would starve otherwise, she grew up in threadbare clothes but was loved. Her two brothers were sickly and did not live to see nine years old. She had a look of melancholy and her eyes, close to tears when she thought of her siblings .

She was only sixteen. You can't do this she shouted out, you can't do this she repeated pathetically as she dropped to her knees. The very thought of her impending death exhausted her. The blood rushed in her veins and her heart pounded. The mood of the crowd had changed. They seemed now disgusted at the spectacle this was no hardened criminal. " I'm too young to die like this".

Beauty has a way of attracting trouble. He was a young man not much older than her from the big house. His father did not expect much from him he had an older brothers to take care of the business. Two summers ago he started to take an interest in the girls in the village. He could charm them and buy them with cheap trinkets it amused him to do so. He could meet them in the taverns and desert them when they bored him.

She was different he'd seen her in the town square one day and tried to talk to her. She knew all about him and just walked off as quickly as her feet could carry her. He kept trying, he was persistent, he sent gift more and more lavish to her property. He even stole from his father, but still she was not interested. He did not take this rejection well , she was nothing she came from nothing.

The local magistrate would be informed of the theft of his father's property. They did not take long for her to stand trial. She was silent throughout, she had no knowledge of such undertakings.

You will take the last rites said the pious man with drawn face in front of her. Only this can save your immortal soul. "You mean to take everything from me" she said. "There is nothing after this I,am too young to die". Using all her strength she turned to the crowd, "there is no justice in this world I,ve done nothing". "You will all go on living certain of your righteousness and yet the judge me". Tears rolled down her cheeks.

The nouse was brought down around her neck and the platform removed.She kicked and kicked for a moment and then her body went limp. The rain continued to pour and the crowd dispersed. Their souls felt as miserable as the scene they were leaving.

One figure remained he fell into the mud and cried inconsolably. As a father he had been helpless to help his last remaining child, now he had nothing but was sure of one thing. The big house would burn.