Excerpt
"Mother of Heaven, save me!" screamed Maggie
O'Callaghan as the dirt filled her mouth. But Maggie knew now that the devil was the only one
who could hear her as she held her baby close and was buried alive.
"Then the devil it is," she whispered as she tried
desperately to shield the dirt from the sparkling blue eyes of her newborn son. "Tis pay your
father will for his evil deeds," swore Maggie as she and baby Sean clung together. Then
Maggie was filled with a last desperate hope.
"Nathaniel," she called in a voice more powerful than a
whirlwind, "can you hear me? 'Tis your love, Maggie, speakin'. Your son has your eyes. Do you
hear me! And he's lookin' up at you as alive and bright as you once looked at me. That blow
he took only quieted him for a moment. He's alive I tell you, and starin' up at the father
who's takin' his life away. Stop! For the love of God, stop, before you find yourself before
the gates of hell. For that is where I'll see you if you throw one more bit of dirt upon
us!"
"You're lying to me, Maggie O'Callaghan," said a well bred
voice from above. "Just like you lied about everything. It's your fault you are where you are,
right now. This is your punishment for lying about the baby."
"And what would you have done if I'd told you about him!"
screamed Maggie as the earth upon her chest began to crush the ribs beneath her
threadbare gown.
"Why, handled the matter the way such things have always
been handled. Do you think you're the first servant girl to ever bring a bastard into this
world?" replied Nathaniel Bates as he sat down with a grunt and peered down through the
earth, trying to get a glimpse of his victims.
"I would have sent you off with a bag of gold and a warning
to leave me in peace. It's your own fault that you tried to raise yourself above your station
and shame me in my own home. Now lay quiet while I finish the job. Lay quiet,
I say!"
"I'll never lay quiet, you can count on that!" screamed
Maggie as she grasped little Sean. The baby had truly been dead since his father, Nathaniel
Bates, had smashed his tiny curl capped head against the wall of Maggie's small third floor
room. "And neither will your son. I die with a curse upon my lips. I curse you and any that will
ever carry your blood. This I swear upon the eyes of your child, Nathaniel Bates. I beg the
Virgin to save the soul of this small babe. As for my own soul, let the devil have it if that's
what it takes for you to pay for this day, Nathaniel."
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