Only Fools Walk Free - Sandra R Neeley

Chapter 1

New Orleans, April 1, 1859 — April Fools Day

Samuel stood in the alley, the sounds of carriages and the bustle of the port milling about all around him. He stepped just up to the corner again and peeked from where he hid in the shadows, waiting, his heart in his throat. His love was coming to him this night, and together they’d escape the oppression of this life, this city. They’d strike out on their own and make a life to be proud of, rather than one they had to hide from the world. He heard the clatter of horses’ hooves as a carriage came to a stop only feet from the alley where he waited. Samuel squinted in the dark, foggy night. It was a hired carriage. Surely it was Clarice. This was how she came to him when she was able. The door of the carriage opened, but instead of the delicate, silken-slippered foot he expected to light from the carriage, heavily booted feet stomped down the carriage steps.

Samuel waited, frozen in place as the man who was father to his love, faced him, scowling. “Perhaps you thought me my daughter come to meet you, so you might spirit her away!” he accused.

“What have you done with her?!” Samuel demanded, knowing full well, if she was able, she’d have been here. And if her father was here, then he’d forced from her their plans and had hindered her ability to meet him this night.

“She won’t be coming. She’s come to her senses, realized that you are no more than a smudge upon her boot. She’s sent me in her stead to warn you away before you sully her name beyond repair.”

“No, you speak fallacies. Clarice would never warn me away. She knows I love her. She loves me, as well. What have you done with her?!”

“Do not speak her name! You are not worthy to have the sound of it fall from your treacherous lips.”

“We belong to one another. Our love has already been blessed by the church. You cannot keep us apart.”

“Oh, but I can. She is mine to do with as I see fit. It is my place as her father to choose her future. And you — are not in it. This is your final opportunity. Leave here, now, this moment, and you may live to see another sunrise.”

“No! I will not leave without her. She waits for me! Depends on me!”

“She has been given to another.”

“No!” Samuel shouted, “I’ll find her, save her from your dictate.”

“You’ll do nothing but breathe your last. I gave you the chance. You chose this,” the man sneered. He stepped aside as two larger, much more physically dangerous men descended from the carriage.

Samuel’s instinct was to take a step back, but he didn’t. He had to face this, survive this, find his precious Clarice and whisk her away to a place that no one could ever hurt her again.

The two males hauled him into the alleyway, one striking out and landing a large, beefy fist against his jaw before they’d even released him.

Samuel’s head snapped back, but he struck out with his own fist as he righted himself, landing a blow on the first man that had hit him.

The second assailant struck from behind, battering Samuel’s kidneys, causing him to double over.

The first man got Samuel with an uppercut to the chin when he doubled over from the pain of his kidneys.

All in all the assault was brief, but violent. Every time Samuel managed to land a blow on one of his assailants, they beat him down four blows to his every one. But he didn’t quit until he was barely able to draw breath and his two assailants left him in a pool of his own blood.

Clarice’s father walked confidently toward Samuel where he lay moaning in the alleyway. Evidence of the violence he’d endured could be found up and down the short, dank space between the buildings. Samuel, both eyes swollen and bruised, a tooth missing, blood dripping from his lips and his knuckles, bruises covering his body as he struggled to breathe through the collapsed lung his own broken rib had punctured, lay there, helpless, at the mercy of those that had beaten him and their employer. He fought to raise his head and dared to look into the eyes of the man responsible for his suffering, as vile words once more fell from his lips.

“You thought to take my daughter from me. I warned you