Free Lock by Kate Hill

and older sister had married and had several children. Only Sparrow remained alone. Not that she felt she was really alone . After all, she had Shea-Ann.
    “Sparrow,” Emerald brushed wild red hair from her dirt-stained face and offered a toothy smile, “we heard you bought a man.”
    Sparrow sighed. “I’m afraid it’s true.”
    “Some of the women in the village said he was a pirate, that he’s seven feet tall and has hair like a warlock.”
    Ginny wrinkled her freckled nose and said, “Yuck.”
    “He’s not quite seven feet tall,” Sparrow couldn’t restrain her amused smile. The warlock’s hair she couldn’t argue with.
    “They say he was whipped and racked, and he didn’t even scream.”
    Sparrow’s smile faded. In spite of how much Lock irritated her, she still felt sick whenever she thought of how much he’d suffered.
    “Our aunt was at the village that day,” Emerald continued. “She said he was handsome—before the whipping.”
    “He’s still handsome,” Sparrow spoke before she thought.
    “Can I see him?”
    Ginny looked at her older sister as if she’d sprouted a second head. “What do you want to see a man for? Ma says men are mean, stupid, and dirty. She says pigs make better company.”
    “When you get older, you’ll understand,” Emerald said. “Can I see him, Sparrow?”
    Sparrow looked hesitant. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. He’s dangerous.”
    “Where is he?”
    “Chained in the house. Look, when you girls finish weeding, I have to get money for you, so you can look at him from the doorway.”
    Emerald beamed, and Ginny shook her head. “I still say yuck.”
    The girls worked almost each day until late morning. Sparrow and Shea-Ann paid them a weekly fee, and usually provided them with a meal before sending them home. When they’d finished their work that morning, they followed Sparrow back to the house.
    She opened the door, and Lock’s pale eyes riveted to her from where he’d been sitting on the floor.
    “I have children with me, so try to behave yourself,” she told him.
    Emerald and Ginny lingered shyly in the doorway while Sparrow opened the trunk at the foot of her bed.
    “He does have hair like a warlock,” Ginny said to Emerald in a loud whisper. Emerald motioned for the girl to keep quiet. They stepped over the threshold and approached Lock.
    Sparrow leapt between them. “Stop there! Don’t get any closer to him. That’s as far as his chains reach.”
    The girls jumped back, their eyes wide.
    “I don’t believe this,” Lock muttered. “I’m not going to hurt a couple of children.”
    “I wouldn’t put anything past you to get your freedom,” Sparrow said.
    “Maybe you’re not as dumb as you look,” he told her.
    “You don’t smell,” Ginny said to Lock.
    “I don’t smell ? What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “Ma says pirates stink like dead fish. That’s why she tells us to stay away from the docks, because pirates will steal us and make us stay on their ships forever. She says they’ll make us eat octopus guts. Ma says pirates have no teeth.”
    “Ma’s a real sweetheart, ain’t she?” Lock sneered. He growled and gnashed his teeth like a wolf, causing the girls to leap back even further. “I have plenty of teeth.”
    “Don’t you have anything better to do than frighten helpless children?” Sparrow snapped. She approached the girls and paid them with coins from her purse, then offered them a basket of apples and berries. “Don’t be afraid. He’s chained up and can’t get out without the key, and I keep that.”
    The girls’ huge eyes fixed on Lock as he stood and rattled his chains. Sparrow’s stomach clenched at the sight of him, so tall, his muscles flexing and his two-toned hair flying around him.
    “I want Ma!” Ginny screamed and flew out the door.
    “He is seven feet tall!” Emerald breathed, terror and fascination in her young eyes before she lifted her skirts and raced after her sister.
    Lock