I Promised You - William and Ophelia (6 page)

“Ophelia, promise me you will get our
daughters to safety. You and the girls must be safe. I will find
Rose and we will be there! Promise me!”

“I promise you.” Ophelia said, looking sadly
at her husband. “I love you, William, now, go!”

William slapped one of the
horses to get it moving quickly and the wagon took off. William
watched for only a couple of seconds before he ran in the opposite
direction to find and collect his mother in law. He looked up at
the sky and even then knew that he and Rose would never make it in
time. He prayed that his wife and daughters would have better
luck.
Godspeed, my love.

Gertie was in a panic and then she heard her
sister’s voice begging them to wait for her. Ophelia was carrying
her two daughters in her arms, but their mother was not with her,
nor was William.

“Where is mother? We have to leave now,
Ophelia, where is our mother?” Gertie screamed.

“William is looking for her. She did not
return to the house so he went in search for her.” Ophelia
said.

Gertie started crying and said “We have to
leave her, Ophelia, we have to leave mother. Otherwise none of us
will live if we don’t leave right now.”

Ophelia handed Luna and Thelma to Gertie and
smiled. “Take them with you, Gertie, make sure they are safe. I
cannot leave William and mother. Take them and this as well.”
Ophelia said handing Julia a fairly large sack of coffee beans.
“Take these and grow more on the other side. Don’t let my babies
forget me! I promise we will be together again, I promise you
that!” Ophelia screamed with tears covering her face. “Godspeed,
sister.”

“Ophelia, I have left poisoned wine for the
Great Evil. Two bottles.” Gertie told her sister, leaving out the
part where she had left the same for Julia’s husband. “You have to
make sure no one blames William, you or mother. You have to leave
this place as soon as you can! Promise me, sister! I love you!”

The wind started to blow very strongly and
the ring on Julia’s hand started to glow brightly in the night.
Waves of color, blues, reds, greens, and yellow filled the night
sky along with shooting stars. Julia grabbed Ophelia’s hand and
transferred a necklace into it. A necklace with a large ruby red
stone in the center of it. Gertie and Ophelia’s eyes locked for one
last moment and then Gertie’s eyes grew wide. “Mother” she
whispered. Ophelia nodded, then ran as fast as she could back
towards the woods, tears streaming down her face, blinded by her
own long brown hair in the high winds.

Gertie held the two little girls tightly, her
tears blurring her vision. A giant lightning bolt lit up the sky
and there was a great clap of thunder, causing Ophelia to shield
her ears and fall to the ground. Then, it was all over and calm
came again to the night time sky there in the clearing of the
forest.

Ophelia laid there in the grass for several
moments. She could still feel her children in her arms and she
ached in missing them. She knew she had done the right thing. She
promised William that she would make sure their daughters would be
safe and she had. She did not regret not leaving herself. She loved
William and would never willingly leave him. She also loved her
mother and had to make sure she would be alright as well.

Ophelia remembered Gertie’s
last words and she stood up. She could see the Palace in the not so
distance.
Did Gertie actually say that she
had left poison wine for the King and Great Evil?

Ophelia started to slowly walk towards the
Palace. Perhaps she could spill out the wine before anyone could
drink it. She did not want to have murder on her heart and
conscious and wondered why her sister would have felt the need to
be as evil as the man who had set her house on fire.

Ophelia remembered the rooms that her sister
mentioned from the day she was there and Gertie had taken her on a
tour of the Palace. No one was at the gate and Ophelia found it an
easy task to walk through them and through the Palace doors.

She was in the bed chambers of the Great Evil
when she heard a noise. Someone was walking up the stairs! She
quickly hid herself in the armoire. Her breathing was irregular and
she was very frightened. She could see through a slight crack in
the door that it was indeed, the man called the Great Evil who had
returned to the room.

The man walked over to the bed and sat on it
to take off his boots. He then picked up the bottle of wine and
uncorked it. Not bothering to look around for a glass, the Great
Evil lifted the bottle to his lips.

“Wait! No!” Ophelia shouted, coming out of
the closet.

The Great Evil looked startled. “Well, what
have we here? A fair young maiden in my bed chambers? Do my eyes
deceive me?”

Ophelia was beginning to have second
thoughts. “Milord, are you hungry? I can ask the cook to bring you
a meal to go with your wine.” She said, stalling for time.

The Great Evil looked hard at Ophelia. “Later
perhaps, it is good I will not have to kiss the hare’s foot and eat
scraps, the Palace appears to be deserted. You are the other one,
am I correct?”

“Excuse me, milord?”

“You are that other one. The sister of the
one with the hair the color of fire! I had a good time with her, I
did. She fought me like a wildcat, but I could tell she loved it.
You do not seem to be as eager as she was, but I could be wrong.
After all, you are here in my bed chambers.”

“You – you and Gertrude?” Ophelia said, her
mouth feeling as dry as dirt on a hot summer day.

“You are pretty too, you will serve me well.
Maybe later we will invite your sister and we can all have fun
together. It has been a hard day. I am a hero you know, I have
killed many witches today.”

“Is that wine to your liking, milord?”
Ophelia asked.

“We shall see, and maybe you would like some
as well.”

“Depends, it is sweet on the lips? For I only
like sweet wine.” Ophelia said, trying to encourage the Great Evil
to taste the wine.

The Great Evil put the bottle to his mouth
and the second the liquid started down his throat Ophelia pointed
to it and said a chant of several words. Blue mist filled the room,
dark and heavy mist as the bottle continued to rise and pour all of
its contents down into the man’s stomach.

The Great Evil started to choke and his eyes
started to bulge. Ophelia walked over to him as he lay on the floor
jerking in spasms. “That, milord, is a little present from my
sister Gertrude. I dare say, I do not know when I have had as much
fun. Tis a pity that she is not here to enjoy this sight with me.
Poor milord, murdered in his own bed chambers by a couple of –
witches!”

Ophelia watched until the Great Evil tried to
grab for her, but then he stopped moving. She then made the empty
container which had held the poisoned wine disappear. She then did
the same to herself.

Ophelia found herself near the same spot she
had fallen when the thunder hit. She stood up and walked over to
the wagon and turned it towards her mother’s house. There were a
great many things that Ophelia could be thinking about right now,
but her mind was empty. Her exhaustion was so great that she could
not muster up the energy to even think. She was glad that the
horses knew their way to her mother’s home.

Within two days’ time she had given birth to
two children, had to give them away knowing not if she would ever
see them again. Her house burnt down as she and her mother hid and
then escaped from certain death. She had to say goodbye to her
beloved sister and she had found out that a dear friend had died.
To top it all off, she had helped murder the Great Evil and had
happily watched him die.

No one was home at her mother’s house when
she returned. She laid on the bed and fell into a heavy deep sleep.
She did not know how long she had slept, but the sun was high in
the sky when she awoke. Ophelia was surprised she had slept all
night and she walked into the kitchen, forgetting for a moment that
her family was gone.

The kitchen was also empty. She wondered
where her mother and William were. Ophelia had some tea and bread
and set out to the Village.

She was passing the waterfall when she saw
two women cleaning their garments in the clear water. “Good day”
she said. The two women stood up and immediately ran over to
Ophelia.

“Ophelia! We heard about ye house and Alma
and ye mother. Twas awful! Ye bein alright? Wot with all the fire
an’all?”

Ophelia still was wearing the same shift that
she had on when she gave birth to her daughters. She wondered
briefly if these women thought that she was still with child.

“My mother?”

“Aye, such a shame, such a lady!”

“You are confused, it was Alma who died. Do
you know where my husband is?” He was not in the house when I left
a moment ago.” Ophelia tried to explain.

The two old women shook their heads sadly and
went back to their washing. Ophelia felt as if she were in a bad
dream. She sat on the rock where she and her sister Gertrude had
sat so many times before and stared at the same waterfall that she
had stared at and played in for so many years. She sat there until
the sun started to go down and she heard a voice.

“Ophelia?”

Ophelia looked up and saw her husband.
“William! Oh William!” She said and ran into his arms. They held
each other a long time and William looked at her with many
questions in his eyes. “Let’s go home.”

They walked to her mother’s house, leaning on
each other for support and both afraid to ask the other the
questions they were holding inside.

Ophelia finally spoke. “Where is my mother?
Did you find her?”

William looked sad and told her that he did
find Rose, but not before the Great Evil had. Ophelia felt as
though her heart was breaking into little pieces.

“Did you make it to the clearing in time? Did
Luna and Thelma leave this place with Gertrude?” William asked,
fear showing on his face.

“Yes. I gave the girls to Gertrude and they
are safe now.”

“I would ask you why you did not leave with
them, but I know you too well. I know it is wrong to have such
hatred in one’s heart, Ophelia, but all I can think of is the man
who is responsible for all of this. The fire, the murders, us
losing our daughters and the rest of our family. I want him dead.
Forgive me, but I want the man dead.” William said, placing his
head in his wife’s lap and finally giving into his grief and
crying.

It would have been a great relief to tell her
husband that the monster was indeed, dead. But she vowed to protect
her family at all costs. It would serve no purpose to let him know
that she had stood there and watched a man die. Even a man as
horrible as the Great Evil. Besides, there was also a wine
container which either Mathew or the King would be drinking soon if
they had not already. Perhaps they would share the bottle. She
could only hope. No, it would do no one good to speak of such
things.

“We must leave here, William.”

“But how? Isn’t Gertrude and Julia far away
by now?”

“Yes, but we can go as well. Not to the same
place, not as far, but we have the wagon and the pearls. We also
have a few coffee beans left over and Julia handed me a red stoned
necklace before they left. We will be fine.”

“There is nothing left for us here.” William
agreed.

“More evil will come, we have to leave now,
but we also have to be smart. I need you to walk until you meet
someone, two or three people would be better. Look pleased and tell
them that you are the father of a son, as yet unnamed. If they ask
about me, tell them that I am in mourning and recovering from child
birth at home and do not wish to be disturbed.”

“Why?”

“Because we have to leave here and start over
somewhere else. We need time to get far away before anyone notices
we have left. If anyone thinks they recognize us, we will give
different names and we have no son. It is the only way, William. Go
now and hurry back. I will be waiting in the wagon. If anyone comes
here looking for us in the weeks to come, they will be receiving a
mighty surprise.”

“I will do as you ask then.” William said,
not asking further questions. He set out on the path to Alma’s
burnt out house.

Ophelia created a sign that
read “Quarantined by order of the King.” Ophelia was trying to
decide what exactly else she could write on the very official
looking paper. T
he great epidemic diseases of bubonic plague
and smallpox
sounded equally good to her. She
knew that anyone seeing the notice she will place on the door to
her mother’s house would probably not be able to read and
understand the words, but it would still frighten anyone
away.

William met with a few people on the path to
the Village and beyond and repeated the words his wife told him to
say. He then walked back to the house and got into the wagon which
held his wife. Ophelia looked different with one of her mother’s
dresses on and a shawl around her shoulders. A scarf was on her
head, hiding all of her glorious brown hair.

Ophelia told her husband to drive the wagon
as close to the mountain range as he could go. Although there was
no great hurry, Ophelia and William both felt the need to put as
much distance behind them as they could. They took turns driving
the wagon and made only short stops to make sure the horses were
fed and had enough water to continue on. The wagon was light, they
had taken only what was necessary. They had left nothing in the
house that would indicate whose house it had been.

After six days they had gone as far as they
could go and in front of them was a great mountain.