The Black Rose (14 page)

“They can’t speak?”
Wilhelmina stammered
.

Edmund smiled, “Have you not heard of the story about Lord Melanthius.” It was then Wilhelmina realized that all the girls were originally flowers
.
Flowers normally could not speak,
but he had turned them human. She was a little confused, but realized that even magic has its flaws…

“What do you want with me?”
Wilhelmina managed to ask as
her head spun with more and more questions.

“
You don’t know?” Edmund turned to look at her and sighed, “
You, my dear, are the reason for the destruction happening upon your kingdom
. You are cursed.
You’re my creation
, just like Orchid and Lily
.
” He paused before continuing, “
However, you’re different.
You were grown in your mother’s womb, so you have the ability to talk and do whatever you want. Your parents couldn’t have a child, so I tricked them
.
I gave them a seed that was cursed
.
I
f anyone claimed their love for you than Aridale would fall into despair. That seed
was
you.
”

Wilhelmina was too shocked to say anything. Tears slowly fell down her cheek and Edmund left the room. Her tears had made Edmund feel
extremely uneasy, but he forced the feeling away and continued walking
.
Wilhelmina
couldn’t possibly hav
e the same feelings for him
now that she knew the truth.
He
had accepted that, yet he felt a strange pang in his heart.

“It’s not true, it can’t be true” Wilhelmina sobbed as she shook her head.

Orchid, under Edmund’s command, walked over to Wilhelmina.
She
motioned for
Wilhelmina
to get out of bed, but Wilhelmina refused to move.
Wilhelmina
just wanted to cry, but Orchid kept trying
to get her out of bed
and so she
finally forced herself to stand
.
Orchid had to help steady her since s
he was unsteady on her feet due to her shocked state
.
Orchid
, who was a little taller than Wilhelmina
, made sure she had regained her balance before helping her out of her dress.

Wilhelmina continued to sob. This was all too much. The man she had feelings for was the Lord Melanthius that she and Milly had talked about.
He was a sorcerer and she was nothing more than a flower. Wilhelmina was
also curse
d and all of this was her fault.
It was too much information for her to take in right now
and she was not sure what to believe.

She
allowed Orchid to lead her to the bathroom.
The other girl, Lily, was standing against the wall next to the bathroom door.
Orchid helped Wilhelmina into the bath and then stood next to Lily. Wilhelmina continued to sob as she soaked her body in the warm water.

Eventually her sadness became confusion and the tears stopped. Her brain raced with questions. Where was she? How was her family? What happened? Wilhelmina took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Sh
e needed to calm down and think. At this point, she had to believe what Lord Melanthius had said was true. It made sense and answered all the other questions
she had had about herself
.
S
he had once even thought she was cursed,
but had tossed that idea aside. It t
urns out it wasn’t as absurd of an idea after all.

Wilhelmina
sighed
and sunk her body deeper into the tub so her nose was
just
above the water. It was amazing how calming a hot bath was and she decided to take the opportunity to think.

“
So…. a
ll along I was cursed. That explains
why my parents kept me locked up.
It’s also the reason why I can’t be queen.
I’m the reason the wedding was ruined and now Aridale is in some kind of trouble?
I’m also a flower?
There’s still so much I don’t know!
” Wilhelmina was frustrated. Just as she was getting answers, more and more questions appeared. She turned to look at Lily and Orchid.

“
So I’m like them,
” She thought as she stared at
the two maids.
Lily had short
orange hair and a freckled face,
“
She must be an orange tiger lily.”
Wilhelmina knew there were many different lilies since the queen’s garden had a whole section dedicated to lilies. Lily looked a lot like the o
range
tiger lilies.
She also
reminded Wilhelmina of Milly.

Lily
was about the same height
as Wilhelmina. She was wearing
a short orange dress that
resembled an upside down lily.
Orchid, on the other hand, was wearing a long flowy white dress
that
had long
bell
sleeves.
Both girls looked like they were tall version of fairies that Wilhelmina remembered reading about when she was little.

She
sighed, she needed more answers. S
he was a flower, but what kind?
Wilhelmina
also began to wonder if Lord Melanthius was an evil sorcerer. He didn’t seem happy about the curse, but then again, he didn’t seem upset either.
He had told her everything so fast that she wasn’t able to catch it all. It was as if it was an old story and she should have known it.

She
suddenly
felt angry at her parents for not telling her.
If she had known….
She shook her head. If she had known, she wouldn’t have ever been able to be happy. The truth was, despite all that happened,
she still loved her parents. She knew they had good intentions. Wilhelmina sighed, there was also one other thing. H
er heart still ached for the man she met at the ball and she believed that he still existed.

Edmund was the man she danced with, but the Edmund she met
just awhile ago
was not the same Edmund. It was complicated. It was like he was two different people, but in reality he was one.
Wilhelmina sighed and began to wonder
if it was a good idea to let her heart make decisions. Her brain screamed that he might be bad while her heart claimed he was good.
She was being tugged in two directions.

She
decided to lay out the facts, “
Edmund created me. He put a curse on me. What if my feelings for him are from that rather than from my heart?
” Her heart pounded and she knew it wasn’t true; he hadn’t used magic to make her love h
im. There was no point in that
since
the curse only worked if someone declared their love for her. Then her heart stopped, did Edmund love her? Was it all just an act? Tears once again trickled down her cheek and she quickly wiped them away. She needed answers and
unfortunately,
only he could give them to her.

Once she had calmed down,
Wilhelmina climbed out
of
the round tub. There was a white towel sitting next the edg
e
of the bathtub
and she used that to d
ry off. She
wrapped
the towel around her body
and
then she
realized that she had no clothes. What was she was supposed to wear? Her pink bridesmaid dress was
the only thing she had, but when she entered the bedroom, it was gone.

Wilhelmina began to panic. What if he came back? She didn’t want him to see her naked. It was then she remembered that Lord Melanthius had told her that she could just command the maids and they would do what she said. However, Wilhelmina wasn’t used to being bossy.
The maids back home listened to her parents and usually offered to do stuff for her like hang up her clothes. She never even told Milly what to do, but that was because Milly was her friend.

Wilhelmina
also wasn’t really sure what to tell them. Find her some clothes? What if there were none?
She
took a deep breath,
“
Well I’m for sure not going to walk around naked, so might as well try.”

She
made her way back into the bathroom
and looked nervously at the two maids
. “Um… could one of you please get me some clothes?” She asked nervously, but Lily and Orchid remained standing where they were.
Then she remembered that Lord Melanthius
had
used their names whenever telling them what to do.

“Orchid, could you
find me some
clothes?” She asked this time hoping it would work. Orchid looked at her and nodded. She then left the bathroom and Wilhelmina followed her.
The
young woman
opened a wardrobe that
was next to
the bed Wilhelmina had been lying in.
She hadn’
t noticed it before. The wardrobe
was filled with dresses and Wilhelmina wondered where all the dresses
had come
from. It was as if Lord Melanthius had planned this out. She froze. He
had planned this all out. He knew this was going to happen. Wilhelmina shook it off; she needed to focus on getting dressed for now.

As she looked through the
dresses
, she noticed they
were
all
black and became confused. Why black? She ended up randomly picking one
since they
all started to look the same. The dress she had picked out was rather plain. It suited her and would do for now. 

Now that she was dressed, Wilhelmina
was unsure of what to do. Was she supposed to sta
y in this room like a captive? She
tried the bedroom
door;
it was locked,
so she was supposed to stay trapped in here.
Orchid
was staring at her
and Wilhelmina wondered if she would remain standing unless ordered not to.

She felt bad for the girl, “You can sit if you want
.
” She offered and then realized that wasn’t a command, “oops, I mean, Orchid, sit on the bed.” Wilhelmina said
feeling
awkward as Orchid did as she was told.

Wilhelmina remained standing for awhile. She was trying to piece things together.
It was a lot to take in and she was still trying to absorb everything. Was Edmund a good person or a bad person? Did he love her or was it just an act? Why was she here? Tears of frustration began to form in her eyes and she
sat down on the bed next to Orchid and
began to sob.

She cried alone for a bit before she felt
her arm accidently
brush against
Orchid
’s. She
felt a strange tingling sensation
in her arm and quickly moved away from Orchid.
She
looked
at Orchid
to discover
that she was smiling.

“It’ll be alright,” A beautiful song like voice came from Orchid’s mouth causing Wilhelmina’s eyes to widen. Wilhelmina was shocked. Did she make Orchid talk? Was that what that weird spark was?

“You can….” Wilhelmina stammered.

“Talk?”
Orchid smiled, “It feels nice to finally be able to, yes, and I think it was your doing. You’re different from us in a way, but the same.” Orchid had a very sweet nature to her and Wilhelmina wondered if all the maids would be like that, or if each flower had a different personality.

“Lord Edmund isn’t all bad; h
e actually is quite fond of you.
”

Wilhelmina felt her heart skip a beat at Orchid’s words,
“So he does like me
.
”
The thought made Wilhelmina feel happy and then she felt bad for feeling
such joy
. She didn’t know him at all and here she was falling for him. What if
he
was bad? Wilhelmina, for now, had to keep her feelings neutral and she knew that was going to be hard.

Orchid looked at her as if expecting her to speak. Wilhelmina wasn’t sure what to say.
She
thought for a bit and then remembered that she wanted to know what flower she was. She had a feeling Orchid might now.

“Do you know what kind of flower I am?”

“Yes
, and you are a very rare one
, a black rose.”

“A black rose?” Wilhelmina said bewildered. She had never heard of a black rose, but Orchid had said it was rare.
Then she remembered the marking on her back. Her black rose birthmark wasn’t a birthmark, it had been a sign. She felt dizzy for a moment, but soon snapped out of it when Orchid began talking.