The Black Rose (15 page)

“Yes. Edmund searched for you for years. He even tried making one, but with no success, and then you showed up. You grew right in his garden, a beautiful black rose. He cared for you dearly. It is said that
the black rose has great p
owers. He
wanted to use you….” Orchid stopped there realizing that she probably shouldn’t say anymore. She didn’t want to upset
her master
,
“
Lord
Edmund cares for us all. He sometimes gets a temper, but he would never hurt us, he’s quite fond of us.”

Wilhelmina knew the rest of Orchid’s story. Edmund had turned her into a seed and placed a curse on her in order to attack her kingdom
, but why?
“Do you know why he wanted to harm Aridale?” Wilhelmina asked and as soon as she did, she realized she
already
knew the answer.

“Revenge is a powerful emotion,” Orchid began, “You have to understand that at the time, he was very bitter, but now, he’s changed….”

Wilhelmina smiled. Edmund couldn’t be all that bad if Orchid thought so well of him. She wondered if the other maids
felt the same way about their master and then
remembered Lily was still in the bathroom. “Do you think if I touched Lily, she would be able to talk too?”
She
asked Orchid.

“Maybe,” Orchid said, “It’s worth a try. It worked for me after all.”

“Well, then let’s go!” Wilhelmina grabbed Orchid’s hand and ran to the bathroom. It was nice to see that Orchid could move freely. She wanted to do the same for all the maids
, but she wasn’t sure if she could
.
Orchid might have just been a fluke.

“Lily?” Wilhelmina said nervously.
Lily stared blankly at Wilhelmina.

Wilhelmina
wasn’t sure this was going to work.
What if Orchid was just
a fluke?
Orchid gave her a little push and Wilhelmina smiled.
Orchid also wanted the others to have free will.

“Here goes nothing,” Wilhelmina muttered under her breath as she took hold of Lily’s hand.
It was surprisingly cold, but before Wilhelmina could react, she felt the same
tingling
feeling
in her hand that she had felt when she had accidently touched Orchid
.

“Lily?” asked Orchid.

“Orchid,” Lily said staring at Orchid and then she gasped, “I can talk!” Lily began jumping up and down.
“How?
Why?” Lily asked looking at Orchid.

“Rose did it.”

“Rose?” Wilhelmina
asked feeling confused. She hadn’t seen another girl.
Orchid and Lily
looked at each other with a puzzled expression and then looked at Wilhelmina.

“That’s what Edmund calls you since you came from a rose,” Orchid said, “Is that not right?”

Wilhelmina blushed.
Knowing that
Edmund call
ed
her rose
had
strangely made her happy. It was a cute name and it was her. She was a rose. “No, Rose is fine,” She smiled. Being called Rose also made her feel like Orchid and Lily. It was like she fit in and she always did want a lot of friends.

“You’ve had a rough day,” Orchid said noticing Wilhelmina’s face. There was a hint of purple under her eyes. Her
face was
also red
and puffy
from crying.

“You should get some rest,” Lily said grabbing Wilhelmina’s hand and pulling her into the bedroom. Wilhelmina followed after Lily
. S
he did feel tired, but there was still so much she wanted to know.

“Edmund probably won’t stop by till morning, so for now get some rest,” Orchid said pulling the covers over Wilhelmina. Lil
y
lay
down next to Wilhelmina.
Wilhelmina hadn’t
noticed
how huge the bed was
before. She had other things to worry about, but now that she lied in the middle of the bed, with Lily on her right side and Orchid sitting on her left, she realized the bed could easily hold three people with room to spare, at most it could probably hold five. Her bed at home was not near as huge. Hers could for sure fit at most three, but that would be a tight squeeze.

“Thanks,” Wilhelmina smiled at Orchid. She then turned to thank Lily, only to discover Lily had
already
fallen asleep.

“We work a lot and sleep is one thing we never really experienced,” Orchid smiled, “It seems Lily enjoys it.” She giggled and Wilhelmina smiled.

“Are you going to rest as well?”

“No, but I’ll sit right here and watch you two,” said Orchid, “Don’t worry."

Orchid
reminded Wilhelmina of her own mother
and she soon found herself wondering about her mother
.
How were her parents?
Her sister?
Had she ruined Jerome and Edolie’s relationship?
Wilhelmina had forgotten
all about the wedding
until now
. More
and more
questions
flooded her
mind, but exhaustion got the best of her and
she soon
fell asleep.

Chapter 11

“
Rose, Rose?” Lily rocked Wilhelmina back and forth. Wilhelmina slowly came to and Lily stopped shaking her. “It’s morning!” Lily
exclaimed
as she jumped out of bed. The events of yesterday suddenly hit Wilhelmina and she smiled at Lily. She was a very cheerful person. It was then she realized that Orchid wasn’t present.

“Where’s Orchid?”

“In here,” A voice came from the bathroom and Wilhelmina entered to find Orchid wrappe
d in a towel. She had just finished taking
a bath.

“Lily, it’s your turn,” Orchid said
.

“Kay,”
Lily
said as she
undressed
and then jumped
into
the tub
.

“We don’t normally get the luxury of enjoying a bath,” Orchid smiled as Lily swam around in the water. Orchid was struggling with brushing her long hair. Normally Edmund would do it since they only took baths when he told them to.

“Here, let me,” Wilhelmina smiled as she took the brush from Orchid. She often brushed Milly’s hair and the thought saddened her. She missed Milly and wondered how Milly was doing.

“Is something wrong dear, you seem sad,” Orchid said noticing Wilhelmina’s sad expression in the mirror.

“It’s nothing,” Wilhelmina
forced a smiled
. Orchid
had already told her a lot and Wilhelmina
didn’t want to get her in trouble by asking more questions. She would have to talk to Edmund himself
in order to get answers
.

“I would like to have a word with Edmund,
Endymion,
Lord Edmund,
Lord
Melanthius….” Wilhelmina realized she had no idea what she should properly call him.

Orchid giggled, “I think Edmund is fine.”

“Eddie!” Lily shouted as she jumped out of the
bath “I wonder how he’ll act once he knows we can talk
.
”

“
That’s right,”
Wilhelmina thought. Edmund didn’t know that his maids could talk yet, well two of them. She wasn’
t sure how many he had nor did she know
if she had the ability to make them all talk.
It was quite strange, but Orchid and Lily seemed to have adjusted well.

“Lord Edmund,” Orchid emphasized, “would probably be thrilled.” Wilhelmina smiled and left
the bathroom
so Lily and Orchid could get dressed. She stared at
the
bedroom door and remembered it had been locked last night. She knew it was probably still locked, but she gave the knob a twist and to her surprise, it opened.

“The
door
is
unlocked!
” Lily
said
exclaimed, startling
Wilhelmina
.
They were wearing the same clothes as yesterday. It was probably their typical uniform and it was then that Wilhelmina realized why all her clothes were black. She felt so stupid; she should have realized it w
hen Orchid told her what flower
s
he was. Wilhelmina was a black rose; her clothes would of course be black. It all made
sense
.

“But it was locked last night….”

“He probably unlocked it this morning, meaning he’s in his study,” Orchid said, “His room is right across from yours.” She pointed at a door that was on the other side of the wide hallway.

“I’d like to talk to him,” Wilhelmina
said looking at Orchid and she nodded.

“I thought you might, I’ll lead you to his study.
”

“
I want to go too!” Lily exclaimed, “W
e can surprise him and tell him we can talk!”
s
he
exclaimed and Wilhelmina giggled.

“Yes, that sounds like a good plan,” Wilhelmina said and the three of them left the room together.

Wilhelmina had only seen her room so far and was curious as to what the rest of the castle looked like. She also had no idea where they were, though she guessed this was Celewyn’s old castle, meaning they were in Fantasme Forest.
After all, the story had said he disappeared into Fantasme Forest.

“We’re in
the royal family’s chambers,” Orchid said noticing Wilhelmina looking around.

Wilhelmina nodded.
That made sense since
Edmund’s room was across from hers.
There were a few more doors on each side of the hall, rooms
usually
used for the royal family’s children and even special guests. The hall came out onto a landing, which meant Wilhelmina’s room was on the second floor in the
west
wing. Orchid led her across the landing to the hall opposite of the royal chambers, which was the
east
wing.

Wilhelmina looked over the
elegant gold
railing
to see the ball room below her. I
f she wanted to leave, all she had to do was run down one of the flights of
marble
stairs and out the front door. It was then she realized that she didn’t really want to escape. She wanted answers and her parents would
n’t
give her those, so her only hope was Edmund.
It was strange knowing you could leave, but not having the urge
to do so
. Then again, Wilhelmina remembered the stories of how once you enter Fantasme Forest, you never come out. It would probably be too dangerous for her to run away and she’ll probably never make it back to Aridale.

“Is everything alright?” Orchid asked.

“Everything’s fine, I wa
s just admiring the ball room,
”
Wilhelmina said hiding her lie with a smile.

“Well let’s go then!” Lily said grabbing Wilhelmina’s hand and they continued down the
east
wing hall.
The
east
wing was shorter than the
west
wing.
At the end
of the hall
was a library and there were a couple of rooms located on the right side. The rest of the hall was empty. Edmund obviously wasn’t the decorating type.

“This is his study,” Lily said pointing to one of the doors on the right side of the hall. All of a sudden Wilhelmina felt nervous. What was she going to say to him? She felt her heart race. She also felt Orchid and Lily’s
eyes on her
,
waiting for her to do something
.

“I can’t…” Wilhelmina said defeated as she turned to face them.

“Sure you can,” Lily said, “Just like this!” She took Wilhelmina’s hand and used it to knock on Edmund’s door.

“Lily,” Wilhelmina hissed and then she froze as she heard the handle turn. The door opened and she swore her heart stopped for a second.

“You’re awake,” Edmund said simply as he saw Wilhelmina and then his gaze fixed on Lily and Orchid. “You asked both of them where I was?” He questioned confused as to why Wilhelmina needed
two
escort
s
. Orchid and Lily burst into a fit of giggles and then Wilhelmina couldn’t help but join in when she saw Edmund’s expression.

“Since when…” Edmund stuttered. His creations were never able to talk or move on their own.

“
We don’t know,” Orchid smiled, “Rose just touched us and well….”

“You?”
Edmund looked at Wilhelmina.