CHAPTER 17
“Christina!” Arlana cried out as she bent over the passed out girl.
“Quick Josephine grab the smelling salts!” Her father ordered.
Arlana ran upstairs and grabbed the salts from her bed chamber. When she handed them to her father she wrung her hands with worry. Christina had to be alright. Why would she faint like that? Arlana wondered. Something terrible was happening and no one was letting her know what it was. Arlana felt a sense of dread coming on and she did not know what to do about it.
Christina opened her eyes and looked around. When she found Arlana her eyes widened and she made the sign of the cross. “You are dead! How can I be seeing you? Oh no please I cannot be seeing the dead. My family’s curse skipped me. It had to have skipped me.” Christina rambled on in fear. Arlana looked at her father as he looked at her. They were perplexed at Christina’s reaction. “Christina, I am not dead. Touch me I am your Fifi alive and well. There is a bit of a twitch in my neck but I am well all the same.” Arlana said earnestly.
Christina looked at Arlana. Slowly she extended her hand out. Arlana grabbed it and brought it to her face. “See I am alive and real. You are not crazy. Whatever your family might have told you.”
Christina’s eyes widened. She looked at Arlana, then at her hand. She pulled Arlana into a big hug. “Oh my mistress I could have sworn you died in that carriage accident. Praise be to the Lord that you are alive!”
Arlana smiled and looked at Christina. “Um did you tell Mari that I was dead?” Arlana asked.
Christina looked at Arlana with wide eyes. “I did. I truly thought you were no longer alive.”
Arlana smiled and looked at her father. “It all makes sense now. Mari saw me sit up and she thought I was dead so she assumed I had come back to life when I had just hit my head and was unconscious.”
“Oh no mistress. This is not good. Mari is not kind to you and she will use this to say horrible things. My family was in Loudon when the witch trials happened. The women accused were not witches but someone said they saw something and it was so convincing they killed the accused. My Grandmother was one of the accused. You must leave this area before superstitions kill you. I am so sorry I should have said nothing.” Christina said getting hysterical.
Arlana’s father stood. “I hate to say this but I agree with Christina. We should leave town first thing in the morning. Mari has never liked you and many of the local people think she is a saint. If she says you are evil they will come and see for themselves.”
Arlana laughed. “You two can’t be serious. They have no proof. I am here alive. There would need to be more happening for them to take her word for it.”
“My darling Josephine. I have not done right by you. They already are suspicious of you because you are unwed and you prefer hunting. Proper young women do not hunt. We must leave.” Arlana’s father said with remorse.
“Very well. My betrothed is expecting me so we should leave tomorrow.”
Arlana awoke feeling disoriented. She looked around her room and at first did not know where she was. As her mind came into focus she realized this was the last morning she would ever wake in this room. It saddened her. As she sat up she heard someone in the sitting room. “Christina? Is that you?” she called out.
A shadow entered her room. It must have been early morning because the light was still dim. As it drew closer to her she gasped. It was a man. He was tall with dark hair and brownish green eyes. Arlana marveled at how handsome he was. Her heart skipped a beat as he drew closer to her. “Arlana, you must wake up.” He said. Arlana? Who was Arlana she wondered. “Sir what are you doing in my room? You have me confused with some other girl. My name is Josephine.” She said feeling slightly indignant. He came closer and grabbed her hands. “Arlana my darling, they are coming for you! You are in danger! Wake up! I will find you but you must wake up! I cannot bear you to suffer the torment they mean to bring!” He said urgently. She felt the need to move closer to him. This strange man did not seem so strange after all. There was something she felt was familiar. She leaned in to kiss him.
“Wake up Fifi” Christina pleaded. She was shaking Arlana. Arlana opened her eyes with a start. The room was still dark. She saw Christina. “Christina, what is it?” She asked. She was feeling slightly disoriented from her dream but she knew this was real. Christina sounded scared.
“They are coming. Your father has prepared the horses. We are to ride away right now. He will follow later with our things. Quickly I must dress you!” Christina said urgently.
Arlana quickly dressed and they hurried out the back. Colton, her Grey Andalusian horse, was saddled and ready for her to ride. His brother, Kelm, was Christina’s horse. Typically servants were not given such nice horses but Arlana pleaded with her father. The winning argument was that Christina would only be able to keep up if she was riding the same kind of horse. Her father truly was a pushover.
They quickly mounted their horses. The stable boys had already prepped their saddle bags with food and money. “Stay off the roads. I sent a messenger last night to Monsieur Bedel to expect you in Loudon. There is a tavern there that he will meet you at.” Arlana’s father said in a muffled voice. She put her hand out and he took it and kissed it. “Be careful my darling.”
Arlana mustered a smile. She hated goodbyes. She turned her horse towards the forests behind the manor and urged Colton forward. She pushed Colton to move as fast as he could go. Although she had the urge to look back she kept her eyes forward. It was still very dark outside and being off of the road was perilous. She would hate to die after surviving a carriage accident.
They reached the river as the sky was fading to a light blue from a dark black. She could see the bridge in the distance and slowed Colton to a stop in a small copse of trees. As she looked towards the bridge she saw shadows on it. It looked as though there was a small group of people on it. It was too early in the morning for there to be traffic on the bridge. This did not bode well for her. Christina moved closer and whispered, “What are we doing?”
Arlana looked at her and put a finger to her mouth. When Christina nodded she pointed towards the bridge. In the dawning light she could see Christina’s eyes widen. Arlana looked at the river. They would have to cross the river without the bridge. She knew there was a spot further down that was shallow. She turned Colton from the bridge and urged him away keeping to the trees. She prayed that no one would be by the river bank.
As they walked downriver Arlana whispered quietly to Christina, “We will have to cross at the riverbank.”
“But Mistress Fifi, I do not know how to swim! Are you sure this is a good idea?” Christina protested.
Arlana grabbed Christina's hand, “Shhh, it will be alright. The water is very shallow there, we can walk across, I will lead.”
Christina nodded her head and solemnly proceeded forward. She would do almost anything when it came to Fifi.
They finally came to the riverbank, and as luck would have it there was less water than usual at this time of year. “This is good,” Arlana nodded to Christina, “See, we should be able to get across easily, follow me.” She got off her horse and gently started to pull him across the river, her dress became soaking wet up to her thighs and she was glad that she had thought to bring a spare set of clothes for Christina and herself. She was relieved the water seemed shallow but she still knew that there could be danger if one of them slipped. “Watch your step and be careful,” Arlana whispered back to Christina as she entered the river.
At first, started to stumble and Arlana held her breath and pulled her horse to a stop while she decided if she would need to dart back to help. But as Christina met Arlana's gaze she steadied herself and walked with more purpose.
“Almost there,” Arlana said encouragingly, smiling back at Christina.
Just as Arlana reached the other side of the river and pulled her horse to shore she heard someone shouting in the distance.
“Look, it is them! I tol
d you they were witches! There they are swimming in the river! Arrest them!”
Mari approached the riverbank with several men who worked in the village along with the town jailer and a couple of other men she hadn't seen before. Mari's mother trailed behind them looking hysterical and shouting after Mari.
“Oh no, it's Mari! What do we do?” Christina shouted to Arlana.
“Just keep coming, it will be ok, we just need to get out of here.”
But Christina had completely lost her concentration by then and began to slip under the water.
Arlana raced back into the river and frantically reached her hands out trying to feel for her friend. The water was a murky brown and she couldn't see a thing. She felt Christina's dress and started to pull. She almost pulled her over backwards but then was able to get a good grip and pull her out. She put her arms around her waist and headed towards the shore. She pulled Christina up to see if she was ok.
“I'm alright, I'm alright,” Christina breathed heavily. “I don't know how you had the strength to do that, you're such a little thing, thank you.” Christina spoke with sincerity.
Arlana helped Christina to get up. “We need to hurry, I saw them running back to the bridge, they will be here soon.”
In all the commotion Christina's horse had gotten spooked and raced out of the river ahead of them but Arlana's horse stood faithfully by. When Christina realized her horse was gone she encouraged Arlana to go on without her.
“No, I would never leave you like this, we'll ride together.” Arlana pulled Christina up onto her horse and they hurried off.
“We will travel through the woods for a while and try to lose them. Maybe we can track your horse. We may not make it tonight but we can camp out if need be.”
“I think I was holding most of our things on my horse,” Christina said fretfully.
“It will be alright, at least we are safe for now, and we are together.”
They had put a good distance between them and the riverbank when Colton stumbled and Arlana slowed his pace. They were just coming out of the thick of the woods to an area that opened out to a grassy meadow. There were purple, pink, and yellow wild flowers all around.
“We should take a break and let Colton graze, I haven't heard any voices for quite a while, I think they lost our trail.”
Christina smiled at Arlana, “You are good you know that, they call you a witch because you are so good at things, things they think only a man could be good at, I think Mari is just jealous. I was lucky to have you as my partner in escape, lucky that your father hired me to work for you.”
Arlana started to get off the horse and helped Christina down.
“I don't know if you should call yourself lucky because of me, if you hadn't come to work for us you wouldn't have anything to be escaping from and you wouldn't be accused of being a witch.”
“Well, let me put it this way, if I had to find myself in this situation with any person, I would choose you. You just seem to have a gift in escaping disaster, you are a definite survivor.”
“Well in that case I am glad to be of assistance. Let's take a break here, I have my bow and arrow, you rest, and I will see if I can find something to eat.”
“Gladly,” Christina replied and slowly sank down onto the bedroll that had been strapped to Arlana’s saddle.
A couple of hours later, after eating and taking a small rest, Arlana decided it was time to get going. She did wonder where her energy came from, she felt like she could ride nonstop to where her betrothed was, she felt like she didn't even need to rest. Part of her wondered though, why she was in such a hurry to get there. Why not keep going, why did she even have to get married? But then she thought of her father and knew how disappointed he would be and how much he loved her. If she was married to this mystery man she wouldn't live near her father anymore but at least she would still be able to visit him. Maybe if the man she married was kind he might even let her invite her father to live with them someday.
The sun began to set and the blue that had first started their day was swallowed up by the darkness. Arlana felt Christina slump against her back and thought about stopping but decided there was no need to. She seemed to be doing fine, and even though the maps had been left on Christina's horse she felt like she could remember everything, every way the road curved, every non road, every path of the forest as if it was telling her the direction to go in.
As day broke across the sky she found herself in front of a large sprawling estate. The house was like five of her houses put together and stacked on top of each other. There was an iron gate surrounding the house and close to the entrance she spotted Christina's horse. A smile spread across her face, she had began to think she might not see Kelm again, she should have known Kelm would find them, he was a faithful horse. Arlana nudged Christina to wake up.
“What, what is it Fifi, are we stopping now?” Christina’s words came out in a yawn but she made no move to sit up.
Kelm walked out from the gate; Arlana noticed a man coming out next to him holding the reigns. He was fairly tall and walked elegantly with his head held high. He had wavy brown hair and his eyes were the same light blue color of the sky that morning. He looked to be somewhere in his mid thirties but Arlana couldn't be sure.
As he drew closer he spoke, “I believe you lost something on the way,” He held out the reins to her.
“Yes, thank you. Are you...?”
“Yes I am. I'm glad you made it here safely, against all odds it might seem. Well, now you are here, and tomorrow we will be wed. Go upstairs, the maids will help you clean up and make sure that you have clothes suitable for you.”
“Thank you sir, and for Christina?”
“Yes of course.”
“There were some people following me, I'm not sure if you know but...” Arlana was lost for words, how did you tell your soon to be husband that you were being hunted because people thought you were a witch, and even worse, this was the first time she had even laid eyes on him.
He cut her off before she could say anything more, “Oh yes, do not worry, I know all about that. As soon as you are my wife you will be under my protection, no one will harm a single strand of your beautiful red gold locks and live to tell about it.”
Arlana didn't know if he thought she should feel comforted at his words, maybe most women would, but she began to feel that he thought of her more as a possession than as a wife, maybe that was what she was becoming. She wondered if she would be able to play the part that her father wanted her to play. She thought of her father and how he had lost her mother, and how he only wanted what was best for her and for her to be safe. With that she picked up the reins and guided her horse forward, towards the house.