by D. J. Holmes
The painfully crafted plan, to sneak off of the palace grounds to see Mary, had to work, or I would never be able to see her, again. I knew in my heart that, Genola and Hortence would see to that.
One thing that James and I hadn’t counted on, was the fact that Genola’s, bedroom window faced the stable. As soon as she had reached her room, she went over to the window to look at the beautiful moon. She heard footsteps below and as she looked down into the court yard, she saw the shadow of a man walking quickly toward the stable.
Genola continued watching as he walked straight toward James, hearing him say, “James, are you ready? Let’s get this thing planned.” She began thinking to herself, “What are they planning?” In the light of the stable she finally realized who it was. “Sir Jon was so anxious for all of us to go to bed. What is the real reason that he didn’t want to be with us any more tonight? I’ve got to know what they are planning.”
As the evening darkness turned quite cold, I suggested to James, that we go into the great room where the fireplace was still burning. Watching us leave the stable and go into the palace, Genola, tip toed down the stair case and sat on a step where she wouldn’t be seen, but where she could hear what we were talking about.
“James, we need to leave a bit earlier than normal. Do you think that this plan will work?” I said very concerned.
“I don’t know why it wouldn’t, Jon. We’ve been doing it this the whole summer. All we have to do is to make sure that, Hortence and Genola, don’t catch up to me wearing your clothes.”
“What if they do?” I asked with concern.
“I’ll just tell them that we are of similar size, and the tailor is making some new clothes for you.”
“James, what would I do without you?”
“Jon, just let me know what she says about the gift.”
“I will, James. You can bet on that!”
“…She? Who is this she? I want to see my competition!” Genola says to herself.
After all of the arrangements are made for an alternative plan, in case my mother, the Duchess, and her daughters don’t go shopping, it is quite late and time for James to leave so I walked him to the door.
“Oh, I had better get up the stairs a lot quicker than I came down,” Genola says to herself, and quickly runs up the stairs to her room.
I walked back into the great hall and sat down in front of the fire, talking softly to myself. “Mary. My darling, Mary, what would I have done without you? We met by chance, but tomorrow, I will make you mine. We will be together forever.” With a smile on my face, and lightness to my steps, I went to my room.
All through the night, I continued to wake up. “I’m so excited, it’s hard to sleep. This night seems like it will last forever,” I said as I paced back and forth in my room. “When is the sun going to come up?” Walking to my window, I thought, “Well, at least I can see the stars and know that time is passing, because the moon, and the stars are always in a different place when I walk over to the window, I just wish that I could reach into the sky and make the night move faster!”
Genola was also anxiously waiting for the morning sun and had barely closed her eyes. “I’m not going to even change my dress, if I do, I might miss him and I want to be able to leave as soon as he does.” With determination, she says to herself, “I will see her. I will know who my competition is!”
The morning sun finally began to spread its warm shinning rays. Knowing how excited I was to see Mary, James has my horse ready for me the moment I stepped into the stable.
“Thank you, James. I’m glad that you wore your best outfit for me to wear on this special occasion.”
“I’m sure that you would do the same for me, Jon.”
“I will someday, James.”
Genola had watched me anxiously run to the stable and continues to watch as James and I exchange clothes.
“Why would someone of noble blood, want to wear commoner’s clothing?” she says with disgust.
She watches me walk my horse over to the South Gate, mount and ride through it. From her bedroom window, she makes sure of the direction that I would ride. Genola quickly runs down the stairs, and out to the stable. Timothy had just arrived, and didn’t know anything about what was going on.
“Get me a horse as fast as you can, boy,” she says in a snooty manner.
“Yes, my Lady,” Timothy calmly responds.
“Do you have somewhere special that you are going to, my Lady?” Timothy questions.
“I just want to go for a morning ride,” she curtly replies. “Would you like someone to accompany you?”
Genola, abruptly says, “Look. I’m not here to have a conversation with you. Just saddle my horse as fast as you can.”
“It’s ready.”
“Oh… that was fast. Now get out of my way so that I can get on with my ride,” she says as she raises her hands in a sweeping motion.
Riding to the South Gate, she bends down and opens it. As soon as she is through the gate, she rides as fast as she can in the direction that she had seen me ride.
James walks into the stable shortly after Genola has left. “Timothy, where is the other horse?” he asks.
“The oldest daughter, Genola, wanted to go for a morning ride.”
“And she left by the South Gate?” James questions.
“Yes. How did you know?”
“The gate is still open. Did she say where she was going?”
“No, Sir. She seemed to know where she was going…
Finally realizing that James was wearing royal clothing he asks, “What are you wearing those clothes for?”
“Oh, I’m just helping Jon.” Turning around, he says under his breath, “I knew it from the beginning. We’re going to get caught.”
Riding as fast as she can Genola is quickly close enough to see me riding ahead of her, but far enough behind that I didn’t know that she was there.
After a short while, I got off of my horse and tied the reins to a tree. There is grass, and a stream close by, so that he could feed while I was gone. Seeing Mary, in the meadow, I ran to meet her. I held her in my arms as we gazed into each other’s eyes.
“I’ve missed you, Matthew. I was hoping that you would be able to come today. But I wasn’t sure. Then when I saw you walking toward me, my heart raced so fast, I was afraid that it would pop out of my chest.”
“I’m so glad to hear you say that, Mary, because the moment that I saw you in the field, my heart began to race also. I’ve missed you so much.” I picked her up swinging her around and around.
Genola, pulled back on the reins of her horse, riding to hide behind a huge bush so she could watch the interaction between us. Getting off her horse she says, “So, this is the girl who is my competition! Well, we’ll see about that. She is a commoner, and I’m of noble birth,” she says with disgust. Continuing to watch our interaction she is particularly interested as I hand Mary, a small box.
“Matthew, what is this?” Mary, asks as she opens the box. “It’s beautiful, Matthew,” she says jumping up and down with glee.
At this time, Genola wished that she could have been closer to see exactly what was in the box.
“Matthew, there’s only one thing. The ring is too big for my fingers.”
“I’ve got a chain around my neck. You could put the ring on it, and wear it as a necklace, until your fingers get bigger.”
Genola jealously continues to watch as I fasten the necklace around Mary’s neck. Looking down into her eyes, we continued to smile at each other not wanting to let go of our embrace.
