I turned to Bea who sat beside me jotting down some notes in a book. “Won’t people think it’s strange to see a horse and carriage on the freeway. Aren’t we blocking traffic?” I was surprised that no one was blowing at us.
“No one can see us, dear.”
Every couple of hours Bea would magically produce a tray filled with tasty treats. Sometimes there would be sandwiches, sometimes cookies or crackers always served with tea. I never felt hungry once.
“How much longer?” I asked. I didn’t want to sound impatient but by the time the moon came up, I couldn’t be in that carriage.
“We still have a day’s journey. Don’t worry. Once night time falls, we’ll pull over and resume in the morning.”
I was glad she was understanding of my condition and I hoped the girls at the estate would be also.
The following morning after a hearty breakfast we continued. We traveled a wide road with trees on both sides. The branches reached down on us like gnarled arms trying to grab us. The road grew more and more narrow. There was a sudden bump that jolted me so high I nearly bumped my head on the ceiling.
I grasped the edge of my seat. “What was that?”
“The enchantment. No one can cross over the thresh hold without my permission. Especially not the witches.”
I sank into my seat as a feeling of calm warmed my body. I believed Bea when she said I would be protected there. It would also be nice to meet other girls like me who have been cursed with immortality and who knew what else by those damn witches.
“What should I know about the girls?”
Bea shook her head. “Aside from the fact that they are temporarily immortal and cursed as you are, they are extraordinary young women. They each have an interesting story to tell of how they got to the estate.”
After a few moments of silence, the carriage neared a large, black wrought-iron fence. The design of the fence was beautiful. There were intricate shapes and whirls. Intricate would have been the perfect way to describe the fence.
We came to a halt as the fence slid open. I got my first look at the house which was absolutely breathtaking. Bea hadn’t been exaggerating about the beauty of it. It looked like something between a mansion and a caste, they very thing you would find in fairy tales.
There were two stories and there were windows that looked to be made from stained glass. There were turrets and steeples and the double doors had the face of a horse designed into them.
When we finally came to a stop a man dressed in black ran down the short staircase which lead to the house and removed my suitcase from the back of the carriage. I climbed out after Bea and took a deep breath. Here I was. I had no idea how this was going to go and if I even belonged there.
“This is perfect timing,” Bea said. “The girls shall all be in the dining hall having lunch.”
It all sounded so formal. I had never been in a dining hall in my life. I paused on the top step. “Do they have stories like me? Lives that have been twisted and turned into fairy tales?”
Bea smiled. “Indeed. I won’t tell you who is who though. I’ll let you figure it out.”
The foyer of the house was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. There was furniture that looked nothing like the kind Nana and I made. It looked like it came from another time and place and costed tens of thousands of dollars. There was a large winding staircase but Bea led me to the right side of the house. From that direction, I heard the laughing and high-pitched voices of friendly conversations. My nervousness subsided just a bit.
In the Dining Hall seated at a large rectangular table was a beautiful assortment of girls. None of them looked anything like the others. A girl with shoulder-length blond hair wearing a tiara spotted me first. She cleared her throat and jutted her chin in my direction. Everyone fell silent and stared at me.
Bea took a step in front of me. “Ladies, I would like to introduce to you the newest member of our family. This is Scarlett Radcliffe and she will be living here with us now.”
Immediately the girls started talking again, whispering to each other. A few of them smiled at me. For a moment, everything felt awkward and stilted, but then within seconds they were crowded around me all talking at the same time.
“Where did you come from?”
“What’s it like on the outside? Has it changed much since I’ve been out there?”
“How is she supposed to know what it was like when you were out there, stupid?”
“Where have you been all this time?”
Bea clapped her hands. “Ladies, ladies. One at a time please. Let’s not overwhelm her.”
A gorgeous girl with tan skin and long flowing raven hair stepped forward. “Hi, Scarlett. I’m Tiger Lily, but everyone calls me Lily for short.”
Tiger Lily was from one of my favorite stories of all time—Peter Pan. For a moment, I felt like I was talking to a celebrity. “It’s nice to meet you, Lily.” I wanted to hang out with her right away. I had to know if she was the way Peter Pan described her or not. We all knew that stories weren’t always right. I wanted to know if she was as brave and fearless as the Tiger Lily that had saved Peter Pan in the story.
I noticed then that one girl had remained at the table, the one with the shoulder-length blond hair. She looked at me in the most peculiar way, trying to seem uninterested.
A girl with the most beautiful mahogany skin I've ever seen extended her hand to me. “Hi. I’m Drusilla but everyone calls me Drew.”
I racked my mind for the familiarity of Drew I couldn't think of a single fairy tale with that name she must have sensed my confusion. “The Princess and the Pea, that's my story.” I nodded. The Princess and the story had never been given a name.
“I like that story very much I told her.”
A girl with blonde hair braided up into a bun stood next to Drew. “Hi, I'm Tress.” I imagined her hair outside of the break spot on top of her head and I couldn't even think about how long her hair would really be. I exhaled a breath. “Rapunzel.”
She curtsied. “That would be me.”
The girl who had first remained at the table stepped forward but she didn't offer me her hand as the others had done. “Well, well, well. How nice of you to finally make your way here. We've been working our butts off for the past couple hundred years while you've been doing god-knows-what and the outside world.”
I didn't know why she was angry at me. It wasn't my fault I have been in the outside world and it wasn't my fault I didn't know where they were. Although Miss Bea had time for me a long time ago Nana wouldn’t have let me come.
After Gretchen, Jolie, introduced themselves a girl with caramel skin wearing a bikini step forward. “Hi, my name’s Marina. I'm a mermaid as in The Little Mermaid.” I look down at her slender human legs and wondered what they looked like once you they the water I'd never seen a mermaid before I've only heard stories of them. “Nice to meet you.”
Finally, I'm met the person I was most interested in meeting. Oriana. Her hair was a color I had never seen before. I couldn’t even describe it as blonde, but gold. Perfect spiral curls fell just passed her shoulder. She almost looked like a doll with pale skin and rosy cheeks. She didn't offer me a handshake like the others, but she pulled me into a tight hug. “I've heard so much about you I've been waiting forever to meet you I'm so glad you're finally here.”
Ms. Bea pried the girls away from me and told them they could resume their interrogation later. She had the kitchen staff fix me up some rabbit stew and then one of the housekeepers showed me to my room.
It was on the second floor at the end of the hall. She used a skeleton key to unlock the door and then handed the key to me. “Hold on to that. You won’t be indoors at night time but you will want to keep your door locked at all times.”
I never had to worry about anything like that before. “Why would I do that?”
She looked at me for a second before entering the room, leaving my question hanging in the air.
I drew
in a breath as I took in my new bedroom. The walls were painted a deep red. In the center of the room sat a large canopy bed covered with dark green bed spreads. A dress form stood in one corner and against one of the walls was a golden book shelf filled with books. I ran over to it. One row was completely filled with different versions of Red Riding Hood and the others were filled with other fairy tale retellings. The suitcase I’d packed sat beside my new bed. On the walls were a few paintings of lakes and cabins that reminded me of my old home with Nana. I’d never had a bedroom so lovely.
“I’ll leave you to get situated,” the housekeeper said.
“Thank you.” I waited for her to close the door behind her.
I sat on my bed trying to take it all in. My old life was over and this was a new beginning. Everyone I knew was gone and I was now practically living with strangers. What the housekeeper had said about keeping my door locked gave me an uneasy feeling.
After a few moments, there was a soft knock on the door. “Come in,” I called.
The door opened and Oriana and Jolie slipped inside. Oriana looked around. “Do you like your room?”
I nodded. “Yes, it’s beautiful. I’m surprised they were about to get it together so quickly.”
The girls exchanged looks.
“What?” I asked.
“Your room’s been like this for as long as we’ve been here.”
“What? But how would they know . . .” I didn’t even bother asking the question. I remember getting the visit from Bea back in Eirwen. She had always been ready for me to come to the place she considered my home.
Oriana sat beside me on the bed. “I know this all seems beautiful and magical and everything, but everything is not as nice as it seems. Most of us are friends and we all have a love and respect for each other, but there are only so many elixirs and so many curses that are going to be broken.”
Jolie nodded. “No matter how close we get or how much fun we have together we have to remember that we’re fighting a war here.”
“Yes,” Oriana said. “We want you to be a part of our alliance.”
“Your alliance.”
“Yes. Me, Jolie, Allison, and Gretchen. You can trust us. We’re all working together to get those elixirs and we want you on our side.”
I wasn’t prepared for this. I had barely been in the house for a couple of hours and this was already happening.
Jolie looked at me with sympathy in her eyes. “I know this is a lot to take in so soon, but the sooner you get it, the better. This is not some fairy tale paradise. We’re all fighting for our lives here. Those witches are going to get what they think is due them and we’re going to make sure it’s not us. Are you in?”
What choice did I have? I didn’t know much about this new place and what to do, but I knew it wasn’t the time for me to ride things out solo. “Yeah, I’m in.”
The girls looked at each other and grinned. Oriana raised her eyebrow at me and extended her hand. “Game on.”
I nodded. “Game on.”
Find out what happens next in the upcoming Everly Academy series coming this fall!
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Forever Scarlett: The Everly Girls Book 3 Page 7
