Maiden and the Monster

by Michelle M. Pillow

  “Yea, I lost them but loss is part of love. ‘Tis the way of the world.” The earl’s eyes cut into slits and his face turned red. “Did I not show you love?”

  “Nay, you sold me to the highest bidder.” Eden lifted her skirt and tried to move around him in the other direction. “You showed me I was a bartered bride.”

  “I did what was best for you.” The earl once again shifted his weight so she couldn’t pass. His eyes were wide, gleaming with the conviction of his words. “What was best for Hawks’ Nest and her people.”

  “Nay, if you wanted what is best for me, you’d have left me be.” Eden chopped her wrist angrily against his hand causing it to fall from the heavy oak door with a thud. Pushing her way past him, she laid her hand on the latch to open the door. She would have left him in the passageway but was stopped by his next words.

  “Regardless of what you think of me, I didn’t know she was married,” the earl said quietly. Eden shivered at the raw emotion in his words, fingering the latch but not pushing the door open. She waited for him to continue. The earl stepped closer to her. “And I never knew she carried my child.”

  “What do you want?” Eden refused to look at him. Her body was drained from all the fight. She was tired of arguing with the earl and wanted only to lie for an eternity in her husband’s arms.

  “I want to make it right. I want to talk to the duke.”

  Eden could feel her father move to the back of her. She felt his hand lay carefully on her shoulder. Finally, after a moment of silence, she said, “Be quick. I won’t have you upsetting him. If he tells you to begone, I’ll throw you out myself.”

  With that, Eden quietly pushed open the door. She led her father into the chamber. Moving to her husband’s side, she stood before the bed where he sat with Gwendolyn. He looked up in surprise to see her enter without knocking. Then his eyes fell on Clifton. His face stiffened and he pushed Gwendolyn behind him, blocking her from the earl’s view.

  “What is he doing here, Eden?” Vladamir turned his hard stare to the earl. “Why did the guard let you pass?”

  “There was no guard.” She hadn’t noticed before because she’d been focusing on her father. Eden looked at her father. The silence strained between them until she thought she might scream to break the deafening quiet. “What are you up to?”

  “I sent the guard away. I told him that he was needed at the camp.” The earl turned his broad form and shut the door behind him. “Most of the men are leaving today for Hawks’ Nest. I’m sending them away.”

  Eden gripped Vladamir’s elbow tightly, looking up at his handsome face, unable to help the pang of anguish that coursed through her. The duke glanced at her nervous grip and his eyes stared out at her in reassurance. He said nothing as the older man spoke.

  The earl’s eyes traveled over the duke as he laid a protective hand on his wife’s shoulder. The chains on Vladamir’s wrist clanked, giving a grave reminder of their predicament. Eden’s frown deepened and she curled her lip into a sneer, refusing to speak.

  “There will be no guard at the door tonight.” Clifton couldn’t meet their eyes. “And nary a man in the south forest. If you leave at dusk you could be well away from here. I’d send you money—”

  “Why are you doing this?” Vladamir kept Gwendolyn behind him, trying to shield her from the man.

  The earl didn’t answer.

  “There will be no need for that,” Eden said. “My husband is too honorable a man to run away from fate.”

  Vladamir looked at his wife in surprise. She smiled mournfully back as if to say, I understand and I love you for it.

  “I figured as much.” Clifton turned his eyes away from the lovers’ look. “But it never hurt to try.”

  “Why do you try to help us now?” Eden didn’t bother to keep the fire from her tone. Suspicion lined her every movement. “‘Tis your doing that we are now here. What do you have to gain?”

  “Does the child know?” the earl asked with a slight tremor in his voice. He leaned to look around the duke, ignoring his daughter’s accusing tone.

  Vladamir nodded once.

  “I didn’t know Lurlina was married when I took up with her,” Clifton said. “I knew none of the other men would touch her but I knew not why. Methought her dark and mysterious. I was going to ask her to wed me. After we had been together for less than a sennight I found out about you. I was jealous of you because you had her. Methinks my pride kept me angry all these years. When I saw her nearly a half year later, she was large with child. Methought ‘twas your child. ‘Tis what she told me. She also said you ravished her like a beast and you bewitched her into marrying you. There was naught I could do for I was an ambassador of King Aethelred in a foreign land. I couldn’t break up the marriage of King Guthrum’s claimed daughter. Methought your anger was born out of vanity. Methought that vanity killed Lurlina. I swear I never knew the truth of her deceit until…”

  Eden watched her father’s eyes churn with the emotions of a broken heart. She’d never seen him cry. Her hatred of him faded a little.

  “I later heard the rumors of her death. I heard how you killed her with fire while she slept with your child. I heard how your seed was spared but how you both were marked by hell for the deed. I hated you even more for the treachery.” The earl rubbed his brow in anguish. “God help me, I loved her. I love her still. She haunts my dreams.”

  Vladamir relaxed next to her. She looked up into his handsome face, scarred from the fires of the past. She loved his face. She loved him.

  The earl glanced at his daughter. “Not until this day when I saw the child standing next to you, Eden, did I know. She looks just as you did when you were a wee girl. Only her hair…”

  Eden nodded. Her heart went out to her father. She’d never known he loved another. He never hinted such to her before.

  “And then I knew the reason for your anger, m’lord. I knew that Lurlina’s deceit wasn’t yours. No matter how much I wished to think you dishonorable, you have shown yourself to be very much a nobleman.” Taking a hesitant step forward, he looked Vladamir in the eye. “When I saw the blood on the head of my daughter’s marriage linen, methought you acted the beast yet again. Methought the monster bewitched my daughter with his black arts just as you had with Lurlina. Methought you sought revenge because I had Lurlina’s love. Now I know she didn’t love me. She couldn’t have.”

  Vladamir nodded in understanding at the earl’s words. His hatred for the earl abated, until he realized he hadn’t been angry about Lurlina’s unfaithful deceit since he met Eden. He only held on to the past out of habit. He didn’t love Lurlina, had never loved her. Not like he did Eden.

  “She killed herself, didn’t she?” the earl asked.

  Vladamir froze. He glanced back to see Gwendolyn’s white face. Her round eyes filled with tears. The child listened intently to every word. He gave her a wary smile. The girl didn’t seem to notice.

  “Yea,” Vladamir answered softly, turning back to the earl. His heart broke as he heard his daughter sniff behind him. “She did.”

  “And you saved the girl from her treachery,” Clifton concluded. “May I see the child?”

  Vladamir nodded, still unable to say a word as he detected the light scent of his wife’s hair under his chin. Hugging Eden to his side, he was content to let the past die, for it was finally over. His heart was free, lightened and at the same time saddened for it was too late to change his future. He wasn’t foolish enough to hope that he had a chance to live. What was done would remain done. The king knew the earl wasn’t there when Luther challenged him and wouldn’t change his judgment on the word of Clifton. No, it had grown bigger than the petty jealousy and anger of two men. It had grown into a political trial and Luther’s death had become a political event.

  The duke rested his hand on Gwendolyn’s head. “This is Gwendolyn.”

  Vladamir presented his daughter to Clifton. The earl nodded, studying the beautiful face of the young girl.
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br />   “Gwendolyn,” Vladamir said with a calm loud voice. “This is your grandfather.”

  All knew the child heard the whole tale but Gwendolyn just smiled and accepted the change in her life as she had all others. Taking a step forward, she curtsied for the old man as her little voice sang out sweetly, “Grandfather.”

  Tears of appreciation came to the earl’s face and he nodded his head in acceptance of his role in the child’s life. He smiled gratefully at Vladamir and Eden. Kneeling, he studied the child’s face before holding out his arms to hug her. The child walked toward him, letting him pull her tenderly to his chest.

  Eden cried. She turned to Vladamir and buried her face into his chest. Outside, beyond the narrow slit of the window, it started to rain.

  None of them moved for a long time. The earl pulled back to study his granddaughter’s face before tugging her once more to his chest. None dared to break the tentative silence and outside the drumming rainfall only beat harder.

  * * * * *

  The pluvial dawn came too quickly. Eden and Vladamir didn’t sleep. They made love all through the night—tender and slow. His eyes had stared boldly into hers as he moved within her. She refused to miss one detail of his pleasure-laden face as their bodies found a heartfelt release. Then afterwards, she rested quietly in his arms, whispering of her love for him and hearing of his.

  As the sun peeked over the horizon, Eden felt her heart sink farther into her chest until it hardly beat. Vladamir’s hand rested on her flat stomach and she knew he regretted the fact that he’d never see his child born. The duke had made amends with her father but it had come too late.

  Looking up into the smoldering eyes of her husband, Eden squeezed him to her body. Her chest lurched as a pounding knock invaded their sanctuary. The king’s man was signaling that it was time to go. Gazing at him through her tears, she kissed him, pouring her heart and soul into the embrace.

  “I won’t go. I cannot.” Eden choked back her sobs. Shaking her head in denial of the future, she declared, “I cannot watch you die.”

  “You must,” Vladamir said. “I cannot bear it if you’re not there with me. I must see you. I must be able to see your eyes. I’d take the vision of your beauty with me.”

  “But,” Eden tried in vain to protest. Her deadened heart ached as it thudded in her breast. Grabbing his tunic by the fistful she tugged violently at him. He moved to stand by the bed. “I want to die, too. I cannot live in our home without you. I cannot live at all. My heart won’t beat without you here.”

  “Then I shall build us a castle amongst the heavens and await you there. Look to the clouds and you’ll see it.”

  “Await.” Eden shook, helpless. “Await my love. For life will be naught more than painful breath until we meet again.”

  “I need you to be strong.” His face became a mask of stone as the door to the chamber opened. The young guard refused to look at him as he unlocked the duke’s chains. Vladamir ignored the knight as he hushed to Eden, “I need you to be strong for the children. Promise me.”

  “Yea.” Eden nodded. The knight pulled Vladamir toward the door. Her heart was pulled with him. She took a deep breath but didn’t feel the air.

  “Go to Gwendolyn.” Vladamir flashed her a handsome smile. Eden’s heart fluttered in her chest at the sight. Never had he looked more handsome or brave. She would keep that smile in her heart for always. “I’ll see you belowstairs, lady wife.”

  * * * * *

  Rain pelted the ground as it had all night. The sky was dismal and bleak. Lightning crashed in the distance, chased by a blast of thunder and more streaks of light. Sometime during the night hours a makeshift noose had been constructed right outside the castle wall. It hung from a thick tree branch with the free end tied to the saddle of a large stallion. Eden watched the wet noose swing gently in the softly falling rain.

  Puddles of mud formed in the soggy earth. They soiled the hem of Eden’s reddish-brown tunic gown and soaked her feet through her thin shoes. She hadn’t changed her clothes nor had she bound back her hair. She let it hang free and wild about her shoulders as she knew her husband to like it.

  She’d gone to Gwendolyn as her husband requested. He’d already told her in the night hours that he didn’t want the child to see his death. Haldana refused to come out, so Eden had left her to attend their daughter.

  “Eden.”

  The earl placed his hand at her elbow and she heard his voice through the numbness in her brain. She refused to look at him. Instead her eyes found Vladamir already standing by the noose. His long hair blew about his shoulders. Her heart thudded painfully at the sight of him and her eyes etched the memory of him on her mind. She wanted to always remember him as he looked now—so proud and strong and brave.

  Eden knew that she had to be the same, for her husband needed her strength just as she needed his. Ignoring the hand of her father even though she had forgiven him, she didn’t want to face him right now. How could she? Clifton claimed he had tried to sway the mind of the king, but as they predicted, it did no good. Luther’s death held too much importance now.

  Rushing forward through the silent gathering of men, she pushed past them until the crowd willingly parted to let her by. The men-at-arms watched her courage with awe. Sometime during her stay, the men had grown to respect and trust their lord. No longer were they suspicious of him. No longer was he called a monster behind his back. He was a man. He was a lord. He was their leader. And with one word from him they would turn and fight to free him. That order would never come.

  Eden went to her husband and threw her arms about his neck. He leaned into her, unable to return her embrace. The guard had bound his hands behind his back. She soaked in the feel of Vladamir’s body, trying to remember every curve, every detail. Her memory of him would have to sustain her for the rest of her life, for she knew she would never love again.

  Flattening her mouth against his, she refused to close her eyes. She wanted to see his face, his haunting gaze. Over his shoulder she spotted the king and knew she had no more words to offer Alfred, only the silent defense of her eyes. He was unable to meet her mournful expression and had to turn away.

  “You’re my heart,” Vladamir whispered in her ear. “You’re my life.”

  “Wait for me in our castle,” Eden softly answered. She grabbed his face in her hands and smiled bravely into his eyes. “For I’ll wait for you.”

  Vladamir groaned. Tears formed in his eyes for the first time since the king’s decree. Only Eden could see them as the rain slanted across his face. Soldiers tried to pull him away from her but she refused to let him go.

  “Nay,” she groaned. Her heart pounded in wretched torment. “Nay!”

  Clifton grabbed her and pulled her back, forcing her to let go of her husband. Her weakened limbs couldn’t ward off the insistent draw of her father and the soldiers.

  Some of Lakeshire’s knights swiped their eyes at her wretched screams, sure that the sound of her voice would forever haunt them and the surrounding countryside. Eden shook her head and held out her arms to once more hold him but it was too late. The guards walked the duke backward toward the noose. Vladamir refused to turn from her, keeping his eyes steadily on her face.

  Eden caught his stare and forced herself to hold still. A knight offered the duke a cover for his head but he refused. Lifting her chin into the air, she was proud to be married to such a man. A slight smile curved her face. Defiant, she shrugged off her father’s hand and stood tall.

  “I love you,” she mouthed. The men slipped the noose around her husband’s beautiful neck.

  Eden heard her own breath coming in loud pants of air. It was the only sound in her ears. She didn’t take her eyes away, unable to believe that it was really happening. She saw the priest utter words of prayer over the crowd. It was the same man who’d married them. She couldn’t hear his words, drawing no comfort from the man. In her breast was still the small flicker of hope that the duke would be saved. Then li
ke a thundering strike across the rainy sky, the hangman smacked the backside of the horse.

  Eden’s heart stopped beating the moment Vladamir’s body swung into the air. She felt the pull of deafening silence as the sound of her breathing stopped. The hands of her father slipped from her shoulders as she tore from his grasp. Running to stand beneath her husband, she reached her arms up into the darkened sky. The red depths of the ruby wedding band on her finger glinted far into the distance like a beacon. It was too late. He was too high to touch. The pain that flooded her limbs was worse than she could’ve ever imagined. She was dying too.

  * * * * *

  Vladamir closed his eyes for a moment as the rope went past his gaze. When he could again see his wife, the side of his mouth twitched up in a sorrowful smile. Everyone faded from his view as he focused on her. Her exquisite face shone with love, the long tresses of her hair blew heavy from the rain about her shoulders like an angel. Vladamir was sorrier for the pain his death would cause her, than the ending of his own life. He lived long enough to experience her love. He would die content in that.

  His eyes clasped shut, the image of his wife with her mournful chestnut eyes and her wild-flowing hair recorded permanently in his mind. He heard Eden scream as the noose fitted itself tightly around his neck. The rope suspended him in the air, squeezing out the life from his body. His legs struggled to gain footing in the unforgiving wind. Lightheaded darkness consumed him and the blood rushed numbly from his head. In that moment, he knew that this was it. He was dying. And then his world went black.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Eden couldn’t move as Vladamir’s body lost its fight. His legs stopped kicking in the air and his head fell to the side, no longer straining against the noose. She stood transfixed in an eternity of wretchedness and heartache, even though only a mere faltering second passed. The falling rain pelted the body of her husband as he swung motionless above her and still she heard nothing through the silence but the overpowering breaking of her heart.