It was a bit cloudy as Messenia lay there staring up at the sky. It was a curious sight for anyone who could’ve seen it. Lady Messenia, lying on the roof of the manor house staring up at the sky. Messenia could hear the maids calling her name, searching for her inside the house. They were probably looking for her since it was time for lunch. She decided to keep quiet. Messenia used to really enjoy the meals in the manor house. Nowadays, she barely tolerated it.
It had been a month since Messenia recovered from the hemorrhagic fever that had threatened to carry her away. The healer had called it a miracle. Messenia scoffed as she thought about it. There was nothing miraculous about it. Her life had been bought with blood and that stain would be on her forever. Sometimes, she couldn’t help but feel that it was better if she’d died that day.
When Messenia woke up from her illness, she was greeted by her mother shedding happy tears and her maids Agnes and Alice ecstatic to have her back. Her father Lord Damien was glad to see her back as well but he seemed strangely distant with her mother in the following days. She could sense that there was something wrong even though they said nothing in front of her.
Messenia was under the impression that she had gotten better thanks to the healer until she told her maids about a dream she had while she was delirious. She thought this was a strange dream since it had featured Will and a blue haired woman. Messenia had caught a look that passed between Agnes and Alice and she had known them long enough to tell that they were hiding something from her. Messenia pressed them until they told her the truth in bits and pieces, also extracting a promise from Messenia that she would never tell Lady Milderd that it was them that divulged this information.
At first Messenia refused to believe that such a thing had happened and ran down to the stables expecting to find Will there. All she had found was a depressed and grief stricken stable master Rowan who refused to look her in the eye and asked her in a not so polite way to leave him alone. This had shocked Mildred since Rowan was never anything less than perfectly courteous with her.
Messenia had gone back to the manor and tried to process the information she obtained from her maids and what she had surmised from Rowan’s reaction. She still couldn’t believe that Will would voluntarily sacrifice his life for her. Yet, Agnes and Alice swore that’s what had happened. Messenia felt that there were some pieces missing and was eager to find out more.
She thought she might try her luck with Cara, the seamstress girl. Agnes had told her that Cara was Rowan’s daughter. Messenia managed to corner her the next day in the manor and pressed her for information. Her initial reaction was much the same as Rowan’s but she didn’t quite have Rowan’s control. After a while she had broken down and in an angry torrent of tears she had related exactly how Will was coerced into sacrificing his life for her. Messenia could tell that the poor girl was scared, but in spite of that she had summoned her courage and told Messenia that she and her mother were monsters for killing Will.
Messenia, like any well cared for child, had a great amount of blind faith in her parents and she couldn’t believe her own mother being capable of such acts. Messenia knew that her mother hated Will, but she didn’t believe her mother would go so far as to threaten innocent people to make him sacrifice his life for Messenia. Messenia had gone up to her mother’s room that night hoping to hear from her that this was all a big misunderstanding. But the surprise Messenia received after initially hearing about Will was nothing compared to what she felt after confronting her mother.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
She didn’t even deny doing any of the horrible things. All she’d said on the subject was that “That filthy boy is gone and you’re safe. That’s all that matters”. Actually, her mother was far more interested to know who was it that gave her this information. Messenia said nothing further and left the room. The image of her mother that she’d kept on a pedestal in her heart all these years had been shattered. Messenia had never cried harder than she did that night.
Messenia tried to find some crime that was done by Will in the past that would justify the death sentence he’d received. But, to Messenia’s dismay, the only reason she could find for Will’s death was that his very existence offended her mother . Messenia never had the courage to ask her father if Will was indeed her brother. Her relationship with her father was strained due to this reason. Her mother was the one she’d always looked up to. The thought that Will might have been her half brother, her own flesh and blood stabbed her harder than ever.
Messenia had refused to talk to her mother for the next couple days. She spent most of her time wandering aimlessly around the outskirts of the village. Messenia hadn’t enjoyed outdoor activities in the past, but now she was willing to do almost anything to stay away from her mother until she had her feelings sorted.
Messenia knew that what her mother had done ws evil, but she had also done it to save her only daughter’s life. What really bothered Messenia more than her mother’s actions were the fact that Mildred seemed to feel no remorse for her actions. Messenia had been feeling dejected as she wandered aimlessly through the outer roads of the village with Agnes. Messenia thought that she would never be able to sort out exactly how she felt about her mother, and that she would be fated to spend years stuck in an emotional limbo.
Messenia was wrong. Alice had come running to her with the news that Rowan’s daughter Cara was going to be publicly punished for something. Messenia ran to the village square to find a horrific sight. Cara was tied to a pole with her back exposed to the crowd as her dress had been torn off in the back. Her mother Mary was being held back by a soldier as she was screaming and trying to claw her way to her daughter.
Messenia recognized the man who was holding Mary back. It was one of her mother’s guards. On closer look, she saw that all the three men she could see were part of her mother’s guard. A fourth man had his back to her and he was absorbed in doing something with a pot of heated water. It was a pitiful sight to see Cara sobbing and looking to her mother for help while her mother was screaming because she was unable to help her daughter. Rowan was nowhere to be seen. It seemed that he hadn’t found out yet.
Messenia was edging closer to the pole in the village square, trying to find out what happened when she heard Cara pleading “Please..I didn’t do anything wrong”.
“Nothing wrong huh.. You should’ve kept your mouth shut you little slut” the fourth man spat. Messenia immediately recognized his voice. It was Walter, Will’s stepfather. At that moment everything clicked in place for Messenia. Lady Mildred had found out or assumed that Cara had told Messenia the truth about what happened and now she was being punished.
Walter let out a sickening laugh as he dipped the tip of the whip that he was holding into the boiling water in the pot. They were about to flog Cara.
Messenia had felt white hot anger coursing through her veins as she screamed and ran towards Walter. Messenia would’ve found the stupefied look on Walters face almost comical if she wasn’t feeling so disgusted and angry. Messenia aimed a kick straight for Walter’s private parts and watched him drop to his knees in pain while the whip slipped out of his hand. Messenia had then grabbed the boiling pot of water and emptied it on Walter’s head.
The other three guards were stunned as they saw the look of blind fury on lady Messenia’s face. She ordered them to free Cara at once and assured that if they so much as touched a member of Rowan’s family, she would have their heads separated from their worthless bodies. As Messenia ran towards the manor house to find her father she could still hear Walter’s screams.
By the time Messenia reached her father, she had no doubts about her feelings towards her mother. Mildred had been willing to flog a 14 year old girl for the crime of telling Messenia the truth. Messenia told her father about what happened and as she had guessed, he was unaware of what had happened. Lord Damien assured her that Rowan’s family would be protected anything like what happened today would not be repeated.
Growing up, Lady Mildred had always been Messenia’s role model and who she wanted to be when she grew up. That day, Messenia cried until her eyes had run dry. She was mourning the loss of her mother. Now that she could see the truth, her mother was lost to her forever.