The Black Rose (19 page)

Memories flashed before Milly’s eyes and she closed them in order to take it all in. She remembered now what happened. Her mother had
died of a severe illness. The King was not happy and blamed her father, Lord Edmund Lucero
. Her father
, in fear for
his daughter’s
life, took her to Aridale
.
He had heard Aridale had a
kind
kin
g
and q
ueen, but there was another reason and Milly couldn’t remember anymore from that point.

Her father had erased her memories so she could start over and have a happy life, one without fighting between her mother and grandfather. King Clovis obviously wouldn’t have treated Milly well since he did not approve of her mother marrying the sorcerer. Milly felt tears fill her eyes. Where was her father now? Had he died? She looked back down at the book for more information and in the last paragraph was her answer:

……..
Lord Edmund Lucero
passed away on the same night his daughter, Lady Millicent Lucia, disappeared. It is said he had died of a broken heart from losing his beloved wife and his dearest daughter.

Just when Milly thought she could cry no more, more tears managed to fall. Her father had left her. She was truly alone and all she had were fragments of memories. Milly shook her head and forced herself to stop crying. There was another reason her father had picked Aridale and she needed to focus and figure out why. However, she kept getting distracted because another small part of her wondered if she had magical abilities. Milly knew it was something you were born with, no one knew why. It also wasn’t necessarily genetic, but it often was.

“Focus Milly, Focus….” Milly said to herself and closed her eyes. She began to feel a strange feeling in her
heart
,
“
Was this magic
?”
She focused on the feeling until it dissolved
and then she opened her eyes. She remembered.

Wilhelmina woke up to sun shining through her bedroom window. Another day had passed. Lily was still sleeping beside her. Lily was adamant about sleeping with Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina wasn’
t sure why since
all the other girls continued
to sleep in the maid quarters, but she had a feeling Lily just didn’t like being alone. Maybe she could share a room with Marigold. Both girls seemed to hit it off.

Wilhelmina got dressed and left her room quietly. She didn’t want to wake Lily. Edmund’s room was across the hall, but she was sure he was probably up by now and headed to his study. On her way there she ran into one of maids, Hibiscus. Hibiscus had long
yellow hair and pink eyes. She was wearing a pink dress that
had butterfly sleeves
. Around her waist was a yellow sash.
She looked very tropical.

“If you’re looking for Lord Edmund, he’s in his study,” Hibiscus curtsied.

“Thank you,” Wilhelmina smiled and watched as the girl made her way down the stairs. She was probably off to the kitchen for breakfast or to fetch tea. Once the girl was out of site she continued her way down the eas
t wing. Edmund’s door was open
and so she entered.

“
Morning
.”

“Morning,” Edmund smiled. He stood up and closed the door. He then kissed her on the cheek. Wilhelmina blushed as she followed him to the couch.

“I still have one more question for you,” Wilhelmina said regaining her composure
.

“What is it?”

“Why did you create them, us?”

“I don’t know,” Edmund said, “To be honest, it was more out of curiosity and then when I was exiled here, it was
more out of convenience
…”

“The king…”

“Dark magic isn’t allowed in Aridale, but there really is no such thing as good and bad magic,” Edmund
interrupted
, “The reason
it’s
considered dark is because people are afraid of it. Bringing plants to life isn’t normal and maybe it is a crime, but those girls….”

“They’re happy,” Wilhelmina smiled, “I don’t think they would want to be flowers again. They have hearts now, like mine.” She placed a hand over her chest.

“Yes,” Edmund smiled, “And that was two, not one.”

Wilhelmina smiled, “Yes well, that was the last one, for now
…. But I do have a request.
”

“Oh?”

“Could you call me Mina instead?”

“Yes,” Edmund smiled, “Mina.”
Their lips were about to touch when Lobelia opened the door.

“Sorry, Lord Edmund, I didn’t mean…” Lobelia began.

“It’s fine, what is it?”

“Breakfast is ready,” Lobelia said shyly.

“We’ll be right down,” said Edmund and Lobelia left the room, “Well shall we?” He offered his hand to Wilhelmina. She smiled and allowed him to lead her down to the dining room.

Milly spent the rest of the day in Wilhelmina’s room in shock. Why hadn’t she cared so much before? Why hadn’t she checked th
e pockets of her dress before? Her mind raced as she tried to piece it all together. First she
rejected the
idea
and felt it was impossible, that she was remembering wrong. However, it was all she had. She even reread the story on Lord Melanthius. Though there were no clues, it fit together. She checked the dates to check if it was improbable, but found it to be quite possible.

Anger replaced sorrow and Milly knew what she had to do. She wanted
to see him
. She would do whatever it took to make sure she would go with Jerome and Yolande tomorrow. Milly knew they
planned to
kill Lord Endymion Melanthius, but she
just
ha
d to see him with her own eyes. It was the only way she could rid of what little doubt she had.
He probably didn’t
even
know she existed and Milly intended to take this secret to the grave. No one would ever know that Endymion was her brother.

11
Years Ago

“Dad!
Dad!”
A little girl with long red hair cried as her father pulled her along, “Where are we going? What happened? What about mom!” It was the middle of the night and her father had woken her, made her get dressed, and was now leading her out of the palace.

“Quiet Millicent,” The girl’s father snapped. Her father had used her full name, meaning he was serious, and so Milly remained silent. He placed her on a horse and then sat behind her.

“We’re going to Aridale,” Her father said as they began their journey.

“Why?”

“Your mother is no longer with us Milly.”

“What do you mean? What happened?”
Milly was near tears.

“Your mother has been sick for a long time, you know that dearest, and she wasn’t able to get better….”

“Why are we leaving Egantine?”

“King Clovis won’t be kind to you and I believe you’ll have a happier childhood in Aridale.
Now quiet.”
Her father said and they remained silent for the rest of the journey.

It had started to rain midway through and by the time they arrived at the castle, Milly was soaked. Her father helped her off the horse. It was still dark out and he worried about leaving his daughter alone out here, but knew someone would find her in the morning, which wouldn’t be too long from now.

Milly’s father crouched down in order to be face to face with his daughter. He wish
ed he didn’t have to leave her, but he knew he would never be able to give her a happy life without her mother.

H
is heart
also
ached. It had ached for many years.
Though he loved
Ninette
, he also never stopped loving Lenora. Now that he had lost both,
and would soon lose his daughter, he was losing his will to live
.

“Milly, you know I love you, I love you more than anything
.
I love you so much that I have no choice but to leave you here. You’ll be safe here, King Clovis won’t be kind to you, but King Wilhelm and Queen Henrietta will. I promise.” He did his best to hold o
f
f tears. He had to appear strong for his daughter.

“What do you mean?” Milly felt tears filling her eyes, “You’re not leaving me are you?”

“I’ll always be with you Milly, in here,” He pointed at her heart, “And you’ll be safe here. The king and queen will be kind to you and you have a brother nearby.”

“Don’t,
don’t
leave
me
!”
Milly cried hugging her father, “You can’t leave! I want mom! Take me back! Take me home!”

“I’m sorry, but it’s for your own good, I will soon join your mother,” Her father said solemnly. He hadn’t expected to cause his daughter this much pain and knew it was probably best to use what little power he
had left to erase her memories.

Erasing her memories was his last resort since he would like for her to remember him and to know that she had a brother, but she was scared and confused. He feared she wouldn’t be able to lie and protect herself from King Clovis
and King Wilhelm
. In the end, erasing her memories was for the best.

“Milly, I’m going to erase your memories, you’ll be happier this way, I’m sorry,” He said and placed his hand on her forehead before she could protest. A blue light glowed from his hand and then faded. The only memory he left her was that she was called Milly.

Milly blinked her eyes in confusion
. H
er father mounted his horse and rode away before Milly could see him cry.
He could feel his heart breaking and shortly after he made i
t back to the palace,
it
shattered
.

The young girl felt lost and confused. She looked ahead of her to see a beautiful palace and began to walk towards it
. She had no idea who she was or where she came from. All she knew was that he
r
name was Milly.

Chapter 14

Edmund
woke up in the middle of the night. He
had a feeling something was wrong.
Edmund,
quietly
,
left his room and hurried to the east wing. He
unlocked the door to the room that was located
next
to his study. The room
was much smaller than his study
and i
nside the room, on the opposite wall, was a full length
mirror
. There were no other items in the room, for the room only served one purpose.

“Show me what it is that ails me,” Edmund spoke
to the
mirror
. Fog began to swirl within the mirror, but eventually the mirror cleared and
revealed what was happe
ning in Aridale. King Wilhelm was planning
an attack for tomorrow morning. They wanted
him dead
, but not Wilhelmina if they could help it. Edmund sighed; he knew this would happen, but never so soon.

“
I did this and so I have to end it
,” He thought as he waved the image away. Once the mirror went back to being and ordinary mirror, he left
the room.

“Lord Edmund,” Magnolia spoke as he exited the room.

“Magnolia,” Edmund said startled as he closed the door behind him and locked it.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, everything’s fine, go back to bed,” Edmund said hurrying past her. He had to put up a barrier around the castle and didn’t
have time for
distractions. He had till morning and he needed all the time he could
get
.
Edmund was determined to
protect them, his maids and Wilhelmina. It was his life the king was after and so it w
as only his life that would be
lost
.

Magnolia watched as Edmund stormed off. Fear and worry crept into her heart and she hurried back to her room. She felt tears coming on and sat in sorrow and bewilderment. She had never been able to cry before nor feel sadness.
Magnolia also had no idea why she felt sad, but she knew something was wrong.

Morning arrived in Aridale, though it wasn’t a sunny one. The sky was still black as night and the only way anyone knew it was morning was b
y looking at the clocks.
Yolande, Prince Jerome, and the guards King Wilhelm had selected were lining up for battle. They were preparing to march through Fantasme Forest to the castle of Celewyn.

“We haven’t had much time to prepare for this,” Yolande began, “But we must go now if we wish to save the princess.” Yolande was sitting on a white horse next to Jerome, who was on a black stallion.
Behind them was a small group of guards.
King Wilhelm
had
wanted to join them, but knew he must stay and take care of his wife and daughter.