Esmeralda's Web

By J.R. Gonzalez

In the last year of the Spanish Inquisition, two teenagers share an innocent kiss, and then are swept up in the madness until she is burned at the stake and he is boiled in acid. Two hundred years later, they find themselves in high school, and without any knowledge of their past, share and innocent kiss once more. It brings back the nightmares,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rushmore Press LLC
• Release date: Mar 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781954345928

J.R. Gonzalez

This is the sixth book by J.R. Gonzalez, who with each new book is proving that he is a master of horror; this book is a very worthy addition to that collection, originally intended to be part of a short story book, this book follows in the path of his last book, "The Wolf Man" and will be followed next by a story called "Nocturnal" which will reveal what happened to Carl Lingstrom after leaving that cliff side in his third book, "The Lingstroms." J.R. lives in Los Angeles and all of his stories take place there or end up there.

Book preview

PART ONE

CHAPTER ONE

Friends may come and go

Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate.

-Thomas Jones (1892 - 1969)

ELSPETH SAT ALONE in the high tower of the prison, placed in a cell above everyone else for two reasons; to show all that though she lived her life without laws without regard to the cost of her actions; they would always find her and others like her, and that when they found her, would deal with her in the harshest manner; no matter who she was or where she was hiding; her and others like her would never be safe.

It was a lesson meant for the masses as well, practicing the black arts would not be tolerated, nor would consorting with the devil or the casting of spells, all of which she was accused of but anyone that truly knew her would attest as to her innocence.

Ever since they took her that night there was never a doubt as to what was going to happen to her, it was decided long before they arrested her; only the method of her demise was as yet undecided.

The normal method for dealing with a witch was to hang her, they pretended it was to kill the head so she couldn’t cast spells from the grave but it was because they didn’t want to get blood on their hands, yet for some reason they were talking about burning her at the stake which didn’t sit well with some of them.

It was madness at its worst, the Inquisition was meant to find Jews that didn’t fully commit to Christianity and punish them; bring them back into the fold, even when they were deemed hopeless heretics, they knew that burning her was extreme and yet that was what offered her; there was nothing else on the table.

She knew what the future held for her, she was knowingly awaiting the most horrible of deaths because what else could she do, she was at the mercy of the madmen in charge.

Though in the end it turned out far worse than she could have imagined; in her darkest hours, her heart raced to be with me; to know that I was still alive, that I there was a chance for me at least; if not the both of us.

Our love was so deep, so strong that it was to be unabated by neither her impending death nor my own which was to follow very soon afterwards.

The horror we knew still lay before us; waiting as impatiently as a demanding and very angry maiden on her wedding night, this bride was different; and I could not help but imagine her in a gown of crimson rather than white.

We knew for certain that death was pounding at our door, demanding an immediate audience, but was forced to wait and was not happy about it but her flowers; the gowns of her hand maidens, even the groom would wear bright bloody red for this occasion.

About a year before all of this began, she started having nightmares that she could not understand, they frightened her; gave her an abnormal fear of falling asleep, she would do most anything to stay awake for fear of what they might reveal next.

She would stay awake for days on end; then she would only sleep during the day, being in the sunlight was a refuge somehow, she found comfort in the warm rays of the sun.

For her nightfall was an unbroken promise of some terrible evil in her future yet she eventually dismissed it as unimportant because it didn’t change her life and never seemed as though it would go away.

They were persistent in their attack on her mind; her psyche, and if she been able to make any sense of them, she might have seen them as a warning of what was coming; she might have changed some things in her life, maybe given us a chance at the least, but she was going to do what she felt was right and any other way was a betrayal of who she was and what she stood for.

Instead she began to adjust to them; at as much as she could, and since they went on for so long and nothing changed she began to push them farther into the back of her mind, until she forgot about most of them and the one she couldn’t forget was to do with the town square; but it wasn’t pleasant or seen in any way that she would have ever imagined.

In this nightmare, she was led to the center of the main square, where they held town meetings, debates, enacted new laws to govern the land, and in this case, she was going to find out firsthand what it felt to be held in those stocks, parading and subjecting her to ridicule by the townspeople in the name of justice.

As if justice would have anything to do with it; often times, the people enacting the ridicule were angry at others because they did something stupid and they blamed anyone else but themselves, and it was almost always something that cost them or severely disrupted their lives at home or at work.

When this type investigation started, they probably should have seen it go bad like this because once this, kind of justice started, the judges enacting the laws and punishments that were handed out with no real training for what they were doing, they knew nothing of religion and the laws they were trying to enforce and thought they were enacting the letter of the law.

The church, though they would never comment privately said that they thought it was a good idea to hire and take advantage of non-clergy men as long as they came with a legal background, but they over looked that part too and did what they wanted.

Trying to catch her off guard, they came for her early in the morning; she tried to save herself some dignity but they didn’t let her put on her robe or dress and dragged her out while she was in her nightgown, it was a miracle they didn’t kill her on the spot, they were already out of control; they rushed her out was as if they were racing the sunlight because they wanted to do something terrible, something that they knew would not stand up to the light of day.

They took her to right up the main gate; a wall of solid brick and mortar that withstood countless attacks from their enemies over many years; he saw several places where cannon fire struck the sides that she never noticed before; it amazed her that they could make weapons that fired this far from the ocean.

All she could think of was that they would come to their senses soon; and realizing their mistake, release her with profound apologies, not that she wanted them to be sorry; she didn’t care as long as it was over and no one was hurt, especially her.

She began to sense a stronger kind of punishment than before and thought of that square in better times, when she would be walking along with the housemaids, her aunt or anyone in the household that would go with her because she loved the excitement she felt in the air.

That was probably why she never understood the protocol that kept her mother from at least coming out here if not shopping with her and she went whenever she was given the chance.

She couldn’t have explained it if anyone asked but there was something about the commerce, the give and take of that market that excited her; the feeling that everyone was in a hurry and all seemed to be moving randomly and without cause, though she knew everyone was defined by a specific purpose.

Being there was a special event for her; something she never got a chance to tell me, by the time she figured it out, too much happened and there was no time left for niceties.

Still smiling as she slept; she remembered when our eyes first met, she was with her Aunt Celeste, her favorite because she was old enough to be dignified, yet still young at heart to have fun, labeled as someone that squeezed the most out of her life.

She learned immediately that men adored her aunt, while women envied her beauty, her grace, the way she carried herself and she tried as much as she could to be just like her; something that made her aunt laugh.

That was where she first noticed me; and in her innocence, she didn’t understand why it made her heart flutter and skip a beat; it wasn’t entirely unpleasant, didn’t scare her, but she would never forget me after that day.

Being so young you would think that it was a mere curiosity that she noticed me; but she knew then that I was someone she could give her heart to and not feel afraid; in my eyes, she saw someone that she could possibly trust in a boy’s body and mind; somehow, we connected. I saw a woman that was beautiful and so full of life that it was infectious, I felt caught up in her heart of hearts, finding myself swimming in the deep end of a pool for the first time in my life and I didn’t want to ever leave.

That day we might have spent hours gazing into each other’s eyes, but her aunt tugged at her hand, brought her out of her thoughts; the shopping was done, it was time to go home. She saw the look in her niece’s eye and laughed, It was not that long ago that I would be doing the same thing! she whispered to herself, Come child! she said, You are much too young to be thinking what you’re thinking right now, there will be plenty of time for that later!

But we never got that chance, that later was to be denied us so I reminded myself that those were better times; on this day, not far removed from that happy occasion she was now a prisoner being led along the crowd, standing at the fringe; she felt a shift in the wind, as if things were about to change.

For the worse or better she could not know; but the crowd sensed it; everyone turned to the end of the court and where the prison was; with all manner of serious criminal housed inside; she didn’t know why they would bring her there.

That was the part of the castle that none ever wanted to see, they tortured criminals there and it was said (and proven many times over) that once you were a guest here you were never allowed to leave, unless it was feet first, most were kept for remainder of their lives or they were executed.

It was the most famous part of the prison and everyone heard at least one horrible thing that happened there; it was legendary, everyone spoke of some relative or friend dragged in there and never seen again, at least not alive.

As her eyes swept the crowd for some kind of understanding, she saw something new, a new device that was not there the last time she visited, yet it was not long enough for them to have built this.

It was wooden at the base, probably not as tall as she thought it would be as she stopped and looked at it, but she felt fear grip her heart as she was forced to stand directly in front of it; almost as if they wanted her to honor it for what it was and she hoped it wasn’t meant for her.

She thought they brought her there to try it out and show everyone what it did, but they were all standing, waiting for something to happen and she was the only prisoner.

Looking up at the twin beams of wood, her eyes followed the rope alongside and then gasped at what she saw on the other end, she tried to say No, but nothing came out.

Having never seen a guillotine before, there was no mistaking it and knew what it was the moment her eyes took it in; and she was horrified. The blade shined wickedly in the early morning brightness of that day and as her eyes took it in; it appeared to be dripping blood taken from victims numbering higher than she wanted to count; the blood dropping down and hitting the ground with enough force that she felt the ground tremble under her feet.

She felt compelled to look into the basket though she fought against it and knew that there were no heads in there, yet the blood dripped from the blade above and splashed into its woven strands already filled with blood from others that stood before it as she was now; with her eyes, she followed the blood as it collected and then flooded the ground below it and became a river that she took a step back from to make sure that it didn’t touch her feet.

The crowd suddenly grew quiet and then slowly parted until she could see on the other end of the courtyard; a single door that now stood open, there was no one there yet she suddenly felt cold terror grip her heart and she almost fell.

Even knowing this wasn’t going to be her punishment, this gave her no sense of calm or comfort; they brought her here to see something she already knew she was not going to enjoy; she tried to turn away, pulled at her restraints but they stepped up quickly and held her gaze there; they forced her to watch.

Thinking back, she knew that there were men in that part of the prison; incarcerated for every manner of serious crime, desertion from the army, robbery, murder, but hard as she tried to imagine, she knew there was no one she knew housed in that part of hell.

Inside, she knew what was next and began to scream as loud as she could; tried to get away from there because she wanted no part of it, so one of the guards slapped her on the back of her head; hard enough to stun her and drop her to her knees, but not hard enough to knock her out.

The crowd began to laugh at her then; they also knew what was coming and she could see they were salivating, anticipating it with great relish.

Then the last of the crowd stepped aside and she saw me being led forward in handcuffs, that I was forced to take small steps because my legs were bound together; she could see me shuffling my feet as the guard hurried me along and from that distance she could see I was scared but probably didn’t know what was next as I hadn’t seen the guillotine yet.

Though she didn’t see me since that day in the square; she knew it was me; still young and maybe full of nothing but trouble, but not so wild that I should be considered a dangerous criminal.

Even from where she stood she could see the guards enjoyed their time with me; my arms were bruised and bleeding, there was a large welt on the right side of my face where I was hit repeatedly; my clothes were filthy and torn, they hung off my boney frame like flags decorated with dirt and my blood.

She could see as I got closer that the chains that bound my wrists and ankles were worn into my skin; it was raw and bloody in both places, yet it didn’t seem to bother me anymore.

As they brought me forth, she saw see me trying to look around the crowd, trying to find a friendly face in a sea of hostility. I was looking for someone that knew my character and would understand that I would never have done something so heinous; so, evil that I might somehow have deserved this to be punished like this, though I still didn’t know what was coming.

They led me to bottom of that horrible device and held me there while someone spoke to the crowd about my supposed crimes and I’d never seen this device before that day either, but heard reports of it while in town and in the schoolyard when all of the kids would trade horror stories and each try to be better or the most frightening of the group. In those conversations, they talked about it almost with reverence, they thought it was so special that it must be admired for its efficiency, but to me it was just another way to murder someone and pretend your hands were clean because all you did was pull a lever to drop the blade.

As she looked at me then she thought that they might have given me some kind of drug or something because I didn’t seem to be fully aware of what was going on or what kind of danger I was in.

The person that was speaking seemed to be some kind of minister or judge; and she knew that she should be paying attention to what he was saying, but from that point on she was deaf to him; she thought he stopped speaking but when she looked at him he was still speaking, raising and lowering his hands at times for emphasis and she wondered again what kind of hell was this.

When she tried to shout out to them, to tell then they were wrong; she found that she lost her voice as well, probably so she could not warn me or give me any words of comfort; it was clear they carefully planned this out and wanted nothing to interfere with what they were planning.

Then, without being told; one of the guards stepped forward and hit the back of my legs, leaned me forward and placed my head in the restraints, grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled until I could resist no longer while two others bound my hands behind me.

She thought they were choking me or I was realizing where I was because I was struggling to look behind me, I couldn’t turn my head enough to see; but she could feel my fear; could almost taste it from where she stood; she saw the wild look in my eyes she tried to run to me, to comfort me if she could have somehow but they stepped in front of her.

She felt her eyes as they rose to that terribly sharp blade hanging high over my head and she began to pray for me because she didn’t know what else to do.

Then as the blade glistened in the low light, she looked to the east again, hoping the sun would rise faster than it seemed to be willing to, she tried to will it to come up and put a stop to all of this, hoping the sunrise and its warmth would melt their hearts enough to put a stop to this.

Shading her eyes; she thought the first rays of the morning sun were about to rise over the nearby mountaintops, she shouted as she felt it burn its way into her heart, pointing at it, but no one was paying attention; they were focused on my impending death.

No one seemed to be paying her any mind but the guards that made sure she didn’t leave and that she saw what happened and the man who was still speaking; he never took his eyes off her while he spoke, he seemed to relish her predicament as much as he did mine; he was enjoying himself; savoring the moment as long as he could.

Then without warning, she heard a loud wooden clap and looked up as the blade fell and lopped off my head, severing artery and bone without hesitation. She imagined my eyes going out as the parts of my brain were switched off, the signals sent but nothing left to receive them as I died, she said a prayer for my peace of mind.

She watched in horror as my head moved around as I fought and the blade came for me, because I was struggling; my head slowly pitched forward and almost landed in the basket, but it hit the edge and bounced out as the crowd gasped.

Though it was what they all came to see, as one they all moved back and screamed in horror; afraid the blood might touch them; stain their souls and curse them and the generations to come; it never occurred to them that being a witness to this travesty of justice would curse them just the same; they all watched my head roll forward; pitching end over end as it flipped over until it hit her feet and then stopped with my chin on her toes.

My blood trailed a crimson streak across her gown as it flew out of my neck, just nicking the edge of her gown and covering her throat with a thick coat of the warm blood that was in my veins just moments ago; she could not tear her eyes from my face, ashen white and bruised over my cheeks and forehead.

She saw my tongue as it rolled out of my mouth; my eyes rolled back so far that only the whites showed, my blood still oozing out; staining the ground at her feet and she fainted.

Somehow, she felt that it was her fault this happened; that would explain why they brought her there to see this, though we shared no connection, nothing that could have made them know we were in love or that this would hurt her so that made no sense to her. She woke with a scream and tried to jump out of bed; as if she might get to me in time to save my life, even if it meant her death.

But she could not make sense of this premonition; we were years away from getting to know each other, we were still very much children when she first saw this nightmare; and she didn’t know my name, hadn’t so much as spoken to me yet.

Our story began in the fall of 1833, as the abomination they called the Spanish Inquisition began to wind down; though he ordered it stopped, Napoleon didn’t give the order to Stop this nonsense! in time to save either of us.

My name is Eduardo, and I am the son of a farmer and Innkeeper named Manuel Cabrera, and I am proud to say he is a good and honest man; as honest as the day is long and such a hard worker till the day he died that he never took a day off, except Sunday because that was the day he went to church with my mother.

His father was a farmer; as was his father before him, it was a long line stretching as far back as anyone could remember, and we live in the Southern Coast of Spain, in a land called Amora; in the state of Setabul. I grew up fishing in a small inlet that was part of the Esturio de Tejo; and my father strongly disapproved of what I did there because I worked with the ocean, catching fish and repairing nets; going for weeks at a time during the summer when the fisherman went out to sea; for me it was different, even from the early days of my childhood I could remember looking out of my bedroom window and the ocean calling out to me as a glittering jewel that sparked my imagination.

My mother seemed to be the only one that understood that spark of adventurer in me, my father never understood it, to him working the land was the only honest way to make a living; it was good enough for his family and should have been good enough for me and my children when they came.

She was the one that understood my adventurous side; why I felt the lure of things as yet undiscovered, my thirst to discover new lands and worlds that no one set foot on.

I didn’t want to conquer it; but instead to preserve it intact and enjoy the things I would find there, the discoveries I might make and would spend hours talking about that with anyone that would listen.

I know son! she would say and then smile at me, You will be a great explorer, you will find new lands and leave our mark on the world! I can see it now as if it has already happened! we would laugh about it. my father wanted me to continue the line of farmers they established, but at least he could see that I was working hard, making a living on my own.

When I wasn’t fishing I could be found in the market; selling fish I caught or working on other people’s boats, repairing their nets and giving the money to my mother.

In my family line, my mother was from royal blood; her family ruled a nearby country to the northeast, though she could have stayed and lived a life of luxury, she shunned that life when she followed her heart and chose my father.

That was how her family saw it, they tried bribery, coercion and blackmail but none of it worked to wrest her away from him; nothing against him but that he was a commoner and she wasn’t, they thought she should marry a duke from France, he was much older, fat and poor but owned a lot of land rich in possibilities, she would have nothing to do with him.

She understood my adventurous side; but that might have been because there were many rumors that spoke of her being adventurous, and as it turned out; the most outlandish of them was most widely known; she never denied it happened either.

The story was told that she and her Uncle Sebastian set out on a small, but fast ship as she set out on her maiden voyage; they planned to spend two weeks on a small island where the family built a retreat, this was to be a quiet trip and on the island where they kept farm animals and a few horses, cared for year-round by servants with rolling hills behind that, the island was too small for anything else.

Her father was away on business or he would have refused to allow it, and her mother was never asked or she might have gone along with them so in a way she was forced to sneak out but her uncle didn’t know that and thought she was given their blessing; he was delighted that she went along as they were very close.

It was smooth sailing at first, calm seas and clear skies to navigate their way, she enjoyed a meteor shower on the second night that was nothing short of spectacular.

But it was on the third day out that they ran into trouble, on the morning they found the anchor line was unraveled and they drifted off course during the night; they were uncertain as to where they were, how far they drifted, with no stars it was hard to get exact bearings and there was no sight of the escort ship sent along for their safety and protection. They were now in the open sea, fair game for the pirates that were known to frequent these waters and because it was a planned short trip they were already short on supplies.

It was not long after that they saw a ship approaching; they knew instantly that it was not a friendly ship on some rescue mission, and they were not due for a few days; they knew that no one would be looking for them yet and it was closing fast.

They was no way of knowing it at the time, but the escort ship was found as they were trying to backtrack and find them; the crew fought bravely but was soon overwhelmed by larger numbers; many were killed and tossed overboard and whatever valuables in her cargo were offloaded, the pirates took their wine and toasted the dead as they watched her sink.

They wanted to burn the men alive with the ship but could not risk revealing where they were with smoke if they burned her, so they knocked holes in her sides and watched her sink, some of the men were still alive, tied to the mast and cursing the pirates as they died.

But they knew about the other ship because some of the crew tried to bargain for their lives; telling the pirates about the ship they were escorting; how best to approach it and when; how many men were aboard and who was in charge, which explained why they were able to get so close before being seen.

They were promised their lives if they told all and the pirates were as good as their word, all they needed to do was out swim the sharks that were attracted by the blood, and they laughed and threw them overboard, some were cut to draw the sharks in when the action slowed, they would laugh at the screaming and carnage when the sharks smelled blood in the water.

For her safety, my mother was quickly placed in the forward cabin where a special room was built to protect her or anyone else, as well as any valuables; it was actually a series of thick, wooden doors, fastened and locked together to make it very hard to penetrate.

They told her to lock the door, but before they could secure her behind the outer doors the fight was brought to them, four pirates found their way to that point and the men fought hard to keep them off, but one of them died there, the other fought two of them off and stood fast, his duty to protect my mother even at the cost of his own life; it should not have come to that, her ship was small and fast and built to escape this kind of situation.

The crew fought hard, knowing their lives were at stake, and when it came to hand to hand fighting, they died on their shields and did the king proud, but the pirates were hungrier and brought greater numbers, the battle was decided quickly and violently, none were spared.

Even the fastest ship couldn’t outrun the cannon once they got close, they were making some distance between them when they took one too many hits; they were struck on the starboard side, but that wasn’t so serious; it started a fire they were able to quickly put out.

The one that did all the serious damage was the one they thought was fired too high; when they were starting to think that they might escape after all because the cannon fire was slowing, and they thought the pirates might be giving up.

They were trying to get to the shallows where the bigger ship could not follow; and were tantalizing close but still out of reach and going against the current when that shot took out the main sails along with the mast; the cannon ball bounced as it hit the deck, the spun forward through several men before hitting that mainsail, setting them adrift with no control beyond the rudder; and even a really strong wind would not help them now unless it changed direction.

After that, they were quickly taken over, and the some of the men that were there to protect her jumped overboard without a word; trying to save their own lives. She knew those men; knew that some would not leave her unless they thought she was dead, but also knew what that meant for her if they found her.

Most likely they would keep her for a while, gain a ransom for her before returning her to her father; yet she would be at their mercy and as pirates they weren’t known for their patience or consideration, they might try and have some fun with her before releasing her, royalty or not; and the worst case did occur to her; that they would decide to keep her and she would never see the fires of home again.

She quickly decided to climb out of a window in the captain’s quarters and hide outside of the ship; it was her only chance. As quietly as she could manage, and sure that at any moment she would be discovered, she left the relative safety of that panic room and crept to the far side of the cabin; all while trying to ignore the screams of the dying and the battle going on all over the ship.

Before her was the captain’s table, food still served there, plates hardly touched, wine spilled as much as the blood on the deck, it caused her to shudder before she could move on, and then she thought she heard someone and hid under the table.

After a few moments, she dared to look out and saw one man, waiting for her; he must have sensed her down there because she hardly made a sound, knowing he saw her; she stood up and he leered at her, this made her retch as she thought of his filthy hands on her, even from where she was she thought he hadn’t bathed in months and his teeth were blackened green and yellow when he smiled at her.

She stood up, her back against the table and pretended to feel helpless before him, she reached behind her until she found the knife she saw just before she ducked under the table.

He removed his belt and stepped forward thinking that she was a serving maid or something and this was going to be easy, as he dropped his belt and stepped forward she brought the blade up quickly and thrust it under his chin, pushing up as hard and fast as she could manage because she thought he was going to be tougher than he was as he fell, pulling at the blade as he died.

When she was sure that he was dead she climbed out and looked back once, she regretted it for the rest of her life; she saw one of the few men that was always very kind to her; he was coming to protect her because she saw one of the guards leave, and as she watched him run towards her one of the pirates saw him, and stuck the poor man down; stabbing him through his back before he got close enough that the pirate would see her.

She took enough time to make sure there was nothing she could do for him and then crept away; slowly crawling out of the small window where she hid for most of the night and the next morning when she was finally rescued.

When they asked why she didn’t take refuge in that chamber as they told her, she said something they never thought of, and it surprised them that she caught what they all missed.

I was afraid that if they set the ship on fire, I would be burned alive with no chance of escape! she said innocently enough.

In truth, though it was cold on that ledge and she was out there a long time, but she felt that if she stayed in there she would have eventually come out of that locker because even if they didn’t set fire to the ship; she would want to know what happened, that was when she would be caught.

The rest of the crew, along with her beloved uncle were killed and tossed overboard; their blood drawing sharks that made quick work of the bodies that died or were still trying to swim away.

It was revealed that these pirates were long standing enemies of her father’s and as such, they took their time with her uncle; over the years either her uncle or her father killed captured and or imprisoned several of his crew, they didn’t kill him so much for retribution as to save face, to show them that pirates can exact a measure of revenge now and then. When they found her; she was still clinging to the masthead, near freezing from exposure, and too weak to call out to anyone; they almost missed her, but she was directly in the path of their approach, otherwise she might have fallen into the ocean and drowned.

It wasn’t a rescue ship that found her; they still didn’t know what happened and she wasn’t overdue yet, it was a ship that was passing and found them adrift, they were rewarded for saving her by her father. She ordered the masthead she hid under saved and mounted in her room, she felt that the figure of a woman was all that kept her alive, gave her strength until they rescued her.

Then she named the mast; Isadora after an older sister of her fathers, changing the name because she thought it would improve their fortune, though commissioned only two months prior to that fateful launch.

Isadora led a tragic life, a victim of the pox, she died when she was almost fourteen, her father took that hard and was said to be in love with her and not in a brotherly fashion either.

After she died he blamed himself for it; thinking that it might possibly be his lustful thoughts towards her that caused her untimely death; he felt he cursed her by thinking that she would be his one day. When he found out the danger his daughter was in; her father was furious, he would have been against her going in the first place, he always doted on his only daughter until she fell in love with my father, now he felt the same but only in his heart and would not speak of her in public, in private he mourned her as if she were dead and cried himself to sleep many times.

Her father spent the rest of that year making everyone around him miserable; starting with the man that designed and then built the ship because he hadn’t made it fast enough. He lamented the loss of his brother; but that was probably more so because he couldn’t make his life miserable as well for taking his daughter along and exposing her to danger.

My mother was so different that I sometimes wondered how they ever came to be married; even though it was normal in those days to arrange marriages to keep the fragile peace between lands.

For that reason, it made sense, it was considered a good thing; though my grandmother was much younger than my grandfather, and he would never be considered a handsome man, he came with a good heart.

Though it must have sometimes seemed he must have needed to call a meeting of his cabinet before he could show it; he treated her well but only in private; that was rare when a wife was mostly a decoration; someone mostly meant to be seen and not heard.

As such, I was much closer to my mother who could always be warm and openly affectionate; I felt that she understood me better and tried very hard to show me that she loved me.

She didn’t pay much attention to the formalities of her upbringing and he didn’t know how to be a father; since his own family seemed very cold and uncaring when he needed them the most.

Her ancestors were at the Treaty of Spain and Portugal in October of 1479; signed by Don Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the king and queen of Castile, it was said that her mother died of a broken heart over the entire affair, at losing her beloved daughter to a commoner.

It might have turned out differently if either of them would have bent down and reached out to her, it hurt her deeply to lose them as well, but she followed her heart as she knew she must; she hoped one day they might understand, and prayed for that day to come, but it never did.

There isn’t much here in the way of commerce; mostly oil and farm products that were made here, and fishing of course, but that wasn’t the easiest way to make a living. But they could never get over the fact that my family history was of farmers, my father lost his farm over an unseasonal drought or he would do the same; they couldn’t see a value in what he invested all his money and hard work into.

He still owned a modest farm and was doing well for those times; the crops he produced every year brought the highest yield, the best and most sought after, so they fetched the best possible price.

Yet, all they saw was the dirt under his nails and though he could have stood back and let others do the work, he was not cut out that way, all of that combined with the fact that he was not of royal blood. They saw no value even that he was someone that thought that unless a man was up and working long before the sun came up he was both lazy and useless.

It is my fourteenth year of being alive, and probably because I am deeply in love with Elspeth; I feel more alive than ever, she is two years my senior but I love her just the same, though it would be a long time before we discovered just how deep those feelings went.

Her father Roberto; raised her since the death of her mother when she was only three years young; he loved his daughter dearly, she was all he was left with after the violent death of her mother at the hands of the villagers.

He claimed to be a Basque separatist since birth; and fought and won many battles over the years, but the one battle that finally killed him was when his daughter was suspected of having the Black Plague; something that was never proven and never touched Elspeth or her father except for the fact that it ripped their hearts out when they took her mother that night.

There were groups of people in the town that started the rumors, they saw they blemish on her skin and noted it, but it took on more of an urgent edge when it grew much larger when they saw that it had grown, they took it as proof that she was a witch.

Being a superstitious and cowardly lot, the people in the town spread the rumor like wildfire as if it were true, they wouldn’t say anything to her face; only when she was gone and couldn’t hear them to defend herself. They said she was a witch and didn’t want to draw her wrath; they were afraid she would curse them for seeing her as she was, but it was more because they were not brave enough to confront her themselves, content to wait for the officials to do their job, what they were paid for after all though they were more than happy to point them in certain directions.

It finally rose to a point and the villagers came for her in the middle of the night, one of the reasons Elspeth experienced that nightmare later in her life; but they burned her mother to death because they all feared that disease and they would take no undue chances and killed her.

There was no trial and no witnesses to testify, they never for a moment thought there was anything wrong with that, but it they took great pleasure in carrying that out, they felt she wasn’t one of them.

They claimed that it was only fitting that she was a member of the upper class and was touched by a disease that normally only touched the commoners and skipped the royal families.

This was a time when the burden of proof was unnecessary for the townspeople to act, and they enacted their own brand of justice.

For religious or political reasons, no one ever questioned it, but burning at the stake seemed to be the preferred mode of our town; it was the final act in what they referred to as justice being served.

But if they investigated, they would have found that she didn’t have the plague at all, it was simply a form of melanoma, at the time it was quite benign though it would not stay that way for the rest of her life; they spared her the pain of dying that way but it would have given them no comfort to know that.

If he didn’t have Elspeth, he would have gladly joined his wife in the flames, jumped in and held her close while they burned to death; he loved her that much, but couldn’t bear the mere thought of Elspeth being left alone in such a cruel world.

He almost went insane trying to decide what he should do; he knew he could leave her with the farmer that grew his crops right next to his and she would have been well cared for, he felt that he was dead anyway, that he died along with his wife, but he never asked that of him should anything happen; who knew how it might go after he was gone.

Because of that he felt that he must be there for his daughter, he just couldn’t abandon her and that she would need him as she grew into a woman, knowing that it would be much Better if she had her mother was there for support, there were things she would need to know that he didn’t know either, but there was no choice.

Besides that, he wanted to be with her, to love her and enjoy what time they might have together, since they knew of the cruelty of death firsthand.

The thing about Elspeth was; I fell in love with her that first day in the market square, the moment when our eyes first met; and I remember that day clearly, even now, because it was important to me.

It was a slow morning for the fisherman that day, but I was lucky and found a school of fish that no one else was anywhere near, and by the time I cleared my nets I caught enough to sell and keep us all in good standing for a while.

When I saw her, I was trying to sell some White Sea bass that was the last of my catch, and rare for this time of year but a very tasty fish, two men were haggling over the price, each trying to outbid the other while not going broke.

They both wanted the fish I caught that day and were men that I frequently did business many times before; each of them expected to be favored in my final decision.

At that moment, they were arguing about who deserved first right to buy them from me when they stopped and followed the path of my eyes back to her. Then they both started to laugh, and one nudged the other and said, His life as a lothario never got off to a start! and laughed louder, though I didn’t notice.

Both men worked it out without me; an amicable agreement that worked for all of us, they left money and took the fish, dividing them equally and acting as old friends now.

I think it was something about seeing someone in love; which can at times change things around the lovers involved; it made other people that felt it both envious and happy.

Clearly, I was intrigued by her; because she seemed both vulnerable and very much aware of what was going on at the same time.

She never let go of her aunt’s hand, or whoever she was with that day; and seemed to jump at every noise and commotion, that market is active, especially during that time of day.

Though she seemed extremely shy at times; I thought it might be a defense mechanism; something she used to keep people at arm’s length, better to observe them without them knowing it.

There was moment when I felt a soft aura about her; that she might have been too young to be exposed to a world where money was king and the abuse that followed it considered the normal way of doing things, no one seemed to have time for such a child, yet I was younger than she and marketing fish that I caught with grown men as if I belonged there.

She was afraid that they would not allow her to continue to go there if they saw how she enjoyed being there; but she couldn’t help herself and tried to take in everything at once.

If I close my eyes I can still see her smile as her eyes met mine; it might have been as simple as fish scales or something on my face, maybe some dirt, but it was encouragement to me.

I also felt as though I knew her, as if we’d met before; this was confusing to me because on the one hand I felt a great joy; and at the same time, a feeling of deep dread, as if it was going to be the end of me. maybe I thought that having tasted love as the promise that we held between us; silent and as yet, unspoken, it was very real to me, and I hoped to her as well and yet underneath that joy but just as strong and real was the feeling that I would not live to see my twenty first birthday. As I thought of that, I felt my body shiver involuntarily; I felt as though someone was whispering in my ear; "Not in THIS lifetime anyway!" and then I heard them laughing at me, no one was around me when I looked, I quickly dismissed it as my imagination.

I remember that just before that; I was thinking that after they bought those fish I was going to go and buy some of those delicious peaches, oranges too because they were my mother’s favorite, but peaches were always my favorite.

Then I saw her leaving; and my business now done, I followed after her as quick and as discreetly as I could manage, I didn’t want to upset her guard or make them feel I was dangerous; that was when she turned and gave me the warmest smile I ever saw in my life; I knew right then that I would gladly spend the rest of my life chasing her just for the chance to see it once again.

Once she got into her coach and left, I stopped chasing her and thought I would spend my time dreaming about us together, I never thought I would a chance, the royalty marries commoner part of my family history already written with my father and mother.

I didn’t see her for a while after that, though I didn’t know it her aunt was ill and she stayed with her until she was strong again, I didn’t see her until school started; not heard her so much as her voice nor her name, though I knew that I would.

But life conspired against us as well, my father became sick, I missed school for a short time and stayed to run the farm, do what he did daily to keep us in our home and food on the table his way.

The school we attended when I returned held all the classes in one building, all levels and ages in one large room, as a habit she always sat near the front of the class; though that area was usually set aside for the older student’s ready to move on and she wasn’t quite old enough; she claimed that sitting in the back gave her a headache because she couldn’t see so well, and they allowed it.

She was smart enough anyway; she always knew the answers, never seemed to get flustered or rattled by surprise exams or anything else threw at us in school.

Everyone else sat according to their age and level; which meant that I didn’t have a lot of time before she would move on and I would be left behind with my foolish schoolboy crush, even with all of that; it took me almost the rest of that school year before I was able to speak to her.

I was shy and she was beautiful; I knew I wasn’t the only one that felt that way, I could see a lot of other guys were fawning all over her too, but I never thought she would notice me with all the other choices.

Between classes and stopping for lunch I would sometimes follow her and in my imagination, I was talking to her; holding her hand in mine; I knew that if I looked into her eyes I would get lost, and I spent a lot of time imagining her smiling at me.

I learned that her name was Elspeth, and with all of her intelligence, the way she carried herself and her piercing green eyes offset by strawberry blonde hair that curled gently at the ends, she was perfect; her laughter a series of musical notes carried along by the wind and bringing her very nature to me.

The softness of her skin scented with fragrant oils teased my senses, causing me to lose my concentration more than once.

I was so in love with her that I thought that before I met her my life was a blur; all of it was meaningless and indistinct, with no purpose.

That after her nothing would ever be the same, she would become my purpose and if I won her hand I would gladly spend the rest of my days earning that love, every minute of every single day.

Because I knew that there would never be any sense of fulfillment without her in my life to share it with, no matter how successful I might become or how far I might go in life and my only hope was that she might see me in the same light.

When I think about it, the first time we ever spoke, when I suppose I finally worked up the courage to actually talk to her was more out of reflex than any conscious thought; I didn’t have time to think or to talk myself out of it as I did so many times before.

It was so easy to say, She’s not interested in what I have to say when I thought about speaking to her, but that day I stood up to defend her from a bully at school; he was a senior and in his last year before going on to university and was very full of himself, that was obvious from the start, I was trying to finish some notes before I left the classroom and I left later than everyone else.

I knew that his name was Gregor; and I remembered him from the class, he was pushy, loud, and obnoxious, and he was used to getting his way much of the time using those tactics.

When I came out of the classroom and around the corner I saw him stepping in front of her, preventing her from leaving, though she clearly held no interest in him or what he might have to say.

Looking at him, I thought that he was not very tough looking, in truth; if anyone asked me I would have said that he appeared rather feminine; something made worse by his mother who started curling his hair before he went anywhere and wouldn’t let him play with others as he grew up so he didn’t have a lot of social skills either.

If I guessed I would say that she always wanted a girl and wasn’t going to go through the anxiety and fuss of having another child; or maybe she couldn’t and he was paying for that wish of hers; but it was not that I held anything against him for that, mom used to say, To each his own! which I took to mean that it was none of my business.

Much to my consternation, I found out that day that he was also in love with her, and he was having a hard time understanding why she didn’t return his obvious feelings of affection.

Being in the same classroom made it difficult to keep secrets, everyone knew everyone else and their business, their families, what they went through to get here; it was all out there for the rest of us to see, and I saw her let him know more than once that she wasn’t interested. His father was a baron of some country that no one ever heard of, and yet he was of good standing in the community and though was considered rude and obnoxious, his vote carried a lot weight and his mother was very active in the community, for years he never left her side and it was normal to see him at her social events even when other children were not allowed.

She let him know that day again, which made me enormously happy, probably why I rushed in so foolishly, but knowing that he didn’t have a chance gave me a modicum of hope that she might choose me after all.

It angered me because she ignored his obvious attempts which seemed silly to me, but when he saw me smirking at him he was going to speak to me about it when class started, and he sat down.

He was determined that she would marry him; he felt that his standing in the community should be enough to entice any woman to his side and that she would see the wisdom of it in time and come along willingly.

Though he was blazing with desire for her; he was serious enough about having her that he was already making plans for them as a married couple; how many children they would have and of course, his mother would live with them and show her how to take care of his wants and needs, they would learn his desires together as they went.

He made it clear that he wanted her to be his wife; to bear his children and keep his house clean until he returned home, that he wanted her to be there when needed; to show her off to his friends and business associates, he didn’t seem to care that she might have other ideas about her life.

It was all he thought about; he even told his friends, and every spare moment that his mother wasn’t screaming at him in her shrew’s voice. He held no real standing in the community; no one knew where he came from, though he feigned a great deal of wealth and always seemed to wear the latest fashions, there was nothing else to convince us that it was anything more than a fantasy of his and that possibly his mother knew a tailor with an eye for fashion.

Sometimes the harpy seemed more than usually focused on reminding him that when his father was gone things would change and he would be more on his own, no one would be there to protect them and she made it very