The girl who would wear green

Chapter Fourteen

Essie didn't know what she had been expecting but her Grandmother didn't live quite so far away as she had imagined, even though it did take most of the morning to get there. The house was not on a road that many people travelled, it was more like a rough grassy track that they bumped and jumped over on the way. The track led to a river, and waiting at the river's edge on the far side was a boat.
Once he'd parked their car under the trees and they'd all climbed out, Sebastian started whistling the song she'd heard often, when he was working on his tractor. The boatman replied, whistling the same song, and bought the boat to their side of the river. Once they all climbed on, the boatman then took them down the river a little, past the bend, and then across to the other side. No one said a word.
As they drew closer to the bank Essie could see a horse and an old wooden cart waiting, a figure sitting hunched over on the seat.
Essie and Amelia thought this was quite funny and old fashioned until they noticed the man sitting on the front seat behind the horse, holding the reins.
Essie looked at Amelia. Amelia looked at Essie. Both had horrified looks on their faces. "What's wrong?" asked Sebastian.
"That man! Dad, that man! We've seen him before. In the library, he always watches us, and he never talks, and he's scary, and I don't think we should be going anywhere with him!" Essie replied emphatically with Amelia nodding in agreement.
Sebastian said "Randolph, have you been scaring the girls?" as he helped everyone out of the boat.
To Essie and Amelia's amazement, the man turned, smiled and nodded and said "hello girls, and no, I didn't really scare them did I? I was just doing my job, looking out for Esmeralda."
The girls couldn't believe their eyes, as they watched Sebastian talk normally with Randolph after they were all settled in the cart, with Essie's mum adding a word here and there as well, as Randolph guided the horse and cart down an almost invisible track. The girls were then left with open mouths as Randolph rather sprightly jumped from the cart to help them down, once they arrived. No wheelchair at all!
The house was a stone cottage, hidden in the surrounding trees and not easily noticed until you came close.
Essie's grandmother met them at the door of her cottage, and Essie and Amelia saw that it was Mrs Mel.
Her hair was not tied up in the tight bun anymore, it was quite curly and mostly grey with some strands of the red gold still. It curled almost to her shoulders, and around her face softly. She was wearing a green dress, and she was quite tall, and around her neck was a silver locket, very much like Essie's with a polished blue stone in the filigree working in the front. Her eyes, without the gold glasses were like Essie's. One green and one brown.
Essie was quite amazed, while thinking to herself that yes, it all made sense. She was smiling at Essie and Amelia and watching them realise that they knew her.

Essie's grandmother said to her "Yes, I wanted to know how you dealt with the knowledge of your gift, and I wanted to watch over and help you where I could. Oh, and yes, Essie I was wearing green. My shoes, which I made sure no one ever saw!"
Essie laughed, delighted that her grandmother could understand her without her needing to speak.
After everyone was settled inside and they had all eaten and cleared up, the discussion became serious.
Julia told Esmeralda about Bryce Donald.
Listening to her mum talk, Essie learned that Bryce Donald was Lord Leopold's cousin, and that they had started working together after they met during the Conference held earlier. Julia and some of the King's advisory council were certain that Bryce Donald was working with Lord Leopold to overthrow the King, both gaining strength and power by working together.
Esmeralda had seen, with her gift of foresight that this was indeed happening, and had called for Sebastian to bring Essie to her. It was time for them to work as one, using the strength of them both to combat the evil of Lord Leopold and Bryce Donald.
Amelia had been sitting silently listening also, and looking totally confused. Esmeralda turned to Essie and said,
"My gift Essie, is similar to yours. I can sense and see danger and it allows me to take action if needed to step in. Like you, I can only use my gift to make the outcome better. With your gift of being able to hear thoughts and pick up on emotions, we can work together to stop Lord Leopold and Bryce Donald. Between us we should be able to turn their plans around and maybe even stop them for good this time."
Amelia turned and looked in amazement at Essie. "Gift? What can you do?" she asked.
Esmeralda replied. "We'll come to that later Amelia, and we will also try and help you find your mother".
Which left Amelia looking even more amazed as no one had even mentioned her mother or any problem at all about her.
Esmeralda continued, "When King Alexander became very ill and I sensed the danger that was coming, I knew that I was taking a risk by stepping in to help. There had been stories in the past about our family and our gift, but mostly it had faded into legends. Using my gift against Lord Leopold's power meant he became aware of me, and he decided to try and force my gift towards helping him, rather than stop him."
He kidnapped Sebastian, holding his life as the ransom to make me work for him, and I had no choice but to do as he said to save Sebastian's life.
What he didn't realise was that my gift, like yours, can only be used where help is needed. Forcing me to focus on removing King Alexander and making Lord Leopold ruler meant that I had no control over what happened next, because soon everything he had tried to force me to do, turned around and was directed at him instead.
He left, weak, bitter and ill, and we had heard nothing of him till now. Esmeralda paused to take a breath and then went on.

"Eventually Randolph rescued Sebastian after Lord Leopold became a shadow of himself, but the effort was almost too much for me."
Sebastian took the story up from there. "We moved, and my mother went into hiding to recover her strength."
Sebastian then turned to his mother and said "Essie has been having some difficulties with Bryce Donald's daughter at school, and I am sure that Hallie has been told to find out if Essie is part of this family with the inherited gift."
Just then the door opened, and in walked Seb. Again, the girls looked astounded and even Essie's Mum and Dad looked a little surprised.
Randolph put his arm on Seb's shoulder and said "meet my grandson Sebastian. We call him Seb."
He looked at Essie's dad and said "We named him for you, and he has been at Essie's school just to keep an eye out and to help if needed".
Seb looked at Essie and Amelia, spread his hands and smiled. "I do really want to be friends too" he said.
"Dad", Essie said, "maybe I should tell you that I have picked up a lot of Hallie's thoughts about a Jake? Do we know anyone called Jake? Hallie is seeing him I think."
Essie's mum looked grim. "He's a young man I've employed not long ago as my assistant. That explains how Bryce Donald seems to know what I am doing as soon as I do."