Anais Timbley - A deadly beauty

Chapter Two: Overcome the pain

Three days later, Little Anais eventually revived but still was desperate to pass the terrific memories of the assassination. It was just mere hours before when Lady Timbley smiled and kissed goodbye to her dear daughter for Will Scarlet came to pick his ward up for the training; and the time they returned to the cottage, everything had lost. The grimly scene of the lifeless body of her mother by the cold fireplace, the smell of blood and the bitter scent of poison on her father's hands could not get rid of from her mind. From peaceful and heavenly, now life in Anais's eyes was nothing more than a living hell.

One day which was just as gloomy as other days, Anais sat on her bed, eyes staring at something she just found out under the pillows.

"Anais, I bring you some new clothes"

Someone knocked the chamber's door.

"May I come in?"

No voice came out, as usually. So the door opened and Mother Maiseline stepped in with some satin gowns in her arms.

"I know it's hard to get over it, but my child, you cannot stay desperate all the time", said Mother Maiseline gently, "Time will ease the pain, as everyone always says. No pain is eternal"

"You didn't lose a dearie before, thus how you understand how I feel, Mother Maiseline?", said Anais, coldly.

Mother Maiseline glanced at the thing Anais was holding. It was a moringa circlet which was dried out but still vaguely fragrant. Moringa, pure, pretty and precious, just like that person, thought Mother Maiseline.

"I do, my child... My dearies, have gone far-away...". Mother Maiseline then put the clothes on the bed, and bent over to hug Little Anais in her arms, murmured to her. But, in reply, Anais pushed the nun back.

"You didn't lost your parents!", shouted Anais.

"I was an orphan", replied Mother Maiseline, calmly. "I've lost more than you could think of, my child", she said in a deep tone.

The memories chasing in Mother Maiseline's mind reversed back to that day, when she heard the striking news of her childhood friend's execution. And the time she saw the rusty coffin covered in white veil and a golden coronet which were brought back from London, a part of her soul just like had been dead. A friend, a kind and humble monarch, a queen of England had no longer there. She could help nothing but cried so much that she fainted from shock. That was the time Mother Maiseline knew what was the greatest pain in life; it was the loss of the person or people whom you cared and loved.

"I've lost more than you could think of, my child. But as an abbess and a Rebel, I must pass the misery and put the well-being of other people above"

A tear, then another and another, flowed down Anais's pale cheek. She squealed in sympathy for her own and Mother Maiseline's similar ill fate.

"Why don't we just leave everything as it was? Why do we have to rebel against the Royal? Why are they hunting us?", cried she.

Once again, Mother Maiseline opened her arms to hug the poor child and comfort her. This time the child did not reject. She understood what Anais had lost just as much as what she had lost in the past.

"The Royal do nothing wrong, that is what they think, especially King Henry and Lord Macley. However, in our peasants and commoners' eyes, they are just heartless rulers; that's why we shall rise and take back what we deserve...", explained Mother Maiseline, "Our side consists of two parts, the Revolutionaries and the Rebels. The Revolutionaries, are the barons, leaders of the army, to fight against the unjustly laws of the Royal; and we Rebels, the commoners, fight the right-hand men from behind. Your father is a high-ranked officer of the Rebels, alongside the deceased Sir Robin and Sir Alan..."

The political problem of the kingdom at that time wasn't a thing a child could understand. However, she knew what caused the commoners to rise and fight, that was what her mother taught her when she was a toddler. Death lurking around in the form of starvation and disease, supported by high taxes and poor living condition of most citizens; hence it created a great gap between the commoners and nobilities. However, there was only one person who bypassed that space, the previous monarch of England who ended her life on the scaffold fourteen years ago. The only monarch who saw herself as equal as the humble peasants however still kept the greatness of a queen regnant, had no longer there.

Mother Maiseline sorted the clothes from the stack and chose a trumpet-sleeve peach-coloured satin gown for Anais to try. But Little Anais didn't seem to have interest in it.

"Your dress is quite old. Lady Sylvia gave me her mistress's old gowns after that day, but they still look good as new"

"I don't want them"

"These were sewn by Lady Sylvia herself for her mistress"

Something then triggered Anais's curiosity.

"What? Mother, the mistress?"

"Didn't Lady Sylvia tell you? She was formerly a princess's lady-in-waiting. I have to say so because of that law... Everything that concerned to her all restricted, thus I'd better not to reveal so much"

"Her?", looked Anais to Mother Maiseline.

"I cannot tell you, but I assure you that you may find the answer someday...", smiled Mother Maiseline, "Remember, my child: no matter how you feel devastated, as long as love and faith still live, there is no pain nor sorrow you cannot overcome..."

A moment later, only Anais was left alone in the chamber. Many thoughts were chasing in her mind, along with many hopelessness and regrets which were surrounding the poor girl. She was seemingly stuck in the bottom of her own sorrowfulness from the deaths of both her parents. She thought she had lost all, but then she knew, there were people who even lost more than what she lost, and people who were willingly to be at her side. The flower circlet was still in her little hands and still fragrant, as if it was encouraging the poor Little Anais that there was hope that existed, and she wasn't alone at all. Still holding the circlet, Anais tiredly laid her head on to the pillow and gently closed her eyes. A chain of memories passed through reminded her of a peaceful childhood, which had vanished away in all of a sudden. Anais weeping uncontrollably while silently wishing all of the nightmares to begone. Suddenly, the little girl heard a whisper:

"Be an angel rises from hell, and bring miracle to happen upon this kingdom. Continue my path which I had never accomplished..."

The voice came out from thin air, looked nothing like Lady Sylvia or Mother Maiseline, neither any of the sisters in the Abbey. This made Anais to shiver down the spine.

"Who... was that?", asked she.

However, this time, that strange voice didn't reply. "... Continue my path which I had never accomplished...", that was the strange voice had said to Anais, "... be an angel rises from hell...".

At first, Anais believed that she was imagining all by herself out of grief and sorrow; however, at the time, a fate had been bequeathed to her - from a legendary but deceased person. The fate of continuing the path which that person could not go on anymore. Unbeknownst to her, that was also her father's last will - becoming a Revolutionary, or be a Rebel like Lord Timbley and his friends.

Which path would Anais choose to go on? And how would she find the past lied behind the dark cloud of Nottingham?