The Magic in the Moment (Short Stories)

Redemption

            “Evangeline!” her father called her brusquely, snapping his fingers from the hallway. “You are taking much too long, child. Your appearance matters little under the circumstances. Come along!”

            Evangeline stood before the long mirror in the small room she shared with her two sisters, inwardly cursing her daft brother and his companions.

            She had just turned four and twenty and had resigned herself to life as a spinster. She regarded her reflection with disdain as it was quite obviously the cause of her lack of suitors. She was rather plump. Her auburn hair was much too bright and the curls were much too unruly. Her skin was fair, nearly translucent, and overly rosy. Her eyes were the color of summer-dried mud and all but disappeared in her round face when she smiled. Once, her figure would have spoken of her family’s wealth; now it served only to remind those in her village that she was not one of them, that her family had lost their fortune and now belonged neither in their poor village nor in the country home where she’d grown up. She did not possess the wealth to attract a man in proper society nor the beauty and skill to attract a man in the village. Surmise it to say, she was not the first pick for any man. She had long since become a burden upon her family. However, she was well-read and very intelligent and had hoped to procure a position as a governess or tutor. Nonetheless, her hand, her life would now serve as retribution for her brother’s mistakes.

            Her silly brother had thought to gain some enjoyment by exploring the old estate of their landlord upon the back hill overlooking their small village. He and a group of other young men had thought to discover the cursed man who was said to live there. They had snuck out late one night with torches and weaponry and set upon the estate. In their naïve stupidity, they vandalized the grounds and were caught by the Lord of Norelli himself. They became terrified and were run off the property with no preamble. Sometime later, a few days perhaps, the lord sent out a decree that a sacrifice of sorts must be made in order to redeem the village from his wrath. He demanded a woman be sent to become his wife. If no such offer was made, the village would be burned to the ground with no care for the inhabitants.

            The village began to discuss who the unlucky bride would be, and came to the obvious conclusion that it should be someone of no immediate value, someone who would not be missed and would not cause her family any misfortune if she were not married off. As Evangeline was already past the age of her prime, she was chosen to relieve the village of both her burdensome presence and of the Lord’s wrath.

            It was a perfect compromise in everyone’s eyes except Evangeline’s. Then again, what did the girl have to lose? She would miss no one here.

            She took one last glance at her faded, tattered white gown, smoothing a perpetual wrinkle in the satin, pulled her veil over her face with a resolute frown, and turned away to do her father’s bidding.

***

            The service was to be held inside the manor at the very hour of midnight. Strange, of course, but it was to be done upon the Lord of Norelli’s request.

            No one had seen Lord Ambrose since he was child. The story was told that he had been cursed early on, his father receiving the wrath of the village due to his iron fist ruling tactics. A witch was said to have taken the man’s pride by cursing his only heir. Soon after, the father had locked his son up in the west wing of the mansion and had never allowed him beyond the estate walls. The truth, however, was unknown, and Evangeline wasn’t keen on believing such an outlandish tale.

            Evangeline now sat silently inside the Lord’s carriage which had come to retrieve her, bumping and bobbing along as it skirted the hillside up the dirt road with its cracked and cragged surface. The noise of the creaking and thundering wheels was abhorrent, yet Evangeline barely noticed as her mind drifted elsewhere. She wondered about the man she was about to marry, about the wedding night they would share, and about her future life with him.