Sound Of Horses!

[Griffinwald]

The day before...

Mr Blythe, his wife Letita and daughter Louisa touched down in their village just in time to get greeted by the pale moon which had its ray of fingers spread out to enforce its glow amidst the dull black night sky.

——

Prior to the family's arrival, the Osborns had arrived first to Griffinwald and once the news had reached Bessie of the family's return, she ran quickly to locate Mr Graylock.

Once she'd found him, she shared a moment of confidence with him while he told her of the ill event that had frightened everyone back at the castle and one that had further caused the family amongst others, to leave immediately from Aegremonth.

"And what about my Elizabeth?" Bessie had asked, feeling a surge of troublesome emotion burst on her insides.

'IF milady did not journey back with lady Osborn's company, then there is bound to be trouble indeed. Oh, pray! The master and the rest of the family would be on their way by now. This wasn't meant to happen, my god,' feared Bessie as she let her thoughts pour into her mind violently like the torrents of a raging water storm.

Mr Graylock was prepared to speak once he'd seen her squeeze tightly to her garment near her chest region.

"When the storm ended... every maiden came running out of the hall where they should have been undergoing selection by the king-"

"Halt there, Mr Graylock. You mean milady was in there with the rest?" asked Bessie with a weak smile worn on her face.

"Yes. The new king—not the well-known Prince Aldrich needed to choose a maiden to be by his side." Mr Graylock had informed her swiftly.

"Is that so? Then milady was truly close to becoming a Royal treasure before the darkness? Then why did the light divorce the sky to ruin her luck when she was already close to becoming the king's person?"

"No one knows for sure...except for some baseless speculations about the new king."

At this point, Graylock paused because he concluded that they had derailed long into other talks than the initial topic of Elizabeth.

"And what is that speculation?"

"It is not useful to know that fact at the moment, my dear Bessie. But regarding your lady, she got trapped within the Castle walls whilst the lady's daughter had come out running."

"Wait! You mean lady Giselle who had initially gone in with milady ran out safely with no signs of my Elizabeth?"

"I'm afraid so. Although she said they were formerly holding on to each other in the beginning and as such she did not realize when your lady had let go of her hands."

After hearing these words, Bessie's mood turned sour, as though she could not understand why things had to happen in that manner to Elizabeth.

Realizing this, Graylock was quick to add...

"But don't be afraid. It is not lady Giselle's fault as well because there was a stampede at the tail end of everything-"

"My god!"

"However, while we were deliberating about Elizabeth, her mother closed in on our discussion and-"

"Mrs Blythe got informed of Elizabeth through you?"

'Ah! There is trouble indeed!' thought Bessie as she struggled not to let out a sigh, as not many people knew of the discrimination her lady got to experience in all her years of living with the Blythes.

"Yes, she got to know—your lady's mother. However, it was lady Osborn who got her fully acquainted with the news. She then promised to have her daughter found of her own accord, and therefore we journeyed without her."

"Then I fear that it is all over." Bessie let loose without care for caution.

"What is over?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing," she lied.

After a brief pause, she then decided to show appreciation to him.

"Thank you for all your kindness, Mr Graylock. I won't forget it in a hurry."

"You are welcome, dear Bessie and your lady is a very sweet girl."

"Thank you. Now I have to get going before the rest of the house returns home before me."

Mr Graylock nodded and smiled a half-smile and so did she before she hurried on her way mumbling some incoherent words as she half-ran herself back.

——

Forty-five minutes later.

Bessie had returned home early enough and had gotten the stove set for dinner. Whilst cooking, she had made certain to include Elizabeth's share.

At the moment, she had finished her task of cooking an early dinner for the family and was now idle enough to deal with her feelings of distress.

The emotion of uneasiness which shot through the entire course of her body had piqued primarily due to her gut feeling.

The reason being that, for one, her mind kept hounding her with whispers that held a great deal of certainty in their words.

Bessie, found it almost impossible to shake off the thought that Mrs Letita Blythe wasn't the type of woman[mother] to forgive Elizabeth's excesses so quickly.

"Of course, if it were Louisa that had disobeyed, it would have been a different story but now that the culprits happen to be me and milady—Elizabeth, hell will be bound to break loose!" she kept mumbling solely to her hearing while she paced about the living area of the Blythe's dwellings.

By her calculation, Bessie knew that since the Osborns had returned to the village already, then in a matter of minutes, her masters should return as well.

The mere thought of this made her even the more troubled.

"IF Elizabeth got rescued from the Castle by her mother, then I should worry about her merely getting a scolding or something of sorts. Now that we can work our way around by and by...but why do I feel like the opposite is more certain? That Mrs Blythe would make no attempt to rescue milady from the Castle?

Dear god, this shouldn't be the case!" cried Bessie as she continued to plod herself about.

In an instant, her ears twitched in the direction of the outdoor yard.

"The sound of horses! The master and the rest of the house have returned!"