Savage Cinderella

Savage Cinderella-Chapter 4-Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Chapter 4

He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. As she tromped through the woods searching for the perfect size and shape of walking stick for someone his height, it occurred to her that she’d never thought of any man as beautiful or attractive. Old Mr. Hoffman was certainly not a sight to behold with his bald head and wrinkled skin, and every other man that she had spied from a distance had made her skin crawl. They either looked at her with disdain or snickered behind her back. Almost worse was when they made her feel invisible. There had never been anyone who looked at her the way Justin Spencer did—as if he saw her and wanted to know her.

If she could help it, the only close contact that she had with civilization was her once or twice monthly visits into town to work at night for Mr. Hoffman. She happily cleaned the store and stocked shelves in exchange for necessities. Her other friend, Abby, she saw more infrequently of late. Although her life of solitude was the life that she knew and accepted, she missed her visits with Abby, who had left for college last fall and only returned on holidays and long weekends through the winter. 

Brinn hiked along the deer trail. She smiled as she spied a Juneberry bush filled with succulent fruit. The bush was nestled into a sunny crag that drew heat from the granite boulders protecting it from the cool mountain breezes. The berries were early this year; it would be a warm season. She plucked the fruit from its stems and popped a handful into her mouth. They were still tart, but she was famished.

She had missed out on dinner, thanks to her unwitting houseguest. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sweet tang of the wild berries and then wiped her mouth on her arm, streaking it with a purple stain. She filled the leather pouch that hung at her side, certain that her guest would be hungry as well. If his size was any indication of his appetite, she would need more than berries, she mused, popping a few more into her mouth with a wry grin.

Temporarily sated, she continued on the path, reminiscing about her friend. She missed Abby so much. She’d been the first person that Brinn had met after she found herself wandering the hills and meadows of the high country as a child that first summer.

When Abby caught her stealing eggs from the hen-house on the family’s farm, the girls—about the same age—became instant friends. Abby, blonde, chubby, nearsighted, and awkward, had few friends, if any, until Brinn came along. She reluctantly agreed to keep Brinn a secret. The girls met under the willow in the low meadow on the day of every full moon when weather permitted.

Whenever Brinn made her way down off the mountain in desperation and need, Abby provided for her new best friend as well as any ten-year-old could. Though Brinn appreciated the clothes, they were always ill fitted—too short in the legs and too big in the waist. Forced to belt her pants to hold them up, she learned to take advantage of the convenient place to attach her knife and collecting pouch.

Abby made a game of supplying her friend with blankets, candles, matches, and whatever food or necessities she could pilfer from her parents’ kitchen cabinets. Brinn couldn't wait to see what new surprises Abby had for her each time she made the half day’s trip out of the mountains. Sometimes her friend would have fruit or chocolate or a new hair ribbon—-anything to brighten Brinn’s otherwise bleak existence.

Most of all, she loved the books that Abby brought.  Over the years, she had collected mountains of them. Including an Anatomy and Physiology text that Abby had given to her in an effort to convince her that, despite the onset of her monthly cycle, she wasn’t going to bleed to death and she wasn’t being punished for anything she’d done wrong. Brinn discovered that the regular flow of blood seemed to coincide with the moon cycle—just like the tides of the oceans—and eventually, her fear about the changes her body underwent dissipated as her comprehension of the anatomy text improved.