EDWINA (Sample)

Chapter Seven

Taking off his scabbard and placing it against the trunk of a tree, he scratched behind the horse's ear, pointed two of his finger to his own eyes and to the stream then he said to it. "Watch her!" As if the animal understood, it snorted and shuffled on its hooves, tail swishing.

Hector took a last lingering glance at Edwina who was already chest deep in the water and partially grateful that her breasts were out of view then he walked away reluctantly.

Soon, he returned with a dead bloodied rabbit which he dropped on the grass with a thud beside his horse who was lying on the ground and munching away indifferently. It snorted again on Hector's quick arrival and got to its feet immediately. Hector walked down to the stream, crouched and began to wash the blood off his hands and also off his dagger. He looked up and scanned the stream but there was no sign of Edwina. He quickly jolted up to his feet and glanced at the spot he had last seen her but she was gone. He looked behind him and realized that her clothes were still where she had left them on the grass.

She wouldn't have escaped naked, would she? Because that would be a very stupid thing for her to do. Suddenly, the bubbles on the surface of the stream that was far away from the bank got his attention. More bubbles broke out to the surface and that was when he noticed that she was still in the stream and that she was drowning.

He hurriedly took off his jacket and his shirt and dove into the stream, swimming quickly towards the bubbles. She was slowly sinking and the water was filling her lungs while the bubbles were escaping from her mouth and her nostrils and he wondered how long she had been thrashing before she succumbed to being subdued by the water and had begun to drown.

He grabbed her upper arm and hauled her to the surface of the water, slipped his arms under her and carried her limp heavy weight, lifting her almost out of the water with her arms and head hanging limply. He swam towards the bank of the stream and when he could walk, he waded through the water and placed her on the grass when he reached the bank, he realized that she was not breathing. She just remained motionless, her eyes closed. Hector quickly knelt down before her naked form desperately trying to revive her. He placed his hand on the other on top of her chest and pushed down several times but nothing happened.

Clamping her nostrils shut with his thumb and index finger, he placed his lips over hers and exhaled into her mouth, down her throat, yet nothing. Pressing down harder on her chest again  and repeating the act of exhaling into her mouth, she suddenly jolted, choking back to life as she spurted water out of her mouth, and Hector sighed in relief when her eyes slowly fluttered open as more water poured out of her mouth and nose.

Hector gave her a displeased look now. "Next time you want to take a bath and you don't know how to swim, never you wander from the bank." He scolded her. "You won't be so lucky next time!" He chided.

As her eyes fully opened and she could see him, with a gasp of shock after she remembered that she was completely naked, she quickly scrambled for her clothes and covered her nakedness with it which could barely cover everything she wanted to conceal from his eyes.

Hector ignored her reaction, grabbed his shirt and his jacket off the grass and rose to his feet. "Get dressed... We leave after lunch." He stared and walked away.

Moments later, when she finally joined him, now dressed, he was already done gutting the rabbit and was roasting it over the fire he had made again. When the rabbit was roasted enough, he offered her some but she only shot him a scornful look and he knew that she wasn't going to eat anything from him. What the hell was wrong with this woman?! He had just saved her life a second time and yet, she was still bitter towards him.

He watched her get up and wander off but he kept her in sight and watched her search the nearby bushes and soon found some little fruits and she settled far away from him, her back against the trunk of a tree and began to eat them. Hector gave a weary sigh as he watched her finish eating and she stood up and went down to the stream to drink the water with her hands. He had packed up and put the fire out by the time she returned and they continued their journey in silence after he returned from filling his water bag with some stream water that would last him till they came across another drinkable water source. He was however grateful that even though she would not talk to him, she had not attempted to escape since they began their journey.

           ***
Queen Rohesia stood by her window, her gaze fixed on the horizon on the large sun which had turned reddish-orange and was beginning to sink gradually into the point where it seemed like the sky touched the earth. It had been two days now since Hector took Edwina away and she wondered if Edwina was now dead or if she had succeeded in escaped to somewhere safe where no harm would come to her like she hoped. Ever since Edwina's departure from Avalon, Rohesia had kept herself confined to her chambers, brooding over Edwina and nothing the king did could cheer her up.

There was no one she could confide in and there was no one to talk to her nor make her laugh like Edwina could. The king had sent her two new maidens in place of Edwina but she had rejected and sent them off and had attended to herself and anything she needed to do, only that, it was inevitably lonely in her chambers without Edwina and there was no other maid she found pleasing enough to confer with.

She turned slightly at the sound of a knock on her door and ushered the knocker in. As usual, Helena walked into the room and curtsied. On seeing Helena, the queen turned back to the window and asked sternly. "What is it?"

"The king wishes you to dine with him and King Tiberius." Helena answered.

Without turning away from the window, Rohesia replied. "Tell the king that I decline to join him for dinner and for any other meal. I would very much prefer to dine in my chambers and tell him not to call on me in person because I do not wish to see him." Rohesia said.

Helena's brows rose in surprise at the Queen's words. She was rather shocked by the Queen's anger towards the king, her husband and she lingered a while, thinking of how to deliver the Queen's message to the King when Rohesia said over her shoulder again. "You can leave...I wish to be left alone."

Curtsying again, Helena turned and left the room without a word while Rohesia sighed deeply. She needed Edwina and would do anything to have Edwina back safely in Avalon but there was nothing she could do now.

She loved her husband dearly but she couldn't bring herself to forgive him just yet...not when the emotional pain he had inflicted on her was still new.