The Breton Boys

Chapter Seven: Jasper Vale

It seemed but a moment had passed since Cellette laid the baby down in her bassinet and dared shut her own eyes for a few precious moments of rest, but when the baby's cry stirred her from her sleep, she was surprised to see that the house had fallen dark. The fire in the hearth cast a shadowy yellow glow over the lavish parlor as Cellette nimbly unfastened the long line of buttons running down the neck of her dress and lifted the lace-bundled babe from her cradle.

Even after a month, Cellette was not yet accustomed to the sleeplessness and the exhaustion that came with caring for Elma. And motherhood was only made more difficult by the fact that Edrick spent evening after evening locked away in the legal archives of Jasper Vale's Library on the Lake. He studied international trade law, as Cellette had, so she understood the rigor of the King's Examination for entry into the Royal Academy. She herself had not passed it and was unwilling to let her husband endure the same shameful fate. So although she wanted for his help and his company, she obligingly left him to his work while she looked after Elma.

When Cellette first left her childhood home in Spinel Vale to study at the Library on the Lake, she had been frightened. She worried about living in such close proximity to the Bloodstone Mountains. But that had been years ago; she was as comfortable now in Jasper Vale as she had ever been in the south, a fact that Edrick feared made her careless.

A rustling of leaves beyond the parlor window roused Cellette, only for her to find that Elma had dozed off against her breast as well. She replaced the baby in her bassinet and set it to swinging gently before groggily wandering towards the kitchen to fix herself a cup of tea.

If Cellette hadn't been so fatigued, she might have remembered to move the cradle further from the great glass window, as Edrick was always reminding her to do. But as she busied herself lighting a fire in the stove and filling the kettle with water to boil, she didn't hear the latch on the window unlocking. Nor did she notice the high-pitched creak as the glass was slowly swung wide by a spidery clawed hand. The creature plucked the babe from her bassinet with such smooth stealth that she did not so much as stir in her lacy wrappings as she was lifted through the window and carried off into the night.

The whistling of the kettle made Cellette jump, but she laughed at herself for being so skittish. Edrick will be home soon, she reminded herself. The house won't seem so empty then. She took a slow sip of steeping tea, relishing the moment of peace and solitude.

The leaves rustled in the wind once more and the sound made Cellette shiver. She clutched the open front of her dress tightly against her and stepped back into the parlor to make sure Elma wasn't too cold.

The delicate teacup slipped from Cellette's grasp and shattered loudly against the floor, spilling hot tea and sending a thousand shards of broken ceramic flying across the dark hard wood.

Her first thought was to call for Edrick, but then she remembered he was gone - far away, buried in a book and none the wiser to what Cellette was suffering, what had happened to their helpless baby daughter. So instead she ran outside, into the shadow of the Bloodstones and the edge of the dark pine forest that hugged the foothills.

"Elma!" she shouted desperately into the darkness, as if her baby would understand the call and would be able to shout back for help.

"Elma," Cellette howled again. Perhaps the trees would answer her. Perhaps they could guide her to the thief who had stolen her only child.

"Elma..."

Cellette sank down into the dead leaves, weeping bitterly, hopelessly. She didn't hear the hoof-falls behind her through her anguished sobs. It wasn't until the jagged, yellowy claw brushed her throat that she turned to see her daughter's kidnapper, but by then it was too late.

A/N: A momentary shift in perspective in this chapter, set in Hollenmere's neighbor to the north, Fairevale. Please leave a comment with your thoughts! Thank you for reading. :)