The Belladonna

Chapter 52 - The Well

Her mood darkened further. To hell with that!

"Damn you Dustin Hawk!" Sky screamed at the top of her lungs. "Damn you! You lying son of a-" Sky drew her pistol, Dustin's pistol, and fired at the slowly disappearing ships. She reloaded and fired again and again and again.

"You lied to me!" She screamed at him as though he could hear her. "You lied." Everything broke and she collapsed to the wood, her breathing coming in pained gasps.

Her eyes did not fill with tears; she had never felt so raw before in her life. Nothing, no betrayal had ever made her feel this way. She thought James had left her, now she understood why and, despite everything, she forgave him for that. Her father, he had left her alone, but she could never blame him for his death, the same for her mother. The King, a man she had looked up to as a child, was a monster, but even in that, she did not feel that like this.

"I trusted you." She said the words looking down at the white gun in her hands. "You promised."

The townspeople stool solemnly around her. They had come out to see the ships off just before sun rose and, as Dustin had said, do some last minute packing.

Sun rise? Sky looked up. The ships were almost specks. The Admiral's Maribelle was the only one that still resembled a ship. Yes. They would have to go slower for the war ship. A lot slower.

"Sky?" A gentle feminie voice reached her ears. Sky leapt to her feet and faced the woman.

"A boat!" She yelled her tone sharp as her anger drove her actions. "I just need a boat. They are too slow," She continued pushing past the woman and marching down the pier. "I can catch them up, if I could find a boat I could, if-"

"No." A hand fell to her shoulder making her stop. "Sky, no." The woman rounded the hysterical Sky. She placed both hands on her shoulders and squeezed. "You can't do anything. Let them go."

Sky's hazel eyes blazed. "Let them go?!" She snapped. The woman did not react to being yelled at.

"Think." Sky was about to shove her aside when the woman shook her harshly. "Think Sky! A row boat? For that distance?" The woman raised her voice as she spoke some of her own emotion breaking through. "You are many things, but an idiot you are not."

"But-"

"Let. Them. Go." Sky shut her eyes as her head began to throb. When she opened them she saw that the woman, Marle's lover, was crying. Large tears rolled down her pretty cheek bones.

"I'm sorry." Sky choked out. The hands on her shoulder vanished and suddenly she was pulled in to a hard hug as the women cried in to her chest. Her rage slowly seeped out of her as Sky hugged the woman back, more for her benefit than her own. Others looked on with understanding and some began to cry also at the loss of their loved ones.

"Forgive me." The woman leaned away from the awkward Sky. "I am rather emotional at the moment." She said with a knowing smile at Sky who simply nodded. Weren't they all?

"No, You are right." She sighed and looked out at the horizon. "Maybe I am an idiot? For loving such a man." She said bitterly. The woman wiped tears from her eyes.

"We cannot help the men we fall for. No the consequences that follow that kind of love." The woman turned with Sky to the ocean. Sky hummed in response.

"So that is it? We never see them again." She clenched her hands. "Do we just wait to hear from rumours that they are all dead? Never really knowing, but always hoping in the most private part of our hearts that one day they will come back to us? One day we might see them again?"