Scarlet Beauty Lore

Her True Name

TONIGHT! Ladies and gentlemen...we will hear the tale of a beautiful and fearsome woman! You may know her as the Scarlet Beauty.

But alas, she was not always known by this title.

Once she was but an ordinary woman, named Amelia.

Amelia was happy, living a perfectly peaceful life on her sheep farm and making wool with her two sisters. But life could not leave well enough alone.

One day...a noble lord came to Amelia's farm in a terrible thunderstorm.

His carriage had been damaged in the storm! It had a terrible leak in the roof, and he needed a place to shelter until it could be repaired.

Amelia and her sisters were embarassed, they had nothing but dirt floors and straw mattresses to offer this rich lord and his entourage.

But, the man was surprisingly kind to them anyway, and accepted their hospitality with grace. Amelia and her sisters shared some bread, then went to sleep in the barn for the evening, leaving the noble to their tiny cottage.

However, Amelia got an upset stomach in the middle of the night....so she ended up sneaking back into the house, to get a bit of bread to help settle herself.

Well Amelia made some noise in the kitchen by mistake...she tripped over a sword one of the knights had left lying right in front of the door!

The knight was at her throat immediately, thinking she was an intruder!

She was too scared to speak.

But once they brought a candle to her face, the noble saw that it was her.

The noble immediately apologized, and had his knights drop the sword. One thing led to another, as he was surprisingly kind and Amelia ended up not going back to the barn for quite some time...

Since they realized she was not a threat, the noble Lord invited Amelia to share some wine in the kitchen, and catch her breath from the frightful encounter. The spicy wine was soothing, and they listened to the storm outside beating down, as they talked.

It only took a few hours the next morning, to fix the carriage roof. And then the noble and his knights were back on their way, leaving a small sack of supplies as thanks for Amelia's family. But that was not all they left...

You guessed it! But the true "gift" would not be seen for a few months later. I'll have to tell that part of the story, later.