My Forbidden Witch

Lady Vane

As I put on my maid outfit the only thing I can think about is my higher-up, I think about talking to her, being near her, holding her hand, kissing her and living my life with her. I know those thoughts are sinful, if anyone ever found out that I do not care for the men but the women instead, they would hang me for all the village to see, as they all throw rotten food at my dead body. Disgusted by the person they were told I was but not for who they knew I truly was.

I wonder, would I even be allowed my share of final words? Or would they hang me before I can even get the chance to think of a single sentence? They always allowed final words for the convicted witches, but would I, a homosexual, be allowed?

Lady Vane lives away from the village, but not too far because it would be suspicious, according to her. Lady Vane does and says a lot of things to avoid being suspicious. I am not sure why she goes to such drastic measures to prove she’s not a witch. She is nowhere even near being in the top 50 of the women suspected of witchery. Why would they ever suspect her anyways? 

She is a beautiful woman who has devoted her life to Christianity, she has no husband but it is said that she married a good man at twenty-three, unfortunately, her husband died due to typhoid fever two years into their marriage, making her a widow for about five years now. 

Sometimes I doubt that she ever had a husband since there are no signs of any man having previously been in her life, besides the single painting of her Mother and Father, but that’s her Father, that is very different.

Lady Vane makes me dust the painting every day, and only me. She says that I am the most careful and gentle with her belongings so she trusts none of the other maids but me to clean such an important piece of her life.

I finally make it to the fifty-meter stone path that leads to Lady Vane’s house, every morning that I walk on this path I get nervous and my heart sinks into my stomach because every time I come over to do my job she’s inside ready to have the door wide open for me the second I put my foot on the last step, and all I can get out of my throat is a simple “hello Lady Vane”, no matter how much thinking I do within the quick few minutes of me walking up this clean beautiful path that Lady Vane put down herself.

There is a small flower garden every five meters on each side of the path, meaning that there are ten flower gardens on each side or twenty gardens if you add them all up.

I like to count the small things, they distract me from the thoughts I have about the one I work for but they also remind me about how smart she is and seeing her property as a whole just gives me a heart-aching reminder that something so much more beautiful lies in that house only twenty meters away from me now.

I stop at the fifteen-meter flower garden. An older maid, Mrs Patel is tending to the magic star lilies on my right. She turns to look up at me and gives me a smile you seem to only see on older women.

“Hello Miss Joseph”

“Hello, Mrs. Patel” I lower my head a bit as I close my eyes for just a split second, as some sign of honour towards any higher-up.

I watch her cut off the dead flowers and complete the task of making the garden look tidy and clean, Mrs Patel then gets up and asks me if I can get her bag that is right beside me, as I grab her brown leather bag and hand it over she tells me that I look sickly.

“It’s just the heat Ma’am, I can still complete my duty to take care of Lady Vane and her house”

“You do know that if you are not feeling well Lady Vane will allow you to lay somewhere and take a break for as long as is truly necessary” She gives me a worried look but I do not care for her words as I refuse to do any resting on the job. “And you'll still get paid your regular amount, maybe a bit more if you’re really sick” She grins and gives me a wink at the end of her sentence.