Athenia's Choice (ON HOLD)

Athenia's Choice: Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Luckily for me, the moon was hanging up in the sky, clearly illuminating the path, so I was able to see where I was going. I trampled through untidily kept grass, feeling a little intimidated because everything looked eerie. I strayed off the main path leading to Bodiam, for I didn’t want anyone to spot me. Excitement bounced inside me- I was free and running wild!

Everything seemed silent as well as motionless. I decided to stray completely off the route, loving the sense of getting lost in my own little world. However, walking was a tiresome task in my falling apart boots, not to mention the great frustration and difficulty of my bound hands!

I walked. And walked. I seemed to be going on through the isolated, dense forests and woods forever. I was clueless to which direction I was heading in. I was so weary I decided to rest against the scratchy bark of a tree, for if I sat down it would be hard to get up again. I sighed, wishing I had made the choice of staying nearer the road.

Suddenly, I heard a great trampling thunder of hooves, whistles, and yells. My eyes widened in sheer alarm, my heartbeat increased to a faster rate. I seemed paralysed, unsure what to do, frozen in time. Father and his hunting friends were on their way home! How stupid had I been to forget Mama telling me he was out in the Aspen Woods?

Fear had gripped me instantaneously. If I didn’t move now, they were bound to see me. I ran round the other side of the tree in desperation. There was a branch within touching height. As the shouts to one another came louder, and dust blowing up from the horses’ hooves wafted around me, I knew I only had one chance.

I backed off, and then ran forward, leaping up and stretching my battered hands out painfully behind me. They slipped along the wet bark and failed to grip. I tried not to scream as the heels of my boots slid along the ground and, as a result of that, I fell flat on my back in a patch of nettles. I couldn’t save my fall; the adrenalin in my body was pumping faster.

Something snapped and pain shot through my body, so intense that I writhed on the ground, gasping. Tears flowed fresh down my cheeks. Before I let out a cry of pain, my head bashed against an unseen rock.

*****

When I finally recovered from my unconsciousness, it was daylight, blue tits were chirruping, and the flowers were showing their pinky-violet heads around me. Sunlight streaked through the branches; it was a picturesque scene. I let out a small groan. My whole body ached of tiredness, stiffness, and swelling and blisters from the deadly stinging nettles.

I tried to sit up but my arms were so bruised and throbbing that I sagged back down. I figured out I had either broken or sprained my ankle very badly, for it was in a wonky position. There was only one thing for it.

“HELP, HELP, H-E-E-E-E-L-LP!” I shrieked violently, making crows nesting in neighbouring trees flap away, cawing in a ghostly way that made me shiver. I was all alone. My voice was hoarse. I silently prayed someone had heard my vigorous pleas, desperation churning inside me. It was another tedious, painstaking 20 minutes before I was rescued.

I was lying there trying not to sob to my heart’s content out when a little girl with a basket full of berries, mushrooms and toadstools, all freshly picked, stumbled across me.

“Please help me,” I wailed pitifully, but relief was washing over me at the thought of being rescued.

“Tommy, Alexander, come quickly, I beg you!” the little girl pleaded.

“Rosemary, what’s happened?” a boy yelled, crashing through the overgrown grass.

“I’m coming, Tommy, Rosemary,” cried another boy, who must've been Alexander, chasing after his brother.

When all three of them were together, they all gawped at me, after having checked Rosemary was fine. Tommy, it seemed was around eleven, and shared the same dark-brown tousled hair as his siblings.

“Well, we had better help the young lady,” Alexander pointed out. They all tried to lift me up, pulling at my tied hands. I winced as my ankle was exceedingly, blatantly painful.

“Whatever happened to you, miss?” Tommy wondered in astonishment, eyeing me up and down.

“I was kidnapped,” I blurted out, as it was the first thing that came to my mind. Tommy and Alexander put an arm around me each, Rosemary skipping ahead with her ragged, faded pink skirts billowing out around her. I hobbled slowly through the woods.

“How far is it?” I groaned, clenching my teeth and wincing.

“Not all that far, only to Bodiam, miss,” Tommy responded. It was the first place anyone would probably go looking for me. As soon as my ankle was bandaged, hands unbound, I planned to set off to Tunbridge Wells to find Charles.

When we got to the children’s house, I was a little dismayed to see it was only one room above the butcher’s shop with sparse furniture and possessions. Their father was reading a tattered paper on a rickety chair, yawning. His eyes widened when he saw me:

“By goodness, who is this damsel?”

“We found her in the woods, Papa, she needed rescuing!” Rosemary recounted, twirling her long plaited hair round and round in her fingers.

“Let me find a knife to cut those ropes,” their father said, rummaging around, until he found one, which was quite blunt, so it required a lot of hacking to free me. My wrists were bleeding slightly but that didn’t matter when that horrible aching feeling I had been experiencing started sliding away. Their Father sent Alexander downstairs to ask their lodger for some scrap material, which my ankle was soon wrapped in pell-mell.

“Did you manage to collect anything in the Aspen Woods?” their father asked, frowning.

“Yes Papa, berries, toadstools and mushrooms,” Rosemary recited, holding out her one-handled basket, with a proud look on her face.

“Good, good, we can chop them up for dinner as I’m giving this lass our last couple o’ farthings.” He handed some dirty coins out to me, arm shaking. I pitied them that they lived on berries and mushrooms. I almost felt taken aback that he was willing to part with something so precious. There was regret churning around inside me ask I took the money. Rosemary was still skipping around, but there was sadness shadowing her eyes.

I understood I could not stay any longer. I bid farewell to Tommy, Alexander, and Rosemary, who seemed deflated as I pocketed the money. Guilt was building up inside me.  After stealing a fraying scarf on the grimy hall floor, I went outside and meandered over to a bush to relieve myself. But, before I did, shock-horror- I saw my Father, hammering on the door of the children’s house, demanding knowledge of the whereabouts of Athenia Reynalds!