Roses and Black Glass: A Dark Cinderella Tale
Chapter Eighteen
1
The town officials scattered about as the lawmen tried to push the crowd away from the bloody mess on the street. The body splattered there was quite the scandal and the officials wanted it cleaned up quickly so all worries would be done away with. Isabella van Burren’s drastic actions had stirred thoughts of demon possession – especially after all this recent talk of witches. The girl had thrown herself from the tower, and some had said she was bleeding from the mouth after the ceremony was over. The town was in panic. All possibilities of mass hysteria must be done away with.
The chapel was left in a state of utter shock after the groom had simply walked out on his bride. No one had stopped him, yet the Charmings were drowning in embarrassment. They did not even want to be associated with the event. As far as they – especially his mother – was concerned, he was no longer their son.
Samantha gazed up to the broken window above. The glass was completely chipped out, the lovely stained glass image ruined. That particular piece had been the finest window in the church – a large red rose and a cross.
The woman saw the police asking questions and was itching to get away. She wanted to be home – away from all this! Where was her husband? She searched the area for him and finally saw him emerging from the crowd gathered at the church door.
“There you are,” she said, grasping his arm and pulling him to stand with her outside the crowded circle. “I think we should get out of here.”
“The police have asked us to stay,” he informed her.
“Drat!” she said. “Out of all these people we have to be the ones!”
“What do you expect, dear?” Anthony asked her rather flatly. “It was our event.”
Samantha shook her head. Perhaps now she saw where her son got his disagreeable attitude from.
They stood outside the circle that formed in front of the church, peering as the people scrambled about and the police were set to work.
“I wonder what possessed that poor girl to do such a dreadful thing,” said Samantha thoughtfully, clutching tightly to her husband’s arm so that he would not slip away from her.
“I’m not sure,” Anthony said. “She was under a lot of stress. Her mother and sister died and all that.”
“I surely hope it had nothing to do with Christian’s actions. That wretched boy! Who does he think he is?”
“I don’t know, my dear,” Anthony said rather dismissively. His wife did not seem to notice.
“One thing is for sure, he is not getting his hands on any of that money! You will change your will as soon as possible and not a moment later! That child has always had his head in the clouds! He’s selfish and spoiled and thinks he can walk over us without facing consequence! I say that, indeed, this time he has stepped much too far over the line!”
“Yes,” said Anthony. “His name will be removed for this embarrassment.”
“The nerve of that child!” Samantha continued, making sure to keep her voice low. “I am glad that he’s gone! We’ll be getting no more trouble from him!”
Samantha stopped her speech as a black-haired policeman stepped up to the couple. She forced a smile as he opened his mouth.
“Could I ask you to step back a few feet?” he asked. “The crowd is out of hand and we need more room.”
“Oh,” said Anthony. “Of course.”
The man and his wife stepped away from the crowd to give the officers more room to move the people. Samantha scowled through it all then, thinking of what a fool her son had made her out to be.
“That is it,” she said. “First thing tomorrow morning, his name is coming out of that will. I’m tried of waiting for him to grow up!”
Anthony nodded to the words he didn’t even hear his wife say – words she had already said before – but jerked his head abruptly upward when a yell reached his ears.
“Look out!”
Anthony turned only to see a carriage barreling down the road – moving too quickly for either he or his wife to get out of harm’s way. What? Why was it going so swiftly? The two of them froze, their pupils shrinking to pinpoints. Nothing could save them. The horses plowed through the two people as they released their last yells of desperation. The large, shoed feet trampled their faces while the wheels of the carriage did their part to splatter the blood on the street.
People gasped and pointed as the carriage finally came to a halt after the entire thing had rolled over the two crushed people.
“What is all the fuss out there?” came the feminine voice from inside the carriage.
The driver dropped down from his seat as people began to form their circle around this scene now. The young black-haired man knelt down to touch the wrist of Samantha. Then he stared over both of the bodies for signs of movement. There were none.
Another black-haired man, a footman, came from the back to open the door for the lady inside. A long dress of purple velvet began to spill out the door of the carriage when it opened. Out stepped the woman, looking quiet disappointed about her interrupted ride but not seeming to care much for the bodies.
“What of them?” the woman asked, glancing over the two who had been crushed beneath the horses’ weight.
The man who drove the carriage looked up to her with fear in his eyes.
“They are dead, miss,” he informed her.
The woman with the red wine locks and the black hollow eyes scoffed. Many eyes saw her, and though many of them had seen her recently and nearly all of them had spoken of her, she was recognized by no one. If they had, they would have been struck with fear.
“It’s a pity,” she said unfeelingly. “They should never have crossed me.”
Then she gathered her cloak around her shoulders to shield her pale skin from the cool air. She then looked down at the man who was her driver, leaning over the death they had caused.
“It is finished,” she said quietly.
The black-haired man smiled up to his mistress, his eyes gleaming red in the sunlight. She smiled back at him as well, looking over the three bodies on the street. One had died by her own hand. Two had died, bloody and crushed on the road.
And so ended the prophecy.
YOU ARE READING
Roses and Black Glass: a dark Cinderella tale (novel preview)
Romance(Now available as an ebook and in print!) A dark retelling of Cinderella in early America. In an age when cutting up dead bodies is considered taboo, Cindy’s father is a mortician. She is happy with their fascinating life, though controversial, unti...
