One Crown & Two Thrones : The Prophecy ( Book One) - Prologue

Chapter Two - The Door

II

The Door

6th October 1940

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present...

Francis Bacon.

November was met with a sigh from the residents of Thorn Cottage. The summer had been long and bountiful for those fortunate enough to be nestled away from the realities of war. The hand of war however had still struck hard upon the residents of Keswick. Men had become a rarity and the inflow of evacuees had become a daily event. The young women of Keswick left their aprons at home and stepped into the shoes of their fathers, brothers and husbands. Many spent their days working on the local farms that lay scattered across the nearby area. In a perverse sense of the manner, women had been handed their independence, now making up the brunt of the British workforce and many wore their independence proudly. Of course they were driven by the need to support their male counterparts.

And so Estelle and Eveline had found themselves saddled with a young evacuee by the name of Belle. Belle was a lonely child from London, Chelsea to be more specific. She was seven years of age and had brought much needed companionship and joy to both Estelle and Eveline since they had collected her a year earlier from the station. When not at school, Belle spent her days with Eveline who had very much taken the child under her wings. It had been a beneficial situation to all involved none more so than Eveline who had transformed greatly, her natural shyness evolving into a new found confidence that enabled her to enter into activities she once thought perilous. Having to rear a child forced Eveline to overcome many of her fears, especially those of a social nature. She found that with a childlike Belle at her side the residents of Keswick began to see her as an equal, uncaring of her unusual appearance and strange ways. War had an incredible way of bringing those who would have once been enemies together for the greater good of society. Twice a week she would walk over to the Williamson farm and help out for a couple of hours, bringing her into contact with other like-minded young women, who soon became firm friends.

At times she simply forgot that she was married, for she was very much filled with happiness at her new found spirit. It was on the very bleak days that she would find herself immersed in a cloak of depression at the thought of her husband away at war. She did not receive many letters from Theodore and treasured those she had. If anything she missed his constant friendship. When she found herself unable to feel happy or fortunate she instead found herself crying in the arms of Estelle who understood her pain only too well. Belle had brought with her an incurable zest for life and it was this coupled with her intelligence that brought a certain form of healing into the household, for one could not forget that the child too had parents living in London during the Blitz. And so together they formed a pattern of everyday life and found healing and refuge in one another, there little world as save as it could be.

It had been a very hot summer and although they had entered into October, the sun was still brimming with heat and thus autumn had still to come and knock upon their door.

"Where are you taking Belle today?" Estelle asked Eveline who sat by the kitchen table finishing her cup of breakfast tea.

"I thought I would take her down into Keswick to collect our rations for the week, would you like to come?"

"I really should go for a walk but I just cannot face anyone at the moment," Estelle admitted as she dried the breakfast plates with a cloth and put them away.

"What is it that bothers you?" Eveline asked, turning her body round so that she faced her adoptive mother.

"It would only upset you if I spoke of my troubles," Estelle said with a sweet smile, a smile that could not reach her eyes.