Sweet Satisfaction (Purple UGC Winner 2014)

Sweet Satisfaction - Seventy-Two

Seventy-Two

December, 1915

When I woke up, Mother and Mary’s faces were peering at me anxiously. My head ached as I slowly sat up on the cold stone floor.

“Where are we? What happened?” I asked, looking around the small, bare, white-walled room, eyes narrowing.

“We’re been kidnapped.” Mother’s voice trembled. I looked at Mary in bewilderment, noticing the blood on my dress. My head was spinning.

“By Natalya,” Mary whispered, as I noticed a gash to the side of her head. I blinked, then gulped, feeling the colour drain from my face. I opened my mouth to speak, but I couldn’t form the words. How could we be kidnapped by Natalya? Did this happen after my vision had gone blank? How long had we been here for? Where was this place? What did she want from us? Was she finally going to kill me?

“Please, let’s talk about something else, Elsie’s only just woken up,” Mother implored. I looked at her blankly, realising I was perspiring all over. I couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

“Elsie, why were you running to my bedroom?” I blinked. My eyes swam with tears of confusion and overwhelm-ent.

“I…I…I,” I stuttered. Mother pressed her hands onto mine and I explained about my encounter with Beatrice. My eyes lit up in horror.

“If Susanna blackmailed Beatrice, then she must have been the person who made the bridge collapse, the fire in the bakery start, all of those bad things that happened to me. She must have hated me all along. But… she was with me when the fire started.”

“Elsie.” I turned round at Mary’s mouse-like voice, still reeling from all of my confused thoughts. Mary swallowed.

“It was me.”

“It all started when Natalya was released from prison. She still wanted the inheritance, so in Ingoldisthorpe, when you had gone, she, Emma, Rose, Alice and I all plotted. We plotted… we plotted to kill you. Then I could be the heiress and share the money between us. Every time we failed; the bridge, the fire, the lift in London. Ludmilla was meant to kill you, but you ended up killing her. None of us could do it; even John managed to hurt himself in the automobile accident after we told him you had been having an affair…”

My throat seemed to fill with air as I gasped. I couldn’t speak, as there was a strain on my chest and heart. No, no. Everyone had been plotting to kill me. Everyone I loved and trusted. Even John. Even my husband. How could this be true?

Silent tears fell from eyes blinded by sorrow as the truth tore at my heart. Mother’s arms came around me as I heaved. I had been so naïve. My own sister, husband, aunt- Rose wasn’t my real aunt, Alice, Emma. They had all betrayed me. Just when Emma and I were starting to get along. And Natalya… she still wanted something. Money now? How could that compensate for the loss of her parents?

And John knew about Bobby and I… Had he just been pretending love for me all along? Why hadn’t he let me die in Reaurez? I was filled with the purest, bitterest hate for them all. How could they? How could they want me dead- for my inheritance? For money. Just for money. All year, they had done this, behind my back. My chest was attacked so hard. I couldn’t breathe. I can’t explain to you the feeling of uttermost betrayal, except it feels like you are being ripped apart inside.

“And now Natalya and Emma are so, so angry at me because they think I knew all along that we weren’t the real Kingstons, and that I would never be able to get the inheritance. And now they’ve locked us in here.” Mary was crying now too. How could she have done this? My own sister, my own little sister?

“How could you do this, Mary?” Mother whispered, voicing my own thought.

“Look at you!” Mary screeched, “Always taking her side. Elsie this, Elsie that, Elsie’s the best, I’m second best. I was so happy when you believed that letter was true.”

“If it had been true, Benjamin and I would have been Father’s siblings.” I pressed my hand to mouth, tears rolling down my neck. Mother looked like she was about to be sick, clutching her belly. Clutching her belly with baby sibling in it. Revolt seemed to burn in my mouth.

“What would you have done then, had my baby been a boy, Elsie was dead, and it was named the heir, not you?”

“If it was a boy, we were going to… we were going to kill it.” Mary put her head in her hands, shaking. Mother let out a gasp. My nails dug in harder to the palms of my hands.

“You’ve been working with the woman who killed your brother! And now you would kill your own new brother!” I spat. How could she be so barbaric?

“Father murdered Natalya’s parents- Mother’s own aunt and uncle!” Mary yelled back.

“Albert’s own aunt and uncle!” Mother gasped. We both turned to her, eyes wide, faces burning, fists clenched.

“Anastasia’s maiden name was Aleksandrova.”