I know!
I know all the muzzles of your loaded pistols are pointed right at my head, in case I pull some drastic stunt in this chapter and I know the previous chapter was quite...uh...chaotic!
Nonetheless, it's the last and probably the longest chapter out, not counting the Epilogue.
So pull in a thorough breath and go on!
And for my sake, read till the end!
_____________
Things can change in a day.
A few moments and a lifetime is altered.
Irretrievably.
Irrevocably.
So that night, it happened right two hours subsequent to Stephen's falling asleep on the metallic edge of the tub.
***
Eden was buried in the yard of the very church they had both been married. She and Stephen.
Long ago.
How long?
Who knew? Ages perhaps.
Who cared anyway? Time stops for you when you cease to exist.
Her grave was dug out in wet soil and its being a stormy, dark_ bleak evening, the gaping hole in that soft breast of earth was brimming with water, simmering from rain and reflecting the lightening heaven above.
Only Stephen was there.
It was hazy.
Her coffin was lowered down in that mud the way they had lowered Magpie's and eventually covered with slugged soil by a few dark looking men. They patted the grave mound with spades once they were done refilling.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
That had been the sound.
Stephen had then left; mounted upon his horse, Thames and rode off. Soberly. Quietly.
Without a goodbye. Without a 'look back'.
He was riding really, really rough.
His ragged, painful breathing was annoyingly being choked by the raging rain.
Then he came to that one hill.
That one hill.
Where the foxholes had collapsed due to the excessive rain. The road was loose. The rocks were slippery.
The slippery rocks are often dangerous, aren't they?
Time pulled a string.
The metallic hooves of his dark stallion slipped.
One rock and then other.
The animal lurched over sideways, into a crag. Down a cliff.
Thames, before he fell off, tried its best to throw Stephen off its back so that at least the master could be saved.
To be saved, all Stephen had to do was let the harness go.
Let. The. Harness. Go.
But Stephen stubbornly held on.
Suicidally held on.
They both fell.
In the deep depth.
Thames, being heavier, tumbled much deeper. Died after a last deafening unforgivable cry.
YOU ARE READING
Promises Unkept
Historical FictionThe 'marriage' was against his will. The woman was beyond his liking. So, when Lord Stephan Adelwood was married to the poor girl named Eden Henley, his fire did bruise the lady badly enough to change her entirely. Promises were broken, hearts were...
