22. Edward
The happiest day of my life had finally arrived. I was quietly whistling and listening to Sean and Roger rile each other, while Henry was telling me what I lucky man I was. “I’ve never seen such a beautiful woman before, where did you find her?”
I wasn’t about to tell him at the graveyard, instead, my bride and I had come up with a story where we met at a park while she was feeding the swans. It wasn’t too far off.
“Ah, that doesn’t matter. The better question is how he got her to marry him, that’s what I want to know,” Marcus, another one of my friends, interjected.
“Nah, I would much rather know where we can find another one like her, does she have sisters?” Sean, a perpetual bachelor asked.
He had no idea how his question cut through my heart, because the answer was I didn’t. Tactfully, nobody had asked any questions about where the friends and family of the bride were—except my father of course—but there was no question in my mind that people were talking about it.
“How do I look?” I changed the subject.
“You’re not the bride, nobody cares what you look like, champ.” Henry laughed.
The door opened and the last member of our group, Sebastian, entered. “I think your nanny is about to become your new stepmom.” He chuckled.
“What do you mean?” I asked, adjusting my bow tie.
“I mean your dad and her look awfully cozy in your library.”
“Excuse me for a second.” I cursed.
Making my way through the gathered crowd wasn’t easy. Of course my father had used the wedding as an excuse to invite anybody with a name, ignoring my bride’s and my wishes to keep this wedding private.
I forced my way through the throng of people standing around, wanting to stop and chat with me. I nodded and shook hands, but made it clear I was in a rush.
The crowd thankfully thinned closer to the library. The sound of subdued voices reached my ear. I was sure my father had cornered poor Lucy. She was just his type and my ire rose when I thought of her innocent person being subjected to my father’s worldly wiles.
The door was slightly ajar and I was just about to pull it open, had my fingers around the edge, when the sound of Lucy’s voice stopped me. It didn’t sound at all as if she was in distress.
“… believe me, I’m not making this up. Her name is Eliza, she is a witch from Fable Forest, about to ensnare your son.”
It felt as if someone had doused me with a bucket of ice. No, I thought, that can’t be.
“She already put a spell on him, one that… does things to him at night.” My heart rate picked up, pushing my cold blood through my veins so I could hear a rush in my ears. “But that wasn’t enough for her. She wants what you’re building here. She wants it for her own power.”
“Fable Forest?” My father’s voice.
“Yes, she is a well-known witch there. One of the evilest ones,” Lucy said, and the image of the green witch came to my mind. She hadn’t looked at all like my love. No, like Eliza, because for some reason I thought that name was fitting.
“She can’t speak in your world, because she has to use all her power to keep looking like one of us,” Lucy continued.
“And how do you know all this?” my father asked surprisingly reasonably.
“I have friends in Fable Forest. I had no idea who she was when I took the job, I only found out last night, otherwise I would have warned your son. But I’m afraid the spell she’s put him under won’t allow him to react reasonably to this.”
Spell? I reflected deep into myself. Was my love for Eliza truly a spell? I shook my head. No, that couldn’t be. I loved her with all my heart.
“Go up there, make her talk to you, and you will find out yourself,” Lucy challenged my father.
“I’m not lying, I swear.” Lucy’s eyes filled with tears. “I have friends in Fable Forest, they told me all about the witch who condemned a man to live as a dragon.” Her words stung and I shrunk back.
“And now she wants your son as her puppet. She wants the town you’re building here to strengthen her power. She will open another portal and summon up more evil creatures like her from Hollow Earth.”
I knew my father well enough to predict that the mere mention of creatures from Fable Forest living in his town raised his ire enough to throw all rationality out the window.
Just the idea that Eliza was a witch would be justification enough for him to throw her out, and me to boot, if I didn’t toe the line.
“You are wrong,” I interrupted their little conversation.
Two heads turned abruptly toward me.
“Edward.” My father had the good grace to look guilty, while Lucy had the gall to walk toward me.
“Oh Edward, I’m so sorry, I meant to talk to you, but I couldn’t find you and your father was here, and—”
I held up my hand to stop her speaking and her advance. “I’ve heard enough. Eliza is neither evil nor a witch. I don’t know where you got your information from, but you are wrong.”
“Oh Edward,” she repeated, breaching the distance between us and placing her palm on my chest. “Please. I’m so sorry. I know you think you love her, but if you would just listen—”
I took her wrist and pulled her hand from me, shaking my head. “I want you to leave. Now.”
“Edward,” my father interjected. “Let’s look at this logically. What do you know about your bride?”
“I know that I’ve spent the last two years of my life with her and that she makes me happy. I know she loves me and I love her. I know that she is the mother of my sons, your grandsons, that she is loyal and good and that is enough for me.” I stood my ground.
“You didn’t even know her name,” my father pointed out.
I wanted to scream in frustration. “So what?” I said louder than I had intended to. But I couldn’t help it, my patience was wearing thin, and yes… there was a hint of uncertainty inside me. Could any of this be true?
No, no, no, I shook my head to convince myself. Eliza had been nothing but loving and loyal. True, I didn’t know much about her, but she knew all my secrets. Secrets my father had no idea about, and she had never breathed anything to a soul about it. She had never even so much as tried to blackmail me with it. She had helped me conceal it from my father.
I loved her.
I loved her with every fiber of my being.
Something else became clear to me just then. I truly loved her, no matter what. Even if Lucy was right, I would follow Eliza to the end of the world, down into hell if I had to. If I was under her spell, then so be it, I wouldn’t want it any other way, because dammit, I knew for certain that she loved me just as strongly.
“Son.” My father walked toward me as well.
“Edward, please,” Lucy pleaded. A demonic kind of smile I didn’t like tugged her lips. “Let’s go ask her then. And if she won’t answer you, it will be her admission that I’m right. She can’t speak because she would lose her power.”
“No,” I said. Eliza and I had a deal and I would stick to it.
“No?” My father repeated, looking stunned.
“No,” I confirmed.
“See how much he is under her spell?” Lucy triumphed.
“I do,” my father agreed, actually looking sad. “I’m sorry, son.” Before I could grasp what he was doing, he pushed me down on the couch, grabbed Lucy by the elbow, and pulled her out of the library.
I barely reached the door, before I heard the lock engage. I rattled the door, then I remembered the other one to my office and hastened to that side, but that door too closed right in my face.
I hammered against it. “Dammit, let me out!”
“It’s for your own good,” my father yelled.
The door was solid oak overlaying thick metal, the locks reinforced, I knew, because I had designed them to be intruder safe.
I turned to the windows, but they were barred. Incidentally, the library and office were the safe rooms in this house. Once the doors were locked, nobody got in or out without the key.
Infuriated and afraid of what my father would do to Eliza, I grabbed a chair and threw it against the door. The chair shattered into a hundred pieces, the door showed a few scratches, but that was it.
I couldn’t give up though. Fear for Eliza pushed me forward and I grabbed one of the fire pokers and began ramming it against the wall. The hit reverberated all the way up into my shoulder, but I repeated it over and over.
“Edward?” I heard my friend Henry’s voice. “Ed, what’s going on?”
“Henry? Open the door,” I yelled, hope flaring through me.
“There’s no key,” Henry replied.
“Go find my father. I’m afraid he is with Eliza right now and will harm her. He has the key. Go, Henry!” I yelled through the door.
There was some whispering and arguing on the other side, but then Henry’s voice sounded out again, “We’ll be right back.”
“Protect Eliza,” I screamed after him, hoping he had heard me.