Page 5 of Curse of Immortality
“Thank you.” John was so quick to get up from his seat to hug her that his chair fell over.
When he released her from his tight hug, she looked up at him and asked, “What will you tell Anne?”
John’s face turned solemn again. “I’ll say that they were playing in the barn while I went to check up on the horses in the farthest pasture. I wasn’t there when the fire started but by the time I reached them, the girls had both died in the fire.”
“People will wonder where you went for so long.”
“I’ll explain that I didn’t know how to tell Anne, so I stayed in the forest all day.”
Rose’s gaze lowered. “She’ll be devastated. To lose one’s children in a fire…”
“It’s horrendous.” John finished her sentence in a grave tone. “But I’d rather comfort my wife through her grief while I know my daughters are safe than to see them murdered as witches one day.”
John took a last glance around the cottage that his daughters would call home from now on. The walls were slanted and the windows crooked. In the corner was a kitchen with a table that held jars and cooking supplies and over the table hung lavender and rosemary. A fireplace stood in the center of the wall with a fire heating a large pot of something that smelled amazing. On the walls hung pots and pans and flowers hanging by their stems.
“You must all be hungry,” Rose said and went to light a few candles now that the daylight had almost disappeared.
“Yes. Very. And I’m sure the girls are curious to meet you.” He turned to the opposite side of the room where a tree grew through the house and up above the roof. It seemed as if the branches served as steps that could be crawled up on. Walking over to see for himself, John discovered that on top of the roof amongst the thick branches of the tree was a terrace that Rose had built for her to sleep on. It was big enough for Althea and Maeve to sleep with her, and it offered blankets to keep it soft and cozy as well as thick branches above to keep it dry.
As Rose opened the front door that was an inch shorter than herself, she turned to her brother and asked, “Will you stay for the night?”
“No.” John snatched an apple from the bowl on the table. “I should get back to Anne as soon as possible, I know she’ll be worried sick. She might think that all three of us died in the fire. But I’ll take a bit of bread for the journey home if you have some to spare.”
Rose made sure to give him a big chunk of the bread she had pulled out of the oven an hour earlier. “Take anything you want from the garden. The plums are ripe and delicious.” She gave her brother a last smile before they walked outside to Althea and Maeve, who sat on the grass patiently waiting.
The girls looked up at their father as he spoke. “Thisis my sister, Rose, your aunt.”
Maeve frowned and looked at the woman, who had wild, curly, brown hair and dirt on her arms. “You’ve never told us we have an aunt.”
“No, I haven’t, and I’m sorry for that. But Rose is one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet and from now on, you two will be living here with her.”
“Why?” Althea cried.
“For your safety.”
“No, I don’t want to,” Maeve blurted out at the same time Althea asked in despair again, “Why?”
“I wish I could stay and explain everything, but Ihaveto get back. Rose will tell you what you need to know.” He got down to his knees to be at the same level as his daughters who stood small, fragile, and confused in front of him. “I need you two to understand that I’m only leaving you here because I love you more than anything. I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but for now, it’s what’s best. Be kind to your aunt; she is a good woman and I know that she will love you just as your mother and I do.”
Sobs escaped the girls as they clung to their father, but in the end, no plea or tight hug could make him stay. John left his daughters in the middle of the woods with his sister. As he rode off, he had every intention of coming back and visiting them, but in the end, it would be the last time Althea and Maeve ever saw him.
Rose felt the children’s pain as her own. She too had lost both her parents and still grieved over the tragic events of that fatal night.
Putting a hand on each girl’s shoulder, she offered, “Why don’t we go inside and eat some of the soup I made for dinner? I’m sure your heads are full of questions, but we’ll have to take one answer at a time until you understand everything about what it is to be an Earthen.”
“What’s an Earthen?” Althea asked.
Rose smiled. “We are. Come on. Just like humans, we still need to eat.”
CHAPTER 3
The Secret Species
It was dark and cold outside, but the candles and fireplace made it warm and toasty inside the small cottage. Althea was braiding Maeve’s long, red hair in the candlelight, while Maeve sang to the sleeping cat in her arms. Nothing warmed Rose’s heart more than to see her two girls happy and healthy.
Standing in the kitchen kneading dough for bread, she let her hands work while enjoying the sound of the melodic wind chimes that accompanied Maeve’s beautiful voice. It was as if the wind listened and wanted to sing along.
Rose’s mind was going over the ingredients for the soup she would make for tonight’s dinner when she heard a distant noise coming from outside. Dusting flour off her hands, she walked over to the window and stood for a moment letting her eyes adjust to the darkness outside. Her eyes narrowed a little and her gaze centered on the tiny light flickering in the distance.
