Dark Woods, Deep Water by Jelena Dunato

Author:Jelena Dunato [Dunato, Jelena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ghost Orchid Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

We were shown to mildewy chambers that must have been empty for years, with dusty furniture and sheets untouched by sunshine or fresh air. There was no girl to help me undress, but I didn’t want to lie down anyway, too afraid to extinguish the candle and close my eyes.

I wanted to try one final thing before I surrendered. I walked in circles on the bare stone floor, arranging the words in my head. My last defence.

I gathered the little courage I had left and knocked on Father’s door, right next to mine. He wasn’t sleeping. When he opened the door, he was still fully dressed.

“I want to talk. Please,” I said.

He let me in, waved me toward a dusty chair and sat down, waiting for me to begin.

“Father,” I uttered the words I had prepared in advance, struggling to keep my voice firm, “I have been ungrateful and disobedient. I was a bad daughter, dishonouring myself and disgracing you, who have always been lenient towards me. What I did is unforgivable.”

“Yes.” His voice was harsh.

“I know I do not deserve your fatherly love and you can disinherit me and leave me on the road if you wish. I am not asking you for forgiveness, I am not asking you to take me back in. But I do beseech one thing of you.” I slipped out of the chair and kneeled before him, “I beg you, do not leave me here. Anywhere but here.”

I pushed all my anxiety, fear and daughterly love towards him, hoping to make him feel at least a fragment of what I felt. He shuffled in his seat impatiently.

“Elisya,” he sighed, “you are always the same, always stubborn. You don’t like this; you don’t like that. You refused Gospodar Bremir, now you won’t accept Gospodar Selern.”

“Please, Father, please, that is not the same. I made a terrible mistake with Gospodar Bremir, I was stupid and rash. It was a great opportunity for me. But this is no opportunity at all.”

“This is the only opportunity you have now. It’s not Myrit, I know; it is very remote. And I admit I was surprised to see how they have deteriorated since I last saw them. But they are an old noble family with an unblemished reputation. With your dowry, this place could be improved.”

“Father, please, listen to me!” Tears welled in my eyes. “There is something wrong with this place, don’t you feel that? Our guards noticed it as soon as we entered the forest. This place is cursed!”

“The guards are superstitious fools, and you, Elisya, you’ve read too many legends. Do you really think I would believe such a foolish story?”

I looked into his eyes; they were hard and cold.

I said, “Feel free to call me mad, unreasonable, stubborn, sly. Tell me I am imagining things, that I am superstitious, that I am telling you fables. Do not believe me, let everything bad about this place be a fabrication of mine. Let there be no good reason for me to run away.

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