First Night by Caroline Aubrey

Author:Caroline Aubrey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Torrid Books
Published: 2015-06-12T04:00:00+00:00

The Woodsman’s Daughter

by

Caroline Aubrey

There was once a woodsman who lived at the edge of a deep, dark forest. He lived in a cottage near a small, bright meadow that served as the borderlands between the light of day and the dark night of the forest. The woodsman used the forest for his own livelihood, chopping and hauling wood to the village where he sold it for a fair price to the well-to-do folks who lived there. He made a decent living at his trade, well enough of a living to comfortably support himself and his beautiful, dark-haired, dark-eyed daughter. He knew and respected the forest, its dark passages and heavy wooded pockets, and never used more of it than what was needed to provide for him and his daughter.

The woodsman’s daughter grew up living in and loving the forest, and she knew well enough of its dangers and its blessings. Late at night, to entertain her father after a hard day’s work, she would sing him songs and tell stories about the old days when fairies and ogres warred in daylight, out in the open sun, for the lives of mortal men and women. She spun tales for her father so full of magic and enchantment and excitement that the woodsman delighted in her telling, and invited many of the villagers to their home, to enjoy his daughter’s tales.

When she wasn’t spinning moonbeams and fairy stories, she spent her days helping her father chop and haul wood, which was hard work, but she loved the feel of the heavy timber in her hands, the smell of the damp earth, the color of the dappled ferns in shadow and in light, and dreaming of the next tale the forest would tell.

The woodsman loved his daughter more than anything he had ever loved before, having lost his wife when their baby was very young. The woodsman’s wife, gone fifteen years, had been a wise-woman who cared for people both of the village and of the forest, and spent much of her time gathering and preparing her herbs and poultices. One day, while collecting plants in the forest, she had disappeared, and when the woodsman went searching for her, he found only her torn and bloodied dress. He searched for his wife for many days and nights, and one night dreamt that wolves had killed her in a feeding frenzy.

Years went by and not a day passed when he didn’t think of his poor wife. In his child he saw much of her mother and was comforted that a little piece of her lived on in their beautiful daughter.

As the years passed, the woodsman’s daughter, Manon by name, had grown into a lovely young woman. Tall, raven-haired, and with flashing black eyes, the woodsman’s daughter began to attract suitors from across the countryside. But it seemed as though Manon had no desire to marry. She worried for her father. “But who will take care of you, Father?” she asked, every time the mention of a marriage was brought forth.

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