Ophelia by Lisa Klein

Author:Lisa Klein [Klein, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: cookie429, Kat, Extratorrents
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2006-01-08T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

I have seen a hunted deer run from the open field and take cover in a shadowed bower, panting among the tangled bushes and brambles that she prays will keep her unseen. I knew I must likewise hide myself and deceive the hunter. I searched within my trunk for something to conceal me. I pulled out kirtles, caps, and bodices, the gilded prayer book and a cracked looking glass Gertrude had given me. There was my father's cloak that he had thrown over me on the night he was killed. Within its folds I kept the miniature of my mother and the Janus-faced token Hamlet gave me that night we met in the maze. It was all I had left of my husband, finally my trunk held two books I had rescued from the queen's hand and my book of herbal lore. My possessions were scant indeed.

I held up the cracked glass and considered my distorted image. I almost did not recognize myself. My face was gaunt, with deep and dark shadows beneath my eyes. My hair was dull, unwashed, and tangled. I sniffed my skin and my smock and wrinkled my nose. I smelled like a creature unfit for the company of men. What has become of me? I wondered with growing alarm. I dropped the minor and it broke in two pieces. I am no longer myself. Who am I? asked the desperate voice within me.

I held up the rustic gown in which I was married to Hamlet, but laid it aside. I would never wear it again! Instead I took my best skirt, the one embroidered at the hem with intricate gold threads. I would have no further need of such proud finery. A plan was beginning to take shape in my mind. With some effort, using my hands and teeth, I tore the rich skirt to rough tatters. I donned this ruined garment and a bodice and took up my willow basket. I would test whether I might slip away from Elsinore under the guise of a poor woman, a mere herb-gatherer. Leaving off my shoes, I emerged from my chamber.

When she saw me, Cristiana cried out, "Look what she has done to her best skirt! Surely she has gone mad!"

Her reaction startled me. Am I mad? I wondered. "I have every reason to be so," I said as I passed by her.

Elnora stood up, peered at me, then gasped.

"Where do you think you are going, Ophelia?"

"Denmark's diseased," I said. "Let us find a cure."

They did not stop me as I descended the stairway and left the castle, but they followed at a distance.

The late September air only hinted at the coming cold. I wandered along the highway leading to the village and paused at the edges of fields, filling my basket with herbs and flowers. I watched as the men gathered wheat into sheaves and the women, with bent backs, gleaned the shorn fields. The only sounds were the swish of scythes, the shouts of men, and the cries of birds fighting for bits of gram.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.