The Black Rose (8 page)

For the rest of the ride home, Milly told Wilhelmina about all the men she danced with.

“So did you like any of them?”
Wilhelmina

“Meh,” Milly shrugged, “They weren’t bad, but I can’t really be too picky now
.
Unlike you, love isn’t that important to me.”

“Milly,” Wilhelmina sighed. She
worried about Milly. It seemed as if Milly felt like she didn’t have the right
to fall in
love and was
more concerned
with just
finding
a possible suitor. She was a maid, but Wilhelmina didn’t think that was fair.
She
believed that love was worth finding and that everyone deserved it
, whether one was a
maid or
of
royalty.
Milly
was her best friend and
Wilhelmina
just wanted her to be happy.

Chapter 6

The night hadn’t exactly gone as Edmund planned. He had gone to the Masquerade Ball in order to meet Princess Wilhelmina, but h
is intention was never to become infatuated with her
.
He was
doing well in pretending
up until he kissed her
.
Edmund
had never kissed a girl before. H
ow could
he
have let his feelings control his actions?

“Orchid!”
Edmund shouted as he entered his home, which was an old abandoned castle. The outside looked like it was falling apart, but on the inside; the castle looked magnificent, as if it had never once been a pile of rock. Edmund went to his room and began to undress.
His room was rather dull. There was a wooden dresser and wardrobe on one side of the room and a bed on the other. There was a bathroom connected to his bedroom for convenience.

“Orchid!
Come here!” Edmund shouted again and a
woman
with long white hair appeared, “Hang
this up,” He told her and she did as he said.

“Lotus, draw me a bath,” Edmund directed this time to a
young lady
with wavy pink hair and pink eyes. Lotus was stan
ding next to the bathroom door and a
t Edmund’s command, she disappeared into the bathroom.

Edmund was frustrated with himself. He couldn’t love Wilhelmina, and yet the mere thought
of her name made his heart pound
.
“
What is wrong with me
?”
He thought as he tried to shake the feelings away.
Lotus
then
reappeared and stood next to the bathroom door signaling the bath was ready. Edmund
grabbed a towel and
headed into the bathroom, a hot bath should
help
him relax and clear his mind
.

He
sighed as he soaked his body in the hot water; at least one thing was going according to plan. Jerome was falling for Wilhelmina and soon he would no longer be able to resist her. This thought, however, did not please Edmund
as he had hoped
.
H
e was still conflicted as to
whether or
not if this was what he
truly
wanted
.
  O
n top of that he had fallen for Wilhelmina. He cl
osed his eyes and tried to push his thoughts away.

Days passed at the castle and as much as Wilhelmina tried, she could not persuade Milly to stop searching the palace library for records of
men that might fit the mysterious man Wilhelmina had danced with at the ball.
In the end Milly stopped bringing it up and did her own research based on what Wilhelmina had told her. She was determined to find this guy, despite what little information she had
and Wilhelmina’s constant complaints
.

“Black hair, eyes the color of chocolate, tall, handsome,” Milly muttered as she turned page after page in the big book of birth records. “That could be anyone!” Milly was frustrated. For one she
didn’t know the gentleman’
s name
.
She also didn’t know where he was from,
so he might not even be in Aridale.
Milly
knew he had to be a bit older than Wilhelmina judging by what she saw of him or at the very least the same age as Wilhelmina. However, t
hat still left a lot of people
and she didn’t have the time to go
searching for each one to figure out who it was
.
Milly
sighed as she closed the book. M
aybe Wilhelmina
was right, it was better off to wait till he decided to show himself again.

“No you can’t give up!” Milly exclaimed and ran to look for more books. She was not one to quit.

Meanwhile, Jerome and Edolie were spending more time together. Both wanted to get to know the other better. It seemed Jerome’s kiss had managed to catch Edolie’s attention and distract her from her wedding planning. Jerome had done his best to avoid W
ilhelmina for the
past few days
until today when Edolie dumped him outside in the Queen’s garden. Edolie couldn’t completely stop planning for the wedding and she had plans with Delaney to go design the cake today. Unfortunately, Wilhelmina happened to be out in the gardens and it would be rude for him to leave since she had seen him.

“Good morning,” Wilhelmina smiled giving him a curtsey.

“Morning,” Jerome bowed and walked up to her, “What are you doing out on this fine morning?”

“Well Milly’s
…busy…,”
Wilhelmina
said carefully since Milly wasn’t really allowed in the king’s library
, “So I decided to come out and get some fresh air and see the flowers.”

“You’re in a cheerful mood,” Jerome said and
then
remembered last night. He felt a strange feeling in his chest.
“
You’re in love with Edolie
,
” He repeated
the sentence a few times in his head
, but the pang in his chest would not go away. Was this the
curse
’
s doing
? The man’s words echoed in his mind,
‘
Anyone who gets close to her falls under her charm
.
’

“Care to see the gardens?
Unless you have already.”

Wilhelmina’s voice brought Jerome back to reality. He wasn’t sure where the voice
he had heard the night of the ball had come
from and that made him uneasy as well.
“If you don’t mind,” Jerome said
offering his arm
.
He had to be polite and hoped this wouldn’t take too long.

They walked in silence for a bit before Jerome decided to start a conversation
to distract himself from his feelings
,
“This is actually my second time out here.
Both times with you.”

“
Oh
!
R
ight,
I forgot about the Spring Ball,” Wilhelmina said as they walked along the path through the Queen’s garden. “Edolie’s not much of a nature lover, so I guess she wouldn’t have shown you the garden.”
They both
remained silent
after that. Jerome couldn’t think of anything else to say and Wilhelmina felt awkward being with her sister’s fiancé’.

Jerome
tried to distract himself by looking at the various flowers and plants, but the tulips, daffodils, and roses could not distract him from Wilhelmina. Why was it so hard to
resist
her? It wasn’t this hard before. The words of the man echoed through his head again,
‘
I can see it’s already taking affect
.
’
Was he under the power of the curse?
Jerome hadn’t realized something was wrong with him until
Wilhelmina asked,
“Are you alright?”

Jerome was sweating and his face seemed a little pale. Wilhelmina touched her hand to his forehead
. I
t felt very warm. “I think you might be getting sick, you should go get some rest,” She said removing her hand.

“Yes, I do feel rather light headed,” Jerome lied, if anything he
felt a strong desire to
take
Wilhelmina
into his arms
.
“I’m going to go lay down
,”
h
e
said leaving
her standing in the garden
alone
. He had managed to resist her this time, but he worried about the next time he saw her. Jerome felt his heart return to normal as he walked to his bedroom
.
He was staying in
o
ne of the castle’s guest rooms
for the time being. The bedding was red and gold, just like Wilhelmina’s
and the rest of the castle
.

Jerome
l
ied
down on his bed and took deep breaths to calm
himself
. The feelings he had felt around Wilhelmina were never this strong
before
and he was afraid the next time he ran into her, he wouldn’t be able to resist her.
He
had to be more careful and do a better job avoiding Wilhelmina.
After all, if what the man had said was true, it would only continue to get worse the more he saw her. Jerome
took one more deep breath before closing his eyes. He hoped a nap would help calm him. 

Back in the library, Milly was still going through as many books
as she could.
Since Edolie had decided to
spend
more time
with Jerome
, Milly had been allowed
more spare time
than usual and she didn’t want t
o waste it. She knew
she would
soon
have to go back to
work
ing since the wedding date was getting closer and closer
.

Milly didn’t know how many books she
had
gone
through and wasn’t really paying attention when she grabbed them. She just picked them from the same section, so all the books were about people, from
royalty
to prisoners. Milly was down to a couple more books
when
the next one caught her eye. It was
a
big
black book and in gold lettering on the front it said, “
Enchantresses and Sorcerers
.”
Under it in tiny gold print was written “A Reference Book”

Milly only knew of one enchantress, Yolande. Yolande was one of the most powerful enchantresses. The idea that there were many never occurred to her till now when she saw how thick the book was.
Her curiosity got the best of her
and
she
grabbed the book and opened it to the first page.

This reference book contains information on all the enchantresses and sorcerers known throughout the land
since the beginning of time
. In this section I will provide brief information on enchantresses and sorcerers.

Enchantresses are always women and always travelers. They do not work for anyone, but help out the various kingdoms and people when they deem necessary. They claim their purpose is to keep peace throughout the land. However, not much is known about them since they live alone and have the ability to disguise themselves as commoners
and even animals
. Only their female children have the ability to become an enchantress.

Sorcerers are usually men that have been trained by a previous sorcerer and in some rare cases, enchantresses. Only those that are
born
gifted have the ability to become a sorcerer. Usually it is
genetic
, but in rare cases, a normal child is born with amazing abilities
and in extremely rare cases, the child of a sorcerer might not have any magical abilities
.

Sorcerers usually work for a specific pe
rson or kin
gdom, but some choose to live like
an enchantress and roam the land.
Their powers are not as strong as Enchantresses and they tend to lean to one of the four elements, fire, water, air, and earth. The color of their robe depicts their element: red for fire, blue for water, purple for air, and green for earth.

Milly turned to the next page to find a list of sorcerers and enchantresses. The list was quite long. The sorcerers and enchantresses were organized by
date
and by
each of the
sorcerers’
names it listed the kingdom or person they worked for.
If they did not work for anyone, it was left blank like the enchantresses. Milly became
intrigued when she saw King Wilhelm Frederic of Aridale listed in parenthesis next to Lord Endymion Melanthius.