Strangers of The Midst

And while he was telling her a story about Cinderella, he grimaced at the look that crossed her face when they heard the muted commotion from downstairs.

“What’s happening?”

There was no help for it, she would learn sooner or later and honesty, no matter how difficult was always the best answer.

“They’ve found your mother lost in the woods and she is paining to have her baby.”

“But it’s too early.”

“Sometimes things just happen when it must happen.”

Two great big tears pooled in her eyes and Adrian felt his heart tug as her little chin tremble. “It’s all my fault. Momma and her baby are going to die because of me,” She cried.

Scooping her up and settling her on his lap, Adrian said something he knew his mother would approve of. “No Julia. It’s no one’s fault and certainly not yours.”

“But she was in the woods looking for me. I should have never gotten lost. Now they’ll both die!”

“No Julia. You’re not to be blamed.”

No matter what he said, she cried. After countless attempts to calm her, he felt like crying too and gave a weak laugh because he was far too old to cry. He was seventeen and therefore considered a man. So with nothing else to say, because he had tried everything he could think of, he began to hum a soft melody.

Adrian liked to hum when he felt bad and holding the tired child in his arms, he began to hum very low. Eventually her crying stopped until there were just hiccups and after a while he felt her small body go slack. Cautiously, he adjusted her on his lap and shifted his lean body in the rocker. With nothing else to do, he patiently waited.

Down below, beneath the house in a secret chamber, the two women stripped the wet dress from Jone and tried to prevent their gasps of dismay at the many scars that marked the woman’s pale white back. But it was loud enough for Macbeth, who was adding more wood to the blaze in the hearth to hear.

“What is it Breena,”

“ She’s been lashed.”