Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 68195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
A deep purple that changed to light as the tears and wailing subsided, to an unusual lilac.
I didn’t know the name of the color until some time later, but it stayed with me always.
It was then the bond was formed, a connection that would transcend time and place and see us through the darkest hours yet to come.
The mother reached out her arms to take her and laid her at her breast. Only then, when she’d taken her first draw of life giving sustenance did I feel my shoulders relax, and the tension leave my body that had been strung tight as a bow.
“Okay young man, you can leave now, if your mother ever hears of this there’ll be hell to pay.”
I paid no heed to the midwife or the other servants who’d come to help; my only interest was in her.
I didn’t wonder at my fascination with this new little bundle, when I’d hardly given my baby brother, born just a few short months earlier, a second glance.
There was something strange and exciting going on inside of me, but I was too young to understand it.
My world changed that day in that room where death had reached out its greedy fingers.
Something wild and wonderful had been born, and not just the babe, though she would prove to be that and more.
But something came alive in me, some hidden strength that had as yet been unknown.
Others saw it as well and wondered, I had no care for them or their petty murmurings.
Wherever she went I followed, always underfoot; I heard the whispers. None of it bothered me, as long as they left me alone to follow my heart.
Chapter 1
From that day on, I was her constant companion. I spent every free moment with the little bundle that brought me such joy.
I had no reference for the abounding love that sometimes threatened to choke me, when her mother would seat me in a chair and place her in my arms.
Neither did I understand the strong sense of possession; I was too young to understand such things.
I just knew that she was mine and would always be; and nothing was going to change that.
For my young heart, that was enough. I’d been raised on the stories of the strength of my lineage, fierce and honorable men.
Before her, those tales of my ancestors were my greatest source of pride.
I could spend hours at my father’s side, my chest swelling with pride, at the stories of valor and triumph, from a long line of men that led to me.
Now I’d given them up for days spent watching over her, somehow I knew it was what I was meant to do.
The adults had given up trying to keep me away after the first week or so.
Now they just shook their heads and went about their way when they’d find me in her nursery, when I should’ve been elsewhere.
Sometimes I hid in the corner of the little room that had been given to her here in the caretaker’s cottage.
I was too young, and maybe too disinterested at the time to understand the dynamics of the family who lived here; and it was of no great concern to me either way. As long as she was there that was where I longed to be.
It was hard staying seated while my tutor took me through my lessons, or my mother insisted on trimming my hair.
It was as if I was afraid to leave her alone without my protection. As though I somehow knew that that way laid danger.
So each morning, as soon as my eyes were opened, my every move was to get me closer to my little angel.
I rushed through my obligations, understanding full well that the adults had the upper hand, that we were caught in an invisible balancing act. I gave a little they gave a little…
“You must not spend all your free time with that baby, it’s not normal. Wouldn’t you like to play with your little brother?”
That was my mother’s daily argument, which fell on deaf ears, but still she tried.
“She needs me, I have to go; am I finished?” she brushed the hair from my neck with a shake of her head before shooing me away. No one seemed to understand.
Three Years Later
“No Jasmine you mustn’t.” The little doll ignored me as she ran after the puppy, too close to the water’s edge as usual.
I ran after her on my ten year old legs as she laughed and sped up. Everything was a game to my Jasmine, she had no fear and no amount of scolding deterred her from her path.
Was it because she knew even then that I would always be there to catch her? Maybe. Or maybe it was because she had an inner will of her own.
I could hear the servants calling after us, they’d finally missed our presence, or more to the point they’d finally realized that we were off together again.