Happy Forever After

*This short story was written in 7th grade based upon a Renaissance artwork. I'm still actually rather proud of it!*

It was dusk. The crickets were singing merrily, and the breeze was dancing to the summer night's music. My sister was playing along on her mandolin, her husband Ben sitting at the desk managing the Dourside taxes. I sat at my needlework, penetrating not only the tough fabric but my finger as well, when there came a knock at the door.

Lyssa ceased her music and answered the door. “Yes, My Lord?”

“My Lady Lyssa, I'm requesting an audience with the Lady Elyzibeth, if I may?” My breath caught in my throat. Phillip. My heart began to beat faster as he strode through the door. His dark hair gleamed, and his face shone with such... I don't know... love, and romance, and daring! The thought of the Earl of Devenport made my usually pale face blush a bright crimson.

Lyssa curtsied and closed the door to create a direct path towards me. Phillip stepped closer and made a low bow. I extended my hand to him.

“My Lord, what an unexpected yet much wished for visit,” I murmured, afraid that if I breathed he would be gone as if in a dream.

“Elyzibeth, I feel it is time to shed a little light on our relationship,” he glanced at Lyssa, then at Ben, who was watching us out of the corner of his eye.

“My Betha, you and I have been seeing each other for a long time and I now feel the moment is right. Lyzzi, will you consent to forever being the Lady Elyzibeth of Devenport, and residing there as... my bride?” Lyssa and Ben darted a quick glance at each other, then looked back at me. I looked away from Phillip's mirthful blue eyes, feeling my own joyous laughter bubbling up inside of me.

I turned back to him, and with all the dignity I could muster, replied, “Yes!” before falling happily into his arms.

I looked up, dazed, expecting to see Phillip's shining eyes gazing down on me. However, all I saw were the staring eyes of the overseer, dark and brooding like the ocean during a storm.
I fell to my knees, fearing for my life. The overseers did not understand my sudden flashbacks, and neither did my master or his mistress.

“I'm sorry, sir, I did not mean to!” I cried, groveling before the foreboding man. “It will not happen again, I swear it!”

“That's what you said before,” his voice sent chills down my spine. “Why should I believe you anymore this time than I did the last?”

Trembling, I replied, “I swear it will not happen!”

“I'll see to it that it doesn't.” The shadow of his arm raising the whip to strike me crossed the sun, and the deafening noise of the whip startled me into tears.

“No, please!” I cried. Craaak, went the whip. The leather tore through my clothes, ripping at my flesh. I screamed, which only enticed the overseer to hit me harder. I was given twenty lashes, at which point he turned and walked away. I stood, blood streaming down my back as my friends rushed to help me.

“Chile, what's wrong with you?” old Sadie muttered as I staggered toward our shack.

“I don't... don't know,” I wept. My back ached as Sadie's spindly old hands tended my wounds. I reached for her arm, gazing into her ebony eyes. “One day,” I said, “One day I'm going to be free again. When Phillip comes for me, I going to set you free too, you understand? We'll all be free, as God intended us to be.”

“Lawdy, Chile, how you think you gonna do that?”

“I know exactly how, Sadie.” I winced as I laid myself down on the bed again.

“Yes, ma'am, girl. You know how's you gonna be getting' freed, you come back n' free me, too.”
We fell silent, her chocolaty arms comforting me, telling me I could succeed.

I went to bed that night, scared of what was going to happen to me. Would Phillip come for me like I thought? If he did, would the master sell me to him? Or would my fiance have to use force or his title to bribe my captor? The questions continued unanswered as I dozed of and began to dream.

The man crept into my room through the window, while I slept unaware. I awoke to find a sweaty handkerchief in my mouth . I tried to scream but could not. I was trapped. I saw the hand grab me and felt myself being slammed against the wall. Then everything went black. The next thing I knew I was in the hold of a ship with two hundred moaning Africans. The wailing was too much. I shrieked, but the sound was muffled by a large white hand. My captor was old Henry Darnsworthy, the man who Ben replaced as Lord of Dourside. He whispered, “First the lady. Then her husband,” and cackled wickedly. He had obviously mistaken me for my sister, who, judging by the number of Africans I was surrounded by in the hold of a ship, would be sailing for a slave market in the New World.

I awoke sweating. I hadn't dreamed of my capture in months! What was going on with me? I gradually fell back to sleep, but it was not the peaceful rest that I needed.

The next morning one of the household slaves came to me with the astounding news: there was a white man, “Like you Lyzzi!” Essie reported, amazed, who was signing the papers to purchase me at that very moment! My heart immediately sang out my beloved's name, and I leapt from the bed despite my injuries. I went as quickly as I could to the master's house, running to his study. I forgot to knock (something that is fatal to forget) and rushed right into the burly man who turned to grasp my arms. I shrank back. This wasn't Phillip! What cruel trick had been played on me?

“Come on,” the gruff voice commanded.

I gulped. “Yes, master,” I replied weakly as I lowered my head and backed out of the room.
We left immediately after I gathered my few belongings and said good bye to my friends. He can't be too bad, I thought, if he lets me tell my second family good bye.

“I won't forget you,” I whispered to Sadie as we embraced, tears in our eyes. I would've said more, but I was whisked away into my new owner's carriage.

Imagine my surprise when we drove to the shore where a boat waited to return us to Europe. We boarded and spent many days traveling across the sea, but I spoke not to the man who had taken away my second chance at freedom.

We landed on the British shore where yet another carriage waited to transport my captor and I to, I was sure, his castle.

I was paying little attention when the horses stopped at Devenport on the Scottish border. Lord Edward (as I learned was the man's name) led me to exquisite rooms fit only for a person of my former title, not a slave. I was treated like royalty then left to spend the night alone with a bodyguard (for a slave? I thought) next door.

The morn of the next day I was greeted by a chambermaid bearing a gown of sea green and ivory. I allowed her to dress me in it for the breakfast meal with the Earl of Devenport.
I was seated by a page in vermilion and sapphire livery. Lost in my own world, I did not notice when everyone else stood and the Earl entered. He crossed to where I was seated and kissed my gloved hand. Startled out of my daze, I looked down on the strong face and azure eyes of Phillip James Eli, Earl of Devenport, who raised me up and kissed me sweetly, at which point I promptly blushed a bright red.

“Lyzzi,” he said, “Do you still want me?”

“Yes!” I breathed. “With all of my being!”

“Then let us proceed to Dourside where we shall be wed as soon as you wish, my lady.”

I didn't speak. I simply threw my arms around him and kissed him again.

Thus, what began as pure bliss turned into tragedy, yet was worked out for the good of all. Yes, I remembered dear Sadie and the rest of the slaves. When the owner of Jacobson Plantation died shortly after Phillip and I were married, my darling husband bought the place and freed all the slaves, giving it to his sister and brother-in-law; Lord Edward and his wife Lady Katherine (he's forgiven me for my treatment of him on the journey, and I'm quite glad).

So Lyssa, Ben, Edward, Katherine, Phillip and I all lived happily forever after, along with my freed family.