I wanted to see if I could tell a multiple generational story in a short story. I personally think I failed to write it well, but it isn't too bad.
The change in family fortune was marked by the good marriage Richard’s grandfather had been able to make but he soon became greedy for the other things spoken of in the journal. The next thing he decided to find, with the assistance of his wife, was the deed to the family land. He had gotten it into his head that he wanted to build a home for his own family in the traditional spot.
Isabelle had shed all of the heavy and useless gold, retaining only enough in her luggage to make herself attractive to some merchant who was looking for a bride. It would be a larger dowry then her father had set aside for her anyway. She had also brought a few more coins for traveling expensive. The bulk of the money however was safely hidden and would never find its way to her future husband’s hands, or into the greedy clutches of thieves. She could tell that her guard was relieved to be rid of the gold even though they now had two prisoners to deal with instead. The husband and wife that had been left behind with the gold would be missed but they were serving an important role.
With nowhere else to go Isabelle directed the party to head to the only other mansion she knew, though it was distasteful for her. Her father had once tried to arrange a marriage between herself and the man they were going to see. The man, Sir Lawrence as she had been told to call him, was much older then she was and it had soon become obvious that the marriage wasn’t welcome by either party. In the end her father had given up but now that Isabelle had no where else to go.
Since the luggage had been reduced they traveled slightly faster now. The biggest problem now was the furniture and household goods she was traveling with. It didn’t carry the mental anxiety of the gold but it was heavier and more awkward then the gold had been. Isabelle had already decided that if she found a place it would go the way the gold had. The wood furniture and the tapestries couldn’t be buried but there had to be a place to keep it.
Isabelle tried to ignore the look the guards and servants gave her when she arrived at the gates and asked to see the master of the manor with no prior warning. She knew that what she was doing was improper and probably extremely rude but it couldn’t be helped. Her guards were left in the courtyard and her servants sent to the stable while she was sent up to see Sir Lawrence. They weren’t willing to let strange, armed, men into the manor without the master of the building giving them his approval first.
Sir Lawrence was waiting for her in his office and she was aware of the coldness of his greeting even as he smiled at her and kissed her hand. She was not a welcome guest but that was fine because she hadn’t expected to be. He was now married happily from everything that she had heard. She was happy for him, to be content with an arranged marriage was something rare and to be treasured.
“Forgive me for coming to you like this but I seek advice,” Isabelle said. She was suddenly more aware then she had been for days of how forward she had become, she lowered her eyes in a ladylike fashion hurriedly.
“I will see what I can do but I would have been able to prepare advice better had I realized you were coming,” he said, the sound of reproach in his voice.
“I realize that, I didn’t have much time to plan however. Father, Mother, Brother, my sisters, they have all died with the sickness. Our estates were burned by peasants who blamed the nobles for the hard times that have come to all of us and I was forced to flee. I had no idea who I should go to if not you. You were a friend of my fathers so I thought you might find something for me.”
“This is sudden but I will see what I can do. It will take a couple of weeks for me to send out letters in your interest and receive replies however. Until then you might wish to stay with me. I will be your representative since you lack a father or brother to look after you.”
“You are very kind, sir,” said Isabelle, pleasantly surprised.
“Not at all, it is my duty as a gentleman to look after a young lady in need,” Sir Lawrence said smoothly, a little too smoothly for Isabelle’s taste.
For the first time since she had left home Isabelle was allowed a week of rest and relaxation. She ate at the first table with the family, she spent quiet hours sewing with the woman of the house, and she went on hunting trips and watched what entertainment came to the manor. She could almost forget everything that had happened and let down her guard. Her servants and men had been found lodging in the manor with the staff of the master of the house. Mary continued to sleep in her room as a high level servant and she helped lull Isabelle into peace with her obvious pleasure in their housing.
Isabelle and Mary were sewing in the lady’s parlor when Sir Lawrence sent word that Isabelle was to come and see him in his office. Isabelle was surprised, it could only be business but it had only been a week. That was surely not enough time for any correspondence to be answered. Still she put down her embroidery and followed the messenger to where the master of the house was seated behind his desk.
“You will be pleased to hear that I have written to His Majesty on the matter of the peasant revolt on your lands and they will surely send troops to put it down. They want to stop this sort of thing quickly before it spreads and sends the country into even greater chaos.”
“I thank you, Sir,” Isabelle said. This couldn’t be all that Sir Lawrence wanted to speak with her about. If it was just that he could have mentioned it at the dinner table that night. As she expected he cleared his throat to speak again.
“I was thinking that I am after a fashion your guardian,” he began and Isabelle nodded her head in acknowledgement. “This being the case I was thinking that it would be best if you put your good and property in my hands to manage for you until you find a worthy husband.”
“I have been taught to manage property from a young age. I am sure that I am able to myself until the day you speak of comes. I wouldn’t like to be a greater burden on you then I already am after all. The amount of money I was able to salvage was small, almost nothing but my dowry, so you see it is a size that I am all too able to see about.” Sir Lawrence looked shocked.
“Were you really able to save so little?” he demanded, forgetting himself for a moment.
“I’m afraid so, what you see is what we were able to save and that is all,” Isabelle lied. She had no idea why but suddenly she didn’t trust the master of the house at all. He might have been well intentioned but she had a lot staked in what she had saved and she didn’t want him to have even a part of it, no matter how much he helped her. He told her she could go but it didn’t make her mind rest easier and so she went in search of her servants and guards. They were at work with the other servants and men so she sent Mary to seek them all out and bring them up to her room.
“None of you have told anyone with what we did with the gold have you? Or that we even had it right?” she asked once they were all gathered and everyone shook their heads. “Well keep it that way, I suspect our hosts motives.”
“Are we leaving then?” asked one of the guards.
“Not yet Joseph, but everyone be ready just in case we do have to leave. At the moment our host is still searching his connections for something to be done with me. I am willing to let him do that. Actually he may be working even faster now that I have told him that I have nothing but my dowry. I would wager he wants me out of his hair fast now that he has nothing to get from me.”
No one really had anything to say on the subject of her money and their host but they all swore they wouldn’t say anything to anyone about her stashed money a left her. Isabelle knew that she should feel relived but she was too busy worrying about what would come next. She no longer felt safe in Sir Lawrence’s manor but couldn’t leave yet. In this state of mind she couldn’t keep the lady of the house good company so she went out for a solitary walk in the garden. It wasn’t as solitary as she first had thought however, Joseph and a pretty house maid walked stood in a secluded corner together. Isabelle crept forward to eavesdrop.
“The others say, and that includes the mistress, that we will be leaving in around a week’s time,” Joseph was saying mournfully. “I would never have thought we would leave so soon.”
“Do you have to go,” asked the maid. She was obviously upset and from the look of it had been crying in the recent past.
“I have thought about sneaking away at the last minute and staying,” Joseph admitted. “They are in such a hurry that they wouldn’t stop to look for me for long. Then we could stay together. I’m sure I could find something to do around these parts, especially with the plague killing so many workers.”
“You would stay for me?” asked the maid, her face was alight. Isabelle sneaked off from the scene; she had no wish to interrupt. She waited by the roses until the maid walked down the path. Joseph remained for a time in the place they had spoken, clearly in thought. Isabelle decided to make his deliberations easier.
“Joseph, I had no idea you liked the gardens,” she said as she walked up. He jumped and then looked around in confusion.
“Oh, Lady Isabelle, I had no idea you were there,” he said. He looked ready to bolt so Isabelle decided to get right to the point.
“If you had wanted to stay here you could have just asked. Actually that would work out fine for me so long as you think that your friend the maid could be trusted that is.”
“Lizzy can be trusted, I promise you that,” said Joseph. “Anything you want us to do, just say the word.”
“I hope she merits your confidence. This is what I was thinking, the household furniture will not be put to use if I am married, the man usually has his own after all. It is also bulky and heavy to carry while traveling. It would be best if it could be left behind like the gold. The problem is that I wouldn’t like the family furniture to fall into the hands of Sir Lawrence who has no right to it. It would be much better if I just had someone to look after it, like a promising young couple who was in my pay for instance.”
“Where would we hide it though? This land is all Sir Lawrence’s and he would defiantly notice if you set out without the furniture. He would look for it”
“So we don’t hide it until after we are out of his sight. You come with us until we find a place close by where we can hide it. I’m sure we can buy some land for you somewhere along the road. Either that or we find a house abandoned by people fleeing the plague.”
“I would rather we bought the land if it’s all the same to you Lady Isabelle. You never know these days if land was abandoned of if the people died and I don’t want to catch the plague.”
“Point made, I would rather you survived as well. After all if you die and someone else buys the house I might lose my furniture.” Lady Lily could tell by the look on Joseph’s face that he thought her selfish and she knew that it hadn’t come over that she had only been joking. She didn’t bother to clear it up though. Instead she went to go to the lady’s parlor. Now that they had sorted everything out she felt more at ease. Even up to some light needlepoint and conversation with Mary or the lady of the house.
The clues in the journal with the rose on it had been more abstract to find the furniture. The gold had been straight forward instructions; the furniture’s directions had a starting point of a now nonexistent mansion. Even worse they were in the terms of sewing and embroidery stitches. If it hadn’t been for Richard’s grandmother being with on the treasure hunt Richard suspected they would still be looking.
The guardians of the furniture hadn’t been as faithful as they guards of the gold. Either that or they hadn’t had children. Either way in the end Richard’s grandfather and grandmother had been forced to search for a long time until they could find the place that had once been called Iris Farm. Even then they had to sneak into an old, boarded up house. Inside, they found the hidden door described cryptically in their ancestress’s journal. In a cellar under the dilapidated building was all of the elderly furniture, which neither of the two were interested in, and the deed to the family land.
Richard’s father had grown up around the things of the family’s past. The furniture had gone into the new mansion on the family’s traditional land. It was no wonder that Richard’s father had become very interested in the items of heraldry. They hadn’t been looked for before because Richard’s grandfather hadn’t cared if he was a knight or not so long as he was rich. Richard’s father however cared very much, he was far more interested in the family’s noble past then the money, as only rich people can disregard and scorn wealth.
Once Isabelle had waved goodbye to Joseph and Lizzy, a happy newly wed couple at their brand new farm, she and her party traveled west. Sir Lawrence had found a suitable match for her far sooner then she had expected. He wasn’t a nobleman and Isabelle had told Sir Lawrence not to tell the man she was nobility. Sir Lawrence had been confused but Isabelle had told him she didn’t want people to marry her simply because of her status. She knew that he thought her foolish but she didn’t care. She had no intension that her items of heraldry would make it to her future husband’s home and she didn’t want him to expect them.
Isabelle had received a message from her husband to be and it filled her with hope. It was short and to the point but the personality behind it was far more likable then any of the men who her father had tried to marry her off to. It wasn’t a letter that expected her to love him just from reading it, nor did it push her into marrying him. It simply told her about whom he was and that he would be honored if he became her husband. She could accept someone who could write a letter proposing to her in such terms; it was a lot better then the men who had written her such letters in the past. They had been flowery and overly demanding.
Isabelle had been worried that Sir Lawrence would insist on sending some men to escort her, in which case she wouldn’t have been able to hide anything. Sir Lawrence had obviously washed his hands of her however. The final thing he had done for her was to give her the white horse she now rode on. There were some whispered questions about who would give her away at the wedding among her party but Isabelle ignored them. She was an orphan and the sole heir to everything her father had owned, she could give away herself.
It was a relief to be away from people scheming to get her money but now she had to find a good hiding place for the trappings of heraldry. Without the coat of arms and the documents attesting to nobility her husband wouldn’t take her father’s title. She promised herself that if it would benefit them she would bring out all of her hidden goods but she doubted she would. She liked the feeling of power that came with being in control of them and as soon as she was married they would become her husband’s, even if he didn’t know about them.
They were almost half way to their destination when a horseman rode up behind them. Isabelle’s guards instantly were alert and ready for trouble but they need not have worried, the man was in the livery of another noble house. He jumped down from his horse and bowed low to Isabelle.
“Do I have the honor of addressing Lady Lily?” he asked.
“You do, who are you from?” demanded Isabelle. She didn’t recognize the livery colors and enough had happened to her already that she was becoming distrustful of everyone.
“Lady Elizabeth, wife of the Lord of Windon, heard that you were staying with Sir Lawrence and sent me to invite you to visit them. I must have passed you on the road but Sir Lawrence told me that I would find you on this road.” Isabelle smiled in spite of herself.
“I heard about your family and your land, it must have been so hard on you. What are you going to do now? I’m sure my husband will allow you to stay as long as you need to. He’s so kind and gives me everything I need.”
“I’m sorry but I can’t. I have been promised in marriage to a George Rose. We were just on our way to him when your messenger found us.”
“The merchant,” said
“Then you will be amused to find that I have no intention of giving him a noble title, if he wants one he will have to buy one like most of his class. Actually you might help me.”
“Just tell me what to do Isabelle,” said
“I want to hide to heraldry things somewhere, somewhere I know they will be in safe keeping. Do you have some unused cellar or something like that we could put them in? Just in case you should also make sure your heirs know about it.”
“You’re really serious about all of this aren’t you,” asked
Richard’s father had only had to write to the Lord Windon for him to instantly invite the whole family to his manor. He said that his great grandmother had always told him to be on the lookout for a family with the last name of Rose and when they came he was to open the cellar that had been plastered over. There was a lily pressed into the plaster. There was a lot of ceremony attached to the opening of the cellar, the family had been curious about it for a long time. They weren’t very excited when they found out it was only some papers and some antique arms though.
The family gained the right to bare arms again and Richard’s father had put up the book with the rose on it. The family’s heraldic device hadn’t satisfied Richard’s father however and he had requested and gained permission to change it. It had gone from lions rampant on a field of red, to being a circle of flowers, a rose, a lily, a carnation and an iris. Richard, who had read what was in the journal of Isabelle, the latter half was mostly complaining about how much she hated her spouse, doubted Isabelle would like the change to the coat of arms. There was nothing he could do about it however; it was a choice that had been made before he was born.
Richard’s father had married a noble woman which had once more cemented them into the world of nobility even though they bore a name like Rose. Their name would always be an embarrassment to Richard’s father but Richard rather liked it. He was far less impressed with the gold or the nobility. His love was to sit there was his great-great-grandmother’s journal and read her life over and over again. It was like a whole different world.
There was a final mystery that surrounded the family, what had happened to the books that Isabelle had brought from her family estate all of those years ago. There was no talk of them at all in Isabelle’s journal even though she had said where everything else was in it. Richard’s father and grandfather hadn’t cared enough to even look and Richard, who knew where the clue was wasn’t willing to get it. He knew that it was hidden in the lining of the journal because he could see the raised place under the glued over paper. He wouldn’t cut into the book to get at it however. The old books weren’t that important. He was just happy being the only one who knew that the final clue was under the rose.
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