My Broken Knight

Chapter 5: Broken

-William-

She is married …

I could not believe what I had been told. Married? I did not understand. Vanessa and I were supposed to be married. We had promised ourselves to one another before I had left. This could not be true, and everyone could see in my eyes the disbelief and shock.

“Will …”

“Where is she?” I asked.

“William you …”

“Where?!”

I got up from my chair, not caring if I was making a scene. I needed to see her. I needed to hear this from her.

“Tell me now!”

“In Bridgewood. She married a lord.”

“A lord? But she is not a lady!”

“William, there are some things you need to know …”

I did not stay to listen. I needed to go find her. I did not care if I looked like a barbarian. I needed to go see her, before I lost my mind. I went over to my horse, freed him and then jumped on his back, storming out of there, and refusing to stop before I had seen her. Luckily, the town Bridgewood was the next one to ours, and it was not a long trip.

When I arrived, people were staring the same way as when I had returned home, but I did not care. I needed to find Vanessa. I needed to find the woman I had waited to come home to for seven years and marry. I found the first person I could and showed him the picture of her. He looked strangely from me to the picture.

“Do you know where I can find her?”

“Lady Vanessa?” he asked.

So, it was really true … she was a lady. I felt my heart beat faster, as I nodded. Then the man pointed behind him and, in the distance, I saw the most glorious estate. It laid behind a few trees, but you could still see it from here. How on earth had Vanessa married a lord, when she owned barely anything and carried no title, and this was clearly not a poor lord or one of low status. No, this one … he was rich.

I thanked the older man I had come across, and then set my horse into a fast gallop. I was desperate to get there. I needed to speak to her. I needed to know what was going on. I refused it to be true before I heard the words leaving her lips.

I slowed my horse down, as I rode over the white gravel, leading to the big stone staircase. I could not believe she really lived here. It was not true. It was another Vanessa. Not mine, I thought, as I stopped my horse and started to walk up the stairs.

I hesitated as I stood in front of the two big wooden doors. It was not true, I told myself, before I lifted my hand and knocked. It took awhile but then finally an older man opened the door, looking at me, as if he could not believe I was standing in front of him.

“Yes?” he asked.

“I … I need to see lady Vanessa,” I said.

The man looked me up and down and did not like what he saw. He shook his head.

“Her ladyship does not accept visitors today. Try again tomorrow.”

The man was ready to slam the door in my face, but I did not let him and placed a hand on the door, pushing it back.

“Sir! You cannot just barge in here!”

I did not listen, as I walked through the door and further into what I would almost call a palace, so grand and big it was. I could hear my own steps echo in the big house, as I moved further inside. The servant, or whoever he was, tried to stop me, but he was no match against me.

“Vanessa!” I yelled, so my voice echoed through the house.

“Sir! I told you,” the man said. “She does not accept any visitors!”

I brushed him off, as he grabbed my arm. Just then I heard that familiar and soft voice I had heard in my head for seven years, as I fought off the cold and Flesh Eaters.

“Alfred, what is going on? What is all that noise?” she asked, as she came down the stairs.

I felt my heart stop at the sight of her. Her long hair was even longer and almost shiny, and it ran down her back. She was wearing a deep red dress that had red emeralds stitched into it, and red lips to match. She was just as I had remembered her … or maybe a little different. She was older but had only gotten more beautiful. I, on the other hand … had gotten rougher.

She stopped on the stairs, as she saw me. She gasped a little and her eyes grew big. She could not believe what she saw. I understood. I had not written her any letters either. I had lost myself in that cold place, and I feared she would not love the man I had become.

“Will,” she whispered.

“Vanessa …”

She looked at her servant and then back at me.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

I looked at her confused and then around me before turning to her again.

“I … wanted to see you. I … just returned.”

“I can see that, but you should not be here,” she told me.

What? I could not understand the words, she was speaking to me. Did she not want me here? No, that made no sense. The Vanessa I knew, would never say something like that.

“Vanessa-“

“You need to go, Will, and do not come back.”

“What do you mean?” I asked in a higher voice.

“I am telling you to go. So go. I am happy to see you are alive and well, but you cannot be here.”

“Vanessa …”

“You heard me, Will. Go!”

“No!”

“Will,” she sighed. “I told you to leave.”

“Sir-“

“I am not going anywhere. Have you forgotten what we promised each other before I left?” I asked.

She looked down at the ground, refusing to meet my eyes.

“We were just kids,” she said in a low voice.

“We weren’t just kids. We were in love.”

She glanced at her servant, who seemed to be looking between us and not understanding, but I did not care about his opinion. Vanessa was the love of my life and I had fought for us for the last seven years.

“Vanessa,” I said. “I love you.”

“Will,” she said, shaking her head. “You cannot say that. I am married.”

My heart split in two as she showed me the ring on her finger. Gold, with diamonds running around the entire circle and a red ruby in the middle. No … it cannot be … She saw the shock in my eyes but did not look away this time.

“I am married now. To a good man.”

“But … we promised each other …”

“Will you were gone for seven years? Did you really expect me to wait around all this time?” she asked.

“Yes! I waited for you. I had no one else!”

“Maybe that was because you were stuck in snow and ice and with only men.”

Why was she speaking so coldly to me? She had always only smiled and been kind to me. Why had she changed? How had she changed?

“Vanessa, I fought for us. I did everything I could to get back. You knew I would be gone for a long time.”

“Not seven years! I got a better offer,” she told me.

“What?”

“You might not have known this about me but … the aunt I stayed with after my mother died … turns out she was a lady. A distant relative, but it also made me her only one heir after my mother passed away, and she wanted to make sure I was cared for and got myself a good position in life. She wasn’t poor either and she taught me everything a lady should know.”

I could not understand anything. Who was this woman in front of me? Vanessa believed in love. It was not money or position that drove her, but love.

“With her help I found myself a lord. I could not have done better than what I did. I no longer have to run around in the mud or marry the son of a carpenter. I am a lady now.”

I felt like the ground beneath my feet disappeared, as I listened to her. I just … could not believe it. It was not her … it was not Vanessa, but some evil … twin or something.

“I love you,” I whispered.

“No, you don’t, and I don’t love you. I never did, and now you need to leave. Goodbye Will.”

She turned around, refusing to even glance back at me, as she walked up the stairs again and out of sight.

“It is not her,” I whispered, but it did not matter if it was.

I was escorted out of the house, this time not fighting back, and the door slammed behind me, leaving me confused and heart broken, but as the shock slowly subsided, an anger took over. Something I had never felt before.